[C] Only Six

Demetri had been down in the room he claimed as his private study.

The boy trudged in, book under his arm and a handful of newly translated notes for Lucifer to go over.

His presence in the room drew loud yips and barks and six hellhound pups came bouncing toward him.

The boy giggled and pet each other, fussing them. His hand paused mid air as his gaze turned over the balls of full crowding around him.

"One's missing..."

He muttered to himself, searching through the pile again and recounting, he was sure, one of his boys was missing.

Lucifer had been meditating on the bed when the pups began yapping nad barking in their delightfully loud voices.

An eye cracked open for a second before sliding shut again.

The human was home.

"I was asked by an old acquaintence to allow him to take one."

"What!"

Demetri looked at Lucifer with a horrified expression as he picked up the runt and sat down on his bed, promptly followed by the rest of the herd jumping up to sit around him.

"What did you do that for, you said...you said that if I kept learning and progressing that I could keep them."

He was attached to the pups, all of them.

"He was sniffing around your precious little princess first." Lucifer's eyes snapped open and dropped down to Deme's lap. He gave the runt a pointed look.

"He still resides within the building. He's not lost to you forever in a terrible tragedy. The means to see him are available to you if you can walk to the other side of the building."

The runt yipped and rolled over in Deme's lap, whining as she demanded tummy rubs.

Demetri went wide eyed and looked down at the runt, Lucifer had told him not to name them, but in his mind he referred to her as Zara.

They all had names to him, even if he didn't say them out loud, at least when Lucifer was around.

"Why didn't he take her?"

He asked, running his hand over her belly, Lucifer had told him time and time again that they wouldn't be keeping her, it only made him more attached to her.

The boy gave a pouted nod, in that case he'd go visit the pup often to make sure he was being taken care of.

"He saw the light. Would anyone want a creature as weak and pathetic as the runt?"

Diversion. He wasn't about to admit that he kept it around to keep Deme not miserable. The runt was the pup that he had bonded with much. He'd be most sad if she was taken away.

Lucifer drew his hair over one shoulder and began running his fingers through it.

Demetri's brows drew together in an offended and hurt expression.

"She's not weak and pathetic! Just because she isn't as big as the others doesn't mean you have to dismiss her without even giving her a chance."

He scolded defensively, hugging the pup against his chest.

He loved Zara and while he was around he wasn't going to let anyone harm her.

"Of course not. She's strong and brave, until she isn't," Lucifer muttered darkly. There was obviously something beyond this one little runt going through Lucifer's mind.

His fingers weaved through his haair, braiding it quickly and easily. It wasn't often he braided his hair.

"It's easier to dismiss something than regret giving it a chance."

Demetri would defend the pup until he was blue in the face if he had to, she was the one thing that brought him joy and he was emotionally attached to.

If he didn't have her then he didn't have much to look forward to.

"When she isn't, I'll be brave and strong for her."

He retorted, holding her close, he could defend her if he had to.

"No! That's not the right way to look at things."

"Is there a distinct right and wrong way to look at things?"

Lucifer's eyes burned into Deme's.

"Shoudl I care for it and nurture it until it gets killed by something bigger and stronger than it because they couldn't see that it had a chance despite it's weaknesses?"

He couldn't do that again.

Demetri froze up under Lucifer's gaze, tears pricked at his eyes but he refused to let them fall.

His body was filled with anger, sadness but overall hurt.

Lucifer couldn't see that he related to this animal, he was small and weak, but he had made it this far, he was getting stronger, why couldn't she? Would he be so easily given up on if he were to fail like Lucifer was sure she would?

"Yes..."

We his only reply, even if it was futile, it was worth it, even if it only lasted a little while.

Lucifer gave a low, long exhale.

"You're a stronger person than I," he murmured in a voice lower than a whisper.

Unless Deme was really listening, he wouldn't have heard it at all.

"I'm selfish..."

The boy muttered as he looked down at her, his fingers stroking over ears gently.

"Maybe I can keep the others from hurting her, I can keep her safe, but by the time that I'm old and dying she'll still just be a pup.

Once I'm gone your not going to care what happens to her and she wont be able to fend for herself, she'll be dependent on me by that point."

He'd be gone, then she would be alone.

"I know she won't fail, I will."

"It is a guarantee that you'll fail those you love."

Lucifer's eyes slid closed and he leant back against headboard of the bed.

A pup, the largest of the six of them, crawled into Lucifer's lap. He pet him gently, fingers weaving through his dark fur.

"She was called Ahuva."

He looked over at Lucifer as the man spoke, laying down on the bed and pulling Zara against him, the others cuddled in for warmth around him.

"Your runt?"

He had already guessed a small amount from what Lucifer had said before, he had clued into that he had owned a runt as well by how irrational his hate for his pup was.

"I was younger than you were and the thought of having a friend that would look up to me for once was irresistable."

His gaze dropped to the Hound in his lap.

"She went everywhere with me. She was mine for thousands of years. She never grew to be as big or strong as the other Hounds, but that was all right. She was mine.

"She was killed by another Hound. It was still a pup, but it was self-assured and knew exactly how the world should be in it's eyes. More importantly, it was already larger than she was. It told me when I cried over her body that the world wasn't meant for the weak. It was merciful to just end their suffering before it began."

Lucifer's story was sad, immensely so, he couldn't imagine the man ever crying, time had clearly hardened him.

"Sometimes I forget that you're immortal, having a pet last for thousands of years, that never happens in my world.

When you're fragile it's easier to see something else as strong.

We will both die eventually..."

He muttered, looking down at the pup affectionately.

"But not today, I'll just be thankful for the time I have with her. You should be thankful too, it sounds like she loved you, gone or not, that means a lot."

"Having a pet that lasts for thousands of years in my life is like having a pet that lasts for a week in your life. Those years are nothing in the life I have led."

He was older than Demetri would believe.

"Love," he snorted.

What was love but a desperate wish to not fight the world alone? It was useless.

"You can snort about it all you want or try to devalue it, she may have been a week in your life but you were her entire life, you were her world, how can you just dismiss that?"

He'd never understand Lucifer. Demetri was a passionate boy and the Fallen didn't seem to care about anything other than himself.

"Whats the point of being alone to avoid getting hurt? You've done it most your life and you don't seem any happier for it."

"And if I had wanted to not be alone, I would have just left my imprisonment and- Oh," he murmured as if he had just realised something that had escaped his mind for the innumerable years that he had been locked in the cage.

"What's the point in spending your life with people, seeking out being hurt."

That was something that he didn't understand. Why did people open themselves to being hurt by others?

"If you don't want to spend your life with other people then why are you so desperate to be free?"

What else was there for him being out here?

Instead of being forced away from everyone else he would have to actively avoid other people? Great plan.

"Speaking of which."

He added reaching over and grabbing the paper he had put down and handed them over to Lucifer.

"I've finished another chapter."

"I do not like being held against my choice. I would rather choose to become a hermit and disappear into the mountains than be forced to spend my life alone in a cage smaller than this room in the centre of Hell."

Personal choice was important to Lucifer.

He didn't even glance at the paper as he took it from the human and transferred it to the bedside table.

He would read it when he had the entire book to read. Things would make more sense then.

"Is that what you're going to do once I get you out?"

He had been curious, he didn't particularly want to get Lucifer out only for the man to go on some murderous rampage through heaven.

Demetri was determined, he was going to get Lucifer out, with how he was progressing now he would have the book deciphered in a year or so.

Thanks to the help of the voices, though it did mean that he locked himself away for days on end.

After that it would be even harder to try and learn how to actually break the seal.

"Live my life in blissful solitude."

The first time he would ever have blissful solitude. He was looking forward to it. He didn't want to be at the beck and call of everyone else.

"Once it's over I think Zara and I will get a little house in town near the park.

I'll take her there to play and everyone will think I'm a crazy old man talking to myself."

That thought drew a little laugh from the human. He didn't doubt that he'd be old by the time he managed to get Lucifer free. Hopefully he'd still be able to enjoy life for a while, bask in his retirement with his invisible demon dog.

He'd feed the ducks and spend all his time outside.