"Oi. Wake up."
Lucifer groaned and turned to the other side of the bed, pulling the blanket along with him as if that alone could buy him a little more time.
"Five minutes…"
"Wake up. They're here."
He didn't open his eyes.
"Who."
"Gabriel and Daniel."
There was a short pause before one eye opened slightly.
"…And?"
Amelia stood near the door with her arms folded, her expression already showing how little patience she had left. "They've been waiting downstairs for a long time."
Lucifer blinked once and turned his head toward the clock.
It is around three o'clock in the afternoon.
"…Oh, whatever," he muttered, rolling back into the pillow.
A second later, the thought settled properly, and he swore under his breath.
"Fuck."
He sat up abruptly, running a hand through his hair as the last traces of sleep disappeared.
"Why didn't you wake me earlier?"
Amelia didn't answer. She simply looked at him, which was an answer in itself.
Lucifer exhaled sharply and dropped the question.
"Fine. Give me fifteen minutes. I'll come down after freshening up."
Amelia turned toward the door.
"And be quick," she said flatly, her disgust barely concealed. "I don't want to spend an extra second with those two bastards."
Lucifer smirked faintly.
"Understood."
The door closed.
His expression shifted as the room fell quiet again.
"Gabriel… Daniel…"
He sat there for a moment, then pushed himself up.
Interesting, he thought.
Fifteen minutes later, Lucifer walked downstairs, adjusting his cuffs lazily as he approached the main hall.
The hall downstairs was quiet.
He had expected noise,something loud, careless, and familiar.
Gabriel raising his voice, Daniel correcting him, which would lead to an argument and something in the room already broken by the time he arrived.
Instead, he was met with silence.
Not the usual quiet, but something heavier that made him slow slightly as he stepped inside.
Gabriel Dawn sat on the left side of the sofa, his large frame looking slightly out of place against the refined furniture. His orange hair was pushed back, though not neatly, as if he had tried to fix it and stopped halfway.
Beside him sat Daniel Nightfall, posture straight, expression composed, blonde hair tied neatly behind his head.
Compared to Gabriel, he looked controlled, but there was a stiffness in the way he held himself that didn't belong to him.
Both of them were sitting too properly.
Lucifer followed their line of sight.
Evelyn Valemount sat opposite them with her legs crossed, a stack of documents resting on her lap.
Her eyes moved calmly across the parchment, the Valemount seal placed beside her. Probably the usual land reports, trade adjustments, routine work etc,the common duties of a Countess.
She did not acknowledge them, yet neither of them dared to move.
Gabriel swallowed once.
Daniel adjusted his posture again, though it was already straight enough.
Lucifer's lips twitched slightly.
He knew this look well enough. Something had already happened by the time he came downstairs.
He stepped fully into the room.
"Yo, boys."
Both heads snapped up almost at the same time.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Not out of hesitation, but because they were still processing what they were seeing.
Lucifer knew that look.
A lot of people in the estate had been giving him similar strange looks lately.
He knew he was different than before.
Not only in appearance, but in temperament as well.
The softness was gone along with the excess weight, leaving his frame leaner and more defined. His posture had changed as well, not stiff but more controlled.The kind of difference that wasn't obvious at first glance but impossible to ignore once noticed.
Gabriel blinked twice, while Daniel's gaze lingered longer, studying him carefully.
Neither of them said anything.
Almost instinctively, they both glanced toward Evelyn.
She turned a page casually, reading through her documents as if nothing had changed. She didn't even acknowledge Lucifer's presence.
The silence stretched just enough to become noticeable.
Lucifer leaned casually against the armrest and studied them in return without rushing to speak.
He had not seen them for almost two months.
In another timeline, this moment wouldn't exist. He wouldn't be here, and they wouldn't be sitting like this pretending nothing had changed.
Lucifer looked at them quietly.
Gabriel, who would rush forward without thinking and die before understanding what he was facing.
Daniel, who would last longer, push himself harder, and still disappear without leaving anything behind.
He remembered it clearly not as a distant possibility, but as something that had already happened.
They hadn't changed. At least not yet. They were still reckless, still unaware of what was waiting ahead.
They were bullies who once called themselves the Holy Trinity of Justice,a name they came up with while drunk and somehow decided to keep.
Three self-proclaimed "angels" who enforced rules no one had asked for and acted like they owned the place.
Together, they were almost unbearable.
When Lucifer was younger, he had many friends. But as he grew older, people left one by one put off by his declining status and violent nature.
Logically, these two should have left as well.
But they didn't.For some reason, they stayed.
And that was what mattered.
Lucifer straightened slightly, his gaze settling on them.
Not this time, he thought.
He wasn't going to watch things unfold the same way again. Whether they understood it or not didn't matter. He would push them forward if he had to.
He knew their future very well. And he would change it.
If he couldn't protect his own people, then there was no point in awakening Anthony's memories at all.
He dropped onto the opposite sofa and stretched lazily.
"Well," he said with a slow smirk, "have you two missed your Daddy?"
Gabriel choked on the water he was drinking, spraying it onto Daniel.
Daniel blinked once, still trying to process the situation.
Evelyn's pen paused for the briefest moment before continuing.
The tension in the room shifted. It didn't disappear, but it loosened enough that the silence no longer pressed as heavily.
Lucifer leaned back into the sofa and let the moment settle without adding anything further.
The three of them were sitting in the same room again, and on the surface, nothing about it seemed unusual.
But he knew better.
He had already seen how this ended once.
This time, it wouldn't end the same way.