How to Hack a Wedding ft. Lucifer (ONC 2024)

10. meals & reveals

The most shocking news of the day came when Lucifer announced that he did not like a single dress and we would try shopping elsewhere. 

I mean, who could have seen that one coming? Certainly not me.

I was so scandalised that I couldn't form a single expression on my face.

"What would you want to have for lunch?" He asked me, walking in the downtown market. The street was lined with cafés and restaurants, all seemingly bursting at the seams to occupy customers.

"Answers."

"Is that a new dish I'm not aware of?" He replied wryly, "Italian? Perhaps, French?"

I clenched my fists, but kept walking beside him. There wasn't much of a fit I could throw in the middle of a crowded marketplace.

"No," I said, "I want you to answer my questions before we eat. Or do anything else."

"Anything else?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

Mischief danced in those red eyes and I found myself groaning. It was one thing to not answer my questions, but it was something entirely different to not even acknowledge their existence.

If he was going to take me to Hell (another topic we really needed to discuss because I wasn't dying to get to his stupid ex's wedding, and there had to be a more convenient mode of transport for live humans) then I needed to be informed about the potential dangers and...the truth. 

I needed to be told the truth.

Perhaps the resolve in my eyes made an impact on Lucifer because he cursed M under his breath before replying, "Fine. You'll get your truth, but first we pick a place to dine."

My hunger overcame my skepticism and we settled for pizza.

Lucifer gave me the stink eye at my choice of food, and I narrowed my eyes right back, "You don't like pizza?"

"Au contraire darling, I love eating pizza as a binge food," he replied, "It just won't be my pick as food for a first date."

"Date?" I asked incredulously. 

Why hadn't I been told we were on a date? When had we decided that? Now, hold on just a minute! What?

"While I may know everything about you," he said, deciding to pick a table to sit right in the middle of the restaurant contrary to my preference of wanting one near the window, "You do not know enough about me. You should spend the next ten days with me, and learn as much as you can. If we meet up only on the day of the wedding, things won't look natural."

He pulled out a chair, letting me slide in first, before taking the one across from me.

"You mean you will willingly give me information about yourself?"

"You will have to observe my likes and dislikes, too, but yes."

I clapped my hands in delight, "Okay, then! Tell me!"

He raised an eyebrow, "Let us order something, first. You must be hungry after trying all those...dresses."

For some reason I felt like defending those rows of fine and beautiful clothing that Lucifer deemed entirely useless, "Some of them were incredibly pretty. I don't know how you did not like even a single one."

The look he gave me could shrivel up a plant. "Surely, even you must have realised that none of those dresses were good enough to work for you. Mammon's service has really declined since the last time I was there."

"Why were you there the last time?" I asked. 

He did say I had to get to know him better, didn't he? I could only achieve that by asking questions. 

"To shop, of course." He didn't look at me when he replied, calling out for the waiter, instead.

Of course, he would have gone there to shop, but his reaction was what made me wonder if he wasn't telling me the entire story. 

Lucifer got himself a Margherita pizza and I decided to follow with the same. It wasn't that I was trying to copy him, though. I genuinely liked Margherita.

"Okay." The waiter had left with our order. "You told me you would tell me the truth once we ordered the food. Spill."

If he had thought that he had managed to successfully distract me from my original goal, then he was sorely mistaken. 

I wasn't deterred one bit.

He gulped down a glass of water. His eyes still glowed an angry red, making me wonder for the first time how no one else around us felt odd when they looked at him. 

And Lucifer certainly got a lot of looks. His features made many heads turn in our direction wherever we went. Despite being well aware that he was the reason why masses gawked at us, I still felt conscious about myself. 

How many of these people wondered why I was on his arm instead of some supermodel?

Snap out of it, Sydney! No time for self pity!

"I agreed that I would tell you your truth," he finally said, after what felt like a few gallons of water disappearing down his throat, "And so, I shall give you a truth-"

"One!?"

"-or none. Take it or leave it."

Why did he insist on making everything so difficult? For once, I wanted to have an easy way out of a situation!

"That wasn't what we had agreed on!" I yelled in frustration, my arms flying around in emphasis.

During these dramatics, my right hand went too far outside my personal space and hit a waiter right in his abdomen. He doubled over in pain and surprise, letting the cocktails fall everywhere around us. 

I shrieked, quickly trying to cover my face with my hands. 

I wasn't too worried about the liquid, but the broken glass could be a real bitch to deal with. I had had one too many experiences with crockery that I didn't even keep any china at my house.

I braced myself for an impact that never came.

Confused, I looked up and found all the customers around us drenched in the various liquids that the waiter had been bringing from the kitchen. Pieces of glass were strewn across the floor, but thankfully they hadn't been thrown on to anyone.

Weirdly, however, no one seemed to be moving. The group of ladies sitting on the table near ours had not even raised their hands, or shook off the droplets on their expensive-looking bags. The waiter seemed to have frozen while bending and holding his sides. I would have expected him to start apologising to the rest of the customers profusely, making the manager come and escort me out, but nothing of such sort was happening, yet.

My eyes met Lucifer's and they glowed like a neon casino sign.

He had a hand raised, and I realised what had happened. 

I had known he was a supernatural, all-powerful being but this was too much for my brain to process. He was going against all the laws of science that I had so believed to be true my entire life.

Lucifer had just stopped time in the shop.

"You want to know a truth?" He spoke, still not releasing his hold. Faint silver tendrils, of what I assumed was magic, swirled around his fingers, "You have cursed your excessively clumsy ways all your life, but perhaps you failed to remember that they weren't there your entire life."

What was he saying?

My heart stopped beating in my chest and my ears started ringing. Things were already not making any sense to me, and he decided to pick the most random thing that would not have occurred to me on my own in a million years.

He couldn't possibly mean-

"It was a gift," his voice was unnaturally hard, the magic taking its toll, "It was my gift."

His hand snapped back, and the screams rose up around us. 

His heavy voice cut through the clatter of sounds, "Meeting you was never a coincidence."