(General P.O.V)

"Maze, be honest. Red or Blue?"

The King of Hell asked, holding up two ties in the air. Maze rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Does it even matter? You hate ties. Only thing I've seen you wear is a bowtie."

She replied.

Lucifer looked at her with a slight smirk.

"Well can you blame me? I have to look my best. After all, tonight is a special occasion."

Saying that, he threw both ties away and they unravelled into motes of light floating in the air before disappearing. Maze raised an eyebrow at the action from where she was lying on the couch.

"For someone very interested in keeping a 'low profile' you sure don't. Flashing lights accompanied by disappearing fabric doesn't exactly scream subtle."

She bluntly said, emphasizing with air quotes.

Lucifer ignored her and straightened his grey shirt. He adjusted the black tuxedo above the shirt and made a pose on the long mirror placed on the wall. The suit was form fitting and very flattering to the godly physique underneath.

"So what do you think. I was going for a formal but casual look. The color of the Tux is certainly grim but the shade of the shirt steals away from that and emphasizes my eyes, right?"

Mazikeen hummed in a sour tone while lightly caressing one of her daggers. Lucifer spared her a glance from the corner of his eyes and smirked.

"You're certainly a delight today."

He observed, while his black hair shifted to blonde, then brown before settling back to black again. He was trying out different aesthetics to see what worked. The problem was that everything did.

Maze stared at him and narrowed her eyes.

"Despite your gaze being as sharp as your weapons my dear, I'm afraid it's going to take more than that to hurt me." He turned to her and chuckled.

"I certainly won't stop you from trying though."

He added, turning his attention back to the mirror.

Maze growled. "I just don't understand why you choose to do nothing and allow this insult to stand. I get your refusal to not intervene but why do you insist on my staying my hand." Her voice turned soft and deadly, leaning forward slightly as a bloodthirsty expression appeared on her beautiful face.

"It would be so… easy to take this League of Shadows apart, Lucifer. To show them the full scope of what they're dealing with. To torture their leader until he begs me for death. Only to be denied. Time and time again."

She got up and sensually walked to stand behind him, caressing his shoulders. Her face reflected on the mirror showed her licking her lips.

"Come on, no effort would be required from my part and I've been cooped up for so long…"

She whined.

An amused look graced Lucifer's face.

"Seduction Maze? Did you by chance forget who taught you that?"

He turned around to stare at her. A devilish smile spread out across his face while a golden glow flashed inside his eyes. An aura of sinful temptation surrounded his form, undetectable to anyone but the Lilim standing before him. Maze gulped as her knees started growing weak. She bit her lips while getting lost in his gaze.

"I…I…"

She stammered, unfocused and preoccupied by his charm.

"Shh…"

Lucifer brought a finger to her lips and silenced her.

"Shush my dear. Don't question my decisions, is that clear?" He ordered and Maze found herself nodding along to his words. "The boy will deal with our little spy problem. Think of it as a...small test to see if he is worth my time."

The aura retracted and Lucifer turned his back on the demoness that would have terrorized cities with her beauty alone, back in the day. Maze unsteadily made her way to a table and poured herself a drink. The glass came up to her lips and she chugged down the content. She closed her eyes while enjoying the slight burn down her throat. Her insides felt warm and good. She looked at the glass and wondered, how many of these could she down to forget the massive female boner she was now sporting for the literal Devil.

"Fucking Lucifer."

She spat out softly.

"Already did that, centuries ago Maze."

The Angel in question pointed out smoothly.

"Now be a dear and go welcome our guest. I'll finish up here and meet you on the lounge."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Oh well, at least she could have a little bit of fun with the boy. Lucifer cleared his throat to grab her attention. His gaze pierced through her own, giving the impression he knew what she was planning.

"Strictly stick to the non-alcoholics side of refreshments. I don't want you corrupting our little friend. Not yet anyway." He told her.

Maze spared one last aggrieved look at Lucifer's back and left to do his bidding. He was the boss after all.

(Aden's P.O.V)

After boom tubing away, I decided to take off some time from running around to just unwind. I spent the day swimming in the water and just chilling on the beach as the heat of the sun, gently beat down on my body. I'm not ashamed to say I was lured to sleep for a while by the gentle tides, soft breeze and warm sunlight. When I woke up, I did some fishing and toured the island for a few more fruits. My efforts did not go unrewarded and I found other delightful fruit combinations. Though none of them were as good as Grango.

Others just didn't make sense. Like a Coconut and watermelon variant that had a hard green shell, watermelon's flesh and a bland tasting liquid. The whole thing was just...ugh. I didn't even waste time naming it. Others were notable. And my favorite right below Grango was a combination of Banana and Pawpaw. Yummy. The blend of flavor was simply amazing. Not as godly as a Grango but close enough. In true Aden fashion, I came up with a lame ass name for it, I called it...Banpaw.

After that, I left the island and played around the water, trying to fly through fire manipulation. The grind never ends, yo. Respect it, honor it and most of all, do it. I was mostly running into the problem of control. Ozai's fire burst carried him into the air and allowed him to change directions through a continuous and expertly controlled stream. My own control was severely lacking as compared to a veteran Firebender and the output was inconsistent and erratic. I was dealing with the notion of go big or go home.

Steam rose up from the contact of the blaze of fire burning below my feet, right above the ocean water. Keeping still and steady allowed me a modicum of control, but didn't help with the waste of power. Even an expert Firebender would be weakened in minutes if they tried to keep this up. I only had the system to thank for this but I could already feel the strain my body was under, trying to channel all that energy. The strain was thankfully minimal and Adaptive physiology was working it's magic as well.

I looked down at my feet and marveled at the way the flames seemed to seep out a few inches above my skin yet my heel was hot and lightly scorched. The heat was close to getting unbearable. I would have to stop soon if I wanted to be able to walk upright when confronting 'him.' Something told me the meeting was not going to go as easy as I thought it would. Life never accorded me such small mercies, so why would it start now.

Before stopping though, I decided to try off one last idea. The problem was that I was confining myself to an average Firebender skill set when I was so much more. If controlling the power output was the problem, why not eliminate that requirement completely? Coincidentally I knew of another character whose fire manipulation skills edged on large bursts for quick acceleration. Maybe I could find more inspiration from Shinra than Ozai. Granted Shinra could only use his fire through the feet but his fire manipulation was different from Ozai's yet very similar to what I wanted to achieve.

From then on, the practice only yielded fruits and although the progress was minimal, I was getting there. After that, I flew above the water using Air bending for that particular instant, to tour the other islands contained in the main dimension. Fun fact, the islands were numerous. Almost too many to count. Not too unbelievable given that Space was massively expanded. The largest one was the size of Madagascar and just like it's counterpart, a lot of exotic animals and plant life lived there.

The place was beautiful. It had burbling streams, green foliage covering the ground in a natural carpet, multicolored insects buzzing around and combinations of creatures that had shiny coats and healthy bodies. It was clear no human, due to our tendencies to destroy had ever stepped foot here. I felt jealous that my main island Sanctuary while beautiful wasn't as exotic as this place. Then I remembered it had Grango and felt the trade off was worth it.

I took a bath on the waterfall, washing away the ocean salt from the many times I had plunged into the ocean during my flying practice. My dirty costume had suffered the same fate as the rest of my body, so I cleaned it and hang it out to dry. It would be a few hours but hopefully it would dry up by the time I left for L.A. I sighed in appreciation as the water flowed down my skin. I had really needed that. The stream was also very clear, allowing me to see the fish swimming lazily about.

I thought of catching some but decided I had had enough of fish. Luckily, there was a lot of game here. After a quick hunt, I had the first taste of meat in that dimension, roasting it above a fire while enjoying the nature. The meat was tender and delicious, the air was incredibly fresh, the water was also refreshing and the fruits...not as good as Grango but still... incredibly, incredibly close. Not really...

A few hours later, I was ready to go. It was time to meet Lucifer. Throughout the day I had successfully managed to distract myself from that, but now that the time had come for me to meet up with the King of Hell again, my nervousness came back with a vengeance.