upforanything | Myth!AU - Unforeseen Side Effects

It's hard to relax after a long shift roaming around the city and maintaining the teetering balance but what made it all the more easier was the fact that his partner was awaiting in his apartment and graciously welcomed him back when he arrived. There was still some residual exhaustion but he was eager to hold a small conversation before slipping away to clean himself up from the work day. The hardest part of the whole thing was making sure that Lucifer didn't simply barge into the bathroom while he took a shower to decompress peacefully for a couple of moments.

When he's all clean and dressed in but a simple t-shirt and shorts, the reaper eyes the belt that he carried on his person as a small prank formulated in his plan. Lucifer was rather fond of all manners of serpents and he was no stranger to what the belt could do. Still that didn't mean that Matthieu couldn't surprise him nonetheless.

Belt in hand behind his back, he slowly stalks through the halls to locate his quarry. It doesn't take much to locate the man who was lounging across bed in the guest bedroom downstairs, seemingly entertaining himself with whatever was on his phone. The perfect opportunity to strike. He doesn't waste the precious chance and charges into the bedroom with a tease in french before jumping onto the bed and wrapping the belt around the unsuspecting man's waist.

The magic is activated with a quick ignition feed of his energy. However something feels distinctly off this time though he can't investigate too much as he loses his balance and slips off the bed in the end. Mission success!

...though he didn't realize what he had really done.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Chicago, while still an epicenter of human culture it seems far less fun than Los Angeles, at least in Lucifer's opinion. The wind and the cold weren't exactly his style, but it was a necessary sacrifice to make because his reaper, yes his, had decided to make his home in the city and certainly a little bit of bluster wasn't going to keep the devil himself away from the man.

Speaking of his reaper, Matthieu had had something to do with work, and so Lucifer had found himself whiling away time on his phone, only half paying attention to his surroundings in the meanwhile. He thought he had heard the other man come home, but he hand't seen him yet.

Ah, wait. There's movement near the door, that's all well and fine. If Matthieu was feeling lonely, of course he was more than welcome to com and bother the devil. Encouraged, even.

But movement turns to heavy footsteps, and before Lucifer can even think of asking what in the world the reaper was up to this time, there's a surge of something that shifts his stomach and his entire world seems to shift. There were arms about his waist? No, something, but he can't fathom any thoughts beyond the fact that suddenly his center of gravity is very, very off, and with a string of curses foul enough to make even his most hardened of officers flush he topples from the bed.

Thankfully there's something, or someone actually, to catch his fall, but he still hits the ground with a rather undignified thud.

"What the Hell was that?" He manages to spit out, but the words feel slick in his mouth, and as he pushes himself up, there it is again: the world feels like it's shifting. As he shifts and tries to push himself upright there's a sharp noise, fabric splitting and tearing, and he suddenly freezes, eyes wandering down to his pants. His very expensive-

the sight that greets him is suddenly much more important than his trousers.

"Matthieu," the word is slow, filled with tension, "darling, light of my life, what did you do?"

Ok to be quite fair the idea hadn't gone into a fully formed plan when he had decided to do the trick on Lucifer so there's mild surprise when he recognizes that yes physics do in fact still work as he flails and crumbles onto the floor. The hardwood is rough against his shoulder and there'll be a bruise the next day but otherwise nothing too embarrassing or well damaging. That seems to change however when there's a body slamming on top of his, knocking out the wind from his lungs briefly. Coughing, he sucks in sharp breaths through clenched teeth as his face is almost mashed into the floor as something large topples onto him.

Did he accidentally take the whole mattress with him? Merde he hopes not because he didn't want for the probably now python Lucifer to be agitated more than he already would be. That and he really didn't want to bother with having to move it back into place.

Yet...there's cursing and a lot of it despite how muffled it is that seems odd to come of this. He probably fucked up majorly. That would definitely apologizing profusely to the man on top of him.

"Fuck you're heavy.... Please get off. Desole I didn't mean to ugh..."

He pauses as he blinks at the rather thick dark scaled tail that slowly twitches asides his cheek. It was far bigger than what he remembered for the man to shift into with the help of the arcane in the belt. Maybe it was based on power but that didn't make much sense.

Then the question. "Um...I don't know?"

He squirms out from underneath the oppressing weight to furrow his brow at the large tail before following the winding curves. Concern grows at the tattered remains of Lucifer's pants before turning into confusion as scales fade into a rather familiar torso. Glancing up, the reaper blinks dumbfounded.

"That's ugh... you're um... Not supposed to happen. I don't um. N-naga. That's...new."

"That's what?" It's difficult to believe what he's seeing, and one hand reaches down to brush against-

Yes, those are scales; dark, sleek, and warm to the touch. Really, it's not the strangest he's ever had in all of his years, but it certainly wasn't something he was even expecting to come up on Earth. Back down in Hell, perhaps, but not in the mortal plane.

"I think 'new' is an understatement," if he sounds a bit cross it's merely because he's trying to figure out how to slide himself off of the reaper and it's taking a bit more concentration than he'd like to admit. Eventually he manages to right himself and pull away, resting back on his new tail and examining the change with a raised brow. "If you were bored darling you could have just said something."

"No I wasn't... Look I wasn't bored but I could certainly say that I was being an idiot." He screwed up majorly and there wasn't a single clue as to how he could fix this. Not on something he's never encountered before. "I ugh...it was supposed to be a joke. With the serpentine belt. Turn you into a python and all before carting you upstairs.

"Just I don't know what happened. I'm sorry," he answers, concern written across his face. "Desole, raleur."

"Well I'm always partial to going upstairs with you, darling, but..." He looks over to the reaper, raising a brow as he settles himself. It's strange, trying to adjust his center of gravity like this, but thankfully it doesn't take too much thought away from the situation.

"I'll admit, this is one that I haven't really come across before." With a bit of effort he moves forward, sighing quietly as he reaches out to steady himself with one hand on Matthieu's shoulder. "It certainly makes my afternoon interesting, I don't know about you."

At this point the reaper had buried his face into one of his hands and attempted recalling whether or not if the belt had possibly some kind of failsafe. Something that could allow for this disaster to rectify but his mind was drawing a blank. The belt was an old acquisition, not as old as himself, and he doubts that any sort of guide would be in his bookcases.

Peeking through his fingers, he watches curiously at Lucifer working out how one moves about in his predicament. As soon as there's a hand on him, his own withdraws from his face to reach over and brace the man so he can right himself. Strange to see half of his devilish partner still normal and dressed nice versus the dark coils around him.

"I think it'd be best to stay downstairs for now," he sighs, glancing away. "It's certainly something that's for sure. Still sorry about all of this."

It doesn't take even a thought before his hand moves, arm encircling around Lucifer's shoulders to tuck him in beside him. He nuzzles into him apologetically as much as affectionately. "Guess I can cause some surprises."

"You may be right." The thought of having to attempt stairs right now is a little more daunting than he'd like to admit. Still, he appreciates Mattheiu's candidness, and he sighs and rests his head on the reaper's shoulder.

"I do like surprises and you are quite good at coming up with some interesting little things," he grins daring to crane his neck and press a kiss to the man's neck, "I'll admit, I wouldn't have guessed this one though."

As he shifts he coils around Matthieu and while it's a strange sensation he finds that he's not impartial to it.

"Better to wait things out and get comfortable rather than possibly getting hurt. Or rather frustrated," he murmurs, kissing the devil's cheek when he settles in.

He gives a small pleased noise and tilts his head, managing a smirk. Hand it to Lucifer tease over such things. His fingers moving to card through the other's hair, resting at the back of his neck.

Yet the reaper is mildly surprised at the warm coils that wind around him. It slowly restricts more and more of his movement but he wants to stick close anyway. His free hand running along the dark scales. "Seems like you're coming up with something interesting too."

"I always try to make the best of a situation, darling." The sensation of Mattheiu's hand along the scales is surprisingly nice, and he lets his eyes drift shut with a pleased sigh. "It makes things interesting no?"

Perhaps many wouldn't be as calm as he was at that moment, but after so many millennia alive there was so very little that could shake him anymore. He'd much rather lean in to steal a kiss from his reaper, after all.

"Can't exactly complain about that. You're rather talented in it after all," he teases, tracing along the patterning of the coils. They weren't uncomfortable around him instead rather nice for now.

The reaper certainly can't help but smile into the kiss, thankful for the calm. Things could've been far worse.

"You flatter me, I like it." The words are warm against Mattheiu's lips, the devil's grin evident as he nips slightly. No use in fretting over things, not when there's a warm body in his arms and he'd much rather focus on that.

There was the matter of figuring out what had even happened, yes, but for now he's content to laze about in this new form, and there's a pleased noise as the reapers fingers wander.

"I know. Like your ego stroked as much as other things," he muses, stealing away a quick kiss. This was a lot better than patrolling around the streets and taking care of souls in the brisk cloudy city.

His exploring touches inch across the smooth sleekness of the devil's tail before running across the larger underside scales. "Seems like this is one of them."

"It's not my fault that you're rather brilliant at stroking those other things." There's a touch of warm amusement to his words, and despite himself he finds himself shifting and arching into the slight touches. "You have wonderful fingers, darling."