Thanksgiving Negotiations: Part IV

“They know,” Haley bit out as Rebecca stood there, taking in the smug looks on all the men’s faces, noting the way that they were watching them as her gaze slowly made her way to her husband and within seconds, she knew without a doubt who the traitor was.

She took in the fresh bandage on Lucifer’s temple, the bruise already forming around the bright-white gauze, the icepack being held against his head, the muttered, “Totally worth it,” as he was forced to slap his hand against the wall when his legs threatened to give out on him. Slowly nodding, Rebecca turned her attention to the teenage girl rolling a baseball between her hands as she did her best to appear innocent.

When Rebecca just stood there, glaring at her, Mikey went for a hopeful smile as she said, “He guessed?”

“We really did,” Jason said, shooting her a wink and a satisfied sigh as he made his way into the kitchen with the rest of the men following suit.

“What did we talk about, Mikey?” Rebecca asked, feeling a headache coming on as she reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering how she’d managed to get past Sebastian.

“That it would be in my best interest to keep my adorable mouth shut to ensure that nothing came between us and our revenge,” Mikey answered as Rebecca dropped her hand away to look for Sebastian so that she could get some answers, only to end up frowning when she spotted him sitting in the corner with a piece of tape over his mouth and a murderous glare locked on his best friend.

“And Sebastian?” Rebecca couldn’t help but wonder as she gestured to the boy that looked like he was already imagining throttling Mikey with his bare hands.

Swallowing hard, Mikey paused in rolling the ball between her hands and glanced back at Sebastian as she murmured, “Should probably stay where he is until he has a chance to calm down?”

“You know what I can’t help but wonder?” Jason asked as he walked back into the large dining room carrying one of the five turkeys that they’d cooked today and placed it on one of the tables they had lined up in the middle of the room.

“What’s that?” Rebecca asked, sighing heavily as she watched Zoe make her way across the dining to release her son before her gaze shifted back to Mikey and-

Found herself wondering why Mikey just winked at her.

“Why you really thought that you’d be able to trick us into believing that everything was vegan, like we can’t tell the difference between a turkey and tofu,” Jason said with a sad shake of his head as Trevor and Aidan placed two more turkeys on the table, making her frown.

“You really should have known better,” Lucifer said, only to gasp, drop to his knees and mutter, “I think I’m dying,” earning a confused frown from Mikey.

“That wasn’t even my fastball,” she said with a pitying look that had Lucifer swallowing hard as he glanced up at Mikey and-

“I held back,” Mikey said, shrugging it off.

“I’m just gonna go ahead and lay down now,” Lucifer muttered to himself as he proceeded to curl up in the fetal position.

“That’s unfortunate,” Mikey said, releasing a long-suffering sigh before going back to rolling the ball between her hands before adding, “I lied,” making every man currently carrying food to the table go still.

“What?” Trevor asked, throwing Mikey a questioning look only to go still when Mikey said, “The food isn’t vegan. That’s not the secret. Aunt Zoe cooked everything and wanted it to be a surprise,” with a careless shrug.

Rebecca stood there watching as every man in the room looked from Mikey to Zoe and then, slowly as though they were afraid that the food they were carrying was going to suddenly attack them, looked down at what they were carrying and-

“Oh, God, no…”

“We wanted it to be a surprise,” Zoe said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth with a sniffle that had all the men swallowing hard as they quickly placed the food down on the table and took a healthy step back.

*-*-*-*

“It looks good,” Jason said but made no move to take anything, Lucifer couldn’t help but notice as he sat there, doing his best not to pass out as he glanced from his cousins and uncles sending terrified looks at the small woman helping herself to more turkey.

They were lying.

There was no way that Zoe made all this food, Lucifer told himself, but made no move to help himself to any of it. He took in all the women and children enjoying their food and-

Definitely lying.

Nodding slowly, Lucifer reached for the mashed potatoes, only to go still when Zoe proudly stated, “I put extra cheese in that macaroni and cheese.”

Swallowing hard, Lucifer slowly pulled his hand away, noting the disappointed look on Zoe’s face as she went back to worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. That was followed by glancing at his cousin, Trevor, the one man at the table that didn’t have any choice in the matter as he loaded more stuffing onto his plate.

Lucifer noted the sheer terror in his cousin’s eyes as he forced himself to keep loading food on his plate so that he didn’t hurt his wife’s feelings and found himself wondering if it was too late to take his uncle up on his offer to bring him to the emergency room. He opened his mouth, only to close it and glare at the small woman to his right as she grabbed the large serving spoon in the mashed potatoes/macaroni and cheese and scooped it up and dumped it on his plate, ensuring that he would never forgive her.

“You should try some,” Rebecca said with a warm smile that had his eyes narrowing on her before she added, “The creamed onions are delicious,” making Lucifer swallow hard as he glanced down at the creamy-looking white substance on his plate.

“I thought this was macaroni and cheese?” Lucifer said, sending his wife a panicked look only to find her frowning down at the spoon in her hand before she slowly turned her attention to the bowl of fried apples next to her.

Slowly nodding, Rebecca murmured, “Oh, that’s right,” as she put the spoon down and grabbed the spoon in the bowl of fried apples and-

“This is the creamed onions.”

-ensuring that he didn’t eat a single fucking morsel of this meal.

“This is really good, Mom,” Jonathan said as he devoured a biscuit, letting Lucifer know that at least the biscuits were safe to eat.

“I’m glad you like it, sweetie,” Zoe said with a warm smile for her son as Lucifer and every man at the table sighed with relief as they all reached for a roll, only to quickly pull their hands back when she added, “I know cornbread is your favorite.”

“It really is,” Jonathan murmured as he devoured what Lucifer would have sworn on his life was a buttermilk biscuit.

“Why aren’t you eating, Uncle Lucifer?” Mikey asked, drawing his attention to find her blinking innocently at him. “Aren’t you hungry?”

Narrowing his eyes on the little traitor, Lucifer bit out, “I’m stuffed.”

“That’s a damn shame,” Mikey said with a sad shake of her head and a long-suffering sigh as she reached for the cranberry sauce and-

“You know what I can’t help but wonder,” Sebastian asked conversationally as he reached over and snatched the bowl out of her hands.

“What’s that?” Mikey asked, watching as Sebastian angrily scooped cranberry sauce on his plate while Lucifer watched the move, debating the odds of the contents of that bowl really being cranberry sauce and-

“Can you pass the butternut squash after you’re done with it, Sebastian?” Jessica asked, tearing a groan from every man at the table.

“Why you’re not running for your life,” Sebastian drawled as he handed the bowl to his sister.

“Besides the fact that it would be stupid to leave an area with witnesses?” Mikey asked, blinking at her best friend.

“Besides that,” Sebastian said, helping himself to more turkey while Lucifer sat there, telling himself that they were all fucking with their heads, but the question was why would they do that.

“I felt that it was in my best interest to enjoy a last meal while I had the chance,” Mikey explained with a satisfied sigh as she took a bite of stuffing and-

They were definitely fucking with them, Lucifer decided as he reached for the stuffing, only to once again swallow hard when he saw the hopeful look on Zoe’s face and realized that he no longer had a choice.

He had to eat Thanksgiving dinner. 

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