Lucy turned on the dim nightstand light and looked across the few feet that separated her from her roommate who was still asleep. Lucy sat up as a sigh escaped her lips, sheets falling from her bare chest. Having a roommate was going to be particularly troublesome this morning.

"Lucy why did you have to wake up?" she said to herself.

Lucy had only been awake for a few seconds but she couldn't recall most of her dream. She remembered scattered fragments; a muscular body pressed into hers, the throbbing sensations, the eyes. She had the vague notion it was the butler she had dreamt about sleeping with. Lucy slid an investigative hand into her lap.

Oh, that's worse than I thought, good job Lucy, why can't I ever remember the good ones?

Her skin was still clammy and the linens were damp with sweat. Lucy wondered why it had been the butler. She'd only caught a glance at him once during her onboarding. The green eyes she remembered, the sandy blonde hair. He went by Foras.

Lucy kicked off her covers in a single clump. She sprang out of the bed and her feet hit the wood floor with a loud thud. Lucy wondered how many times her roommate would have been late to report to the housekeeper if Lucy wasn't such a morning person. Being late to inspection was not something you wanted to do here and Lucy resented being the alarm clock. She was particularly annoyed at her roommate today, simply for existing. If she could just have any semblance of privacy she could have at least given herself a satisfactory resolution. Through the wall, she heard her colleagues in the other dorm room stirring as well. She heard giggling. Why couldn't she have a roommate that was fun? She thought for a moment about whether or not she was making any noises in her sleep.

The walls are thin anyway, she thought, I guess it doesn't matter.

Lucy removed a small notebook and pen from her nightstand drawer and marked off another day, the same as every morning. Everyone eventually had to do their rounds in Lucifer's palace, and her number was up. It had been years since she arrived, and there were several more to go.  She wanted to scream out her frustration, but that would land her in hot water. Lucy tried her best to account for the small pleasures. She liked how the fresh linens on her bed felt against her skin, they were done nightly for her by the maids accountable to the dormitory. She was going to take any feeling of being pampered, no matter how small, where she could get it. Her roommate stirred awake, turning for her phone rather than getting up. Lucy put on her glasses.

"Can't you just set an alarm?" Lucy fixed her gaze firmly on her roommate, "you're going to be late and get us both in trouble again," Lucy said.

"You are such a bitch," she replied.

Lucy groaned through her teeth. Her roommate kept playing on her phone. Lucy grabbed her own phone from the nightstand and muted it before putting it in her red satchel, having your phone blow up in the presence of your superiors was considered untoward. She gathered a few more nice to haves; a small container of moistened tissues, hand sanitizer, and some Eau de Soufre to cover up the various scents she'd pick up from her daily work. She grabbed one of the tissues and cleaned off her hands, spritzed on some sanitizer, and then filled the satchel with her belongings. Lucy proceeded to leave the room, kicking her roommate's footboard and turning on the lights before leaving.

"Get up Fae!"

Lucy shut the door behind her and headed down the corridor to the main dressing hall where the housekeeper, the washroom, and uniform awaited. Some other members of the morning shift were in the hallway too. Aside from their red satchels, everyone was naked. The corridor was lit by candles that produced small red flames. Intrusive thoughts from her dream blew over her like embers in the wind. Sensations, scents, the details were fuzzy and fading, replaced by a general sense of sensuality and unrequited satisfaction. She thought the run-in with her roommate would have put that out of her mind, it generally did. Lucy considered how many weeks it had been since she'd been able to steal a moment for herself. Clearly, it had been too long. She rounded the corner and the doors of the dressing hall came into view. Lucy felt a pang of relief and anticipation, she was about to be too busy to get distracted by her physical needs, or so she hoped. Lucy grabbed her phone out of the satchel and held it up to a small black box adjacent to the doors, it beeped, and the loud clunk of a locking mechanism retracting took its place. The doors slowly swung open under their own power, and Lucy walked in. There she was, the housekeeper, Jezebel. She was inspecting the outfits of the maids who were already dressed, harshly correcting every out-of-place detail, every loose thread, every tiny spot of unpolished buckle. Better her than any of the lords of the palace. Lucy never passed first inspection, but it was rare that anyone did.

"Lucy!" Jezebel's words drowned out every noise in the hall, "Get your sorry arse dressed and presented, we're short today!"

The vaulted ceilings and marble floors made sure no one missed anything the housekeeper said, but she routinely screamed at the girls anyway. Lucy swallowed a lump. 'Short today.' That only happened when someone really messed up and earned some extended disciplinary duties. It's not like anyone got sick or had leave down here. It sounded like more than one someone today. The haste of a short-staffed day always made Jezebel more cross and more likely to discipline her maids over the smallest infractions. Lucy scrambled to her right, where the entrance to the washroom was. The washroom ran alongside the whole length of the dressing hall. Privacy was not part of the design of the washroom, but it was also luxurious, an investment in keeping all the maids fresh and enticing. Shower heads lined an edgeless bath, steam rose from it. Shampoo and body wash were mounted on wall dispensers that fed from a central supply. Fresh razors, wax, and waxing strips were provided daily. Hairbrushes, toothbrushes, and makeup were also provisioned. There was also a nail station, staffed by the nightshift. The water was automatically subtly fragranced to Lucifer's liking, it would change on occasion and the more experienced maids could read his mood from how the water smelled. Today was some sort of rosy tobacco. Lucy smiled. They called it the washroom, she saw a spa. Were it not for the pressure to come out of this place without a misplaced hair on her head, it would have been the favorite part of her day. It still ranked highly. Lucy's gaze drifted over her colleagues' bodies for a moment; the ones in the showers and baths, the ones brushing their teeth, drying off, she always felt small in here. Lucy you are in a hurry, she thought.

Lucy found an empty spot amongst the crowd to get her shower going. She started lathering up. Gossip surrounded her, especially from the maids with more interesting routines, those that encountered the lords more often. Who was courting whom, catty plotting and the like were frequent subjects of discussion. She tried to tune it out as she lathered up, especially the parts about the courting. It was to no avail. Her own touch, even for the purposes of cleanliness, simply reminded her of the craving for the touch of another. Lucy let out a sigh that wobbled into a moan. She jumped as she felt the sharp sting of a wet slap on her behind.

"Head out of the clouds Lucy!" the demoness called out.

On any other day, Lucy would have shrieked about this regardless of the consequences. Today she was thankful for the distraction.

"Y, yeah, thanks, I got lost there," she said. This only piqued the others' interest further.

"Oh-hoh, Lucy's distracted." Lucy felt arms wrap around her chest and a wet slender body pressed against hers from the rear. "Come on~, share." 

Lucy felt herself being dragged backward and being lifted. "Wait what?! NO!"

Both of them came down with a splash. She was being dragged to the gossip circle flailing about and making all sorts of noise. The next thing she knew she was sitting amongst several other maids, flanked on either side. Oh no, she thought to herself, how am I going to get out of this in time? 

"C'mon Lucy, what's got you daydreaming?"

"More like who's got her daydreaming."

"Yeah, what's his name?"

"What's -her- name!" They all took turns asking their questions with no intent on leaving room for answers.

Lucy felt even smaller than she did before. She'd have liked to go invisible. Lucy called upon her skills at avoiding social interactions, this called for a half-truth. Her reply was quiet, shy, she squeaked like a mouse.

"I uh, well, you know I just haven't got to, take care of business lately."

The other maids laughed and giggled. 

"Alright ladies we're going to be late," one of them interrupted, stifling the laughter. "Lucy how long have you been here? You ought to have that figured out by now. Come see me after shift."

Lucy recognized this one, she was a short-timer almost done with her stint. She generally had patience for newbies, but outright incompetence was an easy way to get on her bad side. Lucy tried to recall her name. Morgen? For their part, the gossiping demonesses did help each other catch up for all the lost time. They helped Lucy finish her bath too, it wasn't something they'd done for her before and the attention felt nice despite the grilling she just received.

The housekeeper had some drying stations installed the other year to help speed up bath time. They weren't too dissimilar to air hand dryers, just on the whole body scale. They were far more efficient than dealing with towels, but you could really mess up your hair if you weren't quick. It certainly had taken Lucy a while to get used to them. She brushed her hair as it dried. Lucy put up her pigtails and then brushed her teeth what must have been three times. She remembered once getting into her uniform only to have her teeth fail inspection, it was a nightmare. She sat at the makeup station and waited. Between this and getting her nails done, it was the only time she didn't feel rushed. She hesitated to open her eyes after her liner was done, wishing she could just go back to sleep, back to her dream.

Lucy rushed over to her locker but she dared not don her uniform hastily while the housekeeper was in that sort of mood. She happened to arrive at the same time as the maids adjacent to her locker on the left.

Finally caught a break.

Getting the maid outfit on was not a one-person task, not if you wanted everything to be correct. She grabbed a fresh pair of panties from her locker and tied the laced back that accommodated her tail. The locker to the right was her roommates, you were supposed to be paired off with them for just this reason, but she hadn't arrived yet. The maids to her left arrived together as they were supposed to, but the three of them all helped each other out despite the mismatch. No one was going to allow anyone else to make Jezebel more angry today, her tantrums seldom had logical targets. Lucy pulled up her stockings and buckled her leather garters. The uniform was a royal pain in the ass to put on, but she loved this part, it was simple, and it made her feel hot, desirable, and sexy. For just a moment she felt her cheeks warm up. She dreaded the idea of being horny all day. She wanted Morgen to spill the beans on avoiding this in the future. She strapped on her boots, checked her buckles for tarnish, polishing where needed with a small cotton swab, and helped the other maids with their bows. It was time to present herself for inspection.

Fae walked through the doors of the hall. Lucy frowned. She was really late this time. Lucy wondered if it was on purpose, what sort of punishments her roommate would endure just so Lucy would have to go through them too.

"Awful as always," the housekeeper said as she looked the girls over. "Lucy! Who taught you how to put on garters!? Tighten that up!"

Lucy did as she was told, but her garters were tight enough already. Here we go, Lucy thought.

"Straighten your bodice laces!"

They were straight, Lucy moved them about a bit and pretended to straighten them to appease Jezebel.

"I ought to put each and every one of you in the stocks," she continued, "but I don't have time for that today."

"You two, off with you," she said to the pair that helped Lucy earlier. They didn't waste a moment attending to their regular duties. "Lucy, I'm afraid we can't wait for your partner, and believe me that is going to be addressed later, but I need you to hurry to the dining hall. Quickly now!"

Lucy was confused but she wasn't going to push her luck. Lucy thought Jezebel seemed distracted. She didn't get off this easy on good days. This was the first time Lucy remembered not being sent back to the lockers to fix some serious imperfection in her outfit. Lucy wished she'd been distracted enough to forget about her roommate though. She briefly thought about how she might get back at Fae for this.

Lucy made haste to the back of the hall for the service elevator. Once again, she provided her phone for access. The elevator doors shut behind her and she looked for her floor on the control panel. She was a few basements down and the dining hall was on the main level. She pushed the main floor button, which illuminated green, and heaved a sigh of relief. There was no one in the elevator with her today, and it was the most private space she'd had in weeks. She imagined how wonderful it'd be for the elevator to have some sort of malfunction so she could just have a few minutes to just rub one out. For a moment, remembering she had some tissues and hand sanitizer in her satchel, she considered hitting the emergency stop button herself. It was a fleeting thought, that juice wasn't worth the squeeze. She lost herself in the fantasy of going through with it anyway. The weightlessness of the stopping elevator jolted her out of her daydream. The doors opened. The dining hall would be much farther down the corridor and to the left. She proceeded apace, nearly running, before something in her bade she freeze in her tracks. Goosebumps crawled all over her skin and her blood ran cold. There was some sort of visitor coming from her left, out of a different corridor. She forced herself to move out of the way, pressing her back against the wall, but her body felt heavy as if she was swimming through wet concrete. She got a better look at the wandering figure and her heart stopped. Just looking at it confused her eyes and had them darting away at every attempt to focus on it like it shouldn't exist. A void where a face should be filled a white cloak adorned in gold. It carried a large sheathed sword and small bones on strings hung from various locations. Locusts crawled freely in and out of the voids in the figure. Lucy would have been frightened even if she didn't know who that was, but a frightened heart never forgets. He'd been here once before-just once before. Apollyon stopped, just for a moment, to look directly at her. Her vision was quickly fading and she begged her heart to beat in vain.

"You irritate me."

The lights nearest Lucy extinguished, cracks formed in the wood paneling and marble that constituted the walls and the hall carpet shredded itself. Small cracks formed in the left lens of her glasses. Her horns ached, and her insides were shaken. Apollyon continued down the corridor like he'd never seen her. Lucy's legs buckled and she fell. Her vision had shrunk to a small circle, everything else was black, and her ears felt like there was mud in them. The footsteps faded as he continued on. Her heart fluttered, then it fluttered again. She began to regain her senses. Her lungs burned. She choked for air. Before she could collect herself another figure appeared from the dark in the same direction Apollyon had come from. It was the butler, Foras.

"Upsy daisy." Foras extended a hand and gently helped Lucy to her feet.

Lucy thought her heart might stop again. They'd never spoken to each other directly, there was never a need. Foras was the head of the entire house staff. He was known for being quite strict with the male servants, but he left the maids to Jezebel and didn't interact with them much. His suit was crisp and well-fitted. This was the best look she'd ever had at him. His collar was perfect, his cufflinks were spotless and precisely aligned. A lapel pin announced his position. To run into him now, today of all days. Her palms quickly became moist with sweat, and her hands shook. She wanted to run. 

"Are you injured?"

"No Sir, I seem to be okay." Lucy was looking about herself and she felt around her horns, "What's he even doing here?" 

"Unknown. I had to let him in before the door broke into pieces," Foras' mouth was barely moving. "He's probably going to speak to the master, there's little else here that warrants his attention. It only concerns us where things become broken or out of place."

Foras paused a moment to examine Lucy, and she felt as if she was being undressed. Not a moment ago she was desperate enough for relief that she considered getting herself stuck in an elevator. Now the origin of her frustration was standing in front of her, inches away. Forbidden. She could feel the blood rush to all the places she desired to be touched. He seemed particularly interested in her glasses.

"It is fortunate you are still mobile. How did you not notice his presence before getting that close?" Foras' curiosity was fleeting, he didn't give her a chance to answer. "Scarcely better off than the wall, you should go get cleaned up, where were you heading Lucy?"

Fae passed by. She kept her head pointed forward but her eyes kept cutting over to the side. Foras didn't give her so much as a momentary glance and she proceeded on, stealing a peek when she could. Lucy kept quiet until her roommate was out of view. Lucy realized Foras called her by her first name, how did he even remember her name at all?

"Hrgh, didl, d, dining hall! Sir."

"Compose yourself."

"Yes Sir."

Foras' face wrinkled at the bridge of his nose. "What -is- that odor?"

Lucy's eyes widened and she looked at her satchel. She opened it quickly. Her nose burned as badly as her lungs had a moment ago, her eyes were watering. Her bottle of Eau de Soufre had shattered. Her broken phone was soaked in its contents.

"Best discard that."

Lucy pulled the perfume-soaked phone out of the satchel. The screen had become pieces and dust, and the frame was bent. Her heart sank as she tried to wrap her head around the consequences. Foras retrieved his phone and tapped at it a bit before returning it to his pocket.

"You will not be much use without the ability to open a door," Foras re-lit the candles that had gone out with a glance, though they were tilted and uneven on the wall now. "Fortunately we stand near the service elevator, accompany me until we can get your access sorted."

Foras led her back to the service elevator. He hit the 4th floor button which turned red. Foras presented his phone, and the red changed to green. Lucy hadn't been to any part of the fourth floor yet. She heard some of the girls talk about it occasionally but only the most experienced were assigned to it. She wondered if she'd be up here in a few years and if that meant seeing more of Foras. She closed her eyes a moment and reminded herself that she was standing next to the real Foras now and that the man from her dreams wasn't real, she didn't know this one. She realized they were going to be in a staff area again, she could speak unprompted.

"Doesn't he work for the other team?"

"Hm?" Foras turned his head to look at her, "Oh you must mean Apollyon. Yes, that is true."

"Then why--"

"I would not give it too much thought unless you plan on getting into infernal politics, you have seen Azrael a few times too have you not?" Foras sighed, "The important thing is that you stay clear, I suppose I should have to explain why?"

Lucy shook her head and curled a smile. "No, no you don't."

The elevator stopped and made a chime. They were free to leave the elevator now. The doors parted for them revealing a growing strip of bright white. It took Lucy's eyes a little while to adjust. This floor was brightly lit, the servants here were dressed far less formally than any she'd seen before. There was a din of voices, she couldn't seem to pick out any individual conversations. This was completely unlike anywhere else in the palace. A head turned her way, then another, then more. The din of voices quieted. Her broken glasses and disheveled appearance were drawing attention. Lucy fell back and tried to hide behind Foras. He shot a glance at one of them and before their eyes met properly everyone had turned their attention back to their tasks.

"This way Ms. Pyre," Foras gestured down a side hall, " hand me your satchel."

Lucy handed Foras her satchel. Without breaking his pace, Foras removed her broken phone from the satchel and then tossed the rest of it into a nearby waste basket. Foras peeked his head into a nearby open office and instructed its occupant to carry the waste basket outside. Shortly, they came to a more prominent doorway. There was no access pad on this door, instead, it had a physical lock with a keyway that branched in 5 directions at various angles. Foras turned his palm up and a brief flare of orange just above it produced a key, which he inserted. Foras let go of the key and it turned itself, several unseen mechanisms in the door clicked and whirred. When the sound was over Foras pushed the door open and retrieved the key, which left the same way it arrived. Lucy went to close the door behind them.

"Leave that open please." Foras proceeded to take his place behind a large black marble desk, "Your replacement phone will be here shortly."

Foras opened a drawer and brought her phone up closer to his eyes. He retrieved a small pin and popped open the SIM tray, casually discarding the phone upon its retrieval.

"Let us hope this still works."

Let's hope it doesn't, Lucy thought.

Lucy heard a rapping on the open door behind her. She turned her head to see an attendant standing in the doorway with a small white box. He must have been from this floor, the fanciest thing he was wearing was leather suspenders. Foras motioned him in and handed him Lucy's SIM.

"Let me know if you have any problems with that, you are excused." Foras leaned into his chair, "Oh, and secure the door on your way out please."

The door closed behind Lucy and once again the door spoke its clicks and whirs followed by a final thunk.

"Meanwhile," Foras opened a drawer that Lucy couldn't see, "please have a seat, Lucy."

Lucy's skin crawled and a pit was forming in her stomach as she sat down. There it was again, 'Lucy'.

"Since we are stuck waiting for technical processes I would go over some of your continuing evaluation."

"I'm sorry Sir, I forgot that was coming up."

"No, it is early, there are items I wanted to address as we are afforded an opportunity." Foras thumbed through a binder he'd removed from the drawer, "particularly this section." He opened the rings and pulled out a single page, setting the binder to the side. "To summarize, behind in basic competencies, exemplary work ethic," his gaze left the paper and met her eyes, "a combination I see infrequently, first, do you concur with that assessment?"

Lucy coaxed her lips into moving, "Unfortunately, I can't argue. Sir."

"A change of duties could be justified if you improved competencies prior to your evaluation date, I hope you consider making that effort," Foras said.

Lucy held eye contact with Foras as a few seconds ticked by, "Sir?"

"Alright, I will try putting this differently. By my measure you have 5 years remaining here, given good behavior and standing," Foras returned the paper to the binder and the binder to its drawer, "the question is how many of those years do you want to spend scrubbing toilets and setting tables?"

"I'd like to stop doing that yesterday, haha, I mean--I mean Sir."

"Well, then you ought to find a way to redirect some of that scrubbing energy into improving your skills. Jezebel rarely gives any praise, especially in the area of work ethic, and were it not for that I could be content to let you spend your stint here skating in the restrooms, but I rather you did not. There are other places hard workers are needed." Foras glanced conspicuously around the office, "the fourth floor for instance."

Another knock on the door. Foras rose to open it.

"Phone's good to go, Sir, it's still provisioning but the security features are all set," the attendant said.

Foras took the phone from him, "dismissed," and presented the phone to Lucy, it looked markedly newer than the last one she was issued. "That should get you going. Go through your morning preparations again, I am afraid too much of that odor yet clings to you." Foras stood up and helped Lucy out of her seat, "you will have an escort to the elevator."

Her departure was less than ceremonious. Foras didn't so much as say goodbye and the sound of the doors closing annoyed her. She stabbed the 'B2' button.

"What did you expect him to do Lucy, dance you to the elevator?" Lucy said. A heavy breath escaped her lips.

She returned to the dressing hall, it was empty now, there would be no activity here until the mid-shift started their routine. She texted Jezebel to let her know where she was and what Foras had instructed her to do. Lucy started dispensing with her uniform to strip down for her bath. Lucy realized she'd be alone in just a moment, finally alone. Her skin began to burn, turning bright pink on her chest, cheeks, and neck. She could feel her pulse and a tingling sensation between her legs. She crammed her clothes into the laundry chute and closed it. All she could think about was coming to a decision on exactly what she was going to do to herself once she got in the water, but she had no question about who she'd be thinking of.

Words swirled in her head, 'the fourth floor for instance', and the times he called her Lucy instead of Ms. Pyre. Lacking a satchel, she carried her phone into the bath.

"This is brand new Lucy let's not ruin it," she said as she put the phone down next to the edge of the bath She decided to slide into the water at the front edge of the bath so she could be close to her phone, there wasn't anywhere to set it down otherwise. 

"Finally."

At the first touch, Lucy could tell this was going to be quick. The phone near her ear was a distracting presence, there was something she just had to do with it, they weren't allowed in here. She picked up her phone and held it over her, she turned on the camera. She kept her right hand between her legs and turned her left thigh to cover slightly, she wrapped her tail around herself in a spiral. Click, she liked the result. Lucy wanted something to think about, something to help her get over the edge sooner, and when she imagined sending Foras the photo she knew she'd picked a winner.

"hehe, maybe it should be a video," she said as she returned the phone to the edge of the pool, along with her glasses.

Lucy had both hands involved now, she was even warmer than the water. She imagined Foras seeing the photo, imagined his positive response. Breathing and moaning became inseparable and her fingers almost hurt when she squeezed. The water was carrying away the slipperiness, it was actually working against her and it was getting uncomfortable.

"Shit, shit, shit!"

 Lucy scrambled to her feet, she couldn't, she wouldn't let this one go. She darted for a shower head and set it to its narrowest, strongest setting. The water wasn't going to take this from her, she was going to make it help. Lucy didn't move, she didn't have to move. The constant pressure, the parade of rippling water, it was more than enough. The stillness of her body pulled her deeper into her fantasy. She imagined him sending her responses, asking her for more, telling her to do things. Her legs buckled, her abs clenched, it was all she could do to stand. An irrepressible moan drained her lungs until it could no longer be heard and would not permit her to take a breath. Suddenly, the water was too much, she had to toss it aside, and she could breathe again. She was still having contractions. Sanity kicked in the door. Lucy started a rolling, lengthy laugh.

"I just jerked it to a man that talks like a brick."