Chapter Text
By the time they finished brunch, Vox was comfortably full and considerably more suspicious of Emily than he had been when they arrived.
She had spent the entire meal refusing to answer a single question about their afternoon plans.
Not one.
He'd tried guessing.
She'd smiled.
He'd threatened to tickle her.
She'd informed him that Seraphim were immune to such tactics.
He'd pointed out that she was very much not immune to tickling.
She'd changed the subject.
Now, as they stepped out of the restaurant, Vox folded his arms and gave her a suspicious look.
“Okay. We've eaten. It's almost two. You have officially run out of excuses.”
Emily clasped her hands behind her back, rocking on her heels. “I don't know what you're talking about.”
“You've been smirking at me for the last two hours.”
“I have not.”
“You absolutely have.”
“Maybe I'm just happy.”
“You're always happy.”
“Exactly!”
“That doesn't explain anything.”
Emily giggled and reached for his hand, lacing their fingers together as they started walking down the street.
Vox let her.
Mostly because he liked holding her hand.
Partially because he was still trying to figure out where the hell she was taking him.
“So…” He said after a moment. “What's the plan?”
“It's a surprise.”
“You've said that.”
“And yet you keep asking.” She joked.
“Because I'm hoping you'll eventually get tired of being annoying.”
“Never.”
“I've noticed.”
She swung their joined hands between them.
Vox glanced at her.
She looked entirely too pleased with herself.
“Is it expensive?”
“No.”
“Dangerous?”
“No.”
“Illegal?”
Emily's eyes widened theatrically. “Vox!”
“What? I had to ask.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Disappointing.”
She scoffed, squeezing his hand. “I swear you’ll like it. You just gotta trust me.”
“I do trust you, Em.” He said, entirely honestly. “I just would like to know what I’m walking into.”
Emily's expression softened at that. “I know.”
She gave his hand another squeeze before letting go.
Vox was immediately suspicious. “Why'd you let go?”
“Because I need both hands.”
“For what?”
“You'll see.”
“That's never reassuring.”
Emily laughed and stepped a few paces away from him.
Vox watched her curiously.
She looked entirely too pleased with herself.
“Em.”
“Yes?”
“Last chance to tell me where we're going.”
“Nope.”
“Give me a hint.”
“No.”
“A vague hint?”
“No.”
“A hint that doesn't actually tell me anything?”
She thought about it. “It's somewhere nice.”
“That tells me nothing.”
“I know.”
She raised both hands.
Silvery-blue light gathered between her palms, slowly turning into a doorway that floated a few feet in front of her.
Through the swirling doorway, all he could see was a lively green and sky blue.
Once she was done, she lowered her hands again and spoke. “Ready?”
He took her outstretched hand, swallowed, and nodded.
They stepped through the portal together, and it disappeared with a woosh behind them.
One moment his feet were on solid, brick-paved roads, and the next he felt a soft ground underfoot.
The place he'd stepped into was gorgeous.
Vox's first thought was that it looked like someone had tried to recreate Earth from memory.
His second was that whoever had done it had gotten surprisingly close.
His third was that they'd also gotten some things very wrong.
He stared at the tree nearest to them.
It was unmistakably a tree, but the bark was smoother than it should've been, almost as though the details had never quite been finished. Its leaves were broad and vaguely familiar, but he couldn't identify the species. Some were shaped like oak leaves, others like maple, and a few looked like nothing he'd ever seen before.
“What the hell?”
Emily laughed. “That's generally the reaction people have.”
“People?”
“A few.”
Vox looked at her. “How many people have you brought here?”
She smiled sheepishly. “None.”
“I’m the first?”
“You’re special.” She said.
Vox took a few steps forward, looking around.
There was grass beneath his feet, but it wasn't quite like the grass he'd known on Earth. It was too uniform in some places, while other patches grew in strange, almost geometric clusters. Wildflowers covered the ground in brilliant colours, though several of them looked like combinations of plants that shouldn't have been able to exist together.
One had petals like a rose, leaves like a fern, and a stem that looked suspiciously like a sunflower's.
He crouched beside it.
“What is that?”
“I have no idea.”
“You're an angel.”
“Yes.”
“You should know.”
“I don't work in botany.”
“I'm pretty sure that's not an excuse.”
She giggled.
Vox stood again and continued looking around.
Something moved in the bushes.
He turned.
A small animal emerged.
He stared.
It stared back.
It had the body of a rabbit.
Mostly.
Its ears were long and floppy like a rabbit's, but its face was slightly too pointed, its legs a little too long, and its tail was bushy and long like a squirrel’s.
It also had tiny antlers.
Vox blinked.
The creature blinked back.
“Emily.”
“Mhm?”
“What is that?”
She looked over. “Oh! It’s adorable!”
“That wasn't my question.”
“I don't know what they're called.”
“You don't know?”
“Nope.”
The little creature hopped toward them.
Then it took three steps like a squirrel.
Then it bounded like a deer.
Then it stopped and began nibbling on the grass.
Vox stared.
“It's having an identity crisis.”
Emily laughed. “Maybe it's still deciding.”
“Deciding what?”
“What it wants to be.”
Vox looked at her.
She shrugged.
He crouched again and held out his hand.
The creature sniffed his fingers.
Its nose twitched.
Then it abruptly climbed onto his arm.
Vox froze.
Emily made a delighted noise. “Oh my goodness.”
“Don't.”
“It's so cute!”
“Don't.”
“You've been chosen.”
“Emily.”
“It likes you!”
Vox looked down at the strange little creature now sitting comfortably against his forearm. “...It's weird.”
“It is.”
“I like it.”
“I knew you would.”
He gently scratched beneath its chin.
The creature made a soft, chirping noise.
Vox smiled.
Then he looked around again.
The further he looked, the more peculiar this place became.
There was a river in the distance, but its course seemed almost too carefully arranged, winding between the hills in a way that was beautiful without being entirely natural. Mountains rose beyond it, but their slopes were strangely smooth, as though someone had sculpted them and simply stopped before adding the finer details.
The sky was perfect.
Almost too perfect.
The clouds looked real, but some of them had edges that were slightly too soft.
The sunlight was warm and golden, but there was no real sense of where it was coming from.
And yet...
It was beautiful.
Not polished.
Not perfected.
Just beautiful.
“It's unfinished, isn’t it?” Vox murmured.
Emily looked at him. “What?”
He gestured around them. “This place.”
She smiled. “Yeah. You can tell.”
Vox looked at her.
Emily walked over and gently took the strange rabbit-squirrel-deer creature from his arm. It immediately hopped away.
“This was the first version-” She explained. “-before Earth.”
He glanced around again. “So this is...”
“Eden. Before humanity.”
“Before humanity…?”
“Mhm. You’re one of the first humans to visit this place since the forbidden fruit incident.”
Vox's eyes travelled across the landscape.
He'd seen paintings.
He'd heard stories.
But he'd never imagined it would look like this.
It wasn't some perfect paradise.
It was a prototype.
A place where creation had been allowed to experiment.
And somehow, that made it feel more beautiful.
“Why did you bring me here?”
Emily smiled. “I thought you'd like it.”
Vox gave her a suspicious look. “There's something else.”
Emily's smile became sheepish. “Maybe.”
“What?”
“I just thought...” She looked around the garden. “You've spent a lot of time in the city.”
“That's where I live.”
“I know. And I love the city too. But I thought maybe you might like somewhere quiet.”
Vox looked at her. “Somewhere nobody knows me?”
Emily nodded. “Somewhere we can just be together.”
Something in his chest tightened.
He looked away. “That's... actually really nice.”
“I thought so.”
She slipped her hand into his.
Vox squeezed it.
For a few moments, neither of them said anything.
They simply stood there, surrounded by the first attempt at a world that had never quite become the world.
Vox looked at the flowers.
The trees.
The strange little creatures moving through the grass.
And then, despite himself, he thought about Earth.
About the life he'd once had there.
About the man he'd loved.
He immediately pushed the thought away.
No.
Not today.
Today was about Emily.
He turned toward her and smiled. “So what's the plan?”
Emily's face brightened immediately. “Now you're asking the right questions!” She grabbed his hand and started pulling him down the path. “I have so much planned.”
He laughed and let himself be dragged along.
As they walked down the path, various animals approached them, seemingly not scared of angels or humans at all.
One thing that looked like a kangaroo but was the size of a mouse carelessly bounded across the path with no regard for their presence.
Another creature that seemed to have the colours of a hummingbird but the body of a ferret approached them at one point, and made the cutest little squeak that Vox had ever heard when he rubbed its long belly.
Something that looked like a wolf but moved like a cat jumped from one tree to the next.
A bird the size of a moose flew above them, its wings bright blue, almost blending in with the sky.
Eventually, they came to a lake, and Emily motioned for him to stop walking. “We’re going swimming!” She announced.
“So when you said it could be the pool, you meant it?”
“...Maybe.” She admitted, shoving her hand into her pocket and pulling out swim suits for each of them.
It was a Seraphim special; pocket dimensions that were literal pockets. Anything that could fit in her pocket’s opening could be stored inside without concern for space.
Younger him- back when he still wore mostly women’s clothes- would’ve been jealous, but now he had tailors make his clothes, and they never skimped on the pockets.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go skinny dipping?” He asked.
“Oh, we totally could, actually. Would you rather?”
“I was joking. Wouldn’t that be… scandalous? Skinny dipping in Eden?”
“Maybe to Sera. I doubt anyone higher up would care. God created Adam and Lilith without clothes.”
“Well then… why wouldn’t I want to see my beautiful girlfriend naked?”
“Oh, stop it.”
“Okay, okay…”
They shed their clothes on the grass- Emily’s dress and Vox’s pants and blouse falling behind them without a care in the world.
“Here.” She said, casting a spell to repel water from his head as well as hers.
For her, getting her hair wet would be a slight inconvenience, but to him, it would mean getting water inside his head and short circuiting. And he didn’t want to spend today like that, even if he would eventually regenerate.
He wanted to spend today by Emily’s side.
She also cast the same spell around her wings, as they weren’t water-repellant like his wings were.
Hers were much softer than his, and much quieter when they flew. Closer to an owl than his waterfowl-like wings.
As they got in, he noticed just how deep the water was.
It was crystal clear when the surface wasn’t disturbed, and he could see all the way to the bottom, which must’ve been a hundred feet away at least.
He could also see that the water seemed to keep going in caves and tunnels beneath the ground they’d walked on to get there.
Beautiful, but slightly terrifying.
He wondered if there were any large fish down there.
Like sharks.
Maybe not though, because sharks were mostly saltwater, and this was clearly fresh water.
“Hey, Em?”
“Yeah?”
“Could there be sharks in this water?”
“I don’t know.” She said. “Maybe, and if there are, then they won’t attack us. Everything in Eden is friendly.”
“In general, or just towards humans?”
“I don’t actually know. Probably in general, but I just know that nothing here can or will hurt us. It’s meant to be paradise.”
A few minutes later, they were both floating on their backs, looking up at the sky, when Vox felt something brush against his wing in the water.
He sprang up to get a look, and saw a huge fish swimming away.
“Emily! What the fuck is that?!”
“I don't know.”
Vox stared at her. “You don't know?”
“I wasn't around when they were making the animals!”
“You weren't?”
Emily blinked. “Oh.”
She suddenly looked a little sheepish.
“I thought you knew?”
“Thought I knew what?”
“That I wasn't the original Seraphim of Joy.”
Vox stopped for a second, swimming over to her. “...You're not?”
“No.”
“Then who was?”
“Lucifer.”
Vox's eyebrows rose. “Lucifer?”
“Mhm.”
“The Lucifer?”
“There aren't exactly a lot of Lucifers.”
“Okay, fair.”
Emily smiled faintly before continuing. “He and Sera were twins. Order and Joy.”
Vox looked toward the shore, processing that. “So you replaced him.”
“When he fell.”
“Oh.” He looked back at her. “And you were just... created?”
“Mhm.”
“Because heaven needed a new Seraphim of Joy?”
“Basically.”
Vox frowned. “So that’s why you’re younger than Sera?”
Emily shrugged. “Yeah. I wasn't supposed to exist.”
That made him pause.
“What?”
“If I had been part of the original plan, Sera and I would've been created together. Our domains are supposed to balance each other.”
“Order and Joy?”
“Order and Joy.” She nodded.
Vox looked at her for a moment. “That's... actually kind of fucked up.”
Emily laughed. “Eh. A little.”
“So he’s… what? Your brother?”
“In a way. I don’t know, I don’t really think of him as my brother ‘cause I never met him.”
“You’ve never met him?”
Emily shook her head. “No. Not really.”
Vox frowned. “But you know what happened to him.”
“Of course I do.”
“And you know why he fell?”
Her smile faded. “I know what I was told.”
Vox caught the distinction immediately. “That's not the same thing.”
“No.”
For a moment, Emily said nothing.
The water rocked gently beneath them, the movement of the lake sending little ripples across the surface. Somewhere beneath them, the enormous fish he'd spotted earlier disappeared into the blue.
Vox waited.
He wasn't sure why.
Maybe because Emily had never sounded like that before.
“Lucifer thought joy needed to be chosen.” She finally said.
Vox turned his head toward her. “What?”
“He thought you couldn't have true joy if you didn't have a choice in whether you were happy.” She stared up at the sky. “He thought happiness meant more if you could choose it.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
“It does, doesn't it?”
There was something strange in her voice. “Emily?”
She sighed. “I think he was right.”
Vox went still.
Emily laughed quietly, though there wasn't much humor in it. “I've never said that out loud before.”
“Why not?”
“Because Sera wouldn't like it.”
“Ah.”
“And because I wasn't supposed to think that way. It’s… against the rules.”
Vox watched her carefully. “But you do think that way?”
“Mhm.” She finally turned her head to look at him. “I don't think joy means anything if you don't have the ability to choose something else.”
Vox was silent.
“If you're only happy because you were made to be happy…” Emily continued. “-then are you actually happy? Or are you just... functioning correctly?”
Her fingers traced little circles in the water.
“And if you can't choose sadness, then you can't choose happiness either. They're connected.”
Vox smiled faintly. “That's a pretty dangerous thing for the Seraphim of Joy to say.”
“I know.”
She smiled back.
“That's why I'm only saying it here.”
Vox looked around them.
The unfinished trees.
The strange animals.
The impossible flowers.
Eden.
A place where heaven's rules felt very far away.
A place where no one could listen in.
“So you would've done what he did?”
Emily hesitated. “If I'd been there?”
“Yeah.”
She looked toward the shore. “I think I would've.”
Vox raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“I think so.”
She swallowed.
“I think I'd have wanted everyone to have a choice too.”
There was no uncertainty in her voice now.
“Even if they made the wrong one?” He asked.
Emily nodded. “Especially then.”
Vox stared at her.
“Because what's the point of having a choice if you're only allowed to choose correctly?” Emily's smile was small. “I don’t know. I don’t think there is one.”
Maybe there wasn’t.
Maybe there was a reason this day- already one of his favourite days he'd spent with Emily- had fallen on the same day as his marriage. Maybe if he hadn't been sad, he wouldn't have appreciated this place enough.
“I think I agree with you.” He said after a long moment of silence.
“I knew you would.” She said. “That’s why I like you.”
“Not ‘cause I’m hot?”
“Fuck you.” She muttered.
“Emily!” He shouted in surprise. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear before.”
He paused.
“Also, you would.”
“What…?”
“You would fuck me.”
“Oh god…”
They both went quiet for a long time.
Finally, Emily was the one to break the silence.
“I don't hate him.”
Vox blinked. “I didn't think you did.”
“I didn't know him well enough to hate him.” She looked toward the distant mountains. “But sometimes I wonder what it would've been like if he'd never fallen.”
“You'd never exist.”
“I know. That's a weird thing to think about.”
A pause.
“But I still wonder, if free will had never been given, what would the world look like?”
“I don’t know.” He replied. “I don’t think I’d like it very much.”
“Yeah.”
She sighed.
“Sometimes I wonder if he'd like me. I mean, he’s my brother, but I’ve never met him.”
Vox smiled slightly. “I'm sure he would.”
Emily laughed. “You don't know that.”
“Neither do you.”
She went quiet again. “I guess not. You know, I’ve heard he has a kid with Lilith.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. A daughter. The princess of hell.”
“Well, you’re basically the princess of heaven. I bet you’d get along.”
“Get along with my niece I’ve never met? Who is my brother who I’ve never met’s kid? I don’t know…”
“Exactly. You don’t know, so you can’t say she wouldn’t like you.”
They eventually made their way back toward the trees.
Vox had stopped trying to identify most of the plants. He'd accepted that Eden was apparently incapable of following the rules of taxonomy.
Then he stopped.
“Wait.”
Emily turned around. “What?”
He pointed.
“Is that it?”
Emily followed his gaze.
Her expression changed.
“Oh.”
The tree wasn't particularly impressive.
In fact, compared to some of the bizarre plants they'd seen throughout Eden, it was almost disappointingly ordinary.
Its trunk was smooth and pale, its leaves a deep green, and its branches heavy with small red fruit.
Vox stared.
“That's the forbidden fruit.”
“Yep.”
“You just have it sitting here?”
“Where else would it go?”
He looked at her. “I don't know. A museum?”
Emily laughed.
Vox walked closer.
“So nobody's eaten it since Adam and Eve?”
“Not that I know of.”
“And we're allowed to?”
Emily shrugged and smiled. “Nobody said we couldn't.”
Vox looked at the fruit.
Then at Emily.
“That's... almost insulting.”
“What is?”
“All the stories made it sound like this incredibly important object.”
“It is.”
“And it's just a fruit.”
“Most important things are pretty ordinary when you get right down to them.”
She reached up and plucked one from the branch.
She held it between them.
“Want to?”
Vox stared at it. “You're serious?”
“Why wouldn't I be?”
“Because it's the forbidden fruit.”
“Vox.”
“Yeah?”
“We have free will.”
He blinked and Emily smiled. “That's kind of the point.”
He took it from her hand and bit into it without a second thought.
It didn’t taste like anything.
Well, it was sweet in the way all fruits are, but it had no distinct taste like any normal fruit did.
It wasn’t an apple.
It wasn’t a pomegranate.
It wasn’t anything but itself.
She grabbed it and took a bite herself.
“Huh.” He commented. “It’s not very good.”
“I don’t think it was meant to be. What it brings is more important than how it tastes, right?”
Emily watched him for a moment.
Then she smiled.
“You know...”
“Hm?”
“I think this might be my favourite day we've had together.”
Vox smiled. “Even with the giant mystery fish?”
“Especially with the giant mystery fish.”
He laughed.
Emily reached for his hand.
Their fingers intertwined.
“I'm glad you're here.” She whispered.
Vox's smile softened. “Me too.”
She leaned closer.
This time, when she kissed him, there was no teasing remark afterward.
Just warmth.
Trust.
The quiet certainty that neither of them had anywhere else they needed to be.
The rest of the afternoon belonged only to them.
When they eventually returned to the lake and washed themselves off, the sun had shifted noticeably across the sky.