Chapter Text
Fuck Lucifer.
Seriously, fuck him.
Dean glares at the archangel’s back as Lucifer makes to leave him alone for the third time without so much as an apology. “It’s been two days , asshole. When am I going to get to see him?”
Lucifer pauses at the door. “You’ll see him when he’s ready for you.” He sounds tired. Subdued, even. Dean’s barely heard more than a handful of words at a time from of him since… his ‘challenge’.
Normally Dean would be gleeful about making Lucifer shut up for once but not when the asshole isn’t giving him updates on his brother. “And when will that be?” He presses, not about to let Lucifer just walk off again.
“I don’t know , Dean.” Lucifer snaps back. As he turns around Dean can see the— is that concern ?—in his eyes. “Believe me, I’m not holding him over your head for any petty reasons. You should know by now that I’m a devil of my word.” As quickly as it came, his anger deflates and his expression falls with concern again. “But you have to understand… he’s been possessed for what? Five years? I’ve been as good as I can be to him but I am a lot to handle, Dean.”
Dean stays silent, letting Lucifer finally talk while he watches.
“I’m doing what I can. He’s accustomed to sharing a body with me now so with me gone he has… shut down, in a sense. He’s used to acute senses and high levels of power and he suddenly no longer has either.” He chews his lip for a second before he continues, seeming to talk more to himself than to Dean. “I’ve tried every way that I can think of to wake him up but he just refuses to get out of his own head…”
“I’m worried about him,” Lucifer finally admits, and the smallness of his voice tells Dean how very true that statement is. “I never wanted to hurt him but now it seems like I have…”
As Dean watches, he inhales slowly and then exhales equally so—a calming technique. “You’ve done everything you can? Like what?” Dean gruffly demands. There’s less of an edge to his voice than there was before.
The blond looks him over briefly. “Yes. He’s at full health, I have completely repaired his body and I’ve kept him fed and rested. I’ve attempted to shake him awake, I’ve used loud noises, I’ve tried every physical means short of harming him. I’ve even dreamwalked with him and tried to wake him up from his subconscious and he… stubbornly refuses to leave.” His brows pull together before he continues, “That was almost very bad because he tried to trap me in his subconscious with him so that I couldn’t leave again… I was stuck puzzling my way out for hours.”
As he sighs, Dean frowns in thought. “Did he say why he doesn’t wanna wake up? Or is he just being a bitch about it?”
The human’s phrasing makes Lucifer’s lips tighten in disapproval. “He didn’t say but I think he’s scared… I told him you wanted to see him so he needed to wake up and he just told me ‘no’ before dropping me in a maze.”
“Huh. Well that’s something.”
“Is it?” Lucifer questions, his head tilting in a birdlike fashion. “Do tell, because I don’t know what to do with it and I’m fresh out of ideas.”
“I mean about you turning all mother-hen on Sammy.” Dean can’t help a slightly teasing smirk from touching his lips. “And here I was thinking you were avoiding me ‘cause you can’t stop thinking about what almost happened.”
“Tch,” Lucifer can’t quite meet his eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself, General .” He spits the word out like it tastes bad before he stands to go. “If you don’t have any ideas, I have better things to do than entertain you, I’m afraid.”
As he starts to leave again, Dean grabs his arm and immediately regrets it when Lucifer slams him to the floor face-down in the blink of an eye. “Shit—” Dean coughs, winded.
Lucifer doesn’t move, keeping him pinned to the ground with one hand between his shoulder blades and the other twisting his arm uncomfortably behind his back. “ Don’t get familiar with me, Dean Winchester.”
The hunter snorts as he catches his breath. “Touchy, jesus.” He takes another second to breathe. “Just wait a second, I didn’t say I don’t have any ideas.”
After a moment, Lucifer sighs and then releases him. “Go ahead.”
“Don’t sound too excited,” Dean grumbles as he gets back to his feet. “You think he’s afraid, right? Maybe of facing me after everything you two have done? So take me in with you, if he has to face me anyways maybe he’ll finally wake up.”
Lucifer doesn’t look happy about it but he nods. “Worth a shot, I guess.” He eyes him for a moment longer before he holds his hand out for Dean to take. “I’ll take you to him now, grab my hand when you’re ready.”
Dean makes a face. Flying. It’s never agreed with him…
Think about Sammy. He needs you.
Dean takes Lucifer’s hand and his gut twists as their surroundings instantly change.
He’s still not feeling great after being slammed to the floor and the travel certainly didn’t do him any favours. As Lucifer watches on with slight amusement, he finds the nearest wall to lean against and dry heaves a few times.
“Weak stomach?”
“Fuck you.”
“Missed your chance on that, I’m afraid,” Lucifer responds more cheerily than anything else he’s said today.
“I hate you,” Dean tells the devil rather redundantly.
“The feeling is mutual.” Lucifer pats his back a little too roughly before walking across the room to the king-sized bed with a single person lying in it.
When Dean is fairly confident he’s not going to throw up, he starts to take in his surroundings. It’s clearly another house of similar size to his. But everything in this house looks… clean. Not new, but clearly well-kept. There’s not a speck of dust to be seen anywhere.
The bed’s sheets are high-quality and a tasteful dark, velvety red chosen to match with the subtle colours found throughout the rest of the room. All of the furniture appears to be made of polished mahogany with gold-leaf embellishments. The room’s walls and decorations feature an assortment of soft tans, golds, browns, and reds, complimenting each other and giving the place a warm, homey but also regal feel.
Dean finds himself a little jealous; Lucifer is clearly spoiling his brother while leaving him to scrounge for mismatched and sometimes improvised furniture. His ‘bed’ is a collection of pillows and blankets he nested together because he couldn’t find an intact mattress or bed frame.
Once he’s had his fill of the room’s appearance, he turns his focus on Sam. His brother looks healthy and alive , despite being so still that Dean can barely tell he’s breathing. He seems peaceful, content in a way Dean doesn’t remember him looking in a very long time.
He’s close enough to touch and Dean doesn’t have the self-restraint to stop himself as he reaches out to brush the hair away from his brother’s face. It’s gotten longer since the last time he saw Sam up close.
“He’s just been asleep like this since you… uh, un-possessed him?”
Lucifer nods, a solemn presence on the other side of the bed. “He hasn’t so much as twitched. I have to give his body the nutrients he needs because I can’t get him to ingest food for himself like this. It has been… distressing.”
“No kidding,” Dean huffs. It’s been ‘distressing’ enough from his end without even knowing what was going on until now. “So how do we…?”
He doesn’t need to finish his sentence for Lucifer to know what he’s asking. “Just say the word and I’ll zap us into his noggin.” When Dean doesn’t say anything right away he adds quietly, “I hope this works…”
“If it doesn’t,” Dean says, “I don’t know what will.”
Several more moments pass in silence during which Dean takes Sam’s warm, lifeless hand and grips it tight. “Alright. Beam us in, Scotty.”
He barely catches the archangel’s eye roll before he touches Dean’s forehead and everything goes black for a few seconds.