Work Text:
Mary grapples with eternity.
*
Anna is the only monster Mary’s ever feared. She looks just like any other human, and that’s a trick demons play, but the difference is that Anna is going to live forever. She’s already got the creation of the damn universe under her belt. She’s much bigger than any demon, and much bigger than Mary. Much older. Much angrier.
She says she’ll live forever, that angels don’t die.
It’s not that easy to understand. Mary wouldn’t know how to fight if she didn’t know that death was waiting for her, waiting for any misstep. So how does Anna fight like it’s the only thing she’s ever known?
Mary can’t picture eternity. She certainly can’t picture it now. It’s too gloomy-dark to see, shadows fuzzy and playing at her eyes, and anyway, even if she could, even if she could picture it, what would it mean?
Right now, eternity is the cinch-grip of Anna’s hand on the skin of Mary’s belly, nails leaving forgetful little bite marks, the accidental violence of her mouth on Mary’s throat, Anna’s very presence storming Mary’s defenses. She takes over Mary’s body, mind, senses, far too easily for this to be anywhere near romantic, or anything but exactly what Mary needs.
Mary gasps, clutches at Anna. She bites at eternity, and eternity bites back.
Mary’s no fool. She’s lived a life alongside the cryptic, alongside callously quiet hunters who keep conversations monosyllabic and intentionally unhelpful. She can read people.
When she asks Anna what she is, and Anna says angel, Mary knows that she means soldier.
When she asks Anna what she’s for, and Anna says serving God, Mary knows that she means weapon.
But when she asks Anna what she wants, and Anna says humanity, Mary can’t decipher that.
Any good hunter would be sure, damn sure, that Anna means to devour humanity, take it in her hand and crush it.
But Anna looks at Mary like she’s pleading, and what she means is love , and to be loved , and all the rest of it. Says humanity like the word aches, like a confession ripped from her core.
And Mary knows what it’s like to be a soldier, a weapon. To just want to be human.
She stares down eternity, and eternity stares back.
*
Mary grapples with humanity.