Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was telling that the sound of people being stabbed no longer prompted Sam to immediately get up. He was reading a good book and quite comfortable in his arm-chair and saw no reason to trade this peace for the drama that undoubtedly awaited him. Instead he calmly finished his page, shouting arising farther in the bunker, and marked his page to glass crashing. He made sure to put the book away safely and took one or two deep breaths before making his way to the kitchen. Dean and Castiel had already arrived at the scene, Dean clad in nothing but bath robes, hair mussed, expressions sleepy. Most likely he had fallen asleep to Seinfeld again, as he so often did when Cas wasn't around these days.

Each of them wrestled with an archangel, trying and failing for the most part, to keep them apart.

"You stabbed me, you hornful of tits!" Gabriel shouted, flailing in Castiel's arms but unable to even get his feet on the ground.

"If you had learned respect the last time I did that this wouldn't have happened!" Lucifer gave back, voice not much lower than Gabriel's. He proved more efficient in his efforts at getting free, dealing well-aimed kicks at Dean's shins and feet. The moment he broke away from Dean's headlock Sam was there, catching Lucifer mid-jump and bringing some distance between him and Gabriel.

"No more stabbing. Get yourselves together!" It wasn't for Sam's words but for lack of breath that Lucifer and Gabriel let up in their efforts at killing each other. It was still a new concept to them both. The first time they had gotten into a fight they had to give Gabriel an O2-mask after.

"Weren't you supposed to be on a hunt?" Sam asked, pointedly not looking at Gabriel but at Cas.

"We came back about ten minutes ago. We have found something and wanted to share, when ..." he hesitated briefly. "When an argument arose."

Sam didn't even bother with a glare. Gabriel's and Lucifer's arguments were nothing new. One reason while they usually made sure they didn't meet accidentally.

"Okay, no more stabbing each other. You are human now, you can't just stab a person and expect them to shake it off." Lucifer grumbled that he didn't expect Gabriel to shake this off, which was promptly followed by Gabriel's colourful description of what Lucifer could do with his brotherly love. Sam was fairly certain that human bodies lacked the parts necessary to comply with that order. It sounded vaguely angel-related.

With a lot of persuasion and outright threats they got both Gabriel and Lucifer into the library and at opposite ends of the table. Or rather, Lucifer chose to sit at the opposite end of the table, arms crossed, expression sour, while the remaining inhabitants got together around at the other end, Gabriel getting patched up by Sam, occasionally making his distaste for human medicine known.

"So what is it that you found?" Dean asked over Gabriel's murmured assurances of bodily harm to whomever had invented disinfectant.

"The town of Lucas was victim to a brief but devastating outbreak of spanish flu, but we could not find a source. We think it might have been a sickness spreading apparition, perhaps the ghost of someone who died from it before. However, during our investigation we found something interesting." Cas spread out about half a dozen obituaries, all of people who had died in the last three weeks. "What do these people have in common?" he asked, pointing at each and every one of them.

"All died in the last month?" Sam assumed from the way the obits read. On the chair next to him, clutching his bandaged shoulder, Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Left your brain on the pot this morning, Samsquatch? These are all people who got resurrected."

Sam did a double-take. Now he recognised the names in the paper. How could he have missed that?

About two months ago the world had gone crazy over a Second Coming. All over the world people rose from their graves, urns or dissecting tables. They were mostly normal humans, surprised but happy to be returning to their families. Among these average folk however, had also been a slew of angels. Gabriel, Lucifer, Gadreel and Samandriel were the ones they knew of with certainty though Castiel had raised a suspicion of Balthazar being around somewhere as well. None of them knew how they got pulled back into life or out of the cage, as the case was with Lucifer. They weren't even entirely sure if the resurrection of people had anything to do with that of the angels.

"You saying this has something to do with this miracle of life?" Dean asked, going through the obituaries. "Looks to me more like a case of zombies gone wrong."

"I agree." came the unexpected addition from the far end of the table. Lucifer still had his arms crossed but at least he was looking at them. "This is most likely the work of a pitiful human who tried to play at forces they didn't understand. Now that their spell has let up, the dead return to their graves."

"Well, you weren't there, dickturd." Gabriel threw in. "There's no way to know for certain if it's zombies."

"If you had half a brain, brother dearest, you would know it was mortal incompetence. It appears your love for humanity as clouded your mind as well as your judgment."

"Oh, high and mighty, you know everything about humans there is to know, do you? I say it's not zombies."

Before Lucifer could interrupt with another scathing insult, Sam intervened.

"Then why don't you two check it out?"

Suddenly Sam felt oddly reminded of his sixth-grade science project. Not the part of him showing the wonders of high-velocity, but the part where everyone looked at him with a sense of bewilderment.

"You mean Gabe and Lucifer? Working together?" Dean asked and then hummed in sudden understanding.

"You know, this could work, Sammy. If they kill each other somewhere far away we don't have to mop up the mess."

"I'm serious." Sam said. "This may be nothing, it may be something. I don't want to waste my time on it when we have more pressing concerns, there's still the matter of who brought the angels back, but if there is something world-shaking behind it Lucifer and Gabriel have both the knowledge and the confidence to deal with it. If we put a more inexperienced hunter on this we might throw them to the wolves."

"What, don't we get a say in this?" Gabriel demanded to know. He was ignored.

"Okay, why not. If they do kill each other we can always check it out ourselves."

Which prompted another matter.

"Neither of them know how to pass as humans." Castiel said. It looked like they had to teach angels how to fake FBI badges.

Gabriel, unsurprisingly proved to be a natural in everything relating to fraud and electronics. Sam showed him how to successfully fake a credit card, what to look out for when posing as an official, how to access restricted databases. Lucifer meanwhile refused to so much as consider the possibility of having to rent a motel room, instead of, say, a castle. But he did allow Dean to teach him how to drive on one of the cars in the bunker garage, a deep red '57 Ford Thunderbird that Lucifer immediately took a liking to, which meant that, of course, Gabriel complained about every last thing when they finally got on the road, basic hunter gear stored safely in the trunk.

"We're gonna get blown up in this piece of junk." was the first thing he said.

"Cars don't explode." Lucifer said calmly and put his foot on the gas just to spite Gabriel. The winding road leading away from the bunker didn't allow for top speed, but it was enough to force a sheen of sweat on Gabriel's head.

"I didn't say the car would explode, I said we would. And anyway, don't you think I didn't hear Dean-O serenading this car. I didn't understand half of what he said but 'supercharged' isn't a word I like in the context of anything you have control over."

Realising there was no way of winning this particular argument Lucifer merely sighed and said: "Shut up, Gabriel."

As expected, Gabriel managed to talk for the entire duration of their drive on the I-80, a distance their maps prophesied to take thirteen hours but which Lucifer managed to do in nine. Which may have to do with his blatant disregard of speed limits. What little he had left of his grace went into causing the police to turn a blind eye. He had debated whether or not to use it instead to shut Gabriel up and enjoy a quiet and smooth ride but decided ultimately that this was a feat he likely couldn't have attempted even at the height of his power.

So he let Gabriel ramble, about the general unfairness of life, TV shows, pornography and the actors thereof, how much better his life had been before these pesky Winchesters had come into it, a fact upon which Lucifer could finally agree, and about a hundred different topics, which passed by Lucifer like the wind from the open window. Occasionally they passed other drivers in their new, modern cars, shining silver or blue. All of them stared wistfully after the Thunderbird, a fact which Lucifer took a little solace in. If he was to be tied down with human contraptions to an existence as dull as coal compared to the glories of Heaven or even Hell, he sure wanted it at least to be the most coveted contraption.

He was, after all, the most beautiful and powerful of all angels, even if was currently subjected to an extensive monologue about the pros and contras of snicker bars.

Chapter Text

"Agent Dafoe. This is my partner Agent Cortese."
Lucifer said and glanced to his side, where Gabriel showed his badge with a manic grin. His hand shook slightly. Without missing a beat Lucifer reached out and took the badge out of Gabriel's hand only to put it back the right way up.
"Junior Agent Cortese." he added. Only Gabriel heard the snide undertone. "May we ask you some questions, ma'am?"
The woman, the wife of one of the deceased victims, frowned.

"Can I see your ID again?"

This time she took both in her hand and checked them thoroughly. There was no fault in them of course, but still Lucifer shot Gabriel a hard glance.
The woman gave them back their badges and invited them in, even though she regarded Gabriel with a strange look. She offered coffee, which Lucifer accepted with a smile. The moment she left for the kitchen, he turned to Gabriel.

"Good work, Loki." he hissed. "However did you get people to call you the God of Lies?"

"I never had to do it without my powers." Gabriel said defensively. "I feel naked without them."

"Then maybe next time you should stay in the motel. We almost got found out because of you, you ... Ah, thank you Mrs Terrence."

Lucifer took the offered cup with a grateful smile, which the grieving widow promptly answered with a tentative one of her own. He had her around his finger already.

"Now Mrs Terrence, can you tell me about what happened the night your wife passed away?"

With shaking voice but encouraged by Lucifer's gentle smiles, she told her story. Her wife, Christine, had been overseas for over a year, fighting in the war, when the message got home that she had been killed in combat. There had been a military funeral with full honours, people had come to her grave, Mrs Terrence herself had gone there almost every day. Only one day the grave had been disturbed, dug up from the looks of it. And when Mrs Terrence came home that day, Christine had been sitting on the front porch, her uniform covered with dirt but unharmed.

"We didn't understand what happened. Christine said the last thing she remembered was driving along the road in Iraq and that was when the mine exploded. They wouldn't even let me see her body and there she sits and makes stupid jokes and ..." Mrs Terrence broke off, tears clogging her throat. When Lucifer offered a handkerchief she took both that and his hand, gripping it in hers. She didn't see the expression on his face, but Gabriel did. He almost snickered at Lucifer's mortification about having to hold hands with a human. He covered his laugh up with a cough and a wink towards Lucifer, who if he had his powers, might just have killed him on the spot.

"What happened then?" Gabriel asked after Mrs Terrence had somewhat calmed down. SHe let go of Lucifer's hand, face red with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, agent. It's all just so fresh."

"Nothing to be sorry for, ma'am. You said Christine was fine? But she was admitted to the hospital when exactly?"

"That was on the 12th, only two weeks after she came back. She had started running again, was healthy, everything was fine. But then the coughing started and suddenly she couldn't breathe anymore. I took her to a hospital and they said it was an infection. Everyone knew about her case here and they thought it was because she was, was ... buried. That she had breathed in some of the dirt and that caused the infection. We thought it would all be fine. She got antibiotics, but it didn't help. It just got worse. And then the eczemas happened, all over her face. Towards the end she wouldn't let me look at her and she started becoming feverish. She hallucinated a lot, saw and heard things. And then, on the 14th she died. Just like that. The doctors said there was nothing they could do, that she ..."

Mrs Terrence stopped again and this time she didn't speak again. She cried and cried, unable to get up. Lucifer thanked her for her assistance and they let themselves out.
He managed to keep up the facade of compassionate FBI agent until they were in the car and on the road. Then he shook his hand where Mrs Terrence had held it, making disgusted noises.

"She touched me. That wet, sticky human touched me." he complained.

"If you hadn't been so flirty with the widow, Lucifer, this wouldn't have happened."

"I wasn't flirty, I was persuasive. There's a difference, even if you don't understand it."

"Obviously she didn't either. Anyway, you have to take a left turn her, left turn, LEFT. I said left, Lucy."

"No, we have to go left at the next intersection."

"No, we don't. We would have had to go left before and take the route that actually takes us to the hospital and not to wherever you think you're driving."

"Don't be stupid, Gabriel. I studied the map in great detail. I know exactly what I'm doing."

When they arrived at the hospital an hour later, Lucifer was quietly fuming.

"Not a word." he said between clenched teeth. Gabriel shook with laughter.

"Should have taken that left turn."

"I said, not a word. I swear to hell, I will stab you."

Gabriel still giggled but kept his mouth otherwise shut.
The doctor at the hospital told them the same story the widow had told them before.

"Mrs Terrence was a lovely woman. When she came back, fit as a fiddle, we didn't know what to think. Truth be told, I still think it was a case of mistaken identity. Some other poor soul got blown up in that truck and Christine didn't want to say why she survived, so she made up that story about being buried alive."

"You think she deserted." Lucifer said.

"I wouldn't say that. No one knows what happened and no one will ever know now. And even if she had, could you blame her? The war over there has gone on too long. I'm glad for everyone that comes home, no matter how."

"Her wife said Mrs Terrence hallucinated in her last hours. Can you tell us what it was she saw specifically?"

"I don't know exactly. She wasn't exactly lucid enough to tell us. The nurses said she was frightened and that once or twice she mentioned a horse."

"A horse?" Gabriel repeated, brows raised.

"Yes. A three-legged one. It seemed to scare her half to death. We administered sedatives and she was asleep when she died."

The three-legged horse turned out to be a recurring theme. The child of a black family shot by police had come back from the dead and died of bubonic plague just a week later. This child, too, had seen the horse. A painter who had died of a heart attack when running from her rapists had even painted the horse hours before wasting away again from the chicken pox.
Hoping to catch the one behind this red-handed they drove to another town where a newly resurrected victim had just been admitted to the hospital.

Mr Tipple was in his late eighties who had officially died after protecting two teenage girls from a robbery. He and Gabriel played cards, talking about the good old days, while Lucifer kept watch for the three-legged horse. The hospital quieted down around them, visitors leaving their loved ones for the night and the day-shift being replaced by the night-nurse who checked in on them around 10 o'clock, advising the old man to retire for bed soon. After that they were alone, only the desk lamp illuminating the room.

"Your partner ain't that talkative, huh?" Mr Tipple asked after Gabriel had finished his latest tale - a muggle-friendly version of a ghost haunting in Las Vegas.

"He's just pissed his brother doesn't spend as much time with him anymore." Gabriel said, grinning at Lucifer when he stared at him. "Understandable really, his brother being as funny and charming as he is. Handsome, too. Do you have siblings, Mr Tiddle?"

"Me? No, I was an only-child. My parents adopted me at a very young age and I was really all they ever needed. I used to want a little brother or sister, though. I always pictured it to be rather nice having more family around."

"It's mostly a headache." Lucifer threw in and added: "They always go on your nerves, wanting your attention. Don't do this Lu- Luke, you are mean to me, I'm telling Dad, whine whine whine."
Mr Tipple laughed at that.

"Young man, you sound just like my wife. She would always complain about her sisters but then guess who lived with us for three years after they left their deadbeat husband? I guess being annoyed means caring enough to keep them in your head."

Neither Gabriel nor Lucifer knew what to say to that.

Fortunately they didn't have to. Lucifer saw the horse at the same time Mr Tipple did. One moment he was shuffling cards, the next he was frozen with fear, eyes widened, hands shaking. It stood just outside the window, black leathery skin stretched over bulging muscles, it's head bowed down to look in with yellowed eyes. It's front legs were boney, ridiculously thin in comparison to it's massive body. The left hind leg was missing.
Gabriel was already up and about, drawing sigils around the bed, urging the old man to stay where he was. Lucifer spread out the salt on the windowsill - he didn't think it was a ghost but perhaps whatever it was would at least think twice before crossing a salt line. The horse watched their frantic efforts without so much as moving. Then it was gone. Lucifer paused. Where just a second before a massive hunk of a horse had stood there was nothing but air and flat grass, disturbed by hooves.

"Huh."

He turned around to tell Gabriel to keep watch for Mr Tipple while he searched for the horse. He didn't need to. It stood in the room just in front of Mr Tipples bed, who had begun crying.

"Please, please ..." he begged, raising his hands to shield himself. Gabriel stood a bit off but Lucifer knew what he wanted to do.

"Don't!" he shouted but of course Gabriel wouldn't listen. He made a move to throw himself between Mr Tipple and the horse and would have succeeded had Lucifer not thrown him to the ground. A crash like thunder went through the room followed by lightning. Lucifer's ears rang and even through closed eyelids he saw the light. Gabriel squirmed under him but he didn't let him up until he was sure the horse was gone. The air seemed lighter suddenly, the heavy presence of a supernatural being no longer in the room.

Mr Tipple lay dead with open eyes.

Lucifer let out a frustrated growl. The cheap motel beds and lukewarm showers did nothing for his mood, which was sour enough with having to deal with wailing humans for days now.
Gabriel let go of his lollipop with an obscene noise.

"Annoyed, brother dearest?"

Lucifer didn't dignify this with an answer. Instead he pulled up the laptop Sam had taught him how to use. He had refused to use human lore for his research before, as he was convinced his memory of their father's creation would serve him better than anything the humans had stumbled upon. He ignored Gabriel sitting down on the table and playing with the power cord.

"It's Helhest."

Lucifer hadn't managed to open a search window when Gabriel spoke, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What?"

"You don't need to look it up. It's Helhest, Hel's three-legged horse. It brings sickness and disease to whomever sees it."

Lucifer shut the laptop and carefully laid his hands on the table. Gabriel avoided his gaze.

"You knew all along?"

Gabriel nodded.

"You mean to tell me that we spend the last three weeks searching for clues when all the time you could have just said, 'Lucifer, it's my neighbour's horse from when I was Loki' and you didn't?"
Gabriel nodded again.

Taking a deep breath Lucifer forced himself to calm down. It wouldn't do to get angry, it wouldn't help ... to hell with it. Gabriel flinched as he smashed the laptop against the wall, sparks and plastic flying. He flipped over the table and was with Gabriel in a heartbeat, grabbing his collar and lifting him up.

"You little ..." Lucifer spat.

"I wasn't sure! It could have been any horse, I didn't know!"

"We could have died! At least a heads-up would have been nice. Something. Anything! But no, you have to keep secrets. Never trust your brother with anything, is that it?"

But Gabriel apparently had enough.

"Don't you dare guilt-trip me. I didn't say anything because I couldn't be sure. If I said it was helhest and then it wasn't you would have never listened to me again. And how would you feel if your friend's magic horse suddenly started killing people? Oh right, I forgot, you don't have any friends."


The punch should have knocked Gabriel right out. Instead it merely served to make him angrier. They went to the ground, punching and kicking.
Lucifer grabbed a handful of Gabriel's hair and pulled, which Gabriel immediately answered by biting Lucifer's arm.

"Hair pulling, Lucy, really?" Gabriel managed to say with a mouthful of arm.

"You bit me, that's not ..." Lucifer's anger vanished as quickly as it had come. "Gabriel stop. Look at us. What are we doing?"

They both sat up, more embarrassed than indignant and more indignant than angry. Lucifer rubbed at the spot Gabriel had bit, a set of teeth indentures that would leave a nice blue shape in a few hours, while Gabriel massaged his scalp.
Neither had the grace to look at the other, millenia old angels wrestling like twelve-year olds. Eventually Lucifer got up and reached out his hand to help up Gabriel.

"Thank you." Gabriel mumbled, patting the dust from his clothes. "And sorry for not telling you about Helhest."

"Don't mention it." Lucifer responded equally awkward. "Is there a way to contact your friend? We should ask her if she knows what her horse is doing."

It was a peace offering if there ever was one. They both knew Lucifer could have just as easily accused Hel of being behind this but kept his thoughts to himself. Gabriel took it for what it was.

"Yeah, we can talk to her. I mean, we can go to Niflheim and ... yeah, we can do that."

Chapter Text

"Go gather 20 bear asses, five rare stones and the hair of a valkyrie. I feel like I'm trapped in the tutorial zone of a video game." Gabriel muttered, shifting in the car seat. His butt ached from all the driving around and his head ached from driving around with Lucifer.

"We don't need ...bear asses." Lucifer said with vague distaste. "And I have no idea what you are babbling about."

Gabriel rolled his eyes at him.

"Video games, Lucifer. Seriously, would it kill you to immerse yourself in pop culture every now and then? Killing fictional people, saving fictional worlds, getting overly emotionally obsessed about your favourite characters."

"Sounds like an unsatisfactory way to spend one's time." Lucifer commented.

"It's fun. And I don't even want to know what you do for fun these days. Probably torturing puppies or writing episodes for the big bang theory."

"Better than wasting my life away with whatever these humans have cooked up in their limited minds."

"Do you have to ridicule everything humans do? They are great storytellers, even Dad said so."

"Don't forget by the time Father made humanity he already had you. His standards would have been greatly lowered."

Even Lucifer realised he had probably gone too far. Gabriel's eyes widened, suddenly brighter than Lucifer remembered seeing them. He seemed to search for words, his lips moved soundlessly, as he processed what Lucifer just said. It wasn't like he meant to hurt him. It disturbed him that Gabriel was so invested in human pastimes. He had been talking about it for the past four hours, laughing at his own jokes that Lucifer could only wrinkle his nose at. And Lucifer had not known what had his brother so excited, hadn't even known some of the words he used. He didn't know who the people were he seemed to admire so much, didn't know why a show with small children and sparkly dresses, both things Gabriel loved or so he thought, had his brother raving in anger at the sorry state of humanity and why a theater production of witches and wizards going to a magical boarding school had him almost in tears of happiness. He wasn't happy anymore, though, thanks to Lucifer's thoughtless insult.

"You know what, pull over." Gabriel said, searching in his bag for the cell phone.

"Gabriel ..."

"No. Pull over."

"Don't be childish."

The hurt look Lucifer received had him pull over without a further word.

"I'm calling Sam." Gabriel said while typing furiously at his phone. "He can pick me up and you can go fuck yourself."

Lucifer gripped the wheel but said nothing. He sat in silence as he listened to the phone ringing, watched Gabriel biting his lip from the corner of his eyes.

"Sam? Hey, Sam. It's me. Can you pick me up? Because Lucifer's a dick. No, more than usual. No, he ... no, he didn't kill anyone. No, no torturing either. He was mea- ... no, he didn't summon any demons either. No, he just ... he ..."

Lucifer listened attentively as Gabriel searched for words and failed to find them.

"You know what? Nevermind. I'm just gonna keep sitting in a car for hours with my asshole of a brother. I know it's the middle of the night in Kansas. You never sleep at four in the morning, you always drink tea and mope. Well, then good night."

He hung up and looked at his phone, playing with the settings, fiddling with the plastic case. He didn't so much as glance at Lucifer. The silence was decidedly uncomfortable, with no one really knowing what to say. Cars drove by them, too few to really call it traffic. Eventually Lucifer cleared his throat. Before he could say a word, Gabriel interrupted.

"Just drive, okay? Just ... just drive."

Lucifer did, glad that shifting gears and refocusing on the road took enough of his concentration to keep his mind of the awkward silence.

They drove like this for almost half an hour with not even the radio station on. They couldn't agree on one the first day on the road and almost totaled the car in fighting over it. Ever since then it stayed off.

Occasionally Gabriel would shoot him an annoyed look and it was only after the third time that Lucifer realised he did it because he was tapping his fingers on the wheel. He stopped doing it and, after a while, got himself together.

"Tell me about what interests you." he said as commanding as he could. If he still had his Grace every living being within thirty miles would have felt compelled to tell him about their passions. As it was the only thing he got in response was Gabriel frowning.

"You hate human stuff. You'll just make fun of it again."

"Stop acting like a baby. Do as I tell you."

"You can't just make people do what you want."

"I can and I will."

"No, you can't and you won't."

Lucifer swerved, forgetting for one moment that he couldn't just reach over and throttle Gabriel while driving.

"You should show me some respect, little brother."

"Well, you should get your head out of your ass. Now leave me alone."

Gabriel pulled out his phone again and Lucifer half feared he would call Sam again and demand he pick him up this time, but he didn't. Just as well. It wasn't like Gabriel had anything useful to say.

Every few minutes the phone would beep and cause Gabriel to giggle. Lucifer couldn't see - and wasn't interested in - what Gabriel was doing, but he assumed he communicated with Sam somehow. If he knew his brother, and this particular type of giggle, it was both highly inappropriate and possibly illegal. And also sickeningly human. Which Lucifer wanted nothing to do with.

For the sake of both their strained nerves they decided to split up. While Lucifer went to the local butcher to get the bull's bone - he preferred not to think about which bone exactly - Gabriel stayed at the motel, calling a valkyrie to persuade her to part with one of her hairs.

"You want what part of the animal?"

Lucifer repeated himself.

"You want ... a bull's ass? Complete. Skin and bone?"

"No. Just the bone. Undamaged, if you please."

Fifteen dollars and a headshake later, he had his bone and a fresh kindled hate for all humanity.

On his return Lucifer passed a small supermarket, possibly family owned. What drew his gaze were the bright displays of candy in the window. He couldn't stand them. Candies of all sorts were sticky and nauseating. It was hard enough to get over the need for food without his intestines sticking together. The sheer range of different types of candies in the aisles proved just how daft humans were to ingest sickeningly sweet food with little to no nutritional value. They even had the same kinds of sweets in different packages, proclaiming to the world they loved whoever was capable of reading. Not to mention they were expensive. A small heap of colourful sweets cost as much as three days worth of dinner. It was disgusting.

Gabriel briefly looked up from the television show he watched. And then looked up again, focusing on the table.

"Since when do you eat candy?" he asked, brows raised. Lucifer did not fail to notice how he licked his lips.

"Don't be ridiculous. I wouldn't eat this if my life depended on it."

Lucifer sat down the bone on the table next to a strand of bright blonde hair and five gems Gabriel had bought on the internet. Didn't say anything when Gabriel got up and walked over, eyeing him carefully. He acted as if he was busy rearranging their ingredients - which they wouldn't be able to use until noon the following day - as Gabriel reached out and snatched a candy bar.

They continued to stand in silence, Lucifer weighing the gems to check them for legitimacy (as if Gabriel wouldn't have made sure to buy the real stuff), Gabriel eating a chocolate bar as if he was being judged for it.

"Wanna watch the show?" Gabriel said softly after he finished, pointing towards the TV.

"I would like to, yes." Lucifer answered.

Chapter Text

"So. You ever met Hel?" Gabriel asked noncommittally while they prepared the ritual that would open a door to Niflheim. Getting the location just right - between two graves of people who had died of illness facing east - had been a bit of a hassle, even more so now that they couldn't just use their powers to find the flux of power radiating from it. They had to scour graveyards and the books. It had taken hours. How humans got anything done was beyond him.

While they worked, mixing the valkyrie's hair with the ground up powder from the stones, held in a bowl carried by the ox bone, Gabriel tried to make some conversation, picking up on what little peace they had gained the previous evening. Lucifer didn't grudge him the attempt, was glad for it, in fact. It was better than ignoring each other, while simultaneously waiting for the next argument.

"I never had the pleasure. I hear she is a queen of her own right." Lucifer said smoothly.

"Ha, you could say that. Used to be she just took people in that no one wanted up in Valhalla and she got in a real bad argument with Odin about that. Said she never wanted to be in the same room as him again. Called him some pretty nasty names, too." Gabriel laughed, relishing in his memories. Lucifer was all too glad to indulge him. He rarely talked about his time with his pagan surrogate family.

"Sounds like a fiery woman."

"Hel? Oh, yeah. I used to go back and forth between Asgard and Niflheim, trying to get the two talking." Gabriel paused, looking of into the distance as if something had just occurred to him. "... But of course, if I had succeeded chances were Hel would have been at the gathering six years ago and then she would be dead along with everyone else."

Lucifer had forgotten for one moment why Gabriel disliked talking about his family, and this was his punishment. A chasm opened up between them, black and gaping and filled with the bodies of people Gabriel had loved. Lucifer had not the first clue how to bridge this distance. Remorse might have been helpful. But he had a hard time feeling bad for his own kin, much less so-called gods he never met.

Thus he stayed silent and hoped Gabriel would have a better idea of how to mend what was broken. But Gabriel, clutching the bowl with powdered stone and incense, looked in need of mending himself.

"Some of them came back." he said quietly, more to himself than to Lucifer. "Baldr and Ganesha and some others, too. I sought them out, thought they'd give me refuge like they did before. I was afraid they wouldn't let me come back because I was human but still I looked for them. Turned out, I needn't have worried." He let out a huff, dry only because the tears got clogged somewhere around his throat. Lucifer took a step forward but thought twice and stayed where he was. "They had no problem with me being human. Baldr said it was the only reason they didn't kill me on the spot. They blamed me for what happened. I brought you to them, if they hadn't taken me in, nothing like this would have happened. Not all came back, you see? Some ... most are dead and it's my fault."

Lucifer tactfully pretended not to hear the swallowed gasps and sniffs. He kept his back to Gabriel, observing two crows on a nearby tree chattering with each other. While the birds danced with each other, flying rounds around the tree, chasing and pulling each other's feathers (Michael and I used to do that when we were fledglings) he stayed away from Gabriel and his sorrow. There was a meeting he was an unwelcome guest to. Only when his crying had subsided did Lucifer turn around again, handing Gabriel a handkerchief, which of course, his little brother forgot to bring himself.

"It wasn't your fault, you know that." Lucifer said.

"I know, it was yours. You killed them. But if not for me, you would never have been there."

"That's not ..."

"Stuff it, Luce."

They finished the ritual mostly in silence, broken only by Gabriel reciting the chant, old Icelandic that came so easy over his tongue that Lucifer for one moment wondered if that before him was really his brother and not the trickster god playing at being an angel.

The portal when it appeared lacked ... style. It was mostly a flimmering in the air, accompanied with what sounded like water running.

"What you hear is Hvergelmir, the spring under Niflheim's root."

Lucifer was a bit rustic in his ancient Norse. His lips moved as he translated.

"The bubbling, boiling spring?" he asked as they stepped through the portal. They were greeted with a wall of mist, so dense it was almost solid. Despite the lack of wind the mist moved, seemed to wave them a greeting even.

Gabriel shrugged, busy with something he had pulled out of his pockets.

"Contrary to popular belief the Norsemen were never really creative with their names. Anyway, this is for you."

He put something in Lucifer's hand. A stick with some string on it it turned out.

"... Thank you?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes and waved at the mist which refused to be disturbed by his wild motioning.

"Do you want to get lost here? I know my way back and forth, you don't. And I'd like to have more than two steps between us, so here you have some string, I have the other end, we don't lose each other. Just don't let go of it."

Without further ado they set on their way. The mist would have indeed proved to be their doom if Gabriel hadn't thought of the string. Lucifer didn't fancy having to rely on his brother but out of all other hypothetic options, Gabriel was the least likely to abandon him out of malice. For shits and giggles, maybe, but he would pick him up again. Probably. Lucifer held onto his string tighter.

As far as he could tell they followed a path of some sort, winding through the sheer endless expanses of the frost giant's home. He remembered them on their pilgrimages across the wastes of Niflheim up to where the nine frozen rivers met the lava seas of Muspelheim. Back in the day he had watched them with awe, creatures with eyes so keen they could see an angel in his true form, bodies so hardy they could withstand his glory, minds so wise they could hear his voice and learn from it. They had been patient with the young angels, even been willing to teach some of their tricks. That was before their Father claimed the rights to all life. After that no one was really all to fond of sharing conversation with an angel. And then of course, Odin and his armies struck the Frost Giants down and they never again rose. Gabriel would have been a part of that battle already. Lucifer wondered what he thought about killing the creatures that had taught him how to make the burning heat of his form as cold as ice.

"Lucifer?"

Lucifer perked up, not having realised that Gabriel had disappeared in the mist, only the string showing him where he was now. He picked up his speed, scolding himself for getting lost in memory.

They walked on for quite some time and as nostalgic Niflheim was, the view of nothing but mist quickly outgrew its appeal. Gabriel must have thought the same thing for he picked up their conversation again.

"Do you at least feel bad about killing them?" he asked, the petulant tone a thin cover for his deep pain. The fact that he asked meant that there probably was a right answer, but Lucifer would be damned again if he knew it. He thought about what little he knew of the pagan gods, what little Gabriel had shared with him. He found no emotional connection, no slip of emotion that might have satisfied Gabriel.

"No, I don't feel bad." he said and heard Gabriel's sigh as if he had expected that answer but was disappointed by it still. "But." Lucifer continued. "I believe if I had known them as you did, I would."

Any answer Gabriel might or might not have had for him got cut off by someone shouting.

"Get off the road, you mortal idiots. Ugh!"

Lucifer heard something soft but heavy hitting something else that was soft and heavy and shortly after Gabriel cursing. The string strained and would have torn had Lucifer not jumped in the rough direction Gabriel had went. He stumbled as the ground proved to be less level than anticipated and fell face first in a ditch, cussing just as loudly as Gabriel had before him.

"Shhh, you daft tit, keep your mouth shut. They probably have seen us already."

"Who has seen us?" Gabriel asked from somewhere right to Lucifer but got shushed again.

The answer came with the sound of gurgling and shuffling. It seemed to come from everywhere at once, soft but growing louder as Lucifer, Gabriel and whoever was presumably in the process of saving their asses, watched and waited. It sounded like a dozen feet dragging over gravel, interspersed every now and than with a wrecking couugh that had Lucifer's throat itch in sympathy. He desperately longed to get closer to Gabriel to reassure himself that his brother was still there. He knew it would only make them a better target. His instincts little considered this tactical standpoint. They wanted safety in numbers and Lucifer only beat them down by telling himself that whatever searched for them could likely see as well as he could. The noise came to a halt not three feet away, somewhere in front of them. Never before in his mortal existence had he so cursed his need to breathe. He took deep breaths, holding them for as long as he could, all the while listening for any indication that they had been found out.

Then the shuffling started again and got quieter and quieter as the creatures abandoned their search. He waited for the cursing to start again as he knew it undoubtedly would, if he knew Gabriel at all.

"What the hell did you shove me in a ditch for? What where those things?"

Lucifer made his way over to where Gabriel's voice came from and got soon into sight. With him was a girl with half a face. To be fair she had a whole face, technically. Only that one part lacked so vital components as skin and muscle and reduced itself to bare bone and sinew. The other half was quite attractive with dark brown skin and extravagant make-up. She didn't look older than sixteen and had the exasperation to match.

"What where those things, he asks. Skineaters, Meathunters, call them what you want. They are his minions. Search the whole place for me and the few still loyal to me. Have a taste for flesh. Nothing that would have come into my castle when I was still Queen."

Lucifer raised his brows and gave the girl another once over. She wore torn fishnets and black leather, and spikes around her neck and arms.

"You are Hel?" he asked and was rewarded with an eyeroll that would have made Gabriel proud.

"No, ice for brains, I'm just a random tourist. Came for the smashing sights, adapted the local style of half my face rotten off."

Gabriel chuckled.

"Don't mind him. He's a condescending dickbag to everyone, it's how he shows love. Lucifer, meet Hel, queen of Niflheim, rider of Helhest, matriarch to the unremarkable and forgotten. Wielder of consumption and pest, friend to the friendless, lover of the deformed, mother to the stillborn and the abandoned. Hel, meet Lucifer. He's my brother."

"Huh. One of the winged dicks?" she asked.

"The winged dick, actually."

"Huh." Hel said again and, having mentally filed Lucifer's existence away, got back to topic.

"Now, not that I don't utterly detest meeting your family, Loki, but why the touching reunion now? I'm not exactly in a position to throw a tea party."

"Yes, about that. How come you're here waging guerilla war? Last time I checked you didn't have any enemies worth noting."

"Well, you didn't check back in a while. But honestly, I don't have the slightest clue who this guy is. Only that he came in one day, kicked me out of my own castle and took up residence. Nothing I could do. We are harrassing some of his troops and we try to catch everyone coming in by way of dying but there's a lot of fish that slips through our nets and those end up straight at the castle if they don't get eaten by the skineaters first. But come on, let's keep moving. Best we not stay in one place too long."

With Hel leading them they had a much easier time going forward. She shifted mist around so it opened and closed around them, allowing them to see each other and the ground they were walking on.

Some others joined up with them a little off the road, some of those who had stayed loyal to Hel and managed to escape with her.

"So, what's the deal with this guy? When did this change in management happen?"

Gabriel asked.

"About two, maybe three months ago in Midgard time. Like I said, he caught us by surprise. More powerful than anything I've ever seen. Spreads disease wherever he walks. A touch of his hand and you're suffering from anything the nine realms have cooked up."

"Shouldn't he be right down your alley then? Aren't you some kind of patron to the diseased?"

Hel threw Lucifer a look that made clear only his status as Gabriel's brother spared him from a cruel death.

"I help the diseased. I do not wish their suffering on them. This monster takes healthy people and turns them sick. He has even stolen lives from your heaven, those who have no business being down here."

"Stole souls? How?"

"I don't know. He takes them from their personal Heaven, revives them and then he kills them off again, makes them die from some disease so that they become eligible to come here. To me, usually, but he's sitting at that stream now."

Gabriel and Lucifer shared a glance. It would explain the string of deaths by people who had seemingly miraculously come back from the dead.

"So he's collecting souls. To build an army?" Gabriel ventured. He swatted off Lucifer poking his shoulder, trying to get his attention.

"That would be my first guess. If he is powerful enough to steal the souls of those who have died in battle and make them their own, he is more than powerful enough to bring an army of diseased souls to Midgard. Or any place he wants for that matter."

"Great, and here we thought it was random. Lucifer, stop poking me. Any thoughts on how to stop him?"

"Gabriel, listen ..."

"Shut up, Luce. What do you know about this guy? Any weaknesses ... for Dad's sake, Lucifer, stop poking me."

"Then listen to me!"

"Alright, what?"

"We are targets for the enemy!"

That shut Gabriel up something good. He stared at Lucifer open-mouthed.

"Fuck. You're right."

Hel looked from one to the other.

"What does he mean, you are a target? Loki?"

"We died. Well, more or less. And we came back, together with these others that whoever is behind this has brought back to life. Which means that the next sods dying from some disease ... could be us."

Chapter Text

"You're targets. And then you just walk up to my doorstep, glowing like beacons?"

Hel got up, waving people closer, shouting orders.

"I'd need more time to do this, we've been planning this for months, but we're not ready yet. You! Get me the reins. You! Run up to Asgard and tell them they have to deliver. What are you waiting for? Hop on!"

Gabriel closed up to Hel, who had spread out a map on the floor, two of her people holding the edges down while she perused it.

"What's the haste, darlin'? We haven't been attacked yet and neither of us have gotten sick."

She waved at him impatiently and traded some words with one of her men, before answering.

"That's not the point. If you're one of the souls who were brought back, then whoever did it knows exactly where you are. Thus, he knows exactly where I am and could send Helhest out any minute. And you know what happens when Helhest is set loose."

There was no little motherly pride in Hel's voice. Gabriel nodded thoughtfully, convinced of the urgency. Lucifer remained in the dark.

"What does happen when Helhest comes? Can't we just kill it?"

Hel scoffed.

"Talk about killing my horse again and your Christian hell will seem like Idunn's gardens, got that?"

"I'm just saying we might not have another choice ..."

"We have." Hel snapped. Her minions came back from their errands just then, bowing and submitting their news. She received them and turned to Gabriel and Lucifer again, a victorious smile on her face.

"There is another way." she said. "I am not without mercy. When I brought Helhest into my service I made sure it could be beaten."

Gabriel made a knowing sound.

"The man that bests the hell horse shall defeat death itself." he quoted.

"Like in ... killing it?"

Lucifer shrugged at Gabriel's exasperated glare and at Hel's withering one.

"Will you stop talking about killing my horse?"

"It's the easiest way."

"I'll show you an easy way out this door, you dick."

"Name-calling? How very eloquent. Maybe if you were less attached to your demonspawn, Gabriel and I wouldn't have to deal with this."

"Don't drag me into this." Gabriel threw in. Both Hel and Lucifer ignored him. They kept ranting at each other, with more or less creativity in the insult-department. Gabriel knew both of them well enough. There was no use in trying to break up the fight. Instead he opted to wait until they ran out of steam and wandered off to find one of Hel's minions.

He found the one sent to fetch the reins fairly quick, currently waxing the leather to a shine.

"Hey, pal." Gabriel said, plopping down on the floor next to the man. He was a man, or had been one when he was alive. Souls tended to keep their shape in places they had an opportunity to do so. This one must have died sometime in 17th century Europe, if the fashion sense was any indication. Or maybe he was just a passionate LARPer.

"Greetings, Loki." he said, bowing his head briefly, before returning to his task.

"So, what's that for? Is Hel planning on capturing Helhest?"

"No, m'lord. Helhest can not be caught. It is a free creature, even in the thralls of the abomination that directs it."

Gabriel hummed thoughtfully.

"So not catching it, not killing it. Just how does Hel plan on 'besting' Helhest? If she asks, I'm out of the shapeshifting business. One time was enough and I still have the stretchmarks to show."

"She plans on having someone ride against the horse."

"Ride against ...? Helhest is the fastest horse in creation. The best horseman could not win against it."

"They can on Sleipnir."

Hel and Lucifer stood side by side behind Gabriel, their confrontation resolved. In fact, both looked far more peaceful than Gabriel remembered them seeing ever since they arrived here.

"Got everything out of your system?" he asked to which Lucifer inclined his head.

"Hel is even more remarkable than you made her out to be, brother."

Gabriel's raised eyebrows prompted an elaboration by Hel.

"Your brother has the fierceness of a Jotunn. A shame you didn't introduce us sooner."

If anything it kept Gabriel in his state of vague dissociation. If Lucifer's sense of humour couldn't fill a thimble he'd have suspected them playing a prank on him. As it was, Lucifer merely smiled amiably.

"You are too kind. When all this is over, I should like to visit you."

"Certainly. My doors are always open to one such as you, Lucifer."

"Alright, alright. Enough with the flirting." Gabriel said, perhaps a tad louder than he needed to. "I don't know what happened in the five minutes I was gone and so help me, I don't want to know. Just get your heart-eyes somewhere else and concentrate on the important stuff, okay? Like keeping Lucifer and me alive."

The plan was simple. Traditionally every dying person had the chance to try and best Helhest in a race for their lives. No one ever succeeded but with the threat at hand, Asgard had donated Sleipnir as a steed. The original idea had been to seek out favourably ground and a good rider who was about to die from sickness, then make him ride against Helhest.

"Winning should break the enchantment and put Helhest back under my control. But the rider has to be someone who can die. So neither me nor my people can do it. It has to be one of you. And since I have actually seen Loki ride, my suggestion would be you, Lucifer."

Lucifer had the gall to chortle at Hel's admission of Gabriel's riding skills. He crossed his arms to show how unimpressed he was.

"Has he still not mastered sitting upright in a saddle?"

"He tends to hang sideways, shouting obscenities."

"Which would have been dangerous if he was actually able to make his mount move."

"Oh, and has he always done this thing, where ..."

"I'm standing right here, you know?" Gabriel interrupted, waving at his form.

"Of course. Let's get back to business. Of course I volunteer as rider against Helhest. Is there a way to meet it on our own terms, to lure it here perhaps?"

"There is." Hel said, strictly business again. "But I must warn you. Challenging Helhest and losing ... it is not simply death you will face. Your soul will be dragged along the roads of Niflheim until it has become nothing more than roadkill. It will be utterly and completely annihilated. There is no coming back from that."

Gabriel stepped forward, between Hel and Lucifer.

"What? Are you kidding? No. Lucifer won't ride. He's better than me but he's no master horseman. He can't win. You can't seriously expect to ..."

"Gabriel. Brother."

Lucifer squeezed Gabriel's shoulder, gentler than he had been with one of his brothers in a long time. Gabriel turned around, forced to tilt his head back to meet Lucifer's eyes.

"I am confident in my abilities. Besides, we don't have the time to wait for someone better suited."

"But ..." I don't want to lose my brother again, Gabriel didn't say. He also didn't say that while Lucifer may be better in the saddle than he was, that was no proof of actual skill. Heaven had never relied much on cavalry.

"It will turn out fine. We need to get Helhest off our trail in order to find the one responsible for this."

Lucifer was right, of course. He always was, the bastard. Gabriel gave up his protest and walked off again, while Hel and Lucifer went into the details of their plan.

It was late, the mist around Hel's base tinged with black, when Lucifer came to Gabriel. Hel had given them a space to rest away from her people, nothing more than a mattress and a curtain, but it fulfilled its purpose. Gabriel sat on the edge of it, knees drawn up to his chest and lost in thought, when it dipped under the weight of Lucifer.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say you worry for me." Lucifer said smoothly, nothing in his voice betraying whether or not he welcomed the notion.

Gabriel didn't look up to check if his face was as unexpressive as his voice.

"You're an idiot if you think I wouldn't worry."

"Even after all I have done to you and your friends?"

"I said it before, I say it again. You're a great big bag of dicks. But you are my brother and I love you. I never stopped loving you."

It had been years since Gabriel had last been hugged. So long in fact, that he had almost forgotten the feeling of it. And Lucifer didn't count among the best huggers. He was too cold, too hard and too detached to give the kind of hug Gabriel felt he needed. The whole situation radiated awkwardness, both their bodies stiff, neither knowing quite how they got into this situation nor how to get out of it. It was also the first time they hugged each other since before the fall. With that in mind the hug wasn't half bad.

Eventually Gabriel wormed out of the embrace, clearing his throat and blushing when he heard Lucifer do the same. They sat next to each other, Lucifer with his hands between his knees, looking in opposite directions. Eventually Gabriel laid down on the mattress, trying to catch some rest at the least. Lucifer followed suit, their bodies mere inches apart. Gabriel's back cooled just from having Lucifer near. He desperately wished for some blankets.

"Just ... just don't die on me, okay?"

He drifted off, not sleeping but close enough to dream, when he heard through the haze of exhaustion a muttered:

"I promise."

Chapter Text

It had been Lucifer who taught Gabriel to fly. Barely out of diapers himself but already Father had become distant, wandering Heaven and the newly created earth, leaving no time to teach his children the art of flying. Michael said he sought to perfect his creation. Lucifer didn't say much at all about it and no one dared speak of it to him. But his siblings never needed for anything. All their father used to give reluctantly, Lucifer gave with joy. One day Lucifer took him down to earth, despite Michaels warnings about them both being too young for adventures like this, and showed him how to use his wings.

The first time Gabriel had barely been able to contain his Grace, flying halfway around the world in a mad rush of speed and fear and the thrill of it all, before Lucifer caught up to him. He was laughing, essence pulsing bright with joy while Gabriel's dimmed in embarrassment. But his next attempt had gone better. He'd been moving with Lucifer's wings, mimicked their motions until he got the hang of it. That was when Lucifer let go of him and for a moment panic surged through his body. But his brother was close, always close, full of encouraging smiles and a dare to race him to Saturn and back.

They had spent years soaring through the skies, their pure joy making even their increasingly bitter Father laugh. Sometimes Michael joined them, when they both used their charm and wits on him until he had no other choice but to acquiese. He would go on and on urging not to fly too far or too fast or too reckless. They might get lost, they might get hurt, they might not hear Father's voice when he called for them. Father had long since stopped calling.

Gabriel wished Michael was here now. He would have found a safer way to best Helhest. Or at least set Gabriel's mind at ease.

It had been some time since last he saw Sleipnir and the horse was as magnificent and proud as ever before. Without his Grace Lucifer looked downright small next to it. He was all business, saddling Sleipnir up even as Helhest approached from not twenty yards away.

The call had come during their uneasy rest, Hel's men sounding the alarm and pulling Gabriel from quite a pleasant dream involving sleigh riding with Kali.

Helhest found them at last. Gabriel hadn't mentioned anything but he had developed quite the nasty rash in private places, something that would undoubtedly be the herald to his demise if Lucifer couldn't win this race. Figured that the disease he was inflicted with would be one of the embarrassing ones.

Now Lucifer swung himself in the saddle.

"Wish me luck." he said and Gabriel had no time to obey before Lucifer rode away to challenge Helhest. Now it was done, no turning back now.

He desperately wished for a chocolate bar. Something to fiddle with except the hem on his shirt, something to chew on except his lips.

"He will be fine. Sleipnir is at his side." Hel said. She didn't sound convinced.

Up on the path Helhest tilted its head in acceptance of the challenge. Then they were racing.

One moment they stood, nose by nose, the next they were gone, blurs against the mist, soon swallowed by it.

There was no wind in Niflheim, no weather of any sort. It gave the race an eery feel with no wind to whip Lucifer's hair and Sleipnir's mane, no cold bites at his hands that clutched the reins. Helhest lead by a margin and Lucifer spurred Sleipnir to go faster.

But he never caught up. Everytime he closed in, Helhest sped up, hooves punishing the ground. He rose to the challenge everytime, rode faster, met sharper corners. Always Helhest kept in front of him, leading by an inch or two.

It toyed with him.

His heart sank as the realisation hit. Of course their chances at beating Helhest had been slim to begin with. But to know that this beast would win over him with ease, barely even breaking a sweat? Lucifer pushed his heels into Sleipnir's sides. The Morningstar would not be so easily defeated.

They should have waited for another horseman. Someone better suited. Gabriel prided himself on not being a heartless ass so he very pointedly did not think they should have picked someone who wouldn't matter if they ended up as an ethereal smear on the road.

Some people would argue that if anyone wouldn't be mourned it would be the devil. Those people had never fallen asleep to a song the devil hummed. Gabriel had. And while he realised that it was unlikely to ever happen again, he could still not make peace with the fact of his brother dying.

This wasn't the apocalypse. This was just some upstart disease-spreading bitch of a problem they were told to solve. Lucifer couldn't die. He survived the end of the world.

"Loki, there. Look."

Gabriel turned to where Hel pointed and saw two figures emerging from the mist, moving at rapid speed.

He saw the sweat on Lucifer's brow as he spurred Sleipnir on a final time.

He heard hooves thumping on the ground.

He witnessed Helhest cross the finish line, a noselength in front of Sleipnir.

There was a moment when time seemed to move slower. He heard himself shouting, Hel holding him back as Lucifer was dragged from his saddle. Helhest's gleaming eyes pierced the mist. Ropes made from sinew shot forward to bind Lucifer and drag him behind Helhest to his death.

For a moment he thought the silver shimmer were his own tears reflected by light.

The next blood filled his world. It gushed from the wound were Lucifer pierced Helhest. He dragged the blade downwards, spilling the horses guts even as they covered him.

Now it was Hel who had to be restrained. Gabriel slung his arms around her, bit down a curse as he elbowed him in the stomach. She screamed obscenities, cursed Lucifer for killing her horse. Only when Helhest sank dead to the ground, stomach split wide open, did Gabriel let her go. She tripped over her own feet, fell to Helhest's side. Her wails had to be heard throughout the realm.

Lucifer came up next to Gabriel, sweaty and exhausted.

"I thought ..." Gabriel begun. He was hushed.

"It's not over yet." Lucifer said.

It was then that the mist faded. Completely faded as if it had never been there. The wall of grey was replaced by a panorama of jagged mountainlines and a sky the colour of bruises. Neither moon nor sun hung over Niflheim to illuminate the creature stepping forward. Still they saw it well enough.

"I see you rid yourself of my pet." Pestilence said.

The first thing Gabriel noticed was the absence of a ring. Well, no. That was the second thing he noticed. The first thing were the myriads of maggots eating at Pestilence's flesh, dropping from his mouth with every word he spoke. But the empty space where a Horseman's ring should have been was next.

And still there was no doubt as to who he was. The stink in the air from human refuse, the way Gabriel's stomach turned just by being close. The very ground turned muddy and sick under his feet. Pestilence. Returning from the dead without a ring to anchor or banish him.

"He was my pet!" Hel shouted from where she knelt over Helhest. Mist rose from the earth only to be pushed back in as Hel and Pestilence battled for power. Raw power clashed, making the hairs on Gabriel's neck stand.

"We should leave." Lucifer said quietly.

"What? No, we can't leave. Pestilence is right there ..." Gabriel protested.

"Don't be stupid. Hel is holding him off and I can see no way of killing him right now. We have to regroup and ..."

Pestilence threw Hel back with sheer power, the air once again clear of mist but sullied with the stench of sick and blood. She scrambled to her feet and called her men to attack. They came from all sides, the sick, the abandoned, those not wanted in the high halls of Asgard. Hel bled from a gash on her forehead, blood dripping on the bare bone of the other half of her face.

"He is right, Loki. You have to flee. We will buy you some time." she grit out. Behind her Pestilence ripped her people to pieces.

"But ..."

Instead of dealing with Gabriel she turned to Lucifer.

"Listen, you bastard. If I ever return from the dead you will pay for what you did today. Now get your brother out of here."

Where Gabriel had hesitated, Lucifer did not. As Hel jumped into the fray he grabbed Gabriel by the waist and hauled him away. He ignored his demands to let him down, ignored the names Gabriel called him and the threats he made. Sleipnir was still there, standing off to the side, torn between fleeing the sickness and excitement for battle. Lucifer hoisted Gabriel on the saddle and mounted behind him.

"Luce, no. Go back. Now. We have to help."

None of his protests were heard. They fled the battle, moved through the wastes of Niflheim. Gabriel couldn't tell if the sounds of battle faded because they got farther away or because it had already ended.

Lucifer's hand held him firm in the saddle. It felt colder than usual.

Chapter Text

"Gabriel?"

"Leave me alone."

"Come on, Gabriel, you are behaving like a child."

"Leave me alone, Lucifer."

Lucifer sighed and rested his head against the bathroom door. He supposed he could kick it in, even without his Grace. But he was beginning to learn about human conventions such as privacy. Gabriel would likely not appreciate him kicking any doors down.

He opted instead for another tactic. If humanity insisted to call him the Father of Lies, he would damn well deliver.

"Gabriel, come out. I have to use the facilities."

The silence on the other side lasted for a good half minute during which Lucifer wondered if he had maybe lost his touch a little. Then the door opened and Gabriel shoved past him with an indignant huff. If it hadn't been for his red-rimmed eyes and blotchy cheeks he would have bought his angry charade.

"So? Go to the loo. Why are you still looking at me?" Gabriel crossed his arms and turned half away. Not enough to keep him from watching Lucifer from under his eyelashes. When Lucifer didn't answer he sighed in defeat.

"You lied. The first lie since your creation and that is what you came up with? I have to go to the bathroom?"

"It worked, didn't it?"

That got a breathy chuckle out of Gabriel. He sat down on the bed where Lucifer, after hesitating for a brief moment, joined him.

The situation reminded him oddly of the one just the night before he went to ride against Helhest. The two of them trying to communicate and failing miserably. It was the old game, made so much more impossible with Hel's recent death. In Gabriel's eyes Lucifer now killed his entire family. He had every right to be angry at him.

"Do you want to call Sam to pick you up?" he asked softly, assuring himself that only he heard the slight tremor in his voice.

Gabriel shook his head.

"We still have to get rid of pestilence. Otherwise it will all be for nothing."

So they set to work, Lucifer searching the internet while Gabriel called some old contacts of his. The mood was tense and it got on Lucifer's nerves.

"Perhaps an imposter who took a part of Pestilence's powers?" he asked to break the silence.

"No, he was the real deal. You should know that. You were the one who raised him from his pus-filled grave in the first place."

A scathing retort lay on the tip of Lucifer's tongue but he bit it down.

He has every right to be angry. he reminded himself, returning his attention to the computer screen.

Every few minutes Gabriel reached another contact, speaking in muffled tones. The conversations ended after mere minutes with no results to show. Except that after two hours of the same drudgery Gabriel ran out of minutes.

"That's it. I'm out. The web cough anything up or are you browsing porn?"

Lucifer frowned.

"Why would an international web of information of the summed knowledge of human intellect - minimal as it may be - contain something as base as pornography? Who would look for that?"

Gabriel chortled.

"You don't know anything about humans, do you? They can't get enough of this stuff. Hell, I made some porn years ago."

For the first time in aeons Lucifer felt deeply with human language. Particulary the three words that strung together made the phrase 'Too much information'. Yet he could not help but be morbidly fascinated by this new revelation.

"Why would you engage in sexual acts for the pleasure of humans?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes dramatically, but he sat down opposite of Lucifer, perching on his chair to make himself bigger. If this conversation lightened his mood, Lucifer could live with being incredibly grossed out by it.

"Because it's fun. I'm serious. Naked humans look fucking hilarious. And the faces they make when they orgasm? You've never seen anything better."

To emphasise his point Gabriel mimicked some of the human sex faces. At the third one - Gabriel pursing his lips, wrinkling his nose and rolling his eyes back into his head - even Lucifer had to laugh.

"And they get so creative. Like the things they can do with a bit of rope and some plastic, it's insane. Do you know they've actually written books about the different ways they hold their bodies during sex? Yeah, and they use food, too. There's this thing where you spray someone with whipped cream and decorate them with fruit and chocolate and then you eat it off their body and it's so funny to see them squirm plus you get a delicious snack out of it."

For a second Lucifer wondered if Gabriel would like to eat fruit off him. He wouldn't mind lying still for a bit and if it made his brother happy it might just be worth the mess. Even if it meant being naked and touched and licked and ... no, on second thought, he would never ever let anyone eat anything off him.

Another thought sprung to his mind then. He remembered what some of the demons that had served him during the Apocalypse told him.

"But isn't sex supposed to be an act of intense passion and lust? A joining of bodies, a melding of minds, an overwhelming of the senses?" he asked, sarcasm practically dripping from his lips. To his surprise Gabriel didn't chastise him for it.

"Pffh. As if. I mean, sure, for some humans it's like that. For me it's just fun. And they don't generally complain if I bring in a few surprises. Although there was this incident with the horse and ... what was her name? Katy, Cathelyn, something like that. We never went through with it but the gossip, let me tell you. Humans don't fuck around. Unless they do. Frequently."

For a while they talked like this, Gabriel relaying the joy of sexual intercourse to Lucifer and him trying and succeeding for the most part not to be completely disgusted by it all. He'd given up hope of Gabriel ever sharing his life with him. Naked human bodies and the shenanigans you could put up with them ranked low on his topics of choice, but genocide and family issues were listed even below that. He took what he got.

And to hear Gabriel's laughter again was worth having images of humans secreting bodily fluids out of their genitalia into his head burned forever.

He retracted that statement later that night when they both had gone to sleep and all he could think of was the word 'squirting' with associated imagery. He groaned and pressed his face into the pillow. If he only had his Grace so he could make himself forget.

"What'cha thinking about?" Gabriel asked, not as asleep as assumed.

"Nothing." Lucifer said. The last thing he wanted right now was to go back to that conversation.

Gabriel chuckled but let it go.

Maybe if he concentrated on something else long enough he would fall asleep before the images came back.

He thought about Pestilence then and what could have brought him back. The rings were in Death hands for safekeeping as Sam had told them on the phone. Not even the other three horsemen together would be able to wrest anything from Death that he refused to give.

What else was powerful enough to raise a horseman from the Dead? By all means he should have been incorporeal, doing his work without awareness or a physical form. Sickness made him stronger, but there had been nothing major enough to fuel a resurrection without the ring to channel his power and bind him to this plane.

He would have needed another anchor, something to bind the power generated by pestilence into the persona that was Pestilence. What could replace the ring as an anchor? They had been crafted along with his cage, imbued with magic that bound four forces of nature to the second coming.

What did other anthropomorphic personifications do when they had no rings to rely on? What did the horsemen do before the rings allowed them passage into this world?

For one moment the answer stood clear and stark before Lucifer's inner eye. But before he could grasp it, fatigue took over and he drifted off into a dreamless slumber.

He woke up deep into the night by something cold touching his calves. Instinctively he kicked at whatever attacked him.

"Ouch!"

"Ou- what?"

"What?"

Lucifer switched on the light and stared directly into Gabriel's eyes. He had snuck beneath Lucifer's blanket, naked feet so cold Lucifer felt it even through a layer of sweatpants.

"Gabriel? What are you doing in my bed?"

In the half light of the bedside lamp he couldn't tell for sure but it looked like Gabriel had been crying again. He ducked his head and made a move to roll out of the bed.

"Sorry. I'll just go back and ..."

"No." Lucifer said, more quickly than strictly necessary. "Stay. I, um, I'm here for you."

Gabriel moved back towards the center of the bed, although he kept his feet firmly away from Lucifer.

No one spoke after Lucifer switched off the light again, but neither of them tried to sleep either.

"I killed her, Luce." Gabriel mumbled after a while, barely inaudible on account of his face halfway buried in the pillow. Thus it took Lucifer a while to figure this one out. When he did his eyes widened. Gabriel didn't blame him. He blamed himself of all things.

"Her death wasn't your fault. Why do you say it was?"

"It's obvious. We should never have stayed with Hel as long as we did. She told us she was on the run, that she didn't have the power to face Pestilence. But no, selfish, ignorant me wanted to spent time with her. What better time for a family reunion. If I hadn't been such an idiot, she would never have ..."

"Stop." Lucifer commanded. "None of this was your fault. Hel would have perished either way. Helhest found her base by itself, it wasn't lured there by either of us."

"But it was."

"What?"

"I started getting sick just before Helhest appeared. I didn't say anything because I was embarrassed. But if I had we could have gotten out of there in time, before that bloody horse found us."

He didn't know what to say to that but tried nonetheless.

"It's thanks to Hel that we survived. We may have gotten her into trouble but she was in danger either way. And she died protecting someone she loved. It is not the worst way to end a life."

"Because you would know that." Gabriel scoffed.

"I may not, but you should. You did the same thing when you stood up to me."

It gave Gabriel pause, enough so that by the time he spoke up again he sounded calmer.

"Can I stay here for the night?"

"Of course."

Gabriel shuffled a bit, rearranging his limbs to better accomodate a sleeping position.

"Can we cuddle?"

Lucifer raised a brow.

"What?"

"Cuddle. You know, hugging, petting each other. Stuff."

"I know what cuddling is. Why would you want to cuddle with me is the question."

"It helps. Being close to someone. It feels nice."

In Lucifer's mind this came dangerously close to sex, which in all its repulsive human messiness, was not something he ever wanted to try out. Still he gave in.

"Fine. But we will stay dressed."

"Okay."

Gabriel was soft and warm in his arms, his limbs all over the bed. One of his hands had found their way into Lucifer's hair and petted it gently. It felt nice.

Chapter Text

For lack of a better option, the brothers turned to the town of Lucas, where the first victims of Pestilence's scheme had met their demise. Hopefully with the context they had now, they would be able to find out how he had managed to come back without the ring to aid him.

Their destination lay on the other end of the country, which meant a 25 hour ride that Lucifer could have done without. The appeal of endless roads, confining cars and smelly motel rooms had never been high and got lower with every hour that passed.

The dreams didn't make things better.

They weren't nightmares, not as such. But still Lucifer woke with stones in his stomach. He dreamed about racing Michael through the Garden, before humanity made it theirs. Michael's wings bright even to his eyes, the lightness of his motions putting awe in Lucifer's heart. He sought to keep up with his brother, to be closer to him more than for any competition.

One time Lucifer dreamed about Gadreel. Even more dutiful than Michael he had little patience for chit-chat. All that mattered was the mission, each day, every day. But where Michael never questioned his orders, Gadreel liked to philosophise. Never to question Father's intent, but to figure out the meaning behind his actions. Lucifer loved these dialogues. Gadreel had a unique view on the purpose of Heaven and angels, often said there was something they were meant to do, a mission that had not yet been revealed to them. None of them had yet exhausted their potential. Lucifer had rejoiced at the fact of being meant for something higher. Perhaps this was what Father searched for, a way to fully use his children's potential. A way to subdue the other gods or maybe, after all, the angels were meant to rule and come even closer to their Father.

Other times his dreams were about Gabriel. The third son, tiny in Lucifer's arms, so fragile that he swore never to let any harm befall his brother. From the moment Gabriel learned to stretch his wings they had embraced, playing and flying and resting. It was in those days that their father would wander off for centuries at a time, Michael trailing behind him despite being ignored. Lucifer never searched for their father. He was too busy teaching Gabriel how to speak, how to cast illusions and create things from nothing. Out of all angels before or after, Gabriel had always been the most creative. Father scolded Lucifer for letting Gabriel's animals loose on the world, the kangaroo and mantis shrimp that among all animals was able to see all the colours in creation. Lucifer wisely never told anyone about the platypus.

The serenity coming from these dreams never lasted long. For seconds after waking up Lucifer could almost convince himself that nothing had changed. No Fall, no war in Heaven. For one moment Michael was still his devoted older brother, Gabriel still the silly angel who created colourful frogs and sometimes ate worms. Reality always caught up.

Gabriel didn't miss Lucifer's melancholy mood and mostly kept to himself as they continued their journey. He often spoke to Sam these days, for 'research purposes' he claimed and Lucifer pretended not to overhear their conversations. He gathered that he longed for something and that Sam was less than excited to play therapist. Not that Gabriel was receptive to good advice during the best of times.

They arrived in Lucas with the air heavy between them. Lucifer suppressing the memories of Heaven, Gabriel for once not talkative.

Their first stop was the local library's newspaper archive, a stuffy room with barely any sunlight. It was better than the crammed car, but not by much. Together they worked through the newspapers of the last few months, checking for any strange occurences. The silences was heavy and Lucifer wished to break it but had no idea how. As usual Gabriel proved the better ice-breaker.

"I heard you speak in your sleep last night." he said casually, glossing over an article about a local housewife who'd won the lottery and prompty left her husband.

Lucifer shrugged vaguely. He knew his face betrayed nothing, which was the only reason he didn't bolt right then and there. What had he dreamt about about last night? Heaven, undoubtedly, but the specifics eluded him.

"I heard you say platypus more than once. I didn't think you even remembered that one."

Relief washed over Lucifer in waves. Platypus' were less inscrimination than, say, singing with the other angels or playing in naked human vessels, not yet ensouled by their Father.

"You were so proud of that creature. How could I forget?"

Gabriel laughed for the first time in days.

"It's embarrassing, that's what it is. I still can't believe you went behind Dad's back and actually let it out on Earth. Raphael never got his creations approved and you just went and put the silliest thing I ever made right there on that giant ass continent. If Dad had ever found out, you would have gotten in so much trouble."

It didn't evade either of them that the first time he had ever broken Father's laws it had been for Gabriel.

"There was nothing I wouldn't have done for you."

A smile tugged at Gabriel's lips but faded quickly.

"Except for rebelling, of course." he said, softly enough that Lucifer was sure Gabriel didn't mean for him to hear it. But he did and it felt like a punch to the gut.

Never before had there been even a smidgen of regret for his actions. He'd been in the right, he knew that, as sure as he knew that he was the only one with that opinion. But it didn't change the fact that it tore up their family, ruined every last bit of peace they had together. While Gabriel and the other angels grew accustomed to the humans they were supposed to protect and Michael became more and more obsessed about the orders Father gave them, Lucifer was left to watch everyone drift apart. He couldn't stand and watch everything fall apart. Humanity had broken Lucifer's family and he hated them for it.

"I thought you would follow me." Lucifer admitted. By the looks on Gabriel's face he had caught him by surprise. Before his courage left him, Lucifer continued: "Everything was changing. It wasn't just Father who only had eyes for humanity. Everyone loved them. They picked their favourites, walked among them, talked to them. Even you. You wouldn't fly with me anymore, wouldn't make one of your silly animals to make me laugh. It was just humans here, humans there, all time around and it broke our family. You must have seen that."

"Most of us couldn't stand humans. We just followed our orders." Gabriel said but he didn't look at Lucifer.

"Humanity ruined everything. We were supposed to be together forever. If Father wouldn't keep us together, someone had to. Someone had to make him see how his new creation broke his children in half. Gabriel, I never meant for us to become enemies. I thought you would understand. I thought you would take my side."

"I know." Gabriel just said and that was the last they spoke for a very long time.

Lucifer already regretted his outburst. They had had this conversation before so many times. It never changed anything. Michael accused Lucifer of betraying them, Lucifer accused Michael of being a mindless sheep, with Gabriel caught in the middle begging his brothers to stop fighting. Lucifer had been so angry at Michael and Father that he never stopped to think what he did to Gabriel. By the time he Fell he had already broken his brothers' hearts. Things would never return to the way things were. Talking about it would only reopen old wounds.

But for all the family enstrangement it seemed luck was on their side. A woman reported missing just days before the swine flu that accompanied Pestilence's reappearance. They packed up their things and headed out. It seemed, at long last, the end was near.

Chapter Text

Tubes protruded from her mouth and nose. They wormed over her body, lay cool and smooth on her naked skin. The weight was almost unbearable. A rattling cough shook her body, setting her lungs ablaze. Her legs cramped, her fingers grew stiff from muscles that could not bear the sickness of its body. The tubes scraped over her. They grated at her skin, too cold when they changed positions, too hot when they lay still. An itch in the throat promised another coughing fit, promised burning muscles, breaking bones, making the sores in her mouth bleed again. She breathed in as deeply as she could to fight the urge to cough down. It was an attempt doomed to fail. But time was all she needed. A delay to gather her strength so her body wouldn't fall apart when coughs shook her body.

Desperation had long since made way for heavy numbness. If she still had the energy she'd probably wish to die. That's what she'd been hoping before and things had only grown worse.

Her lungs demanded she be rid of the slime gathered in there and made her cough again. She no longer had the strength to force the sickness out, knew by all means, she should have suffocated by now. Every breath echoed with blood pooled in her lungs. Open sores should have bled her out by now. But he wouldn't let her die. Even through the haze of illness the presence of another being stood out stark and clear. It syphoned of her sickness, grew stronger with each afflicted in the world, each man or woman or child that thrashed in their beds with measles or mumps, fever or headache.

Time must have passed but how much she could not tell. Where darkness had been light flooded in, blinding her, burning her. Shouts rang like gunshots in her ears. Fresh blood trickled down the side of her head an irritating sensation that only added to her crawling skin.

The volume receeded and now she made out the deafening sounds for what they were. Human voices. They spoke too fast for her to comprehend. Sounded urgent as if time ran out. The pressure in her head grew.

He was here.

Pestilence.

"You did not really think I wouldn't watch this place, did you?" Pestilence said from the door. Lucifer and Gabriel whipped around. Pestilence showed no signs of having fought a Goddess just days prior. In fact he looked more powerful than ever, his skin shining with sweat and pus pooling at his feet. He blocked off their only escape route.

Gabriel shot Lucifer a look, shaking his head slightly.

"Figured you'd be too busy conquering the world. You know, spreading polio, building shrines for anti-vaxxers to pray at. The old gig."

Gabriel took a cautious step to the left to see if he could get away with it. Pestilence let him move around the room, confident in his ability to deflect any and all attacks. To be fair, his confidence was matched with a power that Gabriel would have been hard-pressed to beat at the peak of his strength. With only human resources they were as much a threat to Pestilence as a fly to an apple pie.

"I am doing all that. Currently I am concentrating on Spanish Flu spreading out across Europe. My power grows by the second. Stalling will only make your end more painful."

Gosh, really? Gabriel thought. He had reached the far left wall by now, close to a table full of medical appliances, syringes, scalpels, tubes. A saw for cutting bone would have been nice right about now.

Their whole plan had relied on remaining undetected. Finding Pestilence's lair hadn't been too hard, seeing as it was the only place in town protected by spells against trespassers. Apparently in disabling them one by one they had set off some kind of silent alarm.

"So, how'd you persuade the chick into helping you?"

Pestilence tilted his head slightly at the woman lying on the bed in the middle of the room. She was barely recognisable as a woman. Even the definition of human had to be stretched. Her skin flaked in some places, exuded pus in others. Sore spread over her face and into her eyes. She cried yellow tears.

"The witch? No persuasion was necessary. She summoned me, or rather, an avatar of me. Her goal, I believe, was to harness the power of sickness for herself. An ambitious goal, certainly."

"So you used her as a funnel. She gets every sickness that people suffer from on this world and you harvest her power like foam off a beer."

"An acceptable analogy." Pestilence said. Gabriel leaned back against the table, his fingers closing around a scalpel. If only he could get close enough. A sudden pain raced through his hands as if he'd been burned. He groaned and sank to the ground, still clutching the scalpel tight. His skin blistered and burned where it touched the metal.

"Allergy to surgical steel, nasty and rare." Pestilence commented. "You are optimistic if you thought you could ambush me with this small tool."

"Oh, you know. We try. Now!"

Pestilence turned around but Lucifer had already tackled him. He sunk a knife, made from yew wood and dipped in copper, into Pestilence's heart. Pestilence let out a shriek, his whole body convulsed and threw Lucifer off. He landed next to Gabriel, gasping as the air was pressed out of his lungs.

Together they watched as Pestilence sank into himself, shoulders shaking madly in pain. He groaned and screamed. Thrashed and swatted at the air.

Laughed.

The brothers stared in shock as Pestilence stood up, unfazed by the knife sticking out of his chest.

He laughed like he heard a good joke and shook his head in amusement.

"Knives can not kill me, little angel. What kind of horseman would I be if I could meet my time at the hands of mortal aggression? Still, your insolence shall be rewarded."

Lucifer choked next to Gabriel, hands clutching his throat.

"Lucifer? Luce? What's happening?"

Lucifer could or would not answer. He retched and coughed, doubling over and groaning. Gabriel scrambled to his feet.

"Don't do this. Don't ... stop!"

Pestilence ignored him. He twisted his hand and Lucifer screamed like a wild animal. Gabriel stumbled forward, the scalpel still burning in his hand.

"I will make your end slow, little angel. Let your brother watch."

He dodged Gabriel's attack easily, almost bored with the display. Another heartwrenching scream came from Lucifer and Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut.

"Please, don't. This was all my idea, it's me you want punished."

There was a moment when only Lucifer's weak heaving echoed through the room, a sound louder than it should have been, louder than Gabriel's own heartbeat in his ears.

"I think you may be right. Very well."

It all happened so fast. Pestilence threw his accumulated power at Gabriel, every painful sickness he could think of made into one excruciating ball of pain. He fell. Whimpered. Moaned. And Pestilence, enjoying the display of Gabriel's suffering, forgot to watch Lucifer.

He probably thought he couldn't move after what he'd just been through and Lucifer would never know how he did get to his feet. How he did cross the room while Gabriel cried behind him. He took the witches head in his shaking hands, and saw a glimmer of gratefulness, a hint of relief, as he snapped her neck.

There should have been an explosion. A wailing moan as Pestilence lost his anchor to this world and became a formless entity once more. There was no such drama. He disappeared into thin air with no trace left. Except that for the lifeless body of Gabriel lying on the ground.

"No. Not now." Lucifer cursed, at his brother's side in a second.

"Gabriel. Gabriel, don't play games with me."

He shook his brother to emphasise that he didn't have the patience for pranks right now.

"Gabriel, I'm serious. Don't do this ... wake up. He barely got you. Stop being so pathetic."

No reaction came forward. Not even as he cupped Gabriel's cheek, sticky with sweat. For once Lucifer didn't care.

"Wake up. Come on. What do you want? Hugs and kisses? You can forget that. We've won. We'll go home now.

Please."

Something happened. Gabriel's body flickered and disappeared, Lucifer's hands touching nothing but air.

"No. No. Gabriel. Don't do this to me. Not after all this. Come back. You get your damned hugs. You get anything, just come back."

He didn't realise he cried until someone wiped his tears away. He raised his head, came face to face with Gabriel, who smiled.

"Anything, huh?"

"You bastard." Lucifer whispered before drawing Gabriel into a crushing hug. "I thought you died."

He clutched Gabriel's shirt with abandon, tugged at it to emphasise his point.

"Managed to fool you before. I might not have my angel mojo but there's still some Trickster in me. I would have let you stew a little but you look ridiculous when you're crying."

Lucifer was sure Gabriel would keep on rambling if he didn't shut him up soon. So he did the only thing he wanted and sealed Gabriel's lip with a kiss.

The surprise in his brother's eyes was well worth the strange sensation of soft flesh on his lips. It lasted for seconds and then Gabriel kissed back, pushing Lucifer until he fell on his back, arms and legs tangled together.

"I love you." Lucifer murmured between kisses. Caught Gabriel's lips between his teeth before he could answer. The right words slipped out of his mind even as he spoke. He couldn't let them get away again.

"And I am sorry. For everything you want me to be sorry for, I am. I want to stop fighting, I want to be with you again like we used to. I want to hold you and I'll watch your stupid shows with you and I'll be nice to your friends. Anything in the world, I'll do and say. Just don't leave."

"Luce ..." Gabriel whispered, voice suddenly hoarse.

"I'll beg if I have to, Gabriel. I don't care about Heaven or our Father or revenge. I should never have left you and there was not a day in the Cage that I didn't miss you. I want to make you laugh again and listen to your stories and, I want to finally stop fighting."

Lucifer took a deep breath, swallowed down any remaining tears. His forehead rested against Gabriel's, a steady reassurance of his presence. He'd sounded pathetic, utterly without pride. There was no eloquence to his words, but they had to come out in this rough shape or else they would not have come at all.

"Then let's stop fighting." Gabriel said into his ear. The hoarseness was gone, replaced by deep exhaustion. "And go home."

Chapter Text

There was one more thing they had to do before returning home.

The car stood parked somewhat half-assed at the side of the road. Footsteps broke the morning dew on the grass field leading up to the graveyard. It looked just like last time Lucifer had been here, except that the graves were even more overgrown with moss and ivy. There were some new graffitti, too. But the space right in the middle where five years ago Michael and he had fallen into the Cage, was still there. No grass had grown there.

He stared at it, remembering how Sam shook his control with the deep devotion he held for his brother. The glint off the Impala's frame was still sharp in his memory. The toy soldiers. The rattling of plastic bricks in the vents. Two initials carved into the wood with knives. Dean being the brother Michael never was. Standing by Sam's side even when the pain had been unbearable.

A warm hand found his and squeezed gently.

"You okay?" Gabriel asked and Lucifer nodded absently. Then shook his head.

"I'm scared of what will happen." he confessed, reminding himself that he ought to trust Gabriel with things like this. That he could.

"Michael will be just as depowered as you are. And if worst comes to worst, I'm on your side this time around."

Lucifer nodded. The four rings lay heavy in his hand - a treasure Death had been reluctant to give away - and he was almost relieved when he could let go of them, throwing them to the space where they had fallen years ago.

The gaping maw of the Cage almost had him flee. Too fresh the memory of torment, too long ingrained into his being. He'd spent the better part of his life in there, ice freezing his veins, the terrible cacophony of sounds, the razor sharp slices at his wings. He bit his tongue, felt blood pooling in his mouth. He couldn't do it.

Gabriel stroked his thumb over the back of Lucifer's hand.

"I won't let go." he reminded him.

Lucifer knelt down then and reached into the Cage. It felt like putting his arm into a woodchipper. Skin got shredded, tendons torn. Still he reached down and willed the Cage's space and time to accommodate his wishes. His hand found Michael and he clutched him and pulled. His knees slid over the ground. He would have fallen into the Cage again if not for Gabriel who held him still. With all the strength he had left, burning every last drop of Grace in his body he pulled his brother free from the Cage.

The Cage closed as soon as its last prisoner was freed, leaving nothing but a bare patch of dirt and the four rings. And Michael in the Winchester's body, curled into himself.

For all his talk of wanting peace, Lucifer could not bring himself to talk to Michael. He sat on the ground, watched as Michael began realising that the pain had stopped at last. He looked around, confused and as bone-dead tired as Lucifer felt. Before their eyes could lock, Lucifer looked away.

"Michael, hey." Gabriel said, moving towards him as far as he could without letting go of Lucifer. "Hey, it's okay. You're out of Hell."

Lucifer could practically hear the millions of questions that wanted to burst free from his brother. Unable to settle on one, Michael stuttered: "Gabriel? You are here ... how did ... my Grace ... Lucifer ...?"

"Long story. I'll tell you on the way home. Just one question. The boy's soul, Adam. Is he ...?"

"With me." Michael said, still bewildered. "His soul is badly damaged, but he is safe now."

He let himself be led to the car, got into the back without an argument, not even as Lucifer took the driver's seat. The tension was thick enough to cut, which Gabriel resolved by telling Michael the whole story from beginning to end.

Lucifer listened with half an ear, concentrating on the road and making sure he never looked at Michael through the rearview mirror. Or at least not when anyone could see. He hadn't been this close to Michael since before his Fall without a fight breaking out. He felt uneasy but tried his best not to show it. What was the worst they could do, punch each other like humans? Nothing they could do right now would even compare to their previous fights. If there was ever a time to make peace - not make up, not forgive but at least come to a truce, it was now.

Michael listened attentively to Gabriel's story. Occasionally he would cradle his chest as if soothing the other presence inside. Every now and then he would look at Lucifer, unsure, questioning. Lucifer made sure to never catch his eyes.

They arrived at the bunker hours later, exhausted, barely able to stand. Sam, bless his heart, didn't ask too many questions as he saw Michael stumble through the door with them. Lucifer would have fallen into bed right then and there, but Gabriel insisted on at least a small dinner. Having his mouth full at least provided him with an excuse for not talking.

Even though there were plenty of rooms in the bunker, Gabriel followed Lucifer into his without question, curling up to his side and spreading the blankets over them.

"Why do you think Pestilence pulled you out of the Cage and not Michael?" Gabriel asked sleepily, tugging at a question that had bothered for Lucifer far longer than he wanted to admit.

"I think.", he began and hesitated. Gabriel's hands carding through his hair gave him the peace needed to continue. "I think it wasn't Pestilence who did it at all. He resurrected people from the dead and I was never technically dead."

"Then who ...?"

Lucifer stayed silent, even as Gabriel made a small 'oooh' noise.

"You think ... Dad?"

"Sleep, Gabriel."

Gabriel let it go without argument.

He woke once that night when Gabriel stuck his ice-cold toes between his calves but only muttered a curse under his breath and went back to sleep. Not before pulling Gabriel closer and kissing his hair, however.

For now it was perhaps best for Lucifer and Michael not to run into each other too often. Sam followed the same thought pattern and threw Lucifer and Gabriel a case as soon as they had both recovered from the battle with Pestilence. Lucifer took it without complaint. It meant spending time alone with Gabriel, away from Michael, and the Winchester brothers. Just him and Gabriel for however long they could stretch this case.

"What's that?" he asked as he stocked up the trunk of the T-Bird with hunting essentials. Gabriel held something in his hands, reading intently. At Lucifer's question he raised his eyes.

"Dean gave us a mixtape. I told him we couldn't decide on a radio station so he gave us this. Apparently we have been doing it all wrong with driving musicless."

Lucifer only hummed in answer. Checking the equipment one last time he shut the trunk and walked up to Gabriel.

Kissing, he found, was an activity that got better with time. In the beginning the idea of pressing parts of his body together with someone else seemed ridiculous. Something only humans could come up with. But the more he did it, the more he came to enjoy the soft press of Gabriel's lips against his, the lazy joy that warmed him everytime he did it. In a way, by kissing Gabriel he could make sure his affection was still reciprocated without having to outright ask.

"Ready to go?" Gabriel asked after they parted.

"Always."

The sun set as they drove out, tinting the world in gold and red. Gabriel started Dean's mixtape and they drove on, soft music filling the silence between them.

Never thought that you would be standing there so close to me

There's so much I feel that I should say. But words can wait until some other day.

Kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again.

It's been a long, long time ...