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He breathes it in – this sense of peace that wraps itself around his mind. Lucifer finds himself where he began, ironically – back in Hell, yet this time of his own choosing. For her. For them.
For him.
For all the damned, broken souls that deserve another chance.
For all those that are now the way that he once was.
He’s living his second chance. Don’t others deserve that as well?
The ash drifts from the endless sky, falling around him and just as quickly fading into nothingness. Though it isn’t the ash nor the smell of sulfur that reaches his senses. It’s not the darkness that penetrates his soul.
It’s her touch.
He listens to her, his eyes falling shut at her gentle request, and he feels it. What it feels to be tethered so closely to another that your souls couldn’t ever be disentangled. What it feels like to finally never be alone, no matter where he is. No matter the distance that separates them. No matter the time.
It’s a feeling that transcends it all, that soars above the greatest heights and buries itself beneath the lowest depths. And it’s within him. A comforting presence that warms him from some impossible vault inside him, full of the endless tender moments he could never bear to let go of. Those which soothe his soul now.
She’s not here, but her voice is right beside him. Its soft tones drift around him, pulling him into an effortless dance between longing and belonging. Her breath brushes past his ear, the words taking root in his mind to not be a memory, but to be a presence – something that would always be with him.
Her warmth bleeds into him, seeping into every possible point of contact until it’s flooding him from the inside out. Her fingers trail along his neck and up to his chin, leaving sparks of a tenderness he’s never known before in their wake.
He can’t see her, but he feels her all the same. Feels the unimaginable strength of her love to steady him in the roughest of times. The emotions which bury themselves deeper and deeper within him, until they are simply a part of him, a part of his being he could not exist without.
He treasures it all, shutting himself out to everything except her.
Each kiss a moment they’ll have to spend apart. Each touch a day that goes by without the other.
He basks in it. He lets it fill him, infiltrate every corner of his soul, until it’s only the two of them and nothing else. All else falls around them, fades into darkness, the two of them the only source of any sense. Of touch. Of sound. Of light.
She’s with him. She’ll always be with him. Just as she will be the day she stands before him once again, the passing years but a memory, time’s only effect to infinitely compound the love which resides between them. Always.
She is a part of him. Just as he is a part of her. Heart and soul and everything in between.
It’s a certainty that dwells within him, something that pushes at every edge of his mind. That he will be with her again. That he will be with his daughter. That they will be the family he never expected himself to find.
And that’s it. The eternity to come shines as the light in the darkness. It’s distant, but unwavering. Faint, yet unfathomable in strength. He opens his eyes and it nearly penetrates his vision.
His sight clears and he stands before his door, the door which held him as prisoner so long ago, a trap of his own guilt weaving itself around him. It calls to him. But it’s not guilt that pulls at his soul.
No, it calls to him. It’s his calling. The possibilities beckon him, the unknowns asking to be discovered.
Shadows dance across the surface of the door, cast by a light that comes not from within. He grips the door handle, cautiously pulling it open, and light floods his vision. Light. Light. Light pouring not out, but in, any trace of darkness vanishing, every shadow retreating to unseeable depths. So much light that it blinds even him.
It’s his oldest calling, yet only now does it feel like his… does it truly feel his own to bring light.
The brightest angel cast into the darkest existence… not meant to reside in darkness but to illuminate it. To bring light. To bring change. To bring hope.
Hope – it flares within him, it draws that smile upon his face, the first since arriving in Hell. Because, even now, it’s already starting to not feel like Hell to him. Long gone are the days of being a punisher. Of punishing others. Of punishing himself.
Instead, he’s a healer. To allow people to grow better, to realize their own worth, just as all those who had done the same for him.
A warm sight greets him, a place that reminds him of home. And he knows this feels right, this place of healing. He couldn’t think of any better way for it to be.
He walks through the door, potential at his heels and hope in his heart, a not so distant future shining brightly before him.
But first… he has a lot of work to do.