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Being tortured by Crowley barely a day after being depowered isn’t his idea of a good time.
It isn’t torture per se, it’s mainly the demon going on and on about how he’s now king of hell and how Lucifer’s a puny human and yada yada yada. He would’ve already pleaded for him to shut up if he was not currently bleeding on the floor and with his head pounding painfully after said demon beat his ass.
Oh, and he’s shackled too because Crowley’s a kinky motherfucker.
Lucifer manages to bite his lip in order to not scream when he dislocates his thumb to get at least one of his hands free of the shackles. He risks a glance at Crowley, who is now talking on the phone with who Lucifer supposes are the Winchester’s, to boast a little bit more before they come and get him.
Lucifer takes a deep breath and uses his own blood to draw a sigil of his own making that’s going to get him out of here. He’s going to need another one on himself to hide what remains of his grace and himself from heaven, hell, witches and whatever is out there that can kill him. But one step at a time.
“What are you-” He hears Crowley say just before he slaps his bloodied hand on the sigil and disappears from the house.
The landing is not the best of his life but crashing through some trees is better than bleeding out on a dirty floor.
Lucifer grunts and opens his eyes, oh how he hates being dizzy. He closes them again and takes a deep breath, fumbling around searching for something sharp, but there are only leaves and flimsy branches. The rattle of the cuffs and the birds singing are the only sounds he can hear.
The cuffs.
He grabs the one that he managed to get off and raises his body into a sitting position with lots of effort, a few curses, and a new wave of dizziness but manages to grab a rock and break open the cuff, the sharp end shining under the sun and making him blink a few times.
“Well, it’s this or getting killed so…” Lucifer takes a deep breath and rips the left leg of his pants so he can use the cuff to cut a sigil into his thigh. He growls and his gaze unfocuses a few times but he feels the sigil activate once he’s finished.
“I’m the best.” he manages to garble before he passes out.
-
When he opens his eyes again, the sun is getting low and the orange glow of the sky reflects in the river that is by his side. He didn’t notice that before… Well, he was pretty out of it so he doesn’t make a big deal out of it.
Lucifer tries to rise to a sitting position but finds a gun pointed at his face, his eyes open wide at the unexpected turn of events and he looks up at the man pointing the weapon at his face.
He’s a middle-aged man with dark hair and brown eyes, there’s a suspicious frown on his face and his hold on the gun doesn’t quiver. Must be a hunter then.
“Oh, ‘mazing, just wha’ I needed.” he has to swallow hard a couple of times so he doesn't throw up all over himself.
He takes a deep breath and lets his head fall back to the ground, his arms fall into his stomach and he starts feeling really dizzy. He is so tired. These humans and their wimpy little bodies. He hates them. Hates being one of them.
Through the ringing in his ears, the fallen archangel hears movement by his left, leaves crunching under the man's boots. He flinches when he feels a cold hand on the side of his neck, a blissfully cold hand, and he melts into the touch.
Not a very good time to show how touch-starved you are, Luci. His subconscious reminds him.
He feels like he is on fire.
Lucifer’s not used to human body heat but he knows something’s not quite right with him. He thinks he hears the man say something about a fever before he feels an arm around his waist and gets picked up.
Lucifer grunts, feeling so very dizzy and so very tired, and tries his best to squash down the need to throw up that overcomes him again when he gets straightened up. Everything hurts, but his pride manages to get his legs working until they reach a cabin near a lake, not very far from where they were by the river.
It’s a small wood cabin with a porch. Lucifer doesn’t have time to look for details when he’s getting dragged inside. Once they are inside, the man sits him down on the toilet and starts rummaging through the bathroom cabinets. Lucifer has to steady himself with a hand on the wall so he doesn’t fall headfirst to the ground when everything around him starts spinning. He blinks hard a couple of times in an attempt to ground himself with no results.
Lucifer feels his eyes start to close against his will, but before he can actually close them he feels a sharp pain in his cheek that makes his neck crack. The archangel opens his eyes, startled and confused.
“Did you just slap me?” he mumbles at the best of his capacity, trying to let the man know how offended he is by that fact.
The man ignores him while he cuts his shirt open and tells him to stay awake. Lucifer nods and does everything the man asks of him: ‘get up for a second I need to get your pants off, they are filthy’; ‘lean into me for a second I need to get you to sit down again’; ‘hey, don’t fall asleep I’m not wasting all this medicine just for you to die on me, asshole.’
After what feels like an eternity (and that's saying something coming from a being who was in a cage for thousands of years), the man is finished patching him up and Lucifer manages to get his legs to work for the second time so the man can get him to the bed. He drops him unceremoniously on it and that gets a grunt out of the archangel.
“Are you a hunter?” the man asks and Lucifer opens his eyes to see him looking at the sigil he carved on his thigh. Lucifer shakes his head no and takes a deep breath.
“I’m most certainly not, but I assume you are if you know what sigils are.” The man nods and looks at him again. “Can you stop looking at my thighs, tho? I'm not really into old men.”
“I don’t know who or what you are but you don’t look very powerful so I'm not going to kill you, for now.”
Lucifer frowns at that. The audacity.
“I am very powerful, thank you very much, I just find myself kind of… human, right now, but don’t worry, I'm not going to hurt you. You helped me and I protect the people who do that.” he stops talking after saying that, thinking. “Well, you’re the first one who’s ever helped me so I guess you’re going to be the first one to enjoy the benefits of that statement.”
He looks up again to see the hunter looking at him skeptically, the man shakes his head and throws Lucifer a blanket.
“Shut up and get some sleep, you’re weird…”
The man looks at him so he can say his name and Lucifer opens his mouth to proudly announce who he is but thinks better about it and closes his mouth to clear his throat before speaking again.
“Nick, my name’s Nick.”
The hunter seems unconvinced but nods anyway “Okay, Nick, get some sleep.” He says as he slowly gets up from the chair he was sitting on, but stops when Lucifer grabs his jacket. “What? Are you scared of the dark or something?”
Lucifer frowns, maybe he is afraid of the dark but that’s not why he stopped the hunter from leaving. “You didn’t tell me your name.”
The man seems to consider the pros and cons of telling him his name for a bit while he gets his jacket out of Lucifer’s grasp. “Michael.” Lucifer freezes at hearing the name but schools his expression and nods.
“Okay, then. Good night, Michael.”
“Good night, Nick.”
-
When Lucifer wakes up the next day, his whole body is sore and everything aches. He doesn’t like the dizzy sensation he gets when he wakes up, he wishes he didn’t need to sleep. It feels weird and he most certainly does not like the sensation of losing consciousness.
He tries to sit down but a sharp pain shoots from his ribs and he has to lay down again with a gasp so he doesn’t throw up all over himself. He takes a deep breath in, adds that to his ‘list of things to hate about human bodies’, and sits down, his legs dangling from the bed. He sees that Michael has left some pants for him on a chair and puts them on. He’s sweating by the time he reaches the bathroom, but he didn’t throw up, that has to count for something.
He manages to relieve himself and close the zipper without permanently injuring his dick. He looks at himself in the mirror and frowns at the odd mixture of black, purple, and yellow that is his face.
Lucifer cleans his hands and his face carefully and gets out of the bathroom just in time to see Michael get his boots off by the door and shake the dirt out of them. They lock eyes and Michael looks at him from head to toe.
“You can stand by yourself, that’s good. You were pretty out of it yesterday.” He says conversationally and leaves a paper bag on the cabin's kitchen counter. “Bought you some breakfast, the only food I got here were some fruits, milk, and oatmeal. Have you ever tried any of it?”
Lucifer shakes his head and carefully limps to the paper bag, opening it. “Never tried any food, at all.” He looks at Michael and catches him staring.
“What are you? You already told me you’re not human, well, you kind of are now... but…” Michael looks at him and frowns slightly. “Are you a demon?”
Lucifer smiles a little but shakes his head. “Most will tell you that I am but no, I am actually an angel.” Michael tenses a bit but Lucifer gets his hands up in a placating manner. “I’m not going to hurt you, Michael, relax. You helped me and I’m in your debt.” He scoffs a laugh. “I don’t think I could hurt anybody in this state anyway.” He says pointing at his face and grabbing the paper bag to smell its contents. “Smells good, I think. What is it?”
When he looks at Michael he’s still tense and Lucifer sighs, leaving the paper bag back on the kitchen counter.
“I can leave if you want me to, really.” He says honestly, looking at the other man. “You’ve already healed me, I can’t ask anything else from you. If only you could give me some directions to the nearest town, I don’t know what I would do there, because I don’t know shit about how you humans do things, but I can-”
“You can’t go.” Michael cuts him mid-rambling and Lucifer notices that he has relaxed a bit, although he is still tense and ready to defend himself if the need arises. “There’s a storm coming and the roads are going to be impossible to navigate. That’s why I went out early today to gather some supplies.” He points at the several plastic bags on the kitchen table. “We’re going to be confined here and probably without power except the one coming from the generator.”
Lucifer nods, listening to what the other man is saying. He looks at the paper bag again when his stomach starts growling from hunger. Michael seems to notice that and stops talking.
“You can eat, you know that, right?” Lucifer looks at the contents of the paper bag and Michael explains. “They are donuts. They are sweet, do you like sweet things?”
Lucifer shrugs and takes one out of the bag. “I don’t know. They are kind of sticky.” He makes a face but bites one anyway. He closes his eyes and nods in appreciation. “This is really good.” He says while chewing.
Michael rolls his eyes and gives him a glass of orange juice so he can drink it while eating the donuts.
“My brother likes sweet things,” Lucifer says as an afterthought. “Don’t know if he still likes them though, haven’t seen him in a while.”
Michael makes a non-committal sound and Lucifer shakes his head, trying to get the memories of Gabriel and his sticky fingers out of his head so he can enjoy his donut properly.
They spend the next few minutes in companionable silence, Lucifer eating while Michael puts the food away in cabinets or inside the fridge. Lucifer touches the other man’s shoulder when he finishes his task and lends him the paper bag with two donuts still inside.
“You need to eat too.”
Michael looks at him for a second as if trying to analyze what’s going on inside his brain but nods and eats them while sipping on the cup of coffee he just made. He stops mid-bite when he sees Lucifer grab his cup and smell it.
“What is this?” The archangel’s nose twitches after smelling it again.
“Coffee. Try it.” Lucifer takes a small sip and gags, giving the cup back to Michael, who is smiling as if this is the most fun he’s had in his life.
“This is foul! How can you drink this?”
“It’s good.” Michael says while taking another sip.
“It’s horrid.”
“You’re tasteless.”
“And you’re a masochist if you drink this shit willingly.”
Michael can’t help but smile at the angel’s fast reaction to his banter. He finishes his breakfast and gets up, Lucifer looks at him, his head slightly tilted to the right in a way that makes him look like a curious puppy. Michael grabs a revolver and looks at the angel, who tensed up a bit.
“Come with me, I’m going to teach you how to shoot one of these things before the storm begins. You’re practically useless to me if you can’t defend yourself.” That makes Lucifer frown but he nods and follows the other man outside, limping in some boots and an extra jacket that Michael lends him.
They go to the back of the house where Michael places some beer bottles on top of a log and goes back to where Lucifer is standing, a few feet away.
“Okay, first let me teach you how these work so you don’t shoot yourself accidentally.”
Lucifer rolls his eyes but gets closer to Michael to both see better and to take advantage of his body heat. Lucifer likes the cold, but he’s still adjusting to this body and the constant temperature change is driving him nuts.
He listens to the hunter talk about safety, how to check if there are enough bullets, how to open and close the chamber, and how to hold the gun properly.
“Okay,” Michael gives him the gun when he finishes explaining “you need to hit the beer bottles there.” Lucifer raises his arms, looking at where the hunter is pointing, shifting his hands to take a better hold of the gun and pointing at the bottles. “Aim slightly up. I don’t expect you to hit any of them first try, but-”
The sound of the gun firing cuts the hunter’s rambling and the consequent sound of a beer bottle breaking and hitting the forest floor makes him look at the angel, who's smirking at him, with the gun still raised towards the bottles. “You were saying?”
“Beginner's luck.”
“Is that so?” Lucifer’s smirk grows wider as he shoots again. Another bottle hits the dirt, and then another, and another until the five beer bottles are all broken on the forest floor. “Was that luck too?” The archangel's smile widens and he clicks the security back on and lends the gun back to the hunter. “I like to think that I’m better than you.”
“Don’t let it go to your head, the bottles didn’t move. Deers and rabbits do.” The hunter turns to face the angel, who still has that smug smile on his face.
“Would it kill you to praise my skills?” he pouts and Michael rolls his eyes and turns towards the cabin. Lucifer trailing behind him, complaining about emotionally unavailable hunters that don’t praise him enough.
Michael was never going to admit it but he really was impressed. He smiled to himself softly all the way back to the cabin.
-
6 months later, Lucifer is still living in Michael’s cabin with him. So far he has learned that the man doesn’t have a family, his parents died in a fire long ago and he never got a wife or kids, so he felt really lonely. That’s something Lucifer can empathize with.
Michael taught him how to shoot different guns, how to track, how to hold his own with knives in a fight, how to pick locks and how to drive. Lucifer was happy for the first time in a very long time, and he felt that Michael was happy to have a friend by his side too.
That was the thing. Michael was Lucifer’s first friend. He didn’t even remember if he’d had any friends before the fall, so this middle-aged hunter was his first friend.
And that made Lucifer happy.
That’s probably the reason why everything went to hell.
Lucifer was out getting some wood to burn in the fireplace because it was getting really cold in the woods this time of the year. Michael told him about Christmas and how the people that lived in the nearest town would decorate the streets and trees with lights and shit; Lucifer would be lying if he said that he wasn’t excited to see the lights and the decorations. He and Michael will be driving to town tomorrow to buy some Christmas lights and decorations to decorate one of the trees near the cabin.
These little humans decorating the streets and getting each other presents didn’t quite fit the hateful picture that he had created in his head. There was even a lady in town that always gave him some free pie leftovers from her shop. Michael said she did that because she liked Lucifer but the archangel was in denial.
Lucifer can't help the soft smile that stretches his lips while lifting the last piece of wood from the floor and into the back of the truck.
Maybe humans aren’t so bad…
He’s on his way back to the cabin when he hears a gunshot and a scream. Lucifer freezes and the car stops dead in the middle of the road.
Michael.
He gets out of the car and starts running as fast as he possibly can back to the cabin, just when he’s reaching for the door handle, it bursts open and hits him square in the nose.
His hands go there by instinct and he falls to his knees, pain blinding his senses.
He manages to open his eyes and blink the pain away fast enough to see two men climbing inside of a truck and driving off. Lucifer memorizes the license plate out of habit and gets up as fast as possible, stumbling into the cabin, falling to his knees once again but getting back up.
The first thing he sees is a trail of blood and some bloody footprints leaving the kitchen. He runs there, his heart beating so hard that he can feel it in his ears. He opens the kitchen door and his blood freezes when he sees Michael on the floor, in a pool of his own blood. Lucifer gets on his knees and grabs the side of Michael’s face, looking at the stab wound in his stomach and the bullet wound on his chest.
He’s still breathing but Lucifer knows only from a quick look at the hunter’s wounds that he’s not going to survive.
He’s not going to survive.
The archangel’s vision starts darkening as that thought plays on repeat inside his brain. He tries to blink several times but the only thing he achieves is his breathing picking up speed. He knows he’s having a panic attack. He gets those some nights after he wakes up screaming from his dreams about the fall or the cage.
Usually, Michael helps him calm down. He always helps him. But now he won't be able to help him anymore.
Now Lucifer was going to be alone... again.
His friend was going to die.
And it was his fault because he was not here. If he had stayed in the house instead of going out, Michael would still be-
“Nick…”
Lucifer snaps out of his panic and looks at the man under him. Michael is looking at him, pain clouding his features and a hand pressing down on his stab wound.
“Michael, what can I do? I… I don’t know what to do…” Lucifer pleads, looking at the man who’s dying in his hands. Michael shakes his head and reaches out with a bloody hand to grab a side of Lucifer’s neck in a sweet gesture. Lucifer can’t stop the tears falling from his eyes anymore. “Michael, you can’t die. Do you hear me? I… I don’t know what I’m going to do without you…” The archangel closes his eyes as the pain inside his chest increases.
This must be a nightmare. This is not happening.
Lucifer tried to breathe.
This is not real.
He’s going to wake up soon to find Michael sitting down by the fire complaining about winter and how he couldn’t feel his feet anymore. Drinking a mug of his favorite awful coffee.
This is not real.
“Nick, look at me.” Michael gasps and Lucifer opens his eyes, looking at him through his tears. “You find those motherfuckers.” He says in a wheeze before taking a deep breath and fighting to keep his eyes open. “You track them down, and you kill them,” he growls, fury behind his eyes. “You understand?”
Lucifer nods, more tears staining his face. Michael nods and pats the archangel’s cheek one more time. He lets his hand fall back to the floor staining Lucifer’s face with his bloody fingers.
“And you tell them before they die that you are avenging me.” Michael’s eyes are fading and Lucifer can’t do anything to stop it except nod and reassure the old man that he's going get revenge on his behalf. “Good boy. You are a good man, Nick…”
“Lucifer.” the archangel says in a whisper. Because what’s the point in hiding anymore, the least he can do before the hunter dies is tell him the truth. “I’m Lucifer…”
The hunter looks at him for a second before giving him a small smile.
“I know who you are. Do you think I’m that stupid?” Lucifer startles at that, looking at Michael as if he was seeing a completely different person. “When you told me you were an angel and how you reacted to my name… man, you need to work on masking your emotions, it’s ridiculous how easy it is to read you.”
Lucifer is about to answer and defend his pride but the hunter starts coughing blood and he closes his eyes in pain. When the cough stops he takes a deep breath and grabs Lucifer’s clean hand with his bloodied one.
“You do what I told you, and you tell them who you are and why you are killing them.” He tightens his grasp on Lucifer’s hand for a final time before finally losing consciousness, his head rolling to the side and his hand losing its grip on Lucifer’s.
The archangel closes his eyes hard, not letting go of the hunter's cold hand and arches inwards. The pain in his chest exploding, the shards of his broken heart digging painfully against his ribcage making the blinding pain that follows unbearable.
Why can’t he have nice things?
Is this his destiny? Being alone for all eternity, inside and outside the cage?
He lets out a pained sob that rocks his entire body and then a growl that turns into a pained scream because it’s just so unfair.
What has he done to deserve this? Hasn’t he suffered enough?
When he stops screaming and his sobs turn into pained whimpers he opens his eyes and touches Michael’s face for the last time before getting up and looking around. Tears still fall from his eyes, leaving cold trails down his cheeks.
He has things to do, people to track and a friend to avenge. Michael would not want him to waste time grieving. He can grieve later when the job is done.
Because he’s going to do it. He’s going to find them and he’s going to kill them. He’s going to make sure they end in the deepest pit of hell getting tortured for eternity.
Because nobody fucks with Lucifer and leaves unscratched. Not anymore. Not ever again.
-
Driving is exhausting when you’re doing it alone, Lucifer decides.
The only thing that makes it kinda bearable is Michael’s old disco CDs, but even those were making him antsy. He’s restless.
He’s still searching for the truck with the license plate that he has memorized by heart but he can’t find them anywhere. He has been driving for two days but hasn’t gotten lucky.
It’s barely 9 a.m when Lucifer decides to stop in the next town and try to get some information from a police station. Sneaking in obviously, because Nick was technically a dead man and he didn’t have the time nor the patience to elaborate some intricate lie to justify that to a police officer.
He parks in front of the first coffee shop he sees and gets out of the car. He needs to eat something that’s warm. December is getting nearer every day and the cold makes his hands ache. He wants something warm to drink while he thinks about how he’s going to sneak into the town’s police department.
He approaches the lady behind the counter while rubbing his hands, trying to get some feeling back to his fingers. The girl looks at him and gives him a soft smile.
“Good morning, what can I help you with?”
“Morning, I would like some hot chocolate, and… do you have churros?” Lucifer asks politely. He doesn’t know if churros are available everywhere. He just knows that Michael always managed to get some for breakfast every Sunday.
That memory sends a pang straight to what’s left of his heart, but he manages not to show it on his face.
“Of course, do you want to pay now or later?” She writes it down in a little notebook and Lucifer gets his wallet.
“Now please, can I sit down here?” He points at a stool by his right. The girl gives him a nod and Lucifer sits down. He rubs his hands a little bit more before getting his phone out, searching the location of the nearest police station.
He knows that he can search license plates and see where they were last seen, but he really doesn’t want to be found out. He just wants to finish this as soon as possible so he can go back to the cabin and cry himself into oblivion.
His self-deprecating thoughts are interrupted by the lady giving him his hot chocolate and five churros. He manages to mutter a small ‘thank you’ before diving right in and closing his eyes when the chocolate warms his body.
Lucifer liked cold, he got used to it, but Michael made him appreciate things like hot chocolate or warm soup on a rainy day.
He sighed. Thinking about Michael, any of the two Michaels in his life, was painful. But he cannot crack, he has a job that he needs to finish.
He finishes working on his plan while eating his breakfast and goes back to his car after thanking the girl once again.
-
He waits patiently inside of Michael’s car, reading a book and eating some Chinese takeaway until it’s dark and then he’s ready to set his plan into motion.
Lucifer gets out of his car and sneaks into an alley next to the police station. The building is small and Lucifer noticed there were only two agents inside. When he walked by the front door.
He takes a deep breath and starts climbing one of the pipes until he manages to reach a window. He makes sure that the room is empty and opens the window before slipping inside. Easy, the windows aren’t even locked.
That makes the archangel roll his eyes, so much for police security.
He slides inside without much trouble and crouches slowly until he reaches the door and locks it quietly. He waits a minute but the only sound he can hear is one of the two agents chatting by the front desk of the station.
Lucifer gets up and looks around, looking at the two computers in the room. One of the agents left one unlocked so Lucifer sits down in front of that one and starts clicking around. Searching for the tool to search license plates.
This takes him some minutes because he doesn't know much about computers but finally, he manages to find the software and writes the license plate on the search engine.
Results pop out almost immediately. After just a few seconds he sees that one of the cameras of a nearby town had captured the truck just outside a motel just two hours before. Lucifer takes some photos with his phone: of the truck, the plate, and who it belonged to and leaves the station through the window, unnoticed.
The archangel‘s blood was pumping fast, and after a quick search on google maps he finds out that they are just a few hours away from where he is now. Lucifer gets the engine running and steps on the gas, tires screeching.
He’s going to kill them, not today because it was already late, but tomorrow.
They were going to regret messing with the Devil.
-
“Are you sure you saw this man here?” Dean shows the girl Lucifer’s picture again and she nods, very convinced.
“Yeah, it was him here this morning, really pretty eyes.” she frowns at Dean. “He seemed like a nice man, left me a good tip, and thanked me before he left. Is he in trouble?” She actually looked concerned, wasn’t that bizarre?
Dean smiles and pockets the picture back inside his jacket. “No, we’re just searching for him, he just disappeared one day, you know? We’re worried.” The girl nods and looks at him one last time before turning away and getting back into the kitchen.
Dean sighs and gets out of the coffee shop making his way back to the Impala. Where Sam and Castiel are waiting for him. He gets inside and looks at Sam.
“She confirmed it, it was him, have you got his car?”
“Yes, he stopped at 2 am in a motel in Hutchinson, it’s an hour from here, less if you speed up.” Dean nods and steps on the gas.
“Did he cause trouble or something?” Castiel asks after a while, from the back of the Impala.
“No, quite the opposite.” Dean frowns, recalling what the lady said about Lucifer. “She said that he left a good tip and thanked her for everything.”
“That woman from the other town only had good things to say about him too.” Sam reminded them and there was silence in the Impala, the three of them recalling their visit to the Town
-
Two days ago
“Excuse me, lady, we are looking for this man; have you seen him recently? Some people have told us he was seen here last.” Dean shows the pie shop owner a picture of Lucifer.
“Oh, that’s Nick! What happened? Is he in trouble?” She really looks worried, as if she knew him personally. Dean frowns and prepares to ask but Sam beats him to it.
“You sound like you know him well? Does he live here?” Sam asks softly and the woman nods.
“Yes, he lives up in the forest with Michael.” Both brothers frown at hearing the name. “He was always lonely, you know. When I first got settled here in town and opened my shop I would always see him doing the same things at the same time, he didn’t look happy. He probably felt very lonely, living alone in the woods...” She sighs and looks through her phone while talking.
Sam and Dean look at each other, trying not to panic. If they have to fight not one but two archangels… they are fucked. The lady, oblivious to their panic, keeps talking.
“But then Nick happened. I don’t know where he came from but he started living with Michael, started coming to town with him…” she gives them her phone.
A picture of Lucifer, herself and a few other people from the town surrounding, who Dean thought was, Michael. The man looked like he would rather be anywhere else but there and he was sitting down in front of a birthday cake that announced ‘Happy BDay, Mickey !!’ in messy handwriting and some candles.
“Nick insisted on writing on the cake, he’s not very good at it as you can see. But Michael loved it. I know you can’t see it because he always has that grumpy expression, but believe me, he was having the time of his life.” She grabs her phone back and writes something down on a piece of paper. “This is where the cabin is located.”
“Thank you very much…” Sam leaves the sentence hanging so the lady can answer her name.
“May, my name is May.” She looks them in the eye and crosses her arms, frowning slightly. “If you hurt them, I’m going to find you and I don’t know what I will do next but believe me when I say that it’ll not be pretty, gentlemen.”
The brothers nod and leave the shop as fast as their feet allow them.
“How did it go?” Castiel asks when they get inside and Sam fakes a shiver.
“That was terrifying.” Dean whispers, looking back at the shop through the rear-view mirror and starting the car to go to the cabin May had told them about.
When they reach the cabin they are greeted by silence, the only sounds that they can hear are the birds chirping happily around them. The cabin looks well maintained and cared for, recently painted. Dean grabs a hold of his gun and Sam slowly reaches for the doorknob. Castiel stays close but not enough to get shot if things get messy. Sam opens the door fast and both he and Dean point their guns inside.
Nothing.
They look through the entire house. Empty, except for some food left in the cabinets, no Michael, and no Lucifer.
“Dean.” The older Winchester hears Cass call him from the kitchen and he sees the angel looking down at the clean wood floor.
“What? I don’t see anything.” Dean looks around and Castiel points at the floor.
“There was blood here recently, lots of it.” He looks at the brothers. “I can also sense some of Lucifer’s residual grace but it’s very weak and has almost vanished completely.
“Lucifer got hurt here?” Sam asks, looking at the clean floor as if it could tell him something by just looking at it.
Castiel shakes his head. “I can’t say for sure but I think it was not his blood.”
“Michael's then,” Dean says what they are all thinking.
“Yes. That's my theory. I can also sense some protective sigils, not very strong, but enough to keep supernatural beings outside.” Cass keeps talking while Sam and Dean keep searching the house.
“He’s a hunter.” Sam approaches them with a book in his hands: ‘supernatural creatures’.
“Lucifer was living with a hunter?” Dean asks, disbelievingly. “How?”
“Maybe he didn’t tell him who he really was…” Sam tries but Castiel shakes his head. Pointing at a dog-eared page in the book and opening it. It was the part about archangels.
“He knew.”
-
They reach the motel fifty minutes later and locate Lucifer’s car parked just outside of the front door. Dean gets inside and shows the man sitting at the front desk a picture of the archangel.
“Oh yes, handsome dude. Asked me about two assholes leaving a few streets from here. He told me something about them changing locations and him wanting to deliver something from a friend. Told him where to find them.” the man chews loudly on his gum a bit more before talking again. “It was not long ago, an hour tops.”
“Thanks, can you tell me where these two live?” Dean lends him some paper and a pen and the man nods.
“Sure.”
Dean goes back to the car and tells Sam and Cass what the man has told him while driving to Marcus and Jason’s house, at least those were the names the man had told him.
They park outside and look through the windows but the curtains are closed and they can’t see anything, they crouch and Dean tries the doorknob. Unlocked. They grab their guns and get inside. As soon as the door locks back behind them, they can hear voices.
They approach, still crouching and when they reach the living room they see the two men tied up on two chairs, both have a stab wound in their left leg and a head wound. One of them is talking to Lucifer.
“Look dude, you can’t just barge in and tie us up like this. Who even are you?” The man looks panicked, but Lucifer is staring at him almost peacefully.
“I’m not here to talk, I’m here because I made a promise. But I’m going to make an exception. Just for you.” He walks close and crouches in front of the man.
Dean makes a face, Lucifer looks bad. Dark circles under his eyes, his skin sickly white and his hair is a mess, as if he hasn’t washed it in a while.
“Five days ago I was picking up some wood from the forest because I and my friend were running out of it in the cabin. I was just going back when I heard a gunshot and someone screaming. I ran as fast as I could back to the cabin, scared that something happened to my friend. You got out as I was almost opening the door and hit me in the face. But that’s not what I’m here for.” He snarls and gets up. “You killed Michael. You killed my friend!” He screams at them, his hands are holding the shotgun by his stomach and his whole body is trembling. He raises his arms and points the gun at him, his voice thick with emotion. “Tell me why did you kill him, Jason.” He asks in a furious growl, a few tears escaping his eyes. “Tell me!!” He screams again.
“He killed my girlfriend!” The man screams back, tears in his eyes. But Lucifer is not relenting.
“Michael didn't kill people. Only monsters.” He states calmly. “When did she kill her?”
“A month ago, right in this town.” The man looks at Lucifer with hate in his eyes. “She was a wendigo. But she was getting better!”
“I remember what you’re talking about. Michael mentioned something about a Wendigo killing children sometime last month after a hunt.” Lucifer points the gun at him. “He saved children, he did his job. He protected you all ungrateful bastards and you broke into his house and you killed him!!” Lucifer screams and points the gun at the man with more intention this time.
Dean decides that it’s time for them to intervene. He gets up, banging the door open and pointing his gun at Lucifer, who turns around, the grab on his gun flawless, he doesn’t hesitate.
“Lucifer, get the gun down. Now.” Dean says carefully and Sam stays behind him, his gun also trained on the archangel.
“This has nothing to do with you,” Lucifer says, his voice icy, his tear-stained cheeks shining under the dim light of the room. “He asked me to do it. Michael asked me to get revenge. To kill them.” He's shaking again, his eyes wild but his grip on the gun unwavering.
“Lucifer, I need you to take a deep breath and-” Sam tries but the archangel makes a sound that Dean supposed was a laugh but it ended up sounding more like a whine.
“A deep breath?” Lucifer looks at both of them like a caged animal, ready to strike at any second. “They killed my friend. The one who healed me without caring about who I was, the one who taught me how to hunt, track and that humans can be nice, sometimes.” Another tear slid down his cheek and Dean’s chest hurt a little at the sight. “We were going to go buy fucking Christmas decorations the next day, buy presents and shit.” He is getting angry again and Sam and Dean tense up. “And you know what I got instead? Do you know what I fucking got?! My friend, dead in my arms! Because this fuckers were upset about Michael killing Christopher’s girlfriend who was a fucking wendigo and liked to eat children for breakfast!”
Lucifer was hyperventilating at this point, he couldn't stop crying and his body was shaking.
“So don’t tell me I can’t get revenge on them when they killed my friend for protecting the children of this town.” His voice breaks and it’s almost painful to see. “Don’t tell me I can’t kill these two pieces of trash when Michael’s last words were ‘you tell them who you are and why are you killing them.’” Lucifer gets a deep breath in and closes his eyes, when he opens them again, they are stone cold. ”So…” He looks at the two men and points the gun straight back at them. “My name is Lucifer and I’m killing you because you killed my friend.”
“Lucifer st-!”
Dean hears Sam scream before he sees Lucifer shoot the two men dead with a single shot in their heads. The archangel stays in position for a few seconds before getting the security back on his gun with one hand and dropping it to the floor by his feet.
Sam looks at the now-dead men and before he can shoot their killer, the archangel drops to his knees, his stare empty, and gets his hands behind his head. Nobody moves for a second, Lucifer’s voice is the one that breaks the silence.
“Are you going to kill me or what?” Dean flinches at how rough his voice is and approaches the archangel. He is looking down, not meeting Dean’s stare. The hunter stares at his scalp for a bit before talking.
“Did they really kill him?” His voice is soft, there is a pause before Lucifer nods, his hands dropping by his sides. “What did you do with the body? We didn’t find one.”
“Buried him.” His voice is not more than a whisper. “That’s what you humans do, right?” He shrugs. “Figured he would go to heaven that way, get some peace.”
Dean nods and looks at Sam, who has already put his gun away. Lucifer talks again, surprising them all.
“I got out of The Cage. Crowley found me not long after that, tortured me, but got so tied up in his ego that he didn’t notice me slipping away with a sigil. I ended up near a lake in Colorado, Michael found me and healed me.” he looks up at them. “I told him I was an angel, I didn't want to tell him who I was… feared he would shoot me dead on the spot.” his face twists in a pained half-smile. “Turns out he knew from the start.” He sighs and gets up slowly, like his whole body aches. “He still taught me how to shoot and how to fight and hunt. Taught me about holidays and Christmas…” He closes his eyes again, trying not to cry. “He taught me that maybe you lot aren’t that bad, that there are good people…people who help others. As he did...” he looks at Dean, rage burning in his eyes again. “And that got him killed.”
Silence fills the room. Dean doesn’t know what to say, because if it was Sam who they had killed, Dean would’ve done the exact same thing. So he does what he thinks it’s best, he grabs Lucifer’s arm softly, noticing how the archangel flinches at the touch and carefully tugs him to the front door.
“How about this… you come with us, get some rest and time to grieve properly and then we talk about some kind of deal that benefits both of us?” Lucifer looks at him, openly surprised. “What?”
“I thought you’d kill me on the spot… not that you were going to offer me a deal.” He looks at Dean’s eyes as if searching for some kind of lie.
“Look man,” Dean sighs and keeps on tugging at the archangel’s shirt, getting him out of the door. “If it was Sam who these two killed, I would've done the exact same thing. I don’t blame you.” The hunter says honestly and they look at each other. “Besides, you look like shit, you need a bed to sleep in and a pillow to cry on, let’s go. We can talk later.”
Lucifer looks at him for a little longer and gets into the back of the Impala with Castiel. Dean stops Sam before he gets into the car.
“Are you okay with him staying at the bunker with us?” He didn't think about how Sam might feel about the whole thing, he just acted on impulse.
“I’m fine, Dean” the younger Winchester nods and smiles reassuringly. “I don’t think he’s interested in me as his vessel anymore. He didn’t even look at me more than he looked at you or Cass. I think he has paid enough for what he did to me… he got back into the Cage and when he escaped he made a friend and he died in his arms… I think he deserves a break.”
Dean nods and they both get in the car. They have at least three more hours before they reach the Bunker and are able to get some rest.