Work Text:
“‘cause when you know, you know”
—
“Sera, I’m begging you please, open the portal!”
Her golden eyes teary, face deformed in a mixture of pain and resentment towards the seraphim angel. Lute can’t help but hate her guts right now. For hiding the fact that Adam is still alive. He fell into the depths of Hell, but Adam, a piece of her she thought she died inside her heart, is still alive. And she found out only because she overheard Sera and the higher angels talking about it at a meeting.
“Lute, no matter how many times you come here to beg on your knees, I can’t let you go to Hell” Sera says. Her voice is resolute, but a grain of sadness can be heard.
“But I mourned him! I saw Adam die in my arms and you’re keeping me away from him? How cruel can you be, Sera?!”
“Me and the other seraphim angels are ourselves still trying to figure out this situation. It’s very delicate, we can’t jump to conclusions”.
“Can’t you just take him back?!”
“It’s not easy like that, Lute. There’s…something that keeps him there. Not only judgement. We can’t bring Adam back right now”.
Lute falls on her knees, her watery eyes planted on the floor. Her wings close around her, in a way to comfort herself. Then, her fingers clench, clawing the floor. She grits her teeth, pushing the tears back. She looks up at Sera, her eyes are pitiful. She doesn’t care. Lute would do whatever it takes, even beg again and again.
“Please, Sera. I promise I won’t try to take him back. But please, let me just see Adam again once. I just want to see him with my eyes and then I’ll stop crying for your fucking help until we figure out how to save him”.
Sera finally directly interlocks eyes with Lute. She feels every inch of her burning, angry desire of seeing Adam again, the one person she stood by for eternity. Sera sighs, massaging her temples with the tip of her fingers. Then, she looks at Lute again, her face as serious as ever.
“Alright, Lute. But please, don’t do anything unwise. I’ll give you some time”.
Lute gets up, an incredulous expression on her face. She nods, her heart is pounding in her chest. She’ll see him again. Adam, the First Man, her idiot, arrogant, egomaniac of a Commander. The one she stood by all her life, who she grew to love in her own way.
“Thank you, Sera. I promise we’ll find a way to bring Adam back”.
Sera doesn’t say anything. She just tightly presses her lips together and looks away, in a very, very distant place. She looks sorry. But Lute doesn’t have time to second guess her statements, she just has to see Adam. With a snap of fingers, Sera opens a portal. And, without hesitation, Lute flies in.
Speeding through red skies and clouds, Lute asks herself why Sera opened the portal right above the Hazbin Hotel, which appears to be rebuilt after the last Extermination. The one that took Adam away from him. Why would Adam be at the Hotel? There’s no rational reason. However, that’s not her concern right now. What matters is that she gets to finally see Adam again. Suddenly, Lute stops mid-air. She saw a frame while flying around the Hotel. Still meters and meters high, Lute spots him.
“Adam!” she exclaims, a wide smile spreading across her face, one she lost along with him.
He’s different. His robe is now stained of dark colors, horns sprouted on his head and his golden wings are now of a deep, coal black. But it’s still Adam. He’s sitting on the Hotel sign, holding an electric guitar in his lap. Lute’s breathing becomes erratic. How much time has passed. Before thinking that he was dead, and after begging to see him once again. And now he’s here, and she’s here again. With no more hesitation, Lute starts zipping towards him.
But then, something stops her. She freezes, her body stiff, she tightens her fists around her angelic spear. Someone is there with Adam. Lute didn’t notice at first, but it’s definitely a sinner. You. A female demon with wings, sitting right next to him. You’re looking at Adam, your legs swinging in the air underneath. Adam seems to be playing something on his guitar right now, a quiet tune, humming words that Lute from her high spot can’t hear. He alternates between looking at his own fingers strumming the guitar and then meeting your eyes. Lute can see the relaxed and mesmerized smile on your face.
What is even happening? Why is Adam with a sinner? Why is he playing the guitar with you? There’s something behind all of this. Lute needs to find out. Reincarnating in Hell probably made him powerless, she needs to protect him, especially from filthy demons like you.
Suddenly, Adam stops playing the guitar. He puts it aside, and keeps his eyes on you. And then, you move. You put your legs on Adam’s sides, squatting down right in front of him with your elbows pressed against your knees. Lute clenches the angelic spear harder, about to rush towards you to stop you from hurting Adam. Of course you’re doing something to him. You’re probably about to bewitch him, or take advantage of him to strike when he leasts expects it.
But, once again, Lute has to stop. You had reached out with a hand towards Adam. Instead of doing any harm, you just touch some strands of his hair with the tip of your fingers, stroking them oh-so-delicately. A lingering smile is permanently impressed on your features, your eyes lost in Adam’s. As Adam feels your light touch, he smiles back. He brings a hand to your face and places it on the side of it, stroking your cheekbone with a thumb. His black wings and yours close around each other, in a sort of hug.
And Lute stands there, horrified. She recognizes that smile Adam is giving you. With his eyebrows arched upwards, his lips so soft and his face looking at you so fondly. It’s the same smile he reserved to her when he died in her arms. The same smile burned in her mind every time she went to sleep and thought it was a gift for her and only her. A distraught expression contorts Lute’s face as she can’t do anything but watch.
Lute finally understands. She understands when she manages to read Adam’s lips and yours when you reply to him “I do too”. You aren’t bewitching him. It’s such an absurd and terrible situation, she feels crumbling on the inside. Weren’t her and Adam supposed to fight sinners? Didn’t they promise that they would always have each other’s back against demons? Adam falling out of Heaven was a mistake, for sure. But this is a choice. Lute knows from the way Adam is now leaning towards you, that this is his choice, not the result of a devilish spell. Adam means it, she knows. She knew the second Adam smiled at you in the same way he did to her the day he died. There’s a love she can’t understand but she knows it’s here between you and Adam. But why. Wasn’t she the only always by his side? Golden tears start rolling down Lute’s pale cheeks, as she feels her grip on the angelic spear get more and more loose.
When you and Adam kiss, Lute asks herself what happened to the Adam she knew. What did he become. Is there something left of her and him? Or is it just you and Adam now? Adam, who swore to Lute that he would kill every sinner left in Hell, who is now kissing you and holding your face in such a loving way. She was by his side when he died. Who did you think you were to stand by him in that way? You weren’t the one who fought with him for centuries. Who put up with his lame pranks and childish behavior that she ended up getting so fond of. You probably were trying to end his life the day he died during the Extermination, in Lute’s arms.. You weren’t the one holding onto his halo every time memories of him would come back.
Lute knows it. She lost Adam a second time. And as soon as she realizes it, her eyes still fixed on you and Adam tenderly kissing, she mumbles in a shaky voice.
“Sera…”
The portal immediately flashes open behind her. Sera had been watching Lute the whole time, and knew that this would happen. She tried to warn her. That things weren’t the same, that it wasn’t just her and Adam anymore right now. As holy light invests Lute, she looks at Adam one last time. His soft smile after you and him pull away from the kiss, your hand still caressing the strands of hair falling on his forehead, trying to put them back in place. She looks at a deep, unconditional love she knows well.
Lute knows. Turning back with her eyes squeezed shut, Lute flies back in Heaven as the portal closes behind her.
—
“the soul that you bring to the table,
the one that makes me sing in a minor key”