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Two angels sat together in a forest.
Birds chirped around them. The sky was cloudless and infinite blue. The tree’s leaves were dappled by the sunlight, giving the lush area a unique vibrant glow.
The Lightbringer let out a serene sigh after he felt Nellie pluck the final loose feather on his left wing lowest wing. Once she backed away, the seraph stretched out all six of his wings, a wide grin on his face. “It’s been awhile since we’ve had a such peaceful moment like this, hasn’t it?”
The divine creatures were lying in the grass with a few flowers, there were some rocks around them both that were large and smooth enough for lounging on. This area was directly centered where the dense tree line made a small circle. It was Lucifer’s happy place, and it eventually became Nellie’s too.
“Mhm...” The virtue next to seraph moved to face in front of him. “Can you lay down?”
Lucifer obliged and reclined onto his back, his wings spread out from under him. Nellie sat by him. Her own wings were brunched up tightly behind her due to irritation. The virtue now began getting pinfeathers out from the front of Lucifer’s wings. There was less of them there, but the seraph started talking to distract himself from the sensation on his wings.
“You wouldn’t believe what Michael has been doing lately, by the way!” Nellie raised a brow. “The Father’s going to give him a special role now.” Lucifer continued.
Nellie glanced over with mild curiosity. “Like what..?”
“I don’t know! He won’t tell me. Even though he’s gone for most of the day now to go meet with the Father, so I think it’s be important. I hope we’ll still be able to speak with him. All that I’m aware of is that he’s going to not be working with creation anymore, which I didn’t even know could happen.” Then his expression lit up.
“Speaking of creation, the Father likes some of my bird designs! I mean, he just called them… cute. And he did not like the fire part... But I know they’ll be waaay more important than just being cute in the future. I uh- well, at least I… hope they will.”
“They will be.” Nellie answered simply. Lucifer beamed at the approval. “I’m done here, by the way.”
“Great! That means it’s your turn.”
Nellie’s face flushed a little. Lucifer sat back up and Nellie shifted to give him space when his wings stretched out again. Then the seraph moved to sit behind her, with all four of Nellie’s darker wings displayed in front of him. He gave a light touch to her top right wing to check her sensitivity, since it varied during molting season. It jerked out of reflex, making Lucifer chuckle.
The Lightbringer leaned up and gently nuzzled against her neck, peering at her expression. It softened at the action, which was Lucifer’s intention. She leaned her head back against Lucifer’s, causing a familiar warm feeling to form in his chest. The seraph pulled away and began work on the feathers.
“Besides the Father himself, I also talked to Sera about my ideas. She didn’t like them as much though. I hope I get her to like me soon.” He found the first pin feather, carefully pinching and crushing apart the thin sheathe around it.
“Aaand… oh, and Lilith! I managed to make her happy yesterday! She seemed upset again, so I showed her those uhh, bunnies! You know, from the rabbit family you found? She really liked them.” He found two other pin feathers and removing them.
“Hm..” Lucifer wondered what else he could talk about. Then he glanced back at Nellie. Now that he thought about it, he already talked. A lot.
“…Have you been working on anything?” He asked suddenly. “I know that Sera’s been speaking with you.”
Nellie just shrugged. “I guess she has...”
“What have you guys made so far?”
“Uh….” Nellie paused, much more hesitant. “We’ve been working on the rose variant designs recently. She helped me with growing some water lilies in Eden, by the pond where Adam sleeps now.”
His smile dropped briefly at the mention of the first man.
The term ‘help’ was much more loose than it sounded. All that Sera really wanted to do was give her some quill and paper, then hover over her as she watched the virtue do the work. Nellie already told him about it. And even before, Lucifer sorta guessed that outcome anyway, since that’s how Sera treated him. Except more cautiously. He just didn’t know why.
“She only wants me to make flowers.”
Lucifer smiled. “That seems nice, though! I like flowers.”
During the brief beat of quietness, while Lucifer still hyper focused on her wings, he realized that was probably not the best way to respond to her. So he spoke up again.
“What kind of flowers do you wanna create?” The seraph inquired. “You know- the kind that Sera doesn’t have to… help you with.” His hand glided down from the top of her right wing, to feel for any loose feathers he missed. The wing twitched slightly under his caress.
Nellie hummed. “Uh.. Star flowers?”
Lucifer paused. “Hm?”
“I made a design that has a flower shaped like star . I thought it’s be nice for the humans to see and think of us. All of them turn out awfully viney though…”
“But I’m going to try that out again. Or...” The virtue paused to think again, then turned her head towards him. “You know how the humans have different eyes than us? They have that extra colored part that’s always there, the iris?” She pointed at one of her own eyes.
“Mm, yeah.”
“Well,” She turned away again, “I wondered to make a flower about that… Maybe Lilith would like it.”
Lucifer oddly went silent, looking back over at her curiously.
Quite frankly, the seraph was a bit surprised by her ideas. And even more so how he never thought of them sooner. The star flower thing was kinda adorable when he thought about it, and the iris one just made
sense to him. The eyes was one of main things that he thought made humans so beautiful. Their eyes were just so pure, because they always showed so much emotion.
That’s why he usually got lost in Lilith’s gaze whenever they spoke. And her eyes in particular weren’t like Adam’s, which were a dull, muddled gold. Lilith’s eyes were bright and brilliant violet.
Lucifer quickly went back to thinking about Nellie though.
Vesper was now much more sentimental than he thought.
That made him happy. He was glad if this meant Nellie was opening up a little.
Lucifer leaned forward by their head, while his hand began to slide downwards again, deliberately closer to the base of her wing. “I’m sure Lilith would love it… ” His usual warm smile was plastered on his face.
His voice was as soft as a doe’s whenever he whispered by her ear like that. And Nellie shivered a little at the touch. Lucifer most likely took notice. This kind of thing that they danced around wasn’t new, though. At least the closeness wasn’t.
The seraph backed away again and continued his work. Nellie adjusted her wing so that he could reach the base easier. After her mind went blank briefly, she quickly began talking again.
“…I like insects too, though.”
Lucifer smiled. “Really?”
“They’re stranger than other animals. Almost all of them are so small, yet there’s still a lot of... detail about them? And there’s so many versions, it’s interesting in that way.”
“Hm, I think I understand that.” He shrugged as he took out another pin feather. He was a bit too quick though and the wing jolted from the faint pain .
Nellie nodded stiffly at his question, and Lucifer patted her back as an apology. “If I can make animals, like… you, I’ll create at least one bug.”
After that, they went both quiet once again so Lucifer could stay focused. Occasionally he asked her if anything hurt with certain feathers on the lower wings, since they were more sensitive than the top. Eventually, Lucifer was finished with all four, and he leaned back to look over his work. Once he looked proud enough of himself, he moved over by her side and leaned by her ear again. “Lie back for me?” He requested.
Once she did so, Lucifer adjusted himself and started cleaning the front of her wings. Nellie relaxed and tiredly watched the trees above, only just barely able to make out the sky beyond the trees. This was when she realized how fatigued she felt now.
Maybe it was from the calm environment. Nature was always the most soothing for her. In the most populated places of Heaven, angels were everywhere, and you had to talk to everyone that greeted you, as that was expected of you. It was exhausting, at least for her. Maybe Lucifer helped too. Nellie always thought he had this sorta odd presence around him that she couldn’t ever pinpoint exactly what made him difficult. He could calm her easily, that’s what made it strange. Perhaps it was the way he spoke, his genuinely optimistic attitude compared to her… aloofness. The delicate and careful way he handled her. Even at that exact moment, as he took extra caution when caring for her wings. And despite the fact he overly talked and ranted a lot, he always listened to her troubles as well. He was more considerate than most angels she’s met.
As she wondered about it more, new thoughts began to consume her mind. He was so friendly, but a lot of angels also didn’t try talking to him much. It always made her confused. Especially with how easily Lucifer seems to sway over people in particular.
And just when she was about to ask about it, Lucifer was already finished and bent down again. “I’m done now.”
She blinked, now snapped out of her thoughts, and Lucifer nudged her up into a slanted sitting position. The virtue realized what was happening and propped herself up against one of the small boulders. She then opened her wings and Lucifer happily accepted her soft embrace.
They stayed like that for a long while, with Lucifer nestled comfortably against her, and Nellie’s head resting on his shoulder. Still, worries from before began to plague her mind again, so she spoke up.
“Lucifer?”
The seraph opened his eyes and pulled away from her so he could look at her. “Something wrong?”
The virtue shook her head. Lucifer patiently waited for her to continue.
“…Why don’t you ever like going with the others anymore? Whenever this time of month comes around.”
“Oh! Oh, uh- That’s a bit complicated but um…”
The seraph was much less enthusiastic about giving an answer to this question.
“…I- I don’t know. I just enjoy spending time with you.” He gave a half hearted smile. “I think you’re all I really need. Isn’t that enough of a reason?”
“…Are you certain that’s it?”
“Okay, look, Nellie-“
“I’m not saying I don’t enjoy being with you. You’re my friend. But…” She suddenly stopped herself. “I don’t know, I just wanted to see if there was a reason.” The virtue glanced over at him. “You alright?” Concern filled her gaze. Lucifer hadn’t realized he had been frowning. He stared intensely at the ground below.
Then he wordlessly pulled himself over to the virtue again, nuzzling his head against her neck once more. “Can we… not talk right now? About it.” He sounded drained, now that he dropped the overly optimistic tone. The affectionate gesture now felt like a shut-up tactic. And it seemed to work. Nellie regretted speaking. She wanted to apologize, but she didn’t know how while also abiding by his wishes.
After he curled up in front of her, she put an arm around him and rested her chin on top his head. The Lightbringer closed his eyes and sighed.
The issue with the other angels was that he didn’t get moments of relief like this. Being in their presence was the exact opposite.
If he went with Nellie to Heaven’s sanctuary, maybe it would be fine at first. The two would get their own little area together, somewhere above where they could view the perfectness of Heaven’s design. Sunlight could pour onto their new feathers. And if they had the time, they could clean their wings together by the waterfall, admiring each other in the reflection. Maybe a few angels would even say hi, or wave at them as they flew by.
But if he went with Nellie to the sanctuary, almost all of the others would stare. Particularly, his fellow seraphim. It wouldn’t be because of the display of affectionate. It was normal for all the angels to be cuddly during preening, and could be seen as improper if you weren’t.
It was simply because of who he was.
And the other seraphim wouldn’t just stare, that wasn’t enough for such divine beings. They glared, watched, frowned, scowled, even eavesdropped, the unexpected invasion of privacy was so overwhelming.
While, yes, all of them to were used to lack of privacy to some degree because of the ‘watchful eye of the Father’, it was never so malicious and meticulous.
Some of them weren’t just suspicious or cautious of him, they hated him.
And the cruelest part was that they would begin to judge Nellie too.
Since they were cautious of him, the virtue would already be guilty by association.
Even though she probably hated him too.
Except even if she really did, she was still the only one that would talk to him. The only other angel that listened intently to his dreams, and understood his woes. The only one he trusted. That was why Lucifer never wanted her to leave.