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“Did you like the ducks?” Lucifer asked, bright blue eyes looking back at you as he fluttered his six pure white wings, floating suspended in the air easily. “I love when they’re still babies.”
“They’re adorable,” you laughed, smile wide as you scooted toward the trunk of the tree, giving him room to settle next to you. “I loved them most.”
“Oh, good.” Lucifer sat, reaching forward to rock the round fruit of the tree, where it was hanging from the branch.
No matter the season, the fruits from the two sacred trees hung, ripe, tempting, and ready to eat. The fruit if neither the Tree of Life nor the Tree of Knowledge of Good And Evil held no temptation for either angel, though the two humans walking in the distance sometimes would look just a little too long at the trees.
“Do you ever feel bad?” you asked, poking the fruit yourself.
“For what?” Lucifer asked, watching a fruit fall to the ground where it would rot, untouched, as each fruit that fell had throughout the first year of humanity.
“Putting these trees in the garden?” You ran your fingers reverently over the trunk of the tree.
Within the fruits was the cognitive ability to weigh what was good or bad, the simple ability to question and think for one’s self. It was an ability you and Luci had, the angels had, but the divine father had decided that humanity could not be trusted with it.
“Father wanted the trees here,” Lucifer said obediently. “So, I created them here.”
“It seems…” you hesitated before continuing. “It seems like it’s setting them up for failure.”
“My stars,” Lucifer’s wings fluttered as he slipped off the branch, hovering in front of you. “We must have faith. Our Father knows what is best. He created man and woman in His image. They’ve resisted thus far- a whole year!”
“You’re right.” A bright smile spread onto your face, the shadows of questioning and doubt washed away. “The humans are doing well, yes?”
“They are,” Lucifer nodded, looking back at the two figures in the distance. Long blond hair ran down the woman’s back, shimmering in the moonlight. “I think they’re still doing thier courtship dance.”
“Oh!” You leaned forward, nearly slipping off the branch yourself. “What does human courtship look like?”
You were well versed in the courtships of many of the animals Lucifer had created. There were things that sounded harsh at times, but each step of the different processes accomplished a task, ensuring the animal continued to reproduce as the Father wanted and as Lucifer designed.
“I’m not sure.” Lucifer looked down, his own bright smile faltering before he pushed it back on his face. “Our Father saw to the designs alone.”
“Really?” This news had your wings fluttering anew.
Lucifer was the angel of creation. Everything he made was inspired, beautiful in its own way. He was the Father’s favorite son. Lucifer had been the architect of all you had seen in the living world. The very idea that something existed in this realm that his fingers had not touched had your mind spinning.
“They are not your children, then?” Your eyes flickered between Lucifer and the woman, how she was pulling away from the man. They had been yelling at one another most of the night.
“No,” Lucifer’s soft hair shifted as he shook his head. “They’re our brother and sister.”
“Does it bother you?” you whispered, once again toeing the line you both knew existed. “That you didn’t get to make them?”
“Oh, no!” Lucifer laughed, a bright, clear sound that always reminded you of heaven’s bells. Would humanity discover bells? “It’s been fun to watch them as they discover the world and how to court.”
“Is it much different from us?” You and Lucifer had danced around the early stages of angelic courtship for decades now, though to beings like you that was hardly more than weeks. Soft touches, lingering smiles and the simple, godly act of sharing time together had dominated the stage the two of you were at.
“They do things faster.” Lucifer spun around, dancing in the air with the simple joy of learning about a new creation. “Courtship that takes us decades- they do much faster. They’re more physical than much of my creations have been, too.”
“Oh?” You danced through the air with him, robes brushing against his as you drew close but never touching him. Touching was far beyond what one did at the point of courtship that you and Lucifer were at. “How so?”
“Well,” Lucifer reached out, taking your hand up in his.
He was touching you. His hand wrapped around yours, warm and soft. Blood rushed to your face, casting your skin in a golden glow as you looked at where your bodies touched with wide eyes. “Luci?”
His hand dropped yours as if something stung him. “I’m sorry-” His voice came out in a high pitched squeak, his face joining yours in the burning glow of embarrassment. “We’re not- we’re not there yet. It’s too soon, isn’t it?”
You wanted to tell him he was wrong. You didn’t mind him grabbing your hand. It surprised you, that was all. Heat burned in your hand, driving you to rub it as you timidly looked up at the man, your mentor, and crush, as he did the same.
“What if…” You took a long, slow breath in as you tried to will the next words to spill from your mouth.
“What if what?” Lucifer prodded.
“What if we were there?” Your voice came out in a soft whisper, face flushed golden as you looked everywhere but at Lucifer. “What if we courted the same the humans are, at their speed instead of…”
“Oh,” Lucifer fluttered back, unsure.
“I’m sorry,” you quickly settled back onto the branch. “I don’t know what I’m thinking.”
“Do you want to…” Lucifer settled on the branch next to you again, eyes trained straight ahead as he looked at the two humans. “Do you want to court like the humans?”
Your eyes flickered, darting between the moon and stealing glances at the angel next to you. What you wanted to say was ‘yes’. The word was stuck in your throat, like some gummy piece of dried fruit. You opened and closed your mouth, trying to dislodge the word from your throat while he kept his gaze pointedly on the two humans in the distance.
After what feels like a lifetime, you give up on making the word come out. Instead, you inch your fingers closer and closer to his. He jumped, startled, as you initiate contact. Wide eyes, as blue as the oceans he had created for your Father, snapped to you.
“What happens now?” you timidly asked.
“I don’t know,” Lucifer admitted, mind working. “Adam… he kisses Lilith after he touches her hand.”
“Oh,” you couldn’t help giggling. “It takes angels a century to consider such a display.”
“Right?” Lucifer laughed.
“Luci?” You chewed on your lips, not really sure if you were brave enough to ask what you wanted to ask.
“Yes?” He answered simply, fingers wiggling under yours, not resting until both yours and his weaved together.
“Have you- have you ever kissed anyone?” You kept your eyes on where your hands touched, where his fingers and yours wove into a small fleshy fabric.
“I haven’t,” Lucifer admitted. “I’ve never even courted another before you.”
“Never?” You breathed the word out. He was the Morningstar, the oldest among his kind. He was the Father’s favorite. How could he have not courted at least once?
“Why not?” You prepared your heart to break, to be told that none were good enough, though you knew full well that what the both of you had been doing was courting.
“Never wanted to before.” Lucifer looked down, taking in the perfect vegetation below for a few long heartbeats. Then he looked at where your hand was intertwined with his. “How long do you think is left, until humanity’s first year ends and thier second begins?”
“Oh.” The change in subject left you feeling off kilter. Looking up at the moon and stars above, you walked through the calculation to determine the time- not that time particularly mattered for humanity just yet. It was little more than one of the many ways the angels logged and cataloged the events of the universe. “It’s just a minute or two, maybe less, I’d say.”
“I know what I want out of the next year of humanity.” Lucifer ran his thumb softly along your hand.
“What do mean?”
“I want to experience live as they do,” Lucifer nodded his head toward the humans in the distance. “I want to experience the things they do. I want to court like they do.”
“Does that mean you want to be them?”
“I want to do the things they do. Sometimes, I want to do the things how they do it.” Lucifer was making no more sense the more he talked.
“Are you saying you want to kiss… someone?” You finally forced the words out, sending a prayer to your Father that you were not making an incorrect assumption.
“No,” Lucifer said quickly, crushing your heart without a moment of hesitation.
“Oh-” you tried to take your hand from his, only to have his fingers tighten.
“No, no- that’s not what I meant.” Words flowed from Lucifer’s lips quickly. Each word blended into the other, threatening to lose their meaning. “I don’t want to kiss just anyone. I don’t want meaningless kisses. I don’t- I don’t know if kisses can be meaningless but.. I don’t want to throw them away.”
“Then who-?”
“You!” Lucifer rushed to answer, turning to face you with his face a bright, radiant gold. “I want to kiss you. I mean, can I kiss you? Will you let me kiss you? Oh, golly- that’s too much. I’m asking for too much.”
“Yes,” you said simply, face glowing hot and heart pounding against your chest. “You can.”
“I can?” Lucifer asked one last time. “Are you sure- we’ve only been in early courting for- for three years and I just touched you- things, it’s too fast for you.”
“Please?” you asked sweetly. “You wanted to do things like the humans are. I’m in. I- I want to too. Please, kiss me?”
“You’re sure?” He asked one more time, eyes dipping down to look at your lips.
“I am,” you promised.
Lucifer leaned forward, both your and his body twisting to face each other. Your eyes fluttered shut as Lucifer’s did the same. It felt like it took forever for his lips to softly press against yours.
The kiss was short, a sweet, chaste moment shared between two innocent souls. Though you didn’t know it at the time, the kiss had started the man you loved onto the path of learning, exploring, and experiencing things through the eyes of humanity. It was a path that would lead him away from you and to his damnation.
What you didn’t know at the moment, had no power to hurt you.