Work Text:
Gideon was a bad person. Not all the time, not in every way – but he was a bad person. Objectively.
And Satan knew that, logically.
But, well.
When you've had the name ‘Satan’ for the past five decades, you can't really throw stones.
It didn't bother him, acting like some lackey – what else would he do?
(…He was never one to speak up, anyway.)
Gideon had given him someone to follow. Someone to take the responsibility off of him.
It hadn't occurred to him to think about what he wanted because it hadn't occurred to him to think about the situation at all.
That changed a bit lately, though.
Satan started to stand up for himself a little more, after years of forgetting what that felt like.
It brought some quiet revelations.
He didn't like Gideon. In fact, he could barely stand to look at the guy anymore, if he thought about it too much.
Who treats someone like that?
Satan knew he wasn't exactly a good person either – what with the murders and all that – but still. What Gideon did was unjustified. At least Satan always had a reason for the shit he did, even if it was as flimsy as ‘following orders.’
Kate didn't seem to like Gideon either. Well, no one liked Gideon, but Kate seemed to dislike him the most.
Which was fair.
Kate, Satan eventually realised, would probably be the best person to talk to. Lindy wouldn't understand (he’d heard her talk about this kind of stuff), and neither would Joon. (though for different reasons. That concussion really did a number on him.)
And no one else really liked him. (...Also fair.)
So Kate it was.
‹«★★★›»
“Uh, Kate, can I… talk to you for a sec?” Satan asked, suddenly wishing he still had the ability to knock. “It– it's important, I promise.”
“Oh.” Kate sounded a little surprised, but not upset – which is what he was expecting. She'd told the ghosts not to bother her today. “Sure, Satan. Why?”
“Um–” he froze a little. He hadn't planned on her just… immediately agreeing to actually listen to him. “Ya'know what I think it's fine, actually–” he turned on his heel, ready to abandon the whole idea.
“No, no.” She called back, and he stopped. Like he was following orders again. “You wanted to say something. Go ahead.”
“Look, it's not really–” he made the mistake of meeting her eye. There was a kind of sympathy in her expression that he hadn't gotten before. Genuine. “It– it's probably not that important, to be honest. I shouldn't bother ya.”
Kate kept looking at him, trying to figure out what it was. The bit of silence made his stomach drop. “Something happen?”
“Nah, nah, it's just–” he paused, once again trying to dodge the topic entirely. “I mean it’s not important now, anyway, since it's kinda–”
Kate didn't even let him finish stalling, taking a shot at what the problem might be. “Gideon?”
“Um. It–” Christ's sake, he was really gonna tell her, wasn't he? He should’ve kept his mouth shut. “Yeah. Yeah, it is.”
“Right.” Kate tapped her hand against the table she was sitting at, slightly gesturing for him to sit down across from her. He did as he was told. “So what happened?”
“Well, it– nothing really recent.” He started, like that made it any better, “Just… I've been thinking about how he, ya'know, spent all these years actin’ like he could just boss me around and everything.”
Kate nodded, waiting for him to continue.
“And, um–” he wished his voice sounded less broken. He looked back up at Kate, thinking of what he wanted to say. “...I’m sorry. About what happened to you. I didn’t mean to hurt ya that badly.”
Again, Kate just nodded like she understood. He could tell she did understand, because it seemed like she knew that’s not what he wanted to tell her.
It was genuine, and it was something he’d planned on saying (eventually), but it wasn’t what he came here to say.
But she took it at face value anyway, probably not wanting to force him into talking about something he didn't want to.
God, she really was a good person.
“Is that… all?” She sounded cautious. Worried.
He took a second to pull himself together.
“Yes.”
Before she could comment on that fairly clear lie, he’d already left the room.
That was enough for today.
At least now he knew there was someone to talk to. That was enough.