#snippet of chp 2&3? likely than posting the actual thing!

[apicelladonna]

Guys, I think I know why the fic’s titled Prometheus had Blue Fire—

[btssavedmylifeblr]

I forgot to send on my voting story. Ok so my brother and I both got mail in ballots, and let me tell you how we both forgot to mail it in so we just thought to bring them to our voting location. The lady there kinda yelled at us? She was confused and didn't know how to go about it. And honestly I just took it because we were the idiots who didn't mail in our ballots. We had to rip them up and they just us new ones to fill out in person and submit. Not exciting, but a story for void snippet. 👀

Anonymous said: Hi!! I'm so excited for void! I voted today around 30 minutes before the polls closed in my neighborhood because I had to wait for my dad and brother to get home from work since they wanted to go all together hehe. It was a pretty fast process! We just pressed buttons on screens (compared to last election where we had to bubble in everything by hand) plus, I got to keep the stylus that they gave us and it works on phones too! 🥰🥰 Thank you! I love your writing so much 💜💜💜

Anonymous said: I did mine through mail me and my husband did and we went to the post office a little while back and then he took us on a nice little date afterward and we got ice cream! Also I love void💖 keep up the good work

Anonymous said: VOTES FOR VOID??? I love democracy and I love VOID! So since May I've (temporarily) moved back home from New York to Indiana RE: covid; I've voted absentee for the both the primaries and presidential election (I'm still in IN rn...blah). I voted early and mailed in my ballot for the presidential election (about 3 weeks ago). Made sure my family was voting (brother mailed it in, mom dropped off a ballot, and dad did early voting) and encourage them to put up a Biden sign in our yard <3

Anonymous said: HI BEE! I ALSO VOTED TODAY! IM 21 SO THIS IS MY FIRST TIME VOTING FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (my 18th bday didnt make the cutoff since im a december bday) im so happy to have done my part! I made sure to study up on the judges and policies and everything! Luckily the polling place didn't have a line so i was able to get in, get my ballot, and fill it in right away! I even dragged my mom and cousin to come with me. I made a joke on snapchat to encourage my friends to vote too. It was a pic of my "i voted" sticker with a caption saying "omg youre so sexy when you vote aHaha" -🦙

Anonymous said: this is my first time doing this so, so i hope i’m sending this correctly! i voted early in late september by mail! i live in a swing state, so it’s really important for me to vote and not waste time!! bc of my age, this is my first time voting so i’m really nervous 😅

Anonymous said: I voted by email! I'm overseas so I wasn't sure if my ballot would actually make it through in time, so I decided to go electronically. Had to sign a waiver saying I understand that my vote won't be anonymous but I haven't been given a reason to suspect voter suppression/fraud in my state, so I'm happy I think...!

Anonymous said: hi, i voted early on oct 24th. my absentee ballot didn't come in, so i had to travel back home to vote (~3 hour drive). when we got there, there was a ton of people outside the polling place, but no lines, so i was in and out pretty quick. it was my first time voting, so i had all the candidates i was voting for written down on a tiny receipt so i wouldn't forget 😅. my mom was with me, so she voted too. took a pic with my sticker (mask on for extra covid-ness) and went home. drove back the next afternoon!

whippedforkook said: Hi Bee. 💕 I voted in early October - nearly a month ago! 😱 It’s been really weird with all the lead up to the election because it felt like it should have been done once I cast my ballot! A lot of my friends have volunteered to get out the vote: writing postcards to voters, texting, phone banking, working the polls, curing ballots. I didn’t volunteer at all this year, but I hope that all of my friends’ hard work and everyone else’s is enough. I’m also hoping and praying that I will be in a better place mentally for 2022 so that I too can volunteer. Our work starts with 2020 not ends. 💕 Wishing you well. 💕

begineuphoria said: I went and voted last Friday as it was our last early voting day. No way was I going to wait until today with the crowds of people in my area that still act as if masks are somehow infringing on their rights. 🙄 It was a rather normal experience for the most part. Other than having to use a coffee stir stick to press the buttons on the machine to vote. In and out within five minutes.

Anonymous said: I voted down the street at this pretty park this morning. I got up at 5:30 and it was freezing. Luckily I wore like 30 layers and stood outside for 2 hours. Some nasty orange man supporters were rude but everyone else was pretty nice. A really cute older couple was playing soccer with pine cones and kicked it towards me to play too. Not the worst time tbh.

Anonymous said: Did mail-in voting in California! Extremely exhausting and took forever to research all the propositions - they are notoriously tricky in hiding their flaws and one side tends to outrageously outspend the other. But in the end I felt really good about my research and decisions! No need for you to post a snippet for this story - would like to save that to read sometime in the future ;) Thank you so much for doing this!

joonsgotthejuice said: Votes for void??? I am here! I went last Thursday and it was chaotic bc I kept going past the poll place but the line was soooo long so my mom called me and woke me up like "its pouring rain and the line is super short get up I'm gonna pick you up" so thats the story of how I got dressed in 5 minutes and dragged my ass to vote in the rain <3

Anonymous said: i voted early on thursday it was cold and rainy but i went in the late afternoon and thankfully the only waiting i did was a few minutes for an elevator i got very lucky and while waiting for the results is awful the relief that came from voting in general was just great

Anonymous said: Wheeew the polls just closed and I finally got to cast my ballot yayyy ( I was the one working the polls from earlier) it’s been a really really long day and we actually had surprisingly good turnout. I saw a woman try to vote for someone else who claimed to be “helping” and I saw a woman who I’m pretty sure was on some typa something 👀 Overall though I really I’m really thankful for people like you who encouraged people to get out and vote. I hope the odds are in our favor❤️🤞🏼

chelsea-chee said: Hello Bee! Today surprisingly my elderly father wanted to vote so I brought him out with me. He only cared about voting for Biden, which meant I got to help decide who he should vote for with the rest of the candidates and amendments! Say hello to baby bee for me as well! 💖

Anonymous said: Okay I gonna got a chance to vote today and the process wasn’t that bad actually. I went in just now and it wasn’t that busy( thankfully) so no lines. I’m from Texas and it’s gonna be almost impossible to turn this state blue, but every vote counts! I love that you are getting people to vote and also sharing your experiences as well!

owl-orgy said: Dropped off my mail in ballot at a polling location! I originally wanted to vote early in person because I was worried my signature wouldn’t match closely enough but ended up just turning it in and double checked today to make it said “ballot accepted and counted”!

Anonymous said: I voted in person this afternoon, better late than never I guess. I was gonna go last week but then I got cramps from hell. There was no one in line in front of me, I think my county early voted because it was packed everyday the last few weeks

Anonymous said: I voted early a couple weeks ago. Exciting thing though that did happen was I got both my parents to vote for their first time ever.

Anonymous said: I had a mail in vote. So, I filled it out and dropped it in at the ballot box at my library. (I also checked out books for the first time in years, so I had fun!)

bubblyjiminnie said: I literally just finished voting. Lucky for me, the line and wait wasn’t very long, and it was a nice enough day that the short amount of time I had to spend in line outside of the building wasn’t too bad. My social anxiety when it comes to stuff like this tends to be high but that’s what I get for waiting until Election Day instead of going the mail in route. This was only my second time voting, but I’m glad that I did 😊

Anonymous said: I turned my ballot in last week :) I’m not a big fan of crowds and I hate make spur of the moment choices but despite that the first time I was able to vote back in 08 my Mom pressured me into voting in person because “you’d have to experience it at least once in our life”. And ever since then I comfortably vote by mail. I take my time, do all of my research, listen to music, and best of all don’t have to deal with people.

Anonymous said: here in Washington state it’s super easy to vote. I dropped my ballot off in mid-October and it’s already been accounted for! Mail in voting and drop box voting is fantastic and provides equal opportunity and access. Sad to see some people in red states misinforming Americans about it! We also have a referendum for implementing mandatory sex ed, including teaching respect, empathy and consent as part of the curriculum so I was happy to vote yes on that too!

unionrox006 said: I voted about 2 weeks ago by doing a mail in ballot. The other eligible to vote members of my household did the same. We chose to vote by absentee ballot because both my mom and I have an autoimmune disorder, so we have to be careful going out in the pandemic. Tbh, the ballot layout was a bit confusing at first as was all the paperwork and required IDs and documents. But my dad explained it to me and we got them filled out and mailed off. Kinda mad I didn't get a sticker for it though

bluetostone said: Love this and so excited for the next chp of void! I early voted a few weeks ago and because I live in a pretty rural county I was in and out of my polling place in a few minutes. No sticker though 😢. I live in a swing state so it could go either way in terms of delegates. Just praying everyone is safe tonight as the results roll in...though, won't we not know for sure for a couple of days or weeks?

Anonymous said: My mom, sister, and I received our early voting ballots a while ago and I took the longest to fill mine out because it was making me anxious :,( but I did return it before it was due. I checked our ballot statuses and mine and my moms were accepted but my sister’s said they hadn’t received hers back. Then she got another ballot so she filled that one out too and I took it yesterday 👍👍 I think she got two because she changed her address late so they sent two?

vixsynsblog said: Non-interesting voter story: I'm paranoid and live in a highly divided area, so I filed mail-in ASAP, mailed it a few days after cause neighbors are nosy and don't understand boundaries. Was able to track my ballot through my credit company, which was nice. Only thing I was missing was my sticker. Never got one✊😔. So I had to improvise and write it in pen on my disposable mask. I'm working all this week so if riots break out from either side, I'll be at work. Prayers for the safety of others🙏

______

Waaah!!! Thank you all for voting!! You are all my heroes. I am so grateful and proud of you. I’m sorry I ran out of time to respond to you individually. I’m going to drop two big scenes from Chapter 7 in gratitude (one of which will be familiar to my patrons and one won’t). I’m hopeful I will have the whole next chapter out very soon. Love you all!

Void spoilers below the cut.

When you wake up in the morning, there are still no signed HR forms in your messages. Had you been a fool to think they were interested? How much time does it take to decide such a thing? Perhaps just by putting the idea out there explicitly, it had lost all of its taboo appeal. 

There is a calendar reminder waiting for you: Today is chili pepper pollinating day. At least this gives you an excuse to talk to Hoseok. 

You find the science officer in the lab as always, sitting with his knee up against his chest. Hoseok doesn’t look well. He’s got dark circles under his eyes.

“Hey, um…” You shuffle your feet. Want to fuck me? No wait…“You don’t look good. Were you here all night?” you ask.

He blinks at you, bleary-eyed. “Um, was I? Yeah.. I suppose. Lost track of time.” He rubs his eyes, before looking you up and down, then casting his gaze back to the floor. 

All you want to do is ask about the forms. Or the meeting. Or what he thinks of you now. But you don’t. “I need to pollinate the chili peppers today.” Usually Hoseok is the person who assists with that. “But I can get one of the other guys to do it if you need the sleep.”

“No!” Hoseok lurches forward, standing up a bit to rapidly and needing to put his hand back on the bench to steady himself. “I mean, I’m fine.” 

You should disgaree with him. He is exhausted. But you’d like more time to talk to him. 

Pollinating the chili peppers is both time-sensitive and time-consuming, hence why it took two of you to get the job done. There were no insects on your ship to do the job for you and if they didn’t get pollinated, they wouldn’t bear any fruit. Your chili peppers were your favorite crop. Not only a vital source of Vitamin C, but all your food benefitted from having a bit of spice added to it. 

You and Hoseok head for the greenhouse together. The intital set-up gives you something to talk about in the beginning. Hoseok gathers the pollen from one flower onto a paintbrush, then hands it over to you to paint onto the stigmas of each little flower on the next plant in the line.

Slowly the conversation dries up as you fall into a silent rhythm. Other than just enjoying the chili peppers, you must admit that this was one of your favorite tasks on the ship because of the high likelihood that the two of you would brush hands peridically. Always gave you butterflies. But today he seems extra intent on keeping his distance from you. Was he disgusted by you now? His hands are trembling.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” 

His hand twitches so hard that a little rain of yellow pollen cascades onto the floor. He curses in frustration before turning to face you. “Are you sure you’re okay?” 

“Um, yes, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“This, um, plan of yours…” he gestures to the vague tension in the air. “It doesn’t feel like you.”

“I’m trying to save the mission. That has always been my top priority.”

“Yeah, I’m still not clear on how this benefits the mission.”

“Yoongi said…” you start to say, but are cut off my Hoseok’s derisive snort. 

“Look, if you’re in love with Yoongi, just go date him, okay? Don’t feel obligated to include the rest of us out of pity.” 

You frown. “I’m not… I’m not in love with him. It’s just sex. Just biology.” 

“This isn’t you!” Hoseok argues back. “You hated the idea of anyone of us ever treating you that way. And now you just want all of us to… to… use you like that?”  He splutters out the end of the sentence.

“No one is using me! This is my plan! I’m in charge!”

He sighs. “Well, I can’t be a part of it. Excuse me.”

______

Taehyung finds you in the gym. It’s good to see him up and about, even if his arm is still in a sling. 

“Hey, so I need to talk to you about this, um, ape sex thing.” He fishes awkwardly into his pockets and pulls out his tablet.  Maybe Jimin was right. Is Taehyung going to be the first to take you up on your offer?

You pause your jog on the elliptical machine. You wish you weren’t so sweaty and gross for this conversation. Taehyung is such an intimidatingly attractive man with those strong eyebrows and that perfect skin. 

Taehyung opens up the tablet and flips to the form. It’s happening. He’s going to sign the form. Shit. Then what will you do? It’s one thing to say you want to have sex with your whole crew, but what if he’s hoping to go right now? You need a shower. 

Taehyung has really nice hands. Long strong fingers delicately navigating the touch screen. It seems totally improbable that a man this attractive would be into you, even if you were the only woman in the universe. It just adds to your suspicions that hormones are driving everyone crazy. Perhaps if you slept with him once, he’d lose all interest. 

He finds the form and then turns his gaze up to you, staring you down with those eyes. It’s a good thing that Taehyung rarely turns his full gaze on you, because it is almost too much to bear. Shit, is he just going to sign it? Is he waiting for you to give him some sort of signal?

“You can’t do this to Jimin,” he says.

“What?” Not what you were expecting. “Do what to Jimin?”

“This.” He gestures over the HR form. “Signing these forms with everyone. Having sex with everyone. You’re going to destroy Jimin.”

“Jimin’s the one who suggested this whole thing in the first place.” It’s a lie. You know its a lie. Or at least a gross exaggeration. But Jimin was the one who first brought up the idea of sharing. All for the benefit of the man in front of you now. 

“No way.” Taehyung scoffs, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. “No way was it Jimin’s idea that you sleep with the whole crew.” 

“Well…” You can’t bear his gaze anymore and look down at the floor. “He wanted me to sleep with you.”

That surprises Taehyung. He puts down the tablet. “What? Why would he want that?”

This is awkward. “He, um, thinks you’re in love with me.”

“What?” There is only surprise on Taehyung’s face. It’s actually a relief to see that Taehyung is just as shocked by that idea as you were. “Why does he think that?”

“I don’t know…” You feel kind of dumb now. Of course, Taehyung doesn’t feel that way about you. Look at him. “Cause you told him you were jealous. Cause you can’t stand to be in the same room as us…”

Taehyung bites his lip. “Oh, um, shit, sorry, that’s not what I meant.”

If Taehyung isn’t jealous of Jimin... 

“Taehyung…” He looks up, biting his lip. “What did you mean? Who are you jealous of?” 

Taehyung’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he reaches for his microphone and mutes it. Out of respect, you mute yours as well. He glances toward the camera in the corner of the room, then stands up and begins unzipping his jumpsuit. 

“Um…” You are distracted by the golden arms that peak from either side of the tank top as the zipper reaches his groin. “What are you doing?”

“Need something to block the camera.”

“We have towels,” you mutter.  But he’s already stripping out of his shirt. The musculature of his back ripples. He hangs the shirt off of the camera to block the rest of the room from view. 

“Yeah, but this way anyone watching will think we’re having sex.” His chest is just as attractive as his back and you flush at the sight of it. Mercifully, he zips back into his jumpsuit as he returns to his position in front of the exercise machine. 

“You want them to think we’re having sex?”

“Don’t you? It plays right into your whole save the mission with bonobo sex plan.”

“I suppose.” Though the plan was also supposed to be that there would be no more secrets between the crew. “What plan of yours does it play into?”

“The one where Jimin doesn’t realize I’m in love with him.”

“You’ve never tried to tell him?”

Taehyung laughs wryly and shakes his head. “How would that conversation go? Hey man, I know we’ve known each other for years and I’ve already seen you naked and that you just think of me as a friend, but I’m in love with you. I know that’s awkward but now you have to spend the next twelve years with me, knowing that I’m attracted to you when you don’t feel the same way.” Taehyung sighs. “Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. If he doesn’t feel the same way, I’ve just ruined the friendship for nothing and then I don’t even have that.”

“Yeah… I get that.”  There’s something touching about realizing that Taehyung has been fighting the same battle as you for the last two years. 

“I couldn’t tell anyone before launch because what if they wouldn’t let me go then? You know?”

“Yeah, the director wasn’t big on sending anyone who might ‘complicate’ the mission.” The two of you share a sad knowing smile. 

“Yeah… And I thought it would be fine, you know? I like women too. I’d just date women until launch and no one would know. I wasn’t planning on falling in love with my roommate.”

“I don’t think any of us really knew what this would be like.”

“I knew it was going to be a problem. I should have pulled out…” 

Your mind flashes back to that moment of doubt when Hoseok talked you into still coming on the mission.

“But I couldn’t just let him go off into space without me. Even if he’d never feel the same way, at least he’d still be in my life.”

The emotion in Taehyung’s words makes your eyes begin to mist. “You really do love him.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung sighs again. “But he’s in love with you.”

“Well, he thinks he is.”

“What does that mean?”

“He only feels like that about me cause he thinks I’m the only option.”  You wonder if maybe he would feel differently if he knew about Taehyung’s feelings. 

Taehyung frowns and shakes his head. “You don’t give him enough credit.”

“Oh come on, you know him. How many women did he date while we were in training?”

“A few…” 

“And how many of them was he in love with before he found the next one?”  

Taehyung bites his lip. He can’t really argue with that. “So why are you with him then, if you don’t think it’s real?”

You shrug, rubbing your arm. “He wants me. It’s nice to feel wanted, I guess.”

“You know you could have that with any man on this ship right?”

You scoff. “They’re all suffering the same delusion. It’s only-available-vagina syndrome. I just want us all to fuck and get it out in the open. Maybe if we could get it out of our system, they would see I’m nothing special. And then we can get back to the mission.”

Taehyung eyes you up and down. “You don’t give yourself enough credit either.”

You shrug. “You wait and see. Jimin will get bored of me. They all will.”

The two of you both slump backwards in your seats, mulling over your shared woes.  Taehyung bends down and picks up the tablet again. “So what should I do with this?”

“Obivously, you don’t have to sign it. I should have realized that not everyone would be interested.”

“Jimin thinks I’m in love with you?”

“Yeah…”

“Is it okay if we let him think that for now? At least until I figure out how to tell him the truth?”

“Okay.”

Taehyung smiles and signs the bottom of the form, then sends it to you. Your phone lights up with a message. “Thank you,” he murmurs before he leaves. 

[inktrailing]

SPN: purgatorio (snippet)

Figured I'd post some snippets of my WIPs. This diverted in season... 7? Some of this concept I wrote years ago and I have to get further in my rewatch to see if I need to shuffle things around. Basically Lucifer was trying to use the hallucinations as a way to manifest through someone and ended up helping Cas out a bit but popped out in Purgatory when Cas got there (the chunk I took for this post gets into the bare bones of it).

I definitely take more liberties than I usually do XD But I've been having fun playing around with a significantly non-linear timeline. Fic so far is ~11k words, 2 parts (I don't imagine it'll go over 2 parts, but I've been wrong before). I am still jumping around for how long they're in Purgatory for so that time on chp 2/3 here might change.

Might actually change the title at some point. Mostly a placeholder right now.

This is slowburn Dean/Lucifer but maybe will also be Dean/Castiel I really don't know yet. Benny's just close with everyone lol.

Warning: Explicit Language, Canon-Typical Violence

purgatorio

1

Three months ago.

Dean's running.

The woods by now are a familiar brush against his clothing. He knows this forest, embodies the trees, breathes the wind. He became a part of it months—years?���ago and he doesn't think if he's ever free that it's going to leave him. His bones crack a song same as the creaking branches.

Purgatory is a piece of him.

The night closes in behind him, shadow in the shape of a maw, cleaving through the underbrush as he vaults a cluster of boulders—the landmark he's been looking for, finally. He ducks a split tree branch, nearly skids through a patch of mud, trips, catches himself, and stumbles just over the first ring of the bloodied magic circle. A second hop has him beyond the next tight-together rings and then he's gulping down a relieved breath of air as he falls, hard, into another body.

“It's coming,” he says quickly on his exhale, clasping a hand to Cas's shoulder and straightening unsteadily. He twists his wrist and flips his crude blade in his grip, shifting his stance in front of Cas after he's caught his breath.

“Did you lay the trap?” Cas asks.

“What d'ya take me for, huh?” Dean replies with a huff.

“You forgot last time,” says a voice from behind them.

Dean scoffs and looks back where in their makeshift camp, center of the ritual circle, sits the devil. Legs crossed, palms up, hands sliced through, blood and grace dripping idly between his fingers.

“Yeah, and I learned my lesson after that one time, thanks,” Dean barks at him, focusing his attention back on the trees further being swallowed by the tide of shadow. The rumble follows, thunderous as each tree snaps and tears from the ground. Dean sees the burn of yellow eyes somewhere far back in that sea of darkness, and then hears a loud yelp and the yellow blinks out, followed by an ear-piercing howl that he can't help flinch from.

Cas sucks in a breath. “Maybe we... should have waited for Benny for this.”

“Would've been nice,” Dean agrees. The howl sounds again, reverberating angrily through the wood. Even Lucifer makes a hiss of displeasure. “Doesn't seem like our friend was willing to wait. Lucifer, this spell is going to hold, right?”

“Oh, I don't know,” Lucifer sings.

“You don't know? You said yesterday—”

“I believe yesterday I said 'probably,'” Lucifer interrupts. “Would you like to offer some blood to the cause?” he says snidely.

“Would it help?” Dean asks, matching his tone.

“Unlikely,” Cas says.

“Mm,” Lucifer agrees.

The two yellow eyes flare again, and the very forest screams as the shadow coalesces into the shape of a massive—wounded—beast.

Dean laughs and bumps shoulders with Cas, who wobbles just slightly. “Awesome, great, I love this. This'll be fine.”

The beast charges.

2

Sixteen months, three weeks, and six days ago.

“Didn't think he'd just wing off, did you?”

Dean jerks around at the voice. He's jumpy enough as it is, hearing the monsters closing in on fresh meat, circling him for a snack, and Cas is gone. Cas is gone and Lucifer is here and what the fuck he's got nothing to deal with any of this. He freezes.

“My brother really doesn't like conflict, Dean,” Lucifer continues, sighing and staring up towards the starless sky. “He'll be back in due time, likely when he deems it safe, or has that overwhelming need to protect you that he often has.” His gaze flicks back to Dean. “But I think we'll be alright without him.”

“You're in Hell,” Dean blurts, unable to hide his panic.

“Was in Hell,” Lucifer corrects. “Then I was riding around in your brother's psyche, and then in my brother's psyche, and now it seems I'm here, free of any anchor.” Lucifer rolls his shoulders in a small, half shrug. “Not as planned, but it works, I suppose.”

“You son of a bitch—” Dean is saying as he moves to, what? Punch the devil? Because that's a smart plan, Dean? But then there's several furry wolf-like monsters leaping out of bushes towards the delectable human snack and suddenly Lucifer doesn't seem like Dean's biggest problem because Cas said things about being torn to shreds and Dean is going to die.

Sorry, Bobby, he may be joining you sooner than intended.

But then there's a snap and Dean recoils at the sound and the nearest wolves are torn asunder, blood spraying across Lucifer's side.

“You may want to rethink this suicidal plan of yours,” Lucifer tells the remaining shadows, fingers poised to snap again. He hears them shift, unsteady and he grins, wolfish in his own right. He sees the gleam of eyes watching him for a long moment, and then they blink out, and are gone.

All Dean could do was stare. Lucifer's fight had only encompassed a few seconds. Dean shakes. He hears the rest of the predators move off at the display and Lucifer's words.

Dean's not sure if he should be thanking Lucifer or running; surely Lucifer would only be keeping him alive so that he could torture him relentlessly. Though at the moment, Lucifer seemed more intent on cleaning the blood from his arm.

“You really should relax, Dean. I'd bet the creatures here can smell fear just as much as they can smell blood. We should move somewhere we can have some kind of advantage when my brother returns.”

Dean stares as Lucifer drops to one knee and settles for wiping his arm along the patches of grass.

Dean's mind just flatlines because yeah, sure, that all sounds peachy. Because Dean is totally going to obey the devil and go with him wherever he wants. Of course. “Cas isn't coming back with you here.”

“You would think that, wouldn't you? Since Castiel told your brother that he had stopped seeing me. Which was good of him; neither of you would ever believe that I was helping my brother. Because, for the record, his 'craziness' isn't my fault. He didn't need any help going that route.”

“What are you talking about?” Dean demands, and nearly snarls at the sympathetic look Lucifer shoots his way.

“Resurrection never goes easily, Dean,” Lucifer explains. “There are always complications, even if our Father is the one who keeps doing it. And this time? Maybe it was as a punishment. First free to not be himself, and then having all his memories slam back into him? It's not healthy, even for an angel.” He shakes his head. “Can he stabilize? I still don't know.”

Dean lets those words wash over him. He wonders if Lucifer is lying to him, but more often than not the truth hurts more than lies. He doesn't know how to reply to Lucifer. He's not even sure why he's still here, but if Cas does come back, he feels like he shouldn't leave the angel with his older brother. Cas wasn't just imagining the little twinge of forgiveness in Dean's voice. Not much, but it was a start.

“Oh. Good. You two aren't killing each other.”

Speak of the...

Cas.

Cas looks uncomfortable to be with them in the clearing, his weight shifting back and forth on his feet, glancing from Lucifer to Dean, then down at the remains of the wolves and making a pitied face. “I found a cave. Seems empty and without anything previously taken residence in it.” He looks back at Dean, biting his lip.

Lucifer nods to his brother. “Lead the way, then.”

Dean has barely five seconds to realize that Lucifer is in his immediate space, registering Cas taking off again and then a hand clapped to his shoulder and the disorienting tilt of reality as Lucifer pulls him across Purgatory. He staggers into a slick cave wall, suddenly having a new appreciate for Cas's flight paths because damn was it a lot more stable than whatever the heck Lucifer just did.

He takes a perverse pleasure in the fact that Lucifer teeters away, like the flight screwed with him, too.

Then he whips to Cas and points at the devil. “How do you lie about something like this?!”

Cas quails when Dean turns on him. “Don't be mad at me, Dean,” he answers, a warble in his voice. He fidgets, like he's unsure what he wants to do with his arms, awkwardly settling to hold an elbow up with a hand, not quite crossing his arms. “You would have only been bothered, and... Lucifer has... only been supporting me.”

“Of course I would have been 'bothered', Cas! He's the damn devil! He's not there to support you, he's just using you!” he yells.

“Oh, you mean like how you always use him?” Lucifer tsks. “I wonder which one of us is more at fault.”

Cas backs away from the two. “Please, don't fight.”

Lucifer sneers, then frowns, then cocks his head to the side and sighs. “I won't if he won't,” he says, just shy of a whine. He smirks at Dean. “We have to work together, you know. Purgatory isn't the safest of places. You won't survive on your own, and Castiel will not leave me. Besides, I do care for your safety, Winchester, whether you believe my intentions or not.”

Furious, Dean looks away. He can't believe they're in this utterly stupid situation. He shouldn't have to rely on anyone, let alone Lucifer, but he remembers his initial arrival, remembers how out of his depth he was, remembers himself as the hunted Hunter. He knows, with complete certainty, that the feeling is never going to go away. Even now something must be tracking them. They can't be safe. They can never be safe.

He wants to kill Lucifer, but he's incapable of it. Getting rid of Lucifer the first time had been nearly impossible. He can't do it now, not alone as he is.

He hates this. It's wrong. It feels like a betrayal to Sam. But what choice, really, does he have? Goddammit. Goddammit.

“Fine,” he spits out, so much anger in that one small word. “I don't have to like it.”

“Thank you,” Cas murmurs to them both.

3

Sixteen months, three weeks, and five days ago.

Castiel feels the brewing trouble surrounding him. He knew this... this wouldn't be easy. Knew the moment Lucifer was no longer a ride-along to Castiel's mind, a separate entity once again, one that Castiel couldn't... didn't think he could remove himself from, even for Dean's comfort.

There was too much quiet in his head and he didn't know how to cope with that. Yet even from the support Lucifer had been offering him, Castiel still expected him to leave now that he had his own freedom. But he hadn't abandoned Castiel at that first sign of freedom. These sorts of things happen to Castiel nowadays, after all.

He kept such strange company. Lucifer, Meg...

He wonders how Meg is.

Not in Purgatory, so likely better off than Castiel.

He feels uncomfortable, shifting weight back and forth on his feet, glancing from Lucifer to Dean, then towards the exit of the cave, the scent of blood fresh in his senses, a swell of pity in his gut at the violence. But Lucifer did take care of it for Castiel. He had the blood on his hands, literally, and Castiel managed to avoid that.

He starts to let himself relax. The alliance is by no means perfect, but it exists.

*****

The trouble returns just as quick, Castiel thinks, when Dean has to sleep.

“You'll take a watch, Cas? I don't trust something wandering in for a snack.”

Castiel is about to answer, when Lucifer interrupts, “You need sleep, too, brother.” Lucifer settles just within the mouth of the cave, sprawling legs out before him, head hitting stone. “I'll keep an eye out.”

“Oh no,” Dean argues. “No, that's not happening. Cas, I'll switch off with you so we both can get sleep if you really need it.”

“That's wholly unnecessary,” Lucifer sighs.

“Does it look like I care?” Dean says stubbornly. “I'm not sleeping in your vicinity.”

“I don't think...” Castiel trails off.

Lucifer throws up his hands and rolls his eyes in Dean's direction. “Then you'll have the pleasure of my company while my brother sleeps.”

Dean grits his teeth but doesn't argue further and it's the best they'll get. Dean wraps his arms around himself and wedges himself against a wall of the cave and shuts his eyes. Castiel sinks opposite of Lucifer and looks out across the quiet forest, knowing that even though he can't hear it, there is death all around them. Purgatory doesn't stop because it's night.

“Thank you,” Castiel repeats in a whisper, not so much afraid of disturbing Dean as he is Dean hearing him have a conversation with Lucifer.

Lucifer just shrugs and folds his arms almost petulantly. “Don't thank me yet. This isn't going to be easy. It would be simpler to ditch your favorite Winchester.”

Castiel slumps and mumbles, “It'd be easier if you ditched me.”

Lucifer groans, bumping his head against the stone several times. “Castiel.”

“I'm serious,” Castiel says. “You know they'll be coming for me. They'll never stop.”

“And I'll kill them, easy enough. So you've got some toothy little inkblots after you. He's potentially Purgatory's New Most Wanted and uncooperative to a fault. He's going to get you killed, Castiel.”

“It's what I deserve.”

Lucifer hisses through clenched teeth and leans forward. “Ah,” he berates. “None of that. If you're going to be a stickler about keeping him alive, I'm going to be one about keeping you alive. Understand?”

“No,” Castiel replies honestly. His response doesn't make Lucifer angry, only minutely frustrated. Castiel wishes he understood, but it isn't that easy. It's never been easy. He'd dragged Lucifer's manifestation out of Sam and into himself and Lucifer tore him apart in a days-long temper tantrum and then he sat in the center of all that disarray, looked at Castiel, and said 'you're very different than Sam.'

You're very different than Sam.

Like how? Like he wasn't enough? Like he couldn't even break the right way?

'What did our Father do to you? Lucifer had wondered aloud, eyes red and staring through Castiel like he was only good enough to be an experiment, and then Lucifer had flinched, and he voice had gotten quiet. 'Oh. This is going to take some time.'

4 (maybe)

Saturday, April 7, 2012

“Oh. This is going to take some time.”

The mess of Castiel's multiple resurrections are scattered beneath where Lucifer sits. Lucifer had torn down his brother's walls and threw open all the doors and now he's left with the sea of shattered fragments flooding around them, all Castiel, and all broken before Lucifer had anything to do with them. It's like someone emptied out three almost-similar puzzles and hoped that the pieces would fit together anyway. Tried even to force the pieces to fit, the care lessened each time.

It could only be their Father's work. Or lack thereof. Did it count as work if you only haphazardly rebuild someone and only rely on it all working out on its own?

It's cute that God thinks his children are so self-sufficient.

He fishes into the sea and takes his time to sift through and pick out a fragment. The most gleaming shard, perfection at its max, all choirs and holy light. An angel unmarred by any outside influence, though if he looks more closely he can see the beginning lines of doubt threatening to etch into the edges.

It's funny that Castiel always thought he was so different than Lucifer. Look where they are now.

Well, Lucifer remains a frayed connection, his transfer temporarily stalled by his brother ripping him away from Sam Winchester. He'd made such progress there. Sam was easy to pull apart slow, pick at each fiber and peel away the layers of the mind so that more of Lucifer could wiggle out of the Cage and sidle his subconscious, and then his grace, alongside Sam.

Michael had started to realize what he was doing. Saw Lucifer's little escape-artist plan and fought him for a time until exhaustion had worn him and his vessel ragged. Lucifer thinks it wasn't Michael, but Adam that let Lucifer continue with his plan. Poor, abandoned, disenfranchised Adam.

One of them had laughed at Lucifer when he was shunted into Castiel. He hadn't taken it well at the time—on either side of his connection. Now they were back to ignoring each other and Lucifer kind of wishes they weren't; Michael's insight in regards to their brother could prove invaluable.

He could just leave it. He should just leave it. Unlike Sam, Castiel is so naturally frayed that Lucifer can crowd right in and be free of the Cage with hardly any hassle. Castiel did him a favor.

“Why should I hole up in the shambles of a motel? I'm not a Hunter, I'm not into that life,” he tells Castiel. “I wasn't expecting Five Stars, but come on, Castiel.”

“... What?” It's the second time Castiel has looked at him since he got here. Castiel's fear has taken a step back in favor of his confusion.

“In case I wasn't absolutely clear: I'm moving in,” Lucifer answers. “But I don't see why I can't spruce up the place before I fully do so.” He sighs and drops the fragment back into the sea. “We'll have to peruse your trauma and not in a fun torture way.” He holds up new fragments in each hand, pinched between thumb and forefinger. One is still almost white, the other has gone a smoky-gray, but their shapes are nearly identical. “The bits of you blown up by Raphael, and the bits blown up by me, those will line up nicely.”

Castiel stares at him for a long, long moment, unblinking, eyes glazed like he's thinking over each of his words before he dares to speak. “... Shouldn't all the exact matches go together?”

“Sure,” Lucifer replies easily. “If you want to be incomplete.”

A spike of anger surges through their shared link. “You'll be possessing me, what does it matter if I'm 'incomplete.'”

Lucifer mouths the words back silently in mocking. Then, “If you want to be 'complete' as Daddy's walking robot, devoid of the concept of Free Will, and whatever humanity—for better or for worse—did to you, then fine.” He leans back, staring at his brother, eyes aglow with... rage? … Sympathy? No, no. Never. But he doesn't understand why this is unsettling him. “A Hand of God,” he jeers, “ready to answer his will—even though he's the one partially responsible for the mess you are now.”

“I...”

“Don't get me wrong,” Lucifer continues right over Castiel, “I can't take credit for your mountain of mistakes, and neither can our Father. You screwed the pooch, Castiel. But this?” He rolls his head and indicates the sea around them. ���There was 'Some Assembly Required' to this whole Resurrection Thing and someone sure skipped out on that—typical.”

Castiel lowers his head and doesn't react further.

Lucifer says nothing and seals the two pieces he'd been holding together and then Castiel full body shudders and Lucifer feels more than sees memories slide over the two of them.

“Oops,” he says, a little winded. “I hate this already.”

*****

((World's Worst recreation of Operation.))