ANOTHER QUICK THANK YOU??? 🥺
And when I cry??? Literally thank you so much again for your support??? I will never stop being thankful and gushing about this to everyone and anyone that will listen... Y'all make me fr want to fix my Ko-Fi properly WAHAHAH BUT ANYWAYS... I guess this is a new tradition now? As a thank you, here's another small excerpt from the sequel. They will all be unbetaread and out of order to obscure the greater plot as much as possible :> Also, because this is just an unbeta'd excerpt, things may change as I continue to write the fic.
It only takes a few hours of staring up at the glowing, bright white dot in the sky before Lucifer feels a presence behind him, eyes heavy on his shoulders. He already knows who it is without needing to turn around. Only one person in Hell would know him well enough to find him this quickly. He shifts in his seat. “I didn’t punch you that hard, did I?”
Alastor grunts. “The most surprising thing was that you punched me at all.”
“Oh, please. You’re a sinner demon now. You could take it.” Lucifer turns around, eyeing Alastor. He’s fine. The most wounded thing now is his pride. “Besides, you deserved that.”
“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”
Lucifer’s jaw tightens and he looks away. “You’re wrong, of course. If it was as simple as that, I wouldn’t have punched you.”
“Oh? Then explain it to me.”
It’s hard to explain. Alastor accused him of only seeing everyone around him as boxes to check off, less people and more responsibilities. In a way, he’s right. Charlie is his responsibility and Alastor was his a long time ago too, but Lucifer only wishes he could be as cold-hearted as Alastor’s words implied. Maybe then it would be easier. Heaven is like that; only orders and assignments—everything has a place and everyone has a purpose. In a surprising turn around, it can somehow be far more relentless than Hell ever could be.
To some, this is a mercy. With all the tragedy wrought on Earth, distancing yourself only proves to save you, to protect the sanctity of Heaven. To others, it’s a cruelty because of how callous this makes Heaven seem. Lucifer never managed to distance himself, his heart bloody on his sleeve, yet he’s seen as cruel anyway. The irony does not escape him.
“You make it sound so straightforward, so clear cut. You make me sound ruthless.” Lucifer tucks his chin in his arms. “But when have you ever known me to take the straight and narrow path?”
“I was told I never knew you at all.” Alastor steps closer, his footsteps loud. “And that’s only proving more and more true the longer you stay in Hell.”
Lucifer purses his lips, eyes sliding to stare at Heaven above them. “I can leave, if you want.”
“No.” Alastor clears his throat. “That won’t be necessary. Your daughter wouldn’t be very happy. You had an agreement, yes?”
“If I get her that meeting anyway, she won’t mind so much. That’s really all she cares for.”
“If you think that, you don’t know your daughter as well as you think you do.”
“As you feel the need to point out to me at every opportunity.”
There’s a beat of silence. “You still haven’t explained anything to me.”
Lucifer groans, burying his face in his hands. “What do you want to hear then? That yes, I do only see you and Charlie and everyone else as mere obligations? That all these years—millennia—of me trying was because I didn’t care?! But I do care! That’s my problem! That’s always my problem!”
Lucifer said too many things at once, dumped his thoughts and feelings on Alastor because today had been awful. Punching Alastor had not been as satisfying once he’d calmed down and got his wits about him, and now he’s telling him one of his deepest insecurities. He sighs, thankful that Alastor hadn’t said anything, that he hadn’t started laughing himself stupid outright. Lucifer is pathetic, and that’s the butt of the joke.
“Will you just go now?” Lucifer asks, tired. “I think I’ve said more than enough.”
“You and your daughter are so alike that it’s funny.”
“It should be to you too. Filling everyone else’s cup until your basin is empty is a fool’s errand. You dissuade Charlie, but here you are constantly doing the same.”
“I dissuade her because I know what it’s like.”
“To what? To relentlessly chase your dreams and have someone so close to you easily brush it away?”
Lucifer turns, startled. “How did you—” Alastor’s face is mere inches away from his own. Lucifer swallows, unsteady.
“You don’t know me as well as you think you do either.” Alastor straightens, walking away from him. “That hubris will be your undoing, for better or worse.”
“If anyone here has hubris, that’s you.”
Alastor chuckles. “Ah, I never said I didn’t, but unlike you, I don’t try to hide it.”
Lucifer clicks his tongue, turning his gaze back up to Heaven. “Perhaps you should.”
“If I did, then I’d come across as self-righteous.”
“Calling me self-righteous?”
Alastor laughs, high and mocking. “I said no such thing. Oh, you! Always putting words in my mouth.” He taps his chin thoughtfully. “Well, I mean now that you say it…”
Lucifer dislikes him thoroughly. He scoffs. “Oh, just leave already.”
Read the first installment here.
