Lucifer watched his brother curiously, not willing t9 let his guard drop around his brother, not again.

Michael said nothing at first, didn't even meet Lucifer's eyes. A few tense moments passed before he merely sighed, seems like Lucifer wouldn't take this opportunity that he had laid down before him.

"I never wanted this." Michael muttered, only sparing a slight glance at his brother, afraid of what he may find.

"Of course you didn't." Lucifer replied sarcastically, sitting down on the floor as well.

"I had no choice." Michael tried again.

"You had a choice, there's always a choice. You chose to cast me down and look where it got you.. my bunkmate." Lucifer's eyes burned into Michael but Michael had yet to look at his brother.

Michael was silent for a moment, the secret he had buried within him ready to burst at the seams but he was the good son, he couldn't defy his father. "You're right." Michael looked up, looking eyes with his brother and the reverie within him broke, he couldn't take it anymore, Lucifer thinking he had chosen to cast him down, that wasn't the choice.

A rage filled Michael, one not directed entirely at Lucifer. "I had a choice." Michael said sternly, it would've fazed Lucifer if he didn't think he was playing daddy's little warrior.

"Finally, you admit it. How many eons has it been?"

"Lucifer. You don't understand." Michael said, a little softer. "It was either cast you down or kill you, would you have preferred the alternative?"

Lucifer frowned slightly. "What?"

"I couldn't do it, so I proposed an alternative." Michael broke eye contact, staring in front of him. This was all his fault, the cage.

Lucifer stayed quiet, death had always been on the table, a route that wasn't taken, no matter what the consequence, he had saved him from a worst fate, he had never contemplated another choice for Michael, only to cast him down or not.

"He wanted to kill me." Lucifer muttered mostly to himself.

"He was enraged." Michael tried defending their father but truth be told, he was just as shocked when his father had suggested it.

"He wanted to kill me." Lucifer repeated a little louder, emphasizing each word. "I'd call that a little more than rage."

"But he didn't." Michael responded.

"Not of his own volition, I bet." Lucifer reverberated.

Michael sighed, perhaps he shouldn't have spoken, let Lucifer hate him forever, at least he'd have a punching bag...

Michael stood up and walked towards his brother, flopping down next to him. "He's not here now, its just us." Michael smiled reassuringly at his brother, hoping it would offer him some sort of consolation.

Lucifer smiled back weakly, knowing what his brother was trying to do. "Yeah.. Us." Lucifer uttered the word he hadn't used in eons, one he had never thought he would use again.

"I never wanted to hurt you, it all happened so fast." Michael said softly, thinking back at how after he was forced to make an impossible decision, they would waste no time in laying out Lucifer's sentence much to Michael's horror.

"What hurt was the fact that it was you, not the fall." Lucifer muttered, it stung Michael to hear him say that, all the pain he endured as he descended and he would say it didn't hurt but what Michael did, did.

"I'm sorry." Michael said, looking at his brother. If only Lucifer could see how sorry he was, he might forgive him because he knew that apology had lost traction after so much time had passed.

Lucifer wanted to push him away, give a snarky remark, hurt Michael so he could feel a fraction of what he felt but he saw the pain layered in Michael's azure orbs, and this was Michael after all, his one perfect weakness. He couldn't stay mad at him, the first thing he saw as he opened his eyes as a fledgeling, with whom he shared grace, he was bound to him, his biggest weakness but also his greatest strength. Even as fledglings, they were inseparable.

"Its not your fault." Lucifer replied, he felt the pain lift a bit as he uttered the words and the relief that crossed Michael's eyes.

Total forgiveness wouldn't be as easy, but they had the rest of eternity in the cage for that, right now they could just be content with the fact that they weren't going to try and kill each other for something that ultimately wasn't of their doing.