felinis: I really wanted to write a Demon Flynn AU. Really not sure what this is. Merrrrry Christmas

In the days when time first formed- when sentience first popped into being, he'd been made as an enforcer. A warrior of God to uphold the creator's desires and to make the universe as he wished. He was a monster of a creature with eight heads of different beasts and ten arms to each hold a sword of a different virtue. He'd been powerful, and he had a home…

Then Satan grew jealous of all the creatures God was making across the galaxy for fun and amusement. Jealous of the free will and the way God adored their foolishness. So, the angel fell and took many with him and no- he'd not been one of them, but he sympathized and understood and that was enough.

He'd swallowed and pleaded in fear as he bowed on the floor- or at least an approximation of the actions as he's never actually been truly corporeal- begging forgiveness. He didn't want to die or fall. He didn't want to be torn apart and remade like he'd watched other angels. It stands as the only moment where he felt enough sorrow and fear to perform the action of crying like a mortal.

He thinks that what swayed God to spare him. The amusement of tears or sudden pity that one of their creations actually valued its sense of being so much.

You must relearn obedience

He remembers eternally the weight of those chains as they still pulled themselves from his flesh. Of the sudden pull in his will and self as they were pulled by an unseen force down from the heavens.

Learn the curse of empathy and why sympathy is for things that wish to fall

It hadn't hurt to be pulled to earth and to land among the masses huddled in prayer. What hurt was the noise that flooded into his head. Of every prayer of every human on earth. He was to hear them. Understand them. He was even less of entity now as his consciousness was painfully stretched across to globe to wherever human souls prayed to a higher power.

Listen and learn

Those chains burned as he was pulled taught and what was his body would find itself on any alter of prayer it could find. Bound to hallowed ground… listening to prayers with the choice to answer them and use his divine strength if he pleased.

Back in the early centuries of his sentence he did. He truly tried to perform hundreds of miracles for good souls. For poor children and mothers. He listened and answered, but that proved unstainable. God had diminished his power in that once used it only returned in the smallest amounts at the end of the year. Only enough to really sustain his existence… but he couldn't ignore the prayers that pounded into his head at every hour and every minute. In time he had to though, his form got smaller… His power weaker. His chains longer till he could sleep in the pews with no regard for the people below.

With every year that passed his existence would fade and he had come to understand that one day he would vanish. That was God's punishment for him.

Sleep or as close as he was capable of was often part of his regimen in heavy doses. He found sleeping most of the week was good enough to let his subconscious sort through which prayers deserved attention and which ones he could not help. His latest nook to rest in was a rather nice temple with a large circular stained-glass window he could sleep under and stare out to crowd at. Sometimes if he felt he was needed he even joined the sermon but most times he watched with a level of detachment.

Today caught his eye as he looked at the pastor and made a point to really look at him. See if his eyes were playing tricks. Perhaps he's just a bad soul on his way to hell… but all the same. He shifted, and the chains rattled with a sound that only he could hear but noted the Pastor stiffen.

'Well then.' He thought and ruffled his wings as he appeared on the ground below in front of him. If he was falling to hell, then he could only imagine the sins because this man looked- no felt pure. But there was no denying the horns curling from the gold locks or the scales on his skin. The way his teeth were needles and the tongue forked behind the human mask.

The Pastor did not look at him but there was awareness as he looked into the audience. A grin that said 'nice to meet you' as they looked his way. He decided to poke the bear for but a second as he shouted a loud hello throughout the church and watched in amusement as the Pastor- no demon- did falter in his smile for a second. So he does see…

"A demon acting as a priest. Not a first but it's quite rare for you to enter my domain so willingly. Doesn't it hurt?"

He was talking to the air of course. The demon was not answering but he listened and watched his sermon all the same and when the people finally piled out the door and only they remained did the demon finally acknowledge him.

"Your domain is actually quite diminished. It barely stings." The demon- someone had called him Pastor Flynn, but he doubted that was his real name- said looking him straight in the eye. Blue- disturbingly vivid blue. "I was worried you were never going to notice me. It's been a whole month and you never looked my way."

"I was asleep."

Flynn held out a hand, "Well at least we finally can become acquaintances. My name is Flyscifonn of circle of wrath." He didn't take the hand but noted to the fingers dipped in red from the tips to the second knuckle.

"Your names are always so on the nose." He notes and heads back towards his perch. "I mean, really, son with bloodied hands? I'll stick with Flynn it's easier and less of a mouthful."

The hand was withdrawn, and Flynn's eyes scrunched in frustration. "Oh really? Says the angel… Why don't you spit out one of your eight-million names for your all mighty position?"

But he didn't have a name… He's never had one. He was just a warrior in a line-up that hadn't needed one. Names were reserved for angels with a purpose… A job. An attribute to distinguish each other by that really only the most powerful deserved. Or the most doted… the favorites…

"Do some really have that many?" He mused and wondered how you would track all those names. He doubted he could remember one let alone eight-million.

"How would I know?" Flynn said crossing his arms in annoyance.

"Good point." He says and curls himself back into comfort on his window. Flynn asks again for his name and with a long sigh he just admits to not having one. "In case the chains weren't enough of a clue I wasn't given that sort of privilege."

"I'd like to be able to call you something. It gets annoying otherwise." He tells him to call him anything. He's not going to be picky and Flynn sits staring up at him from one of the pews before smile stretches on his lips. "Mind if I call you Yurilin?"

"That too long." And again, too on the nose.

He hears a chuckle. "Fine. Yuri. It's nice to meet you. I look forward to the day I kill you and devour your divine essence."

"Um… likewise?"

Flynn was an odd duck as far as Yuri, as he'd started to refer and thinking himself by over time, could tell. Yuri was aware that demons loved to stray the flock as pastors, priests, bishops, politicians, any number of figures. If the demon was strong enough then they could easily last long enough on holy ground to cause mayhem, but they usually made very clear and very poignant statements of sin when you listened long and hard.

Flynn actually didn't seem to care for swaying others towards sin or causing riots in the streets. Flynn gave solid guidance. Often angry and aggressive- but solid guidance all the same. If he had an agenda Yuri could only assume it was a long con of a plan.

"You could make them fall. Why don't you?"

He smiles in a way that churns Yuri's stomach because it's far too sweet for his kind and lets out a soft laugh. "Well, as strange as it sounds, I respect humans too much for that sort of thing."

Yuri cocked a brow. "Really?"

"Call it what you will but I find that humans are endearing in their emotions. I love their anger but it's no fun if I'm the one who pushes that wrath entirely. I believe in consent to sinning and damning a soul." This was probably the closet thing to a code of morals Yuri had ever heard for a demon. To be fair though, that's a pretty low bar since he's only ever met a handful. "If they want my help to cause war and to ravage the land with flames than I will if not I'm content to let them live as they are.

Though, if they feel slighted and I find I enjoy that human I will act as their guardian and right their wrongs."

"What, you gonna answer the prayers for me?" Yuri turned away to look out his window into the streets beyond his perch.

The silence barely lasts as Flynn decides for the first time to join him up on the window. How strong was he? More aptly how weak had Yuri become that a demon could enter his domain with no care? "Will you let me kill you?"

"No killing without consent either?" Yuri mused.

"You're a special case in that regard. I don't think killing something so pitiful as you outright would be fair."

It's funny, but Yuri knows that a long time ago that would have flung him into a fit. He'd had pride as a warrior and was one for action, but time had worn on him. He was weak… So weak and he knew it… The only thing left of his time before the chains was a single sword that was rusting and dissolving. He'd tried to hold off its corrosion, but he barely had wings and he needed those more. Even if they were scraggily and torn, he needed them.

"So, is your plan to wait till I'm gone or give in?"

"Essentially."

They fall into a routine as the years go by. Yuri sleeps more than he would like but his body is always tired lately. He'll sleep for months and wake still exhausted, but he'll listen and answer prayers that he can. It's in those times he takes a bizarre solidarity in Flynn.

"Hey, do demons feel emotions?" Yuri asks one day.

There's a pause as Flynn muddles it over. "Hmm, I guess. Well, it's more that I can think of emotions, but I only feel wrath. What about you?"

"I once felt pride and fear."

"What was that like?"

He bites his lips searching for the right words. "Pride was burning… It was hot and made me feel as if nothing could hurt me. It felt strong and good, but fear… fear was cold, and it stung."

"Would you have them again?"

"Yes."

He's not sure why but he tells Flynn why he's here. What he does when he's not sleeping and Flynn listens earnestly. He's admitted to Yuri that as much as he wants to kill him and eat him, he does enjoy the company. That on his code of chivalry he won't disclose what they discuss, and Yuri believes it.

"What about you? Born a demon in the pits of hell and all that?"

"No." Flynn spits. "I fell with my king."

Oh… "Why?"

"Because God is impartial. He doesn't care that his children are constantly calling to him for help and guidance. He makes and sets things in motion and then forgets them all in a second till he can find a new set of toys. I follow Lucifer because he cares for his followers and is at least willing to listen to all of us."

Yuri understands but he knows what becomes of souls in hell and it never sits with him. Punishing for eternity and twisting souls with torture. Yes, it is the wicked who go but it's also the innocent that life brought to rage and violence. He's heard it all in prayers and sometimes he did answer those, but he didn't take pride in it. He wishes you could protect them from that sort of viciousness but it's also the cruelty of free will…

"So what then? You went just because God doesn't play favorites?"

The bible in Flynn's hand that he often plays with while they talk after sermons bursts into flames. "I was prepared to die for him and then I realized in all that fighting- all that war- not once did God show himself except to throw Lucifer down to hell. I watched hundreds die and all of them screamed… The only one willing to spare my life was my commander who had chosen to fall… The longer I thought about the angrier I became till my wings burned from my body."

A laugh.

"When I was angel, I felt nothing. You know that. We can't feel almost anything by our nature, but as a demon… as demon…" A fire dances at the tips of his fingers. "As a demon I feel wrath. As a demon I have a will of my own. My thoughts are my own and nothing restricts me from but myself. And because of this damnation I was able to realize a goal that I wanted."

"I will listen to those prayers that go unanswered because God chooses not to and grant them miracles. It will be justice for the forgotten."

Yuri narrows his eyes and purses his lips. "You make it seem like you wish to be God."

Laughter. "Well, not God per se." The fire flickers out. "I wish to eat you and then take your place answering prayers."

It was his turn to laugh because in all of Yuri's years he's never heard anything so ridiculous. It was so earnest a statement. So pure an intent and yet incredibly malicious. "You're a masochist."

"All demons are."

In the comfortable silence between them Yuri ran his hands over one of the chain links. His life was hell. His existence stung with constant noise and pain that he couldn't shake or be free from despite himself. If only he could stop caring for all those poor souls that prayed, then he could be rid of those chains. God would restore him to what he should be…

But he also cherishes what he's done.

"I could help you fall." Flynn said as his hand gently slid over Yuri's wrists yanking at the base of the chains. "I rather like you Yuri. Enough that I almost don't want to kill you."

He pulled away. "I'm flattered but no thanks. I like my divinity as weak as it is."

"It's not going to last much longer, you know that?" Flynn sighs and Yuri will admit that he's thought about that a lot lately. He's not much of anything anymore. "And I really don't want to watch you die."

"I don't mind returning to dust. I decided that a long time ago." He feels fear again as he thinks about how his power has gotten so weak that his wings are a few scraps of feathers. He spends all but a few days out of the year asleep lately. "I want to die as myself."

"Being a demon doesn't mean you aren't yourself. If anything, it means you'll finally be you." Flynn's irritation is palpable. "Don't you want to leave this church? To get rid of those chains and just be free? Aren't you angry at God for what they've done to you? I am. It's not fair for sympathy and care to be punished."

"That's life…" Yuri sighs… Not every prayer can be answered. Not every act can be equal. God can't care for everything they make… But it be beautiful if they could.

"Then fuck life."

"What the hell is this?" Yuri asks holding the box in his hands.

"It's cake. I made it myself." Yuri of course knows what a cake is, but he can't comprehend why the hell Flynn would bring him anything to begin with. Not even counting the oddity of a demon feeling the need to bake in general. "I swear there's nothing poisonous in it. I just thought you'd like it. You said you've never eaten before…"

Because angels don't need to eat and therefore, he shouldn't bother with it. Eating without need is gluttony and he personally always found that sin particularly gross. But… Yuri was also curious, so he took a small bite and cringed.

Was this sweetness? It was clingy and overwhelming but pleasant to a degree he might have disliked it. He tried again, and the potency slowly waned into something enjoyable to the point he frowned when his box was finally empty.

"You like it?"

"Yes."

Yuri began to suspect something when his wings started growing back in patches of down feathers. He felt more awake despite himself and found he was able to answer more prayers than usual without feeling drained. Nothing had changed except Flynn kept bringing him new foods to try. New flavors that always left him feeling what he thinks might be hunger. But he shouldn't feel hunger.

He'd grabbed Flynn by the collar and pressed him against the wall. "What are you doing to me? What the hell is this?"

Why did his chest burn, and his vision sharpen yet shake? Why was he… what was he… what was any of this? Why was Flynn only smiling back at him with endearment like he'd expected it. "Do you like anger?"

Was that what this was? If so no- he didn't. Anger was cloying and heavy like his chains- no heavier. How could anyone love this? "Don't you like that your powers returning?"

"What the fuck have you been giving me Flynn?" Yuri screamed and hated that Flynn didn't flinch. Hated that Flynn even seemed to find his new found rage funny.

"Nothing really all that special. Just a few messenger angels I found." His eyes widened, and that cold fear ran down him as Yuri thought of the hunger… He'd been… and that's why…

He let go and backed away. "Why?"

"Because you were practically dead. An angel without wings is barely a concept let alone an individual." Flynn straightened his collar and he took another step back. "And I gave it some thought. You don't want to fall, and you refuse to let me kill you. You've mentioned that you can't grant as many miracles as you'd like so this is my answer.

Wouldn't it be better than just fading away then to regain your former strength and then some? Become an angel powerful enough that you can take care of every prayer with me at your side. So powerful those chains are meaningless and that you can give the affection I know you want to for these poor humans."

"I don't want something so disgusting as the death of what would be hundreds of angels just for me to say alive and for humans to have miracles."

"Then feast on demon."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"I told you Yuri, I want your position. I want justice. It's the only thing that I feel and the only thought going on in my mind." A blade forms in Flynn's hand and Yuri finds that he's truly afraid of Flynn. That Flynn might kill him, and Yuri would have no way to stop him. He doesn't have the strength for a weapon and Flynn already knows how to find him.

That he'll just blink into another church and then Flynn will track him down again.

"I've only spared you this long because I find your existence pitiful. You want to do so much good, but those chains have made you weak to a point that you don't even radiate an ounce of power. Walking in here should have burned me but instead I only feel a warm breeze of what was once all-consuming power.

You could have fought back harder. You could have taken power from the souls in here that we're due for death in a few years and used it for the greater good. You could have been this worlds God with your position! But no… you waste away to the point I have to take pity on you. Give you a fucking name because you didn't even have the pride to give one yourself!"

The sword rests at Yuri's neck. He could kill him. Just kill him… Take his place and end his existence.

"I hate that I feel pity towards you. I shouldn't pity something as disgusting as an angel."

The blade nicks at his neck. "Why don't you kill me already? Get over your pity and get what you've wanted? I'd be fine with it. I'm sure you'd do a lot for this world. As strange as it is to say you have a good soul Flynn."

Flynn grinds his teeth to a point that some shatter and splinter off before growing back almost instantly. "I can't, dammit! Otherwise I would have but talking with you… you… You're so pitiful and disgusting… So much that I don't want you dead. For some reason I want to see you free and that makes me even more mad!"

"For some fucking reason I want to you to live. I hate that you make me feel a different form of anger… That I feel pity and that gross thing of affection." The sword digs deeper. "I shouldn't have to feel such a disgusting sensation as this. Why can't I just kill you? What the hell even is this feeling?"

"Sympathy." Yuri states the fear washing away because he knows sympathy. Knows what is does and how it hinders. It's easy to push the blade away and stare him down because if sympathy kept him safe before it will keep him safe now. "Sympathy is what you feel."

"Sy-sympathy?"

Yuri laughs because it makes sense to him. Sense that a demon would be enraged by such a feeling because selfishness is key in falling from grace. As much as Flynn may try to say his soul is as it should demons naturally are corrupted into a blindness in their emotion. "You've only felt anger, so I doubt you would have recognized it. I know it so well that I can't even feel that shit anymore."

"This disgusting thing is sympathy?" Flynn spits.

"You want my job enough you'd fucking feed me angels, but you can't understand sympathy?" Yuri crosses the distance between them and punches him in the face. Sympathy- empathy- care make things weak and he'll use that. It was foolish to think he had that already… he's a demon. "I will fucking kill you for this."

He expects the sword the to lash out and then Yuri will do whatever the fuck he can to take it from Flynn and kill him. Kill him for defiling him with something so wrong. Kill him for wanting something he doesn't even understand. Instead Flynn dismisses it and punches back.

A punch from Yuri.

A bite from Flynn.

An attempt to strangle.

Claws trying to maw through flesh

To burn with what's left of his divinity

A punch

A kick

Another punch

Another attack and another

Wounds oozing

Bruises forming

Screaming

Hating

Wrath

Wrath…

In the end Yuri is the one who gives way inevitably first. He's just not strong enough anymore… Maybe in the past. Flynn's hands rest on his wings and he waits, go ahead rip them off and he'll turn to dust, but once more sympathy- pity- keeps him alive just long enough for Flynn let go and for him to scramble away.

"I never want to see you again." Flynn hisses, and Yuri shuts his eyes telling himself that he'll blink into a new church. A new resting place. One so pure Flynn can't just follow him blindly to. "I'll get rid of this feeling and then I'll kill you."

"Then you really aren't suited for this job."

Yuri never cared much for Vatican City, but it was the purest of places he could be. The art was beautiful, the tourist for the most part fine, the part he hated was that there were always other angels here. Angels who liked to gawk at him and ask how he became so disgraced. How he let himself feel so much care for others. How he was just so… disturbed compared to them. No matter where he hid, they would try to find him, so they could stare at him… Not to mention word got out about how he had befriended a demon. That his lips were stained with the taste of angels. That the only reason he had not fallen was God's will.

If only angels had better things to do than gossip.

If only he had the strength to kill that wretch. A demon who wants justice but has no sympathy would never be able to care for the prayers he hears. No, unless he learned sympathy and unless he truly could care and understand others than he was never going to take Yuri's place.

"If you sleep for a few centuries then you should recover." A voice spoke, and Yuri jumped at the angel who stood behind him. He'd seen her often around here… Estelle or something along those lines… "You're too weak to answer prayers, aren't you? If you rest long enough then you should return to at least a portion of what you were before."

"Why do you care?" He scoffs. If he sleeps for that long, he can't imagine how much worse the world will be. He uses his miracles to avoid disaster when he can. To push the world to a better path as weak as he is.

Estelle twiddles her fingers awkwardly. "Well… because I really enjoy humans. My job is to archive their histories. I know each and every one of them and I always wish I could do more for them. For so many of them their lives spiraled out of control and if they'd had one miracle. One small ounce of good they could have had such greater happiness. Your job is to grant that. Everyone may call it a punishment, but I see at as you are the arbiter of this planet's wishes. You deserve the strength to grant those. So, sleep and recover. Take from me if it'll help. Just keep listening and caring. Become strong enough by my hand that even God will see you deserve forgiveness."

"But… why?"

"Because I want to feel for them like you."

He slept for almost two centuries before he finally felt almost whole again. Whole enough that he felt he could fight… That he could listen again and give out more than one or two miracles. Worked with the knowledge that Estelle would restore him even the tiniest amount at the end of a session. He felt good to finally be listening again… to finally be able to care again like he wanted.

To feel like he wasn't sent to die but to do good.

He decided as time passed and the number of angels who would give their strength grew till, he glowed like a sun and could even walk his grounds in a human skin that he should kill Flynn. He had the strength now… the support. Not to mention he'd put it off long enough. It been what four centuries since they tried to kill each other? Flynn was a demon and one of wrath so in all likelihood death would need to come to him eventually.

Wrath consumes the mind and the body- it corrodes like no other. Yuri suspected Flynn at this point would have lost his morals and reasoning.

He was surprisingly wrong.

Finding Flynn had not been hard. Yuri's mind existed wherever prayer occurred, and it meant his ears were everywhere. Were always everywhere. It had taken but a few hours to find him and appear in the pews wearing a human skin. Still playing the pastor, huh?

He listened and waited is the small pews of a backwater church in the middle of nowhere. Watched the people file out and the smile on Flynn stay firm and kind until everyone was out. "May I help you?" He coughed, and Yuri looked beyond the glamour and disguise and was unsurprised that his face underneath was even more disturbed than before. The part that gave him the most pause was the burnt leathery quality of his skin and the red of his hands that looked wet and dripping. But his body seemed to be perturbed by horns and sharp growth that sprung from his skin randomly and a scent of rot and brimstone hid in the air.

"God, you look like shit." Yuri wondered what in the world Flynn had been eating, doing, feeling to look so… So… so much like blister. Even his eyes- those hauntingly blue eyes- seemed glazed and unfocused.

The sudden recognition from Flynn doesn't come like he thinks it will. He expects a bright inferno of rage like when they parted last time and Flynn's eyes smoldered but instead the anger, he senses is cold… an ice that frosts the room in resentment. "Well, to think you'd willingly see me."

"I had to eventually. You'd come after me once you got enough strength and you lost that sympathy." Flynn shrugs lightly as if in agreement.

"Well, can't say you're wrong." He walks a distance and comes back with a bottle. "Before we kill each other like heathens how about some Sacramental wine? It's pretty good for being cheap as dirt."

"Eh, don't see why not…" Yuri keeps an eye as Flynn pours the cup and hands it over. "I was actually disappointed that you didn't come busting in to try to kill me sooner."

"And step in the Vatican?" A shiver. "No thank you. I want to see the chapel yes, but that's more out of a respect for architecture and fine art. The God shit I refuse to get any closer to than this."

"That's too bad. I was gonna show you my new room. It's great I sleep right where the illuminati meet." Yuri takes a long sip and subtly spits it back in. Fuck, he forgot wine is bitter and he's still working on that flavor. One more goes! "I didn't realize they were real."

Flynn's glass cracked. "How the hell did you not know the illuminati were real? Everyone knows that."

"Hey, my job was 90% sleeping by windows and 10% answering prayers without bothering to listen to full context. So, sue me if I missed a few details from world history."

"Next thing you'll tell me is that the Satanists are actually relatively swell people with a mostly misunderstood philosophy and that George Clooney was great in O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

Yuri will admit his only response was genuinely the words, "Who's George Clooney?"

It's not hard for them to just relax and joke for time over the bottle of wine. Might as well be civil for a bit but Yuri's eyes keep wandering back to Flynn's hands and the way they continuously drip. "So… has wrath eaten you that much."

"Oh… no actually the opposite." Flynn laughs and then it stops, and the chill comes back only stronger. Strong enough to nip and burry itself in his skin as Flynn stares emptily at him. "I can't stop feeling sympathy for you and as time passed and I felt your power grow from a distance I started experiencing envy. Greed… Lust was interesting and sort of catch all with greed along with gluttony. I just wanted so much power. So much of everything and there was never enough."

"I just wanted you dead, or at least I think I thought I did but I've come to realize the reason you invoked so much emotion in me is I wanted to be you but better."

"I'm not even angry like I should be. I'm just tired because now I know that you've found a system and have taken care of it. You are stronger that I am even when I worked so hard since you left to become powerful enough to kill you. In the end though… sympathy… care… affection… wore and rot my body away. I'm a joke among demons."

"I wish I killed you back when your wings were bones."

"But do you regret having sympathy?" The cup drops from Flynn's hand.

"No. I enjoy it. It's awful and it stings like a motherfucker. It smells like fish and tears. It's the worst sensation I've ever felt… But I like it. I might even love it."

Yuri stands and decides to walk away. "Well then there's hope for a monster like yourself."

"Excuse me?"

"Something without sympathy- empathy- understanding- or just fucking care couldn't be justice. Justice should understand and love who it protects. You gotta know that?" He decides not to stay for Flynn's answer.

"I hate you! You disgust me! I wish I never met you!"

"I know… I'm sorry. But I'm glad I met you."

"I always wondered why Yurilin? You could have gone with anything. Any insult or joke and that's what you went with."

"I'm not good with names…" Flynn blushed in embarrassment. "Never have been. So, I just kinda saw the chain and I was there to kill you so…"

"It's a bit strong."

"Probably. You want to change it now or something?"

"Nah… I just was thinking about all the weird looks I get when I introduce myself. I mean chained victim is a bit much."

"To be fair my other idea was to just call you dinner and end you there."

It's funny to think but Yuri didn't think an angel once fallen could redeem itself. The sympathy had done something to Flynn and he saw it as time passed. Watched the way the corrosion and misshapenness was polished off with time as he sees him. Jests with him. He doesn't forgive Flynn for what he is or what he's done but he knows that each decade Flynn looks less like a demon and more like he must have before.

They both see it and Flynn will never stop yelling at him of his hatred about this. About the anger he feels at how he's started feeling towards the humans. About he's actually willing to call Yuri his friend. That he wants to scream at the idea that he'll lose the only emotion he knows and be forced to subside by understanding the hearts of others.

That he wants Yuri to return to being weak, so he can kill him. That the chains still bother him. That he still resents God. But Flynn can't deny that he wants to take care of more than just those he blindly favored. That he's envious of Yuri because he still wants to protect them and be justice.

For some reason Yuri holds up one of his arms offering the chain to Flynn. He stares and Yuri notes that for the first time Flynn doesn't seem to have even a gram of anger boiling in his chest. His face is serene as they stare out into the world from the window.

The stare is long and surprisingly warm and sweet. "You're hardly a demon anymore. I mean you're no angel in the slightest but at this point I think the only thing weighing you down are those emotions."

"I don't think that's how it works Yuri. I can't just dig myself into your binding." Flynn sighs and Yuri wonders if Flynn realizes how soft his features have become and how his the only real sign that he's demon are the horns poking out of his hairline and the jagged teeth.

"Why not?"

"I refuse to believe it's that easy."

"And if it is?" Yuri nudges and Flynn only glares.

"If it is then you could have literally stuck any random human to them and escaped."

"At least give it a try before you call me an idiot."

Flynn had screamed when he first shared in Yuri's curse. He'd screamed and cried and burst into flames while blood dripped down his cheeks. "Is this it? Is this what is always is?"

"Yes. It's hell. One you learn to live with but a hell all the same." Yuri says and hoists him into a comfortable position.

"I'm sorry..." Flynn sobs.

"For what?"

"For thinking this would be simple."

"You were a demon." He holds him in a hug and then remembers to give him the faintest smack on the head. "I was really disappointed when I realized you didn't already understand even a little."

"I wish I did sooner. I feel like if I did, I wouldn't have fallen so hard."

Eternity is a long time to spend with anyone. Chained together hearing humanity and being the sword of justice and a miracle in the night. The arbiters that were made strong to listen when they would have gone unanswered. The world died, humans expanded, the universe changed, but they always heard them.

They fought and argued often. Sometimes they even would stretch the distance between them as far as they could until the recoil snapped them back and they were forced to make up.

They were for humans God and they took pride in that.