"Three of a kind."

"Full house."

Sam sighed, collecting up the cards and shuffling them as he shook his head. "For someone whose only just learnt to play, you're damn good at this."

The corner of Lucifer's lips twitched into something that might have been close to a proud smile. "I like to be the best at anything I do," he said.

"Show off," Sam muttered, dealing out the cards again.

"Do humans play this game a lot?"

Sam shrugged. "It's fairly popular. A lot of people go to casinos to play properly, especially in America."

"Casinos?" Lucifer questioned. "Those gambling places?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, people bet money on the games, hope to make an easy fortune, you know."

"Humans," Lucifer muttered. "I never did understand your obsession with material things. You have very strange priorities."

Sam declined to comment.

"Why do people risk what wealth they have?" Lucifer asked. "Surely you'd rather hang onto the thing you value so much?"

"Makes it more exciting, I guess," Sam explained. "You know, a game's more intense if you've got something to lose. Plus winning's surely better if you get something out of it."

Lucifer seemed to consider this. "I suppose," he said. "Would you rather we played with money?"

"Why? You got a secret fortune stashed somewhere?"

Lucifer smirked but shook his head. "As far as I know, there's no money down here. I just wondered, hypothetically, if you'd find it more interesting."

"Doesn't have to be money," Sam said. "Kids at school used to play and bet sweets and stuff."

Lucifer looked pointedly around the room. Sam took the point. There was hardly anything for them to bet, and the stuff was all his (or an illusion of his) anyway. He scanned Lucifer's form, before remembering that that too was an illusion. He hated thinking about it, the familiar uneasy sensation of drifting creeping up on him again.

"We could trade stories or something," he said quickly, ridding himself of the lingering worries. "Like, whoever loses each hand has to say one thing the other didn't know."

Lucifer frowned curiously. "Like what?"

Sam shrugged. "Anything, I suppose. Or maybe if you win a hand, you can ask a question. Like, something you want to know about me?"

There was a brief flash of intrigue on Lucifer's face, but it was quickly covered. "I suppose," he said.

Once they were set up to play again, Sam subconsciously drew in a sharp breath upon seeing his cards. He had a good hand. Four of a kind!

He stopped, chancing a glance up at the archangel who seemed to be focused on his own cards. Lucifer had a very good poker face. He had to admit, the idea of Lucifer asking him personal things made him a little uneasy, though there was a rising curiosity building within him he'd rather not think about, to be able to find out a little more about the devil.

I could use it as a way to find out some weakness of his, he thought, but even in his own head, the argument sounded poor.

"Four of a kind," he blurted, to stop himself thinking any deeper about these things.

Lucifer frowned slightly, throwing his own cards down. "Two pair. Okay, Sammy, ask away."

Sam bit his bottom lip, contemplating. He had no idea what to ask. Not because he couldn't think of anything, but because a million questions came to mind. Head swimming, he decided on something safe. "How old are you?"

For a brief moment, Lucifer merely blinked at him, before smiling slightly.

Sam shifted uneasily. "What?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Just not what I expected you to ask," Lucifer replied calmly, before seeming to think for a few moments. "Time was sort of an irrelevant concept in the beginning," he said. "It was you humans that invented all these devices to obsessively track it. I can't give you an exact answer, but I think you are more interested in knowing simply how long I have been here for, rather than my exact age." He thought for a few moments. "At a rough estimate, I would say I came to be roughly seventy billion years ago."

Sam felt himself pale. Despite the shock, he knew deep down that his brain couldn't quite fully grasp what he had just been told. He knew what the number meant, he knew that that was a very, very long time, but still he found himself incapable of grasping just how long such a time was. Stanford felt like an eternity ago to him, and yet it was a mere few years. Lucifer had lived his whole lifetime over countless times. Honestly, it made him feel faint.

Lucifer seemed amused by his reaction. "Need a minute, Sammy?"

Instinctively feeling defensive, he adamantly shook his head. "What? No. I'm fine." He snatched up the cards and shuffled the deck almost violently. "Come on, next round."

Despite their previous records of Lucifer showing an irritating amount of talent for this, Sam had hoped to somehow fluke the entire game and ask all the questions, but sure enough, Lucifer triumphed him with a better hand.

Sam sighed, attempting to look nonchalant. "Okay. What do you want to know?"

Lucifer didn't hesitate, as if he'd had the question formed ready in his mind. "Do I scare you?"

Sam blinked. Lucifer had also seemed surprised by his question, but in a light-hearted sense. This, however, shocked Sam into an uncomfortable stupor. He found himself looking away, tucking his hair back behind his ear to avoid answering a few moments longer. Lucifer didn't seem inclined to rush him. The silence strained for a long while, before he finally blurted his response. "No." He forced himself to glance back over at the being sat opposite him. "At least, I don't feel that you do as much as you maybe should."

He feared Lucifer would ask for elaboration, or use this to further push some other point, but he merely nodded. "I appreciate your honesty, Sammy."

They played on. Lucifer seemed to be either oblivious, or pretending he didn't see Sam's flushed face. Sam was also suspicious of the ease with which he lost the next round, but unsure how- or indeed why- Lucifer could have thrown it, he brushed it off and contemplated his next question.

Deciding Lucifer seemed pretty open to whatever he wanted to know, he chanced a slightly more personal question. "Do you... regret any of it? You know, becoming the devil?"

For a brief moment, Lucifer didn't seem to react. But a slight frowned slowly crept onto his face, despite his best effort. When he spoke, there was something of a strained quality to his voice that made Sam almost regret his question. "No." Lucifer shook his head. "I think, if it were to all happen again, I would make the same choices. What I regret, is not being able to make any other choices. If Michael had even given me the smallest semblance of being willing to listen, I would have done everything I could to persuade him." He raised his head and met Sam's gaze. "They left me with no choice. No one would listen. No one would even consider what I was saying. I've told you before, Sam. I did this because I had to."

Sam found himself nodding. He couldn't agree with Lucifer's action, but he did see where the archangel was coming from. Lucifer had been left with only the options of giving up his opinion, or fighting all out for it. Sam supposed- no matter what evils it had motivated him to do- he couldn't blame Lucifer for standing up for what he believed in.

"Do you think I'm wrong?" Lucifer asked.

"Not your turn to ask a question," Sam found himself saying, before he even had time to contemplate whether he should be joking with the devil.

Lucifer smiled, sliding the cards he'd been holding back into a pile and stacking them on top of the others. "I always enjoyed our special little chats, Sammy." He met the hunter's gaze. "It may seem minor in comparison to everything I was trying to do, but your acceptance has always been something that genuinely means a lot to me."

Sam folded his own cards back into one pile, staring blankly down at the top one. Ace of hearts. "I know." He sighed. "You know, even after everything, all the horrific stuff I've seen, with the beings we hunt, it's the... compassion some show I find the most unsettling." He glanced up at Lucifer. "I've met vampires and werewolves that didn't want to hurt people. Demons and angel that just wanted to blend in with the world." He almost smiled. "Honestly, I thought you- if anyone- could be relied on to simply be bad. But you... you came to me in that dream and you just... you actually seemed to care about how I felt. Sure, you were planning to use me, to do all these bad things, but you wanted me to understand why." He met Lucifer's gaze. "Right?"

The archangel nodded. "I know you still don't quite get it, Sam. But I'm glad you at least understand that I wanted you to understand."

Sam sighed. "I wish I didn't," he admitted. His tone hardened slightly, words forcing themselves out between gritted teeth. "I don't want to be like you, Lucifer. I don't want to understand you."

"But you do," Lucifer said calmly.

Sam's shoulders drooped, head hanging low so his hair shadowed his face. He said nothing, but his failure to argue spoke volumes.

"Sam," Lucifer said softly, almost sighing the word. "We are quite possibly in the worst place in all of creation. Even if I could come up with some ulterior motive, there is hardly anything I can do down here. I don't want anything from you, but I do appreciate your company." He paused. "Unless you would rather be alone?"

Sam pursed his lips, still reluctant to give Lucifer any leeway, but he had to admit, the archangel had a point. "No," he said eventually. "I don't want to be alone down here."

"This tension is only marginally better," Lucifer pointed out.

Sam sighed.

"All I'm asking is that you talk to me, Sammy."

Sam contemplated. Devil or not, it was hardly an unreasonable request. And Lucifer was right, they were in Hell already, and even if Lucifer gave into his worst instincts, the effects he could cause from this prison were minimal.

"Okay," Sam found himself saying. "I get it. And you're right. I don't want to be alone, and I can't exactly just carry on with this small talk for all of eternity." He drew in a deep breath, shoulders rising. "You're willing to try to get along, so I am, too."

The corner of Lucifer's lips twitched into a smile. "I'm pleased to hear that, Sammy."

Sam frowned slightly. "Only Dean gets to call me that."

Lucifer looked a little displeased at the restriction, but merely shrugged in what Sam supposed was agreement.

Sam exhaled, pushing himself to try to at least appear relax in hopes that the genuine feeling would follow. He busied himself with packing the cards away for a few moments, before looking up at Lucifer. "Got any decent stories? We might as well get to know each other a little better. No card games necessary this time."

Lucifer smiled, shifting position slightly so his hands were braced behind him. "I have a few millennia's worth to choose from. Where do you want me to begin?"

Sam had begun to listen with merely the polite intention to give Lucifer a chance. But as the devil spun out tales of eons ago, of other worlds, or great celestial events, Sam found himself enraptured.

"Wait," he cut in, desperate for details. "So space used to be empty?"

"Space has always been there," Lucifer explained. "In the literal sense, that's what it is. Just space, a vast area that goes on forever. It was something of a blank canvas, I suppose. Everything was blank to start with. Even Heaven was rather empty, before there were more of us to occupy it, more created. That's what creation is, simply filling space."

Sam nodded eagerly. "Okay, so space as in..." He gestured upward, feeling slightly stupid as he wasn't even sure where the sky was in regards to hell. "You know, space up there. Where did all the planets and stars come from? Like, how were they made? Was there really a big bang?"

Lucifer smiled, seeming amused by his eagerness. "Yes. It's absurd to say that Father having created everything contradicts your science. If Father created everything, he made science, too."

"So He made the big bang happen?"

Lucifer nodded. "He created the matter. He let it come together and interact and then simply grow. I don't know if He knew what it would all become. But He started it all, everything you see, He... planted the seeds, so to speak."

"Wow," Sam whispered. "So... did you see all this happen?"

"I did." Lucifer seemed amused by his awe. "It was beautiful."

"What about life? I mean, you guys already existed, and leviathans, too, right? But I mean, life down here. Did God, you know, spark that off as well?"

Again, Lucifer nodded. "We didn't know His full plan at the time. We simply watched. There was suddenly all these worlds below, planets forming. Earth..." He trailed off briefly, seeming distracted.

Sam wondered if he was remembering it as it was then. He couldn't imagine earth without people and animals, without even great lands and buildings.

"He intended it as a habitat," Lucifer continued finally. "We weren't told. But He sent us down with jobs to do." He paused, glancing over at Sam. "You have to understand, it was lifeless then. It was night. Always."

"How come?" Sam asked, wide-eyed.

"There were no stars," Lucifer explained. "So He sent us down. We were to light this universe. He told us to create them, to weave together the molecules that would form them. So we did. I flew with my brothers and sisters, and we lit up the darkness of space."

He stopped talking there, but Sam felt there was more it than that. That story alone made his head spin, but he was sure there was something Lucifer was not telling him.

Noticing Sam staring at him eagerly, Lucifer sighed and continued. "I was leading some of my younger brothers when my Father called me back to him." Lucifer's expression hardened slightly, as if this were something he was reluctant to remember. "I returned instantly, of course. To be called to him alone, it was always the greatest honour."

"What did he want you for?" Sam asked, attempting to picture the scene in his head. He was painfully aware he was incapable of imaging such a thing. Even picturing Lucifer, in his true form and without a vessel, was damn near impossible, let alone to imagine God himself.

"He said I had a very important job," Lucifer continued quietly. "He told me to create another star. A large star, much closer to the planets. He told me to bring the morning..." Lucifer's voice had taken on a reflective tone. He barely seemed to remember Sam was there. "There was no such word then. There is no Enochian word. But I went to create this star He wanted. I worked so hard at it. I wanted to please Father. I worked until finally the matter gathered and expanded and it began to glow. It's light was so strong it shone down on the planets. The planets were pulled toward it. They began to orbit. The little earth was third in line. We didn't know it then, but it was perfectly placed, balanced for a purpose bigger than we could imagine."

Sam's head was ringing. He could almost see the stars dancing before his eyes. He felt like he was soaring through space with them.

"You... you made the sun?" Sam blurted. "I mean, the actual sun? Like the one that's still there now?"

Lucifer smiled briefly at his shock, blue eyes shimmering in amusement. "People might think a little better of me, I suppose, if they knew I was to be credited for that bit of handiwork." He shook his head slightly, smile dropping a little. "Morningstar," he said. "a clever guy like you, Sam, I'm sure you know that name's attributed to me. Light Bringer, Bringer of Dawn."

"Wow," Sam nodded. "I suppose that does make sense."

Lucifer said nothing. To Sam surprise, he spread his legs forward a little so they were bent at the knee, the heels of his boots resting on the bed as he dropped back so he was lying on top of the covers, staring upward at the phantom image of the bedroom ceiling.

Sam was unsure what to do or say next. He felt inclined to move, that though Lucifer wasn't touching him, this casualness was too intimate. He told himself that was silly, remaining stiffly seated as he was, studying the realness of the fabric of Lucifer's jeans where his legs rested close to Sam's own folded ones.

"You okay?" Sam found himself arguing.

Lucifer seemed to shrug. "It's strange," he admitted. "Talking about all this."

"It's strange hearing it," Sam responded, giving a short, nervous laugh.

Lucifer smiled. "I'll stop if you would prefer."

"No," Sam said, almost blushing at how quickly the word spilt from his lips. "It's... it's all really amazing. Please, carry on."

Lucifer shifted a little, seeming to settle, before once again drawing Sam's mind into visions of eons ago and wondrous tales of the dawn of time.