Michael freezes."What do you mean you can't?" He slams Sam against the tree, splintering he wood.
"It's Lucifer!" Sam roars back.
"I'm not going to be his vessel again! I don't want anything to do with him!" Michael recoils back, eyes hardening. He drags Sam away, seething with silent anger.
Lucifer shifts his wings back into the metaphysical plane, and Sam suddenly regrets not agreeing with Michael. He wants to see Lucifer's wings again- they were restless, feathers shifting against each other, with bones like glass that glistened underneath the dull lights of Purgatory. Sam shakes his head. He is not going to wax poetic about Lucifer's wings, of all things. Lucifer may appear attractive, but Sam could say that it's just the vessel. But his wings- that's all Lucifer, and Sam is frightened by the prospects, by the implications. Sam was never more complete than when he was one with Lucifer. He feels like a selfish bastard for some reason, for rejecting Michael's offer. For rejecting Lucifer.
The Archangel looks like death warmed over, eyes sunken into his skull, hair mussed up, swaying slightly while walking and leaning against Michael. They reach the pit of Purgatory. What is called the center of this gray, hopeless land.
"Purgatory has an Ocean?" Sam asks Benny. The vampire shrugs. "I've only heard about it, brother." They stand on the edge of a cliff, looking down on the shimmering, black mass of water. It makes Sam uneasy, reminding him of the Leviathans. The Ocean itself was massive, the pathway towards it blocked by the sheer cliffs by the mountains surrounding the planes. The water shifts and moves. A vaguely reptilian head rises out of the liquid, the neck long, it's dark green scales unusually vibrant Sam's eyes widens.
"Is that a-"
"Dragon, yes." Lucifer rasps from behind him, and Sam jumps, turning back to look at him. Guilt churns at the tall man's stomach at the sight. Lucifer's eyes were rimmed with red and purple bruises, he appears to be thinner than before, taking on an almost skeletal appearance, the blue eyes that were like shards of ice are like lifeless marbles. Sam turns back, not willing to look at him, to just give in to this urge.
Lucifer faces Sam's back, the motion sending another knife to his grace, already in tatters. He may be fading, but he still has ears. He heard Sam's earlier conversation with Michael, loud and clear, each word a blow to him. Somehow, it managed to strengthen his resolve to live. If Sam does not want him, then Lucifer will not beg and grovel at his feet. Sam may be his true vessel, his other half- but Lucifer has been alone for thousands of years already.
He is no lovesick cherub, and he can handle being alone again. But he does not want to. There will be a way to let Sam see his point. There has to be. They are made for each other, after all.
The creature rises from the Ocean, the black liquid shifting to accommodate it's body. Even then, it seems small compared to the deep tides. Sam feels his breath catch in his throat. Dragons. Goddamn dragons exist.
"We'll need to get over this Ocean somehow." Benny murmurs, shifting the backpack on his back.
"We fly over it." Michael says, eyes hard and cold, as far away from Sam as possible. He manifests his wings, fanning them out, large and red like blood, bright in contrast to their surroundings. Lucifer manifests his wings as well. Sam looks away, only to glance back at them.
The feathers are translucent, the bones brittle looking, still injured with cracks in between joints. Even the color is dimmer, like someone took the light out of them. Sam tries to not lean into Lucifer's touch when they flew over the Ocean, wind in his hair, almost tasting the salt against his tongue.
Lucifer leans against Sam. Proximity like this, being so close to his other half. He wants Sam, whether for him to be his vessel or something more. It's such a human feeling, but so much more. Sam is just human, an extraordinary one, much better than the rest of them, but it is to be expected. No human can understand how an Angel feels. He sends a tendril of grace out, letting it connect with Sam's soul. Perhaps that could let him understand. Sam's eyes widens when he felt something connect with him. Something cold brushing against him. Lucifer. A whirling storm of emotion came from the fallen Archangel.
Lucifer is trying to tell him something, and Sam has to listen, considering that if he left he would be falling thousands of feet into the ocean below, where the dragons flitted about the surface with grace and fluidity. He pokes back, and Sam has to fight to just breath.
There is so much anger at humanity- anger that the alien species took his father away from him- a father that programmed them, the Angels to obey. Loneliness from the absolute isolation that is the cage. Empty with nothing but the color of black and his own thoughts to accompany him. Betrayed by Michael's mindless obedience.
And love and longing. So much of it, all directed at Sam and he drowns in it, because as human there is just too much and it is too hard to understand but so easy to get lost in- as he looks right now, he knows that Lucifer is not human, he is something older than the universe- he watched galaxies, stars and civilizations live and prosper and fall and die.
But in the emptiness of the cage all he looked forward to is Sam's existence. And Sam understands, because how could he not? Ever since he was a child there is a hole in his heart that not even his dreams of a normal life. Then the night at the convent happened, and, as he gazed into the light rising out of Lilith's blood, Sam realized that he has never felt so complete before.
He really has been waiting for this for a long, long time. He feels the tatters of Lucifer's grace and promised to himself to fix it.
Thank you. Lucifer speaks through the connection, a burst of glee and a hint of knowing smugness, before pulling back just as Sam is about to answer.
When they land, Sam grabs Lucifer's arm and kisses him against a tree, the head of his mouth against Lucifer's cool breath. The Devil is a damn good kisser, Sam realizes- as relief flooded him, from himself and from Lucifer.
"Don't destroy humanity?" He asks when they pull away, ignoring Michael's pointed look and Benny's sarcastic clapping.
"I can promise to try." Lucifer answers, and drags Sam down for another kiss. If this completeness is what he gets for forgoing his revenge, then he might just try.