Azazeal had agreed not to "do" anything about Sara's choice of lovers, but he felt that this didn't mean that he couldn't harass Araqiel about it. So the next time he caught him alone he interrogated him.
"Araqiel, what was it exactly that made you think you were good enough for Sara?" he said with an amused smile.
"I don't understand."
"You had sex with her, didn't you?" he responded with some emphasis on the word sex.
"Yes," Araqiel replied now beginning to understand that Azazeal was annoyed, "She asked me. I had no reason to say no."
"Right, and that's a good enough reason to violate my daughter, I see. You think that just because she's grown that she's fair game. She's still my daughter and she's not for you to amuse yourself with."
Araqiel was a little taken aback by this rant, but was generally used to this type of speech from Azazeal, so he answered simply, "She wanted to learn and I thought that you would want me to do as she asked. It was not for my amusement, but for hers."
Azazeal made an annoyed face again. Only Araqiel could do something like this and then make it seem like it was actually an act of loyalty. Still Azazeal had wanted someone to pay even though it was unavoidable that his Sara would have sex. He was just about to let Araqiel go when Cassie noticed them and the look on Araqiel's face and marched straight over to them. Azazeal quickly told Araqiel to forget about it and just leave and put on his best innocent face for Cassie.
"I'm not even going to ask you what that was about. You agreed!"
"I don't know what you are talking about. Araqiel was just…"
"Nope, I don't want to hear it," Cassie said with a shake of her head and a smile. She'd almost been sure this would happen.
"What I would like to hear is when we're going to make you immortal," he said with a characteristic smile and change of subject, as he put his arms around her waist and pulled her close.
"Yes, I'm sure you would," she said trying not to smile and failing miserably, "But I think that you're just going to have to make a stronger case for yourself. I mean forever is an awfully long time. I might get sick of you." Cassie said all of this with her most obviously teasing tone and at first Azazeal smiled but then he became more serious.
"You have no idea what it feels like to have you love me after spending so many years destroying everything I came in contact with in pursuit of our petty revenge. I haven't really loved or felt love in centuries, not like this. And you have no idea how confusing it was to have been created to love humans so much and then have them ultimately be the cause of our downfall. We were guided by such a strong will and then suddenly we had no reason not to do anything that occurred to us or to Lucifer, especially whatever seemed to make us forget what we had lost. It feels so good to have you, Malachi, and Sara as reasons to protect something again. And I need you as my reason to reject all the hate, and love instead."
Cassie looked at him with tears staring to well in her eyes.
"I won't take that away from you," she said, "I'm just not ready to, you know, do the deed," and she tried an encouraging smile.
He smiled back now with a naughty smile and pressed against her to whisper in her ear, "Now don't lie, I know you're always up for it," he said, obviously not talking about immortality anymore.
"I'll give you a will to bend to, don't you worry about that," she said in his ear before pulling back to kiss him deeply. He then picked her up easily and carried her off to their room, where she proceeded to surprise him by bringing out intense feelings of submission that he would not have thought to offer on his own. He began to realize what Lucifer had meant about giving in and, although he did not struggle with free will the way that poor Lucifer did, he saw that there was a comfort in not just loving her but letting her inside as well. Of course, now he felt even sillier for having kept so much from her for so long, but he was trying.
Elizabeth and Lucifer's relationship probably would have carried on much as it always had, with her trying to keep him occupied and focused on her while using her tried and true methods of manipulation, but she had figured out a few things. For one, he was right, if, every once and a while, she forced a deeper surrender from him, she could get the calm she was looking for and it would sometimes last for a few days, depending on how "convincing" she'd been. But even with that, there were still times when she would be at her wits end and she would angrily try to just order him to not do something and he would laugh and do it anyway. She would sometimes think back to the one time a straight order from her had actually worked, when she'd told him to get some self-control, and she realized that if it took as much emotion and force as she'd put into what she'd said to him that day, she'd rarely be able to do it. Of course, once he'd expended the energy and realized that he was in trouble, he was the definition of repentant and always found herself forgiving him.
Secondly, since his idea had worked so well, relatively speaking, she decided to experiment further with Lucifer as "the servant" as he liked to call it. She'd known from the beginning that his metaphors were just that, Lucifer at his dramatic best, however chaining him to the bed and using his body as her personal plaything was now on her list of things to try. She began to take him away for a few days at a time to get to know that side (after all he'd seemed actually hurt that she hadn't shown an interest in it) and it was a huge help with his wild side, even though it did wear off.
She was actually pleasantly surprised at how much she ended up liking him that way. He had such a warm smile for her all the time that she found it impossible not to enjoy his company. He was of course calm and attentive to her with an uncanny ability to pick desires out of her head, including embarrassing ones if she wasn't careful, and yet he always seemed to know which things were just thoughts and not actually for him to do. He did always look to her for what to do on any real decision but since he was so focused on her and so good at reading any thoughts she released to him that it didn't always feel that way because he would naturally act as her thoughts suggested. Since he wasn't unpredictable she enjoyed taking him to do normal things and found he capable of being a great companion and also still willing to do any outrageous thing she came up with as long as it was her idea. The responsibility of it did sometimes become a little too much at times but she figured that this was his curse; he would always be too much for her to really handle, even when he was perfect.
His personality was also somewhat recognizable underneath but while some things were the same, some were also very different. He knew about everything and would obligingly express a considered opinion if asked though not in his old obnoxious way. He still had a healthy sense of humor, albeit not a nasty one, which seemed to stem from the fact that he thought all of creation was funny its own way. He had the solid confidence that one of the most powerful beings in the universe should have, but she discovered that he was actually quite reserved and almost shy around other people. Because of this she could see more clearly where some of his tension came from. She'd always known that he never wanted to be a leader but had been thrust into the position by being most powerful of the angels in the first fall. She could also now see that he was not naturally the extrovert that Azazeal clearly was and that he usually pretended to be. He was intimate and exclusive and while he didn't mind people, she was the only person he wanted to have any prolonged interaction with, as if having too many demands on his attention was uncomfortable.
These discoveries lead to a few others when they were alone together. She noticed that he would often do and say the exact same things that her other Lucifer had done to show her loved her, to get her attention, or to please her, but they were all very different as well. He was so genuine and present with her, that it seemed as if the Lucifer she'd known all this time had been imitating this version of himself and perhaps had been trying to show it to her all along. Of more interest, in a way, was that in bed he was almost innocent, as if this side of him had never done this before, and she supposed he hadn't. He was aware of what to do but the sensations seemed unfamiliar to him and she would find him looking at her with an expression of helpless adoration each time he felt something new, which initially was quite frequently.
She quickly fell in love with him all over again, but still loved his wicked side too and felt that it would be a shame to lose either one. She hoped he wasn't disappointed that she wanted the best of both worlds. Besides, she couldn't very well take him to Azazeal's this way…what would everyone think?
Lucifer was exceedingly happy to show all this to her and he found that he appreciated the fact that she loved him either way. Although he didn't think to tell her that despite the fact that he had hinted that he had wanted to stay this way forever, he knew it wasn't feasible. It was definitely too much responsibility for her because she hadn't thought of it yet, but if she were to allow malevolent thoughts to enter her head, she could very well be directly responsible for him doing something she would regret.
It had been decided that Sara and Luke would start attending Mendham when the next term started, much to their disappointment. They had tried to appeal to their fathers but found no help there. Cassie and Elizabeth both firmly believed that they needed to socialize with humans and they kind of wanted them out of the house too. Cassie and Elizabeth were conspiring to have some adventures together with their respective angels in tow and they didn't want to worry about what Sara and Luke were up to. And so the kids were packed off to school. Cassie asked Sara to please not let any humans see her angel lovers and Azazeal suggested that she try not to take control of the whole school, as magnetism was now obviously one of her talents. Elizabeth asked Luke not to break every girl's heart in the whole school, which he was completely capable of doing, and to not do anything illegal, while Lucifer told him that since he was there to learn, it didn't seem to make sense tell him not do anything.