Chapter Twenty- Three: Mercy (Red Rhythm Remix) ((Atlanta))

One of the best- known facts about demons was that they lie. Hunters knew this; they came to expect that anything that came out of a demon's mouth was nothing but a lie. Unless the truth hurt more. The only time they told the truth was when it was better than any lie they could come up with.

Despite his flaws, Crowley was still a demon. He came into being just like every other demon that had been created. He just worked a little differently.

He lied, of course. He considered himself rather good at it. It was his experience, though, that usually it helped matters to mix the truth in with the lie. It sped things up a bit, usually. It was easier to believe him when part of what he was saying was true. Hunters were different, of course. They were brought up not to believe you.

Skeptical lot, all those.

The point was, he was good at what he did. And if he wanted to convince Dean Winchester that he didn't care where his pet angel wound up once this insane idea of fighting the devil was over, then that's what he'd do.

It was easier to convince everyone else of lies. Making himself believe them was quite a bit more difficult.

This wasn't to say he was going to make a big deal about it. That much was true. It was Gabriel's choice to do what he did. And if there was one thing Gabriel did best, it was ignoring everyone and doing what he wanted to do. He defied Heaven, Earth and Purgatory by the day, and most times, he came out laughing.

Still, he knew what Gabriel wanted. He wasn't an idiot. He knew before the archangel had even asked him. The archangel's place might have been on Heaven, but his heart remained on Earth. Yet here he was in Purgatory, chasing after a demon he had no business being with. And if Crowley had any heart whatsoever, he'd give up this insane mission of his and go back to Earth, because Gabriel wanted him to.

But he was a demon, and hearts are the first thing they give up.

He must have been defective. He'd told Dean as much as a joke, but there were times he truly believed it. Because he was a demon, yet he was helping a bunch of humans and angels overthrow the very person who created demons in the first place. It was almost like patricide. Most demons wouldn't have given a thought to working with humans when possessing them makes them so much more compliant. No pesky decisions to be made. Most demons wouldn't go within three feet of an angel if they could help it.

And yet, here he was, being friendly with the humans, and shagging an archangel.

Crowley was different from most demons.

Said archangel stirred, curling closer. He was already half atop the demon, and seemed to be intent to lay on him completely. Gabriel got clingy in his sleep.

There was going to be a choice to make soon. Crowley wasn't stupid. He knew that their time here was running short. Things like this weren't supposed to happen, and the powers that be usually didn't let those things go on for long.

To be honest, he wasn't really sure how all this came about. It wasn't exactly something he set out to do one day. They just sort of fell into this. It was easy; it was comfortable in a way neither of them had to think about.

So why were things getting difficult now?

Gabriel huffed, blowing warm air against the demon's throat. "Stop thinkin' so hard."

Crowley smirked. "You can't hear my thoughts, so don't start that."

"Can too. Dunno what they're about, but you think so hard I can hear the gears in your head moving." He reached up blindly, refusing to open his eyes, to tap his fingers over Crowley's temple.

"I can't help that you're not used to this much thought being put out," he quipped, fingers tracing the angel's shoulder idly. "Maybe you should practice more."

"Too early for that," Gabriel muttered. He pressed his face into the crook of the other's neck.

There was a question that they weren't asking. They both knew it, and they knew they should really get around to talking about it. They hadn't spoken of it since they'd met up again, in the back seat of the Impala. Which reminded him, they really had to start working on their plan to desecrate that car; time was running out for that one, and Crowley needed to see the look on Dean's face when that happened.

However, he was getting distracted again. It was rather easy around Gabriel.

Gabriel, who was now scraping his teeth along his throat. He shivered.

"We're heading out today," he said quietly. The archangel paused, humming a reply against his neck. "I know it's not really worth asking, but are you going to do something incredibly stupid and reckless while we're there?"

Gabriel smiled. "I think that's a safe assumption by this point."

"Not that I particularly care or anything," he pointedly shrugged. They both knew more often than not that this was complete bullshit. "But the others would be very upset if you managed to get yourself too roughed up. And I don't feel like dealing with their bitching. So be a dear and try to keep the damage to a minimum, yeah angel?"

He snickered softly, tilting his chin to bite at the demon's ear. "I'll think about it."

"How good of you." Fingers toyed with the ends of light brown hair.

"Believe it or not, sometimes I actually act all angelic." He grinned, tilting his head back into the touch.

Crowley snorted. "The amount of cursing you do says otherwise, angel."

Gabriel smirked; all mischief and innuendo, an expression an angel had no business wearing. But on Gabriel, it fit better than any calm reverent smile.

"It doesn't count when it's in bed."

He then proceeded to show the demon exactly how much it didn't count.

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Sam didn't like where this was going at all. To be honest, having a conversation with the devil wasn't a good way to start a day to begin with. And considering the sort of thing he'd been raised around, the bar for weird shit was set pretty high.

Neither of them had moved. Sam was still pressed back against the far wall, tense and ready for an attack. Lucifer was still leaning against the doorway to the hotel room, arms crossed and regarding the human calmly. That was the thing that worried Sam the most. This was Lucifer. He expected blinding rage and dark, evil fury. Not the silent, still thing that always seemed to be watching him. Anger and threats, he could deal with. This was another matter completely.

"Sam," Lucifer tried again, voice soft.

The younger Winchester flinched back, as if hearing Satan use his name physically hurt. "What are you doing here? Where are we? Where's Dean?"

"We're right back in Purgatory," he replied. His voice was light, almost a melodic tilt to it. "And your brother is on his way, actually."

"He's coming here?" Sam frowned. Of course Dean was coming after him. They were brothers. They'd always come after each other, even when it was far beyond the realm of sanity to do so. But the longer he kept Lucifer talking, the less time he had to do other things. Like kill him, for example. Although he supposed the devil could probably multitask.

Lucifer smiled. "You already knew that. You always know that whenever you get into trouble, when you're in over your head, that he'll come for you. He'll risk everything to do so."

He took a step closer, looking no more threatening for it. Sam knew better. The air was thick with something dangerous, something that followed Lucifer like a shield. He might look calm and unassuming, but there was no mistaking what he really was.

"Because you're his precious baby brother."

Sam swallowed thickly. "Don't tell me you're jealous. Just because your family can't get along doesn't mean you've gotta start messing with mine."

Sam Winchester, you are quite possibly the dumbest human being aside from your brother. Stop baiting the devil.

He chuckled, most of the sound dying in his throat. "This isn't about my family. I have no loyalty to them any longer. They had their chance, and they all turned on me. Even Gabriel and Castiel."

"Then what is this about?"

"It's about you and me, Sam."

"So I'm supposed to be okay with this because you've got some kinda weird crush on me?"

His lips curved up into a smile. "It's more of a morbid curiosity. I look at you and I see myself."

Sam pulled a face. "That's hardly a comforting thought."

"I see the spark of rebellion," he stepped closer. Sam would have moved back to compensate, but he was already pressed against the wall. "The fire in you that will always want something more than you're given. To lash out against how you were raised."

Okay, so maybe he had a bit of a point. Sam never asked to be a hunter, that had been their father's idea. And while they took to it like they knew nothing better, there was always that little part of Sam that just wanted to be normal. To have a normal job, one that didn't come with the daily threat of being slashed apart by some creature not of this world. To have normal friends, who knew how to use social networking websites rather than shotguns.

But he'd tried that already. He'd run away from his family and their life to have something normal. And it had eventually come back to bite him in the ass. Once you were in, you stayed in. It wasn't just a job; it was an entirely different mindset. There was no going back once you knew what was out there, what the world was capable of. Sam knew this now, but it didn't stop that nagging feeling of resentment sometimes.

"It doesn't matter," he said eventually, after some time in silence he realized the devil was waiting for a reply. "I've done that before, it didn't work."

"Sam, I'm not trying to tempt you with anything, I'm just making conversation," he took another step closer. There was only a bed's length separating them now.

"You're the devil. Tempting is kinda your MO."

He tipped his head to the side in a thoughtful manner. "I suppose I'll give you that. But I'm not tempting you with some promise of a normal ignorant life. You're too good for that. I'd have to change everything about you, and that would be such a waste."

"Then what exactly are you getting at?"

"We're so very similar, the two of us." He moved again, stepping way closer than Sam was comfortable with. Although considering who he was dealing with, he wouldn't really be comfortable with anything closer than a few states. "But we're also different."

Sam narrowed his eyes, studying the other. He tried to stay a jump ahead in the thought process, to see what Lucifer was getting at. He was the smarter Winchester for a reason, dammit, and he needed to act like it. "Because of family?"

"In a matter of speaking, yes. Your brother, in particular."

"What's Dean got to do with this?" He tensed again. For a moment, he worried when he had started to relax.

"The two of you have a bond that's stronger than most siblings. You're dependant on each other, and you can't live without each other. It's strange."

He scowled. "You're talking to me about MY family being strange?"

Lucifer gave him another amused smile, finally closing the remaining distance. Sam moved to duck out of the way, to put some space between them, but Lucifer reached out, cupping Sam's face in his hands. He couldn't move. All he could do was stare at the devil with wide eyes.

"He's fiercely protective of you. It makes him do stupid, reckless things. But he always comes through for you when it counts, doesn't he?"

Sam managed a nod.

"It bothers you, doesn't it? He'll always think of you as his little baby brother. Someone that needs protecting and saving. He'd sacrifice everything for you without even thinking. And you hate it. He'll save you, no matter the cost, but won't ever let you do the same. You want to protect him just as much as he protects you, but you're never given the chance. He wouldn't want to put his baby brother in danger for his own sake."

Sam stared at him. He didn't say anything, but Lucifer knew. The devil was smiling again, almost fondly. His fingers tapped lightly on the hunter's cheeks.

"You can save him this time, Sam."

He was pretty sure at this point that if Lucifer weren't holding onto him, he'd have slid to the floor. His legs felt like they wouldn't hold him any longer, and there was no disguising the faint tremble in his hands.

"I'm not making any deals with you…"

Lucifer chuckled, low and soft. "I wouldn't expect you to. You're too smart for that. You know better. I'm not offering you a deal, Sam. It's more of an exchange of favors."

"That's the same thing."

"Is it?" The devil tilted his head, leaning forward. His next words were whispered in the human's ear.

"Help me do one thing, and I'll send him home. You can save him. Protect your brother for once, for all the times he's protected you."

His shaking hands clenched into fists at his side, steeling himself as he shut his eyes.

"What do you want me to do?"

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Dean was going to murder the both of them.

He curled over his coffee, glaring at the table as if it were the source of his problems, and not the demon and archangel in the room beside them. There were certain things he didn't need to know throughout the course of his life. And the fact that Gabriel was just as loud during sex as he was in every other moment of his waking life was one of those things.

Castiel sat across from him, chewing on one of the leftover donuts from yesterday's breakfast. He'd taken a liking to the chocolate ones, even if he still couldn't look at the jelly ones without heat rising to his face for some reason. After last night's dream, he was starting to realize exactly why that was.

"How is this not bothering you?" Dean growled, gesturing to the wall that connected their two rooms.

As if on cue, a muffled moan cut through any hope of silence. Dean glared at the wall.

Castiel shrugged. "I suppose I don't have the sort of human instinct that makes this sort of thing uncomfortable."

"I thought religion was against all this free love stuff. Gotta be married and pumping out kids or something."

"It was important, for the time it was written. Things have changed since then."

Dean reached past him, snagging the last jelly donut from the box. Castiel pointedly looked away.

"Guess so. Since your dad seems to be pretty okay with his angel kids banging demons now."

Castiel smiled, fingers wrapped around the warmth of his coffee cup. "He wouldn't have made it possible if He really didn't want it to happen."

The hunter made a thoughtful noise. "Suppose that kinda makes sense."

There was another moan, and Dean threw his boot at the wall. The angel stared at him.

"I'll admit, Gabriel might be a little… over- enthusiastic."

"That's kind of an understatement in this case." He stood up. "C'mon, let's go."

Castiel cocked his head to the side. "Go where?"

He shrugged. "Out. Anywhere. This is like watching porn at a family reunion. Let's go get breakfast."

"But we just ate."

"A donut isn't real breakfast. Besides, at the rate things are going, he's about to start screaming, and I really don't wanna be here for that." Dean grabbed his keys from the nightstand. "We'll get some pie or something."

Castiel smiled, getting up from his seat. True enough, the noises were getting louder. He was beginning to see why they made Dean so uncomfortable. It was supposed to be a private moment, not something that the rest of them should be hearing. But more importantly, the noises he heard from the next room made him curious. He wondered what sort of actions prompted noises like that. He knew the general workings of sex, of course. He might be an angel, but he'd spent enough time around humans to know how that sort of thing worked. But knowing was different from experiencing. He knew humans had to eat, but it was completely different from how it felt when trying chocolate for the first time. He supposed this was the same thing.

Even worse was the next thought that came to mind. He wondered not only about what it would be like to make the noises he was hearing, but what it would take to get Dean to make those noises. Hearing how those sounds would be different when they came from the human. What it would take to make him moan like that, and know that it was because of him.

"Cas?"

The angel jolted from his thoughts, face red. Dean was at the doorway, staring at him expectantly. He quickly bit down on his lip, hurrying past the hunter and out the door toward the Impala. Dean was right. Thinking what he thought now, there was no way he could stay in the room with those sounds any longer. It made him squirm just thinking about it.

Besides. Pie was good. And watching Dean get almost giddy in explaining the wonders of the baked good was even better.