The sound of the innocent bell hit Luci like a kick in the gut. He watched as the doors slowly opened, ominous to no one but him. He swallowed hard, his whole body rigid. Bean and Elfo were already in.

"Uh…" His voice was high and soft. "You guys go ahead. I'll just… take the stairs."

"Are you sure, Luci?" Elfo asked, all sweetness. "It's a long way up. This is the tallest building in Steamland. I mean it would be kind of stupid to-" Bean put her hand on Elfo's shoulder, cutting him off.

"He's fine, Elfo. We'll see you at the top, Luci." The doors were closing and Luci caught the look in Bean's eyes through the crack. When they snapped shut with finality, he darted over to a potted plant and wretched violently into it.

"Bean?" Elfo looked up at her quizzically. Something about the way Luci looked just now had him worried. Luci was bold and confident. Nothing really seemed to get to him. It had been a trait Elfo had always admired about his friend. But the look on his face as the elevator door had closed reminded him of that lost gaping look a fish has when its out of water.

"What's the matter with Luci? He looked kind of freaked." It really was an understatement. The little demon had looked terrified, like the elevator was Big Joe or a giant bottle. Bean looked down at him and sighed.

"Well, I'm not sure it's my place to tell you about it." The tone of her voice made Elfo's stomach drop.

"What? Oh god, it's something bad isn't it? About Luci…" He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. The half-elf wasn't sure he could handle something bad about Luci. He had grown very fond of him over the years; they had been through thick and thin together.

"Okay, Elfo. I'll tell you. I really don't think Luci will anyway." Bean looked at what floor they were on. 3 out of 60. They had time. She imagined Luci making his long, lonely way up the stairs and her heart squeezed. She knelt down to Elfo.

"After you gave yourself up to the ogres, my damn mom came up from Hell, out of an elevator."

"Wait, how?"

"That secret shelf has a shaft in it. Neither Luci or I knew about it, but…" She was silent for a moment, and Elfo couldn't take it. His heart was beating double-time.

"What?"

"Dagmar tried to drag me into it, you know, to take me to Hell. You already know about how she tried to marry me off to Satan, right?"

"Right. Luci told me that one. He thought it was pretty badass how you tricked her. But…what does this have to do with him?"

"Luci…He tried to save me. Mom had put him in a bottle, but he rolled off the table and broke it. He was fighting so hard to get to me…" She cleared her throat, and Elfo could see her eyes welling up. She swiped at her face with an arm.

"Anyway, he saw that I needed help, but he didn't make it into the elevator. All the way, I mean."

"What the hell does that mean?" Elfo realized he was being impatient, but he couldn't help himself.

"Look, Elfo. I'm sorry. This is just really hard to get out. I know that Luci is okay, and that he's with us now, but it's just… I hate having to put it into words. Dammit." She wiped her eyes again.

"Bean." Elfo clung to her leg. "You're talking about him like he…like he died." He said the last word very softly into her soft doeskin pants. He felt her tremble, and suddenly she didn't need to say anything else.

Luci stopped climbing when he stumbled on a step, falling onto his face. He cursed under his breath and sat down. His body was still shaking. He needed to get a grip. Sure, this was a tall building, and he had some time, but he didn't want to be a puddle of quivering black matter by the time he saw Bean and Elfo again. He pulled a blunt from his hidden cache and lit it, trying not to fumble too much. As he inhaled, he attempted to clear his mind. On the exhale all he could see was Bean's face as he told her that she always brought out the good half in him. Then he felt the hot sting around his neck as the door closed in on it. The slicing sound. He closed his eyes, inhaling more of the ditch weed. He needed to chill. These memories hadn't affected him in so long, and now all it took was a single elevator. It wasn't even the same one. He hated that it had so much control over him. He chuckled sardonically as he realized that Bean was telling Elfo about it on their ride up. He felt it through the magic of their Bond. Sure, it pissed him off a little, but he was mostly relieved. Now he wouldn't ever have to say anything about it. Exhaling again, he felt the warm wave of calm go through his body and he lounged on the step for awhile.

Bean could still remember Luci's last words to her before it happened. His voice had been so soft, yet it held a frantic note behind it. Almost like he knew something horrible was about to happen. Maybe he had. Luci was very perceptive. He was more spirit than he was physical. He knew many things that eclipsed Bean's mortal mind.

She could still feel Luci's head as it fell into her hands. She wanted to gasp now like she had then. She could feel the warmth through her silk gloves and how the life slowly leached out of him.

Now she was kneeling before Elfo, and he had went from holding her leg to burying his face into her chest. She didn't know if he could handle the rest.

"H-how did it happen?" Elfo choked out. Bean squeezed him close.

"He got caught between the doors. And when the elevator started to go down, he…" She paused when she heard Elfo sniff. She stroked the back of his head.

"He reached his hands out to me…and I grabbed him. But the shaft, his head… It just cut it right off." She said this last part in a rush, and when Elfo squeaked softly, she wished she'd left that part out.

"He lost his head? Oh my god…" And then, suddenly, Elfo was laughing. Bean pulled away from him.

"What the hell, Elfo? It's not funny!"

"I know… Oh, shit." He brushed his tears away, voice shaky. "It's just… now I finally freaking know why he kept losing his head so much after that! You guys never told me, and I just thought…" He looked away, biting his lip.

"You thought what?" Bean was smiling softly at him, the angry blush fading from her cheeks.

"Well, I just thought it was some new game or joke of his. You know how weird his sense of humor is. He can be downright sick." Elfo wiped more tears from his eyes and laughed again.

"Damn demon bastard…" The word 'bastard' came out high and now he was laughing hysterically, tears still streaming down his face. Bean laughed too, but she wasn't crying anymore. She had had time to grieve for her dark friend, but Elfo never had. The poor guy had never even known about it.

"Oh, Elfo. I'm sorry we never told you. It was just…too horrible, you know." She hugged him again, and he giggled helplessly into her shoulder.

"You know the funniest part?" Bean continued.

"What?" Elfo squeaked.

"He actually went to Heaven."

The two collapsed to the carpeted floor in hysterics.

Luci managed to climb up several more flights of stairs, pushing himself on and on until he reached level 56. Then his body just decided to "nope." He sat down and growled low in his throat. But the anger passed quickly as the weed continued to course through his system. He lit another blunt and pulled heavily from it. He was sure to be stoned by the time Bean and Elfo got to him, but he had reached far beyond the point of caring. This was the only way he could escape his own mind. He leaned against the wall and started laughing when he realized that he could have used his damn wings this whole time. As it always happened in these situations, panic had prevailed over logic.

"Fuck." The word rode out on a cloud of smoke, more laughter trailing behind it.

When the door slid open to the ding of the bell, Elfo hurried out.

"Luci?" He whispered. His eyes went to Bean.
"He's…not here."

"I'm sure he'll show up. Maybe he needed a break from climbing all of those stairs." Bean shrugged.

"Do you really think he climbed all of them? He's got wings."

"Oh yeah, I guess he flew." Bean went over to the window. "You know, this doesn't even seem as tall as my castle, but the view is better. Check out all the lights!" She heard nothing but silence behind her.

"Elfo?"

Elfo's heart beat like a drum in his chest as he found the stairwell. What if something else horrible had happened to his friend? After hearing the story of Luci's death, all of Elfo's senses seemed to be on alert for anything dangerous. Everything made so much sense now when he remembered how wide Luci's eyes had been as he had stood in front of that elevator. How could Bean even bring him into a building that had one? Maybe she assumed he was okay with it. Elfo frowned. Clearly he was so very not. He had to find him. He wasn't sure what he was going to do or say when he did, but that didn't matter. Luci needed him.

Everything had gone hazy, and Luci wasn't even sure if he had stopped laughing, or if he was still going. He felt like he was laughing, but did he hear it? This idea brought a grunt from his mouth. There it was. His body flopped over, and he started to roll down the stairs. It felt hysterical, and he giggled until he reached a landing. Wasn't he supposed to be going up instead of down? He pushed his nose into the floor, reveling in the hard press of it against his soft flesh.

"Hee, hee, hee…"

"Luci?" Elfo reached level 56, and saw Luci's body on the landing. He ran at break-neck speed down the flight.

"Luci!" Panic burst from him. He wrinkled his nose when he got to him. The whole floor smelled like ditch weed.

"Oh god, Luci. You're stoned off your ass!" He put his hand on the warm velvet of Luci's back, stroking it softly. It was kind of funny, but mostly sad. He had not known how to cope with the elevator, so he'd resorted to drugs. He helped him up, and Luci looked into his eyes, his own slightly pink.

"Elfo? Oh…hey, buddy…" He pressed his black nose into Elfo's cheek, his breath hot.

"When did you get here, my man…?" He drawled. Elfo smiled.

"Just now, Luci." He pulled him into a hug, and Luci didn't resist. He chuckled into his neck.

"This feels nice…"

"Yeah." Elfo whispered. Because it really did. The two friends were never very affectionate with each other. They tended to save it all for Bean. Both of them loved her, but it was a different love then they had for one another. Theirs tended to be more violent and… Elfo's thoughts were cut off as he felt the prick of one of Luci's fangs in his neck. For some reason he giggled instead of pulling back.

"Okay, Luci. Let's get back to Bean." He patted the back of his head. The little demon kept his head buried in the crook between Elfo's neck and shoulder.

"M'kay." He sighed.

Elfo's hand traveled from Luci's head to his ear horns and he scratched behind one gently. He really was nice to touch; no wonder Bean was so affectionate with him.

"Mmm… damn… feels good…" Luci pushed his nose into him, causing him to giggle more. What was this feeling? He pushed up from his knees, taking Luci with him. He hardly weighed anything, and he was so warm.

"I gotcha, buddy." He whispered. Luci just chuckled against him, soft and deep.

Bean stared out into the city for several minutes, thinking about her relationship with her boys. She loved them both so much, and never wanted to be apart from either one of them. When she noticed that Elfo was gone, she suddenly realized how much the little half-elf loved Luci too. It made her feel uneasy, but considering the sacrifices that the demon had made for him even early on in their friendship, she knew that Luci loved him too.

She was in the middle of pondering all of this when she heard a soft noise behind her. Turning around, she saw Elfo padding toward her on the plush carpet, Luci in his arms. A slow smile spread over her face and it matched Elfo's.

"You found him. Is he…okay…?" She hesitated, stretching a hand out to touch Luci's back.

"Yeah, he's just stoned." Elfo said lightly.

"Makes sense." Bean replied, nodding.

"I think he's also asleep."

The little demon let out a snore into Elfo's neck, and they laughed quietly.

"He'll be alright, Bean." Elfo's tone was bright.

"I know. He's got us." Bean put her hands on her hips. "And hey, it's a good thing this is a hotel. Let's go find our room, huh?" Elfo nodded and followed her down a long hall. He trailed behind a bit, and with Bean's back turned, he pressed a soft kiss onto Luci's nose.