Title is from "Devil Devil" by MILCK and "Star Spangled Man" composed by Alan Menken.
This entire story is written because I'm tired of all MCU crossovers with my favourite fandoms involving Tony knowing everybody and Steve being a stick in the mud with no sense of humour or realistic trauma. I'm Team Cap, what can I say? This fic won't bash anybody but HYDRA, and I'll try to keep everyone as in-character as possible. I'm not looking for Civil War debate or any hate, I'm here for Steve and Lucifer friendship and Steve actually getting help when he's tossed into the 21st century.
Kindly leave any hate at the door.
2011
It was heaven, on Earth. Much better than the hell that was Hell. Lucifer wasn't eternally bored on Earth like he was in Hell. It was just one of those constants. Ash rained in Hell, and Lucifer was eternally bored down there. Bored and tired of being stuck in the damned realm.
The vacation to Los Angeles was doing him very good. So much freedom and fun to be had. Lux was thriving and so was the devil. Drinks, dancing, and all the entertainment he could ask for.
He was seated at Lux's bar, watching the many patrons enjoying the night out. Lucifer prided himself on giving people a good time, whether that be a safe place to let go or a more… intimate endeavor. He was carefree, yes, but he took care of the safety of everyone under Lux's roof.
Of course, the latest advancements humans had made were incredibly helpful. The hell loops all included so much interesting stuff nowadays, but seeing it all for himself was so much better. Seventy years and now there were mobile phones, cars were popular, and desire was everywhere. Yes, Lucifer was enjoying every second of it. Though maybe he could get out of this city and expand his horizons a little more…
Lucifer?
The devil paused, hearing the prayer. He knew that voice, but there was no way... Steve Rogers was dead. No human could survive a crash like that.
Uh, it's me. That was definitely his voice though. I have no idea if you're even gonna hear this. It's been seventy fucking years, damn it, and I'm not dead after all. You'd say I gave it my best shot. I, uh… Some SHIELD organization woke me up. I don't know what to do. The world's changed so much. New York, it's… Bucky's still… I need help.
What excellent timing… Lucifer was certainly taking a trip to New York now. And taking his favourite demon along with him; he would need her expertise.
1943
Lucifer first came across Captain America in Italy. The devil had gone to Earth to investigate the war for himself, after the millions of souls that were arriving in Hell had grabbed his interest. Lucifer had landed in Europe and eventually made his way to Italy, where he came across Captain America in the forest. The man was alone with nothing but a stage prop and a wild hope that Lucifer hadn't seen before, so before he even truly processed it, Lucifer had decided to accompany him.
"Where are you off to, hmm?" Lucifer asked, following after the man uninvited. "All alone out here. There is a war going on, you know."
"I'm aware."
Curt. Well, Lucifer could deal with that. The captain had responded, that was a good sign. The devil just had to be persistent to get a real answer out of him.
"Does the walking flag with a matching shield have a name at all?"
"If you recognize the outfit, then you must've heard the name."
Lucifer scoffed. "I don't want that ridiculous stage name. You're out here alone, and with a mission, it looks like. You're not just the dancing monkey they want, are you? I want to know who they've been restraining."
That got him a calculating stare. Lucifer merely gave his signature smirk and continued keeping pace with the tall man. Really, that body was something designed for sin. Lucifer would be a fool to not at least try to indulge. And those blue eyes…
"How do I know you're not the enemy?"
Lucifer sneered at the accusation. "I can't stand anyone who seeks to take away another's free will. Choice, equity, and the power to think for oneself is everything. Not this horrifying belief that some are better than others. World domination isn't in my very refined tastes, I assure you."
The man raised a brow at him and Lucifer huffed. They walked in silence for a while after that, Lucifer waiting for the other man to make the next move. He was very good at the waiting game.
"...Steve Rogers," the man said after a long moment, somewhat hesitantly.
"Steve." Lucifer liked the name. It fit the man. A name for a name, he supposed. "I'm Lucifer Morningstar."
As he predicted, Steve came to a sharp halt, turning to face him with a narrow glare. Catholicism was all the rage and Lucifer almost left right there.
"Yes yes." He waved a tired hand in the air. "Devil, evil, hell, all that jazz. I'm the devil, but I'm not evil. I punish evil."
Steve's sharp gaze melted into something else, something thoughtful, and that surprised Lucifer. Usually people still sprouted hate at him even after his very logical defenses. Steve actually seemed to be thinking about Lucifer's arguments and Lucifer liked him immediately. This was a man who understood what it was like to be powerless, and now that he had power, he wasn't abusing it. Steve was a rare type, and Lucifer liked that.
He respected that.
"The devil used to be an angel," Steve mused to himself, carefully eyeing Lucifer.
"Still am, actually," Lucifer interjected. "Just not a Soldier of God."
Steve's brows furrowed at that, but he ducked his head in a slow nod. "Okay… And what are you doing here?"
"Investigating this war." Lucifer shrugged one shoulder. "Not even fifty years since the last great war and humans have already started another. Hell's soul intake is skyrocketing and I imagine the Silver City's is as well. And before you ask, no divine being decides where dead souls go. Humans decide that, by their guilt."
"How do I know you're not just crazy?" Steve asked apprehensively and Lucifer had to conclude that that was a fair question.
Lucifer hummed to himself, contemplating how to respond to that when he heard the sound of soldier activity approaching. Steve's head whipped around, telling Lucifer that he heard it too, which should have been nearly impossible. The sound was too distant for human ears.
"You're enhanced somehow," Lucifer noted as Steve hurried towards the sound.
Steve scowled slightly but gave a thoughtless nod as he pursued the noise. "Super-soldier serum. Used to be a foot shorter and two hundred pounds lighter."
Lucifer frowned, looking Steve up and down. There was no way he used to be small, humans don't just sprout up in one day. And if they did, then why wasn't there an entire army of them? Yes, Lucifer was definitely staying around Steve. He hadn't seen something like this in eons.
That decision was only reinforced by Steve's wonderfully smart decision to sneak into an enemy base on his own like an idiot. Steve was smart in some ways, but sorely untrained in others and Lucifer was going to fix that. It was so painfully obvious to the devil that the soldier wasn't used to his strength or his anything, really.
That was alright. Lucifer happened to be a skilled master in combat, espionage (when he wanted to be), and shoving two people into a room together and locking the door until they figured out their relationship. The use of that skill became apparent the instant Lucifer saw one James Buchanan Barnes in the same room as Steve Rogers.
2011
Lucifer and Maze landed in a small New York apartment. Lucifer scowled in disgust as soon as he got a good look around. It was cramped and old, cozy for the right type of person, but certainly not the devil.
"Rogers," Maze greeted, and Lucifer turned from scowling at the furniture to where Steve was sitting at a small dining table.
There were files laid out in front of him and Lucifer easily recognized the crisp red 'deceased' stamped across the pages. It was so impersonal that Lucifer's mood instantly darkened. Steve was hailed as a hero. After everything he did in the war, he's found alive and awakened, and then these SHIELD people have the gall to release him into the new world with no one to help him understand it? No, that wasn't acceptable. Not at all.
Well, Lucifer was there now, and he fully intended to fix everything because he liked Steve, and God knows Steve had been through enough.
Maze turned to sweep the apartment for bugs. Steve watched her and Lucifer noted that the spark in his eyes was gone. A surge of anger flooded the devil, because of course society couldn't just let Steve rest. Maze finished her search quickly, depositing six smashed bugs and a small, destroyed camera on the empty side of the table. All three of them scowled heavily at the implication, and when Lucifer looked at the demon, she merely nodded in confirmation that that was everything.
"You came," Steve spoke finally, and his voice was so tired that even Maze winced.
"Of course," Lucifer returned, sitting down across from him. "You prayed, so I came. You know I like you, Steve. I refuse to let you stay without someone by your side as you adjust. Honestly, did no one think when they set you up here? I have a list of things to do already. One, get out of this sad little apartment. I have a few properties in Los Angeles you're sure to love, or in New York if you'd rather stay here, all spectacular views for your art—"
"What happened to everyone?" Steve cut in.
Lucifer stopped, suddenly realizing what it must be like to wake up decades into the future. Lucifer was used to missing things, having stayed in Hell for centuries at a time, but he could keep up with what happened through the hell loops. He was never completely cut off from the world and he knew the way it changed.
Steve didn't. This was dying, only to wake up in a new world with nothing familiar and a society that idolized the mask you wore. Entire lives had been lived and the world forgot the pain that war brought. And Steve hadn't. Everything seventy years ago was one day for him. The world changed and people forgot. Steve had nothing but Lucifer would be damned again if he didn't make sure Steve had something.
Somebody, too. Lucifer knew what it was like to lose everyone you knew. Everyone you loved. Perhaps not in the same way Steve had, but Lucifer had been left alone with no warning before and Steve didn't deserve that. He had given everything he had for a country that forgot that he was human too.
"They mourned," Lucifer started. Emotion wasn't exactly his strong suit and Steve knew that, but that didn't mean Lucifer didn't try. "I recall a very nice gathering at the Whip and Fiddle, after the mission. Dugan took command of the Commandos for a while, until they retired. They helped Agent Carter—she founded SHIELD, you know—begin to uncover something just as bad as HYDRA."
Steve scoffed. "Just as bad, huh?"
"They were using young girls as child soldiers," Maze said with a sneer. "The Red Room, it was called. As far as we know, it got taken down four years ago by SHIELD and one of the Red Room's graduate agents."
"Good." There was a small spark in Steve's eyes then and Lucifer knew that he wasn't dead yet.
"Everyone settled down," Lucifer continued his recounting. "Found a lovely partner and started a family of their own. Speaking of, Mazikeen."
Lucifer made a shooing gesture at the demon. Maze rolled her eyes but she obeyed and disappeared without a sound out the nearest window. Steve frowned, but Lucifer made no move to explain. There was no need to get Steve's hopes up on a suspicion. Or perhaps it was a hope of Lucifer's own.
"I'll tell you everything I know," the devil hummed, rising from his seat. "But we have a list of possible residences for you that are thousands of times better than this place, so let's start there and then we'll see about getting your things back from whatever museums or collectors happen to have them."
"Lucifer, I can't ask you—"
"Ah, you're not asking. I'm doing. Come on."
Lucifer held out an expecting hand and Steve clearly knew at this point that there wasn't much point in arguing with him. His lips pulled into a thin line as he considered it. He glanced around the little apartment, then at the bugs on the table in front of him. It didn't take long before Steve took the hand Lucifer offered.
1943
The Whip and Fiddle wasn't the kind of pub Lucifer normally enjoyed. It was cozy and warm though, so he supposed he could make an exception. Steve had gathered the men he wanted for his team and Lucifer hadn't given up on following Steve just yet. This man would shape the century, Lucifer was sure of that.
James Barnes was at the bar, away from the rest of the new team. He was alone, so Lucifer took the chance to approach him, sliding onto the barstool next to him.
"Oh, it's you," the sergeant hummed, giving the devil a calculating once over. "Steve said you helped him break into that base."
"I did."
"He also said you can't be normal. You're stronger than he is, and that's saying something." James tossed back his drink and turned to Lucifer. "So who exactly are you?"
Lucifer held back a sigh and prepared himself for the usual lashout that follows his name. "I'm the devil. Lucifer Morningstar."
James barked out a harsh laugh, a sound that wasn't much louder than the pub's music but it rang in Lucifer's ears all the same. For a moment, he wondered why someone as honest as Steve would want the company of someone who seemed so callous, but then James surprised him.
"Before the war, pal, I woulda thought you were loony." James pursed his lips in a scowl and glanced at where Steve was with the rest of the team. "Now I see what the army did to my— my best friend, and suddenly, the devil doesn't seem so bad."
"What, just like that?" Lucifer questioned, disbelieving and unsure. "You don't want to try and exorcize me or anything?"
A wry, humourless smirk curled the corner of James' lips. "Only if you do the same for me, pal." He grew quiet then, before admitting, "They were experimenting on me in that place. Something worked, because I know I'm different than I was. Not to the degree Steve is, but different. Zola did something to me."
"That ratty little man?" Lucifer hummed with a scowl. "He looks the mad scientist part, I'll give him that."
James laughed dryly and nodded. "So if you're the devil, Lucifer, do you know what's with the glowing blue weapons?"
"Some sort of unearthly artifact. I'd need to do some more research to figure out what exactly it is. I don't even know how HYDRA has it. Though I might be able to have someone figure that out… Enough about work though, we're supposed to be relaxing."
"Are we?" James raised a brow.
"Indeed." Lucifer smirked, cat like and intent. "So, tell me about your little crush on your best friend."
James coughed harshly, wide eyes finding Lucifer's. "I don't—"
"Oh, you clearly do." Lucifer's smirk grew wider. "I know desire when I see it, James. Not to worry, your secret is safe with me."
"Not a word to anyone," James hissed, and the fear in his eyes only sparked that old anger Lucifer held against discrimination and prejudice. "Especially not him."
Lucifer nodded solemnly. "They won't learn of it from me. But if you love him, tell him."
Steve chose that moment to appear at James' other side with a bright smile and Lucifer saw the way James melted. He saw the way the tension in Steve's shoulders eased too, and they were so in love Lucifer had to resist the urge to point it out. He kept his promises, but that didn't mean he always liked it.
2011
Lucifer spent the first two days helping Steve adjust to the world. It reminded him of his own creation, in a way. The angels appeared looking as they looked now, forever an adult with an intelligence to match, but newborn in familiarity to the world around them. The world was strange, but made so much better by having someone there to guide you.
Steve chose his favourite of the various mansions and estates that Lucifer owned around Manhattan, and then Lucifer set to work getting Steve everything he needed and wanted. Steve had money, from his accounts remaining open and gathering interest for years, so he insisted on paying for everything himself. Soon, the mansion was equipped with the best art supplies around, as well as various records and old photographs regained from collectors.
Steve was always quick minded and with the serum, his memory was even better. He learnt quickly and got the hang of life easily. Lucifer could see the way he was easily overwhelmed by the busy, bright public spaces at first, but Steve soon adjusted to that too. The longing in his eyes didn't disappear.
Not until Maze returned, anyway. She had disappeared ever since she jumped from Steve's apartment window. Hunting her target, no doubt, as the loyal demon she was. Four days later, she appeared in one of the mansion's many living spaces with her target.
Lucifer had been unsure whether he wanted his suspicion to be right or not. The suspicion that Steve survived, why not Bucky? But after four days, Maze reappeared with a soldier dressed in black and Lucifer knew that while he was grateful Bucky was alive, the horror he had faced would forever lie guilty on Lucifer's shoulders.
He should have known. He should have guessed that Bucky could have survived the fall and gone searching when Steve returned from that mission. But Lucifer hadn't done anything, and Bucky suffered for it. His empty eyes and silver arm were all the proof Lucifer needed.
Steve was devastated to see what had happened to Bucky. He had started to sob upon first seeing him, and Bucky had only stood silent in a perfect parade rest, staring a dead eyed stare into the space before him.
Maze described finding a HYDRA database lurking beneath SHIELD's mainframe, and everything she needed about the Winter Soldier. Including where to find him and how to control him. While unhappy, she had used the Soldier's assumption that she was his handler in order to direct him to the mansion, and she'd stolen every HYDRA toy she could get her hands on in the process. She asked Bucky to help her, and he obeyed without thought.
Now, the healing powers of angel feathers hadn't been tested on humans before, but Lucifer was willing to try, to give Bucky his mind back. He held one glowing feather to Bucky's forehead and the blank look in his eyes turned into something pained, and then confused and scared. There was something alive behind those eyes and that gave Lucifer the confidence that Bucky could heal.
The Soldier's brows furrowed as he stared at Lucifer in front of him. "I know you."
"You do." Lucifer nodded. "However, you know Steve better."
There was recognition in Bucky's eyes at the name. He turned his head to search for the owner of that name, and for a moment, it was like seventy years had never happened. Bucky's eyes locked on Steve, and Steve was still crying but the tension melted from Bucky's shoulders. Steve came alive with Bucky's gaze and the exhaustion in his eyes became that steadfast determination that Lucifer had missed.
"Hey, Buck," Steve breathed, and Bucky frowned so Steve went on. "Your name is James Buchanan Barnes. Everyone calls you Bucky."
"The Asset does not have a name."
This declaration was followed by a series of expressions that Lucifer associated with reliving a memory. There was a distant look to the soldier's eyes for a moment, but when he came back, so did more of Bucky.
"Steve." The name passed Bucky's lips like a breeze through the grass, soft and breathless. There was awe and hope in his eyes and a hesitation in the way he reached out. "You're… alive."
A broken whimper passed Steve's lips as he lunged forwards. Maze dragged Lucifer out of the room then, much to his displeasure.
"It's been decades, Mazikeen!" he protested. "I spent months not saying a word to either of them that their love was requited, at least let me—!"
"No," the demon deadpanned. "There's more pressing matters to get to."
"What could possibly be more urgent than seeing love finally win out between those two?"
Maze held up a small thumb drive with a droll stare. "Maybe taking down HYDRA for good? Or keeping SHIELD away from the two of them? SHIELD is looking for where Steve disappeared to, and HYDRA will be searching for their weapon. We need to be ready."
Lucifer sobered quickly, scowling at the polished floor as he considered it. "How much of SHIELD is HYDRA?"
"Too much." Maze's expression was grim. "It all has to go, or you'd spend the rest of eternity trying to separate one in order to keep the other. SHIELD's director Nicholas Fury is clean, but the Secretary of the World Security Council, he's one of the big ones, if not the leader of HYDRA."
"Oh, now that won't do at all." Lucifer sneered. "I'll have to get a meeting with this director of SHIELD. Maze, stay here and keep an eye on those two will you? And start sorting through what information you've got. I want HYDRA thoroughly destroyed as soon as possible."
"Cut off the head and then cauterize the stump before it grows back, right?"
Lucifer smiled darkly. "Precisely."
1943
"And you trust this guy, Rogers?"
"If he wanted to kill me, he could have done it a number of times by now." Steve glanced at him before refocusing on Colonel Phillips. "Morningstar helped me free the soldiers from Azzano. Military training or not, I want him on my team."
"He could be an undercover agent," Agent Carter reasoned. Lucifer liked her. She was fiery and she didn't stand for anyone underestimating her. "He could be passing information to our enemies."
"I don't lie," Lucifer interjected. "I don't break promises. And I want this HYDRA organization destroyed. If I have to get my hands dirty to do so, then so be it."
Agent Carter's lips thinned as she considered this. Colonel Phillips was analyzing him as well, arms folded across his chest. The war room was empty except for them, a map spread on the table standing between Lucifer and Steve, and Agent Carter and Colonel Phillips. Howard Stark was tinkering with some invention or other on a table nearby, listening but not engaging in the conversation.
"How is it that you stumbled across the Captain in the middle of the woods?" Phillips asked tightly. "No one would have known he would be there."
Lucifer smiled politely. "I came to investigate the war. It was purely a chance encounter."
"With a name like the devil? I don't know if I believe that."
"What part of 'I don't lie' is hard to understand? I don't lie, Colonel. As for the while devil thing, I punish evil. I mean, if you go to Hell for sinning and the devil loved sin, you'd think it would be a grand old party down there, wouldn't you? No, I'm just the prison warden."
Howard Stark raised his head and pointed a wrench at Lucifer. "Now that's an interesting view. He has a point, Colonel. Why do we condemn the warden? Over some family drama? I'm a man of science, but if you ask me, it might be good to have the so-called devil on our side."
Steve nodded in agreement. "We need all the help we can get. Especially with HYDRA's weapons."
"Speaking of that," Lucifer added, "I have a friend of mine doing some investigating around this secret weapon. Mazikeen always gets results, you'll have something to go work with in… oh, two days, at most."
Colonel Phillips frowned. "I'll hold you to that, Morningstar. Then we'll see about having you on Rogers' team. And getting you a proper wardrobe. This is a war, not Cinderella's ball."
2011
Lucifer wasn't scared of the gun being pointed at him. Why would he be? He was immortal and unable to be harmed by human weapons. They could very much try their hardest but it wouldn't serve to do anything but waste bullets and amuse him.
"How did you get in here?" Fury asked sharply. "How'd you even know about this place?"
"Not used to visitors at your personal residence?" Lucifer hummed. He walked around the living room, inspecting the place. "I understand why, this place is quite dull. How do you feel about some decorations? I know a few very good designers and—"
"Who the hell are you?" Fury cut him off.
Lucifer threw him an offended look but sighed. "Lucifer Morningstar. I'd say it's a pleasure, but I don't lie. The arrangements your little organization set up for Steve were horrendous, so I took it upon myself to give him much better."
Fury pursed his lips, but surprisingly, he lowered the gun. "So you're the reason the Captain has disappeared."
"Indeed. He didn't appreciate the camera or the microphones."
"It was a precaution." The director of SHIELD turned back to the kitchen countertop where he was making coffee. "I don't suppose you're here to tell me where Captain Rogers has been moved to?"
"Don't treat him like an object." Lucifer sneered. "I'm here for just the opposite, in fact. Stop trying to find him. Steve already gave his life for this country. While I have no doubt that he would give his help if it was needed, give him the rest he deserves."
Fury turned back to face Lucifer with a sharp stare. "I can't promise that."
"Right. What'll it take?"
"Are you trying to bribe me, Morningstar?"
"Well, that depends." Lucifer smiled his charismatic smile. "Is it working?"
"No. But I've been a part of SHIELD long enough that Peggy Carter told me about you and your work with her during and after the war."
Lucifer's smile turned genuine at that. "Ah, Agent Carter. One of the fiercest women I've ever met."
Fury nodded once. "The best of the best. Now what really dragged you up from wherever your supernatural ass has been hiding?"
"Celestial ass, actually." Lucifer smiled innocently when Fury scoffed. "And as I said, I want you to give Steve a break. But there is… How much do you trust your organization?"
"I don't trust anyone."
"Oh, now that's a terrible sorry life to have. But I suppose in this case, it would pay off." Lucifer pulled the little thumb drive Maze had given him from his inner pocket. It was a copy, of course, but it had everything about HYDRA on it. "Do not show that to anyone. SHIELD has been compromised. It always has been. And the Winter Soldier—you'll find all the necessary files on there—has already been dealt with."
Fury's lips pulled into a thin line as he caught the thumb drive when Lucifer tossed it to him. "I hope you plan on helping out with the purge if you're telling the truth, Morningstar—"
"Of course, Director." Lucifer's smile was angry and malicious. "I have a number of bones to pick with HYDRA, after all."
1945
Lucifer wasn't an emotional type of person. He wasn't good at understanding or handling emotion the way humans did. There was all of that, but then there was Steve, one of his only friends, grieving and upset and Lucifer couldn't just do nothing.
The Whip and Fiddle was destroyed by war. The air was thick and melancholy with loss and memory. Maze had decided to come along with the devil when he went out to find Steve, and find him they did. Steve had found an intact table and chair, and a bottle of beer. His eyes—the brilliant blue Lucifer enjoyed seeing—were puffy, red and full of tears. Simply put, he was mourning his best friend and teammate. Not so simply put, he was grieving the only person he had ever loved romantically, the person who loved and took care of him without regret or hesitation.
Carefully, Lucifer had stopped in front of the grieving man, displaying an amount of hesitance that he never did normally. Maze kept her distance by starting to search for any other spared bottles behind the remnants of the bar. Steve had idly watched her for a minute before turning his empty-eyed stare to Lucifer.
"Doctor Erskine said the serum wouldn't just affect my muscles and reflexes." Steve's voice was hoarse and lifeless, and Lucifer winced. "He said it would increase my metabolism so much until… I can't get drunk."
Lucifer frowned, then pursed his lips. "Maybe not on human stuff." Steve looked up at him sharply and Lucifer lifted one shoulder in a weak shrug. "My metabolism is even faster than yours, Steve, and there's alcohol out there that affects me eventually. Not on Earth, but… anything Asgardian should be the right strength."
Steve smiled wryly. "I don't suppose you'd be up for a beer run then."
"After the war, definitely." Lucifer gave an apologetic smile. "We still have a terrorist organization to destroy."
At that, Steve sneered. It only lasted a second, and then his expression crumpled again.
"You were right," he said quietly. "Buck did love me back. He said so, just before he fell. Said he loved me, then he was gone. I just… We could've had everything, Lucifer, but he's gone…"
Lucifer wouldn't have been surprised if Steve had run out of tears to cry. The blond sniffled wetly but that was all. The devil watched as Steve took a slow breath to steady himself, downed the rest of his drink, and stood up.
"What do you two say we burn all of HYDRA to the fucking ground?"
Behind him, Maze let out a pleased laugh. "I knew there was a reason I like you, Rogers."
Steve smiled wryly. "And here I thought it was just my good looks."
Maze laughed again. Steve turned to him questioningly, and Lucifer allowed his eyes to glow with hellfire as he nodded, a dark, ready smile on his lips.
Steve's own smile turned vengeful.
2011
Bucky regained memory rather quickly. Lucifer's feather had healed him physically and with all the storytelling Steve was doing, memories were returning one by one every day. Certain scents or sounds seemed to help too, so Lucifer quickly retrieved everything he had hidden away from collectors and museums. Every little trinket and drawing, cookbooks, photo albums, family heirlooms, anything Bucky's family didn't have the room for, Lucifer had taken from the little apartment Steve shared with Bucky before the war. They had been gone when he'd done it and Lucifer wasn't going to let his friends' personal lives be sold because of the fame they'd gathered.
Steve had cried when Lucifer revealed the boxes of his pre-war life. Sketchbooks and family recipes, his mother's wedding ring, his father's worn leather jacket. Bucky had carefully unfolded an old knitted blanket from his forever-ago life, then spent hours flipping through a photo album composed of faded pictures of his family and Steve's. That was their entire lives in those boxes and Lucifer felt so at peace being able to give those back.
The relationship between Steve and Bucky was as strong as ever. It wasn't the same as before, not with everything they'd had to face, but it was unbreakable and flourishing and growing all the same. Steve was trying to be everything Bucky needed and Bucky was still learning himself and both of them were still new to the world around them, but they had everything they needed to get through it. Lucifer was confident in saying they would be just fine.
Maze went out hunting again. She returned with a red book and a HYDRA operative. Bucky's expression shuttered when he saw the haul and he promptly left the room, Steve trailing after him and giving Vasily Karpov the most venomous glare Lucifer had seen in ages. Lucifer read through the red book while Maze worked information out of Karpov, and then they'd set about dismantling every trigger word that existed in Bucky's mind.
It was a long week, but Lucifer decided to celebrate by retrieving some Asgardian mead from the golden city. Odin was impressed by the idea of humans being able to handle it and disgusted at the thought of actions like HYDRA's, and Thor had decided to come with Lucifer back to Earth. The god was different than Lucifer remembered. Not nearly as rambunctious or arrogant and Lucifer found that interesting. But Thor told a tale about banishment and Loki's death, and Lucifer understood.
Steve, Bucky, and Maze were surprised when Lucifer returned with a guest, but the two super soldiers soon warmed to the god's presence and Maze announced her disappointment in his personality change.
"You were more fun before," she claimed, and Thor only laughed.
"Mazikeen, you are just the same as ever," he replied, and their celebration went on late into the night.
1945
The sound of cheer was a constant when the war ended. Relief, excitement, anticipation. It was over and the world came alive. No more struggling on the front lines, or dreading each day waiting for a letter full of empty condolence. Everyone wanted life to go back to normal but no one knew exactly what normal looked like anymore.
The gathering at the rebuilt Whip and Fiddle was solemn. Dugan, Morita, Dernier, Jones, and Falsworth all chose remembrance over celebration. Lucifer liked these men, the men he had aided for the past two years. They were capable and strong, and good on top of that. The world needed more of that. They raised their glasses to the friends they lost but they kept hope for the future they'd all bled to earn.
No one paid any attention to the men who lost their friends. The world lost its first hero, but not the mask that he wore. Lucifer watched as Captain America grew. Sergeant Barnes and the Howling Commandos grew. Stories and legacies and propaganda all twisted until nobody recognized it for what it was: lies. The world painted Captain America as the perfect model, stiff and honourable and righteous. They forgot Steve, the man who got into back alley fist fights and went against everything when he knew that that everything was wrong.
History moved on and everything that made the Commandos human was slowly wiped away. They were heroes. They were instrumental in HYDRA's defeat. They were recruited by Captain America himself. They were the best of the best. They didn't have PTSD or face discrimination. They didn't have favourites or quirks that made them who they were. History remembered legends, not humans.
Soon, Lucifer made his return to Hell. There was no reason to stay. He helped Agent Carter in beginning what would come after the SSR and he aided the Commandos in returning to some form of normal life, and then he had to go back. Amenadiel had already tried to physically drag him back, so after fighting him off, Lucifer had given quick goodbyes and returned to the ashy realm.
The war was over.
Lucifer didn't find Steve nor James in Hell. That meant he'd never see either of them again, but it meant they were together and that was all he needed to know.