Lucifer secretly watched Elizabeth from the other end of the workroom as she painted. He'd been standing behind her for several minutes and had considered letting her know that he was here because she would turn and give him that wonderful smile she always did, but instead he just smiled to himself. The painting that she was working on had started out a just the figure of a man, but now she was carefully adding angel wings, his wings in great detail, to the figure and this had somehow made him pause. Perhaps because it showed just how much attention she had paid to him the only time he had shown her his wings. He was now able to appreciate just how much she loved him, just how much care she took with him, and just how much attention she had always given him through all of his childish tantrums and maneuverings for more attention.

Lucifer had felt some proverbial bumps and bruises during his journey to his current state of happiness, it had been a difficult one, but he would have done it all again. He did regret that at first he hadn't taken it all that seriously, believing that even though he was in love with her, Elizabeth would be a minor help with his need for attention and direction and would be most effective as a distracting sex partner. The arraignment she had quickly developed, using sex to control him, was ingenious. It had begun to amuse him as it had started to tug at old feelings, but it wasn't until the huge mistake of the genocide that he realized just how much he loved and needed her. It was like a punch in the stomach when she had sent him away and it was then that it had dawned on him that she might be capable of much more than he had suspected. He had actually surprised himself when his distress had caused him to offer submission to make up for this mistake, but looking back on it, he was glad that she had elicited that response, because it had started him on the road to where he was now.

They had been happy after that and he'd been proud to give her a child. He had been close, so close, to loving her in a way that would have destroyed all of his fear and anger at being tossed out of heaven, leaving only his desire to please her, but the dream about her death had torn him apart. It sometimes it frightened him to think of what he would have done in the days that followed if it had been true...if she had died. But what bothered him most was that after the first few wonderful weeks of playing with his son and being even more in love with Elizabeth because she had created this beautiful boy, he had acted out again. All of the happiness and the normalness of his life had terrified him, because he had been forced to face what the pain of her loss would feel like. What if he ruined this, what if it was taken from him, what if she could not forgive him anymore? So, he'd worried himself into doing what he should not, but there were no excuses for what he had done. He'd been disappointed enough in himself to wish with all his heart that she could make him stop this madness, not yet realizing that the choice had been his all along. He knew he could give her total control and told her what he wanted without thinking. He supposed that her reaction was understandable because, in his agitation, he'd likened it to being her slave, which technically was the closest human concept, and this had not gone over well. It still amused him that she had thought that he'd left her when he had actually been quite pleased at the sensation of her demanding that he learn a little self-control. She hadn't quite understood then, as she did now, how much it turned him on to not be able to ignore her when she was that forceful, but he'd known he was falling for her even more when he'd scampered off to do exactly what she'd told him to do.

Not too long after returning to her it had occurred to him that what he had done on both of those occasions when he'd had to earn her forgiveness. He'd been able to surrender to her so completely that it calmed him and he decided to show her exactly the kind of thing it would take to recreate this without all the hysterics. He'd sort of given it to her as part of her Christmas/Birthday present but the gift concept had been lost on her, because it had seemed like just another of his playful games, but that was fine. She'd gotten the hint and used it against him with great skill in addition to taking him up on his offer to occasionally surrender his will to her. He had actually been surprised that she had tried it because she had seemed to opposed to the idea, but he wanted it so much that he didn't question her. Existing with her that way was strange because he was so…innocent and everything felt different, but it was almost perfect, almost because she could not have handled it for long, but it was in this state that he was most like his former self.

After a few months he'd begun to worry that he'd screw up again because they were happy and because his open displays of love for her made her uncomfortable. In an unprecedented move, though most of his relationship with Elizabeth was unprecedented, he had tried to explain to her in words rather than in playful games how much of him belonged to her and he had asked her to never leave him. She had understood better than he had hoped and had worked out new ways to help him too that showed a spark of understanding what he had told her.

Then, Michael's little visit had thrown a wrench into things, more so than Lucifer had at first thought that it would. At first, the powers-that-be saw fit to try to threaten him in to staying with Elizabeth and then it turned out that he could damn her if he made her immortal. They were always meddling! But in the end he had realized that he couldn't live without her and that he wanted to trust that she could make him worthy of heaven again.

Of course, on top of all of this, Elizabeth had got it into her head that he would eventually leave her for God if they made it to heaven. Looking back on it now, he had mostly been offended because it had still been probably true and as a result he had been determined to show her that he could function without the control, even though it was technically a lie, in another effort to explain himself to her. As he had tried to tell her before, he was hers and if she would just... But then somehow, finally, after his proud display that he could control himself, he had realized that, duh, he could control indeed himself and had been doing so for some time. He had thought he needed her to do something to make him to stop all forms of evil but in fact it had been his choice all along. He had just needed a reason to do so.

As he had trusted her more and more, he had slowly released his anger at having been ignored for so long and let his love for her take over. He had been acting like a spoiled child, and maybe he had deserved to be angry, but it had been too long and Elizabeth was been worthy of better…so he had stopped, he just stopped. It was like the flip of a switch and it was all over. For all of his power, strangeness, and seeming complexity, he was a simple creature. He was love and that love controlled everything else, but he really hadn't been able to trust it or in her love for him until now. Originally, he had been too damaged by the lack of love that had been his existence since he was thrown out of heaven that he had only be capable of a simple dominance game in order for him to experience the surrender that he needed. In addition, Elizabeth's humanity had been an easy excuse to convince himself that he should protect himself from having to give to more and to indulge in horrible things to cover up his fear of surrendering completely. But she had truly become the focus that he needed for his love, which had been lost without someone to give itself to. Now he could believe in their love for each other and could feel it with him all the time, which was how it was supposed to be. He was genuinely in love again, to his full capacity, and she returned his love and that was all he needed. And once that was decided, the fact that he had free will no longer bothered him, though he sometimes struggled with it, because she expected and helped him to exercise it with thoughtfulness and control, which he gladly did out of devotion to her.

Eventually, it became obvious to Elizabeth that Lucifer's perfectly angelic side was not exactly what she had thought it was. She assumed it was an un-natural state, just a shadow of his former self, that he forced himself into to make her happy, but the truth was that it was completely him it a way that she had not been willing to accept before. She had initially reacted to it so negatively, that he had resigned himself to never being able to give his love to her in that way and when she experimented with it, he had let her form her own opinion and had tried not to be hopeful that she would accept it. She had always been uncomfortable with his unguarded displays of devotion, even when they were alone, and her embarrassment and blushes at his desire to please her hurt him more that he had let her know. But he had moved past that and refused to let that stop him from loving her completely, even if she still wasn't yet capable of fully understanding her role in his life. She eventually came to understand that he was all the things she knew him to be all of the time and she only had to ask him and he would be whatever she wanted because of his love for her. Her understanding of the fact that his love was absolute in a way that required complete acceptance from her in return allowed him to trust her enough to try out a more human existance at the same time as being her angel.

Of course, she had some new things to learn about him now since their relationship was no longer about control and surrender. She had figured out on her own that his silliness was now driven primarily by her unfulfilled desires and moods, but where she had the most to learn was in understanding the new expressions his of love and how it should be accepted. He had so much to give and not allowing him would have been the kind of torture that had driven him crazy. At first she remained more comfortable with their old dynamic because she still held fast to her last shred human modesty and he had understood this. As she had taken over at the beginning of their relationship and had guided him, he now gently showed her what he needed to give to her as the feelings arose in him. Using her framework as a guide, he had used the variety of their love making to show her all of facets of his love because her sexuality allowed her to accept things in that environment that she would have shied away from any other way. When he felt the need, each different act of love, whether soft and gentle or playful or downright masocistic, brought different expressions from him that showed his love to her in glimpses that she could understand. What made his love so complex was that, because of it he would do anything for her, an angel of God's kind of anything, and what he showed to her was the kind of love it took to be able to offer this kind of devotion without limit, without judgment, without fear, and without pride. And sometimes, for a few precious moments, he would transcend the human form and his broken existence and everything would come out of him all at once in a glorious flood of emotion. He supposed that it was because once in a while he found the divine in her that is said to exist in all of these humans and when he did he responded as if truly in the divine presence. He became joyfully and helplessly in awe of her as he displayed the full depth of his love, showed his willingness to obey, and offered of all of his power at her feet. It would always fade but the fact that she was human required that he exist differently most of the time, so he accepted this.

It saddened him a little that she could not feel what he felt in those moments when his love for her burned so brightly and when her lightest touch would have commanded him, but she could only feel so much and the rest was really for his own benefit. She was clever enough to acknowledge these occurrences as if she had felt everything and maybe she was aware of more than he gave her credit for, he couldn't really know.

Lucifer moved closer to Elizabeth now and leaned over to rest his hands on the back of her chair and catch an exposed earlobe in his mouth. Elizabeth inhaled sharply and her hands collapsed in her lap. He relieved her of her paintbrush and she turned to gave him that smile he'd been thinking about. Lucifer grinned back, giving an appreciative glance at the painting, and Elizabeth laughed shyly.

Elizabeth woke on a cold morning much warmer than she should have been. She opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by white. She reached out a hand and poked at her soft, feathery prison. It twitched but did not move. She smiled to herself because Cassie had recently admitted, quite guiltily, that she frequently asked Azazeal to show her his wings and that it was a relatively easy illusion compared to their full glory as angels. Elizabeth had been meaning to ask Lucifer to show her again but had not been able to bring herself to do it, though she had recently finished her painting of them.

She ran her hand along the wing gently, feeling the amazing softness of the feathers, and this elicited a pleasant sigh from Lucifer. Apparently, it was a shared illusion, which explained why Azazeal was so willing to indulge Cassie in her fascination with his wings. He was not above anything that brought pleasure.

"Stay a little longer, my love," he whispered. He uncurled his arm from around her waist and slid his large hand to her belly. She smiled to herself and nestled closer to him. He was nesting, she knew, because she was pregnant again. She'd been thinking about it for a while but had sprung it on him about a week ago and, of course, he had been delighted and very eager to give her another child. Once she had calmed him from the incoherent praise that apparently naturally followed the release of his essence to her, she had marveled at the feeling that she'd just touched his soul and had wiped the joyful tears from his eyes.

This morning he was unhappy that they still had a few more days of work with Azazeal and Cassie that Elizabeth had insisted that they finish. He would have plenty of time to fuss over her in the weeks that followed, so Elizabeth would eventually coax him out of his displeasure and get their day started.

Elizabeth would eventually have another baby boy, Bryan, who Lucifer would take on his own set of adventures with Luke often in tow. Lucifer had taken it upon himself to speak to Ardousius and had watched over Elizabeth's every move for the few months of her pregnancy. In her mind, he was imitating what he though a human man should do when his woman was in this condition and the last time, he hadn't really had a chance to enjoy this part of the experience, so she let him be as protective as he liked. As cute as it was, though, it was a bit of a relief when it was over and he was happily occupied with their new son. Elizabeth had been inspired to want another little living piece of him partially because she had realized that she hadn't given Lucifer enough credit for producing their wonderful son, Luke. She should have known that his children wouldn't be evil, but she'd been distracted by his antics.

Bryan eventually grew up to be more powerful than even Luke and they never bothered to make him attended school of any kind. While Luke had great creativity and passion, Bryan was all strength and purpose, but they both had the same sense of humor so get the two of them together and watch out. He fell in love with a female angel, an Ophanim dancer, and committed himself to her with the same devotion that he shared with Luke and his father, even though they could never have children. The male angels could share enough of their essence to allow a human woman to form a child, but the bodies of the female angels could not perform the complex process that created life. Bryan would start a remarkably successful international super-company and use it to raise money for many altruistic endeavors. He would get Luke, Sara, Malachi, Ella and many other angels all involved in his company, you couldn't say no to him, and this company had the added benefit of helping them to interact with humans occasionally without letting them know that they didn't age.

Elizabeth found that Lucifer wasn't really as submissive as it had originally appeared that he was and this helped her to accept the love from him that he needed to express. It was just that in contrast to all of the unruly behavior and tantrums, his eventual surrender to her each time she had exerted control, which had often triggered a heightened desire in him to please her, had seemed extreme. Now that there was no contrast, she could see his true loving nature for what it was. Contained in his nature to love was a keen attentiveness and open devotion that were beyond the human level. His human form, however, and her human nature created some restrictions that forced him to symbolize some things physically. So if he would kneel, tremble, kiss her feet, gaze at her, or enjoy giving over his body to her, they were all merely representative of subtle feelings that these physical acts helped him express. She also found that when he wanted to please her it was out of happiness with not a hint of desperation and if he offered and gave her surrender it was a loving confirmation of his commitment to her with no fear it it at all. In their everyday life, when he wasn't expressing these things he became remarkably good at being…almost…normal.

Elizabeth learned how to receive the love that Lucifer had to express to her no matter how extreme it felt to her and was not corrupted. She wasn't exactly surprised but was thankful to whatever made her able to be what he needed. She eventually realized, though it struck as obvious when it occurred to her, why it was so difficult for Lucifer in our world and why he could never stop displaying his devotion. Lucifer had no specific gift or talent, as the other angels did, which gave them something to focus on. Lucifer was created only to love, adore, and obey…period. Also, Elizabeth had known that he was a being of extreme power with no conscience, but more and more she began to see the true difficulty of a state of free will for him. A key problem was that he knew the concepts of good and evil, but they didn't really concern him, so he had trouble applying them. He would be just as capable of happily destroying the entire universe as working to save the entire planet and human race, depending on Elizabeth's whim, and would think nothing of it either way. He was a tool, a powerful tool, and he naturally felt that his existence only had meaning in relation to the one he loved and who commanded him. It was a strange and foreign concept, but Elizabeth had become the focus of all of his love and attention, so she would just have to accept it. However, she also felt that it was her duty to help him maintain the personality that he had developed over the centuries. He before Elizabeth he hated it but, as a human, Elizabeth valued his individuality, even when he was contentious and wild, so he let her guide him to find a balance between his developing personality and his selfless nature.

As a result, as their lives drew on, Elizabeth was treated to a Lucifer who took an increased interest in acting like a human lover or at least he tried to. He brought gifts without her having to ask (even though he still found them irrelevant when they were not at her request and he often came up with gifts that were too extravagant to be from a man). He thought about the little things that he had previously ignored like that she needed eat or take care of her horse farm or pay the bills. He renewed his efforts to be a reliable force in her life as he had be so close to being around the time Luke was conceived, until that horrible dream had hurt him. He fiercely guarded his position as her personal angel as if it had never occurred to him to be really jealous until now. He was known to get a bit nasty if another angel would cross an invisible line of intimacy that only the angels were aware of. This wasn't an unusual situation in their little community, where some angels were still looking for something, and the angels understood this reaction because selfishness seemed to be a problem they all shared when it came to the human they saw as the focus for their love. She also suspected that she was unconsciously encouraging this behavior because it was just an exaggerated version of what she might expect from a human mate and she had to admit that after their difficult beginning it was comforting to have him behave in a why that at least made some sense to her. Nearly, everything he did, though, that was meant to be normal was always at least a tiny bit wrong, not bad, just somehow not right. Elizabeth loved that about him because he wouldn't be who he was if he were normal.

Elizabeth and Lucifer were deliriously happy for many years to come and both Luke and Bryan would often shake their heads at their continued playfulness as they amused themselves and anyone else who wanted to come along for the ride. She would eternally feel like a giggly schoolgirl around him because he was infinity capable of doing something exciting, romantic, or sexy at any time. They still loved to play the sexual dominance game, some habits are hard to break, but Lucifer didn't always start the game with the intention of letting her win as he had in the past, which made it more interesting. Elizabeth, however, could now always defeat him with an order if she wanted and relished his annoyance when she occasionally, and unintentionally, ruined a well-planned attempt at getting her wrapped around his little finger.

Elizabeth felt that her journey within this relationship had been easier than his, all she'd had to do was figure him out, and so was happier for Lucifer than herself when their love for each other became his anchor. She spent her life being more content than she could ever have imagined but she was even more delighted at the joy he found in being with her and their children. If you had told her all those years ago that she would find happiness with a fallen angel named Lucifer, she wouldn't have believed you, but it was clearly true.

Elizabeth wiggled her toes against the feathers that covered her feet and stretched against Lucifer's naked body. He held her tighter but when she put her hand around his wrist and lifted his arm, he obligingly lifted his wing as well. She rose out of the bed and looked back at him as he lay on his stomach, his wings spilling over both sides of the bed, pretending to be asleep. She carefully sat next to him and ran her hands through this hair and he looked up at her. She gave him a "you've got to get up now" look and he made a face, but stood.

"Are you going to shower with those?" she asked as his wings were still trailing behind him.

"Hmm, I think you're right. They might get in the way of what I have planned," he said with a smile and before she knew it, they were in the lovely warm shower, sans wings, kissing like young lovers.