(February '18) Prompt #3 - "I am serious" [Archive]

ArtisticVicu

03-05-2018, 11:03 PM

Cheeks still burning, Michael helped the passerby pick up their scattered items, Luciano only being so useful as the man continued to laugh. By the time the passerby had left after many words of gratitude - and a few out of amusement to Michael's reaction - both Michael and Luciano had calmed down.

"I still can't believe that was your first instinct in such a situation," Luciano teased gently, returning to a conversation as he turned and started up the path the way Michael had been heading.

Michael fell into step beside him. "It really isn't. Just a habit bred at work out of good humor and such." Michael shrugged, feeling awkward. "It mostly slips out when I'm nervous, it would seem."

Luciano looked at him but Michael ignored him. "You're nervous?"

Michael winced. "Ah, maybe that's the wrong word. Anxious, then?"

Luciano stopped walking, hand gently curling around Michael's bicep as Michael came to a stop as well. Michael was surprised to see the frown on his companion's face. "I'm making you anxious?"

Michael quickly raised his hands. "No, no! Just the...situation. I-ah, geez. How do I explain this?" Michael rubbed the back of his neck, gaze going to the expanse of grass to his left. "I, uh, may not have ever believed that you of all people would actually consider to date me?"

"Oh?"

Michael shrugged, uncomfortable and growing more so the longer this went on. "I....it's not that I'm not interested in dating you or anything but the last time I had someone who was out of my league ask me out, it had been a joke."

Luciano's hand was on his cheek, drawing his gaze from the grass to the nearly red eyes looking down on him. "I am serious. If you are interested, I would like to go get breakfast at a diner I know and we can call it a date. Should it not work out, I would like to at least settle as friends. You seem like an interesting man and, as you so keenly pointed out, we do keep running into each other despite everything."

Michael shook his head, the action taking Luciano's hand from his cheek. "But I'm a stranger. Why ask me out on a date?"

"Because you are breathtaking."

Michael's breath caught in his chest and he stared at Luciano. He was joking, right? There was no way he even came close to compare to the Adonis before him.

"And because you are clearly very kind, very intelligent, and, in all honesty, you remind me of someone I haven't seen in years." Luciano smiled softly. "So, yes, I get something out of this by spending a morning with you, as I believe you put it. But it isn't in search of finding a replacement so much as making new memories and meeting new people."

Michael gave a breathless laugh. Out of all his words, Michael couldn't find one lie. That didn't mean there wasn't one but it certainly put him at far more ease than anything else probably would have. Nodding, he agreed with Luciano's terms. "Alright. Breakfast. And afterwards, we can decide on another date or simply being friends."

Luciano beamed at him and a sensation Michael had never experienced before rushed through him. It was dizzying even as his mind pointed out that there was something oddly familiar about that look, about Luciano with such an expression. But the thought was fleeting and silenced by Luciano taking his hand. "Excellent. The diner is just a short walk from here."

The next three hours pass in a heady blur. During those three hours, the two of them talked and talked, staying in the diner booth long after their plates were cleared talking and laughing and Michael forgot quite often just who he was having breakfast with. It was when they were back in the park walking towards Michael's home that he remembered the strongest.

He steeled himself against the answer to his question. "So, did it go as you had hoped?"

Luciano hummed. As nonsequencial as the question was in their conversation, it seemed the man had understood his meaning as he answered with, "Probably not as smoothly as I had hoped, but certainly the result was the same."

Luciano entangled their fingers, buzzing with pleasure and happiness. It made Michael smile weakly even as his heart grew heavy. "And what of the press?"

That seemed to have taken Luciano by surprise because the man gave him a blank stare. Michael came to a stop and Luciano mirrored him, thumb idly rubbing at the back of Michael's hand. Michael elaborated. "You're one of the world's most sought after bachelors from a predominant family of bachelors. This relationship will not go unnoticed."

Luciano shrugged. "I don't care about all that. It's inconsequential."

Michael shook his head, distraught. "But what if it isn't to me?"

Luciano gave him a look that was far sharper and far harder than anything Michael had witnessed from the man, especially directed at himself. "Come off it, Michael. You're above all that."

"Am I?" Michael challenged. He yanked his hand free from Luciano's hold and for the briefest of instances, he regretted the action when loss and pain crossed the other's face but it was gone as quickly as it had surfaced. "Am I really? Luciano, I'm a simple cafe barista in the middle of a massive city. I have no wealth and I certainly have no interest in being the center of attention like that." Michael gave him a soft smile but it felt strained. He hoped it didn't look as such. "You are an amazing person, Luciano, and I would enjoy nothing more than to go on another date with you-"

"Then why don't you?" Luciano interrupted but Michael kept going.

"-but I need to know that you understand that it will take time for me to adjust to the idea that this isn't simply a ploy or some elaborate dream I'm bound to wake up from." This time the smile he gave was tight and humorless. "There will be some conflict personally about all this. As much as I find you attractive, my home life growing up had never been open to such relations and I cannot act as if I didn't grow up without realizing I had been in the closet the entire time."

Something crossed Luciano's face and suddenly Lucifer's face was superimposed over Luciano's face and Michael started as the other's hand carded through his curls. "Oh, Michael," Luciano uttered, his words soft and doing nothing to change the impression Michael was choking on. "Of course I understand and am more than willing to try if you're willing to be patient with me. I've lived for so long getting what I want when I want it that I forget that sometimes there are things that bother others that no longer bother me. I will do all that I can to make sure you stay out of the media till you are ready. Is that enough to have you at least think about a second date?"

Michael swallowed thickly, nodding. It was enough to guarantee at least two but he was afraid if he tried to speak, he would accidentally call the man Lucifer and he'd much prefer avoid being accused of anything. Luciano smiled at him and offered him his hand once more. "Shall I walk you home, then?"

"Just to the corner," Michael compromised with a soft smile, his hand trembling slightly. "I'd feel more comfortable knowing you are still rather oblivious as to where exactly I live."

Luciano chuckled. "Of course."

They walked in companionable silence for the rest of the way. When they arrived at the point they would separate, Michael expected Luciano to push the matter but the other man simply raised Michael's hand to his lips causing Michael to blush.

"You have my number, correct?" Luciano verified, breath ghosting over Michael's knuckles.

Michael nodded. "I'll text you later so that we can arrange another date."

Luciano beamed. Michael suppressed a shudder. He couldn't stop seeing Lucifer in the man and it was starting to get worrisome.

It didn't help the growing fear of the consequences awaiting him when those Above discover his lack of abiding to God's one rule.

"I look forward to your text and our next meeting, then," Luciano happily replied. He pressed another kiss to Michael's knuckles before turning and walking away.

Michael waited till the man was at what he deemed was a suitable distance before turning about and started for home.

His apartment was dark in the sense that all the lights were still off but the blinds did very little to keep the daylight out so he kept the lights off as he entered his home. Shoes tucked away by the door, he flopped down onto his couch and released a long sigh as his eyes fell closed.

When he opened them again, his apartment was still well lit from the daylight and the shadows of the tree outside played on the ceiling. Sitting up, he curled all the way forward and rubbed at his face with his elbows propped onto his knees.

Why had he been unable to shake the impression that Luciano was Lucifer? He hadn't seen his Brother in ages and there was no way Lucifer would be interested in him like that. Michael was very certain that Lucifer would have enjoyed swooning all but to find interest in another Archangel would have been far from Lucifer's character.

A hand carded through his curls and fear froze him in place as Jesus's voice curled around him. "You certainly know how to get yourself into trouble, don't you, dear Brother?"

Michael jerked back only for Jesus's hand to fist his hair and keep him from going very far. The other forced Michael's head back as Jesus loomed over him, a devious, satisfied smirk marring the face above him. "I would have thought you would have heeded my words, dear Brother. Certainly you knew I was watching and would not have taken kindly to you affiliating with Lucifer."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Michael ground out.

Jesus's face lit up at that and Michael swallowed a cry of pain when Jesus yanked on his hair to get him off the couch. "Oh, I'm sure you don't but Father doesn't know that, does he?"

The world around them swirled and Michael collapsed to his knees at Jesus's shoving as they appeared in Heaven. Michael shuddered at the sensation of Heaven. His content on Earth had dimmed the memories and now he felt overstimulated by what was his home.

He squinted against the harsh light, finding himself on his knees before God.

"Father," Jesus spoke, looking for all intents and purposes as the Son of God from before his corruption. "I can no longer stand idly by as my Brother deceives you down on Earth. I have tried to urge him to not to interact with the Fallen yet he goes against Your Word and reaches out to those that cannot be saved."

Had Michael not known Jesus as well as he did, he would have assumed that the pain that Jesus was emitting was true and pure. Even knowing Jesus well caused guilt to churn in his chest even as he drowned in confusion. He hadn't been interacting with Lucifer! As much as he missed his Brother, he had no idea where the Fallen was even at.

God focused on him and Michael found himself staring at the ground before his knees, unable to look at God after having been away for so long. "Michael," God's voice spoke, the sound wrapping around him so thickly that Michael lost all sense of Heaven. "Tell me: do you despise me so much as to go against my word?"

"Of course not, Father," Michael urged, his throat tight. Why was he here being judged? He had done nothing wrong!

"Yet you interact with those that I have stated were to be rejected and turned away." Michael flinched at that. There was a pause long enough that Michael started to wonder if God would speak again. "Michael, tell me: do you wish I had not cast Lucifer from Heaven?"

The lie was on his tongue but the compulsion to tell the truth was irrefutable. Hate coiled within him at the fact that God was forcing him to speak the truth. "Yes," Michael stated far calmer than he felt. "He is our Brother and should have been forgiven and given another chance."

There was a wave of displeasure from God and Michael bowed at the weight of it. "Tell me: if I had given you the chance, would you have gone against me the night of Lucifer's banishment."

"Yes."

The word - that single word - was passed his lips before he could even think, before he could even try to deny it. But he had been thinking about that night since Jesus's words had sparked those fragmented memories and he felt it even in his own soul that the word was true.

Pain erupted from his back and filled his body as God forced his wings to show. He cried out as his hands scraped against the ground in an attempt to keep himself from collapsing completely, tears streaking down his face. His entire body quivered as the pain ripped through it. Through the haze of pain, he caught sight of feathers drifting down around him and through the pain he turned his head as his wing came into view.

Everything seemed to stop. There was no pain - no emotion - as he stared at what were supposed to be his wings.

He stared at a wing and was suddenly back to the night before Lucifer was kicked from Heaven under the moonlight. Even looking back now, Lucifer's wings had still looked radiant and beautiful even as they changed, clearly something the embodiment of Pride could be proud of, but his....

Michael felt sick as he took in the wing that looked damaged and ratty, as if they hadn't been tended to after haven gotten caught in something. There was no beauty in it like there had been in Lucifer's and Michael wondered if that was his punishment or a result of giving into sin so quickly for he could no longer doubt that he had given into sin.

God's words slowly registered in Michael's mind. "You were one of my most powerful creations, third only to Jesus and Lucifer and yet you have clearly become corrupted just as Lucifer had. You will be tossed from Heaven and forbidden to ever return."

Laughter bubbled out of him, unbidden and unrestricted as soon as they started. Anger curled in his chest as it peppered out and he clambered to his feet. "Funny. I always thought I would be banished from my interest in the same gender, not from accusations that I'm associating with a Brother I have not seen since his Falling."

The wrath of God rushed over him and he weathered it, glaring at God as he did so. Unadulterated wrath of his own curled through him aimed at God and Jesus. He didn't care that God knew now, not when he was not even given the chance to be heard out.

Determined to get his piece said, he added, "If your top three Sons are corrupted, what's to say the others are not? Even God can be blinded by His own brilliance and sin."

That earned him the shove from Heaven and pain erupted from his back again as he slammed into the pavement in some alleyway he didn't recognize from where he was prone on his back. He hissed as he moved knowing that he had to hide his wings despite the fact that night had fallen.

Excruciating pain rippled through him with every movement and he tried to hide his wings. He nearly passed out from the pain and gulped down air as he settled on his side willing himself to not pass out.

He wasn't sure if it had been a few minutes or a few hours before he finally managed to get his wings hidden. But when he did get his wings hidden, he had no strength to move. His back was damp from what he could only presume was blood and the rest of him chilled from sweat as the night grew colder around him. Shivering, he curled tighter in on himself and settled in to sleep, not caring.

There was the sound of wings on the edge of his consciousness and for a moment he thought he had finally fallen asleep but then there were hands on him - careful and barely there - as a familiar voice called his name.

He frowned, eyes trying to flutter open and they only opened enough to let him see a blurry form kneeling before him that seemed as if out of a dream. Or an old memory. A kind hand carded through his curls and he voiced without thinking, "Lucifer?"

"What happened?" the figure asked and Michael's brain misfired.

He tried to force himself more coherent, moving to sit up, but his back spasmed and the figure pushed at his shoulders to keep him still. No. It couldn't be. Not after all this, not after everything thing that had happened. There was no way. "Lucifer? Truly?" he urged again but what strength he had suddenly faded and darkness quickly swallowed him as the figure above him promised, "Hang in there, Michael. I'm going to get you somewhere safe."

Blissful darkness swallowed him even as his mind was left bewildered and confused.