Lucifer let himself believe Duke was still asleep. He lowered his face gently into the crook of Duke's neck.

He couldn't stop thinking about the look on Father's face. That infuriatingly sad non-answer. He thought about being so young and believing himself surrounded by love until it all came to a sudden, crashing end. The repressed hope Dad would one day come around and shine that light on him again.

The dashed hope of another light, rejecting him because of Father. And the knowledge that now he had to let go of yet another hope, not because it was being taken from him, but because Father, again, and how He'd made them, and--

And he didn't want to go back to Hell.

His eyes were watering again.

He made a soft, pained noise.