Angel stared up into the sky. High up there he could see Heaven, glowing white in a sea of red. Looking at it made his eyes burn.

 

He squeezed them shut, his head pounding from yesterday’s drinking. Getting high or getting drunk had once again become the best way for him to cope with the life he had returned to (he’d never stopped fully using, but annoyingly, his tolerance had gone way down after not doing them as much these last few months). When he had lived at the hotel, gotten what few hours he could away from the tower, things had gotten easier. But now…

Things had returned to the way they used to be. And knowing that things could be better, but it was just out of reach? It made it all feel that much worse. Like he would have preferred not knowing what things could be like, yet he still clung desperately to those happy memories he’d made with everyone at the hotel like a lifeline. Sure, not everything about living in the tower was bad, in fact, he could have a blast there even now when Valentino’s mood allowed it, but anytime he caught the hotel in his periphery, he felt his chest grow tight.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure what to do with himself now.

 

“Oh, fancy seeing you here, uh…”

Angel nearly jumped out of his skin.

 

Opening his eyes, he found that he wasn’t alone on the bench anymore.

He stared at Lucifer, who was sitting next to him, cane in his lap. When the hell did he get here? He hadn’t noticed him approaching at all.

 

He leaned back against the backrest of the bench again with a sigh, sinking deeper in his seat.

“Angel. I’ve told ya several times already.” He tipped his head to the side, looking at Lucifer.

He watched him fiddle with his cane as he stared into the sky. “Angel, Angel… Ah, like me but in name!”

Angel raised an eyebrow. “Whatcha talkin’ about?”

The look on Lucifer’s face was enthusiastic, like he had just cracked a puzzle in a particularly tricky game. “I’m working on a system! I haven’t gotten very far with it yet, though.”

“A system for what?”

“Remembering your names.”

 

Angel stared at him, eyes wide. “So ya… really can’t remember what our names are? I kinda thought we were too unimportant to remember.”

Lucifer laughed, waving his hand in front of his face.

“Oh, no, my memory is, shhhpfff! Gone! It’s absolutely terrible!” The sound he made was ridiculous, making Angel almost want to smile at how silly it sounded. Was that supposed to be some sort of imitation of an explosion?

“Ya really shouldn’t be tellin’ me this, ya know. Shouldn’t be talkin’ to me at all, really. Especially not in public where there’s, y’know, cameras?”

“Oh, I’m wearing a glamour, you’re the only one who can actually see me for me right now.”

He squinted up at him as he considered the rest of what Angel had just said. “Why not? You’re one of Charlie’s friends, aren’t you?” Lucifer tilted his head, looking like a particularly confused cockatiel.

Something tightened in Angel’s chest. He tried to ignore it as best he could, concentrating on what Lucifer had said right before that instead. If he thought too much about that last part, he might actually start crying. Though it wasn’t like the rest made him feel any better, either. “Vox can get inside my head, remember? He might use whatever ya tell me against ya.”

“Oh, TV-head guy? Pssht, what do I care about him?”

Did this man not have any concept of danger? After all that Vox had put him through by using him as a power source for that doomsday weapon, he still wasn’t scared of him? He either had to be lying, was completely sure that he wouldn’t end up in a similar situation again, or he was incredibly stupid.

 

He stared at him, feeling a laugh threaten to bubble out of his throat. “You’re really somethin’ else, aren’t ya?”

“Thank you.”

“It wasn’t a compliment.”

“Oh.”

 

Lucifer’s expression was what finally made Angel crack. He started to laugh, his laughter only getting worse as he watched the confusion grow on Lucifer’s face, clearly not getting what was so funny. “Sorry, just…”

He had to stop himself from laughing any more than that, it made his head hurt too much. But damn, he hadn’t genuinely laughed like that even once since he returned to the Vees, it felt nice to finally be able to bring himself to, even if it made his headache worse.

 

“You’re kinda stupid, huh?”

At that, Lucifer looked indignant.

“I’m older than the concept of time, cut me some slack here!” Was he pouting? “My Fall did a lot of damage.”

 

Angel felt his face split into a grin, a little playful, a little mean. Wholly entertained. “So you’re sayin’ ya were dropped on the head as a kid?”

“I was never a child, but I guess you could say something like that.”

“You’re so lucky you’re so cute.”

Lucifer opened his mouth to respond, holding up a finger that slowly started to curl as he closed his mouth again. After a moment, he spoke anyway. “Are all your compliments going to be backhanded?”

“I’m hungover, so yeah.” He leaned against his hand, arm propped up on the back of the bench’s backrest. “Okay, I can give ya a real one, if ya want.”

Lucifer looked at him curiously.

 

When Angel stopped there, he gave him an enquiring look, as if asking him to continue.

“What?”

“Weren’t you going to…?”

Angel smiled, putting on the sweetest one he could currently manage. “Ya gotta ask for it.”

“Seriously?” Lucifer’s brows furrowed as he stared up at him, frowning. “I thought compliments were supposed to be given, not asked for.”

“And I thought the king’a Hell was supposed to be intimidating, but he’s just a goofy theatre kid.”

 

For a moment, Angel thought Lucifer would just up and leave, but he surprised him by actually doing what Angel wanted him to.

 

“Could you… please give me that compliment?”

Angel felt himself grin; however small it was, he still knew it was there. Oh, he’d thought so before once or twice, but this guy was cute, in an awkward, oddball kind of way. He could see why Alastor bullied him so much (though he doubted Alastor would agree on the ‘cute’ part). Though he had to wonder just how starved for compliments he was if he would actually ask for one when he was so clearly being messed with.

 

As the silence stretched on, he watched Lucifer start to fiddle with his cane again. Yeah. Real cute.

“You’re ridiculously pretty. Your magic’s amazing, too. I’ve seen what you’ve done with it.”

He shouldn’t be flirting. Not with Lucifer, and definitely not right now. It wouldn’t, and couldn’t, lead to anything. It wasn’t safe for either of them. It was such a bad idea. But how was he supposed to keep himself from doing it when it was so easy?

Lucifer blinked. “Hey, those were two compliments.”

“Ya want me to take’em back?”

“No.”

 

He watched Lucifer’s face flush as he took in Angel’s words.

“‘Ridiculously’?”

“You’re so stupidly pretty it’s kinda insane.”

What an absolute dork he was didn’t do much to dampen that at all.

 

As Lucifer let out a laugh, clearly flustered, Angel smiled to himself. He felt a little lighter than he had ten minutes ago. Things still sucked, and he kind of wanted to crawl into a hole and die when he thought about what his life was like right now, but at least he had this blip of light in all the darkness that surrounded him.

 

He really hoped that Vox wouldn’t go digging around in his head when he got back to the tower. He wanted to keep at least this one memory all to himself.

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