[detroit!AU: Summoning]

[stilljustandrew]

There's a triple circle on the floor of the room: standard Summoning, and two extra tracks. The one of holy oil is a matter of last resort.

Oddly enough, it's the true name part that's easiest this time.




Andrew speaks the last words of the Summoning, and rises to his feet.

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[gavemea_45]

A wind rises, rushing around the circle in a quick, fast spiral.

And then it's gone, leaving behind a peaceful stillness that seems almost to cling to the figure in the middle of the circle.

He smiles.

"Hello, Andrew."

[stilljustandrew]

He's known the truth since that terrible encounter with Dean, the one that narrowly escaped turning into a shouting match if not a fistfight. He's known, and he's braced for a shock anyway.

It isn't enough.

Fleetingly, as Lucifer smiles with Sam's mouth, Andrew feels an apology to Dean whisper through his mind and away.



"Hi."

[gavemea_45]

"It's good to see you," Lucifer tells him. "I wondered how long it would take you to call."

[stilljustandrew]

"I was wondering if I could talk to Sam."

Andrew has no idea how he's managing to keep his voice steady, keep his knees from giving out.

He's in the presence of an angel, and he's starting to realize what that means.

[gavemea_45]

"Perhaps," he says, and smiles. "I know he'd be glad to see you. Even if he didn't want to be."

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew tries, and fails, to suppress a shiver.

"Well." His mouth's dry. "You did say you want him to be happy."

[gavemea_45]

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Good to know. That, that's good."

His fingertips are pressed tight into his palms; the nails would be digging through skin, leaving little bleeding parentheses, if they weren't bitten down to the quick.

"So how about it?"

[gavemea_45]

"Perhaps," he says again, and this time his smile's broader, and somehow sincerely pleased.

"But I think you and I have a few things to talk about first, don't we?"

[stilljustandrew]

"I was thinking afterward."

This time his voice does shake.

[gavemea_45]

"If you insist," he agrees. "Why not?"

"There'll be time."

[stilljustandrew]

"Yeah."

He waits. Knowing there's nothing he can do about it if Lucifer decides to keep him hanging indefinitely.

[gavemea_45]

A tense silence stretches out between them.


Lucifer's studying Andrew carefully.

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew folds his arms, trying to still the trembling in his stomach.

A bit hoarse: "Anytime."

[gavemea_45]

There's something heartbreakingly sad about his gentle, sympathetic smile.

"Being glad to see someone isn't the same thing as wanting to talk to them, Andrew."

A beat.

"You don't want me to force him, do you?"

[stilljustandrew]

The breath goes out of him in a rush, as though at a blow.

For a few seconds he can't speak.

[gavemea_45]

"He loves you very much, you know," Lucifer adds, each word dropping quietly into the silence left after Andrew's gasp.

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew's mouth closes, quivers, flattens into a hard line.

"Then if he doesn't want to talk to me," he rasps, "let him at least tell me so to my face."

[gavemea_45]

"So you do want me to force him."

Lucifer smiles.

"Good."

[stilljustandrew]

Beat.

"Why good."

[gavemea_45]

"Because you're going to need that kind of determination and willingness to make hard decisions," he informs him, casually. "It's invaluable in a good lieutenant."

He takes a step forward, examining the edge of the circle with apparent curiosity, and then begins to pace slowly around it.

[stilljustandrew]

That's never a good sign.

"There's no Binding," he says; and while it's meant to sound like an expression of assurance, it comes out sounding hasty, conciliatory, just short of cringing.

[gavemea_45]

"So I see."

He glances up at Andrew, even as he comes unerringly to a pause at the point of the circle that's closest to him.

"Why not?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Because I'm not interested in keeping you here against your will. Even if I were strong enough, which you and I both know I'm not."

It's the truth, and he knows it now more completely than ever. It's all he can do to hold himself straight and look Lucifer in the borrowed face.

"I wanted to talk to Sam. That's all."

[gavemea_45]

"That's all," he repeats, and smiles. "Of course."

Lucifer looks directly into Andrew's eyes.

"What did you want to say to him?"