[Detroit!AU: when the man comes around]

[stilljustandrew]

Ever since they started what he's been mentally referring to as the Interdimensional Witness Relocation Program, Andrew's been getting most of his sleep at Milliways. Between helping Sam Winchester settle in at the Academy as a putative Watcher-in-training and trying to juggle his own schedule around that, there hasn't been time to sleep at home.

Especially since about half the time he finds himself lying awake anyway, jittering from a combination of nerves and caffeine.

Andrew rolls over, bunches up the pillow under his head, and lets out a sigh of tired frustration as he tries to relax again.

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[stilljustandrew]

Unconsciously, barely moving at all, he starts to shake his head.

"I'm with him now."

[gavemea_45]

"Yes, I know." Lucifer replies. "He's taken sanctuary in your world."

A beat, and then softly, implacably,

"But the longer he stays there, the worse it will be."

[stilljustandrew]

"Worse how?"

He folds his arms across his midsection, hunching slightly.

It's cold in here, all of a sudden.

[gavemea_45]

"Sam Winchester will be my vessel. There's no question about it; that will happen."

A beat.

"But there are many, many ways for it to come to pass. I'm sure we'd all prefer to avoid ... unpleasantness."

[stilljustandrew]

He swallows. "Is that code for Lots Of People Dying?"

The conviction in Lucifer's voice is shaking him, despite all his efforts.

[gavemea_45]

"As I said... many, many ways."

Lucifer pauses, studying him.

"I think I know one thing you're afraid of, Andrew. But this isn't the same. I'm not the First Evil. I'm not trying to deceive you."

[stilljustandrew]

The indrawn breath hisses through his teeth, and his jaw clenches.

"Yeah?" he grates. "Is that why you came in here looking like Jonathan?"

[gavemea_45]

He shakes his head.

"No. That was for a different reason. I know what seeing him reminds you of."

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew's arms tighten around himself, and he looks away.

[gavemea_45]

"You're so afraid of making a similar mistake," he says, softly. "It makes you determined not to believe me; makes you sure that I must be lying, that none of it could be true."

A beat.

"Even when, deep down, you know that it is."

[stilljustandrew]

"It's not."

Small and choked, but vehement.

[gavemea_45]

"It is." Soft still, but with undeniable certainty. "Sam knows it, and I know it."

"And you know it, too."

[stilljustandrew]

"All I know is you're saying it. You said it to Sam, and you're saying it to me, and that doesn't prove anything --"

His voice is rising, desperately.

[gavemea_45]

He raises his eyebrows.

"What kind of proof are you looking for, Andrew?"

[stilljustandrew]

"None. There isn't any. You can't prove that there's no other way, I don't care how much you know, it's not possible to prove a negative."

He latches onto that with desperate conviction: it's not logically possible to prove a negative. Therefore he's wrong. Therefore none of what he's saying is true.

It's not going to happen. It's not.

[gavemea_45]

He straightens, no longer leaning against the windowframe, and shrugs.

"Fine. Don't believe me. It doesn't matter."

Lucifer's gaze is direct, focused entirely on him.

"Make no mistake about it: I don't need you, Andrew. That's not why I'm here."

[stilljustandrew]

"Then what do you want?"

Even as he says it, he wants to reach out and grab the words back. No. No. Don't ask him.

[gavemea_45]

His smile is painful and beautiful both at once; heartbreakingly gentle, and almost impossibly sweet.

"I want Sam to be happy."

A beat.

"Help me make this easy on him, Andrew, for his sake. He trusts you. He loves you like no one else aside from Dean, his lost father, and the late, still-lamented Jessica."

[stilljustandrew]

he loves you

Andrew looks away again, fast, but too late to hide the tears that spring to his eyes.

"If you want him to be happy," he says, without much hope, "then leave him alone."

[gavemea_45]

"I'm sorry," Lucifer says, and he sounds it.

"It has to be him. It was always meant to be."

[stilljustandrew]

"Why does it have to be him?" Andrew looks up again. "Why does it have to be anybody?"

[gavemea_45]

"There are a number of reasons," he informs him, "but let this suffice."

"Try to imagine, if you possibly can, what the consequences might be should such power as that which I and my brothers wield be brought to bear on the earth without the limitations imposed by containment within a vessel."

[stilljustandrew]

Beat.


"It would be bad," he says, flatly.

(Lucifer has not known Andrew long enough to recognize his Quoting Something voice.)

[gavemea_45]

"To say the least," he returns. "It will be, in any case. I won't deny that. But --"

Something about his tone changes slightly; it rings as bright as sunlight off of steel, determination radiating from every line of him as he continues,

"-- what I can do is everything possible to minimize the damage to my Father's finest creation."

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew's silent.

He has a feeling that saying then why don't you just leave the whole earth alone would be a bad idea.