flameandpassion | 79 [Voice]

...[Starving. Right.

Quiiietly switching filters.]

I think you should know that we're glad you're keeping Castiel fed.

[Yeah. He knows this will just piss her off but suck it up, she gets angel gratitude anyway. Although when he says 'we' he means 'I'; he's just too proud to spell it out.]

[The response is, surprisingly, rather calm. -- if not cold.]

Thanks for giving me the opportunity.

[Castiel may have overlooked your hand in tearing out his grace, but Rei never will.]

Enjoy it while it lasts.

[Which is the only indication of his Master Plan that he'll give. The Master Plan is a wee bit too sentimental to flaunt, you see.]

[ . . . ]

Excuse me?

[YOU CAN'T TELL HER THAT AND THEN NOT EXPLAIN YOU ASSHOLE.]

Now, hold on; let me guess. You think that was a threat, don't you?

[Now he's enjoying himself.]

I think you should ask Castiel to translate it for you.

[And then, quite possibly the most surprising thing Rei has said all year:]

I know it wasn't a threat, moron.

Are you seriously going to get it back?

Yes.

[Only that. It's a serious thing that he's proposing, and it deserves the simplest, most serious phrasing there is.]

You helped rip it out. You were there when it happened.

Why give it back now.

[Fuck you, Rei, he doesn't want to explain himself to you. But if it will keep you out of the way....]

Because I shouldn't have done it.

Castiel was dangerous. He was in danger, himself. But I shouldn't have allowed Raphael to talk us into that. I should have stopped her.

[That... astonishes her. And it shows, in the brief seconds of staring, and how her eyes widen ever so slightly -- but she soon grits her teeth, and narrows her eyes.]

You have no idea how much pain he was in -- and that he's still in -- because of what you allowed to happen.

[Tightly.]

I'll believe your words when Castiel has wings again.

Yes, I do. [Lucifer is in fact in worse pain. And even if he hadn't been, he is Lucifer. He knows pain because of what he is. He knows exactly what Castiel felt.] Which is a part of why I changed my mind.

[Nothing could compare. It wasn't the physical pain that tortured Castiel, it was the morning after. And the next day. The solid two days it took him to recover enough to even speak to her, and then the days following of him trying to cope with the fact that he wasn't an angel anymore. That was the real pain he had to endure. And it was anguish. And no one could ever understand that except Castiel himself -- though Rei, in watching him, and listening to him, and figuring him out, and helping him recover, had come close.]

Well, I'm happy for you.

[Somewhat bitterly.]

You changed your mind about how you felt -- that's great. That makes up for everything you've done to him, and the pain he had to go through, and the suffering he endured -- so long as you feel bad about it.

I'll send my congratulations to you when I find it in my heart to care.

[He chuckles]

Oh, Rei. I don't care what you think of this. Your puffed up sense of purpose doesn't begin to measure up against my goals.

And this, especially, has nothing to do with you in the end. This is my family. Castiel is my brother. Whether you like it or not, that is how it will always be, and that's even something he enjoys now.

The only reason I've bothered to tell you about it is so that if things get loud when I go after his Grace, you will know to lock yourself up and stay out of the way.

If he were your brother, you would have stood up for him when he needed you to the most. But you didn't. And he's had to suffer for your mistake.

[Quietly, coldly, her eyes fixated on Lucifer, unblinking.]

I could care less about your opinion of me, but don't think for a minute that Cas feels the same way you do about what I think.

[Because for all of his bitching and arguing and stubbornness, Rei knows he listens -- and more than that, he tells her most everything. So if Lucifer decides to do this, and Castiel feels the need to go with him, then Rei will go, regardless of what the Devil has to say about it. Because she would rather fight Raphael to the death than have Castiel go through what he did again.]

Yes. I should have. I wish that I had. [He doesn't feel guilty. But he does resent the fact that he had strayed so far from his chosen path without even realizing. If not for Castiel, he never would have noticed.]

But, we do what we can. I'm not going to tell Castiel when I act, or what I plan to do, but you know how nosy he is. He needs to stay away from Raphael. [A steady look. This is now your job, Rei.]

[If Lucifer tells Rei what to do in regards to Castiel one. more. time.]

Give me one good reason why I should work with you at all.

[Because she can't think of one. Including death first.]

Because if Castiel tries to get involved, he will probably be hurt. I don't want that, and neither do you. You aren't working with me, Rei, you're keeping him safe.

And I've done that.

No thanks to any of you lunatics.

[Flatly.]

Then keep doing it, and there won't be an issue.

[The bossiest archangel, Rei.]

[It's a shame that she really doesn't give a flying fuck.]

I don't take orders from you.

Take your delusions and shove it.

[Click.]

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