For the Lucifer Bingo. Now I am migrating my AO3 fics here.

It all started when the rumour of Lucifer's crush came to Gabriel's ears. As a good messenger, he passed the gossip from angel to angel, no matter how unbelievable it was.

Lucifer had fallen in love.

At first they were not worried about it - maybe he had decided to settle for one of his demons; perhaps his favourite, Mazikeen. He could mock the pure act of love by faking it with one of his hellions, for all they cared.

Azrael turned Heaven upside down when she laughed and said that the woman was, in fact, human. She provided them with a name, but as always all humans looked the same for angels and no one remembered her name or what she looked like, no matter how much they snooped in their brother's life, inconspicuously, of course.

Michael started a pool. "How long the absurd crushing would last" pool. A week, a month, a year; the longest being five years, and because Raphael believed in second chances and that their brother's angelic nature was still deep inside of him.

When they hit the three year mark, some started to worry. Amenadiel, who just recently recovered his wings, howled in laugher at the pool.

"I've never seen two people more stupidly in love than those two. Our brother has changed so much, siblings, and believe me when I say it's true."

But the first born didn't bet, at first. Azrael didn't, either, convinced that it was a disservice to their brother to treat something so pure like a game.

They watched from above as the human and the Devil struggled to be together; the Father Kinley debacle, the kidnapping of their newborn nephew, Eve's meddling. The pool morphed and changed, angels doubting their initial bet, adding years as they watched their brother in Hell moping around and getting duller by the day.

They watched him try to come back to Earth, fight the uprising of his demons, plead with their Father for another chance in Earth with the human. Some went down to talk to him, ask him to cease his insistence, try to understand why he wanted so hard to go back to a human that was like the rest, forgettable.

"That's the thing - she isn't." He said every time with that faraway look in his eyes.

Some angels changed their bets then. Lucifer really wanted that human woman; and despite Michael arguments that it was all lies to get out of Hell, a part of the heavenly host concocted a plan to free their brother from his prison - at least as long as a human lifetime.

They watched them get back together, form a life together. They never married or had children. Lucifer wasn't a family type of Devil, they knew, and he didn't do commitment. They waited and waited to see if the growing number of angels that bet for them to be together were right or not. Some would even joke around saying that Lucifer had managed to create a rift between the angels once again, this time unknowingly.

When the human drew her last breath, all the angels held theirs, waiting. Even if her soul was fit for the Silver City, the chance of their brother dragging her to Hell with him was there. In the end she arrived at the Pearly Gates without trouble, heard the welcoming speech without blinking, and obediently followed her assigned angel to her quarters for the rest of eternity.

They waited a prudent time until she settled, and one by one the angelic host came to her doorstep to meet the woman that managed to tame their beastly brother. They learned about her miraculous origins, about the time she tried to exorcise Lucifer back to Hell, about the years they spent together until the end.

She never cried. She always talked about their brother with fondness and love in her eyes, a smile on her lips. It was like she wanted them to know the brother they never got to meet, the angel, man and Devil he had become.

But the pool never went down.

Lucifer was found more than once lurking at the Gates, waiting. They asked what did he want, but every time he fled before dignifying them with an answer. When Chloe learned about this it was like she transformed, a new fire in her soul that Amenadiel recognized, that scared some of the younger of the host. She then marched with determination to the Gates and waited for him to return.

Eventually, he came. His face morphed when he saw her, and the angel on guard duty swore he saw moisture gather in the corner of his eyes. He saw him fly towards her, stepping as close as the bars of the Gates allowed him. The guard called for reinforcements, and watched carefully each of their movements. He had never met this brother in person, but tales of his wickedness and malice always managed to put fear in his bones.

The Devil and the woman just stood there and looked at each other, whispering something and seeking as much contact as they could. When Michael arrived with the reinforcements, he asked what did Lucifer want here, if he wasn't welcomed.

He never answered, letting them drag him away from the Gates, his eyes fixed on the woman.

As time passed it became like a ritual. Lucifer would sneak to the Gates, where the woman was always waiting at, and they would talk until he was removed from there. At first it was funny, and everyone wanted their chance to handle the Devil with the knowledge that he wouldn't fight back. Souls came to see the spectacle, curious about the strange situation.

Eventually, it became cruel. Lucifer never fought, the human always let him go and waited for the next time. People stopped coming to watch, too disturbed by the despair evident in their eyes, the emptiness in the human as she sat there watching the souls enter Heaven, knowing that neither of them was who she yearned for the most.

Two things happened at once: Amenadiel, Azrael, Raphael and a group of "Deckerstar believers" (the term came from Rae-Rae) came to ask their Father a favour - to let Lucifer inside the Silver City, to forgive him and let him be free from Hell, anything. At the same time, somewhere else, Chloe decided that having a passive role in the issue was unacceptable and made the run for it when Lucifer came back to visit.

She fought with tooth and nail to get to him, to not get separated from him. She kissed him hastily, like it was the last time she would, and screamed at Michael when the angel grabbed her arm to pull her back inside the gates. For the first time in centuries, she was crying.

"Enough," a voice rumbled from above.

"Father?" Lucifer whispered in her arms.

His presence was felt all around Heaven, His voice heard, and His intentions known.

The Gates opened for the prodigal Son (who reminded everyone that cared to listen that no, he wasn't going to be Samael again and that yes, Hell is still up and running thank you very much) .

Michael accepted his defeat, in the end, as he went to scratch his name from the Pool. He flew past the happy couple, their laughs and love lighting up the Silver City more than any of his brother's stars ever did before.

When he took the records of the Pool, a lot of names scratched and with a lot of corrections through the decades, the archangel wasn't surprised to see a pair of names at the bottom of the list.

Amenadiel, Azrael: Eternity.

Clever bastards.