Read in here on Ao3

Pairing: Lucain

Rating: PG13
Prompt: Deal with the Devil. The question is how far would you go for your love? How big would be the price you are willingly to pay?

Summary: Never let it be said that Cain didn’t love his brother.

~~~~~

Never let it be said that Cain didn’t love his brother.

He had loved Abel without reason from the moment his mother had put his brother into his arms. They were never far from each other, even when they grew to be men. Cain was always more comfortable tilling the earth, Abel with animals, but even then, they were always within earshot of each other.

One afternoon after a full day of working his vegetables, Cain went to retrieve his brother and his flock from the field, and heard his brother talking. Normally Cain would have teased Abel about talking to his sheep, but there was something in the tone of his voice that made him stop.

What was more, someone was answering him back.

Cain stood out of sight, transfixed by the dark silky timbre of the voice as it washed over him. There was something awe-inspiring about it, and he felt the power of it all over his body. After a minute the voice faded, and Abel trotted over the hill, his sheep in tow.

“Are you well, brother?” he asked, his brow furrowed with worry. “You look as if you’d seen a ghost.”

Cain shook his head. “Who were you talking to, Abel?”

But his brother wouldn’t give up his secrets so easily. “Just the sheep again,” he smiled, urging his flock forward.

Cain let the conversation drop, but the voice continued to haunt him. It was all he could think about, so the next day he went earlier just to try and hear more of it. Abel was talking just as before, with Cain listening just behind the hill when the voice went silent.

“Abel, why don’t you invite your brother to speak, he’s hiding right behind the hill.”

Cain could feel his skin grow hot, but couldn’t move in time for Abel to appear over the hill. Cain expected him to be angry at his eavesdropping, but his brother’s smile was broad as he beckoned Cain over the hill to where he sat.

There was a man there, an ordinary looking man with blonde hair and clear blue eyes, but Cain felt a pull stronger than anything he’d ever felt in is life.

“Hello Cain,” the man said, with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you in person, I’m God,”

Cain blinked at him for a moment, his tongue dry in his mouth as he tried to think of something to say. His family knew God intimately. Their parents had been the first humans to walk the Earth, the only humans to see the Garden of Eden before being thrown from it after being tricked by Lucifer, one of God’s fallen sons. Despite their failings, Adam and Eve encouraged their children to speak to God, and to give him offerings of their crops and flock.

Cain had spoken to God before, but God had never seen fit to answer.

“Hello…God,” Cain started hesitantly.

“I must go now,” God said. “I will return tomorrow. Cain, please feel free to visit with your brother.”

And he vanished.

Cain was silent. After all these years, God had seen fit to grace them with his presence again, and it was in a field with the sheep? Abel got up from the ground and began to speak excitedly at Cain, telling him all the things that God had relayed to him. About their return to the Garden of Eden, about their forgiveness, small sacrifices they had to make. Things that gave Cain a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“What must we do to return to the Garden?” Cain asked, eyeing his brother carefully.

Abel began to list all the things that God had told him to do, and Cain paused. Every single thing he had listed was a sin.

“Brother,” Cain stopped him as they neared home. “All these things… they’re all sins…”

“Sins for admittance into Paradise, Cain,” Abel replied, not seeming to quite grasp what was actually happening. “Surely God can give permission to sin.”

Cain was not so easily convinced.

He offered to take Abel’s flock for the day, under the guise of Abel helping their mother with her daily work. Abel was overjoyed, and Cain went off with his sheep into the field to wait.

God, or whoever he was, seemed surprised by Cain’s presence. “Hello Cain, where is your brother?”

“I am not my brother’s keeper,” Cain replied, staring at the imposter in front of him. “I know you are not God, who are you?”

Emotion flickered across the man’s face, and for a moment, Cain thought he might vanish again, but then he smiled instead.

“You’re a quick one, aren’t you?” he smirked. “Your brother though, he’s a bit dense. Reminds me of my brother, Michael. Either way, he’s not going to believe you.”

“He’s my brother, of course he’ll believe me,” Cain protested, putting the piece together in his head. If his brother was Michael and he was on Earth, than he was talking to none other than Lucifer.

Lucifer shook his head. “I don’t think he will, not when he’s talking directly to ‘God’.”

“Leave my brother alone.”

“Or what, hotshot?” Lucifer taunted.

“I won’t let you have him!” Cain challenged, trying to hide the fear he felt in the pit of his stomach.

“There’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

“You can have me instead.” The words popped out of Cain’s mouth before he could even think them. He loved his brother more than anything else, and there was nothing he wouldn’t do, even if it meant his own ruin.

Lucifer’s eyebrow raised. “You would do that for your brother?” he sounded unsure. “You would go to Hell, forever.”

“Abel’s soul in Heaven, for mine in Hell,” Cain said, staring the Devil directly in his eyes. “Consider it done.”

Cain could tell he’d stunned him, but Lucifer was not a man of dull wits. “We’ll see. I know Abel, I need to make sure it’s a good trade.” And then he disappeared.

He wasn’t gone for long. He reappeared as Cain urged the sheep home, following behind them with his shepherd’s staff.

“I’ve thought over your proposal,” Lucifer said, so close to him that Cain couldn’t help but jump a little. “You’re going to spend time with me, and if by the end, I decide your soul is equal to your brother’s, we can make the trade.”

Cain swallowed, trying not to show the fear he felt. He was staring down the devil after all. “If that’s what you need.”

“One more thing,” Lucifer grinned at him and a shiver went down Cain’s spine.

“When we make the trade, you have to be the one to deliver your brother’s soul to Heaven,”

Cain held his face still, not willing to show any moment of weakness to his adversary. If that was what it took to save his brother from Lucifer’s corruption, he would do it.

He would kill his brother.

~~~~~

For being a known liar and deceived, Lucifer was true to his word.

He came every day while Cain was tending his crops, sitting on his cart watching at first.

“Are you just going to watch me?” Cain grunted, wiping the sweat from his brow as he weeded a particularly messy crop of grain.

Lucifer smiled at him again. “You remind me of my brother sometimes. Upstanding, hard-working, dull…” he trailed off, swinging his legs.

“I’m going to guess that was not a compliment,” he responded wirely, wiping his muddy hands on his breeches. “Although you do not seem to be anything like what I have heard my parents describe you as.”

“Yeah? And what’s that?”

“Interesting, persuasive…intelligent,” Cain couldn’t help the last dig. If he was being forced to spend time with the Satan himself, he could at least have a little fun with it. He half expected Lucifer to do something to him, hurt him in some way for the insult, but when nothing came he turned to face him.

Lucifer was staring at him with a bemused expression on his face. “You’re not at all what I expected.”

Cain didn’t dignify that with a response. He focused on the flower bed in front of him, yanking weeds from around his crops.

It took another twenty minutes before Lucifer began to fidget.

“This is boring,” Lucifer said. “Entertain me.”

“I have work to do,” Cain sighed, wiping his sweaty head on the back of his forearm. “Entertain yourself.”

“Cain, Candy-Cain, Cainy-Wainy,” Lucifer taunted. “Take a rest, the plants will be there in a hour.”

Cain let out another sigh. It didn’t seem like Lucifer was going to stop until he gave in. Weeding could wait. Cain turned to look at him, glaring staunchly at him, but Lucifer did not look at all chastised.

He hopped down from the cart and then walking a few steps into the shade of a grand oak tree, he flopped down on the grass. Cain followed him, sitting on the grass a few feet away.

“You can come closer,” Lucifer quipped, patting the ground next to him. “I’m not going to bite.”

“I’m fine where I am, thanks,” Cain said curtly.

“Ouch,” Lucifer replied, his expression not really changing. He looked like a cat, stretched in all his glory in the warm shade. “You wouldn’t have to put up with me if you just gave me your brother, you know.”

“I can’t,” Cain protested. “He’s my brother. I will do whatever it takes to protect him.”

Cain expected Lucifer to mock him, but what he saw was the opposite. A soft look passed over his face. “I remember feeling like that about my brother,” he said quietly. “And when he felt that way about me.”

Cain had forgotten that Lucifer too had brothers, and that it was his brother that had thrown Lucifer, on the orders of God, from Heaven.

“I loved my father and my brothers more than anything else,” Lucifer continued. “Everything was fine, just the five of us at first. Dad, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and me. It was great, even when he created more angels. I would have died to protect them.”

Cain didn’t say anything, he just listened to him. He had heard the story from his parents, but only from what God had told them.

“We fought the Darkness together, Dad trusted me with the key to where we locked her, but everything changed when he created you apes. He asked us to bow, to love you more than we loved him, and I just couldn’t do it.” he spat, emotions clearly getting the better of him. “Humans are nothing, worthless ants. How could I love them more than my family?” His voice was low, almost gravelly with the spite that was lanced through it. “I would have killed to protect Micheal, just like you, and he betrayed me!”

Thunder crashed overhead, as powerful as Lucifer’s voice, and the archangel looked up, his face as dark as the clouds overhead. Cain was frozen in fear at his wrath, but nothing happened, and then Lucifer vanished.

~~~~~~

Cain half-expected Lucifer not to come back. He definitely did not expect him to be waiting with lunch for him the next day when he went to finish the weeding he had neglected the day before.

“Good morning, Candy-Cain,” Lucifer smiled at him from his position on the cart.

Cain felt sorry for him after the day before. Despite his sins, being alone and cut off from your family had to be miserable. Cain had tried to imagine how he would feel if Abel betrayed him, if his father turned his back on him, but it was so painful he could barely begin.

“Good morning,” he replied, and then got down to his work without another word.  

To his surprise, Lucifer didn’t demand Cain entertain him, he didn’t tease or taunt him about his work. He just sat here, watching Cain work. After awhile, Cain snuck a look over his shoulder to find Lucifer laying in the grass, sunning himself like an oversized cat. There was something endearing about it, something that Cain didn’t want to admit and he turned back to his work with a huff, praying that Lucifer hadn’t seen him look.

He worked himself so hard to avoid temptation that he didn’t even realize he was hungry until his stomach growled. He turned to find that Lucifer had laid out lunch on a blanket under the tree nearby, and he was grinning at him from the shade. Cain almost wanted to rebuff him, but the food smelled delicious and he was starving.

He sat down on the blanket and began to eat without a word, and Lucifer just watched him, his smile becoming even wider. A terrified thought struck Cain then: had he poisoned it?

“Did you poison this?” he asked, putting the bowl he was holding down in a rush.

Lucifer snorted. “What use do I have for you dead?” he scoffed. “You’re much more interesting to me alive.”

“Why aren’t you eating then?”

“Angels don’t need to eat,” he explained. “Or sleep.”

Cain was intrigued. As much as he didn’t want to be, he was curious about angels. He’d heard about them from his mother and father, but had never met one until now. He couldn’t help it.

“Tell me… about angels?”

Lucifer regarded him for a moment in silence, and then with a smirk, began to talk.

He told Cain everything, from the beginning when it was just him, his brother Michael and their father. He talked about Raphael and Gabriel, and all the trouble they got up to when Heaven was empty. He talked about his Father creating the Earth, and helping him fill it with animals. He talked about his father’s sister, The Darkness, how they locked her away, and all the terrible things that came because of it. He talked until the sun hung low in the sky and it was time for him to go home.

Lucifer accompanied him as he walked home, regaling the tale of how he’d taught Gabriel to fly.

“He fell like a stone!” Lucifer laughed. “I had to catch him before Dad had my head!”

Cain smiled. He had never thought of Lucifer as having a real family, as having brothers he loved as much as he loved Abel, willing to do anything to save him.

“You’re thinking of your brother, aren’t you?” Lucifer said, breaking Cain from his thoughts as they came upon his home. “He’s lucky to have you. If my own brother loved me like you love him, I’d still be with my family.”

Cain turned to say good night, but Lucifer was already gone.

~~~~

They continued like that for months, Lucifer accompanying him to his work every day, spending the day with him, and then back home at night. Cain didn’t know how it happened, but bit by bit, from pity, to understanding, to affection, Lucifer worked his way into his heart, like a mustard seed on rocky ground.

Lucifer understood him in a way that no one else had. He understood the darkness inside him, something that he hid from his parents and from Abel. He understood his jealousy at God’s favor for his brother. He understood everything.

But Cain’s feelings went deeper than that.

They were sitting underneath the tree near Cain’s field, when it dawned upon him of his feelings He knew what Lucifer was, and he cared for him anyway. He looked at the man beside him, considering him in the sun’s dying rays when the urge struck him. Cain leaned forward and kissed him, half expecting Lucifer to pull away.

He didn’t.

The devil devoured him, pulling down into the sweet- smelling grass, and not letting him go until Cain was gasping for breath.

“Ask me,” Lucifer said, his voice like gravel.

“For what?” Cain responded, his hand finding its way into the cornsilk of Lucifer’s hair.

“For Abel’s soul.” he returned. “Ask me to let him go.”

Cain looked at him, staring into the depths of his eyes. He could see the Lucifer would do it if he asked, that he would release him from his promise and walk away if that was truly what Cain wanted. Lucifer might trick, but he would never lie.

Cain considered it. He could just walk away from this, and never see Lucifer again. Abel would stay alive, and he wouldn’t end his brother’s life, even to save him. Cain considered it and made his choice, sealing it with a kiss.

It wasn’t just Abel that made Cain give in to Lucifer.

Never let it be said that Cain didn’t love his brother. However, it should be understood that he loved the Devil just as much.