Author: Kris
Pairing: Simon/Lucifer
Rating: PG
Summary: A bargain and its consequences; realization, and finally, resolution.
Feedback: Oh please, yes.
Thanks: To cruisedirector, as always, for beta and encouragement, and making me giggle!
Disclaimer: They belong to Gregory Widen, unfortunately, not me.
Notes: This is the final piece in a series-the first two parts are Better the Devil You Know and Cheating the Devil. You don't really need to read them to read this one, but I wouldn't complain if you did!

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Simon sighs, relieved. It's over--or at least his part is. Gabriel's gone, the soul's in Hell where it belongs, and the war, if not over, is at least no longer his problem.

"So, Simon... you've just helped save the world. Now what are you going to do?"

Simon turns quickly...and nearly collides with the Devil. "You again. What do I have to do to make you leave?"

"Answer my question, Simon." Lucifer has his usual faintly-amused smirk, but the tone of the question is serious. He really wants to know... and Simon suspects that "I'm going to Disneyland" isn't going to work here, and snorts mentally at that image.

"I hadn't quite gotten that far," Simon admits. "In fact...where am I?" He's standing, with the Devil, inside a featureless gray room, gray walls, gray ceiling, gray floor... and the only way in or out a gray door with a shiny gray knob. He thinks that he could become heartily sick of gray very quickly.

"Purgatory. Not a particularly exciting place for a martyr, hmm?"

Simon groans. "Will you just shut up about that? Yes, it's done...and I died for it. Or at least my body did." He looks down at himself...he's worn his human body for so long that even out of it, it's how he sees himself: red hair and blue eyes, wearing comfortable jeans, frayed at the ankles and showing white at the knees, denim shirt, dark trenchcoat, and boots. It feels right, somehow. "Huh. I never thought about what would happen afterwards...or what would happen if I died."

"I know why you're here, Simon." There's a taunt Lucifer's voice, and one eyebrow is cocked in a challenge. Try though he might, Simon can't resist it.

"Do you." He tries to make his voice as flat as possible.

"Yep."

Frustrating son-of-a... "So?"

"Oh no, ask nicely and I might tell you."

"Why, then, am I here, Lucifer, if you'd be so kind." Words forced out through gritted teeth.

He's rewarded for his effort by one of Lucifer's rare, brilliant smiles. "Much better. You're here, Simon, because you have a choice. Heaven, or me."

"That's a choice? Seems like it's pretty simple, really."

"Ah, but don't forget the circumstances. You've just helped Heaven by getting rid of Gabriel, but then, you helped get rid of Gabriel. And you're known to, ah, consort with me. The Boss won't be too fond of that."

"So Heaven's not an ideal choice... but it's better than spending eternity in Hell."

"Did I say that? I said Heaven, or me. I can't take your soul, Simon, you're too pure for that. Even with everything you've done. But unless you want to spend eternity here in a small gray room, those are your choices."

"What's wrong with Heaven?" Simon asks. "Nice place, really. Even if the Boss is ignoring all of his angels."

"Nice place, as long as you're nowhere near Gabriel's allies. Or the other angels, who can see my mark on you." Lucifer smirks. "Simple, you said?"

"Damn it, why do you always have to complicate everything?"

The smirk falls from his face instantly, replaced with sorrow. "Because, Simon, I'm the Devil. It's what I do. The more complicated things are, the better chance of sinning, and the more souls I acquire. But that's not what you asked, is it? You mean, why do I always have to complicate everything between us."

There. It's out in the open, and Simon's grateful that he didn't have to say it. He nods, not sure he can articulate anything else.

There's a long silence from Lucifer, and when he breaks it, it's not with words Simon ever expected. "I'm afraid, Simon. I've spent so long trying to corrupt you, break you, that I'm not sure I can do anything else. And now that I know I can't break you, I'm left without a lot of choices myself. But if you want it straight," and a bit of the smirk reappears at that, "when I said your choice was between Heaven and me, that was exactly what I meant. Not Hell, but me. I'm offering you the chance to be a, hmmm, companion. I can't take you to Hell because you've too much of Heaven in you, but this" and he presses his hand against Simon's back, which flares hot, almost like a brand, "marks you as mine, and therefore Heaven won't have you."

Simon doesn't say anything--he's not sure what to say. Lucifer's touch on his back is gentle, almost...reverent?...and when it slips away, he feels the loss.

"I'll leave you to think about it, then." Lucifer begins to fade away, but Simon, suddenly terrified of the blankness and emptiness around him, grabs his wrist.

"Please...don't go. Please." He knows his voice is shaking, but he can't help it. He's been alone so long after he left Gabriel, that anyone's company is welcome...and faced with the eternal gray of Purgatory, absolutely necessary.

Lucifer solidifies, and when Simon drops his hand, leans against the wall, the picture of nonchalance, arms crossed in front of his chest and legs crossed at the ankle. He even gives Simon the dubious grace of closing his eyes while Simon paces, and thinks.

Simon's irritated with himself for showing weakness in front of Lucifer. It's not like you haven't done that before, though, says the little voice in his head. Don't forget, he had you at his mercy not long ago. And Simon shivers, remembering warm hands sliding over his body, warm lips on his before he tore himself away...and wonders. Wonders what it would be like to have those hands on him by his own choice, without the antagonism that has simmered between them for so long.

And realizes, to his shock, that he wants that. Wants that warmth, that passion. Needs it, in fact. But before he accepts what Lucifer's offering, he needs to be absolutely sure of motives, both his and Lucifer's. So, lets start with the easy one.

"Awfully specific choice, Lucifer. Who'd you bribe to get me?"

"Well..." and Lucifer looks, oddly enough, slightly sheepish. "I, ah, bargained with someone Upstairs. I promised to take Gabriel off their hands, and in return, they'd let go of you. So you're a free agent now."

Simon's having trouble taking this all in. "Wait...you mean, Gabriel's here?"

"Oh yes, he's here." The sheepish look is gone, replaced with a wolfish grin (and somewhere back in the back of Simon's brain, that little voice says, See, you always knew he was a wolf in sheep's clothing. He pretends not to hear). "He's here and I have him forever...any requests, Simon?"

The little voice in Simon's brain thinks he should be shocked at the rage he suddenly feels...and even Lucifer's a bit startled by the gleeful anger in Simon's eyes. "Yes...make him hurt. Make him beg you...make him scream."

"Simon...what did he do to you?" Lucifer's visibly shaken--his usually perfectly modulated voice is rough, quivering a bit.

The anger drains away, replaced with the hollow memory of pain, and Simon's blue eyes are suddenly flat. "You don't want to know. Enough to make me hate him; let's leave it there."

Lucifer looks pensive for a moment. "Simon. Remember last time we met, I told you that as long as you never gave into your darker urges, you would never be mine? You're skirting the edge of that now...be careful.” His voice is soft, intensely serious.

"Why do you care, Lucifer? I'd think you'd be happy to have my soul in your grasp for eternity. But now you're telling me to be careful, deliberately warning me off...why?"

Long pause as Lucifer searches Simon's face and eyes for something...and then, "Because even the Devil has to have hope, Simon. You're my hope--my proof that I'm not damned eternally, that He still has faith in me, even if He can't say it. After all, He'd never willingly give one of His angels into the hands of the damned..." He breaks off and drops his eyes, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear in what Simon realizes is a nervous gesture.

"Lucifer..." Simon's voice is gentle--and a little surprised. "Are you saying you'd give that much up for me...that you care that much?"

Lucifer, unbelievably, blushes. And Simon sees the Devil at a loss for words; a very unusual sight. And were he anyone else, Simon might feel smug...but he's not.

"Lucifer." The Devil's eyes meet his, reluctantly. "I have to know...why would you bargain for me? What's the real reason here?" The Devil opens his mouth to say something, but Simon, not ungently, cuts him off. "You said I'm your hope--but is there more to it than that?"

The Devil's silent for a moment, then says, quietly, "You're my other half, Simon. Yin and yang, dark and light...you're what I might have been had pride not destroyed me." And last, as if it's almost painful to say, "And...for that I love you."

Simon's eyes are tender as he cups Lucifer's face. "How thou art fallen, O Son of the Morning," he intones. "If He could see you now, humbled in the face of truth and love, He'd love you." He stares into Lucifer's eyes, looking for some hint of a lie, but finds none. For once, there's nothing on the tongue of the Prince of Lies but truth--the Devil loves him. And Simon realizes that just for that, he's half in love with Lucifer as well.

He leans forward and touches his lips to the Devil's forehead--a gesture of blessing, benediction--and like Lucifer's hand on his back, a mark.

Lucifer gasps at the contact--and as Simon pulls away, his mark flares on the Devil's forehead, pure white. As if in echo, Simon feels the mark on his back flare in answer...

"I choose you, Lucifer. I choose life over Purgatory--and love over stagnation." Simon seals his vow with a binding kiss, meant to be simple and chaste--but it becomes all heat and slick tongues very quickly; this, like everything else between them, can't stay simple for long.

Simon surfaces from the heat and faint smoke-taste that is Lucifer's kiss, and finds himself pressed full-length against Lucifer. He enjoys the feeling of that hard-muscled body pressed against his for a moment, then slowly breaks the kiss, wondering if his eyes are as unfocused as Lucifer's, dark pools of cobalt blue.

He takes his hands from Lucifer's face and catches up one of Lucifer's hands in his own, entwining their fingers. "Hope endures, Lucifer. Hope will always endure."

And Lucifer smiles, joy in his eyes unmixed for once with the ever-present sadness, and together, they slowly fade.