An Inconvenient Proposal (PG-13 | Jo/Lucifer, Sam/Gabriel)
Title: An Inconvenient Proposal
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Jo/Lucifer, Sam/Gabriel, pre-Dean/Castiel
Warnings: Arranged bonding/marriage, no spoilers for season 6
Spoilers: Abandon All Hope
Beta: luc_darling
Summary: Jo is the only one that can do this.
Jo stares at Gabriel as if he's lost his mind.
"You want me to what?" Jo demands. She whips her head towards Sam. "You can't think this is a good idea. C'mon, Sam."
Sam looks uneasy but he meets her eyes. That's more than Dean or Castiel can do these days. But she doesn't blame them. "It's a better solution than anything else we have," he points out. "We can't keep him trapped forever."
She snorts. "Yes, we can. Wasn't that the whole original point of the thing?"
Gabriel's jaw clenches. She doesn't care if he's supposed to be an Archangel, he doesn't feel like an angel. And she doesn't care if she's not in hell on the rack because of him -- she refuses to owe anyone.
"And that worked so well, didn't it?" Gabriel drawls. "I don't think sending my brother back to his room to think is going to work."
Sam nods. "It didn't the first time."
Jo leans heavily against one of the junked cars. "Tell me why we can't just kill the bastard again?"
"I'm not Michael," Gabriel says in a low, almost pained voice. "And Castiel -- it wouldn't be right to ask him. Even if he doesn't know."
She hates this, secrets within secrets. The only ones that don't know are Dean -- who refuses to even look -- and Castiel who --
It's so painfully obvious to her.
"Then give one of us the means," Jo argues. She's not a monster -- not yet -- she really wouldn't want to force Gabriel or Castiel to do the slaying.
Sam shakes his head. "The ritual could kill her -- "
Jo opens her mouth because she doesn't care if she's killed. She's not really -- she shouldn't be here.
She's wrong.
"It wouldn't be punishment," Gabriel says before Sam can finish or Jo interrupt. "He'd welcome death."
Sam's fingers brush Gabriel's wrist in a way she's sure they don't think she sees. "You want him to have a chance of redemption."
Gabriel doesn't say anything, but Sam dips his head closer the smaller man - angel - demigod. "He's my brother," Gabriel voice is a bare breath and once - once Jo wouldn't not have heard it.
That was before.
"All right," Jo sighs.
Gabriel looks relieved, Sam guilty.
She gives a sharp shake of her head. "Just don't expect me to like it. Or him." She narrows her eyes at Gabriel. "Or have sex with him."
"I think he'll be grateful for that last one," Gabriel almost smirks.
It's forced, but Jo appreciates the effort.
***
Lucifer looks furious. And well, Jo doesn't really blame him.
He glares at them as they enter the room he's held in, the ring of fire barely big enough for him. Jo pretends she doesn't see his eyes soften with something when Castiel enters though. She pretends she hasn't seen -- hadn't seen --that same look in her mother's eyes.
"Come to taunt me?" Lucifer hisses. "Or offer to allow me to return to my cage?" His focus is entirely on Gabriel and Sam.
"Brother, please," Gabriel says softly.
Lucifer makes a sound that makes Sam wince and the windows rattle. It doesn't hurt her at all. She's heard the full glory of his voice and didn't even get a headache.
"Please?" Lucifer repeats mockingly. "You trap me. You claim what is rightfully mine. You side with humans over me."
Gabriel looks away and Jo sees Sam's fingers brush his back.
"We have an offer that doesn't involve the pit," Sam says evenly. "Or me saying the magic word."
Jo almost laughs, but she doesn't blame Sam for being careful. You can't really trust angels.
"You are not in the position to offer me anything, Samuel! You think this circle will hold me forever? Say yes now and I will forgive you. I'll forgive you as well, little brother." Lucifer wheels. "I'll even allow you conjugal visits...."
Jo's finally had enough. "Oh shut up," she snaps. They all turn their heads as one towards her, it's almost funny. Almost.
"How dare --"
"Really, just shut up, before I go get Death's blade and ram it down your throat," Jo growls, getting as close to the edge of the flames as she dares. "Sam's not an action figure to fight over. Sam's not going to say yes. And unless you'd like to go back to your kingdom, your highness, you'll zip it long enough to listen."
Castiel makes a sound that doesn't know whether it's a laugh or a whimper. Sam stares at her. Gabriel starts laughing.
Lucifer...
He looks surprised. Like he respects her just a bit for her outburst. "Far be it from me to refuse a fair maiden's request," he says smoothly. Probably the voice his vessel once flirted with.
Jo snorts. "I need a beer." She heads for the door. "C'mon Cas, go drag Dean out from under the Impala before he offers her marriage."
Castiel nods and with a last glance at Lucifer, precedes her from the room.
She shuts the door as she leaves.The last thing she wants to hear is someone signing away her -- her --
God, she needs a beer.
***
Castiel is the one that comes and finds her.
She's sitting on a junked out car nursing her fourth beer. They don't do much for her now, unless she puts away several six packs. Plus she can hear her mother telling her that liquor doesn't solve your problems, no matter what the hunters that came into the Roadhouse thought.
From where she sits she can see Dean putting the Impala back together. Castiel had fixed it for him -- she's been told -- but Dean made him put it back so he could do it himself.
So that's what she's doing when Castiel approaches her.
She knows by his face what the verdict is.
"So he's agreed," she says barely flicking her eyes towards him.
"He has not," Castiel says simply.
That gets her to turn her head.
Castiel inclines his head. "He wishes to speak with you."
Jo snorts. "I'll bet he does."
He just looks at her. Like he doesn't know how to handle this, like she's making it harder. Like he's confused about all of this.
"Alright, I'll go see his royal pain in the ass," she sighs. "You should go pull Dean's ass out from under the Imapla."
Castiel looks in the direction of Dean. "He hasn't eaten today," he says in a half-shocked, half-guilty voice. As if it's his fault.
Jo watches his head towards the Impala and Dean. Once she'd of been so damn jealous of Castiel. Once she had been so damn jealous. Because even though Dean offered, she knew, she knew what was between the angel and him. And she cared about him too much to keep him from spending that night pressed shoulder to shoulder with Castiel.
She slides off the twisted metal that once was a car and heads into the house that sits beyond Bobby's, ascending the stairs and opening the door.
Lucifer sits in his circle of fire.
A half hour crawls by before he speaks. Jo spends the time watching his eyes shift from pale blue to gold flicked with blue to red encircled in gold and back again to pale blue.
She wonders what he watches on her. Do her eyes change as she stands there?
Maybe they do. Just one more thing no one talks about.
"Why have you agreed to this?" he sounds uninterested and curious all at the same time. A impossibility but she's used to those now. He has two voices and she can hear them both. "You hold no love of me."
Jo smiles, allows herself to laugh like she never, ever will around Dean or Sam. "Because I hate you," she tells him.
She thinks maybe for a moment there is fear in his eyes. "Have I not suffered enough?"
"No," she tells him, turning her back to him. "You didn't learn a thing. I don't think you ever will."
Her hand is on the doorknob when he speaks. "I assent. I will take you as my bonded. I will be bound to you."
Jo looks back over his shoulder at him. For a moment he looks almost human. His shoulders are slumped, his head bowed.
He looks almost broken.
But she doesn't care. The part that would have died on the rack.
***
The ritual takes place the next day. Jo's not sure whose more afraid of cold feet; her, Lucifer, or Gabriel and Sam.
"You do not need to do this," Castiel tells her as she hesitates at the door. She's still amazed how both his voices sound so human and how one sounds so young. "This is not something that should be forced."
Jo smiles at him."And was Dean willing?"
Castiel stiffens, looking away from her."It was done out necessity."
"So's this." Jo wraps her fingers through the latch. The iron burns.
Castiel touches her right wrist, the wrist that will soon bear Lucifer's mark. "But I would never force the full completion of it."
"Bully for you," Jo mutters, but her expression softens and she lets go of the latch. "Castiel, I'm going into this with my eyes open." You should let Dean do the same, she thinks but now isn't the time for that.
The angel still looks worried, a crease in his brow. It's like having a younger brother, she thinks. "Dean would -- " Castiel gives a sharp shake with his head. "Nothing I say will dissuade you?"
Jo shakes her head and pats his shoulder. "Nope. I'm stubborn like that and telling me no just makes it worse. Ask Dean about my first hunt sometime."
"If nothing else, I will be proud to call you sister," Castiel tells her with a half smile. He presses a kiss to her forehead before leaving her alone outside the house once again.
Her fingers brush against the latch again and she thinks for a moment about turning around. But she's her mother's daughter so she pulls the latch and goes in.
The house smells more like sulfur and ash than it had. It makes her skin and eyes itch. She makes a mistake of glancing at the mirror placed at the top of the stairs and winces. Her hands curl into fists and she smashes her eyes shut, taking deep breaths. When she reopens them she keeps her eyes from the mirror and opens the door to the room Lucifer's circle of fire is in.
Jo expects Lucifer to be mocking or furious. She expects something out of the Prince of Hell.
She gets nothing. He sits cross legged in his circle of fire. His eyes are closed and his head bowed. Behind his bowed shoulders -- something -- is flickering in and out or existence. She refuses to the name them.
Without speaking she pulls out her father's knife and slices her hand open. Fuck, it hurt and burned all at the same time. Something she's still getting used to. But she's not giving up her daddy's knife. No way in hell.
Jo quickly wards the door as Gabriel and Castiel taught her, then the window. Finally she lets her blood drip down her fingers into the holy fire. The flames flare up then slowly seem to be sucked into the floor itself, leaving behind a yellow circle.
Lucifer applades slowly. "Crude in places, but effective. I'm almost impressed." He doesn't move, but his eyes are trained on her. The sound of his voices makes her feel bold and clever -- talk about irrational.
"Good thing I wasn't trying to impress you," Jo snorts, stepping over the yellow line. Cushions have helpfully been placed inside the expanded circle and, oh, is she going to kill Gabriel for that. Arch-trickster or no.
"Gabriel thought to make us...comfortable," Lucifer says with distaste.
Jo makes a face. "I'm glad we agree of the likelihood of us being "comfortable" together."
Lucifer graces her with a small laugh. "Such is the sign of a happy bonding to agree on things."
With a sound that she'd refuse to call a giggle she sat down across from him. "Having things in common is the groundwork of any good relationship."
"Joy shall follow our days," Lucifer says, cocking his head to one side. His smile is almost mischievous. Jo almost wonders who he was before Lucifer, before the fall, almost.
But she hates him too much to let the thought grow. She has to hate him. "Let's get the happy event over with." She holds out her right wrist.
He stares at it for a moment. "You know that I will kill you given the chance?"
"I've already died once because of you. I'll take my chances." Jo raises her chin and glares at him.
Lucifer's expression for a fraction of a breath goes pale and stricken before it disappears behind a mask. He raises and holds out his left wrist.
There is a tense moment of waiting to see which of them will move first, then Lucifer wraps the fingers of his right hand tightly around her wrist. Jo feels the bones grind against each other and retaliates by trying to grip his left wrist just as hard.
The sharp showing of teeth makes her feel successful. "You would do well to close your eyes, little hunter."
Jo shows her own teeth and hisses. "Sorry, don't take orders from Satan."
He begins to speak and she finds she doesn't understand either voice. She follows the impossible sounds though her brain feels like its going to explode. Jo still remembers which sound means for her to start her part. They don't sound same coming from her clumsy tongue, but hers weaves with his.
It's almost a song, it's almost beautiful.
Almost
The circle reignites around them but it's nothing compared to the light shining from inside Lucifer's skin. Her focus narrows to him and the way their words blend. A pressure in the room is building higher and higher, and Jo can barely breath for it.
Suddenly his hold goes from crushing to just firm. Some latch inside of Jo snaps. Her lips pause for a moment as she inhales sharply.
"Joanna."
"Lucifer." The name is pulled from her with a gasp.
They've somehow gone from sitting across from each other to on their knees, foreheads pressed together, both of them breathing nothing but the other. A little voice in Jo screams that this isn't how it was supposed to go, this isn't how Gabriel described what it would be like.
She shoves it back, pushes on recklessly as her wrist starts to burn. She speaks against rapidly, twisting the ritual more, just as she had with her blood and the wards around them. Jo tightens her own fingers, this is almost done --
Something like soft leather wraps around her left wrist and squeezes as something falls from Lucifer's lips.
The pressure shatters like glass and the world goes white then dark.
When Jo opens her eyes again, she's lying across from Lucifer. Her wrist doesn't hurt, but she never thought it ask if it would afterwords.
Lucifer stares at her with wide pale blue eyes. She stares back before she sees the difference. Are those --?
There's a set of gold horns just above his hair line and a golden forked tail coming from -- well behind him. "Those are new," she comments, pushing herself up. If he's not going to act freaked out or anything she won't either. Jo needs to lay down the ground rules and then she's going to take a very long nap.
Her new -- whatever -- could clean up the mess.
It turns out moving so soon was a bad idea and the world tilts side ways before Lucifer catches her elbows. He makes a frustrated sound at her but doesn't say anything.
"Not talking isn't going to annoy me," she points out. "I'll probably enjoy it."
He makes another sound which she can't quite place.
"But really did you always have the Halloween accessories, or are we trying a new look?" Jo asks, pushing his hands away so she can get to her feet.
Lucifer looks at her unblinkingly.
Jo stares back.
***
"What do you mean: "he can't talk now"?" Jo demands, poking a finger at Gabriel's chest.
Gabriel shrugs and looks way to happy. "Silence is a virtue."
"And you ever shut up when?" Jo asks snappishly.
"Well, when I've got Sam's cock in my mouth ---"
Jo makes a sound of disgust. "I'm sure you talk with your mouth full."
Gabriel grins widely and sticks his sucker back in his mouth sucking suggestively.
"Sam is way too good for you," Jo mutters, she'll pull it out of him later.
Jo's just way too tired right now and somehow she just knows Lucifer is still staring at the mess wondering why it just won't go away.
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Jo/Lucifer, Sam/Gabriel, pre-Dean/Castiel
Warnings: Arranged bonding/marriage, no spoilers for season 6
Spoilers: Abandon All Hope
Beta: luc_darling
Summary: Jo is the only one that can do this.
Jo stares at Gabriel as if he's lost his mind.
"You want me to what?" Jo demands. She whips her head towards Sam. "You can't think this is a good idea. C'mon, Sam."
Sam looks uneasy but he meets her eyes. That's more than Dean or Castiel can do these days. But she doesn't blame them. "It's a better solution than anything else we have," he points out. "We can't keep him trapped forever."
She snorts. "Yes, we can. Wasn't that the whole original point of the thing?"
Gabriel's jaw clenches. She doesn't care if he's supposed to be an Archangel, he doesn't feel like an angel. And she doesn't care if she's not in hell on the rack because of him -- she refuses to owe anyone.
"And that worked so well, didn't it?" Gabriel drawls. "I don't think sending my brother back to his room to think is going to work."
Sam nods. "It didn't the first time."
Jo leans heavily against one of the junked cars. "Tell me why we can't just kill the bastard again?"
"I'm not Michael," Gabriel says in a low, almost pained voice. "And Castiel -- it wouldn't be right to ask him. Even if he doesn't know."
She hates this, secrets within secrets. The only ones that don't know are Dean -- who refuses to even look -- and Castiel who --
It's so painfully obvious to her.
"Then give one of us the means," Jo argues. She's not a monster -- not yet -- she really wouldn't want to force Gabriel or Castiel to do the slaying.
Sam shakes his head. "The ritual could kill her -- "
Jo opens her mouth because she doesn't care if she's killed. She's not really -- she shouldn't be here.
She's wrong.
"It wouldn't be punishment," Gabriel says before Sam can finish or Jo interrupt. "He'd welcome death."
Sam's fingers brush Gabriel's wrist in a way she's sure they don't think she sees. "You want him to have a chance of redemption."
Gabriel doesn't say anything, but Sam dips his head closer the smaller man - angel - demigod. "He's my brother," Gabriel voice is a bare breath and once - once Jo wouldn't not have heard it.
That was before.
"All right," Jo sighs.
Gabriel looks relieved, Sam guilty.
She gives a sharp shake of her head. "Just don't expect me to like it. Or him." She narrows her eyes at Gabriel. "Or have sex with him."
"I think he'll be grateful for that last one," Gabriel almost smirks.
It's forced, but Jo appreciates the effort.
***
Lucifer looks furious. And well, Jo doesn't really blame him.
He glares at them as they enter the room he's held in, the ring of fire barely big enough for him. Jo pretends she doesn't see his eyes soften with something when Castiel enters though. She pretends she hasn't seen -- hadn't seen --that same look in her mother's eyes.
"Come to taunt me?" Lucifer hisses. "Or offer to allow me to return to my cage?" His focus is entirely on Gabriel and Sam.
"Brother, please," Gabriel says softly.
Lucifer makes a sound that makes Sam wince and the windows rattle. It doesn't hurt her at all. She's heard the full glory of his voice and didn't even get a headache.
"Please?" Lucifer repeats mockingly. "You trap me. You claim what is rightfully mine. You side with humans over me."
Gabriel looks away and Jo sees Sam's fingers brush his back.
"We have an offer that doesn't involve the pit," Sam says evenly. "Or me saying the magic word."
Jo almost laughs, but she doesn't blame Sam for being careful. You can't really trust angels.
"You are not in the position to offer me anything, Samuel! You think this circle will hold me forever? Say yes now and I will forgive you. I'll forgive you as well, little brother." Lucifer wheels. "I'll even allow you conjugal visits...."
Jo's finally had enough. "Oh shut up," she snaps. They all turn their heads as one towards her, it's almost funny. Almost.
"How dare --"
"Really, just shut up, before I go get Death's blade and ram it down your throat," Jo growls, getting as close to the edge of the flames as she dares. "Sam's not an action figure to fight over. Sam's not going to say yes. And unless you'd like to go back to your kingdom, your highness, you'll zip it long enough to listen."
Castiel makes a sound that doesn't know whether it's a laugh or a whimper. Sam stares at her. Gabriel starts laughing.
Lucifer...
He looks surprised. Like he respects her just a bit for her outburst. "Far be it from me to refuse a fair maiden's request," he says smoothly. Probably the voice his vessel once flirted with.
Jo snorts. "I need a beer." She heads for the door. "C'mon Cas, go drag Dean out from under the Impala before he offers her marriage."
Castiel nods and with a last glance at Lucifer, precedes her from the room.
She shuts the door as she leaves.The last thing she wants to hear is someone signing away her -- her --
God, she needs a beer.
***
Castiel is the one that comes and finds her.
She's sitting on a junked out car nursing her fourth beer. They don't do much for her now, unless she puts away several six packs. Plus she can hear her mother telling her that liquor doesn't solve your problems, no matter what the hunters that came into the Roadhouse thought.
From where she sits she can see Dean putting the Impala back together. Castiel had fixed it for him -- she's been told -- but Dean made him put it back so he could do it himself.
So that's what she's doing when Castiel approaches her.
She knows by his face what the verdict is.
"So he's agreed," she says barely flicking her eyes towards him.
"He has not," Castiel says simply.
That gets her to turn her head.
Castiel inclines his head. "He wishes to speak with you."
Jo snorts. "I'll bet he does."
He just looks at her. Like he doesn't know how to handle this, like she's making it harder. Like he's confused about all of this.
"Alright, I'll go see his royal pain in the ass," she sighs. "You should go pull Dean's ass out from under the Imapla."
Castiel looks in the direction of Dean. "He hasn't eaten today," he says in a half-shocked, half-guilty voice. As if it's his fault.
Jo watches his head towards the Impala and Dean. Once she'd of been so damn jealous of Castiel. Once she had been so damn jealous. Because even though Dean offered, she knew, she knew what was between the angel and him. And she cared about him too much to keep him from spending that night pressed shoulder to shoulder with Castiel.
She slides off the twisted metal that once was a car and heads into the house that sits beyond Bobby's, ascending the stairs and opening the door.
Lucifer sits in his circle of fire.
A half hour crawls by before he speaks. Jo spends the time watching his eyes shift from pale blue to gold flicked with blue to red encircled in gold and back again to pale blue.
She wonders what he watches on her. Do her eyes change as she stands there?
Maybe they do. Just one more thing no one talks about.
"Why have you agreed to this?" he sounds uninterested and curious all at the same time. A impossibility but she's used to those now. He has two voices and she can hear them both. "You hold no love of me."
Jo smiles, allows herself to laugh like she never, ever will around Dean or Sam. "Because I hate you," she tells him.
She thinks maybe for a moment there is fear in his eyes. "Have I not suffered enough?"
"No," she tells him, turning her back to him. "You didn't learn a thing. I don't think you ever will."
Her hand is on the doorknob when he speaks. "I assent. I will take you as my bonded. I will be bound to you."
Jo looks back over his shoulder at him. For a moment he looks almost human. His shoulders are slumped, his head bowed.
He looks almost broken.
But she doesn't care. The part that would have died on the rack.
***
The ritual takes place the next day. Jo's not sure whose more afraid of cold feet; her, Lucifer, or Gabriel and Sam.
"You do not need to do this," Castiel tells her as she hesitates at the door. She's still amazed how both his voices sound so human and how one sounds so young. "This is not something that should be forced."
Jo smiles at him."And was Dean willing?"
Castiel stiffens, looking away from her."It was done out necessity."
"So's this." Jo wraps her fingers through the latch. The iron burns.
Castiel touches her right wrist, the wrist that will soon bear Lucifer's mark. "But I would never force the full completion of it."
"Bully for you," Jo mutters, but her expression softens and she lets go of the latch. "Castiel, I'm going into this with my eyes open." You should let Dean do the same, she thinks but now isn't the time for that.
The angel still looks worried, a crease in his brow. It's like having a younger brother, she thinks. "Dean would -- " Castiel gives a sharp shake with his head. "Nothing I say will dissuade you?"
Jo shakes her head and pats his shoulder. "Nope. I'm stubborn like that and telling me no just makes it worse. Ask Dean about my first hunt sometime."
"If nothing else, I will be proud to call you sister," Castiel tells her with a half smile. He presses a kiss to her forehead before leaving her alone outside the house once again.
Her fingers brush against the latch again and she thinks for a moment about turning around. But she's her mother's daughter so she pulls the latch and goes in.
The house smells more like sulfur and ash than it had. It makes her skin and eyes itch. She makes a mistake of glancing at the mirror placed at the top of the stairs and winces. Her hands curl into fists and she smashes her eyes shut, taking deep breaths. When she reopens them she keeps her eyes from the mirror and opens the door to the room Lucifer's circle of fire is in.
Jo expects Lucifer to be mocking or furious. She expects something out of the Prince of Hell.
She gets nothing. He sits cross legged in his circle of fire. His eyes are closed and his head bowed. Behind his bowed shoulders -- something -- is flickering in and out or existence. She refuses to the name them.
Without speaking she pulls out her father's knife and slices her hand open. Fuck, it hurt and burned all at the same time. Something she's still getting used to. But she's not giving up her daddy's knife. No way in hell.
Jo quickly wards the door as Gabriel and Castiel taught her, then the window. Finally she lets her blood drip down her fingers into the holy fire. The flames flare up then slowly seem to be sucked into the floor itself, leaving behind a yellow circle.
Lucifer applades slowly. "Crude in places, but effective. I'm almost impressed." He doesn't move, but his eyes are trained on her. The sound of his voices makes her feel bold and clever -- talk about irrational.
"Good thing I wasn't trying to impress you," Jo snorts, stepping over the yellow line. Cushions have helpfully been placed inside the expanded circle and, oh, is she going to kill Gabriel for that. Arch-trickster or no.
"Gabriel thought to make us...comfortable," Lucifer says with distaste.
Jo makes a face. "I'm glad we agree of the likelihood of us being "comfortable" together."
Lucifer graces her with a small laugh. "Such is the sign of a happy bonding to agree on things."
With a sound that she'd refuse to call a giggle she sat down across from him. "Having things in common is the groundwork of any good relationship."
"Joy shall follow our days," Lucifer says, cocking his head to one side. His smile is almost mischievous. Jo almost wonders who he was before Lucifer, before the fall, almost.
But she hates him too much to let the thought grow. She has to hate him. "Let's get the happy event over with." She holds out her right wrist.
He stares at it for a moment. "You know that I will kill you given the chance?"
"I've already died once because of you. I'll take my chances." Jo raises her chin and glares at him.
Lucifer's expression for a fraction of a breath goes pale and stricken before it disappears behind a mask. He raises and holds out his left wrist.
There is a tense moment of waiting to see which of them will move first, then Lucifer wraps the fingers of his right hand tightly around her wrist. Jo feels the bones grind against each other and retaliates by trying to grip his left wrist just as hard.
The sharp showing of teeth makes her feel successful. "You would do well to close your eyes, little hunter."
Jo shows her own teeth and hisses. "Sorry, don't take orders from Satan."
He begins to speak and she finds she doesn't understand either voice. She follows the impossible sounds though her brain feels like its going to explode. Jo still remembers which sound means for her to start her part. They don't sound same coming from her clumsy tongue, but hers weaves with his.
It's almost a song, it's almost beautiful.
Almost
The circle reignites around them but it's nothing compared to the light shining from inside Lucifer's skin. Her focus narrows to him and the way their words blend. A pressure in the room is building higher and higher, and Jo can barely breath for it.
Suddenly his hold goes from crushing to just firm. Some latch inside of Jo snaps. Her lips pause for a moment as she inhales sharply.
"Joanna."
"Lucifer." The name is pulled from her with a gasp.
They've somehow gone from sitting across from each other to on their knees, foreheads pressed together, both of them breathing nothing but the other. A little voice in Jo screams that this isn't how it was supposed to go, this isn't how Gabriel described what it would be like.
She shoves it back, pushes on recklessly as her wrist starts to burn. She speaks against rapidly, twisting the ritual more, just as she had with her blood and the wards around them. Jo tightens her own fingers, this is almost done --
Something like soft leather wraps around her left wrist and squeezes as something falls from Lucifer's lips.
The pressure shatters like glass and the world goes white then dark.
When Jo opens her eyes again, she's lying across from Lucifer. Her wrist doesn't hurt, but she never thought it ask if it would afterwords.
Lucifer stares at her with wide pale blue eyes. She stares back before she sees the difference. Are those --?
There's a set of gold horns just above his hair line and a golden forked tail coming from -- well behind him. "Those are new," she comments, pushing herself up. If he's not going to act freaked out or anything she won't either. Jo needs to lay down the ground rules and then she's going to take a very long nap.
Her new -- whatever -- could clean up the mess.
It turns out moving so soon was a bad idea and the world tilts side ways before Lucifer catches her elbows. He makes a frustrated sound at her but doesn't say anything.
"Not talking isn't going to annoy me," she points out. "I'll probably enjoy it."
He makes another sound which she can't quite place.
"But really did you always have the Halloween accessories, or are we trying a new look?" Jo asks, pushing his hands away so she can get to her feet.
Lucifer looks at her unblinkingly.
Jo stares back.
***
"What do you mean: "he can't talk now"?" Jo demands, poking a finger at Gabriel's chest.
Gabriel shrugs and looks way to happy. "Silence is a virtue."
"And you ever shut up when?" Jo asks snappishly.
"Well, when I've got Sam's cock in my mouth ---"
Jo makes a sound of disgust. "I'm sure you talk with your mouth full."
Gabriel grins widely and sticks his sucker back in his mouth sucking suggestively.
"Sam is way too good for you," Jo mutters, she'll pull it out of him later.
Jo's just way too tired right now and somehow she just knows Lucifer is still staring at the mess wondering why it just won't go away.