An Unholy Alliance

Chapter 43

Ozzo hadn’t finished their work by the time Naomi had decided that she was going to spend some time alone. Edriel had taken their partner’s cookies, cakes and brownies to their room and away from Lucifer. It seemed as though Ed still didn’t trust Lucifer despite Lucifer seeming rather honestly and genuinely scared of messing with Ozzo’s food again.

As Naomi sat at her desk, she grabbed her lined notebook and grabbed a pen and stared writing. She wasn’t sure what to write so she wrote about that. She just felt like writing. It was weird but she enjoyed just writing and eventually a character was starting to be created.

After a while, Naomi suddenly had an idea. She didn’t have to draw Lucifer anything gothic at all. In fact, he didn’t seem interested in it at all. What he did seem to be interested in was religious places for some weird reason. Maybe she could ask him about that, it did seem odd that he liked them for their architecture. She had some pictures of the abbey they visited, perhaps she could try to draw that for him. At the very least, it was an idea.

As she read through what she had written, something became very clear. Her character was missing their family. Naomi realised that it matched up to her missing Michael and despite him seeming genuinely sorry about what he had done, she wasn’t sure if she could go back just yet.

As they sat eating the last proper meal of the day, Naomi was glad that all four of them could be there. Ozzo was muttered about Lilith and Beelzebub to Ed who nodded along and offered his sympathies to his partner.

“Lucifer,” started Naomi once Ozzo had distracted themselves with food. “Why do you like churches so much?”
“I don’t,” he said. Naomi furrowed her brow. “I like the architecture of some of them.” Naomi hummed and Ed looked over at him.
“Really?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Lucifer as he set down his fork so he didn’t have to hold it in the air. “I hate them most of the time, worshipping God as if it’ll change him somehow, as if he’ll decide to be merciful on them. He is never merciful and never kind.”

Naomi was sure both Ed and Ozzo could also see how tightly he was clutching his fork and she slightly regretting asking about the churches.
“But you like some of the architecture?” asked Ed.
“Of some churches, yes. And a few other buildings too,” he said. Lucifer’s grip on his fork relaxed a little. “The buildings themselves are sometimes quite nice.”

“You could argue it’s like how sometimes there’s nice humans,” said Naomi.
Lucifer’s eyes darted to her and he stared at her for a moment. “Arguably.” His voice was harsher than she was used to, she felt as though she had irritated him. Naomi looked down at her food and stabbed her fork into her food. She guessed she wouldn’t be drawing a church for him them.

Ed and Ozzo walked with her to the drawing room while Lucifer disappeared in a direction Naomi had never been in the corridors.
“I think I upset him,” she admitted as she sat down on the drawing room sofa. Ed’s eyebrows raised and then he shook his head.
“No, sometimes he’s just…” Ed trailed off but sat down next to her. “Sometimes he’s a bit of an idiot and he struggles to believe in humanity.”
Naomi hummed. “Sometimes I don’t believe in them in general.”

“Lucifer thinks humanity is destroying the Earth,” said Ozzo. So far, Lucifer wasn’t exactly wrong. “He thinks their equivalent to a stain and he resents God for casting him out over a fairly large disagreement.” Maybe that was why Samiel wanted her to reconcile with Michael, so she didn’t resent him like Lucifer resented their father.

“What Lucifer is only just realising is that not all of them are bad, that some can be good,” said Ed. Ozzo sat on the other side of her. “And it started with your friend. He was so confused on why that red headed boy would take Samiel’s place, why he would let himself to be tortured. If you’d have heard him talking…”
“It started with Ryan?” she asked, furrowing her brow. “Really?” Both Ed and Ozzo nodded.
“I just think he’s being stubborn,” said Ozzo. “He is the Devil, after all. And his beliefs aren’t going to sudden change after thousands of years. You have nothing to apologise for, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Naomi hummed. “I guess,” she said with a shrug. “I think I’m going to go to my room for a bit.” Without warning, she pulled Ozzo into a hug. Ozzo tensed for a moment but wrapped their arms around Naomi and pulled her closer.

There were flashes of torture, men and women, spitting out hate at Ozzo as they carved through their flesh and burned it. Only for it to repeat and repeat. The screams and torture felt endless until it suddenly stopped.

Ozzo pulled away and looked at Naomi with a worried expression.
“Are you alright?” they asked. Naomi just blankly stared before snapping out of her daze and nodded.
“Yeah,” she said. It was a little bit of a lie. “I just… I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Taking a guess at you saw torture?” said Edriel. Naomi turned around and then nodded again. Then, surprising them both again, she hugged Edriel.

He stared at his wings in the mirror and Ozzo was stood by him. You’re still beautiful, they don’t mark your beauty or you’re worth as a person. Ed looked at Ozzo and smiled before pulling them into an embrace.

Naomi pulled away from the hug and smiled. “I saw your achievements this time. You two really do love each other, don’t you? Even if angels and demons aren’t supposed to love each other.”
“Following the rules is boring,” said Ed with a smile. “Was it to do with my wings, or lack thereof?” Naomi nodded and she could see Ozzo smile out of the corner of her eye.
“Yeah,” she said. “I just… I want to say thank you and I’m not very good at it when it’s for things like this. And… and I guess I wanted to say I trust you, both of you.”
“We appreciate that,” said Ozzo with a smile. Naomi smiled back.

For a minute or so, they sat together. It felt quite peaceful and Naomi felt welcome and she really did trust them.
“I’m going to head to my room, I think,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Goodnight,” said Edriel with a nod.
“Yeah,” said Ozzo, they were still smiling. “Night, sleep well.”
“You too,” said Naomi. “Goodnight.”