For the first time in a long time, Lucifer didn't know what to do.
The spell you had been hit with was powerful and he couldn't find a way to break it, leaving him to watch as you went through your days without remembering him and thus resulting in you acting with a distant disregard that he didn't like.
He was going through his own mental dilemma, believing that you were breezing through without a care, carrying on as you normally would but without him.
What he didn't know was that his persistence in staying around you despite your claims of lack of recognition was causing your own inner turmoil, a frustration that niggled at the back of your mind constantly.
The being who stuck to you like glue was making your life difficult and had you staying up during the night, your mind racing to try and find any trace of memories that involved him.
It had been a week since the attack from Rowena, who had planned to use you against Lucifer and partially succeeded, at least in the terms of emotionally tormenting him, which was a big win to anyone if it was against the Devil.
For you it was just an annoyance.
Hunting already made you sleep deprived and working with irregular hours, why did she have to go and make it so much worse?
So it was needless to say that you weren't surprised to find yourself, once again, staring towards the ceiling of your temporary room, hoping that the darkness would mix with your eyes and create a trippy pattern of colours just to pass the time a little faster.
Your own personal trip without needing to be inhibited by any actual substances.
Instead, time passes and you find your brain entertaining itself by bringing up memories of your childhood that hadn't been stolen by that bitch and her magic.
Some fond, most of them embarrassing but at least you could put that down to youthful ignorance.
There was something different about tonight, however.
A strange tickling in the back of your mind, one that was completely unfamiliar and uncomfortable, like an itch that you couldn't reach because it was literally inside your skull.
Of the many things you had experienced in your years of hunting, that had to be one of the worst, at least with wounds you could see to them and check why they were irritating you.
Closing your eyes tightly, you will the feeling away and hope that sleep will take you.
As much as your luck had been as of late, neither of those things happened, instead the feeling intensified and you found yourself pulled into something akin to a lucid dream, so vivid and yet distantly hazy, as if you had just entered another world.
Another world where you were still having your ass beat by some monster who wanted to punish you for interrupting its meal.
Usually you'd be able to kick the thing's ass in return but this one seemed to be hammering you into the ground, going full Hulk in a manic rage.
It was surreal, you couldn't feel the pain but you could certainly remember it in some form of dulled recollection.
You were sure you were going to die that day, that fear bubbled to the forefront quickly as this distant memory came into being.
You remember colliding with the wall, struggling to get up before you were grabbed again by a grip that was too tight on your ankle.
You remember flying in a diagonal arch through the air.
You remember hitting someone in the chest as they caught you, arms wrapping tightly around you as a glow filled the room, one so bright that it hurt your eyes.
Perhaps you were misremembering that part, but you were picturing it so clearly that it felt wrong to deny it.
Then came a garbled yelling, one you couldn't fully make out as your head throbbed and spun, world twirling around you in a way that instantly made you feel sick to recall until it all faded away.
The memory was too vivid to be a simple trip down the old nostalgic lane and it started to open avenues that the spell had closed, you were beginning to remember a face.
The one who had caught you had been a friend.
An old, powerful and...annoying friend?
The same one who had been holding you when you awoke hours later after that particular attack, uncharacteristically cradling you in his arms until you came back to consciousness, his voice carrying through to you in the similar vein to someone talking to another in a coma.
He had healed you, the opposite of his usual power use, and he had stayed with you until you woke up, continuing to hold you as you turned and curled into him, desperately trying to control the swelling emotions at having almost dying and having him save you.
Him.
The one you gradually came to recognise.
That face that made your heart flip and stomach churn despite what you were and what you stood for.
Something in the back of your mind snapped and you found your back arching off the bed and your hands flung to cover your head.
The tickle was replaced by an intense pain as a myriad of too colourful and too rapid memories returned, the spell lifting and freeing them from the dam they had been held behind for too long.
Tears pricked at your eyes as it continued on, seconds bleeding into agonising minutes.
By the time you settled back onto the bed, the pain dulling into an aching throb, he was by your bedside and staring down at you with something akin to hope.
An expression wholly foreign of him.
The Devil.
Lucifer.
You stared up at him as your bottom lip quivered.
"You remember me, don't you?" He said quietly, still sounding uncertain.
You wanted to nod but feared that the pain in your head would come back if you moved too hastily, so instead you gave an undignified sniff and the shakiest smile that you could muster.
"I do," you practically whispered, voice too loud in your own head.
He returned your smile with his own ghost of one, lowering himself to kneel beside the bed to stare at you through the darkness, one of his hands coming up to run over the top of your head.
His eyes were glowing and that made the flood worse.
How you had missed someone you didn't even remember was a mystery, but you were glad it was over.
Just as he was.
"It's great to have you back."