Angel Wings and Demon Pitchforks

32. Anything At All

See, Lucifer cannot keep a secret. That's the only reason he tried to avoid interacting with Michael because he knew that if he did, the secret would come right out of his filterless mouth. 

The past week went a lot like this: 

Lucifer was rushing around, sorting out the roles and responsibilities of each person (Jo and Charlie were to keep Michael distracted on Thanksgiving; Sam, Gabriel, Balthazar and Dean were in charge of decorations; all four parents (slash aunt and uncle) were going to prepare the meal; etc.) while at the same time trying to keep it all from Michael. 

Because if there was one thing he was sure of; he needed it to be a surprise. 

It was hard to avoid Michael, but it was what needed to be done. Lucifer could not keep a secret. He'd spoiled every single surprise birthday party he'd been invited to. Gabriel was constantly calling him a Charles Boyle (he and his Brooklyn 99 references were going to drive Lucifer insane). 

The hardest had been when Michael confronted him at work. Lucifer had come so close to blurting it out, especially when he saw Michael's face fall. It was so hard to see Michael sad. 

But that's why he was doing it. So that Michael wouldn't be sad. So he'd know that even though both his parents are gone, he still has people in his life that care about him. He has an army of people who care about him, made extremely obvious by the amount of people who volunteered to help. 

---

Michael jumped three feet in the air when everyone leapt out of their hiding places. He couldn't even form a full sentence, but through the stutters and stammering, Lucifer got the general idea of 'what?!'

"This is your thanksgiving dinner," Lucifer grinned, opening his arms wide. Michael's eyes were even wider. 

"Lucifer organised it all," Sam beamed, running up to greet his brother. He embraced him in a hug, but Michael's eyes remained fixed on Lucifer. 

"Why?" Michael managed to choke out after Sam let go. 

"Because you said that you missed the big family dinners," Lucifer explained, walking over to him. "And this is going to be the biggest dinner you're going to get." 

"Eleven Novak's, three Winchester's, three Singer's and a Charlie," Dean grinned. "Our family was definitely never this big." 

"We should head outside where there's a lot more room," Becky said, "and Ellen and I will prepare to serve the dinner." 

They headed to the kitchen and everyone else followed Chuck to the backyard. Lucifer fell back and walked with Michael.

"You alright?" 

"You did this?" Michael whispered. 

"Yeah, that's why I kind of avoided you this past week," Lucifer admitted. "I suck at keeping secrets." 

"Thank you," Michael breathed and Lucifer had the overwhelming desire to kiss him. But he wasn't going to do that. Because Lucifer didn't do all of this so he could get his crush to fall head over heels for him. He did this despite the fact that Michael was never going to love him the same way. He did it because he cared. And he knew that this would make Michael happy. 

"You're welcome," Lucifer grinned. "But you should see the table. See, and it took me ages to figure this out and you can definitely call be stupid because of it, but we didn't have a big enough table. So, I combined all the tables. Look, look." He took Michael's hand and dragged him the rest of the way out of the house. 

-----

Cas was being awkward. He didn't mean to be, but there's only so much charisma you can have when you're standing next to your crush/soulmate. They were outside on the patio, talking about something or other (Cas was nodding and agreeing but his attention was only on the distance between them and whether it would be acceptable to move even closer) when the song For Forever softly came on from the speaker around the corner. 

Dean stopped talking to listen. "Michael loves this song." 

"It was nice of Lucifer to organise this whole thing," Cas said. "I mean... this, this is amazing." 

Dean smiled and Cas almost melted. "Lucifer really does like Michael, doesn't he? They seem like really good friends." 

"Yeah," Cas said nodded distantly, his mind already in a different place. He tried to stop himself from leaning forward, as if Dean had suddenly become his new centre of gravity. 

"Cas?" Dean snapped his fingers. "You're zoning out there, buddy."

"Sorry," Cas flushed, "sleepy, I guess." 

"You're always sleepy," Dean chuckled. He put his arm around him and Cas felt his heart rate pick up like a humming bird. 

This crush was getting out of control. 

Especially since he'd figured out Dean was his soulmate. Dean was wearing the amulet above his t-shirt all the time, a constant reminder of what Cas could gain from asking him out. And a constant reminder of what he could lose. 

"Would you do this for me?" Cas wondered out loud. 

"'Course," Dean said like it was no big deal, "I'd get you a bunch of flowers and stuff to decorate the garden and everything would be yellow and black." 

"You remembered I like bees?" 

"How could I forget? Your school bag literally has a small bee charm hanging off the zipper." Cas flushed and this time, Dean noticed. "Don't be embarrassed; I think it's adorable that you're obsessed with bees." 

Castiel.exe has stopped working. 

----

The garden had been decorated with red and gold fairy lights and in the centre of the entertaining area was a long table, covered with a blue table cloth. There were so many chairs around it; wooden and plastic. And Balthazar had bought little candelabras to spread evenly along the middle of the table. 

"See." Lucifer lifted up part of the table cloth. "That's my desk there. And that's Cassie's. The actual dining table is in the middle but you can't tell because I made sure it was all even. It looks like one whole table!" 

Michael chuckled, but it was airy and light. He was still in awe and surprise, and the feeling to kiss him came back. But Lucifer shoved it down further. 

"I love it," Michael said. "I just... love it. It's perfect. You're-- you're amazing." 

Lucifer beamed. 

"You're welcome again," he said and gave a little bow. "Now, come with me. I need you to approve of the playlist because Dean kept suggesting musicals - cause apparently that's what you like - but we can't play only musicals at a dinner. There needs to be some kind of pop or rock song." 

"There still better be musicals though." 

Lucifer chuckled. "Anything for you, Michael." 

Anything at all.

Michael smiled.