Precursor: This story has now been given a grammar review (aka, treated by my Spring Cleaning Editing). That also means that any reviews have been moved to the bottom of the chapter they were made to.

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or its characters. The usual spiel. Oh, and you might have noticed by now, that the title of this story and the chapter titles are based on stuff from Beauty and the Beast – you know, that movie owned by Disney (though to be honest, they don't really have anything to do with what happens in this story; I just have a slight obsession... *ahem*, I mean love for Disney's live-action movie of Beauty and the Beast).

Chapter 1

True as It Can Be

It was small. Insignificant. (Just like him, them, all of them because He didn't care— He had just left again.) And yet… He didn't understand why it had caught his eye. It shouldn't have mattered to him. It didn't matter to him.

Still… It wasn't like he had anything else to do. A small detour wouldn't harm anyone… Well, it might burn the eyes out of any human that dared look upon his true form, but that was their problem. And after his short stints in the billionaire businessman and that archbishop, Lucifer wasn't feeling all that up to jumping into vessel after degrading vessel. He needed to find a vessel that would actually hold him for longer than a day. Sam preferably, but that would happen just as soon as, oh just about never – a prospect that, oddly enough, didn't bother Lucifer as much as it would have six years ago.

Now that Lucifer thought about it, Sam was only important for an Apocalypse, something that wouldn't be happening anytime soon even if he wanted to start one – at least not until Lucifer actually found a suitable vessel. But Sam was only one of a few that would work. After all, bloodlines tended to end up with more than just one 'perfect' vessel at a time.

Either way, Lucifer was out to have fun now. So, perhaps that detour was more appealing than scrounging around for a new vessel.

Lucifer changed his course. His destination became a domestic house. While that seemed bland in itself, it was inside of this home. That thing that shouldn't have caught his eye.

"Come on, Lucy. It's time for bed. School's tomorrow," the young boy told his little sister, trying to get her away from the TV.

"But, Gabe, I wanna finish the movie," she whined, firmly staying in her spot on the couch.

"But you've seen this a thousand times," the boy exclaimed exasperatedly but not loudly enough to wake the rest of the house.

"It's my favorite," she replied defiantly.

The boy, resigned to his little sister's determination to finish watching the movie, sat back down next to her on the couch. "Fine, but don't blame me when Mom asks why you're so tired tomorrow."

The little girl gave her big brother a brief smile before returning her full attention back to the movie.

Lucifer watched it all with dubious suspicion. Something had drawn him here – nothing else would explain why the scene had caught his eye. Their names couldn't have been a coincidence either. Someone was messing with him.

The girl fell asleep just as the movie ended; an ending which Lucifer scoffed at – such sweet fairy tales didn't happen. As if they all lived happily ever after. The thought nauseated Lucifer. But now was not the time to think about the movie's trash ending. Now was the time to follow the boy up the stairs.

Almost as sickeningly sweet as the movie ending, the boy tucked his little sister into bed, whispering a soft "goodnight" into her ear before leaving the room and quietly closing the door on his way out. It wasn't much later that Lucifer slipped into the boy's dreams.

Lucifer had taken the time to skim over the boy's memories as the child was falling asleep. The archangel found it slightly amusing that the boy's father (whose name was Charles of all things) was dead – not just because of the name parallel but that there was also a defect in this kid's little picture perfect home life that Lucifer could exploit.

"Hey, kiddo," Lucifer greeted the dreaming boy. The dream itself was typical of a twelve-year-old, depicting the boy's ideal day in a park. And Lucifer had inputted himself as the father in the boy's dream.

The boy whirled around, eyes wide in some form of shock. "Dad?"

"Who else, Gabe," Lucifer teased him lightly. "Wanna play a game?"

Brown eyes narrowed. "You're not my dad," he stated.

Lucifer inwardly appraised the boy for figuring that little rouse out faster than even Sam (just by a little bit, not enough for it to mean anything). "What makes you say that?"

"My dad wouldn't ask me if I wanted to play a game," the boy said simply. "He'd ask what I wanted to play."

Okay, so the kid was sharp. Lucifer would give him that one. The archangel dropped the guise, trading it for a more familiar one. Nick was always a fun face to have. "Well, you're already playing my game, so me asking was only a pleasantry."

"And you are?" the kid asked, straightening up in attention. He was being notably wary of Lucifer, and it was good to know that the boy had some common sense even in a dream.

Lucifer smirked, letting some of his grace flash through his image's eyes – the irises turning red. "I'm Lucifer."

"You mean like the fallen angel?"

Not only was the kid sharp and knew his biblical lore, but the boy also didn't call him Devil. The kid got some brownie points for that. And so maybe it still wasn't the best reaction Lucifer had ever gotten, but it certainly wasn't the worst. More points. That didn't mean Lucifer liked the kid. Nope, not at all.

"Fallen depends on your perspective, and I'm an archangel. Not just any ol' angel," Lucifer corrected him.

"Cool."

Lucifer blinked and then let out a scoff. "Cool? That's it? No terror for the monster standing in front of you?"

The boy tilted his head to the side. "Define monster."

Lucifer must have gone into the wrong dream. There was no way this boy was this perceptive. Maybe the child had a reused soul. It wasn't unheard of – souls that weren't meant for Hell but never made it into Heaven (for whatever reason) and were then replaced into a human infant. But that still wouldn't give the little punk this level of insight. A very old soul then?

"You don't understand the concept of the Devil, do you?" Lucifer challenged back.

"Of course I do," the boy retorted, crossing his arms. "But you introduced yourself as Lucifer, not the Devil. The two are only loosely tied to each other because they needed something to call the Adversary before his fall from grace."

"And you just happen to know this off the top of your head, huh?" Lucifer drawled, masking a flare of irritation behind his own retort.

The boy shrugged. "I've been told I'm too smart for my age," he muttered, looking away.

"You've been bullied for it," Lucifer observed, raising an eyebrow as a subtle smirk began to reform on his face at the resulting poorly hidden flinch.

"They don't understand what they're doing, not really," the boy said, shrugging again and brushing off the subject. "But that doesn't matter. Why are you here?" he demanded suddenly, almost as if a switch had been flipped.

"Well, at first I was just here because something peeked my interest," Lucifer started, eyeing the boy once more. "But now that I'm here, there's something that I just can't put my finger on, and I'd love to find out what it is."

Lucifer didn't even bother masking his curiosity. It was something about the boy, and it wasn't just his soul— Huh, Lucifer thought with a huff. You've got to be kidding me…

The kid was compatible. Maybe not as good as Sam in the 'perfect vessel' sense, but close enough and definitely better than any of his latest vessels. That was it. There was no way this was all just a coincidence. He had had been drawn here for a specific reason (the boy, obviously), but why—

"Yes."

The word snapped Lucifer out of his thoughts. "What?"

"I said yes," the boy repeated, uncrossing his arms and letting them settle at his sides.

Something made Lucifer hesitate on taking the boy up on his offer. "You realize what you just said, right?" The boy nodded. "What do you expect to get from consenting to being my vessel?"

"An opportunity," was the answer.

"So you do have a dark side," Lucifer mused with a soft huff.

The boy shook his head. "An opportunity for you."

"For me?" the archangel scoffed.

The boy simply smiled (a genuine smile, mind you) at him. Lucifer hadn't been on the receiving end of one that came from someone other than his brothers and Father since… well, ever. Sure, he would get one or two, but those smiles were directed at his vessel, never him. Something stirred within him. It wasn't a completely unpleasant feeling.

The thought of possessing the boy now made him feel like there was a pit in his stomach, but he also felt lighter than he had in a long time. It was… different. He wasn't sure he liked it. But Lucifer needed a vessel, and the boy had volunteered without any persuasion on Lucifer's part.

Light took over the dreamscape as Lucifer entered the boy's body.

A/N: Oddly enough, I got this idea while watching crack videos (I don't remember which one exactly, but I just know the plot bunny came to me while I was doing… that). And I know that this is like way shorter than any Supernatural chapter I've ever written, but trust me, they get longer. Just think of this as a prologue. Then again, these chapters might be all over the place, length wise.

And let's just get this out of the way: no matter how much it might seem like it, this is NOT slash. If there is anything that remotely looks like it (and I know there is later on), it's all platonic.

Last edited: [May 5, 2018] This has been a long time coming.

monkeygirl77: Well... I'm not sure how I'm supposed to respond to all of your fantabulous reviews, but thank you for all of them! I'm still going to answer them individually anyway. I'm a big fan of yours too – I love all of the feels and fluff you put out there. I'll take it as a compliment that you like how my story is going more than the show's version of season 12.

Avenage99: Boy, this was super late, but hey, technically you got my original response to your review in person like the very next day, so yeah. Still, even as I'm rereading your review a couple months later, it manages to make me smile. Everyone's review does. Because you guys took the time to both read this story of mine and then tell me how good I did with it.