AN: Thank you to everyone who gave all their feedback! I know these are some sensitive subjects, and I'm slow at updating, this ones particularly slow because they're semi based on real life events and it takes sometime to get them out on paper, obviously names have been changed, but I use writing as my outlet to get out what I can't get out in verbal words. So I thank each and everyone of you for being friends and being so supportive, I love each and everyone of you, and always will.

Reviews:

Pitch'snieceanddaughterofMew: Thank you so much! I'm blessed that you liked it!

Ashazara: Thank you so much! Chapters may be slow in coming, but there will surely be more!

Guest: Thank you so much for your beautiful words. I was hoping I got the story out without it being too much or too repetitive. I'm sorry for nearly bringing you to tears!

Robin0203: They really do! I wish all the ones who fall under their grasp know that they're not alone, even if it seems like it at the moment, there is always a place for them to learn from it and begin to heal. That those people don't determine the lives of everyone else out there, that not everyone is as bad as their abuser is!

…

"Brother, please, I need your help."

He stood on the edge of the pier, the only one among the vast gray, staring down at the rumbling blue that smashed against the wooden beams jetting into the water below. His fingers gripped the edge as tightly as they may, the words of the others ringing in his ears, their torments and their cruel jokes. His eyes watered, whether from the sting of the winter air wind around him or the pain he felt deep in his heart, he wasn't sure. The frigid wind bit into his exposed skin, like little daggers sticking into his cheeks and eyes, but still he stared at the tumbling waves under him.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, and with a final thought to them all, the ones who had left him, he stepped forward. The wind curled around him as he fell, seemingly trying to pull him and push him at the same time, and his eyes remained closed as he splashed into the frigid water. It shocked him, hitting him like a wall of bricks, but he didn't struggle. Finally he opened his eyes, the salt burned them slightly, but was faint compared to the pain of his nerves being burned by the pure icy cold that was the water he was submerged in, and watched as the darkening gray sky slowly started to disappear from view, his vision growing fuzzy by the moment and breathing more and more shallow.

Darkness was over taking him now.

He was numb.

The light was slowly fading away.

Maybe they'd find him in the morning, maybe they never would, his parents would find the letter he left them. That is if they even came home. They worked too much and when they did see him it was only to yell at him, criticize his grades and his act, tell him he should be more like his older brother.

It had been on his mind for a while, he'd started planning months ago, for the perfect moment. When mom and dad would be leaving early the next morning for their meeting in Tokyo and his older brother would be catching his flight in for the holidays. He planned it out so well and left just as the light flicked off as they went to bed for the evening without so much as wishing him a good night and slipped out the front door without interruption.

He'd been standing on that pier for nearly an hour and no one had come to stop him. No one had cared enough to check on him. Cared enough to come looking.

Enough to worry about his changes.

He hoped they didn't find him. He didn't want them too.

He just wanted it to be over. He was so tired, tired of being compared to the great heir to the family business, tired of trying to please parents that would never be pleased, tired of trying to fit in at a school that clearly didn't want him there. He was oh so tired.

Finally, able to rest.

His eyes were starting to grow heavy, and he finally let go of the breath he'd taken, willingly allowing himself to take a deep gulp of frigid saltwater. He was being weighted down, tugged deeper and deeper until the night sky above him started fading out.

Darkness was fading in now, closing around him at the edges, and he felt himself letting go.

He's not sure what's happening, much to consumed in the reaching darkness, when a hand reaches for him from above, gliding through the freezing water as if it holds no affect. He tries to duck under it in his weakened state, but he can't move much anymore, and it snags him by the scruff of the sweatshirt he was wearing. It pulls him upward with surprising strength and he wonders if this is death reaching for him to take him away.

Away from all this pain.

He's slightly aware of being pulled upwards, up above the crashing sea, and arms curling around his midsection. He thinks it's his fading mind playing tricks on him, when he sees the booted feet under his, from where he's dangling weakly from his unnecessary savior's arms, and how they're seemingly floating above the churning waves under them. Certainly, it was a trick of his deluded mind. But the arms tighten almost painfully around his midsection and he knows that this specific pain and tightness is too real to be an illusion. He's pulled back into a warm chest, its warm and strong against his freezing back, and he's pulled upwards away from the gray waves underneath him.

And then he fades out completely and hangs limply in the strangers arms.

…

Next thing he's aware of is that he's surrounded by warmth instead of ice cold. Wool pajamas have replaced the frigid frozen clothes he was wearing the last time he was conscious. He moves his head weakly, looking down at the thick red blanket that's been curled around him, across from him on the far wall is a blazing fireplace, and he realizes that he's in a cabin somewhere. He can still hear the rolling waves so they can't be that far. He curls his fingers around the blanket and

"Leave that where it is."

Despite the immense drowsiness that he's feeling, his head snaps in the direction of the voice, and he's greeted with the sight of a tall blonde man lounging on the great chair next to the fire. He's staring at him from over a mug of steaming something and takes a slow sip as if this is a normal occurrence for him.

"Leave the blanket alone. We gotta get you warmed up."

…

He may hate the humans, but the children are still innocent, he may have some unresolved issues with his Parent and His decisions, but he won't take that frustration out on the little ones. Lucifer may be cold but he's not heartless.

So, when one of his younger sisters comes to him asking him for help, he knows he can't turn her away. Salathiel is very good at her job, and she cares for her charges as if they were her own fledglings (if angels were able to have fledglings of their own that it) but she knows when something is too far out of her range to assist. She come to him when the boy had climbed over the railing of the pier and he'd gotten there just as the kid had stepped off the ledge. There was no hesitation, he may not exactly be a complete Archangel anymore, but taking a charge was still taking a charge.

His sister had filled him in on the reasons as he yanked the young one from the freezing water, holding him close to his chest as anger built red hot within him at his new charge's treatment and by his own family no less.

Several hours had passed since he brought the boy to this secluded cabin out by the ocean. The child had slept for hours, perhaps he'd been a bit overzealous in the amount of grace he'd given him when he'd went limp in his arms, no one would dare say anything to his face about it. While the child slept through it, keeping a close eye on him, he had went out to observe the boy's family as the night hours ticked on, day coming and leaving once more, watching as the boy's parents paid his strange silence no mind and left for their trip as planned.

His clenched fists loosened slightly as he watched the elder son return home, as he sighed in resignation that his parents would not be there to celebrate the holidays with him, and he watched as the older boy (by a number of years) left his bags in the lightened entry way and beelined for the steps. His smile was enough for him to know that at least one person in this miserable household cared about his little charge. The worry that lit his eyes when he opened the door to find a made bed and an empty room, the surprise greeting completely drowned in the overshadowing panic that his dear younger brother was missing.

He flew away as the elder reached for his cell phone in his back pocket and dialed for the authorities without hesitation.

…

"Jonathon, right?"

He wasn't strong enough to lift himself very much, his muscles and bones still frigid to the core after the plunge he'd taken, but he was strong enough to lift his head to stare. The blonde man smiled at him, setting his mug aside, and stood from his leather chair.

"Don't move too much", a gentle hand pushed him back into the bed underneath him and he succumbed to laying in the warmth it offered, "You took quite the ice bath there." And sat on the edge of the bed, "Why kiddo? Why would you want to do that?"

"Who are you?"

He was not about to tell his life story to some stranger, even if they had saved him and managed to hover like a sort of alien, even if he felt like he could and not have to face any retribution or rebuke for it.

"People call me Lucifer, not my real name, though it stuck."

"You're…. You're…."

"Your guardian angel? Sure, am kiddo."

The boy, Jonathon, fell silent at that. Pondering the response he could have for that, though a part of him wanted to call it out as bogus, the other part that was still just that tad bit lucid from his untimely attempt on his own life (because there was no beating around the bush that was his intention) and his being pulled from the waves remembered hovering above them as voices conversed over his head.

The bed dipped slightly as the blonde man sat on the edge, he stared weakly as a pale hand reached out to brushed his bangs aside.

"Why would you do that, little one?"

He shrugged, looking down to the faded pattern in the quilt he was burrowed under, a deep sigh escaped the older man beside him, and he saw from the corner of his eye as he turned to look down at his hands, elbows resting on his knees, deep in thought. Jonathon didn't want to think about his reasons, he didn't want to think about those who wouldn't care that he was gone, he didn't want to think about failing to do what he had planned so hard to do.

The man, Lucifer, sighed again, turning to look at him for a long moment, now that he was closer the boy could see his ruby like eyes, they sparked a reddish color, red and blue, they were mesmerizing. They stared at each other for a moment, not sure what to say to the other, Jonathon made to move. Anything to get out of this awkward situation but he was stayed by a hand on his lower leg.

"Stay under, I can more do then before since taking over your guardianship but heating you up is not something I'm too good at unfortunately.", he smiled slightly, "I run slightly colder than most."

"Why did you save me?"

He smiled again, "Because someone saved me."

That threw him for a loop, and he stared back inquisitively, Lucifer hummed and leaned back on the bed, his fingers brushing over his foot as he did.

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

He didn't want to confess his plans, his leading up to this moment, and just what he was hoping to accomplish. But on that other hand, he was warm, and this man had given him more attention in the little time that he'd been awake then his parents had given him in the entire year, he'd shown a deeper care then they ever had. Lucifer rubbed his thumb over his foot and gave him an encouraging smile.

Taking the deepest breath, he could the young boy nodded in defeat.

"Good decision kiddo", he gave him a slight shove towards the other side of the bed, "Scoot over little guy."

Jonathon had scooted over just as he was asked to, and Lucifer slid in beside him, under the covers, and pulled him close into his side. He was right, there was little warmth that came from him, now that he was out of the freezing water (seeing as anything would be warm compared to that), but it was not an uncomfortable feeling. It was being in a lukewarm bath, warm but not hot, and he tucked the blankets more tightly around him. He was warm under the blankets and like having someone solid next to him, someone he could lean on when he wasn't strong enough to hold himself up, and Lucifer said nothing on it, rubbing a hand down the side of his head.

The poor kid didn't know what it was like to have people other than an older brother who he saw a few times a year to care for him enough to ask if he was okay. All of this could have been avoided had they actually cared for the child that they had decided to bring into this world.

If they wouldn't then he would.

"You want me to go first, or you wanna spill first, all up to you."

Jonathon nodded against his shoulder, "You.", and his new older friend nodded in understanding. They scooted down further, and he stoked the fireplace with a wave of his hand, and they settled in as if they were sharing a nice story on a cold winters night and the boy hadn't just been saved from doing something he was going to regret later in life (Lucifer was sure of it).

"Where to start?"

"Why?"

Lucifer nodded, following the boys lead, "I was tired. Just oh so tired. I do believe you know what that feels like. I was painted into being someone evil, someone who didn't deserve being saved, until someone decided to try. I tried to tear my own grace out."

The boy tilted his head upwards, "Grace?"

"What you would call an angels soul."

"Who stopped you.

"The one who was meant to kill me. My older brother Michael found me. He talked me down. I can never go home but I quite enjoy being on Earth and he visits often. He wanted to come get you but thought I was better suited."

Jonathon nodded, he understood where he was coming from, being so tired that even opening your eyes was a trying task. That getting up for the day was a battle that wasn't always won. That sometimes the dark dog came to visit, and you couldn't do anything but try to entertain him. It was a rainy day that always blocked out the sun.

"I wanted to be done, go wherever it is we go when we do die, and my brother Azrael had unwillingly agreed to take me if that was what I chose."

He fell silent, there wasn't much to tell other than that, he wanted nothing more than to let himself fade.

"What about you?"

Jonathon shrugged, "No, that wasn't the deal.", and he sucked in a breath, "Name one person who would miss me."

There was silence for a moment, and he was beginning to believe that even his guardian angel was going to agree that no one cared whether or not he was still alive or not.

"I would miss you."

He turned to look up at him, eyes wide in surprise, and Lucifer was staring right back with more seriousness he'd ever seen in an adult.

"I'd really miss you."

His eyes welled with tears, one person who would miss him, it was enough to make that little dam inside of him start to crack.

"You would be missed. Please don't leave me."