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Adam flinched slightly when she touched him, biting down on his tongue to keep himself from snapping at her not to touch him again. She wasn't a threat, he told himself instead. She was just some girl - a very pretty girl, in fact - who was trying to make small talk with him. In another life, in the life he'd had before he'd learned monsters did exist and things like Heaven and Hell weren't just constructs created by humans to keep their morality in check, Adam would have taken full advantage of the girl's friendly nature and be doing his best to get a date out of the random encounter. But that life was gone, now, and the Adam Milligan that had lived it was gone as well.

Still, that didn't mean he had to be rude to her or couldn't at least try to push his own limits and keep the conversation going. It would probably be good for him, especially considering the holidays were coming up and he was pretty sure Dean wasn't going to let him just sit them out. This could be sort of like practice for that, he figured. And if he screwed it up, and made an idiot out of himself, he never had to see her again. That was a big plus.

The bag of food he was holding swung slightly as Adam turned his attention to the clock above the door. He didn't have any plans, obviously. It didn't matter what time it was. But it was a good way to buy himself a few seconds to answer. Once he was sure he could speak without his voice trembling, he looked back to Lucy and managed a touch of a smile that wasn't quite as hollow as before.

"I don't have anything planned that can't wait," he said, the smile growing ever so slightly. It almost felt normal. Standing there, smiling, chatting with a pretty girl. As long as he didn't let his mind wander too much, he could almost pretend that he was normal, too.

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For a brief moment, Adam had hoped he'd misheard the girl. Going anywhere to eat, anywhere that wasn't his apartment at least, was not something he wanted to do. Hell, even when he'd thought she was going to suggest eating there, he hadn't been certain he'd go along with it. He'd been willing to consider it, of course, but now that he knew what she wanted... no. He couldn't. He just couldn't. The thought of going somewhere with so many other people, somewhere that didn't have flat walls where he could scrawl out banishing sigils if he had to, was enough to make his breathing difficult as his mind began recoiling in horror.

"I-" Before he could immediately refuse, Adam stopped himself. A split second of hesitation as he tried to figure out a nice way to decline her offer. Then she was moving to the door, and looking at him as though she expected him to say yes, and before Adam could even think about what he was doing, his feet were following after her.

Was he still terrified at the thought of hanging out somewhere as open and vulnerable as the park? Yes. Was there still every chance he'd change his mind before they reached their destination? More than likely. But for the time being, it seemed, not even his fear and the centuries worth of damage his psyche had suffered seemed capable of standing up to one of the most powerful forces in the human body: hormones.

Stepping outside, his hand tightening around the handle on his bag of food, Adam swallowed hard as he glanced around. Then he looked to Lucy, doing his best to keep his tone even despite the fact that it was pretty obvious he wasn't terribly comfortable at the moment.

"So," he tried, pausing long enough to wet his lips before continuing. "Uh, where about in the park do you normally go?" Because maybe he'd get lucky and, when she said park, she actually meant the small gathering of picnic tables near the parking lot that led into the park. He could manage that much, he thought. Anything else, though, was going to be pushing it. And Adam wasn't sure even her good looks and perky personality would change his mind on that one.

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The edge of the park, by the parking lot. Okay. Adam could handle that. True, the area was still open all around him, but at least it wasn't in the middle of the woods where he could get lost, or go missing, without anyone any the wiser. That was about as much of a plus as he was going to find, given the circumstances. And sure, he could go right ahead and say no, still, if he wanted. It wasn't as though she was forcing him to go with her or anything. But a part of him wanted to say yes, wanted to at least try to be normal for an afternoon, and that part was quickly starting to win out the more Lucy looked his way.

Of course, pretty or not, when she placed her hand on him, Adam still flinched away from the contact. He frowned a bit afterward, frustrated with his body's inability to withstand human contact, but made no apologies for having done so. Instead he just slid his free hand into the pocket of his jacket, turned his attention to the road spread out before them, and said softly, "That sounds nice." Blinking a bit, he cast a faint grin in Lucy's direction. "The place you described, not sitting in crap, obviously," he elaborated. And for that one, brief moment while doing so, he looked like his old self too.

Then it was gone, the merriment giving way to the heaviness that seemed to plague him every moment of every day, waking or not. Clenching the hand in his pocket into a fist as a means of having something to focus on to keep him in the here and now, Adam suggested, "I, uh, guess we should get going, before the food gets cold."

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Had Adam's memories not extended beyond his initial demise in his own reality, had he been the Adam who had been in pre-med, working toward becoming a doctor, he probably would have teased Lucy for her rather unladylike snorting. It would have been playful teasing, of course, and probably used as a means to break the ice between them even more, but he would have at least done something about the noise. Instead, he barely reacted externally. His gaze simply slid to her, his mouth twitching a bit at a faintly amused ghost of a smile, and then he was turning his attention right back to the sidewalk in front of them.

At her question, he hesitated. What was considered long, exactly, he wondered. Time took on a funny meaning in Lucifer's cage. Days felt as though they took weeks. Weeks tended to feel like months. And centuries... he didn't even want to think about how long it had taken for those to trickle past.

Finally, not sure whether or not his time really qualified as lengthy enough, he shrugged. "One month and twenty-six days," he replied. Thirteen hours, eighteen minutes, and forty-four seconds, he tacked on mentally. Not that he was going to tell her that. No way. Out loud, he simply added, "Not as long as some folks, I guess, but long enough to get a feel for the place."

Falling silent for a second or two, Adam realized her next question was probably going to be about where he'd come from. Considering he didn't have a cover story ready, and wasn't nearly gifted enough of a liar to come up with one on the spot, he quickly tried to think of something that would deter her. The best he could come up with on such short notice was a simple, but curious, "What about you?" Realizing he probably sounded like an idiot, considering she was a local, he elaborated, "I mean... were you born here, in the city? Or..."

Trailing off, Adam gave a sudden, sharp, humorless bark of laughter. "Man," he said with a shake of his head after a second, "I just realized how totally crap that sounded. Sorry. I just meant, I know there are some locals who show up here after others..." Die. "Leave. I wasn't sure if you were one of those or what."

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Once upon a time, Adam would have agreed completely with Lucy's sentiment. Growing up, he had never been one to really worry about the past or think too long on the future. Sure, he'd made plans, had worked hard in school to see them achieved, and gone off to college with an idea of what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. But aside from making sure he had the means to pay his own way in life? Yeah. He hadn't given a damn about the rest of it. What would happen when he was older, or especially once he died, had been the furthest things from his mind.

And then he'd actually died.

Yet, even then, once he was back alive once more, he really hadn't thought much beyond his desire to see his mother again. What might happen if he said yes to Michael, or what would happen if he didn't, none of it had mattered. Where he might wind up when he died again certainly hadn't registered.

Until, of course, he'd actually died... and wound up in Hell. Then, then it had mattered quite a bit. And now that he was once again alive, and he knew exactly what waited for him when he died again, Adam realized just how much the before and after really mattered. Appreciating the moment was all fine and good, of course, but making sure to learn from your mistakes, and the mistakes of others, and doing your best to live the sort of life that guaranteed you would not wind up in Hell when it was all said and done? Those things mattered more than he could ever truly express.

Nor would he get the chance to do so now, he realized as Lucy quickly made a change in the subject and challenged him to a race, of all things. Which normally might have been fine, if not for the fact that the last time Adam had run anywhere, it had been in an attempt to put as much distance between himself and the at-the-time communal housing area that all of the non-locals in Colligo had been forced to share. Before that? He couldn't even remember when he ran last. Sometime within the first decade of being in Lucifer's cage, he thought maybe, but he wouldn't swear to it. Not that it mattered, either. The point was, the idea of running now - and just because it was fun - wasn't something he was sure he was really up for doing.

Except Lucy was already running. And if Adam didn't run, she was probably going to get a little peeved. And, despite the fact that she was a local - or maybe because she was - Adam really didn't want her peeved at him. Not to mention, it wasn't like it would hurt him to race her and would be pretty rude of him if he didn't, all things considered.

Ultimately, it wasn't the thought of it being rude that made him break into a sprint to catch up with her. Instead, it was the thought of her deciding he really wasn't worth the effort she'd put into him, and him ultimately having to go home and eat his dinner alone. Which was a strange feeling to have, really, considering how not ten minutes earlier he'd wanted to do precisely that. Now that he had a choice between sharing a meal with a pretty girl, or not, though, he was definitely going with the first option. Which apparently meant having to run.

So he did. Making his legs move faster than they had since shortly after his arrival in the city, Adam gripped his bag of food tightly and slowly but surely began closing the distance between himself and Lucy. He wasn't the fastest runner in the world, and she had quite a lead already, but he managed to catch up with her just as they'd reached the parking lot. More importantly than that, though, by the time it was all said and done, and they'd reached the picnic table, Adam was smiling in a carefree sort of way that he hadn't thought himself capable of any more. Sure, he'd lost the race, but for one, brief moment, he'd also forgotten about all of the terrible things that plagued him every moment of every day. And that, alone, was well worth it.

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