"Yes it does. Because there's liking you enough that I at least considered your opinion--I wouldn't say trust. There's liking you enough that I wasn't simply going to let you die at whatever convenient timing came up." He could map that one easily with Wilhelm. Less easily with Kell ah hah whoops nothing to worry about there. "And there's trusting you with my mind."

He lists the possibilities and why there needs to be a narrower definition because he's a little shit but also because he thinks Istredd may appreciate it in the weird way that they are.

"But." But. "I don't have that answer, either, not really."

Because Lucifer doesn't know when it changed. He hadn't expected anything to change. He just remembers not expecting to lose anyone when he was afflicted and not the shock of the absence but the shock at their return.

"It was sometime before the heralds showed up." They had talked enough about the afflictions, more than once. "Probably for just some mundane, dumb reason."

So. Friendship and liking other people is just as complicated as... anything and everything else.

The joys of not being human!

Actually, frankly, simply the joys of being an extremely Sheltered Individual.