Trixie

She loves the stillness of nighttime, the world around them sleepy and silent. Dim light from the lamp on the street filters in, golden lines intertwined with shadows dancing across his face, highlighting the slope of his nose and the sharp edge of his jaw. It bounces off the thin sweat lingering on his skin, now beginning to cool as it mixes with the night air. She keeps close, knows the same glistens across her own skin in a glorious afterglow.

She loves him like this, too, soft and warm around her. He's half propped up against her headboard where she can tuck herself into his side, his body broad and all encompassing. Closed eyelids brush dark lashes across his cheekbones and his breath expels in even waves but she knows he hasn't quite drifted to sleep just yet. One arm curls around her shoulder and his fingertips play languidly through her hair cascading over her bare shoulder.

But they've been together just long enough now for her to know what he's like. Her hand nudges low against his bare stomach, insistent on stirring him with the light scratch of her nails. "Lucifer. Don't fall asleep."

He shudders at her touch and smirks through a foggy haze of sleep. "Time for round three already?"

She lets out a breathy little noise as his lips descend to her temple. "You know you have to go. Trixie is here."

"And?" he hums, a hot little sound, lips dusting over her hair. She tries in vain to tamp down the fire crackling low in her abdomen. Palming the side of his face, the stubble abrading her skin, she tries to gently push him back.

"And we've talked about this. If she finds out, she won't lie to Dan. And I'm not ready for Dan to know just yet."

He groans softly at the mention of her ex, finally leaning back to give her a modicum of space. "Well, I'm sorry, detective, but you only have yourself to blame. You shouldn't have made me work so hard for it. I'm utterly exhausted."

"Lucifer."

The deep chuckle in his chest reverberates through her entire body. "Don't worry. I won't fall asleep." He leans forward to capture her lips in a gentle kiss, so slow and sweet it steals her breath. Her spine arcs involuntarily so she can press her body closer against the length of his, aching for more. She sweeps her tongue over his bottom lip, letting everything she's feeling, everything she's not quite ready to voice, spill into his mouth. "I'm just – not ready to leave you quite yet."

A wave of affection crashes over her and she struggles to stay afloat. All her emotions, all her love for him, catches in her chest before unfurling in a burning bright light and she wishes she could live inside the tenderness of this moment forever. She cradles his face as she kisses him, his lips working over hers with reverence and need. The image of his face is tattooed to the back of her eyelids but she has to open her eyes and see him and savor all his love for her. She nudges her nose against his and feels the sigh of contentment he releases wash over her skin.

Her body is weightless as she lies there, her mind succumbing to the endorphins and to the early morning hour. She curls herself at his side again, feels the even rise and fall of his chest at her cheek as her own breathing evens out. She trusts him with Trixie; trusts him to give them both space, too, when they need it.

And he knows she always makes it up to him the next time they're alone.

It's too soon that she's being dragged from the blissful black. Her bedroom door clicks open and little feet pad inside before an even smaller voice with so much fright follows.

"Mommy?"

Chloe drags her head from the pillow and props herself up on one elbow, heart splintering in less than an instant. It's been so long since Trixie has called her that. "What's wrong, monkey?"

"I had a bad dream."

Oh. Her little girl.

"I'm sorry. You want to sleep with me?" She's already throwing back the duvet but her daughter doesn't move from beneath the doorway, her dark eyes wide and fixated over Chloe's shoulder.

"Trix - "

"Mommy, who's that?"

Oh. No.

Everything falls off Chloe's face as she turns to find Lucifer still beside her, his right arm wedged underneath his head and the lines of his face slack with sleep. Everything in her throat constricts with panic as she turns away from him and back toward her daughter who needs her.

"It's – just Lucifer, baby." She kicks her feet from beneath the tangles of her sheets and slides them off the edge of her bed. "Don't worry about him."

"Are you having a sleepover?"

Chloe closes her eyes. She can already see the scowl (and smirk) on Dan's face when she tells him mommy and Lucifer had an actual sleepover.

"Okay." Chloe clears her throat. "Come on, baby girl. Let's go sleep in your room."

But then the shadows that cast across her bedroom are changing as the heavy figure beside her rises. Lucifer's eyes are bleary, lit with moonlight and happiness as they follow the ascent of her body.

"If it's morning already," he rasps, "I'm going to need some convincing to get out of bed. And you know the convincing I like involves staying in bed."

"Lucifer," she hisses.

He hums and turns slowly, eyes finally landing on Trixie. "Oh dear." He swallows roughly. "Hello, offspring."

For the first time since he walked into their lives, her daughter isn't enamored with her partner's presence. Instead, her eyes fall to her feet as she rocks back on them.

Lucifer's fingers curl gently across her shoulder. "Is she all right?"

Nightmare, Chloe mouths.

"Well, Trixie. You know what I do when I have a bad dream?" His voice is soft and divine, coaxing her daughter's gaze up from the floor. "I open my eyes and look at your mom. She keeps me grounded. Literally, in my case, because she keeps me on earth instead of down in hell or up in the Silver City. But figuratively for you, of course."

Her heart swells with gratitude and affection and she can see the smile he's so easily charmed from her daughter. But Chloe knows her daughter won't go back to sleep if he keeps talking. She can't afford to be late to work another day because Trixie is too tired to get out of bed on time.

She reaches for Lucifer's shoulder, her nails scratching just a little deeper than a gentle tease. "That was sweet, but don't think you aren't still in trouble."

His eyelids shut too quickly to be innocent. "Hush, I'm sleeping."

She throws her pillow across his face before scooping up her daughter and heading to her bedroom, instantly feeling the tension zipping through the girl's little body. The double bed is a tight fit since moving out of her mother's place, pressed up against the corner of the room, but Trixie hadn't wanted to let it go. Chloe lays her down close to the wall before tucking herself and pulling the blankets up over the both of them.

"Do you want to talk about your bad dream or you just want to sleep?"

Her daughter sighs. "I just want to sleep."

"Okay."

Trixie crawls into her mother's arms without prompting and Chloe begins a soft stroking of her thumb back and forth through her dark hair and down over the shell of her ear. With every breath she feels the tension leave Trixie's body, slowly becoming slack with sleep. She's only just closing her own eyes, thinking Trixie's asleep, her breath fanning hot across her chest, when the girl speaks.

"Mom?"

Chloe hums. "Yeah, monkey?"

"Are you and Lucifer together? Like, together, together?"

Chloe's fingers still in her daughter's hair. "Would you be okay if I said yes?"

Trixie smiles against her chest. " Of course. Lucifer's great."

Chloe expels a long, slow breath. "Yeah, baby girl. We're... dating."

"So, do you love Lucifer? Like, love him, love him?"

She smiles into her daughter's hair and drops a kiss to her temple. "Yeah. I do."

"Do you kiss him?"

"Go to sleep."

When Chloe wakes in the morning, Trixie isn't beside her. Her heart kicks against her ribs even though it's now daylight and her daughter has likely gotten up to eat. She swings her legs off the side of the bed, her toes spreading out through the soft knots of the rug before she moves for the kitchen.

She finds her in the living room – and she's not alone. Warmth unfurls in her chest at the sight of her daughter and her boyfriend curled on the couch, their bodies sunk deep into the cushions, a blanket wrapped around their shoulders. Sunlight streams in through blinds she forgot to close once Lucifer turned up on her doorstep. It casts a golden glow across their faces, almost like a halo (if she didn't know any better). Cartoons play quietly on the TV, forgotten once the siren song of sleep called to them.

"Don't you always tell me staring is creepy, detective?"

She smothers a smirk as she steps up behind him and drops a kiss to his temple, fingertips resting along his collarbones. "I'm gazing. It's romantic."

Lucifer tilts his head and captures her lips, slow and sweet, and doesn't counter her point.

"You been out here long?" she asks.

He sighs and shakes his head sleepily. "Maybe an hour. I heard her when she was scavenging for cereal so I got up to check she was okay."

Happiness flutters like butterflies in her chest and she squeezes his shoulders affectionately. Since their split, Dan has been an amazing father, prioritizing Trixie in a way he'd begin to let slide. She's never put the pressure on Lucifer to be anything at all to Trixie but the friendship they've developed – the care he shows for her daughter – has her heart overflowing with love and gratitude.

"Thank you," she whispers, the quiet magic of the moment beautiful.

"Always."

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