/ / /
"Lucifer!"
Right on time, Lucifer thought cheerfully as heard the elevator doors open and Chloe's dulcet tones bellowed through the apartment.
"Alright, Lucifer." She continued to call out. "What's the emergency?"
Lucifer, who was currently stood over a pan in the kitchen, quickly turned it down to simmer so he could greet his irritable Detective.
"Lucifer?"
Having received a text from Mazikeen this morning about the Detective's foul mood, which his demon had suggested was somehow his fault, Lucifer had quickly put together a plan to try and get back into her good graces.
"This better be important, it's my day off." Chloe continued to call out, although it sounded like she was getting closer.
Lucifer had already been tipped off to the Detective's bad temper yesterday by Ella, who seemed to have concerns over Lieutenant Pierce and his decision to keep Chloe in the dark in regards to their investigations into the sinner man.
Progress was slow, though a few new accomplices had been found. Although they were about as much help as the ones Lucifer broke down the other week.
As Pierce had suggested the case was kept between the two of them, though Ella had been brought into the know when Pierce needed her to analyse some evidence from the apartment they'd searched. Evidentially Ella seemed to think Chloe would be "really cheesed" when she found out that Lucifer had taken on a case without her.
Honestly, Pierce's deductions were perfectly reasonable and Lucifer had explained them to Ella. Chloe's family had already been hurt by the Malcolm debacle, and that pathetic human had held the danger of a field mouse when compared to whatever deity had managed to restore Lucifer's wings. Which, he thought bitterly, still had a tendency to pop out at inopportune times.
Ella had still seemed unimpressed by the plan, muttering something about partners and secrets that he'd shut his ears to.
It was for the best. But even he had to admit that his behaviour was becoming erratic when Detective Douche had cornered him at the station yesterday and asked why he was being "all weird". Ever the eloquent conversationalist.
Nevertheless, he knew if Daniel had found his secretive behaviour suspicious, Chloe would be on the same path. He just needed to spend some time around her, act normally and throw her off the trail before she got herself into any unnecessary danger.
"Lucifer?" Chloe called out, starting to sound worried as he headed to meet her.
"Hello, Detective." Lucifer said in as bright a manner as he could manage. His protective instincts towards his partner still troubled him, and despite Linda's cajoling, he was not yet ready to accept the plausibility that there was a deeper emotion at play there than the ones he had already experienced.
Partners kept each other safe, that was it. It was no different than when Chloe had tried to meet Malcolm alone. Although that may have had more to do with Beatrice's safety than his own, he amended wryly.
Chloe met his eyes with instant suspicion after she looked him over. Evidently Ella and Mazikeen were right.
Holding up her phone, Chloe said in an unimpressed tone, "You texted me. Said it was important. 911..."
"Yes. Absolutely." Lucifer replied. "Come with me."
Feeling her follow behind him, Lucifer led her into the kitchen and gestured at the food laden table.
"What the hell is this?" Chloe asked as Lucifer headed back towards the cooker and served up the paella.
"Lunch." He explained simply, a grin stretching across his face. "Very important meal. Not as important as breakfast however, though I'm sure a deal can be made were I make that for you as well." He added, unable to resist the insinuation. There was nothing he lo-liked, liked, more than a flustered Detective.
"I went for a Spanish theme." Lucifer said.
"You said it was an emergency." Chloe said through gritted teeth.
"I thought you might want to celebrate my freedom. Although given you didn't even notice I was missing in the first place..."
"You disappear all the time." She grated out.
"...but that's water under the bridge." Lucifer finished, pulling out a chair for her.
"You said it was an emergency. I had to beg Maze to look after Trixie. I had to promise to do her laundry for a week!" Chloe snapped indignantly.
Lucifer shrugged. "Ship it to the drycleaners and send me the bill."
Chloe glanced at the chair before wheeling on him. "I am not having lunch with you."
"Why not?"
"Believe it or not Lucifer, I have plans. Which is something you would have known if you had asked me here like a normal human being, instead of tricking me."
Lucifer nearly picked on the 'normal human' part of the Detective's statement, but given his Devil face still wasn't cooperating, chose to avoid it. "Plans doing what?"
"With Trixie. My daughter."
"Yes, I'm well aware who Beatrice is. Can't she spare you for a few hours, you see her every day."
"I see you every day too."
"Touché."
"Ugh." Chloe fumed, darting out of the kitchen leaving Lucifer to blindly follow.
"You don't need to worry about Beatrice. Mazikeen knew full well you were coming here, in fact she even suggested it."
Lucifer blinked in confusion as Chloe turned to him with a worried expression flittering across her face.
"She what?"
"She sent me a text a short while ago saying that you were unhappy and recommended that I do something to change that."
Chloe stayed quiet and Lucifer was left unsure of what to do. After a second he rooted in his pocket and pulled up the text.
Flashing the screen at her he said, "Look. This is what she said - 'Decker in the dumps, cheer up or I will kill her' - see."
Turning on her heel Chloe continued to stride through the apartment.
"Detective." Lucifer called out, at a loss of what to do.
"I do not need you to cheer me up, Lucifer. I don't need cheering up full stop." She snapped back at him, stopping by the couch to pick up her things.
"Mazikeen seems to think so." Lucifer replied. "Look," he held up his phone again, "'in the dumps'."
"Yeah, because Maze is well known as the queen of empathy." Chloe huffed, roughly stuffing one arm into her jacket.
"Well clearly you are upset about something or you wouldn't be acting like this." He said, watching her wearily.
Chloe paused, one arm in her jacket with the other one bunched up and out of reach no matter how much she had grappled with it. "You know what. I-" her free hand raised to cradle her head, "I can't keep doing this with you, Lucifer."
"Doing what - having lunch?" Lucifer asked exasperatedly, dropping his phone on the couch.
"What were you doing at the precinct this week?" Chloe asked, steel in her eyes.
Damn.
"Well we had the Elrond case, and then the Olivera..."
"No - what were you doing at the precinct when we didn't have a case?" She ripped of her jacket and balled it up under her arm.
At least Lucifer no longer had to wonder if the Detective suspected anything. The question now was how to smooth over their partnership while still keeping Chloe off the case.
"You know, when you came in to see Pierce and Ella..." Chloe prompted.
"Just hanging out." Lucifer said as cheerfully as he could. "Shooting the breeze, getting down with the gang..."
Her lip trembled and she looked away from him. "You were on a case."
"Just because I was in the precinct doesn't mean..."
Chloe's eyes snapped up. "Go on. Tell me you're not investigating anything. You know for someone who once told me he never lies, you sure do have a problem with telling the truth."
"I don't..."
"You don't tell the truth, Lucifer. That's what you don't do." Chloe bit back. "You're investigating the sinner man aren't you? I said if you found anything concrete we could investigate him together, so why are you talking to Pierce and Ella about it but not me?"
"Detective." Lucifer implored. "Please. Pierce overheard us talking about the case and wanted to keep you off of it."
"And you suddenly decided that this was the time to start listening to what you're told to do?"
"He thought you should be kept away from it."
"Why?"
"Because of Beatrice, the sinner man has a pattern of targeting people by attacking the people close to them. After Malcolm we just thought that..."
"Don't drag Pierce into this, I'll talk to him later." Chloe interrupted, holding up a finger. "You made a decision not to tell me - because you wanted to keep Trixie safe?"
"Yes." Lucifer said, starting to feel relieved. Surely she couldn't hold that against him, he was being considerate of her situation by not placing her in danger.
"I cannot believe you."
"What?"
"You can't keep playing with me like this, Lucifer."
"Det..."
"I always take my family into...I would never..." Chloe struggled for words. "What the hell made you think you had the right to make any kind of decision like that for me?"
"I was acting in your best interest."
"I am the person who decides that, Lucifer. Not you. You have got to stop making these kind of decisions. I'm your partner but you're also meant to be mine."
"I am." Lucifer said indignantly.
"No. No you're not. You haven't been my partner for a long time. And I know you like to pretend that everything is fine between us but it isn't. And I can't pretend anymore. I just can't do it anymore."
"Detective..." He began, ready to smooth everything over. Hopefully the words would come to him as he spoke as right now he was coming up blank. Her reaction had taken him by surprise - it wasn't like he was expecting her to just drop the matter, but he didn't expect her to look so...so, sad.
Taking a shaky breath Chloe glanced around the room before looking at him again, almost like the sight of him was painful. Lucifer was decidedly at a loss. If only Linda was around to explain what was happening to him like she had with Maze.
"You," she started, "you really don't even know. You're not pretending you just don't know...you don't realise at all, do you?" Chloe laughed without humour. "And you have no idea how much worse that makes it."
Lucifer's blank expression evidently did nothing to improve her mood.
"God you don't! You don't know. And don't you dare," she held up a finger as his mouth opened, "make some religious, 'I'm the Devil', God's my Dad, don't say his name, bullshit comment."
Chloe's hand dropped back down and so did her anger. "Lucifer," her voice shook, "you keep hurting me. You do it all the time. And I can't...I can't take it anymore."
Lucifer could feel himself blanching and tried to even out his expression. "You're hurt because I'm investigating without you?"
As soon as he said it he knew it was the wrong thing to say, especially as it looked as if - had there been anything heavy to hand on that side of the room - it would currently be propelling itself towards his head.
"Sorry, I'm sorry! I just - ," he took a breath. "I would never try to hurt you."
"Well you must just have a natural talent for it." Chloe scoffed, brushing the hair from her face. She missed how Lucifer flinched.
"You - we. We were," her hands moved as she grappled for a word, "ugh, I don't know what we were. But you stood me up, and then you kept flirting, and so we kissed, I nearly died and you freaked out, left me - while I was still in the hospital - married a stripper, threw her in my face, divorced her, then we go back to working together - acting like nothing ever happened. And I don't even yell at you for it, because Candy points out my nearly dying upset you and I end up feeling bad for you. Even though I was the one who was abandoned. Then you call me out of the blue last week and promise to explain to me all the weird shit I've endured since meeting you, and all you do is burp in my face! And then you decide to betray me with the only part of our relationship we still have - work. You start investigating behind my back, and have the nerve to say you're doing it for my own good. And when someone points out that your actions are upsetting me, you just try to patch things up by making lunch, instead of actually talking about the problem. You do all of this, and then pretend that everything is okay. We are not okay!"
Lucifer had enough sense not to point out that Candy - in their little act anyway - was an exotic dancer. He could only imagine her reaction if he revealed she was actually an actress and it had all been a ploy to trick his mother, the goddess.
"And I always forgive you, even when you're really shitty to me. So you know what, Lucifer? You don't want to let me into your life - your secrets. Fine. I'm out. I'm done." Chloe heaved, like she was dropping a weight from her shoulders. "You can work with Pierce, you can work with whoever you like. But not with me. I can't do this anymore. I won't."
She turned back around and stormed through the room towards the elevator.
"Detective." Lucifer called after her but she didn't stop. He blinked as he thought of all those time's she'd just mentioned. Of course he knew that he'd hurt her. But for the first time he was scared that this wasn't one of those instances where he could just give her time.
"Don't go."
Chloe passed his piano, not slowing.
In a fit of what Lucifer could only describe as lunacy, he darted forward and gripped her wrist as it came up to push the button down.
"Don't go." He repeated.
Her head dropped to her chest as she exhaled slowly, half-heartedly pulling at his grasp. "Please, Lucifer. Don't make this harder than it already is, okay? Let me go."
"I can't."
"Sure you can. You do it all the time." Chloe snapped over her shoulder, not yet trying to extricate herself from his grasp. Maybe she didn't want to, he thought hopefully.
"I'll convince Pierce, of course I want to work with you, I just didn't want you to get hurt." Again.
"I know." She said sadly.
"So I'll talk to him tomorrow. No, I'll call him now."
"That's not it."
"Then..." Lucifer knew that wasn't only it. But it was the only thing he could fix.
Her voice was small when she finally spoke again. "I'm just - I'm tired of feeling like the only one in the dark."
Lucifer swallowed. He knew better than anyone what that was like. Lucifer's hand tightened around the Detective's wrist as he thought of the only solution. He couldn't. But if he didn't she might leave him. But how could he show her that side of him? She'd see him as an angel - not who he really was. The devil.
"I want to tell you what's happening, what has happened." Lucifer said, desperation colouring his voice. He flinched at the sound of it.
"I really did try to show you at the precinct. But something's happened to me, because of the kidnapping."
"Of course it has." She huffed.
She wasn't going to believe him. She was going to leave. Why hadn't he shown her all those months ago?
Because he was scared she would freak out and leave him he thought, answering his own question.
Now she was going to leave him even thinking that he was a normal human being. It didn't exactly suggest she would take the truth well. But right now, it was his only hope.
He felt Chloe stiffen as he dropped her hand so he could pull off his jacket, before pulling at the cuffs and top buttons of his shirt. When it was loose enough he yanked it off over his head.
"What are you doing?" Chloe hissed, glancing over shoulder before looking back at the elevator. She rocked on her feet, torn between pressing the button and leaving and seeing what the hell Lucifer was up to this time. "If this is another attempt to get me into bed, Lucifer I'm going to shoot you again."
"No tricks, Detective." Lucifer said, turning his back to her - slightly scared that she would leave when he didn't have an eye on her. "Look."
He heard a soft gasp and his eyes shut tightly as her hand met his shoulder.
"Your scars are gone." Chloe breathed. "When..."
"When I was kidnapped, Detective. When I woke up in that desert the scars were gone."
She frowned as she ran her hand over the smooth skin, quickly breaking their contact as she felt Lucifer tremble. "So - what? Your kidnappers gave you plastic surgery? Why wasn't it in your statement?"
"Because the reason why they are gone is not something mortals usually respond well to." He said, warily turning around.
Chloe rolled her eyes and groaned. "Oh right. I forgot. You're the devil. So - your Dad magically healed your back, huh?"
"Something like that."
The irritation in her face dropped and she looked him firmly in the eye, silently pleading him to trust her. "Please, Lucifer. Just tell me what is going on. I'm sick of being in the dark."
Lucifer squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, willing himself not to lose his nerve.
"I'm sorry." He said, his hands moving to her waist. Chloe's eyes widened with surprise and he could clearly see her warring with herself to pull away. Slowly, still not quite believing that he was doing this, he lowered himself down onto his knees never loosening his grip. "I never wanted to hurt you. I always knew that I was hurting you. But I'm going to show you now, and I hope that the truth will help to make things...better."
Lucifer looked into the wide blue eyes staring down at him. "They're still new. I've tried cutting them off a few times but they just grow back."
He took a shaky breath, moving his eyes to look at her stomach as he extended his wings.
He kept his eyes trained there for a few minutes, terrified to look up. He doubted she was as horrified as she would have been looking at his burnt face, but angel wings weren't exactly the norm either.
His hands could feel how her ribs were beginning to expand and contract more rapidly. "Breathe, Chloe. Slowly. In and out."
"Lucifer." Her voice shook, it almost sounded like she was crying. Bollocks.
Sagging a little his wings came to rest on the ground, like a great pathetic bird. His hands remained firm on her waist, the fact that she hadn't pushed them away yet the only piece of hope he could find that their entire partnership wasn't over.
Violently flinching as her own hand unexpectedly came down to touch the arch of his left wing, he cursed himself as her hands jumped away again. He now had sight of her face and couldn't look away again.
It was clear to see she was shocked, her skin slightly paler than usual. Her eyes were wide and tearing up, although he was thankful her cheeks were still dry.
"Chloe." He said gently, his hands cautiously moving from her hips to her hands. Taking them lightly within his own he brought her hand back to his wing, softly placing it down on the feathers.
Her mouth, which had fallen slightly open, closed for a moment before she licked her dry lips. Glancing at his eyes one more time, Chloe stepped forward a fraction and let her hand sink into the white down.
With a shaky breath she attempted some words. "I thought you were the devil?"
"I am." Lucifer said, unable to stop preening as her hands brushed out the unruly feathers. "You saw my eyes once. When Jimmy shot you? I know you did. Since my kidnapping however, I've lost them. And I got my wings back."
Chloe's voice was still dazed as she continued. "You cut them off."
"Yes. They grew right back. Unlike last time." He added.
"They're beautiful."
Lucifer's hold of her left hand tightened.
Chloe suddenly started to blink rapidly. "Crap. God's real?"
"'Fraid so."
"And you're the Devil?"
"Yup."
"So your Mom?"
"A goddess. Who I've since banished to another plane."
"Right. Amenadiel?" Chloe continued, her breathing picking up again.
"Angel. Although he's on the naughty step at the movement."
"Maze?"
"Demon."
Her eyebrows lifted. "My roommate's a demon?"
"And you kissed the Devil." He said, trying to give her his usual smirk.
"Why didn't you show me this in the precinct?"
"Well at the time I was unaware my eyes, and face, no longer...transformed. I was a bit taken aback." Lucifer said, not quite ready to admit how scared he was until Chloe calmed down. She was still breathing too quickly. "It's quite inconvenient, having wings, really. It's so much harder to scare people with big, fluffy wings than with a burnt face and hell fire burning in your eyes. I'll really have to step up my game if I'm going to keep scaring people into confessing."
"Why didn't you show me sooner?"
"Well I've been telling you I'm the devil since we first met."
A little bit of her came back as she fixed him a pointed look. "You know what I mean. No one's going to believe a man saying he's the devil. But you could have proved it."
"Chloe you need to take a slow breath." Lucifer said instead.
Her eyes narrowed further, she was more than aware that he was changing the subject. But breathing was obviously going to win out this time, as she focused on sucking in a mouthful of air instead of grilling him further.
Standing up, and trying to repress a shudder as Chloe's hand trailed down his wing and continued to rest there, he tried to move them towards the couch. His wings were still, frustratingly, throwing off his balance but he managed to move them forward.
Although he was rather enjoying the sensation of Chloe unconsciously straightening his feathers, loath as he was to admit enjoying anything those blasted wings provided, they weren't exactly something he could comfortably sit with. Concentrating for a moment he managed to fold them back and took a seat beside her, not failing to notice her hand lingering in the air for a moment as if continuing to seek his wings out.
His shirt was still in a pile by the elevator but he didn't care. Leaning back he slung an arm over the back of the sofa, watching Chloe intently as she sat on the edge. Her breathing had thankfully started to even out but she was still pale.
Lucifer could only sit quietly for a moment before the entire situation threatened to send him mad.
"I don't suppose I can offer you any paella?" He asked, hoping to elicit a smile and get back some sense of normalcy between them. After all, he was only Lucifer Morningstar. Her friendly local devil.
Chloe looked at him blankly.
No, Lucifer thought with a repressed sigh. Things wouldn't be normal again.
/ / /
Let me know what you think - am I the only one in the 'Chloe needs an outburst because no one can be this forgiving' camp? And do you want Chloe to see the wings in the show or Lucifer's devil face?I left this as an open ending but if enough of you want a third chapter I'll consider it, I already have a few ideas. Feel free to check out my other Lucifer works on here, they have a much happier ending than this one :D Sorry the angst kinda got away from me! Have a good night everyone 3