One week later
Chloe sat at the dinner table with Trixie and Lucifer, musing about the adaptability of the human mind. That morning, she'd woken up, as usual, with an overwhelming sense of wrongness, yet the mind-numbing panic she'd felt every single time while waking up during the last week had been strangely absent.
It seemed her brain had gotten used to the weirdness of occupying the wrong body, supplying the fact to her almost immediately, and with a minimum of anxiety. The thought that she might be getting used to living in Lucifer's body caused a whole new wave of panic, though. She didn't want to get used to it. It wasn't supposed to be permanent.
She was adapting to waking up in Lucifer's bed in the penthouse as well. She split her nights between going to bed there and spending them on the couch in her own apartment, in spite of Lucifer's insistence that she should take the bed.
Things went surprisingly smoothly at work. Sometimes, she had to hold herself back, for example from taking over while they were in the interrogation room, but most days it only took her a moment to slip back into character, and continue the conversation as Lucifer. He was doing an even better job being her. Occasionally, if she hadn't know any better, she could have sworn it was herself talking.
Then some very inappropriate innuendo would slip past his filter, breaking the spell. Lucifer would cringe almost immediately, shooting her an apologetic look. Truth be told, it was a bit comforting to know that he still broke character sometimes. Everything else would have been creepy.
The so-called artifact expert had been no help. He didn't have anything to add to what Amenadiel had already found out. Chloe had spend quite some time praying during the last week but it had yet to show any effect. She had, on several occasions, tried to convince Lucifer to follow the only lead they had, arguing that it couldn't hurt to try it once, but he was adamant in his refusal, leaving them with no options to pursue.
Lucifer spent more and more time at her place, and turned out to be surprisingly great with Trixie. Chloe was almost certain by now that the whole spending time in each other's shoes to fix it idea had to be nonsense. He was now intimately familiar with every aspect of her life, and yet here they were, still in the wrong bodies.
She shivered at the thought that she might have to try really spending time as Lucifer, in case it was mutual understanding that was required. She'd much rather have sex with Lucifer than with a bunch of strangers, that much was certain. If only he would stop being so stubborn about it.
Chloe realized she'd been staring at her plate for way too long, and looked up, only to find Trixie scrutinizing her, a frown on her face. Uh-oh.
"I don't understand why you couldn't just tell me", Trixie said, pouting, looking back and forth between her and Lucifer. Chloe almost chocked on the piece of white wish she'd been about to swallow. She coughed violently, reaching for her glass, and took a quick gulp.
"What?", she croaked once she was certain she hadn't just murdered the devil with a piece of fish.
"You two are sneaking around all the time, thinking I won't notice, but I know what's going on. What I don't get is why you can't just be honest?"
She had directed that last bit at Lucifer, who was currently staring at her daughter blankly.
"Umm", he said, then closed his mouth again. He looked at Chloe, a plea for help in his eyes.
She took pity on him. "What, exactly, do you think is going on?"
Trixie crossed her arms in front of her chest, rolling her eyes in a manner that suggested they were insulting her intelligence.
"Obviously, you two are dating."
Chloe closed her eyes for a moment, relieved. When she opened them again, she glanced over at Lucifer, and the two of them had one of those silent conversations, that for some reason she only ever managed to have with him.
Lucifer surprised her by speaking first. "Things are ... complicated. We didn't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry we haven't been entirely truthful with you."
Trixie's expression softened a bit, but she still looked hurt.
"I'm sorry, too. We should have known better than to keep things from you", Chloe added.
Trixie stuck her chin out, glaring, then she couldn't stop the smile from spreading over her face. "It's okay, I guess. Does this mean we get to hang out more and do cool stuff?", she asked Chloe, sounding excited.
Chloe glanced at Lucifer before replying, but couldn't read his expression. "Sure."
"Awesome", Trixie said, shifting her focus back to her food, as if everything that needed to be said had been said. Trixie had always liked Lucifer, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to her that she accepted things so easily.
Trixie seemed to be so genuinely happy for them that it was a little painful to watch. What was she going to tell her once they switched again and things went back to the way they were before? That they had broken up? What if you're stuck like this forever?, the scared part of her mind piped up.
Lucifer came out of Trixie's room after finishing her bedtime stories, a smile on his lips, his expression content, but surprised.
She raised her eyebrows, and he shook his head, still smiling. "She said she's happy that we're together. That you're more fun when I'm around, and that I make you happy." His tone took an a questioning note towards the end, as if he couldn't quite believe the words that were coming out of his mouth.
His expression turned serious on the next words. "Although she did express her concern over how weird both of us have been acting this past week and her hope that we'll be more ourselves again now that everything is out in the open."
"She's truly a marvelous little human", he added after a moment, voice filled with wonder.
He was in such a good mood that Chloe almost decided not to bring up the topic they'd been fighting over every single night for the past week. Almost. While he'd been busy taking Trixie to bed, she'd decided that a chance in tactics was in order. She was obviously getting nowhere with her current appoach.
"Listen, Lucifer, we need to disc-"
Lucifer groaned loudly, interrupting her. He lifted his hands up in a gesture of exasperation. "Must we do this tiresome exercise every evening? The answer is no."
"What if I told you I actually wanted to do it?", she asked, voice carefully neutral.
"Then I would say you are lying to me", he replied darkly.
"Fine, okay, maybe I don't want to do it like this, but, you know- we- us-", she gestured wildly in between them, at a loss for words. He just continued staring at her, expression guarded.
Chloe sighed. No time like the present. "Maybe having sex with you is not such a hardship for me as you might think", she muttered, her cheeks colouring once more. Lucifer frowned, clearly having a hard time believing her. She'd been afraid of this. It would have to be full disclosure, nothing less than the whole truth, if she wanted to have a shot at him believing her.
"Alright, you must know that I'm attracted to you, yeah? Do you really think what we did in the shower-" She felt the blush creep all the way to the tips of her ears again. "-was just scientific curiosity? That I would have done the same if I had gotten stuck in some random dude's body?"
His frown deepened, and he looked very confused. That was apparently what he had been thinking all this time. That it had been a matter of mere curiosity from her side, nothing more. Chloe sighed again. She rubbed her hand over her eyes, summoning her courage. This was the only way to get them out of this mess.
"I like you. You make everything so much more interesting. I haven't gotten bored once since we met-" He chuckled, starting to say something, but she lifted her hand, silencing him. "Let me finish. What I'm trying to say is that even before this whole mess happened I might have-", she took a deep breath, "-I did think about what it would be like, you know, the two of us, like- like that. And it was a tempting thought. But you know, we are working together, and I wasn't sure if you were even interested in anything serious, and for it to be a one time thing that would have unnecessarily complicated our working relationship, so I never acted on- what?" He had cocked his head to the side, a disbelieving grin spreading across his face.
"Detective, are you saying you fantasized about us having sex and you liked it?"
Damn him and his bluntness. She'd have expected him to sound smug, but instead he sounded like he couldn't quite believe that he had heard her correctly. Well, there was nothing for it now.
"Yes", she admitted, voice defiant.
He looked at her in wonder for a moment, then his expression darkened again. He shook his head slowly. "Truly, detective, I wouldn't have expected you to go to such lengths as to lie about something like that."
Chloe stared at him, mouth agape, anger bubbling up inside her. What was his goddamn problem? Not only did he refuse to try their only way out of this nightmare, now he was accusing her of lying after she'd just kind of poured her heart out to him?
"Listen, pal", she said, voice dangerously cold, "I don't know what your problem is-", she advanced on him, poking him in the chest. She only realized belatedly that that was a rather inappropriate move in their current state. "-but everything I just told you was nothing less than the truth, and I'd appreciate if you showed me a little more respect."
She realized that she'd backed him up against the wall and was towering above him, giving off very threatening vibes. She stepped back quickly, muttering, "Sorry".
He just stared at her, opening his mouth several times as if to say something, then closed it again.
"You're attracted to me", he repeated, mostly to himself, "You like me. You would have considered a relationship if you'd thought I was interested?" He sounded doubtful, even though he was just repeating what she'd already told him.
"Maybe? I thought- I thought there was more to you than your playboy persona. I'd never have guessed how much more, though."
"You like me?", he repeated again, and it was cute in a way, how hung up he was on the notion. He seemed much younger in that moment. She would very much have liked to see his real expression, on his real face.
"Yes, you idiot", she said, voice soft.
His expression changed, a big smile spreading over his face. She decided she needed to smile like that more often in the future. It completely transformed him, making him look much younger, and more beautiful, which was a weird thing to be thinking while he was in her body. Maybe she had been stuck being Lucifer for too long.
She waited for him to say something, but he seemed to be speechless for once. She cleared her throat, suddenly nervous.
"So, does that mean you've changed your mind, about- you know- the thing", she gestured vaguely with her hand, blushing again. It really was more or less a permanent state for her nowadays.
Lucifer smiled. "I'm not sure how you plan to have sex with me if you can't even make yourself say the word."
Chloe swallowed. "Okay. Fine. Have you changed your mind about having sex?"
For once, he seemed to actually consider her request instead of immediately getting angry. He shook his head slightly, unsure. "It doesn't change the fact that you are weirded out by the idea of having sex with yourself, does it?"
For a second, she considered lying to him, just to get this whole thing over with already, but then she changed her mind. She sighed. "Well, it's not ideal. It's not how I would have wanted it. But it's still going to be me and you, which is the important part, right?"
He gazed at her for a long moment, standing completely still. His expression was unreadable. Chloe tried her best not to fidget under the scrutiny. When he finally moved, it was to make a small shake of his head.
"I need to think about it", he said.
Chloe groaned inwardly, trying not to be too disappointed. At least she was finally making progress with him. It was on the table now. He just needed a little more convincing.