Author's note: I get that it's March, and not the time of year for a Christmas story, but the idea came to me and I went with it. Hope the timing isn't too weird.

"So, I'm not trying to butt in, Lucifer, but... your sister..." Chloe paused down the hall from Ella's lab and Lucifer, perforce, stopped as well.

"Yes, what's she done now?" Lucifer smiled engagingly, his lack of concern evident.

Chloe shook her head, with a quick smile. "Nothing, and you know it. She was a sweetheart when she was over on Saturday, but she seemed a little off. Is everything okay with her?"

Lucifer's expression grew serious. "She's well enough, just a little family drama. She's had a positive development on that front recently, though, so I'm sure she'll be more chipper next time you see her. She's probably around here somewhere, actually; I asked her to meet me here."

Nodding, Chloe said, "She'd mentioned something about her brother Michael, but didn't really go into details." She hesitated a beat, then continued, "Michael is an archangel. You're, well, Lucifer -"

"The one and only," he agreed, though his eyebrows approached his hairline.

"- and Azrael is the Angel of Death."

Lucifer stared at the detective and then shook his head. His tone one of mildly offended disbelief, he said, "Well, not presently, but, what, she told you? After all that grief she's given me for telling? And you believed her, when you wouldn't believe me all those times?"

Chloe returned Lucifer's stare. "What are you talking about? I looked up the name on the internet. I was just was wondering about the sort of parents who would give their little girl a name like that."

Lucifer sighed. "Well, you've got the order wrong, and you're not even taking into account Gabriel or Raphael or the others, but I can go on at length about what kind of parents they are. ."

Brows lifting, Chloe asked, "You have brothers named Gabriel and Raphael, too? Besides Michael and Amenadiel? How many siblings do you have?"

"A whole host of them," Lucifer replied with a smirk.

"And only some of you are named after archangels?" Chloe shook her head, then asked after a moment, "Rae doesn't really speak Sumerian, does she? She told Trixie about Gilgamesh when she slept over that time."

Lucifer considered the question, then shook his head. "Well, not any more, Detective. Sumerian is a dead language." He added, amused, "I'm assuming that she took out the hooker at the beginning of the story, or I'm sure I would have heard about it earlier."

"Does that mean she used to... you know what, never mind." Chloe nodded, puzzled expression shading to one of amusement. "Uh, yes. Enkidu was visited by a special friend who made him very happy. Thank goodness. At least one of you can show discretion around an eight year-old."

"Boring," Lucifer said cheerfully.

Looking amused, Chloe observed, "The eleven year-old is a lot more mature than you are, sometimes."

At that moment, Ella stepped into the hallway. "Hey, guys. Lucifer, can I borrow you for a sec?"

Lucifer nodded agreeably. "Of course you can. Always happy to share my expertise."

"Well, it's not work-related, but thanks."

Lucifer beamed. "Even better," he purred.

"Um, no, not that, either," Ella replied, though not without a grin. "It's about Rae."

"What's she done now?"

With an amused headshake, Chloe said, "I'll just leave you to it." She continued down the hall as Lucifer stepped into Ella's lab.

Azrael sprawled bonelessly in a chair at the precinct and did her best to ignore her brother Raphael, who sat in the chair opposite hers, in favor of her phone. It wasn't working.

"You haven't noticed anything different?" Raphael queried, his dark eyes concerned.

Azrael lifted her gaze from her phone and regarded him steadily. "Brother. For the fifth time, no. My -" She lowered her voice. "- wings work as they ever did, in the little time I've had to test them. On my honor, if I do notice something, I'll tell you."

Raphael frowned a little. "But mortals don't have wings, and -"

Azrael interrupted him, her voice taking on an unaccustomed sharpness. "I'm. Not. A mortal, for all that I'm trapped in this body." Her expression softening, she added, "I know this is an unusual situation. I get that. And I appreciate that you're worried about me. I really can handle myself, though, okay?"

Raphael smiled, shaking his head. "Okay. Sorry. It's just hard, when you're in that body, not to think of you as..."

"A child, yes. You're not the only one." Azrael shifted in the hard seat, and then stretched her arms before her. "Just try to remember... What is it?"

Raphael had caught at her arm, his eyes gone wide. "What happened to the scar?" he demanded.

Azrael pointedly removed her arm from her brother's grasp. "You didn't do it when you gave me back my wings, if that's what's got you upset," she reassured. "Also, seriously, you need to relax. There are a ton of cops around here, and grabbing me like that didn't look good."

Raphael sat back, gave Azrael some space. "How did it happen, then? Father told me to leave it, you know he did."

"So I've been told," Azrael agreed lightly. After giving her brother a long, measuring look, she asked, "Promise you won't overreact?"

Something about Raphael's expression suggested that he would have laughed, if he weren't so concerned. "That sentence never bodes well, coming from you. I'll do my best."

"Remember, lots of cops. Even if you don't have to deal with them, I do, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't make my life more difficult." After another assessing look, Azrael admitted, "Mom did it. I don't think she even knew what she was doing. She was healing something else."

"Mom?" Raphael echoed, then continued in a lower voice after a warning look from his sister. "How? She's in a mortal body." He looked hard at Azrael, then, asking, "What was she healing?"

Azrael's shoulders lifted in a brief shrug. "I don't know how. Dad works in mysterious ways? As for what she was healing..." She shook her head. "Not a conversation I want to have just now, in this place."

Raphael looked for a moment like he was going to argue, then shook his head. "Another time, then." He gestured toward Azrael's arm. "Can I have another look?"

Extending her arm, Azrael said, "Thanks for asking first this time."

Raphael gently cupped his sister's arm in one hand, running the fingers of his other hand lightly over the spot where there had previously been a knotted scar. "Amazing," he murmured.

"One might almost say... miraculous, " Azrael said, her tone serious, but a hint of mirth in her eyes.

Raphael shook his head. "Don't even suggest that," he cautioned. "I swear, Lucifer is a bad influence on you."

Azrael grinned briefly, unrepentant. "Michael said that, too."

With another headshake, Raphael released Azrael's arm, though one finger brushed lightly against the reddened skin of her wrist. "Will you tell me what that is?"

Azrael thought about it for a moment, then shook her head, though not without a look of apology. "Sorry, but no."

Raphael chuckled quietly. "You always were independent," he observed, a note of admiration in his voice. "I'll catch you somewhere more convenient for a good conversation." He got to his feet, offering Azrael a warm smile. "I won't wake you up this time, promise."

"Thanks. I'm a growing girl - well, presumably - and I need my sleep." Azrael smiled after her brother, lifting a hand in farewell. When she had watched him for a moment, she took up her phone and chuckled at what she saw there. She made a ridiculous face and took a selfie. After a moment, she peered at her phone and laughed.

Chloe, who had been watching Azrael, approached her and asked casually, "What are you doing?"

Azrael straightened, though her manner was amused rather than guilty. "Snapchatting your daughter, actually," she replied, amending after a moment, "Unless she's got homework she's supposed to be doing, in which case I am definitely not Snapchatting your daughter."

Chloe shook her head, with a reassuring smile. "It's fine. She probably doesn't have homework."

Azrael tucked away her phone, looking amused." I've been spending far too much time on that thing," she admitted.

Chloe settled to a seat in the chair Raphael had occupied. "Who were you talking to just now?"

Azrael looked in the direction Raphael had taken. "Oh, my brother," she replied lightly. "Raphael."

"Ah, so one of the archangels," Chloe replied, with a quick smile.

Azrael froze, her expression carefully neutral. "Um."

"Kidding," Chloe said with a laugh. "Lucifer and I were just talking about your names. How funny that he'd show up just when we were talking about him. Does he live around here?"

Shaking her head Azrael relaxed, leaning back against the chair. "No. He's just visiting."

Her gaze sharpening, Chloe stepped closer, half-reaching for Azrael's arm. "What happened to your arm?"

Azrael edged back in the chair. With a quick smile, she answered, "Mazikeen." She held up her other arm, showing that it, too, was red.

"What?" Chloe demanded. "What did Maze do to you?"

Poorly hiding her amusement, Azrael said, "It's nothing bad, I promise. She was showing me how to get away if someone grabs me. We've already done how to fall - I'm really glad Lucifer has a hot tub - and I'm still working on ducking." She got to her feet, extending an arm. "Here, I'll show you. Grab my arm."

Brows lifting, Chloe stood as well and took Azrael's arm in a loose grip just above the wrist. Azrael tucked in her thumb, making her hand smaller, and easily slipped her hand free. "You've got to hang on tighter than that," she chided.

"I don't want to hurt you," Chloe protested.

Azrael gave her arm a little shake. "I've been working with Mazikeen, remember? Whatever you do, I promise she's done worse."

Tipping her head in acknowledgement, Chloe gripped Azrael's arm more tightly, using both hands this time. Azrael reached past Chloe's arms with her free hand to grasp her trapped hand, then pulled sharply away. She turned the momentum of the movement into a chamber for an elbow strike at Chloe's solar plexus, which she carefully did not land.

"Nice," Chloe approved. "What would you do then, if I was somebody trying to hurt you?"

"Run," Azrael replied succinctly. "Hey, is Lucifer back, too? I was supposed to meet him here."

Chloe smiled briefly. "Getting away is always a good thing. And Lucifer's back, yeah. He's just talking with Ella."

"He's what?" Azrael protested. "That's cheating!" She started down the hall toward Ella's lab, but Lucifer appeared, looking amused. "No," she told him flatly.

Smiling, Lucifer replied, "But why not, Rae? Think of the children!"

Unable to stop himself, he dissolved into laughter.

"What am I missing?" Chloe asked, smiling despite herself.

"Nothing," Azrael replied promptly. "Nothing at all."

Ella, a few steps behind Lucifer, said, "I'm just trying to to get Rae to do me a favor."

Shaking her head, Azrael said, "Favors are Lucifer's thing - you could do it, Luci!"

"No, no," Lucifer replied, still chuckling. "I'm far too old. It's for kids."

"Guys, share," Chloe urged, looking between the others.

Ella, casting a hopeful look at Azrael, said, "The big Christmas play at St. Brennan's is tomorrow night, but some of the kids who were supposed to do it have been hit with the flu. We've managed to cover everyone else, but we need one more person, and I was hoping Rae would help us out."

"What's the part?" Lucifer asked, his eyes alight with mirth. "Is it Mary? Please say it's Mary."

Azrael shook her head firmly, with a quell in look for her brother. "Definitely not. Mom would never forgive me." Ignoring the puzzled looks from Ella and Chloe, she informed Lucifer, a but dryly, "It's the angel."

Brows lifting, Lucifer asked, "Which one? I seem to recall that there were several involved..."

"Well, the Bible said there was a whole heavenly host," Ella said, "And we wouldn't have enough kids for that even if nobody was sick. We had to combine them into one."

Lucifer inclined his head in acknowledgement. "Would you excuse us for just a moment, ladies?" He took Azrael's elbow, gently steering her further down the hall.

Looking after them, Ella called, "If it helps at all, the Completely Irrelevant Baby is going to be Jesus."

"She's too old," Azrael protested over her shoulder, walking with Lucifer without complaint as he guided her around a corner. "And a girl," she added, just to Lucifer. "Why do the mortals keep getting gender wrong? And that whole heavenly host she's talking about? I kid you not, it was just me and Uri. Those shepherds completely exaggerated."

Lucifer studied his sister for a moment, still looking a bit amused. He gestured at her shirt. It read Be not forgetful to entertain strangers in flowing script and the image behind the text suggested wings. "The shirt's a little on the nose, don't you think?"

With a shrug and a faint smile, Azrael replied, "Most of them won't get it. I saw it and thought... why not?"

Shaking his head, Lucifer said, "Look, you don't have to do this play thing if you'd rather not."

"You're right," Azrael agreed. "I don't have to, and I don't want to. Ready to go?"

Straightening his jacket, Lucifer queried, "But why don't you want to do it?"

Staring at Lucifer as if he'd grown a second head, Azrael asked, "Why would I? They'd dress me up in a white robe - which we never wear - and put tinsel on my head, and... fake wings, Luci. It's humiliating."

Lucifer lifted his hands in a mollifying gesture. "Okay, yes, all of that is probably true. And if it were me, I wouldn't do it."

"Great, neither would I." Azrael turned to leave, taking the opposite direction from which they had come, thus avoiding Ella.

"But," Lucifer said, catching at her arm. Azrael sighed, turning back to her brother. "But," he repeated, "if you'll remember, brother Michael encouraged participation with the mortals, rather than observation, yes?"

Azrael was silent for a long moment. She sighed. "Yes. But do you really think he meant this? And since when do you agree with Michael?"

Lucifer shrugged eloquently. "Seems right up dear old Dad's alley, don't you think? And while I don't particularly care what he thinks, you do."

There was another long pause from Azrael, this one more reflective. "Second-guessing Father's intent is pretty much impossible, but better safe than sorry, I guess. Just don't tell Gabriel, all right? He'd never let me live this down." She turned to head back down the hallway, Lucifer at her side.

Lucifer hesitated for a moment, long enough to draw a defensive look from Azrael before he reassured, "He won't hear of it from me." He added thoughtfully, "You know, you do have an alternative to the fake wings."

Azrael stopped walking. While she looked tempted, she shook her head. "Not a good idea."

"Well, why not?" Lucifer cajoled. "Your wings wouldn't have the impact that mine would - on their minds, I mean," he clarified, noting the rather sharp incline Azrael's eyebrows had taken. "Yours are lovely, but, well..."

"I'm not an archangel," Azrael supplied, with a quick smile, "for which I regularly give thanks to Dad." Lifting her shoulders briefly, she added, "I'll think about it, but probably not. I mean, how would I explain them?"

Looking amused, Lucifer suggested, "Say they're a gift from your father."

With a brief, skyward glance, Azrael continued back to Ella and Chloe, who broke off their conversation at the siblings' return. "I'll do it," she agreed, laughing when Ella enveloped her in an enthusiastic hug.

"That's great," the forensic tech said brightly. Taking her phone from a pocket, she added, "I'll text Mary Grace and Father Joe."

"On one condition," Azrael amended. She turned to Lucifer with a smile that was just a little too innocent. "You have to come."

There was a moment of silence, then Lucifer exclaimed, "You have to be joking!" just as Chloe said, "Of course he'll come."

The two stared at each other for a moment, then Chloe asked, "Lucifer, why wouldn't you come? She's your sister!"

Lucifer looked between the three females, all of whom were watching him expectantly. "The Devil doesn't go to church," he protested. "And this will combine church with small children... and Christmas!"

"What's wrong with Christmas?" Ella queried. "Christmas is the best!"

Lucifer and Azrael exchanged glances, and the latter said, "We don't really do Christmas in our family."

"But why not?" Ella asked. "I mean, Rae, I know you believe in God -"

"Lucifer does, too," Azrael muttered.

With an amused huff, Lucifer protested, "Thanks for throwing me under the bus, little sister. You used to be nice."

Azrael smiled sweetly at her brother. "And then I learned to talk." She's added earnestly to Ella, "My family is just really weird. It's okay."

Ella still looked baffled at the concept of not celebrating Christmas, but she nodded, before turning to Lucifer. "Just come, okay? It'll be an hour, tops."

"An hour? For a children's play?" Lucifer groaned.

"Well, there will be some carol-singing at the end," Ella added.

Chloe offered Lucifer a sympathetic smile. "I'll go with you, okay? I mean, I don't believe in this stuff - sorry, Ella -" The tech lifted her hands in an amiable gesture of acceptance. "- but it'll be cute."

"Really?" Lucifer perked up. "Well, if you'll be there, Detective, I suppose I can cope with bad acting and an inaccurate script for one night."

When Chloe laughingly protested that it wouldn't be so bad, Azrael shook her head. "I saw part of a rehearsal on Sunday. He's not wrong. But there will probably be unintentional comedy."

Ella said cheerfully, "Well, I'll definitely be there."

"I'll bring Trixie," Chloe added. "She'll love it. Rae, are you going to ask your mom to come?"

"No." Azrael and Lucifer spoke in unison, their voices holding a near-identical fervor.

"Wow," Ella murmured. "Sometimes I forget you guys are siblings, and then you do something like that."

With a sheepish grin, Azrael said, "Sorry. But I'm sure Mom won't be able to make it. She's so busy."

Looking up from her phone, Ella said, "Mary Grace just texted and she wants you to come by the church if you can, Rae." Shooting a quick, amused glance at Lucifer, she added, "I'm heading that way, if you want a ride."

"Thanks," Azrael replied with a nod. "I'd appreciate it."

Lucifer said, a note of protest in his voice, "But we were going to go to that new Thai place."

Pulling on her jacket, Azrael suggested, "We can go another day." Seeing Lucifer's expression, she added, with a grin, "Or take Chloe. You ready, Ella?"

"Sure," Ella replied. "Just let me get my stuff."

The pair headed back down the hallway toward Ella's lab, even as Lucifer began wheedling attempt to convince Chloe to go to dinner with him.