Day 6- Strip Club

Set in season 2, in between episodes 7 and 8. Linda knows everything, and Maze tries giving Linda a birthday surprise.

"Close your eyes."

Linda exhaled, knowing that her friend—demoness and all—would never willingly put Linda in any danger. It didn't stop her heart from thundering with worry and anticipation as Maze tied a blindfold around her eyes and began leading her away from her office.

She still wasn't used to all of this; Heaven, Hell, angels, demons (much like the one who was ecstatic about giving Linda her early birthday present), the existence of God being an absolute fact, the Devil—who had tremendous family issues and insecurities. It was all thrown onto Linda's lap like a bowl of cereal when it felt more like Lux itself had fallen directly on top of her.

She was trying to carry on as best as she could. She took Lucifer back as a patient, and she was fixing her friendship with Maze. Naturally, when it had accidentally slipped that Linda's birthday was coming up and Maze quickly offered to do something special for the occasion, Linda couldn't refuse.

Except now, when she was walking blindly towards what very well could've been her own demise, Linda found herself wishing that she would've at least asked what Maze's plans were.

"Maze?" Linda cautiously asked. "This surprise doesn't involve a ton of knives, right? Or— burning me with hellfire, or anything like that?"

Maze snorted as she held Linda's arm steadily as they walked down what Linda discerned was a long hallway. "No, I've learned that humans don't do well with that kind of thing."

"Wait, you've actually done that?"

"Anyway," Maze said, clearly ignoring Linda's question. "We're here."

Linda felt the blindfold slowly slip off her face as the door in front of her opened slowly with a creak. The whole situation couldn't have screamed 'horror movie' any more than it did at this moment. Maze nudged her into the dark and seemingly empty room.

'And this is where I die.' Linda thought. 'A dark room with nowhere to run to.'

Maze left Linda's side and walked towards something in the corner that Linda couldn't see when the lights came on, causing her to see spots for a moment.

When her vision came back to her, Linda's eyes widened. "A cake?"

Maze nodded with a grin. Linda took a step closer to the cake that was sitting in the middle of the room. It was an extremely large cake, especially to Linda's standards where a typical 'birthday cake' was a single cupcake with a very sad candle. She let out a chuckle of disbelief. "Maze, how did you afford this? This is—"

Before Linda could even blink, something jumped out of the cake with immense speed. Linda jumped back in surprise, almost into Maze's arms, when she realized what had jumped out of the cake. Or rather, who had jumped out of the cake.

A stripper stood directly in front of Linda, half of his body still in the cake.

Linda wordlessly turned around and stepped out of the brightened room and into the hallway. Once she had closed the door behind her, she let her back hit the wall and slowly slid onto the floor, hitting the ground with a small thud.

She hid her face in her hands.

And she laughed.

She couldn't help the chuckles escaping her. She had been so scared, so anxious that Maze had been plotting some evil scheme. And Maze had hired strippers for Linda's birthday.

A real demon, one forged in the flames of Hell, one who was extremely clear about her ability to torture people and her enjoyment of it in the process; this same demon was so concerned about regaining Linda's friendship that she hired a stripper for her birthday.

Her chuckles were dying down as she heard the door open and saw Maze walk out. Once Maze spotted her down the hallway, she briskly made her way towards her. "Linda? What happened?"

Linda dismissively waved in her direction, trying to get her thoughts together. Maze crouched down towards Linda's eye-level, her face clouded with worry. "Was the stripper too much? The stripper was too much."

"No, no, the stripper wasn't too much, Maze." Linda explained.

Maze interrupted her. "I'm sorry, Linda. I know things have been really awkward lately, and I suck at human emotions, so I wanted to do something special, and-"

Linda grabbed Maze's hand waving wildly in the air and squeezed it in reassurance. "Hey. It's completely fine. I'm sorry for walking out." She sighed. "Things are good between us. It's taking me a little bit to get used to everything, but I'm trying my best, okay? We're good."

Maze nodded slowly then glanced down, biting the inside of her cheek. "So, you like your surprise?"

"I love my surprise."

Maze grinned and straightened herself, holding out her hand for Linda to grab. "Great. Now, come on. This stripper's not gonna dance by himself." Linda grabbed her hand and stood up, unable to take the smile off her face.

As the two walked down the hallway, Linda chuckled. "Hey, where did you find this guy anyway?"

"Ellen, actually."

Linda gripped the doorknob, taking a breath as she readied herself for what was waiting on the other side of the door. This was going to be one hell of a birthday gift.

Pun definitely intended.