"Why does our daughter have to learn how to ride a bloody bike?"
The question earned him a stern look from Chloe. For her, it was totally indisputable that her child needed to learn how to ride a bike. "Lucifer, we talked about this. Our daughter is half celestial half human and growing up among humans. So she needs to learn human traditions too! Plus, it can totally be fun." she explained then, before turning her attention back onto the old boxes of Trixie's stuff she had dug out and placed down on the living room floor. "Found it!" Chloe exclaimed triumphantly just seconds later and pulled out a colorful children's helmet.
"But mom, I can easily fly anywhere I want to. And it's so much faster too!" Their five-year-old daughter chimed in, as she climbed on her father's lap and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
Chloe had to bid her lip to keep herself from smiling at the sight, because it was so much like them to agree on something. Their daughter Grace or Gracie, as she sometimes liked to call the little girl, was so much like Lucifer and she wasn't just talking about her celestial side.
"Honey, that is exactly the kind of attitude that we don't want to see in this household," Chloe reminded her and pressed a fleeting kiss on her daughter's dark hair, before getting up on her feet to comb through another stack of boxes of Trixie's old stuff in search for other protective gear, especially the knee pads.
Their daughter did have all kinds of protective gear herself, as she had needed it when she first started flying, but she had only recently grown out of them. And Chloe's idea that Grace should learn how to ride a bike had been born rather spontaneously, when she had noticed how her daughter was struggling to connect with those in her class. Lucifer had already threatened to make use of different methods, especially if somewhere were to hurt his little girl in some way, and Chloe had barely been able to talk him out of it.
"Oh, you are just afraid you won't be able to do it!" Trixie teased her little sister and playfully raised an eyebrow.
"I am not!" Grace replied fiercely and stuck her tongue out at Trixie.
The two of them erupted into a finely nuanced back and forth of teasing, which, at the end of the day, was just one of their ways to show each other how much they loved one another. Despite their differences both in their age and in their nature, the two of them were as inseparable as two sisters could be.
"But Grace is not wrong, love," Lucifer spoke up again, "I mean look at me. I never learned how to ride a bike and I believe that my life turned out perfectly fine,"
Their daughter, who was still casually sitting on Lucifer's lap momentarily stopped making faces at her older sister and rewarded her father with a kiss on the cheek (which made him smile from ear to ear), before nodding defiantly to support his argument; all with a grin on her face that was similar to her Lucifer's.
"That doesn't mean- wait, you don't know how to ride a bike?" Chloe asked, genuine shock resonating in her voice, even though it made a fair amount of sense that Lucifer hadn't learned how to ride a bike in heaven nor in hell.
"I just said that, didn't I?"
"Yeah, but… how am I just hearing about this now?!" she responded, still taken aback, before a sly (?) smile formed on her face – the kind that told Lucifer that Chloe had a plan. "Trix, would you help me with this quickly?" she asked and nodded towards the boxes on the living room floor, "You two are learning how to ride a bike. Today. And we are going to teach you."
Easier said than done, Trixie and Chloe finally managed to get both Lucifer and Grace on their respective bikes; about an hour of arguing and futile nagging later. Just because Chloe and Trixie were the humans in their little family, it didn't mean that they were the weaker ones. What they were lacking in celestial superpowers, they made up for in intelligence, fierceness and sassiness and so it wasn't uncommon for them to have the last word.
"Do we really have to wear all of this protective gear? It's wrinkling my suit!" Lucifer pouted and he could tell that the detective was fighting every ounce of herself not to start laughing out loud. Sometimes she felt that Lucifer was the actual child here and not Grace.
"What did we say about being a good role model for our daughter?" Chloe asked, but offered him a small smile nonetheless.
After Lucifer had put the feud with his father at rest, he finally began to really let Chloe in and for the first time ever, he allowed himself to be loved by her and ultimately also to be vulnerable around her again. So technically, he could hurt himself just like their daughter could, because the girl wasn't totally invulnerable either. Sure, she was definitely healing a lot faster due to their supernatural powers, but she could still get hurt.
"Mom's right dad. If I have to wear this stuff, you do too." Grace said with the detective's sassiness laced in her voice and a feisty grin on her face.
He sighed, visibly annoyed, but was still impressed with his daughter. Even if she was still so young, she was continuously coming up with new ways to challenge him – and that's saying something, coming from an immortal.
"Okay, honey, I am going to hold onto you by the shoulders and I am going to walk beside you for a bit. You don't have to worry, because I am right next to you. You just have to pedal and get a feeling for balancing your weight, okay?" Chloe had kneeled down beside her daughter, who was already sitting on Trixie's old bike.
"I am not worried, mom." Grace replied, her lips twitching into a soft smile. Chloe briefly caressed her daughter's cheek, once again amazed by her daughter's braveness.
"That's good. That's good," She nodded finally, because even if it was irrational, she still was a little bit worried. But that was just her motherly instinct – she would never be able not to worry about her children. It was a feeling Lucifer had never been able to grasp until his daughter was born. "Okay, sweetie, just start whenever you are ready,"
Without much hesitance, the girl started pedaling. Her kicks were a little bit unsure and cautious at first, but she soon seemed to gather more self-confidence and her pedaling became stronger and much steadier. Their daughter was giggling happily, as Chloe encouraged her over and over again: "You are doing great, Gracie!"
A few minutes later, the two of them returned to their drive way, now both wearing huge smiles on their faces. The sight filled Lucifer's heart with so much joy that he suddenly didn't find learning how to ride a bike so bad any longer – not that he would ever admit that aloud to anyone.
"That was so much fun! Can I do it again? Please, please!" Grace begged and looked up at her parents with big eyes. She knew exactly what buttons to press to get what she wanted and both of her parents had a hard time saying no to that face – something she had learned from her sister.
"Of course," Chloe replied, trying to keep the 'I told you so'-smirk to a minimum, "Trix, can you help your sister this time? I can help Lucifer then,"
Trixie nodded and helped her sister get back on the bike. Chloe leaned into Lucifer and he put his arm around her waist, pulling her even closer, as they watched how the two girls started to move again; Gracie on her bike and Trixie walking beside her. Lucifer glanced at Chloe, whose eyes were glistering slightly from what he assumed were happy tears, and pressed a soft kiss on her hair. It were moments like this, the quiet ones between just the four of them that had become his favorites. He couldn't really tell when it had happened, after all he had always been a devil who enjoyed a huge crowd (and he still did). But all they did were help him avoid the loneliness and the deep wish to belong somewhere. And since he had had found his place, here in Los Angeles, in the arms of none other than Detective Chloe Decker, he simply didn't need it any longer.
"What is she doing? Why is she letting her go?" Lucifer asked, as he saw how Trixie let go of her little sisters' shoulders and let the girl ride the bike completely on her own. The angst resonating in his voice was very palpable, as he couldn't stand even the thought of their daughter (and Chloe and Trixie too) in danger. It always felt like someone had bored their hand into his chest just to clench his heart inside of their fist.
And for a few moments, everything seemed to go smoothly and Grace managed to keep her balance on the little bike. But it didn't take long until the girl fell on the ground, somehow managing to land on her butt and thus cushioning the blow a little.
"Oh god!" Chloe pressed out and clamped her hand over her mouth in shock. Both Lucifer and Chloe were on the hop to go and check on their daughter, but in a wink, Grace was already on her feet again, a big smile on her face, as she waved her parents. The girl then got back on her bike, this time with Trixie's help.
"You see now why the protective gear makes sense?" Chloe asked, almost mockingly, and leaned back into Lucifer's embrace, as they watched how their girl carried on riding her bike like she had never fallen down in the first place, "The girl is tough. You gotta give her that,"
"Just like her mother," Lucifer mumbled and turned his head slightly to the left to catch her eye. While Chloe often said how much their daughter resembled him, he found that Gracie's best qualities definitely came from her mother. In the end, they often agreed that she was simply the perfect mix out of the two of them. She smiled softly, before meeting his lips for a brief, but loving kiss.
"Okay, come on," Chloe hummed against his lips, before clapping her hands together, "No more stalling. You are getting on that bike now too,"
Lucifer sighed, because he had a feeling that riding a bike was actually harder than it looked. Slightly reluctant, he finally got on the bike and after Chloe had instructed him what to do, he too started pedaling.
"Detective!" he almost squeaked, when he swerved a little to the right.
Lucifer opened his eyes with a start. With the pictures that had felt so real still lingering on his mind, he reached beside himself. But the other bedside was cold and deserted. When he turned his head to the left, just to double check, there really was no sign of the detective or Trix or… Grace.
Falling back into his cushion, he needed a moment to realize that it had all just been a dream. He and the detective were… well, he wasn't entirely sure what they were at the moment, but they weren't happily together. And they certainly didn't have a daughter that was quite literally the perfect combination of them with his dark hair, her blue eyes, his grin, his charm and her sassiness and intellect. Lucifer caught himself smiling at the vision, as a warmth spread through his entire body, and he couldn't help but feel surprised at how much he actually liked that dream.
He had never been a fan of children, he had never even considered the thought of having one himself (perks of infertility really), but this dream had him feeling things that were entirely new to him. Loving someone, much less his own child, was something he never thought he would experience. But the dream had felt so fantastically real.
And then reality caught up with him a second time. He was incapable of love. And that was the very reason why his only chance at happiness, his only chance at a life similar to his dream was currently dissolving into thin air right in front of him. And as much as he wanted to hold on to that chance, he knew it wasn't fair for the detective, because he would never be able to love her the way she deserved to be loved.
Lucifer swung his legs out of the bed and got up on his feet to get himself a drink, knowing fully well that he wasn't going to be able to sleep any longer. With a glass of his favorite golden liquor in his hand, he walked outside on his balcony and glanced up at the sky, where most of his family members were residing. Funnily enough, they had never really felt like family to him, in marked contrast to the detective and her offspring. And there it was again, that warm feeling in his chest that he always got when he was recalling some of his favorite memories with the two of them.
But it didn't last long until reality hit him once again and his heart wrenched painfully inside of his chest, as a realization seemed to settle in: a life where he was able to give the detective the love she deserved would always be just a dream.