He tells Amenadiel what he wants to do, flat out, and his brother just smiles.

"Go," is all he says, soft and steady. Lucifer can only gaze at him for a few seconds, hesitating as his eyes flicker from his brother to where Chloe is tucked under his wing. Amenadiel doesn't say anything else; he just smiles when his younger brother turns back to him, answering all of his unspoken questions with a reassuring nod, and Lucifer, albeit with some great reluctance and hesitation, eventually does pull his wing away from Chloe, spreading them both out and arching them upwards as he heaves himself up off the bed. Every inch of him aches, and a part of him wants to settle back down in bed with his girlfriend and let everything drift away into nothingness again - but he can't, and the rest of him knows that if he's going to do this, then he needs to do it now. It's been long enough. Too long for Lucifer's liking; no, this had to be fixed.

He hesitates for a second longer, trading a swift glance from Chloe to Amenadiel. "Brother-"

"I'll be right here, Luci," Amenadiel rumbles, pushing himself to his feet and turning to face him. Lucifer takes a moment to let the tension unwind from his shoulders a bit, though the pain lingers despite his best efforts to ignore it, to push past the dull ache pounding through his muscles as he rolls his shoulders back and adjusts the cuffs of his jacket. "I promise, brother."

Lucifer barely manages to nod in response, searching his brother's gaze silently for a moment. He doesn't doubt, for a second, that he can trust Amenadiel - but that doesn't make it less scary. After losing Chloe and just barely getting her back again, the last thing he wants to do is leave her. But Amenadiel shakes his head at his younger brother's hesitance, moving closer to clasp his hands over Lucifer's shoulders, and for the first time in what feels like too long, Lucifer melts into the touch like butter, sinking forward against his hands and letting Amenadiel support his weight for a few short, sweet seconds. Then he's standing straight again, putting on a smile that's genuine despite the fear spreading through his chest, and spares a glance back at Chloe.

With a deep breath to carry as much air to his aching lungs as possible, Lucifer unfurls his wings and lifts his gaze to the ceiling. After his trip to Heaven, Hell doesn't scare him anymore.

He'll never be trapped there again.

Lucifer nods a little to himself at the thought, dropping his gaze, and with a whoosh, he's gone.

Finding Dan isn't the hard part. It's kind of surprising, actually, even to him; he's spent so many years, millennia, eons trapped in Hell that he knows it by heart, but somehow, it's not the same. It is the same, everything is arranged perfectly the way Lucifer had left it when he'd left for the last time, for good, but it's still so hard to find his way around. Hell is like a maze, constantly twisting, constantly trying to throw you off. Lucifer learned how to get around for the most part. But this, this doesn't require any of that. This doesn't require searching the depths of his soul and mind to remember how to navigate his old prison. Finding Dan comes to him far too easily.

It's like his body, his wings, know what to do before he knows. Once he's there, he springs into action without another thought. Finding Dan isn't the hard part, and getting him out isn't either. The hard part comes when Lucifer takes him by the arms the second he lays eyes on the man and flies them straight up to Heaven before either of them can blink. The hard part comes when he tucks the man close to his chest, wrapping his arms around him tightly to shield him from what he's sure is coming - he's not intent on crashing like a shooting star again. The hard part comes when they land, rather underwhelmingly at that; they're just there, in just a few short seconds before Lucifer realizes what's happening, and he's almost prepared to try again, thinking maybe he'd fallen just short of his intended landing; takes him a second to realize that they landed exactly where Lucifer had intended for them to land, like muscle memory somehow.

The hard part comes when they stand, frozen, for a moment - and then Dan freaks out.

And it's not like… not like anything Lucifer has seen from him, actually. He's seen him confused and desperate and frantic and downright panicked but he's never seen him like this. Not even when he'd come to the penthouse that night and shot him. He has half a second to realize what's about to happen when Dan wrenches away from him abruptly, snapping his head around in one direction and then the other, eyes wide with nothing but complete, unadulterated terror-

Before the man's legs are buckling and he's crumbling toward the ground at an alarming rate, and Lucifer wishes he could say his ego isn't the biggest reason he's glad they landed in a more or less secluded part of Heaven as he immediately dives down along with him to make sure the poor guy doesn't completely collapse. "Daniel. Daniel," he presses, as he grabs him by the arms and hauls him back into an upright position. The man is shaking. He's shaking so badly, and- Lucifer can't feel anything for a moment aside from his heart pounding in his chest, so hard he can feel it in his throat as he swallows, pain and sympathy and grief swelling up inside of him as he gets a good look at the man's wide-eyed, panicked face and wishes he got to him sooner.

Dan takes more than a few minutes to focus on him. Lucifer finds his mouth dry when he tries to speak again, every reassurance he wants to offer dying on the tip of his tongue because he understands, he knows, he knows, and he knows whatever he says will go in one ear and out the other until Daniel snaps himself out of this. And, thankfully, he does. It takes a few heaving breaths and nearly collapsing again, despite being on his knees, but the man's eyes suddenly snap all the way back up to his face, pupils barely pinpricks as his gaze seeks out Lucifer's.

Lucifer almost shudders at the fear, the disbelief and hope written across his face, and he's a little bit - selfishly - glad he hadn't really had the chance to see Dan's Hell while he was there.

"Lucifer?" Dan breathes, gasping, and Lucifer takes him by the shoulders, nodding.

"It's me, Daniel. It's alright. You're not… there, anymore," Lucifer finally tells him, and the way Dan's expression crumbles with relief is enough to make him flinch a little despite himself. Every instinct screams at him to pull away, he's too vulnerable, too weak; instead, he tightens his grip.

With a few more unsteady, desperate breaths, it seems like Dan's starting to calm down. Lucifer settles down on his knees after a moment, grimacing at the position but choosing not to audibly complain, at least not yet, while the man catches his breath. He's still shaking, Lucifer notes numbly. Trembling under his hands and Lucifer is scared he might collapse the second he lets him go, so he doesn't. Dan just continues to stare at him for a moment, wide eyes taking in every inch of his face before they abruptly squeeze shut and he ducks his head with his chin to his chest, with one last shaky, deep inhale before abruptly shifting to slow, shallower breaths.

"I died," he finally chokes out, and Lucifer manages a faint nod in response, even though the man can't see. Oh, yeah, he's acutely aware of that. He remembers how his heart had been in his throat the entire time he was sitting in the hospital, waiting for something, anything. Some news, some… miracle. A miracle that hadn't come. He remembers the pain, facing Chloe and then Trixie as first mother and then daughter begged for it not to be true, for him to tell them it wasn't true, that Dan was okay when they all knew he wasn't. He remembers the grief that had hit him, raw and fierce like he was mourning a sibling, and not the reluctant friend he found he'd grown to see Dan as. He remembers the funeral, half-listening to Amenadiel's speech but mostly just trying to understand. To understand why this had happened. Why Dan was dead.

Why he hadn't… why he hadn't gotten to say goodbye.

Why he hadn't been able to save him.

Why-

"How?" Daniel breathes suddenly, abruptly looking back up at him. Lucifer startles at the question, blinking furiously and even more surprised to find himself blinking back tears as he stares back down at the man. "H- How-? Where- … where are we? What? I don't- how did you-" There's a lot of incoherent stammering, on both of their ends, before Lucifer snaps out of it.

"Heaven, Daniel. We're in Heaven. Where you…" His throat closes up before he can finish, but he just swallows and does his best to work around it, "where you should have been all along."

Dan looks… astonished. The shock written across his face makes Lucifer's heart twist with pain again, and suddenly he thinks he'd prefer the physical ache in his muscles to this any day. Then the man's gaze flicks away, craning his neck to look around with wide eyes, confused and disbelieving as if he can't really comprehend what's happening, and Lucifer doesn't quite blame him. He lets his shoulders fall slack, still holding tightly onto Dan as the man takes their surroundings in and gets his bearings, and nearly lets his head dip forward, exhausted and just about ready to collapse, himself, but he's quick to perk back up when Dan turns back to him.

"You brought me to Heaven?"

Lucifer wants to tell him he doesn't belong in Hell, never has, but he knows he won't believe it.

Instead, he meets his gaze and tells him quietly, "Charlotte's waiting for you," and does a nice thing by not acknowledging the tears that well up in his eyes as Lucifer finally hauls himself up to his feet again, biting his lip and wincing as he moves. It takes a little more effort to pull Dan up, but the man does make some effort to help him, scrambling to stand on his own despite how hard he's shaking and how weak his legs seem to be, considering they buckle underneath him more than once as Lucifer finally gets him upright, and it takes a minute for him to steady himself again completely enough to stand mostly on his own, with Lucifer's hand still bracing one of his shoulders. There's some inscrutable urge to just pick him up and carry him across Heaven, but Lucifer dismisses the thought. He's not steady enough to do that, for starters.

"I don't understand," Dan starts babbling as Lucifer finally steers him forward, in what he's surprisingly sure is Charlotte's general direction. He doesn't know how he knows, but he knows. "Wait, how are you here? Aren't- aren't you-? Wait, did… are you God?"

"I suppose," Lucifer responds quietly, and falls silent. There should be some victory, but there isn't. He's not sad about it - quite the opposite - but he's not exactly in a mood to brag, either.

"Whoa," Dan whispers, staring up at him. "I mean… whoa." Lucifer manages to crack a smile despite himself, shaking his head a little. And that's when the mood shifts again. He doesn't look, but he can see, see it just as clearly as if he is looking, he can see the amazement on Dan's face slowly fade away as a much more somber demeanor takes over them both. His movements slow a bit, if that's possible considering they were barely moving at all anyway, and Lucifer doesn't really mind, slowing a bit as well without moving his hand from Dan's shoulder.

"Lucifer…" Dan's voice is quiet, uncertain. "Trixie… is she…"

"She's with your parents and Chloe's mum," Lucifer tells him after a moment of hesitation, but he's quick to continue. "She… of course she didn't take the news…" With a reluctant glance down at the man, Lucifer squirms, shifting his feet against the ground and looking away again as he draws in a slow, unsteady breath through his teeth. "She's not okay, Daniel. She doesn't have a father anymore. But she has her mother… and so many people that care for her to help her through it. And now that you're up here, where you should be, she'll be able to see you again someday." He didn't realize his grip had tightened as he spoke until he looked down to see his knuckles were practically bone white against Dan's shoulder. The man doesn't seem to mind too much, his eyes fixed on Lucifer's face intently, tears steadily building at the corners.

For some reason, that's just- it's too much. Lucifer struggles against it for a moment, but he ultimately can't stop his own tears from rising, despite his futile attempts to blink them back. They're both silent for a moment, standing still now, and despite the pain and the grief still festering in his chest, Lucifer takes a breath and prepares to continue on their way once more.

He's not expecting Dan to turn around and pull him into a hug. Stunned into silence, the most he can do is wrap his arms around the man in return, curling his fingers into the back of his shirt.

It doesn't last long. Long enough that the tears are nearly unbearable by the time Dan pulls away from him, and Lucifer feels a few of them slip as he blinks back down at the man. It's a mercy that he doesn't say anything, when they both know Dan can see them just as clearly, but his silence on the matter probably has to do with the fact that his own tears are on the brink of escaping, and it only takes a few seconds while the man opens and closes his mouth, struggling to say something, for them to start falling, as well. "Thank you," Dan finally manages, taking a deep breath and looking up at him. "For being there for her. For both of them. Thank you."

"I love them," Lucifer responds quietly, barely a whisper, and Dan manages a shaky smile.

"I know."

Lucifer gazes at him for a moment, watching a few tears fall, and struggles to blink back the rest of his own, raising a hand to scrub at his face with a sigh. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but…" His voice wavers, shaking, for just a second. He doesn't bother to compose himself. "Daniel…"

"I know," Dan interrupts, a little quieter, and Lucifer just shakes his head.

"No." Swallowing, taking a breath to steady himself, he forces himself to meet the former Detective's gaze again. "I'm going to miss you. And by that I don't just mean tormenting you, although I will miss that quite a bit as well-" He manages to huff out a laugh, and Dan does as well, but the sound is choked, strained with tears as they well right back up again. "But I… I really am going to miss… I've grown fond of you, much as it pains me to admit it. You're…"

"Dude. You're God," Dan reminds him with another shaky laugh, but Lucifer can only shake his head again, despite the shaky grin that tugs at his lips. "You don't have to miss me. I'm here."

"In Heaven," Lucifer notes quietly, scrubbing his tears away.

Dan only smiles, shaking his head. "Which you own now, Lucifer."

Lucifer takes a moment to think about that, gazing at the man for a moment before lifting his gaze away and turning to look around. Heaven. He owns Heaven. He can come and go as he pleases. For the first time ever, he has… he has complete, free reign. Heaven, Earth, Hell. It's all his - and it's overwhelming, it is, it really is, but there's also a trickle of satisfaction, of relief. For the first time in his life, he feels free. Well and truly free.

He's smiling when he looks back down at Dan, though the tears haven't dried on his face.

"You're right. I do." Squeezing his shoulder lightly, Lucifer takes one more look around and allows himself a brief, genuine grin before letting it settle into something softer, warmer. "Charlotte's waiting for you…" He repeats after a moment. "Let's go find her, shall we?"

Dan grins back at him as another rush of tears well up and spill down his face. "Yeah."