Bird Nerds in Love
Chapter One
Ella dug into her cotton candy with gusto. The last month had been fun. Nice. All that good stuff she'd thought about over the years, and things she'd remembered from her time in college with Frederico. This silly stuff she liked the most, just holding hands and walking around the art houses and theaters and crazy boutiques near her neighborhood, chilling on her sofa and watching movies together and, okay, she was totally getting into the Bogie and Bacall old school stuff, and enjoying getting him up to speed on Star Wars. Well, except for the prequels. She was dreading having to rewatch Attack of the Clones. Sand was so coarse. God, why did Lucas get paid to write that?
Not that she was counting or bitter. Nope, no siree, not Ella, and not like twenty plus years later, not at all.
However, it was sweet and mostly easy dating Michael. As much as she adored Lucifer as the big brother she wished she'd had, and as much as she appreciated him trying to be her wingman of sorts, Ella found that her relationship with Michael went better when neither she nor he listened to Lucifer's advice. The so-called Devil's thoughts and plans worked great for him. But they'd made a mess of what she and Michael had been trying to do.
Then again, considering how long it had taken Deckerstar (great name, she was proud of coining it) to seal the deal, maybe she and Michael just needed to wear ear plugs around Luce. Great sex he apparently knew about (she'd been at the precinct with like the ninety plus people for that one month, wow), but relationships…well, Ella was pretty sure his twin was already lapping Lucifer in that department.
She was halfway done her sugary treat as Michael wind-milled his left shoulder near her. He was warming up. Ella hadn't asked him to try and do the strong man challenge on the board walk. Dear Big Guy, no. She knew that wouldn't go well. At all. However, they'd been enjoying the Santa Monica pier, and she'd already won him a present with the arrow shooting game. Seriously, she'd maybe crushed hard on Legolas in college and done a semester of archery as an elective. It was enough to win even a rigged game here. Besides, there was something adorable about the fluffy, plush chicken Michael had chosen for himself. He hadn't exactly named it Margaret, but she figured he'd be taking it back to his place to compliment his spreadsheet sheets.
Well, now Michael thought he needed to return the favor and win something for her. Which was flattering, but she knew…she just didn't want him to set himself up for disappointment. Besides, she had, perhaps in a glitch of common sense, invited Chloe and Lucifer along (after checking with Michael first), and Chloe had half a zoo in her arms after the games of chance. To be fair, Lucifer had only won about two-thirds of those. Anything he deemed too messy for his suit, he'd simply charmed the carnies into giving him something.
It was kind of cheating, but the dude could talk so…it seemed to work.
Again, not like these games weren't rigged anyway.
But now, because brothers were competitive and twins were extra competitive, Ella was watching Michael step up to the plate. So to speak. He had finished working out his good shoulder and eyed the board walk attendant before him.
"I'm ready for the mallet."
The guy with the faux hawk had actually let them take a lot of time, and Ella suspected it had to do with Lucifer and whatever "extra" he'd added. Fine by her too. She was probably supposed to care more when her friend either mojo-ed people (as Chloe called it) to get his way or bribed people. She didn't. Most of the time, Ella enjoyed Lucifer as a partner and brother in idiocy. It was fun. Chloe and Michael could fun police if they wanted.
She just wasn't sure why it was this event Michael had chosen to win for her.
It wasn't like Ella needed a giant plush neon bunny or elephant of her choice. Nope. Although, if it was a bunny it would go so well with her bright turquoise peep.
Michael took the sledgehammer, and as she watched, Ella noted that he held it easily. She knew for reasons that those things were pretty freaking heavy, even if you were basically a tree like the twins were. But it seemed to Mike, despite his shoulder and side, that the sledgehammer wasn't bothering him at all. As if to prove his point, he swung it around in a wind-mill gesture again.
Lucifer chuckled. "Well, Brother, no time like the present, is there?"
Michael nodded and glanced at Ella long enough to give her a small, shy grin. She prized moments like that. He was so thoughtful and, often, still so mired in his own issues and the fears he was working out with Linda (or so Ella hoped) that even around her, unguarded happiness was rare. Whenever Michael looked less than pensive, it lightened her heart.
"I've got it, Sammy."
"Sure, you do. I could just ask our young friend over here what he desires besides a crisp hundie."
Ah, that explained it. Lucifer had definitely bribed the kid with three nose piercings for all the time they needed. Ella eyed Chloe, who's expression had gone a bit more pinched. She wasn't really able to convey all of her anxiety in a glance, but she hoped Chloe got it, at least. If Lucifer in his expansive mood and, uh, his "brilliant" mind had thought of making sure Ella got a prize as part of the pay-off, that would not end well. Sweet as a gesture like that would be-and she really didn't need a literal pink elephant anyway-it would sting if Michael realized even if he failed, he'd have been circumvented by his twin.
Chloe sighed. "Lucifer, it's good. Hey, Michael, if you want to…any time now." Her words might have sounded short, but she winked at Mike. "There's still a few other rides to hit before Lucifer and I have to pick up Trixie."
Michael nodded, and to Ella's amazement, pulled his shoulder back high and slammed the head of the sledgehammer hard against the bottom of the game. The little bullet in the base rocketed up through the fake thermometer and, then, burst through the top. Lucifer seemed to come out of nowhere to push her and Chloe out of the way before the little indicator crashed back to earth and, maybe a little, made a hole in the pier itself.
"Demonios. What the hell was that?" Ella asked.
The carnie kid cursed a lot then. And it was a pretty creative string of epithets, she had to give him credit for that. "What the fuck man! That's my family's game. It's been with us since the fucking sixties!"
Lucifer rolled his eyes even as he stood straight and reached into his pockets for his (on brand) pentagram money clip. "Yes, and how much will it cost to get that fixed?"
"Dude, he ruined it. We don't even have the bullet anymore! It's in the fucking Pacific!"
Ella frowned between Michael, who finally had the modesty to set the sledgehammer down, and Chloe, and both were looking at each other and doing that "having a whole conversation without words" thing. She'd never seen those two do it before, but she'd definitely seen Lucifer and Chloe do it dozens of times especially over the last year or so since she'd been back from Rome and at the lab.
The kid was still furious, but he got less red faced and shouty when Lucifer handed more bills than Ella could guess at him. "I…holy crap, that has to be twenty grand."
"Oh closer to thirty, I'd wager," Lucifer replied. "Now, if you could get my brother whichever animal he wants for his lady, that would be most helpful. Chop-chop."
Michael was still having what had changed from intense looks to a glare off with Chloe when the kid called over to him. "Hey, uh, Mister? Which one do you want?"
Her boyfriend considered the question and then looked to the mounted displays of stuffed animals. He really was settling on the bright pink elephants, which, okay so not her style. "I'm not sure. Ella, which do you like?"
She sidled up next to him and threaded her arm through his good one. She'd have grabbed either, but he was so self-conscious about his weak side, that she tried her best not to draw extra attention to it. "The bright blue bunny looks so cool. He'll go with my peep, Peppa, and is that good?"
Mike chuckled back at her. "You heard the lady. The biggest, bluest bunny here. And, really, I wasn't exactly thinking straight." He shot Lucifer a death glare. "My brother has that effect on me."
The kid shoved the bunny at her. "Whatever dude, like that shit was crazy. My grandpa started this whole thing sixty years ago almost. No one has ever broken the damn thing."
Ella studied him closely. Yeah, she knew that Lucifer was really strong. The whole precinct had at least one story of Lucifer going ham on something. Considering how much broader he'd gotten in the last couple of years-and seriously she'd been surprised at the nudist colony thing that Luce had gotten so jacked-Ella could maybe consider with him steroids. However, Michael just…his right side was weaker, a bit shriveled for his arm and bad leg, probably from lack of consistent use or muscle damage or both. So she hadn't really suspected he was as strong as Lucifer currently on the left.
Or apparently that he could break carnival games of chance.
That was definitely a new one on her and, seriously, what had just happened?
Michael seemed to finally recognize her scrutiny, and he sighed and hunched up a little, as if trying to shrink into the background. As if a guy his size could ever be the wallflower. Hell, as if a guy who just hammered the game into the stratosphere would blend away.
"I really am sorry," Michael added.
The kid counted the bills Lucifer had given him and shoved most in one pocket and a good-sized chunk in his other. She knew that maneuver. Ricardo pulled punk moves like that. The carnie kid was skimming off his family business. Then again, he wasn't still cussing out Michael, so it was progress.
"Look, dude, you broke it and he bought it. I figure we're square." He looked at Chloe and her menagerie of stuffed animals from all over the boardwalk. "Hey," the kid added, looking back at Lucifer. "For all you did, your lady there can get a freebie stuffed animal prize. Would you like a rabbit?"
"Oh, I'm sure the Detective has one up in her bedroom; am I right, darling? It's superfluous of course, but a Devil can't always be everywhere."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "No, not even kind of funny."
Ella stopped herself from chuckling a little. "It was low-hanging fruit."
"It's always low-hanging fruit," Chloe joked good naturedly.
Michael slid his good arm around her shoulders and followed the lead of his brother and Chloe as they started down the board walk. Chloe was animatedly already moving onto any other subject and suggesting maybe some funnel cake next.
Her boyfriend blinked down at her and frowned. "But Chloe doesn't have a pet bunny. So, I don't understand about the rabbit."
Lucifer was about to open his mouth when Ella beat him to it and described in rapid fire Spanish what would happen to him if he answered his brother's confusion. The alleged Devil (and possibly the saddest method actor she knew) clamped his mouth shut and shook his head.
Michael gave a low whistle. "I am amazed."
"What?" Ella asked.
"I never thought I'd see Sam find at least three women who could shut him up with a look. It's nothing our parents were ever able to do. Home would have been far quieter if they had been."
"Oh, ha bloody ha, Mikey."
"Let it go," Chloe said. "Forget about the double entendres, Lucifer."
Michael shook his head. "I still don't get when a rabbit isn't a rabbit."
"It's not worth it," Ella supplied. "Oh, and please never Google that. Just, um, I'll explain so much later."
"Oh," Michael replied.
Damn it, Lucifer couldn't resist so many openings. Ugh, and now she was thinking in sex puns but still. He chuckled to himself and then added to his brother, "Yes, 'o' indeed since that's the idea."
Michael's pace seemed to slow, and she squeezed his left hand. "Hey, no worries, let's let Lucifer and Chloe do the funnel cake thing," Ella offered. "I already had the cotton candy and this much sugar is so going to my thighs anyway."
"I like them," Mike added.
She blushed and, okay, maybe preened a little before him. "Sure, well, what do you want to do? Chloe did the roller coaster and Lucifer wanted games of chance, and I got to introduce you all to churros. So, what's your poison, corazón?"
Michael considered that and glanced over her shoulder. "I…have you ever done the Ferris Wheel here?"
Ella gulped and the sweat was already covering her palms. Heights and her were so not mixy things. That story involved her, both Cesar and Alejandro, and a double dare that she could scale their fire escape blind folded. Um, she ended up okay, but spoiler alert? You couldn't do that from the fourth floor with your eyes covered, or at least she couldn't. Ella had avoided heights ever since.
But he was looking back her with the wide, expectant eyes of giant Labrador. "It's fun, right?"
She gripped his hand tighter and promised herself she'd make it. It was safe, and he was here, and she was so not going to be scared of a ride for kids. "Yeah, let's do it to it."
Okay, so she hadn't meant to, but Ella had lied. Not to Michael because she'd gotten on the ride, but to herself. She thought she could just burrow into his side and not panic, but that wasn't how it was going. Ella was trembling next to him and struggling to focus on just Michael's face. Beside her, her boyfriend was studying her with those fathomless and piercing dark eyes of his.
That was the thing he shared the most with his twin. Both dudes could win any staring contest on the planet, she was sure. It was a little overwhelming.
"Are you okay? You're trembling."
Ella curled up against Michael, and some days she swore that his left side was sometimes like trying to cuddle up against steel. Clearly, Mike was stronger than she'd assumed, even with his right side troubles. That carnival worker and his family would either have to order a new machine or…yeah, they'd definitely be ordering a new one. Which, okay mondo weird.
Unless she was overthinking it.
Was she overthinking it?
Not too long ago, she'd accosted him with one big-ass, grey feather and accused him of being an angel. Her abuelita and her mamí were right. She was just un montón de locuras, and she was lucky anyone ever bothered to date her at all. Ella was fine. Ella was normal, and Ella would not ask her boyfriend how he broke a strength machine one-handed. It was sixty years old; maybe it was just its time.
"Ella? Are you okay?" he asked.
She shook a bit more and forced herself to focus on his face and not the fact that the pier was easily thirty feet or more below. Why was this fun again?
"Yeah, I…okay maybe I have a bigger fear of heights than I thought."
Michael squeezed her shoulder and frowned. "I could have just…if you'd wanted, I would have skipped."
"Well, we got to do what everyone else wanted. I didn't want you to feel you weren't getting your turn."
Michael brightened at that, the rare smile that only she felt she got to see. Possibly Linda sometimes because Michael really enjoyed Charlie too. Every time he talked about his nephew, he got so excited. Every tiny milestone she learned from him. She wasn't sure Lucifer paid the kiddo that much attention whenever he was over for family dinners.
Figured.
You could take playboy away from Lux, and get him totally into a cute situation with Chloe, but you couldn't take it all out of him. Kids? Not really, though he was warming on Trixie. Babies for the so-called Satan of Sunset? Yeah, not at all.
"You were willing to be scared just so I could ride the Ferris Wheel?"
She rolled her eyes and breathed easier as they made a rotation to the ground. "Well, I didn't want to be selfish."
He chuckled warmly at her words. "Ella, I don't think you could ever be selfish. But next time, I can…well, I wouldn't ride things with Sam because he's annoying. But I can enjoy things on my own while you wait. I don't want you to be scared near me."
"I'm not! I'm scared of…mierda…and we're going back up again." Her voice was getting shriller; she knew it. But she hated heights. Frankly, the Detroit fire department still wasn't thrilled from the time it had come out to rescue her idiot middle-schooler keister either. Thanks Ricardo. "I just maybe am not a roller coaster or Ferris Wheel or ooh a sling shot style ride. Not for me."
"Then now we know."
She frowned at him as he looked out at the pier and the ground before them. Despite his concern for her, he was smiling at the view. There were things she'd pieced together about Michael from what he'd told her-the things that weren't actually lies-but she knew he'd been an accountant or done work in that arena on the east coast. She knew that he and Lucifer clearly came from a big old cult no matter what they called living back home with their dad, and that Lucifer had once when they were younger hurt Michael horribly. Michael swore he'd given Lucifer almost as good as her friend had given, but Ella couldn't see where or how. Honestly, even with their hyper competitive streaks and their sniping at each other, it was a miracle they got along as well as they did.
Especially since Michael, at first, had been dumb enough to mess with Chloe.
Lucifer was known to go all Chernobyl on stuff like that.
But he'd also mentioned a few things about war and strategy, and not in the way that she'd always thought of them when she was on a D&D campaign or out LARPing. The dude would mention things like he knew them, and she wondered a little if before Lucifer had hurt him so, if Michael had been army. However, with the way he gazed at the sky and the view, the haunted and almost nostalgic look on his face…Ella wondered if she'd guessed wrong.
"Were you in the air force?" she asked. Then, when he didn't answer right away, Ella kept blurting. "I mean, maybe you weren't and I'm totally off base. I mean you and Amenadiel sound American and Luce is method, but maybe you're from a different country wherever your family is from so it could be a huge leap but I was just…I dunno…trying to figure out why someone would like heights so much."
Michael blushed a little, and it was adorable. "Am I that transparent?"
She nodded. "You like the view as much as I'm quaking in my sneakers about it. So, am I right?"
"Once, I was in the service. I wasn't here because, you're not completely off base, and despite Sam's affected accent-and he's had many over the years, don't let him fool you-my family's not from here."
"Ooh, so Lucifer could have had INS problems after all. Did he?"
Michael laughed and drew her closer to him. "Not at all. Family business is always complicated."
"Yeah, I used to think me and all my brothers were messed up, but, honestly, you guys might come from a family crazier than mine. I can't say I like your dad much. Everything Lucifer's said sucks."
"Well, Samael has his own take on everything. I…once I loved Father very much, but things changed. It was a rude awakening."
She nodded and sighed. She loved her dad desperately. Her mom and abuelita too. However, something had broken between her and her parents, something that never had quite healed over after her exorcism (that so didn't work anyway). Whatever had happened with all three brothers and their dad sounded a fuck ton more complicated.
And sadder.
Although Amenadiel never talked about it the times she did see him, and he seemed to be an adoring and devoted father. Maybe he'd learned just by doing the exact opposite. Michael held it all deep down and tried never to bring it up with her, and Lucifer…well, he was so upset at his father that even if someone mentioned God, Lucifer would complain about him.
"But wherever you're from-" she said, letting it hang and hoping deep down that for once Michael would offer her a bit more about his past.
As she suspected, he did not.
However, he did continue on the military topic. "It's not close to Los Angeles, not at all. But I was a soldier, and before…" Michael sighed. "…before Samael and I fought, I was very good at what I did, led my troops well."
"So flying was involved? Oh my God, can you like fly a jet?"
Michael beamed back at her, pride evidently bubbling through him. This was rarer still than an unguarded laugh or smile. When he sat up like that, then, yeah, he did remind her a bit of his brother. It was nice to see him be able to be so confident in something he'd done. Sometimes, Ella worried he defined himself by his twin-both because Lucifer had hurt him and because he felt in L.A. still like he was just borrowing Luci's friends.
As far as Ella was concerned, that was not true, but it might take longer for the Deckers to come around, if Trixie and Chloe ever fully did, and, to be fair, they might not. Michael had lied at first.
Like a lot.
But as they made yet another rotation-and they had to be done soon right-Michael smiled broadly and spoke. "I was so good in the air. It was something I'd been born to do, and I was better than anyone else, even Sam."
She blinked, trying to reconcile the zorro of a friend she currently had, the, well, manwhore of a bestie, with an actual soldier. Try as she might, Ella could not get over the cognitive dissonance.
"Lucifer? Like your twin? He was in the air force or squadron or whatever you call it where you're from?" She wanted to add pointedly that it was some Big Guy-forsaken country that seemed to be averse to phones and internet signals, but she wasn't going to press.
"He was. Sammy was never disciplined. Ever. But he was strong and had a great instincts. He was almost as good as I was. If he had ever applied himself, he'd have been better." Michael's mood soured and his right shoulder hunched even higher. "We were, perhaps, too well matched, you know?"
"Cause you fought and…"
Michael nodded, and the ride finally came to a blessed stop. She stood first, hopped off, and smiled patiently as Mike eased off at a more leisurely pace. Ella neared the Ferris Wheel car door so that Michael could brace his left hand on her shoulder as he stepped down. They garnered a few stares because people could be total assholes-she remembered that well from her years of rehab on her leg-but screw them too. This was fine.
This was them.
"I'm sorry you two have spent a long time fighting." She offered, even as she took his hand in hers and they walked to the souvenir shops.
Lucifer would not be caught dead buying anything there for himself, but she knew him well enough to bet he was agonizing something to get not just for Chloe but for Trixie and, probably, something that was a prank to use against Dan too. She was pretty sure one of the stores was a magic shop that sold whoopee cushions and fart spray and…yeah, she was glad she was dating the other one. Lucifer was a good friend, but the living definition of high maintenance.
Then again, the fart spray would be funnier than just more pudding pranks…
"Sometimes I am too. I…at the end of the day, Father pitted Sam and me against each other, and it was as it was. I was doing what I was asked."
"Yeah, and parents-"
"Can suck," he said, winking at her and making her laugh as he borrowed her phrase. "But it's okay for now."
"But you still miss flying a lot, don't you?"
Michael looked to the sky and sighed. "I can muddle through, but I suppose, ah, commercial is nothing compared to something more intense. I used to feel one with the clouds, and I can honestly say it's been eons since I've felt like that."
Ella sighed and led him to the souvenir stands and, like she often did these days, forced her keen forensics brain not to focus on the pieces that didn't fit. She would not think of the broken carnival machine or the country the three brothers were from that they wouldn't name or, most confusing of all, the way that the Lucifer she knew didn't square with a soldier long ago who could have hurt Michael so badly. They all niggled at the back of her brain sometimes, but she would not let that bother her.
At least not today.
She was fine and not crazy, and Ella so was not going to accost anyone with feathers again. She'd ruined her shots in college. Damn it, her locuras would not ruin this; Ella wouldn't let them.