Author's notes:

Right on time to celebrate an all new 'season/spin off' (it changes all the time, can't tell which is it this time) with Tom Ellis as the Devil, am I not?

This show, guys… Never-ending show!

Let's drink/read to that!

(also, there's a slight 'smut' in this chapter - veryyyyy slight, but still - if you don't like this kind of stuff, just skip it) And thanks for your support on the last chapter! =3

Music

Tell you about it | War Hall


YOUR GAME, YOUR CHOICE

7


At 11 AM, Chloe comes into the lab with a loud sigh and sullen face. The walls and Ella's microscope could have trembled with just her breath. Ella stops focusing on her work to give her a worried look. "Hey, Decker. What's the sullen face for?"

Chloe puts her files at the edge of the table, which adds sound effects to their uselessness. She shakes her head, sighing again.

"Fifty," she says, annoyed. "That's the number of people who might have seen something at the crime scene or at the youth center and its surroundings. But none of them seemed to notice anything useful! Can you believe it?"

The fire in her gaze could have burned these files on the spot. Curbing her desire to gather the files and start a fire with them, Chloe sits on the free stool next to Ella, exhaustion weighing on her shoulders all of a sudden. Weight, void... the void is never minimalist and, in her case; well, let's just say it's not gonna be any time soon.

"Sadly, I can. A lot of time passed before this lady was taken care of," Ella sympathizes as she removes her glasses and throws her gloves into the yellow bin. "It's rare that people cared that long for someone, y'know?"

Ella's right. Many clues have been lost or wasted between the presumed time of death and the police arrival. Still... few clues don't mean no clues at all. This isn't her first case, her first dead body in L.A. streets with bad conditions to investigate right from the beginning. There is always something to use, some detail, some link to something important.

It wouldn't show up easily, that's all.

It's here, though.

Chloe nods. "I get the feeling that one of those kids saw something. Trouble is, I've got nothing, no proof. Can't pressure them to talk to me with nothing, can I?"

She can still see their lawyer laughing at her when she presented the only two bits of evidence she got from the crime scene. Water in streets? A cross?

"Are you looking for a suspect or just a reason to make us waste our time here, Detective?"

She has been surprised to meet such a high qualified defense attorney, knowing how the youth center had a lot of trouble gathering donations lately. Perhaps he was doing this for free, perhaps it was somewhat personal? Selflessness is rare, rare but not nonexistent, thank God. Chloe would have applauded his efforts if he wasn't throwing a wrench in her gears. That and Lucifer's donation - because that might be why the center has been so well defended all of a sudden.

Not that that changes things for her; she is at a dead end and can't get through this case on her own.

Charlotte could have helped her to get through the impenetrable wall forged by the center's lawyer, this Ryan Bartson. With this thought, Chloe feels her heart clench in her chest. It's only been a year, but it seems much longer. With this thought, she begins to freak out again. She can't stop thinking about Lucifer's departure, past and future - about the possibility of a permanent departure, really permanent this time. Anyway, this isn't how she's supposed to think about his return.

He's back.

Whether he is just once or not, it's one more time than Dan would ever have.

This is a 'permanent' departure.

Chloe takes a deep breath, her gaze led upwards.

But Charlotte is at peace. And maybe Dan will join her, some day; it's up to him. It's all about guilt.

What about me?

What will happen to her after she dies? Lucifer never doubted that she would have her place in Heaven - this 'Silver City', as he called it. She often wonders whether the name is close to the reality or not. The Devil's reality is mostly confusing to follow, after all. The Devil, precisely; the one to whom she's now linked, in the most unprecedented of ways, even though it has been told, mythified for centuries.

Persephone, Queen of Hell.

Chloe Decker, The Devil's mate.

Is it going to influence her final destination after death somehow?

She thinks over Lucifer's words.

"Never. I'd die before it happens, Chloe."

The noble sacrifice increases her heartbeats, but... it's not a 'no'. Nothing is less certain, if he swore he'd do anything to avoid it. She's not out of the woods yet. She may not be going up there and never see Charlotte again, or her father.

"No wonder your dad is so proud of you."

Proud.

Hard to be if he sees her from Heaven, from her point of view - looking for the killer without planning, looking for a pretext to accuse one of those kids of murder. Life hasn't been easy for any of them so far, each one of them has a reason to want to harm this woman. She was 'ease', Life's injustice... or just an outlet for their old pain and anger born from an unhappy childhood.

Only suppositions, defamation in the worst case; as the lawyer has repeated to her, over and over again.

Wrong supposition? Possibly. There's something - something with this death, the way it looks - that dismisses a teenager's straight involvement in it.

That leaves her 'circumstantial' involvement...

Apart from the murder itself, one of those kids surely has this stolen check from Penelope. If only she could use this to put pressure on them, she'd get what she needs to pursue her investigation. Robbery, murder - the crossing line between the two is so close. And even if it isn't one of them, they could lead her to the real murderer, just because they'd freak out they'd get busted as an exemple. She doesn't need much to frighten them.

'Not much', She doesn't even have that.

"Ella, princess of the Laboratorium Dynasty is here to help, sis'!" Ella comforts her, thumbs up. "But no doubt that super Lucifer Mornings—"

She then looks behind Chloe, towards the closed door, through the window showing the rest of the precinct. Her thumbs up go slightly down. "Where's Lucifer?"

"Not here," says Chloe, so fast that her anxiety about him can be distinctly heard.

She more or less managed not to think of him since Linda left her on her doorstep, both of them hurrying to go to their respective work. Fifty arduous and useless talks with suspects; it's a minimum to forget the Devil. At least Chloe still feels able to feign ignorance.

Lucifer being back in her life didn't change her talent for pretending not to notice the obvious, she's even improving. From one point of view, one would have thought that she's been influenced by him in many ways - first and foremost denial of a long list of flaws, but that would have been lying. It's her, and only her, who had denied the obvious for years.

What's a minor denial about how much time they'll have together until his next departure when she had fiercely pretended not to notice the Devil's identity? What about the fact that she may end up in Hell after her death, she may no longer have any control over her feelings, over her reactions; all these alarm signals that she has been ignoring for two weeks?

Oh yeah, Chloe's the champion of denial.

"You two should take some time to talk," Linda suggested to her before going in her car and leaving.

Talk... if only it was that simple.

It is.

She finds herself trapped in Ella's tight embrace in a second, her friend rubbing her back. "Oh, girl! It's fine, he's fine. He is fine!" she tries to comfort her, her breath tickling her neck. "I'm sure he is, don't worry, Decker."

"I- I don't," Chloe reassures her, puzzled. "Why would I?"

Lucifer's not here. This isn't something bad.

No big deal.

"No need to play hardball with me, lady! You've barely left each other for a second since he's back. And that's okay, and so so so cute and… and I'm sure Lucifer has a very good reason for not being here with you, like he usually does. There's no need to freak out, right?"

"Right," repeats Chloe while pushing softly on Ella's arms so that she can breathe a bit easier. "It's okay, he's just…he's just running a bit late, that's all. It's fine."

Saying this, Chloe takes notice of the truth, the excessive but nevertheless truth in Ella's speech. In two weeks of time, Lucifer has never - ever - missed one single appointment with her. Always on time, sometimes earlier, he has been here; at her side. With the consuming need to feel his presence, she has never complained about it herself, never asked for a change either. Both liked the effort, being back to normal; both disliked these long hours on their own, waiting for an all new day to dawn, for another moment together.

Lucifer even has complied with paperwork lately, quite willingly. Most of the time.

Shit.

They've become so addicted to each other so fast. This 'Persephone' thing is far more serious shit than Chloe has thought first.

Your addiction is much older than that, she thinks despite her common sense, thinking along with her primal senses instead.

There's nothing to worry about. Being late, not warning her about being late, not calling his partner and... who is she to him now? Anyway, it's normal.

Denial.

"There's nothing 'normal' whenever Lucifer is involved."

It can be, though.

Denial staring you in the face, girl.

"Found something since this morning?" Chloe asks Ella, pushing away her thoughts about Lucifer's abnormal behaviour.

"I'm still waiting for news from t—"

That's when a 'bip' interrupts Ella, who turns to her laptop next to her microscope. She leaves Chloe and checks her emails, a smile growing on her lips.

"I was waiting for news from the toxicology department," she finishes.

"About the water we found?"

"No, it's for the victim. Nothing came up from the water. It's just... water." Ella shrugs without looking at Chloe. "With a bit of sodium chloride."

Chloe frowns. "Sodium, you say? It's salt water, then?"

"Seems so. Anyway, given the death location, the dirtiness of streets, the number of people and cars there; it could-"

"It could be nothing," Chloe says, disappointed.

She can't use this detail either. However, the way the water has been spread around the victim's head stays suspicious, whether it has been salted or not by the killer. Why even draw this trace on the ground? What's the point for him? The victim was already dead or weakened enough not to resist him anymore. Was it some kind of ritual? It may be. Some weird ritual.

This case has nothing to do with passionate, violent and messy crimes she dealt with before. It's usually a matter of circumstances, desperate people raising their voices until the worst happened. Most of the time, it's about revenge, about people getting scared and losing their mind. It doesn't sound like their killer here. He's precise, careful.

"Well, there's definitely 'something' here!" Ella tells her, pointing to a sentence with chemical results on her screen.

Chloe sits up and reads the information with interest. "Tetrodotoxin?"

Ella nods. "Lethal dose. That could explain why her lips and fingertips turned blue. We first thought she died by suffocation, but… we were wrong! There were no signs of strangulation, although we noticed eyes bleeding and petechiae on her body."

"So she got poisoned? Not strangled?"

"Both, sort of."

Chloe gives her a confused look. "I'm not following you."

"Tetrodotoxin is a strong neurotoxin that will block nerve impulse, like its name says. The brain can no longer pass orders to 'breathe'. Like L.A. afternoon traffic in town?"

Suffocation by poisoning, then. It's a lead, a real lead to use. Chloe nods, thinking about other leads possibly linked to this one. "And this tetrodo-stuff here... how long does it take to affect you?"

"Depends. Several people showed signs of poisoning fifteen minutes after their meal. Not that it made any difference," Ella adds with a sigh. "There's no efficient antidote to use so far."

"Wait, did you just say 'meal'?"

"Yeah! Tetrodotoxin is oozed by a fish that is so difficult to cook! Only experienced chefs dare to cook it. Oh, I know there's one in L.A. Maybe we—"

"Another time. What fish?"

"Oh, there are plenty of fish. Not just fish, actually, but you'll find higher doses of toxins in fugu. Delicious! So I've heard."

"You think she ate some before she died? You said the toxin was fast-acting," Chloe wonders.

"Sometimes, but it tends to affect people four to six hours after ingestion. And our dear rich lady had nothing in her stomach. Not even puke signs around her mouth or inside her throat - one of the first signs of food poisoning."

"We can rule out accidental death, then," Chloe whispers, rubbing her chin. "Is there another way to get it in your system? Other than food, I mean."

"Ow, it's soluble in water, so... you can add it to any liquid, inject it as well. Even your skin can absorb it through the pores, but 'not the same effect in this case. It's less effective. I'd bet on a liquid here."

"Why?"

"No visible signs of injection and skin rash. She drank it. Trust me, Decker!"

Chloe walks away from her friend, reviewing the possibilities presented to her. Finally. A deadly toxin ingested without her knowledge, was that it? It's more than likely. The most important question remains, though; where? The 'where' that would lead her to the 'by whom' faster and more efficiently than all those files scattered on the table. Had Penelope Sanchez been poisoned at her place before coming, as usual, to the youth center to give her check? Her personal driver didn't make any detours between her place and the center, that's what he told her, he even swore it. But Penelope left alone, without telling her driver, without telling anyone.

Why?

"What would have been the other symptoms?" she asks after reaching the end of the table, slowly turning towards Ella.

She thinks for a brief moment."Well, let's see…. Nausea and vomiting, we already know those two little naughties. First, your lips and tongue go numb. Then comes dizziness, headaches. After that... oh yeah, almost forgot! Abdominal pain, tremors. Complete paralysis! And the grand finale, of course; cardiac arrhythmia, respiratory failure - both fatal."

The long list of symptoms makes them both wince. Death is more gentle than that, sometimes, even when it's brutal. Brutal and quick; isn't it better than slow agony? Chloe frequently wonders about this, but there's no good answers at that, nor simple ones.

"Okay. So... if she had felt dizzy, if she had been disoriented after being poisoned, she had probably wandered into the nearby neighborhood, looking for help maybe? 'Might explain why we found her in the middle of the street," Chloe thinks aloud.

She shakes her head, feeling all the more sorry for the victim.

She suffered, alone. Probably for quite a long time.

"She didn't understand what was happening to her."

"But we're gonna find answers for her, aren't we?" Ella supports, supporting Chloe at the same time, with her touching awkwardness.

"Yeah, we'll figure this out. I have a lead to get things moving now."

She has enough leads to apply pressure to plausible suspects now, enough to rule out many other leads in a flash. A more direct accusation, wrapped in solid facts; this will be enough to loosen tongues. Many masks would fall at the mere mention of poisoning - those kids would quickly lose any desire to test her authority and patience. As for the lawyer, he would have no other choice than reconsider his approach.

Evidence, presumption... the line is thin, just what she needed.

With Lucifer's convincing support, it would be child's play.

Once again at the center of her thoughts, Lucifer's physical absence feels like a hole in her chest, where her heart is supposed to beat. She checks her watch, worried that she still hasn't seen him outside the lab. Maybe it's time to call him. It's just a call, after all - nothing too much, nothing related to irrational anxiety after two weeks of strict punctuality. She just needs her partner.

She would have reacted the same way before.

Before.

Right now.

Afterwards.

"It's, mh... It feels like I'm completely messed up from the inside out."

"Things got confused since he's been back."

Chloe distractedly rubs her fingers on the glass of her watch.

She would have reacted the same way before.

Maybe. On the other hand, you might be influenced by this 'thing' for much longer than you'll ever admit.

A thing? This isn't a 'thing' - this is simple. Simple like a phone call can be. Chloe thanks Ella and leaves the lab, her files stuck under one arm, her free hand already busy looking for her phone in the pocket of her lilac jacket.

Just a call.

Calling him doesn't prove anything, it's just... calling. She can't be that much affected by this 'pattern'. She may have sent Dan packing for nothing yesterday, but - as Linda reassured her - anyone else would have. It was nothing, nothing but the expression of her sincere feelings for Lucifer, nothing caused by some damn prophecy, pattern, possible future o-or—

Denial, denial, denial. You're burying your head in the sand, Clo.

She stops halfway to her desk, sighing loudly.

It's getting ridiculous.

She knows how she feels. What she felt that night, what she's been feeling since he came back. She knows how she feels at the mere thought of his next departure, of this brief respite that God gave them.

Like it's enough….

She looks without blinking at the screen of her phone, not moving an inch, chewing on her lower lip, exhaling her doubts. It was enough; before all this. Still, Chloe is about to reach her limits. She's getting tired of living in fear, with her excessive emotivity, Lucifer's half-answers, the tacit denial between them and the rest of the world.

They wasted so much time not talking about it.

Denying the facts.

She knows what she needs to do, what they both need. She knew, long before Linda's clues.

She's had two long weeks to find out.

It was so simple.

And yet, instead of starting a real conversation with Lucifer, Chloe prefers to start one with her friend instead. What better than cowardice to succeed in denial?

"Hey, Linda," she says as soon as her friend picks up the phone. "Have you by any chance seen Lucifer this mor—"

"I'm not responsible for whatever he's said or done, okay?!" Linda exclaims straight away.

Chloe feels one of her files sliding under her arm and walks into the kitchen, putting it on the counter. She frowns, surprised by her reaction.

"O-okay?" she finally answers. "Not what I'm asking but… good to know. I guess?"

"It's not?" Linda sounds surprised too, almost… relieved?

Chloe feels unpleasant apprehension rising from her guts. "So, you saw him."

"I-" Linda hesitates, then confirms that Lucifer has indeed come to her office. "I did. But you know I can't tell you what our session was all about," she adds quickly.

"Again, not what I'm asking. And if we think about it… you started first."

"Yeah, well… I- I though-"

"You thought 'what'?" insists Chloe, ever more puzzled.

A long sigh ensues. "You'll find out soon enough. Knowing him."

Chloe's face wouldn't have been able to express any deeper puzzlement right now. Turning around, she exclaims, "What the hell are y—?"

Her gaze naturally finds its way to her desk, the rest of her sentence stopped in tracks by puzzlement and exasperation.

"Never mind," she sighs, not taking her eyes off Lucifer. "I got the picture."

She hangs up, leaving files and leads behind and gets to her partner with a few steps. She gazes without a word at the two women accompanying him; one is sitting on Chloe's chair, on her knees and her rump enhanced by a blue mini-skirt. Lucifer and the other woman are huddled together, her hand under his jacket - she would have touched him further down if Lucifer didn't dismiss her advances with a gallant but firm grip around her wrist. He lets her stay close to him, though - not even ill-at-ease.

Then, his gaze meets Chloe's.

She lets pass the wave of emotions roaring within her; the Devil's indivisible effects on her and vice versa; she can tell by how his posture just changed. His entire body turns towards her rather than towards the woman at his side, she looks even more like leech. He smiles at her and Chloe does her best not to smile back at him.

Difficult, although not impossible.

The chuckles of those women near Lucifer help her a lot.

"Detective! Right on time!" he welcomes her, enthusiastic.

Chloe doubts she's managed to control her emotions in Lucifer's presence, but it looks like she worried about nothing. The trick is to watch Lucifer being completely indifferent to what he's provoking in her. It shouldn't be that perceptible on her face, in her eyes or her body reactions, then.

That's a good thing, right?

Still, she'd appreciate it if he'd notice.

Chloe crosses her arms on her chest. "What for?"

"Is it her?" one of the young women asks - the one slumped on her seat - after looking at Chloe for a long time.

Opening his mouth to answer, Lucifer is interrupted by the other bimbo who no longer seems near death if she doesn't rub her boobs against his Armani. "She's pretty enough."

Chloe squints, offering a tense smile to the female tandem. "Thanks. Lucifer?"

The Devil winces slightly when he hears his partner's cold intonation. He holds her gaze, Chloe noticing the tension he's trying to hide under his usual devil-may-care-attitude. She thinks back to Linda's reaction on the phone; they had a session, talked to each other. What did they talk about, for then coming here with bimbos?

What's on his mind?

Lucifer grins, puts his arm around the leech's waist - if Chloe would have had salt she'd spray some on her face, really.

He finally does the introductions. "Detective, allow me to introduce you to the Brittanys. Brittanys, this is the Detective - your new partner."

Partner?

Brittany 1 sits up. "Hi, Detective. Wanna keep the title for the game, by the way?"

Chloe stares at her, puzzled. "Game?" she repeats, her crossed arms leaving her chest. "I—"

Brittany 1 shrugs, her heels clicking on the floor as she sits more comfortably. She twists a lock of brown hair around her index finger, always looking at the detective with interest. Chloe never thought she would blush from another woman's stare, moreover a Brittany.

She coughs, looking away, feeling as much uncomfortable with the second still busy touching her partner. Her anger moves up a rung, yet still unnoticed by Lucifer.

"Either is fine for me. It's more exciting if you keep it. Right, Lucifer?"

Brittany 2 repeats her title with an intonation that makes Chloe feel even more uncomfortable. "Detective. Oh it sounds so cool!"

She briefly moves away from Lucifer to clap her hands. And for a second, Chloe sees Eve before her, just long enough to blink. Lucifer is no longer with Eve, he's with her.

Her.

Chloe freezes.

Here's this possessiveness again. But she's the one who wants to say it loud and clear this time, not Lucifer. Like she did with Dan yesterday.

"When do we start?" asks one of the Brittanys.

Lucifer's grin widens. "Sounds sinfully exciting! Won't you agree, 'Detective'?

Lucifer's intonation acts differently on Chloe who, as embarrassed as she already is, does her best not to show how these four syllables are arousing her. 'Arousing' isn't close enough to express what she's feeling. She focuses on other feelings; perplexity, annoyance, embarrassment in front of her colleagues, in front of her superior and those civilians she's about to question. In front of Dan.

"He found his rightful queen, didn't he?"

Lips pinched, expression tensed; she approaches Lucifer who's ignoring Brittany 2. Indifferent to good manners, what he should do or not now that he's hers - is he, though? Just for a sentence at Lux, for a kiss, a verified prophecy? -, now that she's his. Lucifer arches an eyebrow when he feels her closer to him.

Like he's expecting something from her. Something specific.

If the goal was to piss her off, to humiliate her in public; it's a complete success.

"Interrogation room," says Chloe, jaws clenched. "Now."

A shadow crosses his gaze, disappointment he's hiding with smiles and relaxed attitude again. "Public performance it is, then?" he inquires. "Am I about to play the uncooperative suspect and you, ladies, the experienced detectives running out of time? Because I won't play it another way!"

Going red with both embarrassment and anger, Chloe gives him a death stare. "Lucifer."

He sighs, rolls his eyes. "Fine. We can start with the simplest," he complies.

"What about us?" complains Brittany 2 as he follows Chloe.

Chloe doesn't turn around, Lucifer's answer behind her pisses her off quite enough not to lay it on thick by gazing at these anorexic nymphomaniacs. "We'll be back soon, darling. Don't worry!"

Do worry. Lucifer is hers.

Chloe slams the door of the interrogation room, turns to Lucifer and exclaims; "What's your game?"

"Actually, we haven't started the game yet. This only makes sense with the Brittanys, or anyone else. As long as we have two more partners..." he says with a shrug. He frowns. "You don't like them?"

Chloe shakes her head, lost. "Like them?"

"Given their long experience in games, they were my first choice, but I won't mind if you choose other players - Men, perhaps? Or a woman and a man? I have varied appetites, as you know, it's not a problem. Let's see who's available for a couple of hours tonight..."

With these words, he looks for his phone, Chloe being speechless. A second later, she snatches the phone out of his hands, forcing him to look at her - something he hasn't done since they got in there. He sighs, not looking long. He then gives her a quick glance, looking amused.

She is not amused!

"Right, I get it. Your game, your choice…. Anyway, you'd better dismiss Alice from the list; she laughs like a demented witch on cracks when she comes."

"Lucifer!"

He finally stops jabbering.

Taking a deep breath to calm down, Chloe asks him; "Why did you bring those girls here? It's a simple question."

"But for the game, of course."

"What game?"

"Well, the kind of game going hand in hand with the Devil's stamina, Chloe. Now that you're the main source of it, I couldn't plan the next session without you! Besides, Linda thinks it's time for us to... what was the exact term?" He looks for words, snapping his fingers when he does find them. "Right! That we 'take the plunge'."

Chloe stares at him, mentally repeating each of his words to give them sense. When she finally does, she blinks several times, imagining things she would gladly avoid.

She starts to blush with barely a few visions and shakes her head. "Lucifer... are you…." She gulps, embarrassed. "Talking about a-a…."

Lucifer arches an eyebrow. "A foursome?" he finishes for her, to which she replies with a nod, turned speechless after her first two attempts. "Of course, isn't it obvious enough?"

Not for her, obviously.

Shaking her head once more, she lets out a nervous laugh - as annoyed as embarrassed by his sexual ambitions with her. Does she even have a say in the matter? Just the thought of Lucifer in bed with those bimbos, with her and—

Her laugh turns into throat clearing.

"I-I…" she mumbles. No. No."

He stares back at her. Surprised, only surprised. Neither embarrassed - of course, he's not - nor hurt by her refusal, nor discouraged by her own embarrassment, her prudery. Many men find this unattractive; a few of her lovers had broken up with her because she didn't know how to 'have fun'.

Letting go, trying new stuff.

But this is Lucifer.

They still haven't—

They still haven't tried more classic stuff in a relationship.

Of course they haven't. For good reasons.

She keeps wondering which ones have led him to propose to her such a thing. He and Linda have talked about their relationship, really? About 'taking the plunge'? Linda told him to take the plunge when she advised her to just 'have a little talk'?

Linda has nothing to do with this.

No, she would never encourage Lucifer to push Chloe this way. Lucifer's reasons, not Linda's.

"'No'?" he repeats.

"No," she says a third time, her voice sounds firm. "No fou— No."

Lucifer keeps staring at her, his expression half-puzzled, half-disappointed by her clear-cut 'no'. Chloe can feel there's more in this, hidden beneath his seeming composure. She still can't tell what exactly. Then Lucifer smiles; his expression changed when he realizes something she doesn't.

"Oh, I see;" he says, his voice has changed too; deep, confident. He walks towards her. "A one-on-one game then? Is that what you've got on your mind?"

Chloe walks backwards. She shouldn't. They are talking, so why is she once again unable to align two words in a clear sentence?

"I—"

"Well, I'm in if you are," he whispers, still moving forward.

Chloe's still moving backwards.

"Lucifer, I'm not—"

"Not interested?" He ends for her, pleased. Now, now, Detective.Lying to the Devil, really?"

Here's that intonation again.

Chloe quivers, moving backwards until her lower back meets the edges of the table. She leans backwards, gulps, dismissing quivers, thoughts with half-controlled inhalation. That's not to mention the Devil's determination to barely let an inch of breathable space between them.

She's shaking again as soon as he leans forward, his hands placed on the table near hers, so close to hers. He's a tall; unmissable, breathtaking sight before her…. His dark gaze fixed on hers, his face so close to hers.

"You're curious about this, aren't you?"

Chloe looks at his lips, she looks at him.

"About what?" she whispers, not moving away from him.

He's the first to avert his gaze and, for a moment, Chloe thinks he's done 'playing' with her.

He's not.

She can feel his lips graze her cheek, her earlobe. His hands are no longer on the table, but on her hips. "This."

Chloe's fingers twitch on the edge of the table. She breathes in his scent.

Blanton's Single Barrel and Merveilles.

She listens to his breath running on her skin, her raging heartbeats in her chest. She breathes out, closes her eyes. She listens to his voice, feels it run down her cheek, following the line of her neck. "This is what you desire, Chloe."

"You can't know it for sure," she replies, breathing in.

Not with her. With anyone else but her. Anyone.

"True." admits Lucifer, staying right where he is.

He presses his body harder against her. Chloe forgets how to breathe for a second. His breath close to her ear, he soughs; "But I can feel it."

His hands slowly move up to her breasts, applying slight pressure. He stops short after, doing it again when she's not ready. Chloe gets lost in the feeling of the fabric of his shirt against her skin, of Lucifer's proximity. There's only fabric between them. It's warm. Soft.

This feels nice. Really nice.

"I feel your desire for me. I can feel how curious you are," he continues, his fingers brushing her shirt buttons one by one, not unbuttoning one, going down, to the last button above her jeans.

His hand stops there. Chloe can't tell if she should feel relieved or not. "You're curious to know how far I could touch you if I'd go any further. You want to know what it feels like to touch me, to feel my skin against yours, to feel both our bodies move against this table, to hear it move with us. It might break under us, hm?"

She closes her eyes, bits her lower lip, holds back a moan. She could move, step aside, stop this right there; right now. She just has to move, say something.

Lucifer's hand moves lower, light pressure between her thighs. Her fingernails ache against the table. The combined pressure of his fingers, her jeans, the lingerie underneath; it's interesting, fascinating even. Chloe doesn't say anything. The pressure disappears as quickly as it appeared.

Disappointing.

She doesn't say anything about that too. Just an exhalation; long, trembling at its end, with the last pressure against her sex; him almost touching her. He pulls her shirt out of her pants, slowly. She lets him, not saying a word, not forbidding.

She can't help but press her body against his, can't help but imagine.

"We might be noisy, quiet... we could be caught in the act, or left all alone here until there'd be nothing left of this table, until this glass would shatter with our thundering lovemaking. Who knows?"

"Mmh…."

He has almost finished pulling the shirt out of her jeans when he pauses. Chloe opens her eyes. He's watching her, still waiting for this 'something' from her, of which she still can't tell its nature. Lucifer breathes in, out; heady breeze on her temple, in her hair. "Everyone could hear us; Daniel, Ella, the lieutenant…."

They could, yes.

Lucifer adds in a hurried tone; "The Brittanys? They're not far away, after all. They would know that you're mine - like everyone else here. That I'm yours, on this table, on the floor, against the glass..."

She holds her breath, waits and sees what's about to happen; the captivating explosion of all these possibilities.

"Anywhere, Chloe."

His lips come back to hers, open to her growing desire, to her speeding breathing when his gestures are slow, with mastery of desire she's curious about. Desire is the Devil's ground, but she is his Queen now. It's up to her to know, to control, to share his desires - whatever they might be. The two of them, alone or with others... from simple to complicated stuff, she stays his Queen, doesn't she?

She could know. Know everything.

Anywhere, in plain view, here or anywhere else.

He wants her, not those women. She has that power.

Chloe blinks, confused. She moistens her lips, these lips that Lucifer just left swiftly. She no longer feels his body against her, his hands on her are less devoted to fill her curiosity, frozen on her hips; hesitant touch on the fabric of her skin. Just a second ago, Lucifer was kissing her back, she heard him moan in her mouth.

She has felt his desire for her.

"Lucifer?"

"You just kissed me," he says, shaking his head.

She stares at him. "Shouldn't I?"

"No."

Unexpected response. Weird. He looks upset, very upset.

"I'm-I'm sorry?" she replies.

She takes her hands off his back, gives him the opportunity to step back. He keeps staring at her, still upset. Given the choice between a talkative and speechless Lucifer like he is at the moment, Chloe would choose the first option.

"What's wrong?" she asks him.

"Why kiss me?"

"I—"

Well, it's obvious why, right?

He then runs his hand through his hair, walking to the two-way mirror and then to the closed door. The empty space between them makes her shiver. She tucks her shirt back into her pants as he continues his ramblings through the interrogation room, a feeling of shame growing in the back of her throat. What was wrong with him?

"You're not supposed to react this way..." he mumbles to himself as he walks back to her.

"What did you expect?" she retorts, hurt.

He acts like she's the one to blame. He's the one who whispered interesting words in her earlobe, he's the one who touched her; he started all this... and yet, he didn't expect her to accept such advances?

"You were supposed to reject me."

"Sorry, what?"

"In my defense, my plan looked much more promising in my mind."

"Wh—"

Pulling on the sides of her jacket, she lifts her arms. "You were planning that I'd reject you?" She summarizes, flabbergasted. "Why?"

Suddenly less talkative, Lucifer only answers her with a shrug, glancing at her reaction.

Son of….

He's still trying, isn't he?

"Lucifer…" she warns him, pointing at him. "Stop trying to piss me off and tell me what's going on."

Giving her a faint scowl, he puts his hands in his pants pockets. "Any explanation would go against the plan, Chloe."

"On your death, and I swear that I'm doing my best not to strangle you right now - spit it out!'

She crosses her arms on her chest. It's hard not to strangle him, it really is. All this, these women, how he tried to piss her off; Chloe's already having serious trouble controling her emotions. A bad idea to upset the Devil's mate, perhaps more than the Devil himself. Lucifer makes a face, he knows she's serious. She shot him once, right?

He lets out a deep sigh, rubs his chin. "All this is for your sake, Chloe. I'm trying to keep you safe."

It doesn't sound good, but she stops herself from interrupting him, curious to find out what this is all about.

"I-I thought that, if we're now emotionally linked to each other, the opposite was also possible. Why not, hm? Such a literal love between the Devil and a human is already an unprecedented situation. I wanted to make you cut our link, given that I'm unable to do it myself and that you're the one who started all this… It made sense at the time." Shaking his head, Lucifer starts to complain about his failure. "Maybe I should have invited the Brittanys to join us? I'm usually more in the details, but I was running out of time."

"Yeah, you left plenty of them on the sidelines."

He looks at her, curious. "Did I? Which ones?"

"I'm not a toy, Lucifer."

Chloe's voice shakes with his name, clear utterance of betrayal, his betrayal. He doesn't even realize that, does he? Either that or he doesn't care about the consequences for her. That was the plan, wasn't it? He's acting according to his plan.

His plan.

Chloe clears her throat, looks everywhere else but him to hold back her tears, those uncontrollable emotions piercing through her heart. She isn't supposed to cry, to react to a plan, something planned. Emotions have no rights into this 'planned' situation, planned by Lucifer, who had swore to her - back to their first real date - that he would never try to manipulate her, to use her feelings for some evil plan.

She had felt stupid, ignorant.

A human perception, for sure.

Well, the Devil's perception sucks in comparison.

"You can't use my feelings for you like this. You have no right to manipulate me."

Grimacing with her accusation, with the implicit link between him and his Father, Lucifer roars; "I did no such thing! I'm trying to spare you any further manipulations from others!"

Chloe blinks, her eyes burning with tears, with emotions that could be manipulated by others. She shakes her head, breathes in, lets out a shaky breath before looking back at Lucifer; tense like a bow near the door.

"My bad, then... because I feel damn manipulated from here." She shrugs, arms still crossed on her chest bruised from the inside. "Must be a matter of perception, right?" she whispers.

He doesn't answer.

Not pretending to expect any from him, Chloe walks towards the exit, passing him to open the door. She turns her head slightly; Lucifer's looking at an invisible point before him, tense, frozen on the spot by his failure, his success perhaps.

"You better get back to Lux with these women. Let's not ruin your precious plan, hm?"

And she's gone.