Author's notes:

No jealousy - each version of this chap is published the same day! So much work on them… Gosh, I love this fic :3

#StaySafe #StayAtHome

Music

Chasing cars | Sleeping at last.


I'M NOTHING LIKE A BLOODY FRUIT BASKET!

9


Chloe's thoughts instantly come out of her mouth, dismayed possibilities she needs to say aloud. "D-Does that mean that we're related somehow? Like… like a 'stepsister'?"

Lucifer scoffs, "Absolutely not!"

She feels a bit ridiculous when she hears him mocking her dismay bluntly. Her face turns red. "Sorry if I sound that ridiculous to you," she mutters, taking a swig of wine under his amused gaze. " 'Human' perception, remember?"

"I remember. And that probably explains your… 'serene' reaction to such upsetting news. I assumed that you'd be upset - at least as upset as I've been."

Upsetting? That it is. To be honest, Chloe is really close to reacting as Lucifer expected her to. Of all the reasons he could have given her, she'd never have guessed this one. Yet, the world, this world, once more shows her that she's far from knowing everything. It's probably what's helping her keep a cool head; the lack of knowledge, of reliable facts. That's what she needs to properly react.

As embarrassed as she is right now, she's nevertheless relieved by Lucifer's mocking yet undoubtedly frank reaction. They're not related, nor do they have incestuous relationship through some equally weird Divine conception.

Good. Good.

She shrugs, purses her lips, the fruity bouquet of wine still on them. "I am, but... I just don't know what to do with it yet. Hence my first assumption, 'hilarious' if I take your reaction into account, mh?"

He sheepishly smiles at her.

"Was it that funny?"

"No, no," he reassures her. His hand spontaneously moves towards her knees, stopping halfway. They share another look, nearly bound to each other by another clumsy gesture. Lucifer's fingers eventually end up around his glass with throat clearing and averted gazes from their true desire. "Just unexpected," he says. "Where did the 'step-sister' assumption come from?"

"Well, Jesus Christ is known as God's son on Earth, right? And he's been conceived the same way, as the Bible tells it."

Lucifer rolls his eyes, sighing heavily. "Again with this story…." he grumbles as he finishes his drink.

"So... that's not what happened?" Chloe asks, intrigued.

"Many things didn't happen as that pontificating book tells it. For the few things half-understood by its authors, of course. Human perception, remember?"

"Okay, but- Which part of Jesus' story has been correctly understood by humans?"

"It's a long explanation. And has nothing to do with our business here."

She nods. Not the most important part right now - got it. "Let's save it for another time, then."

Lucifer's face lights up, long enough for her to understand the 'dramatic' extent of the news he'd experienced before. Her understanding is spreading too, so are her concerns, questions resulting from it. Being the miracle of God; what does that exactly mean?

"A miracle," she thoughtfully repeats, her gaze lost in wine ondulations. "So, God's not a part of me? I mean... if He helped my parents to conceive me - where does His influence end, where does it begin?"

Lucifer opens his mouth. However, Chloe's next questions prevent him from answering any of them. "How does it work? Can anyone see that I'm different? No, maybe not, especially if you found that out later. You found that out, right? So you didn't feel it from the beginning. Hold on!"

She has almost cried, startling him. With raising eyebrows, he waits; tense again, mouth shut on his answers about her. She looks at him, eyes open wide in new understanding.

"You did. You felt it!"

"I—," mumbles Lucifer for any answers.

"You suspected it from the beginning..." she whispers.

"Did my Father send you?"

It's really a matter of perception. So many details she'd missed, cast aside because she couldn't understand their true meaning. Imperceptible supernatural fine details. Chloe had felt ridiculous after finding out who Lucifer was. She is feeling ridiculous, not for assumptions this time, but for missing something so obvious.

Of course it is; it's plain as day.

Lucifer had always scrutinized her every move, analyzed her reactions, seduced her with his gift - his 'mojo', as she called it. All past and present failures. Even this morning.

He saw how different she was, right from the start.

"You knew, since we met."

Lucifer's finally able to say something. Or is it Chloe's silence that gives him a chance to say a word, to explain himself? Silence is nevertheless the best way to say how lost she is. "I didn't."

"You asked me if I was sent by your Dad," she blurts out. "I remember. You knew."

"I suspected something, yet didn't have any clues at the time. It took me a whole year to learn your 'miracle' side from someone else. Before that... All I knew was that you were oddly immune to my charms, that you made me vulnerable."

"A whole year?" she repeats. "I-Is that the truth?"

"Always the truth, Chloe. 'Point of pride for me, as you know," Lucifer adds, smiling understandingly.

Although their perceptions differ most of the time, they agree on the fundamentals. He understands how shaken she can be by the news, had always been aware of it when she hadn't, when she hadn't even deliberately conceived by God yet. He understands how she's feeling, how confusing it can be; having felt it himself.

That's what he said; he used the word 'dramatic' to describe what makes her so special. That and the fact that he learned to live with it. That he was still trying to, wasn't he? Why else would he start with this - the simplest motive, according to him? Of all the motives he had to manipulate her... that was the simplest one, really?

What was the most complicated one?

"Detective? Chloe?"

His voice startles her. She almost spills wine on him for the second time. Fortunately, she only splashes her tense fingertips around the edges of the glass. Her thoughts, subjected to anguish, came one after the other in her mind, although at a speed far below real time. Being in shock could be described this way, for the most part; a series of thoughts, immune to time. Lucifer is looking anxiously at her, because she hasn't said a word for a moment. He doesn't dare to touch her. Yet, it is clear for her that he wants to. He has unconsciously turned his body towards hers, has moved closer, close enough for her to feel the fabric of his pants with her toes.

Immune to his charms.

He isn't, immune.

As for her… not so much anymore.

"Are you all right?"

Chloe nods, a quick gesture. She repeats it until she decides to drown her thoughts in wine instead, what's left of it in her glass, at least. Alcohol charms, overly excited with her forthcoming inebriation, burn the inside of her throat. She coughs repeatedly, tears burning the corner of her eyes. She holds her glass against her chest, then nods for the third time. "'M a-al'ght. Just… dig'sting t-things." She can barely speak.

He gives her a skeptical frown. "I'd rather say 'swallowing', but let's not play semantics."

Chloe is close to choking again, her throat unable to choose between hysterical laughter and alcoholic coughing.

Despite the tears collecting in her eyes, she notices that Lucifer is as close to hilarity as she is. He's doing his best to keep a neutral - maybe sorry - expression. Anyway, the corners of his mouth turn up in the course of his breathing, each of his new exhalations lifting the mask. He holds on, however - how; she'd really like to know. She's still struggling to breathe properly! He is, although smiling more with every second she passes choking with laughter and alcohol. Lucifer resists until she finally manages to catch her breath and put her glass on the table. She breathes in, her closed fist in front of her mouth, drunk with laughter. She breathes out, moving her fist to the tears clouding her vision. "T-Thank you."

He lifts an eyebrow. "What for?"

Lowering her hand, she shrugs and sits cross-legged. "For distracting me from my... existential anguish. I needed that."

He looks surprised, "Oh? So that's what this rutting baboon laugh was - existential anguish?"

Her eyes blaze with annoyance. "How did you just describe my laugh?" Then she wonders, "'Rutting'? How can you even know when baboons—" Chloe shuts her eyes, letting out a deep sigh. "Can we just get back to the point and forget the last part?"

"Are you sure?" Lucifer asks her worriedly. "Won't you risk further anguish if we persist in this way?"

She shakes her head.

"That's why we're here, Lucifer. Going through unsaid things, which involves my existential human - miracle -... my anguish," she finally opts for this one with a trembling voice. She observes him sideways, her mouth curving into a smile. "Besides, I know I can count on you to get me back to the point if I ever get disoriented again. So, uhm…."

Chloe takes a deep breath, squeezes her hands together between her crossed legs.

"I'm a miracle," she repeats aloud; her voice quavering at first, stronger on the last syllable. She almost sounds fearless when she speaks again, "God's miracle, Your Father... God. As for you, you didn't know who I truly was. You figured that out a year after we met, is that correct?"

Lucifer nods.

"How did you find out?"

"My mother told me. Well, she first got the information from Amenadiel."

"And how did he find out who I was?" Chloe insists, clinging on to her deductive mind like one's clings to a board in the middle of storms.

Lucifer starts to squirm on his part of the couch, rubbing his hands together and avoiding her insistent gaze. Annoyed, being sorely tested by this new perception of things - this perception of herself - she puts a firm hand on his. That's all it takes to make him turn his head.

Not immune at all.

She could have enjoyed that, if she hasn't been struggling with these revelations in the first place. She even might have used it a little further - for unsaid, yet enjoyable distractions.

"Lucifer."

He sighs, "It was him".

"Him?" she repeats, puzzled.

"Father sent him to bless your parents."

Her hand tenses up on Lucifer's, who lowers his gaze. Turmoil shadows his eyes, which are focused on her fine fingers clinging to his, scratching them with her nails. This shadow is a possibility he can't stand, he can't stand the idea that she might cease to touch him one day. She knows, feels it - her gestures answer to the same fear, the same irrepressible need that has become inexplicable because of all these little unexplained details.

She can't stop touching him.

She doesn't want to.

"He met your mother in a bar," he continues. "This meeting was planned, that goes without saying. And nine months later…." He frees one of his hands and waves tensely at her, plastering a smile on his face. "Detective Chloe Jane Decker was delivered into this world."

The aforesaid Detective, delivered according to God's Orders, doesn't react, not with words at least. She's lost in thoughts, thoughts analyzing every sentence, every new piece of information, every new detail given by Lucifer. She goes through her all new perception; never pleased, neither convinced enough by his 'first motive'.

She thus decides to look deeper into it. "How does it work?"

"Excuse me?"

"How'd he do it? To make me become... what God wanted; how do you create a 'miracle'?"

Her questions catch him off guard. He scrutinizes her without a word, their hands still joined on his thigh. His brows draw together as he ponders, looking for the best way to describe a divine process to its human result. "It-It's not very complicated," he says. "It's as simple as AI, although an archaic insemination like yours would've been fruitless. Amenadiel— Let's just say that he 'fortified' both parties."

Her forehead puckers. Lucifer notices her confusion and adds, "Man's seed and woman's womb, Detective. Must I explain procreation to you? Given how Beatrice follows me everywhere, I'm pretty sure you got the 'sex' talk a long time ago!"

She giggles.

It's that simple, then? Just a 'little help' to mother nature, for setting in motion what was already there? Which means that… that she's exactly how, who she's supposed to be. With or without divine intervention. What mother nature hadn't been able to start, God had; nothing more.

"I'm as human as anyone else, then?"

He nods. "Except for a few details, yes."

A few details.

It took her a second to understand what he meant. She likes to think that she did thanks to her own deductive skills, through her experience as a homicide detective; not because she's a miracle. And the more she thinks about it, the more she understands. "That's why I'd be immune to your charms, why I make you vulnerable..." Chloe whispers, realization hitting her.

There's also another detail to add to these, the most important detail of the moment - more important than her perception, than her being a miracle of divine insemination. What matters, the most important detail here... is Lucifer, his perception. He said it himself; he's a one-of-a-kind being among celestials. Mostly amongst hordes of demons as well.

But not amongst humans.

In many ways, Lucifer reacts like any other human. He reacts to betrayal, rejection, loneliness, an abusive father's influence on his life; not necessarily direct, though - past actions had an influence over present ones. The Lucifer of the past, submitted to God's desires, intended to only live his henceforth. Anything looking like divine intervention in his life turns into odious manipulation.

A lack of choice.

Same as before.

This is his truth, his perception.

"You think I'm another of His manipulations, don't you?" she asks him.

"It's really well-played," Lucifer half-answers her. "Make sure that you'd resist me, that you'd change me; that's clever. Even knowing that, I couldn't keep my distance - that's how good He is at manipulating others!"

"Did it ever occur to you that you chose all this? That we both did?"

He looks at her as if she just insulted him. "You're a miracle, Chloe. You make me mortal and are immune to my devil charms. As far as I'm concerned, these three points are the opposite of choice."

"I don't see it that way, though."

Fearing that he would run away, shouting again about his lack of choices until he wakes up Trixie, Chloe slightly tightens her grasp on his hand. She tries to make him feel her affection for him through the touch. She rubs her thumb over his knuckles, passing each of her fingers through the light depression between each tensed line of skin. "Just think about it. You just told me that Amenadiel had only helped mother nature to do its work, which means that I'm who I'm supposed to be from the start. And, basically, human beings - human procreation - are only possible because Your Father wants to. I'm inevitably the result of His will... not that I give a damn about it," she adds with a glare up to the ceiling.

Her reaction relaxes Lucifer, who lets out a flabbergasted breath. They smile at each other. Hers is promising; his, lost.

"We all have free will," she pursues. "Yet, I'm the only one who's immune to your mojo, over all these people you charmed with it."

"So, I'm just attractive because of my mojo-thing?" he teases her humorously.

She taps his shoulder with her free hand.

"My point is, you won't find any other human less 'manipulated' by God than me, Lucifer. I mean- I didn't even think He was a-a He until you showed me the truth! I didn't even take seriously whatever you were telling me half the time!"

She said it as a weighty argument, but she still feels to blame about it. She hadn't had enough trust, enough faith in him - just him. Therefore, she's surprised to hear him burst out laughing instead of getting rightly upset. Chloe stares at him while he rocks back and forth, the tears starting to form. He lifts his fist to his mouth, avoiding waking up Trixie. With his cheeks turned pink by the wine and his passing vulnerability, Lucifer looks ten years younger - if such a trivial number of years really means anything for someone like him.

It means enough for Chloe. Enough to arouse her desire to kiss him, to help him contain his hilarity as best as she can.

She wants to.

She misses the opportunity, Lucifer breathing out loudly the next second. He wipes the few tears in the corner of his eyes with his free hand, not even moving the other from her touch. "You really are a miracle, Chloe."

"Now you're repeating yourself." She smiles at him, raising a brow.

He shakes his head, looking at her with these young glistening eyes.

"Actually, it's a figurative repetition."

"Oh."

Slight heat rises in her cheeks, probably because of the wine… wine, most likely. This has nothing to do with Lucifer's gaze; how his smile is lighting up his face, how his eyes alone light up her face, this rising fire beneath her skin.

He beams at her, she burns for him.

"It was that simple, mh?" He sounds amazed, impressed. "I really should have told you about it earlier, shouldn't I have?"

Chloe smiles back. "You're telling me now, it's all that truly matters."

"That right it is."

His gaze drifts to her mouth, he just looks at her lips, for what seems longer than a minute to her. She can't take her eyes off his lips either, off every inch of his face. When she can, she looks at their joined hands on his thigh. To mid-thigh, the upper part.

She gulps. "But… it's not your only reason for misbehaving at the precinct, right?"

Lucifer sighs deeply and keeps looking at her. He shakes his head, his gaze eventually drifts towards the coffee table, their stemmed glasses. Hers is empty, his, a slight depositary of 'swallowed' inebriation.

"This dangerously looks like sobriety, Detective," he murmurs, the corner of his lips unable to hide his charms, to which she's supposed to be immune, as God's miracle.

Immune or not, Chloe quivers. Smiling in turn, she nods favorably towards this serious threat.

-xXx-


The whole time Lucifer went back to the kitchen to find them another vintage - the last one having eventually run dry on their lips, eager to open up on more unsaid things -, Chloe keeps wondering about what her true nature implies. They just scratched the simplest surface here. What's left to be discovered remains deeply buried underneath, where their perceptions can't go. Getting her head around the idea that she's not as normal as any other human is difficult enough. Thinking about what it means for her, what it might imply… it could drive her nuts.

She's not here to manipulate Lucifer with her feelings. If this had really been God's intentions for His son... well, Chloe is worried that mankind depends on such an abusive dickhead.

Her arms tighten their grip around her legs, like a vice, rusted of frightened thoughts. She glances up to the ceiling, her heart pounding wildly in her chest, beating every possible frantic rhythm against her knees.

One beat, then another, and another...

It sounds like a countdown for her planned existence.

He wasn't going to kill her for insulting Him, was He?

No, stupid; it's really stupid to think like that. To tell the truth, she has already feared such a divine sentence, diabolical even; back when she saw Lucifer's face. She feared so many things for weeks after that. God could have struck her down for doubting Him; for helping the Devil to… to 'anything'!The Devil walking freely on Earth, it already sounded very wrong, didn't it? Then she had drowned her despair into old books, biblical or mythological stories - all nonsense, she knows they were now. Then came Father Kinley.

Her forehead creases.

How would Kinley have explained this miraculous side of her existence? Probably as a sign, a divine sign to fight Evil. That's what's driving her nuts. That's why she's afraid of being wiped out of existence by God, because she wouldn't have fulfilled her mission.

It's—

God doesn't create miracles just for fun, right?

Lucifer thinks the same, for wrong reasons and perceptions - not that it means he's wrong about the whole thing.

She must be here for a purpose.

She doesn't know what to think about it, nor if it's even wise to think about it at all. This has a pretty good chance of driving her nuts, for good. So she clings on to her only certainty; her feelings for Lucifer aren't God's doing, they aren't about her coming from divine conception - it's Lucifer's, they are about the man who's busy searching for alcohol in her cupboards.

"Aha!" he exclaims triumphantly.

Lucifer is back before her a minute later, his gaze on the bottle of bourbon in his hands. Connoisseur's appraisal is visible on his face. "So that's where it was!"

As a hint of accusation.

"What's that?"

He squints, opening the cork as his nostrils flare with its exceptional fragrance. "Don't play dumb with me, Chloe. We both know that my bourbon hasn't come here on its own. And here I thought of another of Maze's mischiefs," he sighs as he puts the bottle on the table.

"How can you know it's yours and not something I bought in box stores?"

His laugh can be heard from the living room while he walks back in the kitchen, only to reappear a minute later with two clean glasses in each hand.

"Now you're insulting the Devil's obsession, dear. Leaving aside the fact that my expertise is beyond sober doubts, you won't find a bourbon of this quality in any box store of town."

"You haven't drunk it yet," she replies.

"You don't just 'drink' bourbon, Detective. You also smell its aroma."

"Lucifer, aka the Sniffer Devil…" she says, amused. " 'Definitely sounds like you!"

"That makes at least one of us, Detective 'Light-fingered'. Its price alone betrays you. How you turned out badly, worse than I'll ever be, perhaps!"

He hands her a half-filled glass. Chloe gives him a suspicious glare. "It's not that expensive…."

"Isn't it? Four hundred and fifty dollars," he informs her, short after the first swig. "Excluding taxes, of course."

For the third time in a matter of a few hours, Chloe almost spills alcohol on Lucifer. Disgusted both by the price and the burning sensation that runs from her mouth to the pit of her stomach, she puts the glass back on the coffee table; gazing at Lucifer's amused expression when she wipes the corner of her lips.

"Well, well! If that's not indisputable evidence!"

Fine. Okay,she might have taken a few bottles from his bar but only because she had felt desperate to... 'feel' him. She'd just wanted to prolong the illusion of his presence, his smell, all the way to the doors of sleep.

She won't tell him, though.

"That's... two weeks of vacation for Trixie," Chloe whispers, shaking her head.

Lucifer raises a brow, placing his glass on his thigh. "In a tool shed?" Then he inclines his head to the side. "That explains her enthusiastic reaction for the steps leading up to my bedroom. Everything looks 'princely' compared to a few hundred bucks."

She chuckles and sits back. The couch feels comfortable against her back and she lets her neck rest backwards, putting her feet on the table. Letting her glass there wasn't a bad idea, she's already feeling... too out of her senses, out of her sobriety, to continue their conversation the way she wanted. Although Lucifer had been used to it for centuries, he's starting to show the first signs of a deliberate, vital inebriation too. Still at the other end of the couch, he's no longer sitting upright, taking advantage of the comfortable back support as well.

Mortal with her.

He's everything.

With her.

"Is that what you promised to the Brittanys? 'A few hundred bucks', hm?"

He looks truly offended.

He sits up. "Who do you bloody take me for?"

"Then what?" she wonders, shrugging a bit. "Don't tell me they agreed with this out of the… the goodness of their heart!"

"Nothing of the sort," he says more seriously. "I told you, they were my first choice because of their long experience in the matter. They were glad to oblige me by playing another round. I didn't threaten, nor bribe them; I would never command anything related to sex to anyone."

Chloe looks at him for a long time, moving on the couch to face him. Her arm placed on the backrest and her right leg bent before her, her knee is now resting above his thigh as he doesn't even try to move away from her.

"You really had a foursome with these girls?"

He doesn't have the chance to answer that as his face already has, as much as Chloe who lets out a sigh, "Sure, you did."

She rests her cheek on her palm, her fingers lost in her loose hair, smoothing curls, placing a lock behind her ear while she's thinking about what he just said, what he expressed to her. What comes out of her mouth then comes from her feelings, uncontrollably. "And you wanted to play another round… with me?"

Lucifer frowns. "Is it that surprising?"

She shakes her head, feels fire rising into her cheeks. She feels very suggestive pictures rising from her thoughts to her senses, to that innocent knee resting on his leg. She breathes in, closes her first in her blonde hair. "I— It's just-... I thought you were bluffing."

"I was playing on the truth, I'd say," he reassures her with a smile.

"Playing on the truth?"

He bobs his head, taking another swig of bourbon. "Yes. I never lie, especially not about this. I'm aware that doesn't excuse what I've done," he adds right after, still ashamed about it. "All I was trying to accomplish was to free you from my influence."

"To free me?" Chloe repeats, coming back to more important stuff than Lucifer's orgiastic desires. "Wait... You said I might be manipulated, but not by you." Now she's getting lost.

"That's what I thought at the time, yes."

"But now?" she insists. "What do you think now?"

He takes his time to answer her, sighing, mechanically placing his hand on Chloe's knee. He starts to draw the fine curves of her skin in a slow back-and-forth motion of thoughts. He is no longer hesitating, he's not shy, nor embarrassed; simply out of sobriety, relieved.

That's what emerges from it, relief.

"I no longer think that you might destroy me with our mutual feelings. A positive though. I guess..." he adds, and she hears his uncertainties. "I mean- I don't feel this weight on my chest anymore, but—" he pauses, his hand also pausing on the top of her knee. "But I also feel so much more."

He exhales, a corner of his lips lifts; double expression of his perplexity. Then he murmurs, giving her a half-shrug, "This is bloody confusing."

"Yeah… tell me about it," she whispers back.

Lucifer's eyes bore into hers, his hand continuing this gentle, slow touch on her leg. He smiled tenderly at her and Chloe's thoughts became increasingly confused, her heart pounding wildly and her breathing quickening, for a smile. For confusing feelings.

"That's... that was my second motive," Lucifer says.

"Your feelings? You were talking about 'influence' five minutes ago."

"In our case, our mythologized case; it's all the same."

She blinks. "I— I won't be against more explanation here."

He nods, taking another sip under Chloe's questioning, lost, curious, and anxious gaze. He's coming to his most complicated motive, which seemed insurmountable for him. He said 'second'; the second motive.

Second.

Not the last one.

She only has two main concerns at the moment; this myth, what it means for her, how it would affect their relationship and when he should leave her. She wants to know, more than she wants to silence this anguish deep down within her.

"I know, I- Might as well start by separating mythology from reality. As for the mythological part, Persephone's charms - godly human creature walking on Earth - would ha—"

"Would have hit the Devil straight in his heart?" Chloe suggests.

She leans towards the table to reach her glass, moving away from the 'real' Devil who's smiling, amused by her wording. Chloe, glass in hand, leans back against his leg, unable to not touch him. He looks down, looks at this touch. His smile widens. "I'm one hundred percent sure that you aimed for the leg."

Chloe stops her glass before her lips, replying then; "Mythology first, Lucifer."

Still smiling, he nods. "Right. Hades - myself, then; not the worst name I got - was instantly attracted by her beauty and took her with him to the Underworld. Whether unwillingly or not, human sources disagree on this point; from a strictly mythological point of view, of course. Everything was going well in the brave hellish world until Persephone's mother threatened Zeus with destroying the harvest if Hades didn't give her back her daughter. Convinced by his brother, or truly caring about Persephone's happiness, Hades agreed to let her go."

"But there was a catch, wasn't it? There's always a catch," Chloe intervens.

"There was," Lucifer confirms her. "Once again, there isn't one single version about it, but Hades - or one of his servants - had given her a fruit that only grew in the Underworld, a pomegranate. Persephone ate it before going back to Earth with her mother. However, her fate was already sealed. For a single bite, a human desire."

Chloe shakes her head gently. "Why is it always about fruits with you?"

They both laugh.

"Blame human perceptions, Detective, not me. There's nothing I can do about your unrivalled prudishness!"

"What does our prudishness have to do with fruits?"

"Well, you tell me! The Devil's manhood and an apple aren't similar, are they?" he exclaims, outraged in said manhood, which is perfectly perceptible under his pants.

That or both Chloe's inebriation and imagination are influencing her perception.

He pursues, unaware of her thoughts, "My love for you is nothing like a pomegranate, is it? I'm nothing like a bloody fruit basket!"

"What did you just say?" Chloe finally reacts. She lifts her gaze up from his crotch to his face.

He shuts his mouth, realization hitting him.

He never said it, not really.

"My first love was never Eve, it was you. It always has been."

"...now that I'm literally yours."

"I'm yours."

"Such a literal love between the Devil and a human is already an unprecedented situation."

"My feelings for you..."

Never.

And this isn't really... it's not really the words.

Still, it's more, more than he'd ever told her so far. So many words, instead of three simple ones. Complicated. She feels both hopeful and frustrated to focus on just these almost three words. This is such a cliché.

How old is she; sixteen?

It's like she told Linda this morning; her feelings, they're a mess. She's thinking like an overly emotional teenager. This is insane. And confusing. This thought is followed by another, Linda's amused words about this emotional mess.

It's only natural since she loves him.

It's only natural that she wants to hear these words from him.

Still, there's more than that.

Nothing is really normal when it comes to Lucifer.

"I-I—" he stammers.

It seems too hard for him to say the three words aloud, no matter how much he wants more for their relationship. So Chloe puts aside her pain to appease his. That's what it means, right? Loving someone?

"That would be the connection between me and reality?" she wonders. She notices how tension instantly leaves his shoulders, how he exhales. "Our declaration?"

Unsaid things, she keeps repeating to her wounded, desperate emotions. Focus.

"You told me," she continues. "Two weeks ago."

"Right."

"So, what you meant was that... that our feelings can affect us, affect our lifespan?"

"Well, if we take the myth into account," Lucifer sits up, thus forcing her to move away from his leg, from vital touch. "Persephone was bound to the Underworld forever. She might have died if she had stayed on Earth."

"Which means that, if I'd have stayed longer without you, I could have died?" Chloe gasps, gawking at him.

Her past odd inability to feel anything but Lucifer's absence in her life had worried her, everyone had been. It still worries her. It's been nothing like classic depression, separation.

Nothing is normal when it comes to Lucifer, right?

That is quite an understatement.

Lucifer pulls her out of her anguish once more. "No! Of course not, I- I highly doubt that you'd have been as affected as I have. I could have been wiped out of existence, but - fortunately; or unfortunately - my Father took actions before it ever got to that. Like Zeus did, to prevent a catastrophic famine on Earth." He smiles, in no way appeasing Chloe's anxieties as she keeps gawking at him. He adds lightly, "Typical of Divine Superpowers, it seems."

"You—" Chloe's voice is a whisper - she takes in a deep breath, "...could have beenwiped out of existence?"

He shrugs as if it's nothing. But it's not 'nothing', it's terrible that he thinks it is.

" 'Immortal" is just an adjective, Detective. One perception among so many others."

"Ho—" She shakes her head. "How? And I thought it was me; you were talking about Persephone as if we were the same person, so—"

"It's hard to explain, really." He smiles understandingly at her again. "Believe me, I wish I could explain it to you more clearly, but without Uriel... He's— He was the subject matter expert. He and my Father. And, as we both know, this bloody Bastard is quite fond of 'unsaid things'."

Chloe ignores his last sentence, nevertheless intrigued by it. Hadn't Lucifer told her that he'd made a deal with Him, that He isn't pleased with the situation? There's nothing more to say. No, what really catches her attention is the deep sadness in Lucifer's voice before that, when he has spoken about his brother, in the past tense again.

Immortal is just an adjective...

She misses the opportunity to question him - Lucifer already continuing with his 'hard' explanations. "Some parts of the story might be about me, certainly the last one. As for the rest, it's hard to say. Anyway, I'm convinced that our declaration is the connection. It's the cause of all this.. And I... I feared that-...if I'd listen to my feelings, things could get worse. For both of us."

His glass is empty in his hands. Lucifer shakes his head, not looking at her.

"You see, angels… oddly show their feelings." He pauses, then snorts. "It's a 'show', for sure. That's why Amenadiel lost his powers when he realized how foolish he'd been to bring Malcolm back from the dead, that's why I lost my Devil face for a while, then got my wings back... that everything changed shortly before Dromos showed up in town."

"When you turned int—" Chloe stops. No, there is no difference between Lucifer-Devil and Lucifer-Lucifer. None."...when you turned back to your human self," she rephrases, her thoughts back to a few months ago. "After the masked ball at Lux."

Then she studies him, realizing what it meant.

"I can't believe we—" she exclaims, not believing how stupid she's been, how they both were.

Their perceptions agree on the fundamentals,fundamentally deluded by their conviction to 'know'. She shakes her head, nibbles on her bottom lip before turning to him. "We were convinced that the prophecy was the reason, that Evil shall be released. Your skin, your wings, your mojo… All this was—" Chloe laughs, ridiculously human, "-just your feelings showing off?!"

Lucifer nods as an answer.

"They really have strong effects on you," she whispers shortly after.

This is crazy.

"And given your half-divine origins," Lucifer waves his hand towards her. "I can only assume, of course, but with our situation here…."

"No, you're right." she agrees. "It could— T-That makes sense. It's insane, but… makes sense," she laughs.

Totally insane….

A miracle and a fallen angel are already... already incredible! But them, loving each other so intensely - Chloe couldn't have described it any other way, it was intense; it still is - to come to… to let themselves waste away from one hell to another, the one and only true Hell.

This is insane.

So… she was right, wasn't she? Everything she's felt since he's back has been 'amplified'. This is her, only her. Because she's… a miracle? Because he's him; an angel influenced by his emotions, more than anyone else could ever be.

They needed to be together.

Shaking her head, Chloe lifts her still full glass to her lips. Her hands are shaking so she slowly tilts the glass to avoid spilling alcohol anywhere else but down her throat. Lucifer quietly stares at her, not even daring to move and pour himself another drink. Perhaps it's no longer essential, on the verge of said inebriation, of one last unsaid sobriety.

She could use another drink, though.

For this new understanding and the one to come. They need to be together, yes; however, Lucifer said that the last part of the myth was about him. Not her. Another need, then. What did he whisper the week he returned; in her bathtub?

"Also, my royal duties took a very literal at the temple back then, so… 'a problem it is for sure. L'ke Persephone."

Coughing as unnecessary alcohol burns the inside of her throat, Chloe puts the empty glass between her and Lucifer, looking at anything but him.

Like him.

Caught in-between.

Lucifer is 'her' Persephone; because she definitely feels like Demeter, like Hades. There was no way she could ignore his wants. There was no way she was going to let him go back there forever.

Not again. Not for her sake, not again!

"I get it, now. I get why you tried to put an end to all this." She hears him sigh, gazing at him as he lowers his eyes, suddenly fascinated by the reflection of light on his glass. "'Got it, even if it's stupid."

Hearing this, Lucifer lifts his head; wounded in his pride.

"I beg your pardon?" he scoffs, staring at her.

She shrugs. "It really is, Lucifer. It's stupid because even if our 'crazy, literal' emotional connection would date back to that night - somehow -... What we had, before this moment, it didn't happen overnight. We've played cat and mouse for years; from Delilah's case to partners, partners to friends, and friends to... to 'us'!Destroying something that took so long to build, it's not that easy."

He opens his mouth, but she doesn't give him time to reply. "It's also stupid because these feelings aren't just about me, as you seemed to think. It's something that's happening to both of us, something we're living together. You can't have one without the other. And it's also insanely stupid to think that my feelings for you, whether I'm one hundred percent human or not, can be manipulated like that."

She shakes her head, smiling at Lucifer with all these unfailing feelings.

"If God couldn't manipulate me, why - you, the Devil- could you?"

Awe transforms his face, yet his eyes show... mixed feelings about her last reply. A smirk appears on his lips. He squints, "Don't you just say something like… 'together', mh?"

She lets her own smile extend to the human limits of her face, watches him put his glass on the table. He leaves the bottle untouched as well. This is the last unsaid thing for him, then. Good, she can't bear to hear any more of it. She's got plenty enough with hers.

"Well… depends. Might be if you make things right."

He arches an eyebrow. " 'Things' excluding sex at the precinct, I assume?"

She nods. "There's that, yeah."

Lucifer leans against the back of the couch, peering at her. His gaze shows her everything.Each uncontrollable, literal emotion he's feeling right now. Enjoyment, hope, guilt... tenderness. Especially tenderness.

"Am I forgiven?" he asks her.

She thinks about it for a moment, mostly helped by alcohol and Lucifer's gaze to make her decision. That and the decreasing number of unsaid things between them. "I guess. Well, I mean... You're gonna have to make it up to me, that's for sure!"

He chuckles. "I'm at your disposal, Detective." His blissful expression turns into perplexity a second later, "Still, I'm curious to know your thoughts about this unshakeable bond between us. It doesn't bother you, really? Even with the 'Devil part'?"

Chloe purses her lips, thinking longer this time. "No more than with any other relationship, I suppose," she says as she rests her chin - suddenly too heavy - on the back of the couch. "Actually, I was mostly afraid that I couldn't feel on my own anymore, if you know what I mean?"

She blinks several times, her eyelids drop before her eyes, submitted to the vice around her skull.

"The 'literal' part freaked me out, 'nd not a little. Not being able to tell the difference between my human feelings and this 'Hell-Queen' feeling, but... 'seems there's none. Just feelings." She covers her mouth with her hand, yawning. "You still piss me off so... It's not that bad."

He laughs softly, also resting his neck against the backrest, his face turned towards her. "We're nevertheless engaged in shady dealings, Detective. God knows how this is going to end."

She gives him a half-shrug.

"And, as for the rest, we can live without Him and His plans. Just... live for today?" she proposes. "Baby steps, you know?"

Lucifer's eyebrows rise, "Baby steps? What's on your mind?"

Chloe takes a deep long breath, her gaze going up to the ceiling, to tiny imperfections that the paint hadn't been able to hide. Imperfections... quite like the ones they had been trying to use as a shield all this time; why it wouldn't work, according to them.

"How about a date? With no dramatic interruptions, no manipulations or silly attempts to show who's worthy or not, hm? Just dating." Her mouth curves into a smile. "Maybe even a kiss or two. For starters, at least."

Lucifer doesn't say anything for so long that she fears - for a second - a refusal. Perhaps it's too much to ask, or not enough, depending on whom you ask. Like she said, they've played cat and mouse for years. One kiss or two? Done. A date? More or less.

What if he just wanted to get to the point?

They've beaten about the bush long enough.

Finally, Lucifer gives his answer. "Tonight might be considered as a date, right?"

"Right," she squints.

"And... to follow your pattern, maybe we sh—"

Lucifer is interrupted by Chloe's lips on his. Caught off guard at first, he quickly gets a grip on himself and begs for as much as he gives her. His hands find their place on her thigh, her neck, moving up in her loose hair. She likes how his stubble feels under her, smooth when she moves her fingers from his chin to his cheek, prickly when they move back to his jaw. How he deepens the kiss when she lets them clutch his curls, how she can't tell just who moans.

Does she?

Him, then?

They are one, in some ways, some patterns, so it doesn't really matter.

They know what truly matters.

What they are feeling.

They reluctantly move away from each other's lips, the air remaining the most essential need. Chloe is half-lying on top of Lucifer, intoxicated with his presence, with alcohol, with feelings. In this position, so close to the forbidden fruit that she can feel it growing hard against her thigh, she begins to wonder if it wouldn't be wiser to skip a few steps.

His hand moves from her leg to her lower back, the other busy with her face alone. His thumb draws the line of her jaw, her chin and pauses not far from her half-opened mouth, still torn between her need for air and that of his lips on hers.

"Definitely feels like a kiss or two," he murmurs, pleasingly gazing at her mouth first, then her eyes clouded with alcohol.

She giggles.

Their foreheads touch, eyes shut, open to what they are both feeling.

"I'm sorry," he says, his breath tickling her chin.

With Lucifer's hands cupping her face, she wraps hers around his wrists; another slight pressure on his skin. "You better be. Trixie's got a lot more bedtime stories, y'know?" She teases him.

He laughs softly.

Silence soon becomes essential at this moment, as much as this touch. She wouldn't have broken it for anything in the world, not even for those few unsaid things left aside. She knows enough for tonight. She knows he is the King, servant of her Queen. She knows how determined he is to get more for them. Chloe listens to Lucifer's deep breathing mingle with hers, touching her skin, then her forehead once she has moved. She listens to his heart beating strongly beneath her palm, her head nestled in his shoulder. She feels his presence.

She must have dozed off at some point. One second after she shuts her eyes, she feels Lucifer move under her to free himself from her embrace, her heavy eyelids opening onto almost complete darkness. She digs her nails into his shirt.

He freezes.

"St'y."

It doesn't sound like words, just drowsy syllables. Anyway, Lucifer does hear her. He lies down, closing his arms around her again, his breath tickling her forehead as it's supposed to. She shuts her eyes and lets sleep carry her away, although she stays within the Devil's range. Within his word. "For as long as He'll allow me to, Chloe."