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"This Charming Man" - The Smiths

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Michael was just as shocked as Amenadiel to hear his dear twin brother had reached out and sought out a favor. Lucifer needed someone to keep an eye on Lux and the Detective. It would have been given the task to Amenadiel, but with the baby… he needed someone more… ideal. He needed himself and the only other person similar to himself was Michael. So he swallowed his pride and sought out Michael.

Michael wasn't against it, the Silver City was getting a tad boring for his liking. And after all, Lucifer and Michael were indeed two sides of the same celestial coin. Putting on the persona of the Devil was something Michael was excited about. It was a wonder that Michael had not been sent to Hell as well. The two were oddly similar... Must have been the timing and inability to think bigger.

So he took the favor, he wasn't doing anything in Heaven. Michael was more than happy to play dress up and parade around the City of Angels being his brother. He always wanted to be like him. Live the life of sin and take what he wanted.

The only catch. Oh and there was a big one. Michael couldn't flirt with Chloe. She was off the table. No touching. No flirting. No working at all with her. He was free to assist, but any consulting had to be done under his alias. He was there to keep up appearances and be a stand in, nothing more.

It was a fair deal. He took his brothers little favor in exchange for the man who'd given him his slouch. Oh, how Michael couldn't wait to get his hands on Sandalphon. He wondered where he went off to. After all this time, his brother was hiding him out in Hell. Lucifer barely uttered his exchange once he said the traitor's name. It was a deal, right there and then. He didn't care what else came after the name, all he wanted was Sandalphon.

So he took the favor.

The deal was, once Lucifer was done cleaning up his mess in Hell, Michael would get the creatine who disfigured his back. It was a done deal. Nothing special, nothing complicated.

Michael was sure he got the better end of the deal. He could do as he pleased and have a jolly ol' time. The women were a bonus he never knew he needed. The men… he wasn't sure how he felt about that, but he kept up his brother's reputation. Afterall, he was supposed to play the part and keep up appearances.

It had been roughly a week since Lucifer had left, before Michael ran into the Detective. She took Michael's arrival as well as anyone would when you found out the love of your life had a secret twin…

She shot him.

In mid intercourse, with a rather lovely lady by the name of Opal.

In her defence, she didn't know he was Michael. She thought Lucifer was on another one of his vacations that led to him hooking up with another rando. Too afraid to deal with her declaration of love for him. Too afraid to admit the two were finally at a part in their lives where things could finally move forward. Luckily, that wasn't the case. Sadly, Michael was the victim of Chloe's mishap.

The shot to the shoulder came as a surprise. He never knew the Detective had it in her to shoot the love of her life… correction, the face of the love of your life.

Well… No fury like a woman scorned, I guess.

Things were cleared up once he got a moment to talk. Bravo to Chloe, she delivered an award winning speech about his sleazy brother. He applauded her for her range of vocabulary. When her speech failed to show any sympathy she knew it wasn't Lucifer. The lack of an accent was a dead giveaway before the lack of blood.

Leave it up to Lucifer to forget to tell Chloe of his arrival. She apologized profusely, but he knew he deserved it. He should have ensured the Detective knew about his whereabouts before he took on his brother's mantle. He deserved the bullet to the shoulder. Did poor Opal deserve to see him projected off of her mid thrust? No.

The poor girl would forever be traumatized. Oh how he'd miss her, her butt cheeks would forever be imprinted in his mind as she hightailed out of the penthouse in nothing but the bed sheets.

The two had a nice laugh as everything was cleared up. Chloe was relieved to know she hadn't actually hurt Michael. She acted on reflex and rage. Michael assured her he was fine. Tickled at best. He made a show to shoot himself to prove he was fine, but she pulled the gun out of his hands immediately.

Accidental shooting aside, Chloe and Michael turned out to be good friends.

Whenever Chloe would find her way over to Lux, Michael would make sure she was well taken care of. Nothing but the best for his new friend. If she wanted to drink herself under the table, he'd make sure she was doing it responsibly.

He would ensure the building was safe for the Detective. He'd keep an endless night of fun laid out for her to have. Because that's what you did for friends, right? You ensured they were dealing with their heartaches with large amounts of alcohol and fun.

At least that is what he was told. His research with a few drunken humans told him that. And that was what you did for friends… you supplied the alcohol and kept a watchful eye on them.

He had Lux. The place was practically a bottomless pit of alcohol. This way he could keep a watchful eye on Chloe and make sure she was being well taken care for. Kill two birds with one stone.

If she wanted to chat about his brother, he'd lend his ear. If she wanted the bed up in the penthouse, he'd sleep in the guest bedroom. Whatever the Detective needed, Michael made himself disposable. Afterall, it was his part of the deal, but also his duty as a friend, to make sure she was handling his brother's absence with grace.

The longer his brother's time in Hell dragged out, he noticed a certain demon latching herself onto Chloe. He didn't approve, but Mazikeen was starting to grow on him. Surprisingly, she was the spitting image of her mother, and well… he could never say no to Lilith. The woman had a way of getting what she wanted. Seemed Mazikeen took after her mother.

With Mazikeen watching over Chloe a majority of the time, it gave Michael the opportunity to live his brother's lifestyle more freely. The endless mass of women and drugs grew tired after a while. After a few awkward run-ins with Chloe, he put his sexual adventures to bed. It wasn't all it was cracked up to be. He wanted the atmosphere the Devil thrived in, he wanted to extort his power. Fear.

After looking over his brother's deal ledgers, he realized Lucifer had become rather lax with his deals as of late. There were some late deals that called for payment.

Michael couldn't let these go unattended. No, no, no. This wouldn't do.

He found his calling. His hail mary that would get him through his time on Earth. He'd become a lone shark of some sorts and collect on his brother's contracts. Of course he couldn't do this alone. He hired Mazikeen to track down his targets. It was a win-win situation. She got to hunt high profiled individuals of the Los Angeles area and he got to beat the living shit out of them if they failed to deliver on their side of the contract.

Of course he couldn't limit it between the two of them. He had to include the bouncers in on the fun. He couldn't dedicate all his time to punishing humans, he had to be there for Chloe and the club. So he recruited a couple of men to take the load off his back.

In total, there were twenty-four recipients who had failed to hold up their end of the bargain. He made sure he only collected on deals his brother had marked for due dates. He was surprised to see half of them expired four years ago. Right around the time his brother started working as a consultant. He blamed the LAPD, Lucifer had grown soft and let his client slack on their dues. No worries, Michael was here to pull the Devil's reputation back up from the gutters.

He pulled all contracts out from the twenty-four recipients. They range all the way from small business owners all the way to Hollywood's finest.

Maze was more than welcome to help Michael out, at a price of course. But Michael knew she was in it for the torture and Devil business. He could see the spark in her eyes as Michael put on the mask. It was like the Devil never left Los Angeles. It was like the good ol' times for her.

As Michael and Maze worked hand in hand collecting in on contracts, it seemed their work attracted the attention of the LAPD. It wasn't illegal to extort past favors from unwilling clients…

At least that's what Mazikeen had informed Michael. He was having a hard time understanding human law.

On multiple occasions, Chloe had informed them to stop their little side business. It wasn't legal and brought too much attention back to Lucifer's name. Michael never listened. Maze explained that bringing attention to Lucifer's name was exactly what they wanted to do.

It soon turned into a never ending battle of hiding everything from Chloe. They got smarter and handled business with more stealth.

Unfortunately, for Michael one of his shake downs got a little too rough that attracted the attention of the police. Chloe and a whole police squadron found themselves in front of Lux at the early hours of the morning. The sun had yet to rise. Due to the connection between Chloe and Lucifer, the police station gave the case over to Dan. He called her once he heard the body drop location.

Police were all over Lux, inside and out. A few employees were pulled aside so they could await questioning and Michael was standing off to the side ignoring Chloe's explanation of what was happening. It wasn't until he heard "dead body" that she finally caught his attention.

"A dead body outside Lux? I'm sorry Chloe, but I fail to see how this connects to me and the club."

"A dead body drops outside Lux with signs of assault and you don't see how you're connected?"

"Well yes..."

Officers were rummaging through the place, looking for a possible murder weapon. Michael spun around annoyed she had allowed the cops inside without a search warrant.

"No sign of a gun, Detective. Would you like us to question the employees?"

"Yes, don't allow anyone to leave until we're gotten a statement from every single one. Oh and Larry," the officer stood tall waiting for orders. "Detective Espinoza is the lead Detective on the case, report to him please, not me."

The officer nodded his head and took off to do as she asked. Michael rolled his eyes and made his way over to the bar. He needed a drink. Chloe followed close behind ready to chew his head off.

"I see you've continued to ignore my pleas to stop torturing civilians." She motioned towards his hands. His hands were pretty beat up, but healing nonetheless. He reached over the bar and grabbed himself a bottle of rum.

"It's not torturing if they refuse to deliver on their part of a contract they signed with my brother."

"Michael!" she took a deep breath and pulled him off to the side. She lowered her voice as she yelled at him, "there's legal ways to get these people to follow through on their contracts. Why are you not looking at the legal aspect of these problems?"

"Because I like to get my hands dirty. You've sure as Hell taken sex away from me. We both know I can't handle drugs. So the only thing left I have to make me happy is slapping around a few humans."

She closed her eyes to prevent herself from yelling at one of the oldest being in the universe. Times like these made her sad. He was acting exactly like Lucifer. His lack of human law made him a wild card.

"Can someone account for your whereabouts for the past few hours?" Chloe asked.

"The entirety of Lux, I was working late into the night." Michael lifted the glass up to his lips.

"I asked around and Kyle informed me you closed the club down early. So do you want to fill me in on how Mr. Harvey was found dead outside Lux beaten pretty bad with a gunshot to the chest?"

"Charles is dead? That's the body they found out on the side of Lux?"

"Indeed. How well do you know the victim?"

"He's a name in Lucifer's ledgers..."

Chloe took a deep breath, she had told him time and time again to stop looking into Lucifer's ledgers. "Want to explain to me how he managed to walk out and get shot down?"

"I didn't kill him!"

She didn't believe for one second he did, but he was responsible for assaulting the man. She knew by now that Michael only ever beat people up when they refused to comply with him. If Mr. Harvey was withholding information from Michael to deserve the beating he's received, he had to be hiding something.

"I roughed him up a bit, but I didn't kill him. The bastard was supposed to come back with my payment this afternoon."

"What was his payment?"

Ella chose that moment to join the conversation. She looked over Michael curiously, this was the first time she was going to talk with the man. She had only ever seen him from a distance. As badly as she wanted to introduce herself with a huge hug, Michael was covered in possible evidence.

She had been debriefed; his outfit was the same as last night. Telling by the blood on his rolled up sleeves, she found it to be true. Right now, this was professional.

"I… uh… have to take samples from Michael to test him for gunpowder residue and other things… can I?"

Chloe gave the two the area. She was too busy fuming with anger to deal with Michael at the moment. She walked over to Dan to hear what he had found out.

Ella politely asked Michael to have a seat at the table. He complied and never took his eyes off the small woman. Ella pulled out her lab kit and asked for Michael to place his hands on the table. He did as he was told and smiled at her. She was rather pretty.

She didn't seem to notice he was staring. It was probably for the best. He was staring rather intensely. He couldn't help it, she was pretty for a lab geek. Every time she looked up, he made sure to avoid his gaze. That put a smile on her face.

"I uh… for the record don't think you killed Charles Harvey." That sparked his interests. He tilted his head to the side and watched as Ella looked over his hands.

"Is that so? May I ask how you came to that conclusion?"

She didn't answer right away. She took her time taking pictures of his hands from different angles. She then moved on to running a testing swab over his knuckles and palms.

He wasn't sure if she was creating suspense or generally trying to come up with an answer. Either way, he kept quiet and watched her work.

When she was done she bagged the samples and took the seat on the side Michael.

"You're Lucifer brother and I know a brother of Lucifer's wouldn't be capable of murder. He trusted you with his home, no brother would entrust that much trust in a sibling who would be capable of murder."

"I'm capable of a lot of things Miss?" he politely asked.

"Lopez. I uh," she let out a nervous chuckle, "My name is Ella Lopez."

"Ah! The infamous Ella Lopez! It's a pleasure to meet you." The two shared a smile until Michael broke contact. He pulled back his hands and placed them on his lap. "As I was saying… I am capable of many things, but you're right. I would never murder anyone. Goes against father's rules."

"Ah right!" she nodded her head. "God. The Devil! Which would make you… archangel Michael? The protector of all things good and evil." She gave Michael a wink to show she could too play along. Michael just shrugged his shoulders and picked at his knuckles.

"So history likes to remind me."

"Are you an actor as well?" Ella asked.

She undoubtedly could not for the life of her get herself to accept that celestials were all around her. Michael lets out a chuckle.

"No, afraid I'm not well versed in singing and dancing. No manager would dare sign this old riff raff." He liked that she didn't know he was an angel, so he played along with her ideology.

"Don't worry buddy, there's a role out there for you." Michael couldn't help but laugh. He appreciated her innocence.

Determined to keep their conversation going, Ella asked for Michael's hands once more. He lifted them back up to the table and laid his palms out on the glass. She lifted her camera up and began taking a few pictures of his bruised knuckles once more. The whole time Michael couldn't take his eyes off the woman in front of him.

"You have one Hell of a left hook, were you ever a boxer?"

Michael didn't catch what she said, the look of confusion gave away he didn't quite hear what she had to say. So she repeated herself. "Did you box back in the day?"

"Me?" he let out a chuckle, "no."

"I've seen hands like yours before, I could have sworn those calluses were from fighting…"

"Oh they're from fighting, but I never fought for sport."

"Rough childhood?"

"You could say that," he opened and clenched his fist to see the calluses she was talking about.

"They say to wear them with pride. You know… to remember where you are now," she looked up to him and gave Michael a smile. She quickly broke contact and tapped the table with her finger. "But I would totes keep the roughing people up on the down low." Michael found it amusing the way she tried to lower her voice so the cops wouldn't know he was the one who beat Charles up. "Wouldn't want to have those hands of yours registered as weapons."

Michael brought his hands close to his body and hid them under the table, "I suppose you're right… tell me, if you think I didn't murder Charles, why are you wasting your time taking pictures of my hands and swabing for gun powder residue?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "protocol. I also have to match the injuries on his body to the injuries to your hands. But going by your knuckles…" she waved Michael over so he could show her his hands once more. "It looks like you might not be who roughed Mr. Havey up."

"What gives you that impression?" He was curious. He was the one who roughed Charles up, but he wanted to know her reasoning.

Ella scooted closer to Michael and took his hands in her. His body instantly flared up and became all too aware of how close she was to him. He looked down at their hands and listened to what she had to say.

"Your knuckles are healing. Which shows these bruises are from at least three days ago. Mr. Harvey's attacker should have a more recent damage to the knuckles." She ran her finger over his calluses, he wasn't sure she even knew she was doing it. Ella shook her head to draw herself out of thought. "Which means you couldn't have been Mr. Harvey's attacker," she finished explaining, dropping his hands.

Saddened by the loss of their close proximity, Michael leaned forward as if to tell her a secret.

"Or I'm an extremely fast healer."

"You know you'd be admitting to assaulting a dead man, right?"

"Fine don't believe me," he pulled back and leaned backwards into his chair. He kept a devilish smile on his face as Ella tried to get the honest truth out of him.

There was something about him that Ella couldn't quite pinpoint. She stared him down trying to see if he was lying or not, but in the end she just couldn't tell. She'd have to look over the impact report with the coroner. For the meantime, she had to get back to work. She pulled her eyes away from Michael and walked over to her bag.

She was leaving. Michael stood up in his seat and tried at a last attempt to keep her around.

"Thank you," he called out.

She stopped and turned around to understand Michael's sentence. "Why are you thanking me?"

"For having this nice chat with me. It's been sometime since I've enjoyed the company of someone other than Maze or my employees… also something about having a beautiful lady like yourself defend my honor, has me perplexed" He gave her his best smile. She immediately blushed.

"I uh…" she let out a nervous chuckle, "no sweat!" She was full on blushing and couldn't form coherent words. "I uh… I kinda gotta get back to work. You know… looking at dead bodies and taking pictures... It was nice talking to you, Michael."

She backed up right into a booth making her knock her hip into the table. She let out a hiss. Before Michael could jump off the chair she turned around and retreated to her work. Chloe walked right over, interested in why Ella was acting so weird.

"What did you do to her?" Chloe asked.

"Nothing… we were just talking…" he pulled his eyes from Ella and looked down at Chloe. "Say, does Miss Lopez have a boyfriend?"

Michael looked over to the other side of the room to get a look of Ella once more. Chloe jumped in front of him and prevented him from disturbing Ella and her work.

"Michael no… she's not to be messed with. Keep your hands to yourself."

"My hands are to myself," he lifted them up to her. "See, bruised and all to myself." Chloe shook her head.

"Please keep away from Ella, she is sweet and innocent. She does not need you distracting her from her job."

"I'm not even bothering her, I just asked if she had a boyfriend. I hardly think Miss Lopez is all innocent, she has…" he shook his head, he couldn't pinpoint the word. He looked down at Chloe and smiled. "So is she taken or not?" Chloe rolled her eyes at Michael.