The sun was long gone, and Lucifer and Chloe had just finished interviewing yet another (absolutely not helpful) witness in their latest case, when Chloe's phone started ringing. The detective mumbled an apology to the man sitting across from them, before standing up from where she had been seated in his kitchen to get some privacy, and accepting the phone call. Lucifer's eyes followed her movements, as he was trying to figure out who was calling her at this hour. Sure, it wasn't unusual for her to receive phone calls at odd hours of the day (occupational hazard as they say), but ever since Pierce had started to show interest in the detective, an unpleasant knot seemed to form in Lucifer's stomach every time she picked up her phone at the off chance that it was indeed ham hands who was calling her.
But when she turned back around and their eyes locked, he knew that that wasn't the case here. Her demeanor had changed; she was flexing her jaw, as she begrudgingly listened to the information that was being given to her on the other end of the line, and there was a glimmer of pain shimmering in those bluish eyes of hers that was invisible to a stranger's eye, but not to Lucifer's. He might have never been good at reading people and he certainly wasn't good at deciphering emotions (not his own and definitely not those of others), but he knew that look, because he had seen it a million times. So, before she had even hung up and got the chance to tell him the news, he knew that their killer had struck yet again. And that meant that they were dealing with their now third victim in only a few days.
And so, the two of them bid their goodbyes to their witness and promised to do their very best to find whoever had killed the man's roommate. The partners then got back to the car, where Chloe quickly called Trixie's sitter, already knowing that this was going to be a long night for both her and Dan, and wished her daughter a good night with the promise to make her pancakes tomorrow. It was mostly because she was feeling guilty that she wasn't home yet, and she was half-heartedly expecting Lucifer to make some kind of snarky comment about it, but he was simply staring out of the window and was unusually quiet for the first ten minutes of the car ride. When even her loud yawn couldn't seem to tear him from his thoughts and get some kind of reaction out of him, her brows furrowed a little in worry.
"Uhm, Lucifer," she spoke up softly, in an effort not to startle him. He hummed quietly and finally peeled his eyes from the window to be able to look at her.
"You know this is probably going to take hours… so, if you have other plans," She trailed off and cleared her throat, as the mental image of Lucifer in bed with another woman or man (or both) infiltrated her brain and left a bad aftertaste in her mouth. "Or if you are tired, I could… you know, drop you at LUX," she added and sounded almost a little nervous, when she briefly glanced at him, trying to gauge his reaction.
"Oh, the devil does not get tired," he claimed, wearing his familiar mischievous smirk, although it didn't seem to reach his eyes. "And who would I be to miss a murderous wedding party in the suburbs anyway… that is where we are headed, is it not?"
"Whatever you say," Chloe replied and rolled her eyes at his antics, never quite sure what to make of his mysterious answers. But she couldn't fight off the grin that was pulling at her lips either, because she was secretly glad that he wasn't going to leave her side just yet.
The detective then proceeded to catch him up on everything Ella had already told her over the phone, before they slipped into the familiar back and forth of playful teasing, when reminiscing their last game night with the detective's spawn, where Trixie had once again managed to leave Lucifer in the dust. It lifted both their moods and quite frankly, it was just the easiest territory for them, as neither of them was really ready to address the lieutenant shaped elephant in the room.
They finally arrived at the scene of the crime about a half an hour later, where an ever chirpy Ella greeted them. The forensic scientist gave them her preliminary report, including those details that linked this victim to the other two they had been confronted with in the last week, leaving them to come to one conclusion: they were in all likelihood dealing with a serial killer.
The detective's good mood from before was immediately squashed by the thought of that and the fact that their victim had been killed in the midst of an ongoing wedding celebration in the suburbs with many potential suspects did nothing to remedy that. And as the evening went on and the night came, she only became more and more frustrated by the lack of actual clues and the amount of gossip (that was completely unrelated to their case) the half-drunk party goers had so generously shared with her. Lucifer on the other hand seemed to be having fun flirting with every other suspect, which, at some point, earned him a stern look from the detective and a taunting "They could be killers, Lucifer!". And that certainly did nothing to improve her already foul mood either.
It was only when he discovered the low quality of both the alcohol and the drugs going around at this party that he seemed to be less and less intrigued by the certainly beautiful people at this party gone bad and more interested in making fun of them. And with Lucifer standing next to her, their shoulders were brushing ever so slightly, as he continuously leaned towards her to whisper some kind of inappropriate joke into her ear. His hushed comments mingled with his warm breath and send a shiver down her spine, which she tried to hide behind an eye roll, but judging by his lopsided smirk, he seemed to be fully aware of his effect on her. And she should have hated it. But she didn't miss the way his eyes light up every time she cracked a smile at his jokes either, as if seeing her smile (and better yet, being the reason for her smile) genuinely warmed his heart.
And so, the hours passed by in a blur and it was already nearing dawn, when they were finally done with their first round of questioning and it became clear that for now, there wasn't much else they could do, but go home. By now, sleep was claiming ahold of Chloe, pulling her into its' ban – so much so that she had almost fallen asleep during their very last interview. They briefly exchanged the seemingly most important bits of information (which weren't a lot, sadly) with Dan, before making their way to her car.
Daniel, who had noticed the detective's heavy eye lids, and was well aware of Lucifer's habit to drink at a crime scene (and really anywhere he wanted to) was momentarily rooted in his spot, before suddenly turning around to face his ex-wife and her tag-along.
"Hey, uhm, why don't you let me drive you home?"
"There really is no need Daniel, we are both very capable of driving ourselves, thank you," Lucifer retorted with his usual whiff of arrogance, at which Dan simply snorted, before turning to face Chloe (the one his question had been aimed at anyway).
"You would actually be doing me a favor, since my car is still getting fixed and I would have to hitch a ride with one of the officers anyway… come on, Chlo, you two have been up for almost 24 hours and you are basically falling asleep and Lucifer here has been drinking, if not worse, all night," he tried again, now with an almost pleading look in his eyes.
"I will have you know that I-"
"Lucifer," Chloe interrupted him and grabbed his wrist, sending a familiar shiver through him. The words were stuck in his mouth, as his eyes darted between the place her bare skin was grazing his and her face. Their eyes locked for a few beats, before she tore her hand away and gently said: "I think Dan has a point. And I really don't want to argue. Let's just let him take us home, okay?"
"Fine, but I am not sitting next to Daniel!" He gave in (because how could he not when the detective was looking at him like that?) and stalked over to the car. Chloe was too tired to even roll her eyes at him and wordlessly slipped in the backseat next to Lucifer, kind of relieved that she didn't have to drive and could lay down in her own cozy bed in a few minutes. Dan just sighed deeply, before shaking his head and following them to the car.
For the first few minutes, Lucifer and Dan argued about what kind of music to listen to and when that had finally been resolved (by deciding to simply not listen to any music at all), Lucifer didn't take long to find something else to complain about. But Chloe barely even registered the half of it, as she felt herself slowly drifting into unconsciousness, deciding to no longer force her eyes to stay open.
Lucifer, who had been in the middle of ranting about the stickiness of the backseat and what it was doing to his precious suit suddenly froze and stopped talking, when he felt the detective's head on his shoulder. Her slow and even breathing suggested that she had fallen asleep and as he felt his heart beat speed up, he wondered if it was beating so loud that it could wake her. He was used to their hands or shoulders brushing more or less accidentally when they were walking next to each other and even to her hand lingering a little too long on his arm (when she wanted to stop him from doing something stupid), but it had been quite a while since the detective had last passed out in his embrace. And yet, as his heart seemed to slow down again and her familiar scent wrapped around him like a protective blanket, he didn't believe he had ever felt more at peace.
Still unsure of what to do, he carefully moved his arm around her shoulder and automatically pulled her in even closer to make it more comfortable for her. She stirred a little upon his movements, but didn't seem to have woken up, as she nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck – a safe place.
"Sleep tight, detective," he whispered into her hair, as the words were meant for her and her only.
