Chloe took another sip of wine and set it down. "I know you're against getting any Christmas gifts. Because your dad is...well, God. And I kind of get the whole grinch theme you've got going on. I do. But. I got you something anyway."
Lucifer exhaled his disapproval and shook his head.
"No. No, detective. You know the only reason this day means anything to me is because it's important to you and the little spawn. If it were anyone else, it's just another day to me. I hope Trixie enjoys her gift, by the way."
He took a sip of his own wine and leaned comfortably into the back of his couch.
"Oh, trust me. She loved the concert tickets. She's making a list of the friends she could invite as we speak. Pros and cons. But you're changing the subject."
"Am I?"
"Yes."
"And are you quite sure you enjoyed your gift, detective?"
Lucifer adjusted his silk robe,nervously looked to one side and then finally met her eyes again. He was actually being a little adorable, Chloe thought.
"Do I dare ask how you got all the original Backstreet Boys to sign this?" Chloe looked over to the table at the poster she had in her room as a teenager. "And I can't believe you talked my mom into letting you look through all those boxes from my old room." She narrowed her eyes, feigning disapproval.
Lucifer grinned, very satisfied with himself. "You may have forgotten who you're talking to."
Chloe laughed happily. "You know what? I did. But this made my inner twelve-year-old very happy." Her smile could not have been bigger.
"I'll never understand your strange and passionate love of nineties music, but I fully endorse anything that makes you smile just that way."
"What way is that?"
Lucifer took another sip of wine and then set it on the side table, next to the couch.
"Like you have everything you could ever want."
"Everything I truly desire?"
"Indeed," he agreed.
"Not quite. I want you to open my gift."
Lucifer shifted uncomfortably in his seat and raised an eyebrow. "You're not playing fair," he grumbled.
Chloe pulled a very small box from her robe pocket. It was likely some sort of jewelry, he noted.
Lucifer went from looking slightly uncomfortable to positively anguished.
"Oh. Dear. Detective-whatever is in that box is completely unnecessary, really. There's nothing I can't buy for myself. You shouldn't be getting me any gifts."
"Gifts aren't about the money, Lucifer. Open it," she said, as she held out the small box.
Lucifer sighed, eyed the box wearily, and finally took it. "I'm doing this under protest," he complained. "I don't get gifts. I give them. And I certainly do not get gifts today."
Lucifer handled the tiny box carefully, unwrapping it very slowly, pulling at each corner of tape, until he had removed the wrapping in one piece. He looked up expectantly, as though the skillful unwrapping might be enough. But judging by the impatient expression in Chloe's face, he actually needed to open the box. He finally lifted the lid of the box to find a lovely pair of cuff links. He could tell they had been shaped and polished. Perhaps plated in white gold. He removed them from the box. Something about them seemed vaguely familiar.
"Oh my."
"I though it should be something classy. Something Luciferesque. They're the two bullets that bounced off of you that day, with me standing just feet away. I had these made for you- as sort of a bookend to my necklace."
Lucifer appeared both very touched and just as perplexed. She could tell by the little crinkle in his brow he got whenever he was very sure that he was not very sure.
"Are we celebrating Daniel not penetrating me? I'm mean, yes, that is a glorious fact..."
Chloe smirked.
"No. I've thought about it. A lot. And I think you being invulnerable around me is because you knew you wouldn't be hurt with me. At least, I hope you know that. I want you to know that."
Lucifer was trying to understand but still didn't.
"I don't think I quite follow, detective. I was just as in the dark as you were about my invulnerability."
She shook her head.
"I don't mean injured. I mean...hurt." She placed her hand on his chest. Her eyes didn't leave his, and she could see the flicker of clarity in them.
"Oh," he said softly.
"Lucifer...we've spent so much time wondering about the why. Why are you invulnerable now?"
She sat back, folded her hands together, and anxiously flexed them as she spoke.
"And I think you can't be hurt now because-"
She cleared her throat nervously.
"Because you're not afraid of being hurt anymore. By me. Afraid that I'll run away, that I'll think you're a monster, that I'll abandon you. I mean, you were always so afraid of how I would react. You couldn't bring yourself to show me your devil face for the longest time. And then, when you finally did, I... ..um.." The words trailed off. They were still so difficult to say.
She could see his mind churning behind those dark brown eyes, turning over this information. His brow was still set in pensive consideration. The total silence was unsettling.
Chloe found herself revisiting the moment Lucifer found out she had betrayed his trust. The horrible guilt she felt. She would never allow herself to forget it. At the time, she had to use much kinder words to describe the look on his face. He was upset. He was hurt. He was angry. They all sounded so much better than "broken" and "devastated." They sounded so much more acceptable than the truth- that she had completely and entirely crushed him. And if she had ever been convinced that he was only performing, that all of it was simply manipulation, any such illusions had come loudly crashing down around her feet. If pain and betrayal could be distilled into one single moment in time, that would have certainly been it. And it was her fault. If he, one of the oldest and most powerful beings to walk the earth, the man she loved so dearly, had been abruptly snuffed out of existence, she would have been completely to blame. All because she had broken his heart.
She did not realize that tears welled up and started to fall.
"Detective- Chloe, what is it? Please, don't be upset." He was worried.
"I'm ok," she said, while attempting a smile.
He reached out, touched her cheek,and wiped away one of her tears with his thumb.
"It's Christmas. A time for good cheer. I'm a grinch, remember? I don't quite know how to do all this. You should just leave me alone on a mountain top with a dog and a big sled."
The joke achieved a little laugh. Convincing him to watch a classic Christmas cartoon with her had been no small feat.
"You remember that, too?"
"Of course, I do. You adore that movie. All that incessant rhyming. The Who's and what-nots and something-or-others." Lucifer scooted himself closer, drew her head to his chest, and rested his chin on the top of her head.
Chloe snugged herself closer.
"I think you're right," he agreed quietly, as he absently stroked her hair. His other arm rested comfortably at her waist, still holding tightly to the gift in his hand. "I believed I could lose you. For so many reasons."
"I'm sorry, Lucifer," she whispered.
"Don't be sorry," he mumbled assuringly. "For years, I was afraid. I was foolhardy And I was selfish. In that order. And you, my dear, were having none of it. You made me face my fears. You made me want to be better. And I believed I could be.
I am a big grinch, you know. Always have been. I've only truly cared for myself. I gave gifts on all other manner of occasions, certainly. But for all the wrong reasons. I am now rummaging through old boxes filled with pom-poms , CDs, and a gripping essay on Shakespeare's Hamlet to find a nineties boy band poster. You. You, detective, have made the devil's heart grow three sizes." He paused. "Don't you know that?"
Chloe didn't answer. Couldn't answer. She might have blubbered like a baby.
Lucifer lifted the hand that held his gift and watched the trinkets glimmer in the soft light of his apartment.
"I've never received a Christmas present before. They are beautiful," he said thoughtfully. He studied them carefully, as though committing every small detail to memory, and absorbing every meaning behind them, until his eyes softened and a shy smile crept across his lips.
"Thank you. So much. For everything. For loving me," he added.
"Lucifer-"
"I know," he said, interrupting her.
And he did know- in the tender way she spoke his name. In the way she curled herself against his body in complete contentment. The way she touched him. The way she allowed him touch her. He was sometimes sure it was a dream, but she was real and in his arms.
Lucifer breathed deeply. A mixed scent of light perfume and something uniquely hers filled his senses. It was intoxicating.
"I love you, too," he whispered. "Merry Christmas."
