Nobody moved.
Bright wide wings stretched further than the couch arms. They bounced when they extended fully, then reflexively retracted to a comfortable resting position, floating in place as if they didn't look like they'd be at home on a Cessna.
Dan turned on his heel, walking the several paces it takes to get around an angel wing. He stepped wide around broken glass on the floor. "Well, I wasn't sure that was going to work." He said to no one.
Chloe's world slowed down to nothing. A part of her brain registered that it went exactly like they do it in the movies. She heard the sound of time itself. The sound of the universe.
Her eyes unfocused and her knees gave out. Her breath went out.
She sank to the floor, feet under her. The black robe rippled as it pooled around her. Her vision was framed by her golden hair falling around her face as she dropped.
She was aware of every individual woven fiber in the rug under her shins. She could have stopped to count her eyelashes before her next breath.
Dan sat down on the rug next to her, giving her space.
Lucifer's reverie broke. His voice was thunder. "DANIEL."
"Don't scare her." Dan took her limp hand. It was cold and clammy. "Chlo'?"
She blinked. She breathed. She looked up. "Dan?"
Lucifer stood in place, distraught, breathing hard. He started to refurl.
She reaffixed her eyes to her lover. The closing wings. No. "No! Come here." Don't go away.
The Devil sat cross legged, leaving his wings out for the moment and glaring at Dan with a look that could curdle milk.
An idea came to Dan and he ran with it. He reached out and pulled on Lucifer's close wing, grabbing one of the huge outer feathers. Lucifer made a noise of annoyance but allowed it, rocking. Dan dragged the wing to float within reach of Chloe. She didn't move.
Dan silently prayed to 'Dad' he was doing the right thing.
He moved Chloe's weak hand to the feather, closing it around the central shaft with his own. He waited until he felt her fist contract and take hold. Dan started to relax his grip.
The feather slid several inches back from tension under her hand, slicing her finger in a shallow paper cut. She started then closed her hand tight, stopping the slip. The searing flash of pain brought some brain function back.
Someone next to her hissed in his breath.
Chloe's sky blue eyes shifted to her hand grasping the single, giant, quill. It reminded her of a swan feather, stiff with flexible vanes. As she watched her fist, the barbs separated in wide spans just like any other feather she played with as a child, sticking together in hooked clumps. They were ribbed and silky. Hesitantly, she willed her other hand to join the first. It didn't work the first time. Awareness came that her heart pounded. In her chest and head. The second try, she got both hands on the single feather.
Slowly, she followed the shaft, climbing her hands up to the point it embedded in solid flesh. The base where It anchored was larger around than a standard Sharpie. The paler, pebbled skin between feather shafts reminded her of a raw chicken wing. Chloe stifled an insane giggle.
The sound of time started to drift back where it belonged, a droning buzz that stopped echoing with her pulse.
She unclenched one fist from the first shaft and walked it to the next, now holding two at once. She let go of the original one that Dan placed in her hand and took the next in line, crossing her wrists over one another. She wasn't aware she'd risen to her knees, but she must have done so because she wasn't where she started.
Chloe continued walking her grasp on wide feathers, catching and releasing, until she ran out of new things to grab. The next movement left her hand finding his warm familiar skin, breathing hard under expanding ribs. Heat poured off him like a furnace.
She sat back down on her knees, both her hands framing Lucifer's hips, resting on silk and flesh. Her bare knees stopped against his crossed shins. His heat came from all directions. Her fingers on him flexed in recognition by touch. Territory she knew, and knew well. Unbidden, a smile twitched across her lips, mind wandering briefly to things below her hands, then faded again, unsure. She passed her hands over his stomach.
Gradually, her eyes followed the lines of muscle and skin and body up to his neck and finally his face. His soft, worried dark eyes filled her soul and touched every part of it. His breath smelled of cumin and a little cilantro. Her hands rested over his heart, beating fast like hers.
Everything about him remained Lucifer, save the wings. Those were pretty important though.
"Chloe?" Lucifer cupped her face. "Detective?"
She frowned, eyes shifting back and forth on his face. "You said you're the Devil." There was something. Something. It wasn't right.
"Yes."
She slid her hands back down his smooth front, down his defined abs, sweeping apart and finding her thumbs resting on his silk pants and her palms settled on his hips. Several of her fingers slid under the loose band without meaning to. Her eyes left his face to look down his body, cocking her head. She felt Lucifer tighten. She heard Dan shift and take in a quick breath. What did they-? Oh. Hah.
"Why do you have a belly button?"
Dan was somewhere behind her. She heard him attempt to sniff back a chuckle. He wasn't successful.
Of anything Lucifer expected her to ask, that wasn't it. "I beg your pardon?" Over her head he added, "If she's broken, I'm blaming you." His voice was dangerous.
Chloe's feet were dead. She couldn't feel them. "You're the Devil."
His face fell, eyes darting over her head. "Again, yes."
"Were you born?"
Relief flashed over his features. "Not like-oh, I see. My Dad made form was supposed to be that of a pre-human. A template, if you will. I imagine there's no reason for me to have organs either, but I do,"
A hand walked back up his chest. "You have a heart." Lucifer's ring hand closed over hers, holding it in place. His were so much larger than hers.
"And when you shot me, it pumped divine blood out of my body."
"Oh, my God. I shot you. I shot Satan."
"Please, 'Lucifer'."
"But I shot you!"
"I told you to, remember?"
She pulled her hair back. "You said you wouldn't get hurt. But you bled."
Bleeding. Chloe looked back at the wing she manhandled. A broken line of blood spots lay drying almost to his chest. Her paper cut stopped bleeding before she touched the entire wing.
"Oh, my- I'm so sorry, Lucifer."
"It's fine, love, you can help clean it later, if you want."
"Yeah, of course." She leaned back. "Can I…?"
"Yes."
Her legs were still dead. Crap. She fell over sideways into Dan when she tried to stand. Lucifer's eyes passed over her head again. Dan helped her up, but her legs weren't up to supporting her. Pins and needles started rushing to her toes. He deposited her on the couch behind Lucifer where she keep touching the wings and let blood back into her legs.
Chloe buried her fingers into either wing at the junction of his shoulders. Lucifer groaned.
"Sorry?"
"No, that's, uhm, a bit of an erogenous zone."
"Oh." She retracted a little, exploring the top support structure instead.
Dan returned with a bowl and washcloth.
"Hey, Dan, come here."
He leaned in towards his ex. "Yeah?"
She punched him hard in the shoulder.
"Ow!"
Lucifer smirked, she was sure.
Dan grumbled and sat in front of Lucifer. "What was that for?"
"How long have you known?"
"Not long." He wrang out the cloth and tried to figure out how to clean an angel wing. Watching Lucifer for reactions, he pinched the tip of a feather and held it while scrubbing carefully. Lucifer closed his eyes and made a noise.
Chloe let go again. "You okay?"
Lucifer straightened again. "Yes. Maintenance by someone else is nice."
"Oh!" She tried to find the chicken skin again. "So, not an alien?"
"Hmmm? No. Still me."
Chloe glanced at Dan over the wing arch. He shifted his seat, moving down the wing to the next feather. She thought about the blood. The gunshot. Gunshots.
"The first case we were on together, you were shot in the back. I wasn't sure then, but you were, right?"
"Correct."
"But you weren't hurt? Until I shot you?" She wiggles her toes. She caught Dan staring openly at her and it took her a second to realize her robe had fallen open from leaning over Lucifer. She blushed and started to re-tie it. Then she thought of what Maze said downstairs. She blew her breath out. Dan's eyes finally flicked up to her face and then he blushed and went back to scrubbing.
Maze. Shit.
"Also correct. When you're close by, I can be hurt."
Dan jumped. Apparently he didn't know about that.
She stroked the backs of the wings again. She started to figure out how they should lay. "How long was I unaware? My legs hurt like hell." She winced. "No pun intended."
She was Lucifer's head turn to look at Dan "An hour or two?"
"That's about right. Lucifer almost murdered me."
"The night is young, Detective."
Dan swallowed and kept scrubbing.
Chloe touched black curls. "Can you be hurt right now? With me here?"
"Technically, Yes. If one of you shot me right now, I'd probably die."
Chloe started to get up. "I shouldn't be around you!"
He reached up and grabbed her hand. "Chloe, I've known about this since you shot me. Well, a little after, but for a while now. I have no intention of letting a little mortality come between us."
She squeezed his hand in return. "I mean, could you technically be, I don't know, aging right now? Even when I'm not shooting you, am I still killing you?"
"Haven't thought about it that hard, to be honest. I guess I'll find out if any grey hairs show up. Oh, that'd be interesting."
Chloe did get up this time. She came around and stood in front of him. "Oh, Detective, are-"
"When were you going to tell me?"
He stopped. Dan put down the cloth. Trying to turn invisible.
"Were you planning on letting me get old and, and, die of old age while you didn't? Or in ten years when I'm one step closer to retirement and Trixie is wondering why you aren't?"
"Of course not."
"Do you even have a plan?"
Lucifer clamped his jaw.
"Okay, then."
Chloe walked away.
Dan knocked on the side of Lucifer's bedroom door. "Can I come in?"
Chloe curled up in a ball against the headboard, clutching several pillows. She wiped her face. "No."
"Well, good thing there's no doors in this place." He sat on the edge of the bed.
An icy glare found him.
"Hey, let me talk then, okay?"
Glare.
"He's still Lucifer. He's never been good at plans."
She didn't move. "Chlo', it's not like you didn't know that about him for years. Even if he wasn't who he says he is, this argument would have happened sooner later."
Glaaaaaaare.
"Or thinking things through, I agree." He sighed. "You wanted more information. You've got it."
She squinted.
"Yeah, I didn't expect him to be actually telling the truth either." Dan shrugged uncomfortably "No one expects anyone to be the literal Devil. But now you know he doesn't lie. For real."
Her eyes shifted out the door.
"I told him I'd talk to you first. You seemed like you didn't want to talk to him right now."
The squint intensified.
"You know he loves you right? He's not playing weird, I don't know, otherworldly practical jokes on you."
Her eyes widened.
"He just doesn't know it's love. He's never been in love before in his life."
She breathed out.
"I know because he looks at you...the way I used to."
Chloe hit him with one of her pillows. "This is a hell of a load of bricks to drop on a girl."
"It felt like you were going to leave and never come back." He licked his lips. "And I've been there for that too."
Her nose flared. She looked out the door. Lucifer wasn't visible. She hugged herself and wiped her face again. "We're in a relationship with the literal Devil. How does that work in the afterlife I didn't believe in?"
"I don't know about you but I'm really hoping 'sex outside of marriage' isn't a damnable sin."
Chloe felt a ghost of a smile creep into her face. She held out a hand. Dan took it lightly, rubbing her knuckles. It was damp from wiping her face. She scooted closer and hugged him. "Thanks."
She always gave good hugs.
"Who else is in this circle of damnation?"
"Just his therapist. And no, I have no idea how that went down."
Her mouth dropped. "Linda? Oh, I need to text her, soon."
"You know Linda?"
"She's part of the girl tribe. We get drinks every so often with Ella and...Maze."
"Yeah, try to put that one off a little bit."
Chloe let go of Dan, keeping her pillow. "Any chance he's a random angel with a trickster complex?"
Dan considered. "Is that any better?"
"Than Satan? Yes."
Lucifer, wings away, approached the doorway. "Speak of the me. May I come in? It sounds like a therapy session in here."
She unclutched a little, patting the bed on her other side. "Don't get any ideas."
"I'm nothing if not chock full of ideas." Walking to the far side of the bed, Lucifer flopped down, resting his head on the pillow in her lap.
"You have more pillows."
"And yet none of them are better placed strategically."
"Where do they go? The wings?"
"Sort of fleshy pockets, for lack of a better description."
"Like a, uhm, kangaroo?"
"They're sealed when not open, so not quite. The wings shrink to fit."
"So before when you said you cut them off?"
"Oh, I did. Well, Maze did. They came back recently. Still not sure why." He wiggled on the pillow, leaning up against Chloe's breasts.
She threw her hands up. "Really?"
"All I've got is my charm and my Devilness. The latter doesn't seem to popular right now. Also, I'm a big fan of your various parts."
Looking down at him now, it was easier for her to imagine him as the same Lucifer she's known for all this time. He could have sold the club and moved to another city when he discovered this 'mortality' issue, but he didn't.
She stroked his unmade hair. Did he look any older in the last year? Even now he didn't look concerned about her new knowledge. Has he always been unconcerned about 'everything'? For, God, actual eternity.
Probably.
"God is your actual father? Does God have a name?"
He looked up, turned his head. "Yes, but I'm not allowed to tell you."
Chloe swatted him. "Well, what use are you then?"
"Detective, I believe you know exactly how much use I am."
Dan shifted on the bed. "You guys seem like you're functional again. I should probably head out."
Chloe bit her lip, taking his hand. A million things whirling around. "Stay."