Emotionally and physically exhausted, Dan held Trixie's hand as they exited the elevator. He volunteered to give the other two some alone time. Chloe still looked a little green around the gills from not much sleep, and, well everything else. Feeling suddenly old, he desperately needed a nap. He hoped Chloe wouldn't mind if he crashed on her couch for a few hours.

He debating on calling them in sick for Monday. He knew he could use a longer weekend. He had a pretty solid idea of how Ella would react to all three of them not turning up at work tomorrow. She'd probably turn up at Lux, find a pile of feathers, and they'd go through the entire routine again. He hoped she didn't read too much into his Biblical questions the other day. Especially now that they were relevant.

Empty of patrons since last night, the club lights lit bare tables and chairs. He'd seen it a million times before, but the downstairs piano seemed particularly alone.

Dan didn't intend to speak to her, but it came out of his mouth anyway when he spotted Maze hanging out behind the club bar, hours after her 'time-out.'

"Hey." As he got closer, he saw she was making what could only be a voodoo doll out of tiny plastic swords, toothpicks, and drink garnishes from the bar. He hoped it was not actually a voodoo doll.

Maze looked up over her organic and plastic creation. She speared a spare orange slice on a toothpick with one hand and set a large glass bottle on the bar with the other. The sound system wasn't on, their steps echoing softly on wood floors filling the thick silence. She dropped ice in a glass, swirling it around in crisp, clattering circles.

He didn't really want a drink right now.

She gave Trixie a white ceramic bowl of maraschino cherries from under the bar. Trixie looked askance at the offering, pretending she didn't want to dive into them headfirst.

The demon, demon! , pushed the glass across the bar top with a wooden scrape at Dan. "Yeah?"

He didn't know what he wanted to say, or why he stopped at the bar instead of just leaving with a friendly wave. "How are you?"

She squinted, leaning on an elbow. "Fiiiiiine. How are you liking that sweet angel as-"

Dan coughed. "Look, I know politeness isn't your thing. In fact, I don't know anyone more badass than you, but could you at least pretend there's a child present?"

She chewed on a bit of plastic. "That depends on how well you tip."

Dan rolled his eyes. "Really? Okay, fine." He grabbed his wallet out of his pocket and dropped a five into the jar. "For a drink I didn't order."

Maze looked him up and down.

He sighed and added a ten. "Better?"

"For now."

"How are you really?"

She did a shot. "Don't you want to ask what's really on your mind?"

"And what's that?"

"The big one. ' Why?'"

Dan shrugged. "Would you answer it?"

She smirked. "Probably not."

"Well, there you go."

Maze took a garnish stick out of whatever it was she was messing with, popping an olive in her mouth and crushing it in her teeth. Her eyes might have softened a little. "This whole thing would be a lot more tolerable for me if Lucifer had just gone after you instead of Decker."

Dan winced. "I'm not looking for a long-term commitment with him."

"Exactly."

Trixie chomped on a cherry, totally not eyeing them.

"Hey, Trix, do you want to play with my phone?"

"Nah."

Maze pulled the five out and handed it to Trixie. "Hey, go play with the gadget for ten minutes."

She took the five, her cherries, and the phone and plopped down in a booth across the floor.

Dan grumbled but dropped another bill in the jar when it was clear she was going to make him pay dearly, one way or another. "Lucifer keeps saying he's 'retired.' What does that mean?"

Her very human dark eyes watched him. "He thinks we're not going back. One way or another, we will."

"Why do you say that?"

Her face tightened. "We're immortal. Do you have any useful concept of what that means?"

Dan reconsidered the drink she poured him but shook his head. "If I say yes, you're going to tell me I'm wrong anyway, so go ahead."

"You've been on earth for, what, thirty-something years? Add some zeros to that for my lifespan. Call it a handful. Lucifer is older than I am. He made me. Can you conceive of that? He doesn't have children, he has demons. That he made. And I'm hunting one down to either kill her or send her back to hell."

He glanced over his shoulder. His daughter played with the phone, a cherry stem jutting out of the corner of her mouth. She excitedly jumped up, swung the phone around in a circle and tossed virtual pokeballs at something she found in the back corner.

"Can we help you find her, somehow?"

"This isn't someone you can arrest."

He turned the glass around, not drinking it. "I know, but maybe we can help?"

"You seem to be taking the afterlife thing pretty well."

Dan pushed the drink further away. "How I see it, Chloe and I have two options. We can go insane, or keep it together. Trixie seems completely fine. Like she knew it from the beginning. I guess Chloe and I can always go join a cult out in the desert or give Burning Man a try."

She returned a flat look. "Ah, yes. Burning Man. That's always fun."

"I always kind of believed in, well, God. Chloe less so. I've seen enough science fiction to still wonder if Lucifer's from another planet, since the only thing I've seen that's different about him is the wings. It's just my 'mortal' brain trying to make sense." He tried to look at Maze and not flinch. He shuffled. "You look human too."

"Oh?" She leaned back. Her face changed .

In a blink, half her face turned black and twisted in a slightly asymmetric pattern. One eye surrounded by corruption paled to milky white, unblinking. "You never saw Lucifer's Devil form."

Dan pushed back from the bar, tossing over a chair. He flailed and tripped, hitting the hard floor in a collection of limbs.

Mazikeen came around the bar, her disfigured, hidden face coming closer. She clutched one of her knives in a hand. It caught the light in a silver flash.

"You might feel differently about your boyfriend if you had seen his body covered in red, burnt skin. If you'd seen his wings cut off at the very roots, bones, and joints that I cut through and scarred with this very burning blade. Because he asked me to cut off the last thing he had that reminded him of his Father." She raised her wickedly curved dagger, punctuating her cutting words. "Did you know he doesn't have any hair in that form? The thin stretched skin on his skull is blistered and scorched like broiled meat."

Dan scrambled away, breathless, backing away on his hands and ass. He didn't have his sidearm on him. His instincts screamed at him to find a weapon to defend himself. Defend Trixie. Where was Trixie?

The demon advanced, stalking. Her measured stiletto steps clapping back and forth in cavern echoes. She stopped, one heel placed forward between his open knees. "Immortality is one thing. Do you know what it's like to burn for a thousand years? Or more? Because 'Dad' doesn't like one little thing you did wrong?"

Trixie's bowl crashed and cracked to the floor, sending cherries rolling. "Maze!"

Maze's face abruptly flicked back. To normal , Dan thought insanely.

The reversion helped.

Trixie was having none of it. "Stop scaring people!"

Dan sat up, rubbing his elbow. When Trixie came close, he grabbed her around the waist, glitter tutu crunching. "You okay?"

Maze jerkily stepped back. "Yeah. Ask her if she's okay being around a demon. Because I'm dangerous to humans."

Dan swallowed and let go of Trixie. He looked up at Maze from his sore ass on the floor. "Are you?"

"You've seen my bounty handiwork."

"Have you ever killed anyone?"

Somehow he knew her answer. And she knew why he asked it.

The demon looked down at them. She stepped back to her drink at the bar, flipping her tightly drawn hair. "Go home. I wish I could."

Chloe kissed Lucifer gently. "How do you stay sane here, with all us humans?"

He stroked her hair. His wings were tucked away again. "Practice, I suppose." They held each other on the couch. Lucifer still hadn't put a shirt on, and she wasn't about to ask him to. The place was clean again, like nothing insane had just happened over the last two days. Dishes ran in the washer, perishables were put back in the fridge. Life happened.

She blew out against her hair, loose gold strands puffing out. She was going to have to get her roots done again soon before the dark underneath grew out much further.

Everything's fine. We're all fine here. Planning out perfectly normal human activities for the rest of the week. I have to pick up apples, honey ham, and cheese sticks for Trixie's school lunch snacks.

She curled up against him and listened to him breathe. If she positions her head just right, she can hear the blood rush of his pulse. Lower down, his stomach made a squishy noise in response to breakfast. It bubbled up and faded out again.

"Is this going to work? Us?"

Lucifer sat quietly for a moment. "I know I want you in my life if you want that too."

"I wonder what 'Dad' thinks of me dating His kid. One of His kids. I'll have to find something to tell my mother eventually. She's probably perfectly happy assuming it's a stage name."

She felt him twitch. The warm hand around her waist brushed her back over the t-shirt.

She changed the subject. "There's really no such thing as vampires, huh?"

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Maze. I asked her about vampires and werewolves."

"Have you been watching Buffy reruns?"

She snorted. "How did you watch Buffy but not Star Trek?"

"Just a handful of episodes here and there. A few people have vampire fetishes these days. More than a few. It helps to find the current source of such things. A man asked me to roleplay Angel once."

Chloe found herself giggling, and thanking her stars she found herself reacting with genuine amusement instead of knee-jerk jealousy. "Wouldn't you do a better Spike?"

"Let's just say he wasn't that interested in my accent. Which was a relief since my 'American' is terrible. 'Broody Vampire' is a little easier."

"Oh, does that mean you'd be willing to do Spike for me someday? I could be Buffy."

"As long as you aren't asking me to go blonde. Or cower before crosses."

"I'm just happy you didn't say ' Twilight ' was your source material."

"I'm sure that threw more fuel on the supernatural fire of lusty fantasies, but I'd burn that before reading it."

She snickered. "That crowd probably isn't even old even to get into the club."

"You'd be surprised how many horny housewives read that stuff. Linda has a copy."

"Oh no."

Lucifer shrugged under her. "We all have our unsophisticated outlets. You can't possibly tell me you've never read a 'bodice ripper'."

She squirmed a little.

He grinned victoriously. "Thought so."

Chloe burrowed into his side.

"You all right, love?"

"I feel like if I let go of you, I'll never see you again."

"Why do you think that?"

"Like you'll fly away from me. Now that I know."

"Never."

"Is it okay if I talk to Linda about this?"

"Of course."

She bit her lip, eyes closed, smelling him. Inhaling him. She felt something in her soul welling up.

"Lucifer?"

"Yes?"

"Do I have a soul?"

"Of course you do."

"Should I...uhm...go back to church?"

He shivered. "If you want to. I can't imagine what help it'd be."

"So, the whole Jesus guy?"

Lucifer sighed. "He was a very polite, generous man. He thought he talked to Dad. Maybe even did, for all I know. Possibly even part-angel. He had a scent of celestial on him, but he wasn't one. He managed to keep a few people out of hell by teaching tolerance and, well, basically telling people not to be dicks to each other."

She giggled in spite of herself.

He absent-mindedly rubbed a long finger behind her ear. "Naturally, it all went to shit one way or another. But he was basically right - be a generally good little human, and you probably won't go to hell."

"Probably?"

"Extreme guilt will drive souls there too, absent real sins."

"Does having the Devil for a boyfriend tilt my scales one way or another?"

"If such scales exist, I've never seen them."

She squeezed him. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For telling the truth. I'm glad Dan did what he did. Please don't hold it over his head too long."

"I wanted to keep your innocence intact longer. For as long as possible."

"Hmmm?"

"Now you're going to ask me all kinds of questions about the "End Times," heaven, hell, Dad."

"Ugh. Can I just stay here?" Her stomach suddenly grumbled, reminding her it had been a long morning already. They'd spent hours on his wings, with assurances that next time wouldn't take so long.

Next time.

"I'm not ready to ask those questions. Or hear the answers. I'm going to just shove it all in the back of my brain for now. I'll poke you eventually about it, but right now my brain just needs to settle. I like being here. You're my happy, warm rock for my lizard brain."

Her phone buzzed several times.

She peeled herself off of Lucifer, grabbing her phone off the coffee table. Dan wanted to see her sometime this afternoon.

"What do you have around here for lunch?"

Lucifer pulled her down for a longer kiss. His body felt so damn good under her.