It was Festus who finally broke them apart. He had been in the back room, rifling through Laila's lunch when he had heard all the commotion and came out to see what it was all about. He watched on with wide eyes before he had finally had enough. He rushed forward and shoved Natalie out of the way to glower, eyes like watery daggers, at his leader.

Natalie scowled at the back of his head while the younger demon berated Lucifer for his absence. Satan himself stared down at the brat with an endearing smirk, not even listening to his accusations, before he lifted a hand and ruffled his hair.

"It's alright, Festus, I'm here now," he placated the boy who saw him as a hero. He always had, Lucifer recalled thoughtfully as Festus wiped his eyes and pushed himself away to stand next to Laila, his back turned on Lucifer but a small smile hidden away from all eyes but Laila's.

Lucifer reached out for Natalie's hand, and the two intertwined their fingers together tightly, not willing to let the other go. "Natalie," he called her name quietly under the excited commotion that had possessed the room. "Where is Michael?" he asked searchingly.

Natalie bit her lip and dropped her eyes to her knees. "I don't know," she answered truthfully and squeezed his hand within hers. "He hasn't been seen since that day, I know he's alive, but he's hiding," she explained.

Lucifer's eyes widened just a fraction before he too dropped them to the ground. "Asshole thinks he killed me," he muttered darkly. Had Lucifer been able to see his own body that day, he would have thought so as well.

Natalie had seen it. She had been there. She had watched as he seemed to fall for the second time. Eyes wide and lifeless as the fire around him died and blood spilled forth from his chest. He had slumped to the ground in a lifeless heap after the souls of the damned had left him with the final blow. And as Michael came down crashing after him, the consequential explosion sent the earth within a hundred yard radius to the sky and Lucifer's body had been lost. The archangel had spent days searching for him, sifting through the rubble as best he could while injured, but to no avail. He had disappeared soon after, a heartbroken mess.

"We'll find him," Natalie assured with a smile.

Lucifer responded in kind, though his was far more sad.

"Until then," Natalie chirped, "You need a bath and a nice night of bed rest." He just needed to relax, she thought, as she had felt the tense knots in his back, the way his legs struggled to support him, and knew that some time with her would leave him feeling replenished.

"I'm not dirty," he muttered, straight faced, and reveled in the familiar irritation that she had awoken with him.

"It doesn't matter," she snapped, "It'll make you feel better." She was so matter of fact in her tone that, in that moment, he did not have the heart to argue. She pushed herself to her feet and pulled him up with her. Lucifer leaned heavily on her shoulder once he was on his feet again and buried his face within her hair. He had missed her so much, even her smell was comforting to him, and her presence at his side soothed the deep longing ache that had grown to swallow him whole while they were apart.

"Laila," Natalie called as she steadied the man and wrapped an arm around his waist.

"Yes," Laila perked up and stepped forward to pick the metal down stem of the forgotten broken hookah off the ground. "You take him home, Felix, help me out tonight," she instructed with a small smile.

Festus rolled his eyes but nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Thanks, Laila, I'll be back as soon as I can," Natalie said with a grin.

Gabriel stepped forward from out of the crowd to help guide Lucifer. He wrapped the man's arm over his should and took him from Natalie's grasp with a kind smile. "We missed you, brother," he muttered quietly as they walked passed the crowd that parted before them.

"I bet you did," Lucifer drawled, eyes shut in exhaustion but a satisfied smirk on his face.

Gabriel smiled in return and said no more as they shuffled out through the door, held open by Natalie, who had only left for a short while to collect her purse. Natalie hurried ahead to her car, just a simple Honda, black in color, and opened the passenger side door so that Gabriel could assist Lucifer with climbing in to the front seat.

"Thank you, Gabriel, I appreciate your help." Natalie said as the angel stood straight and shut the passenger side door with his brother safely deposited.

"Of course, Natalie, please take care of him," he responded in kind.

Natalie smiled and gave him a hug, squeezing him tight for good measure, before waiving good bye and climbing into the driver's side of the car. She slid the key into the ignition, blowing a strand of hair out of her face, and glanced at the man in his passenger seat in renewed awe. He was passed out, she observed dryly with a smile, and patted his knee comfortingly.

Her house was not far, so the drive was relatively short, but as she pulled into the driveway she noted that her father was present. His car was parked in the driveway, behind the gated fence of her home and hidden among the old oak trees, she would have nearly missed it had she not had to go around to the passenger side to open the door. He often came to visit, though Natalie wished he would just move in, she worried for him. But he was doing well enough on his own.

He must have heard the news already because he was already walking out the front door to help. Natalie grinned at him from ear to ear before bending over to unbuckle Lucifer's seat belt. "Hey," she said quietly and shook his shoulder gently.

"What?" he grunted irritably and she only laughed.

"Wake up, we're home," she said simply.

He opened his eyes blearily and pushed himself up, setting his booted feet on the ground, before attempting to pull himself into a standing position.

"Wow," her father commented as he came to stop at the sight of him. He pushed his glasses up to get a good look at him and blanched. "When I heard Stan was back, I'll admit, this is not what I was expecting," he exclaimed with a nervous laugh.

Lucifer gripped the door for support and leveled his gaze on the man, golden eyes piercing in the dying light of day. "Mr. M," he greeted with a smirk.

"The one and only," her father responded in kind.

"It's Lucifer," he corrected with the same grin on his face. He seemed to regain a bit of his strength then and pushed himself straight, and held his hand out.

Mr. McAllister took his hand within his own and shook it with great respect, "It's a pleasure to officially meet you."

"You as well," he responded in kind.

"Why don't we get you situated inside and we can play catch up later," he added and stepped back to allow the man to finally shut the car door behind him. Natalie ran on ahead of them as they slowly followed in her wake.

"Dad, I'm going to run a bath for him, can you bring him up to my room?" she called back over her shoulder as she climbed the steps that led up to wrap around porch and front door of the two story house.

"Sure thing," he called back.

Natalie had told her family everything. From the moment she and Lucifer had first met up until his defeat by Michael. She told them of the shenanigans and adventures they went on, the people the fought, the time she died, and Lucifer had convinced Death and Pestilence to bring her back, and so on. Neither her father or her brother wanted to believe her, but things had been settled when her father had come to visit her at home and Felix had stepped out of the kitchen, pretzel stick hanging out of his mouth, wearing purple skin and horns. Her father had nodded and let out a nervous laugh before passing out.

Good times.

Natalie thundered through her house, ignoring all else, and climbed the stairs to her room in a hurry. She threw her door open and immediately went about collecting all of her dirty clothes, threw them in the hamper, before rushing into her bathroom to shove all the make up and general clutter in their perspective places. Once satisfied, she turned to the large Jacuzzi bathtub and turned the hot water on. As she did this, she heard her father's voice from her room and sighed. Assured that she had tidied just enough, she sorted through a few glass vials on her bathroom vanity, selected a two, and uncorked them. The contents were poured out into the steaming water as it filled the tub. Tea tree oil and rose buds. It would help to sooth and relax his tired body, she was sure.

"Nat will have you fixed up in not time," he father was saying as she reentered the room. Lucifer had dropped onto the bed, booted feet plant on the carpet, and elbows resting on his knees.

"Jeez," Natalie muttered, "How long have you been like this, Luce?" she asked in a motherly tone. She crouched down in front of him and rested a hand on his knee. The majority of the angels had come flocking to her as soon as all had been said and done to replenish their strength lost in the battle. She could only imagine how long he had been struggling.

"I was dead to the world for two years, I was only able to start really moving around recently," he admitted with a grimace and nodded at her father, who had rested a hand on his shoulder in silent support before leaving the room.

"That's crazy," she exclaimed in awe. "Then, how did you disappear though . . ." she wondered aloud with a finger to her chin in thought.

Lucifer shrugged and rubbed at his face tiredly. "I have no clue, Kid, but just being around you is starting to make me feel better," he admitted with a grin.

Natalie smiled up at him before standing. She stepped forward, between his knees and wrapped her arms around his head, holding him to her chest. It warmed beneath him and he could feel the energy flowing through his skin and down his spine. It was like he had just slid into that bath she had drawn for him after a long hard days wok outside. His shoulders relaxed in her hold and he leaned into her with a sigh.

"Now get your butt in the bath," she ordered and stepped back, pulling him to his feet by his hand, and pushed him towards the bathroom. "I'll get the bed made up with some clean sheets so you can sleep afterwards," she continued as he stepped forward into the bathroom and unbuttoned the shirt.

"That sounds . . ." he dropped the shirt to the ground with little care, his arms falling to his side like heavy weights, "Amazing."

Natalie chuckled and turned about to begin pulling the sheets from the mattress and pushed the pillows to the floor. She waited until she had heard the water slosh about, and his relieved sigh, before bundling the sheets up and leaving the room to drop them off next to wash downstairs. Once done, she selected a new set and comforter from the nearby closet, next to the laundry room, and returned to her room upstairs. It took her all of ten minutes, if that, to make up her bed and fluff the pillows. Afterwards, she hurried back downstairs to get him a large glass of water for the bedside table should he get thirsty.

She was just pulling the blinds up so that the little nook, filled with pillows and a few books she had been working her way through, could light the room with the glow of the moon when she heard water sloshing about again. One of the large oaks that dotted the property was right next to the window and its leaves glistened with dew in the moonlight. She stared at the scene calmly, peace flooding her heart, as the bathroom door was pulled open and Lucifer stepped out in just a towel.

She grinned cheekily at him, to which he lifted his eyes to the ceiling as if to pray to his father for help, before picking up a pair of sweatpants she had set on the bed. "We'll have to go shopping for you tomorrow until you get all of your mojo back," she explained with a shrug.

Lucifer grunted in tired acknowledgement but took the pants from her hand and returned to the bathroom to pull them on. Once done, he stepped out again to find her pulling the covers back for him. He had to admit, though he had slept since the End of All Days, this would be his first time actually sleeping in bed in almost a century. He sat down as she stepped aside and laid back against the pillows, letting out another relieved sigh. She had amazing taste in mattresses. It felt as if he had laid down on a cloud and when she pulled the heavy comforter over him, he was certain he had melted into a puddle. She was obviously pleased with his notable reaction too, because he heard her satisfied snicker as she tucked him in, and he smirked.

"Don't get used to this," he cautioned and cracked his neck as he readjusted himself on the pillows.

"I won't," she said with a dejected and overdramatic sigh. "You sleep as long as you need, I'll leave my phone here for you, so if you need me you can just call the Hookah Bar and I'll answer," she explained in a more serious tone.

Lucifer's hand snuck out from beneath the covers and he caught her wrist as she was turning away. "Stay," he ordered, his brows knit together in indignation. They hadn't seen each other, practically thought each other dead, for six years and she was going to leave him for work? "Festus can take care of Laila," he continued.

"Hmm," she hummed in thought, staring down at him, how she desperately wanted to join him for a nap. "You sure are persuasive," she observed with a quirked brow.

"It is my forte," he drawled.

"Alright," she threw her arms up in mock defeat before she kicked her flats off and pulled her jeans down. Her sweater fell around her thighs nicely, so she passed up on finding a pair of pajama bottoms, and crawled into bed on the other side. She settled on her side, staring at him, and he turned over to face her as well. She could just see the tips of his horns peeking out through his forehead, yellow in color, as he truly relaxed with her presence. She smiled happily at him and wiggled her hand about under the covers until she found one of his. He was a bit different then she remembered, less angry, but she had a feeling it had to do with the overwhelming exhaustion that had worn him down over the years. She hoped that with some good rest he would get back to his irritable self and they could return to pestering each other like old times. But for now . . . for now, she wanted to pamper him and revel in this loving side of his.

"I didn't know you missed me so much," she said quietly in triumph, her brows wiggling.

He snorted, "I already told you I did, you brat."

That was more like it, she thought with a smirk, and wiggled a bit closer to him. They could worry about finding Michael tomorrow, but for now, she wanted to enjoy the moment. And he did too.

They didn't talk much that night after that, simply enjoyed each other's presence. At one point, Natalie's eyes had grown heavy from staring into his for so long, and she finally fell asleep. She woke later feeling the back of his fingers trailing back and forth across her cheek and smiled tiredly. "You're supposed to be sleeping," she mumbled tiredly only for him to hush her and pull her closer to him to snuggle. She missed his smell and felt the safest she ever had wrapped within his arms.