For a second, Chloe returned the kiss. For a second, everything was fine. Great, even. Bloody fantastic. For that second, everything made sense. Then several things happened at once. Chloe pulled back and looked at him with a horrified expression. There was a sensation of weight at his back, not painful, just strange. There was a thud to his right and then something hit the floor with a crash. He turned to look and there were white feathers everywhere. Some- bird? What the-? He turned further, trying to get a better view of what was happening, and the feathers moved with him.

He had a moment of silent clarity, in which he thought, so I am insane, then he reached up a trembling hand and there really were goddamn wings growing out of his back. His thoughts started tumbling. He looked back at Chloe who was frozen in place, staring at him, mouth agape.

Wings. He had wings. Lucifer, he thought, and felt a door in his mind slipping open slowly. He saw flashes of what must be his past, blinding white, all-encompassing fire, screams, mad laughter- No! He slammed it shut, refusing to follow this train of thought. He searched for anything to hold onto, anything to occupy his mind. His hands came up, reaching for Chloe. Chloe. He looked at her pleadingly, helplessly. Finally her gaze moved away from his wings and met his eyes, terrible realization dawning on her face.

"Lucifer", she whispered. No, that was wrong. Samael. Someone speaking his name in a commanding tone, voice filled with anger. Father. He jumped up, hands going to his head. No, no, no, no. There was so much anger there, so much hurt, so much pain. It was unbearable. It felt like his head was going to burst, it was all too much- and suddenly there was only white.

He moved in to kiss her. She responded without thinking. Considering her last words, she really had only herself to blame. Then she remembered her promise to herself, made less than an hour ago, not to let things move in this direction, and pulled back. Then she froze.

Out of nowhere, two massive wings had appeared at Lucifer's back. They were magnificent. Even in the dim light, they had a radiance to them, almost shining with an inner white light. Chloe stared at them, not believing her eyes. There was no way this was some trick of the light, some hologram or illusion. They were much too present. She was convinced that if she reached out her hand she could touch them. Wings, she thought, unable to get her racing thoughts to form any coherent pattern. Wings.

The wings suddenly spread out, knocking something over with a thud. It crashed to the floor. Chloe couldn't care less what it was. Her eyes never left his wings. His wings. She saw Lucifer reach up a hand to touch them and something about the gesture made her move her eyes back to his face. She saw the emotions she was feeling mirrored there, disbelief, horror, shock, fear, and she realized that this was not something planned but that he was just as terrified by what was happening as she was. Probably more, since it was happening to him.

Lucifer, she thought. This is what he had been telling her from the moment they met. There had been a time when she had almost believed him, but then he'd bled and she had never let herself consider the possibility again. Not once. Not ever.

"Lucifer", she whispered, trying to align the image of her partner, her friend, with the idea of the devil and the two just wouldn't match. Lucifer suddenly jumped up, his hands cradling his head, his face a grimace of pain. Then, as if somebody had knocked over a switch, he was out cold. He fell, and Chloe instinctively tried to catch him, but he was way too heavy for her in the first place, not to mention the weight of the massive wings. All she managed to do was to slightly soften his fall, at least avoiding his head crashing onto the table.

Once they were on the floor, she felt for his pulse, needing to confirm what she already knew, deep down. He was alive, just unconscious. She breathed a sigh of relief, then she stood up suddenly, stumbling a few feet backwards. She stood there for a moment, staring at the unconscious man on her floor. Well, unconscious angel on her floor, really. A fallen angel. She started giggling hysterically, then she managed to get a hold of herself. Her hands started trembling. She closed her eyes and tried to slow down her rapid breathing.

She opened her eyes again and they were immediately drawn back to his wings. He was an angel. An archangel. She stared at him, thinking, I have feelings for the devil. There really was no point denying it to herself, was there? The devil. And she couldn't even plead in her defence that she had been lured in, deceived into liking him. No, he had been upfront with her from day one. He had told her again, and again, and again.

She tried once more to see him like this, like the devil, like a celestial being, but he stubbornly remained just Lucifer in her mind. What kind of life did he lead? What was she to him, really? What could any human be to an angel? He must have lived many life times, seen unbelievable wonders and unspeakable terrors. How could she even relate to that? How could she be more than an ant to him, some tiny insignificant organism whose life was over in the blink of an eye? Could any of this, any part of her life, really hold meaning for him?

Then she remembered that he was not the archangel Lucifer. Right now, he thought of himself as a human being. A human being without memories who had sprouted wings out of his back and was probably scared out of his mind. Unless the wings had triggered his memory and he was already back to his old charming self. Which was the devil. Okay, snap out of it. He's the devil. What now? Well, first things first, she needed to get him out of the living room. She hadn't even managed to explain all of this to herself and she had no intention of repeating the experience any time soon with her daughter. She would just move him to her bedroom. Yeah. Sure. As if he hadn't been almost impossible for her to move on her own already, now there was the added weight of the two massive wings. What kind of wing span did he have, anyway? She imagined what he would look like, standing up, wings fully extended.

She snapped back to the here and now, realizing that she had gotten lost in thought again while staring at his wings. Okay, who to call for help? She already had her phone out, her hand hovering above the screen, when another realization hit her. Maze. She's a demon. A demon from hell. Living with her. And her daughter. She decided to postpone that freak out to a later date and focus on Lucifer for the time being. She tapped the screen to call her room mate. It rang for quite a while before Maze picked up.

"Maze, I need your help", Chloe blurted out, not even waiting for a hello.

"Kind of busy here", Maze replied, sounding annoyed more than anything.

"Right, okay, yes, but I have a bit of an emergency here and I could really use your help."

"Well, I could have used Lucifer's help here but he's too busy having fun with you, so I guess we're both out of luck", with that, she hung up the phone. Chloe stared at the screen for a moment, collecting her racing thoughts, then she called again. Maze waited even longer this time around and Chloe started panicking, but then Maze's annoyed voice was back and for once Chloe was delighted to hear it.

"You know when people hang up the phone it usually means they don't want to talk to you right now. Take a hint."

"Wings!", Chloe yelled, scared that Maze would cut her off again before she had a chance to explain. The words just tumbled out of her. "He has wings. And he's unconscious. And I don't know what to do. I don't want Trixie to see him like this. She'll be scared. Hell, I'm scared. I don't know what to do. I know he's been telling me this from the start, but I just thought- no way, and have I mentioned that I don't know what to do." On the last words, her voice rose considerably, taking on an edge of panic and she shut up suddenly, afraid that she might wake Trixie up. She rubbed her free hand over her eyes, trying to calm down.

"On my way", Maze said simply, the annoyance gone from her voice, replaced by something else which Chloe couldn't spare the brain capacity to figure out right now.

"Thank you", she said, relieved.

Chloe sat on the floor next to Lucifer and tried not to panic. Maybe all of this was just a bad dream. She would wake up any minute now and her world would have shifted back where it belonged. She would worry about some kid bullying Trixie at school or some case that proved to be especially challenging. And the bible would be a story again and not a record of things that actually happened. There would be no heaven, or hell, just the uncertainty of life. Hell. What would a place like that be like? What would it do to a person to be trapped there for millennia? For eternity? What would it be like to watch over the souls of the damned?

Lucifer stirred on the floor, interrupting her train of thought. He opened his eyes, and groaned. Moment of truth, Chloe thought, who are you? His eyes were glazed over, but after a moment his gaze focussed and he locked eyes with her.

"What happened?"

Chloe could only shrug her shoulders helplessly. Lucifer tried to sit up and she saw the moment when he noticed the weight dragging him down and he remembered the wings. He looked at them, then back to Chloe.

"I have wings", he stated, his voice devoid of emotion.

"No shit, Sherlock", Chloe replied. Lucifer stared right through her, clearly in shock.

"Why do I have wings?", he inquired, his voice still strangely mechanical.

Chloe made an effort to get herself back under control. He obviously needed her help. She moved closer to him, taking his hands in hers. His eyes snapped to their hands, then to her face. Just like with his words, there was no trace of emotion on his face either. Chloe tried her best to give him a reassuring smile.

"Whatever this is, we will figure it out together, yeah? You and me."

He gave her a grateful pained little smile. It was better than the complete absence of emotion, at least.

"Please give me a plausible explanation for this. Anything", his voice had a panicky note. "Genetic mutation? Drug-induced hallucination? No?" He got more and more agitated. Chloe didn't have the faintest idea what to do. She panicked and, entirely on impulse, leaned forward and kissed him.

She succeeded in temporarily getting his focus away from the wings, at least. He pulled back after only a couple of seconds though, looking at her in wonder. "I'm an angel", he stated, his voice flat.

"It would appear that way, yes", Chloe said, trying to gauge his reaction.

He rubbed his hands over his eyes. "Oh God." The wings suddenly folded behind his back. He turned slightly, regarding them as if they were some dangerous animal sitting on his back. "Why did they do that?", he asked, looking at them suspiciously. Chloe pushed down the sudden urge to laugh. He looked a little bit ridiculous. Then again, he was visibly scared, so this really wasn't the time to be making fun of him.

"I would assume you made them do that", she said, careful to sound entirely serious.

"I did no such thing", he said, glaring at the wings, as if that would make them disappear. Which gave Chloe an idea. "Can you try to make them disappear?"

He looked at her as if she had asked him to perform brain surgery.

"Okay. Maybe we need to take this more slowly. How does it feel?"

"It feels as if I've grown two extra arms out of my back and don't know how to use them."

Well, put like that it sounded indeed like a scary thing to be happening to you.

"Are you up to moving to the bedroom? I don't think I could explain any of this to Trixie right now."

He nodded and stood up in one swift motion, surprising Chloe. "Aren't they- you know- heavy?"

He frowned, considering. "Not really. I can feel them but it's as if it's meant to be like this. The same way my arm doesn't feel heavy, I guess. It's- difficult to explain."

She led him to the bedroom, where he sat down, drew his knees up and put his arms around them. He looked very lost. Chloe didn't know what to do or how to help him. She decided to try something easy first.

"Right. Seeing as you passed out a moment ago, I'll go and get you some sugary beverage from the kitchen, okay?"

"I'm not thirsty."

Chloe was about to argue, but there was something in his voice that made her stop. It was reflected in the way he sat as well and even more so in his eyes. Don't leave me alone, please, was written, clear as day, all over his face. Don't leave me alone with them.

"Alright", she said and sat down next to him on the bed. After a moment, she leaned her head against his shoulder and he sighed in response, putting his arm around her, drawing her closer. She went willingly, putting her own arms around him, and he rested his head on hers. It was nice, feeling his rapid breathing slowing down, feeling his panic ebb away a bit.

They sat like this for a couple of minutes when suddenly the wings spread out a little, only to fold around the two of them like a massive fluffy white blanket. Chloe gasped in surprise and tensed.

"Sorry", Lucifer said, trying to pull away.

She didn't let him. "It's fine", she said in what she hoped was a soothing tone. "They're a part of you."

He made a strange noise, a chocked-off sob, holding on to her even more tighly. She let him, starting to draw her hands through his hair. She didn't know what else to do, but maybe this was enough for the moment, to let him know that she was still right here with him, that she wasn't going anywhere.