33. Thirty-Three

Lucifer likes New York. 

Not as much as he likes Los Angeles, of course, but he’s always been fond of the city that never sleeps. During his cross-country road trip with Chloe, he spent a lot of time thinking about all the places he wanted to show her. Not the touristy places that everyone knows, but the ones only he knows. His favorite nightclub. The record shop where he met half of the Ramones. The Brazilian restaurant he adores, and the tiny German cafe that makes bread so good it should be a sin. 

Thanks to his father’s meddling, they have a couple days to explore the city. It’s plenty of time to take Chloe to all the places he loves. But he doesn’t take her anywhere. Instead, they barely even leave the penthouse. 

He loves every second of it. 

They spend all of Saturday night and most of Sunday tangled in the sheets and each other. He falls asleep on her chest, listening to her heartbeat as she combs her fingers through his hair. They debate the ethics of free will while eating bagels in bed. He tells her stories about Azrael and Raphael and his brother Raguel, who tried and failed to intimidate her into silence. She cuffs him to the headboard and teases him for what feels like hours, and when she finally sinks onto him and starts to move he comes embarassingly fast. He tells her that her prayer was the catalyst for his escape from his Hell loop. She cries again, and he cries too, and they say I love you over and over but it never seems to get old.   

On Sunday night, they snuggle beneath a blanket on an oversized chaise out on the terrace. They share a bottle of wine and a pint of ice cream and talk about all the places they’ll visit now that they’ve got forever to see the world. She falls asleep in his arms, curled into his side with her nose pressed against his neck. He stares at the stars and strokes his hand through her hair and revels in the fact that he gets to spend the rest of forever being loved by her. 

On Monday morning, she teaches him how to make her father’s sandwich. He notices her eyes are wet with unshed tears once they’re done, and when he asks her about it, she confesses that even though she has no interest in dying any time soon, she can’t wait to introduce him to her dad. He feels suddenly nervous. What if her father hates him? He spends five minutes awkwardly quizzing her about the best way to impress her dad until she realizes what he’s doing, and then she smiles and pulls him close and tells him that he has nothing to worry about because he’s incredible. 

They watch a Love It or List It marathon after that, and end up taking an impromptu nap on the couch. She wakes him with her mouth. Her mouth is...bloody hell, her mouth is sinful. He comes so hard he sees stars, and in the afterglow he blurts out that she’s the best sex he’s ever had. She stares at him in shock for a moment or two, and then they lunge at each other and spend the rest of the afternoon screwing each other senseless. 

On Monday evening around eight, they finally pry themselves out of the penthouse. He takes her to a bistro a few blocks away, an intimate little Italian place with white tablecloths and candlelight that makes her eyes shine. They drink wine and eat pasta and flirt shamelessly. There’s nobody hunting them, nobody plotting to rip them apart, and he can’t believe how good it feels. She looks relaxed and happy and he just...he can’t stop staring at her. He’s so in love with her it’s absurd. 

They make out in the back of the cab the entire ride back to the apartment building, and the whole elevator ride up to the penthouse too. By the time the elevator doors slide open, he wants her so bad he can’t wait. He shoves the flower vase off the entryway table and out of their way and fucks her right there on top of the table beneath the crystal chandelier.

“How does it just keep getting better? ” she whines afterward, her arm slung over her face as she pants to catch her breath. 

He laughs because he was thinking the same thing. He kisses her, and then he carries her upstairs, and their next round is the exact opposite of the first—slow and purposeful and intense in a way that he’s only ever experienced with her. He can’t remember what it’s like to be with anyone else. He doesn’t want to. She’s everything.

Hours later, he wakes from another nightmare. He bolts upright in bed, panting in terror and drenched in sweat. She’s fast asleep next to him. He can see the chain around her neck. It glints in the moonlight, a reminder of what’s real, and he presses his hand against her skin so he can feel her warmth. He wore her out and she’s still trying to catch up on sleep after a week of nightmares, so she doesn’t stir awake at his touch. He knows she wouldn’t mind if he woke her up. He knows she would hold him and whisper what’s real until he believes it. But he doesn’t wake her. 

He waits until his breathing has slowed to normal, and then he slides out of bed and heads for the bathroom. The sweat on his skin is drying but he feels sticky and uncomfortable from the nightmare, so he turns the shower to a scalding temperature and rinses off quickly. Once he’s dry, he pulls on a pair of silk sleep pants he left puddled on the floor when he followed Chloe into the shower this morning, and then heads back out into the bedroom. 

She’s still sleeping. He stops at the foot of the bed and stares at her, watching the way her shoulders rise and fall slowly as she breathes. She looks peaceful. She is peaceful. She hasn’t had a nightmare since Dream undid his spell. The urge to crawl back into bed and wrap himself around her flutters in his chest, but he feels restless. He doesn’t want to wake her with his fidgeting. So he wanders over to the bar cart instead, pours himself a tumbler full of whiskey, and then walks barefoot out onto the terrace. 

It’s nearly three in the morning, so the sounds of the city are muted but not silent. He stops at the edge of the terrace near the railing and lifts his glass to his lips. Central Park is spread before him. The skyscrapers of the city surround him. Up above, the sky is dark. The stars are difficult to see thanks to all the city light and some clouds, but he knows they’re there. He thinks of that field in Nebraska, and the hotel blanket he and Chloe sprawled out on, and he smiles into his whiskey. 

He hears a soft whoosh behind him, and his smile fades. 

He doesn’t say anything at first. He just sips his whiskey and enjoys the way it burns his throat. The nighttime air is chilly, but he doesn’t feel cold. He imagines it has something to do with the light in his veins. He wonders if Chloe will be immune to the cold now that she has light in her veins too. He wonders if she’ll let him drape his jacket over her shoulders anyway. 

He lowers his glass. “Brother,” he greets. 

“Good evening, Luci,” Amenadiel replies, stepping up to stand next to him. 

Lucifer finally looks at him. “It’s three in the morning.”

Amenadiel smiles. “Good morning then.”

Lucifer snorts in disdain. “To what do I owe the pleasure? Has Father changed his mind and barred me from the Silver City again?”

“No,” Amenadiel says, setting his hands on the terrace railing. “I’m not here on Father’s behalf. I came on my own.”

“Lucky me,” Lucifer mutters, lifting his glass to his lips. 

“I wanted to explain my actions.” 

“You mean your lack of action?”

“Yes.”

Lucifer feels his temper flare, and he turns to face his brother with a glare. “I won’t allow you to wake her from the first solid sleep she’s had in a week. Particularly since you’re partly to blame for her nightmares.”

“I have no desire to disturb Chloe.”

“Well then there’s no need for you to stay. Go away.”

Amenadiel, as usual, looks unbothered by his rage. “I think I owe you an explanation as well, don’t I?”

Lucifer scoffs. “You did what you always do and sided with Dad. I’m not surprised by your choice, nor did I expect anything else from the favorite son. So no, I don’t need an explanation. I don’t desire one either.”

Amenadiel turns to face him. “Actually, Luci, I sided with you.”

“Has all that time breathing Silver City air rotted your brain?” Lucifer snaps. “How the bloody hell—”

“I told Father that you deserved to come home.”

Lucifer stares at him, stunned. 

“After family dinner, he and I went for a walk,” Amenadiel explains. “He asked me if I thought Michael was right about your willingness to start a war for Chloe. I told him he was asking the wrong question. It wasn’t about what you were willing to do. It was about why you were willing to do it.”

“Do you and Dad practice making vague pronouncements together, or do they just come naturally for you? Because the similarity is uncanny.”

Amenadiel ignores the jab. 

“You fell because you didn’t recognize that there are more important things than getting what you want,” he says. “You only cared about yourself. But that’s not who you are anymore. You’re not the same angel you were when you fell, and your punishment should have ended long before now. If it had, then war wouldn’t have even been on the table for you.”

Lucifer narrows his eyes. “You really expect me to believe that you convinced Dad to let me come home?”

Amenadiel shakes his head. “I don’t think he needed convincing. I think he’d already made up his mind. He wanted you to come home too.”

“Then why didn’t he just bloody say so? Why sit back and let all this happen? Why go through the charade of retirement and put Chloe through hell?”

The corner of Amenadiel’s mouth lifts into a slight smile. “Are you asking me to explain free will to you?”

Lucifer tightens his hold on his glass but somehow manages to resist the urge to smash it against his brother’s stupid bald head. “He could have tested us without hurting her.”

“No he couldn’t. The two of you are so intertwined that when you’re in pain, so is she. There’s no way to separate you.”

Lucifer scowls and lifts his glass back to his lips. 

“Look, Luci, you and Father can argue about his motives and his decisions when you return to the Silver City, but I—”

“I won’t walk through those gates until it’s time for Chloe to walk through them.”

Amenadiel nods. “That’s your prerogative.”

“You’re damn right it is.”

Amenadiel exhales a patient breath. “I’m here because I want you to understand why I didn’t respond when you asked for my help. After I told Father that I thought you’d changed and that you deserved to come home, he told me what would happen between you and Michael and Dream. He told me that he knew how it would end. That you would conquer your guilt and walk out of your Hell loop and get back to Chloe. That you and Michael would both prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who you are and where you belong.”

“So all’s well that ends well?” Lucifer says bitterly. 

Amenadiel smiles sadly. “He said that it would only happen that way if I stayed on the sidelines. If I didn’t interfere. I had to let you make your own choices, and I had to let Michael make his. I had to let it all play out.”

Lucifer clenches his jaw and says nothing. He can see the unenviable position Amenadiel was forced into, but that doesn’t assuage his anger. It doesn’t erase the memories of tears streaming down Chloe’s face. 

“I wanted you to be free from your guilt, Luci,” Amenadiel murmurs earnestly. “I know how it tortures you, how it’s always tortured you, and I wanted you to be free of it. I wanted to give you a chance to face it head on and conquer it once and for all. So I didn’t interfere.”

“And Chloe?”

“She said she wanted you forever.”

Lucifer frowns. 

“At Father’s retirement party,” Amenadiel clarifies. “Trixie asked him to let you stay with them forever, and Chloe told him she wanted that too.”

Lucifer blinks. “She did?”

Amenadiel gives him a look. “Of course she did. She loves you. She wants to spend forever with you. And the only way I could make sure she had the opportunity to do that was if I didn’t interfere.” He sighs. “I know it was extremely painful for both of you.”

“Understatement,” Lucifer mutters.

Amenadiel grimaces. “I’m sorry. I never wanted to cause either of you any pain. But there was no alternative. Not if I wanted to give you both what you wanted. What you deserve.”

Lucifer scoffs and sips his whiskey. Amenadiel doesn’t make another attempt to explain himself, and silence envelops them. Lucifer doesn’t bother to fill it. He doesn’t have anything to say. 

They stand there for a long time. Somewhere in the distance, a siren wails. A breeze blows across the terrace, cool and soft. Lucifer wants to turn on his heel and walk back into the bedroom and bury himself in Chloe’s arms. He doesn’t. He isn’t sure why. 

Up above him, a pair of clouds float apart. He glances upward and catches a glimpse of a dull shine in the new space between them. 

His stars. 

He goes still. Last night, he and Chloe were snuggled beneath these stars, sipping wine and feeding each other ice cream and planning their future together. They wouldn’t have been able to do that if Amenadiel had intervened. They wouldn’t have suffered, of course. But they wouldn’t have eternity stretched out before them either. 

Every second of it, Chloe’s voice whispers in his memory.

Lucifer sighs and looks down at the glass in his hand. It takes him a while to find the words. But he thinks of the way Chloe’s eyes light up when she talks about forever, and he finds them. 

“I understand.”

Amenadiel glances toward him. “You do?”

Lucifer sighs again and meets his gaze. “Yes.” He shakes his head. “But she won’t forgive you as easily.”

Amenadiel smiles. “She’s a force to be reckoned with when it comes to protecting you.”

“She’s a force to be reckoned with all the time.”

Amenadiel laughs. “Very true.”

They stand in silence again. A car horn blares on the street below. 

“I meant what I said at family dinner,” Amenadiel says softly. “You’re a good man, Luci. And I’m proud to call you my brother.”

Lucifer hates that warmth blossoms in his chest from the words. Or maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he just feels like he’s supposed to. Maybe, just like facing his guilt when it inevitably crops up, this is another thing he’ll have to learn to deal with.

“Likewise,” he says quietly.

Amenadiel smiles and sets his hand on Lucifer’s shoulder. “See you tomorrow in L.A.?”

Lucifer nods. “Tomorrow.”

Amenadiel smiles wider, and then he unfurls his wings and takes off. 

Lucifer doesn’t watch him go. He swirls the whiskey in his glass and takes a sip and studies his stars instead. He’s always thought he made them perfectly. He’s always thought the job was done. But he sees now he was wrong. 

Chloe is too beautiful not to have her likeness spread across the sky.

He senses her as soon as she stirs. He can hear her skin sliding over the sheets, and the soft sound of her bare feet hitting the floor. There’s a rustle of fabric, and he smiles because she’s pulling on one of his shirts. He knows when she starts to walk toward him because he can feel it. He can feel her. It’s like there are magnets beneath his skin, pulling her toward him, and there’s an ache in his chest that’s only ever soothed when she’s in his arms. 

Her arms wrap around his torso a minute later, and the ache dissipates. He feels her breath on the bare skin of his back, and then her lips when she presses a kiss between his shoulder blades. Her hands are folded together over his stomach. He covers them with one of his and strokes his thumb over her knuckles. 

“Hi,” she whispers. 

Someday he’s going to tell her how much he loves the sound of her voice when she says that word. Hi. It’s impossibly adorable.

“How much did you hear?” he murmurs. 

She presses her forehead against his back. “Enough.” 

“Enough to forgive him?”

“Eh.”

He smiles. He can feel her smiling too as she kisses the spot between his shoulder blades again. 

He turns to face her. She’s wearing the shirt he wore to dinner. It’s a deep crimson color that he knows she likes. That’s why he chose to wear it. He likes it better on her though. He doesn’t try to pretend that he’s not looking her up and down, and she doesn’t pretend she doesn’t like it. She takes the glass from his hand, and then holds his gaze as she tilts her head back and swallows the last of his whiskey. 

He lowers his eyes to her mouth as she lowers the glass. She tilts a little closer to him, a barely perceptible lean that reminds him of the early days of their partnership when they both wanted the same thing but didn’t think they could have it. Heat thrums in the air between them. He lets it linger for a second because he knows she likes the build up of anticipation just as much as he does, but his resolve breaks soon after. Her lips are wet with whiskey, and he wants to taste it. To taste her.  

So he does.

She hums in the back of her throat and kisses him back. He buries his hand in her hair and holds the back of her neck. She scratches her nails lightly along his abs, and when he flexes, she smiles. 

“Come back to bed,” she whispers. 

He smiles. “Tired, are you?”

“Oh exhausted,” she murmurs in mock seriousness. She curls her fingers beneath the top edge of his silk pants and then walks backward and toward the bedroom, pulling him after her by his waistband. “I desperately need sleep.”

“Desperately, hm?” He plucks the whiskey glass from her hand and tosses it over his shoulder. It hits the stone terrace and shatters into a million pieces but she doesn’t seem bothered by his carelessness or the mess. He likes that. He likes that a lot.

“You know I’m feeling a bit desperate too all of a sudden,” he murmurs.

She smiles and shakes her head as they cross the threshold of the bedroom. “You’re always desperate.”

“Have you looked in a mirror?”

She laughs. He kisses it from her lips and then curls his fingers around the edges of the shirt she’s wearing. He rips it open, and buttons fly across the room in all directions, but he doesn’t care. He just hums in approval at the sight of her naked body. She’s so damn beautiful it hurts.

“I like this shirt,” she complains. 

The backs of her legs hit the bed but he keeps pushing into her, and they topple onto the mattress. She laughs when he lands on top of her, and then sighs when he buries his face in her neck and flicks his tongue over her skin. 

“I’ll buy you a thousand of them if that’s what you want,” he whispers. 

She rakes her nails over his back. “I just want you.”

She’s all he wants too.

When Lucifer’s private jet touches down in Los Angeles, Chloe turns toward her boyfriend with a frown. 

“Does it feel weird to you?”

He furrows his eyebrows at her. “Does what feel weird?”

“I don’t know,” she says, lifting a shoulder. “Being back in L.A. Not being fugitives. How fast it all got undone.”

He blinks at her. “Did you want it to last longer?”

“No, of course not,” she says, waving her hand. “I’m glad it’s over. It’s just...I don’t know. It took us an entire week to get to New York, and now in a matter of hours we’re back in L.A., and I just…”

She trails off. He’s watching her, waiting for more of an explanation, but she doesn’t have one. She looks down at her hands and searches for the right words. She’s relieved the dream is over, and she can’t wait to see Trixie and get back to their normal lives but…

“You’ll miss it,” he says softly. 

She looks up at him in surprise. 

He turns toward her, and leans over the arm rest between them and into her space. “I’ll miss it too,” he murmurs, brushing her hair behind her ear. She left it down for him again today. “I didn’t like that you suffered, but I suppose I…”

She smooths her hand over his lapels when his silence goes on a little too long. “You what?”

He sighs. “Well I suppose part of me liked it being us against the world. I liked knowing that it didn’t matter how terrible everything else was because we still had each other. And I liked having you all to myself with no distractions.”

She nods because that’s exactly how she feels too. She’s glad to be back. But she’s going to miss bickering over radio stations and flirting in gas stations and sleeping naked in his arms. She’s going to miss having him all to herself.

He must misinterpret her nod because he frowns. “I don’t mean for that to sound possessive,” he clarifies. “I’m aware that you have other priorities and responsibilities. Your child comes first, and obviously your job is important, and I would never—”

“Lucifer,” she cuts him off. 

He stops. He looks a little sheepish, and a little guilty, and she doesn’t want that. 

She brushes her hand over his face. “You’re a priority for me, okay? You always have been and you always will be.” She leans closer to him. “And I liked having you all to myself too.”

He smiles. “Did you now?”

She nods. “Yeah. So maybe we could, I don’t know, make a date night?”

“Date night?” he repeats, tilting his head.

“Yeah. Like, every week we have one night where it’s just me and you. No work, no Lux, no Trixie, no celestial craziness. Nothing but us.”

“And sex.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yes, Lucifer. And sex.”

He grins. “I accept your terms. Can I interest you in another round in the bathroom as a means of sealing the deal?”

Memories of what they did somewhere over Colorado flash through Chloe’s mind. Her arms outstretched and her palms flat against the bathroom mirror. Lucifer behind her, his body driving into hers and his mouth whispering filthy things in her ear, one hand shoved up her shirt and the other circling between her legs. She tried to stay quiet, but it felt so good she had to bite her own arm right before she came just so she wouldn’t scream his name. 

“You’re thinking about it,” Lucifer purrs. 

She can feel her face flushing. “No,” she says, shaking her head. 

He lifts his eyebrows.

“Okay, yes, I was thinking about it,” she admits. “But we already landed so it’s not going to happen.”

“But we had so much fun.”

It was fun but there’s no way in hell she’s going to admit that, because if she does then he’s going to turn on the charm, and she’s going to end up right back in that bathroom for round two, and this time, the pilots will definitely know what they’re doing. 

She pats his chest. “Not today, Satan.”

He sighs and turns away from her with a pout. She smiles and grabs his hand. He softens and weaves his fingers through hers. 

A few minutes later, once the plane has stopped on the tarmac, Chloe climbs out of her seat and starts toward the exit. “Did you have someone drop off your Corvette to drive us home?”

“No.”

She stops at the top of the steps leading down to the tarmac and frowns over her shoulder at him. “How are we getting home then?”

Lucifer smiles mischievously. “I called in a favor.”

“What does that—”

“Mom!”

Chloe freezes at the sound of Trixie’s voice. She’s heard it over the phone several times in the past few days, but hearing it in person…

She whips her head back toward the plane’s exit and looks out across the tarmac. Her daughter is racing in her direction, her dark ponytail flying behind her. Dan is in the distance, sitting on the hood of his cruiser and smiling while Trixie sprints toward the plane, and Chloe’s heart stops. 

“Trixie,” she breathes.

Her heart roars back to life, and with it comes a joy so intense she thinks her chest might shatter from sheer force. Her daughter is sprinting toward her with a massive grin on her face. She’s wearing that sushi shirt she had on in the picture Michael had on his phone, but there’s no Michael to worry about anymore. No demons. No Dream and no nightmares. 

She’s home.

And her kid is happy to see her. 

Her body reacts without any conscious thought on her part. She jerks forward and stumbles down the stairs with a sob caught in her throat, her eyes already blurring with tears. She barely has time to set her feet on the pavement before Trixie catapults into her arms.

Chloe catches her. She wraps her arms around her daughter and buries her face in the top of her head and cries. She knows Trixie must be confused by the vehemence of her outburst, but she doesn’t pull away and she doesn’t protest. She just squeezes her mother tightly and murmurs I missed you into her chest and Chloe can’t even breathe she’s so happy.

By the time she finally lets Trixie go, Dan has crossed the tarmac and is only a few yards away. He smiles at her as he comes to a stop.

“Welcome back.” 

Chloe smiles. “Thanks.” She swipes at her eyes, and then she holds Trixie’s face in her hands and grins down at her daughter. 

“Hey monkey,” she murmurs. 

Trixie grins. “You really missed me, huh?”

Chloe laughs. “You have no idea.” She brushes a few flyaway strands of hair back from Trixie’s face. “How are you? You okay?”

“Yep!” She grins slyly at her dad. “Dad let me stay home from school so we could come get you, and we had cake for lunch.”

Chloe glances at Dan with lifted eyebrows. 

“We had other food too,” Dan says defensively. “Including vegetables.”

Trixie rolls her eyes. “The cheeseburgers had lettuce.”

“And tomato,” Dan points out.

“And tomato,” Trixie acknowledges. She leans toward Chloe and whispers, “But we ate the cake first.” 

Chloe laughs and pulls her daughter in for another hug. Trixie hugs her again eagerly for a moment, but then she leans back with a frown. “Where’s Lucifer?”

“Oh, he’s…” Chloe trails off when she turns around and realizes he’s not behind her. She frowns. Why hasn’t he gotten off the plane yet?

She’s opening her mouth to call for him when it hits her. 

Her heart aches. 

She glances down at her daughter. “Just give me a minute, okay?” she says, brushing her hand over Trixie’s face. 

Trixie nods. “Okay.”

Chloe smiles at her and then climbs back up the steps. She ducks back inside the plane, and finds Lucifer pacing down the middle aisle and fiddling with his cufflink. 

He stops in his tracks when he sees her. She lifts her eyebrows at him in an unspoken question.

“I uh, I thought you might want a moment alone,” he says, tugging on his jacket. “I didn’t want to interrupt the reunion.”

He doesn’t lie, so she knows that’s true. But she also knows it’s not the whole truth, and her heart aches again for him. 

She closes the distance between them and reaches out to curl her fingers around the edges of his jacket and straighten it since he left it askew. When she glances up at him, she can see it in his eyes. 

He’s nervous.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs.

She shakes her head. “Don’t be.” She slides her arms beneath his jacket and around his torso. “It’s over, babe,” she whispers. “This is real.”

He swallows, and then lifts his hand to brush his fingers over the ring around her neck. She lets him stare at it for a minute, and then she rises onto her toes and kisses him, soft and sweet and sure. When she drops back down to her feet, she reaches for his hand and weaves her fingers through his. She ignites their hands briefly, just long enough for him to notice, and then she smiles.  

“We’ll do it together, yeah?”

He nods. 

She squeezes his hand, and then leads him down the aisle and out of the plane and into the California sunshine. 

“Hi Lucifer!” Trixie greets as soon as they come into view. 

Lucifer stiffens. Chloe squeezes his hand again and leads him down the stairs. He’s barely stepped off the final stair before Trixie throws herself at him and wraps her arms around his waist. 

“I’m so glad you’re back!” she exclaims.

Lucifer’s entire body seizes up when she hugs him. Chloe rubs her hand over his back the same way he’s done so many times for her. He glances over at her, his eyes wide, and she smiles and nods reassuringly.

He relaxes. He glances down at Trixie, hesitates, and then wraps his arms around her and gives her a gentle squeeze. “Hello Beatrice,” he murmurs. 

Trixie steps out of his arms and beams up at him. “How was your trip? Did you guys feed the birds?”

Lucifer frowns down at her. “Uh, no.”

“Did you bring me chocolate cake like you said you would?”

“Trix,” Chloe chastises. “It isn’t polite to—”

“Of course I did,” Lucifer interrupts. “I brought you the finest chocolate cake the east coast has to offer. You’ve never tasted anything better.”

Trixie’s eyes widen. “Can we eat it now?”

“Trix, you had cake for lunch,” Dan reminds her.

Trixie turns to face him. “Yeah, but not east coast cake.”

Dan looks at Chloe.

Chloe brushes another strand of hair back from Trixie’s face. She really needs to teach Dan how to do a proper ponytail. “I think maybe we’ll wait on the cake, okay babe?”

Trixie sighs in disappointment. “Okay.” And then she turns back to Lucifer. “Is this your plane?” 

Lucifer turns his nose up at her. “Of course it’s my plane. Only cheap men like your father fly commercial.”

Dan purses his lips. “Nice to see you too, man.”

“Cool!” Trixie yells. She pushes past Lucifer and sprints up the stairs. “Do you have TVs? And a refrigerator? Is that where you’re keeping the cake?!”

She gets to the top of the steps and gasps again when she sees the interior of the plane. 

“These seats are like my abuelo’s recliner! Do the legs come up?!”

She disappears into the plane.

Lucifer’s eyes widen in alarm and then he bolts after her. “Those seats are made from Italian leather!” he bellows, taking the steps two at a time. “Do not put your sticky hands all over my Italian leather or I will…”

His voice trails off as he disappears inside the plane. Chloe smiles after them, thrilled that things are already back to normal, and then turns to face Dan. 

“Thanks for coming to get us,” she tells him.

He shrugs. “No problem. You guys have a good time?”

She nods. “Yeah. It was…” 

A memory of Lucifer dying in her arms flashes briefly across her mind, and she swallows around the grief that’s suddenly lodged in her throat. She takes a deep breath and forces herself to think about the last two days instead, and about how it feels to fall asleep in Lucifer’s arms and know that she’s home and she never, ever has to leave again. 

She smiles. “It was great.”

Dan furrows his eyebrows and tilts his head.

“What?” Chloe asks warily.

He shakes his head. “Nothing. I just...” He reaches out and squeezes her arm. “You deserve to be happy, Chlo. And he obviously makes you happy even though he’s...you know.”

“The Devil?” she offers.

“I was going to say annoying and cocky as hell.” 

She laughs. “Don’t let him hear you say he’s cocky.”

Dan makes a face. “Gross.”

Chloe laughs again.

“Anyway, I don’t think I’ve said it yet, but I’m happy for you. I know it took a while for you guys to figure everything out, but it seems like you finally got there and I’m glad.”

Chloe thinks about the beach and all the awful things Dan said to her while he was under the spell, and her eyes start to fill with tears. 

Dan frowns at her in concern. “What’s wrong? I wasn’t trying to—”

Chloe throws herself into his arms before he can finish. 

He grunts in surprise, but then he chuckles and wraps his arms around her. 

“I love you,” she murmurs into his shoulder. 

He squeezes her tighter. “I love you too, Chlo.” 

Trixie talks the entire drive home. 

She insists on sitting in the backseat between Lucifer and Chloe. Lucifer attempts to sit in the passenger seat first, but when he spots what appears to be a very small remnant of chocolate pudding on the edge of the seat, he throws a tantrum about the “absurdly filthy conditions” of Dan’s car. Dan bristles, and after a ridiculous bout of bickering that requires Chloe’s intervention before it finally ceases, Lucifer crams himself into the backseat with a dramatic sigh. 

“You want to sit up front?” Dan asks Chloe with a smirk. 

“Mom, sit by me,” Trixie pleads, latching onto Chloe’s hand.

Chloe smiles at Dan. “I think I can handle the backseat with the children.”

Dan snorts.

“Oh marvelous, we can pack in like sardines,” Lucifer mutters through the rolled down window. “And then when we finally reach our destination—which will undoubtedly take centuries given Daniel’s penchant for driving like an elderly woman—we can pile out into the street like clowns from a circus car.”

Dan grins. “Glad you’re finally aware you’re a clown. They say acceptance is the first step.”

Lucifer narrows his eyes and opens his mouth, but Chloe intervenes. She steps toward the car and bends forward to put her mouth by Lucifer’s ear.

“Behave and I’ll do that thing later,” she whispers. 

Lucifer considers the offer with a hum. “Twice or no deal.”

Chloe leans back and gives him a look. “No more pouting or no deal.”

He huffs at her. “Fine.”

She grins, gives him a peck on the cheek, and then reaches for Trixie’s hand. “Come on, monkey.”

Trixie grins and follows her around the back of the car toward the other door.

“Bet she never did the thing for you,” Lucifer mutters to Dan. 

Dan frowns. “What thing?”

“That’s not what I meant by behaving and now I’m only doing it once,” Chloe calls over her shoulder. 

“Dad damn it,” Lucifer mutters. “You’ve cost me an orgasm, Daniel.”

“Lucifer,” Chloe hisses, shooting her hands up to cover Trixie’s ears.

Trixie looks confused. “What are we talking about?”

“Nothing baby,” Chloe says.

“Oh gross,” Dan says. He curls his hand around his throat like he’s afraid he might vomit and then makes a face. “I need to go wash my brain with bleach.”

Lucifer snickers. “Perhaps try swallowing some while you’re at it.”

“And now I’m not doing it at all,” Chloe says, bending forward to look at him as she pulls the back door open.

Lucifer whips around to look at her in horror, but before he can sputter out a defense, Trixie slides across the backseat and presses against his side. 

“I bet if you apologize Mom will change her mind. She always says it’s important to apologize when you do something wrong.”

“I refuse to apologize for suggesting what we’re all thinking,” Lucifer sniffs, pressing himself against the door in an attempt to regain his lost personal space.

“No one was thinking that,” Dan says. 

“Oblivious as always,” Lucifer shoots back. 

“You don’t really want my dad to drink bleach,” Trixie says. “You’re just being mean cause that’s how you express your affection.”

Lucifer frowns at her. “Affection?” he repeats incredulously. “I’ve many feelings for your father, child. Disgust. Disdain. Ridicule. But certainly not affection.”

Chloe settles into the backseat next to Trixie. “You’re going to slip into the negatives here pretty soon, babe.”

Lucifer huffs at her indignantly. “I can withhold your favorites just as easily as you can withhold mine, you know.”

She grins at him. “Want to bet?”

He opens his mouth, but seems to think better of it. He folds his arms over his chest and turns toward the window to pout in silence. 

Chloe grins.

Dan snickers as he gets into the car.

Trixie starts talking about school and doesn’t stop. 

When Dan finally shifts the car into park outside Chloe’s building, Lucifer throws the door open with a dramatic sigh of relief. He unfolds his ridiculously long legs and climbs out of the car, and then he looks down at his suit and groans.

“Wrinkles,” he says in disgust. 

Trixie scurries out of the car after him. “Don’t worry, Lucifer, you still look great.”

Lucifer runs a hand down the front of his suit. “I do, don’t I? A few wrinkles can’t keep the Devil down.” He shoots a look over the roof of the car at Chloe as she gets out. “Only your mother can do that.”

“You’re in the red,” she says, brandishing her finger at him. “Deep in the red.”

“Well you do like it deep,” he says with a smirk.

“Dude,” Dan says, slamming the driver’s door shut with a scowl. “Can you not?”

Trixe grabs Lucifer’s hand and yanks him toward the sidewalk. “Come on, Lucifer, we should go before they gang up on you like they do to me.”

“You’re misunderstood and underappreciated as well, hm?” Lucifer says, glancing down at her. “It’s hard being a rainbow in a black and white world.”

Trixie grins up at him. “You’re definitely a rainbow.”

Lucifer beams. They walk hand in hand up the sidewalk and toward the apartment as Trixie chatters a mile a minute about rainbows. Chloe watches them for a moment, pressing her lips together around a grin, and then starts to follow them.

She stops when Dan catches her arm. 

“Wait.”

She turns to look at him. “What’s up?”

He smiles sheepishly. “I know you hate surprises, so just as a heads up, there’s a surprise party waiting for you guys inside.”

Chloe frowns. “What?”

“It was Amenadiel’s idea,” Dan replies with a shrug. “He said Lucifer had a rough go of it last week while his dad was here, and that’s one of the reasons why you guys ran off to New York for the weekend. He thought it would be nice if we all got together to hang out and remind Lucifer that there are people here who love him.”

Chloe feels a wave of warmth wash over her at Amenadiel’s gesture. But then she realizes what a surprise party implies, and she freezes. 

“Wait, they’re inside right now? Like, they’re going to jump out and yell surprise at Lucifer?”

Dan nods. “Yeah. Why?” 

Chloe bolts toward her apartment without answering. 

“Chloe?” Dan calls. He takes off after her. “Chloe, what the hell.”

She ignores him. She gets to the top of the steps just as Trixie is reaching for the door handle, and yells, “Wait!” 

Trixie freezes.

Lucifer looks at Chloe with furrowed eyebrows. “What’s wrong?”

“I just, um…” She hurries forward and pulls Lucifer’s hand from Trixie’s. “I just wanted to hold your hand.”

Lucifer looks pleased and puffs his chest out. “Feeling a little jealous of your offspring, hm?”

Chloe shakes her head and leans toward him. “Babe, there’s a—”

Trixie flings open the door before Chloe can get the words out.

There’s a sudden and loud chorus of Surprise!, and Lucifer’s hand in Chloe’s bursts into flame. 

Chloe yanks his hand behind her back the instant before Trixie spins around to face them. 

“Are you surprised?!” Trixie asks excitedly. 

“Holy shit,” Dan breathes from behind them. 

“Deckerstar back in the house!” Ella hollers from inside. 

Charlie screeches excitedly in Linda’s arms and holds his hands out toward Lucifer. 

“Bloody fucking hell,” Lucifer breathes. 

“Lucifer,” Chloe mutters. 

Lucifer extinguishes his hand. 

There’s a beat of confused silence—well, except for Dan, who is making a weird noise in the back of his throat that’s somewhere between a whimper and a squeak—and then Lucifer straightens and exclaims, “Well would you look at that! A surprise party for me because I’m so extraordinary!”

Everyone except Dan laughs.

“Me and Amenadiel planned it!” Trixie exclaims.

Lucifer pats her on the head like she’s a dog. “Well done, child.”

Trixie beams, and then grabs his hand and yanks him inside and toward their friends. 

Chloe turns toward Dan. He looks like he’s seen a ghost.

“His hand was on fire,” he mutters. His face is completely ashen. “His hand was on fire, Chloe.”

“I know,” Chloe says gently. She steps toward him. “It’s okay. He’s—”

“You know? ” Dan interrupts. “You mean you...is that just…” His eyes get even wider. “Oh my god, is it hellfire?”

Chloe shakes her head. “No.”

“But he’s—”

“I know what he is,” she cuts him off. “It’s not hellfire. It’s celestial fire.”

Dan frowns. 

“It’s heavenly,” she clarifies. “He’s an angel.”

Dan gapes at her. 

Chloe puts her hands on his chest. “Dan, listen to me. Everything's okay, all right? You don’t need to panic. He’s the same Lucifer you’ve always known and what you just saw doesn’t change that.”

“But he was on fire! ” Dan sputters. 

Chloe’s opening her mouth to reply when Lucifer appears behind her. He leans over her shoulder and grins at Dan. “Did she tell you that she can catch on fire too?”

Chloe didn’t think it was possible for Dan’s eyes to get any bigger, but somehow they do. He lets out an inhuman wail and stumbles backward, batting her hands away from his chest as if they’re on fire. 

Chloe shoots Lucifer a glare. “You are in so much trouble.”

He grins. “You can spank me later.”

“You’re going to be spanking yourself for the next week if you don’t cut it out.”

Dan wails again and puts his hands on either side of his head. He trips, staggers into a nearby wall, and then sinks to the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest and starts to rock back and forth. 

Lucifer lifts his eyebrows. “Oh dear. I think we’ve broken him, darling.”

Chloe rolls her eyes and then shoves him inside the apartment. “Just go away until he calms down.”

“But—”

“No buts.”

He grins at her. “That’s not—”

“Shut up, Lucifer,” she says, but even as she slams the door in his face, she’s grinning at him.

Two hours later, Lucifer is standing in Chloe’s kitchen and pouring himself a glass of the Crown Royale that Ms. Lopez presented him with (“Because I love you and you love whiskey!” she’d exclaimed) when Doctor Linda approaches. 

“Ah, hello Doctor,” he greets with a smile. “Would you like a drink?”

“No, thank you,” she says. She grins at him. “I’ve had half a bottle of wine already.”

“Well no need to stop at half. Drink the whole bottle. Amenadiel can drive.”

She laughs. “I’m okay for now, but thank you.”

Lucifer shrugs. “Suit yourself.” 

He lifts the glass to his lips and glances out across the apartment, searching for Chloe. He’s been trying not to follow her around the party like a lost puppy, but it’s proving more difficult than he expected. He just...he wants to be close to her. She smells good. And she touches him a lot. They’re just little touches—her fingers brushing his, her shoulder bumping his, her hand on his back—but they remind him that she’s real, and they’re real, and they always will be. 

He spots her standing behind the couch, holding Charlie in her arms and talking to Amenadiel. She doesn’t look angry, but the expression on her face is stern enough to make him smile. He knows she’s already forgiven Amenadiel. She might not admit it, but she has. That’s just who she is. But that doesn’t mean she won’t give him a piece of her mind. 

“She’s unfairly pretty, don’t you think?” he asks the Doctor. 

The Doctor follows his gaze across the apartment and then smiles. “She’s very pretty, yes.” 

“You should see her in lingerie.”

The Doctor snorts. 

Lucifer grins into his whiskey. “But you won’t, and neither will anyone else, because she’s all mine. She said so.”

The Doctor just grins at him. 

Lucifer frowns. “What?” And then he narrows his eyes. “You’re not going to lecture me about being possessive, are you?”

The Doctor shakes her head. “If Chloe enjoys it and it’s not unhealthy—which it doesn’t seem to be—then there’s nothing to lecture about.”

“So then why are you looking at me like that?”

She lifts a shoulder. “I was just thinking that the two of you seem different since you got back.”

“Different how?”

“You seem more…” she trails off and furrows her eyebrows as if she’s searching for the right word. “Steadfast,” she finally says. 

Lucifer considers brushing her off. But then he thinks of the last week with Chloe—of the nightmare that took over reality, the sex and the fights, the death and the resurrection and the promise of forever—and decides he doesn’t want to brush her off. He doesn’t want to pretend. He’s had enough illusions to last him several lifetimes.

“We are,” he admits. And then he frowns. “Did my brother tell you what happened?”

Doctor Linda tilts her head. “What do you mean?”

Lucifer studies her. He can tell by the way her voice lifts and the look in her eyes that she’s feigning ignorance. She does this sometimes during therapy sessions, a habit he never actually noticed until Chloe pointed it out to him during a particularly deep conversation on their road trip. 

“He told you,” Lucifer decides. 

The Doctor smiles and doesn’t try to keep up the charade. “Not all the details. But I got the gist.”

Lucifer smirks at her over the rim of his glass. “Can’t wait to get me back on the couch and hear all about it, hm?”

“If it’s something you’d like to discuss with your therapist, absolutely,” Doctor Linda says. She steps closer to him. “But as your friend, I just want to say that I…” 

She presses her lips together, and her eyebrows furrow. Her eyes fill with tears, and she looks suddenly distraught, and Lucifer turns toward her in concern. 

“Doctor? What’s the matter?”

She reaches out and puts her hand on his arm. “I don’t know what I said when I was under that spell,” she says softly. “Amenadiel won’t tell me. And I think that’s for the best. I don’t want to know because it doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is the truth. And the truth is that you’re a good man, Lucifer. You’re a good friend. And Chloe is very lucky to be loved by someone like you.”

Lucifer stares at her, at a complete loss for words. 

The Doctor squeezes his arm. “All of us are. Myself included.”

Lucifer opens his mouth, but no words will come out. They stand there for a minute or so, just staring at each other. She doesn’t seem uncomfortable by his inability to respond. She never is. 

He pulls her abruptly into his chest for a hug. She doesn’t hesitate to hug him back. She wraps her arms around him and squeezes, and Lucifer closes his eyes and holds her tighter. He’s opening his mouth to tell her that he’s the lucky one when Ms. Lopez interrupts. 

“Aw, are we doing hugs?” she says. “Can I join?” She bounds forward without waiting for an answer, wraps her arms around them both, and squeezes. “Man, I love you guys. I’m so glad we’re doing this. We should do this every week!”

The Doctor laughs. “If there’s wine, I’m there.”

The front door swings open before Lucifer can respond, and Maze saunters in. She sees Lucifer wrapped in the arms of the Doctor and Ms. Lopez, and grins. 

“Started the party without me, huh?”

Lucifer smiles. “Hello Mazikeen.”

Maze grins. “Hope it’s okay I brought a friend.” She slides aside, and Eve steps forward into the empty space. 

“Hi Lucifer,” she greets with a shy smile. 

Lucifer grins. “Hello darling.”

“Maze!” Trixie shouts. She sprints across the room and throws herself at Maze, and Maze catches her easily and with a laugh. 

“Hey little human,” she murmurs. She sets Trixie down and tugs lightly on her ponytail. “There’s someone I want you to meet.” She grins. “Well, technically you’ve already met, but it’s different this time.”

Trixie beams. “Okay.”

Maze introduces Trixie to Eve, and Ella puts her hand over her heart and sighs. “Aw, they’re in love.” She looks up at Lucifer. “First you and Decker, now Maze and Eve. I mean, it must be in the air, am I right?”

Lucifer smiles. “Apparently.”

“This calls for more hugs,” Ella announces.  

She bounces toward the door to hug Eve. The Doctor disentangles herself from Lucifer’s embrace and follows her. Amenadiel crosses the room with Charlie in his arms, and Dan is close behind, but Lucifer doesn’t see Chloe. 

He scans the apartment with a frown, suddenly nervous. Where is she? 

He spots her just before she disappears up the stairs, her head bent forward and her hair shielding her face from view. He doesn’t know where she’s going, or why she’s slipping away in all the commotion, so he does what he’s always done.

He follows her. 

Chloe is holding Charlie and watching Ella, Trixie, and Dan play Uno when Amenadiel approaches her. 

He stops next to her and slides his hands into his pockets but doesn’t say anything. Chloe doesn’t either for a while. She’s too busy bouncing Charlie, who won’t stop giggling and grabbing fistfuls of her hair, and basking in the sound of Trixie laughing every time Dan has to pick up a card. 

It feels really, really good to be home. 

“You were right the other night,” Amenadiel says eventually. His voice is soft but sure. “I did have a choice. There’s always a choice.”

“Yeah,” Chloe says, thinking of his father. “So I’ve been told.”

Amenadiel turns toward her. “Does it help to know that I made the choice I did for Lucifer’s sake?”

Chloe finally looks at him. “I get the logic of it, Amenadiel. I do. And I’m not disputing the fact that we’re better off now than we would have been if you’d intervened like we asked. But if you’re about to tell me all’s well that ends well and expect me to just smile and agree, then I’m going to punch you. Hard. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my fists catch on fire now.”

Amenadiel smiles. “Yes, I noticed.”

His amusement makes her want to smile too, but she resists the urge. She shifts Charlie onto her other hip.

“He needed you. You’re the only sibling who’s ever been on his side, and you weren’t there when he needed you the most.”

“I know.”

“No, I don’t think you do. He’s been abandoned and rejected so many times that he’s internalized it. His first instinct is to think he deserves it. And I just...” 

She sighs and glances across the room at Lucifer, who is talking to Linda in the kitchen. He’s wearing a suit that looks just like the one he wore the night she stood before him in a hotel room and asked him to show her the Devil. She thinks of the self-hatred in his voice, the fear in his eyes, the grief that shuddered through his body when he finally broke down in her arms, and she aches. 

“I won’t let it happen again,” she says resolutely. She looks at Amenadiel. “So the next time he asks for your help, you better damn well give it to him.”

Amenadiel nods. “Understood.”

Charlie finally seems to realize that his father is standing nearby. He squirms in Chloe’s arms and then stretches out his chubby little hands toward his dad with a gurgle. Chloe heeds the unspoken request and hands him over, and Amenadiel takes him with a smile. 

Chloe turns back toward her own child. Trixie is grinning triumphantly. When she sets a draw four card down on top of the discard pile with a flourish, Dan groans and Ella cackles. Trixie laughs. Chloe smiles and plays absently with the ring hanging around her neck. 

Amenadiel doesn’t walk away. He just stands next to her like a silent sentinel, bouncing Charlie in his arms, apparently willing to remain in her presence even if she’s angry with him. The longer he stands there, holding his son and smiling at her daughter, the more Chloe softens.

“Just give me some time,” she says eventually.

Amenadiel smiles and nods. “As much as you want. If there’s something that you’d like me to say or do—”

“No,” Chloe says, shaking her head. “Getting everybody together so that Lucifer can see with his own two eyes that the dream is gone was…” She sighs. “Thank you.”

Amenadiel smiles. “I did it for you too.”

Chloe nods. “Yeah. I know.”

Amenadiel gazes at her for a moment, and then turns to face her. “I also wanted to say thank you.” 

Chloe frowns. “For what?”

“For setting my brother free.”

Chloe’s frown deepens.

“I watched him spend millennia running from his guilt,” Amenadiel explains. “It was eating him alive but he wouldn’t acknowledge it. He was afraid to confront it. But then he met you, and he fell in love, and you set him free. He walked out of his loop.”

Chloe shakes her head. “I didn’t do that, Amenadiel. He did.”

“He did the work,” Amenadiel acknowledges. “But he couldn’t have done it without you. You’re the spark that lit him up.”

The front door swings open and Maze enters. Trixie hollers in excitement and abandons her Uno game. Eve appears, and everyone heads for the door to greet the newest arrivals, Amenadiel included. 

Chloe doesn’t though. She stands rooted to the floor, lost in a memory of Lucifer dying in her arms and smiling at her like she was the answer to every question he’d ever asked. 

You’ve always lit me up.  

It’s the always she’s stuck on. They have forever stretched out before them now, and it would be easy to get lost in the possibilities, but she doesn’t want to spend so much time focused on where they’re going that she forgets where they’ve been. She doesn’t want to forget the way he looked at her when she woke up in that hospital bed after Jimmy Barnes shot her. She doesn’t want to forget the sound of his voice on that beach right before she kissed him for the first time. She wants to remember what it was like to fall in love with him.

And she thinks she knows what might help.

She takes advantage of the commotion by the door to slip away from the party unnoticed. Once she gets upstairs and steps over the threshold of her bedroom, she pauses. The last time she was in this room, she was getting ready to meet Lucifer at Lux. She was wearing that black dress, and those strappy high heels, and her body was practically vibrating with excitement. There’s a different kind of excitement thrumming through her veins now—the promise of forever instead of just one night—but the undercurrent is the same. It all comes back to Lucifer. 

She finds what she’s looking for in the jewelry box sitting on top of her dresser. It’s coiled neatly in a corner on the inside of the box. She unhooks the necklace from around her neck, pulls the ring off the chain, and then threads the ring through the other chain she just pulled out of the box.

She’s just finished clasping it around her neck when she hears the floor creak behind her. She turns and sees Lucifer standing in the doorway. He furrows his eyebrows at her in an unspoken question, but then he notices what’s sitting on the chain around her neck next to her ring, and he goes still. 

For a moment he just stands there, staring. When he finally meets her gaze again, she smiles. He crosses the room, stops in front of her, and lifts his hand to hold the bullet he gave her for her birthday.

“I wanted to remember where we started,” she murmurs, tipping her head back to look up at him. “And how far we’ve come.”

He lets go of the bullet, brushes his fingers over the ring, and then lifts his hand to her face. She tilts her head into his palm as he strokes his thumb over the swell of her cheek. 

“We love with a love that’s more than love,” he whispers. “And neither the angels in Heaven above nor the demons down under the sea can ever dissever my soul from yours.”

The words steal the breath straight out of her lungs.

He smiles like he knows. “It’s a quote from—”

“You,” she cuts him off. “They’re your words even if they’re someone else’s.”

He shakes his head. “I have my own words now, love.” He pulls her closer. “I love you.”

She lifts her hands to his face and rises to her toes and kisses him because words don’t feel like enough. He slides his hands along her waist and pulls her closer. She wraps her arms around his neck, and he palms the curve of her back, and she forgets about everything that isn’t him. 

“Maze, I found them!” Trixie’s voice shouts.

Chloe startles in surprise and jerks away from Lucifer.

“Bloody hell, child,” Lucifer mutters. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

Trixie, who is standing in the doorway of the bedroom, grins. “And you were right, they’re kissing!” 

“Are they naked?” Maze’s voice hollers from downstairs. 

“Not yet but we’re working on it!” Lucifer hollers back. 

“Lucifer,” Chloe hisses. 

“Decker, put your tongue back in your mouth and get down here so I can whip your ass at Uno!” Maze bellows from downstairs.

Trixie crinkles her nose. “Can you guys wait to get naked until after the party?”

“No one is getting naked,” Chloe says, disentangling herself from Lucifer’s arms. He huffs impatiently and reaches for her again. She slaps his hand and gives him a stern look, and he sighs deeply but keeps his hands to himself.

“We’re going to play a giant game of Uno,” Trixie says. “You guys are going to play, right?”

“Of course we are,” Chloe says. 

Trixie beams. “Good cause Dad says if I win I can eat the east coast chocolate cake.”

Lucifer frowns. “What do I get if I win?”

“Cake,” Trixie says with a shrug before turning on her heel and disappearing down the hallway. 

Lucifer scowls after her. “But I don’t want cake. And I hate Uno. Especially with Maze, she cheats.” 

Chloe leans toward him. “If you win I’ll let you eat it off me.”

Lucifer’s eyes bulge in his head, and then he bolts for the door. 

“Make way for the King of Uno!” he hollers. 

Chloe laughs.

It’s a beautiful day in Los Angeles. 

The sky is a stunning shade of blue, and there’s not a cloud to be seen. It’s warm but not hot, and there’s a nice breeze. The Original Farmer’s Market is bustling with people, and there’s a line forming near the Bennett’s Ice Cream stall. 

Chloe isn’t paying attention to the line or the crowds. She’s standing at the counter, waiting for her ice cream cone and watching her boyfriend and her daughter. 

Lucifer has the tallest cone Chloe has ever seen gripped in his hand, and despite the fact that he’s licking the ice cream at a furious pace, it’s melting all over his hand. Trixie is laughing at him. The cone she’s holding is much smaller and far less messy. In between licks, Lucifer is whining to her about how unfair it is that her ice cream isn’t melting as fast as his.

Chloe’s heart feels so full she thinks her chest might burst open. 

“Here you go, ma’am.”

Chloe smiles at the man behind the counter and takes her cone. She grabs a handful of napkins, and then licks her ice cream as she walks toward Lucifer and Trixie.  

“Mom, look how messy he is,” Trixie says with a laugh. “He’s the worst ice cream cone eater ever.”

“How dare you,” Lucifer says. “I excel at everything I do.”

“Yeah except eating ice cream cones,” Trixie snorts. “I bet even Charlie could do it better than you.”

Lucifer huffs in indignation and turns toward Chloe. “Aren’t you going to defend my honor?”

Chloe grins. “No.”

Trixie cackles with laughter.

Lucifer looks deeply offended. “I’m going to spend the rest of eternity being ganged up on by Decker women, aren’t I?”

“Maybe grandma will be on your side,” Trixie offers. 

“Oh that’s right,” Lucifer says with a sly grin. “Mama Decker has always been Team Lucifer.” 

Chloe rolls her eyes.

“Hi Trixie!” a blonde girl shouts from nearby. Trixie turns, gasps, and then whips back around to face Chloe. “Jenna is here! Can I go say hi?!”

Chloe glances toward the nearby table where Trixie’s best friend Jenna is sitting with her parents and brothers. Jenna’s mom waves, and Chloe waves back with a smile. 

“Sure monkey. But don’t stay too long, they might be having family time.”

“Okay!” Trixie says and then takes off. 

Chloe waits until Trixie is safely seated at Jenna’s table, and then turns toward her boyfriend. 

“Bloody hell,” he sighs.

There’s ice cream everywhere. It’s coating the back of his knuckles, staining the cuffs of his shirt, and dripping onto the tops of his shoes. He’s staring down at the chocolate drops on the front of his white shirt with a forlorn look, and there’s a smear of chocolate on his chin. 

Chloe can’t help but laugh. 

Lucifer looks up at her with a glare. “It’s not funny, darling. This is Burberry.”

Chloe wipes a napkin over the smear of chocolate on his chin. “It’s a little funny. Who knew the Devil’s greatest weakness was melty ice cream?”

His lips smooth into a wicked grin. “Actually my greatest weakness is when my girlfriend—”

“Okay,” Chloe cuts him off. “We don’t need to talk about that in public.”

He leans closer to her. “But sex is always more fun in public.”

Chloe rolls her eyes, but when he leans forward to kiss her, she doesn’t shy away. 

“You taste like ice cream,” he hums happily. 

Chloe smiles and kisses him again before leaning back. She runs her free hand down his lapel and thinks about the last time they were here—the night when the dream first started, and they’d just fled the beach and left Trixie behind. 

Lucifer promised her that she’d eat ice cream with Trixie again. And now here she is, eating ice cream with her daughter and the love of her life, and it doesn’t get better than this. Nothing is better than this. 

“What’s wrong?” Lucifer murmurs. 

“Nothing,” she replies, shaking her head. “I was just thinking about how much I love you.”

He grins. “And how much do you love me?” 

She smiles at him, rises onto her toes, and whispers the words against his lips. 

“Heart and soul, Lucifer.”