titC (here as @titconao3) is such a sweet human! She cares so much about this community and fandom, and it's such a blessing to have such passionate and kindhearted individuals around. She's also taken up the task of starting Snarry Bang (@snarrybang) this year, which I am super stoked about! We sure needed another Snarry fest around, and she had the dedication and verve to make it happen!
Not only all of this, but she's an excellent creator in her own right. Here are a few of my faves to get you started! Be sure to give her a follow and show her some love!
The Box
Petunia POV. Harry/Severus. Rated: T. Words: 6,274. Snarry Adopt-a-Prompt 2022.
Truly incredible and one of my favorite works of AAP this year! The work at humanizing Petunia, and making her actions not forgivable, but understandable, is everything I have needed from her. She is a human lady who loves and cares and who has screwed up big time. But you can really feel for Petunia, I think, and it's such a beautiful thing to see. Bonus points for having Snarry, too!
Years after she last saw Harry, Petunia and Vernon move back North. During the move, Petunia finds a mysterious box that she's all but forgotten... it stirs too many memories and emotions back to life.
The Fair
The Snapes. Rated: G. Words: 2,280. Poverty. Child Severus. Snapecase 2023.
This one broke my heart. It's not a happy story, but there are glimpses of joy in it. Glimpses of love and light in such a dark, rough life. titC has such a good grasp of human behavior and she does these characters such justice. If The Box showed us Petunia's human side, The Fair showed us Tobias'. He might not be a great man, but he's human all the same. A husband and father who does his best and who screws up royally all the same.
Eileen and Tobias Snape take their six-year-old son Severus to a fair in Cokeworth.
Headmistress McGonagall sends her Groundskeeper, Harry Potter, to investigate a lone thestral in Brittany...
Ancient magic, recurring dreams, old enemies, betrayals, family, love... ensue!
for an explanation about Mutuals March, or to figure out why i wrote you a thing, please check out this post.
Synopsis: Lucifer doesn't come into work so Chloe sends Dan to Lux to check up on him. The only problem is that Dan never reports back.
Rating: M
Notes: Hello one and all to the Easter fic that has nothing to do with Easter! First and most importantly I must apologize to titc for making her wait like a month longer than she should have. (She's a patient angel, give her love) More notes about my absence will be at the bottom. Anyways this fic was for the "I Need The Eggs" Easter Fic Exchange. I had the ever-lovely titc and my word was "resurrection". Oh also this has no particular timeline to canon stuff. It may mention certain things but really there is no set timeline on this thing...First off thanks to my beta because I'm a raging monster during my writing Crunch Time. Secondly: my absence. Stress has been a main factor for my lack in creative influence... (Finish on Ao3)
Lucifer was avoiding work and by work Chloe meant her. There was no way around it. His presence was gone from her desk, he hadn’t called, and he hadn’t answered her calls.
She’d thought they had gotten past this stage; him running and hiding every time she tried to get remotely close to him. It wasn’t like anything big had gone down the night before, either. They went to dinner, had some wine, and Chloe made out with him maybe a little more than she would have sober.
It was nothing new. Well the relationship was new, but the kissing was not. So maybe things were a little more heated than usual? That shouldn’t have driven Lucifer away. If anything Chloe should have had a hard time getting rid of him, judging by how much he’d nagged her for sex when they first met.
But Lucifer had run away longer from less before. And today Chloe was too annoyed with him to chase after him.
A coffee cup crossing her field of vision watered down her annoyance, but only slightly. It looked like he finally decided to show up.
Her eyes snapped to the scarred fingers that wrapped around the styrofoam, searching for a black onyx ring. She found nothing but a newly familiar band of untanned skin.
Dan.
Chloe’s mood deflated as she forced herself to take the cup from him.
“Lucifer oversleep or something?” He parked himself in Lucifer’s vacant spot on the edge of her desk.
She shrugged. “He won’t answer my calls, but I’m too swamped with this case to go chasing after him today.”
Okay maybe she was a little more pissed than worried.
“Do you want me to run by Lux? I’m going by the strip for the Jimmerson case anyways.” He gave her a helpful grin.
Chloe sighed. Maybe it would be better for Dan to go over there. At least if Lucifer was having an orgy she wouldn’t have to be the one to find out.
“Yeah would you please,” she finally said.
Dan pushed himself off her desk. “Sure, I’ll call you when I’m there.”
Despite what everyone thought, Dan didn’t really hate Lucifer. He wanted to, he really wanted to. He was every rich-kid asshole that had bullied Dan in high school. Not to mention there was a ninety percent chance that Lucifer was sleeping with his ex-wife. That should have given him every reason to hate Lucifer, but somehow he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Maybe it was the scars that made him pity the club owner.
They were impossible to miss during the Boris case. It took everything Dan had not to stare; he kept feeling a phantom knife carving it’s way into his body, ripping past muscle and getting slick with blood.
He hadn’t asked about them because Dan knew the answer. Dan was a cop, he’d seen his fair share of abuse cases, and scars like that were unmistakable. They were ragged on the edges, meaning they hadn’t been treated properly, and the marbling told him they were old. These were not some sick form of self-hatred, no Dan had a guess as to what they were: a “gift” from Lucifer’s father. No wonder the guy hated his family.
Waiting for the doors of Lux’s elevator to open was not as cathartic as he thought. If he’d truly despised the guy, Dan would have enjoyed walking in and interrupting his Brittany threesome, or whatever it was that kept him home. But no, now it was just another day at the office.
He idly chatted with Chloe on the phone waiting for the doors to open.
Finally after a lifetime, the elevator dinged.
The apartment was uncomfortably quiet. The piano sat with cold keys and the balcony doors were tightly sealed. There was no sign of struggle, not even a whiskey bottle out of place, and no clothes scattered the floor.
Everything was perfectly in order.
He relied the information to Chloe before taking a careful step in the direction of Lucifer’s bedroom. No pleasured sounds or wafts of breakfast echoed the halls. It was as if no one were here at all. The thought made a shiver run up his spine.
His footsteps changed at the short flight of stairs. Gone were the sharp rapts of his boots and in their place was a stomach churning squelch. The smell of carnage and sulfur crashed into him like a tidal wave. It forced its way up his nostrils and shoved down into his mouth, teasing the bile up his throat.
The smell of rotting flesh made even the most gruesome cases pale in comparison to the stench that seemed to radiate out of the room.
If he’d been a rookie he would have retched at the smell alone, but what made Dan finally break was the bloodbath that was the bedroom.
It was a scene ripped straight from Patrick Bateman’s basement. Puddles of blood drenched the black tile in semi-dried globs. It soaked shiny stains into the bed sheets and slicked the nightstand with ghastly brick colored hand prints. His eyes tracked the trail of gristly hand and footprints from the matted rug to the middle of the room.
The amber light from the bar threw hellish shades of orange around the scene and exposed the source of the carnage in all its sickening glory.
A single gore covered figure lay twisted at unnatural angles surrounded by torn pieces of tanned flesh and dark blood.
Dan took one look at the mangled body sprawled across the floor and gasped.
“ ¡Ay Dios mío!”
The phone slipped from his shaking hand and crashed to the floor. He stood, gasping for breath that seemed to have had died in his lungs.
“ Dios ayúdame,” he repeated, panic raising his voice into hysteria, “Dios ay--”
His voice cut out as Dan felt the tile collide with his head.
“Dan,” Chloe whispered fiercely into the receiver, “Dan!”
There was no response.
She clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming at him. She was surrounded by her colleagues, a few had even started to stare when they noticed the panic in her voice. She stood abruptly.
What the hell was going on? Dan never broke his English. It was something he prided himself on. Early on in their relationship he’d taught her a few key words and phrases but what he’d said over the phone needed no translation.
Whatever he had found at Lux was horrifyingly evil.
Chloe rushed to the parking lot, tearing through her pockets for her car keys. She kept the phone line open and she tore, sirens blaring, down the busy LA streets. Her hands white-knuckled the steering wheel as her mind cycled through all of the possibilities. Stuttering on the possibility of Lucifer and Dan being hurt, she slammed down harder on the the gas.
She screeched into the alley and hastily threw the cruiser in park. Gripping her phone tighter she ripped the backdoor of Lux open and began pounding up the emergency staircase.
Her imagination churned out image after image of the gristly murders she’d solved and prayed Lucifer wasn’t her next case. After the fourth flight, Chloe’s lungs screamed and her muscles begged her to stop. The thought of either of her friends being hurt pushed her up each new flight until, finally Chloe spilled out into the penthouse.
She shoved her phone into her back pocket and drew her gun. Trying to shake her jitters out of her system, Chloe’s grip on the firearm wavered.
With slow steps, she crept towards Lucifer’s bedroom.
Her eyes went wide at the sight of the wreckage. Keeping one hand on the trigger, she covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve to keep from choking on the stench.
She scanned the room and found Dan’s phone lying screen down in one of the puddles of blood with Dan not far away.
Chloe fumbled to holster her gun and rushed to check his pulse.
For a second there was nothing and then she felt it, strong and steady under her fingertips. Chloe breathed a sigh of relief. As if on autopilot, she searched his body for any signs of injury. The blood was too dry to be Dan’s, but she had to make sure.
Satisfied there was nothing but the bump on his head, Chloe stood to see another figure.
Lucifer.
But not the Lucifer she remembered. He lay sprawled out on the tile, arms and legs bent at awkward angles, and coated head-to-toe in the same carnage that painted the rest of the room.
She rushed over to him, but before she could check his pulse, something crackled under her boots. The dry sound rang through the apartment like a gunshot. Chloe didn’t even try to hold back the cringe as she glanced down.
Under the rubber soles of her boots was not bone or glass, but feathers.
At one point they may have been white; now they were speckled with dark red. And they weren’t just feathers no, Chloe realized with horror, they were wings.
Following the curve of the wing, Chloe felt her trembling legs crumple and she fell to her knees. There were no sharp knives of pain running up her body, or bruises blooming from impact, just white noise.
The logical part of her mind went silent because there was no logical explanation. The wings were melded to Lucifer’s mutilated form seamlessly. There were no surgical stitches, no straps to convince her they were fake. It was as if they’d burst from his body; spawning right where his scars used to be.
It was then Lucifer’s chilling words swirled in her mind: That’s where I cut my wings off. Chloe’s heart thundered against her ribcage. She could hear her breathing turn frantic, but all she could do was stare. Stare at this man who, up until ten minutes ago, she thought was human.
So many times he’d told her. So many times she brushed it off. So many. Too many.
Lucifer Morningstar was the Devil. Lucifer was the Devil.
Oh God, oh God: Lucifer’s Father.
Chloe carded her shaking hands through the feathers. They were shockingly soft. She buried her hands deeper, hoping that maybe with their softness alone her fears would vanish. There was a sharp prick on her index finger as her hands drug through the mass of down. With a surprised hiss, Chloe yanked her right hand back. The edges of the primaries were diamond hard and blade sharp.
We’re warriors of God, Detective, Lucifer’s voice tutted in the back of her mind. Lucifer, the Devil she reminded herself.
Her chest heaved as the stale air squeezed tighter around her throat. The blood that surrounded her seemed to freeze. Chloe screamed, but all that came out was a strained whisper.
Her memory of Lucifer’s smirking self contorted into the twisted reflection that she’d once thought she’d seen. The two shifted back and forth in her head, one human and the other hellish, until finally they molded together into a single nightmarish figure.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat before a hand on her shoulder made her jump. Chloe whipped her head around to find it belonged to Maze.
Maze. Just as Lucifer’s had, Maze’s face seemed to melt into one straight from Hell.
Hell.
Maze was a demon.
Her sloppily manicured nails curled around Chloe’s shoulder.
“Chloe?”
Maze’s voice echoed through her ears and seemed to morph into a growl. Chloe flinched away from her touch. A flash of hurt colored the demon’s eyes and her grip loosened.
“Here let me,” a new voice rang from behind both of them.
The sharp staccato of stiletto heels clicked their way closer to Chloe.
“Chloe I need you to look at me,” with some effort, she obeyed and the calm face of Linda knelt down in front of her, “you're panicking and you need to calm down. How about we go and get you cleaned up?”
Linda gently guided her wrists away from the wings and slotted her clean fingers through Chloe’s bloody ones.
Too numb to resist Linda slowly brought her to her feet. A sudden wash of fear washed over her and Chloe wobbled. The world plunged into darkness; Linda’s coaxing suddenly turned muffled and the dark outlines of Maze and Lucifer wavered.
With wide eyes, she watched as Maze knelt down, blade in hand, to examine Lucifer.
She sighed in relief, “He's breathing. I’m going to go fill the tub and get him cleaned up.”
A phantom wave crashed against her and Chloe’s world distorted around her. Black spots blotted out the edges of her vision. She dimly felt Linda drag her out of the bedroom and barely registered being sat on the couch.
“Will Lucifer be okay?” she finally managed, her voice coming out raspy.
Linda arranged herself on the table in front of Chloe. For a moment she said nothing, washing Chloe’s hands with a warm washcloth she snagged from the bathroom.
“It's hard to say. How do you feel?”
Her words seemed to flip a switch. For the first time since she'd gotten Dan’s call, Chloe felt the tight grip of fear loosen. The tunnel vision haze was fading and the feeling was returning to her numb fingertips.
How did she feel? It surprised her to say that she wasn't scared. Not anymore at least. She had been before, but now...now she wasn't sure what she felt.
“I don’t know”
Linda gave her a knowing smile. “I think you do know. There's a lot going on up there right now, but I know you can pick them apart.”
Sighing, Chloe watched as the last bits of red were swept away by the black cloth.
“He's the Devil . It's a lot to take in. I listened to him, but I never believed him. I always brushed it off as just Lucifer being Lucifer. But now--” she broke off, unsure of she'd say next.
“Now you know,” Linda finished for her.
She nodded. “I'm not scared anymore, I don’t even think I was scared, really. Just shocked.”
“That’s good, this is good,” she gestured between them, “You’re doing better than I did with this. What happened right before we showed up?”
“Lucifer didn't show up for work,” she glanced away from Linda, suddenly embarrassed, “I asked Dan to swing by and check on him. He was fine, but then he just lost it. I drove over as fast as I could and found the penthouse like this.”
She shuddered at the sight of Lucifer’s blood still painting the floors.
“That sounds familiar. He missed his appointment and as soon as Maze showed up for our lunch date, we came here.”
The sound of water began to gush and it momentarily drew their attention to the bedroom. A second later, Maze came sauntering down the stairs.
“You good Decker?” she asked as she stalked behind the bar.
Chloe said nothing, but something sparkly caught her eye. The nail polish on the demon's nails flashed under the lights and for some reason, it made Chloe smile. Trixie had begged and begged to do Maze’s nails all week. It was finally yesterday that she'd broken down and let her daughter do it. When Maze thought Chloe wasn't looking, she'd fawned over the manicure like it was made from diamonds instead drugstore polish.
“Shit Lin, I thought you were going to fix her,” she said, her words muffled by the bar.
Maze yanked some rags from their hiding place behind the counter. Strutting over to where Linda sat, she swept a calculating gaze down Chloe. Her flawed brow twitched when she received no answer.
“Hey, Chloe come on you're freaking me out.”
“I never said thank you for letting Trix do your nails, it meant a lot to her, you know.”
Maze’s concerned air dropped into an eye roll. She didn’t respond, but there was an invisible weight that seemed to have lifted from her shoulders.
Suddenly there was a crash and a heavily accented voice followed. “¡Qué es esto! Ay, lo siento. ¡Ay Dios mío!”
A blood spattered Dan came sliding out of the doorway, almost tripping on the stairs. His eyes darted wildly around the room, flicking past Linda and Maze until they settled on Chloe.
All she could do was blink at him.
He made a beeline for the whiskey wall, grabbing two glasses and a random bottle from the shelf, before seating himself next to her on the couch.
Then he yanked the cap off the bottle and poured a generous amount into a glass. Dan downed it in one gulp before filling the other one for Chloe.
“I think I'm starting to see the beauty in the whiskey wall,” he mussed after refilling his glass a second time.
Linda slumped down. “You have no idea how much of an alcoholic that man has turned me into.”
“Amen to that,” Maze called, heading back towards the bathroom.
Chloe felt like she should be doing something more than just sitting. There was so much to be done. The apartment looked like a pack of serial killers had swept through it; blood still covering every inch of Lucifer’s room. And then there was Lucifer himself; newly minted Devil status and all. Judging from what she’d heard coming from the bathroom, Maze was already taking care of getting him cleaned up.
Then there was a crash followed by the sound of water surging to the floor that made her rethink that statement. There was the faint drone of Maze’s swears mixed in with the sloshing that came echoing from the direction of the master bath.
Chloe jumped and reached for her gun.
Wet footsteps began to draw the commotion closer. After a moment, they paused.
Chloe forced herself to pull her hand back to her glass.
The whispers of an irritated sigh rang through the room and the footsteps resumed.
“--all over my fucking floors! No respect for Italian marble, I just fucking--” Lucifer broke off mid-rant at the sight of the three of them.
Her gaze swept over him in shock. The water had done little to scrub the carnage from his skin and instead left a faint sheen of pink coating every inch of his body.
It was then Chloe noticed he was naked.
Her eyes shuddered and widened, but not at his nakedness. No, Chloe was more focused on the two blood-stained wings that flared irritably behind him.
Heart pounding, she traced the muscular curve of bones down to the tips of the primaries.
Five minutes ago, Chloe had come to terms with Lucifer being the Devil. Now, seeing the wings curve and curl around him, she wasn’t so sure. The cold touch of uncertainty wound its way around her heart. Her mind, once again, conjured up the image of the reflection of a burnt face and pulsing red eyes.
Lucifer cleared his throat. “Perhaps this is not the correct attire for company, yes?”
And just as quickly as it had before, the burnt skin blossomed into the familiar olive tones Chloe was used to. Wide, frightened brown eyes sucked away the last traces of crimson and once again, her Lucifer stood before her.
And just as quickly as he had appeared, Lucifer disappeared back into the soiled bedroom in a swish of feathers and water droplets.
“That bastard; that was not average!” Dan’s annoyed muttering filled the heavy silence. He glanced down self consciously and moved to cross his legs.
Linda blushed and shifted uneasily, looking uncomfortable for the first time. Chloe watched as Dan took a mournfully long pull from his glass and sunk further into the expensive leather.
She could tell his brain was racing and moments away from shutting down completely.
Chloe figured that it must be hard for him. Dan had grown up with the stereotypical Roman Catholic church-going family. She remembered going to Sunday Mass with them when they stayed for the weekend. Not to mention the rosary hidden in every drawer. They spoke about the evils Satan would bring them and the joys God had promised them.
And now here Dan was, not even ten years later, complaining about the more-than-average dick size of Satan himself.
As far as she knew, Mass had never had a psalm about that.
Maze’s angry whisper-shouts cut through her remaining thoughts. “ --et back out there--already knows!”
An instant later, a pajama-bottom clad Lucifer was practically thrown down the stairs by a glaring Maze.
As if to stop himself from some invisible fall, the wings snapped open above him. Their razor sharp edges glinted dangerously in the late morning sunlight as they sliced through the tension in the room. When they settled back against Lucifer’s back, they quivered with nervousness that he desperately tied to hide.
The muscles in his shoulders were bunched, from the wings or nerves, Chloe would never know. The slick smiles and carefree posture seemed to have died with the bloody corpse of his old self and now resurrected was the version of him that had long been hidden.
It was then Chloe realized it wasn’t nervousness that made him hug the feathered appendages to his body. It was fear.
He wasn’t just folding his wings, he was trying to hide them. No longer were they hugging his skin, but now they plastered themselves against it. Lucifer stood there in the awkward silence like a lost puppy. He stared at the ground, seemingly transfixed by the puddle on the floor.
Something broke inside Chloe.
He wholeheartedly expected them to just abandon him like everyone else had. His Father, his siblings; they had all shunned him.
She set her glass on the table and under Linda and Dan’s watchful gazes, Chloe made her way over to Lucifer.
His eyes stayed fixed on the floor when she approached him. It was such a little thing; it shouldn’t have bothered her, but it did.
As tenderly as she could, Chloe looped her arms around his neck and buried her head into his shoulder. She’d done it so many times in the past, but this time there was something different about it.
Every nerve in Lucifer’s body seemed to tense at her touch. His breathing became shallow and forced. The hands that had once cuddled her stayed balled into fists at his side. The usually warm skin froze when she pushed herself flush against him; something she’d done a million other times.
Everything Lucifer did was just short of flinching and the fact that he hadn’t yet gave her the strength to hug tighter.
“You’re okay,” she choked out in a whisper.
Lucifer drew his arms closer with painstaking timidness. They brushed against her waist as if by accident. Chloe held him even when she felt them snap away like he’d been burned. She understood, though. Chloe couldn’t imagine how it must be for Lucifer; he’d lusted after love, never truly knowing what it was he craved and never truly believing in it either.
Even now, with him wrapped in her arms, Lucifer was still afraid that she was going to run.
“I’m not letting you go until you hug me back, mister,” she whispered, willing her voice to sound light and teasing.
Seconds dragged by like hours until finally, Chloe felt Lucifer’s arms wrap around her waist.
He sighed heavily.
“What have I done to deserve you, Chloe?” he murmured almost too quietly for her to hear.
And then just like that, he pulled away.
Lucifer flexed the wings awkwardly and blinked at her, as if in a daze, before stumbling.
Chloe caught him by the shoulder and hauled him over to the couch. Wordlessly she forced him to sit and was surprised when he didn’t refuse or even complain. There was a slight tremor in his hands that he tried to hide. She couldn’t help but notice it. Chloe handed him her crystal tumbler in a silent offer of comfort before moving to sit next to him, mindful to avoid the wings.
“So do you guys want to go and get drunk? The strippers are dressed like Playboy bunnies and if we hurry we can beat the happy hour rush,” Lucifer said nonchalantly, picking the blood out of a feather with his free hand.
Instead of being surprised, all Chloe could do was stare at his delicate fingers running down the wing. It was a single fluid motion; they ran down the shaft of the feather with the practiced ease of a long-learned habit.
Oh God, she did not have a wing kink, Chloe tried to convince herself.
Finally coming out of her haze, she registered what Lucifer had said.
“Um dude Easter was like a month ago, you know,” Dan echoed her thoughts.
Lucifer haughtily tossed the wing he’d been preening back over his shoulder; the motion igniting something within her that she desperately tried to hide.
As if he knew what he was doing to her, Lucifer shrugged artfully, the regrown muscles taking the wings with him.
“So? Maybe Easter is today and you humans have just been getting it wrong,” he took a sip of his whiskey, “Speaking of Easter, that sloppy carpenter was nothing to crow about, by the way. Rumor has it that the only reason he’s the messiah is that Dad saw what a shoddy carpenter he would be and had an empty “favorite son” spot to fill in the Silver City.
“Anyways back to the more important thing at hand: me. Maze if you would be so kind?”
He fanned his wings out in invitation.
Chloe’s eyes snapped to the demon, who loomed over Linda’s shoulder.
Maze arched a brow, a frown spreading across her mouth.
“No.”
The word was abrupt and awkward. The shadows seems to cower in their corners at the unspoken snarl in her response.
Something flickered in Lucifer’s eyes. He rose slowly from the sofa, his previous shakiness vanishing.
“Mazikeen I--”
This time, she really did snarl.
“I said no. I said once. Once then; once now, Lucifer. Never again.”
The room fell into a tense silence. Chloe sat on the edge of the cushions, trying to follow just what the ‘once’ in question was.
“Would someone like to explain what is going on?” Linda interrupted.
Chloe didn’t miss the comforting hand she put on Maze’s wrist.
Maze didn’t pull away like Chloe thought, but instead returned the touch with the brush of her fingertips.
“Lucifer wants me to hack his wings off because of his daddy issues,” the demon scoffed.
Chloe, Dan, and Linda gasped.
“...You actually sliced off the first pair?” Dan asked.
Lucifer grinned bitterly. “ And burned them.”
Just as he was about to make his way over to Maze, Chloe grabbed Lucifer’s free hand.
“Leave them.”
Four pairs of eyes swiveled her way. Dan’s shocked blue ones still focused on Lucifer’s wings, Maze’s brown ones burning a hole into the back of Lucifer’s head, and Linda just watching coolly from her spot. But Chloe could only stare at Lucifer’s bottomless, sad eyes. They raged with a sea of conflicting emotion.
“...Leave them,” she said, quieter this time, “--For me. Please.”
She didn’t know what made her say it. It was as if an invisible force had just pulled the words from her mouth.
It was a selfish request to ask of him; she knew how much Lucifer despised his Father. But damn it, for once in her life she was going to be selfish. The wings were beautiful and perfect and somehow just so him. Chloe felt oddly drawn to them, but that wasn’t why she wanted them to stay.
Chloe squeezed his fingers; a silent plead.
Lucifer stared at her in shock for a moment. The tension and surprise seemed to leak out of his grasp as his lips parted in a wordless question.
Slowly, Chloe let go of his hand. Why did she think she could change his mind?
“Fine.”
Her head snapped up in surprise.
Lucifer crossed his arms and folded the wings again, except this time he made no move to hide them. His eyes brimmed with something muddled and his mouth set in a hard line, as if the word had been hard to form.
She nodded her thanks, too dumbstruck that he’d listened to her to speak.
“Just as long as you’re not planning to run away screaming from them,” he added.
Them meaning him. Another pang went through her.
“Why would I do that?”
A lightning bolt of fear flashed in Lucifer’s eyes and his mask seemed to crumble.
“Isn’t that what they all do?”
He uttered the question so quietly, that Chloe wasn’t sure if anyone else had heard it.
The softness of it all made her want to march directly to his Father and give him a piece of her mind. How could He call himself a father, yet cause his son so much pain? How could He not see that what the world said about Lucifer was false?
Lucifer wasn’t evil; he was just a man, a very human one, terrified of rejection.
She felt the beginnings of tears well in the corners of her eyes. Chloe reached out, as if to caress his face when Maze’s irritated tone shattered their moment.
“Why didn’t you just tuck them away if you didn’t want us to see them?” she asked, clearly unaware of what had just transpired.
Slowly Chloe lowered her hand, realizing that whatever she just saw flicker across Lucifer’s face was a piece of him that she would probably never see again.
“Wait, what does she mean tuck them away?” Dan interrupted.
Lucifer waved the glass of whiskey dismissively in his direction, his mask slipping back into place. “Technically I should be able to hide my wings in a separate plane.”
Maze made a frustrated sound, “And why didn’t you?”
“Because I can’t . I tried, believe me. I have no energy to will them away. Father sent me the whole nine-yards, the wings just didn’t spawn; they clawed their way out of my skin. That’s where the blood came from.”
Chloe shuddered at the mental image of the blood-stained room. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Dan do the same.
She returned her attention back to Lucifer and just studied him for a moment. Before, the wings had overshadowed the slump in his shoulders and his oddly compliant attitude. Now she could see them clear as day and felt guilty for ever missing it.
“Maybe we should leave so you can get some rest then, Lucifer,” Linda said sternly.
Dan seeing his way out, stood and stuck his hands in his pockets.
“Yeah I need to go home and change before I pick Trix up from school anyways.”
Linda nodded in agreement before standing herself. “And I have patients to see.”
Lucifer narrowed his eyes and huffed. “Fine, fine bugger off to your more important things, don’t mind me. I’ll figure out my mid-life divine crisis on my own and report back.”
“It’s not that we don’t care, Lucifer,” Linda tried to reason, “We just want you to take care of yourself first.”
“Lin’s right. Plus you’re being more bitchy than usual,” Maze looked at him accusingly, “When was the last time you slept?”
He made a noncommittal sound. “Monday...ish.”
That caught Chloe’s attention.
“Lucifer it’s Friday.”
“I know.”
Maze began shooing Dan and Linda towards the elevator. “Go take a nap and call us when you’re done being a bitch,” she called over her shoulder, “You coming Decker?”
Chloe just stood, looking back and forth between Lucifer’s wavering form and Maze’s expectant gaze.
She shook her head.
“Somebody needs to make sure he actually goes to sleep.”
Maze rolled her eyes. “Whatever, suit yourself.”
As they all piled into the elevator Linda called out that she’d rescheduled Lucifer’s appointment and if would Chloe make sure he got there.
Then she and Lucifer watched in silence as the elevator doors dragged shut, leaving them alone.
Chloe wasted no time switching on her ‘mom’ voice.
“You’re taking a shower and no, you aren’t getting a say in it,” she ordered, shoving him in the direction of his master bath. He stumbled a few steps and turned to look at her over his shoulder.
“Are you joining me?” He asked with a leer.
Oh of course now he chose to act like himself, Chloe thought.
“No because I’m not the one covered in blood.”
“Well then my say is no.”
Lucifer wandered over to the piano in clear defiance. He toyed with the keys and watched her expectantly. There was no smirk on his lips like he had when he would purposefully do something he knew would piss her off. He just jutted his lip out like Trixie did when she threw a tantrum.
Which, Chloe would daresay, was close to what this was: a celestial temper tantrum.
So instead of giving Lucifer what he wanted, Chloe whirled around and stomped in the direction of the shower.
Flipping it on with more force than necessary, she came back out to find him in the same place, pouting as before.
“Hey,” she began.
When she got no response, Chloe walked over to stand next to him. She covered his hand with hers and the mindless melody he was tapping out on the keys dissipated.
“Hey,” she said again, gently turning his face towards hers with her other hand. Chloe let her fingertips linger on his cheek. “Please do this for me. I promise I’ll stay and lay with you if you do.”
Lucifer turned his head to plant a kiss on the palm of her hand.
“Do this for me .”
Chloe sighed. “I am.”
Lucifer murmured an unintelligible reply and planted more kisses into her palm.
“Lucifer--”
He cut her off with a chaste kiss on the lips.
As if on their own accord, his wings curled around her and pulled Chloe in closer. Their razor edges now magically blunt as they cradled her body.
“ Lucifer,” she said, her voice losing it’s authoritative edge.
It was those damn wings that were making her lose it and Lucifer seemed to know it.
He let them brush against her back again before he leaned in close enough for another kiss.
“Please,” he whispered against her lips, the word dripping from his lips like a prayer.
Chloe surrendered to the growing lust inside of her and tilted her lips up to meet his, this time not as soft.
Lucifer, sensing his victory, dragged her closer, fingers already trailing to yank the jacket off of her shoulders.
Chloe purred in response, shrugging off the offending garment.
With one less layer between them, she crashed into Lucifer; hands snaking their way to his back to bury themselves into the wings.
Okay, shoot her, maybe she did have a wing kink.
Chloe grinned manically at the thought as she burrowed her way into the silky down. Her nails scratched at the smooth skin underneath and couldn’t help but be disappointed when she found the scars had actually vanished. They were a part of Lucifer that made him exclusively Lucifer. Without them Chloe couldn’t help but feel like something was different.
As much as she wanted to deny it, he was different. The resurrection of his wings seemed to enhance him. His edges sharper, more defined and shoulders lighter. In fact, everything about him was lighter. His smile was brighter, eyes shining like never before. It was as if he’d captured the stars and sewed them into his skin for safe keeping.
Now Chloe understood the title “lightbringer”. Before it was fitting, Lucifer drew a crowd wherever he went. But now, with the wings, they put it into a whole new perspective.
Lucifer’s unexpected moan pulled her back out of her thoughts. It poured luxuriously from his lips, and fuck was it turning her on. It made the heat pool in her belly, pulsing lower and lower inside her with each shallow gasp that escaped him.
Chloe’s body ached with desire. Her legs shook as she dragged herself up his body. She twined her legs around his waist in desperate attempt to pull him closer.
He brought her in for another deep kiss and roughly cupped her ass. Chloe could feel his hands shake with pleasure or anticipation, she couldn’t tell which.
She pulled back a fraction of an inch to stare into Lucifer’s wide brown eyes. His pupils were blown wide with lust and his lip bled slightly from where she’d bitten it.
Lucifer licked the red from his skin with a languid stroke of his tongue and grinned.
He’d noticed her staring. That bastard.
“I wouldn’t have cut off my wings if I had known they were all it took to get you into bed--” he paused and glanced down at her ass just barely touching the piano top, “or rather piano top.”
A sly glimmer glinted in his eyes.
He leaned in for another kiss.
Chloe eagerly returned it, tasting the sweet liquor of arousal that coated his tongue.
She fisted her hands deeper into his wings. The feathers quivered under her appreciative grip and buckled when her hands gripped the bones hard enough to bruise.
And God knows she was aiming to bruise.
Chloe wanted to mark Lucifer in every way possible. She wanted him, and more importantly, everyone else to know that he was hers.
Only hers.
She bit down hard on his lip once more to make sure he knew it.
Lucifer grinned in reply and slid his lips from hers, dragging them lower down the column of her throat.
Chloe bit her lip to keep from screaming his name when she felt his teeth ghost over her shoulder scar. Her body crackled with lust, every nerve ending blazing.
Her thighs gripped Lucifer tighter, grinding impatiently against his growing arousal.
“ Luce pl--”
“ Guys what the fuck!”
Chloe’s body froze, her mouth caught open, mid-gasp.
Under her, she felt Lucifer’s do the same. His wings stiffened and snapped closed, once more cutting her hand in the process. But Chloe didn’t register the sting this time. She was too busy staring at the owner of the voice.
Dan.
He stood, dumbstruck and blushing, as the elevator doors slid closed behind him. Lucifer’s blood still smeared his clothes and the bump on his head was seemingly bigger than it had ever been.
Hands shoved in his pockets, shoulders bunched, and mouth open, Dan grasped for words.
Chloe’s mind ran a mile a minute, an endless movie strip of phantom reactions that her ex-husband might have after seeing them like this.
Would he be angry? Jealous? Heartbroken? Her eyes bulged wider with each what if. What if, what if, what if they went back to fighting over her?
Lucifer’s muscles relaxed under her tight ones. Unhurriedly, he sat her down on the piano. His hands tucked under her shirt, drawing slow circles down her back, clearly not ashamed of what they’d been caught doing.
“We--we were just going to take a shower,” Chloe said defensively. As if she even needed to explain herself to him.
As if on cue, the crashing water of Lucifer’s shower echoed through the room.
Dan only raised his brows knowingly and walked to the couch, making sure to put a wide berth between them.
“I just came to get my phone. I forgot it,” he picked up the bloody object in question off of the coffee table, waving it so they could see. “I don’t care what-- who you do, Chloe.” He laughed.
“I said ‘what the fuck’ because I’ve been gone for five minutes.”
Chloe sagged against Lucifer in relief.
“Oh.”
Dan made his way back towards the elevator, hitting the call button.
“Yeah ‘oh’. Have fun with your shower, I’m just going to...go.” He said the last word abruptly and shifted awkwardly from foot to foot.
Lucifer swept an odd gaze over him. “You’re welcome to join, you know. If the Detective wishes, of course.”
Chloe swatted him, with a look of utter horror.
Dan shared much of the same look. “Ah...no thanks man,” he said, backing into the newly opened elevator, “I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” He stared at them a moment longer. “...Or maybe not?”
The gilded elevator doors slid closed before Chloe or Lucifer could answer. When the last of the golden light disappeared, Chloe angrily turned back to him.
She smacked his shoulder again.
“What was that? You hate Dan!”
Lucifer only shrugged. “You’ve seen him naked; I’ve never been one to pass on opportunity, darling, no matter how douchy.”
Cupping his face, Chloe brought him in for a peck. Lucifer’s smile bled through it.
“You’re so weird.”
She pulled back. “But in all seriousness we’re never having a threesome with Dan.”
His eyebrows quirked up and that’s when Chloe knew whatever was going to come out of his mouth wasn’t good.
“Oh, so you’re up for douche-free threesomes then?”
“No!”
Lucifer gathered Chloe in his arms.
“Good, because I’m not sharing you for a long time.”
i’m proud of the it crowd in a motherly way because it’s one of those rare shows that didn’t get worse the longer it went on? like plot wise it got more offensive the longer it went on and there are some episodes i cringe my way through and would never let some people watch ever in their life, but it honestly never gets boring. it’s one of the few shows that i can watch from beginning to end and not feel like anything is a filler. they don’t repeat storylines. when they repeat lines it’s for comic effect and there’s a point to it. they managed to keep the same four characters for years and it still never got boring. i’m very proud that i watched it Back In The Day.
