Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lucifer got to the crime scene and stopped short at the sight of the woman with horns sticking out of her head. He completely failed to convince the detective that it had something to do with him though. He didn’t notice the new girl until the detective went to talk to her douche of an ex. “You’re a newbie aren’t you?” he asked, hoping that he hadn’t been crude enough to just have not noticed her before.

“Oh, hey, yeah,” she hugged him in greeting. “Ella Lopez. I just transferred in a couple days ago. You must be Detective Decker’s civilian consultant,” she said perkily.

“Lucifer. Morningstar,” he introduced himself.

“Cool,” she said with a nod, turning back to her field kit.

Lucifer was slightly taken aback at that. “I was expecting a different reaction considering your choice of bling,” he pointed to the crucifix around her neck.

“Oh. Dude. I had a friend named Adolf, okay. Adolf. I didn’t hold it against him,” she told him with a shrug. “Besides. I think the devil gets a bad rap.”

“Oh? You do, do you?” Lucifer asked in satisfaction.

“Yeah, I mean…what’d he do that was so bad? What, rebel against his dad? Ask some naked lady if she wanted an apple?” If that was all it took she’d probably have been damned a hundred times over by now.

“Be still my heart,” Lucifer drawled pleasantly. “Do go on.”

“I suppose he does run hell,” she added thoughtfully. “That’s not so great, you know, with the torture and eternal damnation.”

Lucifer’s smile turned to a frown. “I’m retired. And besides, I didn’t create hell. I just worked there,” he tried to defend himself.

Ella looked at him weirdly. “Aaand now you’re talking in the first person…wait…are you…”

“The devil?”

“A method actor? Ugh,” she groaned. She hated method actors.

“What?” Lucifer asked surprised. Before they could get any further, they were interrupted by the return of the detective, but he was definitely intrigued by the new girl. Anyone who was willing to at least be somewhat open minded about the devil was worth knowing, though he doubted she would end up in his bed. He wasn’t even entirely sure he wanted her to.

Despite her grudge against method actors, Ella couldn’t help but be intrigued by him too and watched him a lot of the case, and for the next case. The more she watched him the more irritated she got. Not with him though. With his supposed partner. She’d been there a little over a week when he walked into her lab that morning with a coffee for her. “Thanks Lucifer,” she said, taking a sip to see what she needed to do with it and was surprised when it was perfect. “How did you know how I like my coffee? Have you been stalking me?” she half-joked.

“Not at all Ms. Lopez. I simply observe,” he told her with a smirk.

She nodded. It wasn’t like she ever tried to hide the way she made her coffee in here after all. She had noticed him bringing coffee to people downstairs a few times, but this was the first time she had been included. Did he get everyone’s coffee right? Had it taken so long to get to her because he was trying to figure out how she liked it first? No wonder he was so good at solving crimes. He didn’t miss a detail. She shook the thoughts from her head and took the opportunity she’d been waiting for. “Hey can I ask you something? You can tell me it’s none of my business if you want.”

“You can always ask, Ms. Lopez,” he told her encouragingly. He had no problem avoiding questions he didn’t want to answer after all.

“Why do you let Detective Decker treat you that way?”

“What way do you mean?” he asked, confused.

“You know…like you’re an unruly child or something,” she told him.

He shrugged. “I suppose because I apparently act like one.”

Ella scoffed. “Oh please. I’ve seen unruly children. You’ve got nothing on them. It’s not like you’re going around messing up evidence or letting killers get away or anything like that.”

“I do tend to touch things without gloves on,” he pointed out, not sure why he was doing the opposite of defending himself right now.

“Yeah, but you guys never even get to the scene until I’m done processing it most of the time and I’d tell you if wasn’t. The detective knows that. If it’s not in an evidence bag or otherwise marked when you get there then it’s free game. And I’ve seen you avoid things that were tagged as evidence.”

“She’s just trying to keep control of things and I tend to wander, mentally and physically,” Lucifer pointed out.

“So what?” Ella asked. “If you weren’t good at your job you’d have been fired by now. There’s no reason for her to constantly put you down and tell you off just for being yourself.” So maybe she was projecting a bit. There was a reason she’d transferred here after all.

“I…I don’t…” Lucifer stammered for a minute before the door opened and he tensed up, grabbing the coffee tray to throw it away as Chloe walked in.

“Hey Lucifer, we got a lead…” she trailed off, looking between the coffee tray in Lucifer’s hands and the cup in Ella’s. “You know you don’t have to sleep with /everyone/ in the city don’t you?” she asked irritated.

Lucifer tossed the tray in the trash on his way to the door. “You said we had a lead?”

At the same time Ella said, “he was just being nice by bringing me coffee. He wasn’t trying to get in my pants.”

Chloe scoffed as Lucifer was halfway down the stairs waiting for her. She gave one last parting piece of advice to Ella, “Trust me. If Lucifer is being nice, he’s always trying to get in your pants.” She was gone before Ella could respond, but that was probably a good thing. She didn’t really want to alienate herself here already. Even if it did burn her up to watch someone so nice get treated so badly.

A few mornings later, Ella had noticed that Lucifer didn’t come in every morning and asked Chloe where he was. “Probably still in bed with his bimbo of the hour,” Chloe said. “I’ll swing by and get him when we have a crime scene. It’s not like he’s ever any help with anything else anyway.”

The matter-of-fact way she’d said that made Ella angrier than if she’d said it with irritation. That just proved that the problem was worse than she thought. She didn’t say anything though and just let her be. She knew she should have said something, but the thought of becoming a pariah again worried her too much. That and she didn’t have anything to counter that with exactly anyway. She didn’t know what he was doing, so she couldn’t say anything about her assumptions.

She had a day off for a dentist appointment the next day though and decided to try and find Lucifer and talk to him some more about it. At least let him know that someone cared. She’d seen him mingling around the station with anyone and everyone, but it didn’t seem like anyone did more than fall all over him. Certainly no one tried to help the situation.

It hadn’t taken Ella long to figure out where Lucifer would probably be, so she swung by. She wasn’t sure if he would be up yet, but she wouldn’t ring the bell if he had one. She’d just knock lightly so he could ignore it if he was still asleep. It didn’t end up working that way though because the only door she could see was to the nightclub that he apparently owned. There was a man standing outside the door though, so she went over. “Hey, yeah, my name is Ella Lopez, and I work with Lucifer at the LAPD. I was wondering if…” she trailed off as they guy waved her towards the door.

“Go on in,” he told her.

“Um…okay,” she said sliding nervously in the door, hoping she wasn’t walking into something shady. She relaxed when she saw Lucifer sitting at the bar and looked curious when she saw a stack of papers and a book he was writing in surrounding him.

“Ms. Lopez!” he said cheerfully. “What brings you here?” he asked, patting the stool next to him.

She smiled. It seemed she wasn’t intruding at least. She was pretty good at telling fake cheer from real. “Just wanted to check out the famous Lux,” she joked, knowing that the excuse wouldn’t fly, but not really wanting to give him the real one.

“Well you’re a little early for happy hour, but you’re welcome to grab a drink if you like,” he offered, taking a sip of his own.

“Nah. I never drink this early,” she told him, before quickly adding, “Not that it’s a problem that you drink this early. It’s just not for me, that’s all.”

“Relax, Ms. Lopez. I wasn’t offended,” he chuckled.

“So your door guy…he just let me right in. Even though you’re not even open or anything…” she said, still confused by that. Sure she’d said that she worked with Lucifer, but he didn’t even check her story at all before waving her in. In fact, he’d seemed bored like she hadn’t even had to do that much.

“I like being accessible,” Lucifer told her. “He’s just there to guard from thieves and vandals. Anyone else can come and go as they please.”

She blinked in shock. To think that his business, and apparently his home not that she saw any sign of such, was completely open for anyone at any time. She shook her head at the thought before changing the subject. “Whatcha doing?” she asked peering curiously over his shoulder.

“Just working on the books. I got a bit behind with as long as that last case took to wrap up,” he told her.

“I should go then and let you…” she started to get up.

“Nonsense,” he said, pulling her back to sitting. “I’m happy to take a break for a while. My eyes were starting to hurt anyway.”

“How long have you been at it?” she asked. “I would have thought you’d still be sleeping.”

“A few hours now,” he told her. “Since my company for the night left. Rather hard to sleep when a group of people are climbing over you to get out of bed,” he laughed.

Ella laughed too, not sure if he was serious or not, but assuming he probably was. Maybe exaggerating though. “It must be tough running a place like this and working with the LAPD at the same time.”

“Not usually,” he said with a shrug. “Besides, which would I give up? They are both immensely rewarding in different ways.”

“Is that why you let Detective Decker treat you so badly? Because the work is rewarding?”

“You’re still on that?” he chuckled. “It’s really not worth making a fuss about. I mostly tune her out anyway.”

“I don’t believe you,” Ella said skeptically. She’d seen him tense up often when the detective came around like he was waiting to be scolded. And like he was doing now actually. She worried that she’d pushed too hard.

Lucifer set his jaw and his hand tightened around his glass. “I may be many things, Ms. Lopez, but a liar is not one of them. It’s a point of pride for me.”

“Right. Sorry. I didn’t mean you were lying exactly. Just that maybe you’re downplaying it a little bit?” she tried to dig herself out of the hole. Now that he mentioned it, she remembered hearing the talk around the station about how Lucifer never lied about anything, even when he should.

“Perhaps,” he admitted with a nod, visibly relaxing. “But it still doesn’t matter.”

She frowned. “Of course it matters. You shouldn’t have to put up with…” She was cut off by the door opening again as the detective walked in.

“We got a case,” she told Lucifer before noticing Ella. “Oh. Hi Ella,” she said uncomfortably. “I didn’t realize you and Lucifer were…um…”

“We’re not,” Ella shook her head. “I just stopped by to…um…” She was trying to think of how to explain without actually telling her that she was here to commiserate with him about the way he was treated.

Chloe scoffed as Lucifer got up and grabbed his jacket. “Oh. I get it. He conned you into spending your day off doing his work too. Come on, Lucifer,” she said irritably. She hated when he took advantage of people just because he could.

Ella started to bristle, but Lucifer put a hand on her shoulder and said softly enough that Chloe couldn’t hear him, “Let it go, Ms. Lopez. It’s fine.” He shrugged his jacket on before saying a little louder with a chuckle, “Feel free to take a little time and look around. I’m sure you can find your own way out.”

Chapter Text

Ella did as Lucifer suggested and did look around a bit, but not for long. It just seemed a little creepy with no one here like this. When she found the elevator, she took it up, curious as to what was up there and if it was another level to the club or maybe storerooms or something. She wasn’t going to snoop in the rooms of course, but just maybe check out the hallway or something. When the elevator doors opened though, her jaw dropped at the gorgeous penthouse apartment. It took all of a minute for it to dawn on her that this was where Lucifer lived and she immediately hit the button to go back down. She knew he said he liked to be accessible, but to have the elevator open directly into his home without even a lock or doorbell or anything was something else. How did he even keep clubgoers from just wandering up whenever they felt like it? She added that to the list of mysteries she was compiling about Lucifer Morningstar.

The man at the door nodded companionably to her as she left and she was wondering again what exactly his purpose was. She had been in there alone for how long and he just her walk out without even trying to check if she stole anything. Maybe he was just there for the intimidation factor? Wouldn’t locked doors and security cameras be better? She put it out of her mind and went about her day. She still had a couple hours to kill before her dentist appointment.

The next day she was back at work and back to being irritated since the first thing she saw was Detective Decker snatching something out of Lucifer’s hand and telling him off for acting like a child. She just grimaced and headed up to the lab, stopping short when she saw a cup of coffee and a strawberry kruller sitting next to her computer and she smiled. There was no doubt who was responsible. No one else would pay attention to the fact that strawberry krullers were her favorite. She figured it was a thank you for being nice to him.

He found his way up to see her later in the day, and she said, “Lull in the case?”

“Something like that. Trying to figure out where the suspect could be since he’s not at home or work,” Lucifer said as he started picking up random objects to fiddle with.

Ella chuckled at his actions. She’d had a friend like that once. He’d had ADHD and he told her that he couldn’t focus his mind unless his hands were busy with something. She wondered if Lucifer had the same or if it was just a funny quirk of his. It didn’t really matter though. He seemed to catch himself after a moment though and put the slide he was playing with down. “Sorry. I know that’s annoying,” he said sheepishly.

Ella shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me. You do you, Lucifer. I know you’re smart enough to figure out what you shouldn’t be messing with.” It wasn’t like he was going around pushing random buttons her machines or opening evidence bags or anything. He looked at her curiously for a moment before resuming his tactile perusal of the room. “We never got to finish our conversation yesterday,” she said as she looked through her microscope at the latest piece of evidence.

“I’m not sure what more there is to say? It’s not as though being judged unfairly is anything new for me, Ms. Lopez. After all, the entirety of humanity judges me as irredeemably evil with barely a shred of evidence.”

“What do you…oh your whole devil routine,” she nodded in understanding. “You know, I’m kinda starting to get it now. Why you use that persona.”

“Because it’s who I am,” he said wryly.

“No, yeah. I know. Some people think the worst of you no matter what you do. I get it.” If he needed to hide behind the image of the devil to deal, she was hardly one to judge. That didn’t mean she couldn’t try to help him as much as she could though. “Did you get your work done yesterday?” she asked sociably.

“Not yet,” he said with a chuckle. “If nothing else I’ll get caught up this weekend, though, so it’s no matter. Did you do any looking around? What did you think of the place?” he asked as he started to juggle her stress balls.

“It’s pretty awesome,” she told him. “I might have to come by sometime when it’s open.”

“You should. You’d be more than welcome. I put you on the free drinks list anyway,” he told her.

Her lips twitched as she looked up to change the slide and noticed him juggling. “You don’t have to do that. I can pay for my drinks.”

“Nonsense,” he brushed it off. “What’s the use of being friends with the owner if you can’t get some free drinks out of it. If it helps, you’re far from the only person on that list.”

“Is Detective Decker on the list?” she asked curiously.

“Naturally. She is my partner after all. Not that she takes advantage of it often,” he told her.

Ella could tell by his tone that he was at least a little offended by that, but she wasn’t surprised. The detective seemed to have a stick up her butt and probably barely drank at all. Still, if the person who consistently put him down was on the free drink list she wouldn’t complain about being on it too. “Well, thank you, Lucifer. I appreciate it, and I’ll definitely stop by one night soon.”

“I look forward to it,” he said with a charming grin.

“I should probably also admit that I saw your penthouse too. I was curious where the elevator led to and when I saw where it was, I didn’t even step out and came right back down. I mean, I’m not a creeper or a snoop or anything…”

She was cut off by a laugh from Lucifer. “You’re welcome to look around up there too. I have nothing to hide and you’d be far from the only person to waltz in and out as you wish.”

Before she could respond the door to the lab opened. “There you are, Lucifer, I’ve been…” Chloe stopped with a huff as Lucifer dropped the balls he was juggling and had to catch the centrifuge from being knocked off the table. “Can you /ever/ act like an adult? You could at least help us figure out where this guy could be and let Ella work in peace.”

“Actually, I had an idea about that,” Lucifer said as he led the way out, leaving an irritated Ella behind. She could guess that he’d been brainstorming the entire time he’d been in there and Decker probably wouldn’t even thank him for the idea or assume it had come from her and that Lucifer was just taking credit for it. One of these days she would get up the nerve to say something.

Ella couldn’t help but smirk when they dragged a guy in with handcuffs an hour later. Apparently, Lucifer’s idea panned out. She turned back to her work though. If she wanted to get out of here at a reasonable time tonight, she had a lot to do. When she finished for the night, everything else waiting for results that would be available in the morning, she decided to take Lucifer up on his invitation to visit Lux. It was Friday night after all.

She walked in the door after a cursory showing of her ID to the guy at the door. A different one than the other morning. She wondered if the showing ID thing was just because the club was open or if this guy just took his job a little more seriously. When she got inside she looked around in awe. It was cool during the day, but at night it was just awesome. Even the music wasn’t bad. She usually didn’t like these places much because the music was too loud and/or obnoxious, but this was the perfect volume and good music at that. No wonder it was packed.

She headed for the bar to get a drink before looking around for Lucifer. It didn’t take long to spot him since half the crowd seemed to revolve around him. She saw some women flock to him and he didn’t hesitate to pay them a little attention before moving on. Before she could get up and go over to him, the music stopped and she tilted her head in confusion, but her eyes went wide as the spotlight came on and he headed to the piano. Damn he could play…and sing, she added to her thoughts a moment later as the lyrics started and she realized he was doing a piano cover of running with the devil and she snorted a laugh.

Once the song was over, she waited until he had waded his way through his adoring fans before she headed over to him. “Ms. Lopez!” he said cheerfully. “You made it!”

“I did,” she laughed and sat when he motioned her to. “That was a pretty rad performance. I would never have thought of doing that song like that.”

“I do enjoy working out my own arrangements of songs,” he told her, pausing to tease one of the women who was trying to get his attention.

Ella noticed how when he did that, he seemed to give them every ounce of his attention in that moment and she smiled. As someone who’d been on the receiving end of that, a few times from Lucifer even, she knew that no matter how short the time was, it made them feel special and wanted. She didn’t doubt that was his secret. Once the woman had moved on, she said, “Well it was good. And this place is amazing.”

“Why thank you,” he said charmingly. “I’m rather fond of it myself.”

“How often are you down here when it’s open?” she asked curiously. It didn’t seem to be a rare thing judging by how people were acting around him but she also knew that he was very busy.

“As often as I can manage. At least a few hours a night most nights. People like when I’m here and can pay attention to them and when I play for them. It’s good for business,” he answered. “Not to mention, fun,” he grinned running his hands up a man’s arm that had come around him from behind and turning to allow him to steal a kiss.

Ella laughed. “I can see that.” They spent the next few hours chatting amicably with random breaks for him to lavish someone with attention and occasionally to say a few words to the employees when they seemed to have questions for him. She could just imagine what Decker would have said, but she didn’t mind at all. Not only was this his business, but she could see how much that scant moment of attention he gave meant to these people. She didn’t stay too late and headed out before midnight, resolving to come again soon.

Chapter Text

The middle of the next week, they were called out to find one of Lucifer’s favorite action heroes murdered. He missed Ella’s eye roll at the way the detective just scoffed at his interests but didn’t miss her amused snort when his phone got taken away for trying to take an Instagram photo with the dead body. Once they were alone somewhat she asked him why he liked the guy so much and he pointed out all the bad deeds he’d done and was considered a hero.

“Oh, right. As opposed to you because you’re the son of god,” she said with a chuckle. “I get it. I mean Stanislavsky would have been so proud of you.”

Lucifer sighed. “Okay for the last time, I am not a method actor.”

“So method of you to say. Hey, can you cry on cue?” she asked.

He was prevented from a response when he could swear that he saw one of his brother’s walk by the window and he quickly excused himself. When he saw someone on a nearby rooftop he went to investigate. No human could have made out his features from that distance, but Lucifer saw exactly who it was and was more than confused so he rushed over despite the scolding he was likely to get from the detective.

“Hello, brother,” Lucifer heard from behind him and he spun to see if it really was who he thought it was.

“Ah. Uriel. I thought it was you. Welcome to Earth,” he said cheerfully as he looked his brother over. “Clearly I got the fashion sense in the family. Word of advise. I’d lose the trenchcoat, because as it stands, it’s less ‘cool brooding angel’ and more sort of ‘pedophile chic’,” he chuckled amusedly.

“One joke down, one to go,” Uriel shook his head. “Why can’t you take anything seriously, Lucifer?”

Lucifer huffed a laugh. “What do they say? Laugh like no one’s listening, dance like you’re standing on the corpses of your enemies?”

“And there’s the other,” Uriel said disappointedly. “Predictable as ever.”

“What do you want, Uriel,” Lucifer asked, starting to lose his patience.

“I came to tell you, you have twenty-four hours,” Uriel said smugly.

Lucifer looked at him confused for a moment. “Okay, I’ll bite. Twenty-four hours or what?”

“Either return here with Mom or I’ll finish what I started with your detective,” Uriel said with a smirk.

“The car accident,” Lucifer guessed.

“You made a deal with Dad. Time to pay up,” Uriel said with a note of finality. “Bring Mom to me or I’ll take back what Dad gave you.”

Lucifer took a moment to consider the matter. Since his friendship with Ms. Lopez began, he had been getting a much clearer picture of his relationship with Chloe, as seen through the eyes of an outside observer, and he wasn’t sure that he liked what he saw. More importantly, his not caring would at least remove the power that Uriel thought he held. “Go ahead then,” Lucifer shrugged uncaringly. He wouldn’t let her be killed if he could help it. She was still his partner, after all. He had a feeling that Uriel was bluffing though.

“Really?” Uriel scoffed. “After you begged so much to protect her, you’re just willing to let her die? You really expect me to believe that?”

Lucifer thought quickly and came up with an excuse that would at least hold water on the surface. “I was already dying and I knew Dad wouldn’t exactly lift a finger to save me. You realize that if she had died too, there would have been a small child trapped alone with a murderous madman?”

“So you begged for her life to save a child?” Uriel asked skeptically. After a moment of studying his brother he realized that he may just be telling the truth which gave him a new angle of attack. “Perhaps I should take the child’s life instead then. Perhaps an explosion while it’s at school. Take out plenty of them along with it.”

“You wouldn’t dare?!” Lucifer’s eyes flashed red as he took a step forward, getting a flash of satisfaction when Uriel stepped back worriedly.

“Wouldn’t I?” Uriel asked with a forced smirk. “Twenty-four hours, brother.”

Before Lucifer could respond, Uriel was gone and Lucifer was cursing. In his attempt to save the detective he’d just put her child in the line of fire. And not just her child. Many children. Could he really give up his mother though? Did he have a choice?

Of course his mother just had to tug on his heartstrings just the right way that he was doubting which choice was really the right one. Of course, he let them think that it was still her or the detective. He still didn’t trust her or Amenadiel further than he could throw them and the less insight they got into his life the better. Letting them think that he didn’t care as much about the detective would lead to questions as to why which would lead them to Ella Lopez and he very much wanted to keep her out of their games. It was too late for the detective, but not for her.

When his mother showed up just before the deadline offering to go back to hell, he didn’t believe her for a moment and he was proven right when she smirked and praised him for wanting to fight. If it came down to it, he would take her. He wasn’t going to let hundreds of little children die. But he could at least try to reason with Uriel first. He told his mother to stay put, hoping she listened. He didn’t really want to have to go looking for her if it came to that.

As soon as Uriel pulled out Azrael’s blade the game changed though. Handing over his mother to be sent back to hell was one thing. Handing her over to have her soul completely destroyed was completely different. At least the children’s souls would be safe in heaven, not that he could let that happen either. Talking him down suddenly became much more important. “Amenadiel’s falling, you know,” Lucifer told him. “He’s falling because he inadvertently caused the death of a few humans. You’re really going to kill hundreds of them? Children at that? What do you think Dad will do to you for that hmm?”

“He’ll understand that I’m doing what’s necessary,” Uriel said with conviction.

“Maybe you’re right. I mean, you are his favorite son. No wait…that was me before he sent me down to hell. Then it was Amenadiel, but now he’s falling. But no. You must be right. I mean, you can see the patterns and all,” Lucifer taunted him. Trying to get him to think. When Uriel still refused to listen to reason, he did the only thing he could do. He attacked. Maybe he could beat him into submission.

Unfortunately for everyone, it didn’t work out that way. Lucifer was beaten, and then so was Maze. “Because you made it so difficult, brother, I’m going to take out Mom /and/ the children. You can’t stop me, brother.”

Lucifer just reacted. He grabbed the first thing nearby and dragged himself painfully to his feet, lunging at Uriel. It wasn’t until Azrael’s blade went through his brother’s body like butter that it dawned on him what he’d done. “I didn’t see that coming,” Uriel quipped as he started to fall and Lucifer slowly lowered him to the ground in shock. He barely heard what Uriel whispered just as he died and didn’t understand it anyway.

“Prick got what he deserved,” Maze said in irritation.

“He was my brother,” Lucifer said hauntedly as he felt the debilitating guilt washing over him. He pulled his hand away from the blade and the sight of the blood on it just made it worse as he couldn’t help the sob that pulled from him. “What have I done?” he muttered brokenly. He couldn’t even spare a moment to consider the fact that he was falling apart in front of Maze. The one person who would least understand. When he heard her leave he didn’t even care. He had no idea how long he knelt there next to his brother’s body before he managed to pick himself up and head home.

He wasn’t sure if being in his mother’s arms when he got there helped or made it worse, but he was beyond caring and just went along with it. When he got the text the next morning with their newest crime scene, he considered not going, but that would just give him more to be guilty about so he went, despite the fact that he felt like hell, hadn’t slept, and was as close to drunk as he could manage to get.

The case was hell and he couldn’t even get the sniper to shoot him properly. He really didn’t need the detective’s attitude right now, but she basically threatened to have him fired if he didn’t talk to someone, he didn’t really have much of a choice, so he went to see his therapist. That was a really bad idea because in an attempt to get her to actually understand, he had shown her his true face and broken her. She was terrified of him now and he couldn’t even blame her. He didn’t have the strength to defend himself anymore. He couldn’t protest that he wasn’t evil and he didn’t hurt people. He’d killed his own brother for crying out loud. Worse than killed him, even. Destroyed his entire soul. There was no coming back from that. Maybe he really should just go back to hell. At least there he couldn’t do as much damage to people who didn’t deserve it.

Chapter Text

When Ella heard what had happened and how Decker had all but kicked Lucifer to the curb, she was worried about him. Knowing the situation, part of her couldn’t blame the detective, but she could have at least tried to be a little more understanding. Then again, she wasn’t there. Maybe she had tried to be understanding. But to kick him while he was down like that, no matter the reason, was just wrong. She finished up her work for the day and headed to Lux. When she didn’t see him downstairs she was now very worried. She wasn’t so sure about heading up to the penthouse, but her concern for him allowed her to push away her doubts and she headed up.

Ella heard the music before she stepped out of the elevator and she could almost feel his pain in it. She walked around the side of the piano to his line of sight, only to see that his eyes were closed so he still couldn’t see her. That gave her a moment to take in his state and her anxiety grew. He looked like hell. His hair was mussed, his shirt was half open and wrinkled, the smell of booze and smoke permeated the place and unless he hadn’t emptied the ashtray in a week, he’d been smoking quite a bit and she didn’t even want to think about how much he’d been drinking. The most telling though was the teartracks on his even more pale than usual cheeks.

She stepped back over to his side and put a hand on his shoulder, causing him to end his rendition of The Unforgiven on a harsh note as he turned to look at her. He sighed and grabbed his cigarette from the ashtray and his drink from beside it and got up. “I’m not really up for company at the moment, Ms. Lopez,” he said hoarsely as he headed over to the couch.

“That doesn’t mean you don’t need a friend,” she said gently, following him. There were some times you just needed to push through and she hoped she was doing the right thing.

Lucifer let out a harsh deprecating laugh. “Friend. The devil doesn’t have friends, Ms. Lopez.”

Ella pushed away the hurt form that comment, reminding herself that he had called her a friend before. More than once. This was just his pain talking. “I’m your friend, Lucifer,” she said sincerely, sitting beside him and tucking her leg under her so she could face him.

“You might want to rethink that,” he said bitterly. “I tend to destroy people who get too close to me.”

“I don’t care,” she said, reaching out to put a hand on his arm. “I’m here, Lucifer, and I’m not going anywhere. Talk to me.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said hauntedly.

“Try me,” she told him. He sighed and launched into a story about angels and souls escaping from hell and swords that wipe people from existence and she got up and moved to sit on the table in front of him before she stopped him. “Try again without all the metaphors and character stuff? Please?” she asked hopefully.

He scoffed. “I told you that you wouldn’t understand.”

“Then /help/ me understand,” she coaxed.

“The last time I did that, I broke my therapist,” he said unhappily. “I don’t want to break you too.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Dude, I grew up on the streets of Detroit. I’m not as fragile as you think. Just give me a chance.”

Lucifer didn’t know if he could do this again. If he could face another rejection. She obviously wasn’t going to let this go though. At the very least it would be the final nail in the coffin that sent him back to hell and maybe having a decision would be better than this waffling he’d been doing half the day. “Fine. If you insist. But remember that I warned you.” He gave her a moment to change her mind before he let his outer face fade, showing what was underneath. He heard her sharp intake of breath and looked up to see the fear in her frozen expression. He sighed sadly, willing the tears not to fall again as his face went back to normal as he got up and headed out to the balcony to say goodbye to the city in his own way.

He had been standing there for a few moments when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t move. Even if she did intend to hurt him, she couldn’t do anything to make him feel worse than he did right now, and at best she could help him get back to hell without having to worry about dealing with his brother or finding Chloe to help him die.

It took Ella a few minutes to regain her equilibrium at the revelation before she realized that he had moved. She looked around and saw him outside leaning on the rail of the balcony. His entire posture screamed agony and defeat and even if she had been tempted to run, she couldn’t have. She got up and headed outside, leaning on the railing next to him. “So you really are the devil, huh,” she said conversationally.

Lucifer turned to look at her completely baffled. “You’re still here,” he half-asked, half-said.

“Duh,” she told him, deciding to just play it off. “Devil or not, you’re still my friend.”

“But…” he trailed off, completely lost.

Ella smiled sadly up at him and reached out and took his arm. “Now, lets try this again now that I’m up to speed. Talk to me,” she said as she led the unprotesting devil back inside. She sat him down on the couch and sat down on the table facing him. “I only caught about half of what you said before, so start over.”

“How can you…just accept it…just like that…no questions or curiosities or…” Lucifer stammered, confusion pushing away the pain for the moment.

“Of course I have questions and curiosities,” she told him. “Like a thousand of them. But that’s for another time. Right now my friend is hurting and needs help, so my only current question is, what happened?”

Now more than ever Lucifer didn’t want to tell her anything. She actually accepted him as the devil which was beyond astounding, but that would quickly go away once she knew of his fratricide. He didn’t see much choice though, especially since she still had a lot of the story already that she would be able to put back together in her head soon enough. He started over with the kidnapping of the detective’s offspring, his death, his bargain, his mother escaping hell, him not wanting to send her back, Uriel’s arrival, his threats, the real ones this time, the decision he’d made, changing his mind when the sword came into play, trying to talk him down, the fight, Uriel’s decision to kill them all, and finally, his greatest crime. By the end he was leaned over with his head in his hands and tears streaming down his cheeks.

Ella definitely had trouble wrapping her mind around a lot of the details, but she got the important parts. Lucifer had destroyed his brother’s soul to save his mother from the same fate as well as the lives of hundreds of kids. She couldn’t imagine being put in that position. Having to make that kind of choice. Her heart broke for him as she realized one thing about the devil. People could say what they wanted, but anyone who could feel remorse and grief like this could never be evil.

Ella reached out and gently untangled his hands from his hair and took them in hers. “I can’t imagine how much you must be hurting right now, Lucifer, and I know this won’t help much, but you did the right thing,” she said gently. “You did the only thing you could do.”

“I destroyed my own brother, Ella,” he said plaintively, not even noticing that he used her first name for the first time. “My brother,” he choked a sob. “Th-there’s no coming back from that. There…there’s no excuse for it. He was my brother.”

Ella slid forward so that she was on her knees between his and moved her own hands up to his hair, trying to get him to look up at her. “You saved your mother,” she said firmly. “You saved hundreds of kids.”

“It’s not a balance sheet,” Lucifer snapped, getting up and brushing his tears away angrily as he started to pace. “You can’t just tally up totals and say this or that and call it a day. There was another way. There had to have been. I should have tried harder. I should have been smarter. If I hadn’t been as confrontational maybe I could have talked him around. If I hadn’t been /me/…no one should have had to die…”

Ella stopped his pacing by grabbing him in a hug. She didn’t know if it was what he needed right now, but it might help him and it would definitely help her. “You are who you are, Lucifer. You can’t be something else, and I’m glad, because you’re pretty awesome. It was his choice to put you in that impossible position. Not yours. You did the best you could. You’re right that it’s not a balance sheet and no one should have had to die, but it wasn’t you who made that choice.”

Lucifer stood there as she hugged him, not returning it, but not pushing her away either. “I made the choice that it was him that should do the dying.”

“Because it was the only way to stop others from dying,” she told him. “We deal with murderers every day, but you have to see that you’re not like them, Lucifer. You didn’t kill him just because you could, or for a petty grievance. You killed him to save lives. The same way cops kill people when they have to.”

“But he was my brother,” Lucifer said with sorrow as he pulled away from her and walked out the balcony door next to them, returning to his position at the railing.

Ella leaned next to him again. “And that sucks. And it hurts. It always will, and I wish I could take that away, but I can’t. What I can do is help you see that you’re not the bad guy here. It’s not your fault. Be sad. Mourn him. But don’t let the guilt tear you apart because you don’t deserve that.”

“You don’t know what I deserve, Ms. Lopez,” he said haunted, not wanting to admit that her words were helping. Not a lot, but some. “I’m the devil, remember.”

“Yeah. I got the memo,” she huffed a laugh. “But it doesn’t matter. No matter what you’ve done in the past, the person you are now doesn’t deserve this.”

Lucifer scoffed, but didn’t know what else to say so he just stood there looking over the city. Ella stood next to him for a long while, hoping that she’d managed to help, at least a little bit and just supporting him with her presence. After a while though, her phone beeped and she looked at it and sighed. Apparently it was going to be one of those nights. “I need to go. I just got some rather surprising test results for one of the cases I’m working on and I need to double check them and let people know…”

“Go on, Ms. Lopez. I promise I’m not tempted to jump,” he joked tightly. Not that it would do any good if he did.

“Okay. Just…be okay,” she said half in question and half as an almost mantra. She leaned over and kissed his cheek before turning and rushing out.

Chapter Text

Lucifer stood there for hours, unable to grasp any one of the thoughts scrambling through his mind. The pain and guilt was still coursing through him, but more muted as he tried to figure out Ella Lopez. She knew what he was and she didn’t flinch. Well, she did, but she recovered quickly and most importantly, she still wanted to be his friend. She still wanted to know him. How? Why? It didn’t make any sense. Especially given her professed faith. She should hate him. If being the devil wasn’t bad enough, he had admitted to fratricide. One of the worst sins imaginable. And she still stood here and told him it was okay. Then she…she kissed him. And not in a way he was comfortable being kissed. That wasn’t the kind of kiss that said she wanted his body. Those were the only kind of kisses that he’d ever experienced.

He really wished that Doctor Linda wasn’t broken. He could use some guidance in the whole humanity thing right now. He didn’t know what any of this meant or how he felt about it. He knew that Ms. Lopez didn’t want to sleep with him, but she did like him. Even after finding out what he was. It didn’t make sense. If you liked someone you wanted to sleep with them didn’t you? Unless they were family of course. That was different. But they weren’t family. It wasn’t like with the detective where she barely tolerated him most of the time. Sure they had their moments when they were almost friends, but most of the time he irritated her so he knew why she didn’t want to sleep with him.

Even more confusing for him was the fact that he didn’t really want to sleep with Ms. Lopez either. Not that he would turn it down if it was offered, but it wasn’t a priority for him despite how much he liked her. He was used to humans not making sense to him, but not making sense to himself was a different story. It made him feel out of control and he hated that. That was why he’d started seeing the doctor in the first place but now she was unavailable so he had to try to deal with it on his own. He had no idea where to begin though, and it didn’t help that his grief and guilt were still attempting to overwhelm him. He was no closer to any answers by the time he went inside to sleep four hours later.

The next morning he had decided to take the detective’s advice and take a little time away. He texted her to let her know and spent most of the day lost in music and alcohol with a good dose of drugs thrown in. He made a token appearance downstairs a few hours after the club opened but only stayed for about two hours before he was back upstairs. He was playing around on the piano a little while later when Ella slid onto the bench next to him. “How are you feeling?” she asked. “I didn’t see you at the station today.”

“I have decided to follow the detective’s advice and take some time off,” he told her, declining to answer her first question.

“That makes sense. You need time to heal, but you also don’t need to dwell on things either,” she told him.

Lucifer snorted in almost amusement. “You do realize how contradictory that is don’t you?”

Ella smiled sheepishly. “Yeah. I guess it kinda is in a way.” There was a difference, but she didn’t expect he would understand it even if she found the words to explain. “Just…know if you need a friend, someone to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, whatever…I’m here. I heard you got a phone now, so if you don’t have my number already I’ll put it in for you.” Lucifer shrugged and handed her his phone which she was surprised to see was unlocked. On second thought, it didn’t surprise her at all. He didn’t even keep his home or his business locked. Why would he bother with his phone? Ella put in her number and sent a test text to her phone so she would have his too before handing it back to him. “There. And I expect you to use it,” she told him mock-sternly.

Lucifer chuckled and nodded before feeling the need to change the subject. “Would you like to play?” he asked gesturing to the piano.

“Oh, no,” she said shaking her head. “I don’t play.”

“Come now, Ms. Lopez. Surely you know something,” he told her. Even if it was something like happy birthday or twinkle twinkle little star, she had to be able to play a little bit.

“Well…there is this,” she said with a blush as she started to play the top line of the Imperial March.

Lucifer barked a laugh and said, “Okay. I can work with that.” He started to add the bass line with one hand and mix in some other fitting Star Wars melodies that meshed well with the other hand.

Ella grinned and kept playing for a while. He made her sound good. Not to mention the fact that he was smiling. He seemed lighter somehow just by having someone to share this with. She suddenly wished she could play more. Unfortunately, it couldn’t go on forever. If nothing else, her hand was getting tired, so eventually she stopped so he did too. “You want to talk?” she asked when the silence hit harder than usual.

“Not really,” he admitted. “I’d rather just think about something else for a while.”

“Do you maybe feel up to answering some questions about the whole…devil thing?” she asked hopefully. She’d been containing them while he needed her, but if he wanted a distraction, maybe that could provide.

“I’d be happy to,” he told her, moving towards the couch as she followed him. “Ask away.”

“Well you mentioned when we first met that you didn’t create hell, you just worked there. What did you do there?”

“It’s likely far more boring than you anticipate,” he said with a chuckle.

“That’s okay. I’m sure I can take it,” she joked.

“Mostly I just keep the demons corralled and sort the incoming souls,” he told her.

“So you don’t do any torturing of the souls yourself?” she asked non-judgementally.

“Not exactly. Sometimes sheer boredom will have me watch and occasionally participate with the worst of the worst, but most of the souls torture themselves just fine without anyone else’s involvement. You see, once they come into hell, they are trapped within their worst guilt or fears that replay over and over in a loop.”

“So the only torture in hell is of their own making?” she asked in surprise.

“For most of them, yes. But if I don’t allow demons some latitude they will rebel, which is where the sorting comes in. The absolute worst souls are moved to a section of hell where the demons have free rein to play as they wish.”

“So demons are evil then, like they say?” Ella asked curiously.

“I suppose that would depend on your definition of evil,” Lucifer said thoughtfully, looking at her for an answer.

“I guess I would define evil as someone who hurts others, innocent or not, intentionally, repeatedly, and without remorse,” she said after a moment’s thought.

“Then by that definition, yes. They are evil. You see, demons don’t have souls like the rest of us. They don’t have the ability to comprehend complex emotions. They only have their base desires. Pleasure, pain, cruelty, anger…”

“But if they can feel anger then couldn’t they feel joy too?” she asked in confusion.

“There is no joy in hell, Ms. Lopez,” he pointed out.

“Right. Of course,” she said sheepishly. “But theoretically?”

“Theoretically yes. They could learn to develop more emotions. In fact, I’ve seen it happen, but then Maze may just be special that way.”

“Maze as in the new bounty hunter? She’s a demon?” Ella asked with wide eyes.

“Yes. I brought her with me from hell because she was my most trusted. She was my right hand, my bodyguard, my personal assassin, my assistant, everything. There was an incident a few months ago though that had her quit my service and strike out on her own.”

“What happened?” she asked gently, seeing that it seemed to hurt him if the look in his eyes was anything to go by.

“I hadn’t realized how much she’d changed,” he admitted. “I was having issues with another brother who kept trying to send me back to hell, even sending human assassins after me. When she started sleeping with him, I used her to try and get him to leave me alone. I hadn’t even noticed that she had been starting to develop feelings at all, much less for him. When things came to a head, I pushed the matter and she pushed back.”

“If you had realized that she had feelings for him, would you have handled it differently?” Ella asked.

“Of course I would have,” he said, offended. “I would have found another way if for no other reason than to prevent her turning on me. I know more than most how emotions can make people less than reasonable. You have to understand though, what I asked of her was nothing less than I’d asked a hundred times in a hundred different situations. She existed to serve me.”

“How did you take it when she set out on her own?” Ella asked, trying to piece together as much of who he was as possible.

“How could I take it? I let her go. I may have been her king in hell, but even then I only forced my will when it was necessary. I’m not her king up here and if she wants to make a life of her own out of my shadow, then I wish her the best. And she knows that if she ever needs anything I’ll be there just as she’s been there for me for millennia.”

Ella nodded and smiled. She’d been right in her split-second decision last night. He was a good man. He was different, sure, but then he wasn’t human either. It was to be expected. His heart was in the right place and that’s what mattered. “But you’re sure she’s safe around humans?” she asked only a little worried. Surely he had considered that.

“Before we left, she had orders on how to conduct herself with humans. She won’t be the best at relating to them, and I can’t promise she won’t be a little rough, but she won’t needlessly torture anyone and she can’t kill anyone without explicit permission, so she’s as safe as she can be.”

“Then that’s all that matters,” Ella said, deciding that she wanted to get to know this Maze. She sounded interesting and could probably help her understand a lot more about both demons and their king. She continued asking questions for a few more hours and he continued answering them, but once she started yawning, she headed home.

Chapter Text

Lucifer was back to work a few days later and much more settled. His first day back was accompanied by coffee and pastries for everyone, but unfortunately, thing just went downhill from there. There was something bothering the detective and when he tried to help he was just brushed off. That didn’t bother him overly much. Not until she said, “There’s no way you can help me right now. You’re just…you’re too /you/.”

“Oh. Yes. You’re right detective. Being me does seem to be a problem doesn’t it. Everywhere I go someone gets hurt…”

Ella happened to be coming around the corner in time to hear that and she’d had enough. “Come on, Lucifer,” she said, grabbing his arm. “You can help me instead. I don’t mind you being you.”

Lucifer couldn’t help the little twitch of his lips at that, despite how much he was hurting as he followed Ella up to her lab. “What do you need me to do?” he asked curiously.

“Um…” Ella tried to think. She didn’t really have anything, but she knew he wanted to feel useful. “Maybe you could start cleaning some of those test tubes?” she suggested. Lucifer laughed. It was completely obvious that she just wanted to save him from an awkward situation, but he nodded and did as she asked anyway. “Sorry for dragging you away like that,” she said after a minute. “I just hate when she treats you that way. You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to.”

Lucifer smiled. “It’s fine. I don’t mind,” he told her. “Doing this or that you dragged me away,” he chuckled.

It wasn’t long after that when they got a case, and Lucifer headed to the scene. Whether she wanted his help with whatever she was going through or not, he was still her partner. When he realized how messed up this situation was, he started to understand what she was so bent out of shape about. Even Ella was sympathetic to her plight. Lucifer was even willing to work with detective douche on this one when she had to take herself off the case.

Chloe just had to rub salt in the wound though. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for Lucifer to a part of this case,” she said seriously.

Lucifer set his jaw and nodded tensely. “I agree. The last thing this case needs is a loose cannon. I’ll just see myself out of it then,” he said not covering up his hurt nearly as well as usual.

Ella glared at Chloe before rushing after him. “Lucifer, wait.”

“Yes, Ms. Lopez?” he asked evenly.

“I…I don’t know how to fix this, but you know not everyone thinks that way right? If I were her I would be glad to have your help with this.”

Lucifer’s lips twitched in almost a smile. “I’ll be fine, Ms. Lopez. I appreciate your concern, but you should get back to work before you find yourself in trouble.”

She nodded sadly, and headed back. Unfortunately for Chloe, she made the mistake of saying, “You don’t have to coddle him, you know. He’s a big boy and can stand up for himself if he has a problem.”

“You know, I’ve been biting my tongue for months now, but this is the last straw. You can’t just treat him like child and put him down non-stop. He is an adult with his own mind and has feelings that you just see fit to stomp on constantly. So what if he doesn’t fit your idea of the perfect detective? He’s obviously good at the job or he wouldn’t have had it for so long.”

Chloe scoffed. “Look, I get that you’re new and you don’t get it…”

“No. I don’t get it. And I never will. And maybe I’m the only one, but…”

“You’re not,” one of the other officers nearby told her.

“What?” Chloe turned to look at him with a hurt look.

“You were on the verge of being fired or at least suspended when Lucifer came around and your solve rate when through the roof. So he has a different process. It doesn’t make him wrong. There’s a reason no one would partner with you, Decker.”

“Hey, easy Pete,” Dan said in warning stepping between them.

“I was proven right about Palmetto,” she snapped.

“That just makes it even worse. You act like you’re the first last and only authority on how to be a detective and badger everyone else into doing things your way or treat them like idiots. It’s about time someone stood up to you,” Pete said with a nod of solidarity to Ella who smiled back at him.

“Okay, I think we all need to take a breather and just focus on the case,” Dan said, trying to defuse the situation. “Chlo, we got this and we don’t want any trouble if you’re any more involved than you already are.” She nodded and with a last glare to both Ella and Pete, stormed off. That settled, Dan turned to Ella. “And how dare you start something like this when she’s already dealing with so much.”

“And how dare she keep treating Lucifer like trash when he’s dealing with so much,” she snapped before taking her kit and getting back to work signaling the end of the conversation. She just hoped she wasn’t going to get fired over this. Decker was the boss’ favorite detective, even if they were apparently the only ones who thought that way.

When they got back to the station, Lucifer was wandering around and mingling/flirting with people. Ella was glad to see that he was feeling a little better, but the look on Decker’s face said she just wanted to rip everyone’s heads off. Once Lucifer saw that she was back, he headed up. “I do intend to help with the case, even if no one wants me to. Spending time up here is the best way to keep up to date. Assuming you don’t mind the company,” Lucifer told her.

“Not at all,” she said with a grin. “And if you need someone to bounce ideas off of, feel free.” When they found out that the death of the detective’s father was a hit, that gave Lucifer a dozen different directions for his ideas to go. He resisted the urge to smirk when detective douche needed his help to get close to Yuri after all. Lucifer didn’t even hesitate to talk about how much he wanted to put a hit out on himself, not that Yuri knew he was talking about himself of course. He was a bit taken aback when Yuri said that he could see how much Lucifer despised himself. It got him in the interrogation room though and that’s what mattered.

Later that night, Lucifer followed Dan to find out what he was hiding. When he walked in on an improv group and saw the caricature of himself, he just set his jaw, turned, and walked out. He was /sick/ of trying to defend himself to people who never cared what he said anyway.

It wasn’t until the next day that Ella found out about the episode with Yuri from Dan of all people. Lucifer was out trying to get some more information and Dan checked in on Ella. “Hey, I heard you got Yuri. Nice one.”

“Yeah, I hate to say it, but Lucifer killed it. Actually managed to convince the ‘human lie detector’ that he hated Lucifer Morningstar enough to want him dead,” Dan laughed.

“He what?” Ella asked worriedly.

“It was just an act. Don’t look so worried,” Dan assured her.

“I doubt that,” Ella muttered.

Dan narrowed his eyes in thought. “You mentioned something about him going through something. What’s up?”

Ella scoffed. “Like I would break his confidence like that. What I will tell you is that it makes Decker’s situation with her dad look like child’s play.”

Dan now looked worried himself, but knew that there wasn’t anything he could do about it. “Then it’s a good thing he’s got a friend on his side,” was all he said as he headed out. Ella grumbled under her breath as she got back to work.

It wasn’t until the end of the week that the case was solved and it was an idea from Lucifer that solved it. He pointed out that the victim smiling at the detective made no sense which was all it took to get them to dig deeper and find the trail of the real killer. He was already on the run though, but thanks to Maze he didn’t get far.

When Lucifer got home that night he was emotionally exhausted, but it seemed that being alone wasn’t going to happen as Ella arrived after he’d been home for about ten minutes. She came over and sat next to him on the couch. “I hear that you hate yourself enough to want to have yourself killed,” she said conversationally, hoping that it would make Lucifer more open to talking.

“It was an act,” he told her.

“That doesn’t mean it’s not true,” she pointed out.

“What if it is?” he sighed, not wanting to argue. “It’s not as if I’m the only one. There’s a very /very/ long list of people that can claim the same thing, starting with my father.”

“That doesn’t make them right,” Ella said seriously. “And it doesn’t make you right either. You’re a good person, Lucifer.”

“And yet, everywhere I go I leave a wake of destruction in my path,” he sighed, remembering what Maze had said earlier. “I broke my therapist and she won’t even take my calls any more much less see me for a session. I lost Maze her best friend in the process.”

“You mentioned something before about your therapist. What happened there?” Ella asked curiously.

“Lets just say that she didn’t take my revelation quite as well as you did,” Lucifer said despondently.

“So you showed her your face and she panicked?” Ella guessed and Lucifer nodded. “Then I guess she doesn’t know you as well as you thought.”

“Or you don’t know me as well as you think,” he countered.

Ella huffed. “I’ll have you know that I am an excellent judge of character, thank you very much.”

“I think your radar might be faulty then,” Lucifer muttered. Or she just fell for the same thing everyone else did. The pretty face and the charming attitude, ignoring everything that lied beneath. That thought hurt even worse though, so he put it out of his mind.

“One of these days I’ll convince you, Lucifer,” she said with a note of finality.

Lucifer snorted derisively. “I thought my father was the one who specialized in miracles.”

Chapter Text

Ella stayed late that night, trying to cheer him up and mostly succeeded. She was rather good at that he thought, not that he knew how she managed. Lucifer spent the weekend catching up on work for Lux. It had been a very long week. Work at the precinct was slow the following week, and Lucifer didn’t end up spending much time there at all. A couple open and shut cases and he was home. He did hear from Doctor Linda on Thursday and went back to his normal Friday session the next day. Unfortunately she wasn’t very useful.

He was explaining what happened the night he revealed himself to Ella, hoping to figure out what that kiss on the cheek had meant before she left. “So she’s on her way out and just tells me to be okay and then leans over and kisses my cheek,” he said confused. When she didn’t answer and just kept staring at him, he tried to prompt her. “I believe this is the part where you tell me that it’s much more than just a kiss…perhaps…it’s a gesture of trust…or was it a distrustful kiss…” He was still getting nothing. “Doctor, please. What message is she sending me?”

“What about Hitler?” Linda asked thoughtfully.

“You think she’s kissing Hitler?” Lucifer asked in befuddlement. When the conversation just devolved from there Lucifer sighed and resolved himself to working things out alone.

He was rather dejected when he stopped by the precinct to see if there was anything he could do to keep his mind off of things. There wasn’t, much to his irritation, but he did stop by and say hello to Ella while he was there. Of course, she spotted something wrong a mile away. “What’s wrong?” she asked in concern.

“I just left my therapist’s office,” Lucifer said disgruntled.

“She’s still freaked?” Ella asked sympathetically.

“She’s not quite as broken, but now she’s somewhere to the left of completely useless and to the right of babbling lunatic.”

Ella couldn’t help but chuckle. “At least it’s progress?” she suggested.

“There is that,” Lucifer huffed a laugh before making his excuses to head home. He spent most of the weekend wrapped up in the club the fun way since the slow week meant that he was all caught up otherwise. Ella joined him for a few hours on Saturday night, as she tended to do often, but that was the only overlap between his two lives, or really more like three if one counted the whole celestial aspect.

Monday morning the overlap returned though when he realized that Azrael’s blade was out there in the world in the hands of humans. That was very very bad. He immediately went to check Uriel’s grave, dragging Amenadiel and Maze along with him to find exactly what he suspected. It had been dug up and the blade was gone. After an argument, he got Amenadiel and Maze to help him and they took Uriel’s body to hide it even better and Lucifer went to get some help from the best person he could think of for the job.

He walked into Ella’s lab and looked around for a moment to make sure they were alone and not about to be interrupted. “I need a favor.”

“/You/ need a favor?” she asked in surprise. He wasn’t usually one to ask for help from anyone.

“Yes. Your scientific expertise on a discrete matter,” he explained.

“Ah. Paternity test?” she mostly joked.

“What?” Lucifer asked affronted. “Do I look like someone who would be so irresponsible?”

Ella laughed at the look on his face. “Geez Lu. I was just kidding.”

Lucifer froze. “What did you call me?”

“Oh. Sorry,” she blushed. “I tend to do that, I don’t have to though…”

“No, it’s fine. I just…haven’t been called that particular name in a…a very long time,” he said with a hint of nostalgia in his voice. At her questioning look he explained, “One of my sisters. She used to call me that often before…you know.”

Ella smiled sadly at him, and did him the favor of changing the subject. She would try to get more out of him on that, but work wasn’t the time. “You mentioned a favor?” she prompted.

“Right. Yes. If you do this favor for me, then I will owe you one in return,” he started to bargain.

Ella sighed and shook her head. “Lucifer, the whole point of a favor is to do it for free, okay? And then you just trust that the love will come back to you somehow. Favors are about faith.” She knew that was something that the devil would struggle with, but she wanted him to know that he could have faith in her if nothing else.

“Ugh please don’t ruin favors for me,” he said plaintively. “Look, come on, I insist. Tit for tat.”

“Fine,” Ella said in defeat. “Well there is something I would like…” she trailed of for a moment thinking it through. If he hadn’t been the devil she would have invited him to church. He was clearly searching for acceptance and for anyone else that would be the place to find it. He would probably find the opposite there though, so there was only one other thing she could think of. “I want you to introduce me to your therapist.” She had no intention of trying to break confidentiality, but if she could clue the therapist in about the problems at least it might help. Pool their resources as it were.

“You want a consult?” he asked incredulously.

She scrambled to think of an excuse that was true enough but didn’t let him know the real reasons. She had long ago decided that if he wasn’t going to lie to her then she would never lie to him. That didn’t mean that she couldn’t be as sneaky as he was about it though. “As the only other person who knows the truth it would be nice to have someone to talk to about all the devil stuff. And maybe I could help her get past it and ‘unbroken’ faster,” she chuckled.

Lucifer shrugged. “Very well, but I would have been happy to do that without a favor, so if you want to ask for something else…”

“Nope. That’s the favor I want,” she said firmly.

Lucifer took her out to the gravesite and Ella looked at it with a raised eyebrow. “Does your favor involve killing me?” she joked and the yelped in surprise as Lucifer pretended to push her in the hole.

Lucifer laughed and said, “I’m just kidding. I need you to do your forensic whatnots and work out what disturbed this area.”

“Um…you mean this empty grave?” she asked incredulously.

“Look you said that favors were about faith right? Well I’m asking you to have faith in me. Know that I wouldn’t ask anything untoward of you,” Lucifer said sincerely.

Ella got the feeling that his statement was about more than just this empty grave…her thoughts trailed off as she realized what this was. “Is this where…your brother…um…”

Lucifer sighed. “Yes. And someone’s dug it up and taken Azrael’s blade and it’s now in the hands of humans wreaking havoc.”

Ella took a deep breath. “Right. And I’m guessing that’s a bad thing.”

“It’s a very bad thing, Ms. Lopez. It’s the blade of death. It demands to be used. To fulfil it’s purpose. Humans are more malleable than celestial beings. It whispers in their ear, beckons them. It takes any reason one person may want to harm another and amplifies it a hundredfold,” he explained.

“So something like cutting someone off in traffic could get you stabbed nineteen times,” Ella said making the connection between this and their current case.

“Precisely. Which is why I have to find the blade before it can fall into the hands of any more humans,” Lucifer told her.

“Right. I’m on it,” she said pulling out her kit and getting to work.

Lucifer left her to it and headed out to help the detective with the actual case. Any lead could help. When they got back from interviewing people, he saw that Ella was back up in the lab so he went up to check on her progress. “Glad to see you’re hard at work,” he teased when he saw her dancing around.

“You know, studies show that the brain does some of it’s best work when it’s not trying. That’s why great ideas come in the shower,” she quipped.

“For me it’s usually women,” Lucifer chuckled.

Ella laughed. “That explains so much.” She shook her head and waved him over. “Here’s what I got.”

Once Lucifer saw the logo on the rehydrated paper, he cursed. “Bloody hell. Mum,” he said before heading out the door almost faster than she could see. She wondered what his mother had to do with this. All she really knew about her was that she was manipulative and that Lucifer wanted her as far away from the woman as possible, which was also why she hadn’t met his brother yet either. They were apparently too close for Lucifer’s comfort.

Ella realized just how serious this blade thing was as she figured out what happened in the massacre at the yoga studio. This was one seriously pissed off sword. She had been nervous when Decker almost caught them in his penthouse going over some information she found. She knew the detective got the wrong idea, but she didn’t really care. As long as she didn’t figure out what they were really doing. That would get her fired for sure. It seemed that Lucifer hadn’t been kidding about everyone being free to just come and go as they pleased.

Ella was glad when they got the sword and Lucifer took off with it. Yes, it was technically stealing evidence, but sometimes things were necessary. She knew that most people would be more nervous with the blade of death in the hands of the devil, but she knew that was the safest place for it. Especially after his state of mind the one time he actually used it.

Chapter Text

The next day, Lucifer made good on his end of the bargain and introduced Ella to Linda and then was shooed away so they could talk. He just laughed and left them to it as he headed home, ignoring the pang of hurt at being dismissed like that. He knew it was just because they intended to talk about him though, so it didn’t bother him as much as it would have otherwise. He trusted Ella as much as he trusted anyone after all.

“I have to admit that I’m curious. Why did you want to meet me?” Linda asked Ella.

“A few reasons,” she shrugged. “First, Lucifer mentioned that you were rather rocked by the whole devil reveal so I thought maybe having someone else to talk to about all that might help.”

Linda nodded gratefully. That would definitely help. It would be skirting some lines, but Lucifer had waived confidentiality so she didn’t have to worry about getting in trouble for it, though quieting her conscience would be more difficult. She desperately needed someone to talk to about it. “How long have you known?” Linda couldn’t help but ask.

“I’m pretty sure I found out right after you did,” Ella told her.

“And…you took it well?” she asked confused. Ella did seem rather put together over it while she was still reeling.

Ella shrugged. “It knocked me for a loop, that’s for sure, but Lucifer was a mess and he needed a friend, so I managed to put it out of my mind so I could help him. Once you’ve had the devil crying on your shoulder and borderline suicidal it’s kinda hard to see him as scary anymore,” she chuckled tightly. She wasn’t trying to make the therapist feel guilty at all. She knew it would probably happen, but she needed her to understand Lucifer’s state of mind so she could help him. That was the purpose of this.

Linda winced. That had been the hardest part of this. Since she realized that Lucifer was still Lucifer anyway. Knowing that she’d failed at her job. He had come to her because he was tearing himself apart with guilt and completely opened up to her at her own insistence, and she had shut down and left him alone. “I’m sorry,” she said sadly.

Ella reached out and put a hand on hers. “I didn’t tell you that to make you feel bad, Linda. I promise I didn’t. I just need you to understand what he’s going through so you can help him. No one blames you for freaking out. Least of all him. But I can be a support system for you and help you deal with it so you can help him better.”

“You care about him a lot don’t you?” Linda asked knowingly.

Ella shrugged sheepishly. “He’s my friend, and he gets treated badly a lot by people who should care.”

“Like who?” Linda asked. He hadn’t mentioned anything like that.

“Decker in particular,” Ella said with irritation.

“Chloe? How does she treat him badly?” Linda asked in surprise.

“She’s contantly telling him off for every little thing he does. He’s just being himself and that’s not good enough for her. She wants him to sit down, be still, and be quiet unless he has something relevant to say and that’s just not him. She constantly tells him to stop acting like a child and stop touching things. It’s like she doesn’t even realize that he needs to be doing something or his mind doesn’t focus. It really irritates me to see anyone treated like that, especially someone so nice.”

Linda blinked in shock, both at the accusations and at the vehemence that Ella spoke with. She hadn’t realized the situation was that bad. She knew that Chloe tended to complain about Lucifer the few times they’d gone out together, but this was something different. Of course, it could just be Ella’s perspective was skewed, but it deserved some looking into. “You said you wanted to meet me for multiple reasons. This is the other one isn’t it? So you can tell me what’s going on with him for me to help.”

Ella blushed. “Yeah. It is. I mean, I know it’s probably overstepping and maybe even a little weird, but I just know that he doesn’t complain about these things no matter how much they hurt him and I know he needs help but I don’t know how to help him other than just being there and trying to counteract as much of it as I can so…” Ella cut herself off when Linda laughed. “And I also have a tendency to babble,” Ella admitted self-consciously.

“It’s perfectly fine,” Linda assured her. “And it’s not for me to say anything about any boundaries between you and Lucifer. That’s for the two of you to define, and he’s a smart guy. I’m sure he’s figured out or at least suspects why you’re here so if he hasn’t said anything to you about it, then I certainly won’t. Just understand that I’m still subject to doctor/patient confidentiality.”

“Oh I know that. I’m not asking for any information or insight into him. I wouldn’t betray his trust like that or ask you to betray your oaths,” Ella promised.

Linda smiled and nodded. “Then I would be happy to consider you a friend.” She was surprised to get a hug in response, but not bothered by it. The two women sat and chatted for a good long while, a lot of it about the whole devil thing, but only a little about Lucifer as a person. Mostly it was just getting to know each other though. By the time Ella left, she felt that she’d made pretty good progress on her goal and got a new friend to boot.

A few days later, a fight with his mother led Lucifer to Linda’s door again and he spent the first while lamenting the fact that she and Amenadiel couldn’t see how great the city was. Linda quickly brought the conversation back around where it needed to be though. “Why did you recently decide Los Angeles was your home?”

“Well I said it when I was in a row with my mum. I didn’t realize how true it was until I yelled it in her face,” he said a little sheepishly.

“Yes. Your mother. The literal goddess of all creation. Still wrapping my brain around that one,” Linda said with a chuckle. She was getting better but she wasn’t quite there yet.

“Yes, well. Anyway. Her and Amenadiel want to get back to the silver city, but that’s not my home. It never was,” Lucifer tried to bring things back on track.

“And neither was hell,” Linda said knowingly.

“No. No, that was somewhere I was sent as a punishment. Like the DMV but less screaming,” he joked.

“So would you say that this is your first home?” she asked him.

“Yes, I suppose it is,” Lucifer said thoughtfully. That hadn’t actually dawned on him before.

“And why do you think that’s the case?” she asked leadingly.

“I don’t know, doctor. You tell me,” he said pointedly.

“I find that people make Los Angeles their home for one of two reasons. Either they’re running from something or looking /for/ something.”

“Oh and which one are you?” Lucifer asked with a smirk.

“I’m not the one on the couch, Lucifer,” she deflected easily. She was well used to his tactics of avoidance by now. “So ask yourself. Which is it? Running or looking?”

Lucifer’s mind went to Ella as he lost himself in thought. The easy way she had accepted him for who he was without any judgement or recriminations. The way he had once sought that acceptance from the detective. He supposed that was what he was looking for. Acceptance. And now he’d found it. “Thank you, doctor. You’ve been helpful as always,” he said getting up and leaving, lost in thought.

The next day they were at a crime scene where Lucifer’s landlord was killed. Ella was already there processing the scene. When she tried to make a joke, Decker immediately shot her down, but she could see the amusement in Lucifer’s eyes, even if he didn’t say anything. When she mentioned piecing the glass back together, she laughed at Lucifer’s comment about people in hell being forced to do just that. She wouldn’t doubt it a bit, but she happened to find it a fun challenge and told them so.

When Lucifer got a call about a problem at Lux, Ella scowled at the way Decker scoffed at it and demanded that he stay and help. Did she not realize how much that club meant to Lucifer. It was more than his business. It was his home, and given that this was his landlord lying here dead, whatever the problem was, it was likely more serious than ‘one of the Brittanys stubbing a toe’. She was glad when Lucifer left anyway. She would have stepped in if he didn’t, but at least Decker’s approval didn’t mean more to him than Lux.

When Lucifer realized that he was being evicted he knew he had to fight it any way he could. Especially when the detective told him he was on his own. He decided to stage a sit in. Or a party in. Either way. He was torn for a while. He wanted Ella to be there, but his mother and brother were there too and he still wanted her kept out of their line of fire. In the end, he decided to give her the choice. He sent her a text, ‘sit-in at Lux. Mum and bro are here though’.

It was only minutes before he got a reply. ‘I wouldn’t miss it. I’ll be just a random acquaintance from work. I get it’.

He smiled at his phone before putting it away. He hoped she really did get it and wouldn’t be hurt when he didn’t pay much attention to her, but he knew that she would be far more hurt if he didn’t invite her, so he didn’t have a lot of choice.

When Ella got there, she did give him a hug, unable to resist that much, but it wasn’t like one of her normal full hugs. She made sure to keep it distant and casual and quickly headed into the crowd before anyone could think they were closer than they were pretending to be. It did hurt being kept at a distance like this, but she understood why. She didn’t want to become a pawn used to hurt him anymore than he wanted that. It didn’t stop that hurt from growing when Decker got there and he was happy and dancing with her though.

The next morning, Lucifer was irritated when the detective didn’t seem to care about his worries over Lux and he tried to explain some of the history behind the place, but he could tell she wasn’t listening. And then she had the nerve to insist that he leave it undefended. Only the fact that Ella was passed out in one of the booths had him leaving. He knew that she wouldn’t hesitate to call him if something happened and could be stubborn enough to hold anyone off until he got there.

Lucifer was more than a little surprised that the detective had managed to save Lux for him, especially after she’d treated it so casually before now. He was honestly touched, even more so when she said that she’d always cared. She just needed to find a legal way to do it. Things like this were why he didn’t make more of an issue over how she treated him, and this time Ella happened to be here for it, trying to cheer him up before the detective had arrived.

“Thank you, Decker. This was really nice of you,” Ella told her sincerely.

“I wasn’t going to let him lose his home if there was anything I could do about it,” Chloe told her. “No matter how much he may annoy me sometimes, he’s still my partner and friend.”

Part of Ella wanted to argue that she had a funny way of showing it, but she wasn’t that petty. Not after she had done something like this. That was an argument for another day. She ignored the wash of pain when Lucifer invited Chloe to a nice dinner to thank her. She was relatively sure that he didn’t mean it as a date, but it was obvious that was how Chloe took it, so she made her escape as soon as she could politely do so without clueing Lucifer in on the fact that she was hurt.

Chapter Text

A few days later, Lucifer was hanging around Ella’s lab during their next case, as he so often did. He just found it so much easier to think in there. Probably because Ella didn’t mind him pacing and playing with things, or anything else that helped keep his mind settled. That was especially important now since he had stood the detective up the other night. Once Linda had pointed out to him that it was something like a date, Lucifer just couldn’t bring himself to go. He hadn’t meant it like that and didn’t want to give the detective the wrong idea. If he was going to go on a date with anyone it would be Ella. He dropped the balls he was juggling at that thought. Where the hell had that come from? He didn’t want to date Ella…did he? He shook his head and chased down the stress balls, ignoring Ella’s curious look over why he dropped them so suddenly. No, he wasn’t the dating type. He didn’t do relationships. He just did fun. It was just one of those random thoughts that come out of nowhere. He was almost able to convince himself of that.

No sooner than he had the balls back in the air, the door opened and startled him. He managed to catch them this time rather than have them flying all over the place. “There you are,” Chloe said irritated. “You should be helping with the case not up here playing with your…” she trailed off with a bright blush, realizing what she almost said.

Ella was biting her lip trying not to laugh, and lost that battle when Lucifer gleefully said, “Go on, Detective…you can say it…”

“Oh grow up,” Chloe rolled her eyes as she reached over and took the stress balls out of his hand and plopped them on the table. “I need you to focus right now, Lucifer.”

Ella had enough. She walked over and picked up the balls from the table and put them back in Lucifer’s hands as she said, “Okay, you know what? My lab, my rules. And I say Lucifer can be himself however he wants and if juggling or fiddling with things helps him think then he’s more than welcome to do so without being treated like a child or kept on a leash like a dog.”

“The last thing Lucifer needs is any more distractions than he makes anyway,” Chloe snapped in irritation.

“You know, as intriguing as I normally find it when women fight over me, I believe I’ll take a pass on this one. Make sure you let me know who wins though, would you?” Lucifer drawled, putting the balls back down and walking out the door, leaving them to it.

Ella winced and started to go after him, but stopped when Chloe snapped, “Oh great. Thanks a lot. Now I’ll be lucky to get any work out of him for the rest of the day.” That really set Ella off.

Lucifer went downstairs and headed into the conference room to look over the files again. He already knew them by heart but didn’t really want to be in the lab right now or even in sight of it. He wasn’t sure why it bothered him so much, but it did. It was about half an hour later when Chloe stormed in and said, “Let’s go. We got a lead.”

The lead ended up panning out and the got the guy. Lucifer managed to draw out a full confession not long after and then he left for the day, not in the best of moods. A few hours later, he was much more settled after a few drinks, some fresh air, and some time to think, so when Ella came up and stood next to him on the balcony, he just stood there and waited for her to speak.

“I’m sorry,” she told him after a minute of silence. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything.”

Lucifer shook his head. “I may have over-reacted just a bit,” he admitted. The situation happening just after his uncomfortable almost revelation had made it hit harder than it should have.

“No, Lucifer. You didn’t. You have a right to your own feelings and I shouldn’t have just walked all over them and confronted her like that. It just makes me so mad sometimes and I don’t think.”

“And you have a right to your feelings as well, Ms. Lopez,” Lucifer pointed out. “You shouldn’t have to hide them for anyone’s sake. Even mine.”

“Yeah, okay,” she conceded the point. “But I still could have handled it better.”

“So could we have all,” Lucifer told her. “It’s no matter, but if my forgiveness is what you need, you have it,” he told her as he took a long sip of his drink.

“Thank you, Lucifer,” she said relieved. “You good?”

He turned to look at her with a lop-sided smile. “Yes. I’m good. I was just contemplating heading downstairs for some fun if you’d like to join me?”

She chuckled. “Not tonight. I don’t have the devil stamina like you and work comes early in the morning. I need to get some sleep.”

He nodded with a laugh of his own, refraining from making a comment about his stamina, and bade her goodnight as they headed down together and she left. Somehow, her making the trip out here to apologize in person rather than over the phone made him feel better.

The next morning, Lucifer went with Chloe to the trial of her father’s actual killer. He had been informed that he would be called as a witness anyway, so being there to support his partner was just a bonus. Before they could get there though, the severed head of the key witness was delivered to the station. When his mother walked in as the defense attorney, that was the last straw. He had a sinking feeling in his gut that this wasn’t going to go as well as they’d hoped.

At the first chance he got, he cornered her outside to find out what she was doing. “I had to find a way to open your eyes,” she told him. “You need to see that this Chloe you so adore isn’t worthy of you.”

Lucifer scoffed. “I admit I enjoy working with her, but adore? That’s a bit much,” he said honestly.

“Oh please,” she rolled her eyes. “You’ve sacrificed more for her than for anyone else. Have you forgotten? You killed your brother, my son, to protect her. Do you think there’s anything remotely similar she would do for you?”

Lucifer bit back the words about not trying to protect Chloe. He’d let them think that for a reason and there was no use blowing it now. If anyone had to be on her radar he would rather it be the detective than Ella. “I suppose I don’t know,” he simply responded. He doubted she would though. They weren’t nearly as close as his mother thought. After a little more questioning, it was revealed that she had attempted to kill the detective and Lucifer lost it. Not that he cared as much as his reaction made it seem, though he did. If she was killed because of her connection to him though, it would be his fault. He was the one who let them think she mattered more than she did after all. “You WHAT?! Mother I swear if you hurt her I will rip…”

“Well it looks like your brother was right,” she said smugly.

“Just promise me that you won’t touch her,” Lucifer all but ordered, and relaxed when she did so. Of course, he immediately found himself embroiled in a confrontation with the detective in question as she all but accused him of sabotaging the trial, which was why when he got onto the witness stand, he made every effort to wrap judge and jury around his finger as completely as he could manage. He even made an effort to talk the detective up as much as possible. Unfortunately his mother managed to wrap him up and put him in a position where he either had to make her look bad or lie, and there was nothing that would make him give up his honor. He hoped he managed to mitigate the disaster enough though, but when the detective came out and flatly accused him of giving his mother sensitive information, he was more than a little irritated.

That was why he was out with detective douche trying to get more information and hopefully clear his name in the process. Finding out that the douche had slept with his mother just worsened his mood even more and he may have lost his temper a bit when he tackled him, landing at the feet of the people they were here to interrogate. They managed to get the needed information though, thanks to Maze, though it ended in a dead end and he had to go back to the courtroom empty handed.

Chloe was struggling with the decision that she was being asked to make, and had yet to come to a decision by the time she took the stand and the questioning started. It was as ruthless as she’d suspected it would be and when the moment of truth came as Charlotte asked, “Are you suggesting that your partner is delusional, or just lying?” all that flew through her mind was all the times that he had refused to tell her anything. All the arguments where he would throw around fantastic stories, and most importantly, the most recent argument with Ella, who he seemed to be perfectly willing to open up to.

Chloe took a deep breath as she set her decision. “I don’t know,” she said clearly.

“You don’t know what, Detective Decker? If he’s delusional or lying? You admit that it’s one or the other though correct?”

“Yes,” she said tightly, not able to suppress her wince as Lucifer got up and walked out of the courtroom.

Lucifer felt a tightening sensation in his gut when the detective said that she didn’t know, and he waited along with the rest of the court with bated breath as she clearly agreed that he was either delusional or lying. As soon as the word slipped from her lips, he set his jaw and got up and walked out. After everything he had done for her, all the ways he’d tried so hard to help her, and she does this. He was glad that he’d started to see her for who she truly was before this moment or it would have hit a lot harder, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

Lucifer was sitting in his penthouse with a glass of scotch when he got the word that the scumbag was going to jail on a plea bargain and he raised his glass to no one. “Well played, Mum,” he said hoarsely.

It wasn’t much longer before he heard the elevator and turned to see Ella coming out carrying some food bags. “I heard what happened at the trial and figured you’d appreciate some company,” she said sitting down and putting the food on the table. “I didn’t figure you’d be up to cooking or going out either, so I brought food.”

Lucifer huffed a laugh, feeling lighter than he had in hours, and barely had to be prompted to say, “It’s not that I didn’t always suspect how she felt, but hearing it like that…not to mention publicly and preserved for posterity in court records…”

“I know,” Ella said sadly. “It was a low blow.” She reached over and took his hand. “But you know that there are plenty of people who don’t feel that way right? Me especially.”

Lucifer looked at her with a grateful smile and squeezed her hand. “I know,” he practically whispered as he got lost in her eyes. She had always been there for him basically since they met. If there was one person in this world that he knew he could trust it was her. He didn’t even realize that he was leaning forward until he felt her breath over his lips. Before he could close that last distance though, the elevator was opening again and one of his many conquests was stepping out and the moment was broken.

Ella was glad that they were interrupted in a way. On one hand, she wanted nothing more than to kiss him, but she didn’t want to go there like this. Not in his penthouse where there was too much risk of her becoming just another one night stand. She couldn’t take that from him. She realized when he almost kissed her that she was starting to fall for him and she needed to figure out what to do with that and how to approach this to keep her heart in one piece, so she gladly took the excuse to make her exit. The hurt she could see in his eyes made her regret it and she nearly caved to his request for her not to go, but she needed time to think. Hopefully he would understand when she could manage to explain.

Chapter Text

Lucifer quickly rushed the flight attendant out, really not in the mood at the moment. He considered calling Ella, but she had obviously wanted to get away from him, so he refrained and just made his way to the balcony. It was where he always went when he needed to think. That or the piano, but he was too unsettled to play right now. He had almost kissed Ella. And not because he wanted to sleep with her or get something from her. He was beginning to realize that he felt something for her but he had no idea what or how to deal with it.

The next morning, he didn’t even get a chance to talk to her before they were wrapped up in a case and every time he tried anyway, there was something else she had to do. He knew that they were working and she did have a lot of evidence to test, but he worried that she was manufacturing at least some of those instances in order to avoid him. It wasn’t until he was listening to the interviews with all of his ex-lovers that it dawned on him that he did want something more. He just had no idea how to go about getting it. Just the thought terrified him. Could it be worth it though? The more Ella pushed him away over the next few days of the case, the more he started to doubt it.

This doubt led to a discussion with Amenadiel a few nights later. “Do you think I’m boyfriend material?” he asked his brother.

“Luci, you’ve never been the type to get emotionally attached. To anyone,” Amenadiel responded.

“So I’ve come to realize, but what does that say about me, brother,” Lucifer asked, hoping that he would have some answers.

“Is this about Chloe?”

“And why would you think that?” Lucifer asked cryptically, having no intention of correcting him.

“Mom told me what happened at the trial,” Amenadiel said sympathetically.

“Did she now,” Lucifer scoffed before turning the conversation back to the important part. “I suppose you’re going to tell me humans and the divine don’t mix,” he guessed.

“Luci, listen. I have underestimated you for all of my existence, both in your ability to frustrate me and in your capacity for good. Even though you’ll never admit it. But when it comes to Chloe…perhaps you’ve been underestimating yourself.”

Lucifer ignored the Chloe part and his mind just substituted Ella there. “Careful, brother. That sounds dangerously like a compliment,” he said suspiciously, now more sure than ever that there was some big plan for him that involved the detective.

“Oh take it how you like,” Amenadiel said dismissively. “You never listen to my advice anyway. Just one of your many charms.

“Liar,” Lucifer huffed. This whole thing was setting off far too many warning bells in his mind for his comfort.

“But you’re not, Luci. So if you really want to know if you’re a worthy romantic partner…ask yourself,” Amenadiel said seriously.

Lucifer nodded and left, not willing to admit that it wasn’t horrible advice and he spent most of the sting thinking it over. Once it was over and they had their guy, he headed to the beach and spent all night sitting there and thinking before he came to a conclusion. The sun hadn’t been up for long when he caught movement behind him and turned to look.

Ella walked up behind Lucifer as he stood on the beach in his dark blue suit with his jacket thrown over his shoulder. “I thought you’d be here,” she said with a smile. She’d been here once or twice with him so when she didn’t find him at Lux this was her next option. “Can we talk?”

“Yes. I think we must. You see…I’ve had an epiphany of sorts. You deserve someone worthy of you, and that’s not me.”

“Lucifer, that’s not what I was saying…”

“I know. That’s what I’m saying. You deserve someone better because you are like pure sunshine, Ms. Lopez. You brighten up the day of everyone who comes into contact with you. You deserve someone who can be that for you too. Someone who knows that social situations make you nervous so you cover it up with a mask of enthusiasm and bravado. Someone who appreciates the dull habit of yours to switch to herbal tea instead of coffee after three pm. Most importantly you deserve someone as kind as you and I’m just…not worth it.”

Ella just blinked at him in surprise for a moment as he turned back to looking over the ocean. “Yes, you are,” she said firmly once she had her head wrapped around everything she’d just heard. “You have a way of instilling confidence in people like I’ve never seen and it’s more than just your devil tricks. It’s the way you listen and actually pay attention to what they say. You care. About people and about what they think of you. You put up your masks of the uncaring rich playboy to hide how much every jab against you hurts. You /are/ worth it, Lucifer. Never think you aren’t.”

Lucifer turned back to look at her in shock that grew with every word she spoke. By the end he was looking at her searchingly before leaning down and pressing his lips lightly against hers and the entire world around him seemed to stop in that brief moment before he pulled away. She stood there, lips slightly puckered for a good few seconds before her brain caught up. “What was that?” she asked softly.

“It was whatever you want it to be, Ms. Lopez,” he said as he returned to watching the waves.

“Don’t do that, Lucifer. Please. What did that mean? I mean, was it a ‘thank you for your kind words’? Did it mean…something else?” She’d given him an out if he chose to take it and whether he did or not would tell her enough.

“It meant…” He started and stopped before running a hand through his hair. “It meant that I have no bloody clue what’s happening to me,” he said exhaustedly irritated.

Ella smiled sadly as she reached out and took his hand, threading their fingers together. “Okay,” she simply said as she turned to watch the waves with him.

At least she would have if he hadn’t turned to look at her incredulously. “Okay? That’s it? Just okay?”

She shrugged. “What do you want me to say, Lucifer? I can’t tell you what’s happening to you either, but obviously something is. Something between us. We don’t have to define anything right now. You can take as much time as you need to figure it out. Just know that I won’t be sleeping with you unless we actually get so far as a monogamous relationship. And I don’t just mean saying that, sleeping with me, and then changing your mind the next morning,” she lapsed into her old habit of babbling when she was nervous.

He tensed at her last comment and pulled his hand away from her. “I thought you would know by now, Ms. Lopez. I don’t lie. If I were to ever promise you monogamy, it would be because I meant it.”

She realized what she’d implied and knew that he was having Decker flashbacks. “I never thought you would, Lucifer. Not really. It was just one of those things that come out when I start babbling is all,” she assured him.

Lucifer searched her eyes and relaxed when he saw that she was telling the truth, so she took a chance and reached for his hand again. This time he was the one to thread their fingers together and she smiled. “What are we doing here?” he asked with a faraway confusion.

“I thought we said we didn’t need to define anything right now,” she said with a smile and a bump of their shoulders.

“I know, but…” He sighed. “I have no idea what I’m doing with any of this. You’ll have to tell me if I’m messing things up. And I probably will. A lot.”

“I know,” she said wryly. “So will I, so that goes both ways. More experience doesn’t necessarily mean better. Not in this.”

He turned to look at her uncertainly before leaning down for another quick press of lips and she smiled and leaned into it, but neither of them moved to deepen it before he pulled back. He looked at her for a long moment before he started to say, “Ms. Lopez…”

“Okay, first lesson,” she said in a teasing tone. “Once you’re to the point of kissing someone, you have to call them by their first name.”

He chuckled and said, “Ella. How are you being so understanding about this?” To his knowledge women wanted to know where they stood. They didn’t like being left up in the air. Even he liked to know where he stood with people. Maybe everyone did.

She smiled sadly at him and squeezed his hand. “Because I can’t imagine what it must be like to live millions of years and still have no idea what love is. I don’t know if that’s what we have here or not, but there’s a chance that it could be. Someday. Maybe. I couldn’t live with myself if I walked away from that just because I was too impatient to take things at your pace. You deserve that chance. And so do I.”

“I…” he opened and closed his mouth a few times trying and failing to find words.

“Sorry,” she winced. “Too much? I can go if you need some space.”

“No!” he said quickly, tightening his hand around hers for a moment, before relaxing both his grip and his posture. “No,” he said more thoughtfully this time. “It’s fine. I…thank you Ms…Ella. Thank you, Ella.”

She smiled at him and kicked her shoes off. “We can just watch the water for a while,” she suggested as she sat down and it took a minute before he sat next to her. When he did, she laid her head on his shoulder and they sat in silence for a long while.

“Did you know this is where I first arrived in this world?” he asked about ten minutes later.

“Oh? Is that why you came here? You were in a contemplative mood?” she asked curiously.

He did a double take at her and gave her an incredulous look. “How is it that you are able to read me so easily?”

She shrugged. “Probably because I have my own masks which makes it easier to see through others’,” she guessed. “I can’t read you that well though. I don’t know what you’re contemplating.”

He looked back out over the water as he said. “Just how much things have changed since that day. It was not even seven years ago when I knelt right over there in the sand as I had my demonic second carve the wings out of my back.”

Ella winced at the description. “Didn’t that hurt?”

“Immensely. But it was also the freest I’ve ever felt, so it was worth it,” he told her. “I’ve learned so much since then, but sometimes it hits home how much I still have left to learn.”

She nodded and squeezed his hand shifting her head on his shoulder to a slightly more comfortable position. “But you have time.”

“How much time is the question,” he muttered, not sure if he wanted her to hear it or not.

“As much as you need,” she told him sincerely and could feel him relax even more.

He wasn’t sure how much she meant that. He knew that she would get tired of waiting for him to figure things out eventually. He just hoped he had enough time. What she’d said before about having a chance at something real had struck him deeper than she knew.

Chapter Text

It was a while later before Lucifer spoke again. “I didn’t sleep with Jana the other night.”

“Okay,” Ella said simply before adding. “It would have been okay if you had though, you know. We don’t have any promises between us, now or then.” Until or unless he was ready to give her an actual relationship, she wasn’t going to attempt to tie him down.

“I just meant…if that’s why you left…” he trailed off, sure that she got the gist.

“It’s not,” she told him before taking a deep breath and steeling herself to explain. At least as much as she could right now. “I left because…because I was scared,” she admitted.

“Of me?” he asked, hurt.

She picked her head up off his shoulder and moved her free hand to his cheek to turn him to look at her. “No, Lucifer. Not of you. Never of you. I was scared of…of me. Of what I would do, what I would agree to, how far I would go in the heat of the moment without thinking things through.” Lucifer looked in her eyes for a moment before nodding as a spark of mischief lit in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something but then stopped himself and looked away. Ella had expected something like this and it would probably be one of many things she would try to correct along this journey. “Don’t do that, Lu,” she used his nickname so that he would know she wasn’t upset.

“Don’t do what?”

“Don’t just cut yourself off like that. What were you going to say?”

“Something crude and inappropriate,” he admitted. “It doesn’t matter.”

Ella huffed a laugh. She could have guessed that much judging by the light in his eyes. “Lucifer, you’re the king of crude and inappropriate. Why are you censoring yourself now?” She knew the answer to that, but needed him to say it so that she could correct it.

“Things are different now,” he said, not looking at her.

“But you’re not,” she said pointedly. “Have I ever given you any indication that I wanted you to change for me? In any way?” She didn’t think she had, but she wanted to be sure.

“Well, no, but…” he trailed off, trying to figure out the words for what he was thinking and feeling.

“No buts. You are who you are, Lucifer. And that’s who I care about. Don’t ever think you have to change or pretend to be some parody of a perfect guy. Not for me. Not for anyone.”

Lucifer nodded slowly, though he still didn’t understand. He spent quite a while turning it over in his mind trying to, and Ella let him. She knew it would take him time to work that out. Just like it would take him time to work out the rest of his feelings. She’d made her point though and that was the important thing.

They spent the next couple hours just enjoying each other’s company, interspersed with light conversation before Ella’s stomach growled and Lucifer chuckled. “I suppose that means it’s time for lunch.”

“I guess so,” she grinned sheepishly.

He got up and pulled her to her feet before shrugging his jacket back on. “Come on. There’s a place right around the corner.”

After a pleasant lunch they headed back to the parking access. “I should head home,” she said gesturing to her car.

“Right. Of course,” Lucifer said and took a few deep breaths to steady his nerves before he leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips. She kissed him back and placed a hand to his cheek as he pulled back. “Have a good day, Ella.”

“You too, Lucifer,” she said with a smile. She didn’t want to go any further than this until he was ready to commit, but she was good with this much. Give him a chance to get his feet wet so to speak and get used to the idea. It would give her time to get used to the idea too. He was her best friend, after all, and this was a big step for both of them. Just because she had more experience with emotions didn’t mean that it didn’t freak her out a little bit too.

Lucifer was glad that his next appointment with Doctor Linda was early on Monday, because even after spending the rest of the weekend thinking it over, he still had no idea what he was doing. “I just don’t understand doctor. She says she wants me to be myself and doesn’t want me to change, but I think everyone knows that ‘myself’ is not relationship material.”

There were many things Linda felt the need to address from that statement but decided to start with what he was actually asking about. “I think you’re confusing changing your personality with changing your behaviors.”

“How can I change one without the other?” he asked confused.

“The hardest part of any relationship is finding a way to fit together without losing yourself in the process, but it can be done. You just need to communicate with each other. I think you’re getting ahead of yourself though. From what you said, you’re not actually in a relationship and need to figure out how to deal with your own feelings before you get that far, yes?” When Lucifer nodded, she said, “Okay, then let’s back up a bit and start with where this sudden desire for a relationship started.”

“We had a case last week where we ended up interviewing all of my recent sexual partners…”

“That must have taken a while,” Linda couldn’t help but joke, knowing that it would help put him at ease.

Lucifer laughed. “That’s an understatement. They all said pretty much the same thing though. The sex was amazing, but meaningless. Now, the first few dozen of them I just heard the good part, but after a while the rest started to sink in and I just…”

“Wanted to find something with meaning,” she prompted when he trailed off. When he nodded, she said, “So you’re lonely.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he huffed a half-laugh.

“But you want something real,” she amended. He nodded. “So why not just pick any one of the people who adore you to explore that with?” she asked, trying to get him to admit that it was Ella that was special.

“Because it still wouldn’t mean anything,” he told her.

“But it would with Ella,” she said leadingly. He nodded again. “Why?”

“Because she’s…I don’t know. She’s special,” Lucifer said running a hand through his hair trying to get his thoughts together, knowing that she would want more than that. “She knows me, devil and all, and accepts me. She…she makes me feel…I don’t know. Good about myself. Like maybe I could actually find something resembling happiness. Like maybe I could actually…deserve it.”

Linda smiled. That was definitely something, but not quite enough. Not if he was ever going to make a real go of it. “That was all about things she does for you. What do /you/ have to offer /her/?” she asked.

Lucifer snorted derisively. “Nothing,” he simply said.

Linda frowned and sighed. Maybe she had worded that question badly. “You have a lot to offer, Lucifer, but what I meant was emotionally. How do you feel about her?”

“If I knew that things would be so much easier.”

“Well tell me what you do know then,” she prompted.

“I want her to be happy. I…I like seeing her smile, especially when I’m the one who causes it. When she’s around everything just seems…better,” he said with a shrug.

“And that’s something you don’t think you could find with anyone else?” Linda asked, wanting to make him think about that and realize that.

“I…I’m not sure,” he said honestly.

“Figuring out how you feel is something that everyone struggles with, Lucifer. Even humans. It’s not something you need to figure out all at once. You should take things at your own pace.”

Lucifer smiled wistfully. “That’s what she said, too.”

“Then you know it’s good advice,” Linda chuckled.

He got to the precinct just in time since they had a crime scene at a college. When he got there to find Ella with the body, he wasn’t sure what to expect from her given the recent change to their relationship, but other than her smile being just a little bit brighter when she saw him, there was nothing different about their interactions. She even still laughed at his crude jokes. It just seemed too…easy. He wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth though. Especially since he didn’t really want anything to change. At least not in public. Not until he could get his family situation resolved. Both of them were a little too free with stopping by the station and he couldn’t afford any loose lips.

It turned out that the killer was playing god by trying to force people to mutilate themselves to save strangers. It was sick. By the time they managed to track him down, he had given them an impossible choice too. Luckily, Lucifer was the devil. All he had to do was convince the detective to go away. It took longer than he wanted to convince her but as soon as she was far enough away for him to be immortal again, he was able to completely disregard the poison and save both of the victims. Unfortunately, the long argument lost them the killer.

Ella got called to the scene to go over everything with a fine toothed comb and hopefully find some more leads. They were just coming back out when one of the uniforms spotted who they thought was the killer among the gawkers and he was running. He ended up bumping into Ella and knocking her down while Chloe joined the chase. Lucifer caught Ella just before she hit the steps and got her back on her feet and looked tempted to join the chase as well, but for one thing, they were too far ahead by now and for two, he hated running.

When they came back empty-handed Lucifer sighed. “Got away again did he?”

“Not exactly,” Chloe said with a grimace. “He killed himself before we could stop him.”

“Wonderful,” Lucifer said with a smirk. “That means he’s getting exactly what he deserves.”

Chapter Text

On the way home he got a text from Maze to meet her at some hole in the wall. Since it was Maze he didn’t hesitate to go, but was surprised to find his mother there as well. Those two hated each other. Once Maze realized that he was in a good mood, she decided it was time to leave, causing an argument to ensue and Lucifer was completely confused. Right up until he noticed a picture on the board. He pulled it off and started questioning the two people who apparently knew about it. When he found out what was going on, he was more than a little upset. He knew they thought it was because he had feelings for Chloe but really it was just because his father was meddling in his life again. That he was trying to manipulate him. He’d never been more grateful for Ella than he was now. Otherwise he might have just fallen for it.

He left in a temper, and was almost home when he got a frantic text from Ella to meet him at the precinct and it was an emergency. He skidded the car around and got there in record time, finding her tearing her lab apart. He grabbed her hands to stop her. “What’s wrong?” he asked worriedly only to gasp out a, “no…” and take a step back when she looked up at him with blood running from her nose.

“Th-there’s no antidote. It’s broken,” she said pointing to the vial. “I can’t…can’t find anything in his notes or files or anything…”

Lucifer pulled her into a hug to try and calm her down, not even caring about the blood on his suit, as he tried to calm himself down too. He forced himself to keep breathing. He couldn’t lose her. Not now. He needed to think. To figure something out. There had to be something. It didn’t take long for him to realize what he had to do. “Okay, the first thing we need to do is get you to the hospital. Then /I/ will get the antidote.”

“C-can you?” she asked fearfully, looking up at him. “How?”

“Best you not worry about that, darling,” he said softly, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Just trust me.”

“I do, Lucifer,” she said with a nod.

“Okay. Let’s go then,” he said leading her out of the lab and into his car, driving like a maniac to the hospital while he texted both Maze and Linda to meet him there. They were the only ones who knew about him and Ella. The only ones he trusted to know. He made sure to add that it was a secret and an emergency to hopefully get them moving.

Lucifer got there first of course, but by the time Ella was admitted, Linda and Maze had arrived and Lucifer pulled them aside. “Mazikeen, I need you to get the detective here. As soon as you can possibly manage.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” she asked incredulously. “And why?”

“Because the only way to get the antidote for this is to ask the guy who made it, which means I need to get to hell. The only chance I have of coming back is to use a method that I can be revived from which means something human which means the detective has to be here for it to work. Understand?” he explained as quickly as he could.

“You don’t mean…You’re not going to…” Linda asked in shock.

“Yes. And you’re going to be in charge of reviving me.”

“I’m not that kind of doctor, Lucifer,” she protested.

“You’re the closest I’ve got, Linda,” he said seriously.

Just the use of her first name was enough to tell her that he was serious so she nodded. “Alright, but I want my protest noted.”

“It’s noted,” he said before turning to Maze. “You’re still here?” he asked irritated.

“Look, just lets think about this for a minute…”

“I will NOT let Ella die. Period. Even if it means I die trying to save her. Are you going to help me or not? Because the only other option is to use a method I can’t come back from and just get a message up with the antidote.”

“Fine,” Maze snapped. “I’ll do it. Where do you want her?”

“Ella’s room or the waiting room here. While you’re gone we’ll find someplace close enough. Just text me when she’s here.”

It didn’t take long for them to find a place and get everything set up, including all the wires attached to Lucifer. He was more than a little jittery waiting for the text from Maze and Linda wasn’t any better, reading a medical book Lucifer had snagged her to refresh her memory from medical school. Once he got the text, he tried to get Linda to kill him, but she couldn’t do it so he took the paddles from her and did it himself.

No sooner than Lucifer was out and Linda was trying not to panic, his mother rushed in. “What is going on here?” she asked rushing over to Lucifer.

“I…um…” Linda scrambled to find a way to explain without giving up his secret. “There was a poisoning…he had to get the antidote from…from hell…um…Chloe is upstairs…” She was trying to imply that Chloe was the one poisoned and it seemed to have worked, but that didn’t mean that the goddess wasn’t pissed and Linda was on the verge of wetting herself by the time her alarm went off.

Things just got worse when Lucifer didn’t come back. When they realized that he was trapped, the goddess took the paddles and killed herself to go get him while Linda kept trying to revive him and thankfully it worked. No sooner than he was awake, he was stumbling from the room in search of the doctors to give the antidote too, leaving Linda to try and revive his mother. After what she’d told him in hell, he didn’t give a crap if she made it back or not, despite the way he’d dragged her out of the cell. He’d given her a chance which was all she was going to get from him.

Once he turned over the formula and told Maze that she could let Chloe go whenever, glad to see that she wasn’t tied up or anything of the like so there wasn’t as much explaining to do, he all but collapsed in a chair. He still felt like hell. “Are you okay?” Chloe asked sympathetically. She knew that he and Ella were good friends.

“I will be,” Lucifer waved her off, trying to catch his breath. Running a flight of stairs seconds after being dead probably wasn’t the best idea. Once he caught his breath he went to talk to the doctors and see how it was going. Upon learning that they were still missing one of the ingredients and that it would take longer than she had to arrive, he forced himself to stay calm. Just one more hurdle. That’s all this was. He could find it for them, one way or another.

It took him a few minutes to remember something that Ella had mentioned once about her brother who ran a chop shop and did illegal street racing upgrades. If anyone would have ZX3 it would be him. He ran out and jumped in his car, heading there as fast as he could and he banged on the door until someone answered. “Ricardo Lopez?” he asked desperately.

“Who are you?” the guy asked looking him up and down, clearly trying to figure out how much he could get by selling his suit and accessories.

“I’m a friend of your sister’s. I don’t have time to be delicate about this so pardon my bluntness. She’s been poisoned and has hours left to live. They’re working on an antidote but one of the ingredients is ZX3 which they can’t find in time to save her. I remembered that she mentioned what you do here and I knew you would have some.”

“Dude that stuff’s illegal…” Ricardo said nervously.

That was the last straw for Lucifer’s temper. He grabbed the front of Ricardo’s shirt and yanked him off his feet, eyes flashing red. “And that’s more important than your sister’s life? You will get it now and come with me to the hospital. Understood?”

Ricardo nodded frantically, just trying not to piss himself. “Yeah. Yeah I got it.” When Lucifer put him down he scrambled into the shop and came back a minute later with a vial. Lucifer snatched it out of his hand and jumped back in his car, peeling out. He didn’t really care if the ponce followed him or not, but he’d at least put the idea in his head.

Once he got back to the hospital, he handed over the ZX3, refusing to say where he got it, and headed into Ella’s room to check on her. He plopped down in the chair next to her bed and took her hand. He’d only been there for about five minutes when the door opened again and Ricardo came in. He stopped short at the sight of Lucifer sitting there holding his sister’s hand. “Wh-who are you?”

“I apologize for my rudeness before. I was simply worried about dear Ella. I’m Lucifer. Morningstar,” he held out his hand. “I own a nightclub here in the city and also help out at the LAPD.” He wasn’t going to lie about his name or anything else, but this was one time he didn’t particularly want to be known as the devil.

“H-how did you do that eye thing?” he asked, not taking Lucifer’s hand.

“What eye thing?” Lucifer asked cryptically.

“N-nothing. Must have been a trick of the light. Ricardo Lopez,” he said finally taking the devil’s hand. “How is she?” he motioned to Ella.

“They’ll have the antidote ready in no time. She’ll be fine,” Lucifer assured himself as much as her brother.

Sure enough, they came in with the injection less than an hour later and less than an hour after that she was waking up. Ricardo left before then though. Apparently, they weren’t close and while he wanted to make sure she was okay, he didn’t really want to be here when she woke up. Lucifer wasn’t happy about it, but didn’t want her to be stressed over his presence either so let him go. That meant he was alone in the room when she woke up. “Hey there,” she said with a weak smile.

“Welcome back,” he said relieved, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand.

“Thanks to you, I’m sure,” she chuckled.

“I would never let anything happen to you,” he said seriously. “But now that you’re gonna be okay, I need to leave town for a while. Clear my head. Get some stuff done. I didn’t want you to panic when I was gone.”

“Everything okay?” she asked worriedly. Her first thought was that he was running scared, but he wouldn’t be here telling her about it in advance would he? Unless he just wasn’t sure if he was coming back or not and wanted to keep the option open if he did.

“I don’t know yet,” he said honestly.

She got the hint that he didn’t want to talk about it and was even more worried. She forced herself to remember that they hadn’t made any promises to each other, so there was nothing she could say to make him stay anyway. “Okay,” she said. “But before you go, can I have one thing since, you know, I almost died and all.”

“Name it,” Lucifer said with a sad smile.

“A kiss for the road?” she asked hopefully. Lucifer’s smile brightened considerably and he leaned down to kiss her soft and slow and lingered for longer than he had intended to. When he stood back up, he squeezed her hand one more time before heading out. She watched him go with a sad smile. She hoped he came back. They were just starting to figure things out, she thought. She’d done the best she could though. She’d given him a reason to come back. Everything else was up to him.

Chapter Text

Once Ella got out of the hospital, she went by Lucifer’s just to see. Maybe he was back and hadn’t gotten around to calling her yet. She knew it was a long shot, but she just had to see for herself. When she stepped out of the elevator, she blinked a few times at the darkness before she found the light switch. When she did, she wished she hadn’t come. The furniture was all covered like he wasn’t planning to be back for a long time if ever. She sighed sadly and willed the tears not to fall as she got back in the elevator and headed home. He hadn’t made her any promises. He hadn’t even said he would be back at all. She’d had no reason to hope. She had anyway though.

Ella just did what she always did. Picked herself up and carried on. She was back at work a week after she’d left and just pretended like she was fine and eventually she would be. This was how it worked. Once she pretended long enough it became real. She didn’t get to pretend for long though because two weeks later Lucifer was back. She was heading down to say hello, unable to contain her grin when the blonde walked in and he introduced her as his wife and she froze.

Lucifer saw the look on Ella’s face and couldn’t help the pain he felt wash through him. He wouldn’t have wanted to do it like this. He’d been hoping she wouldn’t be here so he would have a chance to explain first. This was necessary for the ruse though. He should be wanting to show his new bride off to everyone as soon as possible. When he realized there was a case, he quickly threw himself into it, getting rid of Candy at the first opportunity and also heading upstairs at the first opportunity. “Ella…I’m sorry…”

Ella surreptitiously wiped the tears from her cheeks before she turned around, but he noticed. “It’s fine, Lucifer. We’re good. It’s not like we had anything real. You don’t owe me anything.”

The knot in Lucifer’s chest tightened when she said what they had wasn’t real, but he ignored it for now. Her tears and the look she’d had downstairs belied those words. He hoped against hope that he would be able to fix this later, but if he could just keep it from completely falling apart for now that would be good enough. “Maybe not, but you still deserve an explanation…”

She cut him off. “Please, don’t. It’s fine. Just let it go,” she almost begged.

“I can’t,” he said softly taking a few steps towards her, but not close enough to touch. That would be too hard. “Look, I know that I’ve hurt you and I’m more sorry than you could know, but you have to know that things aren’t what they seem.”

“What do you mean?” she asked suspiciously.

“I can’t explain right now. I’m sorry. But if you can just trust me…a little longer…I’ll tell you everything. I swear.”

“When?” she asked.

“As soon as I can. I’m sorry I can’t give you an exact time, but too much is up in the air right now. Please, Ella. Just…don’t give up on me yet?”

Ella took a few deep breaths, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes again but refusing to let them fall. He was asking for faith. Trust. A month ago she would have given him these things without question, but she was a little bruised right now. It took a long moment before she nodded. She would give him a little more time. She would give him a chance to explain. “O-okay.” She hated herself for the hope that started to gain a little traction again.

“Thank you,” he said softly before slipping back out the door.

It was a few days before she heard from Lucifer again outside of work which was kept relatively professional. As professional as Lucifer got anyway. When she did hear from him it was through text. ‘If you can be here in an hour, please come. If not, we’ll talk another time.’

She waffled for a moment, not wanting to just come when he called after what he’d done, but her curiosity betrayed her. That and the fact that the sooner she could either fan the hope or quash it the better. She got to Lux and headed up to the penthouse to find Lucifer looking at her nervously and offering her a drink. She took it and he motioned her to the living area and sat down in the chair. She ignored the wash of pain at the obvious distancing move and just sat down on the couch, waiting for the explanation she was promised.

“The first thing you need to know is that Candy and I aren’t real,” Lucifer explained. He’d just swept the place for bugs before she got there so he was sure he was safe to tell her this.

“Then what…”

“While you were…in the hospital, I caught my mother in a plot to manipulate me. It’s a rather long story that I’m not sure if we have time for now, so I’ll give you the short version. Her plan was to take away everything that I care about here on Earth so that I would have no choice but to follow her home to heaven and start a war to get our places back there. She was using the detective as part of that plan because I carefully laid the groundwork to make them think she was the one I cared about. That’s why I had to keep you secret.”

“Okay, but why marry a stripper? Why marry anyone? Why not just…keep going the way we were?” she asked plaintively.

“Because she’s not a stripper. She’s a con woman for lack of a better word. I met her in Vegas when she tried to fleece me, and she actually succeeded. Until I tracked her back down. I paid off her debts in return for a favor. We got married so that my mother, appropriately appalled that I would marry a stripper, would want to check her out and possibly scare her away. Candy’s job is to get information on what my mother is planning now and how she plans to use me to get what she wants.”

“So…the marriage isn’t real?” Ella asked hopefully.

“The marriage is real. That sort of thing is too easy to look up. That’s why I’m sitting over here,” Lucifer chuckled. “Certain vows were involved that would be too tempting to break otherwise. The relationship surrounding the marriage isn’t real.”

“Okay,” Ella took a few deep breaths wrapping her head around all that as the hope in her heart flared to life stronger than ever. “I could have done it though. I could have pretended and got the information for you.”

Lucifer huffed a laugh. “No, darling. You couldn’t have. First of all, I’m sure they’ve seen you around. Second, you’re not that good of an actress. Amenadiel has a tendency to be clueless, but my mother is as sharp as they come. She can spot a con a mile away. She’s almost as good as I am at that. Besides, if I was ever going to marry you, I’d want it to be real.” He froze when he realized what he’d just said.

Ella’s eyes widened when she heard that too and part of her was more than tempted to run over there and kiss the daylights out of him for it, but she knew how important his honor was to him and she would never do anything to get him to break his vows. No matter how badly she wanted to right now. She decided the best thing to do was pretend that he hadn’t said it for now and there was one more thing she needed to know. “Why didn’t you just tell me all this back at the lab when you first got back? Or before you left even?”

“Because my mother has eyes and ears everywhere,” Lucifer told her. “I had to wait until she took Candy out and I could make sure Amenadiel was otherwise occupied before I could get you over here and I still swept the place for anything they could use to listen in or record anything before you got here. I hate that I had to hurt you, Ella. But I would do it again to keep you safe. Mother already tried to kill the detective, and I won’t risk her trying to hurt you too.”

She nodded. It was going to take her time to come to terms with all this and figure out how she really felt about it. “So how long is this thing with Candy going to last? How long until we can…” she trailed off not really sure how to put them into words.

“I don’t know, darling. I wish I did,” Lucifer told her. “Until Candy and I split we have to keep our distance, and after that…it depends too much on what I learn and how I can get things resolved. I’m sorry.”

Ella nodded. “Okay.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them and saying again, “Okay. I told you before that I could be patient and wait for you to work things out. This may not be what I meant when I said it, but it still applies. When you’re ready, I’ll be here.” She could see Lucifer visibly relax and the way his eyes lit up as he smiled told her that she’d made the right choice.

“Thank you, Ella,” he said sincerely as he looked at the clock. “But you should go. I don’t know how much longer they’ll be. I’ll see you at work,” he promised.

She nodded and got up, setting her now empty glass on the table. She walked over and put her hand on his arm, and his other hand came up and covered hers for a moment before she left. Once she was gone, Lucifer deflated and pinched the bridge of his nose. Sometimes he really hated his family.

Chapter Text

After she understood what was going on, Ella and Lucifer were back to normal at work, with him spending time in the lab playing around as he thought things through. Outside of work was different though. She didn’t go over to the penthouse anymore, and even steered clear of Lux altogether. That probably would have been okay, but it would have been too tempting to try for more. It was two weeks later that she got a text message made up of emojis now that Lucifer had discovered them. There was a piece of candy and then a closing door. It was followed by another message of a wine glass and a piece of pizza with a question mark.

She laughed and sent a thumbs up emoji back before heading over. She’d missed him. When she got there, the pizza was already there and he had a drink already made for her. He held out his hand hopefully and when she took it, he pulled her into a hug, burying his face in her hair and breathing deeply. She held him just as tightly, turning her face into his chest and sighing happily. They stood there like that for a few minutes before he stepped back and pressed a gentle chaste kiss to her lips which she returned.

“We should talk,” he told her, leading her to the couch.

She nodded and followed him, worried now about what he was going to say. “What did you learn?”

“Apparently the blade of death is also the flaming sword which can be used to cut through the gates of heaven. As the lightbringer, only I can light it. Hence the full court press on the manipulation. She plans to use me to light the sword and start a civil war in heaven that will kill who even knows how many of my siblings,” he said sadly.

“Oh, Lu. I’m sorry,” she said reaching a hand out to tangle in his hair comfortingly.

He took a few deep breaths to steady himself after saying it out loud for the first time before he turned to her. “I’m working on my own plan to prevent it, but for your own safety I won’t say anything about it.”

“I understand,” she told him. “Just know if you need anything from me, you have it. Even if you can’t tell me what it’s for.”

Lucifer smiled gratefully. “I appreciate that more than you know.”

“What does this mean for us? Or I guess the possibility of us? Or…I don’t know.”

Lucifer chuckled. “It means the status quo for a while longer,” he said. “She will expect me to be drowning my grief over losing my wife in meaningless sexual encounters. Otherwise she might start digging and find out about you. I need to get this handled before we can move forward,” he told her. “On the plus side, since I know her plan now and it’s close to coming to fruition, it shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“Does that mean you /want/ us to move forward?” she asked hopefully.

Lucifer took her hand, trying to will his heart to stop beating so fast and his hands to stop shaking as he considered his answer to that question. “It took almost losing you for me to realize what I wanted. That’s part of the reason I left. I could keep my mother locked in a stalemate for the rest of forever, but I needed an edge. Something to force a resolution sooner rather than later. So to answer your question, yes. I do. But I can’t make you any promises or any commitments until this is resolved.”

Ella smiled brightly and squeezed his had as she nodded. “I get that,” she told him. “And I won’t hold you to anything if the situation changes. For now, this is enough.”

Just like that things were back to normal with a little more affection than usual. It wasn’t unusual to see them sitting with his arm around her or her head on his shoulder or even holding hands. There was the occasional chaste kiss between them, but neither of them intended to move things beyond that before it was real. Lucifer still had a bed full most nights, though he couldn’t deny how empty it felt now. Not that it wasn’t enjoyable, because it was. There was just something missing and he knew exactly what it was now. He also knew that he couldn’t put her at risk until his mother was out of the picture.

Finding out that the sword was broken was a kick in the pants and led to Lucifer taking the somewhat desperate act of getting himself committed and going undercover in a mental institution. If this really was his father, then maybe there was another way to get his mother out of the picture. Without the sword a reunion was the only option he could think of. Unfortunately, he didn’t think to tell Ella before he did it and got an earful from her on the subject, though she was as amused as she was irritated. That quickly turned to sympathy though when she learned about how his hopes were dashed about his father.

Ella soon got her first up close and personal interaction with Lucifer’s mother and managed to play it cool. She wasn’t supposed to know that this was the goddess of all creation, nor were she and Lucifer supposed to be anything but colleagues. She pretended to be upset when she was passed over for the party, but in all honesty she was rather glad. She didn’t think she could spend an entire evening pretending to like her.

Lucifer told Ella that his mother needed Chet’s phone and while she couldn’t just hand it over like that, she did have a plan. While she was waiting for the signal, she took the opportunity to both suck up and threaten her not to hurt ‘Dan’. Thankfully before she had to go too far, the phone finally rang and she made her escape with an excuse asking the goddess to watch the phone so she would have a chance to take it. Of course, Decker had to ruin that plan, but they still managed to get it taken care of.

The next case they got was a crispy fried body and not long after she got the first of the evidence, Lucifer rushed into the lab, made sure they were alone, and asked her to get sick. Very sick, go home, lock the doors, and don’t open them for anyone but him. “On second thought, a spontaneous trip out of town might be a better idea. I’m sure someone in your family can fall ill or fall down the stairs or something,” he continued.

“Lucifer!” she stopped him. “What’s going on?” she asked gently.

“Mum’s on the verge of exploding and taking half the city with her if we can’t get her out of here somehow. The crispy fried body? That was her after a little cut. Please Ella. I can’t think straight with you here.”

Ella took a few deep breaths and nodded. “Okay. Find a quiet spot and call me. I’ll take it from there.” She hated running out on her job and she wasn’t leaving because she was scared, but because she knew that Lucifer needed her to. She knew that he needed to be able to think straight if he was going to fix this and she would just be a liability. “But Lu…you be careful okay? I can’t lose you.”

Lucifer took a chance and brought her hand to his lips and pressed a lingering kiss to it. “I will do my best, darling. I promise.”

Ella smiled and nodded as he left and she headed downstairs too so that she would be in place for the next part. When her phone rang she answered. “Hey bro,” she said conversationally. “What? Is she okay? How is she?” She paused again just listening to Lucifer chuckle. “Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Is everything okay, Ella?” Chloe asked.

“Family emergency. I gotta go. I’ll be back in a few days,” she said as she rushed out, knowing that would be enough to spread the word where she went. Lucifer met her outside the building and handed her his car keys and a credit card. “Lucifer, I don’t need…”

“Please, Ella. My car is faster and safer than yours and I don’t want you to end up in a financial hole because of my family drama,” he told her. She sighed and nodded. She couldn’t exactly afford a hotel anyway. Knowing that his mother was far away and it was almost over now anyway gave him the courage to kiss her quickly in the open before hustling her away. “Be safe,” he called as she got in his Corvette.

When Chloe noticed that his car was gone a little while later he just said, “Ella needed to get home quickly and her car’s been giving her trouble so I loaned her mine.”

“The corvette?” Chloe asked shocked. That was a very fancy car.

Lucifer shrugged. “The only car I don’t let anyone else drive is the Aston. I’ll grab another one next time I get a chance to swing by Lux.”

“Well I can drop you by on the way to this next crime scene. Solving this one without Ella is going to be a pain though. It’ll be a few hours before we can get another tech in.”

“Family is more important though,” Lucifer pointed out and was glad to see Chloe nod. The last thing he wanted was for Ella to have trouble at work over this.

Lucifer was very glad that he’d gotten Ella out of town when all hell broke loose two days later. His mother had Chloe and was threatening the lives of dozens, maybe even hundreds of people if he didn’t do as she asked. Not to mention what she had potentially done to Linda already. He managed to get Amenadiel to give up the location of the final piece and just when he thought all was lost, it seemed his brother got his powers back and he was able to save the day. Saying goodbye to his mother was harder than he anticipated, despite how much he wanted her gone. He wondered if that was something that Linda could explain to him.

With that thought, his next stop was the hospital to see how Linda was, and after checking in on her he headed out to let Ella know that it was safe to come back. No sooner than he hung up the phone though, he knew no more.

Chapter Text

Ella was more than a little irritated when no one seemed to care that Lucifer was missing. She’d told Decker that he’d called her and asked her to come over once she got back to town but he wasn’t there when she got there. That wasn’t like him. If he said he was going to be somewhere then he was there. Then not answering his phone just made her even more worried. She just assumed he was off on a bender or something and would turn back up ‘like he always does’. Finally, Ella stormed out and said she wasn’t coming back until she found him if no one else was going to help.

She knew that he had resolved this issue with his mother, though he hadn’t given her many details, wanting to explain in person. That was the only reason she wasn’t a complete wreck at the moment, but the thought of what could be bad enough to take out the devil was working against her. In the end, she had left him about a dozen voicemails asking him to call her and had taken to camping out as his place as she tried to find any sign of him anywhere. She was afraid that his father had stepped in and sent him back to hell.

When Lucifer came in, still dressed in the jumpsuit he took from the armored car thief, he saw Ella sleeping on the couch and couldn’t help but smile. He slipped into his room as silently as he could and jumped in the shower. He needed to get the dust off of him and get cleaned up and he wanted to look a little more presentable before he woke her up. Besides, she looked like she hadn’t been sleeping well anyway. Once he was out of the shower and dressed, he went back to the living room and sat down on the couch next to her head. “Ella love,” he called softly as he shook her shoulder gently.

“Lucifer!” she cried as she jolted awake and jumped in his arms. “I was so worried…did you just take a shower?” she asked as she realized his hair was still damp and he smelled fresh.

Lucifer chuckled. “Yes. I rather needed one and you looked so peaceful I wanted to let you sleep for a little longer.”

“Where have you been? What happened?”

“I was kidnapped and dumped in the desert,” he said matter-of-factly. “But that’s a story for later. There’s something else more important.”

“What’s that?” Ella asked curiously.

“This,” Lucifer said pulling her into a searing kiss, deepening it for the first time and she melted into it.

Once they broke apart for air, he rested his forehead against hers as they both tried to catch their breath. “Did that mean what I think it meant?”

“If you think it meant that I’m ready to do this for real, then yes,” Lucifer replied. “I want a relationship with you. Monogamy, the works.” She kissed him again, just as deeply, only barely holding herself back from taking things past the point of no return. As tempting as it was, there were other things to talk about. “Was that a yes?” he asked with a chuckle, trying not to betray his nerves.

Ella laughed. “Yes that was a yes, dork.”

“You know I’m pretty sure calling your b-boyfriend names right out the gate is a bad habit,” he teased at the same time as trying on the word for size, only stumbling over it a little bit.

Ella beamed when he called himself her boyfriend, despite the trouble he had with the word. It was to be expected after all. She declined to respond to his teasing and as much as she wanted to bask in the new relationship, she wanted to make sure he was okay first. “So how are you? Are you tired? Hungry? Have you eaten?”

Lucifer chuckled and gave her one more quick kiss before he answered her questions. “I have a bit of a new issue, but overall I’m fine. I’m not tired, but I am rather hungry. And would you mind if I borrow your phone? I’d like to check in on Linda.”

Ella nodded and handed it over. “Here, you call Linda while I make you something to eat and then we can talk about this new issue you mentioned.”

Lucifer laughed at her take charge attitude. “That sounds like a plan darling.” His check in with Linda didn’t take long. She was still in the hospital, more because she couldn’t really do much for herself just yet and had no one at home to help her. Lucifer quickly arranged for a nurse to stay with her until she was recovered. It was the least he could do for getting her into this mess in the first place.

Once he finished the call he headed to the kitchen to see what Ella was making. He slid up behind her and wrapped his arms around her stomach as he looked in the pot. “Spaghetti?”

“Yep. I know the sauce won’t be as good as yours, but…”

“Of course it will since I’ll be making it,” he said pressing a kiss to her neck before letting go and getting started.

“How’s Linda?” Ella asked.

“She’s getting there. I arranged for a nurse to go home with her so she could get out of the hospital,” he told her.

“What happened to Linda…that could have been me if she’d known about me couldn’t it?” she asked fearfully.

Lucifer nodded. “Now you see why I was so adamant to keep you off her radar. Linda and the detective were already known. You weren’t.”

“Thank you, Lucifer,” she said sincerely. “So what’s this new issue of yours?” she asked curiously.

“Well you remember how I mentioned cutting my wings off all those years ago?” he asked. When she nodded he said, “they’re back.”

Ella gasped. “How? Is that even possible?”

“Apparently so and I don’t know how. Maybe after we eat you could help me take care of them again?” he asked hopefully.

“Take care of them how?” she asked worriedly.

“Cut them off. I would but I can’t quite reach so easily. It’s far more messy and painful for me to do it myself.”

Ella considered saying no until he added that last part. If she could save him even some part of the pain, then she would. The very idea of it worried her though. It was too much like self-mutilation. At the same time though, she remembered how he said that getting rid of them the first time was the freest he’d ever felt. “How do you know they won’t come back again?” she asked trying to stall on a decision.

“They didn’t the last time. Well not for about seven years anyway. If I have to cut them off every seven years, I can live with that,” Lucifer said with a shrug.

Ella sighed and made a decision. “I’ll do it on one condition,” she said and when he looked at her questioningly, she told him, “If they come back soon, like within the next year soon, you have to leave them. If they’re here to stay I won’t have you being cut up on a regular basis before you finally accept that. Deal?”

Lucifer sighed and nodded. If they came back that quickly they probably wouldn’t be going anywhere anyway. “Agreed.”

“Good,” she said with a nod as she pulled the noodles off the stove and drained them.

After they ate, he handed her the hell-forged blade and said, “Be very careful with that, love. It’s exceptionally sharp.” When she nodded, he stripped his top half bare, knelt in the middle of the floor, and flared out his wings.

Ella gasped at the sight of them and couldn’t help running her fingers through the soft feathers for a moment before she caught herself. “Wh-where do I cut?” she asked nervously.

“If you feel where they meet my back, you’ll be able to tell where the back of the joint is. You’ll cut there,” he told her, having waited patiently for her to get over her awe.

“O-okay,” she said taking the blade and carefully cutting where he said, freezing when he grunted in pain.

“It’s fine, darling. Keep going. The quicker the better,” he told her tightly.

“Right. Okay,” Ella breathed out psyching herself up before getting to work and cutting as quickly as she accurately could, trying to ignore his grunts and whimpers. She had the first wing off in less than two minutes. “The other one now or you need a break.”

“Just get it over with,” he said tensely.

She nodded and did just that, tears streaming down her cheeks as she did. Once the other wing fell to the floor, Lucifer slumped over and she caught him around the stomach before sliding around in front of him, wiping the tears on his cheeks away with her thumbs. “Are you okay, Lu?”

He hugged her to him. “I’ll be fine, dearest. Thank you for that.” He made sure to add that last part to reiterate the fact that she had done him a favor and shouldn’t feel badly for it. He took a minute to recover before getting up and pulling her to her feet. “Is there anyone else we need to be calling to let them know I’m back safe and sound?”

Ella huffed and crossed her arms. “No. No one else even believed me that you were missing. That’s why I haven’t been back to work. I’ve been trying to find you.”

“Well that explains why you’re here in the middle of the day on a Thursday,” he joked. “We’ll get back to work tomorrow and I’ll make sure you don’t get in too much trouble over this,” he promised.

“Thank you, Lucifer,” she said relieved as he bent to pick up his wings and took them to the closet.

When he got back, he sat on the couch and pulled her down next to him. Ella happily curled up to his side, suddenly very aware that he was still shirtless, but was definitely not complaining as she laid her head on his shoulder and traced lightly over the muscles in his chest.

Lucifer sat there, enjoying her presence for a good while before he said softly, “Ella?”

“Hmm?”

“Would you think less of me if I told you I was scared?”

“Of this?” she asked and he nodded. “No. I wouldn’t. I’m scared too. Falling in…” she stopped herself and changed course. “-to a new relationship is always scary.”

Lucifer caught what she cut off and forced his breathing to stay steady, even though she could probably feel his heart beating out of his chest. No matter how scary it was, this needed to be said though. “I-I need you to know that I…I wouldn’t take this risk if I didn’t…didn’t l-love you.”

Her head snapped up to look at him in awe. Had he just said what she thought he said? “I-I love you too, Lucifer,” she whispered. He let out the breath he hadn’t realized that he’d been holding as he kissed her tenderly.