Chapter Text
“I still can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”
Chloe is a bit awestruck as she looks around the room Lucifer insisted they get for a weekend in Vegas. Well, room might not be generous enough a word; he booked the freaking Presidential suite of the Bellagio Hotel. Four thousand square feet with every amenity they (and four other people) could need, including what is admittedly a gorgeous view of the fountain and the rest of Las Vegas.
It’s Chloe’s birthday weekend and Lucifer insisted on whisking her away for a few days. When he suggested Vegas, she stared at him in shock, unable to believe he would even bring the place up again. Then he said he wanted to make new, better memories there for them, to rewrite the...less happy ones. And since Chloe insisted they not be away from home for more than a couple days, this was the compromise he came up with.
Strong arms wrap around her middle as Lucifer presses himself against her back and a kiss to her cheek. “Yes, I know, it’s a bit lacking, isn’t it?”
Turning to look at her boyfriend incredulously, Chloe says, “Lacking? Lucifer, we could live here for a week and never leave.”
A leering smile finds his lips. “Oh, now there’s an idea, Detective,” he purrs, his lips trailing down her neck. “You and me, never leaving the room for an entire week. I’d get nothing done but you.”
Chloe laughs, gently elbowing him. “Save it for later. We’ve been on the road for four hours and I need a shower. Then food.”
Lucifer smirks at her. “Well, five hours, counting our pitstop to ‘refuel’.”
She purses her lips against a smile. The Devil’s wandering hands wandered a bit too much—and Chloe’s weren’t any better—and they stopped in the middle of nowhere to have sex because neither could wait until they got here. Six months and they’re both still insatiable for each other. She hopes they always will be.
Back when she first found out the truth about Lucifer and Candy and everything celestial, it took her a few weeks to come to terms with all of it. Linda was a massive help; having another human who understood what Chloe was going through, learning it’s all real, was invaluable. Lucifer was also there to answer any and all questions she had. Once the dam was broken on what he could be honest with her about, he was almost too eager to share it all with her. There were a few topics he avoided, especially Hell and his life in the Silver City, but for the most part, his attitude was, if it helped Chloe accept him, he would talk about it. She accepted him easily, though. It was the rest of it—like God being the worst parent in the universe—that tripped her up on occasion.
Eventually, he stopped questioning whether she would run at the slightest provocation and their partnership continued as it was pre-Candy. Around the time his mother was sent to another universe, he got up the nerve to ask her out, fully expecting her to turn him down. But Chloe’s feelings for him never changed. Once she understood and got over the drama of him leaving for Vegas, she realized she had it bad for the Devil. So when he finally asked her to dinner, she said yes without hesitation. They’ve been together ever since.
In fact, this weekend also marks their six month anniversary. Chloe has never been one to celebrate that particular milestone in previous relationships, but as she’s Lucifer’s first girlfriend, he jumps on any occasion to go all out. Between that and her birthday, she got a weekend in Vegas, in the Presidential suite. With the added promise that they would actually go out and do things, rather than staying in the room all weekend having sex. Not that she isn’t eager to have sex with him at every available opportunity (even on the roadside in the desert), but it’s been years since she’s been to Vegas. She wants to do things.
Other than the Devil.
Sighing dramatically, Lucifer releases her from his embrace. “Very well, Detective,” he says. “But only if I get to scrub your back in the shower.”
Snorting a laugh, Chloe smiles. ‘Scrubbing her back’ always ends up being a euphemism for ‘shower sex’, no matter what he says. She turns to look at him, perfectly put together even after four hours (with an hour stop for multiple earth-shattering orgasms). It would be annoying if he wasn’t so beautiful. And if she didn’t love him so much.
Making a show of looking him up and down, he, of course, starts preening for her. Reaching out, she grabs a fist full of his shirt and pulls him (willingly) closer. “It better be one hell of a back scrub,” she murmurs, tipping her head back to nibble at his jaw.
His hands find her hips and slide back to her ass. “Oh, that is a deal, Detective.”
Three ‘one hell of a back scrubs’ later, Chloe and Lucifer are redressed and head out, hand-in-hand, for dinner. He suggested one of the hotel restaurants. Chloe wants something less fancy-schmancy.
“Whatever the birthday girl desires, Detective,” he says with a grin.
They find a relatively not packed diner a few blocks away from the hotel and get burgers and fries, which has become a Deckerstar staple for them. Always with no ketchup; foolish condiment that it is. Afterwards, Lucifer makes more suggestions of what they could do to fill their evening—only two of them involving more sex—and they decide to hit the casino floors for a few hours. When he gravitates towards the poker tables, Chloe raises an eyebrow.
“Doesn’t poker involve lying? Because I’m pretty sure you, you know, don’t.”
“The word you’re looking for is ‘bluffing’, Detective, much different from lying,” he says primly.
She tilts her head, unable to resist teasing him. “Is it, though?”
Narrowing his eyes at her, he pulls her to one of the high stakes tables. “Watch and learn, darling.”
Not knowing anything about poker beyond the basics, Chloe does watch and learn. As Lucifer cleans up in the two games he plays, probably just to show off his skills. At the end of the last hand of the second game, the other players throw their cards down in disappointment and Lucifer pulls all his winnings towards him—a small mountain of chips. And gives them all to Chloe.
“One of several gifts for you, my love,” he says, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
She blinks down at the bucket of chips. “Thank you?”
Next, they play Blackjack, something she’s actually decent at. But being the rational person she is, she picks a lower stakes table. Somehow, she wins every hand and sends a suspicious glance at her boyfriend, who is grinning a bit too innocently.
“What?” he asks.
“Did you...do something?” she asks under her breath as they move on to another game.
He scoffs. “With my angelic Blackjack mojo, you mean? Certainly not.”
“Uh-huh. What did you do? Because there’s no way I should have won six games in a row.”
“Perhaps you’re just that lucky.” He’s still grinning. “And you know what they say about the Devil's luck, Detective.”
Knowing he’ll never admit it to her unless she really presses—and not wanting to get the attention of the casino bosses—Chloe drops it. Every game they play, though, they ‘luckily’ win, and she knows he’s doing something. Still, she’s having fun, which is the whole point of this weekend, so she doesn’t question him.
They leave the casino with her pockets much fuller than when they stepped inside. Lucifer never admits to somehow rigging the games. Between how carefree he looks, how happy she is just being with him, and the heated looks he keeps sending her (not to mention his increasingly wandering hands), Chloe stops caring.
The rest of the night is spent wandering the city with no real destination in mind. Just Lucifer’s arm around her shoulders, pulling her as close as she can get, and hers around his waist, they walk and talk aimlessly. Every so often he leans down and kisses her for seemingly no other reason than he desires it.
It’s perfect.
“Ah.”
Chloe is watching a street performer singing when she feels Lucifer stiffen beside her. “What’s wrong?”
He’s looking across the street at a club called Fletcher’s. “It’s nothing, Detective. Shall we see what other shenanigans we can get ourselves into?”
“Or you can tell me why you suddenly look all sorts of nervous. Have you been there before?” She can’t imagine Lucifer being nervous about a club, of all things. “Wait, is that a strip club or something?”
“No, it isn’t a strip club. It’s...not important. Shall we?”
“Lucifer. What’s going on?”
Sighing, and looking like he would prefer to be literally anywhere else right now, Lucifer turns to her, resigned. “That’s the club where... Detective, it’s Candy’s club. She owns it,” he says in a rush.
“Oh.” Chloe blinks, looking between him and the club.
Ever since Candy showed up at her door to tell her things weren’t what they seemed with Lucifer, Chloe’s opinion of her has altered slightly. If not for that, she would probably still be clueless to all of it—Lucifer being the Devil, the existence of the celestial world, herself being a miracle, and that his marriage to Candy wasn’t anything more than a deal. She’s long since forgiven Lucifer for the deception. He did it in all the wrong ways, but he thought he was doing the right thing, trying to protect her from what he perceived was his father’s manipulation.
Without Candy’s interference, Chloe and Lucifer wouldn’t have what they do now—a stable relationship where they’re building a future together. And Chloe wouldn’t trade him or this life they share for anything.
“Let’s go say hi,” she suggests.
Lucifer sputters. “You want to go say hi to Candy?”
She shrugs. “Why not? We’re here, anyway. And...I don’t know. I kind of want to thank her. If she hadn’t shown up at my door that night, would you and I even be standing here together right now?”
His expression softens and he squeezes her fingers. “I don’t know. I would hope so, but...” He looks away, shrugging.
Chloe does know, though. Lucifer was too afraid to show her the truth of who he is, too afraid that she would run, that he preferred the status quo of her believing him to be another human with a traumatic past. He needed that push—they both did—to be honest with her.
Looking at her with all the considerable love in his heart, Lucifer smiles. “Yes, all right. Let’s go say hello to my...not quite ex-wife.” He winces.
Rolling her eyes at the reminder that the annulment hasn’t gone through yet, she drags him by the hand across the street, weaving through the crowds. Apparently, not even the Devil can jumpstart bureaucracy on a marriage annulment.
But it’s not like we’re in any hurry, Chloe reminds herself hastily, glancing up at Lucifer. Then again, the thought of marrying him isn’t as absurd an idea as it once was. Assuming he would want to get married—for real. She raises an eyebrow at herself. Since when is she thinking about marrying Lucifer? Must be the Vegas air.
Fletcher’s looks like any other upscale Las Vegas club without being over the top. The decor is classy and sophisticated, the lights dim but not too dark to see where they’re going. A sleek bar covers most of the left side and behind it is a wall of gleaming liquor bottles and decanters with several rows of drinking glasses of different sizes. To the right is the lounge filled with booths and tables and a stage where a woman in a sparkly fitted dress is crooning a song Chloe doesn’t recognize.
“Nice place,” Chloe muses.
Lucifer hums, looking around. “Yes, looks like Candy made out well with her end of our deal. Drink?” He leads them towards a bar where there are two seats left and huffs a wry laugh.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just—this is where I was sitting the night I came stumbling in here and met Candy for the first time,” he says, sliding onto a stool.
Chloe tilts her head. “You mean, where you tried to drink yourself blind and then Candy robbed you blind?” she teases, remembering the full story he told her.
“Yes, well, at the time, I had plenty of reasons to drink myself blind.”
Squeezing his hand, she starts to say something, but a familiar voice behind them cuts her off. “Well, if it isn’t the Devil himself.”
Chloe and Lucifer turn to find Candy smiling at them wearing dark slacks and a grey blouse that seems to be the dress code for the staff. There’s no pink in her hair this time.
“Not singing tonight?” Lucifer says in greeting, a smile of his own on his lips.
“Not tonight. Miranda needed to pick up an extra shift. But that isn’t important. What brings you back to Sin City?” Candy asks, then her eyes find Chloe and widen slightly, looking pleased. “Another Vegas wedding?” The mirth in her eyes gives away her joke—at least to Chloe.
The look of panic on Lucifer’s face is answer enough as he looks at Chloe. “No, just a weekend visit,” she answers while he stutters and stammers. It always amuses her to see him flustered.
“Not that we wouldn’t. But we aren’t...”
A look of vague disappointment flashes across Candy’s face. “Oh, sorry, I just assumed you two were together. I thought I saw you holding hands on your way in.”
“You did. And we are,” Chloe says, reaching for Lucifer’s hand. He smiles at her. “Together, I mean. Not...the wedding thing.”
“Well, one step at a time,” Candy says. “It’s good to see you both again.” She looks at the bartender approaching to take their orders. “Nick, these two drink on the house tonight.”
“Oh, lovely,” Lucifer purrs, ordering their drinks.
Chloe rolls her eyes fondly.
“So just a romantic weekend in Vegas for you two?”
“Actually, it’s the Detective’s birthday,” Lucifer says with another smile towards her. “And our six month anniversary—tomorrow, anyway,” he adds proudly.
Candy couldn’t look more pleased if she tried. “I’m so happy for you guys! Congratulations. And happy birthday, Detective Decker.”
“Oh, please, call me Chloe. I left the badge at home.”
“Chloe, then. If you give me a minute to get something sorted, we can all catch up a little. I’m dying to know how you finally got together!”
The oddity of sitting between his girlfriend and his sort of fake but not really, not quite ex-wife hasn’t escaped Lucifer’s mind as the three of them settle in a booth of the VIP area of the lounge. He’s fairly sure this is someone’s Hell Loop and keeps darting glances at Chloe, wondering if this was a mistake. But she seems to be genuinely enjoying her conversation with Candy about the best places to visit in Vegas.
“So...how did this happen?” Candy asks after a few minutes, gesturing between him and Chloe.
“Well, it started with your little detour on the way out of Los Angeles,” he answers with a raised eyebrow as he lifts his drink to his lips.
Candy just smirks at him. “You weren’t going to tell her,” she says bluntly. “I thought someone should.”
Chloe huffs a laugh. “It still took us a few months, but,” she turns to Lucifer, her eyes glittering with affection, “we got there in the end.”
“That, we did,” he murmurs, unable to resist the urge to lean in to kiss her briefly.
To think, he has Candy to thank for everything he has now. His Detective. A family. Love. Finally getting up the nerve to show Chloe the truth. As much as he would like to say he would have done it eventually, he’s not sure he would have. He was absolutely convinced he was going to lose her altogether that night, but then, she surprised him. As she tends to do.
When Chloe excuses herself to use the powder room, she presses a lingering kiss to his cheek. He’s still occasionally caught off-guard with her casual affection, having spent so long not experiencing it. Chloe has made it her goal in life to acclimatize him to such things—one of the many reasons he’s head over heels in love with her.
“You look happy.”
Blinking, Lucifer tears his gaze away from Chloe’s retreating form to meet Candy’s knowing, genuinely pleased smile. “I am,” he admits, looking down into his drink. “Incandescently so.”
“Definitely an improvement from the last time you were here.”
He scoffs. “That, it is.” He tries not to think of that time. How deep into the spiral he’d found himself, all because of a single human woman who held more power over him than anybody before her. Or as Dr. Linda likes to tell him, who he’d given that power to, and quite willingly. “I wanted to thank you, Candy, for doing what I couldn’t in regards to the Detective.”
Candy’s smile softens. “I’m sorry for going behind your back. It’s just...you did so much for me and I wanted to do something for you. You deserve to be happy, Lucifer, and from what I could tell, the only way that would happen was with Chloe.”
“You aren’t wrong. She is undoubtedly the best thing to ever happen to me, and I very nearly ruined it all.” He shakes his head in consternation. “But between the two of you, I believe I’ve been set on the right path again.”
“Doing your best to do right by her?” Candy guesses.
“As well as I can. Perhaps I don’t always get it right—there’ve been several missteps in our relationship—but Chloe is quite adamant that we talk about those things.”
“Well, she’s crazy about you,” Candy says simply. “It’s written all over her face when she looks at you.”
Lucifer smiles, wonder and awe and warmth spreading through him. He’s starting to see that himself. Starting to let Chloe choose him the way he’s always desired, and choosing her every day they wake up tangled together. “It’s been quite the rollercoaster of a year.”
Candy tilts her head curiously. “Did you ever get all that stuff with your mom straightened out? She was...quite a character.”
He snorts wryly at the understatement. “I did, as a matter of fact. Mum is currently in her own universe, hopefully starting anew. I barely stopped her from exploding the world apart before she left, but I think she finally understood I’m where I desire to be.”
She blinks at him, her face going blank the way humans do when he starts talking celestial matters and they either think he’s insane or don’t know how to respond. “Well, I’m glad the world didn’t explode...?”
Lucifer smiles blandly at her and changes the subject. “And how are you, my dear? I trust our favor paid off for you?”
Candy’s expression clears and her eyes light up. “It did, actually. I haven’t had any trouble with loan sharks and Fletcher's is flourishing. Lucifer, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me,” she says sincerely. “You saved my life. You saved my father’s legacy. That’s...” She shakes her head, looking choked up. “Thank you.”
“Well, you helped me during a difficult period of my life, it’s the least I could have done,” he says softly.
Clearing her throat, Candy takes a sip of her drink. “So...what else do you have planned for your epic romantic weekend in Vegas? Anything good?”
Lucifer smirks to himself. “Oh, quite good, I assure you,” he purrs. “But the Detective doesn’t like it when I share those sorts of personal details.”
Candy grins at him. “I more meant are you two doing anything special outside the hotel room?”
“Oh, well, yes. As a matter of fact, I’ve procured tickets to several shows. We probably won’t get to them all, but it will give the Detective a selection to choose from. And...well, I’ve something rather special planned for tomorrow night. But if I shared those, I’m afraid I’d have to kill you. No witnesses, and all that,” he teases.
“Ooh, that sounds promising.”
He’s been planning tomorrow for weeks, wanting to get every detail perfect. Because Chloe deserves perfection. She deserves everything good this world has to offer. Why she’s settling for the Devil himself, he will never understand. “I certainly hope so. The last couple of years have been quite difficult for her, and while I’m not sure I can make up for all of it, I can take her mind off it a bit.”
Candy raises an eyebrow. “Hey, don’t sell yourself short—”
“Oh, darling, nothing about me is short,” he says with a smirk.
She laughs. “What I’m saying is, you’re better than you give yourself credit for,” she clarifies. “I mean, we knew each other a matter of hours after I stole your stuff, and you were offering to pay off my debts.”
“That was a mutually beneficial deal.”
“Still. You didn’t know anything about me. You certainly didn’t owe me anything. And yet, you did more for me than anybody ever has,” she says sincerely. “I really cannot put into words what that means to me, Lucifer. You are the Devil with a heart of gold, and if I could see that after the short time we worked together, then Chloe definitely does.”
A bit stunned, he turns back to his drink, clearing his throat. “Yes, well. You taught me the benefits of drinking wine, eating ice cream, and talking about one’s trouble with a girlfriend whilst wearing a pink snuggie. It really was the least I could do.”
Candy only shakes her head with a secret smile, as if he isn’t entirely catching her drift, but they change the subject until the Detective returns.
The rest of the evening is spent drinking and chatting while listening to good music in even better company. All Lucifer can think is how the first time he was here, the only thing he wanted was to have Chloe at his side. To find a way that they could remain in each other’s lives, even if only as partners, and even if it wasn’t what either of them truly desired. Candy helped make that possible, not only by agreeing to his deal, but by going to Chloe before leaving Los Angeles to tell her there was more to the story.
Right before she left, Candy told him that he saved her life and that she would owe him for the rest of it. But Lucifer is the one who owes her; will owe her for the rest of his own life. Without her interference, Chloe wouldn’t be smiling at him the way she is currently; they wouldn’t have the future together that they do. And he’s made a dear friend out of the deal.
At the end of the night, hugs are exchanged all around and Lucifer invites Candy back to Los Angeles some time in the near future, to show her what the City of Angels truly has to offer.
“It was so great seeing you again, Chloe,” Candy says, hugging the Detective. “And I’m so glad everything worked out for you two.”
Chloe smiles, flicking her eyes towards Lucifer who can’t help returning it. “So am I. Thank you for everything.”
“It was the least I could do,” the other woman says modestly. She sends Lucifer a wink as she repeats his earlier words.
Making a mental note to find a way to send Candy and Fletcher’s extra funds in case unforeseen circumstances arise in the future, Lucifer gives one last smile to his (not quite) ex-wife and leads Chloe out of the club.
“I like her,” she muses on their walk back to the hotel.
“Do you?”
She hums. “A lot more than I thought I would, to be honest. She really cares about you, and I think you need more of that in your life.”
Lucifer looks at her in surprise. “I wouldn’t say she cares; I proposed a deal that paid off for the both of us. It was a business transaction, darling. Nothing more.”
Chloe shakes her head. “One of these days, you’ll realize how much good you do in this world, Lucifer. I’m making it my life’s mission to see to it.”
“And here I thought your life’s mission was to work through the Kama Sutra with the Devil.”
She shoots him a look. “No, that’s your life’s mission.”
“Well, I am the Devil, and some of those positions are—”
“That isn’t what I meant and you know it.”
Laughing, Lucifer presses a kiss to her temple. “Either way, I’m glad the two of you hit it off. I told you she was quite lovely.”
“Okay, sure, on this one occasion you were right,” she mock-grudgingly admits.
The rest of the walk back is full of teasing that quickly turns to heated looks that make him want to drag her into the nearest dark corner. Instead, he simply enjoys being here with her. The love of his very long life who he spent eons unknowingly searching for and never has any intention of letting go of again.
He hadn’t known when he made the deal with Candy whether any of it would work out in the slightest. And he certainly hadn’t known she would take the initiative to speak to Chloe on his behalf. But Lucifer can’t help but feel grateful towards the woman who robbed him blind then helped him find his way. Stumbling into Fletcher’s that night turned out to be the best decision he’d made in quite some time.
He only hopes Candy continues to find happiness of her own.