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Azrael reached toward the doorbell, then hesitated. She shifted from foot to foot, reached again, hesitated again. She cast a glance over her shoulder, but, no, the Lyft driver had already left. She exhaled a short, sharp breath. "This is completely weird." But, really, it would probably be less weird than her earlier conversation with Linda and Amenadiel. She straightened her hair, tugged at her shirt, then reached forward and rang the doorbell.
"They're here!" The voice, shrill with excitement, was followed by pounding footsteps, and then Trixie flung the door open. "Hi!" She peered behind Azrael as Chloe came up behind her daughter, asking, "Where's Lucifer?"
"Easy, baby," Chloe prompted, resting a hand on Trixie's shoulder. Her gaze dropped to Azrael's shirt and her brows lifted, but she continued, "This is Rae. Rae, this is Trixie." Still, her expression was curious about her partner's absence.
Azrael shifted her weight to her back foot. "He had a meeting at LUX," she replies, adding, "Nice to meet you, Trixie."
"I'll just bet he did," Chloe muttered.
Trixie looked briefly disappointed, then grinned up at Azrael. "Want to color?"
After casting a knowing glance at Chloe, Azrael replied, caught off-guard, "Color what?"
Trixie grabbed Azrael's hand. "Come on," she encouraged, tugging Azrael behind her to the breakfast bar, which was strewn with paper, coloring books, and writing implements of all kinds.
Chloe closed the door and followed the girls. "It's good to see you, Rae. I'm glad you came. How are you settling in?"
"Fine," Azrael replied, climbing into a seat next to Trixie and studying the girl's partially completed drawing with interest. "I mean, not that living with Lucifer isn't taking some adjustments, but it's okay."
Trixie looked at Azrael, her expression frankly curious. "Are you really Lucifer's sister?"
"Trixie!" Chloe chided.
Azrael just smiled, replying, "I am. Why do you ask?"
"Because Lucifer is old," Trixie replied, adding red stripes to the side of her spaceship, "and you're a kid."
Azrael's smile widened for just a moment, then she reached to take a colored pencil, flipping it over and under the fingers of her right hand. "Oh, he's positively ancient," she agreed, "but he's one of the oldest in my family and I'm one of the youngest. There are a lot of us."
Trixie nodded, seeming to accept this. "Does he read you stories at bedtime?" she queried, as Chloe moved to the couch and took up her laptop.
Azrael considered the coloring books and chose a page with an underwater scene, absently shading the seaweed. "No," she replied. "he's not really a bedtime story sort of person."
A quiet snort sounded from the couch, and Azrael grinned.
"But what about your mommy and daddy?" Trixie persisted, adding a smallish, dark-haired astronaut next to the spaceship.
Azrael's lips curved at the thought of those particular designations applying to her parents. She moved on to the coral in her picture, shading it vibrant colors. "Well," she said, as Chloe took herself and a phonecall into the next room, "I live with Lucifer, for now. I used to live with my dad, and he's not the reading type, either." Slanting a glance at Trixie, she added, anticipating, "Nor my mother, when she lived with us."
"Oh." Trixie looked up at Azrael, her small face serious. "Are they divorced?"
Azrael nodded. "That's kind of an understatement."
"Mine, too - or they're going to be." Trixie kicked lightly at the side of the breakfast bar.
"Sorry," Azrael replied, expression sympathetic. "It sucks, huh?" As Trixie's eyes widened, Azrael added, "Was I not supposed to say that?"
Trixie shook her head, turning back to her coloring. "I won't tell."
"Thanks."
The pair colored in companionable silence for a few minutes. "It does," Trixie said finally.
Azrael looked up from the pair of crabs she was sketching into the bottom of the picture, below some fish. "What does what?"
"It-" Trixie peered in the direction her mother had vanished, then lowered her voice, whispering, "Sucks."
Azrael rubbed lightly at her forehead. Wasn't being a bad influence Lucifer's job? "You sad?" she asked gently. Trixie nodded. "Maybe a little mad?"
The smaller girl nodded again, though more slowly. "But I don't want to make Mommy sad." She put down her crayon, staring at her unfinished drawing.
Azrael put down her colored pencil and leaned in closer to Trixie, forearms resting on the top of the breakfast bar. Perhaps unconsciously, the smaller girl mirrored her pose, dark eyes intent on Azrael. "Your mom's a cop?" Azrael queried. Trixie nodded. "She's tough, right?"
"Yeah!" Trixie's braids swung with the force of her nod, her pride in her mother evident.
"So she can handle a little sad," Azrael reassured. "She's your mom. If you feel bad, she wants to help, and she's not going to let a little sad stop her, or even a lot of sad."
Trixie's expression was uncertain, but then both girls looked over when Chloe spoke from the doorway, her phone still in hand. "She's right, Monkey. Hey, c'mere."
Trixie slid down from the stool and ran to Chloe, hugging her and burrowing her face into her mother's side. As Chloe crouched down and began speaking urgently with her daughter, Azrael eased down from her own seat. Behind her and down a short hallway lay escape from the intensity of the moment: a powder room. Azrael closed the door quietly behind her and, after a moment spent surveying the room, perched on the toilet.
"This is what I've come to," Azrael mused, though not without a trace of amusement. "The Angel of Death - on hiatus - hiding in a bathroom."
When enough time had passed that Azrael judged that maybe Chloe and Trixie had had enough time to talk, she opened the door.
Mazikeen was there, standing hipshot, one hand on her hip. Azrael recoiled back a step. "Have you just been standing there, waiting for me to open the door?" she sputtered, trying to regain her composure.
"What are you doing here?" Maze demanded.
"I was invited," Azrael replied. "What are you doing here?"
Maze smirked. "I live here."
Azrael stared at the demon in shocked outrage. "My brother lets you-"
"Your brother," Maze interrupted sharply, stepping forward with menace, "doesn't let me do anything."
Azrael stumbled backwards a step, hands lifting in a warding gesture.
"Wow, you really are scared of me," Maze marveled, her ire vanishing.
Azrael swallowed hard, then looked up at Maze. "Of course I'm scared of you," she replied, her voice quiet but intent. She gestured at her chest in a sharp, impatient move. "Fragile mortal body, here. And you-" She didn't finish, looking down.
"Yeah, I remember." Mazikeen looked down on Azrael, some of the predatory gleam disappearing from her expression. "I never told Lucifer about that."
Azrael's brows furrowed. "I would have thought you'd have shouted it from the rooftops," she offered.
"Wasn't sure what Lucifer would do," Maze replied, with a shrug.
Azrael almost smiled. "Yeah, I can see that. He was a little more, ah, volatile then than he seems to be now. But this place, these people... he's different."
Maze started to answer, then half-turned to look over her shoulder.
"Everything all right in there?" Chloe called from the hallway. "Maze, let her out of there."
Maze stepped to she side and Azrael edged past. "You two know each other?"
Maze slung an arm around Azrael's shoulders, ignoring the girl's flinch. "Oh, yeah," she said brightly. "Azrael and me, we go way back."
"Feels like an eternity," Azrael murmured, ducking from under the demon's arm and starting down the hallway.
Chloe caught at Azrael's arm. "Hey," she said gently. "What you said to Trixie - thanks. I think maybe she needed to hear it from someone who's been there."
Azrael's gaze flicked to Chloe's hand, still on her arm, then back to the detective's face. After a moment, she said, "Oh, no problem. It's hard when your parents have troubles. I can relate." She looked for a moment as if she would say something more, but then slipped past Chloe to rejoin Trixie.
After a moment, Maze followed, though she continued on to her own room. Chloe stood in the hallway watching the two girls. "She reminds me of someone," she murmured. "Just can't put my finger on who."
Some time later, after more coloring and some chocolate chip cookies, which Trixie insisted in also sharing with Maze, the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it," Trixie announced, dashing to the door and opening it. "Lucifer!" she announced gleefully, throwing her arms around him.
Azrael, ensconced on the couch next to Chloe, did not bother to hide her amusement at Lucifer's discontent. Fortunately for Lucifer, Trixie pulled away after a moment to inform him, "You need to read Rae a bedtime story tonight."
Lucifer looked past the little girl to his sister, who shrugged, lifting her hands as if to deny responsibility. "I assure you that Rae is literate," Lucifer informed the expectant Trixie. "Multiple languages, even. There's no need for bedtime stories."
"Trixie, it's fine," Azrael called from the couch.
"Mommy could read to you if Lucifer won't," Trixie offered, moving to perch on the arm of the couch next to Azrael. Eyes lighting, she added, "You could sleep over!"
Lucifer strolled to stand behind the couch. "Now there's a marvelous idea, Beatrice! What do you say, Detective? Would you read me a story, too? I've got some suggestions for reading material. Some even have pictures," he added, with a cheerful brow-waggle.
"Monkey, remember, you're going to Daddy's soon," Chloe said, shooting Lucifer a quelling look. "Maybe another time."
Seeing Trixie's expression cloud, Azrael added, "I couldn't stay tonight anyway, Trixie."
Chloe smiled warmly at Azrael. "You're welcome any time, Rae." Looking up, she added to Lucifer, "She was an angel."
"Was she, now?" Lucifer queried, casting a pointed look at his sister. "Not lately, I didn't think."
Azrael sighed. "Figure of speech," she muttered.
"Rae, don't forget your picture!" Trixie hopped down from the couch and dashed to the breakfast bar, returning with the picture. Studying it, she queried, "Do the crabs think the fish are flying?"
Azrael scooted forward to see and Trixie obligingly moved closer, leaning lightly against the older girl. "Yes," Azrael decided with a smile.
Chloe got up to stand next to Lucifer, who was watching the girls with no small amount of bemusement. "They got along really well," Chloe said, smiling.
"I can see that," Lucifer replied, still sounding puzzled.
"Don't sound so surprised," Chloe teased. "Rae's a sweet girl and Trixie is, well, Trixie. Hey, baby," she added to her daughter. "Time to get ready. Daddy will be here soon."
Lucifer straightened. "Well, then, we should depart as well," he said.
Trixie dashed into her room, returning moments later with her backpack. She hugged Lucifer, which he tolerated, and then Azrael, who hugged back before getting to her feet.
"Come back soon, okay?" Trixie said hopefully, and Azrael nodded.
"Definitely," she agreed, before turning to her brother.
"Farewell, Detective," Lucifer said brightly. "Beatrice, be sure to give your father plenty of trouble tonight." Ushering Azrael to the door, he added, amused, "Coloring?"
"Strangely relaxing," Azrael observed, casting a smile and a wave over her shoulder to Chloe and Trixie. "You should try it."
The door closed behind them and Trixie settled into her mother's lap. "I really like her, Mommy," the little girl said.
"Me, too, baby," Chloe replied, cuddling her daughter closer. "Me, too."