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He was certain that he was being observed.
He looked around once more. There wasn't anyone lurking in the shadows. The Detective wasn’t back yet. He resumed taking a page from the notepad on his lap.
The sounds of the tearing paper were loud even in the busy precinct.
You’re a good man Lucifer!
Crunching the paper was just as loud as tearing it.
Stop it! Marcus is a good man!
Well, the Detective was clearly wrong on both accounts. But at least she got the man part right on Cain’s case.
He threw the paper ball across the hall, aiming for the trash can. He missed it. It crashed into the wall and then on the floor with two resonant tunds. It was not a problem. He had a whole notepad to tear apart. He started all over again.
Oh, the sounds of the tearing paper were loud (even in the busy precinct?). Lucifer acknowledged that it was impossible to tear paper so loudly, even if you’re the devil. It would explain why no one was complaining of his loudly tearing and crunching of paper. Why no one either seemed to notice him wasting stationary.
Someone passed by and complained of the trash he scattered around. He drew a paper ball and managed to hit the man’s forehead, dead center. In the distance, he heard Dan complaining about his ability to hit him but not the trashcan. When has he ever hit Dan? Was he talking about that time after Uriel’s death that he had punched Dan?
Uriel was dead. He has killed his own brother. In a sense, he also was the first murder of his species, just like Cain. Could he claim that he learned that from humans? He didn’t think so, because it kind of was born with free will, right?
Free-will.
Funny thing that was free-will.
People seemed to think it was born within mankind, that he envied humanity because of it. But in the beginning, there was only the Path. The Will.
No, free-will was born from his rebellion. And once there was free-will, strange things started to blossom. First, there was Destiny. Oh, the irony! But Destiny was a human thing, separated from the Almighty. He was totally different from the Path.
If only he wasn’t such a dick.
Free-will led to Destiny, which led to bad choices, which led to a couple of humans being expulsed from the Garden. And then there was Death.
Yeah, maybe Abel’s death was Lucifer’s fault, in the end, and not Cain’s. Could he ever ask Death about it?
He has never seen Death. Destiny, yes. Dream? More than he was comfortable with. He sometimes saw Delirium around, lurking in the bottom of a glass, behind the next snort. She never approached him, though. It was a pity, he liked her. He thinks he would like to meet her.
(Once upon a time, just when time began to be a thing, Amenadiel came to Hell and told him about Delight. He has never seen her as Delight. Sometimes he wondered if that was also his fault.)
He closed his eyes and here it was again, the feeling of being observed. Observed by many, many eyes.
He looked around once again. Looking for demons in the shadows that he knew weren’t there. He half expected to see Delirium in the distance. She usually lurked around him in Lux, but with the little sleep he has had in the last few days he wouldn’t be surprised if she were following him. But no, she was not here. The only one of them that was somehow a constant in his life was Desire, anyway.
“Did you call me?”
He looked up to see her, because she was a she today, looking down at him. He took a moment to assess his position (yes, he was still sitting on the Detective’s chair, still on the precinct). It took a full second for him to realize that she was so tall because she was somehow kneeling on his lap.
As always she smelled as a ripe peach. She never did weight more than one.
She was hot as a summer morning on his lap.
“I didn’t.” He replied.
“Yeah, you never do. You never call any of us.”
He thought about Delirium, lurking around the next stolen moment on Lux. Would she come to him if she called her? Could he ever do this?
Would Death come?
“She would love if you called her, you know? She is quite a bit enamored by you.”
“Who is?”
“All of us.”
Lucifer arched one eyebrow.
“I was talking about Despair. She has been looking at you. From the windows, you know?”
That explained why he felt observed by so many eyes. By so many mirrors!
“Why are you here?” Lucifer asked. Desire was dressed as scantly as it could be to it still be considered as dressed. Her strong tights were firm against his hips. When he rested his hand on one of them, the naked skin also felt like a peach warmed by the summer sun.
“I’m jealous.”
“Isn’t that your default mode?” He asked her. He moved his thumb along her also bare side. She moaned.
“You used to let me in alone before. Now my twin is always breathing on our necks, looking at you. Being with you.”
For one moment he thought to answer her that that has always been the state of things. The twins were always together because you only desire what you can’t have, so Desire would always bring Despair with it. But then he caught it. He was the Morning Star. He was above such things. He never truly desired anything to suffer from the despair of it. Not before the Detective.
He was just pathetic.
“Oh, my Light. How could you?” Desire purred, inclining forward to plant a hungry kiss on his lips.
When she leaned back he had a bitten lip and she had blood on her teeth. The hunger in her hazel eyes was like what he would expect on a demon’s.
He wasn’t aware he has spoken that part aloud. It wasn’t any less true, was it?
“Why are you here?”
“Why am I always? Because I live in the heart of Desire and the only thing that I do desire is you. Has always been.”
Lucifer closed his eyes. Now that he knew what to look for, he could see in his mind Despair’s eyes. She was just as hungry as her twin.
“So tell me, how could you ever be pathetic?” She leaned over once again. This time Lucifer evaded her kiss.
Someone groaned in the distance. Lucifer didn’t bother to find out why.
“What is it that you want? That I admit my Father won? That finally I desire something? That this desire will kill me, day by day?”
Not only has the Detective made him vulnerable. She has made him mortal. Having died for her twice so far, shouldn’t he now that already?
“We respect your Father, my Prince. But it is you who we love. It is you who created us. Ultimately, it is only you who have any power over us.”
“What do you mean?” He asked, finally taken by surprise.
“Oh. Maybe you are indeed a little pathetic right now, my Morning Star. Too much time among humans, too little sleep, too little pleasure. We can’t have it, can we?”
She leaned into him again but didn’t touch him. She seemed content to just keep breathing against his mouth, gazing into his eyes.
“That free-will stint. You know it is a thing because you let it be. Just like us. Your Father has no power over it. He has no power over me, just as I have no power over you.”
Desired caressed his temple. She deposited a dry kiss against his right eyelid. She whispered the only thing in the universe that could bring Delight into being.
“Your detective desires you on her own free-will.”
This time, when she tried to kiss him, he let her.
Someone groaned again in the distance. But the precinct was very quiet against the rush on his ears.
The opening of her wings was loud enough to break the spell. Suddenly it was not Desire anymore on his lap. It was Death.
Death skin was cold. She weighed a ton. He could feel Despair’s eyes like daggers on his nape.
Her presence filled his stomach with lead.
Death leaned down to kiss him. He jerked, avoiding the contact as best as he could.
The smell of peach lingered on his nose for a full second and then it was gone.
“Oh, my Light. I’m sorry. But I must conform to what is most desired. I thought you’d like to see it.”
She climbed down and kneeled at his feet. Lucifer looked beyond the wings that probably only he could see and saw her double shadow on the floor.
He has never seen Death. But he heard her wings, more than once.
He was relieved that it was not yet time to meet her.
__________________________________
Chloe has gone out with Marcus to buy a coffee. She was happy enough to take a break, but then guilt started to consume her heart.
In the end, she compromised in bringing Lucifer a cup. He looked like he needed it.
(no, he looked like he needed sleep. But he refused to rest, and she feared that he would truly break if she didn’t treat him with some care.)
When she came back, it wasn’t for the scene she hoped to.
Lucifer was seated in her chair with the most stunning woman ever on his lap. Well, actually that was pretty common. The thing is, she was there sitting on his lap in the middle of the precinct like it was no big deal, with (three, at least) men looking at then at a distance with obvious hard-ons tending their trousers. But besides the porn-like position, that woman wasn’t actually doing anything explicit. She was just caressing Lucifer’s face, drinking in his eyes and his scent. It was oddly intimate.
Chloe saw her kissing him one time, drunk on the blood she had drawn earlier from his lips. She cringed but was paralyzed on the spot. And then she saw the woman leaning again and Lucifer jerking violently from her. That broke the spell somehow and she was just going there and demand that she unhanded Lucifer that instant under charges of assault when the woman just climbed away and kneeled at his feet, looking up at his face adoringly.
Subservient.
Devoted.
In love.
Chloe didn’t know what to think besides that it shouldn’t really be surprising, at all.
She was standing up. She offered Lucifer a hand that he took.
“I’m going then.”
“Thank you for coming.”
“You, my Light, my purpose, have all of us.”
She lifted Lucifer’s hand to her lip but refrained from kissing it. She opted to lightly caress it with her check, instead.
Who was this woman? What kind of relationship was that? Was that what Lucifer was really used to? Could Chloe be someone like that? Who did Chloe think she was to compare, anyway? It was a good thing she had Marcus at her side…
No, not at her side. While she was lost in thought the woman had turned around to leave. Marcus was now firmly planted at her feet, supplicating a morsel of her attention.
Just one kiss. Just one, he kept supplicating her. Just one caress, he insisted.
When she negated him her attentions and turned to go, Marcus looked insane on the floor. Seconds later he madly threw himself against Lucifer, who was caught unaware and was tackled to the floor. Marcus was able to hit two punches directly in Lucifer’s face before Dan and another officer managed to take the Lieutenant from over the self-proclaimed devil.
Chloe was too heartbroken to react at first.
__________________________________
A couple of hours later, after Chloe had cleaned his face, he had awkwardly confessed his feelings for her. He had also confessed his insecurities.
She responded by leaning in and kissing him.
He had his eyes closed and couldn’t be sure, but he could feel Delight lurking in the shadows.