Work Text:
It’s been a month since Lucifer told Chloe he loved her, and he hasn’t said it again once.
She’s sitting at her desk in the precinct, where she’s decided to work again following Lucifer’s realisation that he doesn’t want to be God, and he’s beside her. Looking through notes on the case they’re currently working on and feeling a million miles away.
Since realising that he hasn’t repeated the words, Chloe has been keeping a distance from him. A part of her says it’s because she doesn’t want to overwhelm him or force him to say something he doesn’t want to, but the other is blaring at her that it’s because she’s angry. After all they’ve been through, he can’t even say a few simple fucking words? He said it once, after all- what’s stopping him from saying it again?
She types a sentence into the search bar and then deletes it again. Fuck. It’s Impossible to think straight right now.
Talking to Linda hasn’t even been too much of a success- the doctor had told her that being shy about confessing love wasn’t unusual for someone with his childhood, and deep down Chloe knows that it’s true. She knows that it isn’t the fault of her partner that he doesn’t know how proper relationships work, it’s the fault of his almightily awful father. Still, though, that doesn’t stop her from feeling emotional about it. It’s less anger, more... hurt.
Did he not mean it?
She takes a deep breath and tries to refocus on the task at hand- trying to locate one of the suspects they’re looking for in the case. Her hands drift back to the keyboard and type in a few more letters.
Next to her, Lucifer is tapping his index finger against the desk absently as he leafs through the files. It’s an annoying habit he’s picked up recently, following the battle, and though it may be some kind of nervous tic, she finds herself increasingly unnerved by it. Unnerved by him.
Of course, she’s just projecting her frustration about how much his father fucked up, but it’s easier to just pretend she’s mad at him and him only.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It isn’t even a regular beat, and that makes it all the more aggravating.
She slides her chair back and stands up, sweeping past him towards the precinct vending machine just so she can get away for a moment. A mixture of anger and guilt about feeling so angry floods her as she punches in the number for a packet of cool ranch puffs.
God, why is she getting him stuff even when she’s angry at him?
Feeling a little calmer after a few seconds, she returns to him and plants the packet on his desk. He looks up from where he’s studying the paper and examines the packaging with a kind of animal interest before raising his eyes to her and smiling.
‘Thank you, Detective.’
As she sits down and her investigating begins again, so does the infernal tapping.
She’s listening to the vic’s last phone call over and over again to find something, anything of value that might lead her to the whereabouts of the killer. Aside from the crackling of static and a few things banging around in the background, she has nothing.
Pressing pause on the voice message, she puts down the phone and turns away from it. There’s no way she’s going to get to the bottom of this tonight. It’s already too late.
As she rises from her chair, Lucifer looks up and rises from his.
‘You ready to leave?’ he asks.
She nods. ‘Yeah, I think I’ll try more tomorrow.’
They walk together out of the precinct, and though tension is still unbelievably high between them, he still slips his hand into hers. Continues tapping even when it’s just skin he’s meeting with his index finger, not the surface of a desk.
The phone ringing wakes Chloe from a light doze on the penthouse couch, Lucifer strewn out across her asleep.
She blinks until her vision returns to her and glances lazily over to the screen to check the caller ID, only to find that it’s Ella calling. Her hand blindly reaches over and swipes at the notification until it stops and lets her in, then brings it to her ear.
‘...’Lo?’
Ella’s voice on the other end is excitable, even more than usual.
Hey, hey, sorry to wake you if I did but I figured it out! I know who the killer is!
Chloe sits up ramrod straight, all traces of tiredness leaving her instantly. ‘Wait, what? How? I listened to that message for ages and I couldn’t get anything!’
That’s just the thing, Chloe- it wasn’t about what the message was *saying* but what it wasn’t!
‘I’m... not following.’
Well, the message didn’t contain any real speech, right?...’
‘Right.’
Wrong! I enhanced the audio in the background, and it was Morse code- spelled out a name that matches up to a guy on the data base with a prior record! I mean, it might not be him that killed her but-
Ella’s speech quickly blurs into a meaningless mixture of words that don’t even penetrate Chloe’s mind. It’s a great discovery but she’s really tired. Like, really tired.
‘Thanks, Ella.’ She eventually manages to blurt. ‘So much. And thanks for letting me know’.
It’s no problem. I’ll leave you alone now- tell Lucifer hi from me!
Chloe smiles fondly. ‘Will do. Talk to you later, Ella.’
Bye!
The second the conversation ends, she sinks deeper into the leather of the couch and rubs the bridge of her nose. Damn, it’s been a long day.
Lucifer shifts, burying his nose in her shirt, and she can’t ignore the way it brings a smile to her face. Why does he have to be so adorable when she’s trying to be annoyed? Unconsciously, she gently strokes the shorter hairs at the nape of his neck, and he mumbles happily. Then tap, tap, taps on the couch.
Chloe pauses.
Recalls and watches the movements.
Tap tap.
Pause.
Tap taaap tap tap-- taaap taaap taaap-- tap tap tap taaap-- tap.
Pause.
Taaap tap taaap taaap-- taaap taaap taaap—tap tap taaap.
Her eyebrows furrow, and she finds herself picking up her phone again. Typing into the search bar a number of dots and dashes, then pressing enter. It may be that she’s just overthinking his meaningless pattern of taps, it’s probably just a-
Morse code translator:
.. .-.. --- ...- . -.-- --- ..- = I love you.
All of the tension that she’s been holding in her shoulders drains out immediately, leaving her almost dizzy.
He’s...
He’s been telling her all this time?
In a matter of milliseconds, the events of the past few days flash through her mind.
When he’d first started tapping on the desk, seemingly not even concentrating on what his fingers were doing while he was reading files. I love you .
When he’d taken her by the hand, squeezing it gently before tapping the same pattern against her skin. I love you .
When he’d embraced her last night, arms wrapping around her as his hands seemed to tap nervously against her back. I love you.
She sucks in a wavering breath. Everything she had been so concerned about, all of the worries that had been eating her away about his feelings for her crumble and leave behind only the ruins of guilt. She’s been pushing him away for weeks now, thinking that he was backing out- not even considering what Linda had been saying.
A specific piece of advice the doctor had given springs to mind, somehow forgotten but now found again.
‘Just keep watch,' she’d said, her eyes twinkling in that way they did when she was saying something important. ‘You’ll find he shows you his affection in other ways.’
Chloe blinks, and the penthouse blurs behind a wall of tears. God, she’s been so stupid.
She leans down and presses a kiss to his cheek. ‘I love you’ she whispers.
He doesn’t stir.
Lucifer holds up the stark yellow tape around the crime scene like usual, allowing Chloe to duck underneath and walk in front of him. She does so, but waits up before continuing on so that he too can pass the threshold and follow her towards where Ella is standing. Offers him a hand.
He takes it, a light smile on his face- and as they walk onwards, Chloe taps a gentle pattern onto the back of his hand.
.. .-.. --- ...- . -.-- --- ..-
It’s only a split second, but she sees a flash of emotion on his face. Something that can only be described as the wonder of acceptance. He swallows, Adam’s apple bobbing, and though he doesn’t look in her direction, she swears she can see the glisten of moisture in his eyes.
He squeezes her hand, and taps the same message back to her.
A silent confirmation.
I love you, Chloe.
I love you, Lucifer. .
An eternity of promises for when words are too hard.