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"Mulan, Detective, really?" Lucifer asks Chloe, his voice veering perilously close to an air of complaint. The cackles of people in paddleboats reverberate through the air. Six blocks away, the house that she and Dan used to share in Echo Park sits empty, the occupants on their way to her location. Chloe checks the time, realizing that the bell at Trixie's elementary school must have rung by now.
"Out of all those basic bitch princesses, Mulan at least knows what's up." Maze, clad in a loose black minidress, offers.
"Language," Chloe automatically interjects.
"Relax," Maze whines, grasping a carrot from the vegetable tray. "Kid's not even here yet. Also, Mulan? Closest to a demon. Suffocation is a popular form of torture back home."
To Chloe's abject wonder, it appears as though Lucifer is weighing Maze's insights as though this topic of conversation makes any amount of sense. The bounty hunter tilts her head as she chomps into the carrot before dipping her finger in potato salad to sample.
"Maze! Use a spoon! Lucifer–"
"That is entirely the point, Mazikeen! Now, if I had known that ridiculous man-child with daddy issues–"
"Now, doesn't that sound familiar." Maze grumbles and Chloe bites back a chortle as she looks up into the sun and meets her roommate's eyes. The detective’s powder blue day-dress floats in the breeze, a white cardigan laid to the side in case it gets blustery, loose tendrils of her flaxen hair tickling her nose. Chloe holds her hands up to her forehead to try and see Lucifer, an apprehensive and exasperated look plastered to his face. It is a look that Chloe knows all too well.
Groaning, he raises his flask from the heather grey suit he has chosen for this event, and she finds herself bemused by how overdressed he is. They arranged for an evening of fun at the park, boat rides, cake, and then head to the pier after Dan goes home for the night. All of the activities scream grease, grunge, sand, salt, and water. Elements that Chloe knows do not bode well for light-coloured dry-clean-only items.
At least he went without a vest. Chloe ruminates.
"As I was saying before, I was so rudely interrupted was that if Disney was going to include actual historical figures in crude renditions of his artistic expression, I would have probably refrained from giving him the help he required."
Really, it wouldn't have been because he was a known racist and bigot, Chloe contemplates to herself before adding, I doubt Disney planned for Mulan considering he died thirty years before it came out.
But the detective knows that it would be playing into his metaphors to do so, and today's not the day.
Instead, she responds, "And you don't live with her."
Maze comes around behind her and encompasses Chloe's shoulder in solidarity.
"It's not Frozen or Tangled. So, excuse us for finding it a little refreshing to not have to hear 'Let It Go' for the four millionth time even if," Chloe looks over to Maze, "Some of Trixie's reasons for loving it are not entirely wholesome."
Maze yanks her hand off Chloe's shoulder and holds both of her hands out defensively.
"I'm not going to apologize for teaching her how to take care of herself."
Chloe gathers up the items Maze had been laying out and continues to arrange them, so there are Six spots set. Lucifer huffs heavily, crowding Chloe from behind and rearranging the napkins she just laid out.
Here we go. Chloe bites her lip, her pulse quickens as he enters her space, seemingly oblivious to his effect on her currently. Affection pools within her, and she chastises herself. Chloe concentrates on Lucifer’s hands as he fusses, graceful and skilled as he folds the tissue portions into triangles before depositing them underneath the utensils. She feels her hand tremor, itching to touch him, and before she knows it, she reaches out for his own.
"Stop!" Chloe snickers, "Will you stop it? They're fine just the way they are!"
Her other hand is placed against his forearm, caressing tenderly, and though her words seem clipped and commanding, her face is as rosy in the midday heat as her smile is easy.
He balks at her in opposition; however, he stills himself at the attachment. His confused brown eyes appear almost onyx when backlit from this angle, but she follows his gaze down towards the connection between them. Her hands are on him, her thumb gently massaging small circles into his forearm. Flashes of two nights ago run through her head, how it felt when he placed the corsage on her, dancing under confetti, how he had dressed in a bowtie for the occasion.
She pulls her fingers away, chastising herself internally. "Not now."
Chloe observes him grow rigid beside her; his brow wrinkled in consternation. "My apologies, Detective, I had no intention–"
"No! I know that–" Chloe interrupts him before he can finish.
Not you, us.
"I just– I'm just saying that when it's her day? It's hers."
I'm sorry I slipped.
I can't afford to have you run away from us when it's her day to spend with us.
With you.
These are all things that Chloe would have rather said but knows that any mention of their strained affections could make matters worse. Maze snorts loudly, rolling her eyes in disdain, proceeding to set out presents and décor. Chloe senses the agitation in his body return as he stands straighter than he had mere seconds before. He's like a quasar pulling her in, invading all her senses, and she begins to wonder what–
NOPE. Hold those horses, Chloe.
"Lucifer, I'm–"
"Surely you not suggesting–"
"LUCIFER!!!" A high pitch cry rings out, and Chloe whispers a silent prayer to whatever has timed Trixie's fortuitous entrance. The detective watches as her partner does everything in his power not to push her child away as the ten-year-old climbs him like a tree.
"Happy birthday, Urchin," Lucifer offers, his voice laced with anxiety, and Chloe looks in the direction from where Trix had appeared. Dan and Charlotte are strolling hand in hand towards the group.
"You came!" Chloe exclaims, using this as an excuse to hastily exit Lucifer's gravitational pull while he works his way out of Trixie's vice-grip. Charlotte removes herself from Dan's arm and awkwardly embraces Chloe when they meet.
Chloe sympathizes. At first, she was unsure whether they've all been together in a situation outside work. For almost a year or so now, they all have held such vital positions in each other's lives, not just Lucifer but now Charlotte included. As Chloe had been grabbing party supplies, the more she realized that they had not spent time outside of work together, with Trixie.
Beatrice Espinoza: a universal mediator to all the crazy adults in her life.
Chloe had then fantasized as she picked up Mulan paper plates and napkins about all the awkward conversations bound to arise.
She pulls out of Charlotte's and walks beside them over to the picnic table.
"So!" Charlotte begins, "Mulan?"
"Ugh… I'll explain later," Chloe tells her before leaning in close and whispering. "When Lucifer isn't around."
Sometime later, When Chloe is guarding gifts while resetting the table, Lucifer keeps her company. After he had made it incredibly clear to Trixie that, in no uncertain terms, was he ever going to get on the lake with the rest of the group unless he was granting it as a favour for something in return.
"Detective, this pack of shamefully cheap wax sticks that dare to call themselves candles clearly states it's meant to have ten in it. But there appears to only be nine."
Chloe looks at the small box inside Lucifer's perfectly manicured hands. Trixie's squeal causes her to look up. Maze and Trix share one of the paddle boats; Charlotte and Dan ride along in another. The detective shrugs her shoulders and takes them gently from him
"Oh well, nothing we can do about it now."
"That's not true. If you can wait for a brief moment, I can go purchase another pack as quickly as possible."
"Lucifer, it's okay. You care more than she does."
"I highly doubt that Detective, I know the urchin has standards."
"What is more important to her is that all her favourite people are here. That's all she asked for this year."
"Then where is Amenadiel and Dr. Martin? Ms. Lopez?"
"She asked for her favourite people to be here Lucifer. The way you tell it, Trixie thinks Amenadiel is a bully and barely registers Linda exists. Besides, if you choose to leave now, you'll miss it anyway."
"But I won't if you choose to wait and allow me to remedy the situation."
"It's getting late, and it's a school night. I'm not going to force a ten-year-old to wait for her cake."
The urge to remind him today is not about him grows inside Chloe. But she chooses a different approach.
"Things like this just happen sometimes." She explains to him as she starts to place the nine candles all around the outside of the very decadent cake.
"The Devil isn't one to disappoint, darling, and I'm not about to start now." He protests, jamming his hands into his pockets. She finds something endearing about his frustration and apparent fixation on such a simple mishap.
Then it dawns on her.
"This isn't your fault, you know. No need to start with your devil tirades." She inadvertently swipes a little of the chocolate frosting onto her thumb while setting the candles. Chloe swears under her breath before placing her thumb in her mouth and looking out on the lake. The icing tastes better than she had anticipated, but she had conceded to allowing Lucifer to be the purveyor of the dessert, so she had known that it would be delicious. It seems that Trixie and Maze are using the paddle boat like a bumper car, much to the owner of the boat's chagrin.
"Mmm," she hums, relishing the taste of the chocolate. She continues to watch how Dan and Charlotte manage to dodge the other boat. She swirls her tongue around the digit before pulling it from her lips with a subtle pop.
"It's the law of averages, Lucifer. All kids find their family disappointing at some point. It's part of raising a child." When Chloe looks over to her partner, she's met with an incomprehensible look on his face.
"What?"
"Nothing," is his short and concise response. Lucifer shoves his hands deeper into his pockets, balling his hands into fists, causing the fabric to pull away from him unnaturally, all while refusing to meet her gaze. Chloe knows it is not nothing, but once she realizes what the something is, she doesn't want to draw attention to the fact that apparently, her licking icing off herself is enough to...
Well.
Yeah, sure, Chloe thinks, rolling her eyes at the situation. The Devil has the hots for a single mom in her late thirties. That, in itself, is enough to make her snicker at his ridiculous claims.
As the sound of footfalls approaches, they both look out to see Maze and Dan holding Trixie's hands between them, their arms low as she takes running jumps and using her upper body strength, she pushes off their resistance.
"MARS STEPS!" Trixie bellows in delight, and Chloe can see Charlotte following behind, beaming as she records the interaction on Dan's phone.
"Get ready," Chloe whispers, and he pulls out his lighter and holds it over top of their wicks.
"Happy Birthday to you…" Chloe begins to sing shyly before Dan and Charlotte join in as well. Trixie's smile is wide and bright as she approaches the picnic table. Chloe senses Lucifer coming up beside her, joining in on the song, holding the cake carefully away from his suit as he waits for Trixie to sit. As soon as she is on the bench, he places it down with grace in front of her.
"Happy birthday, dear Trixie–"
"–Urchin–"
"Happy Birthday… to, you…" They all finish, and Chloe's almost proud of Lucifer for not completely stealing the song away from everyone else nor shocked that he chose to address her by his unique term of endearment.
"Make a wish, Monkey," Dan encourages her.
Trixie looks up to Chloe and Lucifer, shifting her sights to Dan and Maze, before staring across the table to Charlotte, who is still recording. Her smile is full of pride before she inhales dramatically.
"WAIT!" Charlotte calls out, and Chloe looks up, confused. "I want to get a picture! Everyone, huddle in closer."
The four adults look at each other a little embarrassed before leaning down closer. The ten-year-old once again takes a deep breath, ready to annihilate the flames threatening to spill wax all over her birthday cake. Chloe feels Lucifer's hand on the small of her back, pulling her focus away from the moment, and she chastises herself internally.
Trixie's breath only hitches for the briefest of moments. She blows out violently, managing to extinguish all the flames. Dan and Chloe stand up to clap while Maze and Lucifer exchange puzzled looks between themselves. Chloe notes that Lucifer's hand still hasn't moved from her back, his thumb shifting back and forth in a similar movement to how she had caressed him earlier. She wishes she didn't have to move.
There's that heat again, Decker, she chastises herself.
Sighing, Chloe removes the cake from Trixie and takes it over to the end of the picnic table. Dan moves to help her serve, while Chloe grabs a knife they packed and cuts into the circle-shape evenly.
"What did you wish for Urchin?" She overhears Lucifer ask Trixie as he folds his arms and sits down at the picnic table opposite her, left of Charlotte.
"Luc-i-fer," Chloe smiles at the way Trixie says his name. She thinks it can be quite similar to how he calls her detective, "That's not how wishes work."
"Well, of course, that's how they bloody work, offspring. How is anyone to get what they want if they never communicate?"
Chloe stops what she is doing and notices how Dan's hand has also stilled above the cake in front of him. She sneaks a peek at Maze, who is narrowing her eyes at Lucifer, then to Trixie. The only two oblivious to Lucifer's rhetorical question seem to be Charlotte and Lucifer himself.
She feels the warmth of embarrassment crawl against her skin as she looks down at her hands once more, taking small comfort in the fact that almost everyone is on the same page at the bizarre enigma that is her partner.
Including her ten-year-old daughter.
Maze grunts and rolls her eyes.
"Time for gifts!" She declares as she tosses a small newspaper-wrapped object onto the table with a slight thud, and all the other adults lean back from the sound, surprised. Before anyone has had a moment to process, Trixie snatches the present up and unwraps it revealing a very real, very sharp switchblade.
"Cool!" Trixie squeals, as she traces her fingers along the handle of the blade.
"Maze!" Chloe chastises.
"What?" Maze scoffs, digging into her cake, a leisurely smile on her face as she watches Trixie's delight.
"She can't have a knife yet. It's not safe!" Chloe looks around the table for any backup.
Lucifer is too busy enjoying his cake; Dan is too busy trying not to laugh.
Charlotte merely shrugs her shoulders at Chloe and is more than happy to watch the exchange for nothing more than its entertainment value.
"Duh." Maze responds with cutting seriousness. "Knives aren't meant to be safe, Decker."
~^^x^^~
Lucifer scrutinizes them pensively, feeling like an outsider as Daniel, Mazikeen, and the urchin giggle near the water's edge. The sun is cresting over the horizon, casting a soft glow over the rest of the group, warm and bright. Soon Detective Douche and Charlotte will leave, and he, Maze and the Detective will take the little human to Santa Monica pier before returning to her home. Not a terrible evening for a celebration for her 10th trip around the sun, although he could do without the Detective's dismissive attitude around the accoutrement fiasco that was those abhorrent candles. Especially for such an extravagant cake.
Or how she seemed to tease him constantly with her oblivious seductions.
But what stuck with him now the most was when she said that all children find their family disappointing when speaking about her daughter.
In relation to him.
He had promised himself long ago that if you didn't try, then you couldn't possibly be disappointing. Lucifer knows that he either does something or he refuses. It's just in his nature, as the only people he's ever cared about disappointing are the family that has disappointed him.
He looks at Charlotte— just Charlotte now, not his mother, a reminder he keeps on repeat. When she had come to get him from his Hell Loop, she had maintained Charlotte's form and now he cannot imagine his mother as anyone else. Charlotte Richards was a disappointment to her original family, just as his mother had been. But here she shone with a level of vibrance and grace that had Lucifer constantly reminding himself the goddess was gone. Here— Charlotte was family.
Chloe and Charlotte sit at the picnic table chatting amicably, as he continues to observe as though he's an outside piece that doesn't fit in the whole. As Maze bends down and hands the little human another rock, he thinks about Maze's disappointing family. Lilith had abandoned her, never wanting to be a mother. Maze had been abandoned because Lillith had been forced by his Father to submit. Maze, who would turn on him like it was just a regular Wednesday. It's peculiar to think that a little less than three years ago she would not have had any problem with torturing someone as young as Trixie.
Now, Maze was more protective of the offspring than him. Maze had yet to disappoint the Urchin. Even Dan had been forgiven for past transgressions, his lies and unlawful actions in hiding evidence in the Palmetto case a mark on his record for eternity, but as Lucifer takes another sip from his flask, he watches Daniel finds his own stone, rubbing the dirt from it and moving into a familiar stance.
"Like this Monkey," Dan says before winding his arm backwards and whipping the rock against the surface of the water. They all watch as it bounces off the surface two, three, four times before it falls into the lake.
Here, Lucifer can see them all at their best.
Here he can see something... but he doesn't have a word for it.
The Devil feels his fingers twitch against his leg as he watches the spawn sigh, and searches for another rock. The day feels slightly mundane but intensely familiar. The intimacy of the moment hits him, a crushing blow to his stability. Maze takes a flat pebble and throws it against the surface, her angle of release perfect for creating the maximum number of skips. She looks back at him with a smug look of satisfaction, and he winces, angry for a moment long forgotten or yet to come.
The urchin snakes her arm backwards, a pantomime of both Maze and Daniel's stances. She moves with all the power she can muster before the rock creates a plopping sound. A small, impressive splash is all that occurs instead of the desired outcome.
"Wait one moment," Lucifer calls out before he can stop himself.
You cannot disappoint them if you never really try.
Approaching Beatrice, "Urchin, think of it more like passing a Frisbee. I've seen one of those garish flying disks laying in your yard. Do you know how to use one properly?"
She looks up to Maze who nods. Lucifer looks around on the ground before he finds two stones and hands the better of the two to Beatrice. Lucifer then sweeps the dirt from his own.
"Now the trick to water cutting is to spin the rock, and to do so, you must flick your wrist inward at the time of release."
Lucifer unbuttons his jacket with an easy flick of his wrist, giving himself more room to twist and move with his arm. As he rotates and releases the rock, it skips across the lake six times. He hums pleased and bends down to the urchin, so they are face to face before turning her shoulders softly and staying squatted behind her.
"I know you've been practicing with a Balisong trainer that Maze has gifted you. Imagine closing it at the last moment."
He turns her around and places his fingers against Beatrice's wrist, holding her arm out long and wide away from her body.
Lucifer shows her the motion three times in practice before letting her go and backing away.
She copies the steps once more before releasing the rock on the third motion and watching it skip twice before landing in the water the third time. He feels his fragile heart stop for a moment, unsure if he's helped or not before the urchin pumps her fist in the air before high-fiving Maze and hugging Daniel. Lucifer beams in satisfactory pride at the scene in front of him.
It all feels like it's playing out in slow-motion, so much so that Lucifer wonders if Amenadiel is nearby, but that would require the other angel to have his powers back. As he's lost in thought, the offspring shifts, honing in on him and coils herself around his long legs.
The child reminds him of a serpent in her own way.
"Thank you, Lucifer." Beatrice shares quietly. Not knowing how to cope with the affection, he looks away from the small wonder attached to him and meets Daniel's gaze, appreciative and soft.
"Think nothing of it, offspring," the words fall easily from his lips. "It was a pastime once forgotten, fondly remembered, so I suppose I should thank you."
She pulls back from his waist, smiling brilliantly before Daniel claps his back, and she lets go to race back to Maze.
"Nice job, man."
And for once, Lucifer doesn't have any snide come back to help keep his walls remaining high. Instead, he watches as Mazikeen and the small human select more stones and skip them against the water, still catching the last rays of light from a star that he created before he understood the significance of it all.
"Mizu Kiri." Lucifer mumbles to himself so low that the susurration of the wind drowns his revelation, the words slipping into the ether.
He shouldn't be here, but he can't leave.
~^^x^^~
Later, when Trixie is asleep in bed, Ms. Alien tucked against a pillow beside her, Chloe herself long gone to bed. Maze sits in her room, light trickling through her open window.
She scrutinizes a yellow birthday candle in her palm.
Sighing, the demon stands up from the small armchair Chloe gifted her and moves to her dresser, removing a little treasure box from her drawer. The demon closes the chamber gently and lays the box on top. She pulls back the lid to find one black and three white feathers covered in blood. There, amongst a pressed maple leaf and a little drink umbrella, she places the candle among the reverent items before closing the lid. Exhaling, she picks up the box, opens her drawer again, puts it inside, and moves clothing over top of her treasures. She then gently closes the drawer again, her fingers trailing the edges of the wood.
Flopping onto her bed, she meditates on what possesses her to keep doing this, saving these little items.
Why do they seem to mean so much to her?
The question remains unanswered as she drifts into a dreamless sleep.
