Chapter Text
January 1, 2000
Klaus OD’d.
Lucifer thought it would be okay. Klaus took all sorts of concoctions on a nightly basis, checked his caches with chemical strips beforehand for anything more than just harmless fun, but it still happened.
Too much, cut with something— it didn’t matter. Klaus had gone to the one place Lucifer could never follow him, and, for the first time in millennia, he wished Eve was here. Not for a good time, but to teach him how to get through loss like this.
Y2K wasn’t the end of the world, but it could’ve fooled Lucifer.
“Hey, Lu.”
Lucifer turned around to find his sister standing on his balcony.
“Azrael?” Lucifer said, setting his whiskey down on the bar but making no attempt to move closer. Like most of his siblings, his relationship with Azrael crumbled after the rebellion. The only difference was that being cut off from her wasn’t for the better. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t a girl pay her favorite big brother a visit?”
Lucifer sighed and downed the last of his drink. “Who knew all I needed for you to talk to me was to lose a son.”
“I meant to visit after your rebellion, but at first I was busy, then—“
“I don’t want your excuses or pity visit!”
Azrael’s face fell. “I’m actually here to bring him back.”
Lucifer’s heart leapt “Bring him back? Like…”
“No, not like that. He never got in in the first place.” Azrael sighed “Lu…he can’t get in.”
Lucifer scrunched his face. “What do you mean he can’t get in? Like, he’ll burn like I do?”
“No, I mean I took him there, he met Dad for a few minutes, and…got shot back here like a rubberband.”
“He’s back already?”
“You’ll prolly get a call and apology from the county coroner in the morning.”
“Eastwood Funeral Home, actually,” Lucifer said, grabbing his keys from the bowl behind the bar. “I’d love to finish this chat, but I have a funeral home to break into.” Lucifer paused then turned to his sister. “Fly me there.”
“What?”
“It’s a long story, but I don’t have my wings. L.A. traffic never stops, and he’s claustrophobic, so I don’t want him in the freezer any longer than he needs to be.”
“Not shocked after what he went through,” Ray-Ray said.
“Yes, well,” Lucifer paused. “How do you know what he went through?”
Ray-Ray shifted.
“Come on, Ray-Ray. I’ve always been honest with you.”
“I— he could talk to the dead, and I couldn’t interfere without pissing off Dad so… I taught him how to pray to you.”
Lucifer backed into the bar, bracing himself against the granite as the weight of her words sunk in. “You…did Dad put you up to this?”
“What? No!”
“I thought I was just lucky this whole time,” Lucifer grimaced and ran a hand through his hair. “Of course—“
“Lu!”
He flinched.
Azrael reached up and put her hands on Lucifer’s shoulders. “Dad didn’t know what I was doing until after I did it, okay? I did this of my own freewill.”
Lucifer nodded quietly. “You’re right. I shouldn’t read into the past few years. They’re not gifts; they’re children.”
“Allegedly, children are a gift.”
Lucifer grimaced. “Someone hasn’t dealt with teenagers.”
February 14th, 2000
“I swear,” Klaus said to Ben, Allison, and Lucifer as they watched the remaining siblings dance to ‘I think we’re alone now’ on the dancefloor alongside Sloan, the first of what would undoubtedly be too many in-laws. “If I knew this wedding would suck this badly, I would’ve stayed dead.”
“Too soon,” Ben hissed.
“It’s been a month, we can joke about it, right?” Klaus said. “Seriously, you guys have to admit that things did get a little painful when Sloan started quoting Walt Whitman in her vows.”
“If you’d have asked me, I would’ve recommended living in sin a little while longer.” Lucifer said, watching the two of them dance terribly on the dancefloor. “Though admittedly, weddings do–”
“Do not make a joke about hooking up at a wedding,” Ben said.
“Let him make it,” Allison downed the rest of her champagne then added “Won’t be half as bad as the shit I hear the director say.”
“Aww,” Klaus grabbed her shoulder and shook. “Hot Tub High School not all you dreamed it would be?”
“Let’s just say I’m paying my dues with this one.”--she grabbed another glass from the table– “I’m just happy I’m not the poor soul having to emerge from the hot tub topless.”
Lucifer choked on his drink. “Excuse me?”
Allison shrugged.
“Is that honest to Dad what the best agent money can buy gets you?”
“I’ve also gotten some bit parts,” Allison said. “It’s how things work, Dad. You make a few shitty films before you can make something you can actually show your parents.”
“So I wouldn’t like it?”
“No, you’d love it. That’s why I don’t want you watching.” a beat “Well, not the scenes I’m in, at least.”
“Nope, not risking it.”
“Remember, Sis, if he gives you too much trouble,”—Klaus clenched his fist– “I can bring back the ghost of his mom to yell at him for a full ten seconds now.”
January 2016
Diego downed half his coffee in hopes that he could avoid another drowsy night. He knew that he should listen to his colleagues and just commit to the night shift, blackout curtains and all, but that also meant being up in the middle of the night of his day off.
He reached to refill his cup and caught a Burberry suit in the corner of his eye.
His gaze snapped to the suit, his stomach sinking as he realized who was wearing it.
Diego moved across the bullpen.
“Da-“ Diego cut himself off just in time “Luce!”
“It’s okay, Urchin.” Lucifer said, only stopping to talk for a minute. “It’s just for questioning. I’m a witness.”
Diego’s heart kept its same staccato. He knew his father wouldn’t lie to him, but he refused to believe that nothing bad would come of him in the police station.
The blonde detective (he couldn’t remember her name just that she was Espinoza’s ex) stopped next to Lucifer.
“You know this guy,”—she scrunched to read the name tag on his beat uniform before letting her eyes go wide— “Morningstar.”
“I took him in as a teen,” Lucifer said.
Diego mentally swore. Saying they were cousins or something would’ve been less conspicuous.
“Listen, I know I’m just a random beat, but I can assure you that—“
“I’m sorry, but you seem to have a conflict of interest. Whatever you have to say, can wait until after he is questioned.”
“All is well, Diego.” Lucifer said as he put his hand on his son’s shoulder. “I have dealt with situations far worse than this.”
Diego went to say something but stopped himself.
Lucifer patted his shoulder. “Now get back to catching bad guys or maiding the meters or whatever they’re wasting your talents on. Your old man has this all under control.”