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Staring up at the sky full of tiny blinking stars, she gets the impression that she’s spinning, just a little. The night sky has always been a source of comfort for her, ever since she was a little girl and her father would take her camping. He would spend hours pointing out different stars and telling her their names. Then they’d spend hours more making up their own constellations and making each other laugh with their more ridiculous ones. Those are some of her most cherished memories. She always liked the way she looked up and felt tiny in the huge universe, like the world was full of possibilities and there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do if she put her mind to it.
After losing her father, Chloe didn’t look up at the night sky so much until she had a daughter of her own who somehow became obsessed with all things space-related. On their own camping trips, Chloe would continue the traditions she and her dad created, and while there was always a dull ache in her heart, imagining her father there with them, Trixie always made it better.
Since learning the celestial world is real, the night sky has taken on a whole new meaning for her. No longer does she not believe there is an Almighty creator out there somewhere along with angels and demons and who knows what else. No longer does she not believe in the Devil. When she was in Rome, one of the things she read while Kinley was trying to convince her that Lucifer is nothing but pure evil is that he was once an angel. The most beautiful angel. The Lightbringer. The being who created that night sky she always felt so comforted by as a child.
That feeling of being tiny was back with a vengeance, only this time it wasn’t filled with a sense of whimsy and endless possibilities. She struggled to figure out where she belonged in this massively huge universe. What her place was. Her purpose. Most of all, she tried to figure out why a being powerful enough to put the stars in the sky would look twice at her, let alone care about her the way Lucifer does. She would sometimes come out to the beach and stare at the sky for hours, asking herself questions and trying to figure out the answers.
In the end, she realized nothing about the way she felt for Lucifer changed. That he hadn’t changed. There were no manipulations or games as Kinley tried to convince her. Everything about Lucifer Morningstar, the Devil and Lightbringer, is genuine. He doesn’t lie.
But of course, by the time she came to that conclusion, it didn’t matter anymore, because Lucifer found someone who could accept all of him. And it wasn’t Chloe. Still, she always came to this spot on the beach to watch the stars.
There was the briefest of moments when she thought there was a chance they could be together. Lucifer and Eve broke up. And while he and Chloe weren’t entirely back on level ground, they were fighting their way back to each other, the way they always seem to do. After the demons were sent back to Hell, she went to him with a confession on her lips and hoped. But that hope was shattered into nothingness with five words: They must have a king. Chloe told him how she felt, anyway, both in the hopes of persuading him to stay and because it needed to be said.
I love you. Please, don’t go.
I’m sorry.
In the weeks that he’s been gone, she continues to come to this spot. The place where she found him one January afternoon years ago. Where he told her he wasn’t worth it and she kissed him. She tends to split her time when Trixie is with Dan between here and the penthouse where the ghost of his memory haunts her. Well, it haunts her wherever she goes, but especially here.
Sometimes, she just sits in the sand with her knees pulled to her chest, fantasizing about what could have been if things had been different. Sometimes, she imagines him in Hell, ruling over the demons in his Devil form the way he did at the Mayan. But sometimes, she talks to him like he’s sitting right beside her.
Tonight is one of the latter nights.
In the sand beside her is a bottle of Macallan she swiped from his booze wall. After all, he isn’t here to drink it, and very likely never will be again, so someone might as well. It’s a surprisingly chilly night for June in Los Angeles so she brought a blanket and a jacket with her. She debated on burgers and fries, but the realities of eating on the beach aren’t really worth the trouble. Besides, her appetite seems to have gone back to Hell with Lucifer.
“You know, I never got to tell you what I was thinking that day. The first time we kissed,” she says quietly, staring up at the sky.
It’s the closest she can get to him that isn’t the penthouse. His creations. She wishes she could tell him how unbelievably incredible she thinks it is that he did that. Her goofy, eccentric, distractible partner who can’t sit still for more than a few minutes.
“That whole case you were trying to prove your worth to me.” She shakes her head, smiling fondly at the memory. “And I know I told you we were too different and it wouldn’t work. Maybe on the surface, we are too different, but when it comes down to it, Lucifer? We have more in common than I have with anybody. You get me in a way nobody ever has, and I think I get you the same way."
She smiles, but it fades a moment later. “But that day, I kept thinking about that ‘almost moment’ between us at the penthouse. I know I said it was a mistake, but that isn’t what I really thought. The truth is, I was...scared. Insecure, even. Jana walked through the door and started stripping like it didn’t matter I was there. She offered to let me join.” Chloe rolls her eyes. “And I got a glimpse into your life. I didn’t think you would want to give up the partying and the fun and the debauchery and whatever else for me. So...I ran.”
Reaching down for the bottle, she brings it to her lips and takes a sip. “Your life made me feel...tiny. I knew you cared, but I wasn’t sure if it was enough to give me what I wanted. What I desired. Which was just you. The real you that I knew you kept hidden behind all of that stuff. So when I found you standing here that day, and you told me ‘no more moments’, that you’d be happy just being my partner, it surprised me. A lot. And then you gave me that speech.”
She smiles, her eyes stinging as she recalls every word he spoke that day. “Lucifer, you knew things about me that other people wouldn’t have bothered to notice. Things I didn’t imagine you noticed. And it made me realize it wasn’t just about sex to you. You wanted me, the real me. For the first time in our partnership, I was sure that there was something real between us. And I knew you were worth it; that we’re worth it. That’s why I kissed you.
“I loved you then,” she confesses to the stars. “As much as I tried to deny it and fight it, it’s true. When I’m with you, I don’t feel so...tiny and insignificant. Even after I learned the truth about you, you had a way of making me better by just being near and believing in me. And...” She sniffles. “...I really hope I did the same for you.” Then she huffs a laugh and rolls her eyes at herself. “And yes, I get the irony of thinking the Devil ever had moments of thinking he’s tiny and insignificant. But I know how much you’ve grown in the time we knew each other and I hope I had even the smallest part of that. And I wish—”
Chloe breaks off, shaking her head. It’s pointless thinking in what-ifs and wishing. Then she looks up as light streaks across the sky. “A shooting star...” she breathes in wonder.
Feeling childish and whimsical, she makes her wish, anyway. “I wish we had more time. I wish we hadn’t run from each other so much and that we could have gotten the chance to see how incredible it could be to just...be together. Even if only for a little while. But mostly...” Her throat tightens as her most prominent wish falls from her lips. “Mostly, I wish you were here. With me.”
Closing her eyes, mostly in the hopes of fighting back tears, Chloe sighs, her hand reflexively reaching for the bullet hanging around her neck. Her fingers close around it and she shivers as a sudden gust of cool wind hits her from nowhere. She’s too lost in her thoughts to think anything of it.
Until somebody sits down beside her in the sand. “Wish granted, Detective.”
Everything around her goes still in an instant.
She doesn’t breathe, her whole body freezing up. There is no way she heard what she thinks she did. It’s her imagination and the lack of sleep getting to her. Of course she’s going to hear his voice in her head when she’s sitting on this spot in particular. It wasn’t real. It can’t be real.
There’s a whisper of fabric beside her, then a warm shoulder brushes alongside hers. She hears the cap on the whiskey unscrew and he takes a deep swallow. A groan of satisfaction that sends heat through her body. “Oh, that’s bloody amazing. Hang on. Is this mine? Why, Detective, you little thief.” The voice couldn’t sound more delighted if he tried.
Chloe opens her eyes and forces herself to turn her head. Less than a foot away from her sits the Devil himself looking exactly as he did before he left her on his balcony. A smile plays on his lips while his eyes, full of emotion, drink her in the way he just drank his whiskey. “Are you...real?” she breathes, hardly daring to believe.
Lucifer’s smile softens, and he reaches over to brush a tendril of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. She shivers as he traces along the shell of her ear then her jaw.
“I am,” he confirms quietly.
“I-I don’t... How is this...” Chloe shakes her head trying to get her thoughts in order so her words actually make some sense. “Are you okay? How are you here?”
His hand drops to the sand and she immediately wants to snatch it back up, to feel his warmth. “I’m better now,” he murmurs, eyes roving all over her face. He seems just as amazed to be here as she feels to have him here. “It’s a rather long story, but Hell has been taken care of. The demons are under control. The gates are sealed. And I couldn’t wait another second to get back here. To you. Then, I heard your prayer.”
Her eyebrows furrow. “My...prayer? I didn’t pray...?”
“You did, actually. All those little one-way conversations you’ve been having with me? Darling, I’ve heard them all.” His eyes are alight with wonder. “It’s been ages since I’ve had anyone of consequence pray to me and I cannot tell you what it meant for you to be the one doing it.” He swallows, averting his eyes briefly. “They were a comfort in a place where the word doesn’t even exist, so thank you for that. But as to your most recent one...I wanted to tell you...”
Lucifer shifts, turning towards her. “You said you hoped that you were part of me becoming...better. Even if it was just a little bit. And that the Devil probably wouldn’t ever feel tiny and insignificant. Well, on the latter, you’re wrong. I’ve felt that way on many an occasion. The only thing that made me feel better...was you, Chloe. And yes, of course you were the reason I’ve become a better man. You’re the reason I wanted to be one in the first place, to be...well, worthy of you. I’ve not wanted to be the Devil of old for quite some time now, long before my return to Hell. All I wanted was to be yours.”
Chloe feels all the breath in her lungs rush out in one breath. “Lucifer...”
“I told you before, it’s always been you. It will always be you, Detective.”
Not knowing how to respond to that, Chloe does the next best thing: She leans over and kisses him the way she’s imagined for two months. Every night when her eyes close, this is how she wanted to greet him if he ever returned to her. Lucifer moans softly against her lips and kisses her back, his hand cradling her face like she’s priceless. She doesn’t know how long it lasts; only that they break apart because she needs air. Her fingers are in his hair, holding him close, her forehead pressed against his.
“You’re really back?” she whispers. Her stomach tightens. “Or...did you only come to tell me that?”
He huffs a soft breath and she smells the whiskey he drank. “I’m really back,” he murmurs, thumb stroking her cheek. “The only place I want to be.”
She hugs him tightly, feeling his breath hitch in his chest as he curls his arms around her, holding onto her just as much. “I missed you so much, Lucifer,” she whispers, pressing her face into his neck.
“And I, you, darling,” he breathes against her ear. “More than you can imagine.”
Huffing a laugh, she shakes her head. “I think you’d be surprised.”
“Hmm. So I heard.” He backs away from their hug just enough to meet her gaze. “And for the record, you are anything but tiny and insignificant, Chloe Decker. You’re everything to me.”
Tears fill her eyes as she smiles at him. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“That makes two of us,” he says. “Quite fitting, though, that we reunite here of all places. Though now, I really will need a shower—not just to wash the stench of Hell away, but to get rid of this bloody sand.”
Feeling bold, Chloe leans in to kiss along his jaw. His breath hitches and his fingers tighten at her waist. “Maybe I could help you with that...”
“Ooh, now there’s an offer I shan’t refuse.” His voice is a bit breathy.
There’s one more thing she needs to say before they get off this sand, though. Something she promised herself she would say to him if he returned. “I love you, Lucifer.”
He freezes briefly in surprise and pulls back to look at her, the same way he did the first time she said it. “Detective...”
Chloe shakes her head. “No. I wanted to say it when we weren’t about to be separated again. I love you. I have for a long time—”
“I know,” he interrupts gently, smiling. “I heard you. Remember?” His hand slides to her face and she leans into it. His smile widens. “What I was trying to say is, I love you, too, Detective.” Chloe gasps, eyes warming and stinging in the corners. “I always have, even if I didn’t have the most productive way of showing it.”
“Stay with me?” Chloe whispers without meaning to. Immediately, she feels clingy and needy and desperate, all things she hates feeling.
But the way Lucifer looks at her washes those feelings away. His eyes light up brighter than the stars above them. “For as long as you’ll have me,” he vows.
Something above them catches their attention and they both look up to see yet another shooting star streak across the sky. Chloe presses her forehead to Lucifer’s again. “I got my wish. It’s your turn.”
He shakes his head. “No need. Everything I could ever desire is right here.”