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The elevator doors opened, revealing the darkened penthouse suite as Mazikeen stepped out. She needed some fresh air and a moment to herself. The celebration party was raging on downstairs as the humans raved over Lux’s last minute salvation from possible destruction.
In the past the liquor flowing as bodies swayed rhythmically to the loud pumping music of Lux had been a comfort to her. Unfortunately, this was no longer the case.
Truth be told, she wasn’t even sure why she was still at Lux as often as she was. It was no longer her home or even her place of employment if she wanted to use such a tedious human description to describe her attachment to the club.
Perhaps it was force of habit, or a feeling of duty and loyalty that still lingered no matter how hard she tried to remove it from her life or more specifically from it’s owner. To say that Maze wanted nothing more than to free herself of her attachment to Lucifer in every sense of the word was certainly a half truth. Her life and Lucifer’s had been entwined for far too long for her to pretend that she could sever that connection as easily as she had severed his wings on that beach years ago.
Did she want freedom and the power to control her own life and choices, of course, but did she want to abandon Lucifer and cut all her ties to him entirely while they occupied the mortal realm? The answer to that was well…the answer to that was complicated.
Maybe that was why she needed these temporary escapes from the debauchery downstairs even though she was still pulled here night after night. She desperately wanted a life of her own while she was here on Earth, a life defined by her own choices, but she also didn’t want to let go of her past entirely because after all that was what had defined who she was now.
Life had been so much easier in Hell. There she knew her place, knew her job, and there were no difficult choices to be made. It was just day in and day out of delicious endless torture. A part of her still strongly craved that brutal satisfaction from another soul broken; another punishment fulfilled. To her dismay though, there were things here on Earth she was starting to enjoy just as much. Coffee shops, after parties, pop tarts, the list could go on and on. It seemed unbelievable that just a short while ago, there was nothing she wanted more than to get back home to Hell. Now, when or if that time came, she couldn’t deny that part of her would long for pieces of the mortal realm.
Lucifer had been absent from Lux all evening after he had called her earlier in the afternoon to tell her the news. Chloe had somehow found a loophole in the system and had been able to preserve the club. So she figured he was out playing detective as usual or maybe even celebrating this unexpected victory with her away from the chaos and crowds downstairs that seemed to make Chloe uncomfortable.
Maze begin to head toward the balcony, but halted after a few steps surprised to see a figure silhouetted on the couch in the middle of the room.
She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped short noticing that Lucifer had yet to even observe her presence in the penthouse.
Something was wrong.
That fact was evident not only in the pained expression on his face, but also obvious from the rigid stance of his body on the couch. He looked like someone had beaten him down, although she saw in evidence of physical discomfort. Still she fought the urge to rush to him and check him over. Chloe was no where in sight so he was safe from mortal peril and any divine attack wouldn’t have left him sitting here quietly in distress as he so obviously was.
Which left only one option, this was some sort of emotional torment that was inflicting Lucifer. Maze had to bite her tongue to keep herself from groaning out loud. If it was some sort of drama like this, there was usually only source of that drama for Lucifer.
She longed for the time when things were simple and they were here for one purpose and one purpose alone, fun. L.A. had been a non-stop party indeed for them, a never ending escapade of sex, alcohol, drugs, and more sex. But all of that was B.C. as she liked to put it, before Chloe.
She had been so sure that Chloe would be nothing more than a toy for Lucifer, something to hold his fancy for a time, and then to be left forgotten in the corner as all the others had been.
Certainly, there had mortals like Delilah, that had caught Lucifer’s fancy for an extended time. He had his fun with them and sent them on their merry ways after he grew bored with them. Chloe should have been the same because at first should couldn’t understand what fascinated Lucifer so deeply about her. By Maze’s count, she should have been out of their lives within a month.
It hadn’t turned out at all as she thought it would though, and to make matters worse, she now found herself entwined in Chloe’s life as well. When had everything gotten so damned complicated?
She thought about turning around and quietly back tracking to the elevator, but Lucifer would certainly hear her this time. She would end up looking like a coward running away from a problem. Decidedly, problems like this were Linda’s territory and better left there, but there was no Linda in sight, and Maze would be damned if she acted cowardly in any situation. So she steeled her shoulders, crossed her arms, and put her game face on, before loudly clearing her throat.
“What’s the matter with you, kill another sibling or something?”
A low blow for sure, but Lucifer would except nothing less from her, so she played her part. He barely moved at the statement, merely tilting his head in her direction.
“Oh, hello Maze. What are you doing skulking there in the dark?”
Maze sauntered forward and poured herself a drink as well before heading over to him and perching on the arm at the opposite end of the couch.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
Lucifer shook his head letting out a small snort, as he took another swig from his own glass.
“Well it is my home after all and last time I checked I didn’t ask you to pay a visit. Don’t you have some humans to hunt or something as you so eloquently put it?”
She started to answer but stopped as she saw him pick up his cell phone which had been turned over on it’s face next to him on the couch seat. It was too quick for her to read the contents but several text messages from Chloe were scrolling down the screen.
His eye brows scrunched together as he glanced at the phone, that tormented expression once again flitting across his face. As if she had needed a confirmation of what or more specifically whom the problem sourced from, she had it now. Still, Lucifer would never come clean or be open with her about the details, so there was only one course of action available.
Maze threw her head back and downed the contents of her glass before getting to her feet. She begin to head toward the half empty decanter on the table next to Lucifer. As she reached her hand out towards it, she instead made a quick jab and snapped the phone out of Lucifer’s grasp.
She moved backwards away from him as quickly as possible while scanning the messages. She barely had time to read the last message from Chloe before glancing up to see a very angry Lucifer about two inches from her face.
“What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing Maze,” he roared at her. His eyes flashing red with hell fire as he ripped the phone out of her hands.
She was breathless for a moment not only from the twinge of fear that she still felt when he was truly angry as he was now, but also the equal excitement she felt to see him in this state. The beautiful and terrifying fallen angel that she had pledged her being to all those millennia ago skimming just across the surface.
She didn’t falter though or even take a step back from him. “I could ask you the same thing,” she yelled back. “What are you thinking Lucifer? Only about yourself as usual, what a big surprise.”
She waited for the incoming volley of anger from him, but instead he just stood there for a moment. His eyes fading back into the nearly blackish brown color of his human form. He seemed to be folding in on himself as he pinched the bone between his eyes and sighed.
“Yes I know Maze. No need to remind me, all I ever think about is myself. Just a big bad selfish devil here, never pretended to be anything else.”
He turned from her and headed out toward the balcony. She saw a faint flicker of light in the darkness as he lit a cigarette and leaned against the railing.
To say she wasn’t fond of this facet of the new version of Lucifer would be an understatement. His moods seemed to flip flop at any given moment. One moment he was a seething cauldron of anger and then in the next he was filled with quiet self loathing.
She sighed as well and headed out to join him as the warm night wind ruffled through her hair. It would have been so much easier to fight about this, but lately nothing was ever easy with Lucifer.
“You want to talk about it or something,” she grunted putting her back to the glass railing as she leaned into it.
He looked over at her arching one eyebrow as he took a slow drag on the cigarette.
“Oh offering to lend an ear are we? How thoughtful of you; Dr. Linda would be ever so proud,” he snarked back at her.
She chuckled to herself, “Yeah well, if it’s all that bad maybe you should go see her. This kind of crap is more her speed.”
Lucifer gave her a quick glance through the side of his eyes without fully turning his head to her.
“Well you see Mazie that’s just the problem, she’s partially to blame for this terribly uncomfortable situation.”
He ran his hand through his hair, ruining its perfect sculpt and causing a few errant dark curls to stick up in the process.
Maze snorted, “Linda told you to stand Chloe up?”
Lucifer shook his head and flicked his half finished cigarette over the balcony.
“No of course she didn’t tell me to stand the detective up, don’t be ridiculous.”
He turned and headed back into the penthouse and begin to pour himself another glass of scotch. Maze followed him in and sat on the couch.
“Well then would you care to elaborate, because I’m kind of in the dark here.”
Lucifer didn’t say anything but took his drink and sat down at his piano, setting it down and opening the cover. He begin tinkering with a few of the keys, but not really playing any harmony so to speak.
“She asked me why I don’t show my real self to the detective.”
“Shit,” Maze thought silently to herself. There it was or at least part of it, and this she could understand that at least.
She thought of how she had held her breath when she unveiled her true form to Trixie. But the child had just smiled delightedly up at her as if it was an everyday occurrence to be starring at a demon’s true face.
She had known there was a reason she had chosen Trixie as her first friend after all. But she also knew how Linda had had quite the opposite reaction to Lucifer’s reveal.
She had been angry at first with Linda for that weakness, but had handled the situation with kid gloves. Not only because Linda, like most other humans was fragile, but also because so was this thing called friendship. Maze didn’t have an easy time connecting to others and to lose one of her few friends would have too difficult to face.
She wasn’t sure she understood all the nuances of friendship, but she understood loyalty and so she didn’t take any bond lightly.
She knew that if Lucifer showed that face to Chloe and her reaction was the same as Linda’s or worse, it could crush him.
She knew he thought of himself as a monster in some respect and that face was just a reminder of all that he had done and all the had been done to him. Just the thought of anyone thinking of him as a monster, let alone Chloe, made her want to put her fist through the wall.
He was playing a sad slow melody on the piano now, looking down at the keys and avoiding eye contact with her.
“Maybe you should you know? Just get it over with - like ripping off a bandage.”
Or a wing, she thought to herself, when he looked over the piano and leveled a wry gaze at her.
“Right Maze. Because being myself has been such a hunky dory experience for me in the past.”
Maze walked over towards the bar. Well at the very least if he just got it over with they’d know one way or the other what the outcome would be. She glanced at her reflection in the glass behind the bar.
As much as she had grown fond of Chloe, she still felt she might not be able to control a part of herself if she did dare to hurt Lucifer that deeply.
He had shown his resilience time and time again despite all that had been thrown at him, but she had a terrible feeling that this might be the one thing he couldn’t bounce back from.
She looked down at her feet but not before catching a flash of her true face in the glass.
Despite her best efforts, she felt that anger bubbling toward the surface. Only now that anger wasn’t only directed at Chloe. After all, none of this would have happened in the first place if Lucifer hadn’t decided that Chloe was worthy of all this effort.
Maze stalked back over the piano and slammed the cover shut nearly smashing Lucifer’s fingers inside it.
“Lucifer this is ridiculous. What are you going to do anyway if you show her and she accepts you? You’re the lord of hell and she's a human. You can’t just pretend that you can ride off into the sunset with her and live happily ever after. You’ll blink your eyes and her time on Earth will be over, and knowing Chloe she won’t be heading downward when she dies. You’ll never see her again. There’s not going to be a happy ending for you!”
The words were out her mouth before she even had a chance to try and filter them. She watched his face slowly shift from shock, then briefly to profound sadness, before finally settling into that stone mask he wore when he wanted to hide from the world.
“Lucifer, I didn’t mean it, I…”
“Save it Maze. Firstly, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Has everyone gone mad? I’m bloody well not looking for anything and certainly not for that. I’m having fun here is all and I don’t want that fun spoiled. Secondly, I don’t need any lectures from you. You’re the one playing house with the detective and her spawn. You’re the one who has changed here. Abandoning m…Lux that is, to go off and make human friends as you put it. As if a demon needs friends, absolutely absurd!”
Lucifer stood up so fast and hard that his piano bench toppled backwards, hitting the marble floor with a dull thud. He stormed over to the bar and hunched over spreading his arms wide he leaned into the mahogany wood.
Maze just stood next to the piano looking at the fallen bench on the floor, listening to Lucifer pant quietly as he tried to calm himself.
He was right after all -what more was there to say? What had started as a fun little diversion here on the earth, had turned into something else. They were both changing and whether it was for the better or worse would remain to be seen.
She watched as he reached over the bar and pulled out a fresh bottle from behind the counter. He walked back over to the couch, poured himself another glass and took his place once again among the shadows.
Maze knew this was a signal that this particular discussion had ended or at least that he was finished playing a part in it.
Still, as she had said before, she was never one to walk away from a fight, or at least walk away without having the last word.
“At least tell Chloe you’re sorry, you big ass.”
With that she headed toward the elevator. She stepped on as the doors opened and turned around. She took one last glance at Lucifer as the elevator doors began to slide shut once again.
He may as well have been made from the marble and wooden furnishings that surrounded him; sitting silent and still, surrounded half in shadow, half in light, caught somewhere between heaven and hell.