Work Text:
Lux was always a den of debauchery, but this seemed a little much, even for Lucifer. Colorful bubbles, flashing lights, and balloons weren’t too odd, maybe it was a special occasion. And if the music seemed more discordant than usual, well, Chloe had given up on understanding what would be popular on the club scene long before she’d hit thirty. No, the writhing, laughing, bouncing, half naked people were not at all out of the ordinary for the nightclub, just a little more intense than might be expected on a Tuesday afternoon.
The kid was out of place, though.
She couldn’t have been more than fourteen, if that. The outfit made her look older than she was. Sort of a punk with gothic undertones, mesh sleeves under a ripped tee and colorful leggings, but a trained observer looked past clothing. Whoever was responsible for her welfare couldn’t have fought too hard over the look. Half her head was shaved and the rest of her shoulder-length hair had been dyed in all the colors of the rainbow. Any parlor that wanted to keep their tattoo license would have insisted on parental permission for at least some of the piercings, so that had to have been sanctioned by an adult. Chloe’s heart went out to the girl. Self confidence was rare at that age, and everything about the kid was guaranteed to set her apart from the pack.
Lucifer appeared to be delighted by her as well. Grinning and fawning, holding court as usual, he was offering the child everything her little heart desired. Loud as the club was, Chloe heard the tail end of that offer just fine. “Or if a drink doesn’t suit your fancy, I have some perfectly lovely heroin. Amazing stuff, absolutely pure. Got it off a charming fellow from Portland just last week.”
Tilting her head to one side, the girl seemed to consider his offer. Tempting was his whole schtick, of course, but Chloe had always assumed he stuck to the over eighteen set. Apparently she’d been giving him way too much credit.
“That is too damn far, Lucifer. Even for you.”
At the sound of her voice, the club owner whirled around, looking shocked. “Detective,” he said with a big, insincere smile. “A visit from you brightens any day. Unfortunately, this really isn’t a good time.”
“Yeah. I can see that.”
Hurrying forward to stand between Chloe and the child, as if blocking her view would somehow make Chloe forget that he’d just offered heroin to someone who was probably playing hookey from middle school, Lucifer placed a hand on her shoulder.
“No, Detective, you really don’t understand. We’re having a sort of a special event here at the club today. Well, and last night, technically. Maybe the night before, even. But it was such a lovely time that we’ll all just go until we drop, I expect!” His laugh was strained. At least he knew he had something to feel guilty about. “Still, it’s a private affair. Can’t blame the bouncer for neglecting his duties when he’s currently DJing, but I am going to have to ask that you leave.”
Chloe shrugged his hand off angrily. “I have turned a blind eye to a lot of your bullshit, Lucifer, but if you think I’m going to walk away while you encourage a minor to try heroin, then believing you’re the devil is the least of your delusions.”
“Encourage a minor?” Lucifer looked genuinely confused for a second. Then he scoffed. “What you mean her? A minor? Darling, she’s about as far from that as you can get. She’s Endless. Try heroin? She probably invented the stuff!”
“Right.” Chloe could tell that he wasn't lying. At least, it was only the usual lie, which meant the girl was probably some part of his bizarre family. Another angel like Amenadiel or another demon like Maze, then. Another part of Lucifer’s imaginary world. It calmed her down a little, because sometimes she was willing to believe that Lucifer believed. “There's still no way in hell that I am leaving her here with you.”
“Detective,” he tried, putting on his most charming smile even though he knew that never worked on her. Before he could make his insulting offer, there was another, much softer hand on Chloe’s elbow. She looked down into mismatched eyes, one blue and one green. If they were contacts, they were incredibly realistic.
“Who are you?” The little girl had a soft voice, but there was nothing hesitant about it. Her words seemed to float in the air for a second, like they were the only real thing in the club and the crackling, pulsing beat from the DJ’s sound system was nothing but a half remembered dream. Chloe shook her head to clear it.
“Detective Decker, LAPD.” Talking down to a teenager was a good way to drive one off. Chloe knew better. Before she could continue, though, Lucifer shoved her away roughly, placing himself squarely between her and the kid. Interestingly, Chloe was the one at his back.
“She’s no one. She's boring.” His laugh was high and nervous. Just like that, Chloe knew he was up to something. Something even more serious than giving drugs to a minor. Lucifer was afraid. “Come along, Del, let me introduce you to the Brittanys. Three of them, all named Brittany! Or Kwame! He's a screenwriter. You like writers.”
Chloe must have blinked because suddenly the girl, Del, was right next to her again. “You make him nervous. That’s the word for feeling like something is going to happen, but you don’t know what and you can’t control the thing that you don’t know about.” This time was a little better. Chloe could still see the words in the air like colors, feel them in her bones. Obviously, the sensation was a trick of the light playing on the bubbles and the thumping bass. Again, she shook it off.
“Apparently I do. And when someone as confident as Lucifer gets nervous about the presence of a cop, it tends to make me suspicious.”
Nodding wisely, Del agreed. “Lucifer is never nervous. He isn’t even afraid of my brother when my brother does the thing where he looks at you from behind his face and you can see all the dreams of all the planets shining impossibly bright in a single star within the black night of his left eye.”
Chloe blinked. “Um, sure.”
“But right now he’s afraid of me. I’m a thing that can’t be controlled!” A bright, girlish giggle sprang up. At first Chloe thought it was only coming from the kid in that strange effect that made Del’s voice seem more important than any of the background noise. Then she looked around. Everyone in the club was laughing. Even the three hundred pound linebacker of a bouncer slash DJ had stopped spinning records and was clutching at his sides, giggling along with the rest.
Lucifer wasn’t laughing. Neither was Chloe. She turned to him.
“Is this some kind of performance art?”
“Yes,” he said quickly, taking her arm again and hurrying her toward the exit. “Brilliant deduction. Got it in one. So as you can see, we’re all fine. Just a bit of performance, showing off between friends who haven’t seen each other in a tick. Nothing illegal. Nothing to concern you. I’d never harm a child, just keeping her entertained. So why don’t you head on out to chase some real evil doers, and I’ll catch up with you later.”
Suddenly, they were back at the bar. Chloe could have sworn she’d allowed Lucifer to lead her all the way to the club door, but they were standing still, looking up at the kid sitting on the bartop. Del was pouring shots of tequila and building a little pyramid out of them. Chloe could let that slide as part of the performance, as long as the child wasn’t actually drinking.
“You’re mortal, but you don’t react to me at all,” Del said. She sounded sad. “Why not? Don’t lie. Are you someone else’s? I can tell that you don’t belong to my sister, and I mean, obviously you don’t belong to my other sister either. And if you belonged to my sister-brother then you’d be doing whatever he said.” Gesturing at Lucifer with the empty bottle, the girl did some sort of sleight of hand. Instead of glass, she was holding a red rose too vibrant to be real.
“Chloe doesn’t belong to anyone,” Lucifer snarled, releasing her arm and edging in front of her again. If this was a performance, Lucifer was dead serious about it. His eyes were locked on the rose as though it was a loaded gun. “She’s human. Free will. She belongs to herself.”
“Do you have a Dream?” Del asked, ignoring Lucifer. “The Emperor of the United States wasn’t ever mine either even though he maybe should have been and some people said that he was.”
Chloe did laugh at that. The girl’s face was all scrunched up in confusion. Del was cute. Way too young to be at Lux, even doing whatever this bizarre bit of theater was, but cute. “The United States doesn’t have an Emperor.”
“Well not anymore,” the kid agreed, taking a swig from her rose as though it was still a tequila bottle. Chloe was surprised to see liquid trickle across the petals into her mouth, but it wasn’t amber like the tequila in the pyramid, it was effervescent. Champagne, she thought, before she realized it had to be ginger ale unless Lucifer wanted his liquor license revoked. “He died. Mortals do that.”
“Del, listen.” Lucifer spread his arms wide and offered the girl a charming smile. “We were having a good time up to now, weren’t we? The party doesn’t have to end. I love having you here. Convinced you to stay, didn’t I?”
“I remember that. You think I forgot because I forget but you offered me pretty things and we made all the bubbles and then I did want to go because I can’t always stay forever and ever but you offered me heroin.”
Chloe felt her mouth tighten into a hard line. Even if this was performance art, she couldn’t stomach even the idea of Lucifer dealing heroin. His blithe references to doing club drugs were one thing, but heroin killed. Dealing wasn’t something she could look the other way about, ever.
“I don’t really like heroin,” Del continued, almost reading Chloe’s thoughts. “People come directly to my realm, but they only come back a few times before they go away for ever and ever and ever.” She held up a hand, closing her mismatched eyes. “I know. Don’t say it. Mortals do that.” The rose in her hand twirled into a huge yellow sunflower and Del took another swig out of it. The liquid this time was a shocking blue. Chloe had no idea how she was doing it.
“Sounds like there’s a deal to be made there,” Lucifer said. His voice was low and full of temptation. “I could make it hellishly unpopular. Give me a month and no one on the West Coast would be doing it at all.”
Del cocked her head to one side and the rainbow of her hair curled around her shoulder, bright against her black t-shirt.
Lucifer clicked his tongue against his teeth unhappily the way he did when he was giving away more than he wanted to. “Fine, the world. I’ll end the whole damnable trade! Though you’ll have to give me a year at least for logistics, and it isn’t going to leave me with much time for fun, you know.”
“I don’t want you to do that,” Del said calmly, hopping down from the bar. Lucifer still had his arms outstretched, and he folded one across Chloe’s abdomen, pushing her gently with him as he backed away.
“You must want something,” he snapped. He was doing a great job pretending to be afraid of a five foot nothing thirteen year old. Abruptly, Chloe realized how ridiculous the whole situation was. She had more important things to do with her time.
“Right. You guys have fun with your—whatever this is. I’ll see you later, Lucifer.”
Turning, Chloe found herself face to face with the girl. There was no way she could have gotten down from the bar and circled around that quickly, but when Chloe glanced back over her shoulder, all she saw was Lucifer’s wide, worried eyes.
“How did you—”
Del took both of Chloe’s hands in hers. “I want to know. You came to play with me once. Did you hate it?”
The mismatched eyes were so sad and serious that Chloe couldn’t push past her. Looking down into that impossibly pale face, Chloe remembered something she hadn’t thought about in years.
“When I was sixteen I drove out into the desert with a couple of kids from my high school drama club. I’d been so stressed out that I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t know if I was serious about acting, if I was serious about anything. We took magic mushrooms and howled at the moon like coyotes, dancing around like the ridiculous teenagers we were. But then, I was looking up, and I realized that the moon was so big. So much bigger than all the stars. Even though it was nighttime, the sky was this vast ocean of light and the moon was its largest sea. I could feel it in waves, lapping at my skin. The light surrounded us. Submerged us. We were swimming in it. But I wasn’t afraid. I know how to swim, and I’ve never been afraid of the light or the dark. It was beautiful. More than beautiful. I felt certain. Confident. It was one of the best nights of my life. No, I didn’t hate it.”
Chloe blinked, wrenching her gaze away from the child’s smiling face, not sure why she’d recounted that particular memory. It was not the kind of thing kids needed to hear about, even if they were the sort of kid that would spend time in Lux doing some weird avant garde commentary on the club scene. Looking Del in the eye, Chloe found her cop voice.
“But you have to be careful with drugs. I don’t want to live my life in a haze. If I did that, I would miss out on all the other good nights. The birth of my daughter. Finally catching my father’s killer. Even the little things. The day Trixie filled every glass in the house with varying amounts of water so that she could play me a song on the bells she invented all by herself. Reality has plenty to offer. I don’t need to distort it to enjoy my life.”
“Okay!” Darting up, Del pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. “What’s the word for knowing something is dangerous, but knowing that it’s good and doing it even though you might get hurt?”
“Brave,” Lucifer said hoarsely.
“You’re brave! Come back to see me any time.” Del grinned. “I don’t always remember but I don’t every time forget either. Bye Lucifer!”
Then she was just gone. Chloe inspected the floor, looking for the seams of a trap door, ignoring Lucifer’s exaggerated sigh of relief. All around the club, people slowly stopped dancing. The DJ even stopped the music. Lucifer downed the top three shots from the tequila tower. Then he did the next three.
“Well that was interesting,” Chloe said at last. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me how she did that.”
Holding up one finger, Lucifer gestured for her to wait while he took all four shots in the next row down. Chloe rolled her eyes. He took a sharp breath, clearing his throat.
“I don’t suppose you’d believe that she’s the incarnation of the concept of Delirium, one of the most powerful beings in all creation, capable of trapping any mind in absolute madness for all eternity should she choose. Fantastic at parties if you’re willing to risk it, though.”
“No. I don’t suppose I would believe that,” Chloe retorted with a sigh. “Listen, I did come here for a reason. There’s a case I could use your help on, if you’re done with your little art project.”
Clearly whatever they were doing was over. People were filtering out of the club en masse, looking exhausted and totally spent. Chloe was perfectly willing to believe that they’d been at it for days based on all the blistered feet and the dark circles under nearly every eye. Still, Lucifer made her wait while he did the next row of shots. Bringing his total to fifteen ounces of tequila in the space of five minutes. Growling in frustration, Chloe turned to leave without him.
“Now, now, Detective. Of course I’m here to help,” Lucifer said, skipping forward to catch up with her.
“I’m heading to a crime scene, Lucifer. I don’t have time to take you to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. I should never have bothered coming here when you didn’t answer your phone.”
“You won’t have to! Supernatural metabolism, remember? That’s why I like partying with Del so much. She can actually affect me.” He grinned, spreading his arms wide. He really didn’t look unsteady. The tequila had probably been watered down as part of the show.
“Funny,” she said, holding the door open for him and enjoying the way he blinked against the sunlight he apparently hadn’t seen in days. “You didn’t seem to like partying with her all that much once I walked in.”
“Well that’s different. I’m willing to risk my own sanity. There’s little enough of that to worry about, and anyway I’m immortal. I’d probably find my way out after a century or two. Your wonderfully brilliant yet woefully mortal mind is quite another story.”
Chloe bit her lip to keep from smiling. He’d wasted almost an hour of her time with the ridiculous display, but he really could be sweet sometimes.
“Anyway, Detective, you should have mentioned it sooner!” Lucifer obligingly slipped into the passenger seat so she wouldn't have to worry too much about the nature of whatever had been in the shot glasses. “About the mushrooms!”
“What about them?” Absently, Chloe checked her blind spot. They were short on time, but she could probably cut out a few minutes by avoiding the highway.
“Well I didn't realize that you'd been turning down all those invitations to do a little coke because uppers weren't your first choice, did I? Most people are even less likely to go for hallucinating. I just assumed you were too uptight for anything! Hardly my fault, but I accept your apology. Anyway, I have a mushroom guy! Top notch product, I promise. And he does peyote, too! Great stuff, peyote. Love it. Give us a nod and we can be out of the city getting back to nature, quick as you can say, well, quick as you can say L.A. traffic. What is that a pileup? Put your siren on. I don’t want to be sitting here all day.”
“Because traffic is the reason we’re running late,” Chloe growled, not putting on the police siren because she wasn’t a child.
“What? It’s not on me that you couldn’t experience Delirium’s deliciousness, if that’s what’s twisting your knickers. I’m sure that was just your usual freakishness. You know, the thing that cruelly forces you to resist my many and varied charms. You’re missing the turn, by the way. Mushroom guy is a left here. Just make a U. It’ll be fine if you’re quick.”
“Lucifer, we are going to a crime scene! I have no intention of meeting your drug dealer ever, unless you want me to arrest him.”
“You sure? I mean, yes a crime has been committed, yada yada yada, but we might as well pick up a bit of weed. It’ll help you calm down. I mean, I know some other things that would definitely calm you down, but I expect you’ll refuse to hop in the back seat with me for your usual baffling reasons.”
Chloe kept her hands on the steering wheel and didn’t respond, because she was a single mother and strangling Lucifer wasn’t worth risking a car accident.
“So that’s a maybe on the peyote then? I mean, in deference to your sense of duty, at a future point once we close the case. I’ll just pick some up this weekend, shall I?”
He really could be an asshole sometimes.