Lucifer's Nest

He had no idea what to expect that evening when he arrived at Lux, but a closed club was not one of them. It was the middle of the week though and things just weren't as popular on Wednesdays. Still, an empty bar is creepy, so Dan moved himself as fast as he could to the elevator up to Lucifer's home.

It must be his imagination, but it felt like it was taking forever to get up there. He suddenly had the feeling something bad was going to happen or already had.

Shuffling from foot to foot, he almost sighed in relief when the elevator doors opened and let him into the lit up apartment. He was not expecting the first thing he saw to be Ella standing by the piano.

"Oh! Hey. Lucifer's sulking in the bathroom and refuses to come out. Something about Amenadiel finding out or something...?"

Sighing, Dan closed his eyes and shook his head. "That's my fault. I'll go drag his ass out."

The first thing he noticed as he walked closer was that the shower was on. The second was the door was closed. Since he knew for a fact Lucifer didn't bother closing the door unless he truly had to, it was odd. He knocked and received no answer.

"Lucifer? You done sulking yet?"

He got no reply from his words either, so taking a leaf out of Lucifer's book he grabbed the handle, opened the door and hoped the angel was wearing pants.

He was. He also looked very small sitting down in a corner of his rather large shower stall. He wasn't wearing a shirt, which was normal for their evenings now, but his wings were out of sight. He noted the scars on his back were practically gone when Lucifer turned himself around to glare at the wall instead of him.

"Come on, man. What are you even doing?"

"Showering. Go away."

Stepping closer, he reached in and turned off the taps. Lucifer sighed loudly, before laying his head against the wall.

"Come on, Lucifer. Time to come outside."

"No. Time to not."

Dan blinked at that, because until this afternoon, Lucifer had been very open and wanting to be groomed. Maybe Amenadiel had been right about how Lucifer would act.

High maintenance indeed.

"Look, I don't care that you are forming connections, okay? It's normal to want that."

Lucifer stood up, grabbed a towel and dried off his hair and chest. "It's not normal for me to want this, Daniel. I don't need it. I don't..."

He held up a hand to stop Lucifer from saying the next words, thinking he already knew what they would be. "Amenadiel said you'd be upset and scared. I didn't think you'd try hiding in the shower over it."

That got a reaction. He was pretty sure if the wings were showing, his feathers would be bristling out in anger. "I am not scared. I'm the devil, I don't do scared!"

Dan held up his hands and fought the grin that wanted to appear on his face. Lucifer was acting like Trixie when she chucked a temper tantrum. "Okay, fine then. You won't have any problem showing me then, will you?"

Lucifer frowned and blinked at him, confusion in his eyes. "Show you what?"

"Your nest, man. Amenadiel said you'd probably have one around here somewhere. So, will you show me, or do I have to go looking for it myself?"

Lucifer shook his head. "No! That's...that's private."

Folding his arms across his chest, Dan glared at his friend. "Yeah? Well, my whole apartment is private to me. It doesn't stop you from going in and out whenever you want. Fairs fair. You don't want me in your nest, you stay the hell out of my apartment."

A look of constipated indecision showed on the angel's face, as Lucifer shifted from foot to foot. "But..."

Dan raised an eyebrow. "But...?"

Shoulders curled up a bit in defeat. "Oh, fine. But no...no teasing me about it. It isn't completed yet. And it really isn't much to look at. And it's not ready for...for anyone to be in it. Not comfortably yet anyway and..."

Dan let him trail off, knowing he had won this round. He stepped out of the bathroom, leaving the door opened and waited for Lucifer to follow him out.

Turns out the nest was in what used to be Lucifer's study. The desk was turned upside down so the legs were pointing straight up, pillows were scattered everywhere and the sheets that had been strewn all over the living room floor were now in a heaped piled on top of the desk. It was a complete mess, but he didn't get the embarrassment.

"Okay, I get it isn't finished yet, but why would you think I'd tease you about it? And why is the desk upside down?"

"I'm nesting, Dan, not building a pillow fort."

That didn't answer any of his questions, but he let it go, because he was beginning to think it was one of those questions that couldn't be explained right. Like what is it like to be normal?

"Okay. So, what's missing then? Why did you stop?"

Rubbing his face, Lucifer shrugged. "I realised what I was doing and..."

"You totally freaked out, dude! Aww, don't worry. Me and Dan have your back. Want any help with it?" came the voice of Ella, who had obviously heard the conversation that had taken place and decided to just let them talk it out rather than join in.

He turned to watch as the woman poked her head in and let out a whistle. "You getting rid of the table legs, or are you going to keep them?"

Lucifer sighed. "I don't know? Haven't made up my mind yet. Guess I'll find out whatever feels right when everything else is done.

Ella nodded at that. "I'll bring over some spare pillows. Save you from having to buy too many."

Lucifer perked up at that idea, and Amenadiel's advice about gifting things came back into his head. Maybe things he did already have but needed more of would be acceptable too. Pillows are a lot different to books, after all.

"Yeah I have a few pillows that could go in there, too. Doubt you'd want my sheets though. They're not as nice as yours."

"You'd both give me pillows?" Lucifer asked, his voice holding what sounded suspiciously like hope in it.

"Sure," both he and Ella answered, before they looked at each other.

And just like that the tension, the temper tantrum, the fear, all the negative emotion that had been hanging over Lucifer since he had shown up that afternoon disappeared and the devil was once again back to his smiling old self.

"That...that sounds really good. Tomorrow though. Come on, time for some of this bloody wax to come off. It's really thick this time around and taking forever to shift. When it's softer, it's going to make a huge mess too..."

And they were back to the grooming. Lucifer's wings were out before they got outside. The feathers seemed more pronounced today, more like what a feather is supposed to look like. Dan could tell that Lucifer had been spending part of the day picking at the waxy layer of what was left of the quills on his feathers he could comfortably reach. They were all white now and ready to come off.

The feathers were so stark white they almost seemed to shine. Maybe they were. As it was, Ella took to his right side, while Dan went to his left. The oil helped to loosen and soften the wax a bit but it still did not want to come off easily.

It wasn't until he was half done with preening the feathers on the wing he was assigned that he realised that this had somehow become his normal in the past three days. He was hands on touching an angel's wing and it was normal.

He was going to share pillows for a nest.

Things were decidedly weird in his new version of what normal was, but he decided then and there that he didn't really mind.