Only two more stories in this series to go. Well, for the main series. There may be a few ore side fics. Enjoy.

Project Winter

Setting Things Up

With the end of Fall and the beginning of Winter, Dusty not only looked and acted a lot better after his moult was over, but the weather changed. It was colder now; the winds sharper, the air crisper and the trees that did so lost their last leaves.

Dan was happy. It was an odd thing to think, really. It just hit him out of nowhere that this past year had been a good one. He had gotten closer to Chloe again as friends and the relationship worked. He had friends outside of work related things. Beforehand, his only friends were a partner he had at work and that was it. And while the small flock he was part of now were made up mostly of work related people, he was also friends with Linda and Maze and Amenadiel, newly integrated into the flock, was also someone he was beginning to be friends with.

All up, he had few complaints.

There was just one problem, and he had no idea how to truly fix it. This was their first winter together as a flock...and they had no idea how to do things right when it came to Lucifer.

They all knew he had troubles with the cooler air because of his scars, no matter how much he could hide them from view. He had admitted that out loud and was one reason why he had chosen a tropic place to live. Warm weather most of the year and no snow.

To the rest of them it wasn't that bad. Not now at least, but it did get cold during the middle of winter. But it was clear that it was a cruel bit of torture for someone with scars that hated the cold. And Lucifer's scars were all over.

He was still trying to manage how he managed to hide horrific burns over 100% of his body mass was beyond him, but somehow Lucifer managed it.

Lucifer called it a glamour. Dan silently thought of it as a miracle. Lucifer was an angel after all. It was also stated that the face he wore most of the time, the handsome face that wasn't horrifically burnt, was also hi real face. That it was what he looked like before he Fell, but that he could change it if he wanted.

Dan couldn't even imagine Lucifer as anything other than what he knew, saw every day and was close to. The angel that he was a personal groomer to.

He wondered briefly what his grandmother would have thought if she had been alive. As it was, he wondered how he would break it to Lucifer that he would be gone for the day for Christmas to have a day with his parents. He really didn't want his parents to know he was friends with someone called Lucifer, let alone the actual devil himself.

He really wasn't up for talk on Hell, eternal damnation and burning torment. If he wanted to talk about that, he'd ask Lucifer himself. He was the expert on hell, after all. He ran the place for millennia.

He'd have to make it up to Lucifer somehow. He wanted to find something to keep him warm in the long run, but he didn't have the money for any clothing he'd wear. He also had several months after Christmas had passed to find something, as it wasn't a Christmas emergency, but a personal winter one.

Frowning, he finally decided to do something about it.

Dan glanced over to Chloe's desk to see her reading a file. Lucifer was nowhere in sight, which usually meant he was on a coffee run. Lucifer didn't go for precinct coffee, he went to a nearby Beelzebeans store and ordered proper coffees for them all. He made at least one run a day.

Dan took his chance while he had it and made his way over to his ex's desk. "Hey, Chloe. While Lucifer's off getting coffee, I want to talk to you."

She looked up at him and smiled. "Okay, what about?"

"I just wanted to get us together, Ella too when I go speak to her next, to try and talk of ways to help Lucifer through the winter. You know he's already feeling it, right?"

Chloe frowned and nodded. "Trust me, I noticed. A bit hard not to, really. He spends so much time around me and he is definitely doing a lot more awkward fidgeting he only does when he's in pain. Or growing in new feathers, but he's already told us he wouldn't be moulting until sometime during the spring, probably along with Dusty."

Dan frowned right along with her and nodded his agreement with that. He didn't know how they would all survive with both Dusty and Lucifer moulting at the same time. On the other hand, Dusty would probably still be moulting after Lucifer was done, since he had feathers over his entire body, being a bird and all.

"So, do you think we should get together after me and Ella are finished making Lucifer exercise his vanity."

Chloe laughed at that, her eyes sparkling with humour. "He truly is vain about his wings. Okay, that's fine. We might have to put Trixie to bed some time during the meeting, but it really does need to happen."

Nodding, Dan got up from leaning against her desk. "True. I'll go tell Ella about it now. You've got work to do."

She nodded and turned her eyes back to the file she was reading through. He left her to it and went to Ella's lab. He knocked on the door before poking his head through.

She looked up at him and smiled widely. "Hey Dan, you need something?"

"Yeah, we're going back to Chloe's after we're done with Lucifer tonight, to discuss ways to keep him warm."

She lost the smile and got a look of determination on her face. "Yeah, sure, are you driving or me?"

He almost laughed at that, almost. Ella was just as bad, if not worse, than Lucifer when it came to reckless fast driving. "Me. I'll probably have to drive home later on tonight. And I'd rather drop you off instead of having you go out of your way."

She nodded and the grin appeared back on her face. "'Sure. You'll have to drive us to Lucifer's tonight then."

He grinned at her. "Sure. See you later."

She bobbed her head, put in some earbuds and begun swaying slightly to the music. She waved bye to him, and he waved back, before going back to his desk.

Project Winter was now in effect.