Cocoon

Lucifer enters the room first, he shouldn´t, but with something that the good doctor would call misplacement, the devil was more than eager to punish someone. In this case, a serial bomber.

He couldn't understand Chloe's reaction ... again. She is a mystery for him, a mystery he would like to solve and keep. He always feels better close to her, even his mortality wasn't as bad as it should be for an immortal being. But he doubts she would want to be by his side if she knew he was the real devil. He had wanted to tell her but somehow, he had decided months ago not to. He couldn't risk his friendship and probably more for this. So, he stays the method actor - the illusionist man with a strange family history or the crazy guy, just for her. He could stay and have weird family dinners with her child and a demon or visit crime scenes together, like today.

Lucifer could have felt it and he was sure that the detective had seen it. The devil was the only one to blame, but it didn't change the outcome. With his foot, Lucifer triggered the time and the huge countdown on the wall that started at ten didn't give them any illusion how that would end.

As Lucifer turns around, he watches Chloe closing her eyes. She was probably thinking about her daughter and that she would be left behind in this world without a mother. But he wouldn't let this happen, with supernatural speed and wings appearing, Lucifer takes the surprised detective in his arms and runs to the closed window. One wing covers her body as they break through the glass, both huge white wings open as they fell down from the twentieth floor. Chloe still in his arms feels the free fall and starts to scream.

Holding onto her, Lucifer feels the blast from the bomb behind him. The heat would hit them any second. With his own body he shields his precious cargo.

They get pushed a few dozen meters over the streets and buildings of Los Angeles. Lucifer changes direction in the last second before they could collide with another sky scraper. His wings feel a bit heavy, like the blast had broken a few of his primary feathers. He gets them higher so he could land them on top of the building. With a landing that could have been smoother, the two collapses on the roof.

He was breathing hard and Chloe next to him was shaking. Realizing what he had done and realizing what that mean hit him. Lucifer had saved her, by showing her his wings, truth of the divine and no words could cover this up. With fear of rejection, hate or disgust, Lucifer looked up and meets shocked eyes that are searching for an answer.

He couldn't wait for her to show signs of repulsion. He ran, or better flew up in the sky letting the rooftop, the explosion in the other building and the detective behind. He will lose her, he will lose her forever. Flying without a destination he mourned for what he had lost.

Chloe stands on top of the building and looks over to the place she should have died. The black smoke was still floating out of the broken windows. Lucifer was gone, he left by using his WINGS. His angel wings to fly away.

Her mind must still be at shock because she couldn't think about what it means. That Lucifer is the real devil, that there is a God, heaven and hell. No, she thought about Lucifer who was frightened of her reaction about the whole 'God is real' thing and he is the devil. She was only worried that he was hurt. She had notice that he had taken most of the impact of the explosion. The only important thing is to find him, now.

Chloe called for backup, forensics and the bomb squad, then excused herself with her lieutenant by telling a lie Trixie could have told better before she gets into her car and drives to Lux. The first place she could think of that he would be.

"Please be there and okay."

The streets were busy and many traffic lights met her with a constant string of red lights.

Lucifer crashed onto his balcony, the glass doors broke at one end where he hit it and a long split halves the glass. His wings were shaking from exhaustion, he hadn't use them for flying since he got the new pair, and h couldn't even get them to disappear. Tired, hurt and emotionally drowned, he sits on his bed in his dirty clothes. He pulls his legs closer, holds them in place with his arms and lays his head on his knees. He wasn't crying, only resting and like his wings hadn't been used in years, they built a secure ball around him. A cocoon that will protect him.

His wings hadn't done this in eons. His first years in hell, when he felt lonely, he used them like that. But this cocooning was something young angels did, it was something to protect them. He didn't care. No one was here to judge him.

Inside his wing-cocoon he was safe; nothing could get him out of there. Lucifer was also blind to the world outside of his ball of light. His safe haven was there to rest, collect his thoughts and have a break when the world became too much.

Chloe gets out of the lift and slowly walks into the penthouse. Lux was still closed and Maze was on some bounty hunt. No one would be here except (hopefully) Lucifer, the devil. She had to shake her head. It wasn't important what he is, only who he is and right now, Lucifer is her friend that needs her help and understanding.

She had expected him to be sitting at his piano playing or at the bar drinking some expensive alcohol. But there was no handsome playboy waiting for her; no music, no offered drink and no flirting smile. First, she thought about the bathroom, the man is obsessed with his looks; he would take a shower first and get dressed in fresh clothes. But as she was passing the bedroom, she saw it. On Lucifer´s bed was a ball of light, a human sized ball.

"…Lucifer?" She steps closer and saw the ball was actually his wings, she could see the individual feathers. His wings covered him completely and let her see nothing of her friend. Slowly, she gets closer, giving Lucifer enough time to tell her to stop or go away, but nothing came from the winged ball. "Lucifer, it´s me Chloe. Are you alright?" There was no answer and no sign that he had heard her.

It reminds her a bit of Trixie when she was sad or angry and hides under her blanket, so she could pretend that the things that make her sad or angry aren't there. With one knee on the bed she is getting even closer. The mattress lowers under her weight, but the hiding angel didn't move, not even a feather blows in the slight air currents.

Chloe was kneeling on the bed now, very close and in reaching distance to his wings. "Lucifer, I´m going to touch you, your wings to be precise. If you don't want me to touch them, say something and I'll stop." She waits, nothing came, so she reaches out and carefully touches one wing. Only her fingertip strokes over the soft feathers.

She had once visited a farm with her dad, she was maybe five, and they had chickens. The farmer lifted one up for her so she could get a closer look. Chloe was even allowed to touch its wing, they were soft, really soft but nothing compared to this. The white wings look like they were glowing. They had the color of starlight and suddenly another part make sense in her head.

Lucifer, the Lightbringer, the Morningstar had created them - the stars and light and all this beauty. "Wow." It escapes her before she stops her amazement about the fact that her friend had created the stars. Her second hand follows the first and both hands of hers were now touching each wing. She could see the border between the two wings and tries to softly push the two wings apart.

Lucifer liked the warmth in his cocoon, it was warm and bright and nothing bad could happen here. The wings are his connection to the divine world and he never feels lonely within the protective wings. He had thought about his wings when he didn't have them, the missing piece that he didn't want to acknowledge. He would never say it but he was glad to have them back in some way. At least they gave him this missing peace back. He felt whole again. He would keep them. They protect him, are a part of him and let him have a bit peace and quiet.

… Except he had this nagging feeling as if someone wants his attention. He knows there was nothing that could reach him from the outside world, but it feels like it. Coming out from his slumber-like state, he suddenly feels the outside of his wings. Something … no someone was touching them. Not forcefully or cruel, careful and gentle.

A gentle person … it could not be Chloe but who else could it be? His brother wouldn't even try, knowing there was no use. Maze was gone away for the day, but she could have come back after he had lost every sense of time, but she wouldn't bother to touch him like that. There was two ways Maze would react to this situation, pure force or guarding him. None of this was gentle. The last person who came to his mind was Linda, but the good doctor wouldn't touch them. He had told her that they are very sensitive, and it was a very intimate thing to touch the wings of an angel.

Suddenly, there was light from the outside, a small gap had opened, something that couldn't be. His wings open slowly and were gently pushed away. Two hands appear, the hands that have the power to pull him out of it, and blond hair was blown inside from a light breeze. There she was the gentle person that he had thought he had scared away. Chloe.

As the wings slowly open up, she finds a crouched Lucifer behind the wall of feathers. She smiled at his surprised and amazed face, "There you are." Slowly she climbs inside the ball and the wings close around her naturally, accepting her. They seem to grow, bigger wings to cover two people.

The light inside the ball let her see that Lucifer was still in the same clothes he had worn when the explosion had hit him. His hair was a mess and dirt from the bomb and the rooftop was covering his face and hands. She tries to encourage him to say something by sitting quietly in front of him. Their legs touching. It takes some time until her friendly devil was able to say something.

"…Why?" She could answer many different questions. Why are you here? Why are you not afraid? Why didn't you bring an exorcist? Why are you coming inside my ball of light? There where endless questions with others like How, What, Who. But she would start with the first and important one.

"I´m here because you are my friend, you got hurt and I was worried. I don't want you to be hurt and I think I scared you a bit. I want to say sorry for that and thank you for saving me." Lucifer´s eyes grew bigger and shown confused by the "scared" part.

"You scared me?" He couldn't understand her words. He is the devil; he should be the one to say he is sorry for scaring her.

"I was a bit surprised by the bomb and the flying as you saved me and I didn't show you right away that I wasn't afraid of you. You flew away before I could tell you that." She smiled a bit at him. He looked cute with the messy hair and this open, childlike eyes that try to understand this world. Without his mask and the walls to protect him, he was raw inside this ball, his true self. He wanted to be accepted but couldn't understand how someone could do that. "Thank you for letting me into your ball of light. It is really nice inside here." She continues so his thoughts wouldn't get caught in doubt and the reasons someone wouldn't like him.

"I … It´s a cocoon and normally it shouldn't be possible for you to enter." Lucifer looked at his wings who had accepted her inside. He sighed and finally looked at her again. "But you are special, I guess they know that too and let you in." She reached out and softly stroked them; a shiver goes through Lucifer´s body. Realizing what she is doing her hands stops.

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking."

"No don't stop … it feels nice." Seeing that his words were the truth, she starts again. Her partner was slowly relaxing into her touch and he noticed that the wings start to open again. The outside world has them back, but Chloe didn't stop and keeps watching Lucifer enjoying the touch with closed eyes. Trusting her completely.