The first day

A/N: This is the first Lucifer fic that I wrote. Thanks a lot to Thisisarealtagwhy and Sop12345d for the really great beta. Helping me out a lot there to get the wording right and pointing out the character flaws I put in there ;)

This is a dark story for most of it, although it will get "lighter" in the later chapters. There is some dying in there, although I do not consider it "death" in the sense of the usual death warning. But the story will cover quite a couple of years of storytime, so there will be characters dying in a way.

Please read the author's notes at the beginning of the chapters since I will add additional warnings there for individual chapters!

I am not a native English speaker, so please put up with my grammar and spelling if it is not always correct. Everything still in there is due to my last second editing ;)

This story goes AU starting after Episode 3.21, ignoring further episodes since I hadn't watched those when I wrote this. I also wrote this whole story down in more or less one go since it didn't let go of me, so it is finished already and chapters will be updated regularily

And just to make sure… I do not like what they did on the show to Lucifer's and Chloe's characters leading up to episode 3.21 - although I really liked how they resolved it. So please give this a chance even if it seems to not go into the Lucifer/Chloe shipping right away.

Chapter 1: Zero Days

This was crazy!

It had been almost a week now since her life had been turned upside down, although her life had never truly fit into one of normalcy. Still, it had all been crashing down on her, and yet she couldn't quite grasp how it could have all gone down so badly.

To hell in a handbasket, as they say. Right?

And wasn't that just the right phrase when it came down to him? The devil... That's what he called himself, wasn't it? As if anyone who knew him as close as she had would ever believe that nonsense. Still, he had kept this stupid method-acting thing upfront instead of finally just saying what he had to say.

"Anything Pierce can do, I can do better."

Yeah, right… as if! No, he couldn't, and there had never been a moment like that evening when she had wanted to throw this at his face. Only, she didn't. She couldn't - it had been too hard. It had hurt too much to see him leering at her like that once again and then turning this seemingly perfect, romantic scenario… well, turning it into being about nothing but himself, as he always did. When, for a second, she had thought… that maybe this time it would be different… fat chance that happening.

So, she left. Only to find Pierce at her front door later that evening, him actually proposing to her only minutes later. She certainly hadn't seen that one coming.

How had this happened? And, while she didn't really regret saying yes right there and then, she still didn't know why she'd said yes.

Had it been a mistake? Some spur of the moment thought – or lack of thinking for that matter? Maybe that was most likely to be the case. She hadn't actually thought about it, had she?

She had simply reacted, to a man who actually seemed to care for her instead of his own reputation, of his own ego and his own fucking desire. Pierce was a nice, decent guy. A damn normal guy. Not a method actor who couldn't, for the life of him, pull his head out of his ass and just be serious for once.

And now?

Now she was standing here, not knowing what the hell had happened. But breathing was getting harder when the realization finally hit her. Her chest was heaving, her lungs trying to pull in the much needed oxygen. Maybe that would help her brain to cope with what she was seeing. Any minute now... Any minute now she would either wake up or… Anything!

There had been a day before when she came to his penthouse and everything had been covered in sheets. She'd felt just like she was feeling now… back then. Back when he just vanished. Only to return later with that blonde on his arm like some trophy he won in Vegas.

This time was different though. There were no covers. And strangely, this made it worse. The covers had been a tiny little hint… no, a hope that he would return soon.

No covers.

No piano.

A large chunk of books missing.

He was gone.

She knew it the second she stepped out of the elevator, that something was different. Her brain hadn't registered right away what had tipped her off. Only then, had she realized that the large wooden frame that had taken up most of the first line of sight of the penthouse was gone. He wouldn't sell it, she knew that deep inside her heart. It was too close to his heart.

Music was something dear to him, although she never got how that fit in with his devil persona. As if the devil would actually like to play the piano! Because there must have been sooooo many opportunities to play it in hell. Must have been one of the slips he had allowed himself in his method-acting.

"Can I help you, Detective?"

Surprised, she turned around, only to come eye to eye with that strange, always a bit forced smile of her newest DA office addition.

"Charlotte!" Chloe huffed, still trying to come to terms with everything she ever suspected to be dear to Lucifer being gone from his penthouse. "What happened here?"

For a fleeting moment, she wasn't sure if Charlotte's smile was faltering. If it did, it was back in place right away. Although, again, something felt off about this.

"Change of ownership."

What?

As if to answer the question that surely never made it past her lips, Charlotte continues. "He is gone."

Gone as in…?

"Well off to… somewhere," Charlotte adds with a smile that has to be somewhere in between knowing and sadness. There was something sad about her whole posture, wasn't there?

"What do you mean?" Chloe finally manages to choke out beside the gigantic lump that is forming in her throat.

"He left, Detective Decker."

When Chloe didn't answer, Charlotte finally took pity on her and stepped closer. The DA sighed and carefully put a hand on Chloe's arm, guiding her towards the thankfully still present sofa.

"Sit down," Charlotte ordered, voice fondly and somewhat… motherly?

There was a sigh and Chloe wasn't sure if it came from her or Charlotte. She wasn't sure of anything anymore right now.

"I don't know what happened," the other woman finally admits. "But he came to me yesterday evening, papers already in order."

What papers?

"You know how he is…" Hell, did she know about that. "I tried to talk him out of it, or at least… have him tell me what had made him do this all of a sudden."

Do what?

"But he seemed determined. And… well, I thought it best to heed his wishes for once." Again, there was this sadness in Charlotte's voice. A sadness Chloe couldn't quite grasp yet.

Chloe still wasn't able to form some kind of sentence. Not fully understanding what the other woman was saying. Except for the fact that her damn stubborn partner had left. Again.

"He signed Lux over to me for the time being."

"What?" This time she must have actually spoken out loud since Charlotte's head shot up and for the first time she actually looked Chloe in the eye – probably for the first time since she had arrived.

There it was again, wasn't it? Sadness… No. Sorrow. Regret, maybe?

Chloe wasn't sure, but right now she wasn't sure of anything anymore. When Charlotte continued to talk, she couldn't listen anymore. The words just washed away. Blocked by a wall her mind put up the second the realization hit her full on.

He was gone. And he wasn't coming back.

A/N: Please be patient with me while I'm drawing this one out. This is not a Decker/Pierce fic, I promise…

And please put in a review before you leave! I really love to hear your opinions!