"Calm down, Luci."
But before Amenadiel or Lucifer could say more, Chloe found her voice again. "Like I said, Amenadiel, you should go."

"He is dangerous, you don't underst -"
"Oh, I think I do."
And she did - Lucifer was a cornered animal, ready to strike if he needed to, but behind his behaviour he was just scared.
Chloe turned around, not looking to see if Amenadiel left or not. Lucifer's bright, blazing eyes were frightening - she needed to remind herself that this was still her friend and he was hurting.
"Lucifer? Hey, look at me." It took all her strength, but she managed to cup his face with her hand. And like a switch had turned off, the fire vanished, his tense posture became more relaxed and he slumped back onto his bed.
The faint sound of the elevator told Chloe that Amenadiel had left; she looked at the Devil who avoided her gaze. But she could easily read his body language - he was still very tense, with the feathers on his wing ruffled and puffed like the tail of an angry cat.
"Why, Lucifer? Why did you do this to yourself?" It hurt her to see him that way; why didn't he talk to her? He knew she would be there for him. No, that wasn't right, not recently, not since the thing with Marcus started, and when Lucifer had told her he couldn't sleep and babbled something about wings, she had just sent him away.

The fallen angel laughed without any humor in his voice.
"I don't want them, but it doesn't matter what I want, right? I'm the Devil and the Devil never gets what he desires."
"That's not true."

"It is. I don't want my wings - that was the point in cutting them off the first time. But now they just grow back over and over again."
He stretched the wing and slammed it full force against the Sumerian wall. The stone cracked under it and Lucifer hissed - of course it would hurt with Chloe here.
The Detective jumped when he lashed out with his feathery appendage. She was still taken aback by the movement of this thing, for it looked so otherworldly, but it was absolutely real.
"Luce-"
"I just want to be my own man, have free will, and enjoy life to its fullest like you humans do. But no, I can't have that either. I can't have…"
"What? What can't you have?" What was breaking him? She needed to know, she wanted to comfort him and just be there for him.
"YOU! Okay? You! I mean, isn't this the biggest joke in all of existence? I finally find you - a plain, normal human with a spawn. I fell for you, just to find out it was all a big joke from Dad. Then I come to terms with it, I'm ready to overlook it. When I'm ready to take the next step, ready to show you the truth, he finds it a nice idea to devilnap me and slap my wings back on. It doesn't matter, right? Because I still wanted to show you, but oh, look. He took my devil face away and once again you think of me as a crazy, delusional human."
Lucifer was angry, Chloe could see that, for he got more and more upset while she just wanted to wrap him in a blanket and help him calm down. He wouldn't let her. Instead his rant went on. His feathers were all puffed out now.

"Yeah, I could've shown you the wings, but those are not who I am. I don't want them, they don't belong to me. And then?" He laughed humorlessly again. "And then came Pierce and I lost everything. I wanted to protect you from me, from my family, from everything. I pushed you away to give you back your free will. It worked and it hurt. So no, Detective, there is no happy end for the Devil and there will never be one."
He looked at the ceiling, more like through it, and Chloe could see the tears glistening in his eyes.

He suffered so much. All this time and she had never noticed it; she knew he hid behind walls, but not that it was this bad.
Before she could stop herself, she wrapped her arms around him as best as possible, avoiding his injured back.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Lucifer. I should have listened to you. I should have paid attention."
The Devil tensed up at her hug. She knew how awkward he acted when he was shown affection and it always wrenched her heart.
Lucifer couldn't hold back anymore. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and started sobbing - partly from exhaustion and pain, but also from all the emotions he tried to get rid of.

And Chloe let him. While he wept like the fallen angel he was, she rocked him like she did with Trixie. She didn't know what else she could do.

Eons of hurt, abandonment, pain and fear needed to get out of the Devil.

He was clutching at her like she was his lifeline, and maybe she was?

Chloe looked at him again - the Devil in her arms, a lonely soul, the cast out son, the lost child.
There was still the little voice in the very far back of her head, telling her to run and never look back, but how could she? Lucifer's wing was drooping now, spread over the bed. Her mind urged her to touch it, but she restrained herself. Lucifer was clearly not comfortable with them, so she would not do this without his consent.
Minutes?... Hours?... She didn't know how much time passed, for Chloe had been absorbed in her thoughts until a soft snoring brought her back.

Finally he had fallen asleep. Hopefully Lucifer could get some much-needed rest. The Devil was absolutely slack, so Chloe gently put him down. She looked closely at him; the exhaustion was clearly visible in his face, not only from this evening, but from all that had happened over the last few weeks.
The little voice in her head still wouldn't shut up. Take Trixie and leave, it was telling her, but then Lucifer whined quietly and her attention was back on him.
The Devil was hurt, he was alone. The only family member that had come here was only thinking about his own selfish reasons. Did his other siblings know? Did he know?

How could a father do something like this to his child? She tried to imagine Trixie in Lucifer's situation. No...no, that would never happen. She would never abandon her beloved daughter.
Chloe had to collect her thoughts and she needed to bring her impulse to run under control. Slowly, without waking Lucifer up, she got out of bed, put a blanket over him and finished her cleaning task as much as she could. The balcony was an area she still avoided, but the penthouse itself? She could restore that to its former glory.

She hated Lucifer's coping mechanisms. Chloe could deal with sex and flirting - consent was important to Lucifer, so she could ignore that, even if it was hard. His alcoholic behaviour was problematic, even if he was never drunk. She remembered how he had used his flask more often recently, but apparently he had quit smoking. Because of her? She had mentioned once she didn't like the smell of smoke - not that he smelled like that, he was always scented just like himself.
Till today Chloe had never seen him drunk or high. Tonight was the first time ever. She hated it and she would definitely have a 'mom talk' with him about his drug abuse. The Detective got rid of everything - where the hell did he got this tricycle and that creepy ape? And a weirdly assembled IKEA shelf? - she could find in his penthouse and she didn't care if Lucifer would be angry at her for that.

When the sun slowly rose, she couldn't bring herself to wake him up. She watched him instead.
More strangely to her, in all this time she didn't waste a single thought on Marcus. Of course not, he was the safe alternative to the fallen angel. She always hoped Lucifer would get his shit together and stop running from his emotions.
But now that she knew, could she still be with him? Why her? The Devil himself wanted her and she just couldn't understand why.

At the same time, she totally understood. Lucifer had fallen for her because she cared, she cared for him in a way obviously nobody else had.
A whine brought her attention back to him.
"Hey, Lucifer?"
He didn't answer, instead he clenched his fist into the blanket.
"What's wrong?" He turned a little and then she saw it. His injured back looked pretty weird. Under the bandage something clearly was building up and trying to break free.

The fallen angel didn't respond any further, but there was no need. The bandage ripped apart and Chloe watched how a new wing grew right from the wound. It was such a strange, but also fascinating, sight.

It had to be painful, for Lucifer whimpered while still half asleep.

First, it was just a naked limb, but as this thing got bigger the feathers started to grow in.

"Oh Luce…" Seeing him in pain broke her heart; she remembered the day she had seen the scars on his back for the first time. And he had done it again to himself. How much self loathing and hatred did he have? A lot, apparently.

Now Chloe felt ashamed for her reaction. Lucifer had told her again and again who he was, but she hadn't believed him and then when she finally saw the truth, she freaked out and hurt him.
Not again - she wouldn't abandon him like his family. The Detective lay down next to him and pulled him in carefully till his head was resting on her chest. He calmed down immediately and even relaxed a little when she started to comb her fingers through his hair. It was a soothing movement for both of them.
It didn't take long till Chloe fell asleep alongside the Devil happily purring in his sleep next to her. She was so exhausted, the purring and probably the calming effect of the wings sent her off.

When Lucifer woke up in the morning, he had problems recognizing his surroundings. His mind was still fogged and his whole body ached. The first time he cut his wings off alone had been a breeze compared to this, but if he was honest to himself he hadn't treated his body very well recently. Celestial or not, even his metabolism had a limit and that had been reached yesterday, it seemed.
He was in his bed, but how did he get here? The Detective, right. Her scent was still on the pillow and the blanket next to him. It even lingered in his stupid, cursed wings like he had covered her with one of them after they both had fallen asleep.

She had really been here and stayed overnight, but why? He couldn't remember what had happened last night. Just a faint idea of Amenadiel came to his mind, but other than that? Just nothing. And where was Chloe now?
"Detective?"
He listened to see if he could hear something in the penthouse, but there was nothing but silence.
Lucifer forced his aching body to sit up, willed his legs to obey, and after long and painful minutes he managed to stand. His whole body was trembling, he had black spots in his vision and his entrails rebelled.
He really had overdone it yesterday, it seemed. Step after step, leaning onto the wall, he made it out of his bedroom.

The steps down into the living area were too much - his legs buckled and he fell to his knees.
"Detective?!" This time it sounded far more desperate, like a child that had lost his parents in the mall, and again he didn't get a response.
Why should he? What was he thinking? Why should Chloe stay here? Lucifer couldn't even understand why she hadn't run off in the first place. She had seen the truth and had probably run as far as she could as soon as he had fallen asleep and she could get away. Maybe he had done something even worse?
His wings - these cursed monstrosities he hated so much - drooped and his tears fell to the floor. He had lost her, of course he had.

He nearly missed the soft sound of his elevator and raised his head. There she was, with a messy bun, in one of his wrinkled shirts, and she was carrying something.
"Chloe?" It was nearly a whisper, for he couldn't quite believe his eyes.

But she was there and she heard him. "Lucifer!" Why was he out of his bed? And why was he looking at her full of desperation and awe? Chloe set aside the cup carrier and the bag she was carrying and rushed towards him.
"Hey, is everything okay?" She kneeled down in front of him and cupped his cheek. The admiring look in his eyes became even more intense, if that was at all possible.
"What happened?"
The Devil looked up. "Why are you here?"
She didn't understand that question and gave him a confused look.
"You shouldn't be here, you should run. I'm a mons-"
She shushed him by putting her index finger on his mouth.
"I'm here to look after you, silly, who else would do that? You are injured...okay, you were injured and I couldn't leave you. And no, Lucifer, if you are anything at all, it's the most annoying, funny, loyal friend I ever had. You are my best friend and my partner."
Chloe smiled at him and with her thumb wiped away one of his tears.
"I just thought you might be hungry and I know your sweet tooth. It's also impossible to get something out of that monstrosity you call a coffee machine. So I just got us a late breakfast."
And he thought she had abandoned him again. It should have broken her heart, but after yesterday it was already shattered.
"I got Devil's food cake for you." She chuckled and he smiled warily.
"Come on, Old Scratch, hmm?" Chloe helped him up. Damn, he was heavy with those wings, but they made it to his couch, where she threw a blanket over him to keep him warm and to hide his naked body.

Lucifer snuggled into the thing like a lifeline, for he was still shivering, probably from the aftereffects of all the drugs he took and the wing….stuff.

"I got your favorite." She handed him a cup of coffee and the little box containing the cake while she took a sip from her cup and munched on a lemon bar.

The Devil eyed everything with suspicion and Chloe sighed before she took his hand.
"I know everything has changed, but nothing has to change. I'm really, really sorry for my freakout yesterday, Lucifer. If there is anything I can do, just tell me. But otherwise you are my partner and my friend, okay? And we will see where this will take us."
The Devil nodded, insecure like an abused child. She had seen that look before and she wanted to wipe it off his face. It just didn't belong there. Lucifer was smug, always grinning and mischievous, not this insecure child.
Chloe needed to fight her urge to pull him into a hug, but Lucifer was still injured somehow and she knew how he reacted to those. She wondered if angels hugged each other or something like that, and if he had had someone in hell.

Oh screw that, she was his family now, and she hugged him very carefully.
"Please promise me to never do that again, you idiot." This time it was she who shedded tears.
Lucifer let a few moments of silence pass before he let out a heavy sigh.

"I promise."