Dan didn't need bail money, yet. He hadn't been formally charged, but the lawyer told him that it might still happen, depending on how suspicious people where - and how vindictive, to be honest. 'Accessory after the fact', should Lucifer be convicted. Mrs. Calvary had a field day with the threatened drug charge for Dan, and it was dropped, leaving him with nothing, currently, save anxiety and no apology from anyone.

The clean drug test should help him keep his job. Small blessing, that. Very small, considering how much he didn't want it at the moment..

Lucifer's penthouse was still a potential crime scene and open to anyone else with a badge. Thus, Devil roommate. At the time, inviting him to stay seemed easier than leaving him to his own devices - they had a ton of work to do, conviction or not. He didn't know if he should even call Ella or Chloe just yet, or what they even knew about this whole clusterfuck - and anyway, both should be sound asleep. If either had known about the raid about to happen, one or the other would have said something, he was sure of it.

Lucifer's bail was significant, though all the charges hadn't been formalized - Drug Possession, Intent to Distribute. Murder. More could be in the works. The fact he got bail at all was a testament to Lucifer's power - The next judge would likely as not want him back in, but they should have at least the weekend to themselves to work out a plan. Yay for business hours.

He hadn't said anything the entire ride to Dan's apartment, looking distantly out the window, while Dan occasionally glanced at his profile cast in the dark in the back of the cab. Lucifer gazed steadily ahead, keeping his own counsel for once, probably hung up on the words of his sister.

Dan made a mental note to give his sisters a call and be grateful his siblings didn't have wings. Or an agenda. For a moment he distracted himself with imagining their reactions to meeting Lucifer.

He still wasn't sure where his footing was here. The offer of breakfast waffles was impulsive at best and not wanting to seem like an ungrateful dick at worst.

He couldn't deny Lucifer had an amazing mouth. But so did, usually, the occasional drunk one-night stand, and he was at least a few sheets to the wind at the piano when they connected. With his head clear, he couldn't remember if he touched the man because he wanted to or because the whiskey wanted him to.

His fingers flexed, but he didn't move to interrupt Lucifer's thought process. If what Amenadiel said was true, he shouldn't be affected by the nature of him anymore. Any attraction Dan felt for him was purely him. And he had to deal with that. Was it just not wanting to be alone again or insatiable Devilish desire swaying him? Being wanted, if only superficially?

Distracted while stepping in his door, Dan dropped his keys in the bowl. Which he missed because his table was gone due to being shattered and he was too exhausted to remember where he moved the damn bowl he kept his keys in. He resisted the urge to throw the offending keys once he scooped them back up, placing them clattering and scratching on a bookshelf.

He stared at them for a moment, then slapped the lights on as he went, taking his festering anger at the universe out on inanimate objects. "Fuck!" He yanked off his leather jacket with rough jerks and threw it into a corner. "What time is it? Never mind, I don't want to know."

Lucifer eyed him, drawn out of his own thoughts by the activity. "Daniel?"

"You want the couch or Trixie's room? Dammit. I need to ask Chloe to keep her this weekend. I can't subject her to this crap."

"I think this is the point where I remind you that I can find a hotel easily enough."

Sigh. "I know." But I need you. I think. "It'll be easier on us both if we stay in one place. Monday is going to be Hell." He winced. Lucifer rolled his eyes.

The Devil considered the couch. It looked a little on the short side for him. Slyly, he purred, "if yours is the only full-size bed-"

Gah. "No. Fine, you take my bed, I'll take the couch, not in the mood. Go. Shoo. I'm dead on my feet and I need some rest."

"I don't need sleep. I have some favors to call in anyway, messages to leave." He ground his jaw. "Before whatever happens, happens."

Oh good, he was finally thinking about the long-term problems. Dan found a blanket in a closet, kicking off his shoes and making them thump satisfactorily against a near floorboard. "I've seen people get out of hot water with more evidence stacked against them." Not that he liked it. This was different.

It was absolutely different.

Lucifer started to head for the bedroom, then took a breath, pausing in the doorway with a look back. "I regret you're involved in this."

"Yeah, well, Pierce or Cain or whatever needed to die, so I'm not shedding any tears over him. We can talk about it in a few hours. I have a few ideas on how to get you off the hook, but we need information to trade for it, and I'm pretty sure you know enough people you can turn in to get clemency, if not a free ride." He flopped down on the couch. "We can work on your case better if you stay here anyway." Dan laughed tiredly. "I guess I can make you breakfast after all, but probably not waffles."

Lucifer stalled. "Don't feel obligated on my behalf. I imagine this isn't your idea of a date."

Dan shrugged. "I have to make myself something anyway, no trouble to make more." His mind was only paying half-attention to what Lucifer was saying. There should still be eggs in the fridge.

"I am guilty, you know. Perhaps I should face my punishment. I've flaunted my disdain of human law for years, believing I could both live outside the law and yet reside here untroubled."

Dan snorted, rubbing his eyes and trying to focus. "Sure, and the first time someone tries to shiv you in prison, the world goes sideways. Look, I can't believe I'm saying this, but you are above the system. You have to be. You can't go to jail. Your sister has some other plan up her stupid flowing sleeve."

"I'm sure she does. The alternative of course, if I'm convicted, is just going back to Hell, until enough time has passed. Someone stronger than Amenadiel could have tried to force me back by now but they haven't. It's always been his job to make me return. If Dad truly wanted me to return to ruling Hell, I'd be there and locked in forever. He wouldn't have permitted me those trips topside."

Oh. Yay. "Your-uh, God lets you out from time to time?"

"I assume so, since I can come and go at will, when I have wings. Dad made Hell, he could have locked me in permanently. Admittedly, the first time I found my way out, it was a bitch."

Sleep. Need sleep. "Oh? What happened?"

He looked like he was debating on spilling. Then he said, "I didn't have Maze with me, that first time I found the main gate. I did a lot of fending for myself before I had demons falling in line. Before any souls started showing up in Hell. I was tired, hurt, being chased by...things, running in circles, getting lost until I figured out how the pathways worked."

Dan listened, some of his weariness abating.

Lucifer stuffed a hand in a pocket and came out with a cigarette to play with - not lighting it but turning it over in his fingers. "I haven't even talked to Dr. Linda about this, never came up with her before. So, I quite literally stumbled into one of the Gates. The same ones I would later view human souls coming in through. Without thought, I wrenched the ash coated bars open and shut them behind me, hellhounds hot on my heels. I found the surface again - I didn't know I could leave, but once I stepped outside the Gate, I knew how to do it. Father left me my wings so I could get out again, at least for short hops. I hadn't seen the sun, my star…"

He trailed off distantly. Dan shuddered and reminded himself how happy he was to just be human and nothing more. He asked, "Are you the only one who can come and go?"

Lucifer shook himself off. "Any angel can enter Hell. For those of significantly lesser power than myself, it's not a good idea to do so alone but well, semantics. I've lost wayward family members before who stumbled in accidentally or sought me out. Tends to put off visitors. After Amenadiel brought me back the first time, I learned to control the denizens of Hell, make them answer to me, and only me. By then, angelic visitors dropped off to nothing. Even Amenadiel never stepped inside the Gates."

Dan swallowed, thinking of angels who weren't so immortal after all. He joked weakly, "I need a few hours sleep to be functional."

Lucifer gave him a look, hanging his jacket over the back of a chair. "Thank you for your hospitality, Daniel. Were it not prudent, I'm sure you'd rather be alone." His fingers gripped the back of the chair, knuckles white, gaze elsewhere again.

Dan's protest died in his throat as his eyes drifted to slender hands clutching the chair back. "Er. Lucifer?"

The chair crashed to the ground, Lucifer's eyes blazing as he suddenly prowled the length of the room like a panther. "What right do they have? Cain? Redeemable? Why, let's go big or go home, get Hitler out and let him try his hand in politics again!" Looking at nothing, he added, "I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you." Turning around again, starting the path anew, "God forbid He apply His own law to His firstborn children. No, the youngest are always the most treasured, the most readily forgiven, aren't they?"

Dan held perfectly still.

Lucifer's voice rose to the point Dan was sure the neighbors could hear. "Cain was a murderer! Abel was but the first in a long line of victims. I had plans for that arsehole when he finally got to Hell. Now he's there and I can't even give him his Devil's due. Nor can Maze, for that matter, and she's the artist."

He turned in a long circle, seemingly forgetting about Dan's altogether. "He should be writhing in abject terror for what he's done, bleeding from every orifice. His murders, putting Chloe in mortal danger. She could have been killed! That first shot might have been two inches higher and she'd be gone from this earth. And then she'd-"

He stopped, schooling his body back to calm. It was eerie to see, nearly as though watching someone freeze on fast-forward. "Well, never mind."

Dan sank into the couch. "She'd what?"

Lucifer gave him the look with no voice, but he heard it like a bell. Really? Daniel?

Chloe. She'd be in heaven, just like Charlotte. Where Lucifer can't go. Even if things remained as friends, as police partners between them, once she died, she was lost to him forever. Truly forever.

Fuck.

"You...uh, tried to kill him before, right? Uh, Cain?"

Lucifer worked his jaw but allowed the change of subject. He glanced away. "I never expected it to work in the long run. Method of death should hardly matter, after all, the idiot threw himself into a volcano at one point and took six months to regenerate, but regenerate he did. Granted, it was highly entertaining for me - both killing him repeatedly and learning about the volcano thing. I haven't killed hardly anyone since leaving Hell. Deaths in Hell don't count since those aren't permanent, merely a means of punishment. A less effective one, mind you since souls generally figure out that Hell-Death isn't lasting."

"Uhm. This is officially above my pay grade. He's dead now, whatever happened before. What do you mean 'hardly anyone?'"

Lucifer spotted a bottle of Whiskey in Dan's kitchen area on a high shelf and crossed the room for it. "No one you know."

Dan sighed. It wasn't like his own hands were clean. "I'll need to know eventually. Not tonight. No more information tonight. We can start on your case in the morning, invite your lawyer over or go to her office or however it works." God. Did she know Charlotte? Lucifer tends to lean toward things he's already familiar with, he could have hired the lawyer out of the same firm Charlotte worked for, before she moved to join the LAPD defense team.

If nothing else came out of this pile of insanity, at least he knew where Charlotte was. He knew he owed Lucifer a debt for that, even if Lucifer didn't see it that way. In the meantime, one of them was still mortal and in need of a sleep reboot. "Do you want Chlo' to know you're here? I'm going to send her a text to keep her in the loop with the arrest." he looked at his phone. "Fuck me. It's 4 a.m."

Lucifer immediately smiled, ever eager for a distraction.

"Again, no." He accepted an offered glass with a shot of whiskey, not even caring that Lucifer seemed to have known where he stashed the good stuff (well, good for his pay rate anyway), or how he procured it seemingly in seconds. Maybe it would help him sleep. Lucifer opted to sit next to him for a moment, taking a long pull straight from the bottle. His throat moved with the swallow.

Dan looked over the rim of his glass, thinking of beautiful angels and handsome devils.

Distractions and fascinations. Is that all we are to him?

He swallowed on a dry mouth before plowing forward. "Did it mean something? When you kissed me?"

Lucifer licked his lips with a casual, deflecting shrug. "As much as anyone else."

Meaning nothing. Or everything. Dan's throat closed. "Chloe?"

"She seems to want to keep my company. For now, but I'm not holding my breath. I always knew something like this day would come, eventually. It was inevitable, with our close working relationship. I was deluding myself thinking otherwise. She wants nothing more than friendship. But that's all I had before and asking for anything else would be pure greed. I made a prediction when I gave her a gift; that necklace she used to wear - I expected it to be true when I said it and I don't know why I started to think otherwise as of recent." he looked somewhat distastefully at the cheap bottle but didn't put the cap back on.

He sighed."...But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"

The words were mostly unfamiliar, but he still heard the quote as it wriggled through his brain, hunting the orignal written source, but he had not the memory recall of an angel.

"The answer is simple, Detective: no one, just as no one would love him."

Dan freed a hand from around his glass, moved to touch his arm, stopped. "I didn't think I'd find it again, anything like what I had with Chloe; I thought my chance had passed. Charlotte's gone now, but I think she and I loved each other. And even if...even if for some reason all we'd had was knowing each other and nothing else, I'd be happy for that. Companionship doesn't have to exclude love. And love doesn't have to include romance. I think Chloe loves us both in her own way. For different reasons."

Lucifer glanced over, unconvinced. "You're hardly a monster." The not like me remained unsaid, but certainly not unheard.

He set his glass down. "I'm no Cain, but it doesn't make me innocent, without sin. Trixie and Chloe drive me to be better, they always have. Without her in a good part of my life, I don't know where I'd be, but it wouldn't be a good place. They do for you too, I think. If you really thought that of yourself - that you're a monster - you never would have even tried to change anything about yourself, for Chloe or for anyone else. What you do, you do for yourself, not because you want someone to like you, or even love you. If you really believed you aren't worthy on any level, you would have gone back by now.

"Monsters don't get better, they don't care." He looked up. "You aren't one."

Unbeknownst to Dan, Maze's voice echoed in Lucifer's head. Stop caring. You're the Devil.

He took another long swig straight out of the bottle, turning away. "History begs to differ."

God. "Remember what I said about history?"

Lucifer glanced back, held his gaze, the shutters already starting to fall in place again, "that was nice of you to say-"

Be happy. What the fuck am I doing? Dan grabbed the bottle away and kissed him. He had less smoke flavor on his lips and breath this time. The cigarette he'd been playing with stuffed away again somewhere.

Again, Lucifer tried to deepen the kiss, again, Dan pulled back, but his hand wound into short black hair. They just sat there for a moment, forehead to forehead, close enough to breath the same air. "I'm not- I don't know what I want, but I wouldn't turn down some company. Just not - what you're asking for."

Foreheads still touching, Lucifer took a deep breath. "I suppose my favor calls and texts can wait until the sun comes up." He grinned a little. "We have some time before the headsman's block, eh?"

He leaned back, a little, letting go again. "Just do me a favor and don't sleep naked?"

"Spoilsport."

Dan woke with more than a little drool on skin.

Except not his skin.

Lucifer had still been awake when he passed out, barely changed into something comfortable, Lucifer not yet in bed. Dan didn't recall what happened after that, but he drew together some vague recollection of a warm body dipping the mattress and stretching out nearby, a body longer and larger than he was used to.

And warmer. But comforting all the same. He had stirred enough to notice Lucifer left a reasonable amount of space between them, sort of remembering he might have flung an arm out before falling asleep completely.

His lizard brain was trying to tell him something, apparently.

His arm fell limply across a slim waist, under blankets and loosely tangled up in sheets, his face inches from the back of a bare neck that radiated heat. He was ninety percent sure he'd gone to sleep wearing a PJ set, but somehow his shirt had gone missing. He took quick stock, he definitely still had sleep pants, so nothing weird had happened. He usually slept in just boxers so it was a wonder he still wore more than one article of clothing.

He slept so deeply he forgot where he was when he woke. One of those dead-to-the-world sleep sessions where you feel like you woke up on another plane of existence. Parts of his chest pressed not unpleasantly against Devil back. Dan awkwardly extracted his limb, thankful his body didn't come up with any other ways to make it worse. He scooted backward, pushing up on one shoulder to get up. His careful efforts were for naught.

Lucifer's voice purred, soft and dark and thick with sleep. "Daniel? Running off so soon?"

"Uhm."

"Come back. I won't bite unless you want me to."

Dan's stomach rumbled and he found his shirt in the corner where he must have shed it in his sleep. "We have a lot to do today. I'll get some coffee going. Master bath is attached to this room, so get a shower if you want."

Lucifer turned to look over his shoulder and Dan tried very hard not to look at a long, lean back that stretched for miles. He smirked. "You don't need one?"

"After breakfast."

Could this possibly get weirder?

Lucifer flipped back the sheets, clad only in black silk boxers.

Dan fled.

He couldn't find it in himself to make waffles. Just pulling out the iron gave him goosebumps. He instead made eggs, bacon, and toast, then cradled his mug of hot coffee with both hands.

Lucifer put on pants after his shower but not much else, strolling out and scrubbing his hair dry with a towel, and stupid cheery like he hadn't only had four hours of sleep.

Bastard.

Dan let himself peek.

A little.

Lucifer had a singular grace that Dan couldn't decide if it was unique to his person or just not something he ever noticed before in men. He certainly wore Dan's sleep clothes better than he did which just shouldn't be possible since,the hems stopped at the ankle on Lucifer. Bastard.

If he gave in to Devilish seduction, would Lucifer stick around or just let Dan wallow in regret? Would it be worth the might-have-beens?

The Devil crunched bacon and looked over him. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Have you ever had a long-term relationship?"

His eyes danced. "That depends. A few off and on again. Will Shakespeare, Ihara Saikaku, usually writers, the occasional lordling's lady worth a repeat visit. Nothing exclusive. A way to drop in on a familiar face in so many meanings of the phrase."

Dan bit his tongue. "So, they were just fun for you?"

"Just because we weren't exclusive didn't mean I didn't enjoy the company. But I also couldn't get too attached."

Because now I know he outlived them. Just like he would Chloe. Or me. "Why me?"

"You're quite fit, a point in your favor. And, I can call you a friend. Don't have many of those."

"So it's not just a personal challenge?"

Lucifer shrugged and checked his messages.

Right.

"Are we...something?"

He blacked his phone screen. "You got the part where I don't do 'exclusive', yes?"

"Yeah, you made that pretty clear."

He cocked his head, in that bird-of-prey manner he does sometimes. Dan never knew if it showed that Lucifer genuinely didn't understand the problem at hand, of if he didn't understand why it was a problem. "And?"

"Dammit, Lucifer."

An eyebrow went up.

"Fine, yes, I think I'm attracted to you or whatever."

"Well, obviously. Does this mean you're finally going to take me up on my offer?"

Dan flailed internally. "I don't know."

The other eyebrow joined the first. "Well, that's different. I suppose if you just want to make kissy faces, I can do that too."

He was a really good kisser, too. "Okay." Dan sat at his side of the kitchen table awkwardly.

Lucifer moved like a serpent, cradling Dan's jaw to kiss him soundly, surrounding him in warmth and a low buzzing. This time when he felt Lucifer's tongue brush his lips he tasted it. Only the stubble tickling his face told him any difference of gender. On the rare occasions he had imagined kissing another man, his mind had supplied clashing teeth and a struggle for dominance, but this, here, was something else entirely. Nearly gentle, which threw a spanner in pretty much anything to do with his expectations.

A knock rapped at the door, intruding rudely on his thought processes. It must have been going on for a while already, since Ella's voice echoed from outside. "Dan? Daaaaaaaaaaaaaan? Are you home?"

He let go, without looking away from Lucifer's face. "Yeah?" He realized he hadn't raised his voice at all. He swung over to the door from a smirking Lucifer to pull it open. "Hey, uh, yeah?"

Dan wore a full set of pajamas again, but Lucifer merely wore a set of sleep pants. Something Lucifer would never normally be caught dead in.

Ella grinned widely, eyeing them both like she uncovered a massive secret, then barged in and slapped some papers down on the table, grabbing a piece of bacon in the process. "So, Dan, I heard you got in trouble."

"More him than me. I'm not facing charges."

"Yet."

"What do you know?"

She flattened her lips, momentarily distracted from Lucifer's shirtless state. "Mr. FBI is a pain in the ass. It's like he's a secret super spy or something. I tried to get a peek at his files yesterday and he keeps his case on him like it's handcuffed to him."

"Yeah, he paid us a visit last night in jail. As much as I wouldn't want to try, I don't think he's interested in anything other than convicting Lucifer in a court of law. Has he discussed your forensics report with you?"

"Dude is back at the police station right now. He's not even taking the weekend off, the weirdo. Not since the first interview, but I'm sure I'm on his radar anyway."

"Well, it is a pretty serious matter."

Lucifer gave him an unfriendly look.

Dan added, "from everyone else's standpoint, it is."

Ella crunched on a piece of bacon stolen off someone's plate. "How are you holding up?"

"We both got to sleep in a real bed, so there's that. I honestly didn't expect Lucifer to have a shot at bail, but the judge wanted to jump his bones."

A chuff sounded from Lucifer. "Luckily for me, I already knew the judge quite well. She does have a fondness for my 'bones', and that aside, she can be reasoned with."

"You mean bribed."

"Actually, I do mean reasoned with. Judges are very tricky to bribe with money, goods or services, even corrupt ones. Try to bribe the wrong judge and your life gets a lot harder. It's highly likely that I can cut a deal with the court, if I'm to stand trial. Lawyers and court officers are much more bribable."

Ella stole more bacon. "So what's the plan, Stan?"

"Daniel?"

"My fate is going to be tied to yours - If you're convicted of murder, I can be tried as an accessory after the fact; meaning that if they find out I knew you murdered someone, I can be convicted of not passing along that information. Sinnerman, Cain, Pierce, whomever, is still a dead… human in the court system."

Ella brightened. "What if we only have to convince the FBI that Pierce wasn't human?"

Lucifer nibbled on some toast. "But he was."

"I mean, yes, but not really. He had different rules for survival, right? Fake identities? Maybe I can find some of his older names he went under - maybe I can dig up a photo of Pierce from a hundred years ago?"

"That alone won't be enough, but it couldn't hurt. There are some humans alive today who appear uncannily like ones from the last century - it just happens with the genetic mix. Spawns all kinds of conspiracy theories on time travelers. Never met one, if you were wondering."

Dan rubbed his face. "So there's no Dr. Who, but there is the Devil. That's so fucking unfair."

"That I know of. It's a big universe."

"I'm sticking with 'no time travelers' for now anyway. Pierce had to have re-used some identities from time to time, just to make it easier on himself. Do you think your lawyer could get a court order for Pierce's bank accounts? Ella, maybe see if the FBI has already looked into that?"

She nodded, taking notes on her phone. "Sure, I'll look into that. Out of the three of us, I'll be in the office on Monday. I'm assuming you guys are on leave now? Or will be?"

"I think that's a good bet. We don't currently have a lieutenant, but I should probably find someone down at the precinct to check in with. Which reminds me, don't get yourself arrested either, Ella. Did you clean that knife after the wing surgery or was it still covered in Lucifer's blood? I know I didn't wipe it off."

Ella looked confident. "I cleaned it, with alcohol, bleach, and the skill of a retired car thief. Even Pierce's blood won't have been found on it, unless Hell-blades have some special property I don't know about."

Lucifer brightened slightly. "Perhaps there is a path to convincing this obstinate arsehole that imprisoning me-"

Dan grunted into his coffee. "Us."

"-Isn't in his best interest." He looked over at Dan. "Believe me when I say that if I must go back to Hell to avoid serving time, I will deeply regret leaving you to hold the bag. What's happening to you now, because of me, is unfair. But I guess I could always put the blame on Ella for fishing that needle out of a haystack." He said the last with a smile that wasn't actually acidic, and she preened rather than taking insult.

He finished his toast. "If the precinct is otherwise unoccupied, perhaps we should all go have a sit-down with Mr. FBI."

"Not before I get something that could be useful to argue the case." Ella wagged her finger. "Since I'm guessing from this conversation so far, you aren't going to just go whip your wings out and flap them at Mac."

Lucifer sniffed. " You would be correct in your assessment, Miss Lopez."

She nodded. "I guess it's time to science the shit out of this."