Lucifer was bored. That was nothing new, in and of itself; he'd sat his way through long stretches of time when there literally hadn't been anything, and the past few millennia, although generally more interesting than the Precambrian (not that there had been anything wrong with volcanoes and bacteria), had really only been speckled with bursts of excitement. Lucifer sighed, pacing the length of his throne room.

He could freeze over Hell today. That was always amusing. Something about watching demons scurry about trying to find their snowshoes while damned souls were steadily hardening into blocks of soaking incorporeal limbs was infinitely laughable. There was little worse than trying to slosh through snow in slush-filled socks. It was especially effective on the upper levels of the plane where it generally remained hot and the mostly guilty souls had become accustomed to their own climate-controlled tortures. But he really didn't want to do anything work related.

The flames around his throne crackled merrily as Lucifer paced through them. He drew pictures in the fine layer of soot which had settled on the granite with the tip of his shoe. There weren't even any major problems in Hell right now. Certainly none that required his attention, anyway. He'd quashed the latest rebellion last century, reassured his demons that they did not have souls, assigned a few thousand demons to be on-call for upward summons (there'd been an issue with demons being summoned in the midst of their chores), sent Paimon to watch Limbo and Malphas to Treachery, and had Vassago redesign Asphodel so that those who had been poorly sorted and were waiting to be skyrocketed a few planes to Heaven weren't quite as miserable in their queue. Lucifer was, frankly, tempted to bring Vassago back down to him because the demon made for good company when Mazikeen wasn't present.

Mazikeen. Lucifer stopped drawing in the soot. His right hand demon being summoned by a child was the only matter he had within his sights to fix. Lucifer had known that he wouldn't be able to channel all summons to the legions he'd placed in Limbo without constant supervision, and he'd been more than willing to accept a few upper-tier and lower circle demons randomly disappearing on occasion, but Maze? Evidently, the 108th and the 217th legions weren't enough for summoning-only purposes in Limbo; Lucifer made a mental note to reassign the 95th to Limbo's summoning division. He could give the actual order later, when Maze was back.

But why should he have to wait? The flames at the farthest wall dimmed considerably as Lucifer blankly stared at them. Why should he have to wait for his demon to return? He was the bloody King of Hell; he shouldn't. He paused, rummaging through his mind to find the connection that linked him to Mazikeen, and brought it out from the organized chaos of his connections with his favorite demons. A good mental tug would be all it would take to cancel the summon and haul her back to Hell. The fire fell into embers. One small tug.

Lucifer smiled. Why do that? He could go to her. Not a tug, but a guideline—hand over hand, up and out. Hell could run itself for a while. So Lucifer held the connection in his mind and flew himself up a plane.

It wasn't a thing of precision.

He may or may not have become distracted most of the way up, and he may or may not have forgotten about following the connection somewhere in the intermediary plane. In his defense, he did make it within a hundred feet of Maze. He even recognized where he was: the living room of human Detective Decker. That he couldn't see Maze was no matter. That Detective Decker was pointing a gun at him was of slightly more import.

"Be not afraid," Lucifer said, grinning cheekily. Decker aimed her gun at his heart. "I'd prefer if you'd not fire that; you'd ruin a perfectly good suit, which you must admit is quite dashing on me." He held out his arms and spun slowly so that she could admire Hell's excellent tailoring.

"How are you here?" Decker asked, her gun unwaveringly aimed at him. Lucifer looked over his shoulder and hid his bafflement that she wasn't appreciating his form. Still one of the complicated ones, then. He turned back towards her. "Trixie didn't summon you."

"Of course not." He closed the distance between them and gently pushed down her gun. Decker resisted, but eventually gave in. "Is that truly how you believe I arrived last time?" Some of the tension in Detective Decker's shoulders released. Lucifer decided that she likely would not try to shoot him, and released her hands, stepping back a foot. She promptly realigned her gun to his chest. "Detective, if that weren't a gun in your hand, I would say you were happy to see me." No reaction.

"How are you here?" Decker repeated.

Lucifer sighed. "If you must know, I flew. Now, could you please put that away? It's a smidge insulting that you believe you could hurt me with that."

Decker hesitated, but, in the end, holstered her weapon. She still stared at him with guarded eyes. "Why are you here?"

"You'll have to be more specific than that, I'm afraid." He sat on the top of her couch after ensuring that it had nothing particularly disgusting on it. "In existence, on Earth, in whatever this city is, or in your living room? Do note that I'm not here to answer any existential dilemmas that cannot be solved with the infinite wisdom of forty-two; Adams was right about more than just that." She simply stared at him. Lucifer kicked his heels against the couch back. "In your living room, then. I'm looking for Mazikeen."

"She's with Trixie." Decker crossed her arms. "You came all this way for your demon?"

"Yes, well, I need her to relay an order, and I have no desire to do it myself." Lucifer glanced into her kitchen. Decker's phone began ringing. "You wouldn't happen to have any whisky around, would you?"

"No." She answered her phone, keeping her eye on Lucifer even as she listened. Lucifer watched her just as intently. She was a funny human, surprisingly complicated, and quite pleasant on the eyes, not that he'd been having success luring her to bed. Or to the couch, wall, table, shower… "Yeah. Okay. I'll be there in a few minutes." She hung up and put on her shoes.

"Where are you off to, Detective?" Lucifer asked, standing from the couch.

She eyed him. "Work." So succinct. He could admire that.

"What does this work entail?" He followed her to the door, sneaking in front of her and holding it open. She hesitated before leaving her home. "Something exciting?"

"A crime scene." She locked the door, not fully turning her back on Lucifer. Had she any reason to fear him it would have been a wise decision. "Don't you need to go find Maze?" She didn't walk any farther.

"I have an eternity, Detective." Lucifer looked around, squinting slightly in the sudden sunlight. It was pleasant out, not too hot, not too cold. The sun was thoroughly warming the Earth, and it's heat was being radiated off of the pavement up to him. The air itself was relatively clear, although it was evident that wherever the Detective lived was heavily populated. The rumbling noise and oily smell were proof enough of that. "Where is this crime scene?"

"Lucif…" she fizzled out.

"Lucifer," he helpfully supplied. He looked upwards, towards his star. It was almost directly overhead but offset slightly towards the East. "Do you have a spare pair of sunglasses? I forgot to add a dimmer when I lit that."

Decker closed her eyes and inhaled and exhaled deeply. "L-lucifer." A bit of a stutter, Lucifer noticed, but they could work on that. "You're not coming with me."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Why not?" Decker crossed her arms again.

"It's a crime scene." She shuffled her weight from foot to foot, and Lucifer frowned. "You're not allowed in."

"Am I making you nervous, Detective?" Lucifer asked. He moved so that his back was to the sun and the Detective was effectively standing in his shadow. She'd been squinting, too; it seemed as if she'd forgotten a pair of sunglasses as well. Decker swallowed, even though she kept her face level and devoid of emotion. "Oh." It was more than enough to answer the question. "I see." Of course she was scared of him. She had every reason to be, and every reason was justified. Lucifer adjusted his cufflinks. "I'll… I'll be going, then." He turned and began walking away. Back to Hell and boredom. Maze would be back in a few days anyway.

"Lucif—" she broke herself off. "Wait." Lucifer paused and turned to face her. "Look, I didn't mean—" she paused again. "Look, I'm scared of you because you're the literal Devil. You could hurt me, or Trixie, or anyone here with barely a thought, and I'm scared of that because there's nothing that I could do."

"Yes, I understand." It was a perfectly rational fear because it was grounded in reality. Everyone he knew feared him, so why should there be any exception? So much for complicated. He offered Decker a half-smile. "It was good talking with you, Detective."

"Wait." She almost grabbed his arm. "Listen. This crime—it's a murder."

"You did say you were in homicide," Lucifer reminded her. She'd mentioned that just as she was beginning to lose to him during the first time around the board in Monopoly. She'd also hastily clarified that statement, feeling the need to specify that she didn't commit homicide, as if she had to justify herself to him.

"Yeah. Um." She blinked. "So, apparently, it looks like a summoning gone wrong, but Dan thinks there's something else. Dan's—"

"Your ex-husband. I do have a painfully excellent memory, Detective." She'd brought Daniel up when she became aware that Lucifer had been flirting with her, but Lucifer had already heard of him through some of Daniel's more prolific summons.

"Okay. Yeah. So, Dan thinks it's something else. He's going to probably summon someone later, but—well, you're here, and probably you would know, so… I mean, if you want to, you could maybe…" She trailed off again. Lucifer waited for her. She sighed. "Do you want to consult for this one?" There. Took her long enough.

Lucifer grinned. "With pleasure, Detective. I always enjoy pursuing a murderer." He gestured towards the street. "Which vehicle is yours?" Decker blinked, then pointed vaguely towards her car. Lucifer began towards it, the Detective trailing after him. "What of your fear of me?" He unlocked it before she could draw her keys. Her response was another breathing exercise.

"Still there. Not going away. But—" she cut herself off, gathering her thoughts and wandering to the driver's side of the vehicle to enter it. "But you also haven't hurt anyone. And, well. I don't know. I guess I've just seen a lot of bad people."

"So what's one more in the mix?" Lucifer asked, shutting his door.

"No." Decker started the vehicle. "You just don't seem… bad." She started driving. He didn't seem bad? Lucifer peered at her. She was steadfastly looking forwards, at the road, watching traffic and trying to ignore him. She had a beautiful profile, Lucifer decided. And a beautiful sense of naïve morality.

"I suspect you'll reconsider," he said at last. Detective Chloe Decker said nothing.

AN

Hi, all! This continues Invocare and Summoning, although you don't need to be familiar with either.

Constructive criticism is always welcome, so if you have any pointers or notice any errors, please let me know! The same goes for tagging, especially warnings.

Posting will be once a week on Saturdays.

Also- the last two stories in this series have been predominantly about Maze and Trixie, but I couldn't quite find a way to fit their friendship into this meaningfully. Trixie does not appear in this (sorry). I'm also working under the idea that Lucifer is more powerful than he lets on in the show. It doesn't come up much, but fair warning.