genessia | Small Things and One Time Wonders

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Small Things and One Time Wonders

Who: Lucifer & Chloe Decker
What: Surprise Subarchway!
When: February 2, 10am
Where: Lucifer's apartment/Los Angeles Subarchway
Warnings: None at the moment

After a great deal of research and talking to residents as well as locals, Chloe knew exactly what she needed to be able to get Lucifer Lux back. Or at least a facsimile of it. Maybe it wouldn't draw crowds, here, but it was as close to getting him something from home that she could get. After taking her photo of Trixie from her wallet, she laid it down next to her Los Angeles badge and shield and quietly sacrificed them for the Subarchway to Lux and its massive block.

She took a breath and shivered a little as she walked back to Lucifer's apartment, popping on and and off transportation when needed. Her shoulders were slightly hunched against the cool evening air and she found her way back to Lucifer's place. It was one of her off days that coincided with one of his and that meant, for once, they'd have an actual evening together. With Trixie's picture gone along with her glock and badge, she felt...weird. Like she was less tethered.

It would be fine, she'd adjust.

But it was weird.

She unlocked the front door and immediately found the couch with a soft Lucifer? that sort of dissolved into a yawn. It had been a day of petty crimes and various acts of stupidity. The crimes here were actually boring and she couldn't help but be a little crabby about it. What happened to the crazy kind back in Los Angeles? She'd just have to push harder into the police force. Sure, she was still a detective, she even had a badge and some sort of stunning gun. It was what it was.

She yawned again, reaching for the plush orange throw she'd gotten a few days ago for the couch, and all but disappearing into it.

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He's in the kitchen when she comes in, fixing a drink. This place just does not have the bar that Lux does, so a cabinet in the kitchen will have to suffice. When he knows she's home, he pours her a drink too -- he knows by now what she likes.

He sits down next to her on the couch and holds out her drink for her. "Welcome home, Detective." Things are more personal between them than they've ever been, just about as personal as they can get, and still sometimes it feels right to call her 'detective' rather than 'Chloe.' It's not like there won't be plenty of chances for the personal.

"I take it it hasn't warmed up any outside."

"Nope," she mumbles from the blanket. It takes a minute for her to untangle herself enough to accept the drink. "Still too cold. I'll be happy when it's seventy degrees and sunny."

She takes a sip of her drink and closes her eyes for a moment, leaning her cheek against his shoulder. Chloe grumbles softly about the weather a little bit more and lets out a sigh. The subarchway was created and ready for them, so maybe some of that Los Angeles weather would be obtainable. As much as she wanted to be lazy and lean against Lucifer, some things were way more important. She tilted her head to glance at him and offered a grin.

Why was telling him things always so difficult? Like. The big things. Not the medium things or the small things. They were absolute garbage when it came to communication, all awkward edges and unexpected corners. But they moved in concert with each other, they fit. Chloe set her drink down, then took his and put it next to hers before kissing him. It was soft and sure...and brief.

"Come with me," she murmured against his lips. "I have something for you, Lucifer."

She leans on him again and the world briefly makes sense. He knows exactly how things are supposed to be when she's sitting like that. And then she takes his drink away and it must be important if she's doing that.

"Something for me?" That's unexpected, and he can't imagine what it would be. She's been here even less time than he has.

"Something for you," she repeats quietly and rises, closing her hand around his and tugging lightly. "Call it a late New Year present or something. We'll have to walk but it's not that far."

There's nothing for it then but to allow himself to be tugged behind her. It's obviously something too large to be easily brought to the apartment. "Oh, yes, I had forgotten how much emphasis you humans put on years."

"Hey now," she said, "some of us need to celebrate surviving the previous year." Chloe's one of them and her fingers tense slightly as she falls into step with him. "Mine's been a little rough on me."

They move out of the apartment complex and she slows her roll, letting the trip settle into an easy pace.

"Eyes closed," she prompts after a moment.

"If you had listened to me earlier, you would have had a better year." No one ever believes him though. It irks him how many people will believe that every little thing is evidence of his father, but mention who he is and no one thinks it can possibly be true.

"Eyes closed?" That's a new one. But he trusts her, so he does as instructed.

"I suppose I would have," she says softly. "Time travel isn't an option, though." Her fingers thread through his and leads him through the subarchway. The warmer air of Los Angeles, the familiar sounds and smells of the city hit her in a rush. It's not perfect in that it's just a copy but it's a very good one.

Lux's building rises serenely in front of them as her thumb brushes his knuckles.

"Open them," Chloe says very quietly, very gently.

"That's probably a good thing." Imagine all the trouble that could happen then.

He notices when the location changes. How could he not, with the warmer air, the sounds of a city he knows so well? Then he opens his eyes and he sees why. He knows the building rising in front of them better than he knows any other building anywhere.

"Did you find a way home?"

Chloe hadn't even thought of her own place or her precinct. Nothing else but Lux seemed important enough. Giving him something like this was the best she could do. It was a home away from home.

"I know what it means to you and, well it's not exactly the real thing but--" she gestures a little leaning into him to hide the high points of colour on her cheeks. "Happy New Year, Lucifer."

Not exactly the real thing. It looks like the real thing, although somehow he just knows that it isn't. It feels different somehow, but close enough.

"What did you do?"

"I made a sacrifice." Her voice is soft and a little subdued. "And they made a subarchway." For him, for her, for them. Chloe finds herself okay with what she'd given up, though her heart squeezes just a little over Trixie's photos. She leans a little more into him, just for a moment.

"I can't get us back there but I can do this." It's the only thing she can do, really, giving him some version of Lux.

"You made a sacrifice? For me?" No one has ever done that for him. He doesn't know what to do with the information. "What kind of sacrifice?"

"For you, Lucifer." Chloe hadn't even hesitated, not even a little.

She nudges him into the building, up the elevator, and into his penthouse before even trying to answer the question. Standing outside, staring up at Lux's building is just ridiculous. It gives her time to collect her thoughts as the elevator door opens to the expansive penthouse. The bar dominates with it's varied bottles, the piano is sat just so, the couch is right where it's supposed to be.

Chloe smiles gently as she turns to get the full effect of the space.

"I gave them my Glock, my LAPD badge," she finally says, let out a rush of air in a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. And then abruptly, she sat, toeing her shoes off so she could tuck herself into the corner of his couch. It makes her look smaller than she is as she loosens her hair from its tie.

"...and Trixie's--" She leans her head, spilling tendrils of golden hair across the back of the couch. ...pictures from my wallet."

He only half listens while she talks, taking his own look around the room. It's home, for sure, though she doesn't know just how much, or what she has to do with it. It's more than just finding a way for it to be here.

Even though he's only half listening, he hears what she says and turns back to her. He knows how much those items mean to her, especially any having to do with her daughter.

"Those things are important to you." Who's to say that this place is more important than those things are? "Why did you do that?"

"You're important to me, too," she says quietly, her smile soft. "In the end, they're just things and this is a little piece of home. I don't think anyone back there knows how much this place means to you, Lucifer. But I do. And...and I wanted to give you something no one else could."

Her eyes follow him and maybe there are high points of colour on her cheeks. She knew full well that this was bigger than a gift.

"Swanky night clubs aside, Lucifer without Lux just didn't seem right." He could have rebuilt it but it wasn't the same. They were really shit with words.

His family had known, because he told them, that being in Los Angeles was the first time he'd felt at home, but they hadn't really understood. Other places were home, to them, and neither of them could imagine choosing to live among humans. But that was the main part of it for him: Los Angeles was the first place he'd chosen to live.

And he's aware now that it's not coincidence that he didn't have this realization until after he met Chloe. She's a big part of the reason that it's home to him.

"You without a gun or your daughter doesn't seem right either." Or a reminder of her daughter, anyway, as long as the real thing's not here.

"I've a badge and a gun at Genessia's PD," she says quietly. "And I have Trixie in my mind. All of this," she gestured, "it was worth it. Somewhere safe for you to go. Everyone needs a place like that."

He was worth it. Worth the badge, worth the gun, worth the pictures of Dan and Trixie that made her relive the moment. She had a thousand million memories of a thousand different moments. But this? Even the piano, the coolness of the couch against her cheek, felt right as she looked up to find his face.

"You're worth it, Lucifer. You always have been."

He finally sits down on the couch next to her and drapes one arm along the back of it. "I don't know about always." Things hadn't started out as well as they'd become later, after all, although it hadn't taken long for him to start protecting her in any way he could.

"Always to me," she repeats firmly, tucking herself against him. "Even when you were being really obnoxious." Chloe had been intrigued and disgusted and fascinated and then somewhere along the way she found herself very much in love with him. Not that it was out on the table for discussion. At all.

They were good together, though. So very good.

He's still not used to anyone feeling that way about him. He hadn't expected it would ever happen, given that he's not human and all. But he's not going to argue with that too much.

"I'm not the only one who's obnoxious."

Yes he is.

"You are, too," she says, laughing. "But I guess you've definitely grown on me."

He has that effect on people. "I never expected that to happen. But then I suppose there are a lot of things I never expected."

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