open ; we need to face our demons

[walkingheroin]

Who: Lucifer Morningstar and anyone else who likes to party.
Where: Deux Lux
When: July Catch-All
Rating: TBD
Summary: Come hang out with the Devil you know you want to.
The Story:

[Lucifer continues to be here almost every night. Perhaps he doesn't need to be; he doesn't care who takes what from behind the bar and the place nearly runs itself, but he enjoys it here. He likes to noise and the presence of others. He likes to watch and learn and exist in a space that occupies more than just himself.

So in the aftermath of some not so pleasant moments in Wonderland, he's doing what he does best; getting other people drunk and doing whatever he feels like doing in any particular moment.

Feel free to stop by and have a drink with him. Or bother him upstairs in his penthouse suite after hours. He's fine with either.]

Comments

[walkingheroin]

Yes, I am your partner. And I'm the same as I've always been.

[That wasn't entirely true; he'd certainly changed. Part of that had to do with her, and some had to do with Wonderland, but he wasn't the same man he was two years ago.

That said, he's always been himself. Whether she thinks of him as The Devil or just Lucifer doesn't change anything. Not really.]

Because I don't want anything associated with what my Father decided he wanted me to be. I wanted to prove to him that I wasn't a pawn in his little game. That I was well and truly done. Keeping them safely locked away only provided me with an out if I decided I didn't like Earth after all. It was time I took that out of the equation.

[thevulnerability]

[ Chloe rolls her eyes, because even she knows he isn't the same person he had always been. Even in the time she had known him, he had changed. He cared about things that the Lucifer she first met at Lux wouldn't have cared about. And even if this isn't her Lucifer, exactly, she knows Wonderland has changed him for the better. In a way, he isn't far off from the Lucifer she left behind.

Which is more of a reason for her to not betray what had happened between them and move on as if things were the way they always have been. ]

So you trapped yourself into mortality because you were mad at your dad. You do realize what that sounds like, right? [ Sure, it's a simplification, but Chloe can't imagine what it must be like, to be so bitter at the person - the being - that had created you. She had been so young when she lost her father. To think that Lucifer threw away any chance to even try to fix things with his father was mind boggling to her. Of course, the difference was his father was God, and the fight had been God throwing him out of Heaven to reign over Hell. It wasn't exactly a normal argument.] I'm sure Hell isn't that great of a place to be and... Well, knowing that I probably need to rethink some of my life choices. [ Her partner is the Devil. Is that an instant ticket to Hell? She's not sure if she wants to know. ] But why is Earth so special that you would want to trap yourself there?

[walkingheroin]

I don't for a moment believe my Father isn't somehow involved. Regardless, I don't consider myself trapped. In Wonderland, perhaps, but not on Earth.

[It was one of the only things he's ever directly chosen for himself. He made his life himself, from the bottom up, and it didn't belong to anyone but him.]

Because it's my home. I don't want to leave.

[thevulnerability]

[ His home.

He's told her that before. It was the reason she went through all that trouble, called in those favors to save Lux. Because it was his home, and he was her friend, and it means the world to her that he is safe and happy.

And then he left. Where could he have gone? If he turned away from his divine duties, and then he left Lux... He has nowhere to go.

Worst of all, Chloe is the reason he left. She is the reason he turned away from the only thing he had left. The only thing he loves. The thought makes her ill, and she swallows a gulp of her drink to try to stave off the incoming feeling of doom as she tries to put the pieces together. He obviously already knew what she could do to him, that she makes him mortal, yet he still wanted to be with her. Maybe it was his feelings that scared him away, maybe it was almost losing her. Or maybe it was something else altogether.

It finally dawns on her that maybe he didn't run because of what she can do to him.

Maybe he ran because he found out why. ]

Yeah. It is your home. [ She smiles at him weakly, while all along her heart breaks. Chloe wishes she knew what lay ahead, as if it would somehow ease his mind if she had insight he didn't. Knowing now what he hid from her, the magic that she would have never believed, Chloe knows that she was completely in the dark at home. Everyone seems to know what is going on except for her.

Still, she smiles. Still, she leans towards him, her eyes meeting his, telling him the truth because it's all she really has left to give him. It won't change anything at home but maybe, just maybe, it will make things better here. ]

I hope you stay.

[walkingheroin]

Yes, well, for now at least, Wonderland must be my home. At least I have a piece of my true one here with me.

[He doesn't mean his bar, this time. He leans toward her as well, reaching an arm out so that he can drag the back of his fingers over one cheek. His eyes flick over her face, over each soft curl of her hair.]

Why would I ever want to leave?

[thevulnerability]

[ She knows he doesn't mean the bar. His hand may have well punctured her chest and curled around her heart, what with the rush she feels when his skin brushes hers. Chloe has to remind herself that this the old Lucifer, the one who had been trying to get her in bed since day one. Things have changed now, sure; there was a truth spoken between them that had been ignored before, a distance between them that had been bridged. While their relationship may have changed on a fundamental level, and a stronger connection had been forged, it didn't change what they were to each other.

Friends. Best friends, even. Partners. But that was all. ]

I'm still not going to sleep with you. [ At least her tone in honestly teasing this time, blowing off his advances in the manner she did at home. ]

[walkingheroin]

[He smiles more broadly at that, amused by what he takes as simply a private joke between them. He's slept with plenty of people and while he certainly enjoyed it, what he had with the Detective was...different.

Better.]

I suppose I could settle for a drink and a dance.

[thevulnerability]

[ She can't believe what it took, but knowing now what she had vehemently denied before was like a pressure valve between them. While Chloe knows in her heart that road that lies ahead will not be any easier - perhaps harder, knowing what she knows now - she doesn't mind as much.

He was honest with her. And knowing who he really is makes her feel closer to him, and she hopes it might just start healing the hurt that he doesn't know he caused. ]

I think we can manage that.

[ Maybe things can go back to normal now. Well, not normal. But better. ]