Chapter Text
Lucifer knelt in the largest open area of his floor, not wanting to get blood on anything if he could help it. This had become something of a daily routine by this point and he was getting rather practiced at it. It didn’t make it hurt any less of course, but the pain was worth it to get rid of these unwanted appendages. He reached back, twisting his arm, glad that he was as flexible as he was or he never would have been able to manage, and felt around for the joint. The place where he had to cut. Once he found it, he shifted the hell-forged blade in his grip and began sawing at it, agony writ in his features. The pain and concentration distracted him enough that he didn’t hear the elevator. The first sign he had of anyone’s presence was her voice. “Lucifer, are you…Oh. My. God!”
Lucifer dropped the blade and spun around to his feet, adrenaline overwhelming the pain, at least for the moment. “Ms. Lopez!” he said is surprise as he instinctively tried to put his wings away. Unfortunately, with one of his wings only half attached, that sent him right back to his knees in a scream of agony.
“Oh, god,” Ella breathed out again as she rushed over to him. “Are you okay? What happened? What can I do?”
Lucifer managed to control himself enough to look up at her and was surprised to see concern more than fear in her face and took a moment to decide whether or not he could trust her with one of the few weapons in existence that could kill him without the detective being nearby. “If you’ll give me your word not to kill me…”
“What?!” Ella interrupted, hurt and offended. “How could you even…Why would I…How could you think…”
“Your word, please, Ms. Lopez?” Lucifer interrupted her back. He wasn’t taking any chances.
“You have my word, I won’t try to kill you,” she said with a huff. “Not that you should need it,” she muttered.
“Then if you would…that curved blade over there on the floor…” Lucifer motioned towards it.
“This one?” she asked, picking it up, trying to ignore the pool of blood it was laying in as much as she was trying to ignore the blood streaming down Lucifer’s back.
“Yes, that one,” Lucifer said, voice tight from the pain. “If you’d be willing to finish removing the wings, that would be helpful, but I can do it if you’d rather…”
“Dude, I’ve done a lot worse in my life. I’m not squeamish,” Ella pointed out, stepping towards him and noticing his flinch as he watched the blade. “It’ll be okay,” she promised, as she put a hand on the shoulder with the still intact wing. She might have asked more questions to make sure that this was the right thing to do, but with one of his wings hanging half off already and clearly in a lot of pain, it was something of a moot point for the moment. And she definitely wasn’t getting into the whole plethora of questions that the wings brought up in the first place. That could wait until this situation was resolved.
When Lucifer gave her a nervous nod and shifted the rest of his back towards her, allowing her to get a good look at it, she gasped. The cut was clearly not straight or clean and probably hurt him so much more than it would have otherwise. “I’m guessing continue the cut at the joint?” she asked, needing to be sure before she started.
“Yes, please,” Lucifer said, somewhat heartened that he hadn’t been killed yet now that his back was turned. He didn’t think she would be the type to drag it out. Then again, she was a catholic and he was the devil, so he wasn’t letting his guard down yet. Maybe that knowledge hadn’t even hit her yet.
“Okay. This is probably gonna hurt a lot, but I’m sure you already know that. And I’m betting it already hurts a lot,” she babbled nervously as she lifted the wing as gently as she could to take the pressure off of it before lining up the blade. She could tell it wasn’t going to be as simple as a single cut and done. That joint looked a lot like bone and she didn’t care how sharp this knife was, it wouldn’t be easy to cut through.
“I’m aware,” Lucifer said through clenched teeth, already bracing himself for it. Having someone that he wasn’t sure if he should trust at his back with the only blade that could kill him was actually worse than the pain, but he wasn’t going to say that. Either way he wished she would just hurry up. He couldn’t help the whimper that pulled from his lips as she began, as much because of the surprise of not knowing when she was starting as the actual pain.
“Sorry,” she said with a wince at the sound, but she knew that stopping and starting again would be worse, so she just kept going. It went easier than she’d thought it would, but that wasn’t saying much. It was still like trying to cut through a tough steak with a dull steak knife. It took a good five minutes before the wing finally fell to the floor. “Should I be worried about how much blood there is?”
“No. Wings bleed a lot,” he told her, feeling a great sense of relief with that one off. Both physically and emotionally. “Other one now if you would?”
“You’re sure you don’t need a break first?” she asked. This one wasn’t hanging painfully at the moment after all, but then she didn’t know if they hurt to begin with. Maybe this was some kind of periodic thing that angels had to do like a grooming ritual or something. Or like a haircut…just more painful.
“I’m sure. Please, Ms. Lopez,” he asked hopefully, feeling a little better about her trustworthiness now. Of course, she could just be going for maximum pain by removing the wings and lulling him into a false sense of security before she put the blade through his heart.
“Okay,” she sighed before she started the cut right at the joint. This one was a lot cleaner than the other one since she could actually see what she was doing and wasn’t starting with a crooked cut. It was also somewhat quicker since she had a better idea of how the blade would work with it. It still ended up taking five minutes, but since she was doing the whole thing instead of half, it was to be expected. Once the second wing fell to the floor Lucifer gave a sigh of relief and rolled his shoulders, the remains of the joints disappearing into his back. Ella sucked in a sharp breath of surprise and couldn’t help but run her fingers over the area looking for them. When Lucifer winced, she jerked her hand back. “Sorry. Does that still hurt? With them gone and all?”
“Just sore,” Lucifer said as he got to his feet and turned to face her, feeling much less vulnerable that way, and held out his hand for the blade, which she gladly handed him. “I’ll be good as new in an hour or so.”
“Good. That’s good,” she breathed out. She resisted the urge to start her long string of questions right now, and instead said, “You should probably jump in the shower and clean up…”
“Quite right,” Lucifer nodded. “You’re welcome to stick around and have a drink or two. I’m sure you have many questions for me.”
“Yeah, I really do. Thanks,” Ella said relieved that he seemed to be open to them. She would appreciate the time to get her head together and work through her freak-out too now that the emergency was over.
Ella noticed that Lucifer had taken the blade with him and she went over to the bar and poured herself a generous glass of vodka and drank it quickly as her mind went a mile a minute. The wings…he really was the devil. The actual devil. What the hell did that mean? She’d never bought into the whole idea of the devil being evil incarnate, of course, but…it was actually /real/. /He/ was real. Which meant so was everything else. Probably. No, it had to be. He wouldn’t exactly set himself up as a villain which meant there had to be a god that had. Unless humans had done that themselves. Seen him and known him and been afraid of his power and made up some supreme being that could beat him. That was a possibility.
But no. He had at least one brother. Amenadiel. She’d met him a few times. That meant he was an angel too. Or was he a demon. Oh crap. Maze. Maze was a demon. She’d said so, of course, but Ella had just thought it was a method acting thing kinda like…oh god. She’d been accusing the devil of being a method actor for over a year. That wouldn’t end well. No, no Lucifer wouldn’t hurt her. Not even for that. His secret being out wouldn’t change that.
That was when it dawned on her that he’d been afraid of her. Actually /afraid/. Of /her/. And he’d still put himself in one of the most vulnerable positions possible. He’d chosen to trust her. That was…she couldn’t even put words to how that made her feel. She’d been hurt and offended that he’d even had to ask, but now that she was actually thinking about it…why wouldn’t he? As far as the whole world, and especially her faith was concerned he was irredeemably evil. Why wouldn’t he assume that she would take the opportunity to hurt him once she was finally faced with the truth?
Sure, she could say that he should know her better than that, but she knew as well as anyone that secrets that big naturally brought insecurity. Adding to that the vulnerable position he’d been in and the pain that he was clearly fighting it would have made it even worse. But he had still trusted her word. Given her a chance. That meant everything. She took a deep steady breath as she drained the last of her drink before she got up to start cleaning up some of the blood on the floor.