What had he done?

The thoughts in Lucifer's mind raced far faster than any descent from Heaven that he had underwent. He certainly had done it now. If the Detective- if she wasn't terrified out of her wits before, she would definitely be now.

He had shown her his entire form.

Sure, it had been with good intent. The Detective was being dragged away by the demons, by his demons, and he couldn't let her get hurt. No, he couldn't let them take her. So he did it. He displayed his wings, his Devil face, everything. The action yielded the desired results. The demons backed down and the Detective was able to get away without a single scratch. Technically, anyway.

But now the Detective had disappeared somewhere outside and Lucifer was left standing in the middle of the room, the floor covered with the dead bodies that previously held the souls of those demons. Oh, if only he could get his hands on all of them. The kind of punishment they would undergo would be enough the fuel the nightmares of the Devil himself. Pun intended.

Lucifer forcibly yanked himself out of his own thoughts. Now wasn't the time for daydreaming punishments for those disobedient demons of his. Right now, he had to make sure that the Detective was safe. Even if she never wanted to see him ever again. Which, as Lucifer knew, was probably the case.

Lucifer walked over plenty of bodies that laid dormant before finding himself at the door. He held the knob for a moment, although he wasn't sure why. Linda would probably say that it was because he was scared of what he might find on the other side. Still, he never listened to Linda's advice anyway.

Much like ripping off a band aid, Lucifer turned the knob and looked up only to have his heart drop into his stomach when he saw exactly what he feared.

Nothing.

There was no Detective, no sign that she was ever there.

He walked out of the room and looked to his left and his right, hoping that she was there waiting for him somewhere on the street. Still, as Lucifer had learned in his many years of living, hope was dangerous. Hope was stupid.

Hope was like a sweet lie that your mind whispered to you constantly, that kept you warm in those moments of freezing dread only to rip away the blanket as soon as cold wind blew by. Lucifer never held hope for anything-at least not before he met the Detective. Then she burst into his life like a bright lighthouse, lighting his dark and cold life and filling it with hope.

Hope was stupid. Hope was a dangerous.

And so, Lucifer stood there, for once in his immortal life, frozen to the spot. The Detective was gone and he had done exactly what he was most afraid of doing ever since the first moment that they met.

He scared her.

He lost her.

"Lucifer?"

And there it was, back again. That stupid, dangerous spark that blazed in his heart like a fire every time that he saw her or heard her melodic voice.

Hope.

Lucifer slowly turned to see the Detective standing a few feet away from him. "Detective." Lucifer spoke gently, as if any word he said that was too abrasive or too strong would make the Detective come to her senses and run like mad far away from Lucifer and the monster that he was.

"I, uh- Charlie's okay. I gave him to Amenadiel, he says that he'll be fine once he gets home." The Detective stammered out her words, one after the next. Lucifer could only nod in response. He knew what would come out of her mouth next- it was only a matter of time before it did.

She would tell him that she didn't love him. Not in the way that he loved her. She would tell him that he was a monster, that she wished she never met him on that day. As much as Lucifer tried to brace himself for the utter heartbreak that would come next, he knew his life wouldn't be the same.

Lucifer snapped out of his own thoughts only to see that the detective had stepped closer to him. She was only an arm's reach away. Why had she come closer to him? Maybe it was an accident, or she was still in a trance from seeing him in the entirety of his true form.

"Are you okay?"

Lucifer was stunned. Out of all of the combinations of words that could form a sentence, those three words were three words that Lucifer never expected her to say in this moment. Keeping up his flair of nonchalance, he fidgeted with the cuffs on his jacket and gave her one of his signature smirks. (Although, it probably looked more lopsided and nervous rather than calm and collected in his state.)

"Of course, Detective." Lucifer looked down awkwardly before meeting her eyes once again. "Are you...alright?"

The detective nodded slowly and gave him a small smile, the corners of her mouth turning up softly. "I'm okay." Lucifer's heart was beating like a hummingbird's wings but if the hummingbird had a particularly fun time with some narcotics beforehand.

He stood there, watching her from an arm's distance. He traced the features on her worried face, knowing that he'd most likely never see it again. Waiting for the other shoe to drop was proving extremely difficult, especially when the detective was right there, so close to him.

The detective took another step and Lucifer's breath hitched. Wasn't it about time for her to say her piece and leave him, for good? How long was Lucifer going to be subjected to this torture of being so close to the lighthouse, his only source of hope, yet being unable to hold her? To envelop her in his arms and to not make the stupid mistake of leaving her again?

"Can't you just get it over with?"

He didn't expect the words to come out of his mouth, but once he did, he immediately felt a pang of regret in his heart when her eyebrows furrowed, and he could feel the hurt coming from her.

"Get what over with, Lucifer?"

Lucifer couldn't look into her eyes anymore- those beautiful blue eyes that sustained him through many a boring case and the eyes that sustained him when he was away from her for too long. "The rejection. You know, the part where you tell me all about what a monster I am, the evil demon that I am inside." Lucifer's words spilled out, one after the other, his eyes feeling like they would pop from the amount of pressure in his skull. "Can't you just say all that and we can move on with our lives, detective?"

Another step she took closer to him, another hummingbird that joined the party in his chest. "You're not a monster, Lucifer. I told you, I don't see you that way." Lucifer looked up at her. She was now only a foot's distance away. "What happened in there, that doesn't change anything."

Hope.

"I still..." The detective chuckled and bit her lip. "Nothing's changed. You did what you had to do to save me. To save Charlie, who's now safe. That doesn't sound like a monster to me."

Lucifer shifted on his feet. Even if she truly believed her own words, there was still the danger that the demons would come back and wreak havoc on Earth. Or even worse, they'd come back knowing about Lucifer's attachment to the detective. That meant that the detective would be in danger, and that was something Lucifer wouldn't allow. He couldn't.

The detective put her hand on his cheek and stared into his eyes. His stomach whirled with those stupid and dangerous emotions as he fought the urge to close the distance between them and kiss her. Instead, he stood there awkwardly as she kept her hand where it was, bringing at least three hummingbirds into Lucifer's chest cavity.

"Um...guys?"

Lucifer and the detective were both startled at the sudden voice that didn't belong to either of them. The detective had removed her hand-which hadn't gone unnoticed by Lucifer- and turned her attention to Daniel, who was standing in the middle of the room that still held the dead bodies that laid on the floor. Right, that probably had to be explained.

The detective turned back to Lucifer and gave him a smile. "I- yeah, I should probably deal with that." Lucifer smiled in response, both relieved and pained that the detective was going to leave.

"Right."

The detective proceeded to lean in and kiss Lucifer on the cheek softly. "I'll see you later at Lux, yeah?" Lucifer nodded slowly. "I'll see you then, Detective."

The detective turned to leave, and Lucifer felt that blaze of hope fill him for a moment. "Chloe?"

"Yeah?" Her eyes glimmered as she turned to him, and he knew that she was feeling what he felt too.

The hope only lasted for a moment.

Lucifer exhaled. He knew what had to be done, but if he could savor this moment, this one moment, that would be all the hope that he would need. His lighthouse was standing right in front of him, and he swore to himself that no matter what happened next, that hope would carry them through.

"Never mind. Go deal with Detective Douche over there." Lucifer smirked and the detective rolled her eyes in that way she always did when he said something she didn't agree with, or if he said something inappropriate. He loved it.

Finally, the detective walked away, and Lucifer watched as she left. What was going to happen next was going to be difficult. Extremely, extremely difficult. But in that moment where the detective held him and kissed him, that's when he knew it had to happen. For her. To protect her. To protect the hope that they both held, the stupid hope that his lighthouse brought to him.

That stupid hope was going to be the only thing to get him through it.