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Why the detective had insisted on bringing him to this strange little bar in this strange little town, he couldn’t fathom. At the absolute opposite end of the country, with everything smelling faintly of lobster and not a strip joint in sight; this was not his kind of place. He supposed it was true that technically, she had told him not to come. But; she had also said she would be here for a few days and what was he supposed to do - just hang out in LA without her? So, here he was.
The bar was small, and the best word he had to describe it was ‘quaint’. It had an almost wholesome feel to it, he realised with a shiver of distaste, and it was distinctly not what he was used to in LUX. He was struggling in fact to see anything of interest about either this place, or the case that had brought them here, and he looked around the bar frustrated and bored and … then again, who was the detective talking to now?
“Hello,” he said over her shoulder, putting all of his considerable charm into forming that one little word. Though he wasn’t looking at her, he knew the detective rolled her eyes as she introduced him. “Lucifer, this is Duke Crocker, the owner here. Lucifer ... consults with me on certain cases.”
He was tempted to roll his eyes back, but he had a better use for them in taking in the pleasing sight of this Crocker person. He looked past the odd collection of mismatched clothing to the evidently toned and supple body that lay just out of sight beneath; it was easy to imagine how good the man would look without the distraction of that unfortunate outfit.
“Lucifer?” asked Duke, amused. “Is that a stage name, or did your parents really hate you?”
“Yes, and yes as it happens. Well, Dad anyway.”
Lucifer saw a drop of recognition and sympathy in Duke’s eyes at that and bit his tongue to hold back the joke he’d been about to make about an American named Duke. It would be foolish to ruin what might turn into an interesting conversation, just for the sake of a cheap jibe.
“So, Mr Crocker …” the detective continued.
“Call me Duke, please.”
She nodded an acknowledgement, but did not seem to notice the way Crocker was looking at her. Lucifer wondered anew how humans could be so oblivious to the desires of the people around them.
“... to summarise; you met the deceased, Ian Haskell, but you can’t remember when, or why, or what you talked about, or indeed anything else about him at all.”
Crocker was mid-shrug when they were interrupted again.
“Excuse me? Detective Decker?”
“Yes?”
“Detective Wuornos, Haven PD. The Chief here asked me to provide you with any assistance you might need. With your, um ... investigation,” he added awkwardly, the beginnings of a blush gracing his cheeks. Lucifer stifled a laugh; he didn’t even need to ask either of these two locals to know with some certainty the kinds of desires flitting through their heads in relation to his detective just now.
He watched the three of them talk for a moment, his eyes darting over not just Crocker, but this Wuornos as well, a detective barely less pretty than the landlord. Both of the men’s interest in Chloe was plain, albeit on show in very different ways, but there was more going on than that. Underneath their competitiveness with each other was something else, something deeper, something the competitiveness sat on and which seemed to structure their relationship. And then he saw it, in a glance from one and a shift of the other’s head; their desire for each other. Unacknowledged, unacted on, but there; right under the surface and barely contained.
He grinned to himself, thinking hard about the best way to make use of all the potential on show in front of him. He forgot his calculations a little when another detective arrived; one Audrey Parker this time, calling in on her way home because she’d seen her partner talking to strangers and wanted to check everything was OK.
Lucifer didn’t even notice for a moment the affect her arrival had on the two local men, that was how intently he watched Parker and his detective being super-professional with each other, as Chloe asked questions that Audrey was clearly reluctant to answer. And yet, she didn’t seem to like holding information back either. She was hiding something, and that was the kind of thing he could help with. He slipped around Chloe to stand between the two women, leaning towards Audrey to look her in the eye and ask, with charm set to maximum, “What do you desire?”
She raised her eyebrows at him, surprised, and then simply replied, “And you are?”
As Chloe introduced him, he realised with a shiver that no one had reacted in such an unexpected way since his detective herself, and he was suddenly very interested in continuing a conversation with Audrey Parker. As Chloe told Audrey that he consulted with the police, Audrey seemed momentarily tempted to scoff at the idea, before her gaze fell towards Duke and she bit back her reaction.
That was interesting thought Lucifer. Did Crocker work with Audrey, the way he worked with Chloe? And if so, what were they all not saying about the death of this murder suspect? Perhaps not only the locals, but the case itself would turn out to be more interesting that he had expected. He had to get them talking though, and substantial though his charm was, that would only get them so far.
-
Detective Chloe Decker was not sure whether to be more annoyed at the locals or at Lucifer. They were clearly hiding something, and the fact that the police were apparently hiding the same kind of thing as the owner of the bar with a history of smuggling charges against him was disconcerting.
Against that backdrop, the irritation of Lucifer was at least familiar, and she had to admit that his crazy schemes did tend to help her with her cases, eventually. So she didn’t object when he started ordering drinks, realising that he had also recognised there was something the locals weren’t saying, and reasoning that alcohol was probably as good a way to get them talking as any.
Especially as they seemed willing enough to talk; about things other than dead murder suspects, anyway. They all seemed a little enamoured with Lucifer’s charm, but then they were talking to her too, particularly Crocker. This bar was the type of place that would collect gossip in a little town like this, she thought, and he’d already admitted knowing the guy. Perhaps if she could catch him off guard, he would let something slip.
So, she put her notebook away and turned on a smile, clinking glasses with him as Lucifer poured more sparkly stuff for them all.
-
Nathan was not sure it made sense to be drinking with an LA detective and her improbably-named consultant when they were in town to investigate a Troubled man who had set fire to a house by assembling a children’s puzzle and who he himself had had to shoot before he could destroy the whole town. There was no way to explain to them what had happened, besides the ‘official’ report he’d written up, which they already had.
So, he did not want to talk about Ian Haskell with them. However, they seemed to have stopped asking about the reason that had bought them here, and the both of them made pleasant drinking companions. The woman was beautiful, competent, confident; she reminded him ever so slightly of Audrey. The man was, charming, charismatic, graceful in his movements, with a voice like velvet. He reminded Nathan a little of a better-dressed version of Duke. So he sat with them, sipping something bubbly that surely couldn’t be Duke’s best champagne, trying not to enjoy the alcohol or the company too much.
And then Jess arrived and the number of ways he could think of for things to get awkward increased by several orders of magnitude.
-
“Shit!” exclaimed Audrey, startling them all at little as she saw Jess coming in through the door on the other side of the room. “I forgot Jess was coming over.” She waved Jess over, apologising and making room for her, and passed her the glass that Lucifer had quickly produced from somewhere.
When Jess was introduced to Lucifer, she smiled her intrigued little smile. “A fallen angel,” she noted, “Welcome to Haven. Many people find respite here.”
Lucifer smiled back, apparently pleased and a little puzzled by her reaction. Audrey coughed and glared first at Nathan, then at Jess herself, unsure how to communicate to her that these were outsiders who did not need to know about the Troubles, magic or not.
But Lucifer was asking her about herself, and Audrey was a little surprised to hear how easily Jess talked. Not that she was really reticent with anyone, but she told Lucifer things about herself in a few minutes that Audrey had not realised after a good few months of friendship. She worried for a moment that made her a bad friend, although perhaps there was just something about Lucifer, because when she looked at Nathan she realised he was having a similar reaction.
Audrey wasn’t really sure where Nathan and Jess were just at the moment in their off-again-on-again relationship (that was probably what her and Jess would have been talking about if the evening had gone as expected and they had been sat together upstairs in her place, chatting over a bottle of red wine). But, there was clearly something between the two of them, and Nathan was looking at Lucifer with something between awe and resentment.
Until Lucifer turned his attention to Nathan, and then Audrey decided that yes, there was absolutely something about this ‘consultant’ from LA, because Nathan did not talk about himself easily and here he was telling them all kinds of details about himself that apparently surprised even Duke, who had known him his whole life.
Was Lucifer Troubled then? She considered it, realising the British accent made it seem somehow less likely, but with the history of the Troubles stretching back hundreds of years, there was no reason Troubled bloodlines couldn’t have spread all over the world. She was trying to come up with a way to ask him about his family background, when he offered Nathan a top up.
Somewhat hesitantly, Nathan passed Lucifer his glass, and as Lucifer took it from him, their fingers touched, just briefly. It was the kind of touch most people probably wouldn’t have even noticed, and certainly wouldn’t have remarked upon. It was the kind of touch that Nathan’s Trouble meant he wouldn’t feel at all - nothing but Audrey’s own skin penetrating that unfortunate magic.
But at the moment Lucifer’s fingers brushed his, Nathan jerked his hand back, dropping the glass and stifling a little yelp. Audrey felt her eyes go wide as she realised Nathan had felt it, and Jess and Duke were equally astonished, staring at Nathan as he stared at his hand as though it had betrayed him.
-
Hoping Nathan would not take the jibe too much to heart, Duke made a crack about alcohol being bad for hand-eye co-ordination and turned the conversation around to Lucifer. He had been very skilled in drawing information out of all of them (well, except Audrey, Duke realised), but they still knew next to nothing about him. Duke didn’t like that imbalance of information. Especially if the guy was Troubled, or somehow related to them. Which, as Nathan could evidently feel his touch, he kind of had to be.
So Duke, turned the questions to him, and learnt that he owned a bar in LA.
“More of a club, really. We don’t do food,” he added, somehow managing to sound incredibly smug about it without making it sound like too much of an insult to the Gull.
“What do you do then?”
“Maze provides people with alcohol, I provide them with music.”
“He’s actually pretty good on the piano,” Chloe clarified.
Lucifer smiled as he frowned at her; both pleased by the complement and offended by the surprise in her voice. Duke felt his eyes slide towards Audrey; he knew that feeling.
But then Jess replied, “I’d love to hear you play, too bad there’s no piano here.”
Duke turned a frown towards her, annoyed enough at this second implied criticism of the Gull that he almost forgot to be surprised when Audrey offered, “I actually just acquired a piano myself; if you want to play we could go upstairs.”
“You live above the bar? How very un-detective-like, detective.”
Audrey shrugged, “I like the view.”
Duke found himself unreasonably gratified that Lucifer did not seem to think that was all there was to it.
-
And so, that was how Audrey found herself inviting Duke, Nathan, Jess, Chloe and Lucifer (this strange man who surely was either Troubled, or had the same kind of connection to them that she did - whatever that was) into her apartment in the fading light of the evening.
Inviting him into her home felt somehow a little risky, but at the same time she had to find out more about him. And then he began to play the piano, and then he began to sing, and suddenly she understood why the others were hanging off his every word.
-
Nathan remembered that he had been reluctant at first to talk too much to Chloe and Lucifer, but right at this particular moment he could not remember why that had been. Lucifer had played and sang for them for a while, and the five of them had stood and listened, and then gravitated to the sofa so that they could sit and listen, and were now all of them squished onto a piece of furniture made for three. He found himself sat between Chloe and Jess, and though he couldn’t feel it, he knew he was pressed tight against the both of them, just as Jess was pressed tight to Audrey on one side, and Chloe to Duke on the other.
He was almost glad he couldn’t feel it actually, because it was a little overwhelming as it was; surrounded by all of these beautiful people as they bathed in Lucifer’s beautiful voice. And then, he reached towards the coffee table for his drink as Chloe was explaining something to Duke, gesturing with her hands so that her fingers brushed the back of his as he stretched forward.
He hissed through his teeth and drew his hand sharply back towards him; he hadn’t meant to but he couldn’t help it, the shock of another unexpected bolt of feeling was too much.
“What was that? I barely touched you. And, you reacted the same way to Lucifer,” asked Chloe, remembering. Nathan opened his mouth, but no words came; he did not know how to explain.
And so he didn’t mind that Jess explained for him. “Nathan has a condition that means he can’t feel anything. Some people seem to provide an exception to that.”
Lucifer had joined them suddenly, sitting impossibly elegantly on the coffee table in front of them, and staring at Nathan with an intensity he did not know what to do with. Jess was still talking and he was grateful for the distraction.
“If I touch his hand, the only way he knows it’s happened is if he sees me do it,” said Jess, resting her hand over his as it lay on his thigh. “He can’t feel my skin, he can’t feel his own skin, he can’t feel anything. We knew that Audrey was an exception, and it seem like the two of you are as well.”
“But that’s …” Chloe started, stumped for the right word, though the tone of her voice made it clear that potential options included, ‘crazy’, ‘insane’ and ‘ridiculous’.
“Magic,” Jess suggested for her, with a little smile.
At the same time, Lucifer provided an alternative suggestion. “Fate,” he said, his face stretching into a grin as he reached for Nathan’s other hand.
-
Fascinated, Duke watched the hesitation and desire battle it out on Nathan’s face. He knew it was only sheer force of will and determination to be a decent man and a good friend that stopped Nathan from throwing himself at Audrey just for the sensation of another person’s touch. And now, here was a stranger, a charismatic, charming stranger at that, offering to provide Nathan with that very thing, and at much reduced emotional cost. And it wasn’t just the charming stranger either, but his stunningly beautiful cop as well.
“You don’t feel anything ?” Chloe asked, concern and sympathy etched over her face. All Nathan could do was shake his head, his eyes locked on Lucifer’s hand on his. She brought her hand to rest on Nathan’s forearm and watched as he closed his eyes.
“Just that. Just the shape of two hands, one warm, one cool.”
“Well, I can’t speak for the detective, but you can feel much more of me than just a hand if you like,” purred Lucifer.
Nathan, clearly tempted, gestured weakly towards Jess on his other side. “We …” he began.
“She can play too,” suggested Lucifer, with a smile. “Everyone welcome.”
There was a moment where Duke wasn’t sure how Nathan would react, and he tried to work out what he would do himself if Nathan said No, because he was finding Lucifer’s offer pretty damn interesting himself.
But in the end, Nathan didn’t say a thing; just turned his hand over under Lucifer’s, palm coming to meet palm, and flexed his fingertips against the other man’s skin. And later Duke would regard it a sound an argument as any that the man was Troubled, because that was all it took for their unlikely gathering of friends to become something less likely still and far more fun.
Before long, their clothes were all long forgotten and the six of them stood between the sofa and the bed, tangled together in a mash of skin and limbs. Duke felt a hand on his ass, an erection at his hip, a tongue on his nipple. He closed his eyes and soaked it all in, no longer knowing or caring who the hand, or the erection or the tongue belonged to. He ran his own hands over hips and ass, soft breasts and a flat, muscular chest.
He thought back to how they had got to this point, and found himself very glad that he had been in the Gull this afternoon, and very glad he had not simply told the LA detective what she’d wanted to hear and sent her straight on her way. If the ‘consultant’ she’d brought with her was Troubled, well, there were certainly worse ways for Haven’s strange magic to manifest itself and he was happy enough to be affected by this one for a while.