Chapter Text
Lucifer had never had much of an issue dealing with Lilith’s friends.
This had come from the fact that they’d mostly only had each other for a long time and even when other sins, hellborn and the mortal souls began to populate the place, they’d mostly met them together and gone on that way. Sure, there were people who got on better with one or the other but it had been a collective thing until it had started slowly crumbling away a few centuries back. Mostly his fault, obviously, he wasn’t the person he was, no one was after their dreams took that many knocks and being dumped in the miasma of humanity’s ill judgment, well, maybe he shouldn’t be judging humanity’s judgment. His own judgment was clearly terrible.
But he’d never really had a ‘single and ready to mingle’ phase where he’d dated people and met their friends or their families.
It had been marriage, divorce, despair, dicking down and then…this, this shaky little legs of a relationship that wasn’t even a year old, that they’d not even admitted was a relationship until maybe four months ago, wait, five? Maybe five? The whole sleeping for days, nights and any other time hell wanted to cook up had really screwed up his internal clock.
All of this to say was that while he could hold his own against any of hells Overlords, having a private tea with Rosie the Overlord was a piece cake but a private tea with Rosie one of the few people Alastor (you know, vaguely paranoid dude, does not attach himself to people easily, best ass this side of pentagram city, his baby daddy?) seemed to have a genuine affection for? That was a little eek. Just a smidge.
Naturally, when he was trying to pull on the King persona like a pair of pants that just wouldn’t fit anymore, Sparky decided to intervene and he found himself losing any sense of decorum he could fake with the bursting bubbles of music.
“Ring-a-ring o' roses”
Pop!
“A pocket full of posies.”
Pop!
Ugh, come on, kiddo, no creepy children singing, this isn’t Halloween. The kids on their walk had been hard enough to deal with the implications of.
“What a cutie! I’ve seen many demons and human souls come through hell in my time and it’s always so interesting to see what their powers end up being.” Rosie gazed at him for an unnervingly long moment. “Whether it’s from their mortal lives or based upon their sins, it always seems as if whoever decides it has a sense of humour.”
“That’s Pops for you,” Lucifer replied tightly. It probably wasn’t dealt with directly, no, if Lucifer felt sinners were below him for most of his reign then he was sure the big guy did not sweat this kind of stuff and probably left it to some kind of mechanism. Maybe something that involved feathers. “I don’t know what you thought you couldn’t say in front of Alastor, but I don’t think he’ll be able to rein in his curiosity for long. I doubt it was anything to do with the amateur DJ setting up shop around my midsection.”
Rosie set down her teacup gingerly on the tea set, lifting the pot to refill it. “I’ve gotten well and good at reading people and I hear more than most. You looked uncomfortable when the idea of the pregnancy becoming public arose – I simply wanted to ask if that was a reflection of Her Majesty leaving and if you wanted to get it off your chest where it wouldn’t cause a reaction.”
Lucifer fought down the urge to let himself get angry at that. His marriage was over, Lilith was gone and hell had no say in how he conducted his affairs.
“Let’s get one thing clear,” he said, trying to keep his voice level. “Lilith has nothing to do with any of this. Lilith has fucked off to greener pastures or wherever it is that she’s decided she can’t even pick up the phone for the daughter she was supposed to love and take care of and I may be a piece of shit for a father but I’m here, I’m trying, I’m only now learning who my daughter is because I was the one who wasn’t fit to take care of her? Which one of us spent half a day closed off in their rooms to have her? That’s right, I did, because I wanted her to be safe and hell isn’t safe, the moment people know there’s a fucking helpless baby, it’s not going to be safe and–”
Winking into existence, several of his Capital E Eyes rooted around the room and every fucking one of them sniffling. Fuck, come on sparkle, give your old dad a break, this was hard enough without exerting the strength to rein those in.
“And I just trauma dumped all over the room,” Lucifer cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, I – guess I did have something to get off my chest.”
“You had the look, sweetie.” Rosie reached forward and patted his knee. Kind of stupid how reassuring that actually felt. “Wow, there was a lot to unpack in there, wasn’t there? The way I see it – and I don’t see quite as well as you do, that is quite the spread! – it’s normal to be worried about a baby no matter where you have it. It’s got a good bunch of people up there at that hotel who’ll love it and help protect it till it’s strong enough to bite back and looking at you and Al, I’m betting this kid’s going to have some impressive set of chompers on it!”
And that was different, wasn’t it?
This wasn’t something happening to him and Lilith in isolation – mostly him, Lil had been drifting so much already and it felt like not being able to carry their baby girl had driven a wedge in between them that they’d never addressed. Not that he blamed her, the whole barren bullshit was awful and he’d have helped her do it if there’d been a way, but it had just made him feel so damn alone the whole time. Then maybe he’d thought that was better, that it was what he deserved, his brain needed a hard slap and that had come in the form of Adam coming down hard on Charlie.
This wasn’t the same thing at all, really. Charlie had been buzzing with excitement for weeks, her girlfriend was wary but had still helped them look at some of the What To Expect When You’re Expecting books which hadn’t even existed when he’d had Charlie and now he knew all of this stuff like, did you know Sparky was currently the size of an apple? With his Eyes out, he could even see how much more they’d stabilised, beautiful red with gold trim like an old fashioned theatre curtain and just the slightest taste of popcorn just like Charlie. Wait, was that popcorn? No, it was more like batter – corn dogs? No, something else. What was that?
Okay, not the time.
“I know that,” Lucifer said, trying to muster up a smile and finding as he did so, it was more genuine than he thought it would be. “I guess I’m just not looking forward to being called Her Majesty for the next century when the whole news goes live. It’s one thing to mock me for something that’s true, it’s another when it’s just weird gender shit.”
“It’s not something you see every day,” Rosie admitted, sitting on the edge of her seat. “But it’s not so unusual either, especially not from the recent arrivals. Humans do like to shift and change, attitudes change and it never does to be stagnant.”
“You’re not wrong,” Lucifer admitted, shifting to sit up as his eyes began to recede back again. “I felt like I took the experience away from Lil, and I don’t think she ever really saw me the same way again. I know Alastor’s relationship with attraction’s a bit unique but I don’t like the idea of the same distance between us.”
Rosie nodded. “Sounds like you were both trying to deal with some big things when our lovely Princess came along,” she said. “But they’re not the same big things that you and Alastor will deal with. I don’t think he’s ever wanted to be pregnant, I wasn’t entirely sure he’s ever had relations that weren’t for the other person’s benefit until recently. And then you’ve got the whole host of issues that come from you both being daddy and I think it’s fair to say you both have a few issues in that area, yes?”
Yeah, God knows, he did.
Literally.
Whether that was his relationship with his father or being a father, he definitely had a few big glaring red flags waving him on there. As for Alastor, he could count the amount of times he’d mentioned his father on one hand but given the utter affection in his tone with his memories of his mother and the completely devoid tone he took with his father, yeah, Lucifer will take some daddy issues for five hundred, Alex.
“Take it steady with him,” Rosie added gently. “And I know he’s an old fashioned gentleman but I do think if you’d rather not labour alone – and the fact you have done so fills me with some horror, let me tell you! – then I’m sure he’d be more than happy to be there during. I imagine he’ll want to eat the placenta anyway so it would just make preserving it easier on him.”
“I –” Lucifer had absolutely no idea what to say to that. Yeah, probably? Actually, definitely, did not want to do that alone, it’s not as if Alastor was squeamish but did he really want him to see that? It probably wasn’t going to be pretty. Actually, he might find it pretty, his idea of pretty was probably not the same as most people’s. “I’ll remember that.”
“Splendid!” Rosie clasped her hands together and huh, it reminded him of something Charlie did. Were they spending a lot of time together? “Hell can be a rough ride, your Majesty. It helps not to do it alone. And we aren’t, I see.”
Was it possible for a shadow to look sheepish? Alastor’s was doing a pretty good impression with its arms back and kicking its long feet.
It turned out to be a harbinger for the man himself, happily swinging along a bag of better-not-asks and sounding as chipper as if Rosie hadn’t all but booted him out. Maybe he was used to it, who knew what their relationship was like behind closed doors? There didn’t seem to be any ill will, he gave Rosie a quick kiss to the cheek that didn’t quite cover her whispering something to him before they left but A for effort, folks.
Even better, Lucifer found he wasn’t nearly as exhausted as he thought he was going to be when they got back to the hotel. A little emotionally wrung out but that was proving to be his new normal at the minute. Alastor had slipped behind the hotel desk to help out with something to do with the electrics, they really needed to get their own generator from how frequently something seemed to knock out the grid in the city, but that was a problem for Tomorrow Lucifer.
Tonight Lucifer took advantage of feeling happily full (and not thinking about why) and not so exhausted that he just fell face down to sleep the moment he got to their room by running himself a bath. Maybe he had been bottling things up a little, but he didn’t feel close with anyone but Charlie outside of his relationship so he hadn’t gotten much of a chance to talk about this stuff. There was a point where he’d have maybe talked to Ozzie about it but he couldn’t remember how long he’d left the guy on read and was steadfastly avoiding looking. Might have to put on his big boy pantaloons and send him a message, especially if Bel saw hers earlier than he expected.
Not tonight, though.
Tonight, Lucifer slipped into a ridiculously bubbly bath and invited the army of little ducks to play in between the suds. It was silly, just watching them shake their feathers or quack or make vrroom noises (he might have to take that one back to the work table) was such a simple pleasure but he hadn’t really thought of doing it before. It made all his limbs feel loose and easy, his wings twitching to get in on the action but he was going to mess about with feathers right now.
The cherry on top of the sundae was coming back in to find Alastor was not only back but that gave him a really obvious checking out as he’d decided to walk from the en suite stark naked. It made him feel this weird mix of self conscious and instantly excited, like hey, still got it, but also, there’s this inherently vulnerable feeling to being completely naked while Alastor hadn’t even shed his coat.
It was kind of doing something for him, which was going to be really obvious in a sec because of the naked thing.
“See something you like?” Better to lean into it, right?
Alastor turned his head to the side even so slightly. “You’re showing.”
“I am?”
Lucifer looked down at himself in confusion, he was sure he hadn’t been this morning, well, not so much that he would have noticed, but he had also been climbing the walls this morning so maybe it had slipped beneath his notice. Sliding a hand down over his stomach, it looked a little more like he was bloated than anything else but nope, that was Sparky needing more space, growing away. It was a strange feeling, like – maybe it should be private? Maybe this wasn’t something that should be on show or that it would be something Alastor didn’t want to see but no, he definitely knew that look, that wasn’t revulsion, that was –
“Do you want to feel it?” Probably not, right? It’s not like he could even feel it moving or anything, it just looked like he had a big dinner, this was such a stupid idea.
“Come here,” Alastor said, not moving from the bed but sending his microphone on its merry way. “Let me touch you.”
Oh, hell yes, absolutely yes.
Lucifer walked over to the bed and stood in front of him, taking his hand carefully and placing it on the curve of his stomach. The warmth of it mixed with the touch definitely made it obvious he was getting a little hot and bothered but fuck it, if Alastor wanted to get up close and personal with Little Mister/Miss Bump, let him. Maybe it helped him feel connected to the whole thing. Whatever got him there.
Alastor just stroked his thumb over his stomach before ducking to kiss it, and kiss again, soft but rapid and insistent. Oh, that was nice, that was really nice, he was getting wound up again but in a good way this time. “You are the very last person I would have imagined having a Madonna-Whore complex.”
Way to ruin the mood.
“I don’t?” Lucifer said.
“You seem to think that carrying a child makes you undesirable as a person,” Alastor pointed out, nipping at his skin just enough that Lucifer gasped. “So I think it may fall to me to disabuse you of your own ridiculousness. This particular ridiculousness, I don’t think we have time to tackle every ridiculous thought you have and still run a hotel some time this Millenia.”
Did he actually think that? That was…okay, unexpected, more than a little weird. Some funky leftover shit from his pre-fall existence? Oh, that would be something to interrogate if not for the fact that Alastor had pulled him into his lap and was touching him like…fuck it, with some kind of reverence. Was that playing into some kind of complex? And more importantly, did it matter? Cause right now, not so much.
“You’re wearing a lot of clothes for that,” Lucifer said, grinding down against Alastor’s lap. Oh, that was…okay, not always easy to tell arousal with Alastor and his whole thing, but he was hard, he was definitely hard and from the way he suddenly grabbed both of Lucifers’ hips hard with a long exhale, might be in the mood to do something about that. “I could help you with that.”
Alastor looked at him and oh yeah, that was the good look, that was how they’d ended up with Sparky look and it was all for him to drown in. “Don’t leave wrinkles in my coat,” Alastor conceded, which yep, that was as close to permission as he was going to get. It took only a theatrical snap (not required but showmanship was important) for Alastor’s clothes to be neatly hung up on the wardrobe door and tucked away under the chair and the sudden feeling of skin on skin was rudely interrupted by Alastor flipping them.
Oh, this could work, this could definitely work.
Alastor pressed a kiss to his throat, his shoulder, his mouth and hands slipping down over his stomach and cupping it as it was something to be cradled gently. Lovingly. Lucifer couldn’t help but bite his lip at the thought, feeling a fresh wave of heat rise over him as his cock stood to attention as much as he could feel the wet heat coming from just behind it.
Lucifer still gave a little yelp of surprise when he felt Alastor’s fingers probe his way in, moaning as he moved them inside him. It was as if he were being played like an instrument, trying to rock on Alastor’s fingers one moment and stop himself the next because as good as they felt – oh fuck, that curl of them, right there, right there – he wanted to come with Alastor’s cock buried in him.
“D-don’t,” Lucifer bit down hard enough on lip to let blood spill down, not at all surprised when Alastor bent to lap it up. “I want – shit, stop, I’m so close, please, please, please–”
“And you’ll have it,” Alastor murmured against his skin, the heat of his breath was not helping, it was all Lucifer could do to grab hold of the headboard hard enough to dent it. His hand was still stroking Lucifer's stomach. “Right now, I’m enjoying a look at the fruits of our labour, a little part of me inside the most beautiful ruined angel, something of mine that will always be part of you –”
Whatever else he said, Lucifer couldn’t hold back; he arched his back against the bed and his head slammed into the headboard as climax ripped through him unwanted but needed, leaving him panting and whining as he rode Alastor’s fingers through it. Damn him and his mouth, he’d known exactly what to say to get him over the edge before he wanted to be there.
“Al–” His voice was breathless, but there was a note of hurt in there.
“I think I’m ready now,” Alastor told him, moving so he was positioned right above him. Lucifer stole a kiss from him, too overstimulated to really register what was happening until he felt the tip of Alastor’s cock slide into him so easily.
“F-fuck,” Lucifer stuttered out as he felt Alastor bottom out inside him, his body leaning on Lucifer’s still hard and leaking cock against his stomach. It was too much. Fuck, this was too much, he couldn’t, how was he supposed to deal with these agonisingly slow thrusts so close after coming? He wanted it harder, he wanted it to stop and give him a second to breathe, he wanted more pressure on his cock and couldn’t help but cry out when Alastor seemed to read his mind and took hold of him at the base.
“Can you come from this?” Alastor asked, just the slightest hint of a strain in his voice. “This part of you, without using your hand?”
No? He didn’t think so? Lucifer was pretty sure whatever came out of his mouth was gibberish anyway so what did it matter, he could feel pleasure building in gut, so good and tight that he started pressing back against Alastor's hips. The slap of skin against his cock was just the wrong side of not enough, he wanted more, he wanted so much more–
“Look at you,” Alastor said, a film of static coating his voice. Fuck, that meant he was getting close. “If you can come again before I do, I’ll finish inside you, do you want that?”
Lucifer felt himself nodding more so than actually deciding to do it, running his hands along Alastor’s back as if he could just hold him there and never let go. Meeting every push, it helped the friction against his leaking cock and oh, maybe he could come like that, he could feel it, inside and out, building up with every push,
“That’s it,” Alastor's voice was even more distorted, fuck, he had to hurry up and he went to reach between them to jerk himself off but Alastor caught his hand. “Be a good boy for me.”
A garbled strangled sound came out of Lucifer's throat and he didn’t know what happened first, the rush of wet heat from inside him or spilling all over his stomach with enough force that the whole world just seemed to turn fuzzy and slip away for a long moment.
Blinking slowly, Lucifer realised Alastor was just laying on top of him and petting his hair gently. Oh, that was nice, that was really nice, Lucifer didn’t want to move but there were a lot of bodily fluids and what felt like splinters in his hands he was probably going to have to deal with. In a minute. For now, this was good.
At least until Alastor had to push off of him, which okay, yeah, he wasn’t as tactile as Lucifer and wasn’t fond of being a mess. He could and often did suddenly just hit his limit and want to catch his bearings which sure, absolutely fine, Lucifer was still trying to remember how to bring his brain back online enough to clean up so he understood needing to take a moment.
“We ought to consider adding an adjoining door to the next room,” Alastor said suddenly. “I would prefer not to have more than a door in the way of the baby and us in a crisis.”
Okay?
“Sure,” Lucifer said, pulling himself up with a languid move.
“But a little privacy is likely needed,” Alastor said decisively. “I don’t imagine you’ll want to wait till the baby is capable of basic defense to do that again.”
“Probably not,” Lucifer replied, fighting off a self satisfied yawn and setting them back to cleanliness. The idea of going months without this was starting to seem like a terrible thing despite the fact he hadn’t had sex in decades before this. “Is that okay?”
“I would tell you if it wasn’t,” Alastor said, and yeah, okay, wasn’t like he wasn’t happy to let his opinion be known given half a chance. “I’ll look at the rooms tomorrow,”
“Okay, but that’s tomorrow,” Lucifer said, turning around so he could face him properly. “Let me enjoy getting fucked senseless for tonight.”
Alastor rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue. What he did do at some point was shimmy down so he could press his head on Lucifer's chest to sleep, his claws holding onto him as if he might go somewhere other than to deal with his newly functional bladder. That was fine. That was more than fine, it was great.
At least then Lucifer wasn’t the only one holding on tightly.