Work Text:
The late night Los Angeles traffic had died down to a mere trickle by the time Chloe Decker finally managed to extract herself from the precinct and start the journey home. As she drove, faster reckless cars whipping by her in the left lane, she blinked heavily. Serial killer cases were always a nightmare but it had been some time since a case had required her to work to such a late hour that now she was now leaving work closer to dawn than to dusk.
Her feet were heavy, causing her to break more abruptly than usual, and it was with a massive sigh of relief that she parked before her condo complex, joining the row of vehicles which had arrived home at a much more reasonable hour. Climbing out, she collected her purse and briefcase, swaying as she followed the concrete footpath to her door. It took two tries to get her key in the lock and then, finally, she was home.
She didn’t bother turning on any lights, maneuvering in the dark with ingrained familiarity as she set her shoes aside and laid her briefcase on the kitchen counter. Her stomach growled insistently, a reminder she’d forgone dinner in order to make it to meeting number seven of the day, but she decided to just put up with the discomfort. If she didn’t lay down in the next five minutes, she was actually going to pass out.
Treading up the stairs, she pushed open her bedroom door quietly and shuffled inside. The room was even darker than downstairs thanks to the high end room darkening curtains Lucifer had procured and it took her eyes a moment to adjust. Gradually, the lines of the dresser, the bed, came into view with the fogginess of ghostly apparitions. But it was the massive lump atop the mattress that brought a smile to her face for the first time in hours.
Lucifer hadn’t stayed late with her. Someone had had to go home and take care of Trixie and make sure she finished her homework and ate dinner while Chloe worked the latest case. The decision was made easier by the fact Lucifer practically lived at her place anyway, but still, she appreciated how quickly he’d offered his assistance when she’d brought it up.
Now, he was curled up in the middle of her bed, blankets piled atop him so thickly, only the top of his head was exposed. How he managed to sleep bundled up all the time, she didn’t know. Even during heatwaves, he wanted the winter comforters and woolen blankets out.
Undressing and throwing her clothes in the hamper - which, she noticed, was newly emptied, meaning Lucifer had also done the laundry for her - she changed into lightweight pajamas. Rounding the footboard to reach her side of the bed, she fumbled in the dark to find the edge of the blankets, counting no less than four. She peeled them back with a fond sigh. It may be costing her a small fortune to keep the air conditioning running at full power each night to save her from dying of heat stroke beneath so many blankets but she knew Lucifer had trouble sleeping without the weight.
It had always seemed a bit contradictory to her, a man who took issue with feeling pinned or restrained welcomed the pressure of the blankets. But to him and his supernatural strength, she supposed, the fabric wasn’t nearly so restricting.
As she tried to shuffle into bed, she was brought up short when she found something already in her spot. Something warm and soft. Confused, she pressed at the shape. A pillow?
Not quite, she realized, as she pulled back more of the blanket and squinted into the darkness. A body pillow.
Lucifer grumbled at being uncovered but didn’t move from where he had wound himself around the object. He had an arm and a leg thrown across the top, pulling the pillow flush to his chest as he spooned it, face crushed into the top.
Carefully, she lowered the blanket again, recovering him up to his shoulders. Where had the pillow come from? Chloe didn’t consider herself necessarily frugal, but she wasn’t inclined to buy things unless they had a useful purpose. And she knew without even thinking about it that a body pillow was definitely not something she had ever bought for herself or for Trixie.
Which meant Lucifer had brought it over.
Her head cocked as she sank onto the edge of the bed, studying the man before her. After six long years, she liked to think she knew Lucifer well. She knew he hated cold milk but took no issue with drinking it warm. She knew he always folded his pocket square twice before committing to the chosen pattern for the day. She knew, for all his talk of gourmet dishes, he became a shark whenever there was garlic bread around and would only share it with her - and even then, with great reluctance.
But him cuddling with a body pillow was new. She’d never seen one at the penthouse before. Nor was he a pillow hugger in general. Usually she was the one he held...
Oh.
Smiling tiredly, she ran a hand across his bare shoulder, the heat of his bare skin prickling against her own.
“Miss me?” she whispered, moving her hand higher to his hair. He snuffled, face surfacing from the pillow as he followed her hand.
“Mmm?” The small, questioning noise caught in his throat.
Unable to make out his expression, she let her fingers trail down the side of his face, grazing over the wrinkles gathered in the corners of his eyes as he squinted, still mostly asleep.
“Nothing. Go back to sleep.”
He hummed again, head burrowing back into the pillow.
For a few minutes, Chloe continued stroking his head, wondering what Trixie had done to tire him out so badly. Usually Lucifer waited up for her on rare nights like these.
Despite how tired she felt, cajoling herself to move seemed an insurmountable task. But the stinging in her eyes was incessant, and before long, she simply gave in. It wasn’t until she went to slide under the mountain of blankets again that she realized her mistake.
Lucifer still had the body pillow.
Grabbing the corner, she tried to tug it from his grip, hoping he would simply release it. Instead, his body coiled tighter beneath the blankets. It was the same way he doubled his hold on her every morning when her alarm went off and he wasn’t ready to let her go yet.
She pulled harder and Lucifer actually whined, as if she was hurting him. Fine, let him keep the pillow then. She just wanted to sleep.
Setting her alarm clock, she moved to the other side of the bed, where precious little room had been left for her. She made do though, settling into the narrow space as she dismally counted the hours until she would have to be awake again.
There was a movement behind her and before she could roll to check on Lucifer, his heat was enveloping her. His heavy arm fell across her stomach, hand fisting in her shirt.
“‘Ou’re home,” he mumbled into her neck.
She settled her hand over his, working his fingers free of her shirt so she could entwine them with her own. “I am,” she confirmed and, before he could drift off completely again, she asked, “New pillow?”
His lips were soft against her skin as he spoke, words thick and slurred. “Dunno how to sleep without you.” He shifted impossibly closer to her, chest pushing against her back with each breath. “Love you.”
Her own breath caught, as it always did when he said those two words to her. Usually they were uttered in the midst of excitement, like when she had begrudgingly helped him bake a pornographic cake to celebrate Ella’s 32nd birthday. But rarely did the words slip out like this, not meant to remind her of his affections but to state a simply truth, like all the answers to the universe cryptically lay in that statement.
He loved her. And that was enough.
Twisting her head, she tried to kiss him, catching his temple with her lips. He didn’t even move, dead to the world again, but as she inhaled his familiar scent, she was struck by another. Her perfume? That was weird, she hadn’t been wearing any today. Unless…
Her heart was heavy. But with content, not pain. And she snuggled into his arms, glad for these few hours they would get. Even if it was nearly unbearable beneath all these blankets.
And when she awakened the next morning, struggling to escape Lucifer’s regular morning protests, she rescued the body pillow from where it had fallen from the side of the bed and cleared a space for it in the closet.
Lucifer watched her, propped up in bed with something dangerously approaching a blush reddening his face, but she made no mention of it and before long, he was bounding around as he always did, with far too much energy for any sane person to have at six in the morning.
She laughed at his antics freely, glad that this was her life now. And on late nights when she stayed behind at work, she did so without concern, knowing the two people she loved most were tucked in bed safely at home.