Me: *sketching yesterday morning* This is going to be so cute! 🤭 And I get to play with my new watercolor brushes!? Hell yeah! OKAY, I’m only gonna put 2 hours into this, tops!

Some 13 hours spent painting later… lil rebel Trixie was so worth it, tho. 🥹💖🎀✨

Draco and Lucius (and Narcissa behind the scene) 🌸

For Lucitober day 25 “Camera”

Reference: https://i.imgur.com/1HyUi1C.jpg

Lucifer always wears a mysterious onyx ring which the show never fully explained its purpose...🤔

Linda adjusts her skirt and crosses her legs. “So. Chloe, what can I help you with today?” she asks, already in therapist mode. 

Chloe wipes her hands on her her jeans. “It’s about Lucifer.”

Linda’s mouth purses in a funny way, like she wants to smile, but is too professional to let it show. “I see.” She makes a note. “What is it that has you concerned?”

“I’m not concerned,” Chloe corrects quickly. “Or, well, I guess I’m trying to figure out if I should be concerned.” 

Linda merely raises a brow and waits her out. Chloe nervously tucks a bit of hair behind her ear. “It’s just, well, he doesn’t use my name.” 

Linda’s eyebrows raise. “Ever?”

“No, I mean, sometimes, but I just thought that—now that we’re together—he’d use it more often. But he doesn’t. It’s been four months and he’s said my name three times.” Three, beautiful, tender times, and she treasures them—but she worries. "It's weird, right?"

Linda shrugs. "You're dating Lucifer, weird comes with the territory."

Chloe huffs a laugh. "Isn't that the truth." There's a steep learning curve when it comes to dating supernatural creatures.

“Does he use your name when the two of you are...intimate?” Linda asks. 

She colors, a little. There was something heady about his dark eyes locked on hers as he sinks to his knees with a soft, “Yes, Detective.” Chloe clears her throat and focuses on the here and now. “No, but I don’t always mind.”

Linda makes another note. “In what instances does he use your name?” 

“Emotional ones.” She pauses, thinking. “Vulnerable ones.”

“Why do you feel his use of your name, or lack thereof, could potentially be a cause of concern?”

“I know that he’s...proper. I know that I’m not the only one he’s like this with. I’m just worried that this is a sign of something else, that maybe he’s not as invested, or he feels like,” she gestures in a sort of exasperated way, “Like he isn’t allowed.” Chloe shakes her head. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m overreacting.”

Linda writes something down. “Have you talked with him about this?”

“I’ve tried, but you know what he’s like. And he’s very good at, um, distracting me.”

Linda gives her a knowing expression. “I understand.” She sits back a little. “I think you need to talk to Lucifer about how you feel. Your doubts and fears will only grow if you don’t address them.”

Chloe nods. “I know. And I will, I just wanted...a second opinion, I guess, before I talked to him about it.”

“If this were a deviation from an established pattern of behavior, there might be more room for worry, but as you said, this is how Lucifer conducts himself. You are not a singular abnormality that he uses titles of respect for. He often addresses me as Doctor even when we’re not in session, he refers to Ella as Miss Lopez. He chooses to use a full name over a shortened nickname with Dan and Maze.”

“So, nothing is wrong?” 

Linda’s mouth flattens a little as she considers. “I think that Lucifer’s use of formality with those he cares about tells us a lot about him and his history.” She adjusts her glasses. “Amenadiel once said, that out of all their siblings, Lucifer resembles their father the most. The fact that Lucifer feels that there must be a level of protocol, of due respect given, says much about the environment he grew up in.” the tapping of her pen against the notepad is loud in the quiet office. “I think Lucifer needs reassurance, much more than he’d ever admit, if he’d even admit it at all.”

“Okay,” Chloe nods. “I can do that.”

Linda shifts forward. "I'm not...this isn't something he's told me, but as his friend, and knowing him as I do, I have observed that his use of honorifics is really just that. About honor. Respect. He tends to refer those he holds in low esteem casually or with irreverent nicknames.”

Chloe smiles at that. “I’ve noticed.”

“So, my very expert advice,” Linda says, peering at her. “Really is just to talk to him.”

Chloe laughs. “Fair enough. Thank you, Linda, for listening.”

She smiles and stands. “Sometimes we just need a listening ear to sound board against. It’s no trouble. It’s a much easier solution than some of my other patients.” She hugs Chloe tight. “Give Lucifer my best.”

“I will.”

Chloe thinks about it on the drive back to the penthouse. She spends the elevator ride chewing on her lip and deliberating on what to say. The doors open and Lucifer is there, jacketless and sleeves rolled up as he finishes setting out dinner in the living room.

“Detective!” he greets, pleased to see her. 

She kicks her shoes off and sets down her things. He’s smiling, and opens up for the hug she gives him, pressing up against his warm body.

“Can we talk?” she asks, and feels how his spine stiffens. “Nothing bad,” she’s quick to clarify, “I promise.”

“Talk?” he asks, airily, slipping away from her, leaving the space behind feeling abruptly cold. “I suppose so. Perhaps, after we eat.” He turns his back to her and starts to head towards the bar. She snags at his wrist and tugs him around. He allows her to bodily pull him, because she knows she’d have no hope of shifting him if he didn’t want to be moved. 

“No. Sit.” 

He swallows but obeys, falling back into the couch. Chloe promptly places her knees down on either side of his hips. He stares back at her wide eyed as she settles into his lap. His hands flutter uselessly for a moment before muscle memory brings them to rest on her legs. She dips down and gives him a slow, soft kiss, bracing against his shoulders. He looks surprised.

“Nothing bad,” she repeats. “Just some questions.”

His gaze shifts away. “As a matter of fact, Detective, questions can be quite dangerous.”

“I just want you to know, before we start, that this isn’t an accusation and that I love you very, very much.” But her reassurance only seems to make him more nervous. Better just to get on with it then. “Is there a reason you call me Detective, instead of using my name?”

He looks at her, bewildered, a little hurt. “Do you not like it?”

“No, no, I love it, Lucifer. I do.” She slides her hands to his chest.

“Is this why you went to Linda’s?” he asks, because he’s a fair detective in his own right. Naturally he’d figured out where she’d gone. 

“I was just worried. I don’t want you to think that you can’t call me Chloe, or that you have to keep a distance from me.”

He sighs, her palms rising with the motion. The tension in him fades, all at once and he cuddles her closer. “It is not out of distance at all, but out of my respect for you, for who you are, for what I love about you. You’re the Detective,” he says. 

“Okay,” she says, moving her hands up to run soothing fingers through his hair. “Okay, I just wanted to be sure.” 

He hesitates for a moment. “I feel like it’s something special, between the two of us. I- I like calling you the Detective.”

She smiles. “I do, too. I just want you to know that you can use my name or my title, so long as you know that it’s never wrong to call me by my name if you want to.”

“Of course not,” he says and smiles up at her. Then, clearly to prove the point, he adds, “Chloe.” He leans forward to place a kiss to her cheek. She shivers at the slight rasp of stubble. “Chloe.” Her name should not sound that obscene as he rumbles it into her ear. “Darling,” he presses to the skin of her throat. “My love,” lost in the hollow of her collarbone as he noses the edge of her shirt away.  

She slides her hand down, fits it in between them, and presses against him just right. 

Lucifer jolts. “Detective!"

Final week of #Inktober. Omd it’s finally done: I haven’t drawn so much since college, a decade ago now. Most of the pieces deserved more time and care, but I was dedicated to making these quick, no-redo drawings for my own sanity. I learned a lot; mostly that next year I should choose better paper.