Work Text:
“Where do stars go, when they fall?”
The question caught Lucifer so utterly by surprise, that he didn’t quite catch it at first. “Pardon?”
Rory looked up at him with brown eyes that mirrored his own, except her’s were full of nothing but innocent curiosity, the kind that only a child who only sees the world in the best of lights, could possess.
The father and daughter duo laid on a blanket outside in a clearing out in the woods, watching the stars twinkle above. Chloe had long since gone back inside the cabin they had rented for their family get-away.
Beatrice laid sleeping on a blanket beside theirs, clutching a book about astrology, snores loud enough to give her mother’s a run for their money. The brass telescope Lucifer had gotten the Urchin for her birthday sat near her, dangerously close to being kicked by the sleeping teenager.
Rory was snuggled into her father’s side, still waiting on an answer. “When stars fall… what happen to them?”
Lucifer opened his mouth for a moment before closing it, trying to come up with terms the child would understand (speaking to a six-year-old was like mentally translating between languages).
“Well, darling… Most of the time, shooting stars are these great big rocks called ‘asteroids’. Or was it meteoroids…? Anyway, they just… keep flying, I suppose? I’m sure that your sister knows all about them.” He cast a glance at his slumbering stepdaughter, who let out a particularly piggish snore.
“As… ass-toids?” Rory tried to pronounce the word, and Lucifer held back a chuckle.
“I’d be careful with that word, if I were you. Sounds dangerously close to something you’d find in Auntie Maze’s grown-up closet.”
When she blinked at her father in confusion, Lucifer changed the subject. “Did you know that I made the stars?”
Rory’s eyes widened like saucers, and she looked up at the twinkling lights above. “Really?”
“Yes, I did.” Lucifer confirmed. He felt a strange tug at his heart when he looked up at his first creations, remembering the days when he was able to bring them to life, pouring a bit of his essence through his power to bring light.
How each individual star and planet seemed to have a personality all of their own, and only ever spoke to him. How they used to call out to him, begging for his attention. It’s… been quite a while since he’s given it to them. Not since the fall.
Lucifer hugged Rory with one arm, caressing his thumb against her shoulder, both sets of brown eyes still gazing upon the stars.
“You know, Rory… In a way, the stars are like your siblings.”
The child turned her face to him, brows knitting in that calculating way that was so utterly Chloe. “Like Tee?”
Lucifer nodded, glancing at the other girl in question. “Sort of. I suppose they’re your siblings in the sense that I’m like their father, since I created them. Like how Beatrice is your sister because your mother created both of you, too.”
Rory didn’t question it (because, really, if the Devil was her father and God was her uncle, why can’t stars be her siblings?) and looked up at the sky with newfound wonder and excitement. “Can I pway with them?”
Lucifer smiled as he tenderly kissed the top of her head. “When you’re a tad bit older, I’ll talk to your mum about taking you to the cosmos.”
Rory pouted when told that they wouldn’t likely go anytime soon, but accepted it with a sigh.
After a few minutes of gazing at the stars, Rory yawned as she buried herself further into the Devil’s side. “Daddy… I want wings.”
Lucifer sighed dramatically, but didn’t argue before sitting up, and spreading his wings before lying back down on his back. Rory spread her own fluffy magenta wings, and hummed in contentment as Lucifer wrapped his wing around her. His back was most likely going to be sore later, but he’d deal with it then.
Lucifer turned his head when he heard another yawn from his opposite side, and saw Beatrice blearily rubbing at her eyes as she tiredly looked at them.
Then without saying a word, the Urchin crawled her way to their blanket, and settled herself at Lucifer’s free side, snuggling against him and promptly falling back asleep once her stepfather’s wing was wrapped around her.
Lucifer wrapped his wings and arms around his girls, and continued to look up at the sky, bittersweetness cascading over him like a waterfall when he could vaguely hear the stars calling out to him.
It’s been a long time since he’s allowed himself to listen. A long time since he hasn’t shut them out, as to avoid remembering his lost Lightbringer powers after his fall. As to avoid missing them. To avoid the ache he felt when he was first separated from his stars.
… He should probably pay his first creations a visit, sometime soon.
But first, he was going to stay here, wrapped around his daughters.