Falling From Grace

Chapter 9

It took a while before they were able to finally go to a shop. Ember stepped back as the sign showed demon faces and bright LED lights. It was also accompanied by loud music as they went in by which she was overwhelmed by covering her ears, pulling her hair. Lucifer winced but became concerned as Ember was getting overwhelmed. He bent down and comforted her.

"It's a lot. We don't have to stay if you don't want to." Lucifer offered to which Ember shook her head no and continued to shop with her covering her ears as they browsed through each section, feeling different fidget toys and the different textures. However, nothing was sticking out for Ember until they hit the noise-canceling headphones, that's when Ember got excited. She bolted to the headphones and felt each one. Each color consisted of black, red, or pink. Nothing stuck to her until she saw purple noise-canceling headphones to which she picked up and put them on. The second she put them on, relief washed over her as she continued to look around. Flapping as she looked at the fidget toys with Lucifer getting closer to her and looking at the other fidget toys along with her. When Ember looked up at him, there was a childlike gleam in her eyes that made his heart swell. He bent down and grabbed a squishy that was purple and pink. Handing it to Ember, who jumped, squealed, and ran to the plushies. Lucifer smiled, reflecting back to his time with Charlie.

Flashback

The park air felt nice as Lucifer was observing the ducks. The big ducks were brown and green, however the little ducks were bright yellow. He loved to see them swim. Every Time they would flap their wings, he would squeal in excitement. As a baby duck came towards him, he got excited, flapping a little without noticing. He looked around to see demons give weird looks. He didn't care as the baby duck came towards him and quacked.

"EEEE!" Lucifer squealed with delight, picking it up gently with his hands, petting it softly as a young Charlie came towards him.

"Daddy! Daddy! I went down the slide all by myself!" Charlie exclaimed as Lucifer snapped out of his own world and turned to Charlie beaming with delight.

"I'm so proud of you." Lucifer praised as he looked at the baby duck. Charlie went to grab her dad's sleeve.

"Push me on the swing please! Swing, swing!" Charlie pleaded as Lucifer looked at her with love. Her attention shifted to the swings to the baby duck who shivered when the tugs became aggressive.

"Easy, Charlie. Want to see the baby ducks?" Lucifer said as Charlie looked with wonder and curiosity, petting the baby duck.

"This duck is fragile but strong. It may not seem like it now, but this duck will go on to be big and strong and fly among the rest of the ducks." Lucifer told Charlie as she pet the duck which flapped its wings. Charlie giggled as Lucifer smiled and gently put the duck back. He turned to Charlie as they stared at the ducks, Charlie's eyes filled with excitement, laughing as they kept quaking and flapping their wings. They eventually left to go back to the playground when the ducks flew away. Lucifer pushed her on the swings with Charlie laughing and squealing. As they spent more time at the park, more demons and kids became overcrowded on the slides. Lucifer got nervous and took Charlie home, the noise overwhelmed his head and the second they were home, he went to his office where he laid in bed and squeezed his stuffed rubber duck as he brought himself to cool down. Despite the people and noise, today was a good day and nothing in the world, even the judgy looks he saw from other demons could change his mind about ducks and Charlie as they were the two most important things in his life and wouldn't change it no matter what.

Present Day

They were able to scale down to a couple of pop its in the shapes of a butterfly and a skull, the purple noise-canceling headphones, and a Rapunzel, Jasmine, and Tiana plushies. Lucifer also got a pop it that looked like a duck, an emotion changing octopus, and red noise-canceling headphones. They paid and left with Lucifer taking her back to the hotel. When they returned, Lucifer bent down and put his hands on Ember's shoulders.

"Hey, I have to go but promise me you'll give hell a chance." Lucifer said as he was happily crying with Ember hugging him. Everyone stood there astonished as Lucifer hugged her back. Kissing her head as he let go. He looked up at Charlie and Vaggie as they smiled.

"I love you dad." Charlie said as Vaggie nodded, looking at him.

"Love you too kid, take care. I'll come around sometime and thank you, for sparing her." Lucifer replied as he vanished. Ember's journey was long but now she knew she wasn't alone and was hopeful that her new journey would be worth it in the end.  Life may not have been easy but now she wasn't alone.  She wasn't sure if she would ever go back to heaven, but she had people she could lean on and for now that's enough.