Watching over you ✔ (Lucifer fanfiction/Deckerstar)

Six years since Lucifer went back to Hell

It took Lucifer three more years until he finally decided that it was time to visit Earth. He had spent the past years finding reasons not to go, from a new demon rebellion threatening to begin in his absence to not using Azrael's feather without her knowledge and consent. But he eventually ran out of reasons that didn't come down to one emotion: Fear.

As much as he'd tried to push it aside, it wouldn't go away and it didn't want to be ignored any longer.

What if she was still heartbroken? What if he'd damaged her heart beyond repair? Would he be able to live with that particular guilt added on top of the collection of sins he had already committed? And what if it was the other way round, and she was fine? What would that say about what they'd had? Would it still count as real? Or would it seem as if it had all been a dream, an illusion?

Beneath all those nagging questions lay another kind of fear. Seeing her and not being able to let her see him in return would be the hardest thing he would ever have to do, and he wasn't convinced he was strong enough for that. But he had to be, for her. He couldn't just stumble back into her life for a few hours and then leave again for years to get Hell back under control. It was not fair to her.

So since he'd realized that he could either let his fears become his personal hell loop or face them head on like he had learned from Linda, he was gathering courage, and today was the day. He'd go up. He pushed Azrael's silver feather in between his white ones and, casting one last look around over his doomed kingdom from the top of his throne, steadied himself and took flight.

Lucifer reached Los Angeles in less time than it would take a human to travel from one end of the city to the other. He hovered high above the city as the sight of the place he'd once called his home made him swallow. He closed his eyes and tried to sense the direction in which he had to go. Suddenly, he just knew where to find her.

He heard footsteps and panting before he caught sight of her. She was running, following a dark haired man inside a warehouse, one hand hovering above the gun on her hip. Lucifer followed her and landed behind a stack of boxes, forgetting for a moment that he was invisible and didn't have to hide behind earthly objects.

He watched the Detective draw her gun and point it at the suspect who'd come to a halt after realizing he had run into a corner with no way to get out.

"Hands up! Turn around!"

The whole scene was eerily familiar, as if he'd seen it happen a million times already. Yet, Lucifer was unable to take his eyes off her, off her face, her body, her presence.

She was real.

He was so consumed with her that he didn't pay attention to the other man in the room. Only when he heard the gun firing behind him did he come back to his senses. And it was good that those were supernaturally perceptive and his reflexes inhumanly fast. Not wasting the fraction of a second to second thoughts, he jumped.

The moment he heard a second gunshot being fired from the opposite side, he grabbed the first bullet right out of the air, groaning at the pain it caused in his palm. He had forgotten. As soon as he had come to a halt, he turned around right in time to see that the Detective's bullet hit the suspect's leg, and the bastard crouched and let out a cry of pain. It was enough to distract the lowlife until the handcuffs closed around his wrists and he was being pulled up into a standing position.

"Mr. Morrison, you're under arrest," the Detective panted before taking out her phone to call the precinct for backup.

Lucifer couldn't care less about his injured hand, too caught up in the scene playing out in front of him. It was surreal to be here, close to her.