Chapter Text
Adults are stupid.
That's the one thing Trixie knows for sure. No matter how smart they appear to be, they’re always stupid deep down.
They never do what they say they will do, and they are always easily distracted. Shine something pretty in their face and all their other commitments suddenly don't matter.
For her dad that had always been his work. He is always far too wrapped up in it to ever notice anything else around him, such as his commitments to his daughter. But she gets it because unlike everyone around her, Beatrice Decker is anything but stupid.
She understands what her mom and dad do is important. They help people, and they make bad people pay.
But no matter how understanding she always is and she really truly is, it doesn't change the fact that once again she's left feeling disappointed.
She knows what the other parents think when once again she's the only kid left waiting for her parents to come pick her up from school. She knows the routine, she's got it down by now. With a heavy sigh, Trixie picks her school bag up from the ground and drags herself back inside the building to wait with the receptionist.
“You want me to call your dad again”? Trixie forces a polite smile onto her face for the woman, she knows she has to ask. But they both know its pointless.
“No that's ok. Could you please call my mom instead”?
She knows her mom will be pissed, she always is. She will panic the second she gets the call, almost like she's surprised, even though everyone knows she isn’t. Its happened far too frequently to be surprising anymore.
Then she will rush into the school as soon as she can get there wrapping Trixie in a hug and apologizing to the school, before driving home, ranting about how she can't believe dad would do this again.
Some things never change. With that resolute thought, Trixie pulls her headphones out of her bag and cancels out the world around her.
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The drive home went exactly as she knew it would, her mom left 5 angry voicemails for her dad to listen to when he finally checks his phone. He’ll have an excuse. He always does.
It isn't until later that night when her dad finally comes to the house, she wants to keep playing her music and drown them out, but they're loud. Too loud.
A choir of her mom shouting ‘i can't believe you would do this to her again’ and her dad equally as annoyed claiming he was caught up with work and ‘you know what it's like’
Suddenly she doesn't feel so understanding anymore, she wants to scream. She wants to scream so loud until she starts to cry, and then keep screaming until she stops.
But where would that get her? just another voice to add to the choir of screams in the house. That's what her parents always do. That's what grown-ups do. They yell.
Like she said Adults are stupid.
Normally Maze would be there, she’d tell them both to shut up or take it outside. Or promise to castrate her dad if he ever did that again. But she wasn't here tonight, she left the day before for a bounty and won't be back until next week. Typical that no one would be there for her now.
She loves her parents but sometimes they get so wrapped up in fighting about her they forget about her actually being there. With a thought that if she snuck out the window right now they wouldn't even notice she was gone for at least another hour. So that's what she does.
Grabbing her jacket and shoes, Trixie leaves out her bedroom window with one place in mind. The one place she knows she’d always be welcome.
The cab pulls up outside of Lux. The driver eyeing how an 11-year-old girl has a wad of cash in hand but choosing to let it slide. Money is money after all.
Trixie thanks the driver before stepping out on the sidewalk and looking up at the dozens of people queuing up to get inside the infamous club. They stare at her like she really is the president of Mars as she approaches the bouncer.
“Excuse me, Is Lucifer home tonight”?
The bouncer gives her a once over. Sure he’s used to seeing all kinds of people from all walks of life seeking out Lucifer. But he's got to admit, he's never had a kid approach him before.
“Do your parents know you're here kid”?
Trixie knows he's probably trying to intimidate her into spilling the beans and then being able to call her parents to come collect her. But she doesn't want her parents right now. She wants Lucifer, and she's nothing if not tenacious.
“If Lucifer is home and finds out you left me on the street he’s gonna be really pissed off at you”
The men almost want to laugh at this tiny little girl wearing a unicorn sweater, staring them down. But the more reasonable part realize if she is someone of importance to Lucifer, then him being pissed is the least of their worries.
“You got a name, sweetie?”
“Obviously” Trixie rolls her eyes at the largest of the two men, showing she isn't fazed.
Staring down the defiant child with anger in her eyes and her arms crossed defensively across her chest, it's clear to see she's just putting on an act to be brave. But her eyes show how upset she truly is.
With a defeated sigh, one of the men throws his head to the side in a ‘are you coming way’ and leads Trixie into the club.
She starts to think that maybe this was a really bad idea. There are people everywhere, they keep bumping into her and it smells. The music is far too loud and the lights make everything hard to focus on. How do people enjoy this? will she enjoy it when she grows up? God, she hopes not.
She spots him almost instantly. Even in this dimly lit room, crowded in people he always stands out.
She could cry with relief. In fact, to her embarrassment she realizes all too late she already is crying as she runs from the bouncer to lucifers side, clinging to him as her tears stream down her face.
She doesn't know what she expected him to do, maybe be surprised and then incredibly uncomfortable. However, it's him, that surprises her.
The calm, charming devil that had been stood there before is gone. With pure instinct, he reaches for her pulling her up into his arms.
“Beatrice, what happened?”
She knows she should answer him but she just can't seem to stop crying. She just knows she's ruining his shirt and that pretty much everyone in the room is staring at them. But she just clings harder, burying her face into his neck. And he lets her.
“Anton. I'm not to be disturbed” Lucifer calls over to the bouncer that had brought Trixie to him as he makes a hasty exit upstairs with Trixie still in his arms. He holds her tighter.
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Trixie tries to apologize as soon as they're upstairs. She doesn't know what for. For showing up? For ruining his night? But she feels sorry for something.
It isn't until she's curled up on his couch with a fluffy blanket wrapped around her and PB&J sandwich in her hands that she finally feels like she's calmed down. She wants to say thank you and yet what comes out of her mouth is very different than intended.
“I didn't think you’d own a blanket” It was so out of the blue and genuinely curious that Lucifer can't help but laugh.
“Even the Devil needs comfort sometimes, I suppose”
Trixie looked up to him them, thinking about him being sad made her feel even more sad.
“Does it help you feel better?” Trixie asks in a way that only a child could, pure innocence filled with hope.
“Sometimes. But the scotch helps too” Lucifer gestures his glass as if in proof.
Trixie smiles at that. There's something so Lucifer about it, that it comforts her. She’s missed him. He doesn't come around much anymore, not since her mom started dating her lieutenant.
“Now are you going to tell me what happened. Is it your mother? Are you hurt?”
Trixie looked down to her lap feeling suddenly very small. She supposes its a fair question. She came barreling into him, balling her eyes out at ten o clock at night. If roles were reversed she’d think it was something more grave too. Which now she feels embarrassed to have acted like that simply because her parents were arguing again.
Lucifer must have sensed her embarrassment, because the next thing she knows he’s sitting next to her, placing his glass on the table.
“Beatrice. Whatever it is, I can only help you if you tell me”
“I'm sorry” Great now she was going to start crying again.
“Hey now, none of that. I don't want your apology. I want to know what happened”
It's funny to her that people talk about Lucifer like he's the big bad. Her dad is constantly saying mean things about him. And even at school, the kids know about him from their parents. It seems pretty much everyone in LA has heard of Lucifer Morningstar. And the most common thing that people know is he isn't a man to anger.
Yet here he sits calmly, with patience not many others would show. With caring eyes staring back at her and she's never felt safer.
“You’ll think its stupid”
“I highly doubt that. But, how about you let me decide that”
“Mom and Dad were fighting again. They're always fighting. Dad always forgets about me and mommy always gets angry about it. And even though they're fighting about me, it's like they forget I exist. Or forget to care anyway. It's like its just another excuse for them to fight. I'm just an excuse to fight”
Lucifer knows a lot of things, he has been around a while. And he knows with certainty hell, with experience what a child that feels neglected looks like.
“Everything sucks right now” Trixie is aware she sounds every bit as petulant as the child she is, but she can't help it.
“So all these tears are just for tonight?” See, unlike the other adults, Lucifer isn't stupid. He can see that all of her pain isn't simply because of this one stupid fight.
She looks him in the eyes. She's heard stories about people spilling all their secrets to him. But she doesn't feel compelled, she just trusts him. Knows that her secrets would be safe with him.
“I think they've forgotten about me. Not just tonight. Dad is always so busy with work and that was always ok I guess. I got used to it because I had mommy, and she would make up for it. But lately, it's like I don't really have her either”
She sounded older than her years as she sat there evaluating her own feelings. Lucifer thought that perhaps she should talk to Linda, they'd probably both like that.
“Your mother loves you very much, you shouldn't doubt that” Lucifer might have his own issues with Chloe right now but he was sure of this.
“I don’t like him. I don't want him in our lives” Lucifer doesn't need to ask her who she's talking about. He knows. Pierce.
Lucifer has his own issues with him too. There's something extremely alarming about him. And that's saying something coming from the Devil who has seen every tarnished and sadistic soul there is to see throughout millennia.
He doesn't trust him, and he hates thinking about that man with Chloe.
He tried to tell her as much, but she took him for being jealous. He supposes that would be most peoples reactions too when you tell someone they are dating the worlds, first murderer. But he thought the detective knew him better than that. Trusted him.
Yet, she didn't trust him. Instead, she slowly started pulling away from him. Working more cases with Pierce so he wasn't needed. He supposes it was always going to happen eventually. He always knew the day would come when she didn't need him anymore.
But here her offspring sat, in pain and she did need him.
“Yes well, I can’t say I'm all that fond of the man myself. But your mother deserves a chance at happiness. And If father forbid he's that chance, we should want that for her”
Trixie just looked up at him as if he said she’s never allowed to eat cake again.
She doesn't want him to be her mom’s happiness. There's only one other man that she would want in their lives and she's surprised that it isn't her dad. No its the Devil himself. A man willing to give up everything he wants just to make her mom happy.
She concedes this conversation with a sigh. Letting him think that she agrees with him, that she's going to give Pierce a chance, as she watches him walk off to call her mom.
She knows how angry her parents are going to be but she really doesn't care. Because right now she's pretty damn angry herself.
So maybe there are two things Trixie knows.
1) Adults are stupid.
2) Lucifer will always be there for her.
She can live with that. For now.