If I may play the me's advocate for a moment...

Lucifer had been having a nice day. A bottle of red. The galley. Something enjoyable to watch on his phone.

"Brother."

Lucifer had been having a nice day. And now he was up on the deck of the Rouge, barking into the phone. "Amenadiel," he said, "Don't you have a child to rear or something?"

"Charlie is fine," Amenadiel said, on the other side of the phone. "He's also in Los Angeles. As am I."

"Ah, so you've moved? How nice, LA weather is excellent this time of year," Lucifer said, already halfway to turning off the phone. "But this could have been an email. Now, if you'd excuse me, I have an excellent Orion Swift waiting for me--"

"No, I mean he is in Los Angeles," Amenadiel repeated slowly. "Our Los Angeles. Time has resumed flowing." His voice brightened considerably. "I'm so glad you've finally embraced your Godhood, Lucifer!"

Oh, no.

"Oh, no," Lucifer said.

[[ for them who live here, please ]]

It was a nice, bright morning in Los Angeles, just a few days before Lucifer's self-imposed ultimatum about leaving ended. He remained on a quest to apologize for his therapist-inflicted overthinking and subsequent attempts to break up with Duke and Octavia, and so, today...

...Today it was time to spoil Octavia with a visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific.

He hummed brightly to himself as he paid for their tickets, then slid past the nice cashier and into the aquarium properly.

[[ for two, and some ocd. everything taken and adapted from Lucifer episode 5x14, 'Nothing Lasts Forever'. ]]

It was time.

Lucifer and Amenadiel strode down the steps into the belly of Lux, their expressions determined, their words prepared--

"Are you positive you're ready?" Lucifer said, pausing abruptly to look at his brother.

Amenadiel blinked. "Yeah," he said.

Okay. Good. Lucifer sighed, adjusted his jacket, and pressed on down the next flight of stairs. Ready and willing to do what was necessary. Sometimes something simply needed to be done, and--

"...And you won't back down, no matter what nefarious mind games He tries to play, because we need to present--"

"A united front," Amenadiel droned. "I know. Don't worry, Lucy, we both agree Dad needs to go home."

Right, of course. Lucifer nodded, gestured with both hands, and then pointed onward. To Dad, and difficult conversation. With his older brother at his side, there was no way this could go wrong. No, not at all. He held up his fist, and Amenadiel bumped his gravely.

Together. A united front. Ready for--

"Oh, for-- he was just here!"

( Hey! Hi. Have you seen a rather large, attractive gentleman? Broad shoulders, piercing eyes? Heroic face? Looks a little like me? )

[[ for those two who are in LA. everything in this post taken and adapted from Lucifer episode 5x11, 'Resting Devil Face'. CW: explosion of a major NPC. he gets better. ]]

"I, look, that was the heat of the moment," Lucifer said, "And. I don't know what she meant... by it, or what I-- But I need you two to know that I... that I don't have any intention of-- that you come f..."

Wait, why was Duke still staring at him? ( He was used to that level of unblinking, unrelenting glare from Octavia, but not from Duke... )

[[ taken and adapted from Lucifer episodes 5x08, 'Spoiler Alert' and 5x09 'Family Dinner'. I can't believe I'm finally actually doing this catchup. Much love to the wonderful okteiviakom and betterthanaplan! ]]

Reno had held precious little in answers or sentiment. Lucifer honestly wasn't sure what he'd been looking for, except to free himself from the last dregs of whatever the weekend had kicked up. And while he felt more settled after all that processing (he'd processed all of 5 percent of it and then shoved it back into the box and was now on his way to drop it back into the lava pits), he was still missing... something.

He'd promised the Detective he would stay out of her hair. So he was just here for a night. A bit of brooding sight-seeing from the hills, followed by a bit of sight-seeing here, arms draped over the railing as he looked out over the partying crowds of Lux.

"Lucy!" Ebullient as always, that Amenadiel. "I didn't think you'd come back here so quickly."

"I know, it has been a month," he said, rolling his eyes. "Don't any of you worry, I'll be out of your hair again shortly."

"A month?" Amenadiel echoed, frowning. "You just left."

Lucifer blinked a few times. "...Well, I suppose that explains the weather," he said finally, and took a sip of his drink. "Bit of a weird Fandom time thing, never you mind." He tapped his fingers against the glass and restrained himself from asking how the Detective was doing. Hardly any point, was there?

"So what brings you back here?"

"A trip down memory lane," Lucifer said, looking at the crowd. "An utterly useless one, so far. Don't know why I bothered when I could be home right now, going out for drinks with my two friends who hopefully haven't set fire to one another for once."

His brother heaved a sigh. "What kind of memory lane are we talking about?" he said.

For a moment, Lucifer thought about bringing it up. That time. The pre-Lucifer times, in general.

But no. Box, meet magma flow. "Mhm," he said. He should be heading back. This was pointless.

[[ establishy ]]

"So my dickhead twin showed up on Earth, assumed my identity, and then-- wreaked all sorts of havoc on my life?"

Lucifer had a headache, a horrific, pulsing thing that seemed to skip right along his forehead and no amount of facepalming could chase it away.

"That about covers it, yes," Amenadiel said. He seemed agitated. Wasn't like his life had nearly gotten usurped, was it?

"Great," Lucifer snapped. "Great. And you came down here to tell me this, why? Just to torture me?"

His brother gave him one of those meaningful sighs.

"I suppose this is the appropriate place for it," Lucifer muttered.

"Yeah," Amenadiel said. "Is there... somewhere else that we can talk?"

Oh, for Father's sake. "I don't like having private conversation in the hallways," Lucifer hissed, "And Kenneth doesn't mind. Do you, Kenneth?"

He looked to the man beside them, curled up in a ball, rocking, in a large cage on wheels under the dim red-and-blue lights of the circus tent they were in. "It's not funny," Kenneth wailed, "It's not funny--"

"No," Lucifer agreed. "No, it certainly isn't!"

( My slopey-shouldered brother is pulling a prank hardly worthy of Saved by the Bell in order to humiliate me! )

( Lucifer felt rattled. And then it only got worse. )

[[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay! based off of a severely truncated version of Lucifer episode 5x03, '¡Diablo!' and 5x05, 'Detective Amenadiel'. with that, lucifer is back on-island for the forseeable future, woo, much love to okteiviakom for being my hench-raccoon in all this, and to everyone who participated in this massive catch-up or enabled me into intertwining this catch-up plot with their own, hi, betterthanaplan ]]

Lucifer had said goodbye to the Detective late last night; too late to put his friends back on a portal, and anyway, after the past two weeks - and the weekend that had led to his coming here at all - that felt like it sent a wrong message. He set them up on the sofa in his apartment, and retired to bed.

He woke up the next morning to the news that while he'd been having his own drama, poor Linda had found herself in a hospital bed pushing a child out of her loins.

In response to the news, he called Seivarden. Seivarden seemed to like children; she surely wouldn't object to acting as some kind of shield between him and screaming little parasite, would she?

( It was a loud, ebullient, and yet oddly conflicted Amenadiel that slipped out of the hospital room with a bundle of squirming baby in his arms. )

[[ taken from Lucifer 4x10, 'Who's Da New King Of Hell?', and preplayed with the great 1000yearstoolate. OCD in the comments! ]]

Well, the good doctor had been avoiding Lucifer's texts for days, and he was only able to restrain his increasingly alarmed, racing mind for so long. So: desperate measures.

He dropped Doctor Arn onto a chair, and yanked the bag off his head.

"...Lucifer, what's going on?" the terrified man said, staring at him.

"You've been avoiding me, Dr. Arn, so I had to force a meeting," Lucifer said flatly.

The doctor held up his hands, palms-forward, placating. "Yeah, sorry about that. Work has been so crazy..."

( Don't care. I granted you a favor. Now you owe me one. )

--

Oh god. ... Right. Even Lucifer Morningstar knew when he was out of his depth. He needed an expert. Someone with a great deal of experience in ending relationships.

He needed Duke Crocker.

As Eve slid away to go 'change into something more comfortable', he pulled out his phone in a panic. HOW DO I BREAK UP WITH SOMEONE???????

The question marks were necessary.

[[ open and taken from Lucifer episode 4x08, 'Super Bad Boyfriend' ]]

There was a knock. Not for the first time that weekend.

But for the first time, the massive door to 15 Griffin Way opened, and revealed a devil, clad in one of his less expensive suits, his gaze skimming over the blonde and the tall angel and landing on the space where someone... wasn't.

Just for a moment. But long enough to be noticable.

"Ah, Dr. Linda, brother, I see you've made it," he said, adjusting his jacket and fixing an only slightly rigid smile onto his face. "Please, come on in. I'm sure the hotel beds weren't too bumpy."

Linda's eyes darted to Amenadiel's face.

Then they stepped inside.

[[ for some npcs in sp! later. moving day tomorrow, so i am going incommunicado for a bit ]]