Lucifer's eyes snapped open, his heart racing. For a moment, he couldn't remember where he was or why he felt such a sense of urgency. Then it all came flooding back – the rooftop battle, Kal'shemazoth, the ominous portal opening above Paradise City.
He groaned, rubbing his face. "Some Prince of Darkness I am," he muttered. "Oversleeping on doomsday."
Sunlight streamed through the gaps in his curtains, painting stripes across his cluttered bedroom. Textbooks and manga were piled haphazardly on every surface, interspersed with the odd arcane artifact or demon-warding charm (courtesy of Ezra's paranoid planning).
Turned out the Crimson Oath also wallowed in black magic, and these arcane charms for warding off dark spirits were just the beginning of what nasty 'juju' they had lying around in the other organization.
As Lucifer stumbled out of bed, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. Dark circles under his eyes testified to another night of restless sleep, plagued by dreams of portals, fire and falling. His hair was a disaster, sticking up in ways that defied common sense.
"Looking good, Morningstar," he said to his reflection. "Really striking fear into the hearts of your enemies with that bedhead."
He made his way to the kitchen, where a note from Piper awaited him:
Gone to early cheerleading practice. There's clam chowder soup in the fridge. Try not to burn down the apartment while I'm gone. Love, Piper
P.S. Ezra called. Said something about "final preparations." Should I be worried?
Lucifer snorted. If Piper only knew the half of it. He wondered, not for the first time, how much his so-called "sister" actually knew about the supernatural chaos swirling around them. She always seemed to take his strange absences and occasional demonic incidents in stride.
As he reheated the clam chowder soup, Lucifer's phone buzzed with a text from Ezra:
Meet me at the usual spot in 30. Don't be late.
He smirked. Even facing potential apocalypse, Ezra was all business. It was one of the things he equal parts hated and appreciated about her. Yeah, appreciated. That was definitely the word for the warm feelings in his balls whenever he thought about her.
Lucifer wolfed down his breakfast and threw on his uniform, pausing only to run a half-hearted hand through his unruly hair. As he left the apartment, he couldn't shake the feeling that this might be the last time he saw it. The last normal morning in a life that had become anything but.
The streets of Paradise City were eerily quiet. Most of the population was still in lockdown after yesterday's portal incident, though the official story blamed it on some kind of mass hallucination caused by a gas leak. Lucifer had to admire the creativity of whatever PR team came up with that one.
He found Ezra waiting for him in their usual meeting spot – a small park tucked away between towering skyscrapers. She was dressed in her school uniform, but the ever-present bladeless hilt slung over her shoulder betrayed her readiness for battle.
"You're late," she said by way of greeting, but there was no real heat in her words.
Lucifer grinned. "Fashionably late. There's a difference."
Ezra rolled her eyes. "Come on. We need to go over the plan one more time before school."
As they walked, Ezra filled him in on the latest developments. The Crimson Oath had managed to temporarily seal the tiny breaches, but it was a stopgap measure at best.
More worryingly, there were reports of increased demon activity all over the city – everything from minor imps causing mischief to full-blown possessions.
"The barriers between worlds are severely weakened," Ezra explained. "Even with it closed, things are... leaking through."
Lucifer nodded grimly. "And let me guess – I'm the plug that's supposed to stop the leak?"
Ezra's expression softened slightly. "You're not alone in this, Luu. We're all in it together."
"Yeah," he said softly. "I know."
They arrived at school just as the first bell was ringing. As they made their way to class, the surreal normality of it all just felt odd.
Here they were, going through the motions of an ordinary school day while hideous things were running rampant. The normality just felt like a lie they were trying to tell themselves.
In homeroom, Reagan bounded up to them, his usual easygoing grin in place. "Hey, lovebirds! You two coming to the party this weekend? It's gonna be epic!"
Lucifer exchanged a look with Ezra. How to explain that they might be a little busy preventing the apocalypse?
"We'll... try to make it," Ezra said diplomatically.
As Reagan chatted away about party plans, Lucifer felt a pang of... something. Longing? Regret? For a moment, he allowed himself to imagine a world where his biggest concern really was whether or not to go to a high school party. Where the hardest choice he had to make was what to wear or who to dance with.
The day passed in a blur of classes and covert planning sessions. Between algebra and literature, they finalized strategies for closing the portal permanently. During lunch, they discreetly practiced channeling Lucifer's powers, much to the confusion of their classmates who couldn't figure out why the cafeteria milk kept spontaneously combusting.
As the final bell rang, Lucifer felt a strange mix of relief and dread. This felt like a calm before the storm more than anything did. And the feeling the at any moment, all hell could break lose wasn't exactly helping to calm their nerves.
They left school grounds, making their way towards the rendezvous point – the temporarily repurposed warehouse for Crimson Oath operations – where Margot and the others were waiting.
The sun was setting over Paradise City, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink. It was beautiful, Lucifer realized. Worth fighting for. Worth saving, not razing to the ground. For the few weeks he'd been living among mortals, he'd had time to reevaluation his previous life choices.
Casted out of heaven to rule for all eternity in hell, punishing the damned and all, was just him playing a partner's play. Did he every stop to ask himself what he really wanted? He greatly doubted he ever once did.
"Hey, Ezra?" he called.
She turned to look at him, eyebrow raised quizzically.
"When this is all over... assuming we don't, you know, die horribly or get sucked into a hell dimension... would you maybe want to go get coffee or something? With me?"
Ezra blinked, clearly thrown by the sudden shift in topic. Then, slowly, a smile spread across her face – a real, genuine smile that lit up her whole face.
"Yeah," she said softly. "I think I'd like that."
***