"Thought I'd check on you," he said, "so I came home for lunch."

Samantha kissed her husband before shuffling to the fridge. "I'm fine. Now sit down and I'll make you something."

Serah took that as her cue to leave, ignoring their declarations that she should stay and at least have a sandwich. She made her way through the tall grass to her home and headed into the bathroom, stripping out of her clothes to take a cold shower.

Climbing under the spray, she stood there, letting the water rain down on her, cooling her clammy skin. Her eyes drifted closed but flashed back open within seconds when a banging echoed through the house.

Somebody was knocking on the door.

Sighing, Serah turned off the water, cutting her shower short as the banging echoed through the house once more. Stepping out, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself, opening the bathroom door. The moment she did, she nearly ran right into someone. Gasping, grabbing her chest, she nearly lost the towel as she recoiled.

Luce.

He was inside her house, standing in the hallway right outside the bathroom door. "Jesus!"

"No, it's me," he said. "Jesus isn't around."

Serah rolled her eyes, clutching the towel closed. "Was that you?"

"Was what me?"

"The banging."

He needn't answer, as the sound rang out once more. Serah's eyes darted past Luce, settling on the door, her brow furrowing. Clearly it hadn't been him. She had half a dozen questions, like where'd he come from, where had he been, and how in the world had he ended up in her house, but the frantic knocking distracted her.

"No," Luce said, casting a glance at the door. "Not me."

Serah pushed past him, heading for the door, and carefully tugged it open. Nicholas stood on the other side, eyes panicked.

"Nicholas? What's wrong?"

"I hate to do this... I hate to ask you this. I know we hardly know each other, but my wife really likes you, and my daughter does, too. So I'm just wondering if you could do me a favor, if there's any way you can watch Nicki this afternoon for us?"

"Uh, sure," Serah said. "No problem."

"She's at day camp. The bus will drop her off in about an hour. If you could just watch her for a bit, we'd be eternally grateful."

"Absolutely."

"We can pay you," he continued.

"Nonsense," she said. "It'll be my pleasure."

"Thank you." Relief tinged his voice. "Truly, thank you."

"Of course."

Nicholas started to rush away when Serah called out to him.

"Wait," she said. "Is something happening?"

He glanced back at her, his expression lighting up, swallowing back the fear. "Sam's water just broke. We're having a baby!"

A smile graced Serah's lips as she watched Nicholas sprint next door. She stood in the doorway, just staring out at the street, until the voice behind her startled her from her daze. "It's a little indecent, don't you think?"

She turned, eyeing Luce from a few feet away. "What?"

"You," he said. "Wearing that, right here, right now."

Glancing down, Serah felt her cheeks flushing as she quickly closed the front door. "Where did you even come from?"

"Loaded question."

"How did you get here?"

"I'm not certain you want to know."

She eyed him hesitantly as he evaded answering her questions. "I don't recall inviting you inside."

"Oh, but you did," he said. "Weeks ago."

"That doesn't count."

"Why not?"

"Because that was then and this is now."

Luce just stared at her. Serah could feel her blush deepening further at his intense gaze and fidgeted a bit, clutching hold of the towel around her to keep herself concealed. She feigned annoyance at his company, pretending to be put off by his presence, but truthfully she felt at ease about him being in her home. She'd just been surprised, not at all disturbed.

She should've been, though.

It should've bothered her. Frightened her.

There was nothing normal about the situation, nothing safe about these circumstances, but she couldn't seem to force herself to be troubled.

It felt natural, like he'd been there all along.

"Do you want me to go?" Luce asked as she strolled toward him.

"No," she whispered, stepping around him. "I don't."

Lucifer stared hard at the tattered cards in his hand. The edges of them were singed and the white was tinted a grimy shade of gray. They'd seen a lot of play over time, and he was definitely due for a new deck, but he had an attachment to these.

They were the ones Serah played with him down in the pit.

The deck had been through thousands of games of War, had seen hundreds of rounds of Solitaire, but none had been as strenuous as the battle it saw now.

"Does you have sixes?"

Lucifer's eyes stayed fixed to his hand. "Does I have sixes," he repeated, muttering the grammatically fucked up words under his breath.

"Yes." Her voice was serious… so, so serious. "Does you?"

Luce stared at the two sixes in his hand for a second before his gaze shifted overtop his cards, meeting a pair of wide, brown eyes. Nicki Barlow. The little girl stared him down, waiting about as patiently as a nine-year-old could wait.