Sabrina Spellman (pathofnight) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-10-29 17:04:00 |
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Lucifer meets Ripley.WARNINGS nah
“I know things are a little weird, but I think you’re going to like where we’re going,” Sabrina tried to reassure her, even reaching down to bop the little girl’s nose like Ambrose had used to do to her.
Ripley nodded, relaxing a little as a familiar building came into view. She spotted the three letters she didn’t actually know the name of but the word she knew by heart already--LUX. That was where her grandfather lived and worked.
Ripley pushed the button on the elevator door once they were inside, not needing to hold onto her mom’s hand any longer. Sabrina grinned as she watched the little girl who was practically bouncing as they waited for the elevator to ascend. It was the most relaxed she’d seen Ripley be outside of their apartment.
As soon as the doors opened up into the penthouse the five year old ran out, calling out for Lucifer.
“Grandpa!”
Lucifer did not assume after millennia that he had experienced everything but he figured that most things on his list were checked off and humans needed to catch up with the times and invent something new and entertaining. Then he made his home in Los Angeles and acquired an accidental family, mended bridges with Amenadiel, and then ended up in a dimension far, far away from what he was used to. Since then he’d begun feeling a little too human in respect to not knowing what would happen next or could happen to him.
He really should not have been surprised at a toddler (were they toddlers at that age? everything under thirteen was a toddler to him) running towards him from the elevator, calling him...excuse him, what again?
His jaw dropped slightly and he turned his attention from the little being to the daughter leaving the elevator. “I’m sorry but this accelerated spawning should have been left with Tamagotchi,” he stated, unable to completely shake his shock. “Who is this?”
Lucifer’s uncertainty around children was never not going to be amusing to Sabrina. She understood the shock as well though, considering she’d woken up to the five year old crawling into bed with her and Nick the other day and had basically fallen out of the bed in confusion. Thankfully Ripley didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary as she headed right over to him and went in for a hug. At least he looked like he was supposed to look, unlike her other grandparents who were way too young.
“Grandpa’s so funny mommy,” the five year old giggled as she quickly pulled away and headed further into the penthouse. “I’m going to get the ponies.”
Sabrina watched the little girl head off down the hallway that led to where her room was located before turning her attention back to Lucifer. “So that’s Ripley. Mine and Nick’s kid from the future?” It still sounded crazy to her and yet the little girl was definitely their kid. She looked nearly identical to how she had a child, without the telltale headband that Sabrina had always used to wear. “Surprise, you’re a grandpa.”
“Grandpa,” Lucifer sputtered in disbelief, staring with wide eyes down at the child. While he could detect hints of both Sabrina and he imagined Nick in her features, they were currently children as far as he was concerned and thus this small one looking up at him was not yet possible. “I…”
As soon as she skipped up to him she was gone, off to Sabrina’s room in the penthouse no doubt to check up on the ponies he’d gifted her as a joke. This one took them seriously it seemed.
“How is it here?” he demanded, turning back to face Sabrina, eyes wide. “Why is it here?” Lucifer stopped, eyes narrowing. “Is Salem behind this?”
She snorted at the Salem question. “My familiar isn’t that powerful, dad.” Well...probably not. Though if possible the cat probably would do something like this to mess with Lucifer.
“I have no idea on the how’s or why’s but it's not been bad. A little crazy trying to figure out how to suddenly raise a five year old but I doubt whatever is happening will last too long.” None of the craziness ever did in Vallo. Part of her didn’t want to give the little girl up, but she knew that was like trying to hold onto air. Plus she belonged with the versions of her and Nick in the future.
“And Ripley. Not it. Though I doubt she’ll notice if you do call her that since she seems to adore you.” If the non-stop, ‘when can we go see Grandpa Lucifer? Is Grandpa Lucifer here? Does he have my castle dollhouse? Why doesn’t he have my castle dollhouse’ questions were anything to go by anyway.
She stepped forward, going in for her own hug. “You had to know this was a possibility someday. Just you know...not like before I’m even eighteen.” Sabrina had been planning for something like three hundred years in the future but it seemed having kids was going to happen way before that.
“I refuse to underestimate your familiar in any way, shape, or form lest I give him the upper hand over me,” Lucifer replied as he turned to look for said animal and not finding him present. Most likely stowed away to watch Lucifer react to the latest round of whatever Vallo had planned.
It was Sabrina coming in for a hug of her own that stopped him from looking, his arms going around her instead. He drew in a breath to protest but she was right, the little girl was not an ‘it’, a realization of growth stemming from Trixie’s influence in his life. “Grandpa,” he muttered quietly, realizing that now he was so used to future children or alternate universe children, the forces at work decided to step up their game. A right bloody familial line at this pace and it was...it was weird, it was definitely weird to think about.
“Perhaps you’re getting a preview so you know what you’re getting into before you do,” he added after a moment. “Did you give that child sugar this morning or is she naturally like that? I’m beginning to think they are all naturally caffeinated.”
He was probably right. Salem would take any opportunity to gain the upperhand and do with it what he could. Sabrina had learned months ago to not try and get in between their little feud. She wasn’t quite sure it was that exactly, but it worked well for describing her familiar and alternate universe father’s relationship.
She gave Lucifer an extra squeeze, snorting at his mention of sugar. “Oh no, I learned sugar is basically evil with little kids the hard way so she’s had absolutely none today.” Not after the mess that had been yesterday and the donuts and countless amounts of Skittles that had been eaten. “I think you’re onto something with the naturally caffeinated part. Or maybe they zap energy from their parents?” Because Sabrina was pretty certain that she’d been feeling more exhausted since Ripley showed up. Definitely no late nights after running around with the little girl all day.
The five year old took that chance to run back out to them, pony toys in hand, and a very smug looking Salem trailing behind her. “You look the same. Not like Grandpa Dan. He looks littler but he remembered I like hot chocolate.” Ripley reached for Lucifer’s hand, wanting to pull him over to the couch. “Mommy said you don’t have my dollhouse yet but that’s okay, grandpa. Do you have orange juice?”
“That is...terrifying.” And slightly insulting knowing Chloe compared him to a toddler on sugar more than once. “You’re asking me like I’ve cared for a little human for more than a few hours. I am as clueless about that as you are though I do hear that having a child is always making it up as you go along,” Lucifer added thoughtfully, tapping a finger against his chin. “Little energy succbui and incubi. That would make sense.”
Lucifer cackled quietly at Ripley’s description of Dan. He quite liked the man but laughing at such a description was also a form of affection, at least for him. The laughter came up short as she took his hand and he glanced over his shoulder at Sabrina while allowing himself to be maneuvered towards the couch. “There is, ah, orange juice in the fridge beneath the shelves,” he instructed her, motioning with his free hand towards the bar on the wall.
Sabrina nodded and then headed toward the bar to get the orange juice and a glass of whiskey for her dad, thinking he might need it as well. Salem hopped up onto the couch to join them, eyeing Lucifer to try and make him get off of it as he curled up by the five year old.
“You get to be the Grandpa Lucifer pony,” Ripley told Lucifer as she handed him one of the ponies. “And I get to be mommy and daddy and Auntie Roz. And these--” She paused for a moment, nose scrunching before she manifested a few goat toys to appear on the table by the couch too. “Are the evil goats that you saved them from!”
There was some impressive voice acting done with the goats cackling evilly before Ripley started pretending to be her parents and aunty asking for help.
“Oh, is that how that story goes?” Sabrina asked as she handed out the drinks.
If Salem thought Lucifer would be moving for him, the familiar was dreaming. Lucifer glared at him just as stubbornly and maintained his position on the couch on Ripley’s other side before returning his attention to the child’s ramblings. Eyebrows rose as the goat toys manifested on the table.
“Well I haven’t told it yet,” Lucifer said softly, intending for only Sabrina to hear as he accepted the glass, “and I also can’t lie so obviously this is a child’s interpretation of the story I did tell.” Glass of whiskey in one hand, pony toy in the other, his attention on Sabrina, Ripley, and Salem, the pony toy nearly went into his mouth while the glass almost swooped in to help combat the evil goats. He quickly amended his action and cleared his throat.
Ah yes. How did one play this game with these toys? He tapped the pony on the coffee table like it was trotting towards the goats and cleared his throat again before adding to the narrative. “Belay your actions, you evil fiends,” he intoned in a deep voice, “or face my hellish wrath!”
“That was great, grandpa!” the five year old giggled as Sabrina sat down on the couch on the other side of Salem. She picked up her familiar and tapped his nose in an attempt to stop his glaring. It didn’t quite work, but at least he didn’t try to move from her lap.
Ripley picked up one of the goats. “Rawr mah mah mah,” she pretended to bleat evilly, and trotted it toward Lucifer’s pony. “And then, grandpa, you have to kick the goat in the head and it makes them all go away and you save the day!” She let go of the goat so he could do as needed and she picked up one of the other ponies, mimicking her fathers’s voice, “Thanks, Grandpa Lucifer. You are the best Lucifer.”
She alternated between the ponies, making them all cheer before holding up her glass of orange juice to tap against his. “And now we have cookies to celebrate the slaying of the evil goats!”
Before he realized what he was doing, Lucifer was slipping down onto the floor between couch and coffee table in a cross-legged position, setting down his glass of whiskey to reach for one of the goat toys. As only a child could do, even the evil goat toy looked adorable and comical despite the attempt to make it seem mean.
“You are banished!” Lucifer announced and made his pony drop kick the goat across the table into one of the other chairs where it bounced on the cushion, effectively banished. He turned the toy to face the others and resumed the deep voice for the pony that was supposed to be him. “Now we can return to our mission unbothered. The quest for refreshment,” he intoned before picking up his glass again and tapping it against Ripley’s.
A strange sensation followed, one he didn’t feel too often and thus kept its impact high when it did occur. It felt like his heart tightened in his chest, almost aching, almost...breaking. Is this what it would have been like to raise a child of his own? To play games with them, games of pretend and skill. He’d met Trixie when she was young but not as young as Ripley. Rory and Sabrina were both well beyond that point. The childhood he and his siblings had was nothing like this.
As quick as the realization and sadness crossed his face, he quickly schooled his expression back to normal, a faint smile and a look of amusement as he raised the glass to his lips and took a drink. “To an adventure well done.”
Ripley hadn’t noticed that bit of sadness in Lucifer’s expression, but Sabrina had as she pulled out cookies from her bag. She’d learned it was a good idea to have baggies of goldfish, cookies, bandaids, wet wipes and an extra juice box just in case now that she had a kid. She offered the cookies to Ripley, who doled them out one to Sabrina and Lucifer as well before happily munching on her own.
“We need the blanket,” the five year old told the two of them before heading off down the hall again toward Sabrina’s room.
“You okay?” Sabrina murmured as the little girl disappeared into the room. She knew she still couldn’t quite wrap her head around the fact that Nick and her had somehow made that little girl and apparently raised her to be a happy and healthy child. After remembering her own death and Nick’s, Sabrina hadn’t been sure what it would be like to have a future. She’d been struggling with what that would even mean anymore even in Vallo.
But Ripley was a promise of things to come, a future that they actually had a chance to live out, and Sabrina was grateful for the possibilities her daughter represented. “I think she said she has a room of her own here when she’s from.”
“The blanket not a blanket. Interesting,” Lucifer murmured as the child disappeared into the room once more to search for something that may or may not be there. He took another sip of whiskey and then popped the cookie into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.
Thoughts that took him a moment to surface from when Sabrina asked him a question. “Fine actually,” he murmured and shook his head. “Just reminiscing how not long ago I thought I was incapable of having children of my own and I felt entirely fine with that. Even when my brother became a father I did not feel the desire. Now with two daughters and a possible granddaughter, I find a certain ennui in missing the early days, the chance to be a proper father from the start. The feeling is newish and confusing, not one I’ve had before here. I don’t quite understand it,” he admitted after a beat, his words honest and open. Once again he missed Linda’s sage words and advice.
“But that is neither here nor there. I assume she is correct in saying so, perhaps your room itself is converted and the one she speaks of,” he continued, waving off the sentimental feeling he didn’t know how to deal with.
Sabrina nodded. She couldn’t quite understand what he was going through, not with how many lifetimes he’d lived and everything that had encompassed. But now having had her daughter suddenly show up in her life, she thought she had a bit of a better understanding over what it must have been like for him to suddenly have herself and Rory show up in his life.
Though, Sabrina was a bit thankful at the moment that she’d currently skipped the baby stages of Ripley’s life. Being a mother to a five year old was terrifying enough, she wasn’t sure she could have handled suddenly having an infant to take care of. She’d experience them at some point in the future when she would be much more prepared to do so.
“Anything seems possible here. If it helps any, I think you would have been a great dad from the start.” Sabrina held back from mentioning that he could still some day have the chance to do so with Chloe at some point. She shifted on the couch to be over by him and wrapped her arms around him to give a hug, careful not to knock into his glass of whiskey. “You’re probably right though. It wouldn’t surprise me since she knows where my things are in the room already.