Music echoed throughout the apartment. Lucifer was mid-song when his phone rang. Hopeful it was his detective calling with a new case despite the late hour, he picked it up and smiled when he recognized the house number. He answered.

"Good evening, detective!" he gushed. "Is there a gruesome new murder for us to solve? Or is this for... personal reasons?"

"Lucifer?"

A jolt of surprise ran through him at the sound of Trixie's voice on the other end of the phone. He checked the time on his watch and his eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

"Beatrice, what are you doing on the phone with me at nine in the evening? Doesn't your mother insist on a much earlier hour?" Then, a twinge of fear ran down his spine. "Trixie... is your mum alright?"

"Oh, yeah, she's fine," came the little voice, but very quietly. "She fell asleep right after supper; she's really tired."

"I see."

"Um, Lucifer? Could I ask you a favor?"

Lucifer thought about it for a moment. He knew he'd never be able to reclaim a favor from a child, but he had nothing to lose from listening to her request.

"I'm not promising to accept, but you can ask anything you'd like."

"Could you bring me to the travelling rides?"

"I beg your pardon?"

He listened as Trixie took a deep breath. "Every year, the rides come and set up in the parking lot of the big mall. I want to go, but daddy's on a case and mommy had paperwork to do tomorrow," she explained. "If I can't go tomorrow, it's too late; they pack up to move to the next mall tomorrow night. Then they won't be back until next year."

"I don't know..." he mumbled. "What are these rides exactly?"

"You know! Like ferris wheels and roller coasters and... rides."

"And there's no one else you could ask?" he tried desperately, not wanting to think about the fact that this sounded like it might actually be... fun.

"Un-uh... Everybody else is too busy. Please, Lucifer?"

That did it! Lucifer groaned and face palmed, trying with all his might to fight against the answer that wanted to slip out, but it did anyway.

"Alright... alright, spawn. I'll bring you to the rides tomorrow."

"Really?" she squeaked. "You promise?"

"I promise. I'll come pick you up around noon time."

"That's too late!" she said quickly, her voice sounding a little panicked. "Because mommy said we have to leave at ten o'clock to bring me to a day camp before she goes into work. You have to be here before we leave."

"Trixie, perhaps I should speak with your mother... to be sure."

"Okay, but I was trying not to wake her. Couldn't we ask her together tomorrow when you get here?"

"I'd rather not anger your mother," he said, thinking of how vulnerable he became around her. He certainly didn't want her getting mad at him while she was armed.

"She won't be mad at you; I promise. I'll tell her it was all my idea! I promise, Lucifer!"

Lucifer groaned, but allowed himself to smile. She really was too much and part of him admired the spunk she had for a child. He ran his hand through his hair and, despite every gut instinct to demand to speak to Chloe, he decided that she probably needed her sleep if she'd passed out so quickly.

"Fine, Beatrice. I'll be there ten minutes before you leave so we have time to talk to your mum tomorrow."

"Yes! Thank you, Lucifer! See you tomorrow morning."

And she was gone.

The doorbell rang just before ten the next morning as Chloe ran around the house gathering their things. She swung open the door and froze at the sight of the unexpected visitor.

"Lucifer?" she said, but it sounded more like a question. She shook her head. "We're in a bit of a hurry, Lucifer."

"I know. I'm here for young Beatrice."

"Trixie?" she blurted, her brows knitting together. "She's getting ready."

"I'm well aware. I'll be taking her for the day."

"What?"

"Detective, your offspring called me while you were asleep last evening. She asked me to bring her to the rides since you have to work and daddy-douche is too busy."

Chloe stared at him in silence for several long seconds and Lucifer began to feel uncomfortable under her scrutiny. Then, her eyes narrowed and he felt an onslaught coming, but instead, she turned to yell into the apartment.

"Trixie!"

"Detective, what's wrong?" he asked, taking a step into the apartment and closing the door behind him before her shouting drew the attention of the whole block. "You seem disproportionately angry/"

"Lucifer, I wasn't asleep last night," she said, looking back at him. He sighed. She still looked mad, but it didn't appear to be at him, but rather her daughter. "I put Trixie to bed at eight. Then, I turned on the television and did the dishes. She should have been asleep, not on the phone with you. And... on top of that, she lied to you; I don't work today. I took the day off. We've been planning to go to the rides since they pulled into the mall parking lot Monday."

"Beatrice!" Lucifer hollered over Chloe's head, his own temper simmering a little at the development.

The door to the little girl's room opened and she poked her head out, clutching a stuffed bear to her chest. She came out slowly.

"Yes, mommy?" she said, not wanting to come any closer to her upset mother, but Chloe crooked her finger and motioned to her daughter to get a move on. "Hey, Lucifer," she offered, but he crossed his arms and stared down at the child.

"Trixie, why did you call to ask Lucifer to bring you to the rides?" Chloe demanded, still not sure how to take the fact that her daughter wanted Lucifer with them on their day of fun. "Why did you lie to him?"

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I just wanted him to come with us."

"Then why didn't you ask him to come with us instead of lying and tricking him?"

"Because I didn't think he'd come if he knew he didn't have to."

"While I am furious, detective, I can't fault her logic."

"Lucifer, not helping!" she barked and turned back to her daughter. "Trixie, if you gave Lucifer a choice and he chose not to come, he's allowed. You can't trick someone into spending time with you; it's not fair to either person. If a person wants to spend time with you, they'll chose to. If not, they might be busy or just not want to do what you're doing."

"Or..." Trixie's lower lip trembled a little. "Or they might not want to spend time with me at all?"

Chloe stood up straight and shook her head at Lucifer, warning him not to bite. Lucifer chose to stay quiet for once, not wanting that trembling lip to become a full blown tear-fest. Chloe knelt down and took her daughter's hands in hers.

"Sweetie, I won't lie to you. Yes, sometimes we like people who don't like us and who avoid spending time with us. And it hurts, but you should never chase after someone's attention. If they like you, they'll make time for you." Trixie looked up at her mother and large fat tears streaked down her cheeks. Then, she looked over her mother's shoulder up at the well-dress bar owner.

"So you don't want to spend time with us, Lucifer?" she asked, her voice low and broken by hiccups. Lucifer shuffled his feet.

"Darling, you know I'm not good with children."

"You're good with me," she pointed out and Lucifer bit back a groan.

"Yes, well... you are one of the better behaved small humans I've come across," he admitted, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Still..."

"So you don't like us," Trixie said sadly. Lucifer sighed and got down to his knees beside Chloe.

"I do like you you, Beatrice. I like you both," he said, smiling at the detective, who grinned back. "However, I'm not really a rides types... at least not those kind." He got a sharp elbow to the ribs for that comment and Chloe's eyes narrowed on him. "Right, sorry. You see, Beatrice, I would have brought you to the rides as a favor to your mum more than to you."

"So you're not coming?" she asked, her eyes widening with sadness and he groaned, sharing a glance with Chloe. He didn't want to. "But you promised!" she pointed out and he held up a finger.

"You tricked me into a promise. I don't think it fair to hold me to such a promise."

"Nevermind!" Trixie screamed, tearing herself out of her mother's arms and throwing the stuffed animal across the room. "I don't even want to go to the stupid rides!" And with that, she ran through the house and slammed her bedroom door shut once inside.

"I'm sorry, detective. I knew I should have insisted on speaking with you last night, but..."

"No, Lucifer. I'm sorry, too. Evidently, she still has some lessons to learn."

"I don't know about that. Her manipulation technique seems pretty spot on to me," he teased and she rolled her eyes.

"Exactly. Lucifer, I don't want my daughter to be a manipulator! I want her to be honest! She should have just asked you to come with us rather than make up such an elaborate lie!"

"Oh, come on, detective!" he sighed. "I mean, nothing is given to you in this world. Is it really so wrong that she's learned how to go about getting what she wants?" Chloe spun on him, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Yes! Because she's going about it by dishonest methods!"

Lucifer lowered his gaze to his shoes and thought about how he hated being lied to. "Touché, detective." Chloe sighed and walked over to the kitchen counter, picking up the flung toy that had landed on the floor. She leaned against it and shook her head.

"Look, I'm sure you have better things to do, Lucifer, so..."

"Actually, I cleared my day for this, so no, I don't," he said, his eyes narrowed in thought. "In fact..." and he took a deep breath. "Detective, part of me does feel badly that Beatrice felt she had to lie in order to spend time with me. Since I have nothing to do... do you think she'd change her mind if... if I go in and tell her I'd be happy to come with you both to this... rides-thing?" he asked, almost sneering out the word. Chloe sighed.

"I don't know, Lucifer. After this stunt, I need to punish her. She needs to know she can't do this."

"Oh, yes, yes! I agree whole-heartedly, but, darling, she's going to miss them anyway, so it's not really a punishment. If you really want to punish her, hit her where it hurts. No television or no chocolate cake or something like that. 'Ground her for a month,' whatever that means." Chloe chuckled. "Otherwise, you'd be punishing all of us and you and I didn't do anything wrong... not yet, anyways," he teased and she rolled her eyes.

"Fine, Lucifer. Okay, you're right. Wow, that's hard to admit!" she gritted and he chuckled. "But watch it with the racy comments in front of her, got it?" Lucifer nodded once. "Alright, you go ahead and tell her."

Lucifer walked through the house and knocked on Trixie's door. There was no answer. He knocked again and this time, he heard a muffled 'go away!' from within. With a sigh, he opened it anyways and stepped inside.

"Beatrice?" he whispered and she stopped whimpering. "Beatrice, it's me."

"I'm sorry, Lucifer. Mommy's right; it wasn't nice of me to lie to you. I didn't mean to force you to spend time with me," she said, her speech interrupted with small gasps for air. She sat up on the bed and wiped at her eyes with the back of her sleeve. "Are you mad at me?"

"A little..." he admitted, figuring the best thing he could possibly do was be honest. "Your mum doesn't want you to lie, so I'm not going to either. I don't like when people lie," he said and put his hands in his pockets. Trixie's head hung down and she swiped at her face again. "I will say, though... that I am flattered. I've never had someone go to such lengths to spend time with me." A smile cracked over her face and she looked up at him. He came further in and sat on the end of her bed.

"I like you, Lucifer. I like spending time with you."

"In spite of the way you insist of hugging me all the time, I do like you, too, Beatrice." She chuckled. "Now... since I went to all the trouble of clearing my schedule to bring you to the rides... let's get going, shall we?"

"But..." she muttered as he went to get up. "But, mommy? She's mad, too. She's going to want to punish me for this."

"Yes, she will. And you do deserve it. However, I managed to talk her into doing so by other means. Therefore, today, we're going to the rides and tomorrow, I'm sure your mother will inflict whatever punishment she deems appropriate. Now... shall we?" he asked and flinched as she went to launch herself into his arms.

"Sorry, I forgot," she said, holding herself back with a tense expression. Lucifer tilted his head to the side and growled.

"Fine, but just this last time," he said and the words were no sooner out of his mouth than she had her arms wrapped around his neck in a bear hug. At first, he sat there, frozen, but eventually, one of his arms found its way around her shoulders like he had her mother so long ago. Then, he lifted her out of the bed with a giggle and pushed her towards the door.