This story was written for a Lucifer Prompts prompt. It is a 5+1 story in which Lucifer asks Linda for advice 5 times and the one time he returns the gesture.

Advice

Friendship

Lucifer found himself lying down on the couch in the therapist's office, wondering not for the first time what he was doing there.

Sure, he had seen Linda a few times now and the sex was great but the therapy itself tended to put him in a foul mood afterwards. She was always trying to get him to talk about things he wasn't willing to talk about.

Okay, that wasn't exactly true. He began talking and things just go in directions he didn't like and had to stop it before things went too far. No need to scare the poor woman, after all.

He didn't often lie down on the piece of furniture he was on. Usually he sat like a normal person would. He had seen others in here during sessions after all, and they all sat like he did.

Today he actually had something he did want to talk about instead of getting her to ask random questions to get him to start talking. And it was something new, unfamiliar and beginning to annoy him.

"Doctor Linda... What does friendship feel like?"

She blinked at him from her seat across the coffee table and frowned.

"Friendship? Well, I guess you could call it a feeling like you are happy or content while in the vicinity of someone you like."

"Yes, I get that, which is odd in itself, but I do get it. No, I mean, what if you feel friendship towards someone and they don't back?"

Linda stared at him with a tiny frown on her face. She usually tried to keep her own feelings out of sessions. Had he done or said something wrong or weird? He seriously needed to learn things like this.

"Lucifer, are you talking about detective Decker?" she asked him and he frowned back at her.

"Umm, yes. I tend to really get on her nerves I think, but I don't know what I am supposed to do to get her to like me back!"

Linda closed her eyes and sighed. "You can't push someone into liking you, Lucifer. If anything, that will backfire in your face and push her away from you. The advice I can give you right now is to be yourself and hope she gets to like you as you. Don't pretend to be someone or something you're not. And, just to make this really clear, don't push her if she decides she doesn't like you. Back off. It might also help if you stop soliciting her for sex."

That all sounded like good advice except for one, tiny little thing. "But...how do I know if she likes me or not if she won't sleep with me?"

Linda rubbed at her face, after taking off her glasses. "Lucifer, friendship isn't about sex. It is about company you like and feel comfortable in. If she doesn't want to have sex with you, that doesn't mean she doesn't like you. It just means she doesn't want to have sex with you. That's it. Move on."

Sitting up on the couch, his frown deepened. "I don't really know how else to show that I like someone. What do I do instead?"

Linda tilted her head to one side, in a gesture he had come to believe was her thinking about how to answer something. Good, she was going to give him good advice.

"Well, have you tried just talking with her about non sexual things? You could go to her house and get to know her and her child and husband better."

Lucifer grimaced at that. "Detective Douche? Those two are separated. I don't know why, but they are. And I tried going to her house once. She got mad at me for making her omelettes for breakfast."

Linda blinked at him. "Really? Did you ask her if she had already had breakfast? Or even if she likes omelettes in the first place?"

Lucifer shrank into the couch. "No, I didn't. I will inform her next time and ask those questions. Thank you for the advice Doctor. I feel kind of silly for not thinking of it before."

Linda smiled at him and nodded. "You're welcome. And I am glad that you came to me when you realised you needed help to understand the situation. I hope it helps."

He nodded and grinned back. "Well, it all sounds good right now, except for the whole no sex thing, but I can live with that."

Linda nodded wisely at him and smoothed out her skirt, before looking at her watch. "Are you leaving now, or is there anything else you wanted to discuss? You still have 15 minutes of session time."

He shook his head and stood u. "No, I'm good now. So! Next week then?"

Linda smiled at him again, moving her gaze up and down his body. "Yes, next week."

"Lovely," he replied before walking out of the office.

He would give her the payment offered at her house later on that evening.