"Ask your mother," he'd replied.

"Why?" Trixie wanted to know.

"Mothers should almost always decide who gets to be their child's dad. It doesn't always work out that way… but they should."

Trixie didn't look convinced, but she nodded, and two pairs of eyes turned to Chloe. Not really knowing who she was talking to, she stammered out:

"If – if that's what you want, I – I'd like that."

The two pairs of eyes looked at each other, and two heads gave small but significant nods at each other. Trixie settled in again and chose to pursue an entirely different line of questioning now.

"Are you going to live with us?"

"I already am living with you, mostly," he edged, thinking of the way so many of their things had made it to the other's apartment.

"Not all the time though. Could we get a house?"

"Your mother and I will discuss it," he groaned internally. It had been all of 10 seconds and he was already sounding like a father.

"Can I have my own room at the penthouse?"

"The penthouse wasn't really designed for children," he pointed out, "and I'm hardly ever there anyway, but I suppose you could have one of the guest bedrooms."

"With my own hot tub?"

"Why don't we start with a regular tub and see how it goes?"

Her face took on the calculating look that he often saw in her mother when she was trying to decide how to approach a suspect.

"Chocolate cake every night?"

"As long as you eat a balanced meal first."

"Can we go camping?"

"Tent or RV?"

"Tent."

"I suppose we can do it once or twice a year, in the summer, but I refuse to be without warm running water longer than 36 hours."

"3 days."

"48 hours tops, and only if there's wifi."

Trixie nodded, her smile letting him see she'd already found the loophole.

"Sleepovers?"

"Not at the penthouse." He spat out urgently. "But if you must have them, we can arrange for a nice big suite, or perhaps a luxury tree house at the new place. Would that work?"

They started negotiating the details of this house that Lucifer was supposed to be discussing with Chloe later, and she decided to be amused rather than irritated at the way those two had just taken over her life. She was outnumbered, and disinclined to fight it, at least for the moment. Ella leaned over, momentarily distracting her from the negotiations.

"Does this mean you guys are going to get married?"

"I don't think so," she said through her smile. "At least not in the near future."

"But it sounds like maybe you'll be moving soon, at least."

Chloe sighed, and entered negotiations of her own.

"I hear you have brothers. How many pizzas is it going to take to get some help with that?"

oOo

All negotiations had been concluded, dessert had been dealt with, and there had been some sitting under the stars, watching the colts, before it was time for Trixie to go to bed. It was decided that Lucifer would read her a story, much to his awkward surprise, and he went, a resigned look on his face indicating that these were the truly daunting challenges of parenthood, but he would face them as willingly as he had faced certain death in the past. Trixie led the way, and as they walked into the house, a new negotiation began.

"I already call daddy daddy. So do you want to be dad?"

"O, I think we can do better than that, spawn. How about sire?"

"I don't know what that even is. Pops?"

"What are you, 60? Absolutely not."

"Papa?"