[ He arrives at Lux early, before the nightclub has even officially opened, but they let him in anyway, because they know him, because Lucifer's vouched for him and because, this evening, he's made the trip in vain and someone's probably bound to think that's a right bummer.
Elio stops somewhere off the dance floor and stares at the spot where the piano usually stands proud, finding what looks more like a piece of broken furniture, chopped wood, kindle. It's too broken to really qualify as a piano any longer, the lid smashed and pieces hanging loosely off the case. As a pianist, it's almost physically hurtful to see the kind of damage the poor instrument has suffered - at the same time, all Elio can suddenly think is, is Lucifer okay? He thinks about his mother, headed for another dimension, how he'd felt it necessary to kill his brother. What does a smashed piano mean in a family like that? You have to wonder, so Elio does.
Turning his head, looking for someone to ask for - anything really, one of the bartenders passes him by and pushes a colorful drink into his hand, complete with umbrellas and no doubt an awfully high alcohol percentage. Elio frowns, thinks about drinking it, since he won't need to coordinate his fingers tonight anyway.
Still, he walks over to the nearest table and puts the drink down, searching the floor with his gaze, the stairs, the well-known route to the elevator and Lucifer's penthouse on top of everything. ]
[ The soreness in his back from landing on and then, consequently, crashing a piano is long gone but despite that, Lucifer's movements are borderline frantic while he gets himself together upstairs, grabbing his keys and taking the elevator down to the bar. He thinks about Linda. About Chloe.
Mum has officially lost it.
Rushing down the stairs as soon as the doors part, he almost manages to pass right by Elio who's sitting by the bar, enjoying Sex on the Beach which is honestly better in practice but you know, he gets it. He's broken up about the piano too. It's been a center piece in here for quite some time. If a colourful drink cheers you up in the face of such mindless destruction, he's certainly not one to judge.
He's just about to head out, maybe with a wink and a wave, then decides against it. Half a minute. He can spare him half a minute. Heading up there, he points towards the piano and shakes his head despairingly. His voice, when he speaks, is thinner than usual. Out of breath. ]
Yes, sorry about that! I'll have it replaced sometime next week, though, don't worry.
[ Lucifer more or less flies by, with or without wings, and Elio is spared only a glimpse of him, thinking he's in a hurry, he doesn't have time, when the other man stops in his own tracks anyway and turns towards him. Crossing the distance between them, he points to the piano and looks less flustered than he sounds. His voice was always a give-away in terms of what's actually going on underneath.
Don't worry, he says and Elio shakes his head, abandoning the Sex on the Beach to turn towards him fully. ]
It's not the piano I'm worried about.
[ It's a very straight-forward, honest answer, because the Devil is filthy rich and has Elio staying at some extra luxury penthouse he owns, besides his own home and who knows how many others around LA, around the world. Getting a new piano will be the least of his problems, obviously. Stepping closer to him, placing a hand softly on his upper arm, feeling the frantic energy going off him like a wave, Elio adds: ]
[ He jumps slightly as Elio puts his hand against his upper arm, the nervous energy in his body doing a sort of wild twist beneath his skin. He runs his other hand through his hair lightly, just fixing up a few strands because obviously, she must've ruined at least aspects of his hair-do when she decided to toss him like a bloody frisbee. ]
Completely.
[ He brushes a few wrinkles out of his shirt. ]
My Mum had a tantrum - well, she's still having it, I suppose - and threw me across the room. I thought it was quite rude of her, but then again...
[ He huffs out a laugh, wriggling his wrist a little. Checks the time, just to get himself re-focused and realises that in this particular situation, he is actually perpetually late. Ah, but he'd love to procrastinate a bit here - how's he even going to pull this off? She'll listen to you said Amenadiel which is hilarious, considering he said it right after she'd sent them both soaring. ]
[ Elio stares at him and lets his hand fall. He watches his frantic movements, fixing his hair, fixing his shirt, checking the time and he can tell that just the fact Lucifer is still here, that he hasn't already run off to do who knows what, speaks in Elio's favor. It makes his stomach feel slightly warm and fuzzy, something which counters the freezing sensation of a true panic overtaking the rest of his body.
Because Lucifer's family is absolutely fucked. As in, insane. Elio rarely swears, but sometimes you got to say it like it is, no prettification. Throwing your children around - one thing's the piano, another's the implications. Just because they can physically take it, doesn't make them immune to those. I'm not above hurting you. You'd think Lucifer had had enough of that treatment from one parent already, right? Flying and falling.
This, coming from a deity who should be above everything? ]
It shouldn't be either. [ Elio purses his lips and cocks his head a little. It shouldn't be the piano and it shouldn't be the plague. ] Do you need help? I'm expecting the answer to be no, there's nothing you can do, Elio, but in case there is, I'm offering.
[ He looks at Elio in surprise for a moment, holding back a harsh How could you possibly be of any use to me? because, well, he beat him to it, didn't he, and also...
He really is a curious cookie, this man.
With a head-tilt, he finally smiles, very slightly, and gives his shoulder a small squeeze. Keeps his hand there for a moment, feeling that wiry strength underneath, not like his, not at all. All the things that set them apart seem to be the ones that bind them together, too. Elio, who thinks that it shouldn't be either, who listens without asking for much of anything in return, who Lucifer can't read with his mojo, who'd probably feel horrible speaking his desires out loud even if he could. ]
Thank you, darling.
[ He steps away. Releases him, fingertips brushing past his elbow. ]
[ And just like that, with a squeeze of his shoulder, Lucifer's moving on - into a world where his mother throws him around and his father throws him from the sky and who does Lucifer throw, is the question. Who gets thrown by Lucifer, in turn? His touch leaves a heat in his skin and Elio looks from his shoulder to the disappearing contour of the other man's back, headed out. Have another drink, if you want and Elio doesn't want, he wants something else, something else entirely and he still can't quite put it into words. He thinks about his dreams, the two he's had about Lucifer, head on his shoulder, head on his chest, always head somewhere he can feel his body, hard and firm and strong and gentle. At the same time.
A deep breath, all the way into his lungs and Elio glances over at the piano again before exhaling. Deities work not in mysterious ways, but in too-human ones, think the Greek pantheon, think the Egyptian one or any other around the globe. He thinks there was probably one thing he could've done, Elio.
He knows the human ways, after all.
As such, he reaches for his Sex on the Beach and downs it in one, thinking he needs a fun bike ride home if nothing else. ]
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no subject
Elio stops somewhere off the dance floor and stares at the spot where the piano usually stands proud, finding what looks more like a piece of broken furniture, chopped wood, kindle. It's too broken to really qualify as a piano any longer, the lid smashed and pieces hanging loosely off the case. As a pianist, it's almost physically hurtful to see the kind of damage the poor instrument has suffered - at the same time, all Elio can suddenly think is, is Lucifer okay? He thinks about his mother, headed for another dimension, how he'd felt it necessary to kill his brother. What does a smashed piano mean in a family like that? You have to wonder, so Elio does.
Turning his head, looking for someone to ask for - anything really, one of the bartenders passes him by and pushes a colorful drink into his hand, complete with umbrellas and no doubt an awfully high alcohol percentage. Elio frowns, thinks about drinking it, since he won't need to coordinate his fingers tonight anyway.
Still, he walks over to the nearest table and puts the drink down, searching the floor with his gaze, the stairs, the well-known route to the elevator and Lucifer's penthouse on top of everything. ]
no subject
Mum has officially lost it.
Rushing down the stairs as soon as the doors part, he almost manages to pass right by Elio who's sitting by the bar, enjoying Sex on the Beach which is honestly better in practice but you know, he gets it. He's broken up about the piano too. It's been a center piece in here for quite some time. If a colourful drink cheers you up in the face of such mindless destruction, he's certainly not one to judge.
He's just about to head out, maybe with a wink and a wave, then decides against it. Half a minute. He can spare him half a minute. Heading up there, he points towards the piano and shakes his head despairingly. His voice, when he speaks, is thinner than usual. Out of breath. ]
Yes, sorry about that! I'll have it replaced sometime next week, though, don't worry.
no subject
Don't worry, he says and Elio shakes his head, abandoning the Sex on the Beach to turn towards him fully. ]
It's not the piano I'm worried about.
[ It's a very straight-forward, honest answer, because the Devil is filthy rich and has Elio staying at some extra luxury penthouse he owns, besides his own home and who knows how many others around LA, around the world. Getting a new piano will be the least of his problems, obviously. Stepping closer to him, placing a hand softly on his upper arm, feeling the frantic energy going off him like a wave, Elio adds: ]
Are you okay?
no subject
Completely.
[ He brushes a few wrinkles out of his shirt. ]
My Mum had a tantrum - well, she's still having it, I suppose - and threw me across the room. I thought it was quite rude of her, but then again...
[ He huffs out a laugh, wriggling his wrist a little. Checks the time, just to get himself re-focused and realises that in this particular situation, he is actually perpetually late. Ah, but he'd love to procrastinate a bit here - how's he even going to pull this off? She'll listen to you said Amenadiel which is hilarious, considering he said it right after she'd sent them both soaring. ]
It could've been another plague.
no subject
Because Lucifer's family is absolutely fucked. As in, insane. Elio rarely swears, but sometimes you got to say it like it is, no prettification. Throwing your children around - one thing's the piano, another's the implications. Just because they can physically take it, doesn't make them immune to those. I'm not above hurting you. You'd think Lucifer had had enough of that treatment from one parent already, right? Flying and falling.
This, coming from a deity who should be above everything? ]
It shouldn't be either. [ Elio purses his lips and cocks his head a little. It shouldn't be the piano and it shouldn't be the plague. ] Do you need help? I'm expecting the answer to be no, there's nothing you can do, Elio, but in case there is, I'm offering.
no subject
He really is a curious cookie, this man.
With a head-tilt, he finally smiles, very slightly, and gives his shoulder a small squeeze. Keeps his hand there for a moment, feeling that wiry strength underneath, not like his, not at all. All the things that set them apart seem to be the ones that bind them together, too. Elio, who thinks that it shouldn't be either, who listens without asking for much of anything in return, who Lucifer can't read with his mojo, who'd probably feel horrible speaking his desires out loud even if he could. ]
Thank you, darling.
[ He steps away. Releases him, fingertips brushing past his elbow. ]
Have another drink, if you want.
[ With that, he turns away. ]
no subject
A deep breath, all the way into his lungs and Elio glances over at the piano again before exhaling. Deities work not in mysterious ways, but in too-human ones, think the Greek pantheon, think the Egyptian one or any other around the globe. He thinks there was probably one thing he could've done, Elio.
He knows the human ways, after all.
As such, he reaches for his Sex on the Beach and downs it in one, thinking he needs a fun bike ride home if nothing else. ]