Standing Together

Chapter 136

Ding dong!

Alex giggles. "Bell!"

"Who do you think it is?" Claire asks.

Alex just looks at her.

"Do you think it's Daddy?"

"No!" Alex says confidently. "Daddy here!" She looks around, but Lucifer had already disappeared to get the door, so she can't find him. That doesn't seem to bother her.

"Do you think it's Uncle Castiel?"

"No!" Alex repeats, pointing at Castiel to prove her point.

"Do you think it's Uncle Dean?"

Alex tilts her head to the side slightly, confused.

Dean nudges Castiel gently and whispers, "Ouch."

"Uncle Dean!" Claire repeats. "You know Uncle Dean!"

"No."

"Yes, you do, silly!" Claire points at Dean. "He's right there!"

Dean gives her a half assed wave.

"Oh."

Dean rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, looking annoyed.

Castiel can't help but laugh, but he does offer Dean the slight consolation of, "She'll remember you one day."

"At this rate, I'm starting to doubt it," Dean says. "How does she remember you? You have the weirdest name ever. Mine is literally one syllable. This isn't fair."

"Life isn't fair," Castiel says with a shrug.

Lucifer walks into the room, holding Peanut the pug in his arms. Peanut licks his face, his short, stubby tail wagging quickly.

"I changed my mind," Lucifer announces. "No new video. Just puppy kisses."

"Can I at least have some puppy kisses?" Castiel asks.

"No," Lucifer says immediately. "My puppy."

"Kitty?" Alex walks towards him, looking around for the cat.

"Don't worry, Kelly brought kitty," Lucifer says. "She's just letting him out of the cage so he been come love you."

As if on cue, Jack and Kelly walk into the room, and Lord Tyrion slowly stalks after them.

Alex gasps, throwing her hands up. "Kitty!" She runs to the cat and runs her hands roughly through his fur. Lord Tyrion looks up at her, then lies down at her feet.

"Awww," Kelly coos. "A match made in heaven."

"Kitty," Alex says, giggling.

"I'm gonna sneeze," Dean mutters, pinching his nose. "I think I'm dying."

"Good," Lucifer says teasingly.

"If there aren't children present..." Dean holds up a fist, his middle finger slightly raised.

"And that's our cue to leave," Lucifer says. "Come hither, my disciples. Let me make you famous."

"Dada?"

"Hmm?" Lucifer hums.

Alex sits down on the floor and puts her head down on Lord Tyrion's back. "Kitty."

Lord Tyrion stretches himself out, resting his paw on Alex's hand.

Lucifer smiles at the sight. "Yeah, kitty."

~~

"Aw, good pupper!" Lucifer coos. "Are you enjoying your walky? Huh?"

Peanut stops and sniffs the grass, as he has every ten feet for the last 20 minutes.

"You know," Dean says, "had you not brought the dog, we could've already been home and set up by now."

"Don't talk about my son like that," Lucifer says immediately. He kneels down next to Peanut and scratches behind his ear. "It's okay, buddy. Don't listen to that meanie."

Peanut stops sniffing the grass and half-sits, hovering over the ground to poop. Lucifer stands up, pursing his lips.

"You know," Lucifer remarks, "I wasn't prepared for this when I decided to take him with us "

"Don't worry, I got it," Jack says, pulling out a roll of poop bags from his pocket. He rips one off and opens it, putting his hand inside.

"I'm so confused," Lucifer says. "How does the poop get in the bag? Because I'm pretty sure your hand isn't the dog poop."

Jack chuckles. "No, see, you use the bag as a glove to pick it up with..." Jack crouched down and picks up the dog poop, the poop bag keeping it away from his skin. "Then you basically flip the bag inside out." He does just that, taking the edges off his hand and capturing the poop inside. "And then you tie it and hold it away from you so you don't have to smell it."

"Dude, that's so productive," Lucifer says, amazed. "Whoever invented that deserves a Nobel Prize."

"You act like it's some revolutionary discovery," Jack says with a laugh.

"It is!" Lucifer insists. "You don't even need, like, a shovel!"

"Why would you need a shovel?"

"To pick up the poop!"

"What?"

"To be fair," Castiel says, "that is how cat litter boxes work. You've got the poop spoon thing."

"Poop spoon," Lucifer repeats with a childish giggle. "Pooper scooper."

"Oh my god, Lucifer," Dean groans. "You're literally five."

"Damn right I am."

~~

"Can I walk your dog everyday?" Lucifer asks.

"If you want to commute to LA every day, then sure," Jack jokes. "And I hope you have a passport, because you might have to come to the UK or Australia or somewhere like that."

"You know, had you said that a few years ago, I low-key might have moved to California," Lucifer says.

"Just to walk Peanut?" Jack says incredulously.

"I just really love your dog."

"If you ever want to come out and visit him, let me know," Jack says. "I would say just come over whenever you want, but it would be awkward if you came and I was halfway across the world."

"I think you should leave him here every time you travel," Lucifer says, and though he has a joking toke in his voice, he's probably not joking.

"I'd never see him again at that rate," Jack says with a laugh.

"Which means I'd always see him." Lucifer gives an evil laugh.

"Oh, god no," Dean says. "I don't know how the dog would survive that."

A/N putting this as a PSA on all my fics: my computer's broken so it's currently an old af laptop with a black screen hooked up to a separate old af monitor and i have to type on my laptop and look at the monitor thats next to it (which took about a month to figure out because technically the screen of my laptop is on because it's a lighter black than being off so i had no idea it was the screen that was the problem but whatever it works now) so it's kind of a pain in the ass to use (more so than usual) so updating stuff is a lot of work is basically the moral of the story but im working on it!