"i'd never sing of love if it does not exit. but darling, you're the only exception"

paramore — "the only exception"

"Who pulled the trigger?"

"Damian."

"Colin and I tackled him and managed to take the gun out of his hand, but..."

It's all a blur. My eyes are covered in tears while my hands don't know what to do first, put pressure on Lucifer's wound or grab his cheeks while begging him to keep his eyes open.

"He wasn't going after Lucifer. The surprise of him stepping in front of her gave us the opportunity to catch him."

"You! It was supposed to be you!" A distant yell sounds over the crazy crowd. "You! Not him! You!"

"Damian, with a gun? What has this turned into?"

"I can't... this is insane!"

My mind goes a thousand miles per hour. Lucifer's chest slows down as his eyelids give up on him, even if he's trying his hardest to not close them and have them on me.

"Are they gonna tell us anything?!"

"How much more are they gonna make us wait?!"

"Hello?! Doctor?!"

"Guys, calm down, we know that the bullet didn't entered his body. That's good. We need to stay focus for him, in case they need anything."

"There was so much blood..."

"Hey, hey, come here."

"Fuck! If I see Damian— I swear..."

"It's gonna be alright."

My heart is gonna jump out of my chest. I get up just as a faded image of Covaliov lifting Lucifer's body becomes a scene in front of me.

My bloody hands shake. The air coming in and out of my mouth becomes unbearable, almost to the point of feeling like it's not the enough and my lungs will go weak on me.

"Damian's being questioned, one thing we got on our side."

"If there's no actually proof he was the one who pulled the trigger, they're not gonna do anything to him. There's still three other guys that were carrying guns there."

"It was him, I'm sure of it."

"Alexander and his plans... meanwhile, he's on the run with no consequences at all."

"Daddy must be covering for him... prick."

My mouth feels like it's is open but no noise is coming out of it. I can't tell. Tears and tears drop down my cheeks, my heart hurts from beating as fast as it does and my throat enables me to breathe properly.

"Do you think the jury is gonna talk?"

"They have no other choice. I've heard they are gonna meet up after what happened, don't know what could be the outcome of it though."

"Alexander must be waiting for his dad to get him out of this. Come back and carry on like nothing has happened."

Slowly, my eyes follow how Lucifer's body gets further and further away. Someone grabs my arm and pushes me with them. My hand tries to grab his, hoping to feel his fingers wrap around mine... he doesn't respond to it.

"Lilith?"

Everything inside of me breaks into a million pieces. My knees fail me for a second, but the same hands from before prevent me from falling.

I want to scream as loud as I can, but my throat doesn't let me.

"We need to do something, we can't just stand there doing nothing."

"This is all we can do for now."

Lucifer's body hurts my eyes and chest. When they put him inside a car and close the door, it's like a hurricane of water just washed over my entire life, and my eyes slowly see it all become nothing.

"Lilith?"

A part of me wants to run after the car leaving me behind, but my feet don't allow me to. My knees don't work and my legs don't feel like legs anymore.

My bloody hands rushes all the fear in my veins towards my head.

"We can go to the police station and convince the officers that Damian did it, you have the proof of your own eyes, Colin."

"Trust the police? No, thank you."

"Lilith?"

This is just a nightmare. I'm gonna wake up now. This isn't real. Please, wake up and let me see the comfort of my old room around me.

"Then what? I feel like an idiot. And the wait isn't helping me."

"Where's coach?"

"Probably calling Lucifer's mom."

"Is he—"

"No, motorcycle accident."

"Oh."

"Lilith?"

But I don't wake up. Lucifer's bloody stomach was real. His eyes drifting away from mine wasn't my imagination. His hands losing their strength. His smile disappearing. His eyes losing its shine. It all happened in front of my own.

Lucifer took a bullet for me.

"Is she alright?"

"I don't know..."

"Lilith?"

A hand brushes against mine brusquely moves my head to where it came from. "What?" My mouth spits out in surprise.

Finding Ada by the seat next to mine, the worry in her eyes steals a little breath out of my mouth. Soon, Colin, Ryker, Bobby, Paul, Griffin and Ivy, they all sit down on the floor in front of me.

"Do you want me to clean your hands?" Ada's soft question leads my eyes down to my hands. They're still bloody from touching Lucifer's wound.

My eyes shift away from it as fast as they can. "Sure."

A tattooed hand caresses my knee in slow motion. Leading my eyes to see the owner of this hand, I find Ivy trying her hardest to give me a hopeful smile. "He's gonna be alright."

I nod, lying to myself that my brain believes that statement.

"Doctor." Colin's voice as he soon gets up, leads my attention to the tall man with a white rob coming out of the room in front of us.

He's looking down to the papers between his hands, and soon, when the entire group corners him, he's obligated to stare up.

I slowly follow them and stand behind everyone, my brain is becoming slower and slower at giving my body commands to do.

"Mr. Donovan's family?" The doctor asks.

"We're his friends."

"Sorry, unless you're his family, a guardian, I can't tell you anything about the state of Mr. Donovan."

I can feel my heart dropping to my stomach for a second.

"What?!"

"At least tells us that he's fine or something!"

"Is he gonna be alright?!"

"Doctor!"

"Please, it's a protocol—"

"Fuck the protocol!"

When my arms get the need to cross around my chest to hug myself and try to erase the anxious feeling slowly starting to grow on me again, Covaliov brusquely appears behind the doctor and gains the attention of everyone. "I'm here. I'm his guardian."

The doctor doesn't look very convinced, he gives the group a look and then gives us a sigh, giving up. "Luckily the bullet didn't hit him, just the side of his stomach. But, he did lost a lot of blood. Mr. Donovan is in bed right now resting, he'll need to stay here until tomorrow morning so we can check if everything continues to be alright. After that, with care, he can go home and stay there with a full week of check ups."

... continues to be alright. He's alright. Lucifer's alright.

There's no words that could describe this feeling. It's a mix of relief, sadness, happiness, all at the same time. It's like when you're putting a puzzle together and realise that you're missing a piece, you look for it like your life depends on it, you find it and happy put it where it goes. But then, you realise that another part is missing and you're far from over.

"Thank you, doctor."

Ada grabs my arm tightly with a smile on her face. "He's fine."

I nod, finally being able to process it and let my happy chest be fine for a bit, ignore everything else that it's left to fix. "He's fine."

The sudden urge to go inside and look at him rushes over me when my eyes locate themselves on the door. That white door where Lucifer's on the other side, resting and wounded. But the fear of looking at him like that, in pain and reliving the memories at the gym... stops me from even moving a step closer to it.

"Mr. Donovan called out a name before falling asleep." The Doctor saying with a soft tone grabs my attention. He's not being corned by the group anymore, instead, they all are still celebrating and hugging each other in relief when they turn to face him.

"Who?" I hear Paul ask by the side of Griffin's happy body.

"A woman named Lilith. Whoever that is, can go inside."

Hearing my name coming out of the Doctor's mouth enables me to move for a second, surprised. My eyes go a bit wide and my stomach tingles... Lucifer called for me.

"Go." Covaliov's voice brings my attention towards him. He gives my shoulder a gently pat.

"He's asleep." The side that's still surprised of me replies.

"Then be the first thing he sees when he wakes up. I'm sure he'd love that."

Be the first thing he sees. Got it.

Okay. Open the door now. Why is my hand not reacting? Just open the door, no big deal... I'm looking at the door like an idiot now, please, move.

"It'll be alright." Ada reassures me.

Alright. Colin and Griffin Both smile at me while Bobby gives me a thumbs up. Ivy waving with her hands to make me go inside the room and Ryker with an encouraging smile somehow manages to give me the strength that it takes for my hand to finally grab the handle and open the door of the cold room Lucifer's in.

The usually smell that hospitals have rushes to my nose just as the chilling effect every room with all white furniture and grey walls have surrounds my skin. Creepy as hell. A bunch of machines that I don't truly know what they do are all over the room, they're all turned off as if no one was in the room, but it isn't empty, when my eyes lead to the middle of it where a bed is my chest goes tense at what my eyes are seeing.

Lucifer lays there with his bare chest and covered stomach in bandages. His eyes are closed while he breaths slowly and calmly, confirming what the doctor said about him being asleep. Half of his body is under the white sheets, his left hand rests on top of his stomach while the other is slightly off the bed. If he moves a bit to the side, it's gonna fall and then lead to him waking up with a sore pain in his upper arm. I can't erase the pain on the side of his stomach, but I can prevent him from having any other sort of pain. If that helps.

Slowly walking closer to him and arriving by the right side of his bed, with gentle hands, I grab his to leave it more closer to his body. Even if he's half naked and in a cold room that sends chills down my skin, Lucifer manages to still be warm. Soft.

He's hand is safe now, so, happy with it, my left foot takes a step back when as quick as my eyes were able to catch it, the hand that was fixed a second ago swings to the back of my waist and pulls me towards the bed, ending right on the edge of Lucifer's now smirking lips.

"Can't keep your hands off of me, Avery?" Lucifer's raspy tone allows for my ears to tingle and need to hear hear it again.

"I wanted to grab your hand and slap you with it. Lucky you are that you woke up and prevented me from doing it."

Lucifer chuckles, caressing my cheek with his thumb. "I wasn't sleeping."

"The doctor said—"

"I faked it." He cuts me off. "I knew that they weren't gonna leave me alone so I pretended to fall asleep. Knew that at some point, you'd realise you can't live without me and walk in."

I roll my eyes even if inside of me a huge smile fights to come out because of his cockiness. "Or just wanted to annoy you."

"That does sounds more like you, love."

The caress of his skin against mine makes me want to stay there forever. Feel his warmth and mix it with mine, my relaxing heart beating like it's supposed to and not like a crazy bomb wanting to jump out of my body.

Still, there's a million of questions that fly around in my head. What now? What does this mean, us? Is there an us now? My mouth wants to ask them, receive an answer from Lucifer since he looks like he knows things from this department better than I do. But they all seem like stupid questions since there's something bigger to answer and fix.

Damian and Alexander aren't over yet. We're still in deep shit.

I bring myself closer to Lucifer's lips, letting a long sigh be the result of the mess that is always my mind when it comes to this. "I hate you." I say. "I hate that you make me care about you. When you fell to the ground—"

"Hey, hey," Lucifer stops me with his soft and caring tone "I'm alright. I'm ok."

"You better be..." with the palm of my hand I slightly slap his bare chest "asshole."

As Lucifer chuckles, the smirk that he does when he's about to say something cocky appears on the side of his lips. "It took me taking a bullet for you to make you realise that you care about me?" Suddenly, with a quick shift, his stare goes serious. "I would've done it sooner."

The deep meaning behind his words prevents my heart from continuing properly. It comes back with a bang and jumps down to my stomach joining in to the hundreds of butterflies running around wildly.

The more he stares at me, the easiest it gets to catch the shine in his eyes. Lucifer doesn't look for even a second, growing the wonder of what's he thinking. "Ghosh, you're so fucking beautiful, Avery."

His next words don't help my insides on acting like a normal human being.

Still, the tiniest part that allows me to not seem like at any moment the corniest smile is gonna come out of me, helps me let out a smirk and slowly nod. "I know."

"I think your beautiful face just brushed all the pain away." Lucifer tries to sit up on the bed but fails miserably when it seems like the pain in the side of his stomach prevents him as his hands grabs it. A grunt comes out of his mouth while his eyebrows furrow. "Yep, it's all gone." He adds sarcastically as his head goes back to the pillow.

"Stay in the bed. The doctor will come back soon."

When I try to take a step backwards, Lucifer doesn't let go of my cheek. "Then I better get this out of the way."

I don't have time to reply, Lucifer joins our lips together in a gentle kiss. His lips are as warm as his body without losing the softness in them. I don't taste the blood from his wounds like last time, instead, a bit of cherry probably from a mint he ate surrounds the tip of his mouth.

He finishes the kiss to then give me another one as quick as the one before, not giving me the chance to take a breath in.

"Fuck." His whisper sends chills down my back. "Somehow it always gets better with you."

I lift an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Never misses."

"Kiss me again, you should check it one more time." Where are these words coming from, no idea, my body isn't feeling cocky.

Lucifer tilts his head back with a big smile. "I knew you couldn't keep your hands off of me, Avery."

When Lucifer and I try to kiss each other again, the sound of the door opening with a loud swing makes us both step away startled. "My boy!"

Lucifer doesn't let go of my hand when my body turns to see the woman that just walked into the room. It doesn't take me much to recognise her, with her long straight hair reaching her stomach, her big cherry lips, jawline that could break bricks with it and sweet yet sharp dark eyes, Emeral, Lucifer's mother, walks with determined steps towards the bed.

"Mom?" I hear Lucifer asks surprised that his mother is here. As far as I remember, she doesn't know about Lucifer and his participation in illegal boxing.

"How are you? That damn motorcycle!" Her worried stare at her son in the bed doesn't make her acknowledge my presence in the room. And the fact that Lucifer still doesn't let go of my hand.

"It wasn't the motorcycle, I was distracted." Lucifer tries to lose the worry in his mother's eyes. But, like all mothers do, worry about the tiniest thing in the world.

"Where's the doctor?" Emeral walks to the door. "I need to talk to the doctor." She brusquely turns around and walks back. "You need water? A more comfy pillow? Tea? Coffee?"

Lucifer chuckles. "Would "everything" be a crazy answer?"

Emeral goes back to the door. "Everything it is!" She stops, turns to face the bed again. But her eyes aren't on her son, instead, they're on me. "Lilith?" Walking back again, she holds both of my cheeks with a happy smile on her face. "Oh, thank you darling for being here, we appreciate it."

"No problem at all." I give Lucifer a quick look, finding that he's trying to hide the smile. "Someone as stubborn as me needed to be here so Lucifer doesn't think of getting out of bed."

"Damn right!" Emeral leaves my side and then points at Lucifer. "You listen to her."

Lucifer smirks. "My pleasure."

As Emeral walks to the opposite side of the bed from where I am, my eyes can't help but look at Lucifer's hand wrapped around mine. He doesn't look like he's gonna let me go anytime soon, and for the way that my fingers don't argue between each other, uncomfortable, they stay still enjoying the warmth it seems like they're not gonna let him go either.

"Your sisters will go to your apartment tomorrow when you get there to check on you." Emeral's nerves shows on her words. Her way of acting reminds me of mom when she had to take Teddy to the hospital. Can't imagine what's it like to go through something like this with a child. Simply terrible. "Water? Coffee? Tea?" Emeral asks again.

When Lucifer grabs his mom's hand and gives her a sweet smile, I catch a long breath coming out of her mouth, letting of all the nerves annoying her. "Mom, I'm fine."

Finally, something shifts, her eyes do a slow look to Lucifer's body laying on the bed giving her a look of relief. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

"I promise to keep my scares on the level of hiding behind the door."

A chuckle escapes me. I do love to scare my mom by hiding behind the door. Her shook eyes go wide open while she lets out the most funniest noise ever from her mouth—

"Oh... I see..." Emeral's slow tone shifts my attention to her. Finding a little smile on the corner of her lips and her eyes locked down to something besides the bed, my brain takes a second to realise what she's watching. "I better leave you two alone, then."

Oh, fuck. She saw our hands. My stomach soon fills itself with butterflies once again as my lips can't fight it in, the smile jumps out soon being erased by my lips pressing with strength against each other.

"Lilith?" Ada's voice sounds from the door. I look at her and the phone in her hand.  "It's your mom."

Shit. "Be right back." I say calmly, even if inside my whole brain is debating if I should say where I am to my mother or not.

"I had to tell her you were at the hospital." Ada says when I arrive in front of her.

My whole brain gives up, the accurate representation of it would be like when at the office everyone drops the papers to the ground frustrated that something they worked hard for isn't worth it anymore.

"Ada!"

"She took it out of me! I don't know how but I ended up saying it! I'm sorry!"

Yep. Sounds like my mother. I give Ada a smile since there's no doubt in me that's truly what happened. Her victims go on and on.

Grabbing the phone from her hand, I soon take it to my ear, walk outside of the room and towards the end of the hallway. The longest breath my mouth shakes out gives me the strength to start the conversation with my possible extremely worried mother.

"Mom?"

"Lilith? Are you alright? Is Lucifer alright?" Her worried questions remind me of Emeral a minute ago.

"Yes, yes, we're all fine."

"What happened?"

If my mouth could let out the truth... it would be a lot easier. But, unless I want a freaked mother walking through the hospital's doors, keeping what truly happened as a secret seems like the best option. Doesn't it? "Just an accident with his motorcycle. He'll leave the hospital tomorrow morning."

"I'm glad he's fine, do you want me to go over there?"

"No, mom, stay with Teddy. We got this." I try to sound convincing with my words even if deep down, a part of me believes mom isn't gonna buy it.

"Are you actually alright?"

Yep. There it is. "Me? Yes, I'm fine..."

"You don't sound it, baby."

I have to let out a long breath out to relax my brain and think the words to say. Somehow, now, being honest to my mother does sound like a good idea. "It was just.. a big scare, you know? It felt like when Teddy was taken to the hospital because he couldn't breathe."

"You now have to think that Lucifer's ok, yeah? That's all you need to focus on."

Sounds easy to do when you don't have a thousand of other problems behind you. Creeping out on you like a monster behind a tree.

"I talked a bit to Ada." Mom speaks again. "Sounds to me like you care a lot about Lucifer."

First, my teeth inevitably bite my lower lip preventing from any word to escape my mouth. The realisation of actually feeling something like that towards Lucifer is bigger when it's said to me. Yes. All my actions from yesterday and tonight are the perfect examples of someone caring. The words to answer my mom don't come, it's like a part of me fights them in, for some reason. "Fuck... why is it so hard to say?"

"It's alright to feel scared, baby," mom says with her soft tone "sometimes it's not easy to admit that you like someone when it's truly real. Don't focus on the big picture, that's when you seem to freak the most. Take your time, focus on the little things that make you feel good when you're with him. How you feel safe, warm on the inside, your heart beats a bit faster... you need to hug him all the time. Kiss him. That little bit of intimacy that you can share with him and it feels lovely. Let time guide you, baby."

All of that seems easy for me to do. A piece of cake. But knowing me for 21 long years, having all the memories I have, it's more likely of me to walk away than letting time figure it out for me. "What if I freak out and I ruin everything?" I find the courage to ask my mom and get an answer.

"You won't." She sounds convinced in her words.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Lucifer will make sure of that."

Somehow, her words make me feel safe. Don't know if it is because she said Lucifer's name, but something about them makes my chest feel the same way when I turn an exam confident that I did good.

"To fall for someone," mom continues "let yourself be vulnerable like that, it takes a lot of courage. And a raised a fucking brave girl. You got this."

I smile at myself. "Thanks, mom."

My attention suddenly shifts to someone walking towards Lucifer's room. A confident walk, wide back and taller than any person around him, the strange man gets inside the room and immediately smiles like he recognises someone inside the room when the door goes closed and there's no longer something for me to see.

I stand still thinking to myself why is this guy familiar.

"Mom, talk to you later?" My eyes don't let go of the door. "I have to go."

"Love you, baby."

"Love you too."

Quickly as the wind, my phone is on my back pocket and my feet make their way closer to Lucifer's room.

"Damn..." I hear Bobby say behind me.

"Who was that?" Griffin asks.

"I've seen him before, definitely." Colin sounds confident.

"And I'm definitely gay." Paul nods when I turn to face him.

"Those cheekbones? To die for." Bobby agrees, with his eyes glued on the door.

Listening to my friends drool over this stranger increases my intrigue on who's he. My hand hesitates on grabbing the handle to get inside and listen to their conversation.

"He's the type of man that would make my ten year old self still believe she's straight." Ivy walks over to me and gently pushes my arm. "Get inside and find out who he is."

"Me?" I shake my head. "Don't know if I'm welcomed." I look around hoping to find my best friend.

"Her and Ryker went to get coffees for everyone." Ivy stops my search. "And if she'd be here, she'd tell you to go inside and stop fucking around. Go get your man or something like that."

I chuckle.

Yeah, she would.

When I turn to the door, coach is already looking at me with the door opened and a look that says he knows a part of me is dying to get inside and be a part of that conversation.

"C'mon, you should hear this." He says with a tiny smile while pointing with his head inside the room. I, of course, don't hesitate and walk inside of it followed by coach behind me.

Once the door is closed, my attention goes first to Lucifer, he's sitting on the bed with a man in front of him. They're talking about something that seems exciting, the smiles on their faces are bigger than this hospital room. I can sense some attachment between them, like they haven't seen each other in a long time and this is a little reunion.

The man is a bit taller than Lucifer, his hair is black all slit back to the back with gel. He truly has the perfect drawing smile and the kindest of eyes. His body is also fit, like Lucifer's and the way he confidently stands in his place reminds me of him too. Quickly, the memory of where I've seen him before comes back to my head. He's the guy that I saw in the old picture alongside with the file at the event, the envelope I opened (the one I wasn't supposed to). With his secure presence that surrounds the room and his kind looking face, Adam Deniov stands in front of me.

"Emily." Coach's voice brings my attention to him and soon to the girl that is walking towards me. The first thing that get my eyes is her beautiful red hair. Teddy would compare it to a Dorito colour. It's a little bit wavy that ends in the middle of her stomach. Her green mesmerising eyes and big pinkish mouth take all the sparkle, since her skin is as pale as the white sheets.

She's Emily Bow, Adam's girlfriend.

"This is Lilith Avery." Covaliov introduces me.

As soon as Emily smiles at me I can't help but smile too, like it was contagious. "Nice to meet you, I'm Emily Bow. I've heard all good things about you."

I chuckle. "They're all a lie."

"James told me you're a tough girl. No wonder he likes you as his secretary." Emily gives coach a cheeky smile, knowing that she wasn't supposed to say it and enjoying the fact that I now know this.

I turn to him finding that he's trying to fight a smile in. "Oh, coach, you're a softie after all." I tease him.

"I'm not—"

"Going around telling people you like me as your secretary?"

"Tomorrow you'll definitely tell her she's the best one you've ever hired." Emily joins my tease.

"Emily's right, I am."

"Well," coach nods "for picking up the towels of everyone you do need an award."

"Your boys are sweaty."

"A vacation to Hawaii, at least." Oh, I like Emily already. "This girl needs a break."

Covaliov shakes his head, regretting every introducing us two. "Don't give her ideas."

"The ideas are already flowing." I add. "Hawaii? In a five start hotel?"

"Or Dubai?"

"Beautiful beaches too."

Covaliov seems like he hates our conversation the more we talk. So, we proceed enjoying the entertainment.

"Why not both? A week on one and then another on the other?"

"Sexy guys giving you massages on beautiful islands?"

"Are you guys talking about me?" I hear Lucifer from behind Emily. Once she moves a bit to the side, my eyes immediately lock on his. The smile on his face shines through like I've only seen it a couple of times, careless and honest.

"Only that you suck." I joke, gaining a chuckle from him.

"Aw. You do like me, then. You're so sweet."

No words come out of me, my brain doesn't feel able to let out even a joke or a sarcastic comment. You do like me. He said, like those words aren't true. Like those words aren't flying around inside my head like a hurricane making a smile escape my mouth like a school girl talking to her crush.

"They're talking about sexy men," Adam, who's now looking at me, says with a cheeky tone "they're definitely talking about me." Walking towards us, he somehow gets even taller. "This is the famous Lilith Avery. I'm Adam Deniov."

I shake his hand. "And you're the guy my friends were drooling all over for." He lifts an eyebrow and Emily chuckles, so, I add "I'm gonna say on behalf them, it was all respectfully."

"It's nice to see the girl that has Lucifer acting all like a dumb boy in love."

In love. Now the school girl in me is kicking her feet while laying on her stomach on the bed.

I refuse to give Lucifer a look, a part of me knows it's gonna be all over if I do. "He's always been dumb." Instead, I jokingly say gaining a laugh from everyone.

"Oh, I can stand by that." Covaliov joins me.

"You guys are gonna make me blush." The sarcastic comment from Lucifer is soon followed by him trying to leave the bed. Failing, he grabs his stomach in pain. I fight the urge to go there and help him, he seems in this moment like he's too stubborn to give up or let me help him, and he is, of course, trying again, he makes coach walk towards him.

"Don't get up, boy."

"I need to pee." Finally, Lucifer manages to get up from the bed and walk to the left, where a tiny white door is. "Unless you want to hold a bottle for me."

Coach immediately shakes his head and closes his eyes, telling me that he has maybe done that before. And now, I need to hear the story of that.

"He's crazy for you." Emily's voice follows the noice is the door being closed. Turning to her, I find a little smile on the corner of her pinkish lips. "I can tell."

"The way he looks at her." Coach joins the conversation before my brain can even process what Emily said.

"When she walked into the room" Adam adds "he was talking to me but immediately shifted his attention to her. Like I didn't existed." Pretending to be offended, he gains a chuckle from Emily.

I, on my little corner of the room, can't help but smile at their words. My head looks downwards, trying my hardest to hide the obvious redness that my cheeks have seem to want to show.

"The moment Lucifer was training and she distracted him without even trying, I knew there's was no way of stopping it."

A part of me wants to say "hey, I'm here" because they seem like they're talking as if I were not in the room, obviously trying to make me blush, but the other, can't help and ask to Covaliov: "Stopping what?"

"Him falling for you."

Sometimes coming from another person's mouth makes it even more real that it already is. Lucifer Donovan falling for me, a reality. Not in a million of years I could've seen this coming. The man that hated me, that enjoyed seeing me angry and annoyed, is in love with me.

Cool, cool, cool, cool. No big deal.

"Being in this position already makes you see things even when they're difficult." Covaliov saying shifts my attention to him and the way that his eyes are glued to Emily and Adam, who are now hugging each other.

"Why can I say?" Adam gives Emily a kiss on the forehead. "I wasn't hard to fall for her."

Emily rolls her eyes, but letting a smile escape her lips. "Don't start."

"It's true! The moment I saw her, I knew that I wanted to be her boyfriend."

Once they hug again, I find myself smiling at their little cute scene. Somehow, my stomach isn't disgusted by it like it usually is when I see couples devouring each other in the street, instead, their love makes me feel warm inside.

The door of the bathroom being opened and a Lucifer joining the room again snaps me out from my thoughts. "That was harder that I expected."

Walking pass me, his eyes lock on mine. His look inevitably sends a smile to my lips even if I try not to, it's the way that his green eyes shine through but the dark stare that he somehow manages to have is a mix that comes as a tingle in me.

No one has that look.

"Well, since you're here." Adam says with an excited smile once Lucifer sits down on the bed. "We need to talk."

"Good news."

Surprised that Adam and Emily are here enabled me to truly think of the reason they are. I was told that their presence was too dangerous to have, their words have the power to take down Alexander and Damian. But here they are, with smiles on their faces that shake a little bit of hope inside my chest.

"We testified." Emily says with a soft tone. I stand still, processing what she just said.

"What?"

"Against Alexander."

Adam shifts his eyes towards me. "It was too dangerous to do it before, but with the fight between Damian and Lucifer, it was the big distraction we needed. We went to the police station this afternoon and made our statement. It's all taken care of."

No words seem to appear inside my brain. Just a feeling of relief shines through like a weight has been lifted off my shoulder making a long breath escape my mouth.

Giving coach a look, and noticing that he isn't reacting to the news like I am, surprises me. "You knew this? Before the deal you made with him?"

Covaliov nods. "Yes. I knew that no matter what, he was gonna fall. No matter who won the fight. Alexander had to think he had the upper hand before starting." His eyes shine a bit, reliving an old sad memory. "I didn't know he was gonna go this big with what he had under his sleeve in case he lost."

"I wasn't your fault." Lucifer tries to comfort his coach. But Covaliov forces a smile out.

"We're lucky nothing big happened."

I look at Lucifer too, his covered stomach tenses my chest thinking what's under that. Yes. It could've been so much worse... I can't even think about it. So, my brain occupies itself with another issue.

"What now?" I ask. "Isn't Alexander on the run?"

"I needed to make the rest believe that so no one else could get hurt." Covaliov looks at me. "That's why I didn't told you about this either. I already put your life in danger for knowing and it wasn't gonna happen again. He isn't. He's in the police station with Damian."

"Being questioned." Emily finishes for coach.

"It's over. With Adam's and Emily's statement, it's the last piece of evidence that it was left for the police to act on this case."

Being this easy doesn't feel real. It can't all just end like this, a part of me begs for me to believe it, but the other just can't. Nothing in this world has been this easy. "Doesn't Alexander's father have the power to do something about this? Prevent it?"

Coach shakes his head. "If he does, his entire organisation goes to jail. Him included. Known him for enough time to know, he'll rather let his own son go to jail than compromise everything he has worked hard for."

"Where is he gonna go?"

"Away from here. He's gonna take the boxers that are gonna follow him and move away." My brain can't help but think about all the boys outside the room right now, and the question are they gonna follow him appears too. Like an annoying scratch. "They're not gonna do it." Covaliov seems to know what I'm thinking, he replies with a soft tone and a shake of the head.

"So..."

I believe him. It all seems to fit together now. Alexander and Damian are out of our hands. Out of our lives. The boxing, the fights, the problems that follow us, it's all gone. Over. Like a wave of wind rushes through me, it takes all the worry that troubles my chest and brain in a quick motion. Relief now surrounds my body, mixing itself with nothing but happiness that I didn't now I had.

"We can go back home..." Emily says with teary eyes and a weak voice. Adam and her soon hug each other.

I, stand still without being able to ask my brain to move. It's all slow inside of me. It tries it hardest to process it and move forwards with this, I've asked that everything bad goes away, stop troubling me, and now, it is. It's not even behind me, being ignored, no, it's all just simply... gone.

"Over?" Lucifer asks more himself, like he's having trouble to believe it too. His eyes leave the floor and lock on mine, soon, a smile shines through his face and doesn't even wait a second to walk towards me and embrace me in a tight hug.

His warm body comforts mine. My arms quickly reply to the hug around his waist. It all comes to me. This is real. It's all far away without giving a hint of coming back. It's truly us right now. Not just a feeling but a reality, Lucifer and I without heavy worried on our shoulders.

The care that we have for each other it's all we need to think about.

Joining our eyes together, Lucifer caresses my cheek with his thumb. "Is this real?" He tries to hold tears in. But me, hearing his weak voice and excited words, jumps all the realisation of it all out.

"Yeah..." not a single part of me cares that we're not the only people inside this room. I unite my lips with Lucifer's in a warm kiss.

The way my body is feeling is impossible for me to explain. It's like an explosion of everything good that is floating around inside my chest and stomach.

All I can say is, my body doesn't want to let go of Lucifer. The more it can hug him, the happiest it feels. The safety that he gives me, the tingles inside my stomach, my face wanting to be against his chest and my nose enjoying his sent.

For the first time in a while, it all just feels... extraordinary.

Fuck.

I'm in love with Lucifer, aren't I?

...