seems to be touching you, Dan", Mazikeen patted the detective's shoulder as the four of them — Maze, Dan, Lucifer and Benjamin — sneaked around the Chinese cultural center as quietly as possible, which Benji had no trouble with, after hearing from his brother how the guys that hid indoors were notoriously violent. Usually, Benjamin would have been all for a fight, but he suspected that it wouldn't get them very far. And right now, he desperately wanted to help Chloe and get justice for her murdered father. "You know", Maze continued, "in a really personal way."

Knitting his eyebrows together, Lucifer turned to Benjamin as the two men stayed behind and walked side by side. "Well— do you know what this is all about?", he pulled his hand out of his pocket to point at Dan and Maze who were chatting in front of them. As much as Benji wanted to be aware of what was going on, he could only shake his head and look over to the demon with curiosity and confusion shining behind his blue eyes. "What are you driving at, Maze?", the Devil then wondered out loud, and in an instant, the woman snickered as if he had just the funniest thing ever.

"Driving at — good one. No— I'm just really impressed with how much Dan wants to... penetrate this thing from every position", she continued, and it didn't take Benjamin much longer to hear the sex puns hidden within her words — and the same kind of realization dawned onto Dan's features as he turned around and looked at Mazikeen in horror and disbelief. Frankly, it was taking Benji every ounce of his strength to not snort at the look on his face.

"You know?", he hissed, and nodding proudly, Maze confirmed this.

In unison, Benjamin and Lucifer interjected with, "Know what?", but whereas the younger Espinoza was already grinning, the taller man beside him was absolutely clueless. It surprised Benji, how the Devil himself, a man who was constantly sleeping with men and women and telling inappropriate jokes himself, was unable to see the big picture. Fair enough, Ben wasn't sure who they were talking about, but Maze was no doubt referring to the one night stand Dan had mentioned to his brother.

"I bet that's what she said, didn't she?", Maze chuckled adorably before she began to make faces at Dan, "oh, yeah, oh, Dan, big boy", which drove Dan over the edge — no pun intended.

Shushing Mazikeen, the detective nodded. "Alright, alright, fine. Yes, it's my fault. I leaked the information to Charlotte", Dan admitted, which encouraged Maze to lean over to Benji and whisper "among other things", before his brother had continued. "I'm why she knew Chloe was first at the scene. She must have looked at my text messages after we... made... love", he explained, and bursting into laughter along with the demon next to him, Benjamin couldn't help but crouch and rest his palms against his knees at the revelation. Of course, it was totally serious, but damn it, so amusing. Well, at least until Benji realized that Dan had slept with Lucifer's Mom, an actual divine Goddess, and the thought made him stick his tongue out in disgust.

And it seemed Lucifer had already reached that point.

"You slept with my M—arlotte?", he was shocked at the news, and all it took was one nod from Dan to make Lucifer lunge towards him, causing Benji's laughter to quickly die out as the two crashed through a wall and rolled straight into the building.

Needless to say, when dozens of guns were taken out and pointed at the two, Benjamin grew slightly more worried, but that didn't stop him from still giggling.

—————

Mazikeen — or, well, not exactly, but despite the inaccurary of the statement, that was the main thing floating around Benjamin's mind as she watched the actual demon queen from Hell kick ass, even when her opponent was a rather large, violent man with two machetes. By the end of the battle that Maze had accepted to fulfill their part of the deal that Lucifer made with the woman in charge of the place, she had both of the sharp weapons, placed against her enemy's throat, and the sight of her coming out victorious, it earned applause and a pile of respect from Benjamin.

He had known her to be badass and strong from the start, only to realize that she was magnificent, wicked in the best of ways, just the right amount of dangerous and like actual art when she moved so smoothly and put belittling men back in their places. And that, he quite admired.

It also happened to earn them the location of the man who killed Boris, and after Lucifer had thanked the woman — in Chinese, of course — the four of them headed out, with Maze proudly eyeing her two new toys.

"I didn't know you speak Chinese", Benjamin nudged Lucifer as the two of them stayed behind yet again, and in an instant, the Devil broke into a grin before reminding that he was, indeed, the king of Hell himself.

"I'm the Devil, I speak everything", he pointed out smugly, and in return, Benjamin scoffed and crossed his arms — sure, it was impressive, but he was fluent in quite a few languages himself, which was a crumb of information he was more than happy to share with Lucifer.

"Well, I speak French, Swedish, German and Finnish, so, you ain't special", he joked, although they both knew that Lucifer was beyond special — however, so was Benjamin. Although the Espinoza sometimes failed to acknowledge that himself, and beneath the layers of confidence and dirty one-liners and pride was an insecure man, Lucifer never stopped admiring him. That much was obvious in his sparkling eyes as he looked down at the somewhat shorter man, and even if Benjamin didn't catch the gaze sent his way, Dan did. He just elected to stay silent about it, with a smile creeping up to his lips.

Licking his lips briefly, Lucifer looked away from Benjamin eventually. "Impressive", he complimented on Ben's talent with languages, "rakas", before shooting him one last smile, a mixture of fondness and mischief. The unexpected addition earned a bewildered look from Benji, who despite the surprising nickname, ended up mirroring the smirk happily. It wasn't like them to talk openly about feelings or put a label on things, but they both knew that gestures like these were their way of doing it. And that warmed Benjamin's heart.

As he parted ways with Lucifer to go over to Mazikeen, the bartender looked over to her new weapons curiously, unable to even imagine what kind of a collection she had so far. And yet somehow, with all this danger shoved right up to his face, he couldn't bring himself to fearing or doubting Mazikeen or Lucifer. He trusted them both, and as he thought about Izzy and her cluelessness when it came to her crush, he did feel kind of bad, but not scared for her safety. He had come to the conclusion that the Devil wasn't as evil as people made him sound, and certainly his right-hand demon wasn't either.

"You know, I see why Izzy likes you. You're a total badass and I'm pretty sure I've just become your number one fan", Benjamin broke the silence, and turning to face the youngest Espinoza, Mazikeen flashed a devilish smirk and shrugged lightly.

"I am pretty awesome. You're cool too, Benny. I see why Lucifer likes you", she returned the teasing, before throwing her arm casually over his shoulder. "Hey, you want to get a drink? While those two work on the case or whatever— I mean, unless you can't stay away from your precious boyfriend", Maze wondered, earning a shove on the side from Benjamin, although it wasn't too rough — but he did know that even if he did attempt to hurt her, it would be pointless.

"I'm always up for a drink", he simply responded, and grinning, Maze high-fived the man happily. It was about time the two of them got to spend some time together.

Whilst Dan and Lucifer headed out to solve Boris' murder, Benji and Maze drove in the opposite direction and found themselves in some fairly crowded bar with rock music playing quietly from the speakers, fighting for attention next to the television with a football game on the screen. Some people were playing pool, some keenly following the happenings on TV, and as always, there was at least one heartbroken guy staring at the bottom of his glass so quietly he seemed like a statue. It was a very typical bar, and Benjamin loved it, unable to stop smiling as they seated themselves by the counter and ordered drinks.

"So, tell me", Benjamin spoke up after gulping down the first swig of his beer, "does the demon from Hell prefer bars like this one, or clubs like Lux?", he wondered, and chuckling, Maze shrugged as she sipped on her own drink.

"I'm not too picky. I'm used to being on the other side of the counter at Lux, so it's nice to come somewhere else and be the customer for once. We've kind of changed roles, huh?", she poked Benji's bicep, and he couldn't help but nod in agreement — he had just taken the job of a bartender, whereas Mazikeen had fled the club and changed careers. Frankly, the sound of being a bounty hunter was intriguing, and that was the subject that Benjamin decided to tackle next.

They were discussing everything and anything, from their favorite drinks to Trixie, from Izzy and Lucifer to their weapon of choice, and even if there was much separating them from each other, they were rather alike. The similarities weren't the kind that people noticed exactly, but more so, details that came out in conversations and made them clink glasses together at the opinions they both agreed on. It was quite lovely, and Ben was constantly smiling — partly at the thought of getting a new friend, and partly because that friend happened to be someone... supernatural, to say the least.

Time flew by as they had quite a few drinks together and hours blurred together, the two of them only snapping out of their haze when Benjamin's phone rang, and his smile faded at the sight of his brother's name plastered across the bright screen. Clearing his throat, the man was grateful for his high tolerance before he answered the call and felt the worried vibes coming off of Dan in waves through the phone, causing Benji to knit his eyebrows together.

"All good, bro?", he questioned instantly, but instead of assuring him that everything was okay, Dan sighed on the other side of the line and confirmed that things weren't so great.

"It was a dead end, and even worse, they let Perry Smith walk. It's over", Dan explained, "we lost." Staring at the wall in silence, Benjamin could feel his blood starting to boil in his veins, his heart beginning to race and his hand shaking as he sternly licked his lips. John Decker, an innocent man, had been murdered and the killer was set free? Now, that was something that Benjamin didn't like in the slightest.

Nodding then, Benji inhaled sharply. "Thanks for letting me know. Give Chloe a hug for me. And uh, can we meet in a few hours?", he mumbled into the phone, and agreeing to his mysterious plan, Dan made a promise before ending the call. As Benjamin clenched his jaw angrily, he lowered the phone and turned over to Mazikeen, who was following the situation through his glass, eyes wide but worried. "They let the killer out. No justice for John Decker", he fumed, and in an instant, Maze offered a sympathetic sigh.

"Damn. Too bad. He was a hottie", the demon muttered, and in response, Benjamin chuckled — though, John had been quite the sight — but ended up shaking his head, nonetheless. Luckily, the Espinoza was rarely discouraged by struggles and obstacles, and this time wasn't going to be an exception — even if he was going to do something way more serious than he had ever even imagined. But the solution was just right there.

"Hey, Maze...", Benjamin then cleared his throat before slowly moving over to the woman, "what if we made sure justice happened?"

And concluding from the diabolical smirk spreading out over the demon's lips, she just loved the sound of that.

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