Chapter Text
Lucifer had tried for a number of years to cultivate an interest in classical music in Chloe. Bold symphonic performances by the best orchestras while on trips around the world, operas he defined as ‘sublime’ after the performances, hours of playing the baby grand in their sitting room, even musical salons in homes owned by composers. Much to his continuing distaste, her Millennial penchant for listening to boy bands and emo music refused to bend.
Aurora, on the other hand, latched on effortlessly, and as she grew older, it became very apparent that she was almost if not as talented in music as her father. He taught her everything she knew about piano, but what he didn’t expect was the depth of her vocal ability. By age ten, when they were still in the UAE, he, an angel of music, was drawn to placing Aurora with a vocal coach. By the time she was fourteen and they were departing the UAE for Guyana, it was clear that she was an operatic soprano, subtype to be determined. Her new voice teacher in Georgetown said she was a dramatic soprano – a notation of her voice’s power, not her teenage personality – and when she did her first summer intensive at Berklee in Boston at fifteen, she was declared a soprano sfogato.
There was no way Lucifer could have been more delighted by their daughter being identified as thus.
It was now her third of the extremely competitive summer intensives at the music college, and they’d flown back to the United States for what they knew would be her final intensive despite having one more summer before university. She and Lucifer had some tough discussions before she left for Boston about the practicality of becoming a professional musician. While singing was her heart, the unknown regarding how a nephilim would age left big questions about how public she could be as she got older. She was talented enough that ending up with a big opera company was more of a when than an if, and if she stopped aging around where Lucifer’s appearance indicated, it would be very noticeable and public. Because of that, and with input from both Michael and Amenadiel as well as, unfortunately, her Nan, Lucifer painfully recommended to their daughter that she put aside public performance and relegate music to home.
Admittedly, there was a lot of crying and some anger on Aurora’s part, but she professed understanding at the airport as she was flying to JFK on the way to Boston.
They knew this could very well be her last major public performance aside from recitals by future voice teachers and maybe solos with a choir in university or for a while wherever she ended up settling as an adult. Lucifer and Chloe settled in what Lucifer claimed to be the best seats in regard to acoustics in the recital hall, an odd air of loss surrounding them.
‘What’s she singing?’ Chloe asked, as if she’d have the vaguest clue what the song was when Lucifer told her.
He flipped open the program and started looking through it. ‘She said “Ah! Non credea mirarti” by Bellini. It’s an excellent fit for her voice, and the lyrics certainly fit…’
He didn’t finish the statement. They fit the solemnity of the situation. The lights dimmed, and the program started. Lucifer was completely engaged – Chloe imagined it was incredibly nice to understand every Italian, German, or French word being sung. The performances were lovely, but as in previous years, Chloe was truly only there to see what Aurora had accomplished in the previous five weeks.
‘Our next performance will be Aurora Morningstar,’ one of the voice professors announced, and Chloe perked up.
Aurora walked from the wings in a flowing formal dress, going directly to the microphone.
‘If she stands that close to it, all we’ll hear is the speakers popping,’ Lucifer said to Chloe under his breath.
‘I know the program says that I’ll be performing a piece from La sonnambula, but with this being my last summer at Berklee, I wanted to sing a song dedicated to my grandmother.’
Lucifer and Chloe looked at each other.
‘Penelope doesn’t like opera, does she?’ Lucifer whispered. ‘If so, I’ve been missing some opportunities over the years.’
‘No, she hates it,’ Chloe responded, watching Aurora back away from the microphone, knowing her voice had enough volume and breadth to sing over the orchestra without amplification. ‘She only listens to Aurora sing because it’s Aurora.’
‘Then—’ Lucifer started, but then the strings in the orchestra began, and he looked to his lap for a moment as he tried to guess the replacement song. A flute sang a melody over the string arpeggios, and he sat up straight to stare at their daughter before speaking in a hushed, slightly awed voice. ‘She’s not singing about your mum.’
Chloe looked at him, trying to judge his reaction, but he just scooted forward a bit in his seat and watched Aurora, his fingers interlaced. The instruments slowed a bit, stopped for a pause, then picked up, violins only, for a couple of bars before Aurora glanced at the ceiling for a moment and began to sing.
‘Casta Diva,’ she sang as flawlessly as always but there was a reverence that even Chloe could feel.
Lucifer was entirely enthralled. He was always the overly excited music dad where most stereotypical dads got excited about sport, but there was almost a tactile feeling rolling forth from him. They were silent, but Chloe noticed that others around them were looking at Lucifer as he was entirely focused on Aurora, a reaction that typically only occurred when his mojo was going haywire, and generally not something she felt.
‘Spargi in terra quella pace,’ she sang, then the music crescendoed, Lucifer closing his eyes as she sang the line again, smoothly transitioning to a new phrase at the end of the second ‘pace.’ ‘Che regnar tu fai nel ciel.’
Lucifer’s breath caught and he dipped his head a bit, but he looked up when the instrumental music ended and Aurora, showy soprano she was, closed the song on an ornate a piacere vocalizo and the soft, repeated ‘nel ciel’ as she and Lucifer made eye contact with each other. He was on his feet faster than anyone else to applaud their daughter, but Chloe could see an edge of sadness on his face.
After the completion of the performances, everyone spilled into the reception at the recital hall. Chloe slipped her arm into Lucifer’s.
‘Some of us don’t speak Italian,’ she opened, tapping her shoulder against him.
‘I doubt I could have asked for a better tribute to Mum,’ he replied. ‘Though I certainly wouldn’t refer to Her as a chaste Goddess.’
She looked at him, hoping he’d continue, but he didn’t. ‘What did the last two lines mean?’
He looked down at the floor for a moment, obviously turning the lyrics over in his head, before sighing. ‘Ah, right. Enfold the earth in that sweet peace which, through Thee, reigns in Heaven.’
She slid her hand down his arm to interlace their fingers, squeezing his hand. She was about to say something when Aurora walked over with the professor who had announced her on stage – she hadn’t been in the program the previous two years, or at least not tutoring Aurora.
‘So, you’re Aurora’s family!’ she said. ‘It has truly been a pleasure having Aurora in our intensive. She absolutely sings like an angel.’
Lucifer snorted and Chloe squeezed his hand again, this time in warning.
The professor looked at the two of them then their hands before looking at Chloe. ‘You’re Aurora’s mother, and you’re…?’
There was a long pause, Lucifer opening and closing his mouth with a look of confusion before answering. ‘Her father.’
‘Oh,’ she replied, looking both embarrassed and curious.
Aurora shifted awkwardly before saying a couple of by then well-practiced sentences. ‘He’s not my stepdad; he’s my biological father.’
‘You must have… wonderful genes,’ she said uneasily. ‘Anyway, I… I wanted to come talk to you. Aurora said she’s dropping out of formal training.’
‘Not formal training,’ Lucifer replied quickly. ‘Larger-scale performances. Recitals, salons, more intimate situations are fine. Lessons can continue as long as her heart desires, but a long-term future in an opera company is not an option.’
‘She’s profoundly talented, Mr Morningstar,’ she said, holding a hand to her chest. ‘Companies would be climbing over each other to get a voice like hers. She would have her choice of roles within a few years.’
‘We’re extremely aware and proud of all that she’s accomplished to this point, but she would unfortunately have to withdraw from a company prior to even my age due to an issue with my genetics which have unfortunately proven dominant in Rory.’
‘How old are you?’ she asked a bit crassly.
Aurora looked at Chloe with wide eyes, and her mother cleared her throat nervously. Based on the paperwork he had created when he partially retired to Earth, he was fifty-four, his birthday upcoming in November, but that was a good twenty years past his appearance. She knew that he and Michael had been talking about date changes on their vital paperwork, but she wasn’t sure if his passport still had a birth year of 1981 or if he’d changed it. Even when they’d entered Guyana almost four years earlier, the customs agent got a supervisor upon seeing Lucifer’s age noted as fifty-one – she was completely convinced it was a fake or stolen passport. His answer was going to entirely hinge on what his paperwork said, otherwise he’d be lying.
‘Thirty-eight,’ he said lightly, and Aurora exhaled softly.
She nodded. ‘I really wish I could convince you to allow her to sing professionally.’
‘It was a very difficult decision, professor. It’s not an issue of prohibiting I do something I want to do. My parents would never do that – Dad is the ultimate supporter of free will,’ Aurora said, stepping over to lace her arm in Lucifer’s. He looked down at her. ‘Dad’s identical twin is a physician, and he had to stop writing and presenting at conferences because of our family health issue. He sees patients, but he can’t do research like he used to. It’s been tough for him. Dad really wants to make sure I don’t hurt like Uncle Michael does. I don’t want to throw my whole heart into a career in opera only to drop out right as my career peaks.’
The professor looked at both of them with something akin to pity, but they were unfazed.
‘But thank you so much for your concern,’ Aurora continued. ‘And thank you for your guidance and support during my last intensive.’
Shortly thereafter, they were walking on campus with no one around them. Aurora suddenly stopped, looked around, and leaned into her parents who had stopped just ahead of her.
‘Dad,’ she hissed. ‘When did you get a new passport?’
‘The High Commission got the new ones to Michael and me a few days ago, thankfully,’ Lucifer replied. ‘He and I both have all of our paperwork updated to say we were born in 1998.’
‘1998?’ Chloe sputtered.
‘You can just associate me with “I Want You Back” now, my love,’ he replied with a grin. ‘Except it’s now legally nine months older than me.’
She let go of his hand and pressed both of hers against her face. ‘People are going to start thinking I’m like Mary Kay Letourneau.’
Her father always joked about it to try to lift her mother out of the mire of worrying about their physical age difference, an issue that ebbed and flowed with time and that Chloe openly admitted was tied to her fear of death, but it was bothering Aurora now as well. Soon, she could no longer plausibly claim to be Lucifer’s biological daughter, but she knew he’d never lie about their actual connection when asked. She just wasn’t certain how any of this was going to work out, and despite her outward acceptance of her fate when it came to an opera career, she had a simmering rage that no one on the celestial side of things thought about the ramifications of bestowing a miracle who didn’t age upon a planet filled with people who did.