The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Monday Morning

[okteiviakom]

Duke was out for his class thing. Octavia wasn't sure for how long, but she was taking a chance, and so she sat at the table in the galley with two things in front of her. One, the phone Duke had given her after she'd shown up. Two, the locket Niylah had made her in the bunker. She'd finally opened it. Taken out the SIM card, and carefully, almost hesitantly put it in the phone.

She was honestly surprised to find it still worked. As soon as she turned the phone on, the notifications poured in. Texts, voicemails, missed calls. Almost all of them from Duke.

For a moment, Octavia just stared at them. And considered just deleting them all without looking.

But when had she last made a sensible choice like that? So instead, she went through the texts, from the selfies with goats through the increasingly worried questions, all the way down to just a picture of the ocean meeting the sky, with no caption, no words attached. She checked the date. A day, two days before she'd come back.

Then she moved on to the voicemails. "You missed lunch. You're not at the flower shop." The texts hadn't been easy, but at least they were short, quick to get through - a little more distant than the voicemails. They were his voice but not his voice.

(And then there was a voicemail that wasn't from Duke -- "So if you don't mind, I think it's time to come out of hiding." -- and that was its own kind of tangled emotion.)

"What's the point of anything if you can just go away? Fuck!" The texts hadn't had the sounds of glass breaking. None of Duke's shaky breaths. "I was and am very fucked up, and people need to stop asking me how I'm doing before I start stabbing them with your sword." She wanted to stop listening. But she also didn't want to miss even a second. All those years of wanting to talk to him, and he'd been talking to her, and his voice was -- "It's okay, you know. If you come back broken."

She wanted to stop listening.

She didn't. There was just one more voicemail left.

"Someday, we'll both be butterflies. And then we'll both be sharks. And then something else we haven't even dreamed of yet, but -- we'll find each other."

She'd just... sit here and let that last one loop a few times.

(Too many times.)

[ooc: Open, but angsty. Duh.]

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[okteiviakom]

Octavia knew they'd kissed the night she'd returned. That just didn't seem to count, because she'd been too out of it, too convinced it wasn't real.

But this was real. Their second first kiss.

His reaction was to grin; hers was to make a little whimpery noise against his lips.

[betterthanaplan]

Those noises went straight to some fairly neglected parts of his anatomy, which Duke firmly ordered to sit back down, please.

He wasn't going to rush her. He wasn't.

He was, however, going to kiss her for all she was worth for as long as she was willing to let him.

[okteiviakom]

And Octavia was going to try and pull him closer to herself, just about as close as he could get without her actually climbing into his lap. Which... also seemed like a viable option all of a sudden.

Her heart felt like it was about to pound its way out of her chest. And when she pulled back, she didn't go far.

Just needed to gasp in a breath or two.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke barely stopped himself from following her even pulling away that much. He hung on and panted for breath.

"I really missed doing that."

[okteiviakom]

"I didn't," Octavia admitted. She'd shoved this entire side of herself aside, hadn't even thought about kissing anyone since Niylah and their few desperate attempts at something human during the dark year.

But here, even between the words, she found herself pressing a few haphazard kisses against one corner of his mouth.

"Now I do."

Because it made her feel something, something more straight-forward than the mess she carried with her in every other moment.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke tilted his head slightly, to give her as much access as she liked. He kept his eyes closed, part of him sure if he opened them, she'd be gone again. That this whole thing would turn out to be a really long fever dream or something.

He was starting to see why she'd been so anxious for him to stop talking, when she first got back.

"Good," Duke said after a moment. "Because I'm going to want to do it all the time."

[okteiviakom]

"I can't promise all the time," Octavia murmured. Because this was the first time she'd really taken the initiative on getting close to him, and she wasn't sure this wasn't just some kind of a blip in the system. That if she pulled away, she wouldn't find herself locking this part away again.

But at the same time, her hand travelled to the back of his neck, curving tightly against his skin. Her lips almost brushed against his as she spoke.

She felt alive, and wanted to cling to it.

"Touch me."

[betterthanaplan]

And Duke did. First by sliding his hands under her shirt, letting his fingers skate lightly across her skin.

He could feel the new scars there, raised ridges detailing the years she'd been gone on her side. He wasn't sure if he wanted to flinch away or linger, ignore them or trace them out, memorize her new skin. He hovered hesitantly for a moment, then pressed his whole palm over the remains of the stab wound. As though the warmth of his skin could finish healing it.

[okteiviakom]

It couldn't.

But it still felt nice. Better than nice, good, better than Octavia would have expected it to. And she let him know by kissing him, just that little bit more insistent, leaning into it just that little bit more.

Her voice was low and distracted and a little breathless. "Fell from a cliff for that one, too."

Probably shouldn't have told him. But it felt easier to tell him like this.

[betterthanaplan]

"Jesus," Duke breathed.

Maybe she set off his trouble because she was secretly immortal.

[okteiviakom]

It was pretty bad that it barely rated on Octavia's personal list of the worst things to happen to her, right?

"And now my brother's in love with the spy who did it," she added as an afterthought. Pushing her fingers into the hair at the back of his neck.

[betterthanaplan]

"This is the weirdest dirty talk ever," Duke said with a little laugh, and leaned in to kiss her under her ear. "Which is not me telling you to stop."

If this was how she felt comfortable telling him things, he was not about to argue.

[okteiviakom]

Clearly this was another odd space, similar to the night Octavia had returned.

A shiver went down her spine at the sound of his laugh, and the kiss didn't help any. "Didn't really have anyone to practice on," she murmured. "I'm rusty."

[betterthanaplan]

"That's okay," Duke said. "We have time to get you back up to speed."

[okteiviakom]

"You're lucky I still remember how to kiss people," Octavia replied.

And pressed one against his cheek.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'm lucky, period," Duke said, eyes sliding closed as he wrapped his arms more firmly around her. "You're here."

[okteiviakom]

That was just an invitation for Octavia to bury her face in the curve of his neck. She could kiss the skin there, too.

"I'm here," she sighed.

Okay, whispered. Like she couldn't quite believe it.

[betterthanaplan]

Did she remember how sensitive his neck could be? If not, the noise Duke made when she kissed him there would be a sure reminder.

"Maybe let's be 'here' in the bedroom," he suggested. "Not -- we don't have to go further if you don't want. But -- not sure if Larceny's home . . . doors are an advantage. . . ."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had not remembered, no. But as soon as he made that noise, she remembered vividly. And clung to all the faded memories that rushed in with it like her life depended on them.

"Only if you carry me."

You did not just pick up a queen, no. But it was a whole different situation if she asked you to.

[betterthanaplan]

She did not need to ask twice.

Duke scooped her up like it was nothing, still hanging onto her waist so she could keep kissing her neck if she liked.

He could be forgiven for hoping this might become a habit. Or a tradition. He rather liked carrying her to his bedroom.

[okteiviakom]

He was the only one who got to carry her anywhere without an injury involved, that was for sure. Octavia hoped he knew what a privilege it was.

She clung to him as best she could and, yes, definitely kissed his neck more than once. Turned out being able to do something physical that actually made another person feel good could be kind of intoxicating after years of violence.