Outside Lucifer's House, Very Late Tuesday/Very Early Wednesday

[okteiviakom]

Duke had not turned up on the island for his class.

That meant that his 'couple more days' in Haven were officially up, and he was nowhere to be found.

Octavia didn't have the Portalocity app on her phone, so after his class she'd had to make her way down to the actual office in town - which meant she was now probably banned from there for her reaction to the news that all connections to Duke's universe were currently down.

And that had been before she'd come back home to the Cape Rouge and rage-screamed at the ocean.

And, then...

Fast forward to much, much later, so late it didn't even count as Tuesday anymore. (And, good, because Tuesday had not treated her well.) Octavia found herself sitting on the steps to Lucifer's mansion, cradling the remains of what was probably a rather expensive bottle of bourbon. And she was singing to herself, quiet and a little slurred. "Deimeika gonot, graun laik pauda... 'So ona trikova, ba ha na kik raun riskiwe, ba nowe na soujon --"

It cut off with a rough, bitter laugh bubbling up.

[ooc: For the patron devil of all drunken idiots, and SP.]

Comments

[my_own_advocate]

"Come on, Octavia," Lucifer said quietly, holding on. "Do what you have to."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia curled up against his chest, tense, her shoulders shaking with every sob. The weight of the past few days was just coming down on her hard, now, forcing her to bow down to it.

This might take a while.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer's arms slid a bit more tightly around her, positioning her so she'd be comfortable.

He stared up at the ceiling and tried not to think please don't let me screw this up too hard. (Just give her time, said a voice that sounded a lot like Linda's.)

[okteiviakom]

Octavia barely knew he was there, honestly. The comfort only got in at a subconscious level: the rest of her was now stuck on thoughts looping in on themselves, over and over.

What if Duke was never coming back?

(What if she'd driven him away and he just hadn't wanted to tell her?)

The worst of the crying seemed to subside eventually, though. She was at least starting to sound like she could actually breathe again.

[my_own_advocate]

And when that had gone on for another minute, at least... Lucifer tried, tentatively: "Octavia?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's voice sounded strangled.

"Th-- there's no service to Haven."

Well, that was what had broken her today.

[my_own_advocate]

"I'm sorry," Lucifer said quietly. The words I did warn him not to get arrested bubbled up, but for one, they bumped into Lucifer's flimsy young filter. "Might be a quarantine," he ventured slowly, "like mine."

[okteiviakom]

"What does that mean?"

Even now, Octavia hated how she sounded. So small and young.

[my_own_advocate]

"Some nonsense about time moving slower in one place than the other," Lucifer said slowly. "They said it always ends eventually."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's little gasp sounded pained.

"I shoulda gone with him."

[my_own_advocate]

"You couldn't have known," Lucifer pointed out quietly. "Frankly, he shouldn't have bloody well gone back there in the first place."

[okteiviakom]

When had Octavia's guilt and grief ever listened to that kind of rational talk? Her voice just went mumblier.

"I don't want to lose him," she muttered, shaking her head against Lucifer's chest. "Not like he lost me."

[my_own_advocate]

"You came back," Lucifer said, gingerly touching the back of her head.

[okteiviakom]

"Broken."

Yeah, those words weren't much of a comfort, were they? Not all of her had come back.

[my_own_advocate]

"Not unrecognizably."

He ran his hand awkwardly along her hair. "He certainly didn't lose you for good."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't tell him not to, this time.

"Don't know if he always thinks that." They'd been doing better, making progress. But her optimism was nowhere to be found tonight, washed away in a stream of bourbon and whatever she'd had before it at the boat. "Y'know what he... what he said before he left? He had to go home for a few days."

She'd pushed that little stab of hurt aside at the time, but no longer could.

[my_own_advocate]

"Ah," Lucifer said, and if anyone understood what a stab like that could do, it was him. "I'm sorry."

[okteiviakom]

"I thought his home was with me."

Oh. She could feel her eyes welling up again.

[my_own_advocate]

"He may just be a bit more careless with that word than you are, darling," Lucifer sighed. "You have met the man, right? When he opens his mouth?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia knew he was probably right, but...

Knowing and feeling something were separate things. Her voice just went smaller. Wetter. "My home is with him."

[my_own_advocate]

"I know," Lucifer said quietly. "And so does he."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's inhale was a gasp. A struggle.

"What if he doesn't come back?"

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer dragged his own train of thought away from where it had been drifting at the idea of people being home, to a stern blonde who lit up like the sun when you coaxed her out of her shell.

"Think it's a bit early to assume that," Lucifer said. "You came back after a month. He's been gone for four days."

[okteiviakom]

"I asked what if," Octavia replied, a little belligerently.

It made sense in her head, sorry.

[my_own_advocate]

"You'll live," Lucifer said, rolling his eyes. "It's too early to be asking those kinds of questions, you'll only drive yourself mad."