okteiviakom | The Deck of the Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Thursday Evening

Yesterday hadn't been great. Much like Lucifer, Octavia had come back to the Rouge for the night, but mostly because not doing so unannounced was something she was trying not to do, while doing so announced had felt like it would invite too many questions and make it all into far bigger of a deal than it had to be.

So she'd dragged her drunk self home. And in the morning, had made her hungover self stay with them all through breakfast. And then when the time had come for Duke to head into work, she'd taken off. Disappeared into the preserve, because if there was a place that could fix at least some of what she'd been feeling this week, it was there.

No comments on whether it had worked at all. But she was back, now. Sitting on one of the crates on the deck of the ship, holding a bottle of beer that she'd picked up from the Samsara, along with the sweater she'd stolen from Duke back when she'd moved back onto her own boat.

She hadn't gone below decks, yet. Hadn't announced her arrival, if anyone else was even in.

It was quiet, in the port. And she just wanted to listen to this silence for at least a few moments longer.

[ooc: Opennn.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

Octavia couldn't help her very soft snort. "You're a lot of things, flapkrasha," she said. "Subtle is not one of them."

"I'm usually terrible at noticing that kind of thing," Lucifer said, nodding.

Duke made a show of gaping at them, pressing his hand to his chest. Clowning it up as usual. "Hey! That is -- yeah, probably fair, actually, okay." He sighed, letting the performance go as quickly as he'd picked it up. ". . . Can we try the cuddling thing again?"

Octavia looked at him again. The nod was almost immediate. "Yeah," she said. "Where and however you want."

As if any of that was a hardship, or something they'd deny him.

Lucifer reached for Duke's hand, in fact. "We can head back inside," he agreed.

Duke took his hand and tossed back the rest of his drink. “Sounds good.” He reached out with his arm to loop it over Octavia’s shoulders. “I don’t have to clean up the nest if you don’t want.”

This would've been a great time for Octavia to dabble in some emotional honesty and openness, wouldn't it?

But she muttered an evasive, "It's fine," instead, as she let him draw her in. Everything else got lodged somewhere in the back of her throat.

Lucifer tossed her a pointed glance over Duke's shoulder.

It didn't last, though. He was already tugging them back towards the entrance.

Yeah, Duke wasn't buying that "fine", either. But he let it go, following Lucifer, tugging her along.

"Maybe we can try just . . . hanging out on the bed? Don't have to sleep there, but. I mean, it's nicer than the floor."

It was a very nice bed actually. Duke missed it.

It had also been stripped of most of its bedding to make the nest. Sorry about that.

"Doesn't matter to me either way," Octavia said, a little flatter than she'd meant to.

She would have to get over it sooner or later, anyway. So, whatever.

Lucifer sighed, but said nothing as he led them down into the galley, and then towards the bedroom.

He did pause and look at Octavia before he entered, though. "Are you sure?"

Duke stopped outside the bedroom door, shifting to face her fully. "Hey. If I had to be emotionally honest tonight, so do you."

"Is that a new house rule or something?" Octavia tried, because maybe Duke's tendency to try and evade these things with jokes was rubbing off on her or something.

Then she sighed, looking at the both of them. Checking in, checking up on her.

She looked down at the floor.

"Look," she muttered, "there's two things here. One, that spot in the galley, that was important to me. It was the only place where I could breathe while you were gone, Duke."

Where she could steal moments where his absence wasn't crushing her, but she didn't want to put it like that. He had enough unnecessary guilt as it was.

"And two..." Deep breath in, deep breath out. "I don't know if I can sleep in the bedroom yet. But eventually I'm gonna have to."

"But can you cuddle in the bedroom for a bit?" Lucifer asked. Because that was the relevant question.

And, well. If there was anyone allowed to pressure her about the bedroom, it wasn't him.

Duke looked past her to the nest, frowning a little bit. "Okay," he said. "We won't clean it up until you're ready. But we're definitely cuddling on the bed." He looked down at her again. "No sleeping required."

They'd be taking the nest apart tonight, not that Octavia was about to tell them that right now. Now that it was out there, she was no longer comfortable allowing herself that particular weakness.

But all she said, as she looked up at them and nodded, was, "I can work with that."

Lucifer might make a point of it... some day.

Not today, though.

Right now, he was sitting down on the bed, scooting backwards, looking up at both of them.

"It's a deal," Duke said. He gave Octavia a squeeze, then let her go to join Lucifer on the bed.

Octavia could take whatever time she needed.

Octavia didn't take a lot of it.

She paused at the edge of the bed, though. But that was more about watching them.

Lucifer reached for Duke the moment he was close enough, sliding an arm around his shoulders and pulling him in. (Thankfully, they'd still left a pillow or two on the bed.)

"Better," he decided.

Duke leaned into him, resting his head against his chest, even as he watched Octavia in return.

"Better," he agreed.

Octavia got one knee on the bed. Then the other, though slowly.

Just trying to decide where she wanted to go.

Lucifer made a soft, amused noise at the sight of her expression, working his fingers idly into Duke's hair. "Are you coming or not?"

Duke relaxed by degrees. He tilted his head into Lucifer's hand and watched Octavia, his mouth curling faintly in a small, unconscious smile.

Don't mind Octavia, she was just warring internally over giving and taking. Or something like it.

Then she made her choice, crawling to where she could stretch out on the other side of Duke. Curling up against him there.

(no subject)

my_own_advocate - 2021-03-13 23:14 (UTC) - Expand

betterthanaplan - 2021-03-13 23:34 (UTC) - Expand

okteiviakom - 2021-03-13 23:39 (UTC) - Expand

my_own_advocate - 2021-03-14 05:58 (UTC) - Expand