The Cape Rouge, Somewhere Behind the Preserve, Saturday Evening

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had her date nights with Lucifer, and Lucifer had a similar (thought still vastly different) routine going with Duke, but all three of them together hadn't really taken the time to do anything special for an evening in a while. So that was what tonight was for.

Duke had handled sailing the Rouge to a more secluded spot near the preserve. Lucifer was handling the food.

Octavia had... hung up some extra twinkly lights on the deck. That was important too, right? And she'd picked some stuff for the playlist too. Was still picking stuff on her phone, actually.

[ooc: For those two I just gently modded!]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

"He got weird on you?"

Octavia didn't sound surprised. Maybe a little wry. She gave Lucifer a little squeeze.

"Did you get weird?"

[my_own_advocate]

"I just-- don't think it's something to feel honored about," Lucifer muttered.

[betterthanaplan]

“Well. . . .” Duke shrugged. “I do anyway.”

[okteiviakom]

"And I just think it's amazing," Octavia sighed.

[my_own_advocate]

"Just as long as you don't say 'honored'," Lucifer muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.

No, he still didn't understand why anyone would feel that way about his affection.

[betterthanaplan]

“You’re special, Luce. You’ve been with — I don’t know how many people for millennia. And you live us. What about that isn’t . . . incredible?”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia just wound her arm a little tighter around Lucifer, as if there was a way for him to get any closer to them.

[my_own_advocate]

"I slept with a lot of people, people who, as I found out later, had no particular interest in me as a person," Lucifer sighed. "That's hardly the same."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sighed, rolling his eyes, and stuck his face into Lucifer’s neck. “Whatever. You’re magic. I’m honored.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia couldn't help her soft snort.

"What he's saying is that we love you," she murmured. "And we feel lucky that you love us back. And that those other people didn't know what they were missing."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer let out a deep breath. But he stopped arguing, his arms tightening around them a bit more.

(The timer on that salmon was going to go off any minute now.)

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was pretty sure he hadn’t won this or anything, but that was fine.

“Should we check on the salmon?”

[okteiviakom]

There'd been something to win here?

"Do we have to?"

[my_own_advocate]

"We should--"

And with that, Lucifer was loudly interrupted by the alarm. "Right," he said, breaking away from the two of them and pushing towards the galley in a hurry. "Be right back!"

And gone.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke watched him go with a soft little sigh.

“How the fuck did he turn out so good?”

[okteiviakom]

"Because he was always good," Octavia murmured, leaning against his side a little more heavily again, now that it was just them. "He just didn't see it because no one else did."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke wrapped his other arm around her and buried his face into her hair.

“People really are stupid, aren’t they.”

Yes, he was aware of the parallels.

[okteiviakom]

"Uh huh," Octavia replied. Like she was aware that he was aware of the parallels, and was fighting the urge to explicitly call his attention to them.

She wrapped her other arm around him, too, and rubbed his back.

[betterthanaplan]

“Sorry for all the times that I’m people.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave a soft huff.

"You've learned," she murmured. "You're learning. So is he."

And so was she.

[betterthanaplan]

“Doesn’t mean I can’t be sorry.” Duke pulled back to brush his fingers through her hair. “I wanna braid this again. Not tonight.” They had plenty of other plans. “Soon.”

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah?" Octavia asked, looking up at him. Her gaze soft, almost hopeful. "I'd like that."

It had been... a really long time, hadn't it?

[betterthanaplan]

Way, way too long.

“Pick a day,” Duke said. “We’ll get cozy on the Samsara.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't realize she was smiling again. Soft and pleased.

She reached up and pressed a kiss to one side of his lips. "Love you."

[my_own_advocate]

It was a Lucifer not just wearing an apron, but holding a large dish in his two large red-and-blue oven mitts, who came trudging back onto the deck. "Dinner is ready," he announced. "The gratin is on its way, make way for the salmon..."