The Cape Rouge, Monday... Noon? Ish?

[okteiviakom]

"I think my spring is coming, Octavia. And I can't wait to see what it's like."

There had been no surprise in how hard it had been to say goodbye. Ilian had been impossibly calm and steady, and Octavia had just done her best to keep it together. Be brave, like he'd wanted her to be. Nou fir wamplei in, em bilaik stoda kom nes soujon noumou. Easy for him to say when he'd already done it, when she was the one left to mourn him all over again.

(That last glimmer of someone seeing something human in her before the bunker, The Dark Year, the valley. The last time in six years before the multiverse saw fit to yank whatever had been left of her back to Fandom, to put herself back together again.)

"If you want to honor me, maybe you should plant something. Grow something."

How was she supposed to do that, Ilian?

Everything hurt again.

And Octavia was finding it very hard to even get out of bed. In fact, she hadn't, yet. Just kept laying there, either staring at the ceiling or the line of already slightly smudged dots along the inside of her forearm. Ilian had drawn them with a marker, explaining to her about the tattoos of his clan. Just another thing she'd never had time to learn before.

She knew this had all been a gift.

But right now it was a little hard to ignore how much it also felt like having been stabbed in the gut again.

[ooc: Open for thems that live here, should they so wish.]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

He could get off her back and check on Duke? Leave her to her misery.

But, well. There was one other thing. "Water."

[my_own_advocate]

"All right," Lucifer said lightly, "As you wish."

He vanished into the galley, and returned a few moments later with a glass of water. "I'm going to open the door now," he announced.

[okteiviakom]

"Barely closed anyway."

It was more closed than she would usually have had it.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer stepped inside, and quickly made it over to the nightstand on her end of the bed. He set the water down. "There you are."

[okteiviakom]

"Mm-hm."

Yes, indeed, here she was, curled up into a ball and looking wrung out and exhausted and a little... empty.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed. He took a step closer, and tried to reach out to at least... touch her hair. Do something that felt like giving even a drop of comfort.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia let him.

Even if she also closed her eyes.

[my_own_advocate]

"I'm not going to make you get up," Lucifer murmured.

Ran his fingers through her hair, careful and gentle.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia hadn't realized there was fight in her until it relaxed at his words. He wasn't going to make her. Good.

Because she really didn't feel capable of doing it. Everything felt... far too heavy. Like the breath she exhaled through her nose.

[my_own_advocate]

"Just let us know when you're ready," Lucifer said softly. "And... perhaps whenever you feel like a grilled cheese, or perhaps a light lunch."

His fingers smoothed along the edges of her face.

"Or just some company."

[okteiviakom]

Another breath, weary and tired.

Her face turned just a fraction into the touch.

[my_own_advocate]

"Do you want me to go, or do you want me to stay?" Lucifer murmured.

[okteiviakom]

A small stretch of silence followed. Maybe she was making up her mind, maybe this was just how long it took her to speak right now.

"Stay," she said, quiet and flat. "For a while."

[my_own_advocate]

"All right," Lucifer said. He slipped out of his jacket. Laid down on the bed, rolled over towards her.

Reached for her.

[okteiviakom]

He was going to have to do all the work. Octavia wasn't moving, or even opening her eyes.

Just feeling him move. Feeling how the mattress dipped underneath him.

[my_own_advocate]

That was fine.

Lucifer slid an arm around her and huddled in close. It was odd: he would have thought he'd have felt about as helplessly jealous as Duke had about it. Perhaps tried to punt Ilian into the sea, or something.

But he knew her. Trusted that whatever had transpired on Saturday night, it hadn't been about-- anything like that.

Instead he felt protective.

So he... protected. Sort of.

[okteiviakom]

It took a moment, maybe two.

Eventually, though, Octavia moved enough to put her hand on top of his arm. Just that.

Even that felt like effort right now.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer felt the urge to speak again. He fended it off.

He let out a soft breath, and... stayed. Like she'd asked him to.

[okteiviakom]

"You don't have to be silent," Octavia muttered. She knew how he was. "Just don't expect me to talk."

She might. She might not.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer let out a soft huff. "I don't have that much to contribute," he said. "I went for a walk this morning. It was nice. The forest looks... very foresty."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave a vague hum.

Normally she would've perked up at the mention of the woods, but... It just wasn't there right now.

[my_own_advocate]

"Which made me think of you and then I went right back to being worried."

[okteiviakom]

"Don't need to worry."

Delivering that as anything other than a flat mutter might have helped.

[my_own_advocate]

"You're not exactly making your point well, darling."

[okteiviakom]

"I'm tired."

She would have shrugged if she'd had the energy.