The Cape Rouge, Later Friday Afternoon

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had urged Lucifer to fly Duke back to the boat. Something about safety, and security, and a defendable spot that was closed off and sort of separate from the rest of the island --

So in one word: control. Which Octavia was grasping for, had been grasping for from just about the second she'd laid eyes on Mara at Selkie Peak. Something she'd thought she'd had, with the portal idea, only to immediately find out how wrong she'd been.

Making Lucifer get Duke home as soon as possible had been another flaily attempt at it.

Of course, as Octavia had come to realize very soon after, it meant she'd had to let both of them out of her sight. She didn't know if Duke had come to yet. Didn't know anything, except that this was the fastest she'd ever crossed the island, trying to race an angel back to port.

Her heart was thumping like thunder in her ears and her lungs ached when she burst onto, then into the Cape Rouge.

And yet: "Lucifer! Is he still out?"

[ooc: For the two modded with permission! Follows this. Note to squirrels: That Octavia and Lucifer got Duke back to the boat is fine for broadcast, everything else NFB pls and thank you!]

Comments

[my_own_advocate]

So they stayed there, for a while.

At least until the anger had faded enough that the concern - not just for her, but also for Duke - began to gnaw, and Lucifer pulled back out of their embrace.

He let out a sigh.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia let go of him, straightened up, all of it less like it was a choice and more like it was automatic.

"He said he wouldn't go anywhere," she said, voice quiet and flat.

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, that's novel," Lucifer muttered.

Wishing he could do something to snap her out of it.

[okteiviakom]

It was likely shielding him from dry and potentially unkind commentary right now. So it wasn't all bad.

But of course that meant there was nothing at all. Not even the shrug Octavia's shoulders felt too heavy for. So, instead, she just moved to get back up.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer dropped his head back one last time. He took a deep breath.

Then he pushed himself to his feet, too. (An old, contrarian part of him still wanted to just storm out in the other direction and have a good sulk back at the mansion. It would be comforting, wouldn't it? At least it was something he bloody well knew how to do.)

[okteiviakom]

Octavia watched impassively as he did that.

Then she reached for the handle on the door again, and looked up at him. It was as much of a warning that she was going to open the door as the initial knock had also been.

[my_own_advocate]

"Octavia," Lucifer called. "You don't-- have to put yourself in the middle of this."

She could just stay here.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave him a blank look, not too far off from the dry ones she often favored.

Then she opened the door and stepped out.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed.

Steeled himself.

And followed.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke, true to his word, hadn’t gone anywhere. He was still kneeling on the floor, in fact — curled over in what in a yoga studio would be called child’s pose, were it not for how his face was pressed into one arm on the floor, the other wrapped around his head and his hand fisted again in his hair.

He’d been crying. Silently. Ears tuned to the sound of the door so he could pull himself together again when Octavia came back out.

But when he heard it, he found he couldn’t. All he could manage was to hold still, breathing wetly, and wait for her reaction.

[okteiviakom]

It should probably have hurt, seeing him like that. Maybe the memory still would, later. But here in the moment, Octavia just made her way over to him, and sat down next to him on the floor.

Reached out with one hand to rub at his back.

[my_own_advocate]

Duke's face was pressed to his face. Octavia was looking at him.

Lucifer lingered in the entranceway, unseen, his expression filling with a bottomless exhaustion, then pain, then a sense of soul-deep worthlessness, before finally smoothing over into something even.

Something he'd been perfecting for much longer than they'd been alive.

He walked to them. Squatted.

"You should get some rest," he said.

[betterthanaplan]

Lucifer had come out, too. Lucifer, who Duke thought was tired of having to take care of him. Lucifer, who Duke was convinced thought he did this on purpose.

Duke had to get his shit together.

He grit his teeth, sucking in a breath.

He didn't get up. Not yet. Not until he was done crying.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's free hand found... some part of Lucifer. His knee. She wasn't looking.

Her other hand slid up along Duke's back until it found the hand that was in his hair. Rubbed over it, tried to get it to loosen up.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer patted her hand, then gently nudged it aside. As far as he could tell, Duke wasn't going to get his shit together. Not right now, and likely not for the next few hours.

So he moved forward, and tried to scoop the man up off the floor, into his arms.

[betterthanaplan]

Shit.

Duke jerked, pulling away. "Don't." It came out choked. "Don't -- you don't want to --"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia drew both her hands away onto her lap, and just sat back.

Waited to see how the next minute would play out without her involvement.

[my_own_advocate]

"Pick you up and take you to bed? I absolutely do want to do that," Lucifer said. He wasn't so desperate to go chasing after Duke, but his arms were still extended, his eyebrows raised.

[betterthanaplan]

He was still going to pretend, was he.

Duke forced himself to uncurl, though he still kept his eyes on the floor, rather than looking at either of them.

"I'm not going to be a burden."

[okteiviakom]

Never mind, then.

Octavia's voice was as flat as it had been for while now:

"He doesn't think you're a burden."

[my_own_advocate]

"She is right, I don't," Lucifer said flatly. "In fact, if you do not stop shadowboxing with the insecurities in your own head and let me take you to bed and take care of you right now so I can stop feeling bloody useless, I will actually walk away, you stubborn idiot."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke had grown up alone. Literally alone. There were cracks -- fault lines -- in his head and heart and the argument with Lucifer had set his entire being into an earthquake.

And it hadn't exactly been that stable before.

Part of him wanted to yell some more. To tell Lucifer to stop telling him how to be. But that threat, that Lucifer would walk out --

He'd been half convinced that had already happened.

He gagged faintly, but held still, cramped and shaking, and waited.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia looked to Lucifer.

Waited, too.

[my_own_advocate]

And Lucifer had spent his childhood at the mercy of a Father who threw around the word 'love' like it meant something, insisted he was acting for his children's own good, and yet never actually supplied what they needed.

After over a year-- years-- of sometimes shouting, sometimes asking, sometimes begging Duke to stop being so rash with his life, to talk to Lucifer about pains they had in common, of Duke offering 'I love you's and 'what do you need's when all Lucifer wanted was for the future to stop feeling like it was crumbling under his feet, to feel like he genuinely mattered enough to--

...

He wasn't thinking about that right now. He just scooped Duke up and got to his feet, walking Duke into the bedroom.

Couldn't stand to see Duke so broken, so he had to do something.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke would give almost anything to be less broken. But he honestly didn't understand what was so wrong with him wanting to help everyone.

(Danny had tried, once upon a time. To teach him about boundaries. It hadn't really stuck, no.)

Audrey was gone. Who knew what had happened to Nathan, to Gloria, to Dwight with Mara running amuck in Haven. He couldn't lose anyone else. He couldn't.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. "Don't leave."