Lucifer's Mansion, Sunday Evening

[okteiviakom]

It had been a weird week. And one where Octavia had spent most of it convinced that there would absolutely not be a date night at the end of it. Not because anyone had told her so, but because she'd convinced herself so.

And then just earlier on Sunday, Lucifer had convinced her otherwise.

So here she was.

And here they were. Curled up on the couch, the most casual setting possible for eating the simple, fruity meal Octavia had (somewhat) requested Lucifer to make for dinner. They were almost all the way through it, already. Octavia was having to chase some of the things on her plate around with her fork to get them on it.

"Should make this again."

It was high praise.

[ooc: For that guy.]

Comments

[my_own_advocate]

"I'll make a note of it," Lucifer promised, with his habitual odd seriousness on such topics. "Though we are reaching the end of plum season, unfortunately."

He took the very last bite of his curry.

[okteiviakom]

"They'll be back next year," Octavia replied. Whether it was genuine belief in the future, or one of the more rote responses she'd been doling for a lot of interactions over the past couple of weeks... Maybe it was somewhere in the middle? Something she wanted to believe. "We can wait."

That, too.

[my_own_advocate]

"Starts again in May," Lucifer allowed, "Not too long, really."

He nudged his bowl aside and made himself more comfortable against her on the couch, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia leaned into it, although not so much as to make it difficult to get those last few bites in that she had left. That would happen soon, though.

"Six months feels long," she said, right before the second-to-last bite ended up in her mouth.

[my_own_advocate]

"You have a better sense of that sort of thing than I do," Lucifer said.

For obvious reasons, really.

[okteiviakom]

"Mmh, I figure I do," Octavia agreed, with a little hum. "Six months must be... almost nothing, comparatively."

She found herself thinking back on something from the day before. Inevitable, really.

[my_own_advocate]

"A blink of an eye," Lucifer agreed. "And a stretch of eternity. Like any span of time, really."

[okteiviakom]

"Any, really?"

And the last bite, to be savored.

[my_own_advocate]

"That's the thing about being immortal," Lucifer pointed out. "Time stops mattering, for the most part."

He watched her eat for a moment, then added, "It's different, of course, now that I'm here. Time matters more to me because it matters to you."

[okteiviakom]

"What about two thousand years?"

An oddly specific number, way outside of her natural life span. Octavia was aware.

She also licked her fork clean before setting it aside with her bowl. It was for taste reasons, not a show.

[my_own_advocate]

"Under most circumstances, gone in a moment, but also stretching out forever," Lucifer said.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave a vague hum, and settled against him more, taking full advantage of his arm around her shoulders.

Thinking.

[my_own_advocate]

"Why?" Lucifer asked, after a moment or so.

[okteiviakom]

"I saw pictures yesterday," Octavia replied, quietly. "Of paintings... Murals, painted that long ago. And then buried in ash almost since then, only dug up recently."

She paused.

"It made me think of you."

Among other things.

(Kom folau oso na gyon op had not been lost on her, either. And that was just one.)

[my_own_advocate]

"Well," Lucifer said. Attempting to unravel that. "I suppose sometimes beautiful things may be lost to time temporarily, but not lost-- to themselves."

[okteiviakom]

Best of luck. Octavia had been unraveling it since the day before.

"And something can be preserved so long and still look the same," she added. "Generations of humans coming and going."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer let out a soft huff. "Seeing the same thing," he said.

[okteiviakom]

"Metaphorically, anyway," Octavia replied, "for this one, since it was buried for so long."

Not without significance on its own, that part. Of course.

"But there were people seeing it then," she added, softer, "and me seeing it now."

[my_own_advocate]

"I wonder if that changes it," Lucifer mused. "The person who sees it. Being seen."

[okteiviakom]

"Considering how often humans see what they want to see," Octavia replied, with a bit of a rasp, "no, but yes."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer looked at her.

"So what do you see when you look at me?" he wondered.

[okteiviakom]

Sure, Luce, ask the easy questions.

But Octavia met his gaze. Briefly, at least, before it moved to take in the rest of his face, as she thought about it.

"Someone I love," she said. "Someone safe." Yes, even with what he'd found out about her reactions earlier in the day. "You have eyes that see and ears that hear. And you're beautiful."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer's mouth curved into a small smile.

He kissed her.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia should probably have expected that reaction.

She hadn't.

But she kissed him back, leaning into it. Like she felt the need to reassure him about something.

[my_own_advocate]

"I used to think of you all as mayflies," Lucifer murmured, his thumb brushing a line along her cheek, down to her jaw. "Now I realize you are all little universes."