Lucifer's Mansion, Friday Evening

[okteiviakom]

A lot could happen in a week. Like Octavia doing a 180 on what she considered an appropriate venue for her and Duke's inaugural date night. Not that they hadn't had date nights before (although ones Octavia had probably refused to call that, with her own internal rules about language), but there were date nights, and there were date nights.

There were random events, and there were the beginnings of traditions.

(Hopeful ones, anyway.)

So there Octavia was, already at the house. She'd thought about cooking something herself, maybe paella like Lucifer had taught her to make once, but had ultimately decided against it. This all felt new enough as it was, without adding the unknown factor of her cooking into it.

The trusty Thai she'd ordered had arrived a moment or two ago, and was now sitting on the coffee table in the living room.

Now all she needed was her date.

[ooc: For that guy. No, not that one, the other one.]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

"I thought I did."

Well.

She'd implied it, anyway.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke gave a rough chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You might’ve noticed: I’m pretty dense about this stuff. You have to actually say it. Especially right now.”

[okteiviakom]

"I thought I was," Octavia repeated. "I'm doing the best that I can, but I can't answer questions I don't fully understand."

Though of course now she was getting that awful sinking feeling of what this all said about how he parsed safety, and how that reflected on the relationship they'd been in for years.

[betterthanaplan]

Safety was a spectrum to Duke. A scale from 1-99, never 0, never 100.

Octavia had always scored high on that scale. But what he was doing with Lucifer was as close to 99 that he’d been in a long, long time.

He slumped down onto the floor, leaning against the couch by her feet.

“Is it too late to start all this over?” Of course it was. “The conversation, I mean. And — yeah. I’ll make a new appointment with my therapist.”

[okteiviakom]

"That's a start," Octavia muttered. Murmured. Something.

No immediate comment on the other thing. She didn't know.

[betterthanaplan]

“Should have ages ago. I think I just wanted to pretend everything is all better for a bit longer.”

[okteiviakom]

"Therapy helps with that."

Said the big hypocrite who hadn't actually gone in for her appointments for the past handful of weeks.

She brushed her hair behind her ear. "It's hard but it's worth it."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded. "If I ask you something. Will you tell me the truth?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia raised her eyebrows a little.

"Probably," she offered.

This situation felt a little too fraught for honest answers to all questions.

[betterthanaplan]

That was fair.

"Has your trouble activated?"

[okteiviakom]

Yes, questions like that.

Her brow pulled into a frown again. He was going to worry about that now? (It was Duke, he'd likely never stopped.) "You don't even know if I have one."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke huffed. "Yeah. Our luck's not that good."

[okteiviakom]

"It might've brushed against Lucifer's wing on the way."

[betterthanaplan]

“Right.” Duke clearly didn’t buy it. “So I guess that’s a ‘no’, then.”

She’d tell him if it had. After all the — everything — they all knew the only way out of a trouble was talking it through. Addressing the emotional issues it was linked to.

[okteiviakom]

Maybe so, but they all also knew that if Duke caught even the slightest hint of something he could blame himself for, he was going to latch onto it and let it eat at him. And Octavia would rather deal with the trouble than watch him do that even more than he already was.

So she nodded.

"You'll know if it happens."

After all, who could hide a trouble?

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded, closing his eyes and leaning his head back on the couch.

“And we’ll deal.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shifted a little closer to him. Where her leg could press gently against his arm.

"Exactly."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke leaned, very slightly, into her leg.

“So. How do we salvage this Date Night?”

[okteiviakom]

"I don't know," Octavia said, on a sigh, but it wasn't anything like that anxiously evasive way she'd said it a few times, earlier. Softer, gentler.

She leaned forward a fraction, to put her hand on his shoulder. "How do we usually salvage things?"

[betterthanaplan]

“Little bit of this,” Duke said. “Talking softer. Little touches. I think that’s the start.”

[okteiviakom]

"So not just going up to Lucifer's bedroom and taking all our clothes off?" Octavia checked.

Clearly she'd regained at least some of her footing to be making a joke, wry as it was.

[betterthanaplan]

“I think that part comes later,” Duke said with a soft laugh. “But we can definitely end up there if you want to.”

[okteiviakom]

"I guess we'll see," Octavia said.

Her hand strayed from his shoulder to his hair, instead.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke tilted his head to give her a better angle.

“You know what this place needs?” he said idly.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't hesitate to take advantage of it, burying her fingers in his hair.

"What?"