Lucifer's Mansion, Friday Evening

[okteiviakom]

After talking to Lucifer in the morning, Octavia had taken off, for New York, and Dr. Baker's office. The session had been... Well, there'd been a lot of decompressing to do, put it that way. The obvious elephant in the room, why she'd skipped out on so many weeks of sessions. Octavia had been truthful about her reasons up to a point. Skirting around the trouble, disguising it as an inability to do something important to her. It wasn't like that was something that hadn't happened before, after all.

She'd also said she thought she was on the right track, now. That something had been worked out, a way forward.

She'd promised to come in again next week. Report on her progress.

Then she'd left.

And she'd found a convenient place near her chosen part of Central Park to carefully put on her salve, on every exposed part of her skin - which wasn't much. Her hands up to her wrists, and whatever parts of her face and neck weren't safely and securely covered by her beanie and her hoodie. She was taking no chances, and neither was she about to use up more than she had to of such a precious resource.

Once done, she'd set a timer on her phone. 35 minutes.

And she'd gone into the woods. Skittish and careful about touching things, at first, just barely brushing fingertips against low-hanging branches, only to get bolder as it became more and more obvious that Ivy's magic (science, she was well aware it was science) was working.

And once her 35 minutes were up, she'd found another place to cry in peace.

And all that done, come evening, Octavia was back on the island. She'd had plans to cook something simple, but with her brain so thoroughly shaken by the entire day she'd had... A big vegetarian pizza had just arrived at the house.

Just in time for Duke to arrive, too.

[ooc: Stuff under the cut is NFB, but everything else is fair game! For that guy.]

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

“Ooo, pizza,” Duke said coming in. “Or something else that smells like tomato sauce and cheese, anyway.”

[okteiviakom]

"It's pizza," Octavia called back - right before poking her head out from the doorway leading into the living room. She had nothing to watch over, so might as well meet him halfway. "And I've got something nice for dessert, too."

[betterthanaplan]

“Oh yeah?” Duke went over to give her a kiss. “Is it a surprise?”

[okteiviakom]

"Do you want it to be?" Octavia asked, while her hands found his waist and immediately curled into his shirt, tugging him close.

The excitement of the day may have been bleeding through, just a little.

[betterthanaplan]

She was clearly in a good mood, yeah. More so than he’d seen her for awhile.

“Sure,” he decided. “Surprises can be fun:”

[okteiviakom]

"Okay, then I'll keep it a surprise," Octavia told him, and brushed another kiss against his lips. "Just don't build it up as anything big in your head."

[betterthanaplan]

“Small surprise,” Duke said, nodding. He dropped another kiss on her hair. “Gotcha. Where should we eat?”

[okteiviakom]

"It's pizza," Octavia replied, openly amused in a way she hadn't been in a while. Her hands insistent in keeping him close. "We can basically have it on the floor if we want."

[betterthanaplan]

It was quite the shift! Duke thought maybe her therapy had gone extra well.

“That’s true. Do you want to eat it on the floor?”

[okteiviakom]

"Sure," Octavia replied, with one of her tiny smirks. "Because why not?"

[betterthanaplan]

“Because why not,” Duke agreed, though a tiny crease appeared between his eyebrows.

She hadn’t been in a mood like this in he didn’t know how long.

He told himself firmly not to overthink it and headed to get the pizza. “You had a good day, huh?”

[okteiviakom]

"If you can call therapy good," Octavia replied, one of her hands lingering on him until he pulled too far away. Only then did she actually follow him. (He would find the pizza on the counter in the kitchen, still in its box.) "But I went to Central Park, after."

And he knew how she was about nature.

(Just not how she was about it after two months of keeping her distance.)

[betterthanaplan]

“Ah,” Duke said, nodding. he picked up the pizza box, looked around, then sat on the floor with it right there. “Was it your first time?”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave a soft snort, not displeased, at how fast he'd picked a spot. As for Octavia herself, she got two bottles out of the fridge and opened them before joining him on the floor.

"Not the first time," she said, offering him one of the non-alcoholic ciders. (Artisanal and nice, and on Lucifer's credit card bill.) "But still one of the first."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke accepted the cider with a smile of thanks. “Good. I’d hate to think you were in New York all the time and, like, didn’t know the park was there or something.”

[okteiviakom]

"No, I know it's there," Octavia replied, with a touch of something wry. "I just usually don't feel like I have the energy."

She nodded towards the pizza box, urging him to open it as she took a sip.

[betterthanaplan]

“Therapy is exhausting,” Duke said with a nod as he obediently opened the box. “But the woods are always so . . . restorative for you. I’m glad you had the energy to go today.”

[okteiviakom]

It was a nice vegetarian pizza, hot and fresh and yes, loaded with both tomato sauce and cheese, although those weren't all that was one there.

"Yeah," Octavia murmured, softer. "Me too."

Probably wouldn't be great if she started crying about it here, too, right?

She reached for a slice.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke wouldn’t hold it against her if she did. He sometimes wanted to cry when he had his first swim in a while.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” he asked, pulling out a slice and offering it to her.

[okteiviakom]

"The park?" Octavia replied, as she took the slice - carefully, but for no other reason other than that it was warm.

And, okay, because she didn't want to drop it on the floor or something.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke noted the lack of relative ceremony and decided to take it as a good sign.

“Sure,” he said, picking up a piece of his own. “I haven’t been in forever, and I definitely haven’t seen the whole thing.”

[okteiviakom]

"Neither have I," Octavia replied. "And I picked one of the... woodsier parts, today."

Big surprise.

[betterthanaplan]

“Good,” Duke said, watching her face as he sipped his cider. “Those are some of your favorites.”

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah, they are," Octavia agreed, with a softness she didn't try to hide, because why bother? That part was no secret. "There's just something about... old trees."

[betterthanaplan]

“Some time I want to take you out west,” Duke mused. “Check out the red woods. A lot of the really l’s trees are gone, but there’s still some out there that are older than a lot you’ll see on this coast.”