The Cape Rouge, Friday Morning

[okteiviakom]

Octavia hadn't been sleeping well. Night after night, she kept waking up every hour and a half or so, just to make sure she could still hear two other people breathing in bed with her. If they were quiet, she would hold her own breath until she was sure she could hear them, or she felt them move, or something.

It wasn't making for very restful nights, but she'd survive. She always did.

Granted, on Friday morning, that survival involved giving up on trying to stay asleep, slipping quietly out of bed and making her way into the galley. She got the coffee going, because she might as well. If actual rest wasn't going to give her energy, then maybe caffeine would at least keep her going.

She'd also made sure to leave the bedroom door open more than enough that if anyone else was awake, or woke up, they would either be able to hear her puttering away, or at the very least be able to smell the coffee sooner rather than later.

She hadn't vanished. She wasn't going to let anyone think she had, either.

(It felt like the least she could do.)

[ooc: For the two.]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

Octavia leaned into him as soon as he was there. Even past the kiss. The coffee was done, anyway, it didn't need her. And the fruit she'd been very carefully chopping up on a board with very limited use of her right hand? Those could wait, too.

"Ha yun," she said, her voice still a little extra raspy from (attempts to) sleep.

[betterthanaplan]

"Ha yun," he said in return, fingers tracing circles on her back. "How's your hand?"

[okteiviakom]

"Still attached to my arm," Octavia replied, managing a tiny wry smile for him. "So could be worse."

[betterthanaplan]

"Could be worse," Duke agreed. "How'd you sleep?"

He knew the answer. But wondered what she'd say.

[okteiviakom]

"Not great," Octavia replied, her good hand rubbing idly at his side. "It's fine, I'll live."

[betterthanaplan]

"You will," Duke agreed. "Not sure it's 'fine', though." He rubbed her back again. "Anything I can do to help?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shrugged one shoulder. "You're here, aren't you?" she replied, a little softer, a little more quiet.

It was enough for her.

[betterthanaplan]

"I am," Duke agreed, bending down to kiss her hair again. "And I'm going to be as long as I can."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia slid her arms around him more, even the one where she was minding her hand. Leaned against his chest.

"That's all I'm asking of you."

Right now.

[betterthanaplan]

"If you think of something else later," Duke said. "If it's something I can give, I'll do it."

[okteiviakom]

"I know," Octavia told him, rubbing his back now a little bit in turn. "I know, jaka. It's... sort of your thing."

[betterthanaplan]

"Well, it definitely was," Duke agreed. "But I'm like . . . fresh new Duke. Duke 2.0. Maybe this time . . . I'll at least be better about asking."

And letting the answer be that, no, there was nothing special he could do to fix things.

[okteiviakom]

That was apparently enough to make Octavia tilt her chin up so she could see his face again.

"We have a... new version?" she asked.

Something careful about her tone.

[betterthanaplan]

"I died," Duke said simply. "I didn't come back as a seagull or a fish, but I came back. New life, new Duke." He smiled. "Better Duke."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's gut was twisting again. She just felt... unsettled, maybe.

She didn't entirely manage to keep it off her face, even as she reached up to cup his cheek with her unbandaged hand.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke frowned a little, but leaned into her touch.

"What is it?"

[okteiviakom]

The urge to not try and elaborate was a familiar one.

But:

"You're new?" Octavia asked, quietly, cradling his face.

[betterthanaplan]

“I think so. I . . . feel new.”

[okteiviakom]

"How?" Octavia murmured. "How does that feel?"

[betterthanaplan]

“Like . . . there’s a weight I used to carry. For so long I forgot it was there. And now it’s gone.” He moved the hand not on her back to trace the line of her brow with a thumb. “I feel weightless.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's eyes closed. Just a side effect of him touching her face.

Mostly.

"Sounds... freeing."

For some reason it actually sounded untethered, to her, but she knew better than to say so. Would've just been the knot in her stomach speaking.

[betterthanaplan]

‘Untethered’ wasn’t the worst word for it. It was one that, considering how many people had tried to tie him down against his will, Duke would be happy to take up.

“I think so,” he agreed. “Luce and I tested it. I’m trouble-free. Gloria said Haven’s quieted down, too.”

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah, you said." About Gloria. Octavia knew she needed to call her too, but so far she'd been pushing it off. (The odds that she was going to end up sobbing through it were... not small.) "But, you tested it?"

She could guess how.

[betterthanaplan]

“Yeah. I kind of had, like. A mini-freak out about it and Lucifer pointed out there was an easy way to check.”

[okteiviakom]

"And you were fine?"

He'd already said so. Let her ask anyway, so she could hear it again.

(Also so she could focus more on that than -- whatever else had just been on her mind.)