Lucifer's Condo, LA, Wednesday

[okteiviakom]

For all that Octavia, Duke and Lucifer were in Los Angeles under a looming sense of foreboding like time was about to run out, there also seemed to be nothing but time. Octavia was doing her best to adjust, to build new routines away from the island. Going back to the ship to take care of her plants, finding hiking trails she liked (whenever the weather didn't feel like it was out to kill her), trying to -- just trying to stay busy. Keep active.

But some days the body felt like it needed to rest. And sometimes Octavia even gave into that instead of pushing forward. Today was one of those, so she was reading a book in Lucifer's living room, her back against the floor and her feet up on the couch.

Well, she was pretending to read, anyway.

See, there were downsides to letting herself be still - like how much louder it made all kinds of thoughts she'd been ignoring and repressing and holding back. Thoughts about things like Heaven, and Hell, and how it was July 2nd again and she didn't even know if Bellamy was alive like her or dead like their mother.

(Where was their mother?)

There was a certain kind of loneliness that didn't touch her often, but when it did, it hurt.

But at least she was holding her book the correct way up?

[ooc: NFB for distance, but open for all the usual.]

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

“Sometimes we humans can be inexplicable,” Duke said easily, waving his hand. “Anyway, yes. I would love to draw you. Probably repeatedly. I can’t promise they’ll be any good. . . .”

[okteiviakom]

"That doesn't matter to me," Octavia promised him. "It's a learned skill, right? Takes practice."

[betterthanaplan]

“Like most things,” Duke said by way of agreement. “I was decent enough as a kid, but I haven’t drawn anything in ages.”

The last thing he remembered drawing was a little Taco Tuesday sign for Luke’s, sometime after he first took it over.

[okteiviakom]

"So what made you think about coming back to it?"

[betterthanaplan]

“There was a group sketching in the park the other day. Just . . . hanging out, enjoying the sun, and drawing. And, like. The hell else do I have to do around here?”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's face went a little wry. "Yeah, don't I know it," she murmured. "There seems to be so much time."

[betterthanaplan]

“We are basically living easy on Lucifer’s dollar,” Duke said. “Even more so here than at home.”

[okteiviakom]

"What's that term?" Octavia replied, squinting at the ceiling as she tried to remember. "'Trophy wife'? That's a thing, right? Are we just being trophy wives right now?"

They weren't even being showed off, but she was working from an extremely vague understanding of the word.

(But Lucifer was chasing thing after thing around Los Angeles, and they were developing hobbies.)

[betterthanaplan]

"Well . . . not quite," Duke said, thinking. "We're not earning an income to support the family, so we're technically housewives, I think. Trophy wives are housewives who are inappropriately young."

[okteiviakom]

"I mean," Octavia sighed, still towards the ceiling. "What's an inappropriate age difference for a celestial?"

[betterthanaplan]

". . . Maybe in this case it has more to do with how much older he looks."

Which was zero percent older. They looked fairly well-matched, age-wise, right now.

[okteiviakom]

"Which isn't very," Octavia concluded, out loud.

She looked over at him, with a wry look in her eyes. "So... Housewives, huh?'

[betterthanaplan]

“The real housewives of LA Harbor,” Duke said. “We’re kept women. Ladies of leisure.”

He was kind of enjoying referring to himself this way.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't have quite enough ambient cultural knowledge to feel one way or the other.

But seeing him find something to amuse him in it... Well, that always a welcome experience to her.

"I guess my job is kind of on hold."

[betterthanaplan]

"I haven't even tried to manage the diner," Duke admitted. "But that's nothing new."

[okteiviakom]

"I guess I could take a shift at Lux," Octavia mused in return. "And you could have a... very private diner in Lucifer's kitchen."

[betterthanaplan]

"I think I'm okay with being a kept woman," Duke said. "I have my drawing to focus on!"

[okteiviakom]

"Does that mean I'm not getting fed?" Octavia deadpanned.

Because she could.

[betterthanaplan]

"I have every confidence in your ability to feed yourself," Duke said, giving her a wink. "And in your ability to ask nicely for your snogon to make you something."

[okteiviakom]

"Nicely?" Octavia retorted. "Are you sure about that?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Well, I was," Duke said, laughing. "Now maybe not so much."

[okteiviakom]

"You're lucky I'm not hungry right now," Octavia replied, trying to hold ono her drawl.

But she was giving his hand a squeeze almost without noticing that she was. Because he was laughing, and there were few sounds better than that in the whole wide multiverse.

[betterthanaplan]

"Oh yeah?" Duke pushed the bag of art supplies off his chest and rolled over to face her properly. "And what would I be facing if you were hungry?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia turned her head to face him a little more directly again, too. He was the best thing in the room, after all, and something was beginning to attempt to tug at her lips.

"A much less nice version of me."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke made a show of studying her carefully. (Not hard, he loved looking at her.)

"Nahhhhh," he said after a while. "You'd be nice."