first one who touches the ground loses

Bellamy had been the main topic of Octavia's therapy appointments last week. Nothing surprising about that, considering everything his birthday had managed to drag up from about the length of Octavia's entire life. Today's session was much the same: all kinds of hard things about the Blakes, their impossible family.

And afterwards, Octavia had finally gone swimming again. Not at her usual pool, though. Another one, a more remote one, one where the strangers were even more like strangers because she had no intention of ever going back.

It had been nice.

She'd missed it.

She missed a lot of things, and was still thinking about some of them as she made her way aboard the Cape Rouge again, her bag slung over her shoulder. She stopped on the deck, and just breathed deep, looking up towards the sky.

[ooc: Open!]

( Well, Octavia had finally managed to use yesterday's quiet to actually complete her homework )

And when she got back on the island, there was no hesitation, this time: she went right to the Rouge. She knew Duke and Lucifer had had a date night last night, so she wasn't surprised to find the ship deserted. Had expected it, even. Counted on it? Either way, it meant she could kick off her shoes and shrug off her jacket and head right into the bedroom where she could crawl in bed and curl up on top of the covers.

She figured she'd just soak something up here for a moment. Rest her eyes for five minutes, then maybe decide on something else to do.

... She was out like a light mere moments later.

[ooc: Under the cut NFB for off-the-islandness, natch. Open for fellow boat-dwellers, or I guess if you really want to take this moment to break in...]

This wasn't going to be Octavia's usual day for this. There was going to be a usual day for this, but this wasn't it. This was just the earliest time Dr. Baker's assistant had been able to book for her after the (hard, embarrassing, desperate?) phone call on Wednesday afternoon.

( It had been harder to come here without Lucifer backing her up, this time. But everything was hard, these days. )

To say Octavia was exhausted by the time she got back to the island in the early evening would have been... Look, she'd been exhausted for at least this entire week. It was nothing new. She walked back to port on autopilot. Sat down on the Samsara for about five minutes, then decided it felt like the wrong place to be. But she didn't w-- she figured Duke and Lucifer were on the Rouge, and for all that one part of her longed to go over and get wrapped up in the warmth of them, she didn't want to have to talk about her day.

Whatever reaction they'd have, she was sure it would break her apart again.

So she grabbed they key with the Los Angeles key chain, and she walked across town, all the way to Lucifer's mansion, where she quietly let herself in. The sneaking around was out of habit than anything else, but it soon became clear the house wasn't actually empty. She could hear them, in the living room.

And she hovered, for a moment, by the door. Indecisive, yearning again, teetering between biting the bullet and joining them, and just leaving.

Then she chose a third option: she headed up the stairs, quietly and slowly. Made her way up into the guest room, shed her street clothes, and climbed in the bed. Curled up under the covers, and let the distant, muffled noise from the living room lull her off to sleep.

This was good enough.

[ooc: Off-island portion NFB, open for those in the house.]