The Cape Rouge, Wednesday afternoon

[betterthanaplan]

So. Duke had had kind of a trying couple of days. What with being arrested at yoga yesterday morning and then spending this morning in jail. He was reasonably certain that the new cop now knew he hadn't abducted Larceny? But he was definitely not about to trust the guy to do more than at best harass him in the future.

Mostly, he was just very, very glad to be home.

"I need, like, six showers," he muttered, flopping down onto his couch instead of heading for the sad room bathroom. "And possibly need to move anything that could be mistaken for contraband."

Later. Right now he mostly needed to breathe and just be at home.

[open! mmm, aftermath.]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

"Later," Octavia said, unknowingly agreeing with his narrative. "You deserve downtime."

Never mind that she kind of still looked like she wished she was doing something, like she was barely keeping herself from pacing around.

Hadn't even unstrapped the sword from her back yet.

[betterthanaplan]

"You know, I'm impressed," Duke said, slouching down so he was almost lying on the couch as he watched her pace. "You didn't stab him."

He would have put money on Danny coming away from their conversation with at least a bruise.

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah, well." Okay, she was really pacing, wasn't she? "I thought about what Gloria would have wanted."

Don't be mistaken, she was pretty sure Gloria would have been in favor of her punching dicks. She just also thought she would have been in favor of not making things worse.

[betterthanaplan]

"So . . . for you not to get arrested too," Duke said. "Good call."

He reached for her hand as she went by, hoping to tug her down onto the couch with him. "Hey. C'mere."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia let him take her hand, and stopped, but didn't go with the tugging right away. Just made a little noise of protest that wasn't really protest. She was just having a hard time winding down.

There had been a lot of missed calls on his phone when he'd gotten it back. All through the night.

[betterthanaplan]

And every one of them made his heart hurt a little more.

He'd been arrested plenty of times. This was the first time he'd had someone on the outside who really cared about it.

"Hey," he said again, voice soft. He gave her hand a squeeze. "Do you want to beat up my duffel bag for a little while?"

He'd prefer if she'd just hug him, but she'd once offered to let him beat up a tree, so he was pretty sure which way she'd prefer to expend that energy.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shook her head. "No."

But she didn't move, even as her fingers tried twining themselves with his.

Then she amended it to, "I don't know." There was pent-up violence inside her, she just wasn't sure she wanted to let it out now that she'd kept it from its intended target.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'd offer to spar, but I don't think I have the energy," Duke said, and gave her a little smile. "Plus you'd kick my ass."

And they'd both spend the time paranoid about setting off his trouble again.

[okteiviakom]

"You don't like sparring, anyway." Plus, that whole trouble thing. Yeah. "You should rest."

[betterthanaplan]

"I'm planning to," Duke said. "Planning to get a little bit trashed, too." He tugged on her hand again. "I'd like it if you joined me, so I'm trying to find a good way to get you into the right headspace."

[okteiviakom]

Something about Octavia seemed to shift somehow upon her hearing that. She finally looked directly at him again - actually, for the first time since they'd made it back home.

"You shouldn't be having to try and solve me," she said. She pulled her hand free, gently, but didn't move away.

She just needed both her hands for removing the scabbard from her back.

[betterthanaplan]

"I don't do anything I don't want to do," Duke said. ". . . Besides occasionally get arrested and spend a night in jail."

That didn't count.

[okteiviakom]

"It's not about want, snogon," Octavia told him softly.

She lay her sword down carefully by the couch, then shrugged off her jacket.

It was like removing armor.

[betterthanaplan]

"It's not about 'have to'," Duke countered, watching her with a keen eye. "You take care of me, I take care of you. That's how it works."

[okteiviakom]

"But you shouldn't, right now."

Octavia set the jacket aside, then bent down to unlace her heavy boots. Straightened up, kicked them off. All that remained was a basic tank and jeans combo.

Not a warrior. Just a girl.

She held her hand out for him again.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke took it without hesitation. "Why not?" he asked, gently teasing.

He was home. He had his snogon. Tonight would likely be a bit rough, but right now? He had everything he needed in the world.

[outofherdepths]

Larceny shuffled into the room. "Should I go away to the room service?" she asked quietly.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke looked up at her with a small smile. "Only if you want to."

[outofherdepths]

"I will not be in the way?" she asked, hands twisting nervously.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke glanced from her to Octavia. "If you are, I'll let you know. Or we can work around you. This is your home too. I shouldn't just . . . kick you out whenever I feel like it."

[outofherdepths]

That only make Larceny feel worse, but she couldn't explain why. Not without explaining everything he'd forgotten. But he only meant it when he didn't know what she really was.

"Okay," she said, shuffling over to a chair to sit. "Duke, was this my fault?"

[betterthanaplan]

"No," Duke said firmly. "This was the detective's fault."

[outofherdepths]

"But I talked to him," she said. "Did I do a dumb thing?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Did you know he was a cop when you talked to him?"

[outofherdepths]

Larceny glanced down and away, her usual trademark when she wasn't going to answer a question. But then she nodded. "I did not know that anything I said was bad," she told him. "I thought I was telling him good things!"