The deck of the Cape Rouge, Monday afternoon

[betterthanaplan]

Duke had gone out that morning to pick up a treat for Octavia, something to -- well, not cheer her up, there wasn't much that would do that right now, but to maybe take her mind off things for a moment, at least. He'd gotten a little side tracked, what with running into Danny with a damn hole in his side and all, but he was back now, with fresh fruit tart from JGOB and a pumpkin spice latte from the Perk.

Which he'd happily hand off to her once he was done with this very unexpected phone call.

"Okay, so. If this is for Audrey's birthday, why isn't Audrey inviting me?"

Dave sputtered for several moments, before getting around to mentioning that it was a surprise birthday party. Duke would suspect ulterior motives, but couldn't think of what Dave Teagues of all people stood to gain from him coming back to Haven. (They hadn't even bonded over the Oprah Winfrey thing yet!)

[mostly for one, but also open!]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

Well if he had his phone out, then he might see the text Rey sent, consisting of a picture of a lush green forest populated by green-furred sentient bunnies carrying equipment.

She hadn't sent pictures from home in a while.

[betterthanaplan]

He did, once he finished with Dave. And it brightened up his day.

right so that is maybe the cutest thing I've ever seen

[thatwaslucky]

They had to put down their weapons while carrying sensitive equipment

Was that better or worse?

[betterthanaplan]

so you're saying they're SMART green bunny things.

A little of both?

[thatwaslucky]

Very. they're the friendliest people I've ever met too

[betterthanaplan]

I need to know everything about these suckers

[thatwaslucky]

They're Zixon! Everything here is very large and hungry so these guys live in underground cities. The empire built a weapons lab on their planet so they want us to get everything out

[betterthanaplan]

REBEL. BUNNIES.

[thatwaslucky]

YES

Then, not sure they know what bunnies are

[betterthanaplan]

their idiot cousins? Duke offered. why are so many species in your galaxy weirdly cute?

[thatwaslucky]

genetics?

[betterthanaplan]

some environmental force that reinforces the 'cute' genes. . . .

[thatwaslucky]

It's worth it. you should see them fight things.

Adorable murder bunnies.

[okteiviakom]

Yeah, Octavia had rage-screamed about as soon as they'd made it home to the Rouge, last night. And then she'd seemed to just -- deflate. And that was about where she'd still been this morning, too.

And where she appeared to be now, as she made her way up to the deck, summoned by the sound of Duke's voice signaling he'd returned. Quiet and mild.

[betterthanaplan]

"On the Knot?" Duke was saying. ". . . Huh, you know that actually sounds kind of nice. Who all will be there?" He looked up and flicked Octavia a smile. "Ah. Right, okay. Look, can I get back to you? . . . Yeah, well, that's what happens when you wait until the day before to invite a guy. Alright. Yeah, I'll call you back."

He hung up and held up the coffee and pastry bag.

"I brought you something."

[okteiviakom]

"Mochof," Octavia replied as she reached for them, but it sounded like an afterthought. Probably because of the next thing she said. "Invite a guy where?"

She sounded kind of wary, like she already didn't want to hear the answer.

[betterthanaplan]

That was deeply valid. Duke held his phone up with a sigh.

"Dave Teagues is throwing a surprise birthday party for Audrey. Wants me to be there."

You know. In Haven. Where people kept trying to kill him.

[okteiviakom]

"In Haven."

Yeah, she wanted that actually out there. In Haven.

[betterthanaplan]

"Technically more like . . . several miles off the coast of Haven?" Duke offered. ". . . But yeah. It's Haven."

[okteiviakom]

"Isn't Dave one of the local squirrels?" Octavia asked, her eyebrows barely raised.

And yes, she had, at one point, known the word 'journalist'. But, yeah.

"Why is he inviting you?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Because I lived next door to her for the better part of a month and he noticed we were friends." Duke shrugged. "Apparently 'friends of Audrey' are pretty thin on the ground, since mostly all she does is work. They're even inviting along the ME's daughter, just to have more people Audrey's own age."

[okteiviakom]

"Right."

There was a long silence.

Not because Octavia was holding anything back, for once, but because she genuinely did not know what she thought about this.

"Are you going?" she asked, eventually.

[betterthanaplan]

"Could be fun," Duke said, with a hesitant little shrug. "It's going to be at this old resort. Just the party guests and the owner, no one else on the whole island. I haven't been out there myself, but it's supposed to be really pretty."

And not full of reminders of Lucifer, which might help her mood.

He was absolutely just assuming she'd come with him if he did, yeah.

[okteiviakom]

He should maybe say so, because all Octavia had heard was that he was wanted there. And everything that had been going on lately hadn't made her very likely to assume she was being included in anything.

"Well," she rasped. "If you think you'll have fun."

(Never mind a part of her was immediately terrified of the idea of letting him go.)

[betterthanaplan]

Oh yeah, he wasn't missing that 'you'll' there. He moved to drop his arm around her shoulder. "We'll have fun," he said. "You think I'm going to leave you behind after this weekend? Not a chance."