The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Saturday afternoon

[betterthanaplan]

So. Duke had an appointment today. A very important appointment.

He was going to show a twelve year old his boat.

He'd spent a good chunk of last night scouring the Rouge for anything that could get Trixie in trouble -- or himself, for that matter, considering her mom was a cop, and after a walk on the beach and a chance to meet Danny's daughter, he'd come home to make the deck as cheerful and presentable as possible. He cleared off his laundry and strung up some flags instead (they spelled "welcome", not that he expected anyone else to know that), and made sure he had some kid-friendly snacks to offer once Trixie and Chloe arrived.

He was feeling kind of absurdly protective of them, in a way he refused to examine too closely. They were Lucifer's people. Lucifer wasn't around to make sure they were okay, and Chloe, at least, was clearly not okay. So Duke was just going to step in as pinch hitter and do what he could to . . . well, not make it better. But at least give her something else to think about for awhile.

(And if he could get a kid excited about sailing while he was at it, well. That was just a bonus.)

[expecting those mentioned in the post, but also open!]

Comments

[nohottubgirl]

Trixie had nearly picked a fight with Detective Williams' daughter, and Chloe was-- well, Chloe was glad she had something to distract her with, at least. Even if her head was still pounding.

"Oh my god, it's so big," Trixie gushed as they approached the ship.

Chloe adjusted her sunglasses. "It's a boat for moving goods from place to place, I think, munchkin."

[betterthanaplan]

"Fishing trawler, technically," Duke called, leaning against the gunwale and watching them walk up. "So -- yeah. Goods like fish."

And contraband. More of the latter than the former, really.

[nohottubgirl]

"So are you a fisherman?" Trixie asked, skipping up until she could jump onto the ship itself.

Chloe snorted, following at a much more sedate pace.

[betterthanaplan]

"I've been known to cast a line into the water," Duke said. "But I'm a . . . man of many trades."

To put it in as cop-friendly terms as possible.

"The Cape Rouge here's been decommissioned, though." He patted the gunwale and stood up straight. "So now she's a boat of many trades, too."

[nohottubgirl]

"Do you ever just get up and take it to Africa 'cause you can?" Trixie said, looking around at the deck and all the metal and stuff. It definitely looked sturdy enough.

"Africa's a big continent, monkey," Chloe said, faintly amused.

[betterthanaplan]

"Your mom's right," Duke said, and winked. "But yeah, I've totally done that."

[nohottubgirl]

Trixie considered him with interest. "So what's the most far-away place you've ever been to?"

[betterthanaplan]

"That depends entirely on your starting point," Duke pointed out. "But I did once make a delivery to Tristan da Cunha for a friend. It's this little group of islands about midway between South America and Africa, and it's the farthest away from any other place you can get to and still find other people to talk to."

[nohottubgirl]

"Did you run into any pirates?" Trixie asked, sounding very interested, before abruptly switching to, "...Wait, if you're away for that long, where do you sleep? Can you see the fish from there?"

Yeah. Yeah, Chloe was just fine with Duke sucking up all of Trixie's attention while she sipped from her third cup of coffee of the day.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke knew a hangover when he saw one, and he was happy to leave her to nurse it. And to give Trixie something to focus on other than her mother's hangover.

"I have run into pirates," Duke said. "They're not as fun as they sound. And I have a bedroom right here, though it's called a 'cabin' on a boat. And I have a kitchen and a bathroom and everything. You can see fish from them sometimes, when the fish jump up out of the water, but big boats like this have to have big thick hulls, so you don't really want to put windows under the water."

[nohottubgirl]

"Well, that's stupid," Trixie said. "That's like, the coolest thing of being on a boat, having fish everywhere."

She looked past Duke.

"Can I see anyway?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Sure." He'd made sure his staterooms were all nice and kid-friendly looking, too. "So long as you mom doesn't mind. And I might not be able to see the fish all the time, but that doesn't mean I can't tell they're there. And there's whales and sharks and birds and stuff, too. The ocean's all kinds of awesome, no matter what level of it you're on."

[nohottubgirl]

"Sounds like excuses," Trixie muttered.

"Of course you can go look in the boat," Chloe said, giving her an encouraging nod. "And don't be rude. He's showing you around his home."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke gave a little amused snort at the mutter. He liked this kid.

"We'll be back up in a bit," he told Chloe and opened the door to the galley. "After you, kid. We'll see if I can't convince you of my 'excuses'."

[nohottubgirl]

Trixie hopped down into the galley and looked around. Her muttering was forgotten again. "What's that? And ooh, this!"

... and now she was running around your galley poking at things, Duke.

[betterthanaplan]

He was very, very glad he'd cleaned up.

He answered all her questions, with special emphasis on all the places around the world he'd gotten each item.

". . . That's my iguana tank," he said. "I'm between iguanas right now, but I'm still keeping the plants alive until I get another one."

[nohottubgirl]

"Why haven't you gotten a new one?" Trixie asked. "Iguanas are cool."

[betterthanaplan]

"They're very cool," Duke agreed. "But I have to make sure I can take care of it properly, and I've been too busy to do that. It wouldn't be very fair if I couldn't give it the right amount of attention, right?"

[nohottubgirl]

Trixie shrugged. "I guess," she said, pulling away from the iguana cage. She walked back to Duke. "But don't you really want a pet? Mom says we're too busy all the time to take care of one too."

[betterthanaplan]

"Well, is what I want more important, or what an animal needs?" Duke asked. "And I kind of have pets. Have you met any of the porgs yet?"

[nohottubgirl]

"You mean the bird things? I saw some on the beach but Grace was being a chickenshit and didn't wanna lure them over because she thought the cookie would be bad for them," Trixie said, pouting.

What? Her mom wasn't in earshot!

[betterthanaplan]

"Grace was probably right about normal birds," Duke said, laughing. "But I've seen porgs eat anything. Let me see if I can find Polly. He's pretty friendly."

[nohottubgirl]

"I do wanna meet Polly," Trixie said, nodding. "But you should still totally get an iguana if you want one."

[betterthanaplan]

"I will take that under advisement," Duke assured her. "Let's see." He poked his head into his bedroom. "Polly? Where are you, strikon?"

Polly came waddling out, burbling.

"There you are, buddy." Duke squatted down and scooped the porg up, holding him out for Trixie to see. "Polly, this is Trixie. Trixie, Polly Lobster."

[nohottubgirl]

Trixie grinned in a way that lit up her whole face. "Hi, Polly," she said. "Why's your last name Lobster?"

She reached out to touch him.

[betterthanaplan]

"Because hallucinations lead to weird decisions," Duke said.

Polly was very used to people, and allowed her to pet him with little more than small grumble.

[nohottubgirl]

Trixie giggled, delighted. "Thanks, Polly," she told the porg very seriously. "I like you too."

[betterthanaplan]

"Clearly you both have excellent taste."

[nohottubgirl]

"Of course," Trixie said solemnly, scrunching her nose.