The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, early Saturday morning

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was a pony. Duke was a pony. Octavia was human again and Duke was a goddamn talking unicorn with clipart on his butt.

This was not Duke's best morning ever.

For instance, he was, in fact, having a great deal of trouble working out how to open -- literally anything, but especially the doors on his boat -- without hands.

It was a good thing Lucifer was coming over. When he got there, he'd be able to find Duke easily enough, based on all the shouting and kicking the door he was doing.

[for that darling devil]

Comments

[my_own_advocate]

Yes. Yes, Duke was hard to miss.

Lucifer wandered onto the boat, down into the belly of the damned thing, and reached for the door to Duke's cabin.

He probably should have forewarned Duke before he yanked it open, but, oh well.

[betterthanaplan]

Did you want to get kicked in the face by a horse, Lucifer? Because this was how you got kicked in the face by a horse.

"GODDAMN SON OF A BITCH!" Duke was shouting. He tried to pull that kick at the last moment, but he was still pretty new to this whole being a horse thing.

[my_own_advocate]

They were both lucky that despite Lucifer's spoiled rich guy aesthetic, he was actually an ancient celestial with superhuman reflexes, because he swerved away from Duke's hoof just in time to see it soaring past him.

"Right," he said. "Clearly, I should have also brought the pot."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke went trotting storming right past him. Only to stop in the galley and stare mournfully at the french press he was definitely not going to be able to use right now.

"Did she take some food? I told her to take some food."

He managed to pry his fridge open with his hoof, but was too flustered to remember exactly what had been in there the night before. There was still fruit in there, anyway.

[my_own_advocate]

"I brought both hay and a sandwich," Lucifer said, gesturing at the counter behind Duke.

He secured the hatch door as well as he could - if it fell shut again, Duke would be right back where he'd started.

"She told me she took money."

[betterthanaplan]

"You talked to her?" Duke spun. And managed to knock everything off his countertop with his tail. "Is she okay? She's not a pony too, is she?"

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed, walking past the pony to start picking things up. "I did, after you called this morning," he said. "She's not a pony, and she's off the island. She took the Samsara. I'm going to see her later today."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded, closing his eye with a sigh, and then kind of . . . slumped down onto the floor, resting his chin on one of the benches (and tearing yet another hole with his horn in the process). "At least she'll have someone to talk to."

Even if she wouldn't talk to him.

[my_own_advocate]

Leaving poor Lucifer to grab a broom and quickly clean up what items on the counter hadn't made it.

"What on Earth happened?" he asked.

[betterthanaplan]

"She woke up human," Duke said, shrugging. (Somehow.) "Yelled at me not to touch her. Packed some things and -- left."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer plucked the largely intact sandwich off the countertop and set it down on the bench in front of Duke.

"And that was all?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke proceeded to stare at it moodily without trying to take a bite.

"I asked if we could talk. She said no. Didn't seem like much else I could do."

[my_own_advocate]

"She probably just needs time to blow off steam," Lucifer said, "Eating all that garbage for a month can't be good for a human's ability to process."

[betterthanaplan]

"She hates me," Duke said morosely. "She said I lied to her. I kicked her out of her home. She hates me and she's right."

[my_own_advocate]

"I doubt she hates you," Lucifer said, after a long moment. (He really did not feel equipped for this conversation.) "It is still Octavia."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke wasn't sure who that was anymore.

"Well, she should," he said instead. "I hate me right now."

He hated everything right now.

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, that is more of a you issue, and less of a her one," Lucifer said.

He sat down on the bench on the other side of the table.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke crawled up onto the bench itself and thunked his head down onto the table, leaving the sandwich where it was.

"I don't know what to do. With Nathan I'd just . . . yell back. Piss him off on purpose so I was back in control." He brought both from hooves up and pressed them over his eyes. "Jesus, no wonder he wants to kill me."

[my_own_advocate]

"Can we please have just one pity party at once, please?" Lucifer said, reaching past him gingerly to secure the sandwich.

"It's Octavia," he said again. "You give her time and a silence she can fill to her own liking when she comes back. And you don't try to take control."

[betterthanaplan]

Did he miss the part where Duke said he hated himself?

"What if she doesn't come back?"

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, I would call that a fairly obvious hint," Lucifer said, pointedly dropping the sandwich in front of him. "Besides, weren't you the one who didn't even know what you wanted to say to her if she came back? Maybe sort that out while you have the time. And the whole self-hatred thing."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke continued to ignore the sandwich.

"I thought maybe I'd know when I saw her."

Things had not quite worked out that way.

[my_own_advocate]

"That's the absolute worst time to come up with something to say."

Take it from Lucifer!

"Now eat something. You're not going to get Octavia back by starving yourself and tearing at your hair with your hooves wailing about how you're the worst person to walk the Earth."

[betterthanaplan]

"Are you sure?" Duke asked. "Because that sounds weirdly satisfying."

[my_own_advocate]

"I tried that and I turned into an extremely unattractive version of myself," Lucifer said, "and I really don't need to know what that looks like from the outside with your pirate beard inexplicably slapped onto it."