betterthanaplan | The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Monday

"Then you should have said that," Octavia replied.

But, her voice was a lot softer now.

Duke dragged his free hand down his face. “Yeah. Sorry.”

"Being in a kru means something to me." It meant everything to her. Or at least it had in the past. "I don't want one that feels fake."

When they'd been Floukru, that had always felt real.

(Until she'd ruined it.)

"Yeah, I know that," Duke said, unable to keep a bite out of his tone. He was frustrated, and annoyed at himself for being frustrated when he knew he was the bad guy here.

He was always the bad guy.

This whole morning was just a series of wrong moves one after another, wasn't it? Octavia pulled her hand back, and straightened up from her slight lean towards him. And then got up altogether.

She hadn't touched anything in front of her.

"I'm gonna go take a shower."

Duke pressed both his hands to his face this time.

"Yeah, alright. Good plan."

Then he jerked up and reached for her arm, because even if she wasn't leaving, she was walking away and that did something terrible in his chest.

"No. Hang on. I don't want to do this anymore. We need to hash this out."

Octavia let him grab her arm, and looked up at him, but she didn't entirely look like she was just going to bend to what he wanted.

"Then you better come with me," she said, and even though she sounded exactly like her 29-year-old self always did, there was something of the past weekend in the pointed way she raised her eyebrows, like a challenge, "because I'm taking a shower."

Duke blinked, then gave her a slow, surprised grin. "Yeah? Really?" He headed after her. "Yeah, that's a good plan!"

Octavia remembered that grin from the weekend, too.

"Don't get your hopes up," she drawled as she led him towards the bathroom, already peeling the hoodie off as she went. "We're still hashing this out."

Duke nodded. "Sha, gona. Still . . . more than I expected."

He kind of expected to get blown off on the whole 'hash things out' thing completely.

"I'm tired of fighting, too," Octavia pointed out, a little more quietly. She was tired of walking away from him.

She paused at the door to take off the leggings as well. The tattoo was getting into the peeling stage, so they hadn't been the best choice in the first place.

Duke pulled off the shirt he'd grabbed at Lucifer's. "Yeah? 'Cause . . . it kind of felt like you were trying to pick one a minute ago. I know what I said was dumb, but you knew what I meant, right? The kru is only important to me because it's important to you."

"And you know how you say things matters to me."

Bye, underwear. And the sports top she'd had on under the hoodie.

"Yeah, and when I fuck up, you know I'm not doing it to be mean." Duke had his hand on his fly, but paused before he pulled his pants off. "This is a weird way to have this argument."

"Yeah, well." Octavia tossed him a quick glance over her bare shoulder. "We were never normal, were we?"

And with that, she actually stepped into the bathroom, heading for the shower.

Duke let out a sigh and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling for a moment, while she couldn't see.

Then he slipped out of his pants and followed.

"I'm tried of trying to be perfect for you."

"You've done an awful job with it lately anyway," Octavia rasped, because she could be unhelpfully prickly sometimes too. Couldn't help that dig, even though she regretted practically the second it was out of her mouth.

She shook her head. "I don't want perfect." Hadn't stopped her from acting like she did, though, had it? She reached out, turned on the water.

"Yeah, that's kind of hard to tell when any time I mess up even a little you shut down," Duke said. "I know I fucked up, Tavi. I've admitted it multiple times. But it'd be nice to get a little credit for when I do get it right."

"The credit is that I came back."

Well...

"Or that I was coming back, when the island decided to do it for me. As usual."

"Oh great. So I'm supposed to just know that, when the last time I saw you in person, at the right age, and the right species, you were running like hell."

Octavia's hand clenched into a fist.

She stepped under the spray.

"Think you'll find the last time you saw me like that I was tending bar, and you thought I didn't see you."

"You saw that." Duke sighed. "I've had enough fights and meltdowns in public on this island. Wasn't looking to do it again."

"Solid choice," Octavia rasped, subdued. She closed her eyes, took a moment to let the water wet her hair, plastering it to her skin so that the black strands criss-crossed over the black lines on her shoulders.

"Didn't warn you I'd be there, anyway."

"You didn't," Duke said. He stood outside the shower, leaning against the wall and watching her shadow through the curtain. He'd join her in a bit. When he felt more . . . settled. "And, uh. It's no excuse, but -- I've kind of had to deal with a lot lately. Haven didn't exactly let up after you left."

"Mm."

There was not enough water to soothe her right now, and yet she was trying.

"I heard about Evi."

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