The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Monday

[betterthanaplan]

Right. So. This morning was a thing that had happened. On the one hand, Octavia seemed ready to talk, finally. On the other, it felt like Duke had just played "swap the important person in your life who's pissed at you".

"I'll make some coffee," Duke said, leading Octavia into the galley. "And . . . breakfast? Maybe?"

[for the girl]

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[okteiviakom]

"Mm."

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

"I heard about Evi."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke let out a soft laugh. "Yeah, Luce got to meet her in Hell. Sent a demon up to sit on me until the guys who killed her were taken down. Nathan had already knocked me out and thrown me in a cell, and that was --" Another laugh, this one a bit more pained. "That was still just the beginning of it all."

[okteiviakom]

"I'm sorry."

Not about Evi, about the rest. But she didn't specify.

[betterthanaplan]

"He got the tattoo," Duke said softly. "Nathan did. Said if I was supposed to die at the hands of someone with a Guard tattoo, he 'had to be on the approved list'."

He sucked in a breath and pushed away from a wall. "Not that that's an excuse. I just -- I need somewhere I don't have to be perfect."

[okteiviakom]

"I'm gonna kill that guy," Octavia muttered, mostly to herself, but she couldn't help it.

She was just... so tired of Haven. Didn't seem fair to him that somehow she wasn't the only needlessly destructive and twisted up thing in his life.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke's whole life was needlessly destructive and twisted up, let's be real.

"Don't," he said softly. "I already lost one shitty ex. The fact that she was terrible didn't make it hurt less."

[okteiviakom]

"If he makes a move against you..."

Well. She couldn't make any promises.

[betterthanaplan]

"He won't," Duke said, shaking his head and leaning against the wall again. "He's way too law-abiding for that. This was just -- psychological warfare. He wanted to freak me out. Fuck me up. And, uh. It worked."

[okteiviakom]

"That's the only part I can respect," Octavia rasped. Purely from a strategic standpoint, of course, which explained her dry tone.

She shook her head, and reached for the shampoo. (Okay, the 3-in-1 because she was a brute.) "I'm sorry," she said again. "You're carrying too much, and I'm... Just adding to it."

[betterthanaplan]

"I get it. I know why you're . . . I just wish everything wasn't so all-or-nothing."

He wished that for himself, too. There was comfort in the shades of grey.

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah."

This was a bad time for their therapist to be MIA.

[betterthanaplan]

It really was.

Duke finally moved to join her in the shower, stepping in and offering her his hand.

“I like the new ink,” he said. “You get that in Baltimore?”

[okteiviakom]

Was he looking to hold her hand? Because he was getting handed the 3-in-1, now.

"Yeah," Octavia said, with a slow look down at the leg in question. "Four days after -- everything." A short pause, at the end of which she failed to keep herself from adding, "Three days after my birthday."

[betterthanaplan]

And Duke was just going to facepalm with that 3-in-1. “Aw fuck.”

[okteiviakom]

"Doesn't really matter," Octavia said, mildly. "Last one I paid any real attention to was the last one here."

No celebrations in the bunker.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shook his head. “Still. I’m sorry I missed it. That I made it so much worse than it should have been.”

He was never going to run out of things to apologize for, was he.

[okteiviakom]

"You can wash my hair now and rub coconut oil on my leg later, and we'll call it even," Octavia told him, soft and quiet and exhausted. Unwilling to beat him up about it any further. "I wasn't here for your last birthday, either."

[betterthanaplan]

"Birthdays have been kind of a wash this year," Duke murmured, squeezing 3-in-1 into his hand. He reached out to start massaging it into her scalp. "Was Lucifer around for it, at least?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shook her head, but only barely. She wanted his fingers in her hair.

"He was still in Hell," she said, quietly.

[betterthanaplan]

She'd get it, probably for far longer than was strictly necessary for washing purposes. (He might pull out his fancy conditioner, too, because come on. 3-in-1, Tavi? You wounded him!) "But you found him later. After her got back."

[okteiviakom]

"Maze invited me out to Los Angeles," Octavia muttered. "We ran into Michael. And then Lucifer showed up."

She paused. Sighed.

"Michael's a fucking dick."

[betterthanaplan]

"So I've heard," Duke said. "I guess he really threw Luce for a loop."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was quiet for a moment. Just remembering Los Angeles.

And then the last couple of days.

Then, she murmured, "I think it may have made this weekend worse for him."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke paused, his fingers still in her hair.

"You think you know why he freaked out?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't know. But she had... a feeling. "Michael was trying to get under his skin about having been Samael."

The inside of her bottom lip ended up between her teeth again.

"About being Samael."