The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Saturday morning

[betterthanaplan]

Duke and Octavia had managed to find some amount of peace, between their talk on Monday and getting sucked into Lucifer's past on Wednesday. Octavia was still staying on her own boat for the time being, which had Duke somehow both twitchy and relieved. He hated sleeping alone now, but he hated having the people he was sleeping with flee in a panic the moment they woke up even more.

He was funny that way.

It made him even more prone to hanging out on his deck than he normally was, since from there he could look over and see the Samsara, and know that Octavia hadn't gone sailing off overnight. Not that he expected her to, but he also wouldn't have expected Lucifer to freak out and kick the two of them out first thing in the morning, either. Frankly, he wasn't much looking to take anything for granted, these days.

So he was up on deck, nursing a cup of unspiked coffee, watching the porgs play around on the various crates. And reminding himself that, right now at least, everything was fine.

They'd see how long that lasted.

[expecting a couple, but also open!]

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[betterthanaplan]

"Wait, hang on. Your creepy manipulative identical twin brother is living in Baltimore?"

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, at least stalking me there, the last times I went," Lucifer said. "I don't know if that means he's living there, or he's just racking up frequent flyer miles."

He reached into the bag. "Sandwich?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sighed. "Sure. Sounds good. Whatcha got?"

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, because you insist on being a Mainer, I did get a lobster roll," Lucifer said, grinning like he clearly found himself very entertaining. "Reuben and a pork tenderloin. And some veggie ones, but those are for our grouchy... temporary Samsara dweller?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Yes," Duke said. "Temporary. We just . . . figured we could both use a little space."

And Duke was definitely not reading too much into it and slowly falling into a pit of despair over having ruining everything good in his life.

"You know how that goes."

[my_own_advocate]

"Well," Lucifer said, holding out the lobster roll for him since no choice seemed to be incoming, "At least it's only a few hundred feet."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke took the sandwich absently. (He was going to be a bit sad when he realized he hadn’t specified he didn’t want the lobster roll.)

“Could definitely be worse,” he agreed. “I think we figured some things out.”

[my_own_advocate]

That's what you got for being too wrapped up in your own sulk to tell a man - or, well, celestial - what sandwich you wanted, Duke.

"Like what?" Lucifer asked, digging the pork sandwich - and then the weed - out of the bag.

[betterthanaplan]

“Like the fact that I’m not perfect,” Duke said. “. . . Mostly that, I guess.”

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer's eyes did some interesting things as he parsed that answer. It eventually resulted in a bit of a frown there.

"Yes, well, I was under the impression you were already well aware of that," he said, "And not just because of whatever drove you to put that on this morning."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke looked down at his outfit. “I wear this everyday.”

Yeah, Duke. That was his point.

“And yeah. We both knew it. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sometimes feel like she expects me to be. And punishes me harder for it when I inevitably fuck up.”

[my_own_advocate]

"I did tell you about the great 'Duke handles everything better than you' fight of... I want to say early 2020, didn't I?" Lucifer asked, biting into his sandwich.

[betterthanaplan]

“Yeah, well. Currently Duke handles absolutely nothing better than you.”

[my_own_advocate]

"Not my point," Lucifer said, rolling his eyes. "I mean she gets frustratingly particular about how people respond to her."

He took a sip of his mimosa.

"But you're you, not some-- creature made specifically to cater to her needs. Just like I refused to be some inferior stand-in for whatever pedestal she had you on back then."

[betterthanaplan]

“Yeah.” Duke shrugged. “I finally got tired of being shut out just because she interpreted what I was saying the wrong way. And now she’s living on her boat and I’m spending my nights alone.”

So . . . maybe they hadn’t really figured anything out at all.

[my_own_advocate]

Don't say it. Don't say it--

"Well, I can always come back for dinner," Lucifer said, taking some paper to start rolling a joint. "But, you know, maybe that distance thing actually works for you two?"

[betterthanaplan]

"How do you figure?" Duke asked.

He took a bite of his sandwich and made a face, then reached for a mimosa.

[my_own_advocate]

Right, maybe no dinner, then.

"You know, maybe you get-- used to each other again," Lucifer said. "And apparently missing someone is a great aphrodisiac on the mid to long term?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke snorted. "You say that from experience?"

[my_own_advocate]

"I did use the word 'apparently'," Lucifer said. "But she hasn't told you to stop talking to her, has she?"

[betterthanaplan]

"No," Duke said. "And she's still on the island. And she hasn't gotten a tattoo specifically to make sure I know that she can kill me. So . . . this is actually maybe going better than most of my relationships do."

[my_own_advocate]

"Stick with the bright side," Lucifer said, encouragingly.

It was even more encouraging because he was saying it while handing Duke that joint. The man had earned it.

[betterthanaplan]

That joint was going to make the lobster roll much more appetizing! Duke accepted it and dug into his pocket for a lighter.

"Can do. So, uh. . . ."

How did you casually bring up that you heard that your girlfriend could now injure a guy who was supposed to be invulnerable?

[my_own_advocate]

"Yes?" Lucifer asked, while pouring more prosecco into his mimosa.

[betterthanaplan]

“Octavia. . . told me something. About you. And . . . bleeding.”