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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[my_own_advocate]

The drive back from Los Angeles had been long and unadventurous, but it had suited Lucifer just fine this time. He'd put the memories the weekend had kicked up to rest, and he was ready to get back to... whatever it was he did on the island.

Bringing food to boat people?

Well, this time it was take-out, because he'd only gotten back early that morning and he'd had half a mind to just tip over in bed and have a nap, until he'd remembered mimosas existed. (And had then added weed to the bag, just in case Duke was serious about that less-alcohol thing.)

The whole expelling-the-boat-people-from-bed episode was already long forgotten, on his part, as he sauntered up to the Rouge with a bag slung over his shoulder. "Morning, feathery vermin," he told the few porgs that got in his way.

[betterthanaplan]

"Holy shit," Duke breathed. "Look who it is."

Why was he even surprised? Of course Lucifer just came sauntering back up like nothing weird had happened. He was Lucifer.

"Hey, man," he called. "Have a good . . . week?"

[my_own_advocate]

"Boring, useless, and completely frustrating," Lucifer called cheerfully. He held up the bag. "I brought sandwiches," he added, "and mimosas or weed, gentleman's choice."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke waved him up. "Is the gentleman allowed to choose both?" He could do one mimosa. He wasn't in AA or anything here. "I'll text Tavi, let her know you're here."

It seemed nicer than shouting across to the Samsara.

[my_own_advocate]

"Sounds like something you would choose," Lucifer said merrily, stepping on board. "And of course. I did bring a few vegetarian options."

[betterthanaplan]

"Glad to hear it." Duke looked around the boat like he was going to pull something more suiting Lucifer's aesthetic out to lay the food out on.

Spoiler alert, he wasn't.

"So, uh. Where've you been?"

[my_own_advocate]

Nobody who saw what kind of denim monstrosity you were currently wearing would expect you to have anything appropriate to Lucifer's aesthetic on board, Duke.

"Took a roadtrip to Reno to see an old friend," Lucifer said, "Then I figured I might as well go the rest of the way to Los Angeles, since that didn't quite pan out."

He sat down, and set the bag down next to him, digging around for the prosecco and the orange juice.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah? Say hi to Miss Lopez?"

She seemed like a more neutral subject than most other people in LA would be.

[my_own_advocate]

"Only my brother, unfortunately," Lucifer said. "Turned out I accidentally found myself in October rather than November."

He poured a sizable amount of prosecco into two cups he'd brought, and proceeded to add probably less orange juice than that amount really required.

"As I said, a deeply useless trip."

Bar his success at the whole issues, box and magma situation.

[betterthanaplan]

"And how was that asshole?" Duke asked. "Other than, you know, terrible."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer squinted at him. "You don't like Amenadiel much, do you," he said, and held out one of the mimosas. "He's still lighting up with fatherly joy and developing his hovering tendencies."

[betterthanaplan]

"Oh. That brother." Duke shook his head. "I kinda assumed you meant Michael."

Since Michael was the one he and Octavia figured was behind Lucifer's freakout on Monday.

[my_own_advocate]

"Oh, no, he relocated to Baltimore like the creepy little stalker he is," Lucifer said, taking a sip of his own mimosa.

Had he not mentioned that?

Oops.

[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.