The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Wednesday morning

[betterthanaplan]

There were bags all over the Rouge. Duke was doing his best to ignore them. He had a standing appointment with Octavia for breakfast, so he was just going to focus on getting ready for that, and not the very large suitcase with a particular tattoo embroidered onto the front of it. Or any of the myriad other bags and crates and trunks and cases taking up most of the counter and floor space of his galley.

Really. He had an entire hold for these sorts of things. The island dumping them in his living space was just rude.

[for one!]

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

Duke spotted it. And with a rueful snort, he shifted his grip on her so he could scoop her up into the air.

She didn't have to ask for help if he just gave it to her, right?

[okteiviakom]

It probably didn't work like that.

But Octavia allowed herself to be picked up. What would have been the point in fighting it?

[betterthanaplan]

Duke could navigate a bit faster now, and made it to the bedroom without incident.

And hissed out a soft curse at the getting used for sex bag sitting smack in the middle of the bed.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia took one look at it and just sighed.

And then moved to try and get him to set her down.

[betterthanaplan]

He did. And rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll just . . . set that aside."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's mild tone was a little lower and raspier again, as she looked down towards the floor, half expecting to find more bags.

Half surprised when she didn't.

(As much as she felt anything at all.)

"You know I wasn't trying to do that, right?"

[betterthanaplan]

"What?" Duke glanced up at her as he dragged the bag off the bed. "Yeah, no, of course."

Well. He knew she hadn't been trying to do it on purpose, anyway.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug for reasons that weren't very clear even for her.

"Just checking."

[betterthanaplan]

"Anyway. That's why I checked in," Duke said. "To make sure we both knew what you really needed right then."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia nodded faintly. Like an 'I got that'.

There was another bag on the bed. Red.

Said everything you touch turns to ash.

[betterthanaplan]

. . . Yeah, that definitely wasn't one of his.

Duke cleared it off without comment, and then climbed in, as though putting himself there would keep any other bags from appearing. "C'mon, gona. Let's lie down."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't think this was going to help any.

But she climbed in to stretch out beside him anyway.

[betterthanaplan]

Yes, well. If she couldn't suggest anything, then he was going to just keep trying whatever he thought of. Which at the moment was lying in bed and gently stroking his hand down her side.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's hand was fiddling with his shirt, at his chest. Her eyes were watching that, not looking up at his face.

Bags were popping into existence in the space behind her on the bed. Some of them were fairly simple, easy to decipher - the ones like girl under the floor and Ilian and always crying.

Some were a little more obscure, like the satchel marked with a part of me wishes a part of you was.

One of them just had a number that was in the eight hundreds.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke didn’t want to look at them. Couldn’t help but look at them.

Wished a part of him was what?

“Just breathe,” he said softly. “That’s all you have to do right now. Breathe.”

And hopefully not notice that too broken to fix you bag that popped up behind him.

[okteiviakom]

That bag had nothing at all to do with him, but Fandom had not seen fit to provide the quotation marks to signal that. Sorry about the unnecessary stress, jaka.

"I'm breathing just fine," Octavia muttered, mildly.

She wasn't really looking past him. It was definitely for the best. (Still, a suspiciously matchy red bag with too broken to be fixed showed up.)

[betterthanaplan]

“Right,” Duke agreed, trying on a small smile. “And you don’t have to do anything else.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't say anything. Definitely wasn't smiling.

She scooted closer, though. Like there was more comfort to be found there.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke reached for her, tugging her into his chest. If they closed their eyes and just lay here for awhile, they didn't have to think about all those bags. Right?

[okteiviakom]

At least this felt like something, the sensation of his arms wrapping around her going faintly past just the physical. She let one hand curl around a fistful of his shirt, and slid her other arm around him in turn.

But bags kept piling up in the space behind her back.

[betterthanaplan]

Yeah, well. They'd pretty firmly established that hugs didn't make your issues go away.

They just hopefully made the issues a little easier to deal with.

[okteiviakom]

"What about breakfast?" Octavia asked, after a long moment. Her voice quiet, and a little rough.

[betterthanaplan]

“It can wait,” Duke said. “This feels more important right now.”

[okteiviakom]

That was a nice thought.

But something heavy thumped onto the bed on top of all the other bags, bumping Octavia's shoulder as it did. She didn't want to turn and see what it was, but she'd already gone very tense. There was just something about the weight of the thing, the way the mattress had dipped underneath it.

It was another red bag, bigger than the rest. And packed to maximum capacity, by the bulging look of it.

Spray-painted across the side were the words EAT OR DIE.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke saw it. Couldn't help the instinct to open his eyes when the bed shifted, and though he snapped them closed again immediately, the words seemed burned into the backs of his eyelids. He hissed through his teeth and hung onto her tighter, like they just needed to hunker down and it would all go away.