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[betterthanaplan]

"Buddha says 'All good things come to those who wait.' With that in mind, leave me a message."

*beep*

Comments

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's head tilted a little. "Just how many systems are there for this?"

Sorry, she was going to get distracted by that for a second.

[betterthanaplan]

"Several," Duke said. "Four Fs are nice and easy to remember, though." He held up his hand and counted off on his fingers. "French, feel, finger, fuck."

[okteiviakom]

And despite Octavia's slight squinting --

"Okay, those make more sense than the bases."

[betterthanaplan]

"Right?" Duke said cheerfully. "So, uh. Which base are we allowed to get to by ourselves?"

He was assuming that he and Octavia would refrain without Lucifer for a bit, as well.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia hadn't thought of it like that. So now she was assuming he was just talking about himself and Lucifer.

Communication was hard.

"Probably the second one?" she offered after a second of faintly hesitant chewing on her lip. "Though I don't know how much feeling there is for you to even do."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke frowned. "I can feel plenty," he said. "I don't have Nathan's trouble."

[okteiviakom]

"Not like that." Come on, Duke. "Look, just -- maybe stay above the waist. For now. Okay?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Plenty to explore above the waist," Duke said, sliding his fingers along the hem of her shirt.

. . . Maybe that was a hint of what he'd been thinking, yeah.

[okteiviakom]

"I guess," Octavia said, trying for slightly lighter nd more teasing, now, "but it's not like you have to hold back with me."

Yeah, no hints taken.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke’s hand stopped where it was.

“Ah,” he said. “Right. I guess that makes sense.”

[okteiviakom]

Well, now she got that maybe they weren't on the smae page.

She looked confused.

"What?"

[betterthanaplan]

“I thought we were, you know, also holding off. Until all three of us could do it.”

[okteiviakom]

"... Should we?"

That wasn't her objecting. She just genuinely had not thought of it that way.

[betterthanaplan]

"We want to start this on even footing, right?" Duke asked. "Really be the three of us, and not just us as a couple asking him to be an occasional third?"

As someone who'd been that 'occasional third' for people over the years, Duke had fairly strong opinions about that role.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was pretty sure Lucifer wasn't ready to be part of a 'the three of us'.

But she didn't have a reason not to go with what he was actually proposing. "Oh," she said. "Well, okay."

[betterthanaplan]

"I mean, that's what I was thinking," Duke said. "It doesn't have to be what you're thinking. We can talk about this."

[okteiviakom]

"I just think... he didn't ask for anything like that," Octavia pointed out gently, after a little pause.

[betterthanaplan]

"Do you think he's be mad if he knew we were waiting until he was around?"

It was an honest question. Duke had no idea.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's expression turned faintly amused, even if it was with a wry tilt. "He likes it when he can claim he got me laid, so..."

She'd heard that today, no less. And not for the first time.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke laughed. “So we should have sex as a tributes to him?”

[okteiviakom]

Some of the wry fell away. "I don't think he'd hate it," Octavia told him. "Especially if we talk about the things we might want to do with him later."

It'd be like he was there!

[betterthanaplan]

“Okay, I can totally get behind this idea,” Duke said, leaning in to kiss her again. “You start.”

[okteiviakom]

So Octavia did. The details were sparse but... effective, and in large part obviously inspired by their weekend as teens.

And then she kissed him like she didn't intend to stop any time soon.

(All the pent-up energy from Lucifer's visit had to go somewhere.)