Voicemail

[betterthanaplan]

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

*beep*

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

No no no no no no no.

Excuse that delay in answering, Octavia, Duke was beating his phone into his head.

please say that means it only lasts a day. Tomorrow we can have sentient chocolate hearts or something, right?

[okteiviakom]

Last two times it was about a week

Guess today wasn't a day for Octavia attempting to be reassuring.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke's first response was entirely too accidentally on the nose to actually send.

should we postpone the camping trip?

Because he really couldn't guarantee he wouldn't turn into the adult equivalent of a teenage dirtbag in that kind proximity to her, and he'd promised not to try to push anything she wasn't ready for.

[okteiviakom]

That was... probably a discussion worth revisiting.

Octavia didn't entirely manage to track the logic behind his question back out to that, though, so she found herself lightly frowning at her phone.

Do you want to?

[betterthanaplan]

Duke considered that carefully, picturing the two of them, curled up in a single sleeping bag in a cozy little tent, far from any people . . . or porgs. . . .

And had to take a moment to adjust himself, letting out a little growl as he did.

No
But it's a very sexy situation and I don't want to make you uncomfortable

[okteiviakom]

ISLAND's making me uncomfortable

There was another longer pause. Hesitation.

... And really unhelpful mental images that somehow made her both wish she'd called him instead and yet somehow feel grateful she hadn't, because grasping at the right words was difficult enough.

If anything, you're the solution
Or you could be

[betterthanaplan]

That set off some more mental images, resulting in another growl from Duke and a fervent wish she were on his boat right now instead of off in the woods.

He leaned back in his seat for a moment, eyes closed, and just let the horny side of his brain just run rampant for a few moments, since keeping it on a leash apparently just wasn't in the cards this week. It . . . didn't help, no.

I'd be happy to I'd that s whT to u want

And yes, that was rather a worse spelled text than he normally sent. The joys of very quick, distracted phone typing. At least autocorrect didn't stick anything too weird in there.

[okteiviakom]

Yeah, Octavia had to take a moment to squint at her phone, deciphering that. And then another, to wonder at how his spelling had gone that badly to trash so quickly. Which... yes, produced some vivid thoughts that made her swear under her breath and push away from the tree again, like pacing around would actually do something.

Great plan, Octavia, spending all day away from people only to eventually text the one person absolutely guaranteed to wreck any progress you'd made!

And calling him was probably an even worse idea.

But she was doing it anyway. She was just -- saving him from typing, and herself from having way too many thoughts about his trashed focus. Totally.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke answered immediately. "Yep, that's -- um. Hi. Good plan."

He was not proud of that last text.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was going to tease him about it eventually. Just probably not this week.

"Hi." Her voice sounded extra raspy. She ended up clearing her throat, before adding, almost hurriedly, "And, I do." A beat. "Want that."

She was so smooth.

[betterthanaplan]

At the moment he was just glad she hadn't decided he'd had a stroke.

Duke let out a low, relieved breath. "Well alright then." A beat. ". . . Were you thinking that way before the island basically slipped us both an aphrodisiac?"

If they went for this and she regretted it later, he was going to feel awful.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia managed a snort. "Since New Year's, at latest," she admitted. "Right moment just hasn't come up, 'cause whenever it might have, at least one of us has been drunk or painfully hungover or something."

Which included having an uncomfortable run-in with someone that had left him devastated and her feeling vaguely like she'd wanted to crawl out of her skin for a few days afterwards.

Just small hurdles like that.

"The island's just making it... obvious."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke winced at that reminder. Though -- hey! An effective mood killer! At least for a little while.

Maybe his mom was good for something after all.

"It's definitely doing that," Duke said. "Then yeah. Let's do the camping trip. We'll just maybe do a little less fishing than we initially planned."

Fishing was great and all, but there were so many more fun things they could try.

[okteiviakom]

"We should still do a little fishing," Octavia replied, managing a halfway teasing tone. "So we can say we did."

A beat.

"Also because food's pretty vital to burning energy like that."

[betterthanaplan]

"True. And while I was thinking I'd bring provisions," and condoms, he was going to pack so many condoms, "it can't hurt to get some extra protein."

[okteiviakom]

"It's basic survival stuff, anyway," Octavia drawled. "Also shows the island we can ignore it for a while."

It would do no such thing.

[betterthanaplan]

“Right. We’ll show this place who’s boss.”

[okteiviakom]

"Exactly."

Well, it was a nice thought, anyway.

Octavia looked up towards the treetops for a little moment. "Hey," she said then, tone a bit softer. "You... wanted to, too, even before the island started getting pushy about it, right?"

She was well aware he had way fewer hang-ups about this than she did. But checking in (and getting reassurance, though she'd be reluctant to admit that was a part of it) rarely seemed like a bad idea.

[betterthanaplan]

“For ages,” Duke said, with a small, slightly frustrated laugh. “Been looking forward to it dice our first kiss.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's tiny bark of a laugh sounded pretty rough.

"Sorry."

She did not sound sorry.

[betterthanaplan]

That was good! It saved Duke the speech about there being nothing for her to be sorry about.

"Hey, it's easy to be patient. You know, when the island isn't screwing with us."

Also, they'd never talked about being exclusive, so he could get his jollies elsewhere as needed.

[okteiviakom]

There was that.

Octavia snorted. "Kind of an unfortunate choice of words, snogon."

[betterthanaplan]

"I assure you, that pun was entirely intended," Duke said with a chuckle. "Right, so. We, uh. We waiting for the camping trip to do this, or do you wanna have our first time in a bed?" He frowned. ". . . Also, is this going to be your first time? No judgement, just -- I don't know, I can walk you through things or something if it is."

[okteiviakom]

It was really too bad Octavia had made a private decision to maybe not tell him she loved him every time she particularly felt it. Because this was definitely one of those moments.

Even if she snorted again. "It's not my first time," she said, with some stray bit of wryness. "It's just been a long time."

And, you know. Just the one guy, even back then.

[betterthanaplan]

"Good know," Duke said. "Alright then. So . . . do you wanna come over? Or you want to keep hanging out on the preserve? Again, no judgement either way. I can -- sort myself out in the meantime."