Voicemail

[betterthanaplan]

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

*beep*

Comments

[okteiviakom]

He had not.

And this was an incoming call, not a text.

[betterthanaplan]

Yeah, Duke probably should have expected that.

“He bled, Tavi.”

[okteiviakom]

"What?"

Maybe she shouldn't have been as surprised as she was.

[betterthanaplan]

“It was like getting hit by a tsunami.”

But hey, at least he didn’t have to worry about his trouble trying to kill Lucifer?

[okteiviakom]

That was... a lot to unpack. The other end of the line was quiet for a long moment.

And once she spoke, she sounded hesitant about it. "In a good or a bad way?"

[betterthanaplan]

“Apparently I passed out?” Duke said. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad either. “He had to carry me home.”

[okteiviakom]

"Of course he did," Octavia sighed, and now she was really feeling guilty about not having been there. (Whether it made sense to or not.) "Well, that's... Something, I guess."

[betterthanaplan]

"I guess? Gave us a chance to talk, anyway."

He wasn't entirely aware of just how bludgeony Lucifer had found their conversation. Since, you know, no one had told him.

[okteiviakom]

"I meant the --"

The passing out from Lucifer's blood, but now that she began clarifying that, calling that 'something' like it was a good thing didn't seem like such a great idea.

So she trailed off.

"Anyway. Yeah, I heard."

[betterthanaplan]

"While you two were discussing semantics?" Duke guessed, faintly amused.

[okteiviakom]

"We didn't discuss them that much," Octavia replied, faintly... something or other. "Just enough."

[betterthanaplan]

"Enough to decide we're against the term 'dating'," Duke agreed. "Which does admittedly make it sound like we're bored suburban house- . . . people."

[okteiviakom]

"I've always been against it, for what it's worth."

Complete with those fights years ago with Lucifer about him daring to use it about her and Duke, no less.

[betterthanaplan]

"You are both very preoccupied with words, and I should have remembered that," Duke said. "I apologize."

[okteiviakom]

"You don't need to."

Octavia had her own sore spots about how this had gone, but that wasn't really one of them.

She tried for a wry tone. "On the plus side, Lucifer finally gets what I meant about not wanting to use that word. Only took him two thousand years."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke had mentioned once that he was used to partners who didn't want to use "official" words to describe their relationship. He wasn't letting himself think about how in the past, that was usually because they were ashamed of dating him.

(He was pretty sure Lucifer was at least a little ashamed of what Duke was proposing here, yeah.)

"Well, you know, he's used to much longer time spans than us mere mortals. It takes him awhile to adjust."

[okteiviakom]

"I think he's just never had to actually think about it before," Octavia said, a little milder. "Not like this."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was starting to develop a pavlovian response to her tone going mild.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way."

[okteiviakom]

"I didn't mean it like that, either."

Maybe they shouldn't have been having this conversation over the phone, but here they were.

"Do you get why we're so... weird about it?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Not really," Duke admitted. Because he didn't want the reason he could think of to be true. "But -- I mean, does it matter if I get it? I'm happy to use whatever terms you guys want."

[okteiviakom]

"It matters to me," Octavia replied softly.

[betterthanaplan]

"Okay," Duke said slowly. "I'm not supposed to just guess, am I?"

[okteiviakom]

"No, snogon," Octavia murmured. (Was the word choice on purpose, there? She wouldn't say.) "And I won't speak for Lucifer, because... That's his business."

Even if she had guesses, and all of them centered around a certain detective.

"But I know I got uncomfortable because 'dating' sounds so -- definite. Like it's defined from the outside, because that comes with expectations and baggage."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was pretty sure for Lucifer it had everything to do with a certain detective. And wanting a back door.

He was pretty used to people wanting those with him, too.

"There are people who like the fact that it's clearly defined," he pointed out. "And I know you like knowing what to expect from things. You think maybe it's more that it's defined by the 20th century, and not your own culture?"

[okteiviakom]

"Defined from the outside," Octavia pointed out. "That's included in that. But no, this isn't my culture. Which makes it worse somehow, because that means it's a word that means more to the people on the outside than it does to me."