Voicemail

[betterthanaplan]

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

*beep*

Comments

[okteiviakom]

Monday was definitely into its evening by the time Octavia texted Duke a photo. It was pretty dark, but with some effort (and maybe turning up the brightness), he should be able to make out the stream in the preserve, moonlight reflecting off the water.

No caption followed.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke wondered at first if he'd been texted a photo of her pocket for a moment, but yeah, after a few moments futzing with it, he made out what it was.

Pretty. Planning where we'll camp this week?

He was hoping his body would have calmed back down by then, or he was possibly going to end up embarrassing himself. . . .

[okteiviakom]

I guess

She considered leaving at that. She even looked up at the trees for a short moment before sending anything else.

Some might say i'm hiding

[betterthanaplan]

Uh . . . huh.

Are you?

[okteiviakom]

Maybe a little

And kind of uselessly, to boot.

[betterthanaplan]

No one would ever think to look for her in the woods!

. . . from what?

Duke knew why he was feeling weird and distracted today, but it hadn't occurred to him that other people might be, too. He kind of just figured it was hormonal thing or something.

[okteiviakom]

The island

Hiding from a place while still being in it was, well...

In case you're wondering, it doesn't actually work

Because she couldn't separate her body from her mind.

[betterthanaplan]

Not without leaving it at least, Duke agreed. What's it done now?

Surely, surely his own mood couldn't be the island's fault!

[okteiviakom]

Don't tell me you don't feel it

She was going to be so jealous if it turned out he was immune to this.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke got that sinking feeling again, like he had in Nina's class.

FEEL WHAT

The world was just determined to fuck with him today, wasn't it.

[okteiviakom]

Everything could be the island's fault, Duke!

Octavia heaved a sigh, and leaned against a tree as she tried to decide on the right words.

Like with the mistletoe
Except instead of a plant it's your body that's insistent
And instead of kissing it wants way more

[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."