Lucifer's Mansion, very early Sunday morning

[betterthanaplan]

None of Duke's dreams had been exactly kind lately, but they'd at least mostly stuck to a general anxiety-dream structure. Wandering the stark white hallways of the barn, shouting for Audrey, unable to escape the looming spectre of a trouble, which in dream logic seemed to mostly take the form of a generic "boogey man" figure. The sort of thing that left him discombobulated and out of sorts throughout the morning, but not the sort that would wake him abruptly in a way anyone else might notice.

His was really only a matter of time before his luck there ran out.

The white floors bucked beneath him as he walked, swaying and dipping like a ship tossed in a storm. The world through the identical windows was black and roiling, filled with debris and unidentifiable bodies.

"Audrey!" Duke shouted. "Audrey, we're going down! We have to abandon ship!"

A flash of blonde, darting through a doorway. Duke dashed after her, but every time he turned a corner she was just up ahead, vanishing around another one.

"Audrey! Audrey!!"

He couldn't catch up. He couldn't get his legs to work properly. The floor pitched up violently then dropped, and Duke fell --

He surfaced by a rocky beach, and fought his way to land, sprawling out to catch his breath. His limbs still weren't working properly, and there was noise all around, explosions and screams clogging the air like dust. He choked on it, drowning, until a hand appeared in front of his face. Duke took it and let it help him stand, only noticing once he found his feet that it was coated in blood.

Nathan smiled, his teeth red. His face was red, his jacket soaked through. His eyes were cloudy and dead.

"Did you really think you could leave it behind?" he asked.

Duke snatched his hand away, panting, and watched as the blood vanished into him. As Nathan vanished into him. "No." He choked on the word. "No --"

"It's how it always had to be," a voice said, coming from everywhere. Duke spun. It was Vince, it was Lucifer. It was Dwight and Gloria and Claire and Danny and Rey. They stood all around him, bloody and scorched and dead, and Audrey, they were all variations on the theme of Audrey, like Lucy and Sarah and dozens of others, stretching back into eternity.

"Did you really think it wouldn't follow you?" they asked.

A scream across the sky, and Duke looked up. The meteor storm. It was crashing all around, smashing through the school, through the Gull, through the Devil's Nest and Luke's and every place he'd ever felt he belonged. And one came hurtling down at the beach, straight for the sand, straight for Duke, he could feel the heat as it burned through the atmosphere, could feel his clothing burning away --

He woke with an abbreviated cry, an explosion rattling the inside of his head. He lay where he was for a moment, panting and choking on his too-rapid breaths, staring at the slice of sky visible from his spot in Lucifer's bed.

It was glowing red with the sunrise, and for a long moment, still stuck in the dream, Duke was convinced it was fire. That the meteors had come to Fandom, and everything was burning. . . .

[for those in the bed -- or the house -- with him!]

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

"To be clear," Duke said. "'This kind of thing' is referring to waking abruptly in a panic because our brains were being mean, yes?"

[okteiviakom]

"That's one way to put it," Octavia muttered.

[my_own_advocate]

"Yes. Obviously," Lucifer said. "And for the record, while I do prefer having my beauty sleep, I really don't mind dealing with your freakouts in the morning."

Someone could learn if exposed to the same behavior from another person frequently enough!

...Not enough to react to it in a way anyone would construe as graceful, but still.

[betterthanaplan]

"I mean. Ideally I would just -- not freak out."

[okteiviakom]

"That takes work, and time," Octavia muttered.

No reason.

[my_own_advocate]

"I think we can all agree there is nothing ideal about the current situation," Lucifer added.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'd wish for some magic fix, but it'd probably just like that stupid crystal thing."

[okteiviakom]

Still staring at the ceiling, Octavia's mouth opened again. Then closed.

Just didn't feel like the right moment to say what she'd been about to say.

(Even though it seemed like the perfect moment.)

[my_own_advocate]

"No magic fixes," Lucifer said. "Just preferably you not being you about occasionally inconveniencing us in the morning."

[betterthanaplan]

"Not being me? Oddly enough, not one of my major skills."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia realized she'd been holding her breath as she'd kept weighing her urge to speak.

Now she released it as a quiet sigh.

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, try, for Father's sake," Lucifer said, and then looked over at Octavia. "What?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke frowned and looked over at her, waiting.

[okteiviakom]

Well, so much for that.

There was a long silence. She kept looking up at the ceiling. And then finally, said, "Picking up my antidepressants on Monday."

It wasn't a miracle cure, either.

[my_own_advocate]

"Oh, good," Lucifer said, perking up.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke's eyebrows shot up. "Yeah?" He shifted, rolling onto his side. (If it was supporting her, then it wasn't leaning on her, right?) "That's, uh. A big step. Right?"

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah," Octavia said, quiet and mild. And keeping her eyes on the ceiling for now. "I met with Dr. Baker yesterday."

In case anyone had been wondering if there was a specific reason she'd shown up here when she had.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sat up, cushioning his cheek on his hand. "How did it go?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke found her hand under the covers and gave her a little "what he said" head tilt.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave his hand a squeeze. She could see them both looking at her, from the corner of her eye, but the ceiling was easier to talk to.

"Well, I'm getting drugs, so..." Tiny shrug. "Guess it went well. Not a whole lot gets done in a single hour, though. Mostly just went over the -- "

She paused, hesitated, wet her lips.

"The last month or so." Her latest fall into the pit, and overview of everything that happened since then. Including how the fall was... On-going.

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, that doesn't sound too catastrophic," Lucifer opined.

[betterthanaplan]

That was a nicer reaction than Duke's first thought, which was 'so . . . about me'.

"And you're going back?" he asked softly.

[okteiviakom]

Really not as much as he probably thought.

"I'm going back," Octavia confirmed. "Tuesdays, for now."

[my_own_advocate]

"Good," Lucifer said, flopping back onto the pillow. "I'm proud of you."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke squeezed her hand again, not quite able to bring himself to echo Lucifer's approval. He was glad she was getting help, he was! He was just extremely leery now about therapy himself. He still wasn't sure exactly when Claire had been replaced with a fake, after all, and that fact, even more than the replacement itself, had left him questioning putting that much trust into a stranger again.