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]

“And we found out you were all full of self-hate,” Duke said softly. “So . . . maybe you were afraid what you are might hurt the people you care about.”

Clearly not a topic Duke knew well for himself or anything.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was pretty sure Linda had been exactly right. But she knew better than to engage Lucifer in any kind of an argument over it right now.

She rubbed her hand over her face, instead.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer snorted.

"Either way," he said, choosing to sidestep the topic entirely, "I don't have any grand 'sky falling on my head' nightmares like the two of you. Perhaps one of Hell once or twice, but those are just depressing, not 'wake up screaming' horrifying."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke blinked. "I didn't -- there wasn't actual screaming, was there?"

He kind of prided himself on not waking up screaming, actually. That was the sort of thing that let way too many people know about your potential weaknesses.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's voice was quiet and mild again.

"Nothing that woke me, at least."

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, wake up noisy," Lucifer allowed. "But then I'd have to qualify it with 'not dirty', and I feared that might obliterate the moment."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke snorted, perfectly happy to let said moment get obliterated, thanks.

"That definitely would have been a way nicer way to wake up."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia figured some kind of quip would've gone great here.

She couldn't think of anything.

[my_own_advocate]

"It would have," Lucifer agreed readily, shifting a bit so more of him pressed against Duke's side. "Unfortunately the two of you are rather freshly traumatized, and apparently that means this sort of thing just happens."

As opposed to Lucifer, who had the benefit of his main trauma happening literal billions of years ago.

[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?"