betterthanaplan | The deck of the Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Sunday evening

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The deck of the Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Sunday evening

Whelp, another Parents Weekend had gone by, and for once, Duke hadn't had any guests arrive, surprise- or no. And for all that talking to Octavia about the disappointment of that had been meant to help him push past that feeling -- that was how this was supposed to work, right? -- he still found himself staring moodily out at the water by Sunday evening, watching the light of the sunset scatter across the swells and waves.

It was beautiful. Even after all his talk today with Linda about emotions and how little control people actually had over them, he was kind of annoyed at himself that he wasn't more in the mood to appreciate that fact, right now.

[expecting one!]

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Duke took it, sliding his other arm around Lucifer's waist.

"Parents Weekend," he said. "It's the first one where I didn't have anyone come visit."

Lucifer filled his glass with a respectable measure of wine. "Ah," he said. "Your mind's back in Haven."

Duke eyed him, trying to get a read on how Lucifer felt about that. He couldn't tell.

"Yeah. It's, uh. Been there a lot, lately."

Well, at the moment, it was just a statement of a fact.

It was evening, there was wine, they were out on the water. Lucifer was in a rather mellow frame of mind.

"Why?" he asked, with genuine curiosity, and poured himself a glass too.

Duke let out a long breath. Reminded himself that this was important. That his conversation with Octavia had been hard, sure, but also useful. He took a big sip of his wine and told himself to just do it.

"Because it's been quiet," he said, and even once he was speaking, it wasn't easy to keep it going. "It's been good. So I'm . . . waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Lucifer hummed softly. "It has been, hasn't it?" he said. "Quiet. And good. And foreboding because of it."

Duke blinked. It hadn't occurred to him that the others would be worried about it, too.

"Yeah," he said, after a moment. "I guess I just really wish I knew if Haven was done with me or not."

Lucifer was trying to repress everything that had happened at home and what it would mean in the long run so hard he'd already burst out crying on Octavia about it after sex once in the past week.

"It would be nice to have that kind of certainty, wouldn't it?" Lucifer said, and heaved a big sigh. "But there's always someone 'mysterious ways'ing us somewhere."

Duke next inhale shook.

“I don’t even know if they’re alive.”

... Oh. Well. The shaking was... something. Lucifer frowned, sliding his own arm around Duke's waist, and hugged him a bit closer.

"I know you don't, uh. Think much of them," Duke said, leaning into that embrace. "But I really miss them, you know?"

"I don't," Lucifer said, because... well, honesty and all that. "They seem like disagreeable people who cause you very little but pain."

He gave Duke a squeeze. "But I'm not sure what that has to do with whether or not you miss them."

Duke huffed a soft laugh. "It has to do with why I didn't tell you I missed them until right now."

Instead of, oh, at any other time in the last like six months.

"You'd probably really like Gloria, though. She's Tavi's favorite."

That was a very, very low bar, but Gloria cleared it by miles.

"I think you've mentioned her," Lucifer said.

He turned his head and pressed a kiss to Duke's temple. "I'm sorry your Haven-bound friends are still missing," he said, "Even if I want to slap some of them silly."

"Thanks." Duke closed his eyes, some of the tension running out of him. This was so much easier than the conversation with Octavia had been. Lucifer was less likely to deliberately hold things in, maybe that had to do with it. "I'm a little surprised we didn't get one of Dwight's versions of them."

And now he was picturing Vince Teagues in Fandom. He shuddered dramatically at the thought.

And unlike Octavia, Lucifer had never been given cause to think of Audrey as threatening to anything besides Duke's mental and physical wellbeing.

"Would that have been worse or better?" he asked.

“Fuck if I know,” Duke said. “Worse, probably. They wouldn’t actually know me, you know?”

"You did wander away from Haven's clutches for long stretches at a time since... whenever Dwight is from," Lucifer said. "Rather like me and LA, really."

“Right. Now imagine if, like . . . some other Dan showed up. From back when you first started working with Chloe. Only, uh. Without the redemption-and-tragic-death aspect.”

If anyone had survived the meteors Duke figured it’d be Dwight.

“And then that Dan’s version of, like. Ella showed up.”

"It'd be a bit weird," Lucifer allowed. "Though Miss Lopez didn't join us for another year or so after I met the Detective."

“You’re splitting hairs, babe,” Duke told him.

"I'm just saying she might not be the best example here," Lucifer said, taking a sip of his wine. "But point understood."

“Thank you,” Duke said. “Right. I’m trying to do this whole ‘sharing my feelings’ thing, but I think right now . . . I’d rather have a distraction from them.”

"We can do that," Lucifer said, flashing him a small smile. "And we're also about a week away from dragging you back to the Bahamas to swim to your heart's delight, let's not forget about that."

“Oh trust me. I couldn’t if I tried.” Duke leaned his head on Lucifer’s shoulder. “I may have almost jumped in, cast and all, on Friday.”

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