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

[betterthanaplan]

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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[betterthanaplan]

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

[my_own_advocate]

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

[betterthanaplan]

“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.”

[my_own_advocate]

"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."

[betterthanaplan]

“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.”

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer laughed softly. "Mm. Can't keep our pirate away from the waves too long, or he'll lose all his senses."

He tightened his arm around Duke a bit more.

He felt oddly, but fiercely, protective.

[betterthanaplan]

“Yep.” A sigh. “Also, telling Tavi I was missing Audrey was, uh. Rough.”

[my_own_advocate]

"What'd she say?"

[betterthanaplan]

“It was less about what she said. More about how she froze up.”

[my_own_advocate]

"Ah," Lucifer said. He frowned. "Do you have any idea why?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sighed. “Yeah. I fucked up, and she hates Audrey more than you do.”

[my_own_advocate]

"You're going to have to give me a bit more detail than that," Lucifer said, taking another sip of his wine, "Considering I'm very unfond of Audrey."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke grimaced. “Yeah. Well. Remember that night we came to find you in LA, when your mojo went nuts?”

[my_own_advocate]

A few conversations he'd had in the past tried to surface. "Ah."

[betterthanaplan]

“Yeah,” Duke said, looking away. “Wasn’t long after that we went to Haven for Audrey’s birthday, and uh. We’ve got kind of a, uh, flirty energy. Which Octavia didn’t like. And then when We tried to talk about not being monogamous I kinda leaned into the whole ‘missing being with guys’ thing to, I don’t know. Soften the blow I guess? I mean. I know you remember how I fucked that whole thing up.”

[my_own_advocate]

"Vividly," Lucifer agreed. He sipped his wine. "So you made her believe there was a risk you'd start sleeping with Audrey."

What a fun little extra detail to that whole mess.

[betterthanaplan]

“I tried to avoid making her believe that,” Duke said. “And . . . failed, yeah.”

[my_own_advocate]

"By flirting with Audrey in front of her," Lucifer said. "Not necessarily the best plan you've ever had."

In a hypothetical situation that no one would clearly ever be stupid enough to inflict on him, Lucifer certainly would have freaked out himself if Duke had done anything to imply to anyone they weren't together, especially in the early days.

[betterthanaplan]

“Not on purpose! Audrey started it and I just kind of . . . matched her energy. It’s just how our friendship works.”

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed.

"Well, I'm the last person who's allowed to take you to task for having feelings for people in your own universe," he said. "But I would have been a bit put off as well."

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah. That's, uh. That's fair."

Duke was just going to neither confirm or deny the actual feelings he had for people in his universe right now.

"Anyway. We eventually worked it out. Some of it, at least. It's probably still best that I just. Not talk to her about Audrey anymore."

[my_own_advocate]

"Or perhaps put in a bit of work to make sure she knows you're not about to jump into Audrey's arms and make out with her, if she comes walking alive through a portal tomorrow," Lucifer said.

Because Duke wasn't, right?

[betterthanaplan]

"I mean, I'm not going to pretend I won't hug her. But making out is off the table."

Because she was in love with Nathan. Which didn't seem to be helpful to point out to Octavia right now.

[my_own_advocate]

"Fairly big difference between those two concepts," Lucifer said.

He hadn't realized he'd tensed just a little bit during that last question, but he did now that he relaxed.

[betterthanaplan]

"I wouldn't trade you two for hte world," Duke said. "I'm sorry if I haven't always made that clear enough."