betterthanaplan | The deck of the Cape Rouge, Monday afternoon

Duke woke up . . . feeling perfectly fine, actually. Or as perfectly fine as he ever did. Perhaps his body had built up an immunity to the pollen after all these years. Perhaps he'd eaten some particularly quirky yogurt as a depression snack the day before. Perhaps -- and this was the unlikeliest of all if you asked him -- whatever was in charge of the island's whims and quirks was just giving him a damned break this time.

Whatever it was, he was not feeling any extra-strong urges today. He was, however, bemusedly watching a pair of porgs chase each other around the deck while he drank his first coffee of the day, and wondering if it was a sign that spring had finally sprung.

". . . Aww, c'mon, guys," he said, as one porg finally caught the other. "Get a room. I know you have access to several belowdecks."

He didn't even have a salad for them to be in front of! Come on, now.

[open! I'm trying a whole "30 minutes working, 5 minutes walking" thing after listening to NPR yesterday and it's maybe actually doing a good thing for my brain!]

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"Not just you. I have a feeling we're going to get a . . . flock? Litter? A bunch of tiny porgs. Soon."

Lucifer squinted. "... Well, make sure they don't nest anywhere annoying," he said. "I don't want to have another two-week 'humane shower pause'."

"Your confidence in my ability to control the porgs is . . . I dunno, endearing or something. But I definitely cannot control the porgs."

They were all lucky that none of the porgs had decided they wanted to share the big bed with them.

Aw, they could've woken up to the dulcet tones of porgs fucking.

"Are you sure?" Lucifer said, frowning. "They seem to listen to you more."

“If they listen to anyone, it’s Tavi,” Duke protested. “She’s got a way with her strikons.”

"Do they, or does she just exist near them better than either of us?" Lucifer asked, sitting down.

“Not sure the two are that different,” Duke said with a shrug. He leaned against the railing, sipping his coffee. “They’re wild, and on some level so is she.”

"I suppose," Lucifer said. He sounded skeptical.

He looked up at Duke. "So how are you this morning, excitable porgs aside?"

Duke bobbed his head. "I'm doing okay. Didn't manage to get up before noon, but now that I am up, things aren't looking too bad."

"Good," Lucifer said, with a little curve of his mouth. "Perhaps we can go out and pick up some proper coffee and some pastries soon? A proper breakfast."

"I could be down with that," Duke agreed. "Oh, hey, I found an interesting looking milkshake place in Baltimore I've been meaning to try."

"Oooh?" Lucifer perked up.

Duke grinned. "Piqued your interest, did I?"

"Well, you do know what milkshakes bring me to the yard," Lucifer said, grinning.

"The most decadent ones possible," Duke answered.

Lucifer was going to hate the interior. But the milkshakes would purportedly make up for it!

"And I'm immediately game," Lucifer said, delighted. "Date night?"

"Hell yeah." Duke pulled his phone out and poked around a little. "Looks like the place is closed Monday and Tuesday . . . Wednesday? While Tavi's doing her shift at the Nest?"

"Sounds perfect," Lucifer said, grinning. "I'll be free and entirely yours for the evening."

"Entirely mine," Duke teased. "I like the sound of that."

"I thought you might," Lucifer said, rising back up out of his seat. He joined Duke instead.

Duke slid his arm around Lucifer’s waist.

“Fair warning, it’s apparently pollen time again. I’m not feeling anything, but Tavi says she is.” He nodded towards the porgs. “And if the local wildlife is any indication. . . .”

"I think you're the one we're generally most concerned with this time of year," Lucifer noted, as he leaned slightly into Duke's arm. "You'll let me know if anything starts... tingling?"

“Pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to keep that secret if I tried,” Duke said.

He tended to get viciously irritable at minimum when triggered like that.

"Just making sure," Lucifer sighed. "Now I take it Octavia is being stubborn about it?"

“It’s almost like you know her,” Duke teased. “She’s trying for stoic.”

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