The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, early Monday morning

[betterthanaplan]

Most days, Duke was fine. Better than fine, even; he'd been essentially rebooted, after all. Turned off and back on again and all his caches had cleared and -- yeah, he honestly didn't know anywhere near enough about computers to make this metaphor work. He'd been in a dry dock of sorts. All patched up and back in shipshape.

Most days.

He couldn't remember most of the dream when he woke, his heart triphammering in his chest. Just the sense of utter helplessness that had accompanied it, and the sense that the gremlin man -- Croatoan -- was lurking at the edges, smirking in delight. He sat up in bed, trying to force his breathing back under control, and hoped he hadn't woken Lucifer or Octavia.

He really liked being fine. He wanted that feeling back, dammit.

HE slid out of bed, trying not to disturb anyone, and went to go hunt down a coffee.

[for the partners]

Comments

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer did not quite have the experience with sleeplessness his partners did. And so when he woke - again - in the middle of the night, he desperately did not want to actually be awake.

No, not even when Duke moved. He squeezed his eyes shut.

Come on, sleep. Give him blessed ignorance.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia barely slept lately as it was, so... Suppose there was a small blessing in how she had been asleep right before Duke had woken up.

Not a second after, though.

She let Duke move, let him leave, not wanting to try and crowd him if he was intent on not staying in bed. But as soon as he'd gone, she sat up too, rubbing her hands down her face.

[betterthanaplan]

He'd done his best, Luce. He knew how much you liked to sleep.

He set his coffee up to brew and leaned into the sink, splashing water on his face. Trying to clear the sense of dread from his mind.

It was over. All of it. Troubles and everything. Croatoan was dead, Duke had seen to that himself. He was safe, dammit.

His hands were shaking.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer let out a loud sigh.

And, immediately, seized up a touch. Hopefully Octavia would just take that as some kind of... sleeping noise? Yes. Sleep.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia wasn't buying it.

But all she did was pat his arm gently, absently, as she slid off the bed and onto her feet.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke heard her move and picked his head up, looking over toward her.

So much for not waking them. Though part of him knew that Octavia, at least, wouldn't be able to sleep through him getting up.

He got a couple of mugs out of the cupboard. Then a third, and a bottle of scotch, just in case Lucifer wandered off too.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia padded her way out of the bedroom and over to him. And, if he let her, went straight to lean against his back, looping her arms loosely around his waist.

Words could wait for another moment. She was tired.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke lowered one hand to rest over one of hers, leaning back into her.

He wasn't really looking to say much of anything right now, either. Not even an apology for waking her.

[okteiviakom]

He hadn't done it on purpose, anyway. There was nothing to apologize for.

Octavia pressed a kiss against the middle of his back, not much more than a light brush of her lips. Then she rested the side of her head against the same spot, with a quiet little sigh.

[betterthanaplan]

It still felt like something to apologize for. But Duke was learning that sometimes those feelings weren't the whole truth.

He gave her hand a squeeze, listening to the burble of the coffee brewing. Reminding himself that he was here. This was real.

They were alive. Right now, they were all alive.

[okteiviakom]

They were alive and they were here and that was all Octavia could ask for.

She hummed something largely tuneless under her breath, and rubbed a circle into his skin with her thumb. Breathing him in, the way she liked to.

Especially right now.

[betterthanaplan]

The coffee finished brewing, and Duke pulled away from her only enough to reach for the pot and start pouring.

He offered the first cup to her.

[okteiviakom]

One of Octavia's hands lingered on his hip even after he'd moved, even as he was offering her the cup - the right one, the injured one. Slowly getting better, but not quite there yet when it came to preferring it to pick things up with again.

She took the cup with her left, with a grateful little nod, followed by a hoarse little, "Chof."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke gave her a tiny, wry smile. "De nada."

He filled his own mug and let out a soft sigh. The silence was broken, and the old sense to try and fill it with noise was coming back.

"At least Lucifer gets enough sleep."

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah," Octavia sighed, leaning a little more against the back of his shoulder now rather than his back. But still leaning. Still keeping close.

And no, it wasn't like she was going to rat Lucifer out. Especially on a hunch alone.

She took a careful sip.

[my_own_advocate]

Back in the bedroom, said Devil turned over in the bed, finally, his head feeling all-- unpleasantly raw with buzzing thoughts.

He sighed and stared up at the ceiling.

"Oh, bugger."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke made a face that was half-grimace, half-smirk. "Speak of the Devil," he mused, then raised his voice. "We have coffee. And scotch."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had nothing to add to that, because, well. It was accurate.

So she took another sip instead.

[my_own_advocate]

"I'll take the scotch," Lucifer called, sitting up on the bed. "I refuse to speak to the coffee."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke huffed softly. "Coffee and scotch in bed?" he suggested to Octavia.

Just leading the way risked losing her heat for a moment too long, in his opinion. Better to negotiate first so they could stay connected as long as possible.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave one of her tiny shrugs. "Sure," she said. Her hand brushed one last abstract pattern against his side (for now), and then she pulled back to give him room to move.

She didn't want to get coffee spilled on her, and she wanted to be the reason she got coffee spilled on her even less.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer rubbed at his forehead. On the one hand, excellent thinking, scotch in bed would absolutely take his mind off of things.

On the other, they were bringing it to him, which left him with some unoccupied thinking time. "I can also come up there, if you'd prefer?"

There. Even the conversation would spend some of his time.

[betterthanaplan]

Lucifer was offering to get out of bed? Duke gave Octavia a curious eyebrow.

Was he okay?

"I'm good either way, babe," he called back.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia just looked tired, in return.

"It's literally less than a minute's worth of movement either way, why are we even talking about this?"

In fact, she was now heading for the bedroom, herself.

[my_own_advocate]

"Just trying to figure out the ideal approach, darling," Lucifer said, watching her march in nonplussed.