Lucier's condo above Lux, LA, Monday (shhhh, timey wimey)

[betterthanaplan]

It was Duke's birthday.

It wasn't something he'd ever made a real big deal about. Most years he wouldn't even notice it happened until well after the day had already passed. But this year? This year, when he looked at the actual date, was one that couldn't be ignored.

According to math, today was the day that Duke turned fifty.

Of course, he'd traveled back and forth through time enough times -- and spent enough chunks of time in places where it just worked different -- that he had absolutely no idea what his "biological" age would be. For all he knew, his body had reset when Lucifer resurrected him and he was actually less than a year old. But his birth date had always been June 2, 1975. And the current date, Fandom-wise (and . . . maybe in this LA? His phone still kept Fandom time, as far as he could tell) was June 2, 2025.

Fifty years. Did he feel fifty? What did fifty even feel like? He knew what "old enough to just fuck off and die" felt like. He didn't feel like that. But hopefully he wouldn't have until he was in his 80s, anyway.

He sat sprawled on Lucifer's couch, a drink on the side table, and tilted his phone this way and that as he used the selfie mode to take in his "reflection". The silver at his temples didn't seem to have grown much over the last couple years, which he supposed was good. There were a few gray hairs in his beard these days, too. Where else was he supposed to see age? None of his parents or grandparents had stuck around long enough -- or lived long enough -- to even get old. He didn't have anything for perspective.

And again, time travel. So.

"Age ain't nothin' but a number," he muttered to himself. And tried to decide if the crows feet around his eyes were too prominent or not.

[for those in LA with him, for ALL the slow play, and look. Day-after is actually REALLY GOOD for me remembering this boy's birthday, okay??]

Comments

[my_own_advocate]

"... Are you brooding about something, darling?"

Lucifer was spending his day recovering from the shouting match he'd had with Amenadiel afterward, so don't mind him if he wandered into the living area with a healthy glass of scotch in hand.

[betterthanaplan]

"How old would you say I look?" Duke asked, still studying his image on his phone screen. "If you didn't know."

Did he know? Duke didn't know. How the hell would Lucifer?

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer blinked at him for a moment.

Okay, two.

"Darling, immortal angel," he said, waving at himself. "I am not a great judge of human ages."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke heaved a sigh and tossed his phone aside.

"I'm still pretty, though. Right?"

That was not something he actively worried about, normally.

[my_own_advocate]

"Absolutely gorgeous," Lucifer confirmed.

He walked over to press a kiss to the top of Duke's head to seal it. "Honestly, darling, I don't know what you're worried about."

[betterthanaplan]

“I’m not. Usually.” Duke reached up to try to catch Lucifer’s . . . hand, maybe. Reached up to catch Lucifer. “I’m just. It’s dumb.”

[my_own_advocate]

"Tell me about it regardless?" Lucifer requested. He let Duke snag his hand. Gave a small, hopefully reassuring squeeze.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke squeezed back.

“It’s my fiftieth birthday. Calendar-wise.”

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, you remain quite nimble for a fifty-year-old," Lucifer said lightly, with an attempt at a reassuring smile. "Must be all that yoga."

[betterthanaplan]

“Of course I do,” Duke said, fondly amused. “Perspective on age from a celestial. Every human having a midlife crisis should get some.”

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer chuckled. "I also think it's too early for you to have one of those," he said, kissing the top of Duke's head. "You have been reborn, more or less."

[betterthanaplan]

"That is its own separate crisis," Duke admitted. "I've been trying not to think about it too much."

Largely failing, too.

[my_own_advocate]

"Why?" Lucifer said, frowning. "You're alive again, troubleless and free to do as you please. Seems like a happy thing to think about."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia still had plants to mind on the Rouge, so that was what she'd been doing with some of her day.

But now the elevator dinged, and then the doors opened, and she emerged back into the penthouse, a bag slung over her arm.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke glanced over from his studying of his own image and offered a distracted smile. "Hayun, gona."

[okteiviakom]

"Ha yun, jaka," Octavia replied, her own smile small and faint but for the usual reasons. "Take it nothing colossal happened while I was gone?"

[betterthanaplan]

“We try to let you know when that happens,” Duke said.

His existential nonsense — was nonsense. And yet he couldn’t quite stop.

Was that gray in his mustache, too?

[okteiviakom]

And Octavia caught onto his distraction as soon as she actually made her way closer to the couch.

Her head tilted, concerned.

"What's wrong?"

[betterthanaplan]

“Nothing,” Duke said. Still checking his appearance. “It’s dumb.”

And yet, he couldn’t stop.

[okteiviakom]

"It doesn't seem like nothing," Octavia argued, gently. Which was also a pretty good descriptor of the way she slid next to him onto the couch, too. "And I bet it's not dumb, either."

[betterthanaplan]

Oh, but it felt agonizingly dumb.

Duke looked at her. “How old would you guess I was?”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia blinked, then raised her eyebrows - not like it was dumb, but maybe silly?

"I don't need to guess," she said, without hesitation, like it was that easy. "You're forty. Probably really close to it, anyway."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke barked out a startled laugh. "I'm not." He wasn't sure how old he was, but he was pretty sure that wasn't it. "According to the calendar, you're off by ten."

[okteiviakom]

"And which calendar's that?" Octavia retorted, though not unkindly, by any means. "Because you were thirty-three when we met, which means you were thirty-four when I got back from the Ground." She leaned towards him a little more, although she was looking off to the side, working out her math. "And that was five years ago, so, thirty-nine, right? Now, obviously I don't know exactly how long you got swallowed up by Haven at various points, but I think the worst of it was a few months that passed over there, and that wasn't every time, so... I'm saying just round it out to a year lived in total."

Tiny shrug.

"So... forty."

And then, dawning realization:

"Wait, did we forget your birthday again?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Not quite," Duke said. He turned his phone towards her, lock screen on to show the date and time. "It's today. June 2, 2025." A beat. "I was born 50 years ago."