My unicorn got run over by a tractor

It'd been three days, and Octavia hadn't come back. Duke wasn't surprised. He'd told her to get lost, and unlike some people, she didn't need to be told more than once. He wasn't sure if he'd meant for her to entirely leave. He didn't know if he hoped she would come back.

He didn't even know where she'd gone. Back to Fandom, right? If Lucifer were still around maybe she'd have tried heading to his LA, but it wasn't like she had anywhere else she could go.

Or — maybe she had the whole world. She wasn't afraid of crowds anymore. Maybe she was travelling. Looking for the places that matched her own world. Looking for all the things that hadn't survived the apocalypse.

He checked his phone for the umpteenth time, debating whether or not to try to contact her. He didn't know what he'd say. He was still freaked out by what he'd learned. By who she'd really been, down in the bunker. He didn't know how he'd get past that, and until he figured that out, it wasn't fair for him to call her, was it?

And. Anyway. It was easier here, without her. He could talk to Audrey without second-guessing everything he said, wondering if he was flirting too much. He could deal with Evi — who unlike Octavia hadn't stayed gone, who was stubborn enough to still think she could win him over — without worrying that Octavia was shutting herself down further with every word he and his ex exchanged.

He could deal with the guy showing up to creep on his young employee without wondering if a trouble was about to come bite the woman he loved in the ass.

( It'd just come to bite him in the ass instead )

[NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. Adapted from Haven 2x08, "Friend or Faux"]

"An FBI agent left this," Duke said, looking down at the map spread across the table. Specifically at the design in the upper lefthand corner. Which matched the one that was meant to be on the arm of the person who killed him.

"It's a treasure map," Evi said brightly. She hadn't been hard to find; she had, in fact, been standing on the docks waiting for him when Duke and Octavia arrived. "Could be fun, right?"

Duke looked up at her. "Why were you talking to an FBI agent?"

"I wasn't," Evi said. "Your friend was. The blonde. Apparently they have the same name or something."

"So . . . the FBI agent didn't so much leave this as have it get stolen from her bag."

Evi shrugged. Entirely unrepentant. "Are you in?"

Duke looked at the map again. Stealing from the Guard seemed like exactly the sort of thing that might get them to bump 'murder Duke' up on their to-do lists.

It also seemed like a nice 'fuck you'.

"This is a bad idea," he said.

Evi smiled. "All the best ones are."

[NFB due to distance. For the one who came with him. Will be VERY loosely adapted from 2x04, "Sparks and Recreation"]

Duke was just getting back from a trip into Baltimore to pick up . . . provisions for his planned "get away" with Octavia this weekend when his phone rang.

His 2010 phone.

He dug it out of his pocket with a grimace, and half-averted his eyes as he took a look at the number. Then frowned and flipped it open to answer.

"Audrey? Since when do you call me?"

"You and Nathan, ugh. I am capable of having friends, you know."

"Nah, of course," Duke teased, glancing around to see if Octavia was here to overhear. Or any squirrels. He set out a glass of rum just in case. ( which makes this bit NFB! )

[mostly establishy ahead of more canon, but also open! That he got a phone call is fine to report, but contents are strictly NFB, please.]