"Oh, stop," Lucifer muttered, scooping him up into his arms midway through that ridiculous performance. "This won't be long," he promised Octavia (even though he probably couldn't promise any such thing).

He unfurled his wings and took off, without delay. Maybe he'd feel a bit more settled after this. If he was lucky.

The visit took longer than he'd hoped, but shorter than he'd feared. The same went, more or less, for the extent of the damage in Duke's arm: enough to be splinted now, not bad enough to need any kind of surgery.

"Here we are," he said, as he descended towards the Rouge. "The ship's still in one piece."