A Spot in the Preserve, Sunday Evening

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer and Octavia had their Sunday rituals down to a T. And that-- well, that made Lucifer a bit contrarian, at times. There was nothing wrong with their tradition, healing as it was, but doing the same thing over and over again wasn't always that exciting.

And, all right. Perhaps he was still processing his own healing breakdown a week after the fact.

So he'd promised Octavia a surprise. Shown up with some take out bags and a smile.

She'd probably figured out where they were going well before the first trees came into view. It was a bit chilly, that couldn't be helped, but still: Lucifer thought the ambiance would help. "Almost there."

[[ for her ]]

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[my_own_advocate]

It didn't take much from those wide, strong wings to lift them several dozen feet above the woods. There, Lucifer paused, keeping them aloft in place.

"All right?"

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah," Octavia said again, but this time sounding distracted.

Because now she was looking down at the trees.

[my_own_advocate]

"Okay," Lucifer said softly.

Beat his wings again, going higher.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia said nothing, just... watched, as the trees drew that little bit further away.

Got smaller, even if just by a little.

[my_own_advocate]

He didn't want to go too far up. Not yet. So with one more clap, Lucifer stopped. Held still again.

"We can do a loop, in a moment."

[okteiviakom]

It was weirder, somehow, to be suspended in the air like this than it was to be in movement. Octavia didn't realize she seemed to be trying to push herself a little tighter against him.

"Like... around the preserve?"

Over. Whichever.

[my_own_advocate]

"Yes," Lucifer said softly. "A tour, of sorts."

[okteiviakom]

"Oh."

She needed to stop saying that.

(But it was the soft, 'I think I'd like that' kind. Even if it was perhaps a touch hesitant.)

[my_own_advocate]

"Shall we?"

He was leaving all this in her hands.

[okteiviakom]

Her very unsteady hands.

The best she could do was a nod.

[my_own_advocate]

It was important he keep asking, rather than blithely rushing past her comfort. So Lucifer picked a direction and flew, keeping the beats of his wings slow and steady.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was still doing that thing of pressing against him, though it was really not much more than a kind of tension in her body.

She exhaled an unsteady breath.

"It's -- weird, from up here," she said. "Like it's not real."

[my_own_advocate]

"It's the perspective shift," Lucifer murmured. "It is as real as the woods you see every day, but humanity wasn't built to see it from here."

[okteiviakom]

"Humanity in my day was built to see it from way further up," Octavia murmured.

Not her, of course.

[my_own_advocate]

"Not the same, is it?" Lucifer asked gently.

On many levels.

[okteiviakom]

"No."

On many levels, and for several reasons.

"I don't know what I was built for, anyway."

[my_own_advocate]

"Something incredible you stitched together in your own way, I imagine," Lucifer said. With a graceful arc, he flew over the water, then curved back towards the preserve.

[okteiviakom]

'Incredible', he said, flying above the island.

If the woods had looked unreal from this height, the water wasn't much less so, glinting with whatever light it could catch.

It was beautiful. Made Octavia fall silent again.

[my_own_advocate]

He'd been able to fly all his life.

Octavia was something else.

Lucifer didn't dare break the silence further. So he didn't. He just... kept at it. Slow. Steady.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia watched the ground below, or what little she could see of it through the trees.

It felt like looking at a map, the way she could pick out some of the places she usually went to, in the preserve.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer circled slowly back over the preserve, descending a little as he went. Bringing those trees back into focus, so she could see they were real.

He glanced at her face, curious.

[okteiviakom]

Her eyes were looking a little big.

Flying lower cut down on some of the surreal of it all, but being a little closer to touching distance brought with it its own sense of weirdness.

It was a lot.

[my_own_advocate]

Lower and lower they went.

"Hold on tighter," Lucifer instructed quietly, as he picked a large tree-branch that looked like it could hold some weight and moved towards it.

[okteiviakom]

Well, he didn't have to tell Octavia twice.

She held on tight, looking around to figure out what he was planning.

[my_own_advocate]

He touched down gently on the branch. With a little shift, Lucifer found himself seated, Octavia in his lap.

In the canopy.