The Cape Rouge, Saturday Morning

[my_own_advocate]

Haven was even worse than all the stories. And so, after the absolute disaster that had been yesterday and its ensuing revelations and fights, Lucifer had - over Duke's initial protests and then quiet acceptance - thrown everyone into the Rolls Royce and driven them home through a bloody portal.

He'd been keeping it together quite well, all in all, he felt. Compared to both of his partners. He was good at that, occasionally, being the one who didn't fall apart at the sight of personal trauma.

So why couldn't he sleep?

He'd given up the fight at some un-Himly hour. Found himself pottering around, lurking on deck, lurking in other places, drinking. Now he was back in the galley, contemplating the last of their scotch, and the inevitability of their eventual return to Haven.

He almost missed the noise outside.

[[ for the cape rouge dwellers plus one ]]

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[betterthanaplan]

Duke had let Lucifer sitter him wherever he liked last night, too tired mentally to argue or resist. Otherwise, he might have slipped off when they got home to find somewhere to lick his wounds alone.

Instead, he’d slept fitfully in the bed, waking over and over from stressed, helpless dreams, only to shift or roll over and fall immediately back to sleep for more. He noticed each of them getting up, but they blended into the dreams until he lost track of where he was, what was real.

And of course, what morning after being possessed would be complete without a bout of sleep paralysis?

Duke finally came properly awake with a gasp, rolling immediately out of bed and stumbling blindly to the bathroom to — something. Splash water on his face maybe. Or scream and throw up.

[swisflapa]

It startled Aurora, who had only just relaxed a few fractions from everything with mom. She looked up at Lucifer, a question in her eyes.

Lucifer just gave her a helpless shrug. He didn't know, either. (Whatever energy he had to put into figuring out what to do about Duke was still pouring into repressing everything that had happened.)

[betterthanaplan]

He splashed water on his face. (There were people here. No screaming around people.) after several rounds of that and drinking some of the water straight from the tap, Duke slowly came into the galley, damp and shirtless, looking for coffee.

He stopped, squinting at Rory. Several things occurred to him to say, but they were mostly curses, so he kept silent for now.

[swisflapa]

By now, Rory had perfected her awkward, subdued, and yet somehow almost sarcastic little wave. "Morning, dad. Shit went down, I know, I'm just visiting, I think that's everything?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke transferred his state from her to Lucifer, eyebrows waaaaay up.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia, stubbornly cutting up some fruit for herself by the counter, had found herself not daring to look at him until now.

But, well. Rory had just said 'dad' and not meant Lucifer and this was the moment she realized she had just been assuming Rory was just hers and Lucifer's, and it -- it kind of scared her, somehow, that she'd thought that without questioning.

She darted a quick look towards Duke, now.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer shrugged. Helplessly, he felt. It looked more panicked from the outside. "Apparently she's biologically half-angel, half-irradiated future dweller," he said. "And just about everything else I ask her is--"

"--Either spoilers or totally unnecessary info," Rory said.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke looked between Lucifer and Octavia and slowly nodded.

She was theirs. He was just . . . extraneous Dad.

At least she wouldn't have a trouble.

"Right," he said after a long moment. His voice was hoarse and tight. ". . . So. Coffee?"

[okteiviakom]

"Some in the pot," Octavia said.

She didn't sound much better, and was already escaping back into her slow task of using her non-dominant hand.

[swisflapa]

"I can get it," Rory said, getting up off the couch. "Dad."

Just... taking a wild stab at whatever that look meant.

She walked into the kitchen without waiting for anyone else to respond. "This is so freaking weird."

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah," Duke said, watching her move. "It really is."

He'd technically done this a couple times before, but this one was older. And . . . ill-timed.

[swisflapa]

"I mean it's like hearing World War 2 stories from your parents all your life and then you get like, zapped to the morning after the Battle of the Bulge," Rory commented, as she grabbed a mug from the cabinet (they never really changed anything in here, did they?) and poured it full of coffee.

It was kinda fucked up, seeing them like this. The parents she knew were a decade and a half past this point, and much more stable.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had just opened her mouth right before Rory spoke, and just ended up closing it again as she shifted out of the kid's way.

Just about done with her fruit.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke chuckled. "I, uh. Actually did that once. Not World War 2, but the 50s. Day my granddad died."

[swisflapa]

Rory had heard the story. "Damn, that's fucked up," she said, still pouring, muttering an idle apology to Octavia when she brushed too close. "How'd you handle it?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia...

Stared at her fruit and tried not to think about how she and Lucifer had handled it.

[betterthanaplan]

"Uhhhh . . . not well," Duke admitted. He leaned back against the counter, taking his weight off his bad leg, and watched her pour. Watched Octavia out of the corner of his eye. "Mostly by repressing, which I've heard is not a super great way to do it."

But was for sure how he really wanted to handle being possessed, too.

[my_own_advocate]

"Repressing is emotionally unhealthy and leads to later outbursts as the feelings try to work their way to the surface," Lucifer, who was the only one here succesfully repressing his feelings to the point of having some level of executive functioning and was ergo due for an outburst sometime later, said.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I like punching things better. And music."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's chest felt all tight, at that.

She went to put her discarded pieces of the inedible bits of fruit in the trash, because there was nothing there she should comment on.

[betterthanaplan]

"Punching and music." Duke smiled faintly. (Mmm, repression.) "You are definitely Tavi's kid."

[swisflapa]

"Or am I?" Rory said, trying at levity as she walked towards the table with the coffee. "Be pretty fucked up if I lied about that."

(No one had ever made her use a swear jar in her life, no.)

[okteiviakom]

For neither language, even, probably. Not that Octavia was thinking about that. She was thinking about... punches.

Yeah.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yes," Duke decided. "Yes it would. And that sense of humor . . ."

That was all him.

[swisflapa]

"Is my own badass creation," Rory said, spreading her arms and making a faux-bow to her audience. "Thank you so much."

[betterthanaplan]

“Ah, of course. Silly me.”

He really needed that coffee.