The Deck of the Cape Rouge, Sunday Noon-ish

[my_own_advocate]

If there was such a thing as 'critical limit of things to process', Lucifer had hit it sometime yesterday. He had a child, apparently, and his partners doing their best to accomodate her while struggling not to fall apart, and he was still trying to figure out how on Earth it could even happen to him.

So he'd decided to do better today. To try and entertain her, and make sure she knew he wasn't-- that he wouldn't just drop her on someone else and ignore her.

"How about we play some music?" he'd asked. And Aurora had gotten a look on her face.

They'd wound up on the deck, him with a guitar, her with Duke's ukelele that she had insisted on getting and he couldn't stop her from getting because she knew exactly where it was.

It had been nice. Oddly enough.

But now he had retreated to the back portion of the deck with his coffee. Rory was perched on the railing of the ship, looking out over the coast of Fandom, and... still playing that damned ukulele.

[[ open for boat dwellers and passers-by alike! ]]

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[betterthanaplan]

When Duke had finally physically exhausted himself, he'd ended up half-sprawled, half-curled against the wall. Right by the door, where he heard her loud and clear.

Fuck.

"Yeah," he said, hoarse from screaming. "What's up, kid?"

[swisflapa]

"You want something to drink?" Rory sounded tentative. "I made some iced tea."

[betterthanaplan]

He didn't really want to talk to her. But she was his kid, apparently, so he couldn't not.

(His upbringing hadn't really come with any healthy examples of having boundaries with your own family, no.)

And, well. He was kind of dehydrated after a day of screaming and throwing things.

So he reached up silently and flicked the lock on the door, then cracked it open.

[swisflapa]

"Hi," Rory said quietly. "I'm just... going to crack this open a little more and put this on the floor, okay?"

A moment later, she tried to do just that, pushing forward slightly so she'd have more room.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke let her, though there was some resistance from the pillows themselves.

"Thanks." He let her set it down, then picked it up. Not really feeling up to touching anyone at the moment. (Not really feeling like he deserved physical touch at the moment.) "Sorry I'm not . . . more of a dad, right now."

[swisflapa]

Rory flashed him the smallest smile. "I've got two really great, kinda dumb dads at home," she said. "I can handle one young-ass version of one of them checking out for a day. I promise."

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah, well." Duke sighed, leaning his head back against the wall. "Maybe I'm not."

[swisflapa]

"Maybe you're not what?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Okay with it."

[swisflapa]

"Jesus, dad," Rory said, shaking her head. "It's not like you have anything to prove or something."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke's laugh was wet and a little bit helpless.

"Don't I?"

Lucifer had meant it to be reassuring, but Duke had taken his "you've done all you can" as a slight on his usefulness, and he wasn't handling it well.

[swisflapa]

Lucifer would have... a lot to say about that, if Duke told him.

But Rory had no idea about that backstory. She sighed, and bit down on her bottom lip, and tried to think about how much she could even say.

"No," she said. "Look, if this is about being a dad, then-- fuck, you're my dad because dad, and mom, and you all fought really hard to make sure you could be. You being my dad is kind of like, a constant annoying reminder that my parents really love me and each other. So, no, you don't have to prove anything. You're already proof. Just like. Being someone I know."

[betterthanaplan]

Oh good. He was a struggle to be around. That was what that meant, right? She was Octavia and Lucifer's daughter, though, so trying to argue wouldn't do him any good.

"It's not about you," he said softly. "You just . . . showed up at a bad time."

[swisflapa]

"I know," Rory said, matter-of-factly. "Seriously. The only person beating you up about this is you."

She dropped to a squat, so she was at least speaking to him face-to-face. "I told you, I have three parents I know love me a ton," she said. "Didn't you hear me just now? You and dad like, pulled some crazy dimensional space-time shit to be there for me when I was a baby, come on. You don't do that if you're not krei about being a parent. So even if you weren't right now, I know you're gonna be."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke frowned, finally processing that bit.

“You’re — were you born in Octavia’s universe?”

That was the only explanation he could think of for the need to pull “ crazy dimensional space-time shit”.

[swisflapa]

Dammit.

Rory opened her mouth. Closed it. Sighed. "Yeah," she said. "Talk about a really bad case of portal napping timing."

[betterthanaplan]

"Jesus," Duke said softly. "You really are used to us being hot messes."

That was actually not the point she'd been trying to make here, Duke.

[swisflapa]

Rory snorted softly.

"There were a couple of hiccups," she said. "But for most of my life, all of you have been pretty stable and happy, actually. After dad got you all there, apparently the post-napping period was actually, like. Healing. After a whole fuckton of bullshit."

In a different way than Duke was likely to take from that, but. Well. Spoilers.

[betterthanaplan]

"Huh." Duke leaned his head back again and finally thought to take a drink of his iced tea. "I can't decide if that's reassuring or not."

[swisflapa]

"It should be," Rory said, shrugging. "I mean, sure, I spent the first few years of my life in a weird future universe. Then we came home to the Rouge. You guys still have a lot of shit to get through until you get to me, don't get me wrong, but..."

She shrugged, finally sliding the ukelele out from under her shoulder. "It's going to stop some day."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke didn't notice the uke, still too busy looking off into space and sipping his iced tea. He let out a soft little huff.

"You know, me and Luce argue about that sometimes. Whether anything can really go on forever. I've kind of lived my whole life on the premise everything stops some day."

[swisflapa]

Rory put the instrument down in front of them. She didn't call much attention to it. "Yeah, well, your perception of that stuff gets kind of funny when you're a celestial," she said. "I mean, I'm going to straight-up stop aging in a couple of years, which is wild."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke bobbed his head. "True. Though . . . as someone who nearly died of old age before I was even, like, 35, let me just say it has its benefits."

[swisflapa]

"I'm not complaining. It's just weird," Rory said, and she reached up to poke her cheek. "Like am I gonna stay chubby-cheeked forever or am I going to grow out of it before it hits, you know?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke looked back at her, finally.

"You look beautiful, kiddo. You don't need to worry about growing out of anything."