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! ]]

Comments

[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."

[swisflapa]

"Of course you think that," Rory complained.

(Because he still sounded exactly like her dad.)

[betterthanaplan]

"Nah," Duke said, giving her a small smile. "I'm the young, messed up version of your dad, remember? No dad-goggles. You're just gorgeous."

He finally noticed the ukulele. "What's that doing here?"

[swisflapa]

"I spent some time playing with Skaifaya outside," Rory said idly. "Thought you might like having it back. So you don't get bored processing in here."

[betterthanaplan]

“You play,” Duke said, faintly awed. “Do you . . . wanna play for me?”

[swisflapa]

Oh. Wow.

That got a real smile.

"I mean, sure, I guess," Rory said, to cover for how quickly she reached for the uke. "Got any requests?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke started to shake his head, then stopped.

“Play . . . your favorite.”

[swisflapa]

"Only if you promise not to tell dad," Rory muttered. "I just spent like half an hour trolling him with Wonderwall."

She reached behind her to close the door. And began to play. "Birds flying high, you know how I feel...
"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke chuckled at the trolling, then fell silent, leaning his head against the door to watch her play. After the first verse, he started to softly sing along.

It felt better than the screaming did. He'd have to remember that later.

[swisflapa]

The smile on Rory's face grew as she heard him join in, and she let herself get caught up in their joined voices, in the music.

That was good.

Maybe she was helping, just a little.

"And I'm feeling... good!" she belted.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke watched her, his voice trailing off, and tried to imagine her world. A world where they were all . . . steady. Where they were past all the shit Haven and Heaven and the future piled on them and we’re doing okay.

It was hard. It made his chest ache. And he wanted it so badly.

[swisflapa]

Rory lowered the uke, grinning wide, and looked at Duke for approval.

And-- right.

That look.

She knew that look.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke dredged up another smile for her.

“That was meizen, kiddo. Thank you.”

[swisflapa]

Rory shook her head. She put the ukelele down in front of him again. "It's cool, dad," she said. "You need anything else? Some food, maybe?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke wanted to protest — it was beautiful! — but he bit it back, not wanting another round of “it’s okay that you’re not okay because you will be”, which was somehow even more exhausting in its own way.

“Nah, kid. I’m good. But thanks.”

[swisflapa]

Rory nodded.

As she got up, she leaned over just so and dropped a kiss on top of Duke's head.

[betterthanaplan]

How did that ache even more?

Duke swayed towards her a little when she pulled away, but he didn’t stop her. Didn’t say anything. Just sat and felt it.

The quiet, unassuming love.

[swisflapa]

'I'll talk to you later," Rory said softly.

As she left the room, she closed the door behind her just as gently.