Lucifer's Mansion, Sunday Night

[my_own_advocate]

It had certainly been a complicated week, hadn't it? Luckily, it had ended before the weekend, and Lucifer, Duke and Octavia had had all Saturday to recover.

That didn't mean Lucifer hadn't been slightly surprised that Octavia was still game for date night. But he had grasped it with every bit of enthusiasm he could foster. And yes, that did mean dinner had featured a genuinely ridiculous amount of tropical fruit.

"Suppose I should've put a protein in there," he mused, settling back and eyeing his empty dessert bowl with satisfaction.

[[ for her and sp. eta: nsfw-bound... ish? ]]

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[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed softly. "And I felt like I had no-- air, no space, to come up with one," he said.

[okteiviakom]

"I'm sorry." Oh, that was even quieter. "I just felt like you weren't hearing me. Especially since you went for the drawer."

[my_own_advocate]

"Darling, I was trying the entire time," Lucifer said, shaking his head. "Tried to move on from the misunderstanding, you brought it back to me not getting it. Then tried to start a story again, and you told me it wasn't interesting. Tried a different sort of dirty talk, and you told me that wasn't proof. Then I tried to dirty talk about how I would silence your demands for proof, and you started heckling me."

[okteiviakom]

"I get it now," Octavia muttered, even as some of that shame was starting to creep back in at the edges. "But I didn't -- it wasn't what I was after, so I didn't recognize it."

[my_own_advocate]

"Then I still don't understand what you were after," Lucifer said, a hint of desperation in his voice.

[okteiviakom]

"I just wanted you to sit down and tell me about a -- a hypothetical, and not make it about what you maybe wanted to do to me right now. A story."

Octavia's voice wasn't entirely desperation-free, either, not with how the words poured out of her.

"And, yes, I get it, you were trying to go back to the ice but what I heard there was that -- my fantasy either had to be a joke, or when I wasn't joking it wasn't proper so you had to change it. So..." She lost some steam, chewed on her lip. "So I just tried to play. Like maybe I could brat you into it."

[my_own_advocate]

"I'm sorry," Lucifer said, swallowing every stupid, pointless protest he might have had to one or two of the details. "I certainly didn't intend to make your fantasies feel like they weren't correct. Of course they are. They're yours."

[okteiviakom]

"It didn't feel like it," Octavia murmured, "so I didn't want to push that one."

She swallowed - harder than she'd thought she would.

"I'm sorry."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer slid his other arm around her, and tried to pull her in fully.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia let him. Burrowed more against his chest with a helpless shudder.

"I'm sorry," she murmured again. "I didn't relize it was that hard for you. I'm sorry."

[my_own_advocate]

"It's all right," Lucifer whispered. "I love you. I want you to feel wanted, and that your desires are respected, and I'm so sorry I did otherwise."

He rubbed her back soothingly. "You can tell me, next time. No need to-- brat me into it. I promise."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shook her head. "I wouldn't have if I'd realized you weren't there with me anymore."

[my_own_advocate]

"I should have called it off the second I began to struggle with it," Lucifer said softly. "I was just-- so caught up in not mucking it up again."

[okteiviakom]

"Then I'm sorry about that, too," Octavia murmured.

And wouldn't be mentioning anything about why she'd tried to get him to give her a dirty story in the first place.

[my_own_advocate]

"My mistake," Lucifer said. He ran his fingers through her hair. "Classic overcompensation. Frankly, embarrassing."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia couldn't help her shuddery sigh when he stroked her hair. It was rarely a bad move, and it certainly wasn't one now.

"We're both trying," she mumbled. "Sometimes a little too hard."

[my_own_advocate]

"When we usually come to our best results when we let a good mood carry us," Lucifer murmured. He felt the shudder, and so he let his hand keep moving. Touching, soothing-- both of them, really. "I didn't need that conversation to turn into sex, by the way. If you'd been... concerned about that."

[okteiviakom]

"I didn't think you did," Octavia promised, more or less truthfully. "But then it just kind of... felt like it was trying to, anyway."

So... yes.

[my_own_advocate]

"Mm, I suppose we were on a good roll before we messed with it," Lucifer said, the barest hint of amusement returning to his voice.

[okteiviakom]

"We were fixing a complicated situation," Octavia murmured. "Should've known the ground wasn't gonna carry every move."

[my_own_advocate]

"But we're still here," Lucifer said. "Both of us."

[okteiviakom]

"True."

A sign of progress, probably.

[my_own_advocate]

"And that matters." He brushed his lips against her hair. "Thank you."

[okteiviakom]

"For what?" Octavia murmured. "Not bolting?"

[my_own_advocate]

"Staying with me," Lucifer said. "An important difference."