Deck of the Cape Rouge, Sunday Afternoon

[my_own_advocate]

This certainly had been an emotionally eventful week, hadn't it? For the first time since Duke... exploded... Lucifer found himself in a decent mood, sleeping in to just about noon before cooking himself up a ridiculous breakfast.

Then there was coffee, and a still-somewhat-asleep Devil wandering onto the deck with a large mug that read 'Nail Satan' and a blanket slung over his shoulder. He sat down, facing the boardwalk, and stretched his legs out.

Sigh. A content one, for once. Not entirely without underlying strain, still, but close enough.

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[my_own_advocate]

"And you wouldn't," Lucifer took from that.

[okteiviakom]

"I'll go wherever you want to go," Octavia returned, lightly. Ish. This was Octavia, after all.

(An Octavia who was trying.)

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, that's an answer to a different question," Lucifer pointed out.

[okteiviakom]

"I didn't say I wouldn't like it," Octavia pointed out in return, easily enough. "I think I'm just probably more picky than he is."

[my_own_advocate]

And oh, look. He was eyeing her again.

"Darling," Lucifer said, and sipped his coffee, "I'm a bit better at this game than you are, you know."

[okteiviakom]

There was the tiniest shift in Octavia's expression. A flattening, in parts. "I'm not playing."

No, she was fighting for her life, and clearly failing, now.

[my_own_advocate]

"No, you're dodging, equivocating, and twisting around the point," Lucifer noted, lowering his coffee. "I can go back to not pointing it out and giving you space if you prefer, but honestly. I practically invented all three of those verbs."

[okteiviakom]

Weird how fast something tired could creep into her features, wasn't it? "What was the point, Lucifer?"

She took a sip. It didn't look natural.

[my_own_advocate]

"In this specific case, your not being in the mood for a vacation," Lucifer said, and reached for the Bailey's to add an extra shot to his own mug. "In a more general sense, I haven't the foggiest, but I promise you I will continue to wait until you're willing to expand on it."

[okteiviakom]

"Did you ask me that?"

Goddammit, she'd tried so had to keep her voice from going flat.

[my_own_advocate]

"Ask you what particular thing?" Lucifer asked.

And took a swig of Bailey's, while he was at it.

[okteiviakom]

"If I was in the mood for a vacation."

She wasn't touching the rest. But she was also looking away now, towards the boardwalk, away from the Bailey's and the guilt it brought with it.

"I could be," Octavia forced herself to continue. Her tone didn't hit much outside of mildness, but at least there were words. "See someplace else to take walks in."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed.

"When I said it'd be nice if we could all get into the mood for one again, you said Duke would like one," he pointed out. "Whereas I meant all of us."

He put the bottle down.

[okteiviakom]

"I said Duke because aside from whatever anyone wants, I think he could use one," Octavia replied, only barely waiting long enough for him to finish. "I think... it would make him happy."

Boardwalk, so interesting.

She took another sip.

"I know you two have been working things out," she added. Softer, or at least more quiet. "It could keep the ball rolling on that."

[my_own_advocate]

"I suppose."

Octavia just seemed so ever so subtly off lately. And it was going on for long enough that even his unshakeable faith that she'd talk to him eventually if she needed it was... getting a touch shakey.

"But I believe that ball will continue rolling regardless."

[okteiviakom]

"Well," Octavia said. "Good."

Guess they didn't need to talk about a vacation, then. See how that worked out?

This time, the sip was a much longer one.

"How has it been?"

[my_own_advocate]

Not doing a great deal of work to convince Lucifer you wouldn't mind one, Octavia. Though he let it go, for now.

"Duke and I?" he asked. "Well, so far, between all the talking and the sex."

[okteiviakom]

"Sounds about right," Octavia replied, finding a little bit of her usual rasp again. "I'm glad."

That part? 100% right from the heart honest.

It sounded it, to boot.

[my_own_advocate]

"There were some conversations we hadn't had that we should have, a long time ago," Lucifer said. "In part his fault for... not raising them again. In part mine, as he didn't know how important it was to me."

He sipped his coffee thoughtfully.

"We're not there yet, wherever 'there' is," he said. "But I believe at least the hurt feelings have fallen from our eyes, which makes it much easier to find each other."

[okteiviakom]

"Good," Octavia said again. She didn't quite look over at him again, but her gaze was sliding away from the view and... closer, again.

His knee seemed like an okay enough compromise.

"I think it scared me." Now her voice really was soft. "How you both blew up."

(That much she could see. How it had contributed to everything else she'd been feeling in the past few weeks, not so much.)

[my_own_advocate]

"I'm sorry," Lucifer said quietly. "You shouldn't have had to see that."

[okteiviakom]

"I didn't," Octavia replied, just as quietly. "I waited until the yelling was over."

As if that had made any real difference.

[my_own_advocate]

"You heard it," Lucifer pointed out.

He twisted the mug around in his hands. Looked at it.

"I didn't mean to endanger your safe space."

[okteiviakom]

"This our home," Octavia replied.

She didn't put any stress on the 'our'. But there was an implication of it all the same.

[my_own_advocate]

"Yes," Lucifer agreed.

He sipped his coffee. Thinking.