my_own_advocate | Lucifer's Mansion, Wednesday Evening

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Lucifer's Mansion, Wednesday Evening

It certainly had been an auspicious month for the house, hadn't it? Lots of important conversations. Lots of date nights. Lots of very delightful--

Well.

It was Lucifer and Duke's turn again, tonight. And so Lucifer arrived early, with two exorbitantly-priced wagyu steaks and a plethora of fresh vegetables to cook. The bread went in the oven while he worked patiently to make this an excellent meal.

He was humming to himself as he cooked.

[[ for a Duke ]]

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And here Duke was, arriving with plans for the basement pool tucked into a roll-shaped portfolio. They were all structural so far, so not quite design plans yet, but Duke was pretty sure Lucifer would enjoy seeing them anyway.

"Honey," he called as he let himself in. "I'm home!"

He was hilarious.

"Ah, there you are," Lucifer called jovially, either ignoring or just not picking up on the joke. "Just in time for dinner."

"It smells great," Duke said as he came into the kitchen. He set the portfolio down on a clear space of counter. "Steak?"

"Wagyu, grilled vegetables, and homemade bread," Lucifer said, glancing over to what Duke had brought. "Sometimes tradition isn't a bad thing."

"Oh man," Duke said. "Homemade bread!" The rest was also impressive, but bread required so much more time. It was also something he didn't tend to make himself, which just made it even more impressive in his book. "You're going to spoil me."

"That is generally the point of these evenings," Lucifer said, tossing him an easy wink. "Almost done."

He turned off the stove and put the steaks on their plates. "They just need to rest. So... what have you brought?"

"Architectural plans," Duke said proudly. He opened the portfolio and pulled out a set of blueprints. "Not full designs -- like I said, I figure you'll want to handle a lot of that. But I let the pros take the lead on, like, how to knock out a wall and give us lots of light. They came up with some cool stuff."

Lucifer shuffled a step or two to the right to get close enough to see the plans, and let his eyes sweep up and down.

"You did get professionals," he observed, approvingly.

"Of course I did!" Duke said, with mock offense.

The plans involved knocking out one of the basement walls and digging into the natural shape of the ground at that side of the house to create a little hidden grotto the pool would extend into.

"Check it out, these glass walls can both be shaded for privacy and opened up when the weather is nice to make it an indoor/outdoor space. Plus? We should be able to get the stones for the paving locally. Way less carbon impact."

"Ooooooooooooh," Lucifer said. "That is much better than the few skylights I feared they'd try to put in." He ran his fingers over the lines. "... I can think of a few excellent lounge pieces that could fit there..."

"Hell yeah," Duke said. "And I was thinking, maybe a fire pit over here or something? For cooler nights in the fall or spring."

"And lots of pillows and blankets, naturally, for the same reasons," Lucifer mused. "We could lay about and stare at the stars."

"This is going to be so nice," Duke said, nodding. "I asked about making it a salt water pool. Or somehow self-sustaining. They're, uh. Looking into that."

It was kind of a bigger ask than "moving walls" and "waterfall feature".

"Well, we have time."

On impulse, Lucifer leaned over to press a kiss against Duke's cheek. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Duke said cheerfully. Then: ". . . For what?"

"Putting in the effort to make my house part of our home," Lucifer said, smiling at him. "I have noticed, and it is appreciated."

Duke nodded. "You're welcome," he said again, this time with the seriousness it deserved. "I'm just sorry I didn't realize you wanted this sooner. I guess I just. . . . Thought you wanted it as your own space. Like Tavi and her boat."

"I am not Octavia, as you may have noticed," Lucifer said. His tone held no malice or frustration; it was just a statement of a fact. "I do love this house," he said, glancing down at the plans. "But, frankly, that's a recent development. This used to be a place where I was alone and miserable."

“It’s hard to picture that,” Duke said. “You alone. I know it’s how you’ve spent . . . ages. But with all your LA friends, and Tavi and I here? Alone doesn’t suit you at all.”

"I wasn't in a good place when I came here, darling," Lucifer pointed out gently.

The oven timer beeped. He slipped past Duke to go free the bread.

"I like having both of you here. Brings a touch of life to the place," he said, opening up the oven. "I even like the thought of the two of you doing your date nights here. Life going on, even when I'm not here."

"I know you weren't," Duke said, watching him move.

He was never entirely going to forgive Chloe for that, either. (And -- oh. He suddenly understood the animosity towards Audrey better.)

"I'm just glad you're not there anymore."

"I am glad you're here," Lucifer said, taking the bread out of the oven with two comically domestic oven mitts on. "I haven't been harboring some yearslong resentment that you haven't done anything with the house before," he felt the need to add, as he carried it to the table. "I just find myself very happy that you finally feel comfortable here."

"It is one of my very favorite non-boat places," Duke said. Those oven mitts were adorable, and he pulled out his phone to snap a picture. "I mean, I can't see myself spending a night here without your or Octavia around, but still."

"No, that just sounds like you banishing yourself from the seas for some stupid reason," Lucifer said. He pulled a face as he set the bread down. "Bring us the plates, will you?"

"You do know I don't, like, snap when I'm alone, right?" Duke asked as he went to fetch the plates. "I like having you two around, but I can do alone just fine, too."

He had for most of his life after all.

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