The Marina, Cat Island, Tuesday Night

[my_own_advocate]

They had traditions out here on Cat Island - or, well, ways to entertain the tourists that came through here week after week. Spirits had flowed freely well into the evening, and dances and costumes and all sorts of razzle dazzle had come through the diner and engulfed the docks in light.

But somewhere near the end of the evening, close to the big finale, three people wandered further and further away onto the beach. Lucifer, of course, was carrying a cooler in one hand, and his long, thin teal shirt hung loose and open around his body.

He was smiling a bit.

"I think we're almost far enough away," he said.

[[ for them ]]

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[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer pressed a kiss against his temple. "Thank you," he murmured.

He looked up at Octavia and raised his eyebrows.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't know what she was supposed to do with raised eyebrows right now.

"Express my feelings," because unlike some people, she'd never had a problem feeling her feelings, as everyone here was sadly familiar with, "and why did it take you until someone told you to say that?"

(Maybe it would've helped if she'd tried to take another deep breath or something, here.)

[betterthanaplan]

"Because I'm not a mind reader," Duke snapped. "And as I've been helpfully reminded of repeatedly lately, I'm apparently very selfish. So yes, you have to tell me things when you want me to do them."

He looked away -- from her and from Lucifer.

(He didn't pull his foot from her lap, though. Or pull back from Lucifer's weight at his side. )

[my_own_advocate]

"Oh, for me's sake," Lucifer groaned. He almost pulled away from Duke, purely to make his point, but at the last second he abandoned the idea. "Will you both shut up for a moment? No wonder this keeps going bloody wrong!"

[okteiviakom]

Well, Octavia had been about to say something.

And now that thing had an uncomfortable chance of festering as her mouth snapped shut, instead.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke stared down at his knees and waited. Feeling a bit like he'd been sent to the principal's office.

Only, you know, he actually cared what the two people here thought of him.

[my_own_advocate]

"Neither of you are listening to each other, you're just waiting for your time to speak," Lucifer said irritably, "Which, I'll remind you, is supposed to be my fatal flaw. So can we please all listen, show an actual interest in everyone's feelings, acknowledge them, maybe even ask some questions before we start flinging our own grievances at one another or, me forbid, get pedantic about a choice in verbs?"

[okteiviakom]

So much for taking a breath.

"If you think it's pedantic that I would like to feel like what I was saying was understood," Octavia replied, measured tone sounding particularly forced, "then you should maybe get right back off your high horse."

[betterthanaplan]

And here Duke had just wanted to protest that he thought he had been listening. He'd offered her boundaries when she'd asked. And when she didn't like them, he'd rephrased them. Then apologized when they said he needed to do that.

Now he flicked his eyes between the two of them, wondering how Lucifer would handle this part of the 'nitpicking words' argument.

(He felt frozen in place now, muscles tense in what had started as a relaxed sprawl on the sand.)

[my_own_advocate]

"It's not pedantic to want to know you were understood, darling, it's pedantic to sharply correct him on his specific word choice when you know he's not as precise as you are and then, rather than let him answer, immediately follow it up with an accusation," Lucifer said flatly.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's jaw tightened a little further.

Although what she said was, "Well, you're gonna think whatever you want to think, so I'm not going to bother."

[betterthanaplan]

"Okay, come on," Duke said. He screwed his eyes shut and shook his head again. "Octavia. This is why it feels unsafe sometimes when you express your feelings. Because if we disagree with you at all, you snap or clam up or pick at our words until you're the victim."

. . . Fuck, that was not going to help anything at all.

"Ask us for what you want. Luce and I are very accommodating. But we're not perfect beings, for fuck sake. And that needs to be okay."

[my_own_advocate]

"You could just say, 'Duke, I need to know if you understood what I meant, because for me, expressing feelings and feeling things are two different things'," Lucifer said. "And then we would, in fact, bloody well listen and stop thinking whatever we were thinking."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia got up so abruptly and with such little grace that it sent sand flying. Sorry about your abandoned foot, Duke. Except maybe not really, after that victim thing.

(Far less offensive than probably several of her choices in this conversation, but, well, something had snapped there.)

She suddenly couldn't see very well through the blur in her eyes, so she addressed... their general direction. "Well, you can think in peace, now." And she grabbed her shoes and turned to stomp off further down the beach.

(Something that didn't feel safe right now was letting them see her crying.)

[betterthanaplan]

Duke curled in on himself, foot and all.

"Are we supposed to chase after her now?" he asked. Lucifer, nominally, but also the universe at large.

So much for their track record of people not leaving.

[my_own_advocate]

"Not you," Lucifer murmured. "Though darling? May I suggest taking a moment to reflect on the word 'victim' here?"

He kissed the top of Duke's head. "I'll talk to her," he said. "I'll leave you the wine."

And he gingerly attempted to disentangle himself.

[betterthanaplan]

“I know,” Duke said. (He also didn’t entirely think he was wrong. Just that he shouldn’t have said it out loud.)

He tipped his head in the direction she’d stormed off, without actually looking.

“Go.”

He’d be here. With the wine. Which he might or might not drink.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer straightened himself.

He let his hand fall to Duke's shoulder. "I love you," he said, softer. "I know you're trying your best."

Only then did he step away. Let his hand fall, and his eyes settle on Octavia's retreating back.

Then his feet followed.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia hadn't made it very far, stumbling like she was. First because of trying to get her shoes on, then because of simply trying to keep moving on uneven, sandy terrain, in the dark, while tears clouded her vision and rolled down her cheeks.

This was what she got for trying to go into a big conversation half-cocked. As if she didn't know how these things went, as if she didn't know what she was like. Wasn't she proving at least some of their points by storming off?

But she'd been trying to hold something in and hold something together for most of the time they'd been on this island.

And whatever she'd been holding that together with had just given out.

... Much like one of her legs seemed to, right then, as her foot caught on something, and sent her toppling onto her knees in the sand.

[my_own_advocate]

And here Lucifer had just been gearing himself up to have-- a fight? Something like that? With her?

Then she went down.

"Octavia!" he yelled, taking off into a run.

He didn't stop until he got to her.

[okteiviakom]

He found her still on her knees, slumped over and sobbing in a manner bordering on hysterical. Because all of this hadn't been embarrassing enough, so far.

(You know, for the Octavia later who would have to look back on her own actions.)

[my_own_advocate]

"Octavia," Lucifer said, dropping to his knees in the sand beside her.

He gathered her into his arms without even thinking.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's little flail when he touched her was reflexive, more than anything.

Same as the noise like a wounded animal that she made.

[my_own_advocate]

"Octavia, Octavia, darling, it's me," Lucifer babbled.

He didn't let go.

[okteiviakom]

After another, even weaker flail, Octavia slumped more against him. Almost like she had no choice.

Still crying, sobbing in a way that seemed to only barely give her a chance to get a breath.