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 ]]

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

"I don't usually bother with anything serious," Duke said, nodding. He leaned back on his hands and looked at the water. "And anyway, I already have a pretty solid list of goals to work through right now. I think I'm with Luce on this one."

[my_own_advocate]

"I suppose I could also add," Lucifer mused, stretching his legs out across the sand, "'to a happier, healthier, more stable year'."

[okteiviakom]

Oh. That was probably something Octavia shouldn't stay quiet on.

"Yeah," she murmured. Very soft, digging her toes further into the sand.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke picked up one foot to poke her playfully in the leg with his toes.

"Whatcha thinking about, gona?"

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer leaned back. And perhaps quietly flipped open the cooler.

[okteiviakom]

"Nothing, really," Octavia murmured, as she gave Duke's foot a little nudge back with hers. "Just..."

She nodded towards Lucifer.

"What he said."

[betterthanaplan]

"Happiness, health, and peace," Duke said. He ran his toe gently down her leg. "Good plan."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer grinned. He scooted to the side a bit, until he was pressed up against Duke's side, and then flung an easy arm around the man's shoulders.

"With more island getaways," he said. "And a bit better communication."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia finally turned a little more towards them, although she was looking at her feet as she did, to keep from jostling the little connection she had going with Duke.

"Think that takes more than just saying 'better communication'," she noted, soft.

[betterthanaplan]

“Yeah?” Duke said, trying to encourage her to keep talking.

He kept his toe against her leg as she turned, leaving little trails of sand against her calf.

[my_own_advocate]

"Obviously," Lucifer said, but he was looking over at her with interest. "But that's something we can work on."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was oblivious to how they were looking at her. Or at least seemed to be.

She gave another one of her little hums as she sat down, cross-legged, more or less where she'd been standing. It was convenient for pulling Duke's foot to rest on her lap.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke wiggled his sandy toes at her.

“Baby steps.”

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer nodded. "Mhm," he added, in concurrence.

Then fished a bottle of homemade lemonade out of the cooler.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave another soft hum as she gently brushed some sand off of Duke's foot. It sounded a little far away, distracted. Like maybe she was listening to the distant noise from the party they'd left behind, more than she was listening to them.

And maybe she was.

But what it was doing was making her think about the end of the year, beginning of the next one, rituals and symbols and turning over a new leaf. She thought about what she'd got from one of the tourists and stuffed down her top, and cycles and paths and them.

And she said, "I miss us."

It sounded a little more present.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke blinked at her, a little furrow between his brow. He didn’t want to derail her if she was having deep thoughts, though, so he hummed a little and wiggled his toes again. Trying to give her space without making it weird.

[my_own_advocate]

"You miss us?" Lucifer echoed, leaning just so, so he could look at her properly.

[okteiviakom]

"I miss feeling comfortable, with you," Octavia replied, with an almost furtive glance at both of them, before she returned to gently flicking sand off Duke's toes, her other hand resting along his ankle. "Not at anyone else's expense, not like I guess I was, but... I haven't, in a while."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke let out a little huff. “I miss that too. I hope we’re headed in that direction now?”

[my_own_advocate]

"What do you need from us?" Lucifer added, frowning. "How can we help?"

[okteiviakom]

"I... don't think I would be saying this," Octavia replied, slowly, as she finally looked up at Duke properly, "if I tho-- if I felt like we were on the path to that."

She looked to Lucifer.

"I need space to feel like there's room for me to say what I think. And like it's safe to do that." And back to Duke. "Just like you."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke tensed. He looked down at his foot in her lap.

“I want that for you, too.”

He’d thought he’d been trying to give that to her. But apparently not.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer felt him tense. He gave Duke a squeeze. Tugged him in a little bit.

"What has made you feel like there isn't space?" he asked Octavia. Gently.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia inhaled a slow breath.

"These days, when we fight, no one leaves," she started. Her gaze was getting drawn down to Duke's foot, too, which she was really now just cradling in her lap. "And that's good. But... After things calm down, I feel like we just end up talking about how we fought. I feel like we don't go back to what the actual fight was about, so nothing really... feels resolved."

And another breath.

"And I don't want to make anyone feel like I'm trying to take up more than my share of space with how I feel about things, but I also don't know where the boundaries actually are, because I was never trying to do that in the first place, so I just... Feel like I have to focus on just not saying anything that might start another fight."

It was a kinder way of phrasing the way she actually felt, but the gist was accurate.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded slowly. "That's . . . how I feel a lot, too," he said honestly. "Like if I say the wrong thing, it's like . . . setting off a bomb."

He let that sit for a moment, then wiggled his toes at her again.

"When I ask what you're thinking, or how you feel, I try to do it when I feel like I have space for the answer. The real answer. Even if it might hurt. When I'm telling you how I feel -- that's when I need that space. I hope that makes sense."