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]

"Yeah," Duke said. "That would be nice."

It felt like a good place to start, to him.

[okteiviakom]

It still felt like a starting place that they were going to struggle to get to, to Octavia.

But she nodded, faintly, against his shoulder.

"And what if we're both asking for things that... the other can't give?"

Like, say, space. To have their feelings out in the open.

[betterthanaplan]

"Then we'll know why," Duke said. "And we can go from there."

[okteiviakom]

Again it sounded much neater than Octavia could see it working out in real life, but it didn't seem helpful to point out in the moment. And it was hard for her to judge which of her thoughs were rational and which where fueled by whatever grief she'd succumbed to out further on the beach.

So she nodded again.

And after some hesitation, asked, "Should I tell you what I needed tonight? When I... started this."

[betterthanaplan]

"Sure," Duke said. (She'd asked for boundaries. Eventually an apology. And he'd done his best to provide both -- only to get it wrong and send her running away screaming. He would love an explanation.)

[okteiviakom]

"This might sound familiar to you," Octavia muttered. "But I needed to be heard. And understood."

A breath. Still not fully steady.

"I was bringing something to you that I'd been keeping to myself for a while," she continued. "At least for me, I was saying that there is this thing that I haven't been able to do, and I felt like what I was getting back was that I should be able to. Like I couldn't even get the problem across. And I needed so badly to feel understood." Here, she turned to look to Lucifer. "Bad enough that it makes me pedantic."

Because what else had there been left for the desperation in her, except clinging to words?

[my_own_advocate]

Ah.

"I'm sorry, darling," Lucifer said. Suitably chastened.

[betterthanaplan]

“Okay,” Duke said. He glanced at Lucifer, then took a slow breath and addressed Octavia again. “What do you need from me to help you feel understood?”

[okteiviakom]

"Acnowledgment feels like a good start," Octavia replied, as her gaze slid from Lucifer back to Duke. "And taking the time to listen. Before trying to... solve whatever it is."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded. It wasn’t terribly different from what he’d asked for from Lucifer.

“I’ll do my best. Can I ask you for something?”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia nodded, too.

"What is it?"

Something in her felt immediately braced for something. Their track record with this question wasn't stellar, lately.

[betterthanaplan]

“Can you be patient with me?” Duke asked. “When I get the words wrong?”

He still couldn’t read her mind. He hoped he wasn’t somehow asking for too much.

[okteiviakom]

"If you can also try to show me you've listened."

No one here was a mindreader. Somehow not even Lucifer.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke flinched. That ‘if’ weighed a lot in his head. Said her care and patience were contingent on him doing something he’d thought he already did.

He could earn patience if he did everything else perfectly.

“And if I get it wrong?” he asked, voice hoarse.

[okteiviakom]

"Then you try again."

He had heard the 'try' the first time she'd said it, right?

[betterthanaplan]

“While you’re yelling or freezing me out?” Duke asked with a wet huff. “That’s. . . .”

He needed her patience to listen. She needed his listening to be patient.

One of them would have to give. And as usual, Duke decided it was him.

“I’ll . . . I’ll try.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had definitely not meant to communicate it in as transactional a fashion as he was taking it.

Also, she fully ignored the last thing he said. Happened when the lead-in was what it was. "I meant I'd try too," she said, voice just a fraction tighter.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke blinked at her. His expression lifted again.

“Oh.” He gave her a shaky smile. “Right.” He started to apologize, then stopped himself. “Good.”

[okteiviakom]

"We need to both be trying," Octavia said, still with some of that tightness. Just to make it extra clear.

And then she looked to Lucifer again.

"All of us."

[my_own_advocate]

"All of us," Lucifer echoed, a release of breath more than anything else. "And keep... telling ourselves to stop, listen, and wait a bit with the solutions."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded. “Even when we’re mad. Or scared. Or confused.”

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah," Octavia agreed quietly, nodding. "Even then. Even when it's hard."

And it was hard all the fucking time, lately.

[my_own_advocate]

"Because I love you both very much," Lucifer said softly. "And you deserve the effort."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke let out a wet laugh, wondering if that was partially a prompt from Lucifer. He decided not to say it, though.

Instead: "I think we found our New Year's resolution."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia... swallowed.

And glanced at Lucifer.