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

[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.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer looked back at her, though with faint confusion in his eyes. Why was she looking at him?

"I believe so," he said.

He held a hand out for her.

"But I for one have faith in us."

[betterthanaplan]

Yeah, Duke was already worrying that he’d Gotten It Wrong again, with that swallow and look.

“Because we all love each other,” he agreed cautiously. “So we’re going to keep working on it. Not just this year.”

Was he now trying too hard? He worried he was maybe trying too hard.

[okteiviakom]

"I love both of you, too," Octavia murmured as she reached out to take Lucifer's hand.

Yeah, that.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer gave her hand a firm squeeze, and scooted in close.

"Happy new years, darlings," he said. Quiet, but affectionate.