Cape Rouge, Fandom, to Los Angeles (eventually), Monday Afternoon

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer had been having a nice day. A bottle of red. The galley. Something enjoyable to watch on his phone.

"Brother."

Lucifer had been having a nice day. And now he was up on the deck of the Rouge, barking into the phone. "Amenadiel," he said, "Don't you have a child to rear or something?"

"Charlie is fine," Amenadiel said, on the other side of the phone. "He's also in Los Angeles. As am I."

"Ah, so you've moved? How nice, LA weather is excellent this time of year," Lucifer said, already halfway to turning off the phone. "But this could have been an email. Now, if you'd excuse me, I have an excellent Orion Swift waiting for me--"

"No, I mean he is in Los Angeles," Amenadiel repeated slowly. "Our Los Angeles. Time has resumed flowing." His voice brightened considerably. "I'm so glad you've finally embraced your Godhood, Lucifer!"

Oh, no.

"Oh, no," Lucifer said.

[[ for them who live here, please ]]

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[betterthanaplan]

In due time, Duke came back, the casual swing of his arms undermined by just how fast he was walking. (Had he been worried that Octavia, Lucifer, and his ship would be gone when he came back? Weirder shit had happened.)

“Slip’s set up. I wasn’t sure how long we’d be stuck so, uh. I paid up through the month.”

[my_own_advocate]

A voice drifted out from the galley. "I'll pay you back."

Mumbled into a wine bottle.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was still where she'd been, just with an empty glass in her hand. Waiting for Duke to reappear.

The relief that slithered through her once he did was very slight, but it would have to do. "Smart, but hopefully not needed."

She wasn't an optimist, so that was just... betraying how she felt, otherwise.

[betterthanaplan]

"Don't worry about it!" Duke called back to Lucifer. Then flicked Octavia a tired, empty smile. "Who fucking knows, right? I figured it was better to overestimate our stay."

He was going to be a bit put out when the month ended and he had to go renew.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia only managed to give him a vague little hum for that.

And then, after a beat, she reached out her free hand.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke took her hand, gave it a squeeze, and tried to tug her into a half-hug.

"How you doing?"

[okteiviakom]

It was really more of a mutual kind of tugging, turned out.

"Well, we're here now," Octavia replied, quietly, leaning against him just a little bit. It wasn't a direct reply, but it still covered something. "And that's that. Now we survive."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke took a long breath. "Now we survive," he agreed. "And try to keep Luce from losing his entire mind."

Much like going to Haven was awful for all of them, but most dire for Duke personally, he knew that this was a version of Lucifer's private hell.

Lower-case. Duke'd seen Lucifer's actual Hell. It still featured prominently in many of his dreams.

[okteiviakom]

"He's not doing great," Octavia muttered, near his shoulder. "I think he's trying to crawl inside a bottle of wine right now."

[betterthanaplan]

"Makes sense." Duke pressed his face into her hair. "He's lucky he has an indestructible liver."

[okteiviakom]

"I tried, you know," Octavia added, after a brief pause. Quieter still. "But I think maybe it's too early to try and talk him out of thinking this is all on him."

[betterthanaplan]

"His brother is demanding that he become God," Duke said. "And now his power did something he didn't plan doing with it. I don't know anything about that first part, but I definitely know the second part. It's . . . not really something you can just be coaxed out of taking the blame for."

He rubbed her shoulder.

"But I'm glad you tried."

[okteiviakom]

"It's all I can do right now." And she really wanted to be doing things. Didn't know how else to even exist right now. "At least until he gets it together enough that we can start trying to solve things."

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah," Duke agreed. "It's like . . . well. Last time we were here. He's gotta feel through things. We just need to try to support him as best we can while he does."

[okteiviakom]

"Mm," Octavia hummed, faintly, in response.

She nuzzled just a little bit at his shoulder, like it was all she could allow herself.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke rubbed her arm again.

“And you?” he asked gently. “How are you feeling?”

[okteiviakom]

"I'm fine."

She was not fine, but it was going to take time for her to (allow herself to) process anything beyond that.

"How are you?"

He seemed a little more steady than when they'd landed here.

[betterthanaplan]

It had taken him a minute, yes. But on the upside, he’d had his freak out and could now approach the situation with more emotional honesty.

“I’m kind of annoyed. At Amenadiel, mostly. And the universe. I was hoping we could have a nice quiet summer.”

[okteiviakom]

"I think I kind of knew we wouldn't," Octavia admitted. "He was already freaking out before."

That they were here now seemed like it had only been a matter of time.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded. "We talked a little about that, too," he admitted. "But then we both kind of decided it'd be okay, since he wasn't the first angel to resurrect someone, even in recent memory."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's instincts kind of wanted to say something about them feeding off each other's denial, but she knew better than to actually voice that. It wouldn't help anything.

"Well," she said instead, almost successful in holding back a sigh, "here we are anyway."

Dealing, surviving.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yes, yes," Duke said, with a little amused huff. "You were right, we were wrong. I get it." He breathed in the scent of her hair for a moment.

"He'll be okay," he said finally. "We'll get through this, too. I don't know how yet, but we will."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia pressed her face a little more fiercely against his neck. Just for a moment.

"Yeah," she said. "We have no other choice."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke didn't like the fatalistic attitude, but didn't argue the point with her. Instead he went with "We defeated Haven. It wasn't easy -- it sucked in a lot of ways -- but we did it. We can definitely handle Heaven."

[okteiviakom]

"Like I said," Octavia murmured. "We have no other choice."

Because it wasn't fatalism.

It was refusal to entertain the other potential outcomes.