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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[okteiviakom]

"We're fine," Octavia replied, with a kind of a... flat conviction. "One step at a time."

[my_own_advocate]

"But this is my fault," Lucifer said. Staring at the screen.

He sent the message to Maze.

[okteiviakom]

"Does blame help anything?" Octavia retorted, finally looking at him again.

Just in time to answer her own question: "No."

[my_own_advocate]

But it was always his fault. He made things worse.

"Of course," Lucifer said. He lowered his phone.

He met her eyes.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia met his.

And spoke, her voice level, her gaze unflinching. "You didn't choose this." Not in any way that he could have controlled, at least. "Now we're here, and we'll figure everything out. One step at a time. Together."

[my_own_advocate]

"Together," Lucifer echoed. He looked past her again, at the skyline. "I just... need to figure this out and get us all home again."

[okteiviakom]

"We," Octavia replied --

Sternly. 'Stern' was a good word for it.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer looked at her again. "I'm not sure you can strong-arm yourself through whatever my psyche has done to us, darling."

[okteiviakom]

"You want to do this alone?" Octavia replied, dry and unflinching.

[my_own_advocate]

"No," Lucifer said. "I'm just-- worried-- that no one else can fix this."

[okteiviakom]

"And I'm just saying that you're not alone," Octavia replied. "There's probably gonna be a lot that Duke and I can't do, sure, but I don't want you trying to take more onto just your shoulders than you have to."

[my_own_advocate]

"But we don't even know how much that is," Lucifer said. He shook his head, as if to shake it all off, and-- "I need some wine."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia swallowed down something about why that was exactly why she was trying to head things off at the pass, and just said, "Sure."

Well, all his alcohol that had been on the Rouge had presumably traveled with them, so at least there was that.

[my_own_advocate]

And so Lucifer went looking for one of the many bottles of wine he kept in the galley.

Just. Numb. A touch.

He'd feel better once they got to the penthouse. Or perhaps Maze would help.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia, for her part, stayed where she was. Finally drank from the glass she'd brought up with her what now felt like forever ago.

She didn't taste it.

She suspected that was going to be a theme for a while.

[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."