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]

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.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke had already died once. He was deeply aware he could do so again. Even if they all tried hard to get through whatever came next.

But that didn't mean he had to speak it into existence. So still. He wasn't going to argue with her. He just kissed her hair and held onto her and thought about everything he knew now about just what Lucifer had first come to Los Angeles to get away from.

Lucifer loved being on Earth, at least for right now, and had the kind of longevity that "at least for right now" could easily encompass several human lifetimes. If he didn't want to take over the role of God and have to go up to Heaven, then Duke was going to defend that choice for him as long as possible.

(His mental image of Heaven might have turned into another high, lonely seat, just made of pure crystal instead of ash and rock.)

[okteiviakom]

Octavia pulled back soon after. All of this time felt stolen, somehow.

"Come on," she muttered. "Shouldn't leave him alone for too long right now."

[betterthanaplan]

"Briyon gona," Duke murmured, turning towards the galley. "Let's go see if we can soothe our Devil."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia pulled away - almost. Her hand slid down to take his.

And then she pulled him along to the galley.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke let her, giving her hand another squeeze.

"Luce," he called, voice carefully light. The good old (old) patented Duke Crocker irreverence in full force. "We're coming back in. If you drank the good bourbon, you really will be paying me back!"