Lucifer's Mansion, Wednesday Afternoon

[my_own_advocate]

That whole awkward mess yesterday had ended in Lucifer inviting Octavia over because, well. Because he felt horrifically guilty, and having long emotional chats wasn't really something he was good at when he wasn't in the middle of his own (Eric's) bloody club.

Also, generally, spending time with people went down more smoothly when there were hot tubs involved.

Either way, he was awake and upright. Hadn't bothered to pull on a suit jacket or anything else over his crisp black shirt because, well, this wasn't exactly a formal occasion.

... which hadn't stopped him from getting snacks delivered and breaking out the brandy, mind you. Either way. He was home.

[[ for her ]]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave him a dry look.

"Not like talking strategy with the enemy."

[my_own_advocate]

"Just in front of an invisible enemy," Lucifer said. "Does your phone know you hold such grudges against it? Seems unhealthy."

[okteiviakom]

"Look, I'm not used to talking to strangers on the phone," Octavia pointed out with a barely-suppressed sigh. "I'm barely used to talking on the phone at all."

On the Ground, they'd just had walkies, and that was different.

[my_own_advocate]

"Wait, that was actually your hang-up?" Lucifer said, blinking.

He'd been joking!

[okteiviakom]

"Not being able to see who I'm supposed tell -- all these things to?" Octavia asked him, raising her eyebrows. "Yes."

She sounded like this should have been obvious.

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, scratch 'phone sex' off the list of future solutions I offer you for anything," Lucifer said, with a pause.

[okteiviakom]

"That was never going to be a solution for anything," Octavia replied dryly.

[my_own_advocate]

"Boredom on seperate vacations?" Lucifer offered.

[okteiviakom]

"Those words make no sense in that order."

He was lucky she didn't pretend not to know what a vacation was. (She knew. ... On a purely theoretical level.)

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer snorted.

"You just like making me despair. Eat your cake," he said. "I'll get the hot tub running."

[okteiviakom]

"Well, if your despair is one of the few things I can control, then..."

Shruuug.

[my_own_advocate]

"That is depressing," Lucifer informed her, "And also hardly true."

Were she anyone else, he would have gone all in on the dirty joke. Now it was just a hint. A whiff of a pun.

[okteiviakom]

And yet hers was still more faint.

"Well, there might be a couple other things."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer smirked at her, cheeky amusement making it all the way up his expression before he vanished onto the balcony.

[okteiviakom]

He was pretty like that.

And then he was gone, and Octavia turned her attention back on her cake. The banana was just as good as the strawberry one, it turned out.

[my_own_advocate]

"You did bring your bathing suit, right, or I'm going to have to find something downstairs," Lucifer called, as he got the tub all filled up.

[okteiviakom]

"Got one," Octavia called back. "Don't worry."

It was the sporty black one, because of course.

[my_own_advocate]

"Good, 'cause the water's getting there," Lucifer said, wandering back into the room. "Congratulations, the difficult questions hour is over. Just cake and puns from here on in."

Unlikely, but a celestial could dream.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia wasn't going to ask him whether they'd met before. But only because the look she gave him kind of did the same thing.

"Well, we can try."

[my_own_advocate]

"A Devil can dream," Lucifer sighed, walking past the piano - it had been moved to sit in front of his bed sometime in the last few months, what with Seivarden's preoccupation with him playing it. "You remeember where the bathroom is," he called, as he undid the top button of his shirt.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shoveled the remains of her cake slice into her mouth. No, it wouldn't have gone anywhere while she went to change, but... Cake.

Look, just let her have the small pleasures she could still allow herself.

"This was our house for like a week," she said as she got up. "Yeah, I remember."

[my_own_advocate]

"Still yours when you need it," Lucifer called idly over his shoulder, stripping out of his shirt.

[okteiviakom]

Yeah, Octavia knew that, too. Funnily enough.

(That she believed him? That was somehow the weird part.)

She didn't answer. Just took her bag and headed for the bathroom. A week had been plenty of time to get comfortable with the house, even with how much she'd stuck to the guest room.

[my_own_advocate]

The house did feel slightly less too-big with her in it again. Not that Lucifer was about to bring it up. He had a bathing suit of his own to change into.

For her sake, anyway. It didn't take long, and he was heading back out onto the balcony with a newly-refilled glass of wine in one hand and a brandy in the other.

Just in case she wanted it.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia showed up a moment later, in her swimsuit. She was pulling her hair into a ponytail as she stepped out onto the balcony.

Fun fact: the hair tie was one of Duke's. She was yet to accept she should probably get her own.