betterthanaplan | Port of Fandom, Sunday evening

The portal let off at the end of the docks. Duke walked through, his head down, shoulders hunched, looking like a man under attack.

He wasn't anymore, at least not from the outside.

He paused just long enough to get his bearings, then started down the docks, not waiting for his partners to follow through the portal. He wanted to -- something. He didn't know what. Yell or hit something or dive into the ocean or maybe get on the OceaNyx and sail off over the horizon and just. Disappear.

He was pretty sure no one was going to let him do that last one, though.

[for said partners, please! And the return and general mood is fine for broadcast, but maybe not the precise details of conversations]

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From:

okteiviakom

"I'm pretty sure you were somewhere in the walls," Octavia rasped. "And Lucifer was halfway to his mansion."

The hand was beginning to sink towards the mess of bedding. Her arm was tired.

"Yes, in here."

From:

betterthanaplan

The sight of her hand lowering spurred Duke into motion. He caught it without thinking, giving it a squeeze.

And finally set the bottle down.

“I was,” he admitted, rubbing his mouth with his free hand. His head hurt, and his stomach was screaming at him to put something other than alcohol in it, but all he did was sink down onto the bench seat near her. “I don’t know why.”

Liar.

From:

my_own_advocate

"I came back," Lucifer said.

He was oddly stilted as he turned, and took a step towards her.

"... Because I remembered there was something more important than being right."

Oh look: without anyone continuing to play prickly chicken with him, Lucifer was actually sort of figuring something out.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia squeezed Duke's hand back, faintly. Let him take some of the weight of her arm, while her face turned a little more towards Lucifer.

"Was that what that was?"

There was no bite, only tired.

From:

betterthanaplan

“You actually left?” Duke put on a mask of false outrage to hide the real hurt underneath.

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer sighed. "I was angry at Octavia," he said. "Then I remembered I was actually more worried about you than I was mad at her and I came back."

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia didn't have the energy to be rolling her eyes.

Her gaze just returned to the ceiling again, instead.

From:

betterthanaplan

“That’s a hell of a snit.” Duke looked at Octavia. “What was he mad at you for?”

This was why they hadn’t followed him? They were too busy being mad at each other? He wasn’t sure if that was reassuring or infuriating.

From:

my_own_advocate

"She didn't want me taking the gangplank away," Lucifer muttered.

From:

okteiviakom

"I didn't want him taking the gangplank away," Octavia agreed. Louder and clearer, but very mild.

From:

betterthanaplan

“And . . . that made you mad enough to leave.”

Duke fumbled for his bottle again. The fact that he wasn’t quite coordinated enough to grab it was probably a good sign he’d had enough.

From:

my_own_advocate

"I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't leave," Lucifer said. A beat. "And that no one could show up to make you leave." Another pause. He eyed that bottle of Duke's warily, something clicking into place. Of a sort.

Like a rusty, failing cog in a dusty machine.

"And I wanted the illusion that we could all sit on a small tin island together for a bit and have no one else bother us for the next day or two and then she said no."

From:

okteiviakom

"Because he wanted to try turning this into a prison."

The reasons half their bed was now in the galley (again) may have been connected.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke looked between the two of them, then let go of Octavia’s hand so he could get his bottle with both of his.

From:

my_own_advocate

"Well, if you decided you'd rather go frolicking in the woods for the next week rather than be here you could've just jumped in the water and swam away," Lucifer said crabbily.

... and then reached to yank the bottle out of Duke's hand. He needed it. So he could sink down into a sad sitting heap on the floor.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia wasn't going to dignify that with a response.

She watched the bottle, though.

From:

betterthanaplan

“Hey,” Duke protested. And grabbed for the bottle.

And missed.

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer wanted to say 'I need this more than you'.

Instead he made an odd little strangled noise, which he tried to drown with a big swig of whatever Duke had been drinking, but to his consternation and alarm something else had happened by the time he lowered it: his eyes had gone very wet.

From:

okteiviakom

"All that booze is gonna do is make you feel even worse in the morning, anyway," Octavia told Duke, flatly, as she settled her abandoned hand onto her stomach.

Half cradled it with the other one.

No, she hadn't been looking at Lucifer's face.

From:

betterthanaplan

“Different kind of bad,” Duke corrected in a mutter.

He saw Lucifer’s face. And misinterpreted it.

“Hey, that’s decent bourbon. At least mid shelf.

From:

my_own_advocate

"I know." His voice kept doing that funny thing. As did his face. Some part of Lucifer was mortified and wanted to rub it away, another wanted to crawl forward and curl up into a little ball next to Octavia and maybe drag Duke down and forget about it all.

What was happening?

(Adrenaline crash.)

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia's gaze flicked to him when she heard how he sounded.

And, oh. Now that was happening.

From:

betterthanaplan

“If you want better booze, we have better booze,” Duke said. He was too drunk for this.

But at least he wasn’t hiding or irrationally angry anymore.

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer shut his stupid wet eyes (tearing up, all over his face) and tried to find-- some sort of compromise for. Whatever was happening right now.

"Just sit down, Duke," he said, strained. "We should all clearly not be trusted to talk."

From:

okteiviakom

Oh, were they finally catching up to what Octavia had wanted to do this entire time?

"He's crashing," Octavia translated. A little detached. (That, too, could hopefully be fixed with rest.)