betterthanaplan | Lucifer's mansion, Wednesday night

Duke did not have a pineapple this time. Or flowers, for that matter, though he did bring a very nice bottle of wine for Lucifer, which he left in the kitchen for him to find.

Before wandering off through the rest of the mansion, getting more of a feel for the lay of the land, so to speak, and thinking about how to get his brain to accept the place as partially his as well as Lucifer's.

His boyfriend would be happy to hear it didn't involve netting. It . . . might involve an overabundance of plants that were inappropriate to the outside climate. And possibly multiple water features.

Duke didn't tend to do things by halves any more than Lucifer did, okay? He just . . . went about it slightly differently.

When it was time for Date Night to actually begin, though, he made sure to find his way back towards the kitchen. It wouldn't do to be late, after all.

[for him!]

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From:

my_own_advocate

"Mmm," Lucifer said, grinning. "I do miss watching you bend through your morning yoga."

From:

betterthanaplan

"I'm working on that," Duke said with a rueful smile, finally closing the book again and setting it aside. "Along with . . . so much else." He sighed. "I had no idea how much of my routine I took for granted."

From:

my_own_advocate

"You were... preoccupied... for quite some time," Lucifer said delicately.

It felt like years. Had it been years?

From:

betterthanaplan

It honestly could have been. Duke didn't much want to look close enough at it to know for sure and liked to tell himself that it was just over the summer.

"Too much time," he said instead."Way, way too much time."

From:

my_own_advocate

"You should do all the things you lost track of," Lucifer decided. "These next few months. Yoga, yes. But also dancing, sailing, perhaps finding a nice warm beach somewhere..."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Dancing would be amazing," Duke said. "Maybe I can get Octavia to go with me to your club on the mainland some night."

Or they could dance at the party on Friday, that was also going to be a thing that happened.

From:

my_own_advocate

"I doubt it'll be hard to convince her," Lucifer said, smiling. "She does love to dance. And I love to watch you two do it."

Heh. Heh.

From:

betterthanaplan

"Someday maybe we'll even convince you to join us."

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer chuckled. "I have no objection to dancing," he said, "But it seems to hold some particular value for the two of you. Historically."

From:

betterthanaplan

"I like seeing her lose herself a little," Duke said. "When she dances, she throws everything into it. It's amazing."

From:

my_own_advocate

"She throws herself into everything," Lucifer murmured. "At least the things she finds worth doing."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Yeah." He let out a long breath. "She doesn't do anything by half. It's all vital. I honestly don't know how she does it."

From:

my_own_advocate

"I think it's just who she is," Lucifer said. His voice was soft. "I think she wouldn't know another way to do it."

His hand slid onto Duke's. "And somehow that led her to us."

From:

betterthanaplan

"I met her at the Nest, you know," Duke said. "Just . . . happened to sit down next to her and started talking."

From:

my_own_advocate

"I know," Lucifer said wryly. "She does not take kindly to threats to the Nest because of it."

He gave Duke's hand a squeeze. "But do tell me about it."

From:

betterthanaplan

"She started talking to me in Trig. I don't even remember how we got it started. But, you know, I've always enjoyed languages. So I started working on learning it." Duke chuckled. "She called me 'meizen' and refused to translate, so I joked that I was just going to assume it meant 'pretty'."

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer laughed softly. "Knowing her, she appreciated the effort."

She had, in fact, been mad at him for just knowing, rather than learning, the language.

From:

betterthanaplan

"Yeah, we've talked about it since." Or, you know, he'd thrown it at her once in an argument. "I guess I really impressed her." He shook his head. "She was . . . so young. And I was teaching at the time. I was actually trying not to flirt with her for a bit, but uh. Yeah, clearly that failed."

From:

my_own_advocate

"I'm not sure she has ever been truly young," Lucifer admitted.

From:

betterthanaplan

“She was never a kid, maybe,” Duke said shaking his head. “And her life has never been light. But she was young.”

Duke reached for the wine and took a long sip.

“You know I took her to get her first tattoo?”

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer shook his head. "Which one?"

From:

betterthanaplan

"On her shoulder." Duke traced the shape on his own shoulder. "We hung out when I was girl-shaped, and she admired mine. The butterflies, specifically." He smiled fondly at the memory. "I think that was around when she started calling me 'flapkrasha'."

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer chuckled softly. "You two were adorable in those early days," he said. "I was quite fond of you."

From:

betterthanaplan

"I remember," Duke said. "I worried that Tavi was going to decide she liked you better than me."

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer chuckled. "We weren't quite like that at the time," he said. "Besides. I really did love watching you two together. You had a magic all your own."