betterthanaplan | Lucifer's mansion, Wednesday evening

It was Wednesday, and Duke had spent the day primarily at the mansion, talking to an architect and an engineer about were and how to get an indoor pool with plenty of natural light into the building's basement.

Now he was in the kitchen, cooking up a nice, simple shrimp scampi, dressed up with the inclusion of fresh pasta. It was one of his first forays into making his own pasta, and while the noodles were definitely a bit on the uneven side, he was pleased with the results.

Now all he needed was his boyfriend, and Date Night could get properly underway!

[for him as is mentioned]

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From:

my_own_advocate

"They essentially have an unlimited amount of money to play with," Lucifer added. "I hope you didn't try to pin them down on a budget?"

From:

betterthanaplan

“Nah. They tried to get me pinned down on one but I just kept saying the money wasn’t the important part.”

From:

my_own_advocate

"Good," Lucifer said approvingly. "We need their wildest bloody ideas, not a prefab."

He took another few bites. It was good.

From:

betterthanaplan

“Even if their ideas involve nets?” Duke teased, digging into his own dinner. “Draped from the ceiling, climbing to the water slide. . . .”

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer paused. "What kind of contractors did you get?"

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke laughed. “Structural people,” he said. “I figured you’d want to oversee the design yourself.”

From:

my_own_advocate

"Well, obviously, curious as I am as to what you would come up with," Lucifer said. "I do draw the line at netting in our house."

From:

betterthanaplan

“I’m aware,” Duke said wryly. “I won’t ask for anything plaid, either. I was thinking of a little rocky waterfall on one end, though. . . .”

From:

my_own_advocate

"Oooh, that would be pretty," Lucifer mused. "... I suppose we couldn't convince Octavia to cosplay a mermaid."

From:

betterthanaplan

“Not easily,” Duke said. “But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t still maybe watch her play with it. Naked.”

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer made a happy noise at the mental image.

And then... remembered he'd made a promie to Octavia not too long ago, and reached for his wine. He took a sip.

"Speaking of Octavia naked," he said, "I heard the two of you had a conversation recently."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke squeezed his eyes shut. “Oh god. Yeah, I screwed or up. I’m aware.”

From:

my_own_advocate

"I'm not bringing it up to yell at you, darling," Lucifer said gently. "Merely trying to see if I can help."

He scooped up a bite of food. "How do you feel about it?"

From:

betterthanaplan

“About just. Trying to rush her into a kink she’s not comfortable with with me? Oh, just awesome.”

Duke let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair.

“And then of course I got all defensive and just made it worse.”

From:

my_own_advocate

"You do have a tendency to do that," Lucifer allowed, sipping his wine. "I get the impression that perhaps you were excited about discovering something in yourself and wanted to include her?"

From:

betterthanaplan

“Without really giving her time to tell me she’s not into it,” Duke agreed. “If it helps, I talked to a therapist about this.”

A new one he was breaking in. Wheeeeeeeee.

From:

my_own_advocate

"And how did that go?"

Lucifer took another bite.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke shrugged. “Fine. Therapist had some suggestions about what kind of conversations Tavi and I could have.”

From:

my_own_advocate

"Well, if it helps," Lucifer said, studying his face, "I think 'not into it' may be a simplification that you jumped to."

From:

betterthanaplan

“I’m not — that was a paraphrase.” Duke tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling. “I complicated the situation ages ago. And . . . never got around to cleaning up that mess.”

From:

my_own_advocate

"It's therapeutic for her, too," Lucifer said. He picked up his glass of wine and gestured vaguely towards the stairs. "The kinky sex, I mean. It helps her open up and explore feelings she fears judgment about. And, well..."

He didn't really need to finish that thought, did he?

From:

betterthanaplan

“And I haven’t exactly been the least judgmental,” Duke said. “Yeah.”

He picked his head up. “Hey, I’m not — like, I don’t think I asked. You’re good with what you and I are doing, right? I’m not using you?”

Octavia saying that he had Lucifer who would do anything. . . . Duke’s intrusive thoughts had a hay day with that.

From:

my_own_advocate

... Well, that was a way to knock him off his stride. Lucifer blinked. "How on earth would you be using me?" he said.

From:

betterthanaplan

“I don’t know!” Duke said. “But I didn’t realize I was cutting what Octavia wanted out of the conversation either.”

From:

my_own_advocate

"There is a very large difference between a single conversation in which you got a touch too enthusiastic and Octavia told you to stop," Lucifer said, bringing his wine glass back to his mouth, "And my extremely enthusiastic consent over several date nights including suggestions and diagrams, love."

He took a sip.

"My therapeutic needs are all outside of the bedroom," he said. "Inside, I am very happy to be indulging your every desire."

Beat.

"As evidenced by all the erections."

What? It was a necessary addendum!