betterthanaplan | The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Monday afternoon

As tempting as it was to just stay in their little vacation bubble at sea, Duke and Octavia did have things to do back in Fandom now that the school break was over, so the Cape Rouge chugged back into port in the late afternoon to dock at her usual slip.

It was immediately beset by porgs.

"Alright, alright," Duke said, a laugh underlining the exaggerated annoyed tone of his voice. "I know, I know, how dare I exile you from your homes. I'm a cruel, cruel man."

[open! With slowplay warnings in effect for

okteiviakom]

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From:

betterthanaplan

"Please," Duke said. "I'm a well-known scoundrel. Like I"m going to let something like destiny tell me how to live my life?"

He said that off-handedly, but 'fuck destiny' was going to become a major theme of his life in the not-too-distant future.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia took her turn to give him a shoulder bump. "Good," she said. "I prefer you at full scoundrel, anyway."

From:

betterthanaplan

"And I'm way too old and set in my ways to change now."

From:

okteiviakom

"Normally I would argue against 'too old'," Octavia quipped, as her shoulder bump turned into more of a lean against his side, "but in this case I think it's actually a positive, so I'll let it be."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Are you kidding? I think I spotted some gray in my beard this morning."

He didn't. But he wasn't far out from his first few gray hairs. (And not even just because he was potentially going to get nearly aged to death at some point.)

From:

okteiviakom

Well yes, but that had little to do with his age and a lot with how stressful his life was!

Anyway, Octavia definitely took that as an invitation to lean in and squint at his beard. "Hmm."

From:

betterthanaplan

Which made Duke raise his hand to his chin self-consciously. "I was kidding."

From:

okteiviakom

All the better for Octavia to press a quick kiss against the back of his hand, then, before snickering.

"So was I."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke dropped his hand again, leaning down for a proper kiss. "Good. Because while I'll definitely be a silver fox, I am so not ready for that yet."

From:

okteiviakom

"So just be a regular fox instead," Octavia murmured, reaching up. "I'm okay with that."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Oh, I've always been one of those."

Did the porgs miss watching these two making out? Because the porgs were definitely going to end up watching these two making out.

From:

okteiviakom

"Mm-hm," Octavia hummed her agreement, because words quickly became secondary.

Look, they were about to give up living together again. The transition from being all in each other's personal space all the time to her going back to the apartment she shared with her brother absolutely called for making out and if the porgs couldn't handle that, that was on them.

From:

betterthanaplan

The porgs, fortunately, didn't seem to mind.

Or notice, really.

"You sure you need to go back to your apartment?" Duke asked when he paused for breath. They'd had this conversation before, but hope sprung eternal, at least when makeouts were actively happening.

From:

okteiviakom

"Uh huh," Octavia replied, not sounding all that certain about it while she was taking her chance to nuzzle his cheek. "It's where I live, snogon."

Even if she never referred to it as 'home'. Not in English, not in Trig.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke let out a put-upon sigh. "Just because all your stuff's there . . . and you brother too, I guess."

Bellamy, of course, won out over the 'stuff' in every single way. And Duke knew it.

Even if he claimed to not always be sure that the guy really existed.

From:

okteiviakom

Bellamy probably even physically outweighed all the stuff Octavia had. She really didn't have much.

She let her head drop against his shoulder, and gave in to the urge to wrap her arms around him. "Yeah."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Alas." Duke settled his own arms around her waist, content for the time being to just hold her there. "Tell him I said 'hi'. And maybe skip the part where I got you thrown in jail."

From:

okteiviakom

"You didn't get me thrown in jail," Octavia murmured. "I did."

Bellamy was unlikely to see it that way.

From:

betterthanaplan

"Because you were defending me," Duke said. "Which is awesome, don't get me wrong. But none of that would have happened if I wasn't there."

From:

okteiviakom

"None of any of it," Octavia retorted. "Including the good parts."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Not arguing with that," Duke said. "Doesn't mean I'm not at least a little responsible for you getting stuck in a cell again."

From:

okteiviakom

"Can I make you responsible for not making me think about it again, instead?" Octavia asked, quietly.

Not an accusation, but... She knew the nightmares were probably coming, again. And she would like to pretend she could somehow avoid them by not thinking about it.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke winced a little at that, and nodded. "Yeah, I think I can do that. Managed it pretty well so far."

Their time after Haven had been one long, relaxing distraction, after all.

From:

okteiviakom

"Mochof."

Her voice stayed quiet, but it softened again, and took on something faint that sounded like she was smiling a little. Hard to know for sure, though, with her face still half buried against his shoulder.

"Anyway... If we hadn't been there, both of us, I wouldn't have gotten to hear you say you love me."