The beach, Tuesday morning

[betterthanaplan]

As far as Duke knew, everything was right and fine in his world. He was going to get to teach the class he'd chosen this summer (he would be very disappointed to learn about the ungulates), his relationship with his roommate was unchanged (this was technically true! since she'd erased his memories several times by now), and he and Octavia were as solid as ever (why even include this on the list?). So he was in a great mood when he showed up for beach yoga this morning, despite the fact that he was going to ask Rey about rescheduling, since his yoga class for the school was going to be on Tuesday mornings as well.

It was a perfectly lovely day. The ocean was just rough enough to be interesting, the porgs were gamboling happily in the sand, and Duke's muscles burned pleasantly through his warm-up stretch. Really, he hadn't been quite this content in a long, long time.

[yes, I'm evil. Open! The thread with Danny will be chronologically the last.]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

Rey was there mostly on time. Her portal had been a little later than she'd planned on, but she was overall in a good mood after a weekend back home and some training this morning.

She still felt late, though, which was what got the, "I'm here," when she arrived.

[betterthanaplan]

"You are," Duke said with a smile. "How's it going?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Good. A little rushed," she said with a shrug. "You look like you're doing okay."

[betterthanaplan]

"Doing just fine," Duke agreed. "Where you rushing from?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I just got back from home about twenty minutes ago," she said. "They said my original portal was delayed by a yeti somehow so they had to get me a later one."

Who knew.

[betterthanaplan]

". . . A yeti." Duke shook his head. "Why am I still surprised? You head home for the weekend?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Yeah. It'd been a while, I thought I should check in."

She'd missed people like crazy.

"It was nice. Quiet."

[betterthanaplan]

"Quiet seems to be a theme right now." He was going to regret saying that. "But I don't imagine you get a lot of it in the middle of a rebellion, so I'm guessing everyone appreciated it."

[thatwaslucky]

"People are doing things elsewhere in the galaxy, so at least at base no one's shooting at us. Yet," Rey said lightly. "How was your week?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had preserve plans for today, to balance out all of yesterday's shopping (all two stores of it). But it was also Tuesday morning, and she wasn't in a rush.

So a beach detour went wonderfully with her plans.

"Ha yun, deimeika."

[betterthanaplan]

"Ha yun, natshana." Duke came over to greet her with a quick kiss. "Here to pick up a few more poses?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia did her best to make it a little less quick.

"Mm, maybe." There was a sword strapped to her back, kind of betraying her plans for the day even before she said anything about them. "I'm headed out to the woods, later."

[betterthanaplan]

"Sounds like fun. I bet you could do with a little warm up here first, though."

[okteiviakom]

"Probably," Octavia admitted, as if she took any convincing. "Think my shoulders might appreciate it."

[betterthanaplan]

"Probably," Duke agreed, moving to give said shoulders a good rub. "I know a few good shoulder openers."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia couldn't help her little sigh. Look, she carried tension in her shoulders pretty much all the time. It was sort of her thing!

"Good."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke had noticed. He rubbed harder, working into the muscles with his thumbs. "Hear you did a little shopping yesterday."

[hatesparadise]

Yes, Duke's collection of young, emotionally stunted women was certainly A Thing. That did not feed into any suspicions at all.

"Duke Crocker?" Danny called out, tilting his head up a little because this island was inhabited by giants.

[betterthanaplan]

Look, it wasn't Duke's fault that young, emotionally stunted women made up a large percentage of the island population.

He turned and looked over the new guy, who had a very familiar vibe. Duke knew a cop when he saw one.

. . . You know, when they didn't look like Rosa.

All of his old practiced defenses snapped into place, and he gave Danny a broad, sarcastic grin. "May I ask who's calling?"

[hatesparadise]

Swear to god, Duke. If you took off running, Danny was gonna punch you a whole lot. He hated running on the beach.

"Detective Williams," he replied, holding up the badge that still said Hawaii Five-0 on it. No way in hell was he giving up this badge.

[betterthanaplan]

Running wasn't his style. Well, not the way Danny's narrative meant, anyway.

"Ah," he said, nodding. "I, uh, think you might be a little outside your jurisdiction there, buddy."

He made it a rule to recognize the local cops on sight. And that wasn't a Fandom badge.

[hatesparadise]

GOOD. Danny's knee thanked him for only being an emotional flight risk.

"Yeah, funny thing. Never really stopped me in the past," Danny replied with grin that was a little more baring of teeth than friendly. "Let's just say I'm helping out here."

Because he was refusing to acknowledge that he was stuck on the island.

[betterthanaplan]

Good luck with that, Danny. Better men than you have tried.

"And I was having such a nice morning." Duke glanced away with a rueful shake of his head. "So. Detective Williams. You're interrupting my yoga time because. . . ?"

[hatesparadise]

"Got a few questions for you about your house guest." Wow, he super managed to make that sound like an accusation. It was a skill you learned as a cop. Or maybe it just came naturally to him!

[betterthanaplan]

Duke let out a small sigh before he could stop himself. He really hoped she hadn't been caught accidentally shoplifting or something.

"She in some kind of trouble?"

Honestly, from the look on Danny's face, it looked a whole lot more like he was in some kind of trouble.