The beach, Wednesday morning

[betterthanaplan]

It was Duke and Rey's first rescheduled beach yoga session, and Duke was spending the beginning of it staring at his phone.

Octavia still hadn't responded to any of his texts.

Was he being paranoid, like Lucifer said? Maybe a little obsessive? Or creepy. Oh god, he was being creepy. His girlfriend didn't answer for one day and he went all crazy, that was definitely creepy. She was just having a good time with her brother in the woods. Not having to pay attention to modern technology. There was nothing wrong with that. She was fine. She'd be back tonight or tomorrow for their usual lunch date and make fun of him for worrying --

Well, no. See, because she'd freaked out when he disappeared thanks to that whole arrest thing, so she'd know how it felt. She wouldn't make fun of him.

And she wouldn't not answer her goddamn phone.

He was definitely being a little bit crazy.

[open!]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

Rey showed up at the normal time, even if it was going to mess up her sense of what day it was.

"Morning," she said, towing off her boots and giving him a little look because she could tell something was up.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke glanced up (without actually quite taking his eyes off his phone). "Morning."

Come on, Octavia. Answer.

. . . Right, he was supposed to be gregarious, wasn't he?

"How's it going?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Fine," she said. "How about you?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Also fine." If he told himself that hard enough, it would eventually become true! Mostly because he crushed all his feelings into a hard little ball and pretended he didn't have them. "So. Yoga."

[thatwaslucky]

"Okay," she nodded. "What do you want to do today?"

She knew when not to push, but she figured he needed this more than her today.

[betterthanaplan]

"Let's step things up a bit," Duke decided. "Try something a little harder than usual."

Something that wouldn't give him too much time to think.

"You want to try some arm balances?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I'm up for it," Rey said. "How do I do that?"

[betterthanaplan]

"You usually want to start in a handstand," Duke said, stretching his arms up over his head and rolling his neck. He went to put the phone down, then hesitated and shoved it into his pocket instead.

It would probably fall out, but he wanted to be able to feel the little vibration if when Octavia finally got back to him.

"Start in a headstand," he said again, forcing his mind back on track. "Then slowly shift your legs and arms into the more complex poses."

[thatwaslucky]

"Okay," she said with a nod, and placed her hands on the mat to pull herself up into a handstand.

[betterthanaplan]

"Cool. Let's do . . . crow pose." Duke dropped into his own handstand, overbalancing first and having to start over.

His concentration was a little all over the place.

[thatwaslucky]

Rey noted that.

But it was a pose that she'd ended up in accidentally one or twice when these went wrong, so she was able to at least get into the pose, even if she was wobbly.

[betterthanaplan]

"Good," Duke said, settling into it himself and looking her over. "Nice. Then, uh. Unfold back to the handstand."

And maybe overbalance a few times again. Dammit.

[thatwaslucky]

"Are you okay?" she had to ask, not moving yet.

[betterthanaplan]

“I’m fine.” He dropped his feet back to the ground and stood, pushing the hair out of his face. “Tired, maybe.”

Because the goats yesterday had been so stressful.

[thatwaslucky]

"Any reason?" she asked, setting her own feet down, partly because she wasn't used to that position yet.

[betterthanaplan]

It took a lot of practice.

"No, I just --" Duke scowled at himself and rubbed the back of his neck. "Octavia's gone radio silent. She and Bellamy are out on the preserve and it's just -- freaking me out."

[thatwaslucky]

"For how long?" Rey asked, frowning.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke glanced away, ticking the time off on his fingers. "Two days." He dropped his head. "I know. That's basically nothing."

But she usually answered his texts.

[thatwaslucky]

"It's not long," she agreed. "I also can't blame you for worrying."

It wasn't like she and Finn didn't need to know where the other was.

[betterthanaplan]

"We definitely go longer without talking sometimes." They weren't totally codependent! "Just -- I sent her a bunch of texts yesterday and she hasn't even looked at them yet. And . . . I'm a twelve year old with a crush."

[thatwaslucky]

"You probably passed that a few months ago."

She'd never been a twelve-year-old with a crush.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'm literally staring at my phone waiting for her to answer," Duke said. "That's . . ." How to put this in terms that she'd get on a gut level? "That's something 'Duke Duke' would have done."

[thatwaslucky]

"Duke Duke?" she repeated.

[betterthanaplan]

"The doofy driftwood artist who was trying to help you marry Luke or whatever?"

[thatwaslucky]

"So, you're not worried, or you just don't want to be waiting for a reply?" she asked.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'm worried. I just don't feel like I should be. She deserves her space if she needs it. And she can take care of herself."

[thatwaslucky]

"I think you're allowed to be concerned. I don't know that I'd freak about it, but that sounds pretty natural," she said.

[betterthanaplan]

“I’m not freaking out.” He really kind of was. He had, to borrow a phrase, a very bad feeling.

Not for any spooky reasons. He just had abandonment issues.

“We always have lunch on Thursday. I don’t hear from her tomorrow. . . . Then I’ll freak out.”

[thatwaslucky]

He'd also said it was freaking him out, but Rey would be nice enough not to remind him of that.

"I train in the preserve sometimes. If you don't hear from her tomorrow, I can see if I run across her so she doesn't think you're..."

You know. Freaking out.

[betterthanaplan]

Yes, but then he'd decided that made him ridiculous, so he changed his mind!

"Thanks." If he didn't hear from her tomorrow, he was going to go looking, let's be real. "Anyway. Sorry I'm so . . . distracted."

[thatwaslucky]

"I'll forgive it," she said lightly. "I'm sure she's fine, though."

[betterthanaplan]

"She's fine," Duke agreed, nodding firmly. "She can take care of herself."

That was not at all going to stop him from worrying.

[thatwaslucky]

"Yes, she can. Are you sure you want to work on something challenging today?" she checked.

[betterthanaplan]

"Need something to take my mind off things," Duke said. "Just . . . maybe with more of a warm up, this time."

[thatwaslucky]

"I'm a big fan of warmups."

She didn't care either way, but she wanted to be helpful.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke let out half a laugh. "You just like doing cat-cow."

[thatwaslucky]

"I do, and you know I do," she said with a smile.

[betterthanaplan]

"That I do," Duke agreed. "Alright." He rubbed his hands together. "Let's get to it, then."