The beach, Wednesday morning

[betterthanaplan]

Everyone wanted Duke to talk to someone. So after getting to the beach kind of aggressively early for yoga with Rey, he called Octavia's voicemail and talked to her.

He stared at his phone for a long moment after hanging up, weighing it in his hand.

"I was right. That definitely didn't make me feel better."

It kind of did, though.

He propped his arms on his knees and watched the water and waited for Rey.

[open!]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

Rey wasn't entirely sure she wasn't going to be the first one here again today, but she showed up at the regular time and was a little relieved to see him there already.

"Hey."

[betterthanaplan]

"Hey." Duke tucked his phone into his pocket. He wasn't expecting a call back anytime soon, after all. "How's it going?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Okay," she said, taking a seat next to him. "How are you?"

That was the real question.

[betterthanaplan]

"Tired of people asking that," Duke said, without any real ire. Rey was at least someone he knew well, and he felt actually meant it. "Or -- maybe just tired in general. I don't know anymore."

[thatwaslucky]

"I think both can be true," she said. "Sorry."

She wasn't really sorry, she really did care about the answer.

[betterthanaplan]

"Both then." Duke shook his head. "Part of me wants to just get on the Rouge and go, but what if she comes back and I'm not here?"

[thatwaslucky]

"And you'd be leaving the people who are still here," she pointed out.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke winced faintly. "Yeah. That too." He looked down at his arm, tracing under the new tattoo. "Not sure when I became the kind of guy who stays."

[thatwaslucky]

"You've been saying that for a long time, you know," Rey told him.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke tilted his head. "Fair point. Been running a lot longer, though."

[thatwaslucky]

"True. But the guy who stays is pretty much the one I've always known."

...Did she have a type with her BFFs?

[betterthanaplan]

It seemed pretty likely, yes.

"Maybe I'm just getting old."

His birthday was next week, after all.

[thatwaslucky]

"You think so?" Rey asked. She didn't see it, personally.

[betterthanaplan]

"I barely slept this weekend. Spent most of it trashed. Used to be I could bounce back from something like that with a three hour nap. This time?" Duke shook his head. "I basically slept through Monday and I still feel wiped out. Guess 34 is when it all goes to hell."

[thatwaslucky]

"Or you're doing all of that on top of stress," Rey reasoned, and then frowned a little. "Since when are you 34?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Since . . . next Tuesday, technically." Duke shrugged. "I don't usually make a big thing of it."

[thatwaslucky]

"Which means... you usually do nothing for it?" she asked.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'll get myself an extra nice bottle of scotch sometimes, but yeah. Pretty much."

[thatwaslucky]

"Do you want to do more than that?" she asked.

She'd never done anything on her birthday so she got it if he didn't. But she'd feel kind of bad this year with everything going on.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke took his time thinking about that. "I don't know. I mean, it'd be kind of weird, right? My girl's missing, let's party." He shook his head. "No. We can just skip it. Octavia comes back, then we can party."

[thatwaslucky]

There were so many reasons why Rey wasn't even gonna touch that one.

"Okay. Whatever you want."

[betterthanaplan]

Yeah, he was pretty sure it was a hot load of nonsense himself, but he'd already done enough moping at parties for the entire year over the weekend.

"Tell you what. Next week, I'll bring donuts. Have us a little day-after-birthday treat."

[thatwaslucky]

"It's your birthday, shouldn't I be the one bringing them?" she asked.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke managed to blink only once at that. Look, people definitely didn't offer to do stuff for him for his birthday very often.

"I guess we could do it that way, sure."

[thatwaslucky]

"I do like that plan better," Rey said with a little smile.