The Devil's Nest, Tuesday Night

[my_own_advocate]

If any funny business had occurred yesterday, well, Lucifer had been blissfully unaware of it. The island's madness had a way of skipping over him, as if the divine were just too difficult to twist, and he quite appreciated it.

He was in quite a jovial mood, actually. He'd rearranged the bloody axe range so now it looked like harmless dancing booths - and, okay, at least two of them did contain an actual professional dancer in only vaguely family-appropriate dress. Either way, there were no axes.

It had put him in such a good mood that he'd put up a sign asking for requests, something which he was vaguely regretting now. The amount of piano covers of contemporary pop songs on YouTube was truly an astounding thing, wasn't it?

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[betterthanaplan]

Octavia had made it to his class, so Duke suggested that evening that they head over to the club. And was slightly surprised -- pleased, but surprised -- when she said yes.

So here Duke was, looking much happier than he had in awhile, if still a bit tired and on edge. He smirked a little evilly when he saw the sign, and leaned against the piano with his drink.

"You know any Jimmy Buffet?"

He was expecting an extremely snide answer, yes.

[my_own_advocate]

"I have spent decades," Lucifer said, "attempting to bleach that man's work out of my mind with a succession of increasingly potent chemicals."

Beat.

"So no, I don't."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke laughed. "Fair enough. How about . . . Counting Crows?"

He didn't expect a yes to that one, either.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed. "What is it with you people and lukewarm pop songs?" he wondered. "I mean, clearly YouTube's making bank on it."

[betterthanaplan]

"Hey now. Counting Crows are good." Duke tilted his head. "The depressing early stuff is, anyway." They'd been part of the soundtrack of his youth. "So, uh. How've you been?"

[my_own_advocate]

"Fine, beyond that my universe still irritatingly refuses to budge," said Lucifer. He eyed Duke. "You look slightly less like death warmed over."

[betterthanaplan]

"Slightly," Duke echoed. "You're all heart, Luce." He looked over to where Octavia was practically glued to the bar and shrugged. "She's back."

He didn't really have the words to encompass all the various things that did to him. Good and bad.

[my_own_advocate]

"Yes, I'd noticed," Lucifer said lightly. "A bit skittish now, isn't she?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Something happened to her, back there." He scoffed at himself. "A lot happened to her back there. She's not telling me all of it, but -- yeah. Her guard is way, way up."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia wasn't sure why she'd said yes to coming here. Maybe it was just because she knew she'd have to do it eventually, anyway. And why didn't really matter, because here she was. Looking as out of place as ever, just vaguely defiant about it.

Tiny still knew to bring her a glass of brandy. And she still had to remind herself, after a split second, that it was because he'd last seen her about a month ago.

And no, she did not approach the piano right off the bat.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer spotted her eventually, but he made no move to abandon the piano to run off to see her.

Part of him wanted to.

But he did, eventually, stop playing, closing up the piano, and taking his good time getting away from it.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was watching him.

And not moving. If she planned to, she was also taking her sweet time doing it.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer pushed himself up to his feet and swept his glass off the top of the piano.

Then he began his walk towards the bar with impatient steps.

He wasn't quite aiming for the part of it where she was standing.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia noticed that.

And didn't budge.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer motioned for Tiny to bring him another drink.

He took it. Took a sip. Set it down.

"Well, at least you still remember your corner," he said, "That's encouraging."

[okteiviakom]

There was a brief silence before Octavia said anything, and once she did, her tone was dry and her voice sounded almost as if she was unusued to speaking.

"It's just a corner."

But it wasn't.

[my_own_advocate]

"No, it's your corner," Lucifer said patiently, like he was explaining something very simple to a child.

[okteiviakom]

That earned him a very level dry look. Even if that meant she had to directly look at him now, which she'd avoided in the moment he'd been closer to her.

He looked more or less like she remembered, even though she hadn't had the aid of pictures to help keep the details right.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke did his best to give her space. They spent most of their time together already. He couldn't help but check in, though.

"Do you remember," he asked slowly, "New Year's Eve?"

[okteiviakom]

The silence was a little too long. Long enough for Octavia to take a sip, let it sit on her tongue for a moment, then swallow.

"Why?"

That was a yes.

(Loud music, club girls, freedom.)

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shrugged. "I was just thinking about it. About watching you dance."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia made a vague humming noise as her gaze dropped down to her glass.

It went without saying that she didn't do that anymore, right?

[betterthanaplan]

It did, yeah.

Duke looked down into his drink, then at the bottles behind the bar. "I know that you're not the same woman you were before you . . . left." He glanced over at her and took a sip. "I know you're never going to be that woman again. But maybe we can still find pieces of her. Someday."

[okteiviakom]

The words were immediately on Octavia's lips. Bitter and dark.

"She's --"

Dead.

But for whatever reason, she couldn't say that, not to him. So it just cut off abruptly, and she took another sip from her glass.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke watched her and waited to see where that sentence would end. When it didn't, he turned his attention back to his own drink.

"We'll take it slow," he said, almost more to himself than to her. Danny's advice was ringing in his ears. "And, uh. If you need to talk to someone who isn't me about anything. . . . I get it. "