fandomtownies | The Devil's Nest, Tuesday Night

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The Devil's Nest, Tuesday Night

It was Tuesday, and the Devil was done sleeping off the weekend. It had been an inspiring one, especially near the end, as one could tell by the music flowing from his piano right now.

Well, maybe it had been that, and 'googling how to make anaemic pop palatable'.

Either way, you could kind of tell what he was playing if you squinted.

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"And he couldn't tell me that? I can't . . . read people's minds!"

Apparently the opposite of Duke trying to fix things was him getting mad that they were broken in the first place.

Octavia raised her eyebrows at him.

"Do you tell people if they make jokes that hurt you?"

"I make sure they know," Duke said. "Sooner than after a week."

Octavia made a little scoffing noise, then shook her head.

"I still don't get exactly what you said, but if he thought it meant you think he's a m-- that you think he's that bad..."

Yeah, that one word kind of caught in her throat.

"We were just having a conversation. He -- I don't know, got a little vague at the tend, but -- I was trying not to do the thing I do." Duke groaned. "It was just a conversation, Tavi, we tease each other all the time."

Octavia's poor drink was just getting completely ignored, now. She was staring up at him.

"What were you trying not to do?"

"You know . . . fix things!"

Sorry your snogon was kind of an idiot sometimes, Octavia.

Yeah, Octavia was kind of figuring that out right now.

It did not help the staring any. Though now, that was a side effect of her putting a few things together. Something just slightly off she hadn't really been able to put her finger on, before.

But, now: "Is that what you were doing to me at the diner last week, too?"

"Doing to you?" Duke was really very confused now. "You got mad at me for trying to fix you, Tavi, so yeah, I was trying not to do that!"

"There's a difference between trying to fix someone and just -- helping them," Octavia pointed out. "You were holding back, I could tell."

Not in the moment, too wrapped up in feelings of failure about the session with Claire. But later, once she'd been able to process things outside her again.

"It was weird."

"Yeah, well, as we've learned, I'm apparently incapable at having relationships that I don't destroy, so." Apparently Lucifer's prickliness was catching. "You used to tell me when I was being weird."

... Oh, Duke.

Octavia's eyebrows twitched up. "Yeah, we all know I'm different now," she rasped, with an edge that seemed to imply he'd be better off not straying any further down that path. "But you didn't used to think you destroy everything, either."

Duke gave a little grunt at that. Not confirming, not denying.

It was what his family was made to do, right? Fix things by destroying them.

He was more than a little mixed up inside.

Yeah, no kidding.

Octavia was still looking at him like she didn't know what to do with him.

"You really need to figure out this 'fixing people' thing, Duke."

"I'm working on it, okay?" Duke snapped. "I didn't even know I did it until that damn truth day or whatever. Fuck." He rubbed his hands down his face. "Can we talk about something else, please?"

"Don't snap at me," Octavia replied.

If 'pointedly calm' was a thing, that was what her tone was right there.

Duke bit back his response. Actually bit, down on his lower lip, then replaced it with his glass, tossing back a healthy belt.

"I'm -- frustrated," he said through his teeth. "I am working on it, but I don't know how, so having someone tell me that I should be working on it isn't particularly helpful."

"I think," Octavia replied, a little more careful now, "you've been working on figuring out how to stop doing it. I'm asking you to figure out what counts as trying to fix someone."

"Yeah, well. You have any tips on that?"

"Try asking."

She tried not to make that as dry as it came out. Honestly, she tried.

"That's literally what I'm doing right now."

Duke maybe needed to sleep for two days, himself.

Octavia could confirm two days might not have been enough.

She sighed. "I mean in the moment," she clarified. "Instead of pulling back because you think you might be doing it."

Duke snorted. "Right. I'll just pause in the middle of a conversation and say 'hey, does it seem like I'm trying to fix you right now?'"

Octavia's own sigh sounded a little more frustrated now, too.

"Well, if you want to keep having to hash everything out days later, that's your choice."

Duke bit back on another snide reply. He really didn't want to argue with her right now.

He sipped his drink, resisting the urge to just toss it all back, his hand pressed to the edge of the bar like he was using it to hold himself up.

Maybe coming out tonight had been a mistake. Maybe he should just go home.

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