Luke's, Thursday

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was quiet today at the diner, which meant his staff was quiet, too. For Duke, that meant going about his business, setting the specials and supervising the kitchen, without saying anything more than absolutely necessary. For his staff, it meant furtive whispering as they tried to work out why their normally loud boss was being so quiet. Was it the argument last week with his girlfriend? The start of a new weird Fandom effect? Maybe he'd been bitten by a gremlin and thought he was . . . someone really quiet?

None of them managed to guess the real reason, that learning how he was eventually going to die had sent Duke drifting down into a full blown existential crisis. Something, it turned out, that he did rather quietly.

And, you know, with comfort food.

Today's special
CATCH OF THE DAY:
Bahian fish stew with coconut and tomato

Luke's was open.

Comments

[hatesparadise]

Danny could handle only so much time spent in his apartment when he didn't have the energy to do any of the cooking himself. Was it any easier to go to Luke's? No. But Steve wasn't hovering there, so...

"You look about as great as I do," he said after a moment of looking at Duke.

[betterthanaplan]

"Gee," Duke said, voice dry and spare. "Thanks."

[hatesparadise]

Danny shrugged and went to take a seat in a dignified fashion because he'd like to be seated now, thanks. "Oh, I'm sorry. You're lookin' great there."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke set a glass down in front of him and filled it with ice water.

"You want the special, or what?"

[hatesparadise]

"Sure," Danny said, continuing to watch him without much expression on his face. Just sort of taking it all in for the moment.

[betterthanaplan]

And Duke was just going to studiously ignore that watching, as he grabbed a set of utensils for Danny and put in the order to the kitchen.

[hatesparadise]

It was cute that he thought this was the end of it, though. Super cute.

Danny took a sip of his water, following Duke's movements around the diner with his eyes. "So, where's this dish from then?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke tapped the word "Bahian" on the specials board as he went by it. Nice thing about a stew special, all it really required was dishing out over a bed of rice, so the cook had it ready right quick.

"It's in Brazil," he said, setting the bowl down. "On the coast, by Rio."

[hatesparadise]

Danny hummed, considering it before trying a bite. "Not bad," he decided. But then, anything would be great right now.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded, then turned to leave.

Then didn't.

"How's your side?" he asked softly, looking back at Danny over his shoulder.

[hatesparadise]

"Still hurts like a son of a bitch, but it's healing," he replied, fixing Duke with another look. "How about you?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shrugged. He couldn't actually quite bring himself to say he was fine.

"You ever think about fate?" he said finally.

[hatesparadise]

"Sit," Danny said, gesturing toward the seat across from him. "Explain."

[bookbeltof_love]

You know what? Nina hadn't seen Duke in ages and ages and that meant, bursting through the door was--

"Gooooooooooooooood aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafternoooooooooo-------"

Nina's exuberant greeting paused as she got a look at him.

"----oon?????" she finished, rather more questioningly than she'd started that.

[betterthanaplan]

Oh wow. That was a lot. Duke had almost forgotten how truly a lot Nina was.

(Did she have her own alot, somewhere out on the preserve? An alot of punctuation, perhaps?)

"Nina," he greeted with a little nod.

[bookbeltof_love]

If there was any alot out there that was hers, it was almost certainly an alot of punctuation!

"Hi, Duke!!!!!!!" she said brightly, coming over to the counter. "How are you??????"

[betterthanaplan]

"Alright," Duke said. You could tell he was alright by how hoarse and soft his voice was. Or by him radiating the exact opposite energy she did, today. "You?"

[bookbeltof_love]

Maybe if she radiated it hard enough it would seep into him too?

"I'm, like, okay??????" she said, taking a seat and studying him curiously. "Do you, like, need a hug???????"

She got it. She'd needed a lot of hugs in the past few weeks herself.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke absolutely needed a hug. Not that he had any idea how to recognize or articulate that fact under even the best of circumstances.

So he just kind of shrugged, and worked on polishing a glass.

[bookbeltof_love]

She eyed him speculatively.

"If I counter hop to hug you, would that be okay??????"

[betterthanaplan]

"Do what you want."

It didn't matter in the end anyway, did it? Not if people could magically predict how you were going to die.

He set the glass aside, though. And made sure nothing on the counter would be in her way if she did decide to hop over it.

[bookbeltof_love]

Which was pretty sweet of him, in addition to being useful.

She considered that comment and all the things it could mean but, really, the more important thing was that he clearly needed a hug and wasn't ojbecting to it.

So, despite her ankle-length skirt, Nina went over that counter. She landed lightly, her heeled boots clicking against the floor, a last second warning of what was coming, before she flung her arms about him in a hug.

[betterthanaplan]

It didn't matter how much warning he got, Duke always needed a second to catch up to the fact that he was being hugged.

He probably always would.

He raised his hands a little slowly, hugged back a little gingerly. But she could probably feel the tremble through his chest as something in him did its best to unknot itself and relax.

[bookbeltof_love]

Just two days ago, Bus Dean had hugged her until she'd made the choice to pull back.

So Nina wouldn't let go until Duke gave her an indication that he wanted out of it.

She didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything.

[betterthanaplan]

The hug just kept going. Duke didn't entirely know what to do with that, so he held still and waited. As the tremble got bigger. As it moved into his arms, into his chin.

And finally, he just kind of sagged, leaning into the hug properly and soaking it in, his breath going out on a shuddering sigh.