fandomtownies | The beach, Monday afternoon

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The beach, Monday afternoon

As appealing as the idea of staying in bed for a week was, Duke couldn't go quite that long without getting restless. Even if his head was still full of doubts and concerns and self-recriminations about the last ~~two months~~ ~~two weeks~~ while.

Spending time on the boat, noticing what things were missing or had changed, mostly just made him think about how Lucifer and Octavia had been stuck there while he was gone. He needed to get out and move around. He wasn't quite up to heading into town, he didn't think, so he headed out along the beach, enjoying the sunshine and warmer weather, and trying to ignore how much they reminded him of Haven's unseasonable warmth from when he left.

He stopped to watch the water for a moment, and on a whim reached his arms up and back, stretching through his core. He'd fallen out of his yoga habit in Haven, too preoccupied with -- literally everything -- and the movement felt like slipping back into his own skin.

. . . He needed a better metaphor for that.

He threw himself into a fun sun salutation, working slowly through the familiar movements and pausing here and there to rock back and forth into the various stretches, easing stiff and knotted muscles. It'd take more (a lot more) to pull him properly out of his own head, but at least he could start working out the aches his misadventure had left him with.

The porgs hanging out by the rocks paused to watch, burbling to each other in satisfaction. They'd missed their bendy sailor. His downward dog made for a fantastic jungle gym, after all.

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Octavia was trying to give him space. Or she was trying to give herself space. To rest, to breathe.

It wasn't going very well. It was her first time letting him out of her sight since he'd come back, and even though she'd taken the opportunity to go over to the Samsara and get clothes and things she hadn't brought over when they'd headed out on their trip, she could only stay away for so long.

But at least it was considerably later when she walked down the beach, wearing jeans and a leather jacket. They were like armor, compared to the soft, comfortable things she'd been wearing on the Rouge.

She stopped some distance away, just to watch. Unsure if she needed to even come any closer and disturb him, unsure if she even should.

Duke didn't spot her for several moments, reveling in a forward bend, letting his arms and head dangle loosely as he swayed from side to side. It wasn't until he shifted towards plank that he looked up and saw her. He slid into cobra pose a little sooner than he might have otherwise, so he could flick her a smile.

"Ha yun, gona."

It was smaller and less enthusiastic than he might have wanted. There was something uncomfortable about her worrying over him, especially when she clearly had had a tough time as well, and he couldn't help trying to put on a brave face.

Octavia was trying to do that, too. Of course, with her, it meant pushing all her emotions back behind a mask of mildness.

Or, you know. Under armor.

"Ha yun, jaka," she replied with a little nod. "Good practice?"

"Yeah. Been kind of neglecting it."

Duke rolled his neck a little, then eased back into downward dog. The porgs burbled happily and started trundling over.

Normally, Octavia would've watched them. Maybe made an amused noise about it, even. But this wasn't a normal day, and so she only had eyes for him.

She'd missed this. Seeing him do this.

It should have made her feel happier than she did.

Duke pushed himself upright, into a warrior pose. He didn't glance at the porgs, watching her only.

"Join me?"

He made it a question on purpose, careful not to turn it into a suggestion or order. But it came out much more uncertainly than he'd intended.

"Didn't dress for it."

Maybe she should have.

And either way, she was finally coming closer. And shrugging the jacket off her shoulders as she did. So maybe that hadn't been a no.

Duke glanced down at himself. He was wearing his own form of armor, dark, tight jeans and multiple shirts. His denim jacket lay on the sand, along with a couple of his necklaces, though the pouch with the jizo was secured very firmly under his shirts. He looked up and shrugged.

"Neither did I."

Octavia shrugged back, lopsided. "Fair."

She let her own jacket drop onto the sand. One of the porgs immediately tracked sand all over it.

Of course it did. Porgs were dependable that way.

Duke finished his flow and started it over again, stretching his arms up towards the sky. He didn’t narrate as he went, the way he would have if he were teaching or prompting. He didn’t even check to see if she joined in. He just focused on his own movements, and the quiet sounds of the porgs and the water.

Octavia just watched, for a moment or two.

Then she started following along. It was imperfect, a little awkward, the way she had to copy the forms just by looking at him. But that didn't matter.

This wasn't really about that.

It was not even a little bit about that.

Duke watched her out of the corner of his eye, and slowed down to linger in each pose a little longer, give her time to find her stability and enjoy the stretch. He listened for her breath among the other sounds of the beach, wrapping his awareness around her.

That, at least, was steady. The sound of Octavia's breathing. Was the only thing about her that had been steady for the past couple of days.

Though, okay, her poses looked pretty stable, too. Now that she wasn't fighting to keep up.

Duke noticed, and maintained the slower pace. He introduced a little deep breathing technique to his own flow, adding a soft hum to the exhale. Making that easy to follow as well.

It took several cycles of breath, but eventually Octavia followed his lead there, too.

Felt like the natural thing to do. As much as anything felt natural to her right now.

Duke finished another sun salutation, but still didn't feel like breaking the silence between them. The peace. So he started to improvise another flow, moving from pose to pose on a whim, following wherever he felt a catch in his movements or sensed one in hers. Stretching, stabilizing, grounding.

Yoga couldn't do all the miraculous things that people said it could. It didn't cure depression. But it could refocus things for a time. Reconnect you to your body and your breath.

To your life.

To your partner.

Octavia followed along, occasionally fumbling in the shifts between poses, but not caring about that. She followed his lead, listening, watching, making him the center of her world.

(That part wasn't very different from the past two weeks.)

Beyond that, her muscles had needed this. She hadn't been doing much at all with them on the boat. Hadn't managed to make herself.

They both needed this. Duke kept going until his muscles started to burn, until he lost control of his breath as he pushed his body to its limits. Even slow, sustained movement could take its toll, after all.

Finally, he lowered himself to the sand, moving from downward dog to tabletop, then back into child's pose, his body curled around his knees, his arms outstretched, his forehead pressed to the sand.

And stayed there.

Octavia had followed him through the other poses, and she followed him through these final ones as well until she, too, was catching her breath in child's pose.

A porg hopped onto her back. She let it stay there.

(She could still hear him breathing. That was all that mattered.)

Duke didn't get up until a porg started tugging on his ponytail. It would, it felt, make excellent nest lining.

He pushed himself up to his knees, then rocked back to sit crosslegged on the sand. He watched the waves.

Octavia stayed in the stretch for a little longer, waiting for the porg to hop off, but it never did. So instead she pulled one arm back and scooped the bird up before moving.

She sent the porg on its way back to its friends with a little nudge against its back as she straightened up.

Duke watched it, and her, silently. He wondered how long he could keep this up, the whole 'not speaking' thing. He was impressed he hadn't given in to the urge to start babbling yet.

(He was a little confused that the urge hadn't really hit him, yet.)

Octavia hadn't even realized what a long silent stretch it had been already. Not really. But then, silence had always come more easily to her than it did to him.

She watched the porg trundle away, then looked up at him for a moment. Mapped his face with her gaze for just a little while.

Then she looked towards the waves.

Duke, of course, gave in first. He picked a shell out of the sand by his feet, brushing grains off it with his thumb before handing it to a nearby porg.

"Been too long since I last did that."

"Yeah," Octavia sighed, after a little moment of silence. "For me, too."

That was sincere. She knew this feeling wouldn't last, but for now, she felt a tiny bit more centered than she had in... a long while.

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