The Perk, Tuesday morning

[betterthanaplan]

Leaving his boat yesterday had gone well, and Duke was pretty sure he was supposed to teach a class tomorrow, so he took it a step further today and headed into town. He made his way to the Perk, where he could fortify himself with some caffeine and a muffin and try to set up his new phone, since both his old primary phone and the one he'd used in Haven were now toast.

He was trying to resist the urge to try calling Nathan when he noticed he had a few messages.

"He threw it into the sea?"

[open!]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante snorted. "Yeah? What'd you do?"

[betterthanaplan]

“Said ‘hey, what do you think about both of us dating Lucifer?’” Duke grimaced and shrugged. “It was a timing thing. Got some lectures on bomb dropping. Also, apparently backing off when they got skittish sent mixed signals.”

[rebelseekspizza]

"People are weird," Dante said sagely, with all the wisdom of his early twenties, and sipped thoughtfully on his milkshake.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yes," Duke said, nodding. "Yes they are."

[rebelseekspizza]

"You did do it like, totally the other way around from how we did it," Dante mused. "I mean, Kathy was just like 'you two should make out'."

[betterthanaplan]

". . . Like, while she watched?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged. "Yeah," he said. "Well. Sorta."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded. "I like this lady's style."

[rebelseekspizza]

"It was a fair trade, anyway," Dante said, grinning. "Making out with my hot snarky roommate for five minutes in exchange for seeing her in a sexy schoolgirl costume. I've had worse deals."

Literally everything about Dante's life had been complicated back then except for his sex life. Living the high life there.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke laughed. "Right on. Not sure how well a trade like that would go over with my folks. I mean, Lucifer would be into it, but Octavia would probably wonder why we were doing a trade at all."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante laughed. "Principle's the same, though," he said. "'Let's make out'? Low bar. Especially when everyone's drinking."

It was everything else afterward that got complicated.

[betterthanaplan]

"See, there. That's what I should have done. Waited until we were all drunk first."

He was joking. Mostly.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Always worked for me," Dante said merrily, and finished off his milkshake with a loud sip.

[betterthanaplan]

"Ah booze. What can't you do?" Duke shook his head, noticing the completed milkshake. "Anyway. Was nice to meet you, man."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nice to meet you too, man, maybe I'll drop by that diner of yours sometime," Dante said easily. "Me and Kat are usually just here to run Sex Ed at the start of the week, but eh, I get bored when the city's quiet."

[betterthanaplan]

"You're welcome any time, but I'm usually there on Thursdays. I'll fix you a fresh shake."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Gonna hold you to that," Dante said, rising out of his chair. "Cheers."

He threw Duke an easy wink, and went for the door.