Luke's, Thursday

[betterthanaplan]

It was Thursday again, and Octavia was still a raccoon. So Duke once again brought her with him to the diner and set her up in her own booth-full-of-shiny-things.

She was somewhat less engrossed in the shiny things today, instead staring up at the ceiling and chattering at something. Duke just poured himself a nice strong Irish coffee and steadfastly refused to look at what it might be.

"Boss," Ali said. "There's a cat --"

"No," Duke told him. Smiling over the lip of his mug. "Nope. I don't want to know. It's not literally strapped to my back so I refuse to care."

Today's specials
CATCH OF THE DAY!
Good ol' fashioned crab feast!
Free mallet with every plate!

"Steve, so help me, if you give that mallet to whatever is on the ceiling you're fired."

Luke's was open.

Comments

[okteiviakom]

But Duke, there was a creature, up high! A not-raccoon!

So Octavia was on her hind legs on the table, as if being that much closer to the ceiling would bring her answers, or something.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sighed and tried to tempt her away with a crab leg.

[okteiviakom]

You couldn't fool her so easily!

... Okay maybe just a quick nibble.

[betterthanaplan]

"That's it," Duke said. "Good gona-raccoon."

[okteiviakom]

Of course, Octavia merely scarfed down the crab leg held between her tiny raccoon paws, and then went right on back to looking towards the ceiling. The creature had made a noise, you see!

And now Octavia was looking for a way to perhaps try and climb up there, herself.

[betterthanaplan]

"Do not make me put you on a leash!"

As though he could.

[okteiviakom]

Not without a lot of scratches, at least!

And here went Octavia, chittering, trying to -- scale up the wall? That was probably not going to work.

[betterthanaplan]

Especially not when Duke came up behind her and scooped her off said wall.

"Seriously? I have more shiny things, I swear."

[okteiviakom]

There was a whole lot of affronted, loud chittering --

Until Octavia realized she was actually higher up now than she'd gotten with the wall. And there was further to go!

Congratulations, Duke, now the raccoon was trying to scale her way onto your shoulder.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yep, this was a mistake," Duke observed as she climbed up him. "I see that now."

[okteiviakom]

But the chittering was so much more excited, now! So he needed to just deal with her trying to use his hair as a hold for trying to get even closer to the ceiling and the creature.

So close!

... Yes, this was a highly unfortunate moment for Octavia's human body to finally make a reappearance.

For one, it weighed a lot more than a raccoon.

[betterthanaplan]

"Ow," Duke said. "Ow, owwwwoah holy shit!"

There was now a full-grown, well-muscled woman on his head.

The two of them were absolutely ending up on the floor, yes.

[okteiviakom]

Well, the good news was she was significantly less on his head on the way down.

The bad news was the toppling onto the floor. Which meant Octavia's startled yelp was soon followed by a hiss of pain, because even with him kinda-sorta cushioning some of her fall, there had been just... no way for her to not bang several parts of her body hard against the floor.

She saw stars, for a second.

[my_own_advocate]

"Octavia? Duke?" Lucifer called hurriedly as he burst into the diner with a bottle of wine under one arm and a bottle of non-alcoholic cider under the other.

[betterthanaplan]

"Luce!" Duke answered brightly. "She's back!"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave him a tiny wave, sitting in a booth in her ill-fitting clothes.

"Hi."

[my_own_advocate]

"Oh thank-- me," Lucifer said, shoving the bottle of wine at Duke before striding towards Octavia very quickly, so he could shove the cider at her in turn.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke took the wine and got the heck out of his way. He knew just how Lucifer was feeling right now, after all.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia took the cider despite no particular desire for it. She knew some of Lucifer's impulses, by now.

She had also seen Duke's reaction to her return, so... She was getting up from her seat.

[my_own_advocate]

Good, because the moment she was remotely upright, Lucifer hugged her. Tightly.

[okteiviakom]

That was about what Octavia had expected.

And because she'd expected it, she sank into it with a little more purpose than she'd managed with Duke, sliding her own arms around him in turn. Maybe more for his benefit than hers.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer clung on to her. "Welcome back," he said softly.

[okteiviakom]

"I didn't go anywhere," Octavia murmured, which was both true and wasn't.

(She was going to start feeling guilty about the faint sense of relaxation she felt about not having been in her body for a while, sooner or later.)

She reached out with one hand to beckon Duke to them. Draw him into this, too.

[my_own_advocate]

Funny how they'd had the same idea at the same time, as Lucifer moved just slightly so he could extend an arm towards Duke.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was working on opening the wine, but set it aside when they reached for him.

“Ugh. So much better.”