seaoftroubles

Duke & Nathan	As Dwight led the way into the police station, Duke pulled Nathan in close for a quick, sotto voice conversation. "Show's over, buddy. You're not really planning to let Audrey kill you, are you?" Nathan shook his head, stonefaced. "No, that's the plan."
Lucifer	The man was an idiot, and Lucifer had no intention of wasting time on him. "So this is what goes for a police station in Maine?" he asked instead, eyeing Dwight as he strolled into the station, one hand in his pocket. "Well, at least it's roomy."
Havenites	Duke had his hand up, all set to tell Nathan what a terrible plan that was, when Lucifer spoke. "What? Yes, this is what most police stations really look like. LA is . . . an outlier." "Guys?" Dwight said. "You coming?" He was standing in the door of the chief's office. The door to the chief's office with his name on it. "You're the new chief?!" Duke asked.
Lucifer	"Huh," Lucifer said, raising his eyebrows. He took in Dwight again. "And here you seemed determined to plateau at lovable island carpenter." He knew this Dwight wasn't the same as Fandom's Dwight. But he didn't care.
Dwight & Duke	Dwight looked from Duke to Lucifer and back again. "The hell is he talking about?" "Don't worry about it," Duke said cheerfully. "Totally different Sasquatch." ". . . Uh huh." Dwight shook his head. "Right, well. After this case . . . I can see where that one wanted to stick to carpentry." He gestured them into the office, towards a full on murder-board full of photos. Including the blown out front window of a bookstore, where it looked like some sort of bomb had gone off, and a human corpse encased in glass tucked into the sand. "Anyway, the Teagues talked me into it. Couldn't have an outsider coming in with all the troubles around, and Nathan, when you disappeared, folks who didn't know about the troubles took it hard. Figured they'd need a familiar face."
Lucifer	"Yes, yes, the lumberjack has become the lieutenant," Lucifer said, stalking into the office with the look of a man who was already bored and aching to be distracted. "Ah! A murder board! How nostalgic. Let me see..." Ooh. A human body, covered in glass? Well, wasn't that novel? "This gives a whole new definition to 'window shopping'..."
Dwight & Duke & Nathan	"Is he for real?" Dwight asked Duke. "Oh yeah," Duke said, nodding. "He's actually helped the LAPD sole any number of cases." "If this was anywhere other than Haven," Nathan said, going up to stand next to Lucifer, peering at the board and tapping the photos of the bookshop. "I'd say this was a bombing." "No bomb," Dwight said. "No particulates found at the scene. Witnesses said it was like being in the middle of a windstorm only there was no wind outside."
Lucifer	"So yet another freak weather event," Lucifer said, sliding his hands into his pockets. "And I assume there's no handy list of people's mad little powers available?"
Dwight & Duke & Nathan	“No,” Dwight said. “But that’s not a bad idea.” Duke, meanwhile, was peering at the photo of the corpse. “We found that this morning,” Dwight said. “Lucassi said the sand got so hot it turned to glass and the victim was trapped inside.” “This was here. In Haven.” Duke had been away too long if he had to ask that. “You recognize it?” “It’s called a fulgurite. It happens when lightning hits the sand. Doesn’t usually have human bodies in it though.” Nathan lifted his chin to Lucifer. “More weather. . . . Marion Caldwell.”
Lucifer	Lucifer threw him a glance. "Finally, you say something useful," he said. Beat. "Who?"
Dwight & Nathan & Duke	"I don't recognize the name from the files," Dwight said. "That's because there was never any report," Nathan said. "It was Audrey's first case in Haven. Audrey discovered Marion had a weather trouble. Killed someone. But we thought her trouble was under control." Dwight reached for his phone. "I'll get an address." Duke let out a soft sigh. "Time to chase after a killer trouble. Home sweet Haven."
Lucifer	Lucifer beamed at him. (He should probably not be beaming right now.) "Oh, cheer up," he said. "Nothing like solving a good crime to get back into the swing of things!"
Duke	Honestly, his sheer Luciferness was reassuring. Duke gave him a faintly wan smile in return. "Right. Let's go see Marion, then."

Duke	Marion's house was not hard to find. It was a cute little cape cod on a decent sized plot of land by the water -- and the sky above it was a roiling mass of black clouds that didn't match any of the sky around it. "I'm not a meteorologist," Duke said, having to yell to be heard above the wind, "but uh. This doesn't look good!"
Lucifer	"At least it's a handy pointer towards our suspect," Lucifer called back. "If a bit drafty!" He strode past the others towards the door, uninterested in stopping.
Nathan & Dwight & Duke	"The hell does he think he's doing?" Nathan barked, storming after him. "He knows he doesn't actually work here, right?" Dwight asked. "He knows," Duke promised. "He just doesn't care." And jogged to keep up. The inside of Marion's house was like the inside of a meat locker. An over clocked meat locker. In Antarctica. Frost coated the windows and crept along the walls, and Duke and Dwight both immediately started to shiver. "Marion!" Nathan called, undeterred. "Hello?!"
Lucifer	"Mind turning up the thermostat a bit?!" Lucifer called, as he continued his stubborn beesline to... whatever part of the house was closest. This was the hall. Was that the living room up ahead, or the kitchen? "Marion?!" This felt like it was perhaps not a very healthy temperature for humans. Maybe he should say that out loud. "This does not feel like a healthy temperature for humans."
Dwight & Duke & Nathan	"No k-kidding," Dwight muttered. "It's gotta be t-twenty below zero in here." Duke bounced on his toes, trying to stay warm. "H-how did, uh, Audrey talk Marion down the first time?" He could kick himself for not checking sooner. Like when they weren't risking frostbite just by standing there. "She showed Marion that her friend Conrad secretly loved her," Nathan said. He wasn't shivering; his teeth weren't chattering. Though his breath misted just as much as Duke's and Dwight's did, he didn't seem affected in the least. Just off the entry way, they'd find the living room, where the frost had built up even further. There were two chairs, both occupied, neither occupant looking at the visitors.
Lucifer	"Right, well, if that's all, you lot should probably leave," Lucifer said, frowning as he turned around in the entrance. "Especially you, love. I don't want to risk you freezing the whiskers off that ridiculous moustache."
Nathan & Duke	"Get out of here before you freeze to death," Nathan said, nodding faintly. "This cold is affecting you just as much as it is us," Duke pointed out, rubbing his hands together furiously. "I can't feel it," Nathan said. "I'll last longer." "I really didn't miss your stubborn martyr streak, Nate."
Lucifer	"Get out," Lucifer told Nathan. Helpfully. "Your ability to forget that you are dying is adorable in an insufferable sort of way, but also completely unnecessary, and I don't want to deal with Duke losing someone he inexplicably cares about." He gave an idle sort of wave with just his fingers. "Shoo."
Nathan & Duke & Marion	Nathan bristled. "No, no, she knows me. I should talk to her." "Dammit, Nathan," Duke said, leaning over how as his body tried to curl up for warmth. "Luce is literally immortal, let him take this one!" "Marion!" Nathan called again, trying to elbow past Lucifer. "Marion, it's Nathan Wuronos!" One of the forms in the chairs moved with a crackle of ice as Marion opened her eyes. "Nathan Wuornos," she hissed, soft as a whisper and faintly shuddering. "You came back." "Marion." Nathan stared down at her. "What happened?" "My trouble came back too. Because of you!"
Lucifer	"Right, well, she clearly doesn't want to hear from you, that settles it. I'm getting extremely tired of your inability to bloody listen to anybody," Lucifer said, his hands snagging hold of Nathan's jacket with an easy grace. "And by anybody," he added, as he lifted Nathan off the floor, "I mean me." And with an effortless thrust of his arms, he sent Nathan Wuornos flying through the doorway. What? At least he wouldn't feel the ground when he hit it.
Dwight & Duke & Nathan	". . . Wow," Dwight said, and headed after him. "I really wish I could do that." Duke gave Lucifer a tight grin. "You're definitely getting a kiss when I can feel my lips again!" And then it was just Lucifer and Marion.
Lucifer	"Right," Lucifer said, peering after Duke perhaps a moment too long. (He wasn't worried. He had-- things to do.) He turned towards Marion, slowly. "So you're mad at the idiot. I can hardly blame you for that, but is that truly reason enough to set the fury of the weather loose on this previously me-forsaken town?" No. That didn't make sense. He took a cautious step into the living room.
Marion	The creaking and cracking of ice continued as Marion sat up in her chair. Her breath rasped like her own vocal cords were frozen. "Who. The fuck. Are you?"
Lucifer	"Lucifer Morningstar," Lucifer said lightly, casting an idle glance towards the other chair. "Nathan's ex's boyfriend, to put it in terms that would give you some context. May we chat for a moment?"
Marion	Marion just stared at him for several moments. "No," she rasped. And turned away.
Lucifer	"I was just asking for politeness' sake, I'm going to talk anyway," Lucifer told her. "Who's your friend here, by the way? Looks a bit frozen."
Marion	Marion jerked upright again, and frost crept further up the walls. "Don't touch him!"
Lucifer	"Ah," Lucifer said. He turned towards her again, a few steps from the man's chair. "Someone you care about. Deeply." He tilted his head, thoughtful. "You do realize he's dead?"
Marion	"Shut your mouth," Marion hissed. The frost raced towards Lucifer now, as if she was hoping to freeze his mouth shut herself. "Don't talk about -- about --" She sobbed roughly, then shuddered. The temperature in the room dropped another several degrees.
Lucifer	"You can't hurt me, darling," Lucifer said. He slid his hands into his pockets. "Is this the lad Nathan was talking about?" he asked, carefully. "... Curt-- no, Conrad, was it?"
Marion	Marion flinched, which as close as he was going to get to a yes. "The troubles were supposed to away," she said, slowly standing. Outside, thunder boomed. "When Audrey left. That's what everyone said."
Lucifer	"They were, and then Mr. I-Feel-Nothing buggered it all up, I get why you're angry," Lucifer said. He looked at her, nearly frozen, like a stiff puppet of some kind, and asked, "Did your trouble kill him?"
Marion	Marion trembled, her body trying to cry through tear ducts frozen shut. "Never!" she cried. The whole house shuddered as the storm outside picked up speed. "Never. I would -- I would never."
Lucifer	A thought dawned on him, and Lucifer's face softened in spite of himself. Bloody feathers on the floor. "He just died," he said. "You wanted to keep him, didn't you? To put this moment on ice so you wouldn't have to live without him."
Marion	Another sob ripped through her. "Two days ago he was working on the porch. Fixing the damage from the meteor storm. He came inside and said -- that his arm had gone numb." She stared at the chair, at the back of her lover's frozen head. "Then he collapsed."
Lucifer	"A stroke?" Lucifer said. He took another step closer. (Tried not to think about Chloe's face, overmuch.) "What an excruciatingly normal way to go."
Marion	"He'd had a heart attack a couple of months ago," Marion said. "But he was -- he was doing better." The temperature was holding steady again, and the storm hadn't picked up or thundered in a few minutes. The talking was, perhaps, doing her some good.
Lucifer	"Sometimes life has a habit of working out that way." Lucifer sighed. "There was a woman I love... d," he said. "She's still alive, mind you. But life would deal us a blow, and then we'd come back from it. And it would deal us a blow again, and we'd come back from it, and... for the longest time, I thought we'd come back from the latest one. So much so I stubbornly clung to the thought even when my life moved on." He came to a stop. "It hurt some people that I cared about deeply, when I let it come to a head."
Marion	Marion stared at him, uncomprehending. "Who are you? Why -- are you here? Why won't -- you leave me -- alone?!" The wind wailed in time with her, an enormous crash like an explosion outside. (In fact, were Lucifer to look through the windows, he'd see an old van on fire down on the verge, the Teagues', which had just been struck by lightning.)
Lucifer	"I'm Lucifer Morningstar, dear, I told you," Lucifer said, pushing his jacket back as he slid his hands back into his pockets. "I'm Duke's boyfriend, and I'm here to make you snap out of this, because much like me, you're hurting people." Beat. "With a bit more of a hint of manslaughter."
Marion	Marion would have been horrified to hear that last bit, but she was a little too busy being horrified by the first part. "The Adversary," she whispered. "No. No, you can't have him!" More thunder, and the wind picked up even further. Outside, Dwight had to wrap his arm around Duke's waist to keep him from trying to storm his way back in and see what was happening.
Lucifer	Lucifer paused and stared at her with a bit of indignant horror. "I have no say in where he goes, I assure you," he said. "That's his own decision. One you're likely not improving upon by leaving a trail of destruction in your wake, mind you."
Marion	"What are you talking about?" Marion hissed.
Lucifer	"What, the bit where I have never had any bloody interest in collecting any souls and you lot just show up on my doorstep if you want to be punished, or the bit where you've been killing people with your trouble, which may wreck your chances for heaven?" Lucifer liked to be clear.
Marion	"N-no," Marion whispered. "No, I -- I didn't know --" She hadn't thought about anything outside this house in days.
Lucifer	(He could feel Hell from here, he realized. For the first time in... a year, Lucifer could feel the presence of Hell...) "Perhaps it's time to start knowing, then," Lucifer said, tilting his chin up. "Before you eradicate the entirety of the town outside of this room. He's not the only one who matters, is he?"
Marion	"He is!" Marion wailed, staggering over to the chair where her love lay dead. "He's the only one who matters to me!"
Lucifer	"Well, he can't be!" Lucifer was-- surprised by the strength of his own voice as he turned around. "There are people outside this door who are suffering while you roll about in your own world. People who are also losing those they care about. As long as your powers affect them, you have to care too."
Marion	"You don't -- understand," Marion said lowly, clutching at Conrad's frozen hands. "He's the reason I could control it before. I can't do this without him."
Lucifer	"Why not?" Lucifer asked her, both pointed and a bit helpless. "Did he have some kind of magical trouble-managing trouble of his own?"
Marion	"Because he loved me!" Marion said. She dropped her head and sobbed into Conrad's knees. "Even when I never noticed him. Even when I didn't know I loved him back. He's my -- my rock."
Lucifer	Lucifer sighed. He shut his eyes. Took a deep breath. And then approached her, reaching out to touch her back. Gently. "That made him your support," he said. "A place where you could learn to harness yourself. But you did the work. You realize that, don't you? You were the reason, not him."
Marion	Marion let out a long, wordless sob into Conrad's lap, but didn't pull away from Lucifer's hand.
Lucifer	"So perhaps it's time to stop wallowing in the past and do right by him, eh?" Lucifer said, sinking down slowly to her level. "Don't let what he helped you learn die with your relat-- with him."
Marion	"I don't think I can live without him," Marion confessed softly. "I loved him so much."
Lucifer	"You're going to have to, my dear," Lucifer said. His earlier attitude had all but evaporated in favor of a small smile. "There will be a second chance, some day. I doubt he'd rather you follow him."
Marion	Marion slowly tore herself away from Conrad (literally, her tears had frozen her skin to his frosted knees) and looked up at Lucifer. Her voice was rough and low with despair. "How?"
Lucifer	Lucifer didn't mean for that tiny noise - a hint of a desperate little giggle - to come out of him. "One step at a time, I suppose," he said. He cleared his throat. "Begins by accepting that you have to. That you can."
Marion	Marion sobbed again, nearly doubling over with the force of it, and looked back at Conrad's pale, frozen face. He looked . . . at peace. He almost never looked that way. Outside, the wind died, and the gray clouds shriveled to nothing. Inside, the temperature slowly began to rise, as Marion wrapped herself around her dead lover's legs and finally let herself properly grieve.
Lucifer	Lucifer patted her awkwardly on the back. "Right." He rose slowly to his feet. After a short silence, he added, "Ah... let Duke know I won't be long, will you?"
Marion	Marion picked her head up and frowned at him, confused. "Wh-what?"
Lucifer	"I have something to do," Lucifer said, his smile wobbly. "Tell Duke I'll be back." He spread his wings. Within a moment, he was gone. (Don't ask how. It was a celestial little secret.)
Marion & Nathan & Duke	Marion gasped, eyes wide, and stared at the spot he'd been standing. A few moments later, the door flew open as Nathan rushed in, followed closely by Duke. "Marion?" Nathan called. "I told you, Nate, Luce has it han. . . ." Duke trailed off as he looked around. ". . . dled. . . . Um. Luce?" "He." Marion choked faintly on another sob. "He said . . . he'll be back." Nathan rocked back slightly on his heels. "Huh."
Lucifer	It took a full fifteen minutes before Lucifer could fulfill his promise. He descended onto the lawn just outside Marion's home, looking a bit frazzled. There were flecks of ash on his shoulders, and he smelled faintly of sulfur. "Duke?" he called.
Duke	Duke jumped up from his seat on the porch. The others had already left, heading back to the police station to fill out paperwork, Nathan giving Duke a look that Duke was sure meant 'nice to see you getting ditched for once', because Nathan was a dick. "Luce! What the fuck!"
Lucifer	"Please tell me everything has stayed more or less unapocalyptic," Lucifer said, rushing across the lawn to get to him.
Duke	"What?" Duke shook his head. "Yeah, it's fine. You know, other than you running off without warning."
Lucifer	"Marion didn't tell you I'd be back?" Lucifer asked. Sorry, Duke. You were getting yanked into a hug.
Duke	That hug swallowed Duke's repeated "what?" "She did," he said, hugging back after a moment. "Where did you go?"
Lucifer	Perhaps that faint hint of sulfur answered Duke's question before Lucifer could. "Hell," he said. "I can sense it here, and its time is flowing normally."
Duke	"And you needed to swing by on a visit?" Sorry, Luce, Duke was still stuck in his own problems, and not thinking about Dan at all.
Lucifer	Lucifer leaned back a bit. "Dan's there, and he doesn't deserve to be."
Duke	"Dan is --" Duke pulled away, turning to rub his hand over his mouth. "Shit. Right. You couldn't have told me yourself?"
Lucifer	"It's Hell, time runs differently," Lucifer said. He straightened his suit. "I'd already condemned him to years of churn in his Hell loop just running after you lot."
Duke	Duke nodded a little bit stiffly. "Right. Yeah." He swallowed, shoving that lock of hair that always fell in his face behind his ear. "So I guess you need to take care of him, now?" He could handle Haven without Lucifer. He'd done it for most of his life. He didn't much want to handle Haven without Lucifer now, though.
Lucifer	Lucifer sighed. "I've spent about a month trying to figure out how to get him to move on to Heaven already with no luck," he said. "So I've parked him in a bit of... limbo. I'm hoping some time in Haven might spark some kind of brilliant idea, frankly."
Duke	Duke relaxed a fraction. "Right. Well . . . I wouldn't get your hopes up. Haven mostly just sparks terror."
Lucifer	"No terror so far, just annoyance," Lucifer said, "...And the realization leaving Dan in a functioning Hell loop would've been cruel." He eyed Duke. "You realize that to be gone long enough for you to genuinely miss me, I'd have to choose to spend decades or centuries in Hell, right? Which is hardly useful for anyone."
Duke	"You couldn't have taken an extra minute?" Duke asked, and winced at the faintly whining tone in his own voice. "Or given Marion slightly more information? I had no idea where you were."
Lucifer	Lucifer blinked. "I said I'd be back," he pointed out. "How long has it been?"
Duke	"I don't know, I wasn't timing you. Half an hour?" Well, no. But it had felt a lot longer than it was. "This place kills people, Luce. I know you're immortal and all, but what if someone has a, I don't know, 'banish celestials' trouble?"
Lucifer	"That seems extremely unlikely."
Duke	"My entire life is 'unlikely', Luce."
Lucifer	"Yes, but remember what your trouble did when you touched my blood?" Lucifer asked. "Whatever causes your bloody trouble has no idea what to do with me."
Duke	Duke squeezed his eyes shut with a grimace. He tried not to remember that, thanks, Lucifer. "Look. I'm just saying. A little more information next time would be nice, okay? I feel for Dan, I do, but this town does bad things to my paranoia."
Lucifer	Lucifer sighed, dropping the attitude a tad. "I'll-- try to communicate more next time," he said. "I just didn't think the weather lady would understand."
Duke	"Yeah, hence maybe taking a minute to tell me yourself." Duke shook his head. "Which would be, what . . . a week for Dan?" He let out a long sigh. "Uh. How is he?"
Lucifer	"Trying to figure out what he feels guilty about," Lucifer said. He shrugged. "Playing a spot of table tennis in the meanwhile."
Duke	". . . Being kind of a dick for half his life?" Duke guessed. "I guess that's a broad topic."
Lucifer	"He's already worked through all the police corruption, so that wasn't it," Lucifer said, with a helpless shrug. "... Either way, I could use a drink." A month in Hell had not been fun.
Duke	“Well, lucky for you I sent the girls to my very own closed up bar.”
Lucifer	Lucifer blew out a breath. "You did leave some liquor sitting around before you left, right?"
Duke	"I jumped into a collapsing magical barn," Duke said. "I didn't really pack the place up."

Duke	They had been in Haven for less than six hours and had already defused a killer trouble. Once Lucifer came back from Hell -- and explained why he'd felt the need to rush off without even taking a moment to tell Duke he was going, rather than pass a vague message along through a traumatized, grieving widow -- he and Duke left Dwight and Nathan to deal with the paperwork and headed for the Grey Gull. Duke was very surprised to see the place open, much less packed, since as far as any of his staff would've known, he was dead. ". . . The hell?"
Lucifer	"Not even remotely," came the nigh-scandalized response to his side.
Jennifer	Jennifer looked up, a martini glass in her hand, and threw them a little wave. "Hey! There you two are! Did you find the tornado person?"
Lucifer	"And ended the tornados, at least for the time being," Lucifer agreed, wandering towards the girl. "Hello, small... elfin... displaced... trouble... person?"
Jennifer & Duke	"Hello scruffy well-dressed devil person," Jennifer answered cheerfully. "That's so much easier to deal with when you've had the world's best margarita. Totally worth the cheat!" She held the glass up for Duke and he accepted it and sipped, still staring around the place. "You don't drink?" he asked. "Not supposed to with my meds, but your brother and I decided that this was worth the exception." That got Duke's attention off the crowd. ". . . What."
Lucifer	Lucifer's gaze darted from Jennifer to the bar (alcohol!) to Duke and back through the whole loop again. "Did you have a brother, originally?" he checked.
Duke & Wade	"What -- Yeah, I --" Duke stammered. And then a voice came from behind him. "Duke?" Duke turned slowly. "Wade." And was engulfed in a hug. His life just got way more complicated.
Lucifer	Lucifer blinked. He would have commented, or tried to rescue Duke, or something, but under the circumstances? He slid around the two hugging brothers to grab a bottle of scotch from behind the bar.
Octavia	What a time for Octavia to wind her way to them through the crowd. (She hadn't hiding in the bathroom until her emotions leveled out, post-Gloria. Of course not. It just -- looked like it, that's all.) She looked relieved to find them. "Took you long enough." She assumed the bartender hugging Duke was just...the bartender hugging Duke, honestly. She'd seen weirder happen with his staff at the diner.
Duke & Wade	Duke gaped soundlessly at her, idly patting Wade on the back. "You're alive," Wade said, astonished and relieved. "So cool that your brother owns a bar," Jennifer mused, sipping her drink. ". . . Yeah," Duke said, wits not at all about him again yet. "Super cool."
Lucifer	"It's Duke's bar," Lucifer felt obliged to state, reaching in the general direction of Octavia. Octavia and booze. He needed both in his hands right now. "And Duke's brother."
Octavia	Octavia shifted a little bit in Lucifer's direction, but she was eyeing the new guy with some open distrust, now. It had been a long time since she and Duke had last talked about his brothers, but she seemed to distinctly remember they were all assholes.
Duke & Wade	They were. The one hugging Duke now had the distinction of being the only blood relative Duke had that he could remotely stand. It wasn't a high bar. "Wade," he said again, as his brother pulled back, grinning at him. "The hell are you doing here?" "Taking care of my little brother's earthly goods," Wade said. "Come on, this calls for drinks all around!" The crowded bar broke into cheers. Duke followed numbly after as Wade started towards the bar.
Lucifer	"We should probably rescue him," Lucifer muttered to Octavia.
Octavia	"Yeah," Octavia said, her tone and expression somewhere between grim and concerned. Already pulling him along after Duke and Wade.
Duke & Wade	"Wade," Duke said again, one hand reaching out to blindly grope for Octavia's hand. "What are you doing here?" Wade picked up a bottle and popped the top. "You don't seem happy to see me."
Lucifer	Lucifer settled his hand on Duke's back. "Aren't you supposed to be-- elsewhere?" he added.
Octavia	Octavia said nothing, just eyed Wade. While taking Duke's hand, and giving it a squeeze.
Wade & Duke	Wade eyed them both, a faint crease between his brows. "Again, I thought you were dead," he said. "You didn't leave any instructions behind. Someone had to come take care of your boat and your bar." "And Wallstreet Wade was on the ball," Duke said dryly, leaning just slightly into Lucifer's hand. "Right, uh, Wade, these are my partners, Lucifer and Octavia. Luce, Tavi, Wade. One of my many brothers." "I'm the good one," Wade said. "Partners, huh?" There were many, many questions in his eyes.
Lucifer	"As in romantic, yes," Lucifer said. He wasn't about to leave that even remotely a question as he studied Wade right back. "So you just swept in, did you? The selfless, dutiful brother?"
Octavia	"As far as I know, Duke doesn't have good brothers," Octavia added, dry and flat. Since Lucifer had already had already handled the rest of what she would also have said.
Wade & Duke	"Duke!" Wade pressed his hand to his chest. "I'm hurt." Duke rolled his eyes. "Wade is . . . the brother I hate the least," he told Octavia. "He's only just kind of a douche instead of a full-on asshole." Wade snorted. "There's the old Duke charm." He slung his arm around Duke's shoulder, rocking them both a little as he took a long sip of his beer. "I'm Duke's successful brother, then. You can't argue with that, can you?" "No," Duke said. "No I cannot."
Lucifer	"Fan of substances, are we," Lucifer observed idly, and took a large swig of scotch straight from the bottle.
Octavia	Now, Octavia did not try and yank Duke out of Wade's chummy embrace. She really wanted to, though. But made herself just leave it at a muted glare.
Wade & Duke	"Don't tell me my baby brother hooked up with a couple of teetotalers," Wade said, and looked at Duke. "Has death changed you so much?" Duke grimaced and edged away a little. "You know Wade, now that I'm . . . not dead and all, don't you have things to get back to? In New York? Like, say. . . . Your wife?"
Lucifer	"Or at least cocaine," Lucifer said helpfully. What? He recognized Wall Street when he saw it. He'd also pointedly swig from that bottle of scotch.
Wade & Duke	Wade chuckled, but his expression hardened a bit as he looked thoughtfully at Lucifer. At Lucifer's suit, especially. "Hey, gotta have something to keep up with the international markets," he said. "And yeah, I've been splitting my time between here and New York for months now. But I don't need to leave until at least morning. You're back, man! Let's celebrate!" Duke forced a smile in return. "Yeah. Sure thing, man. Let's celebrate."
Lucifer	"You realize that if Duke's back, you can fuck off now?" Lucifer added helpfully. "Owner returned, yada yada."
Octavia	Keeping a firm hold on Duke's hand, Octavia glanced back for Jennifer, just to make sure she hadn't wandered off out of view when they'd left her behind. She was quick to divide strangers into ones she cared about and ones she didn't, yeah.
Wade & Duke	Wade shot Duke a look. "Your partners are rude," he observed. "I prefer 'aggressively protective'," Duke said. He finally managed to collect himself enough to head behind the bar to get himself a bottle. "I'm your brother." "Hence them being so protective." Duke shrugged. "It's not like our family has a good reputation."
Lucifer	"And every time he returns here or has anything to do with you lot, he comes back with his brain broken, so I'd rather just avoid the whole thing this time and see you off," Lucifer said. He waved helpfully towards the door.
Octavia	"Also my brother poisoned me, and one of Lucifer's tried to kill him," Octavia drawled, turning to them again, satisfied that Jennifer was still around, though wisely staying the hell away from this mess. "So you can save your arguments about siblings."
Wade & Duke	Wade's expression at that was mostly just deeply perplexed. He shot another look at Duke. Yeah. Wade had never been one to handle strange all that well. "Right," Duke said, unscrewing the bottle he'd grabbed and lifting it in a little toast. "Which is why we're going to have one drink, and then you can be on your way." Wade opened his mouth and Duke cut him off. "Nope, no use arguing." This came with a meaningful glance at his partners. "We don't need anyone digging their heels in. One drink. And done. Capiche?" "Fine with me," Wade said, shrugging diffidently.
Lucifer	"Excellent," Lucifer said, and chugged a healthy gulp from his own bottle down.
Octavia	Octavia said nothing. And didn't seem inclined to partake in the drinking, either.
Duke	"Great!" Duke said. He was going to end up with an ulcer just trying to juggle Haven and his partners, wasn't he.