though it's been said many times, many ways

[more_magic]

It’s strange to think of where he was a year ago, exactly. Waking up in Alex’s bed, hung over from the shame of the night before and the lingering effects of whatever Manuscript had given him, preparing for his first full day in a city outside of the world he knew and realizing in the process that he’d lost nearly two months in the space of a breath. There were more shocks to come, more alterations in what he thought to be true, but very little had managed to surpass the disorientation of that initial beginning to his tenure in Darrow.

Back then, Darlington had wondered what they might have done at home, if Alex would’ve been on a plane to California at the start of break--or if he might have managed to convince her to stay, to spend Christmas at Black Elm with him. What they got instead was better, that makeshift celebration with hastily-bought gifts and the smell of a half-remembered recipe wafting from Alex’s kitchen; the start of something new, even if neither of them had known the depths of that newness at the time. And now, a year on, through hard work and some kind of miracle, he gets what he’d wondered about after all.

Christmas Day will be just for them, presents and breakfast and relaxing by the fire, but tonight is a chance to celebrate. They decorate the main floor of Black Elm, filling the rooms they’ve already managed to furnish with light and warmth, the tree they’d bought earlier in the month standing by one of the large picture windows in the great room. Alex cooks all of Estrea Stern’s recipes she can think of, adds a few of Bernadette’s that Darlington remembers from his childhood. There’s music low on the stereo, a fire lit in the vast fireplace, the new table and chairs they’d bought for the formal dining room arranged just so beneath the chandelier at the center of the room. Even Kirby gets into the spirit in a new, festive collar, bright red against his black fur.

Above all, they’ve invited the people that matter, the few who have come to mean something--to one or both of them--in the year that’s just passed. It’s the first real party Black Elm has seen in many years, not since Darlington’s grandfather was alive. It feels, once again, like starting something new.

[[tag in, tag around, enjoy the party!]]

Comments

[scarequotesreggie]

"Ah, people get so hung up on nudity, there are way worse things out there worth clutching pearls over," Reggie scoffs, giving a dismissive wave of his hand (although given the gun violence issue back home, it's a sentiment that comes from a more genuine place than he'll let on).

"Granted, a-cussin' probably isn't one of them, so you're right, fuck 'em."

[takecourage]

"Yeah, you're going to fit in fine," says Alex, shaking her head. "I've got to go do kitchen stuff. Want to come hang out for a while? I can maybe even find you something useful to do."

[scarequotesreggie]

"Sure," Reggie brightly agrees. "My girlfriend ran a catering business back home, so I am well acquainted with repetitive kitchen gruntwork, just point me in the right direction, wind me up, and let me go."

[takecourage]

"Awesome. You're already broken in." She winks at him and then turns and walks towards the kitchen, trusting him to follow. The kitchen is warm and busy, the stove laden and the oven full. Alex goes to the stove, adjusting some pans.

"Can you make a salad?" She says. "Anything in the fridge is fair game."

[scarequotesreggie]

The hominess of the kitchen, so full of life and warmth, has Reggie suddenly missing home that much more. It's not really a bad feeling, though. He's glad to be right where he is, too.

"On it," he nods, dramatically cracking his knuckles before getting to work. "We worrying about vegan options here?"

[takecourage]

"Don't think anyone who's coming is veggie, let alone vegan," she says. "But if you can make something that tastes good and is also vegan, I'd be into it?"

[scarequotesreggie]

"I'll see what I can do," he says, nosing around the fridge. Not being any manner of professional chef, he's not about to back himself into a corner, but it could be a cool flex. Jughead would be so appalled.

"Gonna have to start taking these things into consideration if you ever want to start having parties big enough to really fill this place."

[takecourage]

"I don't think we know enough people between us to fill this place," she says, rolling her eyes. "He took me to this society party once. At the Manuscript tomb? It was wild."

[scarequotesreggie]

"Ooooh, exclusive," Reggie says, popping his head out from behind the refrigerator door just to wag his eyebrows. A part of him will always miss aspiring to that sort of elitism, Ivy Leagues and secret societies, but he thinks he ended up picking the better path for himself in the end.

Not that he's even on it anymore.

"Can't believe that sort of thing isn't hashtag goals for your first intimate Christmas gathering."

[takecourage]

"We were...working," says Alex, still not sure about how much she ought to tell someone with no idea of how magic works about Lethe. "And Darlington got roofied. Fun was had by all."

[scarequotesreggie]

"Oh, it sounds it," he says with a slow, wry nod, since he left his big cartoon 'YIKES' sign at home. If she can speak of it so lightly, it couldn't have been too miserable a time, though, so Reggie doesn't get overly concerned.

"Working as in..." he slips his suit jacket off of one shoulder dramatically in a mime for 'stripping', "...or what? What did you even do beyond all that fancy schoolin'?"

[takecourage]

Both of Alex's dark eyebrows raise.

"Darlington? Really?" She snorts. "We were...monitoring the party, I guess. Making sure things didn't go too off the rails."

[scarequotesreggie]

"I don't know, maybe he was your agent or something," Reggie laughs. "I don't know how you two met! So you were what, weird professional narcs or something?"

That doesn't feel quite right, but hey, the worlds outside of Darrow are as far away as it gets (or at least that's how it feels to him sometimes).

[takecourage]

She sighs. What harm can it do to tell him, right?

"I got tapped for a secret society. Lethe House. We...monitored the other societies. Made sure that the magic that they were all doing didn't get out of hand. But I was an art major."

[scarequotesreggie]

"The... magic that they were all doing," Reggie echoes, blankly. He knows better than to automatically question things like that when he hears them now, but usually it can be anticipated a little bit. "Was that a... big problem, then?"

Art major, though, wow.

[takecourage]

"All of the societies practise a different kind of ritual magic," she says. "And, yeah, it can get out of hand."

[scarequotesreggie]

Yeah, Reggie supposes that it would.

"You know what? I was gonna say that I'm pretty sure none of that was true where I come from, but then I remembered that I went to high school with a witch, so honestly, who the hell knows?"

[takecourage]

"I didn't think it was true in my world until I saw it for myself," she says, with a shrug. "Then again, I've seen a lot of shit you wouldn't believe. So..."

[scarequotesreggie]

"I think I've seen more shit than I usually remember seeing," Reggie admits, frowning slightly. It's not something he thinks about much. "Is that weird? It feels weird." But only sometimes, and certainly less so in comparison to some of the stuff Darrow has thrown at him.

[takecourage]

"Is what weird?" asks Alex, looking up at him. She'd been momentarily distracted, by the stove and the steam, by how fucking domestic she feels in that moment.

[scarequotesreggie]

"I don't know," Reggie says, waving things off, already wondering why he said anything at all. It's not something that generally bothers him, it's just one of those things that doesn't seem weird until he tries to figure out why it seems weird. "I just feel like there's stuff out there that I know that I don't actually know... you know?"

[takecourage]

"I...have no idea," says Alex, shaking her head again. She wipes her forehead with the back of one hand, tucking a sweaty strand of hair behind her ear. "Like...you know I didn't finish high school, right? This is going way over my head."

[scarequotesreggie]

"Mine too, and I don't get to use the dropout excuse," Reggie says, laughing dismissively. "I don't even know what I'm trying to say, not really. I think maybe I've been a little too in my own head for the last few months?"

[takecourage]

"Maybe working at the club will get you out of it?" she says, lifting a pot off the stove; it's heavy, so it takes both hands. "And you're always welcome here, you know. If you ever just need to get out of the house."

[scarequotesreggie]

"Thanks, that, uh," Reggie starts, distracting himself by going to town on some spinach lest he get too sincere. "That means a lot. And I'm really hoping it does. The job, I mean. I could use the kickstart."