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

[thebloodyglue]

"It's amazing how quickly that happens too," he says, nodding, his eyes finding Kavinsky where he's talking to Alex on the other side of the room. "I don't think either of us saw a husband coming."

[more_magic]

Darlington nods, because whatever his opinion of Kavinsky, he can understand the mysterious alchemy of finding yourself with the last person you might expect. "But happen it does," he says. "How long have the two of you been married, again?"

[thebloodyglue]

"Three and a half years. It'll be four in the spring," he says. It seems an unreasonable amount of time to be doing anything. It doesn't feel like any time at all.

[more_magic]

"Wow," Darlington says, and means it. Knowing a little of the vagaries and whims of Darrow, how it takes people as quickly and mysteriously as it brings them, nearly four years seems more miraculous here than it would elsewhere. "Congratulations."

[thebloodyglue]

"Yeah," he says, nodding. "We've done...okay. Better than I think either of us expected. We were with someone else for a while and, after we lost him, it took us both a while to relax, I think."

[more_magic]

"I can see how that'd be the case."

It's a piece of information Darlington doesn't think he knows, isn't even sure if Alex is aware of either. And maybe, just for a moment, it sparks a little more sympathy within him for Kavinsky. "I'm glad you still have each other," he says, and means it. "Truly."

[thebloodyglue]

"We do okay for ourselves," says Newt, with a little smile. "Also, now that I've seen a bit more of this place, I'd be more than happy to do some sketches for the garden. If that's still something you're thinking about."

[more_magic]

"It is," he says, pleased Newt remembered that long-ago conversation. It hadn't seemed likely to happen then, more due to the cost than anything else, but with Alex's steady set of regulars and the possibility of something more full-time for him at the museum once he graduates--along with what they've already been able to save, even with the renovations and repairs--hiring Newt to fix up the gardens isn't an impossible idea.

"Though, fair warning, you'll have plenty out there to work with. Maybe too much."