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!]]

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[more_magic]

Dutifully, he uncorks the vial, holding it under his nose. Just the first whiff has him closing his eyes, a smile breaking across his face. "God, that's wonderful," he agrees. "Exactly like wandering into the kitchen when Bernadette was baking, but...richer. More complex." There's a depth to the aroma that almost makes him think of the library at Il Bastone, too, the compounded smell of all those old books--but that could simply be nostalgia of a different kind.

Darlington nods along as Blue explains how to make use of the pods, all of it things he'd learned or at least read before. "I might save one to plant," he says. "Use the rest, and...see what happens."

[formicine]

She smiles at his unfettered grin, nodding in an unsaid right?; maybe she never had a housekeeper, or whatever exactly Bernadette's role was, but the scent experience takes them to similar enough places that she can relate.

"I like it," she says with a smile. There's never any promise to Darrow, no guarantee that anyone's going to be here for one year, much less three, but she has, at least. You can either live like there's no future here or pretend there's going to be one, and she likes that Darlington's not counting the days until he and Alex get back to New Haven. Even if vanilla might be a hell of a way to mark it. "A little ambitious to jump into vanilla cultivation, mind you," she deadpans, grinning, "but I mean." She gestures at Darlington with a little what should we expect exactly flourish.

"If this place has a sunroom, you know, a -- conservatory or something, you could start your Darrow collection." She hadn't really thought about whether or not the house might have a conservatory until the very moment she says it, when it seems obvious that a mansion of this size and, specifically, age, would. Blue finds herself feeling a little, absurdly, jealous of the totally hypothetical space to let a jungle of warm-weather plants flourish.

"Um. Do you want to see what I brought?" Blue ruffles her hair. "It's not much to follow this up with, but to be fair, I didn't know what he was planning until I picked it up," she adds with a grin.

[more_magic]

"Not sure if I should be flattered or insulted by that, Sargent," he says when she gestures at him, equally deadpan for a moment before he smiles. "And of course there's a sunroom." He gestures behind them, towards the hallway that leads past the staircase and further into the first floor. "You'll have to come by when it's actually daylight out."

To her question, he nods. "Please."

[formicine]

"Both, probably," she answers, frankly, and laughs at his of course. Well, it's not like she wasn't thinking it; he just said the quiet part out loud. "I will have to do that."

She lifts the big fabric wreath, wrapped in a silver-on-silver not-especially-denominational winter wrapping paper with a bevy of little angles taped down because it's a circle and circles don't wrap. "We're a little late for housewarming, but it's...something for the house. Or maybe inspired by the house. A little bit of both." She shuts up, letting him have at.

[more_magic]

"Too cruel," he says on a laugh, nodding when she accepts the invitation. The sunroom was still mostly empty, long and vast and stretching the length of the first floor, but no less impressive for all that. With the vanilla orchid--and maybe a few others, in time--to add a bit of greenery and life to the place, it could really turn into something better than it once had been.

Darlington reaches out to help her as she hefts the gift up, curious at both the size and shape of it, the careful way it's wrapped. "Never too late for a housewarming gift," he says, carefully starting to tear the wrapping paper to reveal the gift within. It's utterly charming, the fabric leaves instantly recognizable, and he looks back up at Blue with another bright, unguarded smile. "This is wonderful. Thank you."