theresalwayshope | meet the (grand)parents...

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meet the (grand)parents...

Allison felt a little like she was going insane.

She started out just planning to invite Aramis and Porthos over to meet Jason. Dinner and drinks, nothing big. Then she realized she didn't just feel obligated to invite Athos, she wanted to. So, if she did that, she obviously had to invite D'artagnan, and she really wanted to meet Constance...and she'd promised Grey a chance to help her bake a cake, so if she did something more than dinner, she could let him come over at some point...

The small family dinner became a small dinner party, and with a few more additions morphed into an impromptu potluck for the whole building...or anyone that wanted to show up. She told the family about it privately, asking Porthos and Aramis to make sure the others at least stopped by (with a subtle warning that Jason would be there), told everyone else she knew in the city, and for the rest of the building she posted a couple of handmade fliers: one in the elevator, and another in the laundry room announcing that, with either a main course or appetizer offering, an invitation to the holiday celebration taking place in apartment #39...dressy casual to formalwear welcome, bring your favorite Christmas CD as a bonus.

And, of course, she told Jason...and told him her family would be there.

By the night of the party, Allison was ready...she just felt a little like she was going insane.

She kept her outfit cute, but simple, and took care of dessert by baking some cupcakes, gingerbread cookies, and a two layer chocolate cake which she invited Grey over to help her bake. With a little careful scheduling, she also managed to contribute to the food on hand with her second ever attempt at beef bourguignon: rich, hearty, and sort of impressive under the right circumstances. By party time, she had her front door standing open, some Trans Siberian Orchestra carols playing on her stereo, and while she didn't yet have a tree, she'd gotten some cute plastic holly garland to hang around the apartment, and for fun had ringed her whole living room ceiling in multicolor Christmas lights for good measure.

The party was good to go. The place smelled good, the food came out okay with more to come...the evening was good to go.

And when Jason showed up, her family would show up...and they'd all meet each other...

While she waited for her guests, loved ones, and boyfriend to start arriving, Allison puttered around in her kitchen, swore to herself she was not hiding, and tried to pretend that she wasn't having visions of someone either drawing a sword or a knife by the end of the evening.

Tonight had to be perfect.

(HOLIDAY GATHERING POST! Treat it thusly. :P Front door's open, come and go as you please, anyone in the Bramford Building is welcome, and if you know Allison even remotely she told you about the party. Gather at will, and leave a call for Allison in your subject line if you want to play with her directly! Open eternally, will probably be linked near the end of the month. :D)

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"Hey. I run a legitimate business, you know. That doesn't involve the use of explosives." Alex grins. "I did have to defuse a tiny IED a couple of weeks ago, but it was more ridiculous than anything. I could've done it my sleep." She is pretty sure somebody watched too much Lethal Weapon, to tell the truth, but the point is, she hadn't needed Jason's help on it.

"I try to keep my after-hours relatively explosion free. Some of us prefer subtlety. Most of the time. A Dagger in the right place at the right time is more my speed."

"We've met." Alex says it simply, although inside there's a jumble of emotions to go with the memory.

"Not long after I ran into you that first time." It should be enough to tip Kenzi off, if she's not completely obtuse - and she shouldn't be, if she's friends with Allison and seeing that Bruce guy - to the circumstances of that meeting and why it's not something she's likely to forget.

"I can't say I know him at all, but he seems all right."

"They work for a lab. I think Allison does like, administrative stuff, but my husband is a scientist there and he's pretty much a world saving genius." Which Newt would be happy to agree with, she knows that. He'd also probably stare at Effie for a solid five minutes or so, which Kate just takes as another indication that they're totally meant for each other.

"I'm pretty sure it's all top secret," she adds, waving her hand. "But as long as he's doing the whole saving the world thing instead of destroying it, we're good."

"I hope so," she says, before pausing to lean and quickly kiss his cheek, hoping that he won't mind her forwardness.

"I think you underestimate some teenagers," she points out, knowing that she wasn't much older when she started training for the life she'd had before this one. "I did. She's a bit in love with our daughter. I think we should start a register of everyone who wants to babysit."

"I don't know," she says seriously. "It's a big responsibility. I mean, I can't waste this opportunity, can I?"

Juno considers, before clapping her hands when she comes up with something. "I'm trapped by aliens? Help?"

"That's the one. Godzilla was the original kaiju! Okay, maybe not the original but pretty much like, the most well known. He was like, this monster resurrected by all these nuclear tests in the Pacific, y'know? And he's all like hey, fuck you, I'm Godzilla, and takes out Japan. Except it was pretty much a commentary on the nuclear testing, y'know, basically it was saying that if it continued, there'd be more and more Godzillas coming back to wreak havoc in the future. So not just a monster movie."

He has a lot to say about Godzilla, but he sticks his candy cane back in his mouth and smiles around it at Kenya instead before pulling it back out with a pop. "Have you tried spiked eggnog yet? Ooh, or gingerbread cookies? You have to try the gingerbread cookies, I love those things. And shit, the seasonal holiday drinks from the coffee shops, there's so much you have to experience!"

He startles back, just as she touches him and the creature's eyes are wide. He touches his cheek.

Why did she do that?! The skin feels no different, yet it tingles and he takes a step back.

“Only if they promise to take her in the middle of the night,” John decides. “ ‘cause if I have to hear one more person say that she sleeps like an angel, I might punch the wall.” For all the griping, he sounds cheerful enough, and the look he sends Evie is as fond as any look a father has sent her daughter.

"She's sneaky."

Alec began to feel a little uncomfortable with being stared at, but he relaxed again at the man's "bloody hell". Most people swore so casually here, even people Alec didn't expect from the look of them, and it amused him. He didn't like everything about this place, but he did like that most people seemed less caught up in silly rules.

"I have got an older brother, Fred Scudder, perhaps you know him?" Alec said, not realising how incredibly unlikely that would be. He wasn't stupid, but this situation went against all he knew of how the world worked, and he was still getting used to it.

"Definitely. For the girls."

Newt can't lie, he thinks he'd have just as much of a good time as Kate and Allison would just because most of his closest friends aren't really the let's-go-bowling type. Chuck, Owen, Sawyer, Derek... Yeah, Newt can't really picture any of them lighting up with unbridled joy just from throwing up a ball down a lane. He doesn't know if Jason's that kind of guy either, but he thinks maybe they could bro it up over a few beers and it would be a good enough distraction from how painful losing will be.

"So if you don't bowl or whatever, what do you do for, y'know, fun? Because you know what's better than bowling is the skin louse that rained down on my wedding, they came from my world, and I saved one. His name is Seymour and dude, he is awesome, you should totally have Allison buzz you up to my floor in the lab to visit him sometime."

"Oh, dude, you will so not regret asking." Newt pulls his phone from his back pocket, flipping through the photos in his gallery until he comes across the one of the skin lice he'd collected with Allison's help. "He's fresh off the back of a kaiju. Or at least, he has to be because these little guys die pretty quickly if you don't soak them in ammonia. Haven't really found much practical use for him yet, not like how a kaiju's good for fertilization and-- well, their bone powder's supposedly a pretty good supplement if you can't get it up, but Seymour's not aggressive. Oh, right, his name is Seymour."

Maybe he shouldn't have named it. Maybe that's kind of weird, but Newt doesn't have anything else from back home and even though this is isn't exactly an ideal reminder of life at the 'Dome, he's grown pretty fond of the parasite.

"You need to drop by to see him sometime, help me run some more tests. Nobody else in the lab seems interested."

Newt nods, gaze shifting to the tree Allison had set up for the party, and he smiles softly. "Yeah, it's nice. I've been here a little over a year, y'know, so I got the whole holiday spirit thing last year, too, but..." He shrugs, taking another bite of his cookie and using the back of his hand to wipe the crumbs from his lips. "Before I got my ass dropped here, we didn't really make much room for Christmas or anything like that. Kind of hard when the world could end any day and all, I guess."

He's always been a fan of holidays, with Halloween being his favorite--even moreso now that it's not only the anniversary of his first date with Kate but also the anniversary of their wedding--and Christmas a close second, so he'd made an effort every year without much return fanfare. Hermann had indulged him most of the time, even Pentecost had kept quiet about the way Newt would decorate the lab, but for the most part, the concentration had always been on what devastation the next day might bring.

"It's nice," he admits with a shrug, "being somewhere that actually allows for celebration. Even if it means none of us can leave."

He remembers Christmas Eve of last year, being crazy nervous about spending his first holiday season with a girlfriend and super paranoid that she'd hate the gift he'd gotten for her--the key, the stars he'd named after them, the telescope he'd set up on the roof that's still up there for community sharing even though they know what it's really meant for--but there's nothing to be nervous or paranoid about now. That doesn't make spending Christmas with Kate any less exciting, it doesn't make their lives boring because he doesn't think their lives could ever be boring; it just makes him happier.

This is what they get to do now, he realizes. They get to spend this Christmas and every Christmas after it together, married and in love and without wishing things could be different because they have each other. Christmastime at the 'Dome had always been so goddamn depressing, if only because most people there had never really had it in them to celebrate. Newt can understand why, a lot of people in the Resistance had joined because they'd lost their family and loved ones to the destruction the kaiju had caused, but he hadn't. He'd wanted more than to be forced to watch all the grim faces pass him by in the hallways, to be met with something other than an eye roll when he'd wished someone a merry Christmas. Hermann had tried to give that to him--though he'd put more into it some years than others--and Pentecost had always met him with a firm pat on the back, most often accompanied by nothing more than silence; but Newt had missed what Christmas had been like when he'd been a kid, when he'd still been living in Berlin with his family.

It's different now. He wishes he could see his parents again, just once, even if it's just for a second so he knows how they're doing. Newt wonders if there's a version of him who can go home for the holidays now that the kaiju are gone and the world can rebuild; or maybe alternate him is just as busy making sure it never happens again. Either way, it doesn't really matter now because he's here. He has friends, chosen family, and he has Kate.

"It is great," he says, his tone soft and sincere, and he gives her an earnest smile because they can joke, they can tease, but in the end, he really fucking loves this woman. She's the reason he'd stopped looking for a way out of here, after all, the only person in Darrow who could have convinced him--even if she hadn't really been trying--that being here isn't so bad. "It's great, and I love being married to you, and I just really love you. Don't let it go to your head, though."

It is nice. Even though I don't know the holiday, it seems to have put something into the whole city. Even in the face of darker realities, there seems to be a greater softness in people, as if buoyed on by hope. Whether or not it's to do with religion or just the soft, small lights against white snow, I can't say for certain.

"I think I like holidays. This...seems a lot more generous than Choosing Day. Giving gifts and being kind...I like the sound of all of that," I say.

This place can be cruel. Even Allison, the host of the party, knows that since she's seen the worst of me here. Even so, a place with Christmas can't be too terrible.

"Porthos and Aramis," Oliver confirms with a nod, smiling at Felicity's delight. He still isn't used to the strange variety in people that populate the city, but he understands her excitement over it.

He'd met Robin Hood, after all.

"Porthos is a..." How to describe a relationship that consisted of beating each other up and sometimes having a meal afterwards? "Friend. And neighbor."

"Too late, it's already gone to my head," she says, grinning at him before she leans forward and kisses him, long and slow. So they're in public, whatever, it's not like they've ever shied away from public displays of affection before and she sees no reason to start now. Besides, if anyone comments on it, she'll just say she thought she say mistletoe or something, and she's pretty sure that if you see mistletoe, you're supposed to kiss. It's a rule and one they're definitely not allowed to break just for the sake of propriety. Not that either of them have ever really been concerned with being proper. Right from the start, it's one of the things she's always loved about Newt. There's no pretense with him, no pretending to be someone he's not, and after a lifetime of never knowing who she might come home to, she needs someone like that.

"I just really love you, too," she says when they part and she smiles again, her cheeks a little red. Not from embarrassment, not at all, but it's warm in the apartment and kissing Newt always gives her a little rush, which she figures is going to be the sort of thing that happens for the rest of her life. If she's lucky enough to stay here with him, if she's lucky enough to never lose him to whatever it is that takes people away, she'll get to feel that every day for the rest of her life. She knows it's a long shot, trusting this place to let them stay together, but she doesn't see any reason to let herself worry about that. If it comes, it comes, but for as long as she can, she's just going to be happy here with him.

"Come on, I need to sample like, every last Christmas dessert that's being offered here," she says, slipping her hand into his and leading him toward the table. "I'm pretty sure that's still what Christmas is about even after you get married, right? Eating as many cookies as possible until you feel kind of sick and your husband has to carry your dumb ass home?" It wouldn't be the first time, although when he'd had to sort of carry her home that one time they hadn't been married yet and her ankle had been the one to blame, not too many cookies.

"It is!" Allison replied, all but glowing with pride as she focused on Mary, then let her attention wander back to the adorable little girl in her arms. "Yeah, it was going to be a family dinner, but I wanted to invite some friends, too...I kinda blacked out, and when I came to I had turned it into a potluck. I'm pretty sure we've crossed paths a couple times, at least...one of my best friends, her boyfriend is your neighbor. Dr. Banner? Silver fox, curly hair--well, it used to be 'till he cut it--kinda quiet?"

"Oooh, a neighbor? I should introduce myself," Felicity says, looking from one man to the other as if she can judge by looks alone which is which. They're both really handsome, but in different ways. "On second thought, maybe you should introduce me. I think there's a lower chance of me making a fool of myself that way. Or at least you can cut me off if I start to babble...like I'm doing right now."

"We can put the Santa hat on top of his jar, 'cause I am never touching that nasty thing again." Allison assured him, making a face through her smile before leaning up to kiss his cheek. "But fine, I'll forgive my adopted sister-in-law for having a fit of sensibility...if you promise to have a brandy and come try some of my beef bourguignon. The beef is awesome, and I've had, like, eleventy people bring brandy to the party."

Steering him towards the food table, she rested her head on his shoulder for a moment, allowing herself a split second of silence to draw a little extra energy and comfort from Newt's presence. With work and the wedding and the craziness of her newly present relatives, they didn't hang out as much as she'd like, and sometimes she missed him a little.

She gave herself just that second to sort of cuddle up to him before she felt renewed, lifting her head to grin up at him.

"I also want to make sure you have your strength so I can introduce you to my uncles later." she pointed out. "Have you met them yet? Athos, Aramis, Porthos? Yes, those Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. Aramis? Totally my ancestor...I told you that, right?"

"Eighteen ninety-one, and I came here from nineteen thirteen."

Alec's tone turned teasing before continuing, "Let me guess, you were a real proper and fancy gentleman back in your day?"

He teased because he knew he could get away with it, because he wanted to make Biffy laugh, and also because he wanted to make sure Biffy knew he wasn't going to let himself be treated as an inferior by him.

Edited 2014-12-22 14:17 (UTC)

Allison pretended to look scandalized, but it lasted all of five seconds before she melted into a smile. "Please, my friend, Derek, has me out of the house most mornings before the sun."

"As for being armed," she continued as they reached the food table, reaching for a plate to serve Alex some stew, "I have no problem with anything concealed. It's when being armed turns into a pissing contest that I get antsy." Glancing up at Alex, she shrugged with a smile. "And even if I had a problem with it, you'd be exempt anyway. Any friend of Jason's is."

And while she would have loved to chalk it up to plain old sappiness...it was really a simpler matter of trusting anyone that Jason did with a deadly weapon, because in that area he had damn good judgment.

"Well, you can't make friends if you don't get to know people, right?" she replied cheerfully. And, of course, after the fact she realized it was a practical thing to know for the Alpha, too: being familiar with her neighbors would let her know if someone was skulking around the building who didn't belong. With Kenzi being such a frequent visitor, and when she thought of the Watsons with that sweet baby girl...

Having a party for the whole building was definitely a good idea.

Accepting the brandy, Allison smiled, beckoning Biffy to follow her to lay it out with the rest of the liquor, giving him a quick once over as she did. The guy definitely had some flair in his fashion, a little on the outdated side but still sharp enough to make it work in a modern setting.

"C'mon, let me thank you for the brandy with food." she laughed, gesturing to the food table. "The beef bourguignon is mine, you should try it! The brown bread there was made by Tris...one of my dearest friends, she lives under my uncles...and there's mashed potatoes, too. A really nice guy named Alec brought those, I think he's over there somewhere talking to Dr. Watson. Short, blonde hair, kinda stiff looking...military, y'know?"

"That threat works much better on my roommate." It's mostly talk; Billy might think she's nuts for as hard as she works to stay in shape, but he's good-natured about it.

"And don't worry. Pissing contests aren't my style. I don't need to compensate for anything." Alex winks. What kind of girl-talk would it be without gross generalizations about guys?

"Whatever, Seymour wouldn't want your mitts all over him anyway," Newt counters, lifting his chin up in defense. "He's a good little skin louse, okay, all he wants to do is live his life in his ammonia. I don't even want to experiment on him anymore, he parasited his way into my heart and now I can't let him go. I will happily have brandy and beef bourguignon, by the way, give me all of it and give it to me now."

Newt doesn't even know what he's saying anymore but he figures that's okay because it's Allison and at this point, he's pretty sure Allison just barely bothers to indulge his rambling. To be fair, she definitely indulges him more than ninety-nine percent of the people in the 'Dome ever did, and this is why he's so fond of her. He reaches up with one hand to pat her head when she rests it on his shoulder, careful not to muss up her pretty hair even though it's so tempting.

"I need strength to meet them?" he asks with a laugh, reaching for one of the cookies laid out on the table. He is adamantly against the belief that eating sweets before entrees ruins his appetite; if anything, it only ever enhances it. "Guess I better put on my big boy pants, huh? And no, you conveniently left that whole thing out so thanks, Little Sister of the Year award, Christ."

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meet the (grand)parents...

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