meet the (grand)parents...

[theresalwayshope]

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)

Comments

[everyonetakes]

"I think it's mostly so that everyone knows who you are and knows you're super important. Just like... Newt, but rather than being Newt, you're Newt. You know, with capital letters and bold typeface and big ass sparkling diamonds. It makes you about eighty times more important than you were before." She says it all firmly, as if she's the last authority on the subject, but then he says he'll cure Alzheimer's for her and she melts into a big smile as she reaches for his hands.

"Yeah, I know you will," she says and she's seriously never loved anyone like this. Which was probably the whole point behind marrying him. He's the best person she knows and he's more suited to her than anyone else she's ever met and he's so good to her. Every time she thinks about him, something inside her chest feels like it's all twisted up and she knows it's never going to get untwisted again.

"You're a pretty goddamn amazing husband," she tells him. "I just decided. You're definitely the only one I know who can cure any diseases I might get and that definitely makes you the best. I think there's a set of rules all husbands get measured against and that one's right at the top. Very few of them ever reach that point, but you have already have. Not even two months after we got married, that's super impressive."

[sciencesaggressively]

"Everyone should already know who I am, I'm super badass and also a rock star." He follows the statement with a firm nod, as if that's the be all, end all of it, and honestly, it really should be. Newt's pretty sure that if there's an alterna-Newt still running around in his world, he'd probably been on every news channel and on the cover of every magazine and in all the history books by now. There's probably action figures of him, cool ones that have him in his leather jacket and come in sets with kaiju so kids can use him to save the world all over again and collectors can cover the value that is a toy Newt.

Okay, so maybe that's not the most realistic thing he's ever thought but there's probably a good chance that alterna-Newt has been on the news a lot. Not so much here, not when there's so many other extraordinary things going on for the local news to give a shit much about how much incredible stuff is happening within the walls of Darrow Amalgamated, but the crazy thing about is that he doesn't even care. He's got attention where he needs it--though that's not to say that he won't gladly take more--and that's right here, among his friends and his wife.

"You're not such a terrible wife yourself," he teases, linking his fingers through hers and leaning in to press a kiss to her cheek. "Is there a word that means 'better than the best' because whatever that word is, you're it. But that only makes sense because the best husband deserves the best wife, right?"

[everyonetakes]

"Totally makes sense that the two most clearly awesome people in this city found each other and are even more amazing together," she agrees, giving his hand a squeeze. And, okay, so many neither of them are super good with the whole modesty thing, but that works, too. Kate's not sure she could be with someone who didn't think he was the absolute best at everything, because she thinks that she is the absolute best at everything and anyone she spends her life with has to be able to put up with that. Which means he needs to have an ego of his own. Which she totally digs.

Men with healthy egos are by far her favourite.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure no one else could make me think even for a second that getting married was a good idea and here we are, married for a whole month already and it's still just as great as I thought it would be," she teases. She's making a joke out of it, but it's true. Newt really is the only person she'd want to be married to. For such a long time it had just seemed like such a terrible idea, something she'd never be cut out for, but with him, it all seems alright. Better than alright. It seems like the sort of thing she's meant to be doing with him.

Because he's the right guy for her. They fit in each others' lives in a way she'd been certain was total bullshit fairy tale stuff, but here they are. And she wouldn't trade him for anything.

[sciencesaggressively]

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."

[everyonetakes]

"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.

[sciencesaggressively]

He's pretty sure Allison would punch him in the head if she were to catch them making out in the middle of her party right now but to hell with it. This is his wife, they're still pretty much newlyweds, and if his wife wants to kiss him then goddamn it, she can kiss him. He threads his fingers through her hair, twirling one of the silky strands as he smiles into the kiss and rests his free hand on her hip. It's a damn good time of year, he thinks, and they'd made the perfect choice getting married at the start of the holiday season. The fact that it had been Halloween and their one-year-anniversay had been awesome enough but getting to say that this is their first Christmas together as a married couple--Newt pretty much considers that a gift in itself.

"Don't even talk to me about sampling all this dessert, holy shit," he answers once he's pulled away from her, letting Kate take his hand and tug him toward the table covered with food. Every last inch of the surface is taken up with cookies and cupcakes and candy canes, and Newt doesn't even really know where to begin because it's always like being in heaven when someone else does the cooking and baking. He's good at it, he does it for Kate as often as he can, but on the nights that he's home late from work or she's busy with studying, it's just junk food and take-out. Being treated to something like this is always one of Newt's favorite things about going to a party.

"Um, I thought it was about feeling sick so your wife has to carry your dumb ass home, maybe we're reading different marriage manuals." He's torn between picking up a cookie or a cupcake first until he eventually figures that nobody should have to make a decision like that and grabs one of both. It's just better that way, and he would challenge anyone to try to prove him wrong.