youfeelluckypunk | [turkey day, nov 21]

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[turkey day, nov 21]

They've graciously been invited to Derek's Thanksgiving celebration on the actual day itself, but Reid had gotten to thinking after Luke had told him of the invitation that it would be nice to throw a small get-together of their own. Halloween at the bookstore had been a success, after all, and in spite of the fact that they'd been sent to a hellish version of Darrow for the next ten days, Reid had really enjoyed planning and decorating for the holiday with his boyfriend. In a way, it also serves as a bit of a housewarming, even if nobody else needs to know that. They've been officially living together for a week now, though the only real difference is that he's handed over his keys to the Dimera apartment back to the landlord.

Still, being able to call this apartment home, knowing that he gets to spend every night with the man he loves, it means something special to him, and he wants to share that sense of home with the rest of the people he cares about.

So he sends out texts to Alec and Magnus, Peter and Jason and Hild, telling them all to save the date for the twenty-first so they can have an early Thanksgiving celebration. Others are welcome, of course, and Reid suspects they'll have more than enough food because he'd made arrangements for one restaurant in particular (one that he visits often and had already been promoting take-out for Thanksgiving Day) to set him up with a turkey dinner early. There are all the expected fixings, though he'd ordered four turkeys because Luke still needs to eat more to make up for all the weight he'd lost in the alternate version of Darrow, plus a couple pumpkin pies and various other desserts strewn out across the table. The wine Peter had given to him on Halloween is out, available for consumption to those who want it, but Reid will be sticking to water tonight.

If anyone asks, he's been slaving away in the kitchen all day long, brewing coffee after coffee as he and Luke make sure everything looks nice and neat for their first Thanksgiving dinner together. The food is set out over the counter in the kitchen, china and utensils and glassware placed at the very end so people can take what they want and find a place to eat in the living room, where they've placed extra chairs, and it isn't until they hear the first knock at the door that Reid finally decides he's satisfied with the way everything looks.

Every single person who will be here tonight has been through so much, seen more than one person ever should, but tonight, Reid is just grateful that they're all still here.

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There's this thing Noah can do - since he exists anywhere at all times because time is a circle - where he can find a person just by feeling for them, rather than checking places they might be. It's how he found and saved Ronan over a year ago, lying in a pool of his own blood. It's how he finds Hild tonight.

It's why he ends up in the middle of an unfamiliar living room.

"Princess Hild-- um." He looks around. There are a lot of people, and this is not a place he's ever been before. At least most of the faces are familiar so this isn't too mortifying. Even if one of them is a guy who tried to attack him. "Sorry!"

[ooc note i always have to write with this pup, augh: at this point noah has been turned more human, so for whoever knows him, he looks very real/more solid, he's wearing regular clothes (not his aglionby uniform). hild is probably the only one who knows, though, because it's only been a few days and he's been holed up.]

Hild shot up from her seat, her hand flying to the seax at her hip, her eyes wide in surprise at Noah's sudden appearance. But her expression quickly softened to open fondness at the sight of him and her hand drifted away from the weapon and back to her wine.

It had been nearly two weeks since she had escaped from that nightmare place, but still her first instinct remained to fight, her words did not come, and her nerves were forever on edge. But time was beginning to ease this. Events like this reminded her that she had nothing to fear. And the sight of Noah so solid, dressed differently, nearly a full man warmed her in a way that the peace of this city could not.

She stepped nearer to him with a small smile. She pressed a hand lightly to his cheek to reassure him that he had not done any wrong, and raised her brows in question as to his arrival.

Noah looked sheepishly at Hild, and leaned in to greet her with a kiss on the cheek. It was something he liked to do now, after that other Darrow, after Dorian and Adam helped him. It was a reminder that he cared, just in case.

"Sorry," he said quietly, covering her hand with his warm one. "I didn't mean to startle you at your party, Princess. I can come back later."

He was glad to see her with people, as she, like Krem and some of the others, seemed to be having a hard time integrating themselves back into life as it had been before the other Darrow. Noah was doing his best not to let himself sink too deeply into it.

She returned the kiss automatically, lips pressing quickly against Noah's cheek. It was not a custom she was familiar with from home, but she found that she liked it, especially in these days.

Hild shook her head with the smallest smile tucked into the corner of her mouth. He had startled her, yes, but there was no harm done. It was her problem, her own broken thing to fix. Noah had his own, too.

With her free hand, she found his. Linking their fingers, she gently tugged, inclining her head toward the party, the open seats, the food. He would be welcome to stay.

Noah smiled at the kiss and at their joined hands. It was weird, but since he came back it was like he couldn't get close enough to people. He found himself at times having to physically stop himself from compulsively popping all over the city to check on his friends. So he let Hild lead him, though this looked like an intimate party and he didn't want to intrude.

"Are you sure?" he whispered. "Is it someone's birthday?"

Hild hadn't been talking, so he tried to keep his questions ones that could be answered with a yes or no.

With a mild frown, Hild shook her head. It was, she realized, an early celebration and small in number. She had not yet attended any birthday parties in Darrow, so she could not know what similarities this held to those. But she pointed to the remaining turkey, not yet picked bare, the cranberries, the stuffing, foods she had not seen prepared on a daily basis in Darrow and that she assumed were partial to the holiday.

She rubbed her belly too, with a rueful grin. There had been even more food before the party began.

Noah looked around at the spread, and realized right away. "Oh," he said with a happy smile, "early Thanksgiving?" He didn't think it was actually the day of, yet. He'd been keeping track of the passage of time on his kitten calendar.

He giggled when she rubbed her stomach, and he playfully poked at it. "So you totally pigged out? So unprincess-like," he teased, and softly tickled her side.

She nodded at his guess. It seemed a little strange to celebrate a holiday before the day, when it wasn't part of the festivities to drag the celebration out several days. But Hild could not deny the appeal of a feast, of a gathering of her friends in one place, after all that had happened. Maybe this was not the traditional way of Thanksgivings but she did not care.

Hild pouted, playfully, and pulled away from Noah's poke and tickle, but still kept a hold of his hand. She shook her head that no, it was very princess-like in her day, but wasn't sure how to say as much.

"It's okay, I won't tell anyone," Noah whispered, still teasing. They both knew there was no one here who would care about princess-like behavior.

He liked that she kept hold of his hand, and he didn't let go, either. He still had an instinctive worry that he was too cold for someone to touch him more than a little while, he was still getting used to the fact that his skin could be warm, now.

"So it's really okay if I stay? I didn't know you were friends with Peter and Jason," he said, glancing around.

It was a small joke, but it made her feel warm inside, to have silly, childish secrets and to share them. She loved Noah for that, for his near constant sweetness. There was strength in it.

She rolled her eyes and tugged him closer to the table of food, insisting that he stay. She frowned at the mention of Jason and Peter, though she could figure out very easily who they were, and shook her head, pointing instead at Luke and Spencer. Them she knew, and they knew Peter and Jason.

Noah followed her look and nodded. "Oh, okay. I don't know the one guy, but I did meet the other one once. Luke, right?" He'd wondered what happened to that guy and his magic sword. "I met that one, too," he whispered, pointing out Alec. "He was trying to attack me. I think he'd probably just gotten here."

He thought he ought to ask Luke and the other guy if he could stay, but Hild seemed insistent that it was fine, so he made himself up a plate of food. It all looked and smelled so good. "Can I sit with you?"

Reid almost drops the plate of pie in his hands, and he's awfully glad he doesn't because it gives him something to do now with his hands. Bringing a piece to his mouth, he stares at the young man who's materialized in the living room with a quizzical expression, unsure of what to do or say. Nobody else seems to have noticed, and Luke is in the kitchen so it's not as if he can look to his boyfriend to see whether he should feel threatened; but in spite of the fact that his pulse has picked up a bit, Reid suspects just by looking at him that the man is fairly harmless.

The fact that he's called out for Hild by name helps his case, too.

"It's okay," Reid says, taking a step closer. "You're... looking for Hild?"

This is someone Noah doesn't recognize, and he smiles sheepishly because he can tell he totally just intruded on a private event. He really does have to start learning to use doors.

"Hi," he says, rubbing his cheek a moment and then, realizing he's doing it, drops his hand. "I made cupcakes and I was going to invite her over for one, but I didn't realize she was at..." He glances around, and gives a guess. "Someone's birthday party?"

If the stranger is basing his guess that this is a birthday party solely on the fact that it's a small get-together, Reid supposes he understands; but there's the distinct smell of turkey in the air, and the spread of stuffing and sides and pie on the other guests' plates is very visible from where they're standing so he just offers an small, amused smile and slight shake of his head.

"Just an early Thanksgiving celebration," he says. "We don't have cupcakes, but we do have pie. If you're a friend of Hild's, you're welcome to stay for the food, we've got plenty left to go around." Luke will eat whatever's leftover, likely by the end of tomorrow, but they're not actively planning on saving the food for themselves.

"I'm Spencer, by the way, this is my apartment. Well..." He scans the room for his boyfriend then briefly points Luke out before. "Mine and his. Can I get you a slice of pie?"

"Oh, right, Thanksgiving. It is that month, isn't it? I just bought a calendar the other day," Noah says with something like a proud smile. Now that he sleeps and sticks around for whole days, he figures he should keep track of them like a real person.

"That's so nice of you! Thanks, sure," he says enthusiastically. He hasn't had pie in freaking forever. Or a Thanksgiving! "Oh, I know him. Luke, right? Did he ever find a place for his magic sword? I'm Noah." He offers his hand to shake, still smiling.

His new guest, Noah, whose name is familiar now that he's mentioned Luke, is a little strange.

That's fine by Reid, especially considering he's dating a werewolf, but the comment about the calendar makes him narrow his eyes, even if he doesn't say anything about it. The fact that Noah is a friend of Hild's doesn't make Reid feel comfortable enough to prod further, though he supposes it's rather obvious the lack of awareness about the month and day has everything to do with the fact that Noah had materialized in the middle of the apartment.

Either way, he's not sure he wants to spend the day asking someone he's just met all sorts of nosy questions in his own home, so Reid just smiles, foregoing the handshake in favor of gesturing for Noah to follow him into the kitchen.

"It's in a safe place," he says vaguely, glancing around to make sure Alec isn't within earshot, if only because he suspects it would cause a fuss. "Luke did mention you, though, I was glad to know someone was there to help him. Thank you for that. Big slice or little slice?"

He'd spent most of that night patching up his already healing boyfriend's back, and it's not something he particularly wants to relive at the moment.

Noah looks down at his hand a moment, wondering if it's got something on it. He doesn't dwell, though, and follows Spencer into the kitchen.

It's good to hear the sword is safely stashed, since Luke had been so worried about where to take it and how to get it there. He's still not actually sure what was up with the sword in the first place, but he's okay not knowing.

"Of course, I like helping people," Noah says. It took getting murdered for Noah to realize how precious life is, and he likes to keep as many people from being hurt, or worse, as possible. "Um. Big? But not too big because I don't want to be rude. It's just...I haven't been able to eat for the past seven years until recently, and this all smells really good."

Reid does blink at that piece of information, and he latches onto it because he's been offered to him. He's seen a lot of strange things in this city, he's just recently come back from a world of ash where his greatest fears had nearly been the death of him, but he can't quite figure out what Noah is. It's obvious he's not quite human, at least not physically, but Noah still seems to act every bit the part.

"I'm sorry, you said you haven't been able to eat for seven years?" He shakes his head, nudging one of the full pies toward Noah before gesturing at the collection of forks. "Please, help yourself. And if it's not too much trouble, would you mind expanding a little more on that not eating part?"

"Oh, sorry, I get excitable," Noah says, smiling apologetically. He hadn't meant to be cryptic or weird about it, and he's aware of his own awkwardness around people - it's stopping himself from being awkward that's the difficult part.

"I'm dead. I mean, I'm a ghost. But I can eat now," he adds with a small burst of enthusiasm that quickly dims back into calm. He picks up a fork and slices himself a piece of pie, transferring it carefully to a plate. "It's a long story."

"Oh, well, that certainly clears everything up," Reid answers dryly, though his tone isn't malicious in any way. He supposes nobody would be very keen to discuss their own deaths, not that he'd ask Noah to stop if he were to talk more about it. If anything, Reid is more baffled by the fact that he isn't all too shocked that he's talking to a ghost in the first place. He's seen stranger things, he supposes, so many that adding another to the list is hardly a surprise anymore.

He frowns then, furrowing his brow as he watches Noah dig into the pie. "I'm sure it is," he says, "but is there a short version of it? Why can you eat now when you haven't been able to for so long? Are you... alive again?"

"Well I didn't want to bore you," Noah says helplessly. After all, he shows up randomly in the middle of this poor guy's living room, then he's gonna eat his pie, he doesn't wanna talk his ear off about his life story. Or unlife story.

"I'm not alive. I wish." He takes a bite of pie while he thinks of how to short version explain, and makes a tiny sound of pleasure at the taste of it. "Wow, this is good. Well...basically, I was murdered in a magic forest, and somehow became a ghost. And then I came here, and recently two of my friends performed a spell on me, and now I'm way more human. I can eat and sleep, and I even look alive, but I'm still dead."

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[turkey day, nov 21]

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