youfeelluckypunk | [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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"I would like to see him on a table," Magnus muttered under his breath, unable to get all the words out before he was snickering into his wine glass. His wit was not always sparkling, but he didn't think Luke would kill him for it. Just maybe glare. "Sorry, sorry."

He sobered as Luke answered his question. As far as Magnus could tell from only looking at him, Luke seemed to be alright, if on the thin side. But considering what he had heard from Alec, and knowing how Shadowhunters and werewolves liked to react to trauma sometimes, he couldn't be sure that there wasn't some deep hurt hiding. Luke was not obligated to share that hurt, of course, but Magnus wanted him to know he would listen.

"He told me a little," Magnus said quietly, finding his wine very interesting again. "Just after he .. got out. Still shaken." He turned his glowing gaze upon Luke, somber gratitude shining through. "He said you saved his life."

Luke is surprised to hear Magnus say that, though it doesn't really register on his face as he shakes his head and looks down at his coffee. "No more than he saved mine," he answers, because they were there for each other that night. It had been awfully stupid, going out so close to dark to begin with, but he's glad he'd done it, even if they'd ended up facing down Valentine and Maryse. If he hadn't gone, he doesn't know if he ever would have found Alec, and while he knows Alec hadn't been particularly happy about staying at the church, he'd done it for Luke. And for Reid.

"Valentine was there," he says. "And Clary. I had a hard time focusing on much else besides the two of them and I'm sure Valentine would have managed to kill me if Alec hadn't been there."

Because for the first time in years, Luke had felt paralyzed by his fear. By the knowledge that he couldn't save Clary from the worst of what was coming for her. That Valentine would always be there to take everything Luke loved.

Magnus nodded thoughtfully. He wasn't one to break confidences, especially where Alec was concerned because he treasured every little thing the young man shared with him. But this was Luke, who acted a father to everyone and who had been in that hell hole with Alec. Magnus was sure what he said was nothing Alec wouldn't communicate to him, if asked.

"He thought he'd failed," Magnus explained, still quiet. "Because he let all those... things get in his head. I told him we all make mistakes sometimes. That's why he had Jace and he had you. And you had him. We're all here for each other, when we need the help." Magnus had never before counted Shadowhunters among his friends, people he could call upon with confidence when he was in need. Too often it had been the other way around. But things changed, little by little. There was little he himself wouldn't do for Luke or Alec; if he had been in this dark place, their nightmares would have run away screaming.

Valentine especially. Magnus cocked his head to the side with interest. "Did you kill him?"

"I think he's more afraid of that than anything else," Luke says. "Not being enough." He's had time to think about it since getting back, all the things he'd seen, all the things Maryse had said to Alec, the awful, heartless insults that she'd hurled at her son. Alec had said he'd seen Isabelle, too, and given that Luke knows her to be the one person in the Lightwood family who had always accepted everything bout Alec without question, he can't imagine her appearance in that version of Darrow had been very nice.

But this is Alec's information, these are his things to discuss with Magnus or Luke or whoever he wants to. All they can do is let him know he can. That they'll be there.

A smile lifts one corner of Luke's mouth at the question and he nods. "Yes," he says. "I killed him. As a werewolf, too, which I'm sure would have infuriated him had he been at all real." The last time he'd faced Valentine had been with a sword, but this time Luke had decided to do things his way.

His gaze drifted, unerringly fixing on Alec in a moment. Luke was right, that Alec somehow feared that he was not enough, that he was failing on some level in the very core of him. It completely bewildered Magnus, who was thoroughly and sickeningly in love with the Shadowhunter and thought the sun rose and set in his eyes. But his opinion of himself was a fact. All Magnus could do was try to convince him otherwise.

Magnus' eyes glided back to Luke. His smile was much fiercer, darker, and his eyes glimmered with pleasure. "Good," he said, voice low. "Doesn't matter if he wasn't really real. That asshole deserves to die a hundred times over in every dimension."

There are times -- rare times -- when Luke has difficulty overlooking the fact that Magnus has seen him at what was arguably his very worst. Times when Valentine's influence over Luke had been at its strongest, but even then he knows he can't blame everything on Valentine. He had wanted to change the way the Clave works, the way it sees itself, he still does, but he understands better now the ramifications of his actions.

Of everyone in Darrow, however, it's Magnus who knows the most about his relationship with Valentine and sometimes it embarrasses him.

"Even with all he's done, even with Clary there begging me to keep her safe, that's the hardest thing I've ever had to do," he admits.

"He was your parabatai," Magnus said simply, no judgment of any kind. As much as Magnus hated Valentine, as much as Magnus had hated Luke in that first moment of setting eyes upon him, he could still respect that bond. It was not a pact entered into lightly but it was, perhaps, a promise made too early. Everything else could change, but the link to one's parabatai was meant to be eternal, unchanging. Nothing would fill that specific hole within Luke, no matter how much happiness came afterward.

"But he betrayed that bond and was beyond saving. Keep reminding yourself of that."

"Oh, I do. I'm convinced, despite what he said, that he would have sacrificed Clary for the right amount of power and I know for a fact he would have killed Spencer if he'd been given a chance, so I know I did the right thing." But it isn't easy, for exactly the reason Magnus has said. Valentine was his parabatai and for a long time they'd been bound together in a way he knows he can't explain to anyone.

"Is he dead?" he asks, looking at Magnus suddenly. "I know there are things you're not telling me and for the most part I've accept that there are likely good reasons you're not, but can you tell me that? Is Valentine dead?"

Magnus stared into the middle distance, actively choosing not to look at Luke. He didn't have to try to turn his voice cold, tense his jaw with anger; it was a genuine reaction, pure dark pleasure at the fact that yes, Valentine was dead.

But he didn't want Luke to see the rest of his thoughts, the still blazing fire of hatred, not for the man but his son. He didn't want Luke to know that the war was still not won.

"Yes," he said coldly. "He is very dead."

Luke nods, watching Magnus for a moment even though he's turned away. He waits for the inevitable feeling of loss, the pain that should have come with losing the man who'd once been his best friend, his family, his leader, and his parabatai.

It's there, but it isn't nearly as strong as it had been in the moments and the days following their return to this version of Darrow. The ache that exists is more for the Valentine who had been his friend before everything. Before the death of his father, before he'd gone mad.

"Good," he says finally, his voice soft. "He needed to be stopped."

[turkey day, nov 21]

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