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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"We didn't even really do family dinners." It was a rare thing where all Lightwoods were even in the same place at the same time. If his father wasn't in Idris, his mother was busy with Institute affairs. If they were both home, Alec or Isabelle tended to be gone, hunting demons or hanging out at Taki's.

When they all did happen to be in the same place at the same time, family dinners were the last thing on their mind. They'd preferred the solitude of their own rooms or the exertion of the training room.

"I can't picture my family being a part of something like this," he said with a shake of his head. His mother and father would spend their time judging every single mundane and Downworlder around while Isabelle made a point to talk to and flirt with every beautiful person in the room. Alec would be the one standing against the wall, quietly. "It'd be awkward."

Reid nods his understanding because in some way, he can relate, even if the reason his family hadn't done dinners like this hadn't been because of their duty to protect people from things like demons. "We were just the good old-fashioned kind of dysfunctional," he says with a wry smile, "which I guess is an exaggeration, but we definitely weren't the nuclear family my dad would've preferred us to be. That's part of why he left."

The other part had been that he hadn't been able to stand keeping secrets for his mentally ill woman who'd unwittingly witnessed a murder while having a minor episode, which Reid supposes is fair enough for some but that doesn't make him any less angry about it all these years later.

Reid arches a brow at the last thing Alec says, studying him with a hint of curiosity. "This isn't awkward, then, being here with us? Six months ago, I wouldn't have pictured myself anywhere near something like this so it's strange for me in a lot of ways but..." He shrugs a shoulder. "But I'm comfortable. It's nice."

"It's not awkward," Alec assured him with a shake of his head. He knew he was awkward and, at times, standoffish but the whole of the party wasn't awkward. He didn't feel forced to talk with everyone and if he wanted to stand off to the side, no one was going to nag him about him. "If we were all here, my mother and father and sister, then it'd be awkward. Isabelle would be fine but my mom and dad are intimidating and...set in their views."

It was the kindest way to say that his mother and father wouldn't have been happy to be around mundanes and Downworlders. They would have made that distrust and even disdain known in both body language and words. They weren't shy people.

"They're worse than me where that's concerned," he confessed quietly, shaking his head. Alec wasn't going to apologize for the way he viewed the world but he would warn people against it, at least. He'd been raised to see people specifically, to judge them against what they were and it was very hard to break free of that rigid, regimented way of thinking.

He's glad that Alec feels comfortable enough here tonight, it puts Reid a bit more at ease to know that this young man he's unexpectedly come to care so much about isn't wishing he was somewhere else. It would have been simple enough for both of them to write each other off, but Reid had pushed through, at first because he'd felt it necessary considering sharing a life with Luke means having Alec in it. Of course, that's changed, at least for Reid.

Now, he's come to expect Alec to come walking into the bookstore at random times, usually unannounced and for no particular reason. Reid thinks he prefers that, really, knowing that Alec might just show up because he wants to, not because he's obligated to; and it's a little strange, but there's something paternal in how he views Alec. It's not in the sense that Alec needs to be looked after (because Reid knows what he'd have to say about that), more that Reid simply feels an unrelenting need to make sure he's okay. Even if he isn't, just to have him present here after everything that'd happened in that other Darrow, it's important.

They can figure out the rest, whether they share it with each other or not. What matters is they're still standing.

"Old habits die hard," Reid says, understanding what Alec's getting at when he talks about his parents, and he isn't surprised to hear it. "When you're told something your entire life, when you have it driven into your mind that there's no other way of life that's correct, it can be more than a little difficult to shake once you're away from it. Maybe they're worse than you, but..." He pauses, narrowing his eyes, though he offers Alec a teasing smile. "You were pretty bad. But you don't look at me like I might betray all your world's secrets anymore, so I'd say you've made a lot of progress."

It isn't a surprise to hear how Reid viewed him upon their first meeting. He knew he could have excused his behavior with how he'd arrived, with what he'd seen and done just before arriving but he isn't all that sorry. He'd grown up a certain way and had been raised to view the rules and restrictions the Clave had set out as unbreakable and unquestionable.

"If you did, we'd have some issues," Alec said and though he was serious, his tone was light. He didn't think Reid would go around telling people who he was or about the Soul Sword or anything else. He wasn't Valentine, he wasn't Hodge. "But, it's not something I think you're going to do."

Alec would have said he could recognized a turncoat when he saw one but he hadn't recognized Hodge. They'd let Hodge into their lives, let him live in the Institute and had learned from him, cared for him. So, he knew he didn't have that ability but Reid wasn't Hodge. Reid wasn't out for himself and Reid had genuinely tried to engage Alec over the course of the last few months. He'd looked further than just the fact that he was a Shadowhunter and had tried to encourage other interests.

Reid wasn't Hodge. He was better.

"Good," Reid answers, nodding firmly. "It isn't. Even if I didn't care about you, which I do, just to be absolutely clear, I would never do that to Luke. If you aren't sure of anything else when it comes to me, you can be sure of that."

Glancing across the room to where his boyfriend is chatting with Magnus, his expression softens. What they'd been through together in the other Darrow isn't something Reid would ever like to repeat again but if there is a silver lining through it all, it's that being there had pushed them to say they love each other. In the back room of a church, surrounded by manifestations of their fears, admittedly hadn't been how he'd pictured exchanging the words for the first time but the setting isn't what's most important. It's that they'd said it, they'd meant it, and not just because their lives had been in danger.

"I'm not sure I've ever been thankful for as much as I am this year," he admits, looking back at Alec with a slightly sheepish smile. "That sounds a little pathetic. It's just that a lot of good things have happened and even aside from what happened in that other Darrow, a small part of me is still waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Alec was of the mind that he didn't vocalize when things were good because that meant they were inevitably going to get worse sooner rather than later. He didn't like to tempt fate even if fate was something he wasn't sure he believed in.

Happiness was one of those things that he also didn't have a lot of experience with. He could be happy with his family and he could be happy when he was hunting but it tended to be fleeting and brief. Then, he'd come back to reality and realize that he wasn't happy and he wasn't going to be happy because of who he was. He'd accepted that and was resigned to it.

"You probably won't have to wait too long in this place," Alec noted because he was always a ray of sunshine. He could appreciate that Reid was happy and content but he didn't think that would last. Something was always out there, whether mundane, Downworlder or demon that would try to ruin that careful balance. "Just be prepared for that to happen."

[turkey day, nov 21]

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