[turkey day, nov 21]

[youfeelluckypunk]

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.

Comments

[deflectere]

Alec knew he'd never be able to make himself get a real, mundane job. Even if he somehow found himself in a position where he had no money, he still couldn't see himself getting a job because his duties as a Shadowhunter would be sharply impeded. The need for Shadowhunters was different in Darrow but still there and Alec refused to let something get in his way of going out and stalking demons when the situation called for it. The other, less important factor was that he just could not see himself in a position where he had to interact with customers on a daily basis. He barely functioned in social situations such as this so he knew that situations where people yelled or nagged at him would not go well.

"There's not much that's a secret with Magnus," Alec said, trying to sound reassuring. He wasn't great at it but it was hard to miss the flush, the quick look, and the sudden explanation. "It doesn't surprise me, he just hasn't told me about it. I think some of his clothes probably have Disney characters on them. If they don't, they probably will now."

There was a disappointment bubbling in Alec, a disappointment in himself that he wasn't equipped to watch Disney movies or listen to music with Magnus (or anyone fro that matter). He wasn't the type to find that very enjoyable and that had to be frustrating for someone like Magnus who lived off social interaction and fun. "I'm glad he can have fun with you. I'm glad he's trying to be the same Magnus here as he was in Manhattan."

Alec did mean that even if he hated that he was having trouble being the same Alec. Without the Clave, he should have been more relaxed, more open but he'd seemingly retreated further into himself, unable to let his guard down for one second. This wasn't a test but Alec was almost treating it as such.

"He was laughing, he looked happy," Alec confirmed with a nod before slight surprise washed over his face. "I...like him too. I didn't know he trusted me, though. I think I scared him the first time we met so that's...that's good to hear."

Jason was a mundane but he was one of the few Alec could tolerate and actually didn't mind being around. "He's excited about college. I'm not going to go to college but it was interesting to hear what it's like from him."

[paper_courage]

Really, Peter wouldn't be surprised if Magnus shows up one day dressed more or less accurately as a character from Alice in Wonderland -- maybe even Alice. Peter figures him for more of the White Rabbit, though, partially because the Mad Hatter is a little too obvious. Maybe he'd even make himself look like a rabbit.

How absolutely bizarre that this is even a possible train of thought for him. Magic and half-demons and whatever it is that Alec feels he has to train to fight, these are things that exist, now, and Peter is pretty scared that he'll come across it soon. He hopes he'll have any idea what to do. He wonders if he should be preparing himself for this.

Another conversation for another day, he estimates, and he doesn't say anything about Alec's painfully relateable, stolen glance. Some time is spared, however, for Peter to hope that Alec has someone to talk to. What a difference it would have made if Peter did; what a different it does make here. He wishes there was some way for him to tell Alec that he's not alone without being too presumptuous. Really, he doesn't even know if things are the way he thinks they are, not for sure. Maybe one day, he'll find the words.

"I can't imagine him trying to be anyone else," Peter says fondly, considering that way Alec talks so cautiously about Magnus -- it hits so close to home. How many afternoons had Peter spent trying to hide behind the best friend card, saying safe things in place of the geyser of effusive worship Peter wanted to display. Only now does he dare, and even then only in extremely controlled environments like this one. Poor Alec. Poor Magnus. Peter's not sure he's ever had this much trouble keeping his mouth shut.

"Oh yeah, he's over the moon," Peter confirms, laughing a bit in his joy and the statement's obviousness. "I don't know if he told you that he didn't think he'd graduated but his sister made sure it happened." Actually, Jason's father had been one of the most insistent ones, but Nadia's intentions far outweighed her father's and Peter didn't want to give Jason's father any credit where it certainly wasn't due.

"He was just scared in general," Peter continues, reassuring Alec in his own turn. "I think you made him feel safe." He smiles mildly, feeling warmer now that it seems Alec is warming up, himself, however slowly. Patience is a blessing that has been bestowed upon Peter in spades. "Or at least convinced him it was real. Things like... where we come from, people don't usually come back from death." He wants to ask if that's something Alec has seen a lot, but he knows if the tables were turned, that would not be a question Peter would take kindly to if the tables were turned.

[deflectere]

At his core, Magnus was always going to be Magnus. Alec knew that he'd had to adapt and adjust far more than anyone else because of his age. He'd lived through so much and the Magnus that everyone got to see now wasn't exactly the same as the Magnus who'd been around a century ago. He'd had to change his behavior and his appearance but the private, rarely seen parts of him had stayed the same. Always the same. Alec had seen those parts briefly so he knew they were there, just waiting to be discovered by someone.

"I think even if he tried, he'd fail," Alec remarked with a shake of his head. He didn't look at Magnus as he said this even if a part of him wanted to. "He's too unique to pull off anyone but himself. Maybe he'd be able to fool a mundane or two but I think he'd get bored even with that. He likes who he is."

Alec thought he did, at least. They just hadn't had enough time to explore much before Valentine had put his plan in motion and things had fallen apart.

"I...didn't realize I'd done that," Alec said, sounding mildly surprised. His duty was to absolutely keep mundanes safe from the Shadow World but sitting with Jason hadn't been about that. He didn't know what compelled him to sit and stay instead of walking away but he had and apparently, it'd helped.

"I didn't think this place was real when I first got here," he shared quietly, comfortable with letting Peter know but not anyone else he wasn't familiar with. "I'd just been tossed into a river pretty violently. Still had the stink of it on me when I ended up here. It didn't seem real. It took time."

After the other city, he'd felt almost like he was back at square one, not trusting his own instincts, his own senses. Things had righted themselves after a few days but Alec hated when he didn't know if what he was seeing was real or fake.

[paper_courage]

"What's not to like?" Peter asks, however rhetorically and dramatically. He's a gregarious, well-seasoned flirt who needs to magic to sway people in his favor. He's the imaginary friend Peter wished he'd invented to get through being so different from all of the other kids. That was before Catholic boarding school, and before Jason. Peter feels a guilty satisfaction when he thinks about how his parents shipped him off to Catholic school to find God's love and he'd found it. He's thankful his mother made peace before Peter found himself in Darrow and he wonders for the hundredth time if his father knows yet. He still doesn't care if he ever sees that man again.

Peter's pleasantly surprised by the admission, grateful for it. In fact, the friendliness of it seems to relax him at the shoulders, and he catches sight of the cider near them. He sets aside two cups and is mid-pour into the first when Alec's words stop him. "You... were thrown into a river? By who?" That's not the point of the story, Peter knows, but it does stand out. Peter's never been tossed in a river, just under a few proverbial buses -- that's a much less interesting story and, even with all things considered, even less traumatic as being tossed into a river.

"So, you thought it was a hallucination?" Peter asks. By now, he's filled one cup with the warm cider and is offering the cup to Alec.

[deflectere]

Alec knew that he had to keep the truth to himself because Peter, as nice as he was, as easy as he was to talk to, was still a mundane. Covenant Law continued to forbid him from discussing the Shadow World with mundanes and Alec had yet to let go of many of the Clave's rules. They'd helped mold his life for over eighteen years that deciding to completely ignore something that was of the highest of importance to his people was not easy. Alec didn't know if it was something he could do.

"A bunch of guys who wanted to rob me," Alec said, taking the cider and sipping it carefully. It made for a nice cover of the lie he'd just told. He couldn't very well tell Peter it had been a demon especially in the middle of a dinner like this. "I put up a fight, they knocked me over the head and tried to kill me."

The last part, at least, was true. The demon had tried to kill him but only after Alec had made sure to injure it fatally. He hadn't gone down without a fight.

"I thought this was the afterlife," he corrected. "Where we go once our bodies are dead and our souls are free."

[paper_courage]

Hearing about this kind of violence is unusual for Peter even in a strange place, so he takes a few moments to let what Alec says sink in.

"Wow. That's awful," Peter finally replies, shaking his head as if it may solve the bewilderment he feels about how people can be so cruel. Even if it wasn't some kind of random robbery, even if this has something to do with whatever Alec is training for, the question still stands. Peter can't imagine (partially thanks to privilege but also in terms of his own nature) being driven to steal or to physically harm another person. The most aggressive he gets happens when they topic of Jason's dad comes up, and even that tops out at a stamped foot over a fantasy of punching him in his bigoted face. And yet, to some, violence is the first line of defense. Cruelty breeding cruelty is what it is, he supposes.

It sounds like Alec is talking of Heaven and Peter finds himself studying Alec's face again. Peter, too, found himself thinking about Darrow as the big finish -- in fact, he still does, from time to time. He knows Jason should have been dead. Spencer mentioned he might've been near death. Beth was kidnapped. Now, Alec seems to have a similar story. Maybe there's a train crash Peter doesn't remember, or maybe he doesn't remember taking one of Lucas' little pills and he'd met a fate similar to Jason's.

"You don't anymore?" Peter's voice goes soft, like he's ashamed of the question. Hearing his own suspicions echoed in Alec's, even if only in the past tense, it's disarmed him.

[deflectere]

Alec shook his head very slowly. Thinking this was Heaven had been so easy the first few days after he'd arrived. He'd concocted this fantasy in his head that he would be mourned as a hero, given a Shadowhunter's burial and provided honor to the Lightwood name. The days had passed and each day felt more real, less gauzy, less like a dream. His body was whole and his mind wouldn't stop tossing logical reasons this wasn't the afterlife at him.

"Not anymore," he answered quietly. "I don't know what that might be like but it's not like this. This is all too normal, too mundane. This is life. I'm alive."

That realization had hurt for awhile. Being alive meant he might be seen as a deserter to his family, to his people. The Clave could crush the Lightwoods, do worse than exiling him and it was all his fault. He couldn't go back and he couldn't stop it from happening. He got to live what he guessed some people thought was an idyllic life while people took his punishment for him. He hated being helpless.

"I'm not dead. You're not dead. Jason's not dead," he added after a moment. "We're all alive but that's about all I'm sure about when it comes to this place."