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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The differences between Luke and Alec were glaringly clear right then. Alec's point of view was still strictly regimented in that he saw packs as packs of wolves and not packs of people that Luke cared for. He couldn't see people like himself or Hild or Reid as part of a pack because they were wolves or vampires or warlocks. He had yet to break himself of the thought that everyone had to belong to a specific group and deviating from that just didn't happen.

"So, you consider mundanes and other Downworlders part of your pack?" Alec asked, not sounding judgmental or accusatory. If anything, he sounded curious and interested. He didn't know if he could ever see anyone the way he saw other Shadowhunters, though. They were just too valued, too trusted to allow anyone not of angelic blood and birth into their ranks.

"It isn't the same for all wolves, but yes," Luke says with a nod. "I do. It's so easy to dismiss it as just a group of wolves who hunt together, but the loyalty that runs through a pack runs deep. Werewolves will do anything to keep each other safe, their pack are the people they love and trust the most."

For Derek especially, Luke knows his pack is his family, the ones he's closer to than absolutely anyone in the world. For Luke it hasn't always been like that. More often than not, his pack has been his army, soldiers that he's had to drag to war, but he very much prefers the other definition. He prefers to think of them as family and that's the very reason he can't limit the definition to other werewolves.

"Things change when you're turned into a werewolf," he says, then smiles faintly. "Besides the obvious. The instinct to be around people who are important is very strong and it's often due to necessity that it's kept to other werewolves. So few people are willing to accept us as we are."

Acceptance was a struggle for a lot of people, it seemed. Luke had seemingly found it here among mundanes and Downworlders that weren't werewolves and had no idea what a Shadowhunter was. They didn't know or care about the Accords or the Clave and Alec had to admit that most everyone seemed happier for it.

He wasn't ready to let go of those ideals, those values but he wasn't going to stop anyone from being around people they cared about. If Luke wanted to keep company with mundanes and Downworlders, he had no authority to stop him. He didn't even want to stop him.

"You got lucky when you landed here, then," Alec remarked, glancing around. There were a lot of people here just for Luke, just for Reid, and they were people that Alec would never think would make nice with werewolves back in Manhattan. "It doesn't look like you need to worry about not having people around."

"Neither do you," Luke responds gently, looking over at Alec for a moment before he glances back out at the party. Magnus is here, inevitably leaving glitter everywhere and Luke is certain he's going to be finding it in his hair and in between couch cushions for weeks, but as much as he might consider the two of them friends, he knows who Magnus is really here for. There's no doubt in his mind that the warlock does most of what he does with Alec in mind in some small way.

"You have me and you have Spencer," he points out. They're not Alec's family, they'll never be able to take the place of Isabelle or Jace, and he's well aware of that. He isn't trying to fill in for people who are missing, but offer something else Alec might not even be aware he'd like to have around. "And Magnus, of course."

Darrow does that for people, he's noticed. It gives them different worlds, different friends, even different families. People who might not have looked twice at each other become friends and everyone ekes out a place where they belong.

Alec's eyes moved over to Magnus of their own volition, settling on him for the briefest of seconds before skittering away and acting like he hadn't just done that. His stomach always tightened or flipped around when he stared too long and he didn't want to give anything away to so many people who (he thought) didn't know.

"Magnus has everyone," Alec pointed out, glancing over at Luke and shaking his head. "I think half the city's in love with him already."

There was no jealousy in his tone, no wistfulness, because he was utterly in control right now. He shook his head and even laughed quietly, briefly.

"I guess it's good to have another person from home, though," he allowed carefully. "He'll figure out a way to become High Warlock of Darrow soon enough. I'll be around the first time he decides to summon a demon."

"It's not the same," Luke answers and it isn't that he feels the need to argue with Alec, he just knows for a fact it isn't. If Alec were to need him, Luke knows Magnus would be there in an instant, a far more selfless act than Luke has ever really known him to perform. Magnus is willing to help anyone who pays him well enough, but for Alec he'd used all the strength he had just to pilot a truck across the water. For Alec Luke had seen Magnus do things he would have otherwise required a good deal of money for. He could say all this and maybe one day he will, but for the time being he lets it go. It will be good for Alec and Magnus to come to that realization on their own.

Luke's lips twitch slightly into a smile and he shakes his head. "Please count me out of any demon summoning," he requests. "I've sure Hodge taught you that certain kinds of demon blood can act as a poison to werewolves. Not that I think anyone is going to try and feed the blood of a demon to me, but I prefer to be as far away from them as possible until I know what they are."

Not that he has a chance to discover what they are while fighting, but that's different than willingly being at a summoning.

It was hard to talk about Magnus without letting something slip. He'd thought that he'd kept his feelings mostly under lock and key and the only one who really knew what he felt wasn't here. She'd kept his biggest secret all throughout their lives and if she knew what he felt, she'd kept that a secret too.

So, in answer to Luke's statement, he just shook his head like he couldn't make himself believe it. Magnus Bane was a dangerous topic of conversation albeit one he enjoyed talking about. He just didn't want to let something slip if he didn't have to.

"I don't know why he'd summon demons here, though," Alec said, focusing on that topic instead of the other. It was easier, safer. "You've been here longer than me, have you heard of people needing demons summoned for any reason?"

"Oh, I'm sure Magnus would find a reason," Luke answers, smiling just slightly when Alec shakes his head. "I haven't heard of anyone summoning demons, no, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. They've gotten here somehow, after all, though at least they all seem to be relatively easy to dispatch."

There's no one summoning Greater Demons. At least not yet. Luke rather hopes it stays that way. He doubts even Alec, who would probably be very interested in seeing a little more demon fighting action, would be all that excited about a Greater Demon.

"Magnus might just summon one for a particularly exciting party going experience," he jokes, knowing he'd never go quite that far.

"I haven't seen anyone advertising the services of a demon summoner since I've been here," Alec said thoughtfully. That didn't mean they didn't exist, of course, but there seemed to be less of a market for businesses and individuals that needed demons. Alec knew that was how Magnus made money back in Manhattan but he didn't worry for Magnus's well being if that wasn't a possibility here.

Magnus was over four centuries years old and extremely resourceful. He'd find something to do.

"If demon summoning's out, maybe he could work in your bookstore," Alec said, almost sounding like hew as joking (because he was). "When I got back from that other city, I found him manning the counter in your bookstore. I think he liked it."

"At least everyone who bought a book from me would find some kind of extra surprise in it when they brought it home, even if it was only a little bit a glitter," Luke says with a laugh, trying to imagine Magnus being satisfied working in his store. While it's the sort of think he can absolutely picture Magnus taking on as a bit of a lark, dressing up as what he thinks a librarian might look like, and making the effort to offer especially strange advice, he can't imagine it being the sort of thing he would ever want to do permanently.

"I think maybe a part of him just didn't know where else to go," he says thoughtfully. "Also he threw out half my tea." Which isn't that much of a loss, really, no one in Darrow will ever be able to make tea the way Hodge did, but Luke has long since gotten used to not having that available. He's more of a coffee drinker himself, but he likes having tea around for others in case they want to.

"I tried to stop him from doing that," Alec said because he absolutely had. It hadn't been a strong protest and Magnus hadn't listened but he had said something in defense of Luke's tea. He thought he owed Luke that, at least.

"I can't even remember what he said to me in response but he didn't listen. Obviously," Alec continued with a shake of his head. When Magnus set his mind to something, there was very little that could stop it. He was stubborn and headstrong and when told he couldn't do something, he liked to do said thing just to prove a point.

"I can replace it if you want," he offered since it was partially his fault that Magnus had tossed the tea.

"I appreciate both the effort you made and the offer, but I think I'll be okay without you replacing my tea," Luke answers with a laugh. "If anything it should be Magnus replacing it, but you know he's only steal some from a store somewhere and magic it into my cupboard and then I'd feel guilty knowing it hadn't been paid for."

He's partly joking, but partly serious, too. Magnus has told him more than once that he can't just conjure things out of thin air, which means if there's suddenly a bunch of new tea in his cupboard that hadn't been there the moment before, they'd still come from somewhere. And then Luke would feel like he had to pay for it all.

Sometimes, the smallest, most unexpected things drew a smile out of him. This time, it was the thought of Luke, staring at his cupboards stuffed full of stolen tea and muttering to himself about Magnus's penchant for stealing whatever he wanted. He could honestly see Luke taking all the tea back to whichever store it had come from and apologizing profusely for the theft in the first place.

"Have you seen his apartment yet?" Alec wondered, glancing (once again) at Magnus. He made sure to keep the look brief and then to let his gaze settle on other people so it didn't look like he was specifically watching Magnus. "I've been wondering if he's magicked a bunch of stuff from the local stores up there to make it look more like his loft."

"No, not yet," Luke says and he's not at all surprised that Alec has. There's something there, he's sure of it, he's seen it in the glances they exchange, in the way they look at each other when they know the other isn't looking and Luke remembers that. He remembers it well. Not that long ago he'd been looking at Reid that way, but before that, for twenty years, he'd looked at Jocelyn Fray the way Magnus looks at Alec.

But it isn't his place to get involved. They'll work things out, he trusts that, and until then, he'll simply be here if one or the other needs to talk about it.

"But I'm sure he's done exactly that," he continues with a soft laugh. "Every time I went to his place in Manhattan, he'd done something new to it. We would take Clary almost every year toward the end and it was always different. All that change would make me dizzy."

Sometimes, Alec forgot that Magnus had known Clary, Jocelyn and Luke for such a long time. He hadn't know Magnus but for a few months and their lives were already intertwined in ways that would take months to disentangle. Jocelyn had been taking to Clary for years and years, building a relationship with Magnus that was complicated and complex, built on deceit and deception.

Alec didn't know what his relationship with Magnus was built off of. He didn't know if there was even a relationship to speak of.

"I'm not surprised that he's always been like this," Alec said, sighing and looking away for a second. It was stupid to even think of Magnus like he was. It wasn't going to happen, not with how he was. No one wanted him like he was.

Alec almost started to ask Luke more about Magnus but bit off the question at the last moment. That, he knew, would be obvious, make it evident that he was fishing for information and he didn't want to be obvious.

"I'm surprised you don't want glitter spread out all over your apartment, Luke. You seem like the type," Alec said, deadpan. The one good thing about suppressing his emotions was that he had a great poker face.

"There's more glitter between these couch cushions than you'll ever know," Luke answers, his voice just as dry, but then he glances over at Alec and smiles. "You know, I've never been so picky about my place that I'm unwilling to change it for the people who spend time here. The spare bedroom... it was made for Clary, but bit by bit, it's gotten a little less like her old room and a little more like a place anyone can stay." The drawing table is still in there, but he's pushed it into a corner, making room for a better wardrobe, changing out the soft blue bedding he'd known Clary would love for something a little more neutral.

"And that space there?" he asks, pointing toward the desk pushed into the bay window. "I used to have a reading nook there, but with Spencer doing so much of his work here, I turned it into a sort of office for him instead."

His smile grows a little and he says, "Which is just a long winded way of saying I can deal with some glitter."

What Alec was hearing was that Luke had adapted, adjusted, and changed for this city. He'd started out set in his ways, trying to hold onto the past and he'd been able to let it go bit by bit. It was never going to be fully gone but he'd made space for Darrow and Reid and even Alec himself.

Alec didn't know if was strong enough to do that especially not when he felt guilty about letting go of certain things but it was good to know that it could be done. He wasn't really ready to stop living how he'd lived in Manhattan but it could be done.

"Thanks for letting me stay here when I need to," he said quietly. "I hung out here a few days after I got back from that...from the other city. Magnus was here and it reminded me of Manhattan."

"You're always welcome," Luke says, because although he doesn't think the words need to be spoken aloud for Alec to know it, he wants to be sure there's never any doubt in Alec's mind that he's welcome with Luke and Reid. No matter what the circumstance, no matter what he needs, he's welcome here.

"I hope you know that already, but if you don't, I'm telling you now. Whenever you might need, you're always welcome here. We've the room and even if we didn't, we'd make room." After the time they've spent together, he hopes it would be obvious, but given the things he'd heard Maryse say to Alec in that other version of Darrow, Luke doesn't ever want to take that for granted.

"Hopefully I won't need it too often but it's good to know that it's there," Alec said, nodding. Back home, if he'd been out of sorts or just hadn't wanted to be alone, he'd have gone to Isabelle's room and stayed there until things had evened out and he'd felt ready to face the world again.

Isabelle wasn't here though but he was finding that Luke's bookstore was almost as good as being with his sister. It gave him a taste of home, let him be comfortable in a vaguely familiar setting and settled him down.

He didn't expect to need that sort of thing too often but it was just good to know it was there, in case. He appreciated it.

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[turkey day, nov 21]

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