[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

[iwasmore]

"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."

[youfeelluckypunk]

"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?"

[iwasmore]

"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."