Housewarming Party! Apartment Above Luke's, Friday Afternoon Till Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

Raven and Kathy were officially moved in!

Okay, not everything was done and most of their stuff was still at Eliot's, but they'd gotten a lot of work done painting and assembling furniture and most of what was left could be moved over a bit at a time. Which meant...it was close enough to being fully moved in that a small party was warranted. Especially if you were looking for a way to show you were nice, sane and adjusted a reason to party!

The party proper started at 6pm with plenty of delicious foods to enjoy, but people were more than welcome to come over early and help with the remaining wall painting and furniture assembling there was to do. Help was appreciated, but mostly people were invited to over to eat, relax, and help make this new place feel like a real home.

[If you think you got an invite, you did! Up early for mega SP]

Comments

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

And about ten minutes later, Kathy came back in with a chair. "I wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to collapse under you," she said. "So I put it together myself."

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

Eliot looked up from where he was snaking the sink drain. Not because it needed it, necessarily. It was simply something vaguely useful he knew he could do.

"Thanks, darlin'. Now, we takin' this sucker off or puttin' it on?"

. . . He hadn't paid a whole lot of attention to what the lighting fixtures had looked like in here before.

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"Off," Kathy said. "I'm trying to put new ones on. I also got some wall sconces to add, if you wouldn't mind helping me with those, too? I want the bright ceiling light for when I'm showering and then the dimmer wall sconces for when I'm relaxing in the tub with a book or something."

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

Eliot climbed up on the chair to tackle the ceiling light, and paused to look at either wall. ". . . You know there's gotta be wires in place to control the lights, right? I can punch a hole in the dry wall easily enough, but it's gonna take a bit to figure out the electrical side of things."

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"I know," Kathy said, wrinkling her nose. "Hardison said he'd take a look later and see if he could rig some things up." She gave him a rueful smile. "It'll probably be awhile before I'm relaxed enough to want to take a bubble bath anyway."

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

"Sounds like you've got a plan for that, then." Eliot nodded, poked at the screws on the fixture, and swapped out the bit on his screwdriver. "You did manage to strip these a little, but it's nothin' a little elbow grease can't take care of. Helps when you have the right tools, though."

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah," Kathy said, looking chagrined. "I realized that about the time I discovered we had one screwdriver and it was a big, flat one. There's just so much stuff you need to have when you move out on your own!"

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded to the toolbox on the floor as he made quick work of removing the screws. "Happy housewarming," he said, setting the hardware down on the counter and gently pulling off the fixture. "I kinda figured you mighta forgotten those."

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"Thank you, Eliot!" Kathy said, eyes warm. "But you didn't have to, you know! You guys already gave us this place and the money we used to furnish it, and the time you're already putting in helping us get it situated..."

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

"Ain't no trouble," Eliot assured her. "Figured you two would like havin' the supplies to feel self-sufficient insteada callin' up your landlords every time something goes wrong." He looked around for the new fixture. "Not that you can't call us any time something goes wrong."

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'd like to learn how to do it myself," Kathy said, surprising no one. "I mean, not everything, but some. And I wouldn't want to bother you, even though I know you say it's not."

But it would feel like it was!

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

"And so, you get a toolbox for your housewarming," Eliot said. He turned around on the chair. "Alright, where is this new fixture I'm puttin' up here?"

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"Here," she said, handing over the first of several sconces. Her bathroom was a soothing cobalt with silver accents and the odd whimsical splash of color. "I'm hoping to get them on this wall, see? So I can have the light when I'm in the tub--almost like candles?"

But, you know, safer.

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

"Sure," Eliot said. "Sounds real nice. But what am I puttin' on the ceiling?"

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh! Duh, sorry!" Kathy said, facepalming. "Let me grab that one!" She hefted a large, chrome ceiling light over to Eliot. "That one!"

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

Eliot stared at the new fixture, then looked from it up to the ceiling. "You don't do things by halves, do ya darlin'." He held out the screwdriver to her, still looking up. "Should be a cordless drill in that toolbox. Can you grab it for me?"

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

If she had, she probably wouldn't have needed resurrecting.

"Got it!" Kathy said, holding up the drill and slotting the battery back in the base before handing it over to him. "This is nice," she said, almost shyly. "My dad was never much for doing work around the house."

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

Yeah, as far as Eliot was concerned, Kathy's dad hadn't been much for doing anything remotely useful. "Yeah, my pop ran a hardware store. I basically grew up doin' this stuff."

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"Did he?" Kathy asked. "I didn't know. You don't...talk about him much. At least not to me."

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

Eliot held the new fixture up to the ceiling, measuring out where the screws would need to go. "Don't talk to anyone about him. Ain't spoken to him in more'n 20 years."

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh," Kathy said in a small voice. "Was he a bad dad?"

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shrugged. "Not -- the way you're thinkin'. We just always butted heads, you know? He wanted me to stick around and take over his shop. When I told him that wasn't my plan he . . . didn't take it real well."

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"I know how that goes," Kathy said. She and her father hadn't butted heads, but only because she'd always given way, except that last fight at the end. And she'd just accepted his vision of her life as her own.

"So you fought?" Kathy asked. "And then you went away to join the army?" And then he'd gone off and done things and he wouldn't have wanted to reach out to his father then. Not when he'd cut himself off from feeling or right afterwards, when he was trying to find himself again. "What about now?"

Re: Pre-Party

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shrugged. "What about it?" He set the drill bit against the ceiling and in short order had several sets of new holes. And enough noise to keep from having to talk for a minute. "He doesn't wanna see me now."

Re: Pre-Party

[spin_kick_snap]

"How do you know if you haven't seen him in twenty years?" Kathy asked. "Does he know how to get in touch with you even if he wanted to?"