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

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"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

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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

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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

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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

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

Re: Pre-Party

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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

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

Re: Pre-Party

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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

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"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

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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

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"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?"

Re: Pre-Party

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"Because I tried," Eliot said, sounding resigned. "Not too long before I came out here. He never even opened the door." He shook his head and set the drill down, picking the fixture back up. "Trudy's got my number. Ball's in his court now. Can you pass me back that screwdriver?"

Re: Pre-Party

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Kathy passed over the screwdriver, biting down a You're sure he was home? This was Eliot. He would have made sure.

...Right?

"Maybe he just doesn't know how to start," she finally said. "What if he's stubborn and set in his ways...and scared to try?"

Re: Pre-Party

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You'd think.

"Well, you got two of those things right." And Eliot was his father's son. He shook his head. "Some things . . . you just miss your window on, darlin'. Ain't nothin' else to be done about it."

Re: Pre-Party

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"Okay, I love you Eliot, but I'm gonna call bullshit on that one," Kathy said, pursing her lips up at him. "You didn't miss your window. Neither of you are dead. You can keep the window shut if you want to, but you didn't miss it."

Re: Pre-Party

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Eliot shot her a look. "Which one of us is s'posed to be the mentor in this relationship?"

Re: Pre-Party

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"Which one of us just came back from the dead?" Kathy countered. "I didn't like my dad a lot. Hell, the last conversation we had was a major fight, cause I finally stuck up for myself. But I know he's probably gone and I'll never see him again. And I'd give up a lot to tell him I loved him one last time."

Re: Pre-Party

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Eliot snorted and went back to screwing in the new fixture. Good lord, it used a lot of screws.

"Yeah, well. Looks a bit different when you've got 20 years between the argument kickin' you out and where you're at now."

Re: Pre-Party

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"It looks like you've got twenty years of experience dealing with people and learning how they work and not an eighteen-year-old kid with a temper, all hopped up on testosterone?" Kathy asked. Innocently.

Re: Pre-Party

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"Like I've got more'n twenty years of experience and you ain't even seen a whole twenty in your entire life," Eliot grumbled. He finished with the last screw and rested his hands on his hips. "Alright, flip the switch and let's see what we got.

Re: Pre-Party

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"Yes, Eliot," Kathy said, practically skipping over to the switch. She'd said her piece and he'd taken her point. "Here we go!"

She flipped the switch and the room was filled with bright, white light.

Re: Pre-Party

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"Would ya look at that," Eliot said, handing her the screwdriver again and stepping down off the chair. "You got yourself a bathroom light."

Re: Pre-Party

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"I do!" Kathy said, beaming at him. "Just in time for me to start dinner, too!"

Some of which just involved grabbing stuff from downstairs, or rescuing the pot roast from Raven, but she had a few things of her own to make.

Like a salad.