The Apartment Above Luke's, Monday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

The lack of private function space was perfectly solved by the empty apartment above the diner. Kathy had spent the afternoon cleaning and setting up for dinner tonight. Her anniversary dinner, if you would.

A year ago today, she'd woken up in Eliot's house, surrounded by tight, worried faces. Her friends, pretty much en masse, had gone through a portal to LA and fought through hordes of exes to bring her home, in hopes that Nanika could bring her back to life. Or maybe just so she'd stop chanting Kathy's name. For whatever reason they'd done it, though, they'd succeeded. Kathy was alive again and had been for a full year.

A dizzying, challenging, terrifying year.

It seemed only right to hold some kind of commemorative dinner for it, somewhere between a celebration (which she still didn't think she'd earned, exactly) and an appreciation dinner. Not just for what they'd done, but for sticking with her this past year, for weathering the ups and downs, for reaching out and checking in, for reconnecting and promising to be better and stronger friends from here forward.

And, well, even if that didn't all come through, it would still be a delicious dinner cooked by Eliot and would give her a chance to just spend some time with the people she loved best, getting caught up with those she hadn't seen in awhile and offering an opportunity for them to get to know one another better, too.

If nothing else, they could all just stuff themselves silly with whatever delicious things the kitchen downstairs had whipped up and the super, extra, very chocolatey desserts Kathy had promised Alluka in her invitation.

[For those invited and up early for SP. No OCD, feel free to just ping in and around.]

Comments

[not_every_mage]

As he arrived at the party, Anders was ... pensive. Pensive was a good word for his mood.

That and grateful.

He grabbed a bottle of beer from the cooler and propped himself in a corner, trying not to think about how different his life could have been.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hey," Kathy said, drawing close to him. Pensive was a good word for how she'd been feeling for the few days leading up to this. She gave him a small smile. "Sorry I didn't see you come in. Checking on everything."

[not_every_mage]

"Don't worry about it," Anders said, slight smile on his lips. "As long as you come home with me, I'm not too fussed about waiting for five minutes now."

He glanced around the space. "Anyhow, everything looks amazing."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy wrapped her arms around his waist and stepped in for a kiss. "Never a question," she promised, tipping her head back to give him a smile. "The one bad thing about hosting a dinner is that we can't sneak out early."

[not_every_mage]

"But the good thing is we can take home all the leftover desserts," Anders said, tilting his chin up to collect the kiss. "Which almost makes up for it."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Awww, you think there's going to be leftover dessert," Kathy cooed. "That's adorable."

She delivered on that promised kiss several more times, just because she couldn't not. Anders was very kissable.

"Kinda can't believe it's been a whole year," she murmured when she pulled away. "Also kinda can't believe it's only been a year, too."

[not_every_mage]

"There'll be some if I have to hide them under the tablecloth just to make sure," Anders swore. "And I'm with you on that. Sometimes it seems like the time you were gone was a very long bad dream, and sometimes it seems like the time since you came back is a good one."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded, resting her head on his shoulder. "I've been back for longer than I was...gone," she said, choosing that word over 'dead.' "And yeah. I know what you mean. I used to wake up at night in a cold sweat worried that it was just a dream and I'd wake up back on Genny's table."

Or worse, in Rodney's basement.

[not_every_mage]

Anders reached an arm around her waist almost fiercely. "We'd never let that happen," he said. "Not that it's even possible, but if it somehow was, it wouldn't be."

Did that make sense? Probably not, but he felt like he had to express the sentiment anyhow.

[spin_kick_snap]

Not in the least and Kathy didn't care.

"I know you won't," she said, clinging to him just as fiercely. "We're together again and there's nothing that can change that."

[not_every_mage]

"I know," Anders said. "The three of us, no going back."

All of a sudden there was dust in the air, stinging his eyes.

[spin_kick_snap]

They must have suddenly started cutting a lot of onions downstairs.

"Thanks," Kathy said, looking into his eyes. "For taking another chance on me."