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

[vdistinctive]

"Sounds like that'd be . . . two against two," Eliot guessed. "So you'd be the tie-breaking vote."

That was totally how that worked.

Also, Eliot had totally ended up being the family disappointment and not speaking to his father for 20 years, so he maybe wasn't the best person to talk to about parental approval.

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka shook her head, thinking about that.

"No, I think Mother and Father would just kill my papas," she decided. "And Papa Hannibal isn't very much of a fighter, so he'd be easy to kill."

Papa Jono was harder to figure out.

"And my papas would give me a vote, but not my Mother and Father. So, so I guess I'll just do what I like for now."

Eventually someone would decide what she was supposed to do with her life.

[vdistinctive]

. . . Yeah, Eliot wasn't willing to mark Hannibal down as that easy to kill.

"Your Mother and Father kill people a lot?"

[that_oldsaying]

"Oh, yes," Alluka said, all big eyes. "Everyone in my family are assassins but me."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded slowly. "You ever want to just . . . not have to worry about that anymore, let me know," he said. "I've dealt with an assassin or two in my time."

At least three people would probably yell at him for thinking even briefly about just quietly taking out a student's parents for them, but hey. An offer needed to be made.

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka wasn't stupid.

She was childish, and silly, and liked toys more than most people even now that she was allowed out of her room, but she wasn't stupid.

She knew what he was offering.

She studied him for a moment, terribly serious. "I think you'd die and Kathy would never forgive me," she said. "But I appreciate the offer."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded, not bothering to question her assessment. He knew his own abilities, but she knew that of her family. There was no point in arguing.

"You've done real good by me and mine," he said instead. "If there's somethin' you need I can provide, you're always welcome to ask, got it?"

[that_oldsaying]

Eliot was probably super good (since he was basically Kathy's Papa) but Alluka's parents were super powered assassins with generations of training behind them.

It was a totally unfair contest.

"I'll remember," Alluka said respectfully. Then ruined it by grinning again. "Though I don't know what I'd need, honestly."

[vdistinctive]

Basically nothing. Eliot was Kathy's dad now, they had the papers to prove it and everything.

"Ain't got to ask for it right now," he said, smiling back. "Any friend of Kathy's, you know?"

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka didn't know that! She just thought he was Kathy's Jono person.

There were no papers for her and her papas.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But I'll trust you."

[vdistinctive]

"Thanks," Eliot said, sounding slightly surprised. He'd made a lot of really good friends in the years since he'd left the "dark side", but he still didn't get many people telling him they trusted him like that. "Now, let's see what we've got to eat, huh?"

[that_oldsaying]

"Kathy said there'd be chocolate," Alluka shared conspiratorially. "I'm going to go find it all."

[vdistinctive]

"Don't doubt it for a second," Eliot said. "I can tell you there's a lot of it, though."

Seriously. There was a hell of a lot of chocolate in this meal.