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

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo turned up early. She'd even brought snacks if the pastry box in her hand was anything to go by.

It wasn't old times, though, and she knew it. But that didn't mean things had to be worse than they had been. Just different.

So there she was, determined to have a good time catching up with her senpai and other friends she hadn't seen in a while.

Knocking on the door with one hand and balancing a box of sweets on the other. Well, that brought back memories, and a nostalgic little smile.

[tigerundercover]

Raven was there, mimicking a chic, pale yellow partty dress and doing a very good impersonation of a young woman who wasn’t basically half-feral at this point. She’d helped out with the prep as much as Kathy would let her, and if she occassionally wandered off to sit in her old bedroom, well. Shemissed this place, okay?

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante was relaxed. He'd showed up early in his wrecked jeans and a red leather jacket (but only because wearing the full coat Anders had given him seemed weird right now) and dropped his ass into a seat.

"So what's cooking, Kat?"

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka showed up right on time, bunny in arms. She was possibly over-dressed but then, really, that was just Alluka's style. Her hair had taken her the longest to do.

She wasn't really sure what to do once she was there, though. Her nerves from the day had made her feel shy and awkward about being here.

[vdistinctive]

"Cookie says they got plenty of extra to send up if folks want seconds," Eliot reported, putting his phone back into his pocket. (What? Just because he wasn't in the kitchen on this one didn't mean he wasn't going to make sure his staff didn't screw around on it.) "You notice anything we forgot, darlin'?"

[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.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra showed up in a tailored suit and with a bottle of wine.

And then proceeded to sort of... casually stay out of everyone's way. He was good at that: looking absolutely at ease while watching people, regardless of whether he was actually at all at ease or not.

(He wasn't.)

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison was another one of the guests who'd decided to err on the dressier side of things, wearing one his nice suits for the occasion. Look, sometimes a man just liked getting dressed up, strutting around a bit for the appreciation of his partners, reflecting well on his TA, and then heading home to enjoy the earlier partner-appreciation he'd built up.

[whoisalicewhite]

Parker also appreciated all the chocolate. Almost as much as she appreciated that it had been a year since everything changed again-- in a good way, this time.

So there might have been side-hugs, while offering Kathy more of the treats.