[GP] Réveillon & New Year's Eve & Check-In

[st_rangepalette]

Emma had said, during Winter's Crest, that she missed a tradition from home called réveillon. She seemed also to miss her cousin, as Lillith missed hers. Since she wished both to learn to cook and to be of comfort to her friend, it had been decided they would make a réveillon dinner for New Year's Eve.

Yet when Emma began to lay out the courses -- oyster soup and potato & leek soup, salad, a gumbo, venison roast, cheeses, and creme brulee, plus several hors d'ouevres not yet decided -- Lillith quailed at the size of the undertaking. Surely she would wish someone to assist who could contribute more than roasted rabbit, wheat or potato flour dumplings, and koláč.

Since Sunny likewise missed her family and would certainly wish a distraction, when she entered the cafe where they were planning, the other two seized upon her almost at once. Sunny could hardly resist their dual entreaty, even had she wished to, and Lillith thought she seemed even more ready for company than previously. Of course Sunny had offerings of her own: jolloff rice, peppered chicken, and fried plantain.

Between they three, the planning and the cooking were very nearly merry, and Lillith kept them liberally supplied with champagne (her personal favorite), too. By late afternoon of the eve of the new year, they had begun lining tables with dishes, and enlisted the help of other friends to make the evening event widely known.

Of course, in addition to the réveillon feast that took over the steakhouse, alcohol flowed freely, lights sparkled brightly, the nightclub had music for dancing. And at some point the Inn or Caroline or Regina hung mistletoe from several of the primary entrances and exits so that unless one wished to or was unaware of the tradition, no one (not even any new arrivals) need greet the new year unkissed.

Comments

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

Regina gave up a soft sigh into his kiss, melted into it and him. Her fingers curled into his shirt, and when they parted, her expression was soft, almost adoring. "Is it midnight yet? I've never had a proper New Year's Eve kiss from a man I... from anyone who mattered."

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

"Almost, but not quite midnight," but he didn't plan on going anywhere so he'd be here when the time came.

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

Since they had time and it would be inappropriate to spend the minutes clinging to him like a limpet, Regina found his hand and threaded their fingers together. "Do you make resolutions?"

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

Inappropriate but likely enjoyable, still he didn't complain and let her fingers tangle with his.

"Not usually," He was too old to put stock in resolutions. "Why? You have one in mind?"

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

"No." Regina hummed a thoughtful note as her free hand came to rest at his hip. "My resolutions usually end with someone dead. I think I'll stick to desires."

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

"Is that my cue to ask what you desire for the new year?" He smiled ferally, eyes flashing yellow as he looked down at her.

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

"Far be it from me to tell you what you should do with the remainder of this year." Banked flame smoldered in her eyes and in her voice. She hadn't intended it to be so provocative, but somehow between them, it always was. "But if you ask, I will tell you."

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

He'd been thinking longer term than just the remainder of the year, considering it didn't have much time left but he'd take what he could get.

"I'm asking."

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

Once asked, she found it was harder to put them into words than she had imagined. "To be a good mother, first, always." Her lips pursed, pressing lightly together. "To enjoy every minute that I have with you, and not to be afraid of endings and loss. To cook a meal for you and Snow that you will want to eat." She would need to learn to cook first.

There were others, more complex, less susceptible of verbal explanations. In time, she might find a way, but not tonight.

"To enjoy each other, of course, in every way we know and every way we haven't thought of yet."

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

The last got a smile, "I think if you were to ask Snow she'd say you have the first covered. And I'll do whatever I need to, to help with the second."

She was on her own learning to cook. He could grill. But that was about it.

"And it sounds like I should start warming up my imagination."

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

Snow would say she had been good to her, yes. But staying good was a different matter. It required her to practice mindfulness every day, every time they spoke, every time she thought of her daughter and she did it gladly.

The cooking, she would talk to Ignis about. The rest...

"Be here for the traditional midnight kisses, the walks in the moonlight, the tears in the sauna and just keep telling me it's where you want to be. That's how you help." She leaned in to press a kiss to his throat. "And, of course, by exercising your powerful imagination."

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

"Waiting until midnight for the traditional kiss might strain my control but I'll do my best with that and all the other things." He wasn't good at the telling, showing might have to be enough, but he would try.

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

"You don't have to wait til midnight, as long as you also kiss me at midnight." What a silly conversational gambit. Silly and lighthearted and sweet, and it was nothing she'd shared with anyone else before. "Do you have any particular desires I can satisfy for you this year, wolf?"

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

"You've given me enough," he said meaningfully and bent to kiss her since he had permission not to wait.

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

"Beg to differ," she murmured as their mouths met. She hadn't given him near enough of herself yet, or her love.

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

They would have to agree to disagree, there was a niggle in the back of his mind that he was doing his best to ignore. He knew how strong Regina's magic was but he knew the Norn and there was something about this that was too simple.

Instead of focusing on it and letting that idea coalesce he focused on the kiss.

"Are we playing nice and sticking around for midnight?" Or was he allowed to drag her off somewhere quieter.

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

Her fingers traced his jawline and paused, lingering against his stubble for the few extra seconds it took for her to focus again after his kiss. "If you have something else in mind, I could be persuaded."

Aesop would need a romp at some point, but he was a good dog and he'd wait unless they decided to have a moonlight walk before bed. Gods, she was swooning like a teenager with a crush.

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

"I always have something else in mind," though the dog would probably come first, just because once they were in bed he had no plans to get back out.

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

"Mmm." She tilted her, trying to gauge his mood and his desires. "I think I'll take my midnight kiss in the moonlight, then. Where we don't have to play nice."

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

His mood and desire summed up to playful and her.

"No more mister nice wolf?" He asked with a grin as he stepped back and took her hand. "Moonlit kiss I can arrange."

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

"No more Ms. Nice Witch," Regina answered by way of agreement and placed her hand in his. Her eyes flashed with warm mischief. "It's been awhile since we ravished each other by moonlight, wolf. Revisit the scene of our old crimes?"

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

That got a warm smile, as he remembered their first time had been by moonlight.

"Why don't you grab a bottle of something bubbly and I'll get a blanket and meet you out front."

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

"Or I could--" She gestured like she was opening a cabinet and retrieved first the bubbly, no need for glasses, and then seemed to open another, and withdrew a blanket and handed both to him. "So that I don't have to suffer the absence of your company for even that long."

Unless, of course, he'd wanted a few minutes to himself. She frowned mildly down at her hands. "Expediency sometimes gets the better of me. If you needed a few minutes, please take them. I'll meet you out front."

Re: For Regina

[st_arknaked]

"Regina," his face creased in serious lines as he looked down at her, lifting her chin so she was returning his gaze.

"If I wanted time, I'd say I wanted time." He didn't and wouldn't play games like that and someday maybe she'd actually believe him.

Re: For Regina

[st_oriedqueen]

Sighing, Regina nodded and brushed her knuckles against his abdomen. "I know," she said softly.

She always tried too hard, was too much, broke things with her needs, and wanting everything to be perfect was just the latest manifestation of it. And anticipating manipulations and deceptions was so much a part of her past that she sometimes forgot she could put away with him.

"I feel like a teenager. Giddy and wild with wanting to impress you, to have your gaze on me, and afraid I'll screw everything up." I'm in love with you, and I always lose what I love.