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

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.

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That got a laugh out of Coby, because he'd heard it so often, and it was so very true. "Yeah, yeah. Try going through a rebellious teenager phase when your parents are okay with all the fun stuff.

"I would have had to join the Young Republicans or become a skinhead or something - and that wasn't happening."

Sunny lifted a hand and impulsively ran it over Coby's hair, "Clearly not. Couldn't let this mane die." As if that was the reason.

Edited 2018-01-18 01:33 (UTC)

As if that was the reason. He leaned into the touch and winked. "Says the girl with the awesome 'fro." The awesome afro he wasn't going to touch in return. Not without permission. He wasn't that clueless.

Sunny snickered and, taking a stab in the dark, offered, "Go ahead, by the way."

Coby eyed her rather than taking her up on the offer. "Is that 'go ahead, I'll let you,' or 'go ahead, I want you to? If it's the first, we're good."

"I'll let you," Sunny clarified with a shrug. "You know I'm not a Chia pet."

Instead of running a hand over her hair, Coby draped an arm over her shoulders. "Anybody treats you like a Chia pet, I want in on you punching them out. Or at least a ringside seat."

Sunny not only let him, she even sidled a little closer. "I'm practically waiting for it. It's one thing in London... in a place where people are coming in from different eras? I'll be lucky if no one whips out racial slurs eventually."

He hadn't thought about that. Of course, he hadn't had to think about that. "May your teaching moment be swift and unquestioned when that happens."

"That's one of the nicest thing I think anybody's wished for me," Sunny said, and the sad part was that she wasn't sure that she didn't mean that entirely sincerely.

Coby shrugged, still not taking his arm from around Sunny's shoulders. "I mean, if they're from another time or another world, you can't really blame them from not knowing. The first time. But you set them straight, and that should be the end of it." It rarely was. Racism was too ingrained in people, and Coby knew he still fucked up more than he meant to, but he tried.

"I'd get in a lot fewer fights if it was that easy," Sunny laughed, the kind of laugh that was trying to force cheer rather than express it. But it was a party, she couldn't let herself get down now.

"Yeah." That was the part that sucked. "At least I know ahead of time that when I screw up, you'll let me know about it right away."

His arm tightened around her again. "I mean, I'm going to try not to, but... white boy, there's going to be things I don't know to think about."

She kissed his cheek. Gestures like this weren't exactly common for Sunny, but when the people with you were all you had left in the world, it changed things. "Yeah, but you care, you listen, and you try. I can work with that. I had to dump Fin once I realized he could do literally none of those things."

Part of Coby wanted to question that. But. "Fin reminds me of a lot of faces I knew back in LA. Not friends, but the kind of people whose circles overlapped enough you couldn't really escape them. They say they want friends, but what they really want are fans."

"He told me that clearly I didn't give a shit about his feelings, after I told him I didn't want to discuss relationships with him anymore," Sunny said quietly. She started to take a breath and put the subject away, but instead found she had more to let out. "After I protected him and comforted him and listened to his problems and babysat Winter and Phouka, and kept my mouth shut about how much I didn't like Willy before he danced his way across the moral event horizon, he fucking dared to tell me I didn't care. I haven't spoken to him since."

"He–" The rest of the question did make it out of Coby's mouth; he shook his head instead. He hadn't known how bad, what a complete and total asshole Fin was. Maybe because they hadn't been as close as Fin and Sunny. But that was all bullshit, and Coby said so. "That's some bullshit. He's lucky if all you did was shut him out completely."

Sunny shrugged. "I was still processing breaking up with Faizel. Of course we'd barely done anything, but breakup is the best way I can put it. The less likely I was to hear Fin tell me that we could work through it if we really loved each other enough, the better."

Oh for fuck's sake. "Wow. That's even more bullshit. I had no idea." People broke up for all kinds of reasons, and most of the time in fucking hurt, even when it was the best thing or when you were the one to make the cut. Love was great, but it wasn't some magic wand that made everything okay.

"But I refuse to end the year, or start the next one, on a super-depressing, 'that guy's an asshole' note. Sunny Nwazue, wanna dance?" he asked, holding out his hand, palm up, for hers.

"Think of it as leaving it behind, so I don't have to carry it into the new year." If possible, she didn't want to think about Fin ever again at all.

Accepting his hand, Sunny asked, "Kiss me at midnight?" It was a whim, an instinct, and it popped out before she really registered what she was asking. But she didn't regret it once she did.

He used the grasp of her hand to pull her close before they moved toward the dance floor. "At midnight. Tomorrow. Anytime you like." Maybe it sounded light, teasing, but his eyes on hers were steady and serious as the promise.

"Happy New Year, Sunshine."

All Sunny had wanted was the feeling of being kissed by a man who wasn't full of hesitation and fear. She wanted someone to kiss her without flinching. That was all.

The counteroffer was for rather more than giving into a whim of hers, and Sunny felt her face go pink as she followed him to the dance floor. "You too."

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

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