Hello @cartoonjessie ! It's me! I am Santa! Here is your gift, which is not late! To Ao3 you go!
Mr. Gold, an old acquaintance of the Mills family, and Belle French, a definite outsider, attend a holiday dinner for the rich and infamous.
"It's lovely."
The decor was a little different every time. But always tasteful. Now, there were twinkling lights and silvery ribbons as a nod to the holiday season. The odd spray of greenery or drape of a garland. But there was a chill in the air. One that had nothing to do with the temperature. Inside, or out, on the wind-whipped, snow-covered lawn.
It was chilly and impersonal in the house. Cora had that effect. If Gold hadn't visited the house before, he'd think she was renting the ground floor as a venue for her intimate dinner parties.
Like this one.
Though intimate dinner party really meant show of power.
Jemma and May, and a story for a home and its memories; for lives lost and the still living, and for a different sort of joy than you ever imagined.
A story inspired by this snippet by @meanderings0ul.
They’d finally shared details of their plans once the team was all together, lights strung up all over the Lighthouse for New Year’s and the old base so much warmer than it had once been.
May had flown them out here two days later with nothing much more than a I know a place. She’d borrowed a jeep from a hangar whose elder occupants greeted her with startled recognition, tugged the keys from her pocket upon arrival and opened the door for them in silence.
The house had been dusty inside, in almost perfect condition otherwise. It had that quietly melancholy air of a house long since empty, the faint scuffs on the wood polish and memories of warmth that meant it had once been lived in, loved. It wasn’t until Jemma saw the absent way May leaned her hip against a cabinet that wouldn’t shut properly unless you shoved it just right, the way she watched them walk around more than she looked at the house, that it finally clicked.
Derek licks his jaw lovingly as Stiles leans back into the wolf’s warmth. Sometimes when everything is calm, Derek likes to full shift and just lounge around. He’s been doing it in the bedroom more often though, and Stiles knows it’s to lure him into resting. It works nine out of ten times; Derek is gorgeous and his wolf form is majestic, but sometimes, like now, Stiles feels too jittery to sit down right away, so they compromise beforehand.
Finally home and just got laid down at a quarter after 2. Ate nasty 2 am McDonald's, took care of my cats, and now I can sleep for a while. Definitely worried about my little female Ani. She looks like she's lost weight and is super clingy and stressed. She had a little bit of food with water mixed in, and now she's gonna get some mad cuddles. Poor thing has been crying and panting since I got home.