just_another | [Open - Gathering

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[Open - Gathering - Baby Shower]

They're actually having a baby shower.

Joel is fairly certain his mother wouldn't have let them get away without something, even if he had insisted it be small and consist only of family, but for some reason he and Spencer have allowed themselves to be talked into a real shower. With invitations and food and little baby themed games to play. It's sort of strange, looking at it from his position, given that Erin is the one who's going to be giving birth and therefore is the one in the glowing pregnant woman position at this entire gathering.

She'd sweetly agreed to attend and had even whispered to Joel that she would take the brunt of the attention if she could manage it. He had whispered back that he knew they had picked her for a good reason.

But here they are. Several weeks have passed, the invitations have gone out and the decorations have been put up all over Joel and Spencer's living room. He had agreed to lift the enchantments on the house for the extent of the party, which means that anyone can open the door to their guests, they don't all have to be invited in by either Joel or Spencer, and it makes him a little nervous, but he understands the usefulness of others being able to answer the door. At least for today.

It's the decorations that keep getting to him. Sweet little ducks and zebras and monkeys, little jungle animals all over the walls. The bottle and rattle shaped cookies are pretty cute, but those aren't going to be left when the baby gets here. The animal theme, though, is fairly close to the nearly finished nursery Joel has been working on upstairs and he can't help but grin at the decorations.

Spencer, on the other hand, can't stop coming back round to the center of the living room to stare at the enormous sign that's been strung up above a table already stacked with gifts when a majority of their guests haven't even arrived yet. He'd been worried this morning that the day would overwhelm him, that knowing so many people would be coming into their home would be daunting when just a year ago, he'd never even once invited company over before meeting Joel; but so far, he feels calm, in spite of having had to watch Joel remove the enchantments that act as their security on the house. If someone wishes to crash a baby shower--which he doesn't imagine will happen anyway--then they'll have to face not only the wrath of a room that will be filled with witches and sirens, but the wrath of his mother- and sister-in-law, as well. That's not a sight Spencer thinks would be very pretty to witness.

Still, he feels light, perhaps a lingering effect of the having the chance to fall in love with Joel a second time during the spell that had taken over the town. Certainly, a great deal of his contentment has to do with the fact that he won't have to worry about losing his husband in a crowd but even beyond that, he's excited.

So much has changed in the course of the past year and weeks from now, they'll be holding their newborn in their arms for the very first time without another care in the world but for who they've been looking forward to meeting since they'd decided to take this journey together. There's something a bit strange about realizing that it's all coming to a head, that the waiting will soon be over and they'll be fathers at last, but when the first knock on the door comes, Spencer can't help but smile.

[Baby shower for Joel and Spencer's wee one. Erin, their surrogate, is present and is currently 31 weeks pregnant. If you're even a little friendly with either of them, Joel's mother sent an invitation, but the enchantments have been taken off the house for the event and so it's not an impossible party to crash. If anyone wants to crash a baby shower...]

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Caden has been feeling sort of off-kilter since the spell was broken. It was just so strange, having his mind messed with in such a way. It stirred things up between him and April in a way that he's still working through, and sometimes he finds himself forgetting which small detail is from which life. It's getting better, and it's all sorting itself out, but he's been mainly keeping to himself.

But he can't ignore something like Joel and Spencer's baby shower. He hasn't seen either of them since the spell ended, mainly because he still feels like he has some sort of bond with Joel, and he's sort of afraid that Joel won't have any sort of lingering effects from the spell. Caden's feelings have been getting him into all sorts of trouble lately, and he just doesn't want to embarrass himself.

Someone else lets him in and Caden moves through the growing crowd quietly, setting his neatly wrapped gift on the table with the rest. There aren't a lot of people here that he knows, and that makes him frown slightly. He's lived here for a long time now. He really should know more people.

He assumes anyone that resides in Joel and Spencer's inner circle must be good people, so maybe he'll make some friends here.

"So, I'm going to just come out and say it and risk my sister's wrath, but having a brother turned out to be a lot less dramatic," he says when he's close enough to Caden. He's close enough to Charlotte, too, apparently. A tiny plastic bottle gets chucked at him from nearby and it bounces off the side of his head before it lands on the floor.

"I suppose I should just be glad she emptied the apple juice first," he says, rubbing the place where it's hit him.

Well, it definitely serves to break the ice.

Caden turns to Joel with a smile, pleased that he brought it up at all, and then he finds himself laughing when the bottle hits him. He leans over to grab the bottle before someone steps on it and sets it on the table, looking over at Joel almost shyly.

"As someone who also has a little sister, let me just say that I agree with you." He laughs again and looks over at Joel's sister for a moment, and then turns his gaze back to Joel with slightly wide eyes. "And may the two of them never meet."

"If yours is anything like mine, I'm fairly sure this entire town would burn to the ground," Joel says and he had thought Charlotte was out of earshot at this point, but he's suddenly hit with a particularly vivid mental image of her burning down the bookstore. He knows she never would, but he shoots her a dirty look all the same.

"I just pray you don't have a magical psychic connection with yours, because that gets old fast, too," he says, though he doesn't mean it at all. It's been useful in the past, for knowing exactly what Charlotte needs of him and when she needs it.

"Hearing about my sister's exploits is enough. I can't even imagine being inside her head." Caden laughs, but at the mention of magic his expression goes a little more serious. Joel isn't exactly secretive with the fact that he's a witch and Caden is going a little crazy not talking to anyone about it.

"Hey, can we talk sometime? About magic, I mean. I, uh. I have some questions." He bites his lip and then smiles reassuringly. "I don't want to take away from your day or anything, but maybe we can get lunch later this week?"

"Yeah, of course," Joel says, looking at Caden curiously. "For something you're writing or..." He leaves it open ended, letting Caden say as much or as little as he wants on the subject. Joel really isn't worried about anything taking away from his day, not when he's awkward about parties in the first place and already feels out of place in his own home. A distraction might actually be good for him at the moment, but he's happy to leave it for a conversation over lunch as well.

"No, not for something I'm writing," Caden replies, reaching up to scratch the back of his head. He pauses for a moment and then sighs, wrinkling his nose and looking at Joel curiously. "Uh, remember how in the spell, sometimes weird things with the weather would happen around me?"

He bites his lip and then shrugs again, looking slightly bewildered. "It's happening here too."

Joel considers that for a moment, scratching the edge of his beard as he looks around the party. There are plenty of people here who have some kind of power, those who can heal or summon the elements or manipulate things to their will, but as far as he knows, they've always known about their powers.

"So you're thinking it's you," he says, looking back to Caden. It isn't entirely unheard of for a witch not to know what they can do, but he has to wonder what Caden's family may or may not know. What they may or may not be able to do themselves.

"Yeah, I mean. It started before the spell." He looks around the room and spots April, biting his lip before turning his gaze back on Joel. He doesn't want to tell her business, but it's sort of integral to the story. "April was in danger, and I kept thinking the weather matching my anger and fear was a coincidence, but it wasn't. It was me."

There's other little things, like how he can apparently create waves anytime he wants to surf, or how the air around him heats up when he's turned on, but Joel doesn't need to know those bits. "I just - I got angry, and it was like a hurricane was starting up. I'm a little freaked out. I don't want anything bad to happen. I just don't know how to control it."

Joel blinks, surprised by the revelation, and he thinks briefly of Aoife. For awhile there she hadn't seemed quite able to control her power either and they're similar to Caden's in a way. "Wow," he says, then huffs out a soft laugh. "That has to be something of a surprise."

He can't even begin to imagine. All his life he's known what he is, what he can do, but to never know, to only find out later, it must be confusing.

"Are your parents not... I mean, have you spoken to them at all about it? I'll do whatever I can to help, of course, it just might be a good idea to start there. At the source."

"Yeah," Caden says with a soft chuckle. "I've been writing about stuff like this for years. Imagine my surprise to move here and find out that not only is it all real, but I'm actually part of it."

He watches Joel curiously and furrows his brow for a moment before shaking his head. "It's genetic, then? I suppose that makes sense. My mom isn't magic. She's very open about her life. Way too open, really. She would have told me."

Caden's eyes widen and then he groans, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose while shaking his head. Fucking figures. "My father," he says, dropping his hand and shrugging. "He took off when I was five. It must have come from him, but I have no way of contacting him even if I would want to."

Joel is sure there's someone out there capable of finding Caden's father, but he doesn't say so. Not yet. That's something they might not need to approach at all and he isn't sure if Caden would even want to. Learning to control what he can do is more important than finding out where it's come from anyway.

"We should meet," he says. "You can tell me more and I can bring some books that might be able to get you started on trying to control it. Something like this... the weather..." He trails off and shakes his head. "Well, it needs to be controlled."

"Yeah, that'd be good. Like I said, I didn't want to take away from your day." He bristles a bit at that last part, irrationally, but still. He knows that he can be dangerous, and that's why he's doing this. He wants to learn. "I know it does. That's why I'm coming to you."

He bites his lip and reaches up to rub at the back of his neck, and then smiles and reaches out to grip Joel's shoulder. "But enough for now. You have presents to open, and then many thank you cards to write, by the look of it."

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just_another - 2015-05-24 17:30 (UTC) - Expand

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writtenby_caden - 2015-05-25 00:32 (UTC) - Expand

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writtenby_caden - 2015-05-26 23:22 (UTC) - Expand

"It's not fair that your gift looks so much nicer than mine," she says with a sigh. "I didn't have time to pay someone else to wrap it for me." And she's terrible at wrapping gifts. The edges are all crooked and it's not like wrapping books should be difficult, but someone she's managed to make it look like it was.

"Can we just tell them a herd of wild dogs tore through the room while I was wrapping?" she asks.

Edited 2015-05-06 21:35 (UTC)

"I think it has character," Caden tells her with a soft laugh, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. "It's nice that you did it yourself."

He's glad they came together, especially when he sees Les and Corry together on the other side of the room. He's not angry, or jealous, but it's just awkward. It's better that he isn't alone.

April is looking at him and Caden smiles at her, setting her gift on top of his and tucking her hair behind her ear. Things have been a little rough since the spell, but he feels so much better now that they've talked. It feels like they're on slightly more even footing, and it's like a weight off of Caden's shoulders.

"You look beautiful, by the way," Caden tells her. "But then again, the sky is still blue."

"Have you ever seen an ugly siren, though?" she asks with a laugh. There's no sense at all in pretending she doesn't know she's beautiful. She's seen herself in the mirror, she's seen the effect she has on men and women alike without even using her powers. April has a fairly healthy ego. "It comes with the territory."

She glances around the room, then slips her hand into Caden's. "I've never been to a baby shower before. It's so... cute." And she says it like it's not quite the good thing it should be, but she can't help it. For as much as she likes kids, she's never wanted her own and this entire scenario is a bit strange to her.

"Perhaps not," Caden replies, rolling his eyes in fond exasperation. "But I've seen a lot of beautiful people, and none of them make me react quite the way you do."

He doesn't compliment April to stroke her ego. He doesn't do it for any particular reason. Something will pop into his head and he'll just say it. He wants her to know how he feels. She slips her hand into his and Caden smiles softly, squeezing it as he looks around the room.

"I've been to a few, but they seem to generally be no boys allowed." Caden's friends all seem to be in prime baby-making mode, so he's always sending gifts. Sometimes Caden feels like he's missing out on something, but he's happy with his life the way it is for now. "I wonder if there are any games lined up."

He wrinkles his nose and then spots Joel and Spencer in the center of the room, arms looped around each other's waists as they greet their guests. "They look really happy."

"God, I better not be expected to do anything cutesy and disgusting like putting chocolate bars in diapers," April says, wrinkling her nose. She likes Spencer and she still needs to apologize to him, but her affection for him only goes so far and it does not extend to silly baby themed party games. And she doesn't actually understand the rules of the chocolate bars in diapers game, but she knows she's heard of it and she knows she doesn't want to understand any further than she has to.

She relaxes into a bit of a smile when Caden looks over at the ridiculously happy couple. "You know what's fun? Pretending to flirt with Spencer. Don't actually do it, because then he gets weird, but just make it sort of look like you are. It makes his husband turn colours."

And it's probably kind of mean, but there's no real intention behind it. She knows Spencer's husband doesn't like her and she doesn't particularly care. It amuses her more than anything.

"April," Caden says in an admonishing tone, but he's laughing all the same. It sounds like something she would do, her idea of fun, and he can only imagine Joel's reaction. He looks over at Joel thoughtfully, brow furrowing a bit. He knew Joel so well back in that other land, and he'd like to get to know him better here, see what matches up.

It was just really nice to have a brother.

He wraps his arm around April's waist and tugs her in against his side, leaning in to press his lips against her temple, smiling against her skin. "Why don't you stick with flirting with me today, huh?"

"But that's what everyone expects," she protests, tilting her head to look up at him. "It's so much more fun my way." She wonders if she can get kicked out of a baby shower for flirting with one of the dads. Joel's mother looks like she might happily play bouncer to anyone who upsets her son and April has to admit that she likes to push the boundaries just a little. Just to see what happens.

"But fine, I'll play nice," she says. "Only because I think Joel's mother might be able to kick my ass even if I used a taser on her."

She looks like the type. Tough and protective. The kind of parent April has never had.

"I'm sure it is," Caden says with an amused chuckle. He takes her hand and pulls her in so that she's facing him. He slides his hands around her waist, squeezing a bit. "That's very big of you, but if you absolutely have to flirt with someone, I'll fall on that sword. You know, because I care."

He blinks innocently, but then he winks and smirks a bit, eyes bright and happy.

"Oh and that's very big of you," she answers with a laugh. "Are you trying to impress someone in particular, Mr. Carter or are you just always like this?"

It's still a little strange to be at a baby shower. A little too perfect loving family for April's tastes and she doesn't know what to do here. There's never been a place she can't fit in simply because she can lie her way through it, but people here know her. She can't suddenly pretend to be sweet as pie, the type of woman who'd feel at home in this sort of situation.

"Are you saying that I don't always impress you, Ms. Ross?" He laughs and leans in to give her a quick kiss, taking her hand before leading her through the room. "Let's grab some food."

It's obvious, to Caden at least, that April isn't exactly comfortable here. So Caden is happy to stay on the fringes of the crowd with her and act like a buffer, if that's what she needs. He's right where he wants to be anyway.

"I finished that chapter I was working on," he says conversationally, just before eating a piece of fruit. His writing schedule as of late has been not so much a schedule as sporadic bursts of creativity, and he obviously went two weeks without touching the thing at all, but it feels good to have gotten something done, at least.

"Good," she says, her smile growing a little more relaxed, a little more genuine. She truly has no idea what it must be like, writing like that, being on a schedule, needing to produce something to have to his editor by a certain date. What she does is creative itself in a way, she's a performer on most levels, but she can't tell Caden that.

Not yet.

There are days when she thinks she should, that she'll have to, but she's never been sure how to approach it. Maybe she can just forget it, leave it alone. It isn't as if she's actively working now anyway, not since Miami.

"So what's this one about?" she asks with a teasing grin. "Was it heavily inspired by yours truly?"

"Maybe you'll just have to wait and read the book like everyone else," Caden says with a teasing grin, watching her as he snaps off the end of a celery stalk with his teeth. It's true that his latest protagonist is inspired by April, and was before they even got together, but Caden tries not to draw too much from her. Still, he can't help the way her face sometimes comes to mind when he's writing. She's inspiring, to say the least.

"She just had to rescue the reporter that she's been pretending that she doesn't like," Caden says after a moment, excited to share it with her. He likes having someone to talk to about his work, likes rambling about plot points he's excited about, or ideas he's come up with. Usually it's Callie who gets that dubious honor, but Caden is sure that his sister doesn't mind sharing that burden with April.

"They had their first kiss," Caden says casually, though there's a teasing edge to his smile. "About to head into their big love scene. Maybe I should do some research."