Here comes santa claus!

[callmeemily]

The holiday this year is so incredibly different than the last.

Last year? Raleigh was holed up in the boarding house, no one in 300 miles but her shitty boss knew her name, and she was so poor that she was eating rice, beans, and leftovers from the Seaside bakery.

This year, everything's changed. Orchard House is chugging along astoundingly well; Raleigh puts in long hours, but it's paying off. She's been able to hire somebody else to work the register, she's getting custom orders - the whole thing. She has friends. Honest to god friends, and she's got enough money that she's actually got presents for people. For a lot of people - it's a mix of cookies and things, but there's a little something for everybody piled on the table in the back corner, and one mass-text later she's humming through the bakery, music playing from the speakers, warm cider in a carafe, and everything's warm and cozy.

She looks at it, at this business that she's made with the help of this whole town, and she can't help but smile. Tonight? Spending tonight with friends and found-family? That's what this whole thing's about.

Gathering post! Raleigh will tag everyone who tags in, but feel free to tag one another, too. :) It's up to you if they have gotten a text, or just heard the music and seen the crowd. Everyone'll get something!

Comments

[coopdetat]

Coop gets the text while he's wrapping up some paperwork at the clinic and smiles when he sees that it's an invite from Raleigh. He writes back a teasing message about how he's hurt that he isn't worth a personal invitation, stuck instead with being included as one of the masses, but adds that he'll be there as soon as he's finished up with work and is true to his word. He has gifts for her back home, but he doesn't want to stop there to get them and besides, it's not even actual Christmas yet so he figures he can just shoot give Joel or Spencer a call later to see if stopping by on the holiday will be okay. He doesn't imagine they'll say no. Plus, he wants to see the tree he'd helped them set up last week because he's only got a janky one at home since the dogs are way too fucking mischievous for their own good.

So he shows up at the bakery after a quick run to the store for a bottle of Grey Groose--he'd gone in for wine but he and Raleigh have had fun with Grey Goose before so it'd caught his eye instead--and walks into the already upbeat atmosphere in Orchard House with a wide grin. He's been burying himself in work again, just like he always does when he's avoiding reality, but this is good. This is a better kind of escape, one that he thinks he'd like to stick around for as long as he can, and he sets the Grey Goose on the countertop while he scans the room, looking for the host or another familiar face.

[callmeemily]

Raleigh's had sort of weird feelings about Coop lately - obviously, they're friends, but she's touched that he stayed with her after everything that happened, and the possibility of him being gone when he'd vanished, but then there's his ex in town - there's a lot, but the one thing that she knows for absolute certainty is that he's her friend.

Right up there, though, is how much stress he's got to be under - and it's one of the reasons that she's so happy that he was able to make it. "Hey!" She can't stop the bright smile, and Raleigh pauses to set down her cocoa before she makes her way to him, and doesn't even hesitate before she hugs him tight, pulling back just a little to look up at him. "I was hoping you'd make it! Merry Christmas, you." She's a little more unsteady on her feet then usual- the Christmas orders had been through the roof, and she's a burning the candle on both ends just a tad - plus her mom's... well. She's less than thrilled that Raleigh's staying home for Christmas, instead of coming down to Tennessee, but that just adds to why she's determined to have a good time and throw herself head first into holiday cheer.

[coopdetat]

Keeping a low profile over the past month has left him craving quality time with his friends, and Coop is more than happy to gather Raleigh into a big hug and nestle his cheek against her shoulder. He has to bend down to it because she's like, a full foot shorter than him, but he doesn't mind. He's never minded because whether she knows it or not, whether she tries or not, Raleigh always seems to give him some of the warmest hugs he's ever received at the times he needs them most. He still wonders sometimes if she's uncomfortable around him because of the time they'd kissed, if maybe the fact that things haven't changed for him somehow makes it all worse, but he brushes those thoughts aside because she's smiling so widely at him right now that it's kind of impossible to let himself believe that anything could be wrong between them.

"Merry Christmas to you, too," he answers with a laugh, though he raises an eyebrow because she wavers in his arms, and Coop has to grip her shoulders to keep her steady. "Drinking and baking again? How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?" He keeps his tone light, teasing, but he's already casually guiding her over to a couple vacated seats in one corner of the store. It's her party, sure, but that doesn't give her any less of a right to take a load off for a bit. If anything, it gives her the only right. "So what's new? Anything super exciting happen since your roommate had a demon banished from his body?"

[callmeemily]

The good news is that she's definitely not feeling like anything is uncomfortable between them - it's just a bit of a mess, the way it's always been. Someday, maybe they'll talk about it - but considering how it's gone so far, it's not all that likely, and that's okay with her.

She knows what he's doing when he just sort of guides her to the plush chairs tucked into the corner, but she doesn't turn him down. She's tired and her leg hurts like a son of a bitch today, and it's just the kind of thing that she remembers last instead of first. That if she doesn't rest up enough, that other people can tell. "A million more times, until I actually start listening," she said with a laugh. "And hey, I'm not the one who brought vodka to a bakery, mister."

"Not all that much is new," she says, thinking for a second. "I mean, stuff here? Really good. Really, really good with all the Christmas orders - I think it'll slow down in January, but I've been kept on my toes." She makes a face. "I mean, if it's either pretty boring or demons, I think I'd takes demons any day, you know?" She still- it bothers her. Not the whole way it went down, she's thankful that everyone came out of it safe and there were just some drywall repairs, but-- She's been thinking a lot about what it means to be human, here. To have things go bump in the night that you never even really knew what they were, or how they could kill you, until it'd happened. Demons are real. So are hydras, apparently. Les's transformed things into other things more times than she can count, and every single time it makes her feel incredibly uneasy. He does it without thought - but she wonders, sometimes, what would happen if he was upset. If he could just... change things, because he felt like it.

But right now? Right now that doesn't matter, because it's Christmas, and Coop's here, and the entire store is full of happy, laughing people, and the smell of baked goods and cider, and that's what's important. "I do, though, have stuff for you. If, you know, now works." She's smiling at him over her mug of mulled cider. "How about you? You still working too much?" Like she could talk.

[coopdetat]

There's skepticism in his eyes when she says she'd rather take the demons, and Coop knows she's probably being just a tiny bit facetious, but he's starting to miss what 'normal'--whatever that really is, at least, especially here in Siren Cove--had felt like before everything had kind of just exploded in the confines of his life. "You take the demons, I'll take the boring," he says, "because the last demon was so not fun to deal with, fuck that."

Watching his friends nearly get killed has never been on his bucket list, but he guesses he can cross it off now with hopes of never having to witness that kind of thing again--even though he knows that's as good as asking for it because this town is insane. Whenever things are calm in Siren Cove, it's only because there's a shitstorm soon to follow, and that's been proven over and over again with that Hydra, the cruise, the demon, the fucking cave, all of it. Coop's lived here for a majority of his life, he's always been able to take things in stride, but sometimes he wonders if maybe things aren't always just going to get worse. Still, hardly anyone leaves, and he wonders if that's more to due with the town itself or the people in it.

"Anyway, yeah, lots of paranoid clients bringing in their pets to make sure none of them are sick. At least they're vigilant, right?" Plus, it puts money in his pocket, and he's not in it only to win it, but Coop can't deny that it doesn't help make his already awesome job just a little sweeter; and if he scores a number at the end of the day, well, it would just be rude not to call it. "It's good, though, you know? Keeps me busy. Passes the time. Then again, it leaves me less time to come to stuff like this, so I wonder if I should just close down shop for a week sometime soon and just be on-call instead."

He glances around the bakery, as if seeing it for the first time even though he already knows how busy it'd been when he'd walk inside. "You've got your work cut out for you, though, huh? There's tons of people here, and I'm willing to bet a lot of them are already repeat customers."

[callmeemily]

Raleigh's brows furrow when he says she can take the demons, and her eyes widen a little. "God, I must be more tired than I thought. I meant the boring. No demons. I can't- I don't know if you got the memo, but I'm sort of a sitting duck when it comes to that kind of thing," she said with a sort of laugh that's more uncomfortable than anything, and she just looks away.

She really- It's not a thing she really wanted to even think about tonight, about the people she cares about being possessed and demons being a thing and all of it. All of the shit that goes bump in the night.

Swallowing hard, she takes a swallow of her cider, because he's moved on to talking about work, and tthat's something she can actually relate to. She nods, and her smile's a little more real when he talks about taking time off. "You really should, if you don't need to work quite as much all the time." She knows he's under a lot of pressure, so being kind to himself... it might help.

"Well, this is just kind of... friends. Friends and friends of friends. Nothing's on sale tonight, it's just kind of a party. But... yeah, we're doing pretty well. Lots of business, lots of orders for catering and stuff, so it's... it's going to really well," she says with a smile, looking around the cozy bakery. It really seemed to have worked out well. Sure, it was a hell of a lot of work, but... she honestly felt pretty proud of it.

[remotecontrol]

Shea Cooper exists, to Charlotte, almost peripherally. She hears about him now and then, either from Raleigh or Joel or Spencer, but he isn't someone that she would claim to know very well at all. She knows, however, that he helped last month, that he is part of the reason that Joel is still alive, and she is grateful to him for that. When she notices him in the bakery, she wonders if she should thank him personally. It's the reason why she walks over, but then she spots the bottle in his hands and her eyebrows shoot straight up.

"Wow, I didn't realize it was gonna be that kind of Christmas party."

[coopdetat]

Coop knows who Charlotte is, of course he does, he's seen her around town since she's moved back and normally, he'd have gone right up to her for a good old-fashioned flirting session but there's got to be some kind of bro code that prevents him from doing that with a friend's younger sister--especially a friend that he'd spent a lot of time also flirting with in the past. But Joel has become a much closer, much more trustworthy friend to him over the course of the past few months, and Coop's found that he's weirdly willing to do a hell of a lot to make sure Joel and Spencer are okay, that they're safe and have help when they need it, because they're good people. It means something, to know that good people give a shit about him, too.

Of course, that doesn't mean that he can't flirt now that she's approached him, right? Totally different.

"Oh, it's definitely that kind of Christmas party," he answers with a grin, holding the bottle a little higher up and out toward her. "It can be now, at least. Eight or nnine shots of this, and we could be dueting along with these Christmas songs in no time."

[remotecontrol]

"That is probably the only way you could get me to duet a Christmas song," Charlotte says. She doesn't know about the eight or nine shots, however. It sounds like this guy has severely overestimated her alcohol tolerance. Which, taking into account the sheer size of him, is not at all surprising. He's like a giant compared to her. A very muscular giant. Isn't he a veterinarian or something? She didn't realize they came in such nice packaging.

[coopdetat]

"In that case, we should probably get started," Coop answers, smiling broadly as he unscrews the cap from the Grey Goose and grabs a couple mugs so he can pour them the shots. "Don't tell your brother about this, by the way. Great guy, but I'm a little paranoid that he might actually try to kill me if he hears that I'm flirting with you." He arches an eyebrow as holds one of the mugs out to her. "Trying to, anyway. How am I doing so far, any tips for improvement?"

[keirasullivan]

"If it isn't my wayward neighbour," Keira muttered, poking Coop in the ribs and cutting in front of a few people to talk to him. Well, cutting in front of a few people and Coop. "You owe me big Shea."

Keira never called Coop his actual name because that would be like giving in to him. Far too easy and far too uncomplicated and Keira lived for making her life a tangled knot of not sleeping or falling for anyone.

"You still have not been on a date with my friend, you know Gen's practically heartbroken. You can't tell but on the inside she is," Keira replied poking him in his well formed pecs.

[coopdetat]

The use of his first name prompts Coop to give her a dirty look, not that it lasts long because he's knocking her hand away from his side but if he's honest, he doesn't hated. He's never hated it, not really, 'Coop' is just a nickname that had been given to him in high school and had stuck. He's just never really bothered to tell anyone that calling him 'Shea' is fine with him, but it always makes it mean something a little more when people actually do.

Granted, Keira's just giving him shit so it probably means absolutely nothing to her. It doesn't matter, though, she can keep doing it because he kind of likes the way it sounds coming from her.

"Heartbroken, huh?" He rolls his eyes playfully as he knocks her hand away again before reaching for the bottle of vodka he'd brought. "Well, you can tell her that she can come here and drown her sorrows with some booze. The three of us, how about that? It'll totally be the best Christmas Eve either of you will ever have."

[keirasullivan]

"She's screaming herself to sleep, pulling out her hair, if she wasn't so good in bed then it would be really unattractive." Keira teased, making a face at him as he batted her hand away. Just for that she presses her hand just beneath her arms, a spot she knows has always made her particularly ticklish. "Oh, the three of us? I see, not content with actually fucking me for once you want both of us? I'm not sure if she's that kind of woman, she might be but... I think when you finally get round to seducing me I was kind of expecting your full attention."

[coopdetat]

"I'm not sure I want to meet her anymore..." Coop trails off, arching an eyebrow, though he can't wipe amused smirk off his face. Keira makes it hard to be serious sometimes, if only because it's so easy to be playful around her, and he likes that about their friendship. She keeps him relaxed, keeps him chill, and Coop significantly prefers that over anything else. Having to think hard about what he should do or say with a person, that's not fun for him, just more of a pain in the ass than he wants to deal with, and Keira always seems happy to let him be himself.

"Aw, you know what, that might be the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me," Coop says, batting his lashes for her before leaning in to press a sloppy kiss to her cheek. "You know I'd be happy to have you take me for a spin any day."

[keirasullivan]

"Of course you do, she's ridiculously hot and I've actually slept with her so clearly she is one up on you." Keira replied dryly. Pushing him in the chest, she leaned away from the sloppy kiss despite the fact her hands might have betrayed a little by curling up and getting tangled in her clothes. Letting go of him she wiped her cheek and gave him a look. "You're worse than one of your clients and puppies at least have the ability to be cute about it. And I know you would but the last time I almost gave in to you, you blew it by throwing a huge party so sucks to be you."

[asharpertongue]

"Aren't you cold?" Lara asked, looking up at Coops short hair. "I'm getting you a hat for christmas."

[coopdetat]

"I'm too hot to be cold," Coop retorts, running a hand through his hair and grinning. It's not that dramatic of a difference, just a trim, but he'd needed it and there's really no better time to look his best than during the holidays. "Anyway, the person I had in my bed last night didn't mind it. Then again, I'm not sure she was paying much attention to it in the first place."

[asharpertongue]

Lara grinned. "Not if you were doing your job right, no." She leaned in to hug Coop and kissed his cheek. "How are you, Coop? Staying out of trouble?"

[coopdetat]

He slings an arm around her to hold her tight to his chest before letting go, giving her a playful wink as he pulls away. "You know me, I'm always out of trouble. Wait, strike that, reverse it."

That's not even true, he'd argue that he's very well-behaved most of the time, it's everyone else who perceives him to be a troublemaker. Which is fine by him, if he's honest.

"I'm good, though, for the most part. Things going good with Levi or is it time for we to swoop back in and sweep you off your feet yet?"

[starsfallen]

"Coop." Corry holds out her mug of cider in toast, selectively blocking out the bottle of Grey Goose from her mind. "Coop, with a shirt. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas."

"You know, Will thinks we should coordinate Christmas lights with the neighbors. If he says anything... don't say I didn't warn you.."

[coopdetat]

"I should start hustling people," he answers with a laugh, holding his own freshly poured cup of cider--now spiked with vodka--out to join Corinne's in a toast before taking a sip that makes him shiver in spite of the warmth of the drink. Coop has no plans on getting hammered tonight or anything, at least not any solid plans, but the booze is his own welcome edition to whatever the night has in store.

"Coordinate Christmas lights. Right. I think I brought my fake tree out and that's about it, you might have noticed the outside of my house always looks a little bare." It's not that he doesn't like the holidays, far from it, he's just got way too much other shit to deal with between his mess of a personal life and work. "I'll watch him put your lights up, though. You married a guy with a really nice ass, just saying."

[sylviedevereux]

She'd gotten the text from Raleigh after their brief meeting at the animal adoption day, and she's pretty sure it must have been a blanket text to anyone she happened to have the number of, because it seems odd to be invited. It's been weeks and by now, she's sure people have started to catch on about who she is and what she's doing here, and Shea and Raleigh had seemed close. She'd be incredibly surprised if she hadn't been told the whole sordid backstory by now, and yet, here she is, about to encroach on their Christmas.

To hell with it, she decides, because she can't hide from his friends forever, and it's either this or drink wine at home alone, so. She takes a breath and walks in, the little wrapped parcel clutched tightly in her hands. He's gonna kill her for getting him a present, but she'd brought it all the way from Paris on a whim, and she can't not give it to him now.

[coopdetat]

Coop sees her when she walks through the door.

He pretends not to but of course he does, she's nearly impossible to miss even in a crowd, and he busies himself with open the cap of the vodka he'd brought in hopes that he can get a few shots in before she makes her way over to him, but luck doesn't seem to be on his side because he can see her spot him out of the corner of his eye.

After what had happened with the incident with the cave, after Owen had kissed him and Coop had kissed back and there was a whole big kissing thing--which Coop knows had meant something very different to him, not only because he's been hearing gossip that he doesn't really think is just gossip--he'd sent Sylvie a text asking what her plans are for Christmas. He doesn't know why he'd done it, doesn't know why he hadn't had the courage to reply back when she'd said she wouldn't have much of anything going on, but he'd stared at his phone for a long time after he'd gotten her answer before simply tucking it back into his pocket.

It's the idea of being with her on Christmas, he thinks, that kind of makes his stomach turn, not because he hates it but because he maybe wants it a little too much. Since the cave, he feels like he's been falling down this spiral of self-doubt, like he's in danger of growing too reliant on others to carry him when he's spent a long time grooming himself not to need that after Sylvie had left the first time. He understands it a little better now, why she'd gone, and he doesn't even think he can be mad about it anymore; he's just so fucking clueless about what he wants for the first time in a long time because up until now, he hasn't wanted for much of anything.

He's just getting the cap off the bottle when he sees Sylvie's feet approaching, and Coop just barely glances up at her before fixing his eyes back on the vodka. "Hey," he greets, and it's weak, and he knows it. "You're here. That's-- It's good that you are. Merry Christmas."

[sylviedevereux]

He's struggling with a bottle cap, which is her first clue that she's thrown him. Coop's never been one to shy around alcohol, and she can remember him popping champagne corks with a grace and ease that she didn't think anyone could master. There's no way he's having that much trouble with a twist cap, which means he's trying to avoid looking her in the eye.

She puts the parcel down on the table and reaches to take the bottle off him gently, pouring a shot for him and setting it back down again. "Merry Christmas. You looked like you were having a hard time of it," she says, nodding to the bottle with a wry smile.

[coopdetat]

He doesn't look directly at her when she takes the bottle out of his hands, but he can't help the small, crooked smile that quirks the corner of his mouth because Sylvie knows. She just knows, and it's simultaneously maddening and comforting all at the same know to realize how much hasn't changed. When he finally lifts his gaze to catch hers, taking the shot she's poured for him from her and trying not to drop the glass when their fingers brush, Coop just stops and stares for a moment because honestly, he's pretty sure he doesn't have much else of a choice.

"Thanks," he murmurs, not even sure that she's heard him over the chatter going on in the bakery and before he can say anything else, just in an effort to snap himself out of this sudden stupor he's fallen into, he leans his head back to swallow the shot down. It's smooth, it goes down his throat easily, and he lets out a satisfied sigh as he straightens up with a shiver. The shot doesn't go straight to his head, it'll take at least four or five more to start feeling those effects, but it makes him widen his smile at her because it really is kind of like liquid courage.

"You're going to have a few with me, aren't you? It's Christmas tomorrow, a hangover won't matter because it's totally okay to sleep in 'til noon."