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

[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.

[coopdetat]

He doesn't like that she thinks of herself that way, pretty much like a target in a town full of superhumans, because whether she's aware of it or not, she's got a lot of people looking out for her. He is, of course, and Levi and Spencer and Joel, and just looking around this bakery, Coop can see how many people are happy to be around her, would want to keep her safe. She's not helpless, hurt leg or not, and he knows she's been through a lot, knows that it's maybe easier said than believed that she's not the sitting duck she thinks she is, but Coop considers it fact.

That's a conversation better suited for another time, though. It's Christmas Eve, not an ideal time to be talking about demons or potential for danger or any of that shit that would only make this night a downer, and Coop hadn't come here to be brought down. He's come here because Raleigh had invited him, because he'd wanted to see her happy and smiling, and he's getting that now as he watches her glance around the bakery. He follows her gaze, shaking his head in awe a bit as the realization comes that this is Raleigh's place. She's the one who'd taken a risk to make this happen, who'd been confident enough in her own skill that she'd started her own business, and as far as Coop can tell, it's all paid off.

"That's great," he says sincerely, resting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently. "It feels good when you put your everything into something and it actually works. I was so freaked out when I opened the clinic, I got super paranoid that nobody would ever come in, but I was wrong. Guess it kind of helps that I'm the only vet with his own clinic in town, though, but whatever. We're awesome, anyone who disagrees can kiss my ass."

[callmeemily]

It's a good thing that they'd changed the subject, because the last thing she wants to talk about on Christmas Eve is demons; she wished, a little, that he hadn't brought it up in the first place, but when they move on she just kind of shovels all of those feels off into the deal with this later pile, and things are a little more back to normal.

She looks up when he squeezes her shoulder. "It's- It's something. I'll be honest, I can't even really believe it's real," she admits, shaking her head a little. "And it helps, I think, that you're a good vet, and a good person." It's not solely that he's the one with his own clinic; there's other places to take animals, if people really didn't like what he did, but Coop's just honestly good at his job, and he loves animals.

"We are awesome," she says with a laugh. "And now I want to give you presents. Stay right here?" It's not a far walk, and unsteady or not it only takes her a minute or two to come back with a gift bag with his name on it - there's three things in it, not just one.

She's gotten toys for his dogs; a Kong moose for Sunny, and bear for Lucy, since she chews on stuff. For him - there's two books wrapped together, and she doesn't know if he'll like them -- they're both coffee table books, and they made her think of him. One's Paris in Color, and the other's Underwater Puppies.

She sits herself back down, and takes a sip from her mug. "I'm a little excited," she confesses as she makes a face. "It's the first year I've really been able to do the whole... presents... thing in the right way."

[coopdetat]

Coop almost says that she didn't have to get him anything but holds his tongue because it'd be a little hypocritical, considering he'd gone one for her, too--a gown he'd left behind at home to replace the one that had been lost on the ship, one that she could maybe wear on a night out when they can both get dressed to the nines for no reason at all, just for the hell of it--and besides, he knows that Raleigh's doing the gift thing because she wants to, not out of some obligation for the holiday. She'd be just as likely to hand him a stack of gifts on any other day, this just happens to be the day for it.

The gift are thoughtful, between the toys for the dogs and the books that Coop is actually surprised to find he doesn't actually own yet, and he smiles over at her before leaning in for a hug. "You're the sweetest, you know that?" He presses a kiss to her cheek before settling back in his chair. "Your gift is back at my place, so we'll have to meet up soon so I can give it to you. Or you could always come over after all your guests are gone, Miss Belle of the Ball."

[callmeemily]

She scrunches her nose when he says she's the sweetest, but she's smiling. "I just thought of you when I saw them," she admitted, and then she laughed. "I mean, not the dog toys. That's not exactly what I associate with you."

She looks around the room - it's a lot of people milling about, but it's not really something she anticipated going all that late. "Well- I mean, if you're good with hanging out til nine, that's when I'm kicking everybody out - if they're not already gone by then." She takes another sip of her cider. "Or, definitely, we'll just find the time. It's up to you." Her eyes soften a little when she looks at him, and she chooses her words carefully.

"I'm really, really glad that I got to know you this year, Coop. You're-" A million things come to mind, but she just goes with her gut. "-such a good person, deep down, and- I honestly feel so lucky that we're friends." She rolls her eyes a little bit at herself, because it's clear she means every word she says and she's been trying really hard not to just... be a bucket of feelings around him, and she looks away with a small shake of her head. "God, just listen to me. Anyway. Uh. I mean it, though." She looks back, and shrugs, because she doesn't know what else to say, besides-- "I can't imagine what the last six months would have been like without you, if I'm being super honest."