An Apartment Building in Two Bridges, New York, Wednesday Evening

[suitably_heroic]

Three years ago, when Jack had first moved in here, this had been a weird, confusing thing to be dragged into - this communal gathering in a living room on the fourth floor, open to anyone who didn't have a place to land on Christmas. But by now, it was tradition.

By now, he and Dane showed up early, before dinner and before the party, to help set everything up. Trent would arrive later. Lana, hopefully, would be here soon too.

But for the moment, there was a nice, friendly quiet. Helping Dane with the sound system. Helping mrs. Zhang pull out the table and set out the plates. Watching mrs. Zhang's kid fumble with the Christmas decorations.

It was nice. And they hadn't even started yet.

As more people poured in and they sat down for dinner, Jack pulled out his phone and texted Lana the apartment number. Yeah. Yeah, this was nice.

[[ expecting one, but open for texts and calls as always ]]

Comments

[unusual_sith]

Lana laughed. "Duly noted." She nudged Trent. "Don't encourage the resistance. Have another pastry."

[suitably_heroic]

Dane let out a low chuckle as the bassist busied himself - grumpily - with the pastries. "So how was Vienna?"

[unusual_sith]

"Crowded but cheerful," Lana answered after a moment's thought. "I made it to a few of the markets, and there were some interesting crafts, musicians here and there, Christmas lights. And so much food! I could have brought back a truckload if I'd had a truck."

[suitably_heroic]

"What, you don't have magical alien powers that'll drop like ten tons of sausage on us from above?" Dane asked. "Now I'm disappointed. I expected so much more!"

[unusual_sith]

Lana laughed. And thought about it. "I could pick up that much meat, call for a portal above the apartment, and throw it through. If you're dead set on ten tons of sausage."

[suitably_heroic]

Dane... pretended to think about it.

"That's too much sausage," he concluded. "Even for me."

[unusual_sith]

"That's fair," Lana declared. "Have a pastry instead." She switched the box from Trent's side to Dane's. There might even be a sausage pastry in there!

[suitably_heroic]

Which Dane did not take, he had to be clear. He grabbed something else. "You've been running that class for a while, right?"

[unusual_sith]

"Yes, several semesters. Next I'm taking them to museums and tourist traps and such. The things we've been avoiding previously. I don't think I'll ever run out of places on Earth to go; it's so varied!"

[suitably_heroic]

"And you've only been to New York once," Dane pointed out. "We could be a whole semester!"

[unusual_sith]

"Very likely," Lana agreed. She grinned. "Are you offering to play tour guide? Or at least to give me a list of places not to miss?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Dane, don't enable her," Jack groused, flipping over the back of the couch (showoff) to sit down by them. "She needs to relax."

[unusual_sith]

"I am relaxing!" Lana protested. "If any of you want to give suggestions about my class, it's not me doing the work."

[suitably_heroic]

"You made fun into work," Jack accused. "You have a problem!"

[unusual_sith]

Lana scoffed. "No, I've made work into fun," she insisted. "I'm being a tourist all over Earth! The only work I have to do is the paperwork to start and keeping the children out of trouble. And they've been very good so far."

[suitably_heroic]

"Those sound like excuses," Jack told her. And then he looked at Dane, and repeated. "Excuses, right?"

Dane looked back at him and blinked. "That sounds like maybe we shouldn't try to manage her life...?"

[unusual_sith]

Lana smiled at Dane. "Don't worry. Believe me, I know what it's like when someone's trying to manage my life, and he doesn't come close. I appreciate the concern - from both of you," she added, looking to Jack, "but I really am fine. And if what you mean is 'don't talk about school at the party', I can do that, too. What sports are people playing this time of year?"

[suitably_heroic]

Jack heard the word 'sports' and lurched forward. "No, do--"

"It's snowboarding World Cup season," Dane said gleefully. "I mean. Christmas break right now. But the Copper Mountain X Games street style last week? Fucking sick."

[unusual_sith]

Lana frowned. (And ignored Jack.) "I confess I'm trying to reconcile 'snowboarding' and 'street style'. I'd think those would be different things?"

[suitably_heroic]

Dane pulled his guitar into himself, and fiddled with the pegs. "Nah. Street style is like throwing snowboarding and skateboarding into a blender. It's still on snow most of the time, just not as much of it, and you're doing a ton of jumping on pipes and stuff. It's like if the adrenaline on regular snowboarding runs out and you want a new challenge, you know?"

Jack sighed, sagged into his seat, and reached pitifully for a beverage.

[unusual_sith]

"Oh, I think I've seen that!" Lana said. "It does look like fun. What's not-street-style, then? How many styles are there?"

Sorry, Jack.

[suitably_heroic]

As Dane tuned his guitar, he launched into an exhaustive and extremely enthusiastic (for his standards) explanation about all the ins and outs.

Jack, for his part, just sipped his water and watched more people filter into the apartment, one by one.

[unusual_sith]

Lana listened and asked questions as they came up; she started with mild curiosity and just wanting to get to know Dane better, but her love of learning soon had her genuinely interested and making mental notes of things to look up later; she'd probably end up with a favorite to cheer on and Opinions on things before the end of the week.

[suitably_heroic]

And then, just like that, the room had filled up. A diverse array of people settled on sofas, chairs or the floor; the chattering around them was loud, until finally--

"OKAY EVERYONE SHUT UP WE'RE STARTING."

-- Trent's voice cut through the noise. He struck a loud note on his bass to give his voice some strength.

And just like that, everyone shut up.

Jack snorted softly, but he sat up a little. "Right, so you guys know the drill," he said, "We're doing the Christmas classics. To get me through this without severe drinking, we kick off with 'Fairytale of New York' and I get to do at least one song of my own choosing."

He clapped his hands. "And no, I'm not bringing the piano into this, this isn't bingo night."

Dane snickered, turning to his guitar, his fingers already picking the opening piano melody to 'Fairytale of New York' on the strings.

[unusual_sith]

Lana wasn't sure what piano and bingo had to do with each other, but she saved that question for later. Right now she was focusing on what seemed to be a rather odd Christmas song.

Catchy! But not what she'd come to expect from these things.