Baby you're a firework [4th of July Gathering]

[jeongbro]

From Candlewood, Henry could hear the party going on northeast of town, the thud of distance bass and the pop of fireworks and the shrill of cars put to the test. And how shit was that?

He texted Blue, first. A soft, subtle inquiry, a joke of an invitation, but a broad one. One for all of them. He remembered Ronan's arm in that cast, and him saying it was from Kavinsky, and Henry had no duty to them, but it would be good to keep all of them away from the mess that was going on at that party outside of town. None of them had to come, of course. They were all their own people, adults--and a ghost who was as good as one, in Henry's eyes--and they were each allowed their own decisions.

So Henry texted Any plans for the 4th Wendybird? And then he followed it up, even before she could answer, I think my place could use some Virginian charms.

He had no decorations. Fourth of July over the past two years had become a thing tainted by Joseph Kavinsky. But he could, easily, go down a couple blocks and buy more two-liter bottles of Pipsy and lemon-lime soda than he could possibly need, and some liquor and mixers, and chips and dip. If he didn't use it all up, he'd bring it to Panoptes. And that seemed like a good enough way to ignore that Joseph Kavinsky was trying to blow himself up, to him.


[Running as a gathering]

Comments

[formicine]

"Hey," Blue says, and steals a chip out of his arrangement without asking. It's a weird, intrusive sort of gesture of affection. She'd normally feel a pang of guilt, but there's about three times too much free food, and he's not eating his.

"Not the most terrible thing we could have done tonight." It's a statement, but also a question.

[thedreamthief]

Ronan can think of about a dozen reasons right off the top of his head, starting and ending with whatever fucking business Cheng's family had with his own, but he only frowns, eyes narrowed. It doesn't surprise him in the last that Noah likes Cheng. Noah likes everyone.

"Helped him how?" he asks, though he's not sure he wants to know the answer. "Did he have everyone at Aglionby sign a petition to ban bees on campus or some shit?"

[thedreamthief]

Arching an eyebrow, Ronan sidles a look across the length of the room for a moment and then back to Blue. "Yeah, I guess this would seem fucking fancy to you," he says, though there's no real heat in his tone at all.

He takes another drink of his beer.

"And how many eight year olds do you know who drink shitty-ass beer?" he asks, shaking the bottle in his hand.

[thedreamthief]

That's enough to get Ronan's attention. Cheng had made clear his distaste of Kavinsky the first time they'd spoken at the grocery store, but in the mess of everything else Cheng had revealed, Ronan had nearly forgotten.

He takes another drink of his beer then, head tipped back before he swallows and wipes at the side of his mouth with the back of his thumb.

"I don't get it, you know," he says, his tone almost conversational now. "How that fuckhole gets to be here, alive, while Gansey--" He cuts himself off then, scowling a little. Cheng can likely figure out the rest anyway. His thumbnail catches on the label of the bottle as he leans heavier into the wall. "Whatever. Just a matter of time before he lights himself up."

[incognoscibilis]

Adam gave Ronan his own approximation of that same grimace and then nods at him. "You're drinking that and another glass at least," he warned. Because he didn't want Ronan to have a hangover. Because he didn't want Ronan drunk enough to think about getting belligerent.

"Because it makes Blue and Noah happy. And he's not that bad," Adam said, giving Ronan a little frown.

[incognoscibilis]

"I was eating them, but then I got a whole bunch of even shaped ones," Adam said. And because focusing on a consuming task seemed to be a good strategy while he waited for the Lynch-shaped cloud of hostility to dissipate. He was aware that his boyfriend was not always the happiest party guest but it was painfully obvious in this small gathering.

If only they had Apples to Apples, or the evil version that people always talked about.

[incognoscibilis]

"Put it on Ronan and see what happens," Adam said, his voice low to match Noah's. It had, in all truthfulness, been a very nice gesture and Adam had appreciated it more than anything store bought. Al of them had understood and respected what he wanted on his birthday without having to really work at it and Adam had felt known.

[incognoscibilis]

Adam turned and looked at Blue as seriously as he could without cracking. "You've ruined the symmetry, Blue," he said in a flatly even tone. To fix the situation, he took a chip from the other side and ate it, certain that Blue was going to retaliate in kind.

"It's very civilized," he agreed.

[thedreamthief]

There's a biting remark just on the tip of his tongue, a reminder that Ronan's been drinking for years, that he's fucking Irish and can hold his liquor. But he knows where Adam's worry stems from, understands his reasons for worry.

So he takes another sip of water.

"Well, he's not fuckin' Kavinsky," he agrees, unimpressed by Adam's unimpressed frown. "He's just another Aglionby kid though. A rich kid surfing by on his parents' money. Everything you hate, right? Blue, too. Except she seems real fuckin' chummy with him."

[incognoscibilis]

And now it was a contest of who could be the most cynically disaffected. Adam thought he could make a decent run of it before it just defaulted to stoic and Ronan won.

"I suppose if Blue likes him, we should follow her lead," he said, just sardonic enough that he could brace for the inevitable cynicism that followed. They both knew there was a partial truth to it though.

[iwasmore]

Noah nearly chokes on the second chip he'd started to eat, he laughs so hard. His face turns red and tears leak at the corners of his eyes, and he nearly shoves Ronan off the couch trying to get away from him.

"Oh my god, oh my god, what?" The idea of presenting a petition to ban bees is just ludicrously funny and he doesn't even know why. When he calms down he flops back onto the couch and reaches for his drink. "That's my favorite joke you've ever told, maybe."

"He helped him look for Glendower," Noah adds.

[formicine]

"You kiss your boyfriend with that mouth?" she quips back lightly, and it's the jibe at her class, not the curse word, she's referring to. Blue's not angry about it. It's not funny, really, but it doesn't mean the same thing from Ronan as it would from someone she knows less well. Maybe that's hypocrisy. She calls it friendship.

"Only one," she says and bats her eyes. "Look, you can head out if you really hate this. I just..." She trails off. Gansey would have handled this better, and they both know it.

[thedreamthief]

Ronan only arches an eyebrow at that, unsure whether or not Adam's joking.

Eventually, though, a smile tugs at his lips and he lets out a soft huff of a laugh. "Yeah, I'll start using that Blue Sargent litmus test here real soon."

He takes another sip of his beer then, still watching the other three across the room, shaking his head. "I just don't get it, man. Are we just gonna take in every dickbag from Henrietta that shows up here now? I'm not going to some fucking party of Tad Carruther's, I'll fucking tell you that."

[thedreamthief]

He isn't quite expecting that much laughter, but Noah's clear delight has a smile tugging at his lips all the same. He barely moves when Noah shoves him, only squares his shoulder and arches an eyebrow.

"And you remember that?" he asks, curious now. "In your weird... circular time thing. What's he do to help?"

Because there have been all kinds of people to help Gansey over the years. Malory, Helen, all the women at Fox Way. Ronan still doesn't really like the idea of being best friends with any of them.

[thedreamthief]

Ronan makes a face at her reply, but it's hardly a deep cut. Blue, like most people, didn't know Ronan before everything went to shit. Sometimes Ronan isn't sure he knew the guy before his father's death. If he did, he's forgotten.

"Adam and Noah wanted to come," he says as though that's reason enough. Because it is.

And, if nothing else, it keeps him from wandering across town and starting shit with Kavinsky. Even if that's what he'd rather be doing. "I just don't get it," he says, eyes narrowing as he looks at her more closely. "You fuckin' hate all us Aglionby boys. Especially ones like him, trust fund kids with nice cars and nice smiles. So why? What makes him so fucking special?"

[incognoscibilis]

Adam snorted and elbowed Ronan in the side. "The only Carruthers party you'd go to is one where you fight him for my honor," he said, remembering their discussion at prom. Tad Carruthers was typical Aglionby in the insufferably moneyed way that no one could accept in this apartment. Henry, at least, was also an outlier even if it was in a way that didn't mesh with the rest of them.

[thedreamthief]

"That'll be a short fuckin' fight," Ronan says with a smirk of his own. "I'd clock that kid in two seconds flat."

It's not even a boast, really. Just truth. Unles that shitstick was taking karate lessons or something in secret, there's no way he'd stand a chance against Ronan. And they both know it.

"I'm serious though," he continues, taking a sip of his beer this time. "He knows shit, Parrish. He knows what I am and I sure as fuck never told him. I don't give a shit if he hates Kavinsky -- anyone with half a fucking braincell hates Kavinsky -- I still don't trust him."

[jeongbro]

"Someone working hard in the chip factory," Henry said and gave a sage nod about it, as if this were a perfect explanation. And it was. But Henry still felt like the gentle tease was warranted.

"On the one hand," he said after a soft silence that probably did not need filling, "I feel like, with a small group and this sort of atmosphere, a board game like the one Noah brought would be perfect. On the other hand, I think if I suggested it out loud, I would be a laughing stock?"

[jeongbro]

Henry was distinctly aware that, where Gansey was concerned, Ronan could be speaking of anyone in the city, of the unfairness of their presence while one of his most important people was not here, and it would work just as well.

That was, after all, part of why Henry was glad Ronan was here and not wallowing or trying to start something. He was not Gansey. But he hated this place and the fact that Gansey was not here.

So he nodded in commiseration and lifted his glass in a silent sort of salute, gave a bitter sort of laugh. "Sooner, rather than later, hopefully. That Mitsubishi is an eyesore."

[jeongbro]

Henry understood, even without the clarification. He had remained unclear on just how close Gansey and the others had come to Kavinsky's last substance party in Henrietta, but of course, he had known about the youngest Lynch, obliquely.

"I mean," Henry said, and smiled blithely. "I do have a wealth of obnoxious music I have been cultivating from the streaming website I have been using? There is even some from home. But a lot of it is--Pipsy."

He said this, recalling their conversation at one of the carnivals about how Pipsy was like the concept of a cola, photocopied too many times: recognizable, but not quite right any longer.

[incognoscibilis]

"You're counting on Ronan not to knock all the pieces off the board and shout 'Blitzkrieg,'" Adam said. Board games with rules were something of a challenge for them, more so if Chainsaw ever got involved.

But Noah's optimism was appreciable.

"But I wouldn't laugh."

[thedreamthief]

"His whole fucking face is an eyesore," Ronan argues with a sneer.

Though it's a sneer that falters only a moment later when he realizes what exactly it is he's said, his lips twitching into something that's almost a smile instead. He eyes the glass in Cheng's hand then reaches up to tap the neck of his bottle against it before taking another swig.

"So what the fuck did he do to you?" he asks, licking the beer from his lips. "Or do you just see whatever one else here is too fucking blind to figure out?"

[incognoscibilis]

They did know it. Carruthers would expect Ronan to fight like a gentleman and Ronan would fight to win and then he would.

He pressed his lips into a thin line, considering what Ronan said. With any other group, it might have been easy to suggest that you didn't have to completely trust someone to be their friend but this was them. Friendship was either complete and all-consuming or they weren't friends.

It also felt discourteous to their host to say that if Ronan didn't trust Cheng then that was all the more reason to keep him close and keep him on their side. That was too much of an Adam thought and too close to dishonesty to bear.

"I'm interested in what he has to say," Adam said at last, which was true. "He knows when not to talk about something." That was reason enough for Adam to almost like him.

[thedreamthief]

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ronan asks, lips curving into a deeper frown, something between affronted and genuinely curious. Adam, at least, isn't falling all over himself to talk to Cheng. He's here because it's a better option than Kavinsky's narcissistic cockshow and, probably, to ensure that Ronan doesn't feel tempted to blow something up at Kavinksy's narcissistic cockshow.

Namely Kavinsky.

He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, watching Adam curiously. "What is he not talking about?"

[incognoscibilis]

Adam shrugged and chose his own words carefully. "I ran into him when he had words on his back. He didn't ask me what mine meant and I didn't ask him. And then he made lunch." It had been perfectly civil in the careful way of two people avoiding mines in a field but in enough of an almost Ganseylike way that it had been tolerable.

And he'd been fed.