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

[incognoscibilis]

"There's not a class in the Aglionby catalogue that Ronan hasn't skipped," Adam said. It wasn't meant to be a jibe, just a statement of truth. Ronan as Adam knew him, post-Niall and angry, was a creature that was difficult to contain.

Eating some of his chips at last, Adam nodded. "Is it wrong that I don't mind Henry Cheng?" He more than didn't mind, truthfully, but saying out loud that he was starting to think of him as a friend still felt like uncertain waters. They had been, for so long, the five of them, a complete and interdependent ecosystem. New elements had to be introduced gradually or else there would be ecological disaster.

[formicine]

"I wouldn't expect any less," Blue says with a sliver of fondness creeping into her voice.

She breaks one of her chips down the middle and looks at him sidelong. "No, it's not wrong," she says, keeping her tone purposefully casual. "I mean. You're at his party, eating his chips." Blue crunches on the chip. "I don't mind him either." It does, inexplicably, feel weird to say it, as though they're only ever supposed to have their own group. Even though Gansey was friends with him first.

Or maybe it feels weird that she more than doesn't mind.

[incognoscibilis]

Adam smiled at her because he knew that Blue was fond of Ronan as he was, even if he was prone to scowling and snarling.

"But it feels like we're, I don't know, breaking protocol," Adam guessed. Henry Cheng wasn't a bad person by any means. An acquired taste, yes, but he wasn't destructive in the way that Kavinsky was. It was just that Henry wasn't one of them and so he could be a detrimental element.

"When did we get so cliquish?"

[formicine]

"You're aware you were always cliquish, right? We, I mean. But you guys first. Gansey's." Blue sits up to snag some dip off the table. From the first day she'd noticed them at Ninos, they'd all so obviously belonged to each other, even with Adam being made fun of for not wanting to talk to her.

"I don't think it's always a bad thing," she reasons, looking at the dip and then offering it to Adam. "I don't really want maybe-friends, and it's good to have to work for it. But sometimes it can feel a little -- like we have to close ourselves off, I think," she agrees.

[incognoscibilis]

"Well yeah, but..." No. There was no 'but.' Once Gansey accepted someone into his court, the compact was sealed in Nino's sweet tea and they were made family, drawn into a friendship that went beyond friendship.

"It didn't feel like there rules," Adam said at last. That felt truer.

He took the chip and looked thoughtfully at those assembled in the room.