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]

Ronan is here, and that's probably all Blue can ask for, but the sullen expression and back to back beers are starting to get to her. She takes an opportunity to excuse herself from where Noah and Henry are chatting and leans on the wall next to him, popping a chip into her mouth.

"You look like an 8 year old dragged to the fancy party," she informs him, face carefully neutral. "It's kinda killing the vibe."

[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.

[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 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?"

[formicine]

She shrugs a shoulder at that, because it probably is why Ronan's here, although she thinks it's probably at least half that he'd feel like shit staying home or doing something alone, as much as humoring anybody.

Blue furrows her brow, frowning. "Are you jealous? Because me hating someone looks a little different." Much, much different than the words that had been scrawled on her back.

"Much as it would be easier if I successfully hated all things raven boy, that's not the way it works." Gansey, for instance, is the epitome of trust fund kid with nice smile. Everything she should hate. It would have been easy to hate Henry, too, after what he'd said that first night she met him. Blue hadn't been planning not to, really.

[thedreamthief]

"Why the fuck would I be jealous?" Ronan snarls, the snake under his skin coiling tight. "Like, I said, Maggot, I just don't get it. You hated us the second you met us. All of us. Do you miss home badly enough you're willing to accept any Aglionby fuckface that pops in now?"

It's an exagerration and he knows it. Blue hadn't hated all of them right off the bat. She'd hated Gansey mostly. And likely Ronan too, but Ronan hadn't tried being likeable.

[formicine]

There's something that bubbles up in her that wants to explode. It's a thing very akin to the way Ronan reacts to everything, and the fact that she knows that doesn't make it better. She can't always be Adam, stepping back from confrontation to make Ronan realize that he doesn't need to have one.

"He's not any Aglionby fuckface," she snaps, still keeping her voice low. "I've had Kavinsky around if that was the case and he's Mr. Popularity here." She crosses her arms. "Gansey trusts him, I trust him back home, and anyway, he -- cares." Enough to apologize for his actions the first time they'd met. Enough to want to listen to her and commiserate about white people together and to know not to buy her food.

She sighs, and takes a deep breath, letting her anger subside like the flash of a firework, bright and burnt out quickly. "I hated you before I met you," she corrects him, staring at her shoelaces. "I never hated any of you after I met you. Even Gansey or you talking about poverty twins. I wanted you to like me." Stupid.

[thedreamthief]

He wants to ask her how she knows that. She got here later than he did, remembers things he doesn't. But in all the months she's been here, she's never fucking once mentioned Cheng. Somehow he doubts they were pals of any kind before she popped into Darrow.

So how the fuck could she know she trusts him?

He doesn't get a chance to say as much though before she's continuing, her face scrunching into a grimace as she pushes the words out. "Oh, don't give me that," he says with a rough, almost cruel laugh. "You put up with me because I came with the package. You liked Parrish and then you liked Glendower. The quest." His frown deepens as he stares at the top of her head, something a little like guilt winding tight in his stomach.

Fuck.

"No quest here," he points out, voice quieter now. "No Glendower. No Gansey. Why does it even matter if I like you or not?"

[formicine]

The words sting, especially because it makes it sound like she liked Gansey for the quest. She did; she liked the quest. Before she even met them, she liked the quest. But she liked them, them on the quest, the way they all fit together, the -- something bigger than themselves of them.

They're meant to. Sting, that is, and her shoulders tense against them.

"Because I care about you," she says, stubbornly, "not as a hyphenate with Gansey or Adam. ...Shithead." She glares up at him a little bit.

She looks away, a little quiet and feeling too vulnerable to be angry. "You don't like everybody," she says and shrugs a shoulder, glancing back at him.

[thedreamthief]

She tips her head up to glare at him, brows furrowed and eyes dark. Ronan grins a little despite himself, comfortable in this dynamic, this constant push and pull between them.

"I don't," he agrees because it's the truth.

He gives her foot a light kick then, almost playful, toe to toe. He isn't about to tell Blue he likes her if only because this conversation is fucking awkward enough. He does squint at her though, a smile still curving his lips. "So you're really surprised I don't like Cheng?"

[formicine]

Ronan grins at her frustrated look, and she wrinkles her nose at him; it eases something in her chest.

She kicks him back, feeling a little warmer; if he'd confessed liking her it might have been too much, but this, this is okay. Blue puts her hands in her pockets and makes a rueful face back at him. "No," she says plainly. "Not really. I don't think you've given him much of a chance, though."

[thedreamthief]

"You know, I was perfectly fucking civil to him at the grocery store the other week until--"

He cuts himself off. The reason isn't really important and he's sounding petulant enough even to his own ears. Something tells him whatever his reasons are, they won't fly with Blue anyway. She's already convinced Cheng's worth knowing, worth pulling into their group and she's as fucking stubborn as Adam most days.

"I'm giving him the same chance I gave you," he points out instead, still frowning as he turns to grab a chip out of the bowl and crunching into it. "He's not fucking special just because you and Noah decided the sun shines out his ass."

[formicine]

Until what? Blue makes a little huh? face at him, brows drawing together. He is getting to whiny, though, whatever the reason, and he's here, which makes her think that whatever offense Henry committed, it puts him one up on Kavinsky.

"I haven't decided anything about his ass," she says. "Pass me that. And anyway, Noah loves people." She looks over and can't repress a fond smile at where Noah's gesturing and talking a mile a minute at Henry, sitting on the couch. "You know it's true."

[thedreamthief]

Ronan's eyes narrow at the demand, but he reaches over to grab the whole bowl off the table with one hand, holding it out to her as he chews.

"Noah loves fucking everyone," he agrees, an edge to his tone that could be fond or irritated or jealous or anywhere in between. "He's not the greatest judge of character and, let's face it -- that's probably what got him fucking killed." He doesn't say it loud enough for Noah to hear, true as it might be.