thanksgiving is, after all, a word of action [set on 11/26]

[triskehale]

Thanksgivings in the Hale house used to be quite the big deal. Feeding over a dozen werewolves, many of them teenagers was no easy feat. Derek loved all the chaos, and he helped out in the kitchen since he was old enough to stand on a step stool and reach the counter.

The first year after everyone died, he and Laura each got a rotisserie chicken and some biscuits, trying to hang on to some semblance of tradition, but the food tasted like ash. Laura went to bed early, and Derek pretended not to hear her cry. They stopped trying to do anything for the holiday after that.

It's been almost a decade since that disastrous attempt, and a few months ago Derek decided that he wanted to try again. While Laura and the rest of his family will always be the cause of this gnawing ache in his heart, Derek has a new family here in Darrow. He has so many people that matter to him, and care about him. It's more than Derek deserves, or ever thought that he would get, but he's grateful. He's thankful.

So he decides that he's going to do his best to put on a Thanksgiving of his own, and invite his new ragtag sort of pack. His new family.

The invitations go out and on the big day, Derek arrives at Semele's just after dawn. He puts two giant turkeys in the oven and quickly sets up the long table and chairs in the middle of the bar. With each chair he places, Derek marvels over just how many people he has in his life. It's astounding to him, and it's the perfect day to show his gratitude.

And then, all that's left to do is cook. And cook, and cook some more. If he's lucky, he'll have time to go shower and put on something nice before all his guests arrive.


[Hale pack Thanksgiving! Treat this as a gathering post. Tag in, tag around, give thanks! ♥]

Comments

[everyonetakes]

"Uh-huh," Kate says, making it clear she doesn't entirely believe that. The pies are good, he's right about that, but Bitty likes Derek, she could see it that day they met him while shopping.

"Do you just like, purposely miss the moon eyes he makes at you?" she asks. "And do you ask everyone to gaze into your eyes so they can tell what colour they are while shopping? I'll answer for you. You do not, because you've never once done that to me."

[triskehale]

"My eyes change color," Derek tells her, though it is true that he doesn't just ask anyone to look at his eyes. He was really trying to look nice, and yeah, maybe sort of because of Bitty, but it doesn't matter.

"You're reading too much into things," Derek tells her, because that's just what he did after that night in the other Darrow. "He's going on a date, and he seems pretty excited about it."

Derek laughs a little, and the sound is only slightly bitter. "Someday I'll get to know what that's like, maybe."

[everyonetakes]

"And that is because he thinks you're too good for him," Kate answers and honestly, she's about ready to strangle them both right now. Dating totally doesn't have to be this complicated. All people need to do is realize how awesome they all are, have an ego to match, think they can get anyone and then go after them.

That doesn't really seem like that much to expect of people. Except that everyone she knows seems to think they're not awesome for some reasons she'll never understand, because they so clearly are.

"Which I think is stupid, for the record," she adds. And she's told him as much.

[triskehale]

"That is stupid, if it's true," Derek agrees, frowning at the thought. If anything, it's the opposite. Bitty needs someone good, someone not so dark and burdened down. He needs someone sweet, who smiles easily and laughs without being surprised by the sound. And hopefully, he's found that in Simon. That is what Bitty deserves.

"Anyway," he says after a moment, giving her a small smile. "Jeff was invited too, you know. I'll make you up a literal doggy bag for her. I cooked up the livers and set them aside for her. She'll like them."

[everyonetakes]

"Oh, it's true. And I told him that I bet you two idiots could go around in circles about who's too good for who, because I know you, Derek Hale, and I don't have to be able to smell your thoughts or whatever to know the first place your brain went was but he's too good for me." She's a whirlwind of self-involved bullshit and that's never going to change, but having lived in the situation she did for so long has left Kate deeply perceptive, especially when it comes to the people she cares about.

"Oh, my god, like my dog isn't already in love with you enough as it is," she says with a huff of laughter. "I'm pretty sure she already thinks you're like, the best person ever and not only because sometimes you turn into a wolf."

[triskehale]

Derek frowns in confusion, and a little in annoyance at her calling him out like that, but she's right. And Derek doesn't really know what to make of it, so he rolls with the subject change pretty easily.

"I can't help it if Jeff has good taste," he jokes, laughing a little. "I should take her out on a run with me sometime."

[everyonetakes]

"Hey, anytime you want, bro, she'd probably be the happiest dog in the world if you did that." And Kate sure as hell isn't going to run with her at any point, mostly because Kate doesn't run. Ever. That's a thing weird, healthy people do. People who have way too much time in their hands, as far as she's concerned.

And werewolves, she supposes, but that's different.

"It'd be like dogsitting!" she says brightly. "You take her off my hands for a few hours, I get to relax and like, do all the homework I have piling up."

[triskehale]

"Sure," Derek says with a chuckle, shaking his head in amusement. "I'll come get her some morning. It'd be fun."

If nothing else, Derek could probably fall back on a career as an excellent dog walker. But he likes Jeff, and she's a good dog, so taking her for a few hours would be no trouble at all.

"How is school going?" Derek asks, propping his head up on his hand as he looks at her. He feels like he's too out of touch with all of his friends, and he needs to rectify that.

[everyonetakes]

"God, there's so much to do," she groans dramatically, though she thinks it's kind of justified at this point. Her assignments and midterms are piling up and there's really no end in sight.

"Next semester is my last one before I graduate and the projects just keep getting bigger and bigger," she says. "I've got like, seven midterms in December and then next semester the main focus is this huge project where I basically have to have my own business model all prepared. Which is fine, obviously what I need to do, but it's so much work."

[triskehale]

"Sounds like it, but you'll do great," Derek says, like it isn't even with question. With Kate, it really isn't. Derek believes in her, and he's pretty sure that she could do whatever she wanted.

"I'll come to your graduation," Derek assures her, tearing apart a dinner roll. "I'll bring flowers and balloons, cry until my mascara runs, whole deal."

[everyonetakes]

"So that's how you get your eyes looking like that," she teases, narrowing her eyes at him. "I knew those lashes couldn't possibly be real."

She hasn't given much thought to graduation, to what it might be like to do something like that. Her high school graduation hadn't been a thing at all, she'd taken the GED and gotten out of that hell hole as quickly as possible. Graduating college had never really been in her plans, so it's sort of weird to think about it now.

"I don't even know if I'll go to the ceremony," she admits. "It's not really me, you know?"

[triskehale]

"No, these are all natural," Derek assures her, batting his eyelashes a few times before he feels too ridiculous and stops. He nods along as she speaks, and then shrugs a shoulder. "Yeah, I get that. We'll do something to celebrate, no matter what you decide to do."