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! ♥]

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[theduff]

"Life went on like nothing was going on," I tell him, which is the truth for people who weren't me. It had been weird, going around the city, wondering if anyone else was feeling as lost as I had, or if they were lucky enough to still have all their loved ones in place. "Derek's stuff was still in his cabin, and I ended up taking Jinx and Puff home with me, so I wasn't sure what was going on at first. I knew he'd never up and leave without telling anyone."

[shuck_you]

"I ran into him in the other city," Thomas shared, glancing over at Derek. He'd seemed to have recovered well enough from the trauma of what he'd heard, what he'd seen. That or he had some excellent repressing skills which Thomas guessed was more likely. It was pretty hard to just let something like that go.

"So, you were a temporary pet mom, huh?" he asked, turning the conversation away from the melancholy. "How'd that go? Jinx is pretty cool. I just end up with hair all over the place afterward."

[theduff]

I can feel my lips thin when Thomas mentions Derek being in that nightmare. What little Derek's told me about it (and that had been more than enough) is enough to make my stomach turn.

Thankfully Thomas moves the conversation to something easier to handle. Topic-wise, not in reality. "As long as you realize Jinx is the queen of every room she's in, she's alright. She missed Derek, though. She just kinda...I don't know, moped around."

I know cats aren't as overly emotional as dogs are - or at least they don't seem that way - but I could tell Jinx hadn't been doing well. I'd felt exactly the same.

[shuck_you]

"Poor thing," Thomas said, frowning for a moment. From what he'd heard, cats were very independent and could live alone for long periods of time if necessary but Jinx had very obviously attached herself to Derek and she probably missed him as much as a human would have missed a loved one.

"Glad you guys could mope around together," Thomas said, smiling slightly. Sometimes, misery really did love company. "I bet you guys made an interesting sight, both sulking around, backs hunched, frowns on your faces, just upset with the world. Kind of cute to think about, actually."

[theduff]

"Shut up," I tell him brightly. Honestly, Thomas isn't far off the mark. I had been pretty mopey and when Jinx got over herself, we both curled up and sulked on my couch as I marathoned Space Kitchen, a fact I will admit to no one. No one.

"I do not sulk. I sit on my couch and think about my problems like an adult."

That is a fat ass lie.

[shuck_you]

"Do you?" Thomas asked, ignoring the gut feeling that told him she didn't do that. He knew he didn't do that so he, of course, applied that filter to everyone.

"And what happens after you think about your problems for a little while?" he wondered curiously. "Is that when you start sulking?"

[theduff]

It's the fact that Thomas doesn't seem to be mocking me that has me answering his questions honestly.

"That is definitely when I start sulking," I tell him. "Mostly because that's when I realize I'm not totally ready to be an adult yet."

I'll be eighteen in a little over a month and starting classes at the community college, but I never thought I'd be doing all this without mom and my best friends there. It's a little overwhelming sometimes.

[shuck_you]

"Don't worry, you're not alone," Thomas admitted with a quiet laugh. "Half of my day is spent sulking and then it's spent wondering how in the shucking hell I ended up here where people expect me to be an adult and do adult stuff."

He didn't even know how old he was and yet, he'd been given an apartment and money and soon, he'd have a job. The Maze and the Scorch had prepared him somewhat for being on his own and doing what he had to do in order to survive but it was still hard sometimes. He still wanted to just lay down and sleep and wake up and have everything be in place and be all right.

"I haven't cried in awhile," he said, sounding proud about that. "So, I think I'm getting better."

[theduff]

I leave my plate in my lap, forgotten for the moment as I give Thomas a small smile. One that is completely sympathetic because I know exactly what he means.

"I cried this morning," I admit, feeling a bit pathetic about admitting as much, but not embarrassed. Not around Thomas, and especially not when he's just admitted to crying too. He surprises me sometimes. "If I were home I would have been having dinner with my mom. I miss her."

[shuck_you]

"I don't even remember my parents and I miss them," he said, rubbing his hand over his eyes. They were dry, no threat of tears, but he still felt the heavy sadness of the missing memories. All he had was the one violent memory and nothing else. He didn't know their names, barely knew their faces and had nothing else.

"I'm sure she's thinking about you too," he said, sighing and giving her a small smile. "Wherever she might be, I bet she is. I hope she is."

[theduff]

Fuck crying this morning, I'm about to cry right now. That is the sweetest thing I've heard today, and I didn't know how much I needed to hear it until just now.

"You're going to make me cry," I tell Thomas but I'm smiling away, and I swallow hard against the burning lump in my throat. "I'm sorry you don't remember your parents. I bet they think about you, too."

[shuck_you]

"Sorry," Thomas said, sounding shy and looking down bashfully. He clasped his fingers together and then pulled them apart, fidgeting a bit. He thought about offering comfort, a touch or a hug but he continued to be terrible at some basic human interaction.

"You can cry if you want," he offered instead, looking back up at her. "I won't tell anyone. My parents -- "

He shook his head. "They're gone. For awhile now. I don't remember them but I do know that. I just hope they're comfortable."

[theduff]

I shake my head at the apology and the crying. I'm not going to cry when we're still in a room full of people and where Derek can hear me. Not that I'm embarrassed to cry around him, but I know he'd do that whole caring about me thing, and that would make me cry even more and then it'd get ugly. I'm a totally ugly crier.

"Shit, I'm sorry. I didn't know." There's a lot about Thomas I don't really know, but I guess it doesn't help matters much that he doesn't know much either. At least I've got memories and I know my mom loves me. "My dad's gone too. I mean, he's still alive, but...he left me and my mom. And he took our dog."

He took our dog, and he didn't fight for me. Some days I don't know which hurts more.

[shuck_you]

"It's okay," Thomas said because it was. He knew his parents were dead, taken by the Flare, but he liked to think they'd been good parents. They'd tried their best to save him and before the Flare, they'd loved him and protected him. He remembered how tightly his mother had held him before WICKED had come to take him away and how much she'd cried.

He swallowed thickly and took a slow, ragged breath. "That's a shucking crap move on his part. Why'd you he leave you?"

The words were out before he could think about them and Thomas shook his head quickly. "You don't have to answer that. Sorry."

[theduff]

"Nah, it's okay," I tell him, a little surprised to hear his reaction. What I usually get is a bit of sympathy and a whole lot of pity, the latter of which always rubs me the wrong way. Yes, it sucked, yes, it still sucks, but I don't need people to feel sorry for me. Mom and I got over it.

"He said he didn't love mom anymore." Simple as that. (Hah. As if love is ever that simple.) "And the dog was really his best friend, so we weren't surprised when he took him along when he moved out. That was a while ago, though."

[shuck_you]

"Still kind of a crappy thing for him to do," he said, making a face. Thomas could understand not loving someone and not wanting to pretend like you did because it really wouldn't be good for anyone in the long run. Feelings would inevitably be hurt and you'd probably lose out on other amazing experiences because you thought you'd found the person you wanted to be with.

"The last thing I remember about my parents is that my dad was sick," he said, rubbing the side of his neck thoughtfully. "A lot of people in my world were and he was just unlucky. It made him angry and mean. I try to convince myself that he wasn't really like that and it was just the disease making him say those things."

[theduff]

It was crappy. No doubt about that. But I'm lucky, I know, because though I can't help questioning if my dad loves his dog more than his own daughter, at least I still have him around. Even though I can't talk to him now any more than I can talk to mom.

"That sounds absolutely terrible," I tell Thomas. The more I hear about where he came from, the more I'm glad he's here now. "Was like a pandemic? You didn't get sick?"

[shuck_you]

"I thought I was sick for awhile," Thomas said, rubbing the back of his neck and recalling those days when he was so worried that the Flare was taking over and he was so close to becoming a detriment to his friends here.

"But, turns out I'm immune," he added quietly. "I guess it was a pandemic, yeah. It didn't happen naturally. A few organizations...released it because they thought it might help control the population in a burned out world. They underestimated the severity of the disease. It's killed a lot of people and it's still going as far as I know."

He thought of how he'd helped Newt and wondered if there were other immune people that could help those that were sick. "It's not good."

[theduff]

That's some dystopian novel shit right there. Like The Stand, only I know and like Thomas and consider him a friend. I hate to think of him having to go through something like that.

"Doesn't sound so good, no." I'm not sure what else I can say. "Jesus Christ dude, I knew you didn't come from a great place, but that sucks. That really sucks."

[shuck_you]

"Yeah," Thomas said because that was the simplest yet best way to put it. It really sucked. He hated that he'd even been associated with it even if he hadn't authorized the release of the Flare.

"I spent awhile trying to think how this was the best option and why it might have been necessary but I came up with nothing," he added, shaking his head. "It sucks and it killed a lot of people. They didn't deserve that. No one deserves that."

[theduff]

"From my very limited experience watching politics in my world, thinking about why people in power do what they do only leads to a whole lot of headaches and grief." Doesn't stop me from trying and thinking I can eventually make a difference, but I only just managed to fight my way through a tidal wave of high school politics battering me down. Actual real world politics is a whole other thing.

Goddamit. I turn eighteen next month, and I won't even have a chance to vote if I'm still stuck here. I mean, I can vote here, but who am I going to vote for? That McDillet guy?

[shuck_you]

"The bad thing is," Thomas said thoughtfully, giving his head another shake, "that the government in my world is really...I don't know if it even exists. There's an organization there that's doing tests, Trials, to try and cure the disease and they've been given a lot of power. Too much power. I think they're pulling the strings now."

He didn't know for sure, had no proof, but with how rampant WICKED got to run, they had to have a long, long leash in order to do what they did without anyone getting suspicious.

"This place is confusing and impossible but at least there's a government and they're not a bunch of cowards."

[theduff]

I make a face when Thomas goes on about his world, a cross between horror and disgust at the idea that something like that can exist for real somewhere. Even if it's another universe or whatever, it exists and is very real for Thomas.

"They're not." I can agree with that much, even though I have nothing so different to compare it to. Darrow's government doesn't seem that much different from my own home town, and I'd only just recently started to care about that sort of stuff. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you're here and safe from all that."

[shuck_you]

"I am too," Thomas agreed, nodding. He held off on saying that he missed his friends, that he sometimes wished he was back there just to pay penance for what he'd done. This wasn't the time or place for guilt and self loathing. Thomas would have plenty of time to do that in the future.

"I'm glad you're doing okay too," Thomas told her with a gentle smile. "See, with you being here, if I fall asleep, you can make sure I don't drool all over myself like a stupid shank."