Who: Lulu, Moira, Clarice, Troy, Neil, Bod, Castiel Ianto (and if Ianto feels like inviting him, Jack), and Richie
What: Christmas Eve dinner + celebrations
When: Christmas eve, seven or eight PM ish
Where: The Lulu/Moira/Clarice abode
Rating: C for Christmas
(
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmassssss )
And then they came back, and all seemed fine, until about fifteen minutes before they were supposed to leave, when a whole onslaught of pent-up anxiety came rushing back to him. And really, what was he worried about? He'd been in plenty of situations before where he didn't know the traditions, or the people, or anything at all. But usually, he could pass it off as a victim of his own upbringing, being the ignorant foreigner who simply didn't have the lay of the land. And while he knew that these people were friends-- he knew everyone who would be there, didn't he?-- it was different because now, they knew him too, and he'd be damned if it didn't matter more to him that people might think him foolish.
There were a lot of other things that were causing him anxiety, too. Like gift-giving, for instance. Where in God's name had people come up with this strange and archaic principle? And why was it so very hard to do? It made Bod wish he had a talent, or an ability, like Lulu's knack for baking. Something he could share with people. And what if he chose a gift for someone, and they simply didn't like it? How uncomfortable would that be?
Sometimes, he wished he could still Fade. But he wanted to go, even as he was terrified to, and if he went, there was no one he could really hide from. So he was sitting out on Neil's front porch, on the top step, staring across the street at Lulu's house... simply waiting for Neil, and trying not to think too hard.
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"Calm down, alright? It's just a meal with a friend." He took Bod's hand with the one not holding the shopping bag, and started to lead him toward Lulu's. It was an amusingly poetic bit of irony. Bod had lived in a graveyard, had stood alongside ghosts and ghouls and all manners of terrors, both dead and alive. But he was petrified of Christmas dinner.
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I can do this, he thought to himself. I'm just going to pretend that I'm totally fine, and no one is going to know that I am a ROILING MASS OF FEAR on the inside. And everything will be okay. ...Right?
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At this point, they were at Lulu's door. Neil squeezed Bod's hand for a little addition of reassurance before ringing the doorbell.
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And in the meantime, he was going to continue pretending. It was not easy, though, when Neil reached for the doorbell and his insides screamed-- screamed-- in terror and protest. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath... and waited.
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Then he met the look with a small smile and a shrug as if to say 'don't worry about it.' He slid an arm around Bod's shoulders and rubbed playfully. "He just needs some of your amazing food. If I know this boy, he hasn't eaten a thing all day."
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On this day, at the mention of 'Jack', his knee-jerk reaction was to create a distraction, Fade, and get away from there before Neil or Lulu could see through it. This probably meant going back outside, and once there, he'd stand on the porch and feel like an idiot for several minutes, and then come back inside. The only thing keeping him from doing exactly that was Neil's grip on his shoulders-- and his quick grasp of the situation.
He took a deep breath, and forced a modicum of common sense into his brain. Then he nodded. "The Doctor," he said, "mentioned him, the first time I met him. He said I had to watch out for him." The stars were slowly clearing from his vision, and he quirked a bit of a shaky grin. "'Course, he said to watch out for him because he'd... try to hit on me or something, I don't know."
Oh, he didn't have any common sense at all. If he did, he would have eaten something today, and probably been calmer, and not overreacted at silly things... and he wouldn't feel so desperately like he needed to sit somewhere and wait for his legs to stop shaking. "I'll be right back, I'm... just going to go set this down." Reassuring them both that he was fine, he turned and escaped into the kitchen.
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Then he turned to Lulu, smiled sheepishly. "He'll be fine."
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He grinned, deciding it was high time for a topic change, and one he was particularly interested in. "So," he nudged her, "our friend Riche's back in town, huh?"
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Lulu tried very hard not to blush at her friend's very obvious question. "Yeah, Richie's back in town. And coming tonight. Have you seen him since he's been back?"
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