entrancelogs | [OPEN] We'll Take A Cup of Kindness Yet

Entry tags:

[OPEN] We'll Take A Cup of Kindness Yet

Who: EVERYONE, but especially you!
Where: Wonderland Ballroom
When: New Year's Eve
Rating: PG - PG13 (will change if applicable)
Summary: New Year's Eve Party
The Story:

[The morning of December 31st, all residents will receive a handwritten invitation slipped under their door.]

You are cordially invited to attend a party
celebrating the New Year

Wonderland Ballroom
8 pm - 1 am

Semi-Formal Attire
Buffet & Bar
No RSVP Required

All Ages Welcome

For inquiries, contact E. O'Connell

[Punctuality in planning is important: the ballroom itself will only be ready for guests at exactly 8 o'clock, bedecked in glittering golds and the red-green of Christmas' vestiges, still clinging to the old year. Dining tables surround a central dance floor, bars and buffets dot the edges of the room and both holly and mistletoe are expressed liberally through the interior.

Mingle, dance, eat and be merry! The New Year will come in at midnight - the band will play and the drinks will flow for long after.]

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"But you did." Leveling him with a firm look. She wasn't about to just let this go because Richie was convinced he was in the right. She expected more from him, she always had and she'd hold him accountable when he didn't live up to those expectations. The moment she started expecting less of him was the moment she stopped believing in him.

"You didn't have to be rude. You didn't have to make a scene or act like I wasn't even there." Which was why she struggled to believe this had anything to do with her. He was too busy trying to out-testosterone Klaus to even know she existed. (Oh Kate...).

"God, Richie. You treat me like I'm just some... silly little school girl who is too stupid to know what's good for her and don't ever stop and think about how I might feel because of course, you know best." Her eyes shimmer, Kate biting the inside of her cheeks to hold her composure but the hurt is there, despite her attempts to mask it.

"This is the first time in..." How long had it been now? When was the last time she'd been anything close to normal? When had her life gone from planning for prom to planning exit strategies in case everything went to hell? Shaking her head. "... that I've been able to feel normal for more than five seconds. I'm in a dress. There's music and dancing and you're - " Her hand gestures lamely in his direction, more biting words on the tip of her tongue but she loses steam, her arm falling limply to her side.

"You don't even get it. Do you." No longer angry, merely sad and disappointed.

He looks down at the floor, shoving the toe of his shoe into the ground uncomfortably.

"I don't think you're silly."

Furthest thing from it, actually. He does think she's naive, that she trusts too easily, that she lets people take advantage of her. But that also happens to be the parts that lay in direct contradiction with himself but managed to break through to his frazzled mind when he really needed it. When Seth wasn't enough.

She's different just like he is, only not in the same way.

"I'm not all that good at normal." He may not like it when people talked shit about him, called him crazy or a loose cannon, but he knew damn well his life wasn't even remotely what a typical person would consider 'normal.'

He glances back up in time to see her gesture at him as she explains what's going on around them, and he seems to process it all for a moment before he makes a suggestion.

"Is that what you want? To dance?"

"But you think I was throwing myself at him?" Eyebrows raised, gently urging him to go back over every word that's passed his lips, to realize how maybe they might have been offensive. Maybe she hadn't handled things as well as she should have. Maybe she invited the escalation by allowing her frustration to get the better of her but she didn't regret those brief moments spent with Klaus. She couldn't because for just a few seconds, she could almost remember the girl she used to be before her whole world was turned upside down.

"I don't believe that." Kate trying for gentle, only too aware of how delicate this conversation was. "I've seen how you are with Seth. You two... you act like you can't stand each other sometimes but when you're together?" The love and devotion they had for each other, that was the most normal thing in the world in Kate's eyes.

She can see him trying and she's sure that if she says yes, he'll lead her onto the dancefloor but it wouldn't be because he wants to dance with her. It would be him trying to give her what he thinks she wants.

"I just..." Se sighs softly, eyes falling away as she shakes her head. "I just want to go back to the room."

"...No. That's not what I meant." Kate didn't throw herself at anyone. That would be weird.

He just hadn't seen her smile like that in awhile. It bothered him, especially directed at someone he knew wasn't being one hundred percent genuine with her. Someone who looked at her like something to be used or a random interesting distraction.

"Yeah, sometimes. The rest of the time we're beating the shit out of each other."

Actually, that's exactly the last thing Seth did to him. Shoved him into the sun to burn, threatened to kill him and everything. Totally normal.

He tilts his head at her, narrowing his eyes slightly. "No, you don't. You're a young woman and you want to have some fun that's way too overdue." He shoves a hand in one pocket, drawing out a pack of smokes, pulling one out and shoving it between his lips before he lights it and tosses both objects over to her. "It's not what we came here to do, but that doesn't mean we can't have a change of plans." He walks a couple of steps over to the bar they've ended up nearest to and starts pouring two vodka tonics. Time to see if Kate stops him. "Besides, it would look weird if we just left now."

"Well, that's how you made me feel." He hadn't been subtle about suggesting that she was only too willing to be taken in by the first man who even spoke to her, regardless of his meaning. She didn't know if Klaus was being genuine or not. She suspected he might have been amused by Richie's hovering and decided for a little fun but she also, hadn't cared about any of that. He'd been nice. It had felt good. Plain and simple.

"You don't think that's normal?" Eyebrows raised. "Siblings fight, Richie. That's just, what they do. You don't get so mad about somebody unless you love them." Oh she knew Seth and Richie took their fights to levels that went beyond anything she'd experienced with Scott, but the emotion behind it? That was what about as normal as you could get. "That kind of hate has to come from somewhere."

She can see the gears shifting in his head and her shoulders slump before he can move into action, the point somewhere off in a far distant horizon while Richie is busy trying to fix what was right in front of him.

"Richie..." This was, so far from what she wanted right now, Kate's expression pained as she fumbles to catch his cigarettes and lighter. She can see what he's doing and there's a part of her that appreciates him for it but he couldn't give her the slice of normal that she'd been nostalgic for. He couldn't make a plan to set the evening right.

"Richie." A little more meaning in the way she says his name as she steps closer to the bar. "You don't have to do this." But it was something more than that, she just wasn't sure how to say it without it seeming like a rejection. "I don't want you to... It's not, real." Trying for a smile but it looks more like a grimace.

"We'll just... stick to the plan. That's, one of those things you say, right?"

He doesn't turn around until he hears her call his name a second time, and by then he already has a drink in each hand, thrusting one of them towards her.

Richie can already tell that she's trying to put a stop to all this, but he seems intent on barreling straight through, his lips pressing together. "Just take it." He's still not doing this right and he finds it infinitely frustrating, but he's not about to give up just yet.

"It was a loose plan for a reason, remember?"

Neither of them had any idea how this was gonna go and it had taken a turn they hadn't expected. That means improvising.

"Besides, what do you mean it's not real? You'd rather dance with someone else than with me?"

And now, she is juggling, his cigarettes, his lighter and a drink... the one she might suspect he's insisting she take, just so she doesn't retrieve the one that Klaus had poured for her. Why fucking this.

He's just, he's trying and somehow this has gone from her being mad to finding a way not to upset him or hurt his feelings, Kate letting out a soft sigh as she manages to deposit some of her cargo on the bar.

Pulling in a deep breath, she turns back to face him, running through what she'd like to say in her head before trying to give it voice.

"Okay. Let's... say I dance with you." This shouldn't be so complicated. "Why? It's not because you want to dance with me or you would have asked me already. You'd be doing it to try and make me happy, Richie and that's not what I want. That's not real. It's not always about the person it's about the moment and you can't... plan that, do you... understand?"

He seems to go over all of this in his head, at the very least not seeming to be particularly offended by it anymore.

That doesn't mean he gets it, but he can sort of follow along at least. Seriously, though. Girls.

"You're trying to tell me that doing things to make people happy only works if you do it before they ask." He looks...a little unimpressed by that, honestly. "You do realize I'm not a literal mind reader, right? I have to trade blood with you for that."

Relief washes over her, the worry and tension starting to flow out of her as she exhales, a small, almost grateful smile starting to touch her lips when... Richie just keeps going.

Her mouth falls open, eyes narrowing infinitesimally and she cocks her head to one side, frozen in place before the literal groan can be allowed to pass her lips. He was just, so close and then...

"Yeah..." Pinching the bridge of her nose. "It's... You know it's really more about..." Why is this happening?! "The effort?" Though she's fairly sure that's not going to help him understand.

"You don't have to read my mind, Richie. You just... You know what?" The cheer she forces into her voice, a little too bright. "It's, so not even about that. I don't want you to try and make me happy. I just, you should do whatever... you... want."

He's putting forth effort, okay. There is plenty of effort to go around at the moment. Not to mention, the last time he tried to do something like what she's suggesting, he had it shoved back into his face in a moment of horrible rejection.

It's fine.

"Right."

He doesn't look like he believes that at all, but considering the impasse they've reached, he's just gonna...go with it.

"Well, right now, I want to drink this," he says as he lifts up what he poured and knocks it back so that he can set it aside. "And I want to finish my cigarette. We can just pretend this never happened or something, I guess."

God, Richie. She's not asking for a diamond tennis bracelet here. She just doesn't want your pity dances. (I know).

"Okay." This was about as close to a win as she was going to get on this and Kate was going to take it. Of course, this still left her here, half miserable and wishing she could just retreat to the room but she was trying to change the way she was looking at tonight. She was not Kate in the pretty dress but the one who had to find a way to survive in this place, especially now that Richie had half outed himself.

"You, might as well finish mine too." Sliding her untouched drink across the bar. Her gaze does briefly touch on the flute of champagne but she'd just managed to find some sort of peace between them. She didn't want this to turn into an argument about how she liked Klaus' drink better than his.

"I probably shouldn't drink." Adding that on, lest he start thinking the above.

"I don't need it either."

He's not the biggest drinker, not like his brother. He enjoyed it, sure, but substance abuse wasn't really his thing.

"Just walk around with it. You don't have to actually drink it. No one's gonna push anything on you if you're already taken care of, plus it'll make you look like you're not just here to watch people," he explains as he slides it back.

It takes everything she has not to roll her eyes and again argue that Klaus hadn't been trying to push anything on her, the flute of champagne - that she would much rather be drinking, taunting her out of the corner of her eye. They'd only just found a level of peace however and she wasn't in the mood for another round of I'm right and you're wrong... especially when Kate knows she's in the right.

"I don't think you really need to worry about people coming anywhere near me for the rest of the night." I mean, really? Other people had to have caught that little display and between that and Richie's hovering? She'll just stand here and hold the drink and try her best not to look bored, or envious of those who look like they're having fun.

He manages a smirk as he shakes his head.

"I think you might be surprised."

People were strange. Sometimes, the idea of a threat looming made something more desirable. He wasn't about to let his guard down, but he might be less quick to step in now.

Maybe.

~~So what you're saying is that when Seth gets here too, everyone's going to want a piece of Kate~~

Kate for her part, remains unconvinced but will slip into an almost, sullen silence as she watches the elegant sway of bodies, the swirls of color as dancers spin around the room, the pleasant, almost musical spill of conversation that she realizes, she'll never really be a part of. That was a life meant for another girl, one she was still struggling to say goodbye to.

[Nice depressing thought to finish on.]

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[OPEN] We'll Take A Cup of Kindness Yet

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Richie, no

Kate, yes

Richie, why

Because...

Oh dear

I can't

I just. Yes.

Sigh.

Richie, pls

8D

/fin?