dion gardner 🍞 peeta mellark (kneady) wrote in dunhavenic, @ 2020-05-12 21:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, * jach, * jamie, c: cassia holt, c: dion gardner |
WHO: Dion & Cassia.
WHERE: Cassia’s home.
WHEN: May 8th, 2020
WHAT: An unexpected birthday present.
RATING: Low.
STATUS: log; complete.
Dion recognized that there was a very good chance that he was actually crazy and this entire thing was a massive mistake. However he’d spent the majority of his relationship with Cassia Holt being cautious and careful and where had that gotten him? A best friend who was now living hundreds of miles away and was probably completely unaware that he was in love with her. Crazy or not, Dion had made his decision. He was going through with this. That Thursday afternoon he packed a bag and flew out of Illinois before he could talk himself out of it. Most of the plane ride was spent somewhat attempting to figure out what even he could say to her. Happy Birthday, I love you. Are you also dreaming of a post-apocalyptic nightmare world? Somehow he wasn’t sure how that would go over. By the time drink service started, he’d abandoned the idea and had decided that he was just going to wing it. The plane landed in DC and Dion spent the night in a nearby hotel. At least still had enough sense not to turn up at her doorstep at 10 o’clock at night. The following morning, he was dressed and checked out. He rented a car and made the trip (only getting lost once) to the small town of Dunhaven. He’d heard her talk about it before, but it wasn’t at all like he’d pictured. It honestly looked like something directly out of a Hallmark movie. People he didn’t know waved at him as he drove down the streets. Small businesses with colorful window displays boasted an array of products. He didn’t see a piece of litter anywhere. With a little help from his GPS, he found her house and parked on the street. He belatedly realized that he should have stopped somewhere first to freshen up. “Too late now,” he muttered under his breath. Unless, of course, she wasn’t actually at home. He didn’t tell her he was coming. She was probably still at work. Figuring there was only one way to find out, Dion grabbed a small, wrapped birthday present, got out of the car, and made his way up the walk. Cassia was, as it turned out, home. She wasn't the sort of person that necessarily felt the need for big celebrations or parties for her birthday, but 2020 had been a year of actually using her time off for reasons other than simply using it so she didn't lose it -- first the trip to Cancun, now to be able to sleep in as she turned 27. And while she didn't spend the entire day in bed, she did spend much of it in her favorite place: the garden that was more or less her entire backyard. A lot of her plants had already been put in the ground, but after her mother had taken her to the local greenhouse the day prior to buy her some flowers to celebrate her birthday, Cassia's efforts for the day had been planting them to add some spring color to her yard. It was just about as good of a birthday as she could have imagined -- a thought she might have admonished, had she realized just how nice her birthday was about to become. Walking up the side path alongside her house with a flat of marigolds in one hand and a trowel in the other, Cassia made it only a few steps after turning the corner before stopping in her tracks out of sheer surprise. Though her mother had mentioned stopping by after her shift at the hospital, that wouldn't have been for a few hours yet and she otherwise wasn't expecting company. She especially wasn't expecting company in the shape of Dion, who she hadn't actually seen in what felt like absolutely forever. Cassia felt her heart squeeze in her chest, just as it always had when she saw Dion back in Madison -- just like it still did when she got an email or text from him. It was a feeling she had, once upon a time, refused to acknowledge thanks to their friendship and the poor timing of it all, but that had become near impossible with distance. "Hey," Cassia breathed in greeting, a wide grin crossing her face as she set the flowers and trowel down on the ground before hurrying the few steps that separated them. It wasn't until she was throwing her arms around Dion that she even considered that she was wearing her gardening clothes, was half covered in dirt, and her hair was falling out of her loose braid. Somehow she didn't think he would care too deeply. The rush of relief Dion felt was akin to a very large weight lifting off his shoulders. Not just that she was actually home and he wouldn’t be left sitting on her doorstep for hours, but at that expression on her face, and the feeling of having his arms around her again. He didn’t mind that she was in gardening clothes, and covered in soil. In fact, he often preferred to see her this way. It was all a part of why he cared about her so deeply. “Surprise.” He said wryly as he gave her a big squeeze. “Happy Birthday!” "It's definitely a happy one now," Cassia said, returning Dion's squeeze with one of her own before stepping back, hands on his shoulders as she looked him over. She wasn't looking for anything in specific; it might have been some time since they'd last seen one another, but he was still Dion. But she did like being able to appreciate that, in this moment, all of her favorite people were in one town together, for however long he was planning to be there. It had been quite some time since she had been able to say that. "I can't believe you're here," she started, then immediately added, "I'm very glad you are, but wow. Best surprise." She smiled again, then nodded toward the front door. "Do you want to come inside?" He certainly didn’t mind her taking a moment to look him over. It wasn’t like either of them had changed all that much. But he had to admit it was nice to be in close proximity with her again. “Inside is great. Or I can always come help you in the garden too. Or both. Birthday girl’s choice.” "Come on inside," Cassia smiled, finally stepping back enough to let him go. She led the way up the rest of the walk and steps up into her home, the childhood house that she had grown up in and moved back to Dunhaven to keep her mother from putting it on the market. The outside was decorated with flowers and plants of all sorts, while the inside was a bit more simple. Her mother had taken much of the decor around the house with her when she had moved out of it and Cassia wasn't much of an interior decorator. Still, there were touches of Cassia's taste here and there, with more plants, mostly succulents, and comfortable furniture. Cassia continued to lead the way inside, not so much giving a tour as just trying to find a sink so she could wash her hands. Once inside the kitchen, she did exactly that, but didn't take her attention off of Dion. "I'm definitely going to take up your offer on helping me in the garden," she started, then tipped her head to the side, "but first tell me how you're doing." He was quiet as they walked inside. The pair of them had always been able to enjoy comfortable silence between them. While Dion may have been the more outgoing of the two, he never felt the need to fill the air with mindless chatter when he didn’t need to. Instead he just took everything in. The carefully tended flowers and plants, and little touches of Cassia here and there. While she washed her hands, he leaned gently against the counter. “I’d love to. I was planning on staying through the weekend, so feel free to put me to work.” How was he doing? That was a loaded question. He chuckled softly. “That depends, I guess, on how quickly you want this reunion to get deep? I’m perfectly fine to keep things light until it’s more socially acceptable to have a beer.” "I've never been all that impressed with socially acceptable," Cassia joked, even though she did find her concern rising at his response. She dried her hands off with a towel before turning toward Dion, her hip leaning up against the counter next to him. Again, she found herself glancing him over, as though just looking at him would tell her about whatever was going on. She'd never been gifted with that uncanny ability to read people through their body language and what they weren't saying out loud that some people had, however. She let her arms rise to cross loosely in front of her, concern in her eyes. "What's up?" He could already see the concern in her eyes and began regretting his decision to just wing this conversation. He threw a long arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him with a gentle squeeze. “Sorry, I probably made that sound much more serious than it probably is. Let me preface this by saying I’m fine. I’m not sick or dying or anything.” He pulled his arm back away, much as he wanted to stay holding her. This was still a conversation best had face to face. He turned slightly to look at her again. “It’s just that for the last year...I’ve been having these dreams. Except they’re more than dreams. They’re more like memories of this entirely different world and life. And I know I sound like a crazy person when I say this, believe me. I debated for a long, long time if I should tell this to anyone other than my therapist. But it weighs on me a lot sometimes.” He couldn’t quite pinpoint the expression on her face just then. Which was unusual for him. He was generally very good at reading her. But whatever her feelings, she was still listening to him intently, so he opted to push through and get the rest of it out. “Sometimes when we talk, or I get your emails and texts, you’ll say things that remind me of that other life. Maybe it’s all in my head, and I’m just so desperate to not be alone that I’m looking for signs anywhere. But I have to ask. So at the risk of terrifying you and freaking you out and possibly ruining your birthday. Does any of this sound familiar to you?” Cassia stood silent as Dion spoke, her eyebrows raising just a bit with every surprising thing he said -- and there were a great number of surprising things. He was having dreams, dreams that were like memories. She had been saying things that reminded him of his dreams. Though Cassia had never come out and told him about the odd dreaming that seemed to happen to people in Dunhaven out of fear of him freaking out, she knew that she hadn't always been careful about the things she did say. Katniss's life felt as real to her as her own and there were times that she just slipped up, referencing something vaguely that happened in District Twelve and not anywhere real. But to think that Dion was dreaming and could very well be dreaming about someone from the same world as her? She didn't know if that was an amazing birthday gift or simply a curse he had been dealing with on his own. The latter thought made her heart ache; at least she had her friends in Dunhaven to turn to. "I -- uh." Cassia paused, taking in a breath before forcing herself to meet Dion's gaze. "Yeah... actually, yeah. It really does. I've been having really realistic dreams that feel like memories more or less since I moved back to town." She swallowed before continuing, "It's actually pretty common here." One more pause of hesitation before she barreled forward and admitted, "I'm dreaming about someone named Katniss Everdeen. Is that familiar?" His knees actually went a little weak when Dion heard her confirm that he wasn’t losing his mind. It wasn’t until that moment that he truly realized how much tension he’d been holding in his body while waiting for her response. He wasn’t crazy. More importantly he wasn’t alone. A lump of emotion rose up in his throat and he had to quickly blink away some tears rising in his eyes. He focused on his breathing for a moment until he knew he could speak without his voice cracking. When he was ready, he pulled a small brightly wrapped present out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Can you open your present?” He handed it to her gently. Inside the box were several neatly stacked packets of seeds. He’d gone out of his way to find unusual ones for the majority of her gift. But the two right at the top were Katniss and Primroses. A brief expression of surprise flashed across Cassia's face, as though she had momentarily forgotten it was her birthday at all. She looked down to the box and took it from Dion, hesitating only a second before she started to unwrap the gift, setting the paper aside on the counter before opening the box. She found herself starting to smile as she saw the seed packets within -- and then her heart seemed to come to a sudden halt in her chest as she looked at the packets on top. Katniss and Primrose. Cassia pulled the packet of primroses out of the box, staring down at the picture on the front and almost able to picture the bushes being planted around a house in a carefully rebuilding District Twelve. She swallowed hard, then looked back up to Dion. "I don't -- " She hesitated, letting her head tip to the side gently before asking, "Who are you dreaming about?" Her mind went immediately to Peeta, connecting dots that she hadn't known were there to connect until right this moment, but she didn't want to jump to any conclusions that would just be too disappointing. She needed to hear it. He still wasn’t sure what it all meant. The dreams. The fact that Peeta loved Katniss just as he loved Cassia. Were they meant to cross paths? So much of it was too big and too overwhelming. So instead, he chose to focus on what was directly in front of him. He cleared his throat before speaking. “Peeta. I’m dreaming of Peeta.” How was it possible that so many of the people that Cassia cared about most were connected to that world? Like Dion, she couldn't help but wonder -- were they meant to cross paths? Was this some sort of fate that her childhood best friends would be dreaming of two of the most important people in Katniss's life, then the friend she had made in college and come to love as she did would be dreaming of Peeta? And then there was Romy dreaming of Prim; she could never replace Mari, but she was Prim. How had she gotten so lucky to have these people in not one, but two lifetimes? Cassia smiled, a bright, kind smile that lit up her features. It was the sort of smile that was reserved for him, if she were entirely honest. "Of course you are," she said, the words coming out in a sigh. He couldn’t help but laugh at her response. “I’ll take that as a compliment?” There was still a lot he didn’t know. She’d mentioned the dreams were a common thing here in Dunhaven and he had about a thousand more questions. But in that moment, they could wait. He was just relieved to finally have someone who understood what he was dealing with. The knowledge that he wouldn’t be alone anymore had lifted such a weight off his shoulders. He could literally feel himself standing straighter because of it. “Seriously, Cass. You don’t know what a relief this is to hear. I almost don’t know what to do with myself right now.” Letting out a soft breath, Cassia gave Dion an understanding smile. "It's a lot, I know." Setting his gift on the counter and letting her gaze linger just a couple seconds on the packet of katniss seeds, she turned back and reached for one of his hands, sandwiching it between her own. "I'm still kind of wrapping my head around it. I don't have all the answers -- I probably don't even have all of them, but you're definitely not alone." That felt like the most important thing to make clear; she remembered how isolating it had felt before knowing that she wasn't the only one having odd dreams and wasn't the only one dreaming of Panem. And, as the others came forward and roles of Katniss's people seemed to get filled, she kept waiting for Peeta. It seemed fitting, she thought again, that it would be Dion. "I'll try to answer any questions you have," Cassia continued, "and there are even others that are dreaming about other people from there that I could introduce you to sometime, if you wanted." She let her hands squeeze gently around his. "But, most importantly," she paused to smile once more, "we're going to eat a lot of birthday cake tonight to cope with this." He smiled as she took his hand and held it in hers. There were still a few telltale specs of dirt around her cuticles and that made him inexplicably happy. It seemed a little overwhelming to him that there were others here. Others that were dreaming of Panem. It had almost been too much to hope that Cassia was experiencing it. But to hear there were others too. He wondered how many he would know. Haymitch? Prim? Names and faces and distant memories swam through his mind. “I’d really like that,” he answered. “On both counts. Meeting the others, and emotional cake eating.” He quirked the side of his mouth up in a grin and kissed Cassia’s temple. “But first, what’s it going to take to get you to give me a tour of this quaint little town of yours?” That inspired an unexpected warmth to spread from Cassia's chest -- the thought of being able to show Dion around the town that she had grown up in and had come to love, despite all odds. It had taken leaving it for her to truly appreciate it again, distance softening the edges and allowing her to focus on the good memories and not be haunted by the bad. Being able to show him the town that had made her? That sounds pretty amazing. "Not much," she admitted, squeezing his hands one more time before letting go to gesture down to her clothes. "Let me change into something less dirty and I'll show you around." “Excellent.” His own spirits were buoyed by the light in her eyes then. He had known Cassia was flourishing here from their talks on the phone and her life updates. It was an entirely different feeling to see it in person, though. As he watched her disappear from the kitchen to go change, he wondered if he could just stay here with her forever. |