Nina Clarke: ᴍᴀʏᴏʀ, ᴀᴜsᴛɪɴ ᴛx & sʜʏ ʙʟᴏʙ (commonlaw) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-11-23 20:58:00 |
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The meal had gone off without a hitch and as far as Demi could tell it was the calmest Thanksgiving she had been at in a long while. While last year had been nice in that it had gotten her out of the Capitol and she had been able to see some people she dearly cared about. She could admit the ripple effects had left a lasting mark on her, ones she was more than a little glad were in her past. Demi wondered for the briefest of moments if Nina felt some of the surrealness of the day, it being in such stark contrast to the last time they had celebrated Thanksgiving. Instead of suspicion and paranoia hanging over their heads, they were legitimately able to enjoy the day -- maybe not entirely worry free, but at least without fear of imprisonment. As the meal had wound down and people began breaking off into side conversations again, Demi had made a very conscious bee line for Nina and as she reached the other woman she slipped an arm around her friend. “Today has been good,” she remarked while giving Nina a squeeze. “And like I promised I’ve been on my best behaviour.” Demi added with a small laugh. She knew how she could be a force of nature, come into a place and claim it as hers. Demi was certain she might have been a cat in a past life for that very reason. An effort had been made not to do that here, not on a day that was important to her friend. "You have," Nina agreed, returning the hug with obvious fondness and amusement as she led her friend over to where the others had gathered in a nearby sitting room, claiming one corner and the chairs within it for the two of them. "Color me very impressed at your restraint." “I can be restrained when I want to be,” Demi said with a laugh. “It also doesn’t suck that we’re not under Olinger’s magnifying glass this year,” Demi didn’t want to bring the mood down, but she couldn’t let the day slip by without acknowledging just how much had change for the better in just one year. “I like our new mayor a hell of a lot more.” Demi continued as she glanced sideways at Nina. "Is that so? At the risk of stroking my own ego, I think I'd have to agree with you." Demi wasn't the only one remembering the previous holiday's traumas; she was sure she'd never forget coming face to face with Olinger and his Patrolmen in that Capitol kitchen, nor the fear she'd felt when Demi had been taken. Nina shook her head, willing the memories away as best as she could, then turned to look over the assorted people in her home: her family -- all of her family -- and her and Kevin's friends. There wasn't anything about the sight, not even the gaudy decorations within the Governor's Mansion, that didn't improve upon 2018's iteration of Thanksgiving. "I can't believe we made it this far, honestly." “It is,” Demi replied. “I could say the new mayor is one of my favorite people,” she added, noting that she missed moments like this with Nina when they could just talk. They had done a lot of talking -- Nina mostly keeping her sane -- while they had both lived in the Capitol. Demi had to admit she liked this though, she liked seeing Nina happy, hell, she liked seeing everyone happy like this. It had been a long damn time coming for them, they had fought hard and would continue to fight to haul Austin up out of the ruins it had sunken into. “I can’t believe it either,” she breathed out, glancing around the room at the people seated in it -- and at the room themselves. If someone had told her a year ago she would be having Thanksgiving in a mansion, she would have laughed right in their faces. "Wow. Now there's some high praise." There was something to be said for the close quarters Nina and Demi had lived in before, but that was the only good thing about the entire situation. Still, they didn't live all that far away from each other. They could see each other a lot more than they did, which still was decently frequent but not as often as last year. Though Nina wouldn't ever want to go back to those times, there were still things they could improve. "We ought to do more together. I suppose it's tough when we have completely different work schedules, but I'm sure we can make it work, somehow." Demi gave a nod in complete agreement with Nina’s assessment that they should do more together, or try to do more together. “Well, I’m the boss at the bar, I’m pretty sure I could make my own hours if Ms. Mayor could fit me in,” she flashed Nina a teasing smile, aware that her friend’s schedule was something she couldn’t quite control. The job of mayor had a lot of demands on her time. "I'm working on it." Nearly everyone in her life was attempting to get Nina to work less, and she'd been doing a bit better at that, but she still had her moments. "Hire more staff so you can work fewer evenings, and then we'll be able to do more things," she added, her smile a telltale sign that she knew how hypocritical it was to tell Demi to work less, too. “I’ll take your recommendation into consideration,” Demi replied with a faint smile. “We’ll make something work, because I miss you,” she continued, positive that if they put their minds to it they could juggle their schedules enough to free up time to connect like this more often. It had been easier when Demi had been jobless and Nina had simply been a lawyer, but while she missed the freedom that had allowed, she didn’t miss living under a tyrant, or the fact that this time last year she and Isaac had been fighting so bad he had been sleep on the couch. “Maybe what we need is another girls night? I could wittle a couple more racy stories out of you if I just got some wine into you.” Again she was teasing, though she had to admit she did think her friend needed more nights where she could let her guard down and just enjoy herself. "Maybe." Nina had more racy stories now than she had a year ago, too, and most of them had come about with the assist of wine. Despite the glass she'd had with Thanksgiving dinner, she managed to successfully not let her gaze track sideways towards Amanda, too. "But, all right. I like the sound of this. Who should we invite? And where? Because we're certainly not holding it here." Such was the problem of living with one's parents, again, but she hadn't liked the thought of them living elsewhere. They seemed more comfortable in the Mansion than she did, actually. A wide grin appeared when Nina uttered that one little word. That maybe was as much as a yes in Demi’s mind. “It’s a good idea, that’s why you like the sound of it,” Demi said smugly, her grin shifted into a smirk. “Dani, obviously, we couldn’t do a girls night without her,” she began before taking a pause to consider others that could join that guest list. “Savannah and Lita, maybe?” another pause. “And Noa, I think she could use a good wine filled girls night as much as you could.” Demi looked across the small space as she asked. “What do you think? Who would you invite?” “Reese,” a pause. “You know Reese, right? She’s always been fun to have at things like that.” Demi wondered though if Nina would feel comfortable letting her hair down among people she didn’t know nearly as well as she knew Dani and herself, though. Screwing up her face as she thought about a location, she finally said. “We could always do it at The Bar? Maybe send Isaac down to one of the spare rooms for the night or something?” "We could." The long list of people that Demi had rattled off just then, without pause or consideration, had thrown Nina, and she was silent for a moment as she tried to sort out her options. "Dr. Singh and I don't get along, and I barely know Noa or Reese." That left Demi, Savannah, and Dani. Nina would add Kitty to the list, too, but her list of close female friends now seemed like they could be categorized as something else: Demi and a bunch of women who didn't know anything about Nina's relationship and, even worse, couldn't know at all. "I don't know," she said then, shaking her head. Sure, she had friendships that extended past when she'd become mayor, but it also seemed as though there needed to be some sort of standard that needed to be upheld. "I'll have to think about it." Afraid that Nina might change her mind once she realized there were so few options in regards to people they could invite, Demi was quick to amend. “Or we make it just you and me,” she offered her friend an understanding smile. “I know all about the things you’d want to gossip about and you know selfishly I wouldn’t hate having you all to myself to chat with for a whole night.” In some ways she hated that her friend’s position meant she needed to be far more guarded about the people she let into her inner circle, but she supposed such was life as a public figure. "You really think Isaac would leave us alone for an entire night in his own home?" Nina asked rhetorically, though she had to admit the idea sounded awfully tempting. She spent a decent amount of evenings at Amanda's; it wouldn't hurt to take some of that time and spend it being a normal person, without any political or romantic expectations put upon her. Nina’s questions might have been rhetorical, but it made Demi laugh softly anyway. “He might,” she supplied, even though her friend hadn’t been looking for a response. “Just think about it, please,” Demi said. “It could be fun to swap stories again,” she paused a beat. “And this time none of mine will involve a certain blond man we both knew well.” No. Now her stories were all about Isaac. She felt a pang of something though when she realized she couldn’t let Nina in on the big life change she and Isaac were embarking on, at least not until it became something more than them trying to start a family. "I'm happy to not think about him in that context, or admittedly, not at all." A year ago, she'd been so happy to see James again in the LBJ Library, but time brought with it improved clarity on how unhealthy their relationship had been. Nina didn't regret defending him in court, nor did she regret choosing the lesser of two evils last fall and working where she could to disenfranchise Olinger's regime, but it was hard to ignore the fact that he'd taken advantage of her when he could and manipulated her placement in the Capitol to suit his needs. There had been a time when Demi would have given anything to get back to the Dog Park and back to James, but that time was long ago and those feels had dried up. “I’m happy not to think about him either,” she remarked her tone laced with blunt honesty. Truthfully the one thing she had James Hawkins to thank for was that he hadn’t given enough of a damn about her to break her out of La Quinta. Because if he had she never would have spent all those hours talking with Isaac and he never would have felt compelled to free her from that hell hole. Sure, she could have done without some of the nastier scars that place had left on her, but what doesn’t kill a person only makes them stronger, right? Demi had not seen it then, but she saw it now. James used people to his advantage. Her, Nina, the Officers. Each were merely a pawn or a means to an end. Nina nodded in agreement, allowing a bit of silence to settle between them for a moment, before she added, "Perhaps dinner with a few of those women, and then we can have a sleepover after they leave." With a shake of her head Demi pulled herself out those thoughts and nodded. “I like that plan,” she said with a small smile. “Dinner and then a sleepover,” Demi paused. “That last part absolutely needs to happen, by the way.” "It will," Nina promised. "We'll just have to find a good day, hope it doesn't get interrupted by any surprise crises, and then make sure we have enough wine. It'll go swimmingly, I'm sure." “Agreed!” Said with a smile and then a glance around the room, Demi smiled softly before she looked back to Nina. “I like that our conversations no longer revolve around the secrets we’re keeping and the paranoia of a year ago.” Their shared situation had brought them closer and strengthened their relationship, but Demi was more than a little pleased that no longer did they have to talk in code or sneak around with a second phone. "God, me too." Really, any time Nina got stressed out about the ongoings of running the city, perhaps she ought to just think back to how things had been just twelve months ago. The loss of life from a few months ago still weighed heavily on her shoulders, enough to make her feel momentarily guilty about how happy she felt in that moment, in her gaudy home with her closest friends and family, but then Nina sighed off the feeling and directed a genuine smile at Demi. "I'm glad we met." The smile that Demi gave in return was nearly a mirror image to the one her friend gave her. “Me too,” she agreed. “It’s one of the good things that came out of last year.” With some distance between them and the events of the previous year Demi could now see the silver lining and the way her life had been blessed because of it. Without her arrest she never would have met Isaac and subsequently Nina. Now though she couldn’t imagine her life without either of them. They were both so integral parts of the life she had built post-La Quinta that the thought of them not in it was just too weird to think about. |