A Balance of Harmonies: Preparations
May. 27th, 2013 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frogs_of_warI have had quite a week with Friday being the climax. I felt fine before I left for work (for pretty much the first time all week), but then I started feeling ill. A visits to the doctor during lunch proved that I was right, I had an infection. (I really hate the doctor asking why you think you have whatever-it-is as if you were mistaken and then you give your spiel, wondering the entire time what you could have if it wasn’t what you thought it was, and she cuts you off say that yes you do have it.) I got my meds early enough that the pain got worse for a few hours after I took them. Then at the height of the pain, I stood up wrong and limped for the rest of the day.
The antibiotics kicked in by the time I got home, so at least I had that, but I was still limping so bad on Saturday that after leaving work early, I went back to the doctor. (This guy was really interesting and I might put him in a story someday.) A quick exam and an xray later, he decided this pain that has been bugging me on and off for eighteen years is a tendon problem (just like my shoulder a few years ago). I'm forty and falling apart.
By Sunday afternoon, I was no longer limping, but I am dealing with the consequences of taking an antibiotic that doesn’t allow dairy products to be eaten. I should have just bought the medicine for that when I picked up the antibiotics.
Title: Preparations
Series: A Balance of Harmonies (Three)
Status: Chapter one hundred twenty-two of some
Genre: m/m romance, drama, city life, businessmen
Rating: R
Content: stuff
Length: about 2,300 words
Summary: Things
Master list
Kurt surveyed the living room. The tree looked the perfect height in that corner. Anything smaller could be dwarfed by the room. “Do we have everything ready for tomorrow?”
Emil set plates of hash browns and sausage on the table. “Zan and Autumn said to leave everything else to them. But I don’t see how I’m supposed to relax.”
“They love this kind of thing.” Peregrine sat at the table and picked up his fork. “Are these the new vegetable sausages?”
“Yours are.” Emil grinned. “Kurt’s has meat in it.”
Kurt was glad for that. Vegetables in sausage was weird.
“I’m leaving early today.” Peregrine speared a sausage with his fork. “A group of boys are moving to a different shelter today. I want their transition to be as easy as possible.”
Kurt looked out the wall of windows. Rain beat down so hard against the balcony that some of it was bouncing back up. “I’ll take you.”
Peregrine sighed.
“Imagine how Emil will feel if you get pneumonia.” Kurt knew that was a low blow, but keeping Peregrine from getting cold again was important.
Emil pushed food around on his plate. “You really scared me.”
Peregrine sat back. “Ok, ok. You’ve got me. But you can’t keep treating me like I’m fragile.”
Kurt bit back a grin. Peregrine had asked to be treated like that not long ago. He’d changed a lot since this summer. Kurt had too.
Emil put his hand on Peregrine’s thigh. “Just for a week.”
“A week from Tuesday or a week from today?”
“I leave in a week, so before next Friday.” Kurt wanted to see his sister and her family, but he wasn’t looking forward to seeing his mother again. “What time do you want to get to the shelter?”
“As soon as we can get there.”
Kurt set his plate in the kitchen and then pulled Emil into his arms. He knew exactly how he wanted to spend the minutes until Peregrine was ready.
--
Emil sat with his cup of tea and watched the lights blink on the Christmas tree. As long as the kids didn’t wait too long to take the tree down after Christmas, maybe it was all right. Zan flopped down beside him on the couch. “The tree needs presents under it.”
“No.” He didn’t want to make this a Christmas party. People shouldn’t feel bad that they didn’t bring gifts. Emil didn’t want gifts.
The timer went off in the kitchen.
“Don’t get up.” Autumn turned to the ovens. She opened the bottom one. “Looking good.”
They had made almost all the food ahead. This casserole was practice for heating stuff because people would be coming and going for hours. Emil had borrowed a warming table and a portable bar complete with a fridge for this occasion. He wasn’t going to have alcohol in his house, but he didn’t mind flavored drinks.
Some things, like hors d'oeuvres, had to be done at the last minute. Willow and Liam would be over later to help with that. They needed a bigger guest bedroom. Then Willow and Liam could spend the night.
“Are you going to let people use the hot tub?” Zan nodded to the conservatory.
The hot tub was just for Emil, Kurt and Peregrine.
“Because we might want to dress up the cover so no one lifts it. You’ll have small children here to, won’t you?”
Emil stood up. “That’s a great idea. Should we set it like a table with a lamp in the middle and places for people to sit around it?”
“That might work. Or how about…” Zan brain stormed for a few minutes. Autumn added her ideas. With the French doors open and a tablecloth over it and a bowl of fruit in the center, maybe people wouldn’t lift the top.
Autumn measured the hot tub for the tablecloth and added it to her notes. “Anything else we need?”
Emil shook his head. “Can you think of anything?”
Maybe if he’d given a party before, he’d know what was missing.
Autumn patted his back. “We’ll be your errand runners tomorrow. We’ll get more ice or pop or crackers or whatever you need.”
Emil smiled back at her. “Thanks.”
“Thank you.” Zan laughed. “We are having all the fun of a party without having to make space at our house for guests.”
“As long as you’re enjoying yourselves.”
Zan pulled Autumn into her lap. “We are.”
Emil laughed with them. He wouldn’t have wanted to put on this party alone.
--
Peregrine nudged the last child under the porch. The rain might be good for the plants, but with the air almost freezing, the weather was not pleasant to be in. If the air got any colder the rain might turn to snow. He tried to find space for himself under the overhang. “Just go inside.”
“Uh.”
Peregrine sighed. He pulled out his phone and called the co-ed shelter office. “Can anyone come out and welcome these kids in? I’m pretty sure we were expected.”
A woman hurried to the door and opened it. “Come in, come in. Sorry, Mr. Jones. We weren’t expecting you yet.”
Peregrine checked his phone. Andre had told them three thirty, hadn’t he?
“Never mind. Are the girls here?”
Kids at this shelter went to the local schools. Some, at least, should be home by now.
“Ah.” The woman looked around. “Candice, see if they are here.”
A blue-haired-grandmother type picked up her cell phone and typed away. Peregrine gestured his flock to the chairs in the lobby. They flopped onto the chairs. “Did they know you were coming?”
The tallest boy nodded.
“Ok.” Peregrine pulled out his phone. Maybe he could warm up and dry off while he waited.
A phone chimed. Candice opened her phone. “They’re coming.”
A moment later two girls ran into the room. They skidded to a halt. Peregrine waved them forward. “Go ahead and greet each other. We promise not to watch.”
He turned his back on the group. “Do I need to fill out any forms or sign anything? Andre said something about paperwork.”
The woman led him into an office. He turned back at the door for a quick glance. The seven kids sat on the floor, their heads together. They’d do all right here. They were together.
--
Kurt looked over his to do list. He wanted to get everything done for next week before he left. Zawadzki knocked on his doorframe. “Busy?”
Kurt waves him in. “What’s up?
“The housewarming. Uncle Barry wants to come. I said no, but apparently he really wants to see Peregrine’s studio. He said that since you own him a painting…” Zawadzki sighed. “And my parents heard and now they want to come. My mom framed Peregrine’s sketch of Uncle Barry and hung it by the TV.”
Kurt grinned. All Peregrine’s work deserved to be displayed.
“And then Ezra’s parents heard my parents were going… I swear I said no to all of them.”
Kurt had a family like that, only his mother wasn’t as good company. “I’ll ask my men. I don’t have any problem with it.”
“If you say yes, I’m going to let them think this is a normal party where everyone shows up and leaves at the same time. Say five to seven or something.”
“Works for me.” Kurt let Zawadzki vent. He’d probably be venting himself after Christmas.
Kurt’s phone vibrated. “Emil says he’s fine by that. But Mr. Zawadzki better not harass Peregrine for a painting. Peregrine has a show next month and he’s already stressed.”
“I’ll tell him he’s out the moment he gets needy.” Zawadzki stopped at Kurt’s door on his way out. “Thanks.”
Kurt nodded. A few more guests wouldn’t make that much of a difference and Zawadzki’s whole family loved Peregrine’s work, which made them ok in Kurt’s book.
--
Emil surveyed his living room. The place hardly looked like his house. Borrowed chairs were grouped in twos and threes around the outside of the room with little tables between them. Maybe he should have Autumn bring over the stools she was sure she could borrow from someone Emil had never met. They still wouldn’t have seating for everyone.
But more chairs would mean less room for other things like dancing. Willow, Dakota, and Casey were bringing their dancing clothes. Olivia wore hers all the time.
Dakota stepped out of the spare room with his hands full of cloth. “Everything, neat as a pin now. We even changed the sheets. Where’s the laundry room?”
But instead of just setting them inside, Dakota started a load. He also folded the load that had been in the dryer and put everything away. “I love you closet. We need one of our own.”
Tyler blushed.
“And that bathroom, too. Only ours can be smaller.”
“I’ll never be as tall as Kurt.”
Dakota wrapped his arms around him. “I don’t mind being taller than you.”
Zan added a swirl to a hors d'oeuvre. “How tall do you think you’ll be?”
Tyler shrugged.
“I saw a site that gives height guesses if you know your parent’s height or how tall you were as a toddler.” Autumn shook out a tablecloth and laid it across the ironing board. “Do you know either of those?”
Emil didn’t. Tyler shook his head without looking up from the floor. Dakota pecked his cheek. “How well does it work for you?”
Autumn laughed. “It was off my three inches, but then my parents are both the shortest in their families.”
“And my parents were both tall.” Zan put the tray of hors d’oeuvres in the fridge and pulled out a bowl.
“She should be taller than me. But I’m glad. I like looking you in the eye.”
Zan blew her a kiss. “I wonder what Kurt’s says. His parents are about the same height and both much shorter than he was even at eighteen.”
How did Zan know that? Maybe she saw picture back when they were in college. Kurt hadn’t shown Emil any.
“We could have this as a party game.” Dakota rested his chin on Tyler’s shoulder. “As a conversation starter. Not everyone is going to know each other.”
“That’s a great idea. You won’t be the only two who don’t know everyone.”
“Autumn and I don’t. We haven’t met all of Emil’s siblings.”
Sean and Aaron said they were coming. Emil had waited a few extra days to send out their invitation in the vain hope that they would have made plans. Maybe they wouldn’t stay long.
“We haven’t met them either.” Tyler frowned.
Emil shook his head. “You aren’t missing anything.”
Dakota grinned. “Don’t love all you sibs equally?”
That was the truth. “I like everyone living with Dad.”
Dakota bowed a nod. “We are gratified.”
Tyler stepped away from Dakota. “We aren’t really his brothers.”
“Close enough.” Emil patted Tyler’s shoulder. “If I got to chose, I’d pick you.”
Tyler looked up, his eyes wide.
“Really. If just for selfish reasons. Look at all the help you’ve been today.”
Tyler looked away. “That was Dakota.”
Emil took a deep breath. Tyler really believed that. “My friend, my brother, from the little I know you, I’d say Dakota wouldn’t be half so productive without you.”
“Yeah.” Autumn ironed the last table cloth. “Dakota is easily distracted, but you keep him on task.”
“And often finished a task after he’s starting the next.” Zan grinned.
“I tell him that, but he doesn’t believe me.” Dakota ran his hand down Tyler’s back. “I’m better with him.”
Dakota bit his lips. “I just worry that maybe he isn’t better with me.”
Tyler spun. “No! I am! I really am.”
Dakota opened his arms and Tyler dove against him.
Zan laughed. “Young love. Was I ever that young?”
Autumn unplugged the iron. “Before my time, I’m afraid. When you were eighteen, I was in grade school.”
“Barely.” Zan rolled her eyes.
Autumn stepped behind Zan. “But some of the best things in life are worth waiting for.”
Zan laughed. “Would you be one of these ‘best things’?”
“What do you think?” Autumn grinned.
Had the hydrangea in Kurt’s office been watered today? And would everyone be done making out by the time he had checked?
Probably not, but Kurt would be home soon and then Emil could join the fun.
The antibiotics kicked in by the time I got home, so at least I had that, but I was still limping so bad on Saturday that after leaving work early, I went back to the doctor. (This guy was really interesting and I might put him in a story someday.) A quick exam and an xray later, he decided this pain that has been bugging me on and off for eighteen years is a tendon problem (just like my shoulder a few years ago). I'm forty and falling apart.
By Sunday afternoon, I was no longer limping, but I am dealing with the consequences of taking an antibiotic that doesn’t allow dairy products to be eaten. I should have just bought the medicine for that when I picked up the antibiotics.
Title: Preparations
Series: A Balance of Harmonies (Three)
Status: Chapter one hundred twenty-two of some
Genre: m/m romance, drama, city life, businessmen
Rating: R
Content: stuff
Length: about 2,300 words
Summary: Things
Master list
Kurt surveyed the living room. The tree looked the perfect height in that corner. Anything smaller could be dwarfed by the room. “Do we have everything ready for tomorrow?”
Emil set plates of hash browns and sausage on the table. “Zan and Autumn said to leave everything else to them. But I don’t see how I’m supposed to relax.”
“They love this kind of thing.” Peregrine sat at the table and picked up his fork. “Are these the new vegetable sausages?”
“Yours are.” Emil grinned. “Kurt’s has meat in it.”
Kurt was glad for that. Vegetables in sausage was weird.
“I’m leaving early today.” Peregrine speared a sausage with his fork. “A group of boys are moving to a different shelter today. I want their transition to be as easy as possible.”
Kurt looked out the wall of windows. Rain beat down so hard against the balcony that some of it was bouncing back up. “I’ll take you.”
Peregrine sighed.
“Imagine how Emil will feel if you get pneumonia.” Kurt knew that was a low blow, but keeping Peregrine from getting cold again was important.
Emil pushed food around on his plate. “You really scared me.”
Peregrine sat back. “Ok, ok. You’ve got me. But you can’t keep treating me like I’m fragile.”
Kurt bit back a grin. Peregrine had asked to be treated like that not long ago. He’d changed a lot since this summer. Kurt had too.
Emil put his hand on Peregrine’s thigh. “Just for a week.”
“A week from Tuesday or a week from today?”
“I leave in a week, so before next Friday.” Kurt wanted to see his sister and her family, but he wasn’t looking forward to seeing his mother again. “What time do you want to get to the shelter?”
“As soon as we can get there.”
Kurt set his plate in the kitchen and then pulled Emil into his arms. He knew exactly how he wanted to spend the minutes until Peregrine was ready.
--
Emil sat with his cup of tea and watched the lights blink on the Christmas tree. As long as the kids didn’t wait too long to take the tree down after Christmas, maybe it was all right. Zan flopped down beside him on the couch. “The tree needs presents under it.”
“No.” He didn’t want to make this a Christmas party. People shouldn’t feel bad that they didn’t bring gifts. Emil didn’t want gifts.
The timer went off in the kitchen.
“Don’t get up.” Autumn turned to the ovens. She opened the bottom one. “Looking good.”
They had made almost all the food ahead. This casserole was practice for heating stuff because people would be coming and going for hours. Emil had borrowed a warming table and a portable bar complete with a fridge for this occasion. He wasn’t going to have alcohol in his house, but he didn’t mind flavored drinks.
Some things, like hors d'oeuvres, had to be done at the last minute. Willow and Liam would be over later to help with that. They needed a bigger guest bedroom. Then Willow and Liam could spend the night.
“Are you going to let people use the hot tub?” Zan nodded to the conservatory.
The hot tub was just for Emil, Kurt and Peregrine.
“Because we might want to dress up the cover so no one lifts it. You’ll have small children here to, won’t you?”
Emil stood up. “That’s a great idea. Should we set it like a table with a lamp in the middle and places for people to sit around it?”
“That might work. Or how about…” Zan brain stormed for a few minutes. Autumn added her ideas. With the French doors open and a tablecloth over it and a bowl of fruit in the center, maybe people wouldn’t lift the top.
Autumn measured the hot tub for the tablecloth and added it to her notes. “Anything else we need?”
Emil shook his head. “Can you think of anything?”
Maybe if he’d given a party before, he’d know what was missing.
Autumn patted his back. “We’ll be your errand runners tomorrow. We’ll get more ice or pop or crackers or whatever you need.”
Emil smiled back at her. “Thanks.”
“Thank you.” Zan laughed. “We are having all the fun of a party without having to make space at our house for guests.”
“As long as you’re enjoying yourselves.”
Zan pulled Autumn into her lap. “We are.”
Emil laughed with them. He wouldn’t have wanted to put on this party alone.
--
Peregrine nudged the last child under the porch. The rain might be good for the plants, but with the air almost freezing, the weather was not pleasant to be in. If the air got any colder the rain might turn to snow. He tried to find space for himself under the overhang. “Just go inside.”
“Uh.”
Peregrine sighed. He pulled out his phone and called the co-ed shelter office. “Can anyone come out and welcome these kids in? I’m pretty sure we were expected.”
A woman hurried to the door and opened it. “Come in, come in. Sorry, Mr. Jones. We weren’t expecting you yet.”
Peregrine checked his phone. Andre had told them three thirty, hadn’t he?
“Never mind. Are the girls here?”
Kids at this shelter went to the local schools. Some, at least, should be home by now.
“Ah.” The woman looked around. “Candice, see if they are here.”
A blue-haired-grandmother type picked up her cell phone and typed away. Peregrine gestured his flock to the chairs in the lobby. They flopped onto the chairs. “Did they know you were coming?”
The tallest boy nodded.
“Ok.” Peregrine pulled out his phone. Maybe he could warm up and dry off while he waited.
A phone chimed. Candice opened her phone. “They’re coming.”
A moment later two girls ran into the room. They skidded to a halt. Peregrine waved them forward. “Go ahead and greet each other. We promise not to watch.”
He turned his back on the group. “Do I need to fill out any forms or sign anything? Andre said something about paperwork.”
The woman led him into an office. He turned back at the door for a quick glance. The seven kids sat on the floor, their heads together. They’d do all right here. They were together.
--
Kurt looked over his to do list. He wanted to get everything done for next week before he left. Zawadzki knocked on his doorframe. “Busy?”
Kurt waves him in. “What’s up?
“The housewarming. Uncle Barry wants to come. I said no, but apparently he really wants to see Peregrine’s studio. He said that since you own him a painting…” Zawadzki sighed. “And my parents heard and now they want to come. My mom framed Peregrine’s sketch of Uncle Barry and hung it by the TV.”
Kurt grinned. All Peregrine’s work deserved to be displayed.
“And then Ezra’s parents heard my parents were going… I swear I said no to all of them.”
Kurt had a family like that, only his mother wasn’t as good company. “I’ll ask my men. I don’t have any problem with it.”
“If you say yes, I’m going to let them think this is a normal party where everyone shows up and leaves at the same time. Say five to seven or something.”
“Works for me.” Kurt let Zawadzki vent. He’d probably be venting himself after Christmas.
Kurt’s phone vibrated. “Emil says he’s fine by that. But Mr. Zawadzki better not harass Peregrine for a painting. Peregrine has a show next month and he’s already stressed.”
“I’ll tell him he’s out the moment he gets needy.” Zawadzki stopped at Kurt’s door on his way out. “Thanks.”
Kurt nodded. A few more guests wouldn’t make that much of a difference and Zawadzki’s whole family loved Peregrine’s work, which made them ok in Kurt’s book.
--
Emil surveyed his living room. The place hardly looked like his house. Borrowed chairs were grouped in twos and threes around the outside of the room with little tables between them. Maybe he should have Autumn bring over the stools she was sure she could borrow from someone Emil had never met. They still wouldn’t have seating for everyone.
But more chairs would mean less room for other things like dancing. Willow, Dakota, and Casey were bringing their dancing clothes. Olivia wore hers all the time.
Dakota stepped out of the spare room with his hands full of cloth. “Everything, neat as a pin now. We even changed the sheets. Where’s the laundry room?”
But instead of just setting them inside, Dakota started a load. He also folded the load that had been in the dryer and put everything away. “I love you closet. We need one of our own.”
Tyler blushed.
“And that bathroom, too. Only ours can be smaller.”
“I’ll never be as tall as Kurt.”
Dakota wrapped his arms around him. “I don’t mind being taller than you.”
Zan added a swirl to a hors d'oeuvre. “How tall do you think you’ll be?”
Tyler shrugged.
“I saw a site that gives height guesses if you know your parent’s height or how tall you were as a toddler.” Autumn shook out a tablecloth and laid it across the ironing board. “Do you know either of those?”
Emil didn’t. Tyler shook his head without looking up from the floor. Dakota pecked his cheek. “How well does it work for you?”
Autumn laughed. “It was off my three inches, but then my parents are both the shortest in their families.”
“And my parents were both tall.” Zan put the tray of hors d’oeuvres in the fridge and pulled out a bowl.
“She should be taller than me. But I’m glad. I like looking you in the eye.”
Zan blew her a kiss. “I wonder what Kurt’s says. His parents are about the same height and both much shorter than he was even at eighteen.”
How did Zan know that? Maybe she saw picture back when they were in college. Kurt hadn’t shown Emil any.
“We could have this as a party game.” Dakota rested his chin on Tyler’s shoulder. “As a conversation starter. Not everyone is going to know each other.”
“That’s a great idea. You won’t be the only two who don’t know everyone.”
“Autumn and I don’t. We haven’t met all of Emil’s siblings.”
Sean and Aaron said they were coming. Emil had waited a few extra days to send out their invitation in the vain hope that they would have made plans. Maybe they wouldn’t stay long.
“We haven’t met them either.” Tyler frowned.
Emil shook his head. “You aren’t missing anything.”
Dakota grinned. “Don’t love all you sibs equally?”
That was the truth. “I like everyone living with Dad.”
Dakota bowed a nod. “We are gratified.”
Tyler stepped away from Dakota. “We aren’t really his brothers.”
“Close enough.” Emil patted Tyler’s shoulder. “If I got to chose, I’d pick you.”
Tyler looked up, his eyes wide.
“Really. If just for selfish reasons. Look at all the help you’ve been today.”
Tyler looked away. “That was Dakota.”
Emil took a deep breath. Tyler really believed that. “My friend, my brother, from the little I know you, I’d say Dakota wouldn’t be half so productive without you.”
“Yeah.” Autumn ironed the last table cloth. “Dakota is easily distracted, but you keep him on task.”
“And often finished a task after he’s starting the next.” Zan grinned.
“I tell him that, but he doesn’t believe me.” Dakota ran his hand down Tyler’s back. “I’m better with him.”
Dakota bit his lips. “I just worry that maybe he isn’t better with me.”
Tyler spun. “No! I am! I really am.”
Dakota opened his arms and Tyler dove against him.
Zan laughed. “Young love. Was I ever that young?”
Autumn unplugged the iron. “Before my time, I’m afraid. When you were eighteen, I was in grade school.”
“Barely.” Zan rolled her eyes.
Autumn stepped behind Zan. “But some of the best things in life are worth waiting for.”
Zan laughed. “Would you be one of these ‘best things’?”
“What do you think?” Autumn grinned.
Had the hydrangea in Kurt’s office been watered today? And would everyone be done making out by the time he had checked?
Probably not, but Kurt would be home soon and then Emil could join the fun.
