2019-12-03 - ThanksIgging Dinner (Private)

On the television was the Macy's parade. Football isn't on. Maybe later, but eh, there are more exciting things going on. What Ignacio lacks in physical prowess of any sort he more than makes up for. He is great at running two things: his mouth and his kitchen. The first thing that hits anyone is that smell when someone walks in the door that is a wave of edible nostalgia. He and August have not one but two geese being prepared with a different treatment to each. There's the american favorites, and caramelized onions and pepper, a homemade applesauce, and the smell of fresh baked bread is likewise not to be overlooked. There is a very tiny plate attaches to a pop cap that is getting some things left on there without sauce for Miss Mags. Hey Iggy even dressed up, thought eh sleeves are rolled back and Granny Dove's apron is on him, ruffles and all. He ain't proud, he's cooking for the family he chose.

Finch is dressed in simple faded blue jeans and in interestingly textured long-sleeved sweater that looks part knit, part woven, part crepe. She has socks with turkeys on them on her feet as a nod to the holiday. Her hair is already starting to grow out a bit from the choppy asymmetric cut it started out as. She even put on some makeup tonight, eyeliner, mascara, and red lipstick.

Her grandmother, Dove, is in tailored grey trousers and a white blouse with a grey cardigan. She looks as finely put together as she always does. She's been helping the boys out in the kitchen while Finch was setting the table and getting things ready in the dining room. Finch leans in the kitchen doorway watching the cooking and breathing in the smells. This is nice.

Miss Magdalena Heinroth, adorable rat extraordinaire, is in an autumn fairy costume made by Dove which looks like little leaves and gauzy wings. She happily eats whatever Ignacio gives her.

August plays the part of sous-chef with perfect adequacy, but then, he's used to his sisters ordering him around in a kitchen, so it comes naturally. He's chopping apples and pecans for the yams at the moment, methodically scooping the piles into prep bowls and moving on to the next task. He's in a plain, black apron he brought with him, which is protecting a white dress shirt and black slacks, and on his feet, some smart, black, dress boots. There's probably a suit jacket around here somewhere which he hung up. Like Ignacio his shirt sleeves are rolled up, revealing a series of cuts and bruises along both of his arms. He's also moving a little stiff, like he didn't sleep nearly as comfortably as he needed. But he's in bright spirits, sipping from a root beer while he cooks with Ignacio.

Boots on the front step. Two sets of them, and the murmur of voices in accompaniment. Whatever conversation they're engaged in seems to concern cars. And by conversation, it's really more an argument. Which Itzhak is winning. Because Ruiz is plain wrong and digging his heels in like the pitbull he is. knock, knock presages the door being nudged open; de la Vega, for his part, is in a black tee shirt and dark, fitted jeans with a nice looking black suit jacket pulled over top. At least he's foregone that ratty ball cap he usually wears. And he might even have done something with his hair that involved a comb and some product. "This is going to be so fucking awkward," he mutters to Itzhak before they step inside. "You sure I can't just wait in the truck for you?"

"Lucky for you I'm an expert at fuckin' awkward," Itzhak mutters back. He's dressed up a little too, in slim-cut black slacks (from that suit! who knew it was so useful to have a gorgeous black suit in your arsenal?) and a black merino wool sweater, so very black that it seems to swallow light. Hell, he's even wearing a shirt with a collar underneath it. He's also wearing a pretty good shiner and a deep purple bruise peeking up from under his collar.

"Hey guys! Hi, Bubbeleh!" Itzhak just goes ahead and swans right in, six-foot-plus of absolutely not awkward in any way.

Tobin and Rafael arrive together, Tobin driving them over. He's dressed in a pair of black slacks with a dark green button down shirt and black shoes, a simple black leather belt and a tie that is a subtle black on black pattern with geometric spirals and swirls on it. His hair, though it's usual somewhat shaggy length has been at least trimmed neatly. He bears with him a pair of pastry boxes. One contains a chocolate silk pie, and the other contains some cranberry orange cookies. He carries both of these things, letting Rafael knock on the door and let them in so that he doesn't drop them. They arrive shortly after Itzhak and Ruiz, following in after them. "Happy Thanksgiving," he says to those he encounters as they make their way into the house.

Finch is feeling as stiff and achy as August, but fortunately her outfit covers all the scrapes and bruises. He fixed the worst of her injuries before they even left the woods. She really doesn't want to have to answer questions about why she looks like she went a few rounds in a boxing ring, and explain it was actually a couple of trees that beat the crap out of her and Roen. Fucking Sylvans.

She pushes off the kitchen doorway and calls, "I'll get it!" before she makes her way down the long hallway to the front door. It swings open before she reaches it and she blinks at the pair of familiar faces. "Itzhak!" she greets with a smile and a cheek kiss for the mechanic. Then she looks to Ruiz with a much more tentative smile. "Javier, glad you made it. Did you run into each other on the way up the drive? Come in, please. What would you like to drink?"

Then there's more arrivals and she waves Tobin and Rafael in. "Hey guys, looks like the gang's all here. Come in, parade is on in the parlor on the left, dining room is set up second door on the right, and at the end of the hall is the kitchen where everyone else is currently being way more useful than I am," she chimes.

Raf for his part is wearing a nice pair of tan slacks, a deep blue button down shirt, and is that a bowtie? Yeah, he dug a bowtie out of somewhere, this one a checkered pattern of blue, white, grey, and black, and damn if he doesn't at least pull it off a little. He lets Tobin proceed him with a grin and a waggle of his eyebrows. As he passes the kitchen, he tries to get his brother's attention with a rather direct. "Iggy!" Then points at the bowtie. "Look what I found." Of course it's part of an inside joke between the brothers, because really? A bow tie?

Ruiz is left behind with the bottle of wine (spanish, middle tier) and a slight scowl on his face as the big-nosed Jew prances off to greet his friends. Is he contemplating bolting? Given that de la Vega spends roughly thirty percent of his time in any given social situation doing just that, odds are fairly good that he's already making plans for excuses as to why he can't stay. But then Finch is running up to greet them, and more guests arrive, and it's suddenly even more awkward to barge back out. Tobin's given a taut smile that doesn't look particularly friendly, and he pauses at Finch's question, dark eyes sliding over the young woman. "Not exactly." A beat. "Whatever you have's fine. Where would you like this?" The bottle of wine, he means.

Itzhak leans over from giraffe-height to accept his kiss from Finch, smiling at her with all his crow's-feet and stress lines crinkling. "Hi, Fincheleh. Happy Thanksgiving." The smile kinda fades when she asks if he and Ruiz ran into each other.

Oh. Crap. He had a feeling there was something he forgot.

"Yeah, uh, hey I made this!" Itzhak offers over a tupperware full of homemade chili-lime nuts. "It was easy. Hey! Raf!" He greets the other de Santos, eyebrows up. "How's it hangin'. Sweet bow tie, bruddah. Who's this?" he wants to know of Tobin.

As Finch pushes getting the door to reveal Itzhak and Ruiz there? There's a brief moment of Aww, not on Rex Manning Day and concern for the world at large. A flash of blue crawls down his arms to his fingers that reach out for one of the metal frying pans. Shit what is not aluminum! That's the scramble to ground himself and act casual. The half smile warms, "Awww you guys made it, awesome!"

And then there's Tobin and Rafael and he pauses turning to August catching his eye with a quiet Gracias. Breathe. He's breathing and gives the bossman a nod letting him know, yeah he's good. And then there's his brother the bowtie gets a laugh and a wide half-grin that reaches his eyes. Rafael gets a hug , "You have to time travel to go find that? You really put some effort into that. I'm blessed!" Now introductions, "Uhhh folks, This es mi hermano, Rafael, and his boyfriend Tobin who is awesome and lets me talk over a speaker system to teh general public. Best present ever."

Finch takes the bottle of wine off Ruiz and chuckles. "I'll put it in the dining room with the rest of the booze. There's a little bar in there with wine glasses, and other stuff if you want to fix yourselves any cocktails, or there's beer, soda, water, and iced tea in the fridge." Then she's getting tupperware nuts shoved at her too. ""Thanks, Z!" Crisis averted for now.

Granny Dove comes out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a dishtowel as she moves to greet the guests. "Rafael I presume," she says to the one who looks like he could be Iggy's brother. "A pleasure to meet you; your brother has been very good to us. And you must be Tobin," she says looking to the other. "Welcome. Make yourselves comfortable" Then she moves on to the other pair. "Captain de la Vega. It is good to finally meet you," the elderly lady states with a smile. Then her eyes rest on Itzhak and widen. "Itzhak Rosencrantz! You have a black eye! What on earth did you do to yourself? Come into the kitchen right now, we're putting a bag of frozen peas on that shiner!" She holds out a hand demanding he take it and follow her into the kitchen for grandmothering.

August stops, santoku poised to cut another chunk of tomato apple, when he hears Ruiz and Itzhak arrive together. He's tense, listening to Finch ask that question, so when Ignacio flickers blue he reaches out and snuffs the electricity without so much as a by your leave. There's no indication of what he's just done, except maybe to Ignacio, who can feel the electricity simply go dark. August resumes chopping apples and shoving them into the prep bowl. Once he's done, he washes his hands and heads out of the kitchen to greet people.

He's nodding a hello to Raf and Tobin, whom he's met briefly before on their tour boat, but Dove's comment of a black eye draws his attention. He raises an eyebrow at Itzhak, unable to hide a small, private smile. "Want me to," he brushes at his own eye in a suggestion.

"Hey, Itz." Raf doesn't get much past that in trying to introduce Tobin before Iggy beats him to the punch. He's used to being talked over by his little brother and takes it in stride with a nod and a point to Iggy. "That." There's a look to Ruiz, then a sieways glance to his brother where he just mouths, 'Captain?' He turns to Tobin. "HEy, I'll put those pies in the kitchen since I need to get a soda anyway." He holds out his hands with a grin so the pastries can be transferred into his loving embrace.

Tobin grins as Rafael shows off the bowtie of which he is so proud. He smiles back to Ruiz, his own a little curious at the look that he gets, not entirely sure why, but he doesn't say anything. Instead, he lets people introduce him, and he does in fact hand the pastries over to Rafael so that he can bring them into the kitchen, "Okay, sure. Here you go." Then, with nothing to hold onto, and Raf headed into the kitchen, he stands there, slipping his hands into his pockets, and smiles to Finch, "Hi," and to both she and Granny Dove, "Thank you for having us. It's very nice of you." Polite, quiet, he lingers on the periphery of things, just watching the interactions of others who all know one another far better than he does.

God, the tension in here is thick enough to cut with a knife. Ruiz glances at the back of Ignacio's head for a long, long moment before turning to Dove as she comes around for introductions. "Javier is fine," he murmurs with a flickered smile for the older woman. "Es un placer conocerte." Plenty of crow's feet at the corners of dark eyes that bear an uncanny resemblance to Finch's. The comment on Itzhak's shiner causes him to clear his throat lightly and not make eye contact with anyone as he hands off the bottle of wine. "Hello," is accompanied by a quick, awkward smile for Tobin and Rafael, and he does his best to sidle out of the way while looking like he wants to crawl out of his skin. Where the fuck is the tequila when he needs it?

"How's--" is as far as Itzhak gets into greeting Tobin when Dove spots his shiner and demands she let him fuss over him. "Uh, well hey, you oughta see the other guy!" he says, joking, as he submits to fussing, letting her tow him into the kitchen. He glances over his shoulder at Ruiz, eyebrows up in a silent request for rescue. Hah. Like Ruiz has to rescue him. "Naishka, Roen, you guys are lookin' sharp." Then he turns vermillion when August smiles at him like that, and narrows his eyes at him. Ignacio gets a helpless shrug of apology. There's a classic Itzhak gesture, meaning something like I fucked up and I know it and you know it and now we're all in this situation I accidentally created, SORRY.

Finch watches her grandmother rush to take care of Itzhak with an amused expression on her face. "He knows better than to show up to Dove's house with visible ouches. Gran is gonna grandmother the hell out of him." She looks to everyone and smiles. "Why don't we head into the dining room and fix drinks and sit? That way we stay out of the way of tonight's valiant chefs who have promised not to accidentally poison us or set the house on fire."

She takes a moment to stop and look Ruiz in the eye. "Thank you, really, for coming. I know this can't be easy. But I really do appreciate the effort. What's your drink of choice?" She leads folks to the dinning room.

Dove sits Itzhak in a chair at the kitchen table and she hands him a bag of frozen peas for his eye, before getting a bowl out and stabbing some pineapple chunks out of a fruit salad to put in it and hand it to him. "Eat those, it'll help the bruising fade faster," she orders.

Ignacio lets things simmer and brings the veggies out and the bread to teh table while the last of things finishes. He stops and offers Itzhak a hug and Ruiz a hand in greeting, "Me alegra que te hayas unido a nosotros. Estar aquí hace que esto sea mejor." That? That is as genuine as his skin lighting up surprised. Looking around he notes them, and then August and the timer and then flaps a hand to the dining room. "Start filing in we're almost ready to serve." His eyes though track Itzhak and the bruising and then he looks to Granny Dove in serious collaboration there, "Don't let him escape. he'll tell you he's fine. Give em the peas, Gram." He looks to Raf and Tobin, "I talked to Marcela earlier. She told me to tell you she says happy Thanksgiving and wants pictures so don't let anyone eat everything before you send her one."

Once he's gotten his wits about him a little, and people seem to be filtering off to socialise and drink and do what Americans do on Thanksgiving, Ruiz opts to mark a path for the kitchen. Because fuck if he's going to sit around and talk, when there's food to be prepared; his madre would be horrified. "De nada," he tells Finch, voice softening a fraction as he passes her. And touches her arm lightly before moving on. "I'll grab something for myself. Go." His suit jacket is shrugged out of, and he prowls for the kitchen. In an aside to Iggy as he drapes it over the back of a chair, giving poor Dove an eyeful of both arms chock full of ink, "Gracias por invitarme. Es bueno estar aquí con las personas que son importantes para ella."

August watches Dove hustle Itzhak into the kitchen, laughs under his breath. He moves back to the counter, gets to peeling the yams and arranging them in the casserole dish. This is the messy part, and his hands are covered in bright orange sweet potato in no time. Presently the dish is all prepped and under the broiler, butter melting into brown sugar and spices in a nice, thick sauce.

Crouching in front of the broiler door, August says over his shoulder, "Maybe I'll just let her take care of it," of Itzhak's black eye. A timer goes off, and he pulls the casserole out. Next come the marshmallows in a thin layer, and back into the broiler. This is about when Ruiz comes in, and August waves to him from his spot by the lower broiler. "Glad you could make it."

Raf sets down the pies and looks over his shoulder at Iggy. "You're the chef, you should send her the pictures." He claps his brother on the shoulder and goes digging in the fridge for a soda before heading back out to rescue Tobin from his socially awkward standing. He bumps Tobin with his shoulder and gives him a little smile before leaning in and whispering something into his ear. Then with a jerk of his head towards the table, goes to find a seat. "Thanks for having us. Really isn't a proper Thanksgiving without lots of people around, right?"

"Sure, I can grab some pictures," Tobin offers, because that at least gives him something to do with his hands while people are milling about. He pulls out his cell phone and opens it up to take pictures of the food. He grabs a nice picture of the table, all set up and ready for dinner, and the desserts, and what food has been set out in the kitchen. This keeps him a bit occupied while shiners are being looked at and all that sort of thing. "He's the chef," he tells Rafael, "He's busy cooking." He does not offer to help, mainly because there seems to be a lot of help already. When done, he re-occupies his standing around-ness until Rafael comes over and bumps shoulders with him. He smiles a little, and dips his head as Rafael whispers something, and a tiny little flush touches just the tips of his ears. "Thanks," he says quietly in return, turning to straighten Rafael's bowtie. "I like the bowtie." Then he follows him over toward the table to find a seat next to him.

Finch can't help but grin a little at the touch to her arm and the softer look from her father. She's still having trouble thinking of him as that, but being here for the holiday certainly helps. She ushers Tobin and Raf into the dining room and she sets the wine on the ancient old bar cart in one corner. Then she thinks better of it, opens it, and pours herself a big old glass. "What can I get you, Tobin?" she asks with a smile, setting her glass in front of the plate with her name on the little leaf. She nods to Raf, "So I'm told. We haven't really had much in the way of big gatherings here in a long time. So this is doubly nice."

The kitchen of Mallard House is old but still functional, maybe having an update here and there for a mismatch of styles and decades. The kitchen table and chairs are clearly from the 50s, metal with a formica top, and robin's egg blue chairs with metal legs and a wide- white stripe up the middle of the back. It's loaded with dishes ready to be brought out and set on the buffet in the dining room, where trivets await.

"Gah. Ack! Dove-lieb!" Itzhak's setting up a clamor of complaint, sprawled in the kitchen chair, as Dove grandmothers him to within an inch of his life. "It's fine! I'm--" Igancio proves he was right about him and Itzhak shuts up and meekly eats the damn pineapple. He rolls an acrimonious eye at August. "I'm an idiot, is what I am." August and Ignacio know what he means. Leaned back in the chair so the bag of peas stays on his face, he hears the exchange in Spanish between Ignacio and Ruiz, and he gets the dopiest look on his face, a wistful little smile. Lucky for him it's mostly obscured by peas.

Ignacio looks to his brother blinking, both hands in the air and then turns, "Gracias, Tobin." Sister's pics of the table sorted he turns and tells Granny Dove, "We got it from here." He rejoins August and now Ruiz with them to finish up. He pats the cop on the shoulder, "Si, todos nosotros." He falls right into his stride setting a few veggies in front of Ruiz to finish teh salad with. "Yeah Raf, but now we don't have Tio Marco asking us to sneak another glass of wine for him and not tell Tia Denise either. She's gonna send a facetime. She's hitting up both our family and Tony's so. Lots of photos." Looking back to Tobin he says, "She is so excited to meet you man." And that? THAT is August's goose coming out of the oven and the sweet potato casserole coming to teh table.

"Yeah well. Who isn't, really," August says to Itzhak, bobbing his eyebrows. He cuts a glance at Finch in the dining room, gives Itzhak a mild look of pure, distilled, 'Do not fuck this up'.

The egg timer dings again. August pulls the yams out of the broiler, a fine coating of golden brown on creamy white covering the sizzling brown sugar and butter sauce underneath. They sit on a counter, letting the ceramic dish cool a spell before its shuttled off to the sideboard table along with everything else. He eyes the goose critically, nods his approval, takes a drink of his root beer. "What's left," he calls to Ignacio. "Or am I released from your service."

August's greeting earns a glance and an amused huff from de la Vega, who wastes no time finding some part of dinner he can assist with. Whether it's getting food loaded onto the table, putting together sauce or finishing touches, or simply doing some dishes. The instinct to help has been drilled into him good. To Dove: "Your house is beautiful. It reminds me of our hacienda in Veracruz." He even flashes her a dimpled smile, because he is occasionally capable of being charming.

The look Raf shoots Iggy is less than pleased, but for the sake of the dinner all he says is. "We'll talk about it later." He takes a sip of soda as he goes a bit quiet, just watching the others in the room, and eavesdropping on the conversation for now. He looks off to the side, eyes following Tobin for a moment, then back to what he can see of the activity in the kitchen.

Tobin settles in next to Rafael at the table, and leans over to bump shoulders with him gently, and takes one of his hands in his beneath the table, lacing fingers with Raf's. He seems content to just sit there quietly with him, watching people bustle around between the kitchen and the dining room. He glances between Ignacio and Rafael briefly, but he doesn't ask. Instead, he says, "Everything smells really good."

Finch moves to help direct what goes where on the sideboard, and puts the serving utensils into the dishes. This is about as much as anyone would trust her in the realm of cooking. She is a disaster in the kitchen outside of hot pockets and pop tarts.

Dove kisses Ignacio's cheek, pats Itzhak lightly on the shoulder, then smiles to Ruiz before she heads out of the kitchen to take her seat at the head of the table.

Itzhak has that funny look on his face he gets when he's having Emotions and is trying to hide it, which he's terrible at. He plucks the peas off his face now that Dove has released him, gets up, and keeps out of the way of everybody doing food things. "That looks gorgeous, guys," he says, in a clear attempt to say something neutral and appropriate. Food is a safe topic...mostly? He smiles hesitantly back at August in an equally clear 'I'm a disaster but I'm trying'.

Ignacio finishes bringing the food out with August and takes a deep breath looks at the table, wiats and says Grace like grandma did, "Bendícenos Senor, bendice estos alimentos que por tu bondad vamos a recibir, bendice las manos que los prepararon dale pan al que tiene hambre y hambre de ti al que tiene pan. We thank you for bringing us all together today, so with the hands and tools you've give us can build something together, for one another in our cobbled together family of friends...and thank you for letting Notre Dame win today. Super psyched about that. Amen." He looks back up to Raf and tilts his head and the table, "I moved out here and knew exactly that handsome asshole right there," points he to his big brother. There's a pause, "In that time I found an old friend... new ones, and a family I didn't know I needed to help me want to get my own shit together and have the patience to stand by me and help me... when I fail." He looks to Finch with a wink, "And love me in spite o fit. SO... muchos gracias...eat before I do and there's nothing left."

Finch plucks up her plate from the table. "I'm not going to argue with that. Let's eat!" She grins, kisses Ignacio's cheek with a look that is clearly one of love and gratitude for everything he put into this today. She starts the line at the sideboard to put food on her plates, chatting amicably.

Dove moves up beside Ruiz in line and she gives him a small smile. "I wish we'd known you sooner, Javier. You are truly welcome here," she says softly, just for him. "Finch wasn't sure if you wanted others to know about your relationship to her, so I leave that to you. Just know you've done a good thing, being here. There are many old wounds this house holds. While you say it is beautiful, it is also sharp and jagged in parts, because of our history. But these things, they can be mended in time."

August gives Itzhak a re-assuring smile that he's doing fine. And now that food prep is done, he rolls his sleeves back down, covering that lovely array of bruises and cuts. Ignacio's version of grace gets an amused snort and a murmured, "Amen." He smiles faintly at the rest of the blessing, reaches over to pat Ignacio on the back. "As much as I'm sure you could, you'll have to get through me first. I'm starving after helping you all damned day." And with that, he helps Ruiz get the dishes, and takes a spot in the conga line of dinner plate assembly.