signed_sabrina | (no subject)

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halloween

(no subject)

Sabrina Spellman is turning seventeen tonight.

Honestly, in the time since her sixteenth birthday, she's seriously doubted that she would make it to this day-- and certainly doubted that she would be free from the Path of Night and the Path of Night, able to do as she pleases. She's not sure she can say she expected anything that's happened to her over the year, really, not a single thing.

But standing outside the warehouse Kavinsky has thoughtfully offered for her use, in a somewhat accurate Halloween costume, she's absolutely happier than she ever foresaw. Where she'd been worried about losing her boyfriend and best friends, she's got three people she loves so much she can hardly stand it, in entirely different ways. Where she'd had a ghost or worse for a father, she has a dad who knows who she is, her capabilities, and loves her only for being herself. She misses her aunts and Ambrose, but knowing that she's still back with them is of great comfort. She can't say she's doing much better on the high school front, but she's not sure she cares.

Enough people seem fascinated by the sex cult rumors that when she and Salem had littered both high school campuses, Sabrina had got plenty of takers. The party itself will start soon, and Sabrina looks up, comforted by the lack of full moon. Taking her broom, she carefully sweeps each step clean, feeling the ritual settle her. The warehouse inside looks a lot like a clearing in the woods, complete with bonfire, and if the punch is spiked, well-- it is a high school party.

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Nick nods, brushing his lips against her cheekbone. "I figure we'll give it another half an hour or so and then go and get ready. No second thoughts, right?"

"Of course she is," Rosie says, fond and genuinely pleased at the news. "I wouldn't have expected anything else."

As much as she's looking forward to everything she and Nick are going to set in motion--in almost no time at all, now--that Sabrina will be leaving them once it's through, waking up with the only one of the three of them who's truly become her home here in this mad and baffling city, strikes her as the only correct choice.

"None at all," she says, her agreement coming easy and quick to her lips. "Whatever she wants, however she'd like her surprise to unfold."

She knows they'll stop if it's needed; if any of them need that. Their trust in one another is so strong, like nothing she's ever felt before. It's almost her favorite part of the connections she's found with them.

"Only a couple," Sabrina hums in her ear, hardly releasing her. "I'm fine, I promise." She's feeling warm and easy, and despite the possibility of eyes on them, watching, she's also feeling utterly secure.

Sabrina's own hand skims up Rosie's side, and then around to her back, giving the ribbon lacing the bodice a tug. "What a lovely corset you're wearing tonight," she says, warm and pleasant. "I really do love it."

"Oh, I believe it," Sabrina says, swaying further into him, as if they might start to dance at any moment. "You know, that corset has a lot of sentimental value to me now. Did you lace her up yourself tonight?"

She's a little tipsy, but she doesn't have to be tipsy to reflect on how good he always smells.

If there's anything more enticing at this moment than the dark kohl around his eyes, it's the flush in his cheeks. She kisses each of those rosy spots, returns the nose-smudging with interest.

"It's so much different than last year. I mean, there's obviously major differences, but I feel-- I feel sure of myself, like I know the path I'm going to take. Which isn't any sort of Path at all."

They're making it work, the four of them, and Charlie can't help but find that a little bit miraculous. He leans his weight into Rosie for a moment, just holding her close. "Do you want to dance with me properly? Before you go upstairs?"

Nick grins at that, bending to take a proper kiss, his fingers tousling into her dark hair for a moment. "I'm sure it'll be fun for you too, Rosie. There's so many things that you're figuring out that you like."

"I did," he says, his arms wrapped around her waist as they sort of, maybe, start to dance. "Like a present for you. Dressed her up myself."

"Even if it was, at least you'd have the three of us with you," he says, brushing his mouth against hers. "You don't have to do anything on your own anymore."

"Why, thank you," she says, her breath catching for a moment as Sabrina pulls at the laces, the motion edged with that sweet possessiveness that comes so easily to her friend. Rosie's tried hard not to give up any secrets around what she and Nick have planned for Sabrina's birthday, but it's definitely been on her mind more and more the closer they get to the end of the party--and all of Sabrina's lazy fumbling and murmured praise is certainly not helping in the least.

Not that she minds at all.

"I wasn't sure about the corset at first, you know," she admits, her tone easy and conversational, even a little playful. "But someone whose opinion I trust had some very persuasive thoughts on the matter, the day I bought it." Rosie grins, her hand sliding down to find what she can of the swell of Sabrina's ass through the flouncy skirt of her costume. "It was a terribly convincing argument."

She smiles, the weight of him against her close and friendly in the way it always is, and nods. "I'd love that," she says, moving just enough to slip her hand in his and start leading him towards the dance floor. "I always like dancing with you."

She kisses him back, those fingers in her hair and the tenor of their conversation pushing her to deepen it just a bit before she pulls away. "You're right, there are," she says, smiling as she takes another sip of her drink. "Things I've learned to like, or..." Her blush deepens, just a shade, as she thinks about that afternoon only a few weeks ago; how she'd been blindfolded and bound, put on her knees for him.

"Or been taught to."

It's an obvious move and Rowan grins as he shakes his head.

"She's at the other party," he explains. "I just said I had a stop to make before hand, just to see you before I headed over. I don't plan to stay long."

His grin widens. "She doesn't match. I tried, but she didn't get it and preferred something simpler."

"Can't blame me for wondering," she says as he shakes his head at her. It's disappointing not to see Citra as well, if only because Rosie finds herself curious to see how they are together, what sort of happiness she's brought to Rowan's life since they got together. Though they've had their differences, their barbed conversations and--mostly--unintended slights, Rowan was one of the first people in the city Rosie ever called a friend, and she cares deeply about him. "Probably good she doesn't match, though, I don't know if Darrow strictly needs a criminal duo of hamburger bandits."

Rosie nearly misses the other thing he says, but when it catches up to her she laughs again in surprised delight. "It's not even my party, and you came to see me? Goodness."

"We'd take over all the hamburgers and hold the city hostage." He grins at his own joke, knowing that it's entirely within his and Citra's abilities to hold the city hostage in one way or another. He doesn't need to go into that with Rosie, who doesn't need to know at all. But it amuses him more than it should.

Rowan looks mildly surprised by her surprised laugh.

"Hey, anyone important to you is important to me. So I figured an appearance was a good thing. I'm just hoping I get an introduction out of this later."

"Ah, I see," she says, the briefly startled look on his face making her oddly pleased. "You came out of friendship and an ulterior motive." She grins, already glancing around the party for--well, any of the three of them. Nick especially, but if Rowan hadn't chanced to meet Sabrina or Charlie, those introductions were just as important to make.

They all mean so much to her, more than anyone ever has. It's one of the best things to have come out of the madness of the past summer.

"I'll definitely introduce you," she promises. "If not tonight, since you shouldn't leave Citra waiting, then soon." She pauses then, a deeper blush rising to her cheeks. "If you hear anyone saying anything about...about a sex cult or anything tonight, it's just a stupid rumor. That's not what's going on at all." Rosie knows that mentioning it raises the greater possibility that Rowan will ask about it, but better to get out ahead of anything than need to clear things up after the fact.

Rowan does consider that he is leaving Citra to her own devices, maybe for too long. She's an independent woman who knows what she's doing, but this is a Magnus Bane party after all, and Halloween to boot. Who knows what could happen?

He nearly says as much when Rosie continues, blushing, to make mention of that sex cult thing. So Rowan changes tacks.

"Yeah, I'd heard about that," he says with a lightly amused tone. "If that's not what's going on, and I believe, how'd they get that impression? Or is this just high school bullshit?"

Because it's entirely possible that it is pure and complete bullshit.

Depending on what his reaction was, Rosie had been ready to blame her mention of it on the glasses of punch she'd already drunk, if need be. But rather than teasing or offense, there's only a mild and seemingly nonjudgemental curiosity, enough to ease the faint tension that had settled in her chest as she'd waited to hear what he'd say.

"Mostly high school bullshit," she says, smiling at how awkwardly the last word comes out, unused as she is to swearing. "It's just that...well, honestly, it's just that Sabrina's dating both Nick and Charlie, and then I'm dating Nick as well, and Sabrina and Charlie are my best friends, so it's all a bit of a tangle." Carefully, she leaves out any mention of the deeper connection that's formed between her and Sabrina; not only was it new, and different, Rosie wasn't even sure what she ought to call it--something more than friendship, perhaps, but what, she doesn't know.

"All of us know, and nobody's sneaking around behind anyone's back or anything, but I suppose from the outside it looks more like some kind of funny business than anything else."

"Oh," Rowan says with a mild frown. That doesn't seem like a sex cult at all, just complete and utter high school bullshit.

His mouth tightens then in displeasure, because he really wants to beat some kids down, but he knows that would be a bad choice.

"I guess it's easy for me," he says, feeling like he has to say something more than oh to reassure Rosie. "Back home, you know, living forever... everyone got divorced. Everyone got remarried. Everyone had a boyfriend who looked twenty years younger or a brother that could have been your father. All relationships got a bit tangled." He frowns again.

"As long as everyone's being honest and open, and I mean with each other, then what does it matter?"

Though, he does add, thinking about it... "If any of them do mess with you though, I will make them regret it."

Rowan says back home and some small and silly instinct deep within her half-braces for one of their old arguments. This isn't that, and she knows it, so it's easy to let the feeling go as quickly as it had occurred and focus instead on what he's saying. In a way, it made an awful lot of sense--unromantic, maybe, but sensible.

"Exactly," she agrees, unsurprised but glad to find he's so readily on her side. "It's not what I might have expected, when I thought about being involved in any kind of romance, but now that it's happening...it really shouldn't matter what anyone but the four of us think about it." The promise--or threat, or both--that follows his question only makes her grin all the more broadly. "It's a talent, making that sound so gallant, even when you're dressed like that."

Rowan grins easily, and in a rather gallant, dashing fashion, and rolls his shoulders in a shrug. He straightens the bright red tie decorated with hamburgers around his neck.

"I have lots of talents," he says in a joking, feigned serious manner. "You haven't even scratched the surface."

But seriously, there would be much pain in store for any of the trio that currently held Rosie's heart in their hands should it be hurt.

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