Chapter Text
The small garden party Terry is throwing to officially introduce them all to Veronica is surprisingly chill. Grant and Terry have been worrying about it for a week since Nicky and Cass are both invited, as well as a few random friends of Veronica’s, but it’s all been going great. Still, Lark’s found himself standing in the kitchen away from the festivities nursing a beer he probably shouldn’t have. He needed a break. Something about the music and conversations and smells of food was overwhelming. So he’s hiding for a while.
He takes another sip of his drink. It’s a heavier flavor than he’d usually go for but one of Veronica’s friends thought he looked like a “dark beer” guy. As he’s taking the bottle away from his lips he hears the backdoor slide open. Veronica moved into Terry’s house. The one he’s lived in since they were in their early twenties. Lark knows the sound of the door and the creaking floorboards that take someone from the backdoor to the kitchen. He doesn’t recognize the footfalls.
“Oh hi,” Veronica looks surprised to see him. She’s gorgeous, no way around it. Black skin and eyes the same shade of brown as a smoky quarts gem he found on a hiking trip with his family when he was a kid. The yellow dress she picked out makes her look like sunshine.
“Hi,” Lark says, trying not to get his tongue tied. He always gets a little useless in front of beautiful people. Veronica doesn’t bat an eye, she just walks right past him to the refrigerator.
“I came in to get more watermelon,” she says. “It seems to be a hit with everyone.”
Lark nods to show he gets it. Watermelon is pretty good, especially the ones Terry finds. He swears the guy has some latent druid magic up his sleeve.
“You’re Lark, right?” Veronica asks as she pulls the second half of the watermelon from the fridge.
“Uh, yeah,” Lark says, surprised that she didn’t instantly mistake him for Sparrow. He supposes they weren’t dressed alike today so that probably makes things easier.
“Your brother is teaching some of my friends about bugs in the backyard, or grossing them out. Hard to tell. He’s found two spiders and a cricket so far.”
Lark chuckles at that. When Sparrow gets nervous at parties he makes friends with pets, and when they don’t have pets he makes friends with their pests.
“He’ll be less weird once he gets comfortable,” Lark says. “Have you offered him some seltzer.” Wine and kombucha are his brother’s first choice, but he’ll go for other flavorful drinks if those aren’t available.
“Oh, I didn’t know that would help,” Veronica says. “I’ll take that under advisement.” Lark wonders why Terry hasn’t already tried it, or maybe he has and Sparrow was too busy communing with the wildlife to drink.
“You enjoying yourself so far?” Veronica asks. She walks over to the sink and washes off a large knife. Lark nods.
“Yeah, I just um- I came in to catch my breath. A lot of people out there.”
Veronica nods and comes back over to the counter.
“Well don't’ make yourself a stranger,” She waves at the kitchen stool where Lark’s had a number of meals and breakdowns and drunken revelations over the years. He knows those barstools well. He takes a seat.
“Terry says you are part of the D.A.D.D.I.E.S. gang,” Veronica says. “I wish he had told me he had such good friends when we met.”
“Sorry if it’s all a bit of a shocker,” Lark says. “Getting married and finding out a few months later that your husbands a wizard tasked with fighting a giant sky monster has got to be a lot.”
Veronica laughs in a dark kind of way.
“It’s a bit much,” she admits, then, “shit!” She pulls her finger back from the cutting board. Lark sees a trickle of blood running down her finger.
“Oh damn.” He gets back up from his seat. He knows exactly where all seven of Terry’s first aid kits are, and also where he used to stash Sparrow’s med kit. He suspects he’s gotten rid of a few of them, but just as he expects the one in the pantry is still there.
“C’mere.” The first aid kit is probably a little robust for an average family, but it’s skimpy when it comes to the shit they get up to.
Lark sets it on the counter and crosses the room to steer Veronica over to the sink. She’s staring at him a little oddly.
“Uh- hold it under the sink for a second,” Lark says. Maybe he should go get Sparrow. He’s better at first aid, but Lark’s learned a few things over the years. He’s not entirely useless anymore. Veronica does what she’s told, and goes a step further by washing it properly with soap. She clearly knows what she’s doing. She probably doesn’t need him.
“That looks surprisingly deep,” she says, investigating further. Lark leans over. Does she need stitches? No, she knows about Sparrow now, he can just heal her up. He gets closer and is so focussed on her finger that he doesn’t hear the gaggle of footsteps in the hallway.
“I have to pee so bad-
“You want me to grab you a lemonade?
“There has to be Sparrow’s vegan brownies in here somewhere-”
Lark looks up, Cass, Marco and Rebecca are all stumbling past the door to the kitchen in various states of chatting with each other, but they stop when they see what’s going on.
“Shit,” Cass says. She pokes her head into the room, then her eyebrows pinch together. Marco’s the first to actually enter the room, followed closely by Rebecca.
“I was just looking for brownies,” Rebecca says, clearing her throat and floating toward the kitchen counter where a few containers are stacked with proffered treats.
“Hey Larky,” Cass says. She’s the last to enter the room, but the one most focussed on him. She looks at his face then down to his feet, which Lark now realizes are inches from Veronica’s. It’s innocent. He was just trying to get close enough to see her finger. His cheeks go bright red as he takes a quick and clumsy step back.
“It’s not what it looks like.” His face was really close to hers, but he wasn’t-
Marco’s also suddenly looking suspiciously at him.
Lark puts his hands up.
“Veronica cut her hand. I was trying to help.”
“What’s going on?” Veronica asks. Her finger is bleeding freely again, and when Marco sees the blood he makes a oh! noise and scrambles for the paper towels.
“Oh thank fuck.” Cass releases a pent up breath as Marco hands the towel off to Veronica.
“Thank fuck?” Veronica says.
“Am I missing something?” Rebecca asks. Lark rolls his eyes back into his head. He doesn’t want to get into it.
“Am I missing something?” Veronica asks. She wraps the paper towel around her finger and looks from Lark to Cass to Lark. On the other side of the room Marco and Cass look at each other, then at Lark, then they try their hardest to stifle their laughter.
“It’s nothing,” Marcos says. “Misunderstanding.”
“Oh it’s definitely something,” Cass says under her breath, always the one trying to get Lark in trouble.
“Cass!”
“Lark-” Cass makes a face and half sticks her tongue out at him. “It’s nothing Veronica, don’t worry about it.”
“I’m a little worried about it.” Rebecca raises her hand.
Cass sighs.
“I was making fun of Lark because it looked like he was making a move on Veronica,” Cass tells Rebecca. “They were just all snuggled up in the kitchen.”
“I was helping her with her hand,” Lark says through gritted teeth.
“That’s obvious now,” Cass says. She goes to a cabinet and finds a cup then comes over to the sink. “Scooch over I’m thirsty.” She hip checks Lark out of the way of the sink to fill up her cup.
“So do you make a custom out of hitting on people’s wives?” Veronica jokes at him, but Cass snorts and Marco’s cheeks turn pink. Cass finishes filling up her drink and turns back around. She smirks at Lark. Rebecca looks away and pretends to sort through the containers of sweets again.
The room gets a little too quiet. Cass chews on the rim of her cup and turns her attention to Rebecca’s back.
“It’s not fucking true is it Becks?” Rebecca stays focussed on the containers and Lark stares pointedly up at the ceiling.
“I thought it was just us.” Cass looks to Marco. The guy suddenly looks like he wants his shirt to swallow him whole.
“I shouldn’t be here,” Veronica says.
“Oh, no, I think you should definitely be here,” Cass says. “If only to be warned off this guy.” Cass turns around and pinches Lark’s cheek. He looks harder at the ceiling, but surreptitiously tries to step on Cass’s foot at the same time.
“I’m not going to do anything with Veronica.”
A new voice joins the mele,
“I should hope not-”
Lark jumps. When did Terry get here? Lark looks over to the kitchen door.
“Wanted to make sure everything was okay and see if you wanted help,” Terry tells Veronica. “Oh no!” he adds when he sees the towel around her finger.
“Small cut,” she admits holding it up. “Lark was helping me with it, but I’m being warned off him.”
“Oh because he’s slept with or made out with everyone’s SOs?” Terry asks offhandedly. “Yeah, should have warned you about the Lark Curse.”
Cass, Marco, and Rebecca all snap their heads around to look at each other. They seem insulted that they were left out of the loop.
“You call it the Lark curse!” Lark says. “Who calls it that!?”
“All of us.” Terry shrugs. “We figured it out once when Sparrow got really drunk and cried about it, and you told Grant about Marco and you and Cass aren’t exactly subtle.”
“Lark’s a good kisser.” Cass smacks Lark’s ass to make as loud of a noise as humanly possible. Lark flinches then moves as far across the room from Cass and Veronica as he can. He crosses his arms and tries not to take this whole situation too personally.
Marco’s jaw is a little slack as he stares at a place right over Terry’s head. Cass is smirking to herself, and Rebecca looks pale and ready to pass out.
“So how can I help with the watermelon mission?” Terry asks, “Does it still need cut?”
Veronica motions over to the half cut watermelon with her bandaged hand.
“I’ve got it,” Terry says breezily. He walks over to Veronica and pecks her on the cheek before grabbing a clean knife from their dishwasher.
“So are you gonna let Lark make out with you so he can get a full sweep?” Cass asks Veronica. Veronica’s cheeks go pink, but she laughs. The sound breaks a damn and Marco’s shock cracks into a small smile.
“I cannot believe you cheated on me,” Rebecca whispers to Lark. She tries to flash Lark a little smile. She’s trying so hard to make a joke.
“He didn’t cheat on you,” Cass is starting to break herself, a smile turning into a hiccup of a laugh, “Marco was before your time.”
“Oh so I’m the sloppy seconds?” Rebecca asks.
Marco burst out a full laugh.
“At least you weren’t last on the list.” Cass pretends to be offended, but she’s undercut by her laughter.
Lark feels himself actually dying of embarrassment as Veronica says,
“I think I’m the last on the list.”
“Touche,” Cass says. “Very true”
Terry ribs Lark in the side as he moves over to start cutting the watermelon. He quirks up a smile at him. Lark is in no mood to return it as the rest of the people in the room continue to make fun of him. It ends with Cass sideling right up in front of him, slipping her hands in his front pockets and saying,
“I’m glad you’ve moved on from your slut era.” She pushes herself up on her toes and pecks him on the lips. She follows it quickly with an over enthusiastic cheek pat. “Don’t make out with Veronica.”
Terry guhawfs at that and Cass steps away, “Come along Veronica, No need to make out with Lark to be in the cool spouse and ex spouse club.” She puts an arm around Veronica’s shoulder and leads her toward the door.
“I’m gonna pee, but then I can tell you all of the secrets I know about Terry.” Before she leaves the room she turns back around to Marco and Rebecca, “C’mon you two, we have a new person to initiate.”
Veronica giggles as Cass leads her back into the hall. Terry cuts a piece of watermelon and pops it in his mouth.
“Don’t make out with my wife,” he tells Lark.
Lark mumbles at the floor.
“Larky?”
“I won’t,” he says. Like Cass pointed out, his slut days are mostly over.