Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans!

Chapter content warnings: ?

Don't forget that you can find me on tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now and that my ao3 account is wearealloflegendnow (even though I haven't posted there yet)!

~TLL~

It wasn't supposed to be this hard.

It was just a Thanksgiving dinner. Thousands of families were probably doing the same thing that she was right now and Rose wasn't even in charge of the entire dinner. Just the turkey and the gravy and the stuffing which were the most important parts of Thanksgiving and she was failing!

Rose sunk to the kitchen floor, trying not to cry even though it was all she wanted to do. Jake would be home any minute with the cranberry sauce that she had forgotten to put on anybody's list and she couldn't let him find her on the floor. Rose knew exactly what Jake would say and how supportive he would be and she didn't really want to be cuddled right now or reassured that she was doing great because she was not doing great and nothing was going to plan.

It was the first Thanksgiving Jake and Rose had lived in a place large enough that their friends and family could actually fit into and Rose had been insistent: they would host this year. Rose had known she'd have nerves about the whole thing. She'd never cooked for that many people or had that many people in her place. She'd cooked ground turkey before but never the bird itself. She'd never cooked a whole bird of any sort.

None of that had stopped Rose from envisioning the perfect day.

Rose had planned the menu and doled out who was in charge of what for the potluck of sides. Rose had planned, purchased, and hung all of the decorations to bring autumn inside of their house. Jake had good-naturedly grumbled when she'd plopped him at the kitchen table with fake leaves and a hot glue gun. In the end, it had all come out looking like her daydreams. Which was why she probably felt so awful now. Rose wasn't incapable. She was just incapable of cooking this stupid turkey.

Rose heard Jack's key in the lock and she scrambled to her feet, trying to look like she hadn't been having a breakdown.

"Everyone in the city is crazy for cranberries today! I swear, it was like magic I found some." Jake was laughing at his own joke as he rounded into the kitchen. "Something smells great!"

Rose felt something inside of her snap and then she really did start crying.

"You're lying! Everything is awful! I ruined everything!"

Rose squeezed her eyes shut, willing the tears to stop. It was just a bird except it wasn't. it was the centrepiece of Thanksgiving and this was her first-time hosting Thanksgiving and if she couldn't do this bit there would be no point in having dinner and she'd disappointed all of their friends and family and she couldn't do that because it was their first Thanksgiving. How was she going to give her future children picture holiday memories if she couldn't even cook the turkey?

"Baby," Jake murmured, and even though Rose thought that she didn't want to be cuddled, she melted when Jake touched her. "I'm not lying, you haven't ruined everything, and nothing is awful."

Rose stubbornly faced away from him because she didn't understand and she didn't know how to put it into words. She knew her thought process was irrational but it didn't matter how irrational it was when her heart and soul felt like it all mattered that much.

Jake kissed the back of her neck. "Tell me what it is so we can fix it together, okay?"

Rose sniffed. "The turkey isn't going to be done in time. I put it in way too late and we can't not have the turkey but we can't have raw turkey either."

Jake hugged her tighter. "No one is going to mind waiting a little bit for the turkey. It's okay."

"Not hours," Rose said, feeling a wail building in her throat. "It's going to take hours."

"Just turn the oven up."

It wouldn't really be productive to hit him but Rose was tempted to. She was not in the mood for jokes. She had a problem and she needed to solve it. Rose settled for letting out a tortured groan and Jake nuzzled her again, immediately apologetic.

"Maybe I can go find a smaller turkey," Jake offered.

"Then we wouldn't have enough to feed everyone! Plus, the defrosting! Plus, seasoning it! Plus, it will still have to cook! And there is also no way that we are finding more stuffing in the city right now and we can't have a turkey without stuffing! It simply isn't done!"

"Right, of course," Jake said. "Hmm."

Jake took his arms away and went to peek in the oven. Rose wanted to yell at him and tell him to keep it shut because the turkey needed to cook but it didn't really matter. The turkey was not going to be cooked anyway and there was nothing that Jake could to do ruin it because Rose already had.

"Do you trust me?" Jake asked, slamming the oven door shut so suddenly that Rose jumped.

Rose stared at him, wondering what kind of question that was.

"Do you trust me?" Jake repeated.

"Well, yeah," Rose said. "You know I do."

Jake kissed her forehead and then her lips. "Go get ready, okay? Pamper yourself. Long hot shower and full-face routine and moisturizing and put on the perfect outfit. I've got this. I know it."

"You do?" Rose asked, slightly reluctant about it. It was her turkey. For triumph or defeat, it was hers.

"Yes. We're a team, Rose, I've got you."

"Okay." Rose kissed him. "Thank you."

So, Rose went upstairs and did everything that he had suggested. Once she had taken a full shower, using the good shower oil and everything, she sat and blow dried her hair. She put on her make-up. She got dressed slowly. She took up nearly all the time that she had and when she was finished and staring at herself in the mirror, there was only fifteen minutes until all of the guests were due to arrive and she hadn't looked at her turkey in two hours! But it hadn't left her mind, at all. She had thought about how the skin was supposed to be crispy and brown as she was rinsing the shampoo from her hair. She had fretted about whether or not the stuffing was going to dry out as she brushed her teeth. She had wondered about the basting as she was applying mascara.

Rose decided that it was time to face the music and slowly descended the stairs. She couldn't hear Jake and she wondered if he had left. Not that she thought that he ever really would leave her. But if he went to get one of his smaller turkeys or a turkey that wasn't cooked by her or him, then she was going to hit the roof. That wasn't the point of Thanksgiving, like, at all! Rose wandered into their kitchen and almost let out a scream. The oven was off! Frantically, she pulled the oven door open but it was empty inside.

"JAKE!"

Her own voice echoed back at her.

Rose rushed to the kitchen window that overlooked their stamp of a backyard. There was nothing there to see there. She went to the other side of the kitchen and pulled open the side door that led to their tiny garage that had almost nothing in it because neither of them owned a car. Jake was in there, laying on the ground, with the face of a dragon. The turkey was on a spit over him and he was slowly using his feet to turn it, checking the meat thermometer every time that it rotated. He spotted her when she entered and rather than letting his dragon fire fade, he just offered her a thumbs up.

"Really?" Rose gasped. "On time?"

Jake gave a so-so wave motion of his hand.

"Within an hour?"

Another thumbs up.

"Half an hour?"

Jake checked the meat thermometer again and then took a pause to say, "Probably!"

"Oh, I could kiss you!" Rose exclaimed. "If you weren't so busy. Thank you!"

Jake blew her a kiss and went back to focusing.

Rose floated back into the house, opening the door for her guests, and saying that Jake was going to be in soon and the turkey was almost done. Almost everyone told her that the house smelled good and that brought Rose a satisfied feeling that she couldn't quite put a finger on. This was her home, her party, her holiday, and she was doing it! Well, doing it with Jake, but hadn't that always been the point, to do it with Jake? Emma came in carrying whipped garlic potatoes while Trixie admitted that the pumpkin pie that she had brought was store bought. Spud had forgotten what he was supposed to bring and had brought an eclectic mixture of vegetables. Her parents had splurged on wine and Rose if her parents thought that she, or even any of her friends, were alcoholics but it was all nice wine and she wouldn't mind leaving them on her wine rack for awhile. Susan and Jonathan had brought the Asian fusion dishes that were a part of Haley and Jake's childhoods. Lao Shi brought dumplings that Fu slaved that he had done all of the slaving over, and Haley had brought a lot of vodka and a pile of desserts. Everything was piled upon the large table and Susan was quick to compliment all of the decorations and all of the effort that Rose must have put in.

"Jake's not a slouch either," Rose said, "he's been a such a good help."

"Maybe I taught him something," Susan mused while Haley poured vodka shots in the kitchen like they were in a frat house.

Even the parents partook, though, so maybe Haley in her twenty-one-year-old blaze of being legal to purchase alcohol had started a tradition.

Finally, Jake came back into the house. Rose turned to look at him with bated breath, but the turkey looked beautiful. It was exactly like she had imagined. It was beautiful and the skin was perfect and the vegetables and the stuffing were arranged around the platter in the way that she had envisioned, her grandmother's gravy boat at the front of the large plate. Rose let out a long, relieved sigh as Jake placed it down on the table in its rightful place.

"Dinner is served!" he announced dramatically.

There was a large shuffle to bring wine glasses and water glasses and pitchers and bottles to the table and then they all figured out where they were going to sit around the table. Jake sat at the head of the table and Rose sat on his right-hand side.

"Well," Jonathan said, "What are we thankful for this year?"

"I'm thankful for Rose and everything that she did to put this meal together for us," Jake said, and Rose felt tears prick at her eyes again.

"I'm thankful for hot TAs," Haley said bluntly.

"Amen," said Emma, and clinked her wine glass against Haley's.

Susan side-eyed her daughter but chose to let it go. "I am thankful for all of us being here together."

"Aww, that was mine," Jonathan said. "I'm thankful for family and growing old together."

"That's beautiful," said Melinda. "I am thankful for love."

Carl raised his red wine glass. "I am thankful for France!"

"I'm thankful for a hot meal," Emma said. "Come on, Rose, make it fast, I am starving."

"I …" Rose started, unable to take her eyes from Jake's face. "I am thankful for you and for you being exactly who you are."

Jake grinned and then he leant in, capturing her lips in a long kiss. It was Emma who cleared her throat impatiently.

"Hello, I said 'hot meal'!"

Rose wasn't even sorry and she would have happily let her twin suffer but Jake was the good host that she had tried to be and he stood, picking up the knives to carve the turkey.

"So, who wants the legs?"