Two feet deep, three feet tall, and four feet wide of appliance white.

  Jack stared at the chest freezer in trepidation. He could feel the ghosts of those he'd murdered creeping up behind him. Watching. Judging.

  Except Augie was still alive and under house arrest.

  But there was still one imaginary ghost following him around that there was no exorcizing. He'd killed a guy in self defense, and Kieran had cleaned it up and taken care of the body. He couldn't bring himself to ask just how Kieran had cleaned up, but he knew a large freezer and dismemberment had been involved. He never found anything in Sam's work computer regarding random body parts turning up, so he had to assume that Kieran had covered his tracks well enough.

  He had ventured into Kieran's basement once and found the freezer in question, just a little larger than the one he was currently staring at. Big enough for a body or two. There hadn't been any human bodies in it when he'd taken a peek. Neatly packaged game meat with various animals and dates were all he found. And a newfound appetite to try out pheasant and deer, despite Lindsey whispering about "Poor Bambi" from over his shoulder.

  He looked around the garage, comparing it to Kieran's haunted basement. It was clean and brightly lit. Tools hung on a pegboard sitting behind a large rolling tool chest that never held any tools that had seen blood outside of a staple going through Jack's thumb. It was almost clinical in how clean Sam kept the place. Kieran could stand to learn a thing or two.

  Then he'd have a decent place to dismember bodies to his heart's content.

  Jack grabbed a bag of ice from the freezer with a sharp shake of his head. He needed to stop thinking about Kieran's dark and overcrowded basement. And the handsome portrait he'd found of a distinguished vampire standing beside a fireplace with a pretty strawberry blonde perched by his side.

  It was a night for celebration, not insecurity. Not when Kieran was all too happy to angle his head just right to show off the bright new hickey Jack had left behind that morning. Somehow, Kieran was able to proudly preen under the teasing strangers subjected him to.

  And, for whatever reason, that attitude had everyone at the party telling Jack they were happy for him. So wonderfully, delightfully, drunkenly happy. Everyone else was halfway gone, and he was still miserably sober.

  He exited the garage and barely avoided tripping over an orange blur. He left the door open a crack and headed for the kitchen.

  "Ice. As requested," he said, handing the bag over to Sam. He had yet to meet Sam's eye after his initial arrival.

  "Thanks. I'll throw some in a towel for your boyfriend," Sam said, tossing a few cubes into a glass before adding a healthy dose of scotch.

  "Sorry."

  "I'm not… I'm just surprised. Never thought you'd be the type." He turned and leaned back against the counter, eying Jack with a raised brow.

  "I'm not. Not really. It was his idea. To get me here. To, uh, yeah. Kinda to torment you. I went along with it 'cuz I'm still mad about the whole Tommy thing," Jack admitted. Seeing the realization light up Sam's eyes had him hunching his shoulders. "It was weird and awkward. For me. He loved it. I like that he got a kick outta it."

  "Oh, he's loving every damned moment of the aftermath," Sam said with an annoyed laugh. He took a swig of his drink and shook his head. "Mom's in love. She's ready to bury Dad in the backyard and play cougar. All while talking about every goddamned hickey I came home with in high school."

  "Don't forget the one from the academy. That you put your girlfriend's concealer on." Jack grinned as Sam hung his head in defeat. He could push further and tell Sam that Kieran was actively fishing for more stories, happily sharing his own updated versions of what his own family got up to.

  "So she is telling that story. Great. I'll just put myself in the backyard. Right next to Dad."

  He watched as Sam took another drink before working on making a fresh batch of punch. An extra cup of gin made it into the mix, and he frowned. "I didn't think it'd end up like this."

  "It's fine. If it wasn't my lovelife, it'd be about something just as embarrassing," Sam said with a sigh. He paused in his stirring and looked over at Jack. "Probably worse, actually. So I guess you did me a favor by giving her a target."

  ---

  Clutching his oversized mug filled with overly spiked punch, Jack made his way back into the living room. Kieran stood in front of the fireplace, happily entertaining Candace's parents. It looked like Sam's mom had moved on to torment Tara's cousin. He caught something about college courses and scanned the rest of the room, needing to find an excuse to avoid her helpful suggestions. He found Tara standing beside the Christmas tree, eyes flitting from one person to the next. She gave him a glance as he approached.

  "How you doing?" he asked quietly from behind his mug.

  "Weirdly okay," she replied. "I'm, like, super happy. Everything smells familiar, and… I dunno. If family had a smell, this is what it'd be."

  Everything smelled normal to Jack. He wondered what it was like for Tara and Kieran. He skipped out on his body spritz while Tara opted for some sort of spicy floral perfume. There would be no third member of the Fruity Gang, but she also didn't have the same reasoning to hide her scent like Jack and Thomas.

  Kieran had yet to give Tara any weird looks, so her perfume must have been working.

  "What's he smell like?" Jack asked in a whisper, leaning in close.

  Tara shrugged and sipped at her wine. "Different. I was expecting corpse or something that would make me think undead, but it's just… I dunno. Different. Mostly, I just smell his cologne. Like, I wouldn't even notice the difference if we weren't all piled up in here."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Jack looked away in disappointment. He watched as Tara's aunt and uncle poked at her cousin with encouraging smiles. His chest tightened as conflicting thoughts of wanting family and knowing it wasn't worth it swam through his head.

  He took a gulp of his punch and repeated his crispy vampire mantra.

  He gestured to Tara's family. "You gonna tell them?"

  Tara sighed and gave Jack a reluctant frown. "If I start aging weird, I'm gonna have to. That, or fake my death, and I couldn't do that to them." Her eyes drifted over the small crowd then rested back on Jack. "How're you holding up?"

  "Okay enough. I've got enough excuses to hang out in the kitchen and put together new snack trays and stuff." He sighed as he looked at Kieran, still surrounded. Even Candace was engrossed and laughing along with everyone else.

  Candace looked over and caught Jack's eye. With a quick word, she easily broke away, and Jack wondered how some people could escape a conversation without seeming rude.

  "I was hoping the whole 'shiny new toy' thing would wear off by now," he said with a sigh. At this rate, he was never going to get Kieran alone enough to get a nice photo in front of the fireplace. No sitting on the couch and cuddling together without an invested audience.

  "Yeah, it's disgusting," Tara agreed. She dropped her voice as Candace approached. "But I guess he's had enough time to practice being the center of attention."

  The pair smiled as Candace rounded a card table that held refreshments. She paused to refill her glass with the cheap box wine that sat on the edge and grabbed a celery stick, dropping it into her glass.

  Tara and Jack shared a glance as Candace swayed unsteadily.

  "I'm beginning to get how Sam feels about him," Candace said in a low voice as she moved to stand beside Jack. She chewed on her celery for a moment then pointed at Kieran with her glass. "See? See, he's doing it right now."

  Jack's stomach dropped. "Oh, no. What did he do? I'm sorry he's an asshole."

  "What?" Candace squinted at Jack before shaking her head. "No, Sam brought that on himself. I mean with everyone at the station falling for him. It looks real, but that is a fake smile. I guarantee it. I had a feeling and checked my stones, just to be sure."

  "I get it. You're the only one seeing through it. That feeling," Jack said, hoping he was on the right track.

  "Yes! I mean, yay, he isn't being a sulky little wallflower, but…" She pouted and patted Jack's shoulder. "Jack, tell him he doesn't have to perform. Especially not for my parents. Greg's happy with football or whatever. I'm sure there's something on that he'll be happy with."

  "I don't know how to get him away without making it worse?" Jack looked on in misery. He would love to steal Kieran away, but what sort of excuse could he use that wouldn't be weird or taken the wrong way?

  Tara bumped against Jack's shoulder. "Yeah, everyone's gonna think you're pulling him away for a quick fuck."

  He hadn't even thought of that, and it would probably be the first place people's minds went. The hickey had been a mistake.

  Candace hummed in thought. "I can offer a small reading. That'll get Greg off his back, and Mom's superstitious enough to think watching will bring bad vibes into the mix. Dad'll stick around, though."

  "Can it be a fake reading? I don't need bad news." Jack looked at Candace with pleading eyes. "He doesn't need bad news."

  "Do a reading for Jay," Tara suggested, pointing to her cousin. His polite smile had turned distraught. "He might not believe, but he behaves. And it looks like he'll take the bait."

  "Maybe. Actually, yeah!" Candace said, roughly shaking Jack's shoulder. "That'll get Kieran out of the spotlight, and you can swoop in and ask him to help set up a dessert tray."

  ---

  Candace's proposed plan worked like a charm. Her mom and stepdad had moved on to watch a New Year's concert on TV, and most everyone else ended up in the dining room to eavesdrop on Jay's future.

  Kieran would have politely followed, but Jack's grip on his sleeve had him heading to the kitchen instead. He lightly touched Jack's shoulder when his sleeve had yet to be released. "My sweet?"

  "Candace says you don't need to perform."

  "I see." Kieran looked away with a small grimace. "I feared I was out of practice. I apologize if I made anyone uncomfortable."

  "No, not… You are really good at this," Jack said waving his hand at Kieran then in the direction of the living room. "That. Faking it. I think her witchy senses picked up on it?"

  "Lovely." Kieran swallowed down the rest of his drink and eyed the bottle of scotch Sam had left out.

  Jack rescued Sam's scotch from Kieran and set it in a random cupboard. Sharing a home with the plates would have to do for the night. "She just wants you to feel comfortable. So you come back. I think she's gonna start trying to invite you for dinner."

  Kieran didn't look particularly thrilled at the prospect, and Jack didn't know how he should feel about it. He was happy that he was part of a package deal, but he still had a lot of hangups and doubts kicking around his head, telling him not to bother getting attached.

  "She won't poison you," he insisted, fighting against the thoughts. "But Sam might, and he's the better cook if you want seafood."

  "I wouldn't have guessed," Kieran said with mild surprise.

  "It's not that surprising. You can cook."

  "I've had time to learn."

  ---

  The countdown was loud and obnoxious. Jack flinched away when Jay grabbed his shoulders before moving on to Tara and earning a light shove in return. Midnight hit, and Candace threw a handful of glitter in the air with a sharp cheer.

  There was glitter in his hair, a recipe for punch in his pocket, and Kieran's arm wrapped around his waist. He was surrounded by drunken revelry, and he smiled along, lost in his own haze of a good buzz.

  He leaned up to mumble into Kieran's ear. "Thanks for dragging me here. It's been nice."

  "So you did enjoy yourself?" Kieran asked, pulling Jack along as he led Jack to the hallway and into some relative privacy.

  Jack looked down then back into the living room. No one was staring at them. No teasing smirks. Just a couple glances and acknowledging smiles before one distraction or another grabbed someone's attention away. The shiny new toy vibe had finally worn off.

  Kieran was his first and only plus one outside of Tara in all the years he'd known these people. They were more happy for him than surprised. No one had brought up how he wasn't good enough for Kieran. The only comment on that front had been Sam drunkenly declaring that Kieran wasn't good enough for Jack.

  And if he ended up being right, then a wood chipper would be involved.

  He took Kieran's hand in his own and smiled softly. "Yeah, I had a good time. A good time for me. Overall. I'm getting there."

  "Happy New Year, my sweet siren," Kieran said before giving Jack a gentle kiss.

  "I hope so. Happy New Year."

  Jack threw caution to the wind and pulled Kieran down by his collar, kissing him deeply.

  It was a new year, a new life. Nothing was perfect, nothing was fixed. But he was getting there, and he had friends that were willing to be patient and help him.