رضا

She'd already basically come to terms with the idea that she would be there on her own. With Moon now off on her grand world tour with River and most of her other friends in relationships, she figured she would spend most of the night looking after the food and watching everyone else.

"Are you sure? I know you don't really like prom, you shouldn't feel like you have to go."

"I mean, I don't have a dislike of it, just not a great interest in it. But you do," Reza said, smiling warmly at her. "I'm happy to go with you since it's something you enjoy."

He shrugged, not in a dismissive way, but in a 'it's no big deal to me' way.

She didn't see anything behind his questions beyond curiosity. After all, she knew that prom wasn't really his thing. Last year she had gone with Moon precisely because he wasn't very interesting.

But it was nice to talk about it a little bit all the same.

"Anyway, how was your day? Anything interesting?"

He shook his head.

"Took Sabiha to skating practice, that's about it," Reza said. "Do you want me to go this year?"

He asked the question casually, because to him it was just a question, asking after her preference.

Some things could be made ahead of time, so she did what she could, but a lot of it was being made day off. It took a lot of work, but that was only part of the fun for her.

"We were talking about doing something sort of tying into that dreaming, floating sort of idea. I just thought about tanghulu, but we can also do some beautiful cupcakes and rainbow bread since those will be really visible. I'm thinking going with small sort of tea sandwiches that are reasy to pick up. That sort of thing."

It occurred to Reza that if Cass was working this hard on the prom menu, she was going to go.

Reza thought prom was stupid, but he wasn't going to say that. He didn't like to yuck someone else's yum, especially not his girlfriend's. Especially not a harmless fun little event that he just found 'a bit cringe.'

But truly. 800 people. Tons of strangers watching as she made a fool of herself. She couldn't imagine anything worse.

"I know they're supposed to be a big celebration for everyone, but I feel like they should be simple. After all, its only really one party before you do all the actual parts of living. But if something bigger is what people want, of course they should get to ahve it."

She paused, "How does everyone deal with a week long wedding? Do you all have to take the time off work?"

"No, I mean different people get invited to different ceremonies. Like the bride's friends and family do a lot of things for her that nobody else has to worry about. Like henna night. It's like in the West you do engagement parties, bridal showers, bachelorette parties, and the wedding all at different times-- they speed run all of those things in a week in Tunisia, except the engagement party, that can be months in advance. You only really entertain guests for the wedding reception portion." Reza explained. "For the actual marriage contract, you just bring a few people to the municipal office or to your house, witnesses sign a paper, that's that."

He sighed.

"But yeah, I mean I had to miss more than a week of work because I was the one getting married. I like how my Tunisian cousins raised in France do their weddings. They take the traditions and condense them into a day or two, one day for the family and close friends, then the big wedding. Three days was just excessive. I don't think I remember feeling happy, I was just glad the show was over, you know? Which, it seems like my cousins are all getting married one by one these days. They're that age, 28 to 38, my father's the oldest of seven who was also the oldest of seven so I have a million cousins."

He smiled.

"As usual," he repeated fondly, one of the things he loved about her, how she'd lose herself in an idea, chasing a thought until its conclusion.

"Oh that sounds great! I'm sure she'll look wonderful." She always did. She had a great sense of style.

"It's going well! I think I almost have a menu set for the prom committee to look over and give me their opinions on so we can get ready. Prom always comes up faster than I expect it to."

"Are you in charge of the menu alone? Or did you have help?" That seemed like a massive undertaking, one he's not surprised she took on.

And one he didn't doubt she could handle, he was just thinking a hand would be nice.

As soon as she did, she sat up right and looked at Reza. "Sorry! I thought I could get everything done before you got here, but I lost track of time. As usual." She grinned with just a little bit of self deprecation as she carefully set her notebook in its usual place.

"Anyway, how was your day?"

"As usual," he repeated fondly, one of the things he loved about her, how she'd lose herself in an idea, chasing a thought until its conclusion.

But then. Then Reza said there had been 800 guests. Her mouth fully dropped open at that.

That sounded like a nightmare. Who could put up with having that many people staring at them when you had to fumble through vows and rituals and all the other parts that made a wedding a wedding.

"Yes, I mean it's not one continuous party, it's several different ceremonies and traditions. It was compounded also by the fact my ex-wife's a fairy, so like. We had the traditions that the fairies of her hollow expected on top of what the humans do." He made a face and shook his head. "I didn't mind that so much as having like 800 guests for the main ceremony. The things leading up to that were much more intimate, which was actually kind of fun."

He wasn't sure he ever wanted to get married again. But if he did, it'd be something simpler.

In some ways, she knew this was probably a relatively common story for Magicks in Europe. He spoke of crossing countries, of moving back and forth across borders, of people leaving their loved ones behind because the pain and the criticism were too big. Cass couldn't really understand a mother who would leave behind her children like that. After all, if she thought it was bad for herself, wouldn't she think it was bad for them too? But she couldn't really argue with the decisions made by a woman nearly half a century ago. It would hardly change anything.

But there was a little part of her that still wondered how she could do that.

"I'm glad that you were able to rebuild that relationship and Sabiha gets to know her. That's lovely. She'll probably have a great time at the wedding as well, get to see everyone and get to experience something like that. I'm sure its a very different experience than weddings here."

"The German-Austrian side, yeah there's some folk traditions, but it's pretty similar. " Reza said. "But Sabiha loves visiting our relatives in Germany and Austria, so we should go."

He smiled.

"Weddings on the Tunisian side are very different they last like 3 to 7 days depending on how much your family wants to do/how much money they can put into it. Mine was 3 days of ceremonies, parties, religious and cultural traditions. I don't even want to think about how much my father and grandfather spent. We had...god, had to be close to 800 guests for the main ceremony. That's standard for a Tunisian wedding. A 'modest' guest list is 200. I didn't know 2/3 of those people. At least."

After all, prom was getting closer. That meant they needed to solidify the menu so they could get started on all the shopping and cooking to feed the whole town!

So. Dreams. Dreaming in Swynlake. The Swynlake Dreams.

She'd sketched out designs of light, airy, pastel desserts that would maybe go with the pastel decor they'd started to work towards. It could be beautiful and delicious, the kind of thing someone might take a picture with.

But so many of the dreams recently had been more in that high fantasy, pseudo-medieval range which had its own cuisines. Pies and roasts and delicious bread. That might be too much for a dance, but it was fun to think about. She continued to sketch, making notes of possible recipes that could go with it.

At the knock on the door, she hurried up, smiling at Reza as he came in. "Sorry, give me one more moment before I lose this thought, I'm almost done."

Reza nodded and walked inside, careful to not say anything beyond "heard, you got it" to let her finish whatever the thought was. He could understand that, how being interrupted mid-thought could chase it away forever, never to be seen again.

He liked that she knew that about herself.

But he had to try something else; if it failed at least he'd attempted.

It just wasn't a comfortable idea; folks knowing about the curse. But if this Reza fella was a sorcerer who worked at breaking curses he probably was discreet about that sort of thing. Or at least Lucky hoped he was.

When the door opened he...actually he didn't know what he was thinking because what did he assume a sorcerer was going to be? He was around sorcerers all the time and down and they were just completely normal folks so he wasn't sure why I had gotten into his head that this one would be something different.

"Lookin' for somebody named Reza, actually," he offered a smile, "asked 'round town an' ya might be th'one 'round here who can answers some questions for me."

If the man was, in fact, the one he was looking for.

Oh, that wasn't terribly unusual, but still unusual enough that it took him by surprise.

"Right, well that's me. I'm Reza. Come in, make yourself comfortable." He said.

Reza gestured to the workshop's small kitchen.

"Tea? Or straight to what I can do for you?"

Hopefully she hadn't said anything too mortifyingly wrong before this. She knew she wasn't educated in everything, but that was no excuse for being stupid.

"I think that sounds wonderful! A wedding is a perfect reason to go back and spend some time with your family, and it can't really be that far from here. You should go!"

Reza made a face.

"Eh, it's a bit complicated, my mother's side of the family. My mother." He said with a shrug. "Sabiha and I have a similar experiences where the anti-magick sentiment in Tunisia got so bad that our mothers both peaced out, mine back to Europe, hers back to a pixie hollow. I was fifteen, I resented her for a long time, my mother. I threw away my chance to go to university in Austria because it would've meant having to live with her, which was the stupidest thing I've ever done. Fadela hated her even more than I did but still took the opportunity to do it."

He shook his head at himself.

"My father used to live in West Germany, when it was West Germany. He was allowed through their gastarbeiter -- or guest worker -- program. My mother was born in West Germany but lived most of her life in Austria, though she went back to West Germany for university and worked there for a little while after, where she met my father. Then she moved to Tunisia to marry him. Didn't speak a word of Arabic, she learned it there. My mother's a badass. She's 67 now but we still fear the wrath of Ingrid, I think she could still punch. But yeah, she lived in Tunisia until she just couldn't take how anti-magick is was, it really got to her. So she left the three of us with my father and went back to Austria."

Reza smiled, because he didn't feel bad about this anymore and didn't want Cass to.

"We're cool now, my mother and I. I got older, I understood her, forgave her. She adores Sabiha, last time she was here she bought her whole closet. It just still feels awkward with her side of the family. Though I guess being invited at all means I should go. It's a chance to use German-- or try to anyway. A lot of my German-slash-Austrian relatives can't stand my Tunisian accent so they will just switch to English or French if they speak it." Reza said, chuckling about it.

Reza was working in his and Fadela's workshop, which was a small barn on their property converted into such a space, when the doorbell attached rang.

He suspected it was someone for his sister, a love witch, but she was out. Most calls for her, a lot of his work was from out of town clients.

He opened the door and recognized Lucky, vaguely, from the cinema. "Hello there," he said. "Looking for Fadela?"

She didn't think that was true. If you made yourself a mystery, people gossiped about the mystery. There was no real way to avoid it. Instead, she did her best to seem so open that no one looked too much beyond that. She hoped anyway.

That last piece of information was a surprise, although she admittedly didn't know that much about Korea, let alone the Korean fairy experience. She should probably learn more.

"Oh, wow, that is impressive. And here I thought travel was tricky for me the last time I did it."

"Well, thanks to you, we made the cut," Reza joked.

"Oh, yeah, I know about all that because my ex-wife is a fairy. Obviously, if Sabiha's half. Getting a her a passport to travel to Austria to see my mother, that was an adventure." Reza said, shaking his head. "Traveling while fairy can be tricky unless you were born a citizen of a given country, which not all fairies automatically are."

Speaking of passports and travel, he really should go see both of this parents soon but that requires flying to Austria then Tunisia.

After all, if he hadn't cared, he would have said nothing at all. Even then, the little pieces he let drop felt more like accidents or a carefully laid trail for anyone who might be paying attention. She wasn't always, but she'd done her best to keep track of it where she could.

"But you know, most people wander into the Lucky Cat at least once, for curiosity's sake if nothing else, so I've met almost everyone. It was really amazing that so many of his family was able to be here, wasn't it?"

"That's incredibly sweet. That man is so private, I'm impressed you got even breadcrumbs out of him." Reza said. "Don't blame him, people love to gossip. People can't gossip if they know nothing about you I guess."

At the mention of Mu-yeol's family, Reza had to smile.

Of course, weddings being what they were, Cass had barely remembered to eat. She'd tried a few bites here and there, and then got distracted talking to people or dancing or spending time with the happy couple.

She was still glowing from the wedding as they slid into the booth. "Oh really? Good to know that milkshakes are a danger food, I'll have to keep that in mind," she said with a laugh.

"Wasn't that so wonderful?"

"It was beautiful," Reza agreed. "It was my first time meeting Hatter's partner -- well, husband -- too. He seems great, very extroverted compared to Hatter. It makes me wonder how he got him to talk to him enough to actually get to know him."

Reza smiled as he gently poked fun of Hatter's quiet nature.

As a sorcerer who was once married to a fairy, Reza had expected Hatter's wedding to be unconventional. It didn't have some of the bells and whistles of people more willing to be the center of attention, like a first dance, but it was sweet. He could tell that the kitchen witch had allowed his sister to captain things which was probably for the best.

And more importantly, Reza and Cass somehow made the cut for the invite list so you know what, good for them! That felt like an accomplishment considering how antisocial Hatter was for a man who made his living in customer service.

When he'd asked Cass if she was still hungry after the wedding, he was glad she said yes. Their only option at this time was Chippa's, but greasy food and milkshakes was the perfect thing to eat mildly buzzed after a wedding.

"Sabiha's going to be so mad I got a milkshake without her." Reza joked. "I might be nice and bring her home something."