#asuquincy

Turtle tended to view New Year's Eve differently than most of his friends did. It was a year's birthday, but just like birthdays, he didn't feel the need to view it in such a strict box. A new year could begin whenever he made a conscious decision to reset some part of his life, as far as he was concerned, but his views didn't stop him from enjoying celebrating in the more traditional ways. He'd been particularly glad when he'd heard that Quincy would be joining them for the holiday as Sydney's guest; he didn't see how he could possibly end up letting the calendar force him into starting something new when he was ringing in the holiday with someone old. She was his favorite presence from his past, though, and as midnight drew nearer, he found himself scooting closer to her on a couch, drink in hand and curiosity on his mind. "You wouldn't have rather spent a night celebrating the new with your potential new beau?" he asked. He hadn't checked with her to see how things had been progressing on that front, but her aura had been clouded when she'd spoken of it before, and even after she'd broken his heart all those years ago, he'd never been able to stop himself from worrying for her peace of mind.

Quincy was the type of person who loved any excuse to dress up, drink something bubbly, and spend time with friends and family, and so of course New Year's was one of her favorite holidays. Sure, Halloween had fun opportunities for fun, sexy costumes, and Christmas meant lots of presents, but New Year's represented a fresh start, which was something people always needed, Quincy's best friend included. Sydney had been going through a draining, emotional year which had come to a particularly turbulent climax, and so when the opportunity to spend part of the holidays with Sydney arose, Quincy took it without a second thought. She loved her family but there was something extra fun about getting to spend the day with her best girl and get herself pretty so that she could get compliments from more people than just her father. Like Turtle, for example. If she could get a compliment from her ex turned friend who was just a little too pretty for his own good, that would be ideal. As he joined her on the couch, she smiled on instinct, but that smile froze at his question. She chewed on her lip for a second and then shook her head. "Nope! New Year's is kind of a big one for me, I'd rather spend it with two of my favorite people," she smiled, reaching out and touching his knee at the word 'favorite' so he'd know she meant him. Touching him was a bad idea though. Turtle was already needlessly hot, but with how much Quincy had been needing physical intimacy lately, breaking the touch barrier was enough to make her pull back her hand and sit on it. "And besides, he's nice and it's been fun, but not seeing him during this break made me realize that... well, if I'm being honest with myself, I might have been letting my desire to rip the band-aid off and start dating again, and my hormones, make the bulk of my dating decisions for me," Quincy admitted with a laugh, taking a sip of her champagne to cover up the fact that she was embarrassed by oversharing.

Turtle hummed thoughtfully under his breath at Quincy's words; it was a familiar tune, one that had developed over the years and that often came to him when he wasn't sure what to say about a specific topic. It had never really cleared his head before; it simply let him pause, instead of letting himself become confused by lingering too long on a topic. Quincy's love life had never been a great one for him anyway. He hadn't yet found someone else that made him feel the same kind of completeness he felt when he was here in Wonderland, and he'd known the whole time she was with Emmett that the way they fit together wasn't harmonious. It was too soon, though, to know if he should agree with her assessment of Khalid, or if that was just a sliver of past selfishness snaking its way into his present. "Absence didn't make the heart grow fonder," Turtle finally concluded, sensing Quincy didn't want eyes on her as she talked about it, so letting his eyes follow the bubbles rising in her champagne flute instead. "Some people are just meant to be the tea you enjoy at a party, some are meant to be the cup you keep using your whole life," Turtle shrugged, not judging her in the slightest for chasing that feeling. It wasn't as if he hadn't done the same thing before himself. He waved his hand towards an upside down clock in the corner, its hands rapidly approaching new years. "A new start comes for me whenever I want it, but for those of you who subscribe to the calendar... your fresh start comes in just a few minutes, he told her, raising his own champagne glass towards her to clink in a toast. "Maybe that's the sound of a reset for me," he proposed, letting his glass tap against hers again. He didn't actually want to start over just yet, but he did like the idea of maybe seeing Quincy smile f he said the right thing. "A new chapter beginning with a favorite person of my own, even if I'm getting a slight head start."

Quincy could've hummed along with Turtle's pensive hum, but she didn't. She knew the sound well though, and usually right after he did it, he let loose some morsel of wisdom. It wasn't often Quincy conceded that people were smarter than her, but in all honesty, she probably thought Turtle was the smartest person she'd ever met. She hadn't even realized how much she needed someone to tell her that her wanting to cut Khalid off after only a few months wasn't selfish or crazy until she'd started ranting about her current date-mate to her ex. Which, yes, she did realize was rude of her, but Turtle was more than her ex at this point, right? He was one of her best friends, and he knew her better than just about anybody. If he thought she was being too rash, he'd tell her. But he seemed to agree and she let out a little sigh of relief. "No, no it didn't," she said quietly, swirling her champagne glass. "And I guess sometimes you don't know until you drink for the cup." She looked up to him with a smile on her face, already feeling better and validated about one of her first big decisions in the new year. She was glad she'd tried with Khalid; it meant she was ready to try again, and that she knew what she wanted and what she didn't. Her eyes followed his hand towards the upside down clock and her grin grew wider -- how very Wonderlandian, to have an upside down clock. "To a fresh start," Quincy nodded, clinking her glass against Turtle's. She laughed when he proclaimed he had a new year's start ahead of her own and she swatted his knee with her free hand. "Wait, no, that can't be it! A new year is totes special! You need more of a moment, to really mark a new chapter! If it's not when the clock strikes then it has to be, like, something else!" She paused for a minute and cocked her head to the side before asking, as casually as one possibly could, "Like, I don't know, do you kiss somebody at midnight for the New Year down here? Or is that just an Auradonian thing?"

Turtle had always been introspective, and tonight, he wasn't under any sort of outside influence yet, sans a few sips of champagne. That meant his mind was almost too clear, was vibrating on a frequency he wasn't used to. That frequency couldn't help but make him wonder if perhaps he had any sort of ulterior motive for not wanting Quincy to continue dating Khalid. He didn't think so, though; he simply wanted what was best for her, and the energy coming off of her whenever she talked about him wasn't as bright and vibrant as he knew Quincy could be at her happiest. Still, perhaps a person more normal than him would think they didn't want to see an ex they still cared so deeply for with someone else, particularly someone who seemed to be more of the same. He shrugged, letting his gaze move from the clock to the portrait beside it, a collage of eyes that he always felt like was staring at him. The eyes didn't seem to be boring into him, though, so his assessment of his own motives must be correct. "The first high of the year usually comes with the caterpillar," he told her, wracking his brain for other traditions that he could possibly share with her when her question stopped him in his tracks. "Tweedletown and Wonderland are part of Auradon now," he replied instantly, not sure why the words flowed out of him so readily. They didn't tend to do things the same way here by any stretch of the imagination, but perhaps a kiss to start the new year wasn't the worst of Auradonian offerings. Perhaps it could be cleansing for Quincy, after a failed attempt at a new relationship, to fall into a sort of time warp towards an old one. One that had taken him entirely longer than it had taken her to let go of, granted, but... "Lips, I think, are the second or third most used bodypart for most people, depending on whether or not you enjoy having conversations with your eyes closed. It's only fitting that they get to be one of the first parts to celebrate an ushering in of something new."

Quincy loved feeling smart and like things made sense to her, but she also enjoyed trying to figure out something that didn't follow the type of logic she was taught; for example, the first high of the year coming with the caterpillar was a sentence that left her delightfully grasping as pieces to put together and form a puzzle. Even more simultaneously confusing and happy-making, though, was Turtle's placement of his home as part of Auradon. In the context of the traditions they were talking about, it sent an anticipatory tingle up Quincy's spine to settle on her smile. Not that she automatically assumed Turtle would want to kiss her as the clock struck midnight. Just because it wouldn't be out of sorts for a Wonderlandian to do didn't mean Turtle has to do it, or even that he would with her. For all Quincy knew, he was two seconds from getting up and finding someone else in the festivities to share that moment with, but ever since Turtle had sat down next to her, all other people around them had lowkey vanished to Quincy. Maybe it was just because he always made her feel like she was right to believe in herself, maybe it was because he was insanely hot and she hadn't gotten much in a while, or maybe it was because deep down something about Turtle had always calmed her and excited her at the same time, but either way, kissing him felt like it would be the perfect way to begin a new year. Just one kiss with an old friend and then everything would be off to the best start it could have. "Right? I totes agree. And as someone who talks basically, like, all the time, my lips are more than ready to jump into the new year," Quincy said softly, her eyes looking over at the clock. Midnight was basically any moment now and if she was going to get a kiss, it was now or never. Normally she would be a little more direct and aggressive but taking her history with Turtle into consideration, kissing him out of the blue was lowkey a no-no. She wanted permission before she made her move. "Do you think yours would want to celebrate with mine?" she asked, taking a quick sip of champagne.

Turtle supposed that, if he were the sort of person to follow linear logic, he could see where Quincy's question came from. Typically, though, his thoughts didn't go in a straight line; lines swirled around and around in circles, creating beautiful patterns, instead of going from one spot to the next. Dots didn't connect, they usually collapsed, one on top of the other, until a flat piece of paper in his mind contained a dot that, should it become 3D, would stand exceedingly tall at this point from how often he'd grouped them together instead of drawing lines between them. Still, though; just because his brain wouldn't have gone there on its own didn't mean he didn't like the path that Quincy had proposed for them. Turtle loved the feelings of his brain on a high, and physical contact usually brought a high with it. In fact, back in the day kissing Quincy had felt better than any drug ever had, and he didn't know if their new status quo would allow for such an intense feeling anymore... but he also couldn't picture how it wouldn't still feel nice, all the same. "Wonderland wouldn't be a very welcoming place for you if I said no to that," Turtle told her, draining the last of the champagne from his glass in preparation for bidding 2020 goodbye. He could only choose so many old things to bring into the new year with him, and if the chance to kiss Quincy was traveling to 2021, then he certainly didn't have the space to bring in old, 2020 bubbles as well. He set the glass aside, licking his lips to make sure they weren't dry or cracked from smoking earlier, but all he tasted was sweetness from the champagne. And then, before he had time to think anymore, to wonder one last time if this was a good idea... people were counting, the upside down clock was chiming, and Turtle's hand was cupping Quincy's cheek, then sliding into her hair, as he guided her mouth towards him, ready for the celebration of lips she'd proposed.

It was hard not to cheer when Turtle ended up saying yes -- especially when he easily could've said no, he'd have had every right given their history -- but how happy Quincy was about it made it feel like a big deal, when it sooooooo wasn't. No, it was just exciting that she would be sharing such a nice moment with her sups hot awesome friend, that's all. Her sups hot awesome firne who's fingers across her skin make her cheek feel like it was on fire, and then his hand was in her hair and their mouths were touching and her hand found its way to his chest, clutching onto his shirt. She could hear the cheering around them as midnight came and went but everybody else sounded a million miles away as she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss, craving closeness as her whole body thrummed with a runaway heartbeat. Her other hand settled on his thigh as her tongue roamed, making itself at home in his mouth and claiming his air for probably far too long before finally pulling away, her face red at how overeager she'd been.

"Um...my lips were well taken care of, so I guess my tongue really wanted to celebrate too. And my hands," Quincy giggled, wondering how to explain herself, but it was hard to think too straight when her brain was still thinking about how good he smelled and how strong he felt under her touch. It was like she'd tripped down a rabbit hole of Turtle -- the only thing to do was fall, and so she blurted out "Does, um, any of the rest of you feel like celebrating with any of the rest of me? Because all of me feels like celebrating with all of you. Somewhere more private?" before she could stop herself. She really didn't expect the first thing that she'd do in 2021 to be shooting her shot with her ex but now here she was, and all she could hope was that no matter what happened next, she hadn't royally messed up their friendship in the new year.

The world held an infinite number of possibilities, some more likely to occur than others. Some much more likely to occur than others. 2020 Turtle hadn't foreseen this sort of thing occurring, couldn't have seen Quincy clutching onto his shirt or sliding her tongue into his mouth or even resting her hand on his thigh... But 2021 Turtle couldn't stop seeing it, couldn't think of anything but, really. His tongue deserved to celebrate, too; his hands wanted to reach out and touch her, or at least to urge her hand to explore more freely. It was a new year, a blank slate, and Wonderland was a place where anything could happen... And even before Quincy's words told him she wanted this to happen, his body was in agreement, wanting it too. "Definitely somewhere more private," Turtle agreed, surprised by how breathless he was already. He gestured towards the eye painting on the wall, the one he'd been inspecting just before midnight; now, he felt like it was watching them, staring at them, maybe even judging him. "The painting's been ruder than usual this year, he doesn't deserve any sort of show," he offered as way of explanation, but it was more than that. He knew that he couldn't stop now; he was like a bottle that had been uncapped, and he needed to be consumed, to be enjoyed before he could go flat. He didn't want this to go to waste, and he didn't want to share it, either. He didn't want prying eyes to make it more than it was, or roaming hands and eyes and everythings to find someplace they fit that wasn't on him. Turtle stood from the couch, thinking to extend his hand to Quincy and guide her off to a private place... then a part of his spirit that he hadn't connected with in some time made him scoop her up in his arms instead, whisking her off towards his room where they could continue this party on their own.