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Isaac lounged comfortably, listening to the din of all the guests enjoying dinner. He re-crosses his legs as he picks up a little snippet of conversation from the couple on his left. When he gets boarded with that one he listens in on another. Word had indeed gotten around. Jay's suppers had been written up in that publishing book face thing as eclectic, interesting, and daring apparently. The hotel was enjoying a boom in bookings. It was a haven for something called a 'hipster' and historians alike. Apparently, Sazerac's, mulled wine, venison and something called vegan sausage were what people wanted these days. Everyone had been excited by a recent article that talked about some of the Lanape recipes they'd added. Sam had translated to Jay some of Sasappis favorites like Salpon and Shëwahsapan. It'd gone over quite well.
As much as they had all resisted this hotel thing Isaac begrudgingly admitted it had worked out. Sam and Jay had really leaned into the ghost thing. Apparently, paranormal tourism was a thing, who knew. There were also quite a few, as Isaac is to understand, 'history buffs' staying in numbers as well.
After Sam self-published Isaac's biography, she'd written a book about the general area of Woodstone. It touched on Thorfinn, battels in the area, the architecture of the homes. Seemingly the fact that Sam didn't have many sources for Isaac's book was problematic in academic circles and Isaac will assume that’s why Isaac's bio hadn't reached Hamilton success. But it had done well enough to cause renewed interest in the region for these 'buffs'.
Alberta's fan base has also flocked to the area. Sam had converted one of the sitting rooms into an actual museum on the main floor with the things from her trunk. Her living distant relatives had actually donated a few things they still had as well. That had been a fabulous ruckus day when they'd come to visit.
There was also a whole section about Hetty and the house. They were still waiting to get it registered as a historical landmark, but apparently, that took time to get through bureaucracy. Isaac did find the museum quite tasteful. The museum had grown when artifacts were found on the property, Thor's helmet, still disputed among historians apparently, bullets and a belt buckle from Isaac's era, and a few recovered Lenape items from the estate grounds that they had been allowed to display after consultation from the tribes.
"I see game pies are on the menu. That's new," Isaac says as Jack the waiter walks by with one. He briefly enjoys the view of Jack walking away. The smell from the food though is quite lovely, that buttery crust, the wonderful smell of quail.
"Yes," Nigel drawls from his seat next to him. "Sam asked me what I ate as a child. They were all so beautifully decorated. I didn't quite know what all goes into it but Jay was able to make suitable modifications. By the by, that stove contraption is quite ingenious and refrigeration! Can you imagine!"
Isaac chuckles. Nigel was still rather new to the technologies of the day, having spent most of his afterlife in the shed. Truth be told Isaac still had some holes in his knowledge, no matter how many times Sam explained Bluetooth he was never going to understand it. He might also be confused because Thor says Bluetooth was a Viking King so he's kind of just letting that one go. But Isaac was present when they'd first put in electricity and the electric stove. It was something he could see and conceptualize. He'd watch the men lay the wires.
Nigel and the other two Brits were spending more time in the house these days though. He remembers when they all sat down and saw TV for the first time. Bake-Off had been quite popular. The 'border' was all but gone.
Nigel and Isaac were sitting in the dining area currently, in the ghost zone, or as Trever calls it the VIP area. Sam had roped off areas around the house as safe spaces for the ghosts so they could sit and listen to conversations or watch the guest come and go. To the living, they were just displays of old vintage furniture and the like. But to the ghosts, they were places they could spend the days without being walked through. The TV ran almost all day long in the sitting room. They hadn't had it so good in years, even when the old lady was alive.
They were barred from entering any of the guest rooms though unless they were vacant, which they weren't often these days. The sleeping arrangement had taken a while to figure out. Sam and Jay had fixed up a part of the attic for them to sleep in but it had been one big sleepover for a while until they could buy more walls and nobody got any sleep because Flower wouldn't shut up. They whined and complained and were generally quite annoying until Sam and Jay finally transformed the whole attic into rooms. All the items in storage went out to the Brits shed and they'd officially had their own rooms in the attic after that. Nigel had become quite close, geographically speaking.
They did have to take turns in the ghost zones though as most zones could really only fit two ghosts comfortably at one time. They all could still gather in the sitting room during the week when there were fewer guests but the weekends were usually too busy to do so safely. But tonight, tonight it was Isaac and Nigel's night in the dining room. It was the most coveted of all the areas.
"Well, the pie smells heavenly," Isaac compliments. Nigel raises his chin proudly.
"Which meal is yours?" Nigel asks, looking at the printed menu Sam had placed on their table earlier.
"I don't have any," Isaac says shrugging. "I- couldn't remember any."
"It was quite a long time ago," Nigel says generously. Food hadn't been his vice while alive. He enjoyed a good meal and an ale but he hadn't formed an attachment to any particular foodstuff. There weren't any particular moments or memories in his childhood that he associated with food. If anything, he enjoyed tea. Nigel and Isaac had spent many hours discussing their favorite blends.
They had been getting to know each other quite a bit these days. There wasn't a day that they didn't walk the grounds together. Sam had set up historical walking paths around the grounds, with the ghost's input, and they often walked those trails.
Isaac watched as Jack walked two new men to a table. It was the new arrivals. Word was they were history buffs; Isaac hadn't been in the house when they'd checked in and they'd been in their room the rest of the day.
"What do you think?" Isaac asks Nigel. A game they played. They tried to guess who the guests were before they heard any of the conversations.
"Hmm," Nigel delays. "The taller one is a barrister and the other an artisan."
"Ah, that is a good guess," Isaac says as he studies the two. "I'll choose professor and the shorter one a model."
"Oh yes, his eyes, those cheekbones," Nigel agrees. "I should have thought of that. To be perfectly honest though, I still don't understand how that is a profitable profession."
"Too true," Isaac smiles, they think so similarly.
They both watch as the two lean in to each other and Isaac watches curiously. The larger one pulls out the chair for the shorter one. That's interesting Isaac thinks but then he does something Isaac didn't expect. The shorter man kisses the taller man, before sitting down. On the lips.
Isaac just blinks rapidly, surprised. "Huh."
They- they did that. Just like that. Right here. So matter-of-factly. In the middle of a crowded room. Isaac tries to subtly look around. Either nobody saw or nobody cared. He sneaks a look at Nigel. He's also sitting there frozen, eyes wide. Well, good to know neither of them saw this coming.
Isaac looks back. The taller of the two says something that Isaac can't hear because another guest laughs loudly but the taller man gives the shorter man another kiss on the cheek before leaving the dining room. Honestly, Isaac's mouth might have dropped open. Nobody cared.
"Ummm."
"Yeah," Nigel says. Isaac looks at Nigel and immediately they both blush and look away. Dear Gawd.
Suddenly Flower rushes through the wall into the ghost zone, a cloud of weed vapors follow. "Ohmygosh, you guys. I was just in the lobby and there's a guy asking Sam to bring out champagne. He's going to propose! I love love!" she exclaims and gets all dreamy.
He heard what she said and he doesn't quite believe, "Wha- What?"
Suddenly it's too crowded because Hetty and Thor are trying to fit in the ghost zone too. "Sam says someone's getting engaged. I must see this. Our first engagement, how wonderful!" Hetty says enthusiastically and claps a little. Thor launches into a story about marriage in his culture but Isaac is still trying to process that a Man clearly just kissed another Man in broad daylight and nobody put him in chains and dragged him off to the whipping post. The larger man has come back and Isaac is hyperaware of the fact that the man touches the other man's shoulder before he sits. Isaac does not miss the other man smiling adorningly at him.
Suddenly Trevor, Alberta, Pete, and Sasappis arrive via the kitchen wall, all talking excitedly, it's a full house. There is no room left so they have to flatten themselves against the wall to watch. Isaac feels anxious and flushed. Shouldn't this be a private moment? He wants to look over at Nigel to judge his reaction because- well he's too nervous to look.
He scans the room and he sees Sam peeking around the large dining room doors to watch. Suddenly Jack is back and he has champagne glasses and a bottle. He shows the two men the label of the bottle. "Ooh champagne for our anniversary!" the shorter one says excitedly. Jack proceeds to pop the cork. Flower shrieks when it goes off. Isaac's heart beats too fast. He's dead so why does he feel like he's going to have a heart attack?
Isaac has a front-row seat as Jack pours the champagne into the glasses. He sets the bottle in an ice bucket next to the table and then leaves. They both pick up the glasses and the larger man starts to speak. He feels like all the ghosts suddenly hold their breaths. Isaac's heart is beating so loud surely everyone must know.
"Charles," the larger man starts, his voice wavers a bit, nervous.
"Oh, my gawd it's happening!" Flower says and everyone shushes her.
"We've been together for five years, nine if you count the time we wasted being on again, off again." The shorter man, Charles laughs. "I knew the moment I met you in that club nine years ago that I couldn't let you go. I love you very much and I don't want to waste another moment. I can't imagine my life without you." The man sets his glass down and reaches into his breast pocket and produces a box.
"Ric what are-" Charles's eyes are huge but he's smiling mouth open. Ric stands and gets down on one knee, Charles covers his mouth muffling the 'ohmygawd'. Ric holds open the small box. A silver ring inside. "Will you marry me?"
There is a heart-stopping moment and then, "Yes, yes, yes, of course, yes," Charles says in a rush and practically falls out of his chair to kiss the larger man.
The livings and ghosts are clapping and cheering. The two men are laughing and kissing as they stand up. Ric puts the ring on Charles's finger. More kissing. Trevor whistles. Jay's even come out from the kitchen and is clapping. Isaac suddenly has to leave; it feels like the walls are closing in. He needs air. He leaves the table with such force his chair actually moves, scaping across the floor slightly. If he wasn't so unsettled, he would have been proud of himself.
Someone yells, "Oh my gawd, that chair just moved. I told you this place was haunted!"
Isaac hastily walks out of the dining room, almost walking through Sam when she steps near him a concerned look on her face. He just dodges her and swiftly walks out the front door of the hotel.
Once outside it's blissfully quiet. At pace, he walks down the lighted path they normally take just about every day. After a few yards, he stops and he takes a moment to hyperventilate in private. He gets his breathing under control with a few deep breaths. All his previous anxiety and nervousness drained out.
He's walked far enough that he can still see the lights inside the house but it's wooded enough that he doesn't feel like he can be seen. He sits down heavily on one of the benches located there. He replays the scene in his head over and over.
He's known what he's wanted for a very long time now but achieving that had always seemed so unattainable until perhaps right now. He knows society is different, he's seen it suggested on TV. But seeing it here in real life, right in front of you and people you know accepting it. That was somehow quite different.
He knows getting over the ingrained societal ideas of his time has been a challenge for him. When he died and his soul lingered, he'd thought this was hell, his punishment for having those thoughts for men. The punishment his Protestant father always raged about, but over the years he started to think that maybe that wasn't necessarily the case. It was gnawingly boarding most days but this couldn't be hell and he doesn't think he's here because of just that.
In the early days, it had been Sasappis, Thor, and Isaac and for a long time, it was just them. The other two hadn't seemed to notice that he was maybe different from them or he wonders now that they hadn't cared that he was. Either way, when there were only two other people in the world that could see him, his slips had gotten more frequent and worse over the years. The ruse, the front he tried to shield himself with, it had become harder and harder to maintain. In moments when he was honest with himself, that was the true him and maybe if he was born in a different time- but he wasn't and this was his lot.
The day he'd seen Nigel sitting on the steps of the shed, it'd been one of the best days of his ghost life, complicated and angst-filled but happy. Things maybe hadn't progressed much until Sam and Jay had come to the house but Isaac felt like the last two years and been the most crucial years of his afterlife. He had gotten to know Nigel better; they'd talked every day and he'd found himself opened up to Nigel about matters he hadn't talked about with anyone. Things he was too afraid to talk of with the other house ghosts for fear they might misunderstand. With Nigel, he didn't feel as defensive or on guard. He could be more himself. And Isaac felt more like the man he had wanted to be when he was around Nigel. More than in any other point in time, living or dead, he'd felt authentic. Isaac's feelings for Nigel aside, Nigel and Isaac had become good friends.
It'd been a long and excruciating road for Isaac but he realizes he didn't do it all for himself. He'd done it to be with- He'd done it for- He'd bettered himself so he could hopefully one day reveal his true self-confidently to someone he cared about. And be a better human being for that person.
He sees red movement out of the corner of his eye and he looks down the path. Speak of the devil. Hands clasped behind his back; Nigel stopped a few yards down the path. Politics aside, Isaac did always like that uniform. Nigel clears his throat. "May I join you?"
"Yes, of course," Isaac says. In his dash to flee, he really hopes he hadn't given Nigel the wrong idea. He still had a capitulation to flight than fight. Nigel continued down the path and settles on the bench next to him. Quite close on the bench, actually.
They sit in silence for a few moments.
"Are you alright?" Nigel broaches gently.
"Yes," Isaac says staring at the ground. "I just had to get out of there. It was just too- There were too many people."
"Hmm," Nigel agrees. "It did seem like a private moment."
That right there. Isaac lets a deep breath go. Nigel understood him, he got it. He didn't know if it was because they were from the same time but they had an understanding.
The man's words from the dining room float through his head 'the time we wasted.'
Isaac suddenly feels like he's standing at the edge of a cliff. He could broach the topic they've skirted around for years. The friendship they'd built, all the time they've gotten to know each other recently could be gone. His newfound enjoyment in his ghost life could be gone if he brings it up. Nigel could be gone.
But on the other hand- On the other hand. He could indeed release an intense burden and maybe find happiness in this endless purgatory.
"It's- It's so easy these days. You're allowed to be- be who you are." Isaac tests, his heart pounds in his ears.
"Yes, it does seem so," Nigel agrees, his voice sounding thoughtful. Well, that was positive. He pivots so he's facing Nigel. He's going to do it.
"Do you think- have you ever-" Gads, he's an incoherent dunce. "Would you maybe- want to- to- to-," he can't say it, he's losing his nerve.
Isaac takes a deep breath to try again. "Nigel," he says to the brass gorget around Nigel's throat. The low light from the path lights bounces off it beautifully.
"Yes, Isaac?" Isaac's struck by deja vu.
Heart in his throat, pounding in his ears, "I love you." There. He's done it. It's done. He looks up finally and Nigel is smiling.
"I do believe I love you too," Nigel says and Isaac can't contain his smile. His nervous happy energy bubbles up into a laugh. Nigel laughs too, possibly feeling the same nervous energy. An overwhelming relief swells up after the laughter. Isaac wipes at the moister in his eyes it causes. "I'm- I’m so very glad," he says.
"Would it be too forward to-" Nigel starts to say and Isaac sees him leaning forward and Isaac feels drawn in. What is there to be scared of now? He's with the person he loves most and they love him back. He leans forward as well and their lips brush. It's not quite like when they were alive. It's not the complete sensation of a kiss but it's wonderful all the same. He's waited centuries and he kisses Nigel back properly, fully and deeply.
He brings a hand up to Nigel's jaw and he feels Nigel's hand at the back of his neck. Isaac wants to keep kissing those lips forever but apparently yes, he has to breathe. He's dead he shouldn't need to but he pulls back a fraction breathing a little heavy. Nigel is doing the same.
Nigel chuckles. "That's was wonderful," he says. They're so close Isaac feels that puff of air.
"It was." It really was. Now that they started though, Isaac doesn't want to stop. He kisses Nigel this time and he really can't get enough. He dares to place a hand on the other man's waist and a hand settles on Isaac's thigh in response. The thrill of it travels through him.
They pull apart again and Isaac can't stop smiling, so sure of himself suddenly. "Join me tonight? In my room."
"Yes," Nigel says instantly, smiling.
Their lips crush together again more forceful, more intense.
---
They spend probably an hour out there on the path, not doing much talking. At a certain point, they agree to head inside though, the bench is not that comfortable. They walk back slowly just enjoying each other's company. Nigel adjusts the gorget and when Isaac sees the house around the bend in trees, a thought suddenly occurs to him and Isaac stops. Nigel stops as well, looking alarmed.
"Should we- Are we telling them?" Isaac asks, unsure. It is private, what's between them but on the other hand-
Nigel smiles and reaches up on his toes to kiss Isaac. Isaac enjoys that immensely.
Suddenly Isaac's aware of cheering and they break apart and he sees everyone in the windows and doors of the house smiling and cheering. "Oh," Nigel says surprised.
"Well," Isaac says, face going red. "I guess that's that." He's not necessarily upset about it but he does feel a little embarrassed but that's cause they're all standing there staring and cheering. Trevor's whistling for heaven's sake.
"Okay, okay, you rapscallions, go back inside!" he sputters. He can't deal with them tonight.
"I had 2050, was anyone else closer?" He hears Sasappi's say.
"You guys didn't," Sam says sounding disappointed.
"I had 1972," Alberta says.
"Gadzooks," Isaac murmurs.
"Let's go around," Nigel says, and Isaacs is too stunned to reprimand the others because Nigel takes his hand and leads him towards the side entrance.