Reid Garwin

When Reid found the half-crumpled poplar leaf while making the bed the next morning, he just grinned, smoothed it, and carefully put it between the pages - bright yellow against printing white - of Tyler's favorite book for his friend to find one day and remember.

You can date for however long and however many, but once you feel the prick of love - even if you lose it - suddenly you realize how nothing else will do.

You know... when two of your three best friends are up to 'reforming' people who used to be less than nice to them... makes you wonder if you're falling behind the trend or something.

It was tiny, really, barely a tremor in Anya's hand as she was putting dishes away (reaching up, because she could, never mind that he was so much taller and it was easier for him to do!), but it sent the bad kind of chills to the bottom of Reid's heart.

1. Normal

He doesn't even want to try to be. (PoP, Girls)

One time too many, he'd been more than he had been expected to be, and then he tried to be normal, tried so hard that the little Reid-spark left after all the rejections was buried so deep under the muck that it took friends old and new weeks to bring it back out. (CoI)

2. Naughty

Mischief or getting hot and sweaty between the sheets (or other places) or walking right on the edge with his gifts, that's a word that usually amply applies to Reid.

3. Never

The one thing he never ever wanted to even be a possibility, and he stepped on the well-trodden path in that direction (even if it felt so damn right to say those words, at last). (PoP)

He never thought it possible to slip so well into ... life, love, relationship, all of it, with somebody, anybody, until he woke up one morning, Alya's dark blond hair tangled in his fingers, and he realized that it was actually already a fact. (Girls)

As Tyler's smiles slowly started creeping back in place, as his shoulders straightened normally now and again once more, as the blue eyes recovered their brightness with time, Reid was hardly the only one who thought never was too soon for that kind of hurt. (Girls, CoI)

4. Nuisance

She rarely thought of him as anything more than a nuisance, no matter how hard he tried to be oh, so much more.

5. Name

He likes his name, he does, but sometimes, certain people merely calling him otherwise could totally be enough to put him in a happier place.

6. Natural

Caleb was a natural leader and Reid - the natural jester, it shouldn't have taken them quite that long to start getting along.

7. Nausea

He'd remember what worked for her for the next time.

8. Necklace

It was a simple leather thong - and as much a part of how he looked as his tats.

9. Naive

It's always hilarious, watching people assume Tyler's that - and then get enlightened.

10. Night

Time for party, baby!

2. Grow

Yeah, not if I can help it (unless it's work-related).

3. Gamble

Me? Never.
(Obv. this one doesn't count. but.)

6. Grateful

He may be always showing it in the weirdest damn ways, but he's always grateful for the people who stick around in his life.

7. Give

Where most guys get dropped because they're not invested into whatever the relationship is enough, Reid regularly gets jilted because he is gives too much, and that, on occasion, confuses the hell out of him.

8. Guilty

... not so, until proven otherwise!

When I'm in charge of entertainment, nobody forgets the occasion.

Reid's cards the year when he finds those are easy, and usually contain only two words: not me.

"...for out o' question you were born in a merry hour" is often a quote thought of in connection to Reid.

It's difficult to go through the well-known routines and not let his mind slide back to times when the festive traditions were empty, meaningless gestures wrapping around words too tightly strained to be heard.