Another Year Older...

[sirrobinv]

Who: Damien Wayne and Clarice Ferguson
What: A birthday!
Where: Damien's house
When: Thursday, March 15
Why: Cute needed to happen
Rating: T fot '--tt--what are you doing with that cake, Ferguson?'

Comments

[never_blink]

Clarice had wondered whether Damien would have some sort of special dessert request for his birthday. She wasn't terribly surprised when he didn't, though she'd sort of hoped... It seemed like another way he was refusing to let himself be a child, and if you couldn't be a child on your birthday, when could you?

It would be weakness, I guess. Well, that just left it up to his friends, didn't it?

She wasn't even scheduled to work tonight, though he probably wouldn't be too startled to see her, since she often came over to train even when she wasn't on pastry duty. That wasn't her purpose tonight, though, and the cooler in her hand vanished in a crackle of pink light as she let herself into the house. "It's just me," she called. Sneaking in - or even Blinking directly to somewhere inside where she could set up in secret - had occurred to her, but she knew Damien wouldn't react well to finding an intruder in his house.

Poking her head into the kitchen, she gave Damien and Woodhouse a smile. "Sorry. I'm not staying long. I just

[sirrobinv]

"--tt--You're a terrible lair, Ferguson." Damien said, following her from the kitchen the instant she appeared. He smelled what was left of the lit match and bright eyes narrowed discerningly. "Put those out, we're having dinner first." It wasn't an invitation, or even a suggestion, but a command. "It's been too long since I've had good pakora to ruin it by indulging first."

Nevermind that meals during previous birthdays had been far more indulgent and elaborate than the downright humble feast that awaited him now...but then there were usually several hundred more mouths to feed as well.

[never_blink]

Being 'caught' so easily might have made Clarice far more flustered if it had been by anyone but Damien, but she'd spent far too much time in his company recently. She did give a little guilty start to find him already there watching her, but then she smiled.

"I can't. I'm sorry. I don't think I'm allowed." She glanced sideways at the bowl, at the candles flickering merrily away, her hands still clasped behind her back. "They're birthday candles. The only way to put them out now is for you to make a wish and blow them out."

She hadn't missed the - invitation? - to stay for dinner. And she might have demurred, or tried to, for all the good that reticence ever did when dealing with Damien. But it was his birthday dinner, and there was only the cook and herself here.

Reaching back into the cooler, she fished out a couple of paper party hats. "Also, I think you have to wear one of these," she added innocently. "I have one that Mr. Woodhouse can wear too, if he wants."

[sirrobinv]

Damien glared at the hat Clarice procured in a way that said he expected his gaze to set it on fire, but there was a moment of hesitation until he took it, letting it dangle from it's little elastic string like some exotic specimen, or maybe evidence at a crime scene.

"--tt--I'll look ridiculous."

In a staring match that wasn't, he looked from the hat to Clarice several times.

'Sometimes you just gotta play, Damien.' Maybe it was her smile, the way she thought she'd tricked him into taking part in an asinine tradition, but at that moment, Clarice reminded him starkly of Batgirl, the night she'd taken him to the bouncy castle after they'd stopped those kidnappers. She just looked so infuriatingly...pleased