Birthday 2009 (Monday Aug 10th)

[echolls_cursed]

As of Saturday, Logan Echolls was twenty-two years old. It hadn't been an important birthday, just another year, but it was still on his mind as he sat outside the compound with a joint between his lips

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[captainjack]

Logan had vanished and Jack had taken the opportunity to set up the gift in the hut. All he had left to do was go to the kitchen and pick up the cake he had gotten Vala to make for him...for one hell of a price. After everything that happened while they were asleep- things that had seemed so real -Jack had decided that he had a lot to make up for. After all, assault, murder, and sex weren't everyone's idea of a great birthday.

He knew he was caught when he came out of the compound carrying the cake and Logan was there. Linus bounded over, desperate for attention, but Jack only held the cake higher.

"Sit," he commanded and Linus whined, sat, got up, sat again, and wagged his tail so hard his whole body shook. For his part, Jack side-stepped the dog and walked over to where Logan sat.

"Hey. You gonna come home any time soon? I've got something for you. A birthday present."

[echolls_cursed]

Logan eyed the cake suspiciously, before shifting his gaze to Jack. "Maybe, I guess. I have to come home eventually right?"

And he knew he was being a jerk, but the truth was he didn't want another bookshelf or a chair. He didn't feel like smiling while Jack wished him a Happy Birthday, not when it hadn't been that happy. Well, the parts where they weren't in bed weren't that great anyway.

"Who's the cake for?"

[captainjack]

"It's for you, smart ass," he laughed, tempted to drag his finger through the icing and rub it on the other man's nose or something.

"Even I can't pull off a party with only a few hours notice, but I thought we could do something. Unless you've had enough of me."

[echolls_cursed]

"I don't want a cake. I don't want a birthday," Logan said bitterly, taking another long hit off his joint and getting to his feet.

"We can do something though, if you want to. I don't care. I'd rather do something than sit around thinking about my fucking birthday."

[little_moons]

Pitching him a little jar and sinking down next to him, I scratch Linus behind the ears and make a grab for the joint.

"Sorry. Would've gotten it to you on Saturday, but I was in a fuckin' coma," I mutter dryly, "It's wax. For your board."

[echolls_cursed]

"Thanks," Logan replied, catching the jar and letting Neil take the joint. "I was in one too," he added, though he was quiet and unemotional as he said it.

Opening the jar, he peeked inside before closing it and setting it aside.

[little_moons]

"Where'd you go?" I ask, matter of fact as I bring the joint to my lips and take a drag. Like it was some fuckin' vacation.

It didn't even happen, anyway. I woke up Sunday mornin' without a fuckin' scratch on me.

[echolls_cursed]

"Home," Logan said quietly, not willing to say much more than that yet. It would take a little while to work up to that. "You?"

[island_anne]

Matthew had decided he was going to visit Logan all on his own, though naturally Anne was steering them in Logan's direction already. It was Matthew who was well out ahead of her, and Matthew who climbed the stairs to sit himself down beside Logan completely unprompted.

"Just ensure he doesn't fall," said Anne. "A few stitches won't kill him, but I'd just as soon avoid that if at all possible."

[echolls_cursed]

Logan was tense, but he seemed to unwind slowly as Matthew sat down beside him, all youth and innocence as he settled in on the step and looked up at him. As if to say, 'Look, I'm big just like you. I can sit here'.

In that moment Logan wanted nothing more than to tell the little boy that he wasn't just like him, and that he should enjoy being small simply because he could. He wanted to tell him how hard it was to be an adult and how seriously fucked up life was sometimes. He wanted to shake him and beg him not to ever grow up or be like him. ...But he didn't.

No, instead he simply held the joint out of reach with one hand and mussed the young boy's hair up with the other.

"I've got him," he promised Anne.

[island_anne]

"And that as well," said Anne, nodding at the joint. She felt it would be hypocritical to say anything more about it, especially here on the island, but it was nothing she wanted her son putting in his mouth.

"I'm so relieved everyone is back to normal again. Of all the things the island does, I think this is one of the worst."

[echolls_cursed]

Logan rolled his eyes a little and stubbed out the joint, wiggling his fingers at her in show and then snorting when Matthew copied him. Curious as ever, Linus trotted over to sniff the little boy, his nose bumping him and making him giggle as he sniffed.

Linus was a good dog though, a sweet dog, and he didn't get upset when the child grabbed one of his ears. In fact, Linus simply licked him.

"Yeah- Yeah, I'm not a fan of it," Logan admitted watching Linus and Matthew as he spoke. "Did you stay here, or did you dream like some of the others?"

[coffee_sir]

Honestly, Ianto hadn't expected to see him today. He'd thought that Jack, being Jack, would have trapped him in the hut and devised something or other naughty to do with the refrigerator. A belated birthday present, if they hadn't done anything while unconscious. But either Logan had got away or Jack really couldn't plan for shit. Or a couple days straight in bed was enough for either of them.

Still, Ianto had planned to stop by tomorrow or the day after, once they'd had time to recover. But, no, Logan was sitting right there and proving (as if it needed proving) that birthdays are not always happy occasions. Or that some people never grew out of sulking.

He walked to a stop in front of Logan, hands in his pockets and an eyebrow raised. "That shitty, hm?"

[echolls_cursed]

Logan was still hunched over as he looked up at Ianto, his posture making him appear deceptively small. At least until he sat up straight and stretched his long legs out, his height becoming apparent as he shifted his pose and took another long pull off his joint.

"It wasn't the best weekend I ever had," he replied simply, exhaling smoke as he spoke. "Word of advice, don't get kidnapped and beat down on your birthday, Ianto. It'll really put a damper on the day."

[coffee_sir]

"Ooh," Ianto noised sympathetically, face pulling in with a slight wince. He'd been beaten down before; he didn't need to be kidnapped to know that would make it worse.

"Well you'll like my present, then," he said. "I was going to let you choose, but two bottles of good alcohol are always better than one."

[echolls_cursed]

"You don't have to do that," Logan replied, and it wasn't one of those fake 'oh, you shouldn't have' sort of statements. No, when Logan said it, it was sincere.

"You should hang onto it. My birthday was a mess, like always, you should save them for a wedding gift or something."

[jdick]

Joe fucking hated when the island did whatever the fuck it did and sent people away, leaving their nearly comatose bodies lying wherever they'd fallen asleep. It scared the shit out of him, especially when it was Logan who was unable to wake up.

But he was awake now and he'd spent his birthday unconscious, so when Joe found him outside the Compound, he sat down beside him and offered him the two packages he'd been carrying around. One contained a homemade leash for Logan's surfboard, made of stuff he'd salvaged from the box in the basement. The other was a collection of books, some of the few Joe had read when he was younger, some of the few he'd actually loved. Some of the few things he wanted to pass along to Logan.

"It's a little late," he said apologetically.

[echolls_cursed]

Part of Logan wanted to refuse the gifts and simply pretend the day hadn't happened, but he knew he couldn't do that to Joe. The other man meant too much to him.

"Thanks," he said softly, opening each gift one at a time. The leash for his board made him smile, but it was the books that really caught his attention, and he began to look through them curiously.

He knew Joe well enough to know they weren't just random books. Joe had picked them for a reason, and Logan glanced over, silently asking the other man to tell him about them.

[jdick]

"It took me for-fucking-ever to get those," Joe admitted with a bit of a grin, looking down at the books. "I used to read some of these when I was younger. In my twenties." There was a copy of The Wasp Factory, which had been one of the first fiction books Joe had read and really enjoyed.

"I think you'll like that one," he said, pointing at it. "I grabbed a copy of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, too. My mom gave it to me when I was eighteen, I think, and I didn't read it for years. Thought it would be shit, but I ended up liking it a lot."

[echolls_cursed]

Logan smiled softly, his bad mood forgotten as he looked over what Joe had brought him and listened to the other man speak.

"This was really cool of you Joe," he said after a moment. "Thanks. It means a lot to me that you want to share this stuff with me."