[For Stephen & Danica - Dated to August 4th]

[asher_talos]

Most people looked forward to their birthdays, but Asher wasn't most people. Technically, he'd only been a person for a little over two years now, so at least he had a good reason to go against what he considered to be the majority rule.

To him, all birthdays did now was remind him that he was disgustingly mortal, that he was that much closer to

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[vvdanicavv]

Whenever Danica's birthday came round, she pretty much expected everyone to wait on her hand and foot, which wasn't necessarily out of the ordinary. Only, on her birthday, she liked those hands to be filled gifts, the more expensive, the better. More than a few familiars had seen their time cut short because their presents hadn't come up to par, and they hadn't been given the opportunity to stick around long enough to learn their lesson the next year.

Vouchers? Danica nearly choked just remembering it.

She knew it was her brother's birthday but it didn't really make much impact on her day. He was fairly low maintenance compared to her so when she held out the pie she hadn't made in one hand and his own suit jacket that she'd borrowed over a week before in the other, she wasn't concerned at all about his reaction.

[asher_talos]

"You shouldn't have," Asher insisted flatly as he reached for his jacket. The pie remains untouched.

His sister was a lot of things, in the course of five hundred years, though, none of those things had ever been a pastry chef.

"Do I even want to know who you stole that from?"

[vvdanicavv]

"I didn't steal it from anybody," Danica answered, starting to feel stupid standing there holding out a pie. She cocked a hip and gave her brother an impatient look. "I ordered it." Like catalogue shopping. That counted. She wasn't about to tell Asher how she'd pay for it but letting him know who had made it couldn't hurt. She could narrow it down a bit, in any case.

"Guy looked a lot like you." The pastry was thrust towards Asher again. "Take it."

[asher_talos]

When the fuck did the island get a bakery where you could order shit from, and why hadn't she sprung for an ice-cream cake?

"By now I'm pretty sure every other guy here looks like me. Or a cheap imitation, at least," he said, taking the pie this time once it was shoved his way. "Are you going to sing?"

[vvdanicavv]

"Do I look like I'm going to sing?" In fact, Danica looked a little awkward, pretty much how she'd been feeling ever since she'd arrived here and discovered her black Amex was useless. A pie wasn't exactly exciting but at the same time she didn't want it to seem like she was trying to be nice or anything. They were in public, after all.

Her hands hesitated on her waist briefly before she reached for the jacket again and pulled the lighter out of the pocket. She glanced around them with a warning look and flicked on the flame, holding it up to her brother. "Hurry up and make a fucking wish already. People are watching."

[asher_talos]

Asher wondered just how long he could drag this out. Even if Danica looked as though the gesture was making her uncomfortable, maybe even causing her actual, physical pain, Asher appreciated it. Even with the pesky reminder of getting older.

He eventually put her out of her misery and blew out the flame. "Maybe they think you're an arsonist." Which she'd probably enjoy more than anyone thinking she was doing something nice. "You gonna eat this with me or do you have more deliveries to make?"

[vvdanicavv]

After Asher blew out the flame Danica lowered her arms quickly and brushed her palms down the bare skin like she'd been doing that all along. "Happy birthday, baby. You better have made a wish that was worth that." New shoes for her might have been a nice gesture.

She peered down at the pie, trying to remember what was inside it. When nothing came to mind she took a moment to judge how hygienic Lew Ashby was and eventually came to a conclusion. "Of course I'll share it with you." If only to stop the likes of Delirium muscling in. She smiled, all sweetness and light. "What are sisters for?"

[asher_talos]

"They're for headaches and shot nerves," Asher teased, slinging the jacket over his shoulder, then wrapping the newly freed arm around his sister and heading toward the kitchen. "And the occasional pie, apparently. What the hell's in this?"

[vvdanicavv]

It might have helped if Danica had paid attention while Lew had been making the pie, instead of sitting uninterested at the kitchen table painting her nails. She had stuck around long enough for it to be stuck in the oven, at least. That was something.

She pursed her lips, raising her hand to check for chips or breaks on the vanished fingernails. They were perfect. Totally worth it.

"If somebody gives you a gift-wrapped present you don't ask that," she replied, tilting her head up to look at him. "You open it and find out for yourself." Most people did anyway, herself included. Asher was quite possibly the only exception she knew.

[asher_talos]

"Right..." Asher simply took all of that to mean his sister was as in the dark as he was on the pie's contents. Honestly, it didn't surprise him in the least. "You could just say you have no idea, you know."

He set the pie down once in the kitchen and grabbed two plates and utensils from the cabinets. "Cherry," he said within seconds of cutting into it. At least that's what he went ahead and assumed the red ooze was. Plating a slice and jabbing a fork in it, Asher slid it in front of Danica. And waited. "You first."

He didn't know where it came from. She did. It only made sense that she go first. If she wasn't worried about being poisoned to death then he would be either.

[vvdanicavv]

Danica would have rolled her eyes had she cared enough to. She took the fork, breaking off a tiny piece of pie, just enough to convince Asher that it wasn't lethal.

She caught a crumb at the corner of her mouth with a finger. It could have had almost anything inside it and Danica wouldn't have known much difference, it all tasted the same to her. "Satisfied?"