Look, Duo, you're eighteen!
Who: OPEN to absolutely anyone; startin' with Sakura Haruno & Duo Maxwell & anyone present in 4-2
What: It's Duo's birthday and sometimes people give other people gifts on these days. SO DO THAT. Unless you're kidnapped in which case don't.
When: Afternoon/evening 2-2
Where: 4-2
Warnings: idk shit sucks people are in the Holosseum and Happy ( Read more... )
What: It's Duo's birthday and sometimes people give other people gifts on these days. SO DO THAT. Unless you're kidnapped in which case don't.
When: Afternoon/evening 2-2
Where: 4-2
Warnings: idk shit sucks people are in the Holosseum and Happy ( Read more... )
[Game PAUSE!]
Oi, Door, who're you talking to?
"Some pink-haired hooligan. Not that you'd care, or anything. I'm getting rid of her, so you just go on and play your inane video game-
Hey, would you just chill out and let her in? Jeez...
[The door sighs a long, drawn-out electrical siiiiiiigh] Fine, fine, whatever you want...[and it continues muttering to itself as it swooshes open to allow Sakura in]
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Thank you.
[ Is more mocking than sincere, but the door doesn't appear to care either way. She turns her attention toward Duo, smiling, making herself let go let go let go bit by bit. (It's hard. She's not great at it.) ]
Happy Birthday, Duo! Is your door always this argumentative?
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Might as well be a window, when it's that transparent.
[ Back to ignoring the stupid door in the first place! She shifts her weigh, tossing her hip out just a bit to emphasize the plate partly balanced against it. ]
Where do you want the cake?
[ This might be cake number something, but. Cake freezes... she thinks. CAKE IS MAGICAL it can last forever, and she has to start practicing this whole birthday cake business baking sometime. ]
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[He asks as if she hasn't just said it AND as if he can't see it. But it's weird. No one's ever brought him cake before. So he has to make sure.]
Um, in the kitchen is fine, I guess. Let me...uh, go make a place for it.
[And he's kind of scrambling over himself to get across the living area and into the kitchen so that he can shove some of the mess that's currently in there around in such a way as to maybe make it look like it's not so messy.]
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[ someone has to lay down the rules for these things. Sakura does look a little surprised -- has she made some social gaff? Things were a lot easier when you didn't have to worry about how to celebrate what with who and when.
She follows more sedately, quirking an eyebrow up at his scrambling. Sure, things are messy, but she's really only going to start frowning if anything is molding, rotten, or turning solid when it was meant to be a liquid in the fridge.
... Okay, so she didn't like messes, but who was she to critique anyone else's living circumstances, let alone on their birthday? A bunch of bachelors living together sounded like a prime way to end up with a mess, if Katsura and Elizabeth didn't somehow manage to tidy things up as they went along. ]
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[It's not actually all that slobbish. No one did the dishes from dinner last night, is all, and they're all still kind of strewn about on the counter, so Duo's just hurriedly piling them into the sink as he babbles]
[way to go, flustering him like that, Sakura.]
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White frosting, Happy Birthday Duo written out in green, and god knows what kind of cake flavor underneath. ]
Really? I thought birthdays were a big thing for you.
[ She does laugh, now that she's thought about it. ]
Surprise?
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[He grins somewhat self-consciously, scratching the back of his neck as he looks at the cake.]
...Thanks, Sakura.
[It might go without saying that this really means a lot to him. After all, this is the first time anyone has ever bothered to acknowledge his birthday (though he'd kind of skipped it last year due to weird time discrepancies between the date it had been when he'd been on Earth and the date it had been when he'd come here.) That she remembered and then did something about it...he hadn't been expecting anything like this at all.]
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[ She pauses; ]
On the other hand, you're welcome, and no take-backs.
[ She smiles.. more sincere this time. Or at least closer to the kind of smile that she uses when she thinks she understands something about the situation, however little that may be in actuality. ]
Only seems fair your birthday gets to be a big thing, too. I didn't really think it wasn't going to, I admit. Especially after the last few celebration's I've been to...
[ Let alone remembering Naruto's birthday. By all that was sacred, she hoped no one was that over the top or ridiculous around hers. Like she'd told Katsura and Aerith, she preferred things on a smaller scale. She didn't want to be the center of attention -- Naruto filled that position well. Sasuke, too, in his own way, if more when they'd been younger. ]
I'll remember that for next year. Oh!
[ Digging something out of her medic pouch (like she goes anywhere without it, honestly, not on this ship). ]I brought candles! They're cheap, but I ( ... )
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[The shaky-looking English might have been a tip-off, but it might also have been someone not used to writing with frosting for all he knew.]
[He catches the package she tosses at him and looks at it.]
...Is this a commentary on my choice of clothes?
[but he's smiling and not offended at all. He does wear a lot of black and white, after all!]
Anyway, I'm sure it's more than edible.
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[ Even if it wasn't, more a passing observation. She looks at the cake, stepping back from the counter and gesturing him closer. He's got the candles, he can do the honors -- unless he wanted her to. ]
Does it count if I made it out of a box? I couldn't really justify buying a whole thing of cake flour in case things went horribly wrong.
[ mostly joking. In the end, it was kind of an adventure to try the box mix. She's not done it before! That, and baking (or cooking, in general) isn't much of a hobby of hers. Perfectionism and curiosity only went so far. ]
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[He pops open the box and shakes the dinky candles out into his hand, then begins plunking them one by one into the cake's icing, counting from one to eighteen with a serious expression. Eighteen's a lot of candles. It doesn't seem possible that he's lived eighteen years...or thereabouts. Somehow he's gone from the uncertainty of living week to week, day to day, never knowing if tomorrow would be his last and, during the really bad times, not even caring, to...eighteen candles on a home-made birthday cake. He has stability, and friends - good ones, ones he can depend on - and...weird as it is to think, a future. There's no reason to think that he won't be doing this again next year, and the year after that, and the year after that...]
...It'll taste just as good, anyway.
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[ She's watching him with the candles, wondering what's going through his head. If it's the representation of time, or the fact he's celebrating it as something worth noting has passed. Birthdays are strange, in the sense that it's meant to be a celebration of an event more important to the people who didn't look at each day as a success or testimonial to their ability to survive. Years passed, but hinging them on the moment you were born ( ... )
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[He glances at her and smiles; it's not his usual expression of mirth, the joker mask he's built to hide behind, the mask that most people don't even realize is there because he wears it all the time and never lets anyone get close enough to realize what he's doing. It's a soft smile, almost shy, and gone almost as quickly as it came. Even with Sakura (who he trusts more than most, relies on more than most), he can't let his guard down enough to do that. It's too exposed, too vulnerable, and he can't handle the way that feels.]
...So, d'you want to have some now, or should we wait?
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