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[with_diamonds]

There'd been a time, longer ago now than she could really consider, that by the time she turned twenty, Lucy was meant to be a engaged to a handsome soldier, a scholarship student at a prestigious college, living the kind of life that girls were supposed to dream of. That had changed, of course, before she'd gotten any of it; in retrospect, she

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[neededproof]

Taking a seat next to Lucy, Ryan glanced at the book. "That thing driving you crazy again?" he asked, nodding toward the jukebox without looking away. It always seemed to give her trouble, though there were, at least, worse things to have played at you all the time.

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"Always," Lucy said with a slight laugh, shaking her head a little. "You know, I'd never heard of these Beatles guys before I got here, but I'm pretty sure I know almost all of their songs now, it's ridiculous." Equally crazy was how many times her name or the one of someone she knew appeared in the lyrics, but she chalked that up to some crazy island thing. There was no point in trying to make sense of it.

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Brushing her hair back, Ryan laughed, more breath than sound. "I still can't believe you never had them," he said. It was a little disconcerting, really, suggesting that, even if they'd been from the same time, it wouldn't have mattered. It wasn't important, though, here and now. "And they still know when your birthday is."

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"Well, I'd pin that one a little more on the jukebox than the Beatles," Lucy allowed, shrugging a little, not caring enough to overthink it just then. Things like that tended to drive her crazy, and it didn't seem worth all that when nothing would come of it. "But it is still weird. I guess there are worse things it could be playing, though."

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"Yeah." It was weird, the sort of superstitious sense that it was better not to talk about what exactly would be worse for fear the jukebox would start in on exactly that, and Ryan couldn't imagine he'd ever be entirely comfortable with the way things like that worked around here. "Well, the jukebox shouldn't be the only one celebrating. What do you want to do tonight? Anything?"

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"Oh, we don't need to do anything," Lucy said with an easy shrug, honestly not caring about any sort of celebration. She had enough just being with him, though she wasn't about to say something so sentimental just then. At the very least, it could wait. "Maybe bring some food back to our place for dinner, or go out? I'm fine with whatever."

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"It's your birthday, we should do something," Ryan said. His own birthday had been a different question, but for her, he wanted something a little more special. "But it's not up to me." They had more options now than when he'd first arrived, at least. He'd never object to just going home, but if they wanted to do something else, it was nice to know they could.

[with_diamonds]

"Then let's go out," Lucy replied with a decisive nod, smiling over at him. As much as she would've been fine with doing nothing at all, there was no harm in wasting what resources they had, especially when she'd all but passed it by the year before. "We can do an early dinner, then head home. It's not like it's too fancy or anything."

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"Only the best for you," Ryan said wryly, half-smiling as he reached for her hand. "Which is easy, since there's only one place." For drinks and a night out, there was the Willows Room, sure, the only part of the Catscratch Club that held any real appeal, but neither they nor the Hub carried much in the way of food. It was just as well, even if Lucy spent time enough at the Winchester already. He liked the place, though. It reminded him of the diner back home.

[with_diamonds]

"Saves us the trouble of having to choose a place," Lucy said wryly, laughing a little. She liked the place enough to have no problem spending more time than necessary there, even though they didn't really have any choice as it was. If they were going to have just the one restaurant, it ought to be as like the Winchester was, with a good atmosphere and run by good people. "It helps that it's nice."

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"And that they have fries." Any place with diner food and coffee was good enough in Ryan's book. There was no call for anything fancy. No matter how long he'd lived in Newport, he'd never felt entirely at ease in that world. He'd just gotten better at learning how to live in it. "You wanna go now or you want me to let you get back to your reading?"

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"No, no, I'm not really even paying attention," Lucy said quickly, gaze fixed on him as she shut the book she was holding. It was decent enough for her to bother skimming through, but she'd have rather gone with him any time. "Come on, let's go now. I can just bring this back with me, save it for later."

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"Alright then." Pushing to his feet, Ryan gave her hand a light tug, smiling. "Let's head out." It would have been nice, to be able to get her something real, something better, for her birthday, but he'd never been good at that kind of thing even before the island had limited the options. Still, he could at least try and make sure she had a good time.

[with_diamonds]

Keeping her hand in his, Lucy pulled herself to her feet, moving n close as she began heading towards the doorway. She liked this better, anyway; ridiculous as it might've sounded, she really only wanted to spend her birthday with him, not dealing with the Compound and the jukebox playing songs at her all day. "You know, it's nice," she said thoughtfully, not giving much thought to speaking at all. "I don't remember the last time I was this happy on my birthday."

[neededproof]

Ryan glanced over, giving a lopsided smile. "I know the feeling," he said. Much as he wished she didn't, it had been inescapable for him. Celebrating his birthday was something he hadn't done in years, and they'd all been pretty bad in the interim, up until this year. A lot had changed in the last couple years. Loosening his grip on her hand just so he could slip his arm around her waist instead, he pressed a quick kiss to the side of her head.

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"I love you," Lucy said suddenly, a small smile on her face as she looked over at him. It wasn't usually the sort of thing she said absently, but thinking about that, how much they'd both been through before this and how discontent she had been the year before, was enough to make her want to say something now. She usually wasn't one to put so much stock in a relationship, but it wasn't hard to tell that she wouldn't have been half as happy now if it weren't for him. "You know that?"