(Untitled)

[crazyspacegirl]

One good thing about Serenity's change from spaceship to manor house was the large room full of toys: dolls and toy soldiers, a child sized table and chairs with a large fancy tea set, marbles and tops and skipping ropes, a rocking horse, an elaborate doll house, and small clockwork train that circled the room

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[sortofaman]

When he'd heard about the invitation, it had taken a bit of hunting to find out exactly where Serenity--well, now, Serenity Manor--was located in London-the-now, but the Doctor had never been adverse to asking questions. Now, with Nate finally growing adjusted to wearing dresses, he figured they could manage a public outing.

The little boy had chafed a bit at the change of clothing, despite how the Doctor and Chase had tried to raise him to be open-minded about cultural norms and gender expectations. Eventually, he found that they made it easy to run about and dive into piles of snow, not to mention warmer than knee pants, and got over it.

Serenity was gorgeous, and the Doctor couldn't help but smile at the sight of it. He picked up Nate into his arms, the boy clutching the colourfully wrapped gift, and was ushered in, then upstairs, grinning even more at the warmth and brightly decorated space.

[crazyspacegirl]

"Ni hao, Nate!" Zoe was, as always, thrilled to see her friend. "Drink tea." she commanded, offering a tiny, empty, very fancy cup.

"Hello," River greeted both the Doctor and the little boy. "I'm glad you could come, but you don't have to drink tea unless you want to."

[sortofaman]

"Ni hao," said Nate quietly as he tugged at the Doctor's coat to make him be put down on the floor. After his father did so, he went over and sheepishly held out his present at Zoe. "Shen...um, shengri kuaile. I like tea if there's sugar, is sugar okay, Papa?" His pronunciation was a bit off, but he managed to deliver the greeting without too much effort, to get to what was clearly the important bit

"Yes, that's fine," said the Doctor. He smiled at River. "Hello, River, thank you for the invitation. It's really lovely in here, isn't it? Though quite a change, I'd imagine."

[crazyspacegirl]

Zoe took Nate's response as an invitation to let forth a stream of her own toddler Chinese that even River would have been hard pressed to translate. She handed Nate one of her soldiers in exchange for the brightly wrapped package and plopped herself down on the floor to open it.

"It's a very nice house, but I'd rather have our ship back. The real Serenity might be smaller and less fancy, but she suits us better than this."

[mademighty]

Mal can't pretend that he cares for the changes that the gorram island's wrought to his ship. Serenity is what she is and, as such, she's always had a pure and proper place in his heart and here she is, transformed. He hasn't had a proper night's sleep since all this started and he's grouchy as sin.

But, for Zoe, he's willing to try.

[crazyspacegirl]

River wasn't anything even resembling happy about the current state of Serenity, but she was finding it a little bit easier to deal with than the Captain was. She figured she just had a lot more experience with island weirdness in general, and she definitely wasn't going to let it ruin Zoe's birthday.

Zoe saw her father come in and was more than pleased to see him. She grabbed one of the toy soldiers, carried it across the room, and offered it to him. "Soldiers have cake now."

[mademighty]

Mal crouches down to be better on Zoe's level, reaching out to take the soldier and turning it over between his fingers. If River's right and things go back to right sooner rather than later, it wouldn't be so hard to make Zoe a set of these. Maybe he could even dress 'em in brown.

"Is that right, little bit?" he asks, reaching up to smooth her hair back from her forehead. "Enough for me too?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"Cake for Daddy, cake for Mama, cake for Zoe, cake for Simon 'go..." She'd seen a lot of cakes today, and though she was willing to try to eat them all herself, Zoe did like to share. She grabbed his hand and tugged him in the direction of the table. "Cake party."

She hadn't quite grasped the concept or point of a birthday yet, but she did know all about parties and cake.

[dumbassbastards]

It's an ordeal to get Josiah into his party best. Actually, it's an ordeal to get Josiah into anything lately. But Rollie's reasons are threefold. First of all, it's a kid's birthday party, so it's just polite. Second, it's probably really healthy for Josie to be around kids who are more or less his own age. And thirdly...well, he knows that there'll be a lot of other parents (and servants) around Serenity Manor that'll give him a bit of a break.

He doesn't even feel guilty about that last one, not really. Everyone needs a break sometimes.

"You get one sleeve and I'll get the other," he says to Karen as they attempt to take Josie's coat off, shortly after arrival.

[goingtodorking]

In her own party dress, Karen takes hold of Josiah's sleeve and helps to tug him out of his coat. He hasn't got any of his wooly has, with everything different, so his hair is kind of all out there and crazy. Karen gives him a critical look.

"He could be neater," she says, but even she knows that it's a losing battle. "It's a shame that Jack isn't here."

[dumbassbastards]

"We did our best," says Rollie. Josiah looks like a little boy, as far as he's concerned, which is all he needs to be. The setting might have changed, but the people they encounter haven't. "Do you need help with any of your things, or should we go seek out this party?"

[goingtodorking]

"I'm not a little child, Rollie," says Karen, primly, folding her fur-edged coat over her arm. "And this party is going to be so boring. There's going to be no-one> my age."

[_kinginthenorth]

One of Reynald's Very Best Friends is having a birthday party, and Reynald wouldn't miss it for anything, not even snowball fights with Toothless or an adventure with Uncle Edmund on a boat. He proudly presents a wrapped gift to the ghostly butler, who smiles and suggests he keep it with him for now, before showing him--and Papa, whom the butler seems to think might be someone important--to the nursery where Zoe and her family are.

Reynald's eyes go wide. "Look at all the toys!"

[crazyspacegirl]

Zoe was always excited to see Reynald. She grabbed the first toy at hand (a doll in a ruffled dress) and toddled across the room to get started on the sharing. "Hi!" she said, thrusting the doll into his arms. "Nice toys," she specified, having recently learned the difference. "Come play."

[_kinginthenorth]

A nice toy is a nice toy, whether it's a doll or a soldier, and Reynald breaks into a wide smile. "Nice toys!" he agrees, dashing after her with the gift in one hand and the doll in the other. "What are we playing?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"No biting," said Zoe, with great feeling. She had, since Halloween, developed extremely clear preferences in playthings. "Play birthday party." She wasn't entirely certain what that meant, but it was what her mother said they were doing today. "Eat cake."

[has_2ls]

It was only natural for Jack to bring William along to Zoe's birthday party. He'd have gone anyway, kid or no kid, because River was becoming one of the oldest friends he had on the island considering disappearances and all but with William there, Jack didn't feel so stupid about sitting down to play tea with a bunch of toddlers.

"I thought Miss Zoe might like an esteemed guest," Jack said, squeezing William's hand. "No need to be shy, buddy. You know everyone here, promise."

[crazyspacegirl]

"Hi! Hi!" Zoe had begun to embrace the idea of greeting her guests. She shoved a doll on Jack and a small empty tea cup on William, and grabbed William's arm to pull him toward the table. "Have party."

"I think you're right." River was enjoying watching Zoe being so sociable with the other children. "Zoe doesn't really understand shyness much," she observed.

[has_2ls]

"It's good, though, because it takes some of the pressure off William."

It was hard sometimes, having a kid that was shy when Jack was really anything but shy but he hoped bringing William around to the Children's Office and to parties like this would help with it.

"So, how are you enjoying our fair city, then?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"She'll make sure he has fun." River had been noticing Zoe's interactions with other kids a lot recently, and she seemed to be developing an interest in getting others to enjoy the things that she did. She did not, however, have much of an interest in being refused, so William probably didn't have much choice in the matter.

"I'd like it better if Serenity had been left alone, but it's definitely interesting."