voidseeing | Appointments Post

[She laughs lightly as she finishes lighting the candles-- 20 of them. It takes a while, but she finishes it and stands back.]

Nineteen and one for good luck. [Elizabeth turns around and steps to the side so Gai can stand in front of the cake. She takes his hand, smiles, and sings quietly.]

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday... ...my dearest. [She squeezes his hand and lays her head on his shoulder to finish.] Happy Birthday to you.

And many, many more.

[Elizabeth has a beautiful voice, there's no denying that. It makes even 'Happy Birthday' into something lovely and melodic, and for a moment Gai is lost in just listening to her sing and the feeling of her holding his hand. Maybe birthdays aren't so bad after all if they're going to be like this.]

Many more for us to celebrate together.

[He gives her a squeeze and kisses her hair. For the first time, there's actually the certainty that he'll live to see another birthday, and he finds himself happy with that thought.]

Yes, many more. [She looks up and puts a short peck on Gai's lips.]

Come on, make a wish and blow them out! Before we have a wax cake to eat. [Elizabeth grins and looks back at the cake. It does look very pretty, lit with so many candles.]

I'm not sure what I have left to wish for when I already have everything I could ever want.

[Sappy, perhaps, but true as far as he's concerned. Well, almost everything, but there's no rush to have a family. He'd like to have Elizabeth all to himself for at least a few years first.]

Then wish for something more immediate. [She smiles, maybe a little suggestively, up at him and then back at the cake.] Something I can make happen.

[Oho. His own smile takes on a more mischievous bent, and there's a decided sparkle to his eye now.]

Now that I think I can do. I've got a few ideas for some immediate gratification...

I'm sure you do. You always have 'a few ideas', don't you? [She grins back and nods to the cake.] I think you're only allowed one wish per cake, though.

Does it really count as a wish if it's something you want too?

[If he can get off on a technicality, then hell yes he's going to go for it, partly because he just loves bantering with her like this. It's relaxing and intimate, and he loves that she teases him right back and keeps up with everything he dishes out. It's part of what made him fall in love with her in the first place.

Of course it does. You can wish for a lot of things that I might want too-- [Elizabeth's own mischievous grin comes out and she shoulders him lightly.] That doesn't mean I'll give it to you right away, though. Even if it is your birthday.

That's exactly the way I like it. Having to work for it just makes it all that much better when you finally get it. Besides, there's nothing as exciting as a good challenge.

[But the candles are starting to melt, so he'll hold that thought there while he leans over to blow them out now.]

[When Gai extinguishes them all in one go, Elizabeth is hardly surprised but very delighted. It's exciting for her, too-- celebrating Gai's birthday for the first time.]

I always knew you had good lungs. [She laughs and starts pulling the candles out of the cake.] Dessert first, then? Or are you going to tell me what your wish was?

I'd rather leave you to try and guess while we eat. Who knows, maybe your imagination can come up with a few things I hadn't even thought of.

[Things they would both benefit from, no doubt. Right now, though, that cake looks absolutely delicious, and Gai can't wait to try it, especially since Elizabeth made it herself.]

So cruel! Didn't I just make you a cake? [She laughs and goes to Gai's kitchen to get some plates and utensils. And glasses for the champagne.]

But I might have gotten you something that could help with that. It's in my bag.

[It's a book-shaped parcel wrapped in brown paper and red ribbon. And inside is the gift that will probably keep on giving...]

[Well well, Happy Birthday to him indeed. Already he's envisioning a private poetry reading a little later on-- perhaps they can take turns...]

You know me too well by now. A gift that both of us can use? Now that's my idea of a birthday present.

[Because, to him, any sort of gift isn't nearly as interesting if it isn't something he can share with her somehow. Part of his enjoyment comes from Elizabeth being happy too, and while it's still something he's getting used to, it isn't something he would want to change under any circumstances.]

[Elizabeth giggles as she comes back with plates, forks, and a knife.] I know it looks a little selfish, but I was reading through a couple of them by myself, and...

[She sighs, heavy and wistful.] It was a very nice afternoon to myself.

[Gai's eyebrows lift, though it's with curiosity and amusement rather than skepticism. This birthday present just got that much better with the addition of some very nice mental images there.]

You can hardly accuse me of being cruel when you say something like that without sharing any of the details.

[Elizabeth laughs as she cuts Gai a piece of the cake.] There aren't any details to share! Sometimes I just enjoy romantic thoughts, you know. Like... hm...

[She tries to get the words back into order as she slides the cake onto the plate and picks up a fork.]

Oh! A gentle kiss upon titian satin shoulders, you to stir ever so slightly…eyes flutter, cascading from dream to dream.

[She smiles and holds out a strawberry on the end of a fork for Gai to eat.] Sometimes I feel like I'm reading about us falling in love, even if they're poems written for someone else entirely.

[Gai happily obliges by eating that strawberry... but he can't behave himself enough to keep from licking his lips after doing so. It's only fair if they're going to be talking about love poetry, innocent and not.]

Too bad I don't actually look that elegant while I'm sleeping. That's how I know they definitely weren't written about me.

But you, on the other hand...

How do you know you don't look elegant when you're sleeping, hm? [Elizabeth tries to stifle a grin by biting her lip as she watches Gai lick his lips. Oh this man is just too much sometimes...]

I think you look beautiful. Hair spread out over my pillow, your usual taut angles smooth and relaxed-- [She holds out a bit of cake this time.] The sun comes through my window and you're just... golden.

Until I wake up, and then I'm making terrible jokes and getting my hair in the shower drain. When you put it that way, maybe sleep is the only time where I really do look elegant.

[He is definitely too much sometimes and he knows it. Still, the fact that he's able to joke around like this at all is a sign of just how far he's come.]

It would at least explain why you've never told me to cut my hair even when it gets everywhere.

[Laughing, he accepts that bite of cake.]

Oh I've never told you to cut your hair because it does get everywhere...

[Elizabeth puts the tines of the fork between her teeth, coyly, then gets another bite of cake for him.]

If you were elegant every moment of every day, I wouldn't feel right chasing after you so intently.

So I need to start snoring and drooling and tripping over things more often, got it. Then I'll really be desirable.

[Again he takes the bite of cake, though this time he's not quite as precise and a little bit of the frosting ends up on the corner of his mouth.

Which totally and completely wasn't on purpose, not in the slightest.]

Oh don't give me that, you know what I mean. [She falls right for Gai's trap, and reaches to get the bit of cream with her finger.] I love a roguish type.

[And no sooner does she do so than Gai's lips are around said finger, tongue dragging leisurely over the length of it.

To be fair, he did warn her that she couldn't trust parts of her body around his mouth.]

[Yeah, she walked right into that one. And as Gai opens his mouth, Elizabeth realizes and just lets it happen. She really didn't intend for things to get this heated this quickly--she'd only brought him a cake and a suggestive book. But, well, here they are. And Elizabeth doesn't think she can stop anyway.]

And when my finger slides gently underneath the silk strap on your shoulder, and you drop your inhibitions to the floor like the useless things they are, we will turn on the lights this last time, make love like a supernova.

And every living creature in the universe will know your name.

[Well, the line was technically 'my name', but Elizabeth knows exactly how they are.]

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