fandomtownies | J,GoB, Thursday Afternoon [10/25].

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J,GoB, Thursday Afternoon [10/25].

Prompto had sort of avoided this place ever since coming here, because he knew he'd react to all the baked goods they had to offer exactly the way he was now, all but drooling all over their display cases. Everything looked pretty much amazing, which was going to make his choice all the more difficult, now that he finally stepped into the bakery. It was tempting to go for more than just one cupcake. It was his birthday, right? That's why he was there, for his annual birthday splurge, the centerpiece for his quiet little celebration that he'd held for himself every year since he turned six, old enough to go to the shop by himself and pick something out.

But he'd be good, and just get the one today, because he knew he'd regret anything more. He was going to pick the biggest one with the fanciest icing and decorations, though, and then go sit down with it, plop a single candle in the middle. He lit it up, smiled a little at the dancing flame. "Happy birthday, buddy," he said quietly, before smiling faintly, making his wish, and blowing out the candle.

He knew it was a little sad, sure, but it was tradition, and any melancholy feeling about the ritual disappeared as soon as he took the first bite because ohmygooooooood, he missed cupcakes. So. Damn. Much.

Too bad birthdays couldn't come around more often!

[[ I've been looking forward to Sad Birthday Cupcake all day! Open! ]]

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A cheesy E-card, because that's the kind of dork Kaidan is.

Happy birthday, Prompto! Hope you have a good one!

Included is a giftcard code to Popular_Online_Game_Store for $50.

Vette had been a Twi'lek on a mission, today. And that mission might have involved shaking down a few squirrels for information. And that information?

Where the heck was Prompto?

So she was looking maybe a little bit determined and a little bit triumphant as she stepped through the door of the J,GoB with a shopping bag tucked under one arm, squirrels scattering in her wake.

"You!"

And that would be Prompto with a mouthful of cupcake blinking up at an entrance like that and wondering if he'd forgotten about something important.

At least he swallowed that mouthful before agreeing, with a bit of uncertainty, "Me?"

And then he wondered how he was going to explain to Vette was he was doing just sitting there at the bakery, eating a cupcake all by his lonesome, but then he reminded himself that he didn't have to answer to anyone, it was none of her business! Even if he was pretty sure she'd be able to probably figure it out.

Great.

The email pinging on his phone to distract him for a moment was a nice surprise.

D'awww.

He had to take a second to shoot a quick response back:

Thanks, boss!

U didn't have to do that!

But I really appreciate it!!!!!!!!

"You!" Vette agreed, pointing one finger at him. "I promised I'd wait until Thursday! And now I need to beat you to within an inch of your life!"

She held up the bag from under her arm. It was... not a small bag.

"With this!"

Look, buddy, you tell a girl your birthday is coming, she's going to damn well remember it's your birthday.

Edited 2018-10-25 16:45 (UTC)

Oh, crap, that's right! Prompto had been so distracted by Birthday Cupcakes that he completely forgot about his Impending Death Sentence.

"After!" he insisted, holding up his arms over his head in defense. "You promised to wait until after! It's still my birthday, you can't kill me yet!"

The idea that she was merely presenting the weapon she'd chosen for his demise was far more likely than that she was presenting that bag to be giving it to him. That was clearly absurd.

"You had half a day to enjoy the rest of your life, buster, and Twi'lek justice comes swift!"

She wound up with that weapon for his demise in one arm, and then let it fly.

Hard.

"This is what's coming to guys like you, Prompto!"

And of course, that object flew true, right at his face. Not the the impact would be terribly hard, considering the item inside.

Somebody had noticed a certain game installed on the C.I.C. desk computer.

Oh, so someone had noticed pretty much the best game ever, and decided to take a cue from its unique idea of what constituted a weapon, obviously.

"Hey!" Once Prompto got a good whack with a bag that was much softer than he was bracing himself for, his protests were made between laughs. "Hey! Mercy, mercy! I still have so much to live for! Who's going to take care of my dinosaur roommate? I still have to get milkshakes with Nina! And...most important of all! I'm still owed juicy details!"

Vette grinned and deposited her butt into a seat across from him.

"Well, okay. I'll let you live," she decided. "On one condition."

She shoved the bag at him again, mischief in her eyes.

"You have to take good care of my most dangerous weapon, here. It's your birthday curse, I'm afraid."

"A terrible curse," Prompto sighed dramatically, slouching back in his chair with his hand...and then the bag (so squishy!)...against his chest. "But one I will bear nonetheless."

He gave another sigh, this one far more withering and pathetic, before grinning a little and sitting up, bag in his lap now as he went to look to see what all that squish was inside.

"Awwww, hey! It's the thing! From the thing!"

"The thing from the thing," Vette agreed, throwing her hands into the air in triumph. "Oh, I knew that game was yours! It didn't seem like it was quite Nina's speed."

... Well. Maybe a little.

"Happy birthday, Prompto. Have a big squishy... thingy."

She'd actually wandered to the mainland to buy that sucker on such short notice. There had been a lot of compliments on her costume, which she'd mostly just rolled her eyes over. One of these days, maybe she'd discover Amazon. And then all would be made easier in her life on Earth.

Blushing maybe a little at the fact that the super cute game about farming and fashion was considered more his speed than Nina's? Yeah, sure, okay.

Blushing maybe a lot because someone, not even just someone who was cute and a girl but just someone, had taken the time to get him a present that reflected something that they knew (or guessed) about him? Um, yeah, definitely.

But he was smiling past all the blushing, hugging the squishy thing close again, and just looking over the table at her with gratitude. "I think it's a cat?" he offered, laughing a little, then right back to the just mushy appreciation. "But....thanks, Vette. You...really didn't have to. But thanks."

There was no way she could possibly know how much it meant to him, but, considering that he figured it really shouldn't mean that much to him, he just tried not to think about that too much.

Awww, he was all pink! That was probably one of the best things Vette had found about humans. They kind of wore their emotions right there in the open, so long as you could perceive color.

And it was stinkin' adorable.

"Hey, it's your birthday," she pointed out. "And since you didn't seem to be throwing a party or anything, I figured I should do something. I mean, besides killing you. I have to wait until tomorrow to kill you, that's the rule."

And a wink. She probably wasn't going to actually kill him on Friday.

To be fair, some humans tended to wear them a bit more than others, and Prompto was definitely one of those humans.

"It's the rule ," he agreed emphatically, grinning at her now like he could accept that death much easier now that he had the thing from the thing. "And, of course, once you dish over those juicy deets. I trust you've had a chance to speak with She of the First Dibs on Hot Gos?"

"She of the First Dibs has gotten all of the Hot Gos," Vette confirmed, breaking into a grin. As if she hadn't been already, really now. "So, after you left, I kept on yelling, because... how dare he be such a prince, even when he's completely out of his mind he's just so... so Sidon, you know?"

Of course he knew. He'd beaten Vette to all the good Sidon kisses, the jerk.

"And he-" She leaned in close, eyes going wide. "Are you ready for the hot gos? Because I'm still trying to process that there is hot gos in the first place, here."

Prompto felt that there was at least one very considerable difference between normal Sidon and the very, very...cuddly out-of-his-mind Sidon, but he had a feeling Vette wouldn't have appreciated the distinction.

"That's a helluva thing to yell at a guy for, you know." He was going to point that one out, at least, grinning, folding his arms in front of him as he leaned in, too. "It's not like he can help being a prince. But, oh, I am ready. I was born ready. Lay it on me, homeslice."

"He kissed me," Vette said, wide-eyed, in the sort of whisper that suggested that she still didn't entirely believe it herself, and was maybe thinking that if she said it more quietly, people would be less likely to leap up and tell her that it wasn't possible or something. "And I said, maybe it was still some of that venom and he said no it wasn't and then there was this whole thing about my smile and it's so weird, Prompto."

She wasn't complaining! Sidon was welcome to kiss her as much as he wanted for the rest of her life!

But she was still processing how in the world even, and it had been days.

Well, at least she covered his question about if she was sure he wasn't just still all wonky from the gremlin bite. Because, from where Prompto was sitting, that guy was feeling awfully smoochy that day.

Buy he had to laugh, though, just a little, not unkindly, just confused, though clearly not for the same reasons. "Why is that weird, though? You've got a great smile."

"Sure I do," Vette said, smiling crookedly, her tone just a few notes shy of, 'you really don't have to humor me.' "That's sweet of you, Prompto."

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table in front of her, that little smile still playing on her lips.

"I asked what it meant, the kissing, and he asked me what I want it to mean," she added. And that, too, had a faint note of bewilderment to it. "I'm so out of my league."

Guys who displayed even a modicum of basic decency and respect apparently qualified for 'out of my league' status.

"Well..." Prompto met her crooked grin with one of his own, and his feet kicked a little underneath the table. Hey, if Vette could live vicariously through birthdays, he could do the same with obliviously budding romances between a coworker and his ex-fiance. "What do you want it to mean?"

There was a long pause while Vette considered that, and considered Prompto, and then, very carefully, said, "I don't know. I'm afraid to want it to mean anything."

She bit her lip for a second, and then added, "Can't be disappointed with no expectations, right?"

"Well, yeah," Prompto snorted a little, because, sure, she wasn't wrong or anything, but...

"But where's the fun in that?"

Granted, she was talking to a dude who spent three whole years changing his life just to impress a prince, so his perspective was a little skewed. He wasn't even getting any action out of it, either!

"It might not be fun," Vette allowed, "but at least it's safe?"

She looked up at the ceiling and blew out a breath.

"Which sounds so stupid," she complained. "Me, worrying about what's safe. I've never done this before. Does it show?"

"Nah," Prompto shrugged, smirking faintly as he hoped it didn't show that he had no idea about any of this stuff either. "Only 'cause I'm being nosy and digging into it. But, hey, the fact that you're worried about it means it means something, right?"

"It means something from my end, anyway," Vette decided. "I'm not sure what it would mean from Sidon's unless I were to figure out how to read minds, and... honestly, that's not a power I'd really want anyway."

"Yeaaaah," said Prompto, who was trying very hard not to think about what Vette would think about what went on his head most of the time, "that sounds like it could get real old real quick, unless you could turn it on and off or something. But.."

He paused for a moment, biting his lip, and then realized that hesitating was him falling into the trap of what he was thinking of offering.

"You can really wind up holding yourself back from some real amazing things by worrying too much about what other people think. I used to worry about that a lot. I still do, like, pretty much every second of the day," and here he had to put in a self-depreciating chuckle, turning a bit red again, "but then I have to remember that what I think is important, too. Just as important, maybe even more. It's definitely not easy, but I can say that I can't think of a single time when I managed to say 'screw what other people think,' and wound up regretting it.

"I mean," he added hastily, "I get that it's even harder when it's one very specifc person. Like....okay, so, you know my best friend back home's a prince, right? Not saying I'm an expert or anything," he so wasn't, "but Noct is always surprising me when I think I know what's going on in his head. I, like, never get it right. I wouldn't be surprised if it's kind of the same thing with Sidon."

He planned to stop there. He hadn't meant to start lecturing or whatever, but he surprised even himself by adding, "You'll probably never stop feeling like you're just not good enough, and he'll just look at you like you're crazy for even thinking that."

Vette just sat there in stunned silence for a few moments, staring at Prompto after... after that.

And then she was kind of lurching forward to wrap her arms around him. And, uh, the thing from the thing. But 'I kind of desperately need a hug right now' hugs didn't tend to worry too much about whether there was a large plush cat in the way, and he had said the gun show was always open, right?

"He doesn't know," she whispered. "Nobody here knows why it's so hard to just take his affection at face value, and I have to tell him, Prompto. I have to, eventually, and I don't know how to do it without making it into some stupid joke."

Totally always open. The gun show was definitely confused, but it was still absolutely open. Prompto didn't know what exactly it was that he said to have earned a hug, but he was definitely going to take it and return it, middling awkward details about physical stuff between them be damned.

It did kind of prove his point, though, he felt. If he hadn't said any of that, there wouldn't be a hug right now, so he had to feel pretty good about that as he gave her an extra squeeze for her words.

"You'll figure it out," he assured her. "And I get it, I really, really do. Stupid perfect princes and their stupid big accepting hearts, right?"

He laughed, but he kind of just wanted to go home and throttle Noctis. And then hug him.

"Stupid perfect princes," Vette agreed, clinging tight for a moment before leaning back again. "He won't care, right? Doesn't matter what it is, just say yes, okay?"

She just needed to hear it, even if there was a chance it was a lie.

"'Yes, okay,'" Prompto repeated dutifully, grinning at her her now, unable to help it. "He won't care."

And if it wound up anything like it was with him and Noct, then she'll probably be astounded by how little he cared, in ways that sometimes made her a little angry and made her wish he cared at least a little, because he should care about stuff like that!...But mentioning it definitely didn't seem helpful, like, at all.

"It'll be fine."

She nodded a little, and then smiled a little, and then blew out an anxious little breath.

"Okay. Okay, it'll be fine."

Maybe if she heard enough people say it, she'd believe it enough to not panic at the thought of giving Sidon a few slightly more personal Twi'lek facts.

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J,GoB, Thursday Afternoon [10/25].

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