IT R UR BIRFDAY

[powerisyours]

[ the lab is clean, the table's set, the dogs are securely out of the way, and the candle on a small cake sitting on the counter's lit. all that's missing is the birthday girl, and this dude's watching the door like a hawk, drumming his fingers on the tabletop impatiently

because cake

and also birthday!!! ]

Comments

[ridestherider]

You know if you keep saying that kind of thing with no other context, one of these days, someone is going to completely misunderstand our whole relationship.

... not that they haven't already.

[powerisyours]

We understand what it is. That's all that's important.

[ridestherider]

Well, when I have counselors making awkward assumptions about you and Ting Yu at the same time ...

[powerisyours]

[ tilting his head curiously ]

Oh? Who said what?

[ridestherider]

Cindy seems to think Ting Yu and I are having a "love affair," for one thing.

[powerisyours]

Don't you have to already be in a relationship with someone else for that to be considered an affair?

[ridestherider]

I was more taken aback by the "love" part, really. Ting Yu and me? Please.

[powerisyours]

He doesn't really seem like the type to settle down.

Besides, you already agreed to marry me.

[ridestherider]

I think she's suspicious of you, too. She asked me if I was "conflicted" about the two of you.

[powerisyours]

Well, all things considered, you're--ah--fooling around with someone who for all intents and purposes looks exactly like me.

[ridestherider]

It's not like I did it on purpose.

[powerisyours]

[ reaching over and patting her head ]

Natsumi has her needs, too.

[ridestherider]

I was starting to think she was misinterpreting me on purpose.

[powerisyours]

It was merely an opportunity that presented itself.

[ridestherider]

To frustrate the hell out of me? Is she normally like that?

[powerisyours]

She is quite plucky. She's also quite smart.

[ridestherider]

She was considerably off the mark.

[powerisyours]

In some ways, perhaps.

[ridestherider]

"Some ways?"

[powerisyours]

I mean this in the nicest way possible, but would you have started your . . . thing with him if he didn't look like me?

[ridestherider]

My "thing" has nothing to do with the fact that he looks like you, except that it's why I spoke to him to begin with. That doesn't count.

[powerisyours]

I'm basing this on the assumption that a person would need to be physically attracted to someone in order to do those things.

[ridestherider]

You realize what you're implying would mess everything up, right?

[powerisyours]

I was only curious. Logically, it makes sense. I couldn't say, otherwise.

[ridestherider]

It wasn't anything I sought out, it just happened. Leave it at that.

[Getting up to clear cake plates.]