It was a perfect early autumn day, crisp and cool without needing any external layers, but Things had been weird. Ivar was being evasive, dismissing any questions she had and attempting to distract her by guiding her to somewhere else, like a stroll around the manor gardens, or to help him with chair maintenance.
Not to mention any time she caught a glimpse of her twin, he ran in the opposite direction. So it wasn’t hard to figure out that her boyfriend and brother had something up their sleeves, and while she normally hated surprises- she’d humor them because she knew they loved her and that she could trust them.
So she patiently waited; last time it had been Carter surprising her by dressing Hampton up like Winston Churchill, so it couldn’t be all bad. So when Ivar asked her to close her eyes and follow him, she obediently complied, prepared for whatever they were
What she was not prepared for was the soft chorus of ‘happy birthday’ the greeted her as Ivar led her through the doorway to their apartment. She was shocked to see not only her brother, but many of the other agents, even those who tried keeping to themselves or were supposed to be ‘across the pond’ visiting their respective lovers employed by Kingsman.
“What are you waiting for? Blow out your candles.” Carter whined excitedly, trying so hard not to drop the biggest and the most endearingly ugly clearly homemade cake she ever saw. She was touched but...
“...Our birthday is in July.” He rolled his eyes and put down the cake to grab his twin by the shoulders.
“Yeah-duh! But this year you... missed ours. And I’ve been planning to do this ever since I found out what happened, but I needed to make sure you were ok first.” Parker couldn’t help the smile, or small tear, that escaped at the thoughtfulness Carter continually surprised her with.
“Thank you, i love you doofus.”
“Gonna blow ou’ y’r candles then?” Ivar asked beside her, huge grin lit up by the soft glow of the candles.
“Only if Carter does it too. Remember it’s ‘our’ birthday.” And they did, to the cheers and clapping of their friends and family.
The night continued about as perfectly, filled with music and dancing, and a veritable feast of unhealthy food. Parker had even cried when she was presented with a few birthday gifts.
She stood in the corner, happily observing the revelry and eating her cake when Aly approached her to join in the comfortable silence.
“Y’know I’m really surprised at how good this cake is.” She started. “He’s usually so terrible at cooking, baking especially, but I can tell he made this himself.”
“Not entirely.” Smiled Aly as she nodded over to where Carter was- dancing like a goon to the delight of a small crowd that gathered around him. Rae was jokingly tossing ones at him, and Caroline was pulled into a clumsy swing dance as she howled with laughter.
“When he came into the med bay with the situation, Che was immediately moved to tears and insisted she helped with any baking.”
At that, something snapped within Parker and she stood on a chair, tapping her (plastic) cup to get everyone’s attention.
“Hey! Alright so,” She started clumsily, the mixture of cake and booze making her feel fuzzy.
“I know tonight is supposed to be about the birthday I missed, and I can’t thank everyone enough for coming. Like it seriously means so much to me you guys.” She stopped herself from getting too misty, forcing herself to get back to the point she wanted to make.
“So! Tonight, instead of it being about what I may or may not have missed- I want to make it about us. About how no matter what, we show up. We’re there. We make sure that none of us is ever alone. Or forgotten. So, in honor of that, tonight is about us.”
She raised her glass in toasting, and was rewarded with every single glass being raised in agreement (Tina raising both hers and Han’s cup for him), and a few crying faces.
They drank in celebration, and the night continued on with newly charged merriment, only ending the next morning when the sun finally crashed the party. All in all, in was in the top ten of the manor’s house parties in recent decades.
