[FIN] Just that time of year again

[LexThetaSigma]

That got a laugh out of Rory as he put the coffee on to brew; he would rather have fresh instead of whatever he had found in the pot, who knows how long it had been there. "Oh really? I guess it could be worse then," he turned and winked at her before going back to collect two mugs.

"Any milk or sugar in yours?" he asked as the coffee began to trickle into the pot. He put his hands in his pockets and fiddled for what he had hidden in there. He would wait until the coffee wan done and they were both at the table before pulling them out.

He sat the mugs and the fixings on the table and watched as she tinkered with the box, a soft smile forming on his lips. "I'm glad you like it."  

[Gwennythe]

"Um. No milk but a little bit of sugar please." Tambrey replied, grinning at his wink. "Definitely could be much worse; it is a good name." She insisted.

She finally stopped toying with the box when Rory brought the coffees and such to the table, but returned his smile when he commented about being glad.

"I do think I need to have words with a certain parent and find out what else she went and told y'... but I really am happy for this." She gestured, not only at the desserts from the box, but the table and Rory himself; being glad for the whole situation.
Chocolate and cherries, pumpkin and almond, were her favourites and she found herself still smirking at the fact he'd been let in on such as she moved to share them between them.  

[LexThetaSigma]

Rory sat down across from her, doing his best to make sure the cape stayed under him, and added a bit of sugar to one of the cups, stirring it in before passing it across to her. He chuckled again and nodded, "If you say so."

As she finally stopped fiddling with the box and moved it so they could share the treats, he smiled again and pulled one more surprise from his pocket.

"But wouldn't it be better to wait and find out?" He grinned at her as he put a single candle in the middle of each cupcake. "I'm glad you like it," he said once again as he lit the candles.

"Make a wish, birthday girl."  

[Gwennythe]

Another surprise! Tambrey blinked, tilting her head slightly to the right as she watched Rory pull out candles for the cakes. That was a very sweet touch- clearly, she noted, he'd been thinking this through...

'But wouldn't it be better to wait and find out?'

Which meant he'd been thinking about her. Oh good... Now she was starting to blush again...
"Well if it's goin' t'be stuff like this, I guess it might be..." She tentatively admitted; though, still, it made her slightly nervous to think about what else that woman could have told him about her.

'Make a wish, birthday girl.'

Ah, he'd lit the candles- and she was still blushing.
"Um." Right, a wish.
Tambrey made a face, absent-mindedly, as she thought about it (apparently quite seriously) for a little bit long, before leaning forward and carefully blowing at the candles.
A shy smile accompanied a shallow nod of satisfaction.  

[LexThetaSigma]

Rory smiled softly at her and waited for her to choose which of the two small cakes that she wanted. The blush on her cheeks after she noticed he had lit the candles and the shy smile after she blew out the candles made a very strange thought cross his mind. It wouldn't take much for him to lean across the table...He shook the thought from his mind. They were friends, after all, and work partners; what if he did do that and it got complicated? The way his thoughts and feelings had been drifting lately was already about to drive him insane, there was no need to make it worse. He fought the urge to leave her there so he could go find someone to talk to about the whole mess.

"Congratulations, you're now a year older than me," he joked and took a sip of his coffee. "So what did you wish for?"  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey pulled a face, though still half smirking. She was amused.
"Oh, Arceus... Don't tell me that..." She 'protested' with no seriousness.
"You're just... a year b'hind, 's all."

She drummed her fingers on the table for a moment, considering telling, perhaps, but seemed to 'remember', or at least decide to follow, the tradition that usually accompanied birthday wishes.

"I can't tell you that." The dark haired grunt lapsed to mock seriousness now. "It's like a contract with the candles; I tell anyone and they'll renege on our deal, y' see..." She was still blushing a little and, mentally, cringing slightly at the joke.

Instead of choosing either, then, Tambrey used a fork to cut both into crumbly halves, then moved one half from each to the other wrapping, getting a few crumbs over the table.
After the candles were removed, of course.
She pushed one mess toward him and kept the other, discarding the fork to eat the crumbly cake halves with her fingers.  

[LexThetaSigma]

Rory smirked once again at her slight 'protest'. "You'll always be a year ahead though."

When she told him her reasoning for not telling him what she had wished for, he had to bite his lip to keep from laughing and pouted instead. "Well maybe I made a deal with the candles that as long as you only told me what you wished for, it would definitely come true?"

He could barely keep the pout going as he pulled his portion of the crumbled up cakes closer to him and took a bite.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey waved a hand and made a 'shush-ing' noise at Rory, in, again, mock protest at the fact she'd always be 'a year ahead'.
"Nope." She didn't elaborate, still in the same, amused but blushing-nervousness frame of mind.

The reception of the joke, and that pout, brought first a grin and then a snerk of laughter out of her.
She shook her head though, trying her best to look serious as she 'fought her case'.
"No, no, because, y'see, that would break candle-wisher confidentiality and that would be a very serious... uh... breach in the... magical wish-granting, uh, object... profession?" She couldn't quite keep a straight face after all.  

[LexThetaSigma]

Her insistence that she wasn't older than him kept the grin firmly in place; it seems he had been doing a lot of that since he had come in the room and it didn't seem like he could stop.

He pouted again at her serious look, trying to play it for all it was worth. "Fine, fine," he sighed to be serious, "You got me there. We want whatever you wished for to come true, after all."  

[Gwennythe]

"Exactly." She nodded, still amused- his 'serious pout' wasn't so much playing for sympathy as just making her smile all the more.
"Definitely want that."

She took a bit of her crumbly cake to eat, smirking all the while, before washing it down with a sip of the coffee.

"Thanks." Tambrey found herself turning more serious and thanking Rory yet again. "This really, really has made this day for me."  

[LexThetaSigma]

Rory smiled at her as he ate another bit of his half. "I'm glad." he answered before taking a sip of his coffee.

As he set his cup back down, he heard the familiar beep of his Rocket'dex alarm going off. He took another quick bite and wiped his mouth. "I gotta go check on our little pet," he answered as he shut the alarm off, "and I should let you get back to your...decorating." he grinned as he looked at the Zubats and items that were around the room.

"Happy birthday."  

[Gwennythe]

"Oh!" The Ponyta clone growing in the labs- she wanted to check in on them today too; a lot of data and signs of what the pokémon would be would start to become available now. "I'll probably head down to have a look later too," Tambrey replied, excitedly thinking about their success once again; it was incredibly satisfying to think that, with outdated equipment and a basic experience of cloning technology before, the two of them had created a new Ponyta. Well. Almost anyway.
There was still a fair bit of waiting to go.

He was leaving though. She felt something flutter in her chest and she got up a little bit too quickly.
"Um. Yes. I'll finish decorating but," She was grateful and he'd said 'happy birthday' again- the cakes and spending time like this had been a wonderful gift but she was bordering on saying 'thank you' and inexcusable amount of times "um, this was incredibly nice and..."
She was about to say 'thank you' again but instead it seemed to turn into her finding herself leaning forward and standing on tip toes, lips pursed to aim a quick kiss toward Rory's cheek.
Even before it was done, she felt herself blushing.  

[LexThetaSigma]

"Hopefully it'll be ready to come out soon; we should be seeing what it looks like soon," When she leaned forward, he was curious as to what she was going to do. When he felt the warmth of her lips on his cheek, he felt the blood rush to his cheeks as a shy smile formed.

He gave her a small nod before standing up and walking off, the cape billowing behind him.