Room 330, Saturday Morning

[genesishero]

"... Nope."

Seriously, there were some upsides to being a shapeshifter around this place. And those upsides were things like, 'when you wake up as a girl on the morning of your seventeenth birthday, you don't have to keep being a girl.'

And so, that was Evan's birthday present to himself, shifting his body back to male, thank you very much, and then rolling over and reaching for a book. There were a lot of things he just didn't want to think about today, his birthday actually being one of them, and so he was going to quite happily lose himself away inside the pages of a book he'd picked up about two orphaned girls, one who was born to be evil, and the other who was born to be good, both with super powers.

Sometimes, his taste in escapism didn't stray all that far from what he already knew, no. Seventeenth-if-you-don't-think-about-it-too-hard birthday, consider yourself temporarily forgotten.


[OOC: Oh god he's growing up and the comic art is actually reflecting that. I am so confused. Open for visitors, if anyone wants!]

Comments

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Don't remind me of that when it's the girls time again," Sholeh said, frowning at him. "I won't be as appreciative of your abilities then."

Because, you know, they were stuck as boys, Mr. Fancypants Shapeshifter.

[genesishero]

"Oh! Um... sorry." Evan gave her a sheepish little smile. "If it's any consolation at all, my body keeps wanting to slide back to that shape. I have to concentrate to hold this one. I mean... if this were to stick, I could probably get better at holding it unconsciously, but I'll probably turn back when I go to sleep tonight."

Yaaay.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"And just fix it again tomorrow," Sholeh said, compounding that frown by sticking her tongue out at him.

Aww yeah, she meant serious business now. The tongue was out.

[genesishero]

Oh yeah. Evan so considered his lesson learned, here.

"Well... do you want me to be a girl today?" Evan didn't look terribly thrilled at the idea, but if it would make her feel better...

On his birthday!

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Oh! No! Of course not," Sholeh assured him. "Especially not on your birthday. I'm just saying when we're boys, you're going to have to be extra-nice and caring, to make up for you not having to go through it, too!"

[genesishero]

"Being a boy is totally my birthday present to myself," Evan laughed, shaking his head a little. "Next time you're all boys, maybe I'll turn into a girl, just so that you don't have to go through it alone. Would that help?"

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Maybe," Sholeh said, relenting and giving him a smile. "We'll let you know when we're stuck as boys again. It's possible the best thing you could do is drop off chocolate and run away quickly."

[genesishero]

"... Chocolate sounded like a really good idea this morning," Evan noted, ducking his head a little. "And I don't just randomly think about that kind of thing. 'Hey, today I am going to eat all the chocolate.' I mean. I won't. But I feel as though I could if I tried hard enough."

Today was such a chocolate day.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Then you'll probably appreciate Zhahar's present to you," Sholeh said, nodding towards the largest of the wrapped gifts. "You'll probably have to return the tupperware to the common room sometime, but the contents are yours."

[genesishero]

Evan gave Sholeh a little smile, and then reached to pick up the gift that she'd indicated.

"You're giving away the surprise," he laughed, not actually sounding upset about that fact as he unwrapped the gift. "Don't you know you--oooh."

Cupcakes!

... Cookie dough!

"Oh, wow."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Bet you didn't actually see that coming," Sholeh said, all smugness. "And I have a candle, if you want to put one in a cupcake and blow it out."

[genesishero]

"A candle for the cookie cupcake?" Evan couldn't help but look excited at the prospect. In some regards, he was still a little kid, after all. "That would be great! Thank you! And thank you to Zhahar, too. These look fantastic."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Sholeh pulled out a tiny birthday candle and stuck it into a cupcake for Evan. And then realized that she didn't have anything to light it with. "I don't supposed you have matches?"

...She was the worst at this.

[genesishero]

"You know, I actually do?"

For emergencies! You never knew when you needed a match!

... Or just to kind of sit and contemplate a little bit of fire at your fingertips. He did that sometimes, too.

He smiled and reached for his nightstand drawer, pulling one out and striking it, and then holding it against the candle.

"It does still count if I light it myself, right?"

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Sholeh gave this all due consideration. "It does," she decided. "But I have to sing to you now. It's the only way."

[genesishero]

"It's been a long time since I've been properly serenaded for my birthday," Evan replied, smiling. "At least a whole year. So, of course you have to sing."

He shook the match until the flame went out, and flicked it into his wastepaper basket.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dearest Evaaaaan, happy birthday to you!" Sholeh obliged. She didn't have Zee's voice, but thankfully she didn't have Zhari's either, just a perfectly nice mid-range soprano that could more than handle a simple rendition of happy birthday.

"And many more! Now blow out your candle and make a wish."

[genesishero]

"I don't even know what to wish for," Evan laughed, but he still took a moment to think about what he might wish for, and then he blew the little candle out.

Maybe every year he'd make a habit of this. Of wishing that next year, he'd get to do this with Sholeh again.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

That was a wish they both new couldn't come true. But this year it could and hopefully that was enough.

"Did you wish for something good?" Sholeh asked, then quickly laid a finger over his lips. "Remember, you can't tell! If you tell, it won't come true!"

[genesishero]

What was the point to wishes, if you couldn't ask for the impossible?

Evan smiled and nodded faintly, pursing his lips to kiss her finger while it was still there. It was a good wish, and that's all she needed to know.

"Mmmmhm." See? Good wish. "S'the best one."

Well, it was.

"Help yourself to one, too?"

A cupcake. Not a wish. She'd had a birthday of her own to make one of those on.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't worry, Evan. Sholeh was more than willing to leave his wishes alone in favor of helping herself to a cupcake.

"I wanted to try one of these since Zhahar made them," she confessed, licking errant frosting off her fingers. "But she said no, they were all for you."

Talk about a friendship! She hadn't even shared with her sisters.

"Zee says you have to open her gift next."

[genesishero]

"I'll set aside one for Zhari and Zee, too," Evan decided, licking his own fingers off before reaching for his next gift. "These cupcakes are too good not to share."

COOKIECUPCAKES. SERIOUSLY.

The next package, when he opened it, left Evan a little breathless.

"Oh..." He pulled one of the gloves out of the wrapping, turning it over in his hands while his heart pounded in his ears. It had been a long while since he'd actually held one of these. Hell, for all he knew, this was the first time he'd ever really held one. "Oh, this is..."

He slipped it onto his hand.

"These are great, Zee. Thank you."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

=Yeah, well, you can tell him he's welcome,= Zee muttered. =I mean, someone needed to buy him them and it wasn't like you were gonna do it.=

"Zee said that you're welcome," Sholeh reported. "And said that if you ever wanted to, you could find her and play catch."

=Pssht, I did not.=

::You were thinking it. I translated.::

=Yeah, well, point out he'll have to tear himself away from your freckles to play catch sometime.=

[genesishero]

They were amazing freckles, Zee. You were just jealous.

"I think I'm going to have to," Evan agreed, nodding a little. "It's been ages since I actually have. Way too long."

Uncle Cluster would throw a ball and tell him stories. He'd learned so much with a mitt on one hand and a ball in the other, all in his head.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Not if said freckles involved people getting all romantic and mushy and stupid while still only kissing, she wasn't.

"Are you ready to open my present?" Sholeh asked shyly. "You're kinda hard to buy for, did you know that?"

Sholeh's gift was tall and rather heavy. As if, say, someone had gotten leather bound copies of The Chrysalids, Day of the Triffids, and The Midwich Cuckoos and had wrapped them all in one.

[genesishero]

"I try not to be," Evan replied, exhaling in a short laugh. "I mean, all you really need to do is-- oh."

She'd hit the jackpot, apparently.

"Oh wow. Wyndham. This is..." Deep breath. And then he was pulling her into a hug. "This is great, Sholeh. This is perfect."

She knew her boyfriend well.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Sure, she could always buy him books, but the trick was buying him the right books. Fortunately, she'd managed to find out his favorite book (by sneakily asking him what his favorite book was during a conversation about books, bwaha) and then she'd done some hunting to find a nice version of it.

Finding the set had been a fortuitous bonus because the old man selling had been thrilled to hear that she was buying them for her boyfriend's seventeenth birthday and that books were 'their thing.'

Judging from his hug, she'd done well.

"I'm glad," she said softly. "Happy birthday, Evan." Her bracelet jangled softly in his ear.