Room 315, Wednesday Early Evening

[peace_n_war]

"Hey, dad. It's Warren again. I'm starting to wonder if you even have room on your answering machine anymore, but hey, at least if you've run out by now you won't have to listen through three or four lifetimes of me phoning you like this someday, huh? I'm sixteen still, but not for long. Seventeen tomorrow, dad! I've still got that job at the cafe, and I'm still hanging out with that girl I mentioned last time. She's been trying to get me to go swimming with her. Weird, huh? Me. Swimming. I don't even like the beach, except that I can throw fire around. Other than that, seventeen doesn't seem like it's going to be much different than sixteen was. I'm, uh, still not a villain. Not really a hero either, don't worry. I think I want to call Mom sometime, too, but I can actually talk to her. She'll want to know all that stuff I've been telling you, dad. Asking about girls and school and if I've followed in your footsteps and become a criminal mastermind, and if I have then I'm grounded for life. Thanks loads, Mom, right? ... Seventeen tomorrow."

...

"I miss you dad."

Warren hung up his phone, sighed, and reached for a book. Seventeen, sixteen, whatever. Wasn't like any of it made any difference either way.

[Open post is open! I probably won't be about tomorrow for a job interview, so Warren gets to birthday whine today.]

Comments

[peace_n_war]

Warren was the spitting image of his father, actually. Except Warren had better hair than his dad had at this age.

"Hey, if you really wanted to wrap Chinese food, I'm sure you would have found a way." Warren smiled faintly. "And really, you don't have to worry about presents anyhow."

Not even tomorrow. Because he wasn't telling anyone for anything. Nope.

[heromaniac]

Momoko was happy to see even that faint smile and she grinned larger in return. "Well, that's true. About the wrapping, I mean. Of course I'm going to worry about the presents, you do that when you want the person to like what you give them!" Plus his eyes did sparkle when he was happy and she liked making him really smile.

[peace_n_war]

"I like the Abaranger," Warren noted, gesturing to where the action figure was standing in a place of honor on his shelf. "Getting the red one was a good call."

[heromaniac]

She looked and laughed, clapping her hands. "I'm glad you really did like it! I was going to offer to take it back if you didn't. My three-year old self was pretty sure that everyone would be happy with action figures!"

[peace_n_war]

"Looks like you had pretty good taste even at three," he smirked. "I guess I'm going to have to play with it sometime. It would be pretty sad of me to get such a cool toy and then just leave it to sit and collect dust."

[heromaniac]

"Then I need to buy you more in case the urge to play comes over you all of a sudden! Let's see, that's Chinese food, a book with inferior kanji, and cool toys. Christmas is gone... Valentines'... Right! Your birthday! When's your birthday? I have some shopping to do!"

[peace_n_war]

... Oh. Crap. There was no way to weasel out of this one, was there?

Nope. Warren couldn't see one.

"It's. Uh. Tomorrow."

Maybe if he mumbled it, she wouldn't hear and that would be fine!

[heromaniac]

She heard him, barely. But did she believe him?

"No, seriously? Really really seriously? Tomorrow?!"

[peace_n_war]

"Yeah," he clarified, sighing faintly. "It's tomorrow. So?"

It was just another day of the year. See? No big deal.

[heromaniac]

"So?! So?!" She threw up her arms and dropped her shoulders. "So, I don't have time to plan anything and there's not even a cake, although I could probably order one, but I don't know what kind you like and they may not be able to do one in time at such short notice. And I'm not too sure about the bakery in town, I mean they have good doughnuts and pastries but have you tried their cakes? Maybe I could ask my Food Appreciation teacher, but that's Tuesdayand I can't wait that long if it's tomorrow and I really should have asked you earlier so it's my fault and I don't even have a present for you!"

[peace_n_war]

"Uh, Momoko?" Warren grimaced, hoping that he hadn't managed to break the poor girl or something without intending to. "It's no big deal. Really. Don't worry about it. I'm not."

[heromaniac]

"But it's your birthday and you should have cake and presents on your birthday!" She was still fretting, just less audibly. She was going to have to spend time and think about this. "It won't be tomorrow, but I'll definitely get you a present okay?"

And maybe she could get the staff at the Fina to make a small cake for Sunday?

[peace_n_war]

They'd probably do it happily, just to tick Warren off!

"If you really want to, I guess. But don't do it just because you think you should be. If I cared, I would have actually told people, you know?"