Birds of Feather

Chapter 27: Birthday Day

Monday to Tuesday, Wednesday moving into Thursday, the week went by easily. Breakfast together in the morning, lunch when you could together, and dinner at night. Having someone else around made your routine more routine, and less routine at the same time.

It's hard to skip meals when someone else is looking out for you, it's easier to wake up to a house that isn't empty. Not that you felt like you had been struggling before, but there was just something motivating about having Marco around.

He went to work at the animal Hospital on Saturday, and you almost asked if you could tag along. Even if Saturdays were generally laid back, you didn't want to intrude in a space where you had no idea how to help. Maybe one day you'd swing by during an easy Saturday and bring coffee for everyone. Or some weekday when Ivankov made you take a day off work whether you wanted to or not.

In the quiet moments of being together you had comfortable conversations. You learned more about his brothers, and through that more about him. You spoke of favorite foods and moments, of shows or books you enjoyed. You swapped stories of work, and all the little mundane moments that made life quietly interesting.

Your grocery list became less a reflection of yourself, and more a reflection of yourselves. You were both so easy going at the end of the day that the changes were gentle, subtle, and welcome.

One thing that had become more difficult, however, was trying to plan anything without letting on that you were planning things. It wasn't like telling Marco you were going to surprise him for his birthday would ruin the surprise, but you wanted to be able to keep as much quiet as possible.

You did inform him that he would need to be absolutely sure that he was done with work on time. It was bad enough he was working on his birthday, but working over was wholly unacceptable as far as you were concerned.

Especially when you had plans.

It was the first day since the two of you had moved in together that you went into work in separate cars. You wanted to get home early and get some stuff set up, and had already worked out working half a day in order to make that happen. Marco had a full day, but had promised to neither leave early nor work over, giving you plenty of time to do whatever you needed to.

He even promised to send a text before he left the clinic.

Nearly four hours was plenty of time, but even so you had to constantly slow yourself down as you went about setting things up for his surprise. You couldn't get much done before hand, but you were able to swing by the local adult store to grab a couple things before heading home.

A little nervous cleaning, a little food prep so dinner would be easier to put together, and a quick shower, and you got yourself ready.

Presenting yourself as the gift for his birthday was a little over the top, but honestly you weren't sure what to even get him. If he collected anything, or had a specific kind of book he liked, or anything along those lines you weren't sure. You knew some of his interests, but maybe because he was effectively the eldest brother, most of his conversation slid into talking about his siblings.

You probably could've gifted him gloves, except that had a specific double meaning between you both already. A sweater, maybe could've been a safe choice, but when he'd moved some of his clothes into your house he'd admitted he already had what felt like too many and needed to consider donating some.

You could've made a run to the bookstore, and hoped that Gram was working, but even then it was hard to say if you would've gotten anything useful out of her in a short conversation. Plus there was something that Marco had said, about still getting to know one another.