Happy Birthday to You...

[stillplaying]

Who: The Everdeen sisters and whoever knows them (plus dates, if applicable)
What: Belated birthday party for Prim.
When: Starting Saturday evening (6/8), around 5 PM.
Where: House 43
Summary: Thanks to the spirit possessions, Katniss cancelled the original party she had planned. Time for Surprise Party #2!
Rating: PG/PG-13 if any fights break out?

She had gotten up early to make certain everything was perfect. Double checked that all the bedroom locks worked, moved all of the valuables out of the living area and into Sharpe's bedroom. And then she cleaned the house more thoroughly than she had in a long, long time.

Hours later, with Aang's help, everything seemed perfect. The inside of the house was decorated with crepe streamers. Though there was an emphasis on blue, she made certain to alternate with other colors: whites and greens and purples and reds. Balloons floated along the ceiling, interspersed among strings of twinkling lights. A huge banner reading "Happy Birthday Primrose!" hung across the space between living room and kitchen.

Food covered every available surface, bowls and plates and bowls of punch and other drinks resting on top of blue paper table cloths. Peppermints and chocolates and other sweets covered the dining room table, with a two-tiered cake in the center. It had been pushed against one of the walls to make space for dancing and talking. In the kitchen, various dinners - stews and roasted meats and an assortment of vegetables and starches - covered the counters. Snack type foods were scattered both inside and out, a mix of cheeses and crackers, vegetables and fruits.

Extra chairs surrounded a table in the backyard, which had been equally decorated. Balloons were tied to chairs and a mixture of streamers and lights hung over any tree branches that crossed into the yard. In one corner, a goat stood tied up to a poll with a pink bow around her neck. Space had been provided for a D.J. table if Teddy or Sabriel grew tired of playing.

Everything seemed perfect. She only hoped that Prim would love it, too.

Comments

[greenjacketed]

"Christ. Forget workin' for you, mate. I'll go back to being a gentleman of bloody leisure."

Not that he didn't work, here in Luceti. He simply picked his projects with care and consideration. He did what benefited the household.

[antivanleather]

"Be a gentleman of leisure outside of this kitchen. While you are here? You work. Or at least pretend to do so." He couldn't think of anything more for Sharpe to do off the top of his head, but it would come to him.

[greenjacketed]

"Bloody hell!"

But this time, it was said with a wider grin. The man had spirit, no one could deny it. "Busted back down to bleeding private in my own kitchen. You certain you're an assassin and not a drill sergeant?"

[antivanleather]

"Perhaps I am both in equal measure." Grin was met with grin and good humor returned in full. And he had it in that moment, what needed doing. "Onions. They need to be chopped."

[greenjacketed]

"They make my eyes water," he huffed.

[antivanleather]

"They make everyone's eyes water. It is that or dicing garlic. Choose wisely."

[greenjacketed]

Garlic. His nemesis. Bah.

"Onions it is, then." And he turned away to retrieve his knife, mildly miffed that he'd been reduced to a wielder of such a paltry blade. "But let it be said I only subject myself to this for the Everdeens."

[antivanleather]

"They are quite compelling young women, you are right in that." Else he'd be off hunting in the woods rather than preparing trays and platters and meals for those he did not know so well.

"It is terribly difficult to tell them something so simple as 'no'."

[greenjacketed]

"Difficult indeed. Why else do you think I'm in here with you instead of out there, risking that one might ask me to dance?"

[antivanleather]

"Careful, lest they find you all the same and demand it of you without demanding it at all. I am spared by dint of being the cook for the evening."

[greenjacketed]

"Cheeky bugger, ain't you?"

[antivanleather]

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Ser." Not at all demure, not at all a house elf. Grinning wide and indeed, quite cheeky.

[greenjacketed]

He would finish off his apple before fetching the onions -- core and all, for who is fool enough to waste even that bitter bit?

"Besides, any more assigned tasks and I'll feel able to tell the lasses to take you; I have the kitchen covered."

[antivanleather]

Normally he could argue that point, and argue it thoroughly using every bit of formal cookery language that he had in his possession. But as the fare was simply, painfully so, even this soldier could likely manage it.

Zevran visibly stopped mid cut, considered that and swore. "Brasca. That is cheating."

[greenjacketed]

"Of course it is. Only fools and priests are above cheating, and I'm none too certain about the priests."

[antivanleather]

"If it gains them a few more souls unto the Maker's caring hands? They cheat. Oh how they cheat. The Sister's too."

[greenjacketed]

Some languages, it seemed, were universal.

"Ever see a nun swing a live chicken like a club? Bloody terrifying."

[antivanleather]

"Only once. The rest were armed with mongoose. Mongeese? I do not know the proper plural."

[greenjacketed]

"...Hell if I know it, either."

[antivanleather]

"Though it was a dead chicken, now that I remember. Whatever were you doing that you saw a Sister and had her swinging a live one at you?"

[greenjacketed]

"I was -- ah -- freeing one of her charges, if you will. Why? What did you do?"

[antivanleather]

"Killed the a man that had been in hiding in their care. They were most upset about that."

[greenjacketed]

"...I might see how that'd piss'em off, aye."

[antivanleather]

"Just a little. I think the rest was more about the fact that I was half dressed at the time. That seems to happen to me quite a bit, through no fault of my own."

[greenjacketed]

"...I believe I will refrain from asking after the particulars."