Give you something good to celebrate. [Gathering; Pre-dated to 6/5/15]

[oddthatway]

Tris ought to know well enough by now that I never go back on my word, once given. Especially when it comes to something as important as celebrating her 19th birthday. (And I have no doubt her and Four will find their own ways to celebrate later, but I try not to think about that. For my own sake.) She also still doesn't know that this celebration is about far more than her almost not being a teenager anymore. I'm putting my all into this because, back home, Tris doesn't get the chance to live this long. Back in Chicago, the Tris I've left behind is resting in a morgue.

I have the living room all decked out because of the rabbit. While Tris still isn't here, I'll admit: the damn thing's cute. And at least Tris had the sense to get a pet with Dauntless colors. It makes the whole pet thing seem far less Amity.

I've worked hard, tying ribbons of various colors - vibrant, spring colors like sky blue and lavender - and balloons around every available edge and corner. Behind the couch, I've put a banner that I've painted myself, which is why the writing looks so sloppy. Again, I've used the colors of the ribbons and the balloons, to write a simple message of 'Happy birthday, old lady!'

Not that Tris is old at all. Far from it. But I can't resist a bit of teasing, even for my best friend's birthday.

On the table rests a cake I bought at one of the local bakeries, in the shape of a bird, with some berries on top. It's the kind of quaint that I think Tris will appreciate. Next to it, my gifts: a slinky, shimmery light blue dress, because one can never have too many sexy dresses, and the other, a beautifully designed knife with crows etched onto the handle of the blade. Both were hardly cheap, but for Tris, I would be willing to spend far more.

So now I'm waiting, pacing through the living room, adjusting the various decorations while keeping an eye out for Tris.

I've invited others, of course. It wouldn't do to just be the two of us. Slowly, I'm beginning to understand how much Tris' friends here mean to her. So I've invited as many people as I've been able to get a hold of. Now all I can do is wait.

Comments

[femmejosephine]

"Not a fan of the nightlife?" Nikita teased, since she could have guessed that about Tris. "I'd think the Dauntless types would like a good party at a nightclub. Alcohol, loud music, people getting into fights. No?"

Adrenaline junkies sometimes liked partying more than others, and Dauntless sounded like it was mostly that.

[priordivergence]

"Only if the nightlife involves being facedown asleep in bed." Or, increasingly, doing lots of other things in bed. I like Dauntless in wide open spaces, not in dark, loud ones.

"Being Dauntless doesn't meant I go looking for a fight, you know."

[femmejosephine]

"Never said you did," Nikita chuckled. "Which isn't to say that fights don't find people sometimes. It happens. Not so often here, though. Kinda nice, yeah?"

As for being facedown asleep in bed, she was staying away from that comment and all the comments that could be related to it. It just seemed like the smartest plan.

[priordivergence]

I smile at her avoidance of my comment, feeling surprisingly cheeky for having made such a double entendre. Or having at least said what could be interpreted as one.

"It's nice not having to look over my shoulder all the time."

[femmejosephine]

"Yeah, it is," Nikita agreed, which totally contradicted her earlier statement about just being a waitress. She knew it, though, and she was alright with it, at least with Tris. Others, not so much.

"I'm even thinking I might get a pet. Couldn't really have one before."

[priordivergence]

"I've never had one before either." I wonder if it was Nikita's choice or her upbringing, the same as my own upbringing that had never allowed for us to indulge in companion animals.

"But now I have Elan. And really, if you have the space for it, you absolutely should."

[femmejosephine]

She was pretty sure she wouldn't get a rabbit. Maybe a cat. She'd always liked them. She'd even had one briefly, right after she moved into her Section-provided apartment. Michael had told her to get rid of it, said it was a distraction. It was. It had been meant to be.

"Got a whole flat to myself. Might even take over the one across the hall, since tall dark and tattooed over there is never in it."

Gentle teasing about Tris's love life might provoke some teasing of her own. That was alright.

[priordivergence]

"Tall, dark, and tattooed?" I echo, trying to make out if that's someone I know. Then I realize that the person she means is right in front of me and I smile, looking over to Tobias.

"You know me. Always trying to help out a friend."

[femmejosephine]

That smile was just goofy. Cute and funny, but goofy. She was glad Tris had Tall Dark and Tattooed.

"Always the giving type, you," she agreed, which was deliberately ironic considering Tris's background.