RP: Birthday Manipulations Who: Daani & Dante What: For Daani's birthday, Dante decides giving her a gift in person is a good idea. When: 12 May 2028 Where: Daani's desk, the Ministry Warnings: Creepy stalker things Completion Status: Complete
When he'd first intercepted the notes a couple weeks ago, Dante had been quite annoyed. Where did Daani get off being annoyed or anxious about his gifts? He'd taken great care to pick that necklace out, and he knew it would look just lovely on her! Perhaps it was because she didn't realize it was from him. Yes, that must be it. She was just anxious that it could have come from someone other than him. Which meant, he supposed, that it was time he gave her a gift from him, rather than from a secret admirer. And with her birthday coming up, he knew just what to do.
It was mid-morning on her birthday, which he'd ensured he knew officially so it wouldn't seem odd that he was gifting her something, and he made his way to her desk holding a bright, cheerful bouquet in one hand and a small box of chocolates in the other. She wasn't at her desk when he arrived, and he sighed, the only outward sign of his annoyance. It wasn't going to earn him any points with her if she wasn't even here to receive the damn gift!
Setting the flowers and chocolates down, he plucked a piece of paper from a pad and started writing a note for her. Before he finished, however, she walked up, and he turned to her with a bashful expression. "Oh, hello Daani. Happy birthday! These are for you," he said, motioning toward the flowers and chocolates. "You weren't here, so I was just writing you a note," he explained, flashing the scrap of paper toward her, writing-side out. In what had become something of a yearly tradition since she started in the International Confederation of Wizards translation department Daani had just spent ten minutes staring down her boss, who had complained about her colourful birthday outfit. It was the one day of the year where she point blank refused to try and comply with his strange notions about the appropriate colours for translators to wear. She had won again and somewhat suspected that at this point he was playing along for form. On the way back she had paused near the door to thank her friend, Eugenelle, who mostly translated Korean but was also their Canadian French specialist, to thank her for the card and new tea infuser she’d left on Daani’s desk earlier.
She was smiling brightly still when she approached her desk. “Dante, hi,” she said cheerily. “Thank you,” she said, touched at his thoughtfulness. She pressed a hand to her chest, not being overly inclined towards hugs outside of close friends and family. “Absolutely not necessary, but I do love a bright colour and flowers,” she said, feeling her cheeks heat a little. There was a touch of a warning bell in the back of her head, but she ignored it since he had been open about the couple of gifts he had given her back when he had been starting out working with the translation office. Her smile was even more beautiful than the sari she wore, and he was utterly distracted by both for a moment. He couldn't wait until he could take her home and carefully peel away the draped layers. All in good time.
"Perhaps not necessary," he conceded with a bashful nod of his head, a deliberate and calculated gesture though he had practice in not letting it look so. "But I wanted to do something nice for you. New as this friendly acquaintance might be, it's been a joy to get to know you better, and shouldn't everyone get something to make them smile on their birthday?" And he did love knowing she was smiling because of him. He just hoped she realized how right that was; it would make this whole thing so much easier. The flattery was somewhat gratifying, but she didn’t want to encourage him to push much further. On the other hand it was her birthday and she liked the words he was saying. But there was a voice in the back of her head that sounded somewhat like Riz reminding her to be cautious, and she didn’t want to ignore that.
“I’ll have to ask my friend to tend to the flowers when I see her, unfortunately I have something of a black thumb with all plants and flowers,” she admitted. “They absolutely look beautiful though,” she said, pleased. “It’s very much appreciated. If no other time feeling a little spoiled on your birthday is always fun, don’t you think?” His apparent mission to make her smile had been pretty easy to achieve.
She glanced at her secured desk. “My apologies, but I need to get back to work if I want to get away on time. You don’t want to cause me to do overtime on my birthday do you?” she asked. Plus some of her work today probably didn’t include him in the security clearance required to see it. "Oh good, it would be unfair for you to be excellent at everything, after all," Dante joked cheekily, grinning at her. He didn't really know what women normally did with flowers they received, but it was customary to give them anyway, wasn't it? And she seemed to appreciate them, which was fortunate for her, as he'd have been quite cross with her if she hadn't. "I do think, though this is hardly spoiling! Just a friendly gesture," he pointed out. Spoiling her would be his other gift, though she wouldn't know it was from him.
A muscle ticked in his cheek when she dismissed him, the only outward sign of his irritation. "Of course! My apologies. Happy birthday, then," he said with a warm nod before taking a step back and turning to walk away.
After Daani's next break away from her desk, she will return to find a small gift wrapped in vibrant pink and orange paper and a card on her desk. After her lunch break, where she took herself out to a tiny family-run restaurant across the city she had found by accident a few years ago for several treats and came back via one of the good Indian sweet shops, Daani came back with the sunniest of smiles on her face and a little box of sweets for later in the day. She wasn’t really paying attention as she sat down because she was trying to balance the sweets and the mug of tea she’d made on the way back to her desk. But out of the corner of her eye she spotted the brightly wrapped gift and her stomach plummeted.
Balancing her tea carefully she set it in its usual place and tried to covertly look around for anyone watching her. She didn’t want to open it, but she had opened all of the other gifts she had received today so there was no reason not to. Carefully she opened the gift, touching the paper, which matched alarmingly well some of the accents on her sari, as little as possible. She tried to keep a light expression on her face, but she had a feeling she was slipping back into a professional mask. At least she could keep that up through almost anything. She slid out what was clearly some kind of jewellery pouch out of the paper and tried to stealthily take a breath before looking inside.
The sheen of the gold as it became visible made her eyes widen and she opened the container wide enough to see what they were, knowing in her gut that everything about the bangles looked ‘right’ as far as traditional jewellery went and that she was seriously out of her depth. It came over her in an instant. She wanted to be as far away from those as she could be, but also that she couldn’t show that in case someone was watching. She shut the bangles away and reached for the card with a slight tremor in her hand. She read it and nearly turned to vomit in the wastebasket. The fact they looked like they could be from a set of wedding bangles wasn’t lost on her, and the card only reinforced the point. She needed to get in touch with Rhys. Discreetly.