Who: Jolene and Henry! What: Birthday celebrations! Where: Jolene's apartment! When: Tonight! Status: Finishing in comments!
Perched on one of the stools that surrounded her kitchen counter, Jolene cradled her chin in her hand as she watched Henry. She was warm from the wine she had been sitting on all night, but cool breeze coming in from her window felt amazing against her flushed skin. Her birthday had started out like any other day, though her desk had been decorated by her co-workers when she had arrived at work, and owls had been flitting in and out if the office during her shift, delivering cards and packages from her friends and family. While she was always anxious to leave her job, she was definitely looking forward to getting her shift over with, since she knew she had plans with Henry later on.
It had been a few weeks since things had become more official between the two of them, and while it was nerve wracking, it was also very exciting. She had no doubt in her mind that she was his girlfriend, but they had never actually used the titles around each other. It was just sort of...implied, though when the girls at work asked her what she had plans for tonight, there had only been a brief moment of hesitation before she replied that she had plans with her boyfriend. While it felt odd rolling off her tongue (she hadn't had a boyfriend in years), she found herself smiling broadly at the thought of Henry being hers.
It was quite unexpected, but she found that the best things in life usually were. She was very much enjoying this wave the both of them were riding together.
Her birthday celebration had started off with Henry meeting her at her place, and once she had skillfully managed to slip out her front door while holding Aries back with her foot, they apparated to the restaurant where they had their first, unofficial date - the little Italian place she had invited him to when Caden had cancelled their dinner plans. They had gone back to her place once they were all finished, and Jolene had kicked off her shoes and poured them both another drink before landing herself in the seat she was currently sitting on.
"Are you sure you don't need me to do anything?" she asked with some amusement in her voice. They definitely spent more time at his place than they did hers, so he wasn't very familiar with her kitchen layout. While waiting for him to reply, she lifted her glass to her lips. "If you’re looking for plates, they’re above the sink," she supplied, grinning against the rim before she took another small sip of Merlot.
“I’ve got it, I’ve got it,” Henry said with a grin, thinking that the cabinet above the sink had been his next guess. It had been a long time since he’d had to plan out a birthday evening for an adult, let alone his girlfriend. Girlfriend was still a strange and foreign concept to him, but with Phoebe referring to Jolene as such as she helped him with what flowers to send, what to order at the restaurant, and any other minute detail that would lead up to a perfect evening.
He didn’t remember it being so hard, but thankfully everything had gone smoothly so far. His mind had been pulled in all different directions as of late, with the season now in full swing, Bran’s new favorite game of hide and seek, and of course, Seth. His brother had been...it was a very confusing time. Everything in Seth’s life was being questioned, and all Henry could do was be there for him. It felt...very strange, to not be able to do more, and the feeling of being useless bothered him greatly.
He’d been staring far too long in the cabinet, thinking that he should have owled Seth earlier to remind him that he wouldn’t be home, incase he stopped by. When the plates were finally whizzing out of the cabinets with a flick of his wand, Henry shook away his thoughts and got back to business. He moved toward the box he’d brought along, and a pale pink box with a string tied around it. It was charmed to keep their dessert cool, and he placed it in front of Jolene to open.
“Bran says ‘happy birthday,’” Henry regaled with a flourish, pulling at the string so that the sides of the box opened up. The cake had most definitely been decorated by a three-year-old, there was a chaos that consisted of sprinkles and different colored frosting that Henry’s meticulous mind normally cringed at, but his eyes scrunched with his smile of amusement.
Jolene clapped her hands excitedly as he brought over the boxes to her, carefully moving her glass of wine out of the way. When the cake inside was revealed, she let out a delighted laugh at the sight of the frosting.
"Oh, I love it!" She chirped, looking back up at Henry, who was doing something she felt he hadn't been doing very often lately – he was smiling. Over the last few weeks, she had noticed a change in his demeanor. It had happened after learning that his brother and his fiancée were no longer engaged, and while Jolene wasn't very familiar with Seth or Savannah, Henry was close to the woman who had been going to be his sister-in-law. He had even made her Bran's Godmother, so it was understandable that he was upset about their engagement coming to an end.
Still, she didn't like the idea of him being upset, and even though it was her birthday, she wanted him to enjoy it as much as she did. Jolene looked over her shoulder at the table, looked back at the cake, and then turned back to Henry, looking like she had something up her sleeve.
"I feel like sitting down all proper at a table to eat this masterpiece doesn't feel right," she began, pushing away from the counter so that she could spin around on her stool, facing the table. She reached behind her to grab her wand, giving it a flick so that her dining room chairs all scooted away from the table. With another swish, they began to pile themselves on top of one another in the corner of the room. Placing her wand back onto the counter, she hopped off her stool and reached for her wine glass, flashing Henry a devious smile.
"I think that in order to truly enjoy such an abstract cake, we need to be abstract."
Approaching the table, she placed down her wine glass before she hoisted herself up onto it, crossing her legs at the ankle, swinging them back and forth over the edge as she looked over at Henry.
"I vote that for the rest of the night, we throw etiquette out the window and just have fun."
Henry watched Jo do her magic, and he came around the counter of the kitchen with a look of intrigue. Intrigue, and a bit of skepticism. She wasn’t really expecting him to sit on top of the table, was she?
“Etiquette can be fun,” he said, moving toward the table. Henry reached out and tried to give it a little shake, to see how sturdy the legs were. He looked back up at Jolene and lifted his eyebrows. “I enjoy etiquette.”
But, seeing as it was her birthday, Henry would allow himself to loosen some of his very tight strings. Maintaining eye contact with Jolene for a few more moments, as if attempting to will her with just his eyes to come down, Henry let out a light sigh of laughter and sat upon the table beside her. He even kicked out his feet a little, his shoulders raising as if to say, ‘see, I did it.’
“Now what, birthday girl? Cake or presents?”
Jolene was beyond pleased with the fact that Henry had sat on the table with her, though there had been a moment where she thought she might be sitting up there by herself. She had a feeling that if she had pulled such a stunt any other day, she very well would have been, but Henry had appeased her because it was her birthday. Her skin became a bit flushed at the thought, and she smiled at his questions.
"Honestly? You joining up here with me was a gift in itself," she replied, leaning in to press a lingering kiss to his cheek before she pulled back to look past him at the cake. "I'm almost sad to have to ruin it in order to have a piece," she said with a small pout, looking back to Henry, "almost." She smiled again, reaching over for his hand, lacing their fingers together.
"I think I can hold off on presents for a little while longer," she said, finally making a decision. "I've been waiting to have a birthday cake of my own for years, and I can't wait to try it." Even if it tasted like dirt or was hard as a rock, knowing that he had remembered her cake, and that he and his son had taken the time to decorate it for her meant a lot to Jolene.
“Cake it is,” he said. Henry looked about for a moment, and decided that if he was going to be abstract (and perhaps a bit uncouth, he would never be fully able to understand Gryffindors), he could at least save the table some scratches by taking off his shoes. Henry pulled himself further back onto the table and crossed his legs underneath them. He felt foolish, but then he wondered why. There wasn’t anyone but Jolene watching, and she seemed to enjoy when he wasn’t so entirely put together. It was a strange feeling, attempting to not be concerned with every little aspect of his being.
With a swish, Henry levitated the cake carefully over from the counter to place it in the center of the table. Feeling only slightly (okay, more than slightly) foolish about moving about on the table, he managed to conjure up a few sparkling candles that looked so festive it would almost be a shame to blow out.
They made a pretty picture. The light dazzled in Jolene’s eyes, and Henry felt the moment grow...heavy. This was a type of intimacy that he had not experienced in years. The silence around them helped him notice every delicate feature of hers, and his heart felt full. It was nice to once again have someone to do nice things for.
“Make a wish,” Henry said.
Jolene finished off the sip of wine she had left before pushing away the glass and, already barefoot, carefully lifted her legs up onto the table so that she could sit cross legged across from him. Her dress was long enough that she didn't have to worry about being completely unladylike, and she clasped her hands between her legs as she watched him float the cake over to them. She scooted back just a bit so that it could fit between them, and smiled again at the vision of his toddlers' frosting job being illuminated by the candles.
She seemed to do that a lot around Henry - smile. She was a relatively cheerful person to begin with, generally speaking, but the last few years had been incredibly hard. Her traveling around the world wasn't a vacation by any means – it was an escape from haunting memories. It had been something she had needed to do, and as much as she enjoyed helping other people, not everyone could be saved. She had witnessed children dying of malnourishment – she had seen babies who had been terribly scarred due to wars that they had nothing to do with. It had been a very long time since she had been truly happy, and not just satisfied with the knowledge that she brought happiness to others.
Being with him…it made her happy, and when he asked her to make a wish, she stared at him for a long moment before she looked back at the sparks the candle were throwing off, thoughtfully at the corner of her lower lip. It almost felt symbolic, there being literal sparks between them. She knew in that instance what she wanted to wish for, and she closed her eyes tightly.
I wish this feeling will last…
It was a simple wish, but it was all she truly wanted. She just wanted them to continue making sparks. She opened her eyes to look back down at the cake, and then proceeded to carefully blow them out before looking up at Henry.
"Thank you for today," she said through the smoke that was rising from the newly extinguished wicks. She reached across the cake to place her hand on his face. "This is the best birthday I've had in years," she said, and she was being completely genuine. Her thumb brushed against his cheek.