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(no subject)

WHO: Ellie and Isaac
WHERE: their shared place
WHEN: backdated to the 20th
WHAT: Since Ellie missed his birthday she's giving him his gift now.
WARNINGS: None, will be updated if needed

Jail was definitely not the worst thing Ellie had ever gone through. In fact, on the long list of bad things that had happened to her, jail wasn’t even near the top ten. Being possessed and manipulated was up there, but she wasn’t sure if it cracked the top list either. What the entire situation had done though was bring back a lot of very bad memories. A part of her wanted to talk to Isaac about it all, but the other part of her, the bigger part, was hesitant. He’d worried about her enough and she really didn’t want to keep involving him in this whole mess.

So, instead of talking to him about all of that, instead she chose to talk to him about the unwrapped birthday gift she’d gotten for him. She’d found it while going through the closet and had been mildly disappointed to see that he hadn’t opened it like she’d asked. It just made it even more apparent that he’d spent more of his time focused on trying to find a way to help her, which really wasn’t that surprising to her. Irritating, but not surprising.

She figured she’d find him working on something in their living room so that’s where she went holding the gift in her hand.

“If I’d known you hadn’t opened it, I would have gotten wrapping paper and actually wrapped it nicely for you.”

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The fascinating thing about this century's technology was that it worked at all. He'd been spending his evenings tinkering with one piece of technology or another, really just trying to familiarize himself with the tech. He'd also wanted to stay home as much as possible because of how...off Ellie was. He wasn't used to her being effected like this, and he didn't really know what to do with it.

As for the gift, he hadn't opened it, because, well, he thought she should be present, and he really didn't care about it at the time. He was just worried about her.

Now he could tell something was eating at her, but she wasn't talking. He figured she would when she was ready, though. All he had to do was wait. What he wasn't expecting was her bringing him that gift he'd never opened.

He smiled up at her. "Hey, you weren't here. I wanted you to be here when I opened it."

"Even though I told you to go ahead and open it?" She smiled a tiny bit as she shook her head. Why was she surprised at all by that? They both had a pretty bad habit of not listening to the other person. She held out the little bag for him to take.

"Go on, open it now then."

"Hey, what kind of present would it be if the person it's from wasn't here?" He smiled, taking the bad from her and pulling out what had to be one of the coolest looking watches he'd seen in a long time.

"Oh, wow!"

For once, she was actually grateful for the weird empathic power she'd ended up with in this place. It let her feel just how excited he was with the watch.

"I'm glad you like it. I spent forever trying to find something." Forever wasn't too far off either, she'd spent a very long time trying to find the perfect gift. It'd been the first time in...well, in their entire relationship that she'd ever been able to get him something like this. "I was going to take us to dinner too, but...I'm sorry."

"I love it." He'd have to take time later to figure out all the different things the watch did and play around with it. Maybe he could even link it into this RIG somehow, and then-

He stopped that line of thought. That was for later, when he was alone, and not talking to his girlfriend. He smiled over at her, for the first time in a long time, a smile that touched his eyes as well.

"We could still go out. It's not like there's a time limit or anything."

"I'm glad you love it. Happy belated 50th, Isaac." She draped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek.

"If you want to, we can. My reservations have expired though," she said with a light laugh. She hadn't actually made reservations but she figured a joke was better than saying that she didn't really want to go out. It was his birthday she'd missed, the first one they'd gotten to celebrate with each other in a long time, and she'd do whatever he wanted. If it made him happy like this, she'd do it.

"Hey, it's not that belated." He laughed and stood to move around their sofa so he could wrap his arms around her and kiss her gently.

"We could order Chinese takeout and I'd be happy, you know that."

"It's still too belated for me. I wanted it to be special." She wrapped her arms around his neck and met his eyes for a second after she pulled away from the kiss.

"Chinese takeout isn't exactly special, but you've never been that hard to please." It was nice, joking like this. She could almost forget about well...everything. "Whatever you want to do, I'll do it. I'd even try to bake you a cake if you want one. No promises on what it'd turn out like though."

He grinned at her, making no move to pull away. This was nicer than a lot of the times they'd had to spend together and he didn't want it to end. Going out meant they'd have to, and he wanted her all to himself at the moment.

"I almost want to say yes, just to see what happens in the kitchen." Not that he'd ever been a big fan of cake. "But I'm happy right here."

"I'm almost insulted. Do you think I couldn't do it?" She looked up at him with a very exaggerated offended look.

"I just...you've never baked before?" His tone was uncertain. He'd probably said something stupid to ruin the mood now.

"How do you know I've never baked before? It's not like we had much of an opportunity for things like that." Besides, it's not like baking could be that difficult. She could pilot anything, there was no way she couldn't follow a recipe to bake something.

He chuckled again, smiling, trying to keep the mood light. "I mean you never baked before when we were together."

She frowned just a tiny bit. "When did we have the time or the spare money?"

He nodded even before she finished her question. She was right, of course. "I know, Ellie."

"So, maybe I'm great at it and you just never got the chance to find out," she replied with a slightly forced smirk. "We could try and see what happens if you want. Or we could do something else. It's up to you, this is your late birthday."

"We? Wait. You want me to help you?" He chuckled. "This might not work out either way." But he smiled anyway. "But sure, I'll give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen?"

His famous last words, of course, which only sound forboding after everything else that's happened as a result of them. "And then maybe we can see where the night takes us."

"Sure. It could be fun." She smiled. "Or I thought it could. Now that you've said that I'm no so sure. Everything always goes to hell after you say that." There was actually a part of her that wasn't joking. She couldn't think of a single time he'd said something along those lines that hadn't gone terrible.

He chuckled again, but his smile faltered somewhat.

"So, you think I'm some sort of curse now?"

She shook her head quickly, maybe a bit too quickly. "No, no. Of course not. But you're always the first one to remind me you're full of bad ideas."

He laughs at that. "Well, you remember how we met, right?"

She shook her head and smiled some. "Yeah, I shot you and you still kept coming forward. Then you said you thought we'd gotten off on the wrong foot." It'd forever cemented the idea that Isaac Clarke was kind of a moron in her mind. "You're lucky I didn't kill you."

"I trusted you didn't actually want to shoot me." Which, in retrospect, was probably one of the more stupid things he'd trusted in his lifetime. "I'd just been betrayed by someone who'd said she'd help me, so why not?"

She laughed. It was probably the most inappropriate response to that she could muster, but it just came out. Sometimes she really wondered how he was still alive. "You realize that makes absolutely no sense, don't you?"

"Hey," he laughed right along with her. He realized it was ridiculous, after all, "you realize I'd just woken up in a psych ward surrounded by necromorphs, right? Nothing made any sense. The doctor who'd interviewed me almost daily slit his own throat in front of me, Ellie. It was a day for crazy shit."