A Birthday Party

With the lot seeming pretty packed, Manhattan opted for parking a block down from the diner. Being still daylight, and her intention of not staying all that long, the blonde didn't think she'd run into any trouble on her way out of the party. Besides the Acherus seemed to have taken their fill from the town and moved off, so things were pretty much settling down to normal or at leat as normal as a place like Marquette could get.

Bottle of whiskey with a red ribbon fashioned in a bow around it in one hand, hey she had to have some type of wrapping on her gift, Manhattan walked the block to Mya's. With the tug of one hand the hunter, dressed plainly in a faded pair of denim and a black tee, opened the door and stepped into the establishment. A lot of people were in attendance, most of whom she didn't know.

Brian was just coming away from the "snack bar" with a little plate loaded with food-- after all that backlashing, he hadn't been eating as well as he should have been, and he felt practically hollow-- when he spotted a familiar blonde head of hair. He raised the hand that had a drink in it rather than the food and called, "Man'! Manhattan! Yo, blondie!" It was loud in there; he had to make sure she'd heard him, right? He started pushing through the crowd to meet her.

Manhattan scanned the interior the moment she stepped foot into Mya's, but it wasn't until she heard the familiar sounding voice rising above the din that she spotted the man for whom this little shindig was being given. A smile lighted the hunter's features, and with a raising of the bottle in her hand as indication she had heard him, Manhattan started pressing her way past the mass of people toward Brian's direction.

Once close enough, Brian went to grab Manhattan's elbow and draw her after him towards the booth he'd claimed as his own. If people wanted to give him his birthday wishes, they could do it while he was sitting down. His knee was already protesting all the jostling, after all. "Sit," he instructed, grinning, and he did so, himself. "How are ya? How's the head?" Since last they spoke, she had needed ice for it, and all. "And the dog?"

"Just because it's your birthday you think that's justification for being such a demanding bastard." Manhattan said, all the while retaining her smile, which seemed to widen just a tad with amusement as Brian pulled her through the throng of people toward one of the booths.

"I'm good, though still a little sore. The head's fine, and Pride recovering nicely." She offered in answer to his multitude of inquiries. Setting the bottle down on the table Manhattan slid into the booth opposite her friend. "How've you've been?" Though he didn't look it, Manhattan was wondering if he still was suffering any effects of his backlashing.

"That for me?" Brian asked with a grin, tapping the top of the bottle with a finger. Then he answered, more seriously, "Yeah, I'm doin' okay. Had another run-in last night, or I'd be doin' better." Most of the secondary backlash had worn off, at least. He'd been very, very careful about what he did with his abilities, today. Maybe he was still a bit over-warm, but it was a nice day, so it wasn't a problem. "Heard the news, though, right? That they think they're gone?" Not that Brian wasn't going to be careful after dark for a few days, just in case, but still. It was good news.

"Yeah, unless this little shindig is for another old man celebrating the date of his birth." Manhattan grinned as she slowly slid the red ribboned tied bottle of whiskey across the table toward Brian.

"Yeah. Heard rumors to that effect. Though only nightfall will tell if it's an actual reality." The blonde tossed back with a slight fading of her grin.

Giving her a playful Look for the "old man" comment-- okay, so he was allowed to call himself that, but Manhattan sure wasn't-- Brian took the whiskey bottle and examined it briefly. It looked like a good year. "I'm sure the town will be careful after dark for weeks yet, after all this," he agreed, "whether they're actually gone or not. Thanks, Man', this looks like good stuff."

"Hey. Only the best for the best." She grinned. The money hadn't been the problem in getting the bottle, it was the locating part that proved to be the difficulty.

Brian grinned, a bit sheepishly but still appreciatively. "Dunno about the best, but we'll definitely have to give this a try soon." Meaning the two of them; now that she was back, he figured they owed each other a night out, or afternoon out, or something.

"Gonna hold you to that Old Man." Manhattan gave Brian a grin and a playful wink. Wasn't often, if at all, she refered to her friend as an old man, and this second time would probably be all that Brian would tolerate from the blonde. And Brian's thinking matched Manhattan Winchester's. It had been too damn long since they had gotten together for a night of drinking.

Manhattan was right: Brian leveled a finger at her and said, "Cut it out with the 'old man' shit, young lady." Hell, why were so many of his friends so much younger than he was? "I feel old enough. Turning forty will do that to a person. But you hold me to it, and we'll get together in a couple days, how's that?" He still owed her an explanation for Domino, after all, and he wanted her to know, anyway.

"Promise." Holding up her hands in mock defense. "No more reference to your milestone age." And really Manhattan shouldn't be talking about age, cause in like another ten years she'd be where Brian is now. Whether she'd be ten feet under or celebrating, though, remained to be seen.

"Your place, mine," she could drive her father and Dathan from the property for the night it that'd be the case, "or a random bar?" She asked.

"Uh. Mine depends on when Marlowe goes home, she might be staying a couple more days.... Could do yours, but I'd hate to bug your family." And random bar probably wouldn't even be open. The only one he'd found was Babylon, and he wasn't introducing a hunter to Babylon. Just wasn't.

"How's the kid doing?" The hunter asked, the where to drink part of their conversation being momentarily put on hold. Unless you were used to dealing with them, and even then things could get bad, tangling with vampires was bad business. And in this case, according to Brian, things got really bad.

"Well as can be expected, I guess," Brian said heavily. "Quieter than usual, having some humdingers of nightmares, though she won't talk about them. At least she's healing okay." This wasn't how he wanted to spend his birthday, but it was one of those things that needed to be discussed.

"At least she's got you." Manhattan offered up a light smile. The blonde didn't think it was anywhere near easy for him having the girl at his house. But Brian wasn't the type to abandon anyone when they needed a friend to fall back on.

"So." A light, but sound slap was given to the table as if to banish the unpleasantness that settled in with the bringing up of the girl who had been snatched by some vamps. "My place in a couple days?"

At least she did. Brian kind of wished she had more people, too-- couldn't be right to just have one person-- but hey, he'd do everything he could, that's for sure. "Your place in a couple days. I'll give you a call day-of, once I've got it figured when. Sound good?"

"Sounds like a plan to me, my friend." She grinned. "And now that I've delivered my gift and made for pleasant conversation, guess I should be on my way." Shindigs like this really weren't Manhattan's idea of fun times. Even if the party had been thrown in the honor of one of her closest friends. She had come and made an appearance for his sake, but that really was all she could manage.

"You sure you can't stay a little bit?" Brian asked with a sad look, mostly feigned but still, he did wish she'd stay. "Try some of Mya's fantastic cole slaw?" He held up his plate to offer one of the various things he'd put on it, which included cole slaw.

"I hate you." She grumbled with a glare. That sad, little pathetic, please stay look he threw at her did it. Wasn't like she had anywhere to be for a few hours, so she really had no excuse to give for not staying a little bit longer. Manhattan snatched one of the mini sandwiches from the plate held out in her direction. And then swipe a small sampling of the mentioned cole slaw. If Brian boasted about it, it had to be good.

"Ha, you know you love me," Brian said with a triumphant smile. At the very least, she had to have cake. Everyone had to have cake on a birthday.

With the lot seeming pretty packed, Manhattan opted for parking a block down from the diner. Being still daylight, and her intention of not staying all that long, the blonde didn't think she'd run into any trouble on her way out of the party. Besides the Acherus seemed to have taken their fill from the town and moved off, so things were pretty much settling down to normal or at leat as normal as a place like Marquette could get.

Bottle of whiskey with a red ribbon fashioned in a bow around it in one hand, hey she had to have some type of wrapping on her gift, Manhattan walked the block to Mya's. With the tug of one hand the hunter, dressed plainly in a faded pair of denim and a black tee, opened the door and stepped into the establishment. A lot of people were in attendance, most of whom she didn't know.

Brian was just coming away from the "snack bar" with a little plate loaded with food-- after all that backlashing, he hadn't been eating as well as he should have been, and he felt practically hollow-- when he spotted a familiar blonde head of hair. He raised the hand that had a drink in it rather than the food and called, "Man'! Manhattan! Yo, blondie!" It was loud in there; he had to make sure she'd heard him, right? He started pushing through the crowd to meet her.

Manhattan scanned the interior the moment she stepped foot into Mya's, but it wasn't until she heard the familiar sounding voice rising above the din that she spotted the man for whom this little shindig was being given. A smile lighted the hunter's features, and with a raising of the bottle in her hand as indication she had heard him, Manhattan started pressing her way past the mass of people toward Brian's direction.

Once close enough, Brian went to grab Manhattan's elbow and draw her after him towards the booth he'd claimed as his own. If people wanted to give him his birthday wishes, they could do it while he was sitting down. His knee was already protesting all the jostling, after all. "Sit," he instructed, grinning, and he did so, himself. "How are ya? How's the head?" Since last they spoke, she had needed ice for it, and all. "And the dog?"

"Just because it's your birthday you think that's justification for being such a demanding bastard." Manhattan said, all the while retaining her smile, which seemed to widen just a tad with amusement as Brian pulled her through the throng of people toward one of the booths.

"I'm good, though still a little sore. The head's fine, and Pride recovering nicely." She offered in answer to his multitude of inquiries. Setting the bottle down on the table Manhattan slid into the booth opposite her friend. "How've you've been?" Though he didn't look it, Manhattan was wondering if he still was suffering any effects of his backlashing.

"That for me?" Brian asked with a grin, tapping the top of the bottle with a finger. Then he answered, more seriously, "Yeah, I'm doin' okay. Had another run-in last night, or I'd be doin' better." Most of the secondary backlash had worn off, at least. He'd been very, very careful about what he did with his abilities, today. Maybe he was still a bit over-warm, but it was a nice day, so it wasn't a problem. "Heard the news, though, right? That they think they're gone?" Not that Brian wasn't going to be careful after dark for a few days, just in case, but still. It was good news.

"Yeah, unless this little shindig is for another old man celebrating the date of his birth." Manhattan grinned as she slowly slid the red ribboned tied bottle of whiskey across the table toward Brian.

"Yeah. Heard rumors to that effect. Though only nightfall will tell if it's an actual reality." The blonde tossed back with a slight fading of her grin.

Giving her a playful Look for the "old man" comment-- okay, so he was allowed to call himself that, but Manhattan sure wasn't-- Brian took the whiskey bottle and examined it briefly. It looked like a good year. "I'm sure the town will be careful after dark for weeks yet, after all this," he agreed, "whether they're actually gone or not. Thanks, Man', this looks like good stuff."

"Hey. Only the best for the best." She grinned. The money hadn't been the problem in getting the bottle, it was the locating part that proved to be the difficulty.

Brian grinned, a bit sheepishly but still appreciatively. "Dunno about the best, but we'll definitely have to give this a try soon." Meaning the two of them; now that she was back, he figured they owed each other a night out, or afternoon out, or something.

"Gonna hold you to that Old Man." Manhattan gave Brian a grin and a playful wink. Wasn't often, if at all, she refered to her friend as an old man, and this second time would probably be all that Brian would tolerate from the blonde. And Brian's thinking matched Manhattan Winchester's. It had been too damn long since they had gotten together for a night of drinking.

Manhattan was right: Brian leveled a finger at her and said, "Cut it out with the 'old man' shit, young lady." Hell, why were so many of his friends so much younger than he was? "I feel old enough. Turning forty will do that to a person. But you hold me to it, and we'll get together in a couple days, how's that?" He still owed her an explanation for Domino, after all, and he wanted her to know, anyway.

"Promise." Holding up her hands in mock defense. "No more reference to your milestone age." And really Manhattan shouldn't be talking about age, cause in like another ten years she'd be where Brian is now. Whether she'd be ten feet under or celebrating, though, remained to be seen.

"Your place, mine," she could drive her father and Dathan from the property for the night it that'd be the case, "or a random bar?" She asked.

"Uh. Mine depends on when Marlowe goes home, she might be staying a couple more days.... Could do yours, but I'd hate to bug your family." And random bar probably wouldn't even be open. The only one he'd found was Babylon, and he wasn't introducing a hunter to Babylon. Just wasn't.

"How's the kid doing?" The hunter asked, the where to drink part of their conversation being momentarily put on hold. Unless you were used to dealing with them, and even then things could get bad, tangling with vampires was bad business. And in this case, according to Brian, things got really bad.

"Well as can be expected, I guess," Brian said heavily. "Quieter than usual, having some humdingers of nightmares, though she won't talk about them. At least she's healing okay." This wasn't how he wanted to spend his birthday, but it was one of those things that needed to be discussed.

"At least she's got you." Manhattan offered up a light smile. The blonde didn't think it was anywhere near easy for him having the girl at his house. But Brian wasn't the type to abandon anyone when they needed a friend to fall back on.

"So." A light, but sound slap was given to the table as if to banish the unpleasantness that settled in with the bringing up of the girl who had been snatched by some vamps. "My place in a couple days?"

At least she did. Brian kind of wished she had more people, too-- couldn't be right to just have one person-- but hey, he'd do everything he could, that's for sure. "Your place in a couple days. I'll give you a call day-of, once I've got it figured when. Sound good?"

"Sounds like a plan to me, my friend." She grinned. "And now that I've delivered my gift and made for pleasant conversation, guess I should be on my way." Shindigs like this really weren't Manhattan's idea of fun times. Even if the party had been thrown in the honor of one of her closest friends. She had come and made an appearance for his sake, but that really was all she could manage.

"You sure you can't stay a little bit?" Brian asked with a sad look, mostly feigned but still, he did wish she'd stay. "Try some of Mya's fantastic cole slaw?" He held up his plate to offer one of the various things he'd put on it, which included cole slaw.

"I hate you." She grumbled with a glare. That sad, little pathetic, please stay look he threw at her did it. Wasn't like she had anywhere to be for a few hours, so she really had no excuse to give for not staying a little bit longer. Manhattan snatched one of the mini sandwiches from the plate held out in her direction. And then swipe a small sampling of the mentioned cole slaw. If Brian boasted about it, it had to be good.

"Ha, you know you love me," Brian said with a triumphant smile. At the very least, she had to have cake. Everyone had to have cake on a birthday.

After waking up late -- even for him -- and re-bandaging his wounded torso, Ash set out for a walk. One had to keep the blood flowing, after all. And to eat. Because there was nothing in the apartment. So he headed down to Mya's a little after four, intent on getting a BLT or something. The festive decorations he saw through the window piqued his curiosity as he walked up, and he paused briefly before walking into the restaurant. Looked like a party going on, which made him grin a little. And oh look, the banner declared 'Happy Birthday Brian'. Which made him grin even more. His eyes scanned over faces and picked Brian's out of the crowd, and Ash headed over.

Brian was busy digging into the plate of goodies he'd piled up, having chased Manhattan off to be social-- or, well, someone else had chased her off while trying to wish him his happy birthday. She needed her own food, anyway; he wanted his, himself. He looked up at the parting of the crowd for a head he couldn't see over the crowd, and perked up at the sight of a familiar but unexpected face. "Ash!" he grinned, waving him over. "Didn't expect to see you here!"

Ash grinned broadly, not at all concerned about the scrapes and bruises on his face as he approached the man and gave him a friendly thump on the arm. "Didn't expect to be here," he admitted with a chuckle, glancing around. "Just came for a sandwich, found a party. Happy birthday, brother." Now he half wished he had something interesting in his pockets, but alas, such was not the case. Just a blessed pistol in the back of his belt under his shirt, but that didn't seem like a good birthday gift. Though who the hell knew, in this town.

"Figured that out, did you?" Brian said dryly-- given the people, the balloons, and the banner, it really wasn't that hard. "Get yourself some food, it's free tonight as long as you don't mind finger food, then come sit, man." He motioned to the opposite side of the booth he was inhabiting. "Haven't seen you in a while." And the guy looked a bit banged up, too, which was worrisome. Though at least he was alive. Anybody who could stand up to those vampires and come away looking that good had to be pretty good at something.

"Don't have to tell me twice," he said, looking pleased that Brian wanted him to stay. He was kind of a crasher. Ash moved off to where the food was, snagging up a plate and loading it down with anything and everything. He didn't mind finger food in the least, and he was starved. He wasn't sure if it was the atmosphere or the relief of the vampire plague being over or what, but it felt good in the diner. He liked the vibes. He meandered back to the booth and had a seat across from Brian. "So what's the damage?" he asked with a crooked grin. "How old are you?"

Rather pleased that Ash had shown up, to begin with-- Mya hadn't known him to invite him, and Brian hadn't really felt like he knew the guy well enough to just randomly call him up like that-- Brian chowed through some more of his own "dinner" as he waited. At Ash's immediate question he swallowed and groaned a little. "Just hit the big four-oh. And having the rather uncomfy thought that just about every one of my friends is younger than me." With the sole exception of Anton, he thought, and Anton hardly acted like... well, like a four-hundred-year-old, or however old he was.

Ash had to laugh a little. "Eh, it's not so bad. I've got you beat," he said. Seemingly by a couple of years, but in reality, it was more like a couple of hundred. But that wasn't very often divulged information, so he didn't. He started in on the food, glancing around. There wasn't anybody else he recognized, aside from Mya herself, and that was only from seeing her in this place. He needed to get out more. Though some of them didn't look like the boozing crowd. "Congratulations, though, you're officially middle-aged," he ribbed a little, flashing Brian a grin.

"Yeah? I need to spend more time with you, then," Brian suggested with a wry smile, again. "Aside from the 'middle aged' crack, you seem pretty bearable." Which was an understatement, really; Brian liked most people, and Ash seemed friendly, so that made him rather better than "bearable". "At least you're not going all 'old man' like my buddy Manhattan did. So is it rude to ask your official number?" He reached over to nudge Ash's shoulder, amused. "I told you mine, after all."

"Forty three," he lied without a beat. It was a standard answer that he'd more or less used for years, but hey. People bought it. He was just a really in-shape forty-three. "But nah, you're not old until you feel it, so it's different for everybody. So whatever, just another year." He ate some more finger sandwiches and made an appreciative noise. This had been a pretty nice little surprise. Pleasant. And gods knew that all of them probably needed it. "So how'd you fare in the shitstorm?" he asked, looking up again.

Brian bought it, too. The man had less gray than he did, anyway-- if he had any, at all. Lucky bastard. Still, he grinned proudly at Ash enjoying the food, pleased as always at Mya's cooking being appreciated, almost as much as he would've been if it'd been his own.

The question was much more dampening, though, and he forked some more of the cole slaw into his mouth to consider his response, first. Really, he had no idea if Ash even knew what the real threat had been-- though seeing how he looked, and remembering how Torziel had refused to enter his shop, he'd guess so-- but he did know that Ash hadn't a clue about Brian's own talents, so trying to come up with a lie that was close enough to the truth took a moment of thought. "So-so," he finally said. "Nobody died that I know, though a couple came close... had a couple run-ins with the bad guys, but didn't wind up too beat up." He eyed Ash's less than perfect condition and asked, "You?"

Well, if Brian had had run-ins, then it stood to reason that he knew what the fuck was really going on. "Killed as many of the motherfuckers as I could," he stated plainly, eyeing a pretzel before he crunched on it. Fortunately -- or un-, depending how one looked at it -- none of them had killed him back. "Got a few new scars, but that's no big deal. Glad to hear you and your's got through mostly unscathed, though," he added in. The few people he knew in town were okay too, so that was alwyas a good thing. He could gamble with his own life, but those of others ... were something different.

Brian had to wince a bit at the flat statement that Ash had killed as many as he could. Vampires or not, it was still so... unfamiliar to hear someone say. He'd fried a couple, sure... thrown some into walls, but he was rather resolutely not thinking about it, and while it hadn't caught up with him yet, he was going to ignore it until it did. "Mostly, anyway...." Olivia's neck, Domino's back, Marlowe's everything... it could have been so much worse, but it still seemed bad enough. "I'm just hoping they're right, on the news. That they're actually gone."

"Think they are. Just have pity for the next town they hit up," he said with a briefly dark expression. Then blinked and realized he was being a pretty depressing bastard for a birthday party. He looked up at Brian a little sheepishly and shook his head. "Sorry," he said. "Don't mean to be a little black stormcloud. We should be celebrating. Brian made it to forty, vampire apocalypse be damned." He picked up the red plastic cup he'd filled with whatever punch was out there and touched it against the other man's and offered a grin.

Though Brian grinned a bit and tapped the cup back, that only really made him feel a little worse. They were celebrating, all right, celebrating one man's birthday while some other town got to fall under that vampire apocalypse. But what could they do about it? Brian had been down for the count for two days after dealing with just a few of them. He might've gotten better at what he did, but he was nowhere near capable of wiping out an entire pack. Especially not one that replenished itself.

"Yeah," he said, a little weakly, but gamely. "At least we're all still here." Or everyone he knew, anyway. Which sounded even worse, but what could you do?

See, this is why my celebrations usually have stronger shit than punch, Ash thought wryly to himself as he nodded. Yes. At least they were all still there. Most of the time, for him, that wasn't such a comforting thought, but as he sat back and looked around at the faces of all those gathered to make sure Brian had a good birthday, he felt pretty good about it. At least these people were still here. He smiled a touch and took a drink out of the cup, looking back at Brian. "It's a gift, man," he said, kind of quiet. Why walking up into this party had given him such a sublime feeling, he had no idea, but there it was.

"What, still being alive?" Brian asked, smiling a bit again. "Yeah... there's definitely that." Lots of other people weren't, and wouldn't be. At least Ash didn't look unhappy or down about anything, himself. That'd be no way for Brian's party to make anybody, least of all himself.

That was debatable for him, but he wasn't going to get into it, definitely not here. So instead he just nodded and ate a bit more. "How's the truck runnin'?" he asked, a bit randomly, arching an eyebrow at the so-much-younger man. It was half curiosity, half subject change.

Subject change! And a welcome one, actually. "Beautifully, thanks. Even though I left the damn thing out in the rain in the woods the other night." Okay, sort of subject change. Poor truck. It'd just seemed so sad when he went back to get it, before work on Tuesday, out there in the middle of nowhere. He was glad that the vampires hadn't sought it out to vandalize it, honestly....

Ash chuckled faintly. "Well a good truck needs to be left out in the rain sometimes. You can't baby 'em all the time," he said reasonably. Even though he always hated having to abandon his bike whenever it came to that. It was never a good thing, he went through separation withdrawls. He didn't know what he was going to do once winter really hit this town. "But good, glad to know she's happy."

That made Brian smile, amused at the sudden and improbable mental picture of his truck, all cartoonified, actually out soaking up rain like it was a hot shower. "Needs a damn wash, though. She's caked with mud. Once things slow down, I guess." Cuz they had to right? Maybe he'd have a spare few hours this weekend... Maybe. Unless he happily filled them all up, which he might well do.

Such as now. "You wanna do somethin', man? Not tonight, but... Somethin, sometime." That involved alcohol or maybe pool or both. Ash could totally beat his ass at pool and they'd get happily drunk.

"Definitely. I can get down with somethin' sometime," he said with a crooked sort of grin. He figured it would involve beer and probably some darts or something masculine. Which he probably needed more of, he was becoming kind of reclusive in his shop with his shitty apartment above it. "Just lemme know, yeah? Or I'll stop by here sometime." It wasn't like people were hard to find in this town, after all.

Brian's thoughts were running along the same lines: easy to find somebody in a small town, if you knew where they worked. "Here pretty much every day," he grinned over at Ash. "And I expect you're there every day at the shop, so we can find each other. Go out and have a good time, if we can find someplace open."

"I have a feeling there'll at least be a couple of spots that want to open back up, give people somewhere to, y'know ... feel normal," the angel said, making a vague gesture. "But yeah. Give it a couple days, we'll hook something up. I owe you a beer anyway." He paused, glanced around again, and grinned at Brian. "'Til then, shouldn't you be mingling, man? You're only forty once, don't let them have all the fun without you."

"Hell, probably. Though mostly I've been waiting for people to come to me, that way I don't wind up spilling anything on anybody and my knee doesn't shout at me too much by the end of the night. Though I probably oughta do somethin about that, I've been sitting a while." He grinned a bit, then made a shooing motion at Ash. "You, too, man. Meet some people. There's good ones here."

"Fair enough," Ash said with a chuckle. He lifted his drink again in salute, before standing to toss his trash and see what there was to see. "Catch you around, old man," he said, and turned to head off. Say hello to people, see what kind of company Brian kept. It meant something, most of the time.

Things were going okay so far. Brian was happily browsing the snacks, pretty certain he'd be eating more than anyone else here but her, it was his birthday, he was allowed. Besides, it was pretty much all good, and considering how many leftovers he was expecting, it seemed like the best thing to do to eat as much now as possible.

He was, however, also eying the small pile of gifts over one the table in the corner. He never really outgrew the desire for presents, even if he still felt bad getting them. It was a weird love-hate relationship, or something, adult guilt mixed with boyish anticipation.

Besides, he was dying to find out what Domino's second gift was.

Dom was still sitting in one of the booths, resting his back against the cool wall which felt really good on his injuries. He was a couple booths down from the 'present' booth. It was Mya who came up behind Brian, placing a hand on his arm. "You know you wanna." She said softly, laying her head on his shoulder for a moment.

Looking over his shoulder at her, Brian chuckled. "Yeah, yeah... I know. Probably better get it over with, huh? That way we can get to the cake." The guilt part always got worse when he opened things when people were watching, but that was kind of a part and parcel of having a party, and Brian liked the party part without any reservations or guilt at all. "Get somebody to turn down the music, a'ight?"

Mya waved to someone behind the counter and signaled for the music to go down. "Ok everyone." She called to the room. "Present time." Her grin beamed even more as the room broke out into a cheer and a path cleared so Brian could get to the booth. "Then cake." She whispered to the man, as she followed.

"Yay cake," he whispered back, before heading to the gift-table and plopping himself down. "So which one should I open first?" he mused, poking at the not too huge collection. "The hostess' gift, perhaps? Since she's so hot to get me to open presents, and all." He shot her a grin.

Mya rolled her eyes slightly. "Well duh, you touch any other of those gifts first and you loose a hand." She teased.

Domino sneaked a peek over the edge of the booth to watch Brian open presents, a little more than eager to see what he would think of his gift.

"Well, since I like both my hands, I think I'll open that one first," Brian announced, and pulled the package with the familiar wrapping paper and Mya's name on it out from the pile. It was tempting to reach over and give Domino's hair a teasing ruffle, but that was really too familiar for a boss rather than a boyfriend.

"Good." Mya said with a nod as she slid into the other side of the booth and watched. She knew that Brian had been talking about new recipes he'd wanted to try out and how much he loved to find new spice mixes. He also would never buy saffron himself because it was too costly.

Brian pulled the paper off in one big, quick tearing motion-- some people liked to follow seams and fold the paper nicely; Brian was not one of those people. Tossing the crumpled paper playfully in the nearest employee's face, he turned to the jar he'd uncovered and gaped a little. It was full of tiny, deep red flower stamens, and though he'd only worked with it once or twice, he recognized saffron when he saw it.

"Mya, you shouldn't have," he said, sounding a little overwhelmed. He could experiment to his heart's delight, with this much saffron. This could last him years if he kept it decently preserved.

Mya grinned, blushing a little. "Hey, you keep complaining that you can't get any, I got tired of listening." She teased, blowing him a kiss. After a moment she shook her head. "Alright, which one next?"

Brian retrieved the wrapping paper-- the busboy actually handed it back to him when he held out a hand for it-- and casually chucked it at Mya, instead. After the brief laughter died down, he told her sincerely, "Thank you. Aaaand...." He pretended to consider the packages, while actually hunting for the one with Domino's name on it. "I think this one next." He plucked the larger one up and set it in front of him to unwrap, just as efficiently and messily as the last one.

Domino noticed it was his and got a mischievous grin on his face as he turned a little more in the booth to see his lover open the gift. Now Domino didn't really have much talent for interior decorating, his place was pretty good proof of that with it's sparseness but he wasn't a complete bonehead either and managed to get a lamp for Brian that would actually fit his room.

All Brian thought at first was thank god that it wasn't a firetruck-shaped lamp, so that was good, for him. What was less good, though, was the fact that half of him wanted to kiss Domino and the other half wanted to laugh and hit him. Gently, of course. But how could he react to a lamp-- and a pretty good one, too; it even advertised to be unbreakable, ha-- without giving himself, and Domino, away?

What he would up doing was laughing a bit, after a brief pause, and saying, "How'd you know I needed one of these?" He looked up and met Domino's eyes, smirking a bit, as the perfect tease came to him. "Damn cat broke mine just last week."