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Description
It hadn't exactly been snooping, not really. He'd just been cleaning. Hanna always seemed to appreciate it, so obviously he didn't mind, so it wasn't as if he'd been doing anything wrong.

Though, true, when he'd found the old date book, he hadn't had to flip through it. He still isn't quite sure why he'd done it at all; it was marked 2007, and unlikely to have anything important in it. But still, he'd flipped through, and seen the sticker, and paused.

November 29.

The date didn't mean anything; it had passed the year before with no particular significance that he could recall, no fuss on Hanna's part, no packages in the mail.

But there's the sticker, sparkling back at him. A glitter sticker, of course. Of a cupcake. With a candle in it.

It may be time for some detective work.

+++

The first (really, the only) person he can think to ask is Worth. It's strange, and a bit sad, to realize that no one else has known Hanna for anywhere near as long, and that- with the possible exception of himself, at least in some areas- no one else is likely to know him as well. Not that this means Worth will be much help.

Case in point: "Eh?" he says when asked, looking suspicious, like maybe there's a joke he's missing. It's the middle of the night; presumably, back at home, Hanna is sleeping. Worth, of course, is not. "I dunno. 's about this time of year, I s'pose, yeah. He doesn't mention it much."

There's quite a lot Hanna doesn't 'mention much' when it comes to himself, so that's hardly surprising. "Do you have any.. paperwork, or something? Where it might be written down?"

Well, now Worth looks like he gets the joke, which is probably fair enough- honestly, what had he expected? "Don't do much filin', as a general rule. And our Hanna ain't the sort to want much on record anyway. Sorry, mate." And he does almost sound a little bit sorry, too. "This time of year, or hereabouts, that's all I got."

And really, he supposes it doesn't matter much. He's lived with Hanna for a bit over a year now; obviously he'd had a birthday somewhere in there. Now's as good a time to celebrate as any other.

+++

It's a bit past 3, so he goes to see the only other friend of Hanna's likely to be awake at this hour.

"He's going to be 25?" Conrad says with at least as much disbelief as he'd had over the idea of Hanna being 24. "He still looks 15. Are you sure? Did you find an ID or something?"

Actually he hadn't even thought to look for one- Hanna probably has a driver's license somewhere, even if he never uses it, and that would've answered the birthday question. But that really would've been snooping. "I don't see why he'd lie about it," is all he says, ignoring Conrad's deeply dubious expression. "Will you come over Monday night? I'm going to invite everyone else tomorrow, too."

And he really hopes the rest of them don't respond by looking at him like they want to laugh, because that's going to get old. "You're throwing him a surprise party? Why?"

Which is something he hadn't thought to ask himself. Why? Well.. why not, really. "Because he'd do the same for me, if we knew my birthday. Or for you, actually- when's yours, Conrad?" He's never really sure how much of his intended expressions actually show, but right now he's aiming for a smirk, and from Conrad's flustered reaction, he probably managed it.

"Jesus, fine, no need to threaten me. I'll put some party music together or something. Just don't expect me to show up with a gift."

+++

Gifts, that's another thing he hadn't thought of. He has some money- Hanna insists, partly because it's him that usually does the shopping- but he has no idea what Hanna might like. Well, that isn't true; he knows Hanna likes pancakes, and potatoes, most music, bad movies, his (kind of crappy) cameras, dinosaurs, comic books, things that light up, and his chicken keychain that, inexplicably, moos. But none of those really help when it comes to gift ideas.

Hanna heads off to work full of breakfast (eggs and cheese on toast) and he goes to talk to the rest of their odd little crew, keeping an eye on shop windows on his way to the café where Toni works.

He's in luck; Veser happens to be there as well, sitting at the counter while Toni's serving. Maybe predictably, Veser's pretty enthused about the whole idea. "Aw hell yeah, you're throwing a fuckin' party? I'll bring some booze." The woman sitting two seats over from Veser, who had already been shooting them both of them haughty looks, makes a loud noise of disapproval and moves to a different chair. "Yeah well who told you to sit near me anyway, ya fuckin' cow!" Toni appears like magic from the opposite end of the counter, shoving a basket of fries across the counter into Veser's hands.

"Jeez, stop before Glenn makes me kick you out! You can't just swear at old ladies," she hisses, though apparently not quietly enough to keep from earning them yet another glare. Not that she notices. "So what's up?"

They fill her in, with Veser doing most of the talking, not that there's much to tell. "So you should bring some girls," he concludes, "'cos otherwise it's going to be a total Oktoberfest." Their twin looks of incomprehension make him roll his eyes. "Y'know, nothing but beer and sausages?"

"Oh my god," Toni says, pushing away from the counter. "I'll be there," she says to him with a smile, ignoring Veser entirely. "I can bring some decorating stuff- and I could bring some friends too, I guess?"

"I'm sure Hanna would appreciate it," he says, which is true; and if any of them happen to throw a drink in Veser's face, well, that'll just be added entertainment. She nods, then gives them a quick wave (and gives Veser one last warning look) before going to greet a couple who just sat down.

He debates the wisdom of this next bit, but it'd be pretty much impossible to get the apartment ready otherwise. Even Hanna isn't that oblivious. Of course, he makes the mistake of thinking 'what could go wrong?' (the mental list of which starts with Hanna finding out about the party, continues on into arrests for public indecency, and ends somewhere around accidentally summoning a world destroyer or elder god) but tries to ignore all of that as he turns to Veser. "Can I ask for a favor?"

+++

Getting Hanna out of the apartment for a bit is sort of amazingly easy, not anything that had actually required advance subterfuge planning after all. He isn't the least suspicious when Veser invites him out for the afternoon ("Man, I'm not going to tell him, you really think I can't keep a fucking secret?"; though of course that only covers the first bit of his worries) and Veser must've arranged things with Toni beforehand, because ten minutes after the two of them leave, she's at the door with a box of party decorations.

His shopping excursion had included cake ingredients, chips, salsa and queso, candles with funny-colored flames, plastic cups, two bottles of soda, and a possibly ill-advised bottle of cheap vodka. He'd been a bit stumped on decorations, though. A banner of sparkly cardboard letters spelling out 'Happy Birthday' had seemed like a safe bet, as had a package of those party blower.. noisemaker things. And hats. He had a suspicion Hanna wouldn't count it as a true party if it didn't include noisemakers and hats. But beyond that, he'd settled for looking at the party aisle with doubt and confusion and moving on to the food shopping bits.

Fortunately, it seems Toni's got them covered at least twice over. Her bin of supplies is stuffed with crepe paper, bags of confetti, napkins, some sort of inflatable things, and possibly a clown with a real live pony, for all he can tell. "Thanks," he says, and means it, but he has no idea what to do with any of this.

Apparently it shows, and she takes pity on him. "Did you get Hanna a gift yet?" He shakes his head; he hasn't been able to find anything that seemed quite right. "Okay, well, that's sort of important! So you go do that, and I'll call some friends over to help." She gives the apartment a look- it's clean, anyway, but that's mostly all that can ever be said for it. Even Toni's optimism seems to falter for a moment, then she seems to remember herself and beams up at him. "It'll be good! I can handle it. No worries!"

+++

It takes him longer than he'd like to admit-it's possible he's over-thinking this- but he settles on a photo album. He thinks it might be cheesy, but also thinks Hanna's unlikely to care, and he knows for certain that Hanna keeps the majority of his snapshots (the ones that don't get put up in the kitchen) in an old, grubby cigar box. A book would be useful, especially if he's got time to put some photos in himself before the party.

Somehow, in the time he's been gone, Toni has managed to work a miracle. The apartment looks like a space people might voluntarily spend time in for more than five minutes, some sort of luau theme going with fake leis and tissue paper flowers conveniently taped to the walls over the worst of the weird water damage (or whatever) cracks and stains.

Toni- and the two friends she apparently recruited to her cause- are slumped together on the sofa, giggling over something he recognizes as Family Guy, but she switches it off right away to turn and smile at him. "Find something good?"

"I think so, yes." Probably. Or something lame- he's still not sure, maybe he should've got Hanna a plastic dinosaur and a toy ray gun instead. Damn it, he definitely should've done that. Probably too late to return it now, though. At least the apartment looks good, and there's the cake to be made. "This is all perfect. Thank you," he says, hoping he manages to carry his sincerity in his tone. It's hard to be sure sometimes.

But from the pleased look on Toni's face, he managed. "Aww, it's no problem! I'm glad we could help. Anything else you need a hand with before we go?"

There isn't- just the cake and the photos, which he can handle on his own- so they leave, heading home to get ready but promising to be back in time for the party. He closes the door behind them, gives the apartment one last looking over, then heads to the kitchen for his first-ever try at baking cake, sincerely hoping that a 'how hard can it be' attitude isn't about to bite him in the ass.

+++

He tries not to frown at the cake as it cools on the counter. It smells good, and looks good; it's not the cake's fault he can't actually taste it to make sure. (Well, maybe he could, he still hasn't tried food. But he's not sure how that would go so it's probably not the right time to experiment, and anyway, he doubts he'd be the best judge.) And he bought frosting in a tub and a jar of four different types of sprinkles, two of which are just colored sugar, so there's no way that Hanna won't enjoy the end results. So there's really no reason to worry. And he should stop. Really.

Fortunately, Ples shows up before he can glare a hole in the thing. "Veser threatened to drag me here bodily if I didn't come on my own," he explains wryly. "Hm, something smells good- is that chocolate?"

Ples is thankfully good-natured about being dragged into the kitchen and practically force-fed cake, and even offers to do the icing once it's been established that yes, in fact, the cake is edible. "It's quite good, actually. Go do whatever else needs doing, I think I can manage this." And there's still the photo album to take care of, so he goes.

Considering Hanna's photography habit only began about a year ago, the amount of snapshots he's managed to amass can really only be described as impressive. There's a lot to go through; he's glad, after all, that there's someone to help with the cake, so that he can give this his full attention. Especially since there's less than an hour until Hanna's due to be home.

Worth, strangely enough, is the next to arrive. "Yeah, well," he mutters, and claims a beer and a corner of the sofa. He reaches over after a minute to poke through some of the stray photos. "Heh. These're alright." They're quiet a minute, nothing but Ples' ever-present ticking to break the silence, until Worth holds up another photo- Hanna, with his arms around Toni and Veser, an enormous grin on his face. "Don't think they make 'em any more daft or reckless, but. He's a good kid."

He nods, not really feeling any words are necessary- or adequate- and reaches out, taking the photo to add to Hanna's gift.

+++

Veser makes plenty of noise on the way up the stairs, presumably so they'll all know that he and Hanna are coming. He's a bit thrown, though, on what to do now. Apparently the others are thinking the same thing, based on the faces they're making.

"Hide?" Toni suggests, but a glance at the apartment makes the impossibility of that pretty clear. He considers going to light the candles, greeting Hanna with his (frosted and sprinkled and apparently good) cake, but he's a little worried that, cake or no, Hanna might try to hug him. It's a little ridiculous that this, of all things, is where the whole surprise party idea manages to fall apart, but before any of them can come up with an answer, the doorknob's turning.

Toni's friends all chorus "Surprise!" when Hanna walks in, but they're the only ones, which might be a bit awkward except that from how Hanna's gaping it's unlikely he noticed. "You- what-" he says, and even from across the room, even with Hanna's glasses obscuring his face, it's still pretty obvious when he starts to tear up. That's a possibility he hadn't considered, and he takes a second to be annoyed with himself- but the next second, Hanna's smiling, grinning really, and everyone seems to relax at the same time, all of his friends laughing and converging on him at once.

Their strange little group has grown, over the year, and with Toni's friends added in it's enough to make the tiny apartment feel almost cramped (it doesn't help that Finas and Casimiro turn up around 10- he's not even sure how they heard about the party, really, though by then everyone's drunk enough to welcome them happily). But judging by the way Hanna's beaming around at all of them, he doubts the crowded atmosphere bothers him any; Hanna looks like just having them there is the greatest present he could ask for.

"Hey," Hanna says from behind him, and he turns with a smile, accepting the hug he'd known was coming. The muffled "Thanks, man," muttered into his shirt might sound a little choked up, but he's not going to tell. And when Hanna pulls away, he looks as cheerful as ever. "So hey! You should try some of that cake, it is awesome. This seems like the right night to find out what happens when you actually, y'know, eat things, right? What better time than a party for potentially embarrassing bodily functions! And hey. We should do your birthday next." Yes, he really should've known that one was coming. "I mean we could just make one up or something if you want! I'm thinking maybe in August- or September? When there's that big long boring stretch between the Fourth of July and Halloween! We could use a reason to party somewhere in there."

The whole time he's talking, Hanna's dragging him along to the kitchen, and presumably to the cake waiting there, but he pauses suddenly, looking like he suddenly got slapped with an amazing idea. "Hey- HEY," he says in what may be the least stealthy whisper ever, "I wonder when Conrad's birthday is! Oh oh that's our next case, okay, it's official, Operation: Vampire Celebration. Vampibration. Okay we can work on the name but YEAH."

Conrad (who has of course heard the whole thing, because the music's nowhere near loud enough to drown out an enthusiastic Hanna) is looking at them with horror from across the room. "Hanna.." he starts, with the intention of trying to rein this in before it gets started.

But Hanna just smiles up at him, maybe happier than he's ever been, and what sort of person- or whatever- would he be to crush that? So "Happy birthday," is all he says, and Hanna's grin gets, if possible, even wider (his face is going to break if he keeps that up).

"Thanks, Wayland. And thanks for my party. And. Y'know, being my friend, saving my ass a bunch of times, sticking around, all that sappy junk." His eyes look a little misty again for a second, but apparently nothing can deter Hanna from the important things in life for long. "Anyway, hey, come on- cake!"

And with that Hanna grabs his wrist again, dragging him on into adventure (cake adventure)- and, as ever, he follows.

Description
It hadn't exactly been snooping, not really. He'd just been cleaning. Hanna always seemed to appreciate it, so obviously he didn't mind, so it wasn't as if he'd been doing anything wrong.

Though, true, when he'd found the old date book, he hadn't had to flip through it. He still isn't quite sure why he'd done it at all; it was marked 2007, and unlikely to have anything important in it. But still, he'd flipped through, and seen the sticker, and paused.

November 29.

The date didn't mean anything; it had passed the year before with no particular significance that he could recall, no fuss on Hanna's part, no packages in the mail.

But there's the sticker, sparkling back at him. A glitter sticker, of course. Of a cupcake. With a candle in it.

It may be time for some detective work.

+++

The first (really, the only) person he can think to ask is Worth. It's strange, and a bit sad, to realize that no one else has known Hanna for anywhere near as long, and that- with the possible exception of himself, at least in some areas- no one else is likely to know him as well. Not that this means Worth will be much help.

Case in point: "Eh?" he says when asked, looking suspicious, like maybe there's a joke he's missing. It's the middle of the night; presumably, back at home, Hanna is sleeping. Worth, of course, is not. "I dunno. 's about this time of year, I s'pose, yeah. He doesn't mention it much."

There's quite a lot Hanna doesn't 'mention much' when it comes to himself, so that's hardly surprising. "Do you have any.. paperwork, or something? Where it might be written down?"

Well, now Worth looks like he gets the joke, which is probably fair enough- honestly, what had he expected? "Don't do much filin', as a general rule. And our Hanna ain't the sort to want much on record anyway. Sorry, mate." And he does almost sound a little bit sorry, too. "This time of year, or hereabouts, that's all I got."

And really, he supposes it doesn't matter much. He's lived with Hanna for a bit over a year now; obviously he'd had a birthday somewhere in there. Now's as good a time to celebrate as any other.

+++

It's a bit past 3, so he goes to see the only other friend of Hanna's likely to be awake at this hour.

"He's going to be 25?" Conrad says with at least as much disbelief as he'd had over the idea of Hanna being 24. "He still looks 15. Are you sure? Did you find an ID or something?"

Actually he hadn't even thought to look for one- Hanna probably has a driver's license somewhere, even if he never uses it, and that would've answered the birthday question. But that really would've been snooping. "I don't see why he'd lie about it," is all he says, ignoring Conrad's deeply dubious expression. "Will you come over Monday night? I'm going to invite everyone else tomorrow, too."

And he really hopes the rest of them don't respond by looking at him like they want to laugh, because that's going to get old. "You're throwing him a surprise party? Why?"

Which is something he hadn't thought to ask himself. Why? Well.. why not, really. "Because he'd do the same for me, if we knew my birthday. Or for you, actually- when's yours, Conrad?" He's never really sure how much of his intended expressions actually show, but right now he's aiming for a smirk, and from Conrad's flustered reaction, he probably managed it.

"Jesus, fine, no need to threaten me. I'll put some party music together or something. Just don't expect me to show up with a gift."

+++

Gifts, that's another thing he hadn't thought of. He has some money- Hanna insists, partly because it's him that usually does the shopping- but he has no idea what Hanna might like. Well, that isn't true; he knows Hanna likes pancakes, and potatoes, most music, bad movies, his (kind of crappy) cameras, dinosaurs, comic books, things that light up, and his chicken keychain that, inexplicably, moos. But none of those really help when it comes to gift ideas.

Hanna heads off to work full of breakfast (eggs and cheese on toast) and he goes to talk to the rest of their odd little crew, keeping an eye on shop windows on his way to the café where Toni works.

He's in luck; Veser happens to be there as well, sitting at the counter while Toni's serving. Maybe predictably, Veser's pretty enthused about the whole idea. "Aw hell yeah, you're throwing a fuckin' party? I'll bring some booze." The woman sitting two seats over from Veser, who had already been shooting them both of them haughty looks, makes a loud noise of disapproval and moves to a different chair. "Yeah well who told you to sit near me anyway, ya fuckin' cow!" Toni appears like magic from the opposite end of the counter, shoving a basket of fries across the counter into Veser's hands.

"Jeez, stop before Glenn makes me kick you out! You can't just swear at old ladies," she hisses, though apparently not quietly enough to keep from earning them yet another glare. Not that she notices. "So what's up?"

They fill her in, with Veser doing most of the talking, not that there's much to tell. "So you should bring some girls," he concludes, "'cos otherwise it's going to be a total Oktoberfest." Their twin looks of incomprehension make him roll his eyes. "Y'know, nothing but beer and sausages?"

"Oh my god," Toni says, pushing away from the counter. "I'll be there," she says to him with a smile, ignoring Veser entirely. "I can bring some decorating stuff- and I could bring some friends too, I guess?"

"I'm sure Hanna would appreciate it," he says, which is true; and if any of them happen to throw a drink in Veser's face, well, that'll just be added entertainment. She nods, then gives them a quick wave (and gives Veser one last warning look) before going to greet a couple who just sat down.

He debates the wisdom of this next bit, but it'd be pretty much impossible to get the apartment ready otherwise. Even Hanna isn't that oblivious. Of course, he makes the mistake of thinking 'what could go wrong?' (the mental list of which starts with Hanna finding out about the party, continues on into arrests for public indecency, and ends somewhere around accidentally summoning a world destroyer or elder god) but tries to ignore all of that as he turns to Veser. "Can I ask for a favor?"

+++

Getting Hanna out of the apartment for a bit is sort of amazingly easy, not anything that had actually required advance subterfuge planning after all. He isn't the least suspicious when Veser invites him out for the afternoon ("Man, I'm not going to tell him, you really think I can't keep a fucking secret?"; though of course that only covers the first bit of his worries) and Veser must've arranged things with Toni beforehand, because ten minutes after the two of them leave, she's at the door with a box of party decorations.

His shopping excursion had included cake ingredients, chips, salsa and queso, candles with funny-colored flames, plastic cups, two bottles of soda, and a possibly ill-advised bottle of cheap vodka. He'd been a bit stumped on decorations, though. A banner of sparkly cardboard letters spelling out 'Happy Birthday' had seemed like a safe bet, as had a package of those party blower.. noisemaker things. And hats. He had a suspicion Hanna wouldn't count it as a true party if it didn't include noisemakers and hats. But beyond that, he'd settled for looking at the party aisle with doubt and confusion and moving on to the food shopping bits.

Fortunately, it seems Toni's got them covered at least twice over. Her bin of supplies is stuffed with crepe paper, bags of confetti, napkins, some sort of inflatable things, and possibly a clown with a real live pony, for all he can tell. "Thanks," he says, and means it, but he has no idea what to do with any of this.

Apparently it shows, and she takes pity on him. "Did you get Hanna a gift yet?" He shakes his head; he hasn't been able to find anything that seemed quite right. "Okay, well, that's sort of important! So you go do that, and I'll call some friends over to help." She gives the apartment a look- it's clean, anyway, but that's mostly all that can ever be said for it. Even Toni's optimism seems to falter for a moment, then she seems to remember herself and beams up at him. "It'll be good! I can handle it. No worries!"

+++

It takes him longer than he'd like to admit-it's possible he's over-thinking this- but he settles on a photo album. He thinks it might be cheesy, but also thinks Hanna's unlikely to care, and he knows for certain that Hanna keeps the majority of his snapshots (the ones that don't get put up in the kitchen) in an old, grubby cigar box. A book would be useful, especially if he's got time to put some photos in himself before the party.

Somehow, in the time he's been gone, Toni has managed to work a miracle. The apartment looks like a space people might voluntarily spend time in for more than five minutes, some sort of luau theme going with fake leis and tissue paper flowers conveniently taped to the walls over the worst of the weird water damage (or whatever) cracks and stains.

Toni- and the two friends she apparently recruited to her cause- are slumped together on the sofa, giggling over something he recognizes as Family Guy, but she switches it off right away to turn and smile at him. "Find something good?"

"I think so, yes." Probably. Or something lame- he's still not sure, maybe he should've got Hanna a plastic dinosaur and a toy ray gun instead. Damn it, he definitely should've done that. Probably too late to return it now, though. At least the apartment looks good, and there's the cake to be made. "This is all perfect. Thank you," he says, hoping he manages to carry his sincerity in his tone. It's hard to be sure sometimes.

But from the pleased look on Toni's face, he managed. "Aww, it's no problem! I'm glad we could help. Anything else you need a hand with before we go?"

There isn't- just the cake and the photos, which he can handle on his own- so they leave, heading home to get ready but promising to be back in time for the party. He closes the door behind them, gives the apartment one last looking over, then heads to the kitchen for his first-ever try at baking cake, sincerely hoping that a 'how hard can it be' attitude isn't about to bite him in the ass.

+++

He tries not to frown at the cake as it cools on the counter. It smells good, and looks good; it's not the cake's fault he can't actually taste it to make sure. (Well, maybe he could, he still hasn't tried food. But he's not sure how that would go so it's probably not the right time to experiment, and anyway, he doubts he'd be the best judge.) And he bought frosting in a tub and a jar of four different types of sprinkles, two of which are just colored sugar, so there's no way that Hanna won't enjoy the end results. So there's really no reason to worry. And he should stop. Really.

Fortunately, Ples shows up before he can glare a hole in the thing. "Veser threatened to drag me here bodily if I didn't come on my own," he explains wryly. "Hm, something smells good- is that chocolate?"

Ples is thankfully good-natured about being dragged into the kitchen and practically force-fed cake, and even offers to do the icing once it's been established that yes, in fact, the cake is edible. "It's quite good, actually. Go do whatever else needs doing, I think I can manage this." And there's still the photo album to take care of, so he goes.

Considering Hanna's photography habit only began about a year ago, the amount of snapshots he's managed to amass can really only be described as impressive. There's a lot to go through; he's glad, after all, that there's someone to help with the cake, so that he can give this his full attention. Especially since there's less than an hour until Hanna's due to be home.

Worth, strangely enough, is the next to arrive. "Yeah, well," he mutters, and claims a beer and a corner of the sofa. He reaches over after a minute to poke through some of the stray photos. "Heh. These're alright." They're quiet a minute, nothing but Ples' ever-present ticking to break the silence, until Worth holds up another photo- Hanna, with his arms around Toni and Veser, an enormous grin on his face. "Don't think they make 'em any more daft or reckless, but. He's a good kid."

He nods, not really feeling any words are necessary- or adequate- and reaches out, taking the photo to add to Hanna's gift.

+++

Veser makes plenty of noise on the way up the stairs, presumably so they'll all know that he and Hanna are coming. He's a bit thrown, though, on what to do now. Apparently the others are thinking the same thing, based on the faces they're making.

"Hide?" Toni suggests, but a glance at the apartment makes the impossibility of that pretty clear. He considers going to light the candles, greeting Hanna with his (frosted and sprinkled and apparently good) cake, but he's a little worried that, cake or no, Hanna might try to hug him. It's a little ridiculous that this, of all things, is where the whole surprise party idea manages to fall apart, but before any of them can come up with an answer, the doorknob's turning.

Toni's friends all chorus "Surprise!" when Hanna walks in, but they're the only ones, which might be a bit awkward except that from how Hanna's gaping it's unlikely he noticed. "You- what-" he says, and even from across the room, even with Hanna's glasses obscuring his face, it's still pretty obvious when he starts to tear up. That's a possibility he hadn't considered, and he takes a second to be annoyed with himself- but the next second, Hanna's smiling, grinning really, and everyone seems to relax at the same time, all of his friends laughing and converging on him at once.

Their strange little group has grown, over the year, and with Toni's friends added in it's enough to make the tiny apartment feel almost cramped (it doesn't help that Finas and Casimiro turn up around 10- he's not even sure how they heard about the party, really, though by then everyone's drunk enough to welcome them happily). But judging by the way Hanna's beaming around at all of them, he doubts the crowded atmosphere bothers him any; Hanna looks like just having them there is the greatest present he could ask for.

"Hey," Hanna says from behind him, and he turns with a smile, accepting the hug he'd known was coming. The muffled "Thanks, man," muttered into his shirt might sound a little choked up, but he's not going to tell. And when Hanna pulls away, he looks as cheerful as ever. "So hey! You should try some of that cake, it is awesome. This seems like the right night to find out what happens when you actually, y'know, eat things, right? What better time than a party for potentially embarrassing bodily functions! And hey. We should do your birthday next." Yes, he really should've known that one was coming. "I mean we could just make one up or something if you want! I'm thinking maybe in August- or September? When there's that big long boring stretch between the Fourth of July and Halloween! We could use a reason to party somewhere in there."

The whole time he's talking, Hanna's dragging him along to the kitchen, and presumably to the cake waiting there, but he pauses suddenly, looking like he suddenly got slapped with an amazing idea. "Hey- HEY," he says in what may be the least stealthy whisper ever, "I wonder when Conrad's birthday is! Oh oh that's our next case, okay, it's official, Operation: Vampire Celebration. Vampibration. Okay we can work on the name but YEAH."

Conrad (who has of course heard the whole thing, because the music's nowhere near loud enough to drown out an enthusiastic Hanna) is looking at them with horror from across the room. "Hanna.." he starts, with the intention of trying to rein this in before it gets started.

But Hanna just smiles up at him, maybe happier than he's ever been, and what sort of person- or whatever- would he be to crush that? So "Happy birthday," is all he says, and Hanna's grin gets, if possible, even wider (his face is going to break if he keeps that up).

"Thanks, Wayland. And thanks for my party. And. Y'know, being my friend, saving my ass a bunch of times, sticking around, all that sappy junk." His eyes look a little misty again for a second, but apparently nothing can deter Hanna from the important things in life for long. "Anyway, hey, come on- cake!"

And with that Hanna grabs his wrist again, dragging him on into adventure (cake adventure)- and, as ever, he follows.