Title: birthday part one
Rating: T
Fandom: even if TEMPEST
Relationship: Crius Castlerock/Tyril I Lister/Anastasia Lynzel
Wordcount: 2187
Short summary: Anastasia and Tyril come over with dinner and cake to celebrate Crius’ birthday.
Crius is sitting on his sofa, half-heartedly reading a book, when the expected knock on the door comes. Finally, and right on time.
“We’re here.” Anastasia announces with a smile as Crius opens the door. She’s holding two containers. Behind her stands Tyril with a neutral expression carrying two more containers.
“Welcome. Oh, that smells good.” Crius smiles as he lets the two of them enter. He isn’t sure which smell comes from which container, but his stomach is certainly ready for dinner. It was hard to wait at home for Anastasia and Tyril to make the food and bring it over (he assumes they made it at Anastasia’s place), but they had insisted on this meal being their gift to him. If only they had chosen to make the meal in his kitchen so he could see them in aprons… Alas, for another day…
“The cake is from His Highness.”
Apparently Lucien’s gift to him is the cake. “Got it.”
The white box on top seems to be the cake, so Crius makes a motion to grab for it only for Tyril to rebuff him. “Sit down. We told you to relax,” Tyril scolds.
“But…” Crius sighs. His lovers are here! Of course he wants to do something. It’s so hard to be patient, although… “I guess it’s nice to see how well you know my place.”
“Shut up.” Tyril has returned from the kitchen holding knives and forks. Okay, Crius better be quiet until the knives are safely on the table lest Tyril decides to use them on him. Oh, is that Anastasia returning with dinner on his dinnerware? There looks to be pasta with cream sauce, a large piece of steak, and some roasted vegetables each taking a third of the plate each. Altogether everything looks and smells delicious, but as for the taste…
“By the way, did anyone supervise your cooking?” Crius asks, even as his heart tells him that he would scarf it down no matter how strong the taste might be.
“Can’t trust us?” Tyril remarks sarcastically as he finalizes the positions of the silverware around the dinner plates.
“Especially not you,” Crius snaps back with a laugh. To be honest, he wouldn’t be surprised if Tyril made him something extra spicy for kicks even if it is for his birthday. And Anastasia is still pretty new to cooking, so…
“Zenn helped. I invited him to join us for dinner, but he declined, saying he had a client meeting,” Anastasia explains as she sets the wine glasses down. Two filled with red wine, one with water. As is usual for the three of them, Tyril will sit across from Crius and Anastasia to his left.
“A client meeting.” Sounds suspicious.
“He’s probably going to bother Prince Lucien to avoid having to see you fawn over Miss Red.” Tyril snorts as he returns to the table with napkins. He’s about to go sit down when Crius takes hold of his sleeve.
“Or you.” Crius grins as he takes advantage of temporarily unbalancing Tyril to slide his hand down Tyril’s forearm.
“Or me…damnit Cas don’t just say…or look at me like that.” Of course Crius is shamelessly ogling the beautiful man in his grasp. Anastasia can’t control her laughter, causing Tyril to grumble. “Stop laughing, he’s only going to be more fired up.”
“Come on, Tyr.” Crius doesn’t wait, yanking Tyril closer, bringing his left hand to the back of Tyril’s head and pulling Tyril down for a sloppy kiss on the mouth.
“Ugh, you’re so gross,” Tyril complains once Crius breaks the kiss, although Crius definitely notices how he lingers by Crius’ side. However, Crius has someone else equally important to kiss. He turns to Anastasia and pulls her in for a soft press of lips. Unlike Tyril, Anastasia has been perfectly sweet and adorable. He’ll ask her for a deeper kiss later, after dinner.
“Alright, time to eat!” Crius claps his hands together. “Thank you for the meal. I am blessed to celebrate my birthday with my two favorite people. I could not ask for more.”
“You haven’t even tried the food,” Tyril points out pedantically as he sits down.
“I trust Anastasia. And Zenn.” Crius smiles. “And you, when you try.”
“He tried,” Anastasia asserts.
Tyril’s cheeks gain a bit of pink. “Shut up and eat,” Tyril huffs.
Crius chuckles and turns his gaze to Anastasia. She’s about to pick up her fork. An indulgent thought occurs to him. “Anastasia, will you feed me?” Crius asks with a flutter of his eyes. When she blushes, Crius looks over at Tyril. “Tyr, you can too.”
Tyril scowls. “You want to be treated like a baby?”
Okay, never mind. That won’t be cute at all. “Okay, just Anastasia. Please?”
Anastasia hesitates. Hmm, maybe he’s pushing her too hard?
Tyril speaks up. “We’re only doing this because it’s your birthday.”
“Really? Meaning other times we just skip to the bath and the bed?” Crius jokes.
“If you don’t shut up I will force feed you,” Tyril threatens.
“Tyril…” Anastasia lets out a deep sigh. She cuts a small chunk of steak and holds it up on a fork angled towards Crius’ mouth. Crius pauses, debating whether he should beckon Anastasia to move it closer or lean over and take the fork into his mouth.
“Behave or I’ll whip you.” Tyril bangs the table with the side of his hand. “And it will hurt.”
Crius puts his right hand up. “I give.”
Tyril nods. He sits back and lets Crius act. Crius decides to go for the simple act of guiding Anastasia’s fork to his open mouth. He takes in the steak, chews, swallows. It’s excellent: tender, juicy, not too spicy.
“This really is good. I have to say thanks once more.”
Anastasia smiles in relief, while Tyril looks smug. “Of course it is.” He nudges Crius’ foot with his own. “You deserve it.”
Crius is surprised by the sincerity. “Tyril…”
Tyril doesn’t reply, shoving a piece of roasted broccoli into his mouth instead. For someone who only regularly eats vegetables now due to Anastasia’s influence, this is a clear sign for Crius to stop talking and start focusing on eating. Alternating between bites of the pasta, the meat, and the vegetables, Crius can only appreciate the ability to taste it all, the flavors as well as the textures. He’s not sure the novelty of regaining his sensitivity will wear off anytime soon.
Conversation is casual and light throughout the meal, with Crius urging Tyril to tell some stories of celebrations past. Although it is funny to find out just how much their recollections of certain events don’t line up. Anastasia suggests that there had been a “difference in perspective”, the easiest way to say she isn’t going to pick a side. Crius almost pouts upon that realization, but then again Tyril might harm him even if it is his birthday. Well, just the type of people his lovers are.
Tyril gets up from his seat with his empty plate, having finished eating first, and walks over to kiss Anastasia’s forehead. Crius doesn’t have time to fake offense as his forehead is kissed next.
“Time for cake. His Highness will ask me your opinion so you better eat and pay attention.”
Anastasia’s hand lands on Crius’ shoulder before he can move even a millimeter out of his seat, indicating that he is meant to stay seated until cake time is over at least. His lovers are really taking the “sit down and relax” order so seriously. Well at least this time he has company. Crius tilts his face down and manages to brush his lips against Anastasia’s fingers. Her hand lifts off his shoulder reflexively; he takes the opportunity to turn his body to face her and bring her in closer for a proper kiss…
“Here you go.” Tyril’s words have Crius breaking off his kiss with Anastasia. Just when he was about to use his tongue… Alas. Tyril has set the white box containing cake in the center of the table. “Open it.”
“Alright.” Crius has no idea what kind of cake will be inside. When he cracks open the top, he spies white frosting and wonders if the cake might be something light, like vanilla. Seems pretty normal…until he takes the top of completely. He blinks, twice. But the words don’t change.
“Happy Birthday Crius on top?” Crius reads, raising an eyebrow.
Anastasia, standing up to better read the words Crius has just read out loud, promptly sits back down in a fluster. Tyril too peers at the words, eyes squinted.
Is this some type of joke? Crius wonders. Tyril was the one who received the cake from Lucien, right? “Tyr, did you have any clue—“
But Tyril’s face is flushed with rage. “What the hell. I’m going to…” Tyril trails off, but with the way he wrings his hands together, he’s probably trying to mimic wringing a royal pain in the neck. Even though Crius is sure everyone here thinks it was probably an honest mistake on Lucien’s part.
“I’m sure it tastes fine,” Anastasia says a few moments later, clearly wanting to move past this. Tyril, managing to cool himself down, nods in agreement.
“Let’s just cut it. Cas.” Tyril hands Crius the cake-cutting knife and proceeds to dismantle the sides of the box so they lay flat on the table.
Crius takes a moment to think about how he wants to cut the cake. It’s a lot of cake to cut so thirds would be too much. Cutting around the chocolate letters would be convenient, though. The first two pieces to cut make sense; he cuts a piece with the word “top” to give to himself and a piece with the word “on” to give to Anastasia. He’s a bit stumped what to cut for Tyril, considering Tyril isn’t going to want a whole quarter or more of the cake in one go.
“If you don’t want to cut through your name, let me do it.”
That would be the logical place to cut next, but before Crius can make a move, Tyril cuts between the “i" and the “u”. It’s only when the piece slides onto Tyril’s plate that Crius realizes that Tyril’s piece has the word “us”.
“Oh.” Crius smiles. “How romantic.” Tyril can be openly sweet on a rare occasion, and Crius is touched that one is happening on his birthday.
“Shut up.” Tyril waves the cake knife in the air menacingly. “I can mutilate the rest.”
“Please don’t.” It would make storing the rest of the cake for later a problem. Besides, some baker did such a nice job making the cake look nice, even if the message written on top was…something else. Speaking of which, it’s time to eat the piece he has cut for himself. The other two are waiting for him to take the first bite.
“Interesting. It has alcohol in it.”
Crius’ remark makes Anastasia pause her fork in midair while Tyril instead shoves a forkful of his piece into his mouth. A few moments later he scoffs. “Barely any.” Although Tyril proceeds to shove another forkful in his mouth, so it’s not actually a problem for him.
“Yeah, it’s just flavoring. I like it.” Crius grins before taking a second forkful. Seeing Anastasia take a bite and enjoying the cake only makes Crius happier inside. It’s a great way to cap off this nice birthday meal.
Once they finish eating their pieces of cake, Crius stands up. “I’ll have to thank Lucien for this when I see him next. And Zenn for helping you guys with the meal.” He focuses his gaze on Tyril. “Now can I at least get the bath ready or will I have to relax some more?”
Tyril looks over at Anastasia who gives him a smile. “Go ahead and get started with whatever fancy stuff you want to use,” Tyril says as he picks up his empty plate. “We’ll take care of this.”
Nice. Crius has suspected most of the evening that Tyril is the one truly in charge of the plans tonight. Even if Anastasia got the ball rolling… “Permission to use the rose salts?”
He knows that Tyril is not a big fan of scented things, although he doesn’t hate it. At least Tyril doesn’t appear to hate the smell on Crius or Anastasia. Maybe it means Tyril doesn’t get into the bath with Crius and Anastasia later, but… Tyril’s response is merely to give Crius a glare before focusing on collecting the other dishes to bring to the sink to wash. When Crius looks over at Anastasia, she’s smiling sheepishly. Crius takes her right hand and brings it to his lips.
“I’ll be waiting for you two,” he murmurs before leaving a light kiss on the back of her right hand. He grins as he leaves the dining table and makes his way to the bathroom. There’s still plenty of time tonight to do much more with his two favorite people, and Crius can’t wait to get started on part two.