Work Text:
“Happy Birthday to You...” Joel warbled off-key as he brought the small cake into the living room and placed it on the coffee table in front of Mike. Tom, Crow, and Cambot joined in as Mike forced a smile and tried not to cringe at the various tempos, keys, and bleeps his serenade continued in.
“Make a wish and blow out the candle!” Crow urged.
“How comes there’s only one candle? Mike’s a lot older than that,” Tom asked.
“Because they wouldn’t all fit on the cake, dummy,” Crow answered, “plus we’d all die of smoke inhalation.”
“Enough,” Joel interjected. “Go ahead, honey, blow it out before the wax drips all over.”
Mike leaned over and gently puffed, the candle extinguishing successfully. Cambot played a short tinny trumpet sound suspiciously similar to the Windows ‘Ta-Da’. Mike smiled at them anyway.
“I’ll get the plates,” Joel said, turning and going back into the kitchen.
“Hey Joel,” Tom called after him, “what happened to the cupcakes we helped you bake yesterday? I thought you said they were for Mike’s birthday?”
“They were,” Joel said, walking back in with a handful of paper plates, napkins, and plastic forks. “Until you and Crow licked off all the icing. Again. So I baked this while you were at school today so Mike would have something.”
“We replaced the icing!”
“Crow, you poured four containers of sprinkles on a dozen cupcakes. Sprinkles aren’t a replacement for chocolate frosting.”
“Sprinkles are like glitter for food. There’s no such thing as too much,” declared Tom.
“Be that as it may, I wasn’t going to give Mike cupcakes with robot spit all over them.” Joel handed Mike his slice of cake.
“It’s been done before,” Mike mumbled under his breath.
“So what did you wish for?” Crow asked Mike.
“He’s not supposed to say or else it won’t come true,” said Tom.
Mike leaned over to the two bots along side him on the couch. “I wished that you guys would go to bed early tonight,” he said, taking a bite of cake. Joel looked up from the cake and over his glasses at Mike with a little smile and a raised eyebrow. Mike responded with a genuine grin.
“Why would you waste your wish on something stupid like that?” Crow looked at Tom. “Besides, you know we never go to bed early!”
“I know. That’s why it was a wish.”