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If there’s one thing Ariadne didn’t expect to happen on her birthday, it’s for one Juniper Nyux to go missing without even a word of warning. When dawn had risen, she’d woken with high spirits, eagerly making a beeline to his room in order to spend the day with him only to realise that it was empty, the gunman nowhere to be seen.
That was odd, she couldn’t help but wonder. Wouldn’t he have said something if he’d left?
After that, she’d tried searching throughout the Andromeda for him, only to come up short. He wasn’t in the training rooms, where he sometimes went to let off steam when his long nights kept him awake, nor was he anywhere to be found on the bridge.
(“Haven’t seen him the whole morning,” Aya had said when Ariadne had asked, mildly apologetic. “And I’m usually the one doing the wake-up calls.”)
There wasn’t even any trace of him in the gunnery or the kitchens - though she did find Bash in there busy cooking up a storm - and at this point, she was more than a little confused. She was really starting to worry, concern for him gnawing at the frayed edges of her composure.
Eventually, Damon had noticed how restless she was and had to step in to help take her mind off of things, and she was grateful for the good few hours spent discussing her latest literary fixations with him and picking at the plot holes and problematic characters within its assorted cast. It isn’t until evening’s fallen that she finally trudges back to her room, utterly disappointed in the way the day was proceeding and feeling her heart sink lower with every passing minute.
Maybe it was my fault for expecting things to be any different, she thinks, her chest aching with a sudden twinge of pain. After all, her birthdays had never been special affairs - not to her, or to the people around her. What had made her think that this year would prove otherwise? Tears begin to prick at the backs of her eyes, but Ariadne digs her fingertips into her palms, refusing to let herself cry.
But what she didn’t anticipate, however, was to find June anxiously pacing in front of her door, looking as if he was waiting for someone.
Looking as if he was waiting for her.
It’s amazing just how much her heart lifts when she sees his face, and Ariadne can’t hold back the joy and relief that creeps into her voice when she finally speaks.
“June!” Ariadne calls out, and he immediately turns in the direction of her voice, the anxious look on his face melting away as soon as he sees her.
“Ari!” He answers as he spreads his arms, poised to catch her as she runs towards him and launches herself into his embrace. He chuckles at the way she clings to him, burying her nose in his shirt, and thoroughly endeared, he allows himself to run his fingers through the deep red of her hair. “I was wondering where you were.”
Ariadne wrinkles her nose at him, pursing her lips into a pout. “I should be asking you that question, fine sir,” she teases, playfully prodding her finger into his chest. “You’ve been missing in action the whole day, and no one knew where you’d went! I was seriously starting to wonder if anything had happened to you.”
She tries her best to keep her words light, but the humored lilt to her voice barely masks the hint of worry that’s slipped through the cracks. June, ever perceptive, picks up on this, his brow furrowing slightly as he strokes a thumb across her cheek.
“I didn’t mean to worry you,” he reassures, eyes locked on hers as he tries his best to communicate his apology. “I’m sorry, Ariadne. But I can make it up to you.”
The fullness of her name rolling off of his tongue makes Ariadne suppress a little frisson of delight, but she brings her attention back to what he’s just told her. “Oh?” She teases with a half confused, half playful tone. “And how exactly are you going to do that?”
With that his handsome face breaks into a grin, his grey eyes twinkling in amusement as he slips a hand into his pocket. “I’m glad you asked.”
Before she can say anything more, June pulls out a small, crimson-colored box, taking her hand and placing it in her grasp before curling her fingers over it. “Happy birthday, darlin’,” he says softly, his gaze brimming with an affection that nearly stops Ariadne’s heart. “Thank you… for everything. For being you, for being here, and most of all — for being with me.”
Stunned speechless by his words, she tugs at the red ribbon holding the box together, unravelling it and watching with bated breath as it opens. The first things she sees are tiny stars - intricately crafted from a gold-tinged metal, and lightly studded with diamantine gems that wink magically with light. They’re strung onto a delicate gold chain, looking almost like a fluid constellation, and Ariadne has to catch her breath to steady herself.
It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful and perfect and the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for her, and she can’t help it when her eyes start to well up with the beginnings of happy tears.
“Ari?” June asks, panicked by her reaction, and he holds her gently by the shoulders, bending a little to get a look at her face and trying his best to do some form of damage control. “I’m sorry, did you not like it? I could always go back and get something else—”
“I love it.”
The emotion in her voice has June pausing, the gunman silent as he takes in the way her lip shakes ever so slightly as she tries to keep her feelings at bay. A surge of protectiveness courses through him at the sight, and before he can think twice he takes her hands in his, giving them a reassuring squeeze.
He won’t let her be alone, not anymore. Not if he has anything to say about it.
“Can I put it on for you?” June asks her, and the way her brown eyes widen before Ariadne gives him the sweetest smile he’s ever seen is something he decides to seal within his memory, a precious sight to remember for those darker days where June found it difficult to breathe.
“Please,” she says shyly, placing the gold chain in his hand before lifting the voluminous red of her hair and exposing her nape. Smiling to himself, June obliges, draping the chain around the smooth column of her throat and carefully clasping it shut. Unable to help himself, he traces a line along the curve of her neck with a crooked finger, and Ariadne shivers a little at the contact, eventually turning around and tiptoeing to press a kiss to his cheek.
“Thank you, June,” she tells him, winding her arms around him and basking in the way her heart grows lighter just by virtue of having him around. “This is the best birthday I’ve had in a long, long time.”
The answering grin he gives her when she pulls away, however, leaves her feeling like he has more up his sleeves. “Oh, but we’re not done yet,” he says, a conspiratorial edge to his tone as he wraps an arm around her shoulders and walks her down the hallway. “Everyone else spent so much time preparing, and we can’t keep them waiting now, can we?”
Ariadne’s heart stutters in response to his words. There’s a flickering hope that kindles inside of her, one that she so badly wants to smother in order to keep her expectations from hurting her like they always have - but any doubts she might have had fall away once the doors to the dining hall slide open with a swift, mechanical whoosh, a loud popping noise filling Ariadne’s ears as a kaleidoscope of color and golden glitter rains down on her.
There is but a singular, suspended moment of quiet, one that slows itself down to engrave itself into her memory, before the crew of the Andromeda breaks out into a lively, sing-song chorus of “HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARI!”
The scene is chaos, but Ariadne takes it all in and savours it — the way Bash and Aya are whooping and hooting as they make their way over to her, wide smiles on both of their faces; how Damon and Ryona wear matching smiles as they reveal the decadent red velvet cake they’re holding, little flames blazing at the tips of twenty-two candles; and even the stone-cold Captain himself as he blows on a little party horn that’s speckled with yellow polka-dots, somehow managing to look both grumpy and bemused at the same time.
It’s overwhelming, a little haywire, and basically a downright mess — but an unyielding warmth spreads its way through Ariadne’s veins, taking root in her heart and setting itself in stone.
These were her friends. Her family. And this… this was home.
“Happy birthday, Ariadne,” June echos, a solid, unshakeable presence beside her as he draws her close, kissing her tenderly on the forehead. “Here’s to all of the years that you’ve had... and to all of the years that have yet to come.”