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She slipped out of bed quietly, bringing Liho with her- the cat had been curled up on her chest, and she didn’t want her disturbing Bucky.
She shut the door carefully, although she knew that it wouldn’t be long before James woke up- he had trouble sleeping without her curled up next to him. Crossing the kitchen, she set Liho down on the counter, turning to open the refrigerator once the cat was content sniffing at a vase of flowers.
She’d got him his favorite kind of cake- classic chocolate with ganache frosting, and had planned to put 106 candles on it as a joke, since she always made fun of James for being an “old man”. Nevermind the fact that she was nearly as old as him.
She swatted Liho away from the vase as she set down the cake, and then moved the cat to the floor, knowing that it wouldn’t be enough to keep her from trying to eat the cake. As she straightened back up, she twisted to grab the candles out of one of the kitchen drawers. For anyone else, over 100 candles would take at least half an hour to stick on a cake, but luckily, she was trained to be speedy.
She had it done by the time she heard him stirring in the bedroom, grabbing the lighter and beginning to light the candles. She had planned to bring the cake to bed, but now that she saw the amount of candles on it, she thought that might be a bit of a fire hazard- and lighting their apartment on fire was not how she wanted to start celebrating James’ birthday.
As he stepped out of his room, she began singing the Russian happy birthday song. She knew the lyrics were the same in English, but she loved having something special between the two of them- it was a song that they shared every birthday.
He smiled, Alpine in hand, as he walked towards her. By the time he got over to the kitchen, she was done singing, and it took nearly three tries to blow out all of the candles. By the time they were out, a warm smile had spread out across his face, and she crossed to the other side of the counter to hold him, gently setting Alpine down on the wood flooring.
“Happy birthday, moya lyubov.” She said, stretching to kiss him.
He returned the kiss with a smile, opening his arms to her and holding her tight once she moved towards the offer.
“You don’t need to do this, you know,” he said as they pulled away for air.
“I know, but I love you, and I like taking care of you, James. You take care of me all the time, let me do it for you for once.” She smiled softly, tracing his jawline with her fingertips.
“Alright, alright. But I’m still making breakfast.”
“I’m willing to comprimise,”
And at that, he smiled back, peppering her face with kisses. Today, he thought, was going to be a good day.