Chapter 25
Notes:
Okay, when I said thoughts? Just answering to have them BANG more is not enough of an answer! XD Anything constructive out there for my Superhero AU? I’ll have to keep thinking about it…
In the meantime, back to our regularly scheduled fic. ^_^
ROWAN
“Surprise!”
Rowan was stunned. The most important people in his life right now were all here—sans Ruben, which he was totally okay with.
Ruben had sent him a virtual card that morning.
Once activated, it had three-dimensionally projected up from Rowan’s tablet two normal round balloons flanking a third oblong balloon with the words below it: No YOU Grow Up!
Ruben: Seriously, bro, love you. The world doesn’t know what it’s in for with you in your thirties.
Aside from the dick balloons, it was actually pretty sweet.
And so was this intimate surprise party that Rowan definitely should have expected.
He’d thought Milo had been acting strangely all week, but then, what was normal when Milo had only been alive for days compared to the months he’d been Rowan’s… well, property didn’t sit well with him.
Assistant? That wasn’t inaccurate. Now, Milo was so much more.
He was a boyfriend who’d gone to all this trouble just for Rowan.
The others flocked to him with words of congratulations and half-hugs or pats on his shoulder.
Nothing overly affectionate. That wasn’t Rowan’s way with his sisters, and definitely not his way with Troy, though Ethel went for a full-on bear hug, despite barely clearing Rowan’s waist. He was glad she hadn’t ordered Anabelle to try hugging him.
He couldn’t look at bots who weren’t Milo the same way anymore and felt uncomfortable under their idle stares.
Milo was last to come forward but far from idle like Anabelle, for he wore his blinding smile, with all that sentient light in his eyes, having seen how truly touched Rowan was and rightly proud of himself for it.
Normally, Rowan hated surprises. He hated his birthday.
He hated any attention on him, usually. But once in a while, especially from Milo and this close-knit group of people, it felt kind of amazing to be the reason they were together.
“You all suck,” Rowan said with a growing grin of his own, knowing Milo would get the sarcasm as he came forward with a simple round cake sporting a printed frosting pattern of the nighttime city skyline, and a single candle in the shape of the number thirty.
Milo kicked off the birthday song, which the others joined in on, refreshingly all on key.
“Happy birthday to you!”
“Thank you. All of you,” Rowan said, and promptly blew out the candle.
Milo set the cake aside to be sliced later, as he apparently had the entire evening planned with gifts, games, and general good times. He had used all he had learned about Rowan to create the perfect birthday.
The apartment was decorated minimally but still appropriately festive.
Presents were all thoughtful or useful only, nothing unnecessary or extravagant.
Ethel, for example, had knitted Rowan an infinity scarf in orange, purple, and marigold with a lovely ombre pattern, even if it wouldn’t technically be useful for several months when it was no longer the middle of summer.
One unnecessary thing Rowan actually found charming, which was revealed before they started the main game Milo had planned when he let Spot out of the bedroom who, along with her googly eyes, now sported a party hat.
As Milo directed everyone to places around the living room, Rowan couldn’t resist sidling over to him to plant a grateful kiss to his cheek.
Which prompted a soft, knowing smile from Ethel.
And an accusatory squint from Riley.
Shit. There was no way either of them would stay out of the loop after this, not if Milo planned this party, something no normal bot would nor could do as a surprise for their master.
Rowan couldn’t even be bothered to be upset about that though.
He was too touched, too… happy. And as long as no one let Andrew find out how wide the Milo-knowledge net had grown, it didn’t really matter.
Before Riley could say something, which she was clearly gearing up to do, an exclamation from Raina drew everyone’s attention.
“How do you have cake?” she accused Ethel, who, after seating herself in Rowan’s plush recliner, with a dutiful Anabelle settling cross-legged at her feet, had a fork and plated slice of cake that absolutely looked like a middle piece.
“Old women do not have time to wait for others to cut their cake for them, dear,” Ethel said sweetly, before taking her first satisfied bite of buttercream.
Milo looked surprised as well, head swiveling back and forth between Ethel and where he had left the cake with the waiting plates and forks. The very center had a perfect square carved out of it, while the rest of the cake remained pristine.
“When?” Troy asked the other obvious inquiry.
Rowan had long since known better than to question the method to Ethel’s madness.
“If, um, others also want cake right away, you are welcome to it!” Milo recovered.
He had motioned for Raina to sit on the L-portion of the sofa near Ethel, and for Rowan and the other two to sit on the sofa proper.
“We will split into two teams, like so, and we will be playing… Family Feud!” Milo turned on the TV, which was already prepped with a virtual home version of the game.
Troy rather conspicuously took the seat nearest to Raina, while Riley pushed Rowan ahead of her for him to take the middle seat so she could have the end.
“It doesn’t even know you don’t like cake?” she muttered in mock whisper.
Rowan didn’t not like cake, it was just his least favorite type of baked good, as it rarely had as many nuances of flavor in his opinion, especially birthday and wedding cake. It was the thought that counted though, as it would be weird blowing out a candle atop a pie.
“Oh, he knows!” Raina said loudly to contrast Riley’s whisper, both for Milo’s benefit, and as if she knew something the others didn’t. “He just wants Rowan to save his sweet tooth for later.”
Riley glared at Raina, who grinned cheekily back.
“He?” Riley mouthed to Rowan.
Rowan shrugged. She could figure it out for herself.
Milo, at least, seemed unperturbed by the callout, too focused on getting the game going.
“Everyone knows how this is played, yes? We will be asked questions and need to guess how we think most other people would answer. With this version of the game, a virtual host will be listening in for our answers, and Rowan and I will be the captains of our respective teams. We will start the first round with a Face Off question between us for whoever can answer first. If the first to speak gets the top answer, our team automatically gets to go for a full round. If it’s not the top, the other team gets the chance to answer to see if they can beat us. ”
“Isn’t it cheating to let a bot play?” Riley asked.
Rowan wanted to elbow her for continuing to be a pain, but her tone wasn’t completely derisive.
“I will not look up any answers but will be using my… intuition,” Milo replied.
Riley side-eyed Rowan again, but he cleared his throat and kept his eyes forward.
The teams were actually fairly evenly matched. Milo proved to be as awful as Troy was at guessing correctly, while Riley and Ethel traded off guessing perfectly or giving the most crude or unhinged answers. Such as:
Name something you might find in a bathtub.
“Black market organs!”
The buzzer noise sounded to indicate that was—thankfully—not on the list.
“Water?” Riley droned like it was obvious.
Ding, ding, ding!
“I was going to guess ice next!” Ethel protested. “That’s also water. Frozen water. For the organs!”
Her most memorable moment, however, might have been an answer that Rowan wished he could have prevented with a hand over her mouth.
Name something that might be full of holes.
“Me!”
At least she didn’t elaborate.
“I love this woman,” Raina declared.
“Aw, you’re sweet, dear. Gingers don’t really do it for me though.”
Riley nearly snorted coffee out of her nose at that, as everyone had coffee and cake by then.
Rowan’s best round was correctly guessing the answer to:
If a football player loses his cup, what might he put down his pants instead?
“Socks!” he’d blurted, immediately going red in the face and cursing himself for guessing something so juvenile, which was actually the number one answer.
Milo’s best answer was equally as impressive, especially being a bot.
Name something you haven't licked in a long time.
“Ice cream!” Also number one, although Milo’s follow-up comments could have been excluded. “I’ve actually never licked ice cream. Or anything, really. Well, other than—”
“Let’s get some more coffee brewed,” Rowan had talked over him—just in case.
“Oh no,” Raina said. “We’ve got pizzas coming for dinner, so it’s time to switch to some real drinks. Next up is drunk rounds!”
Her present to Rowan had been two very nice bottles of tequila, which she was apparently intent on opening tonight.
They drank, they ate, they played, pausing here and there to chat or make sure Spot wasn’t trapped in a corner somewhere, and once Rowan was pleasantly buzzed—but not drunk, thank you, that was a younger man’s birthday mistake—and the party was winding to a close, a very sober Riley came up to him again.
“So he’s the new boyfriend, huh?” She nodded across the room at Milo, who was currently chatting with Raina and Troy. Raina was definitely the drunkest among them and hanging onto Troy’s arm for support, which was not doing much to stop her from swaying.
Milo must have felt them staring, because he looked over, grinned wide, and waved.
Damn he was adorable.
“It’s complicated,” Rowan said.
“Ruben met him and didn’t know he was talking to a bot?”
“Also complicated. Milo was wearing my sunglasses.”
Riley worried her lip before asking, “What happened to him?”