Happy birthday, Nathan. I hope you like it. ^^ I can't believe you're seventeen. (Or you will be, but you're getting this early.)
Forget and Forgive
It's early when Riley wakes up. Not just early for him, which is about noon, but early for the rest of the world at only seven am. His new hours are finally starting to affect his internal clock and he isn't too tired when he wakes up, though he could still use a bucket or so of coffee.
Once he's dressed, he heads over to the cafeteria and gets his pail of coffee. Ter Borcht and Kyle are both here this morning, odd when Reilly considers the time. If it were just he and Kyle, he would have some smart-ass comment about how early it is, but out of respect for ter Borcht he holds it in.
"What are you guys doing up right now?"
Ter Borcht smiles at him. "Elsa got me up and I needed coffee if I wanted to stay awake."
Reilly notices, like always, the way even mentioning his daughter's name ca bring a smile to his face.
"And you?"
Kyle grunts an answer in a manner much more prone to Reilly than to him. He takes his coffee and leaves Reilly alone with Roland.
Reilly takes a seat at the table, making a face as he tastes the coffee.
"Does it taste like depression?" ter Borcht teases.
"No, like mud."
Roland isn't sure he wants to know how in the hell Reilly knows what mud tastes like and so he changes the subject.
"So what are you and Kyle doing today?"
Reilly shrugs, wondering why he would ask that. "The normal, I guess."
"Nothing special?"
"No. Why?"
The look he gets from the scientist is like the look Reilly used to give Jeb when Jeb was being an idiot about relationships.
"It's his birthday."
Reilly groans and drops the F-bomb. "Dude, no way. I would remember that."
He tries to figure things out and realizes with all the time he's been spending working with Eli, he doesn't even know what the date is. When ter Borcht tells him, he realizes the German is right. It's Kyle's birthday and like a suck-ass best friend, he has forgotten.
"Shit, shit, shit." Forget politeness out of respect. It's panic time. After everything Kyle did for Reilly's birthday, he repays him by forgetting. It's just not right.
"Dude, what the hell am I going to do?"
"I don't know, but good luck," ter Borcht says, glancing at his watch. "I've got to be getting back to Elsa, before she wakes Jeb. He needs his sleep."
Reilly nods, only half-listening. He's still trying to figure out what he should do. He finishes his coffee, still waiting for his stroke of genius. He passes Kyle in the hall.
"Happy birthday, man."
Kyle glances at him. "You forgot, didn't you?"
"Maybe a little…"
He smacks him lightly upside the head. "Work less, sleep more, dipshit. It helps you keep track of time."
"How would more sleep help me keep track of time, dumbass?"
"Hey, it works for me," Kyle answers with a shrug. "Now, I got work to do, unlike some people. See you later, man."
He walks down the hall and Reilly finally has his stroke of genius. He just needs to get the day off. Considering he hasn't taken a day off…ever? Maybe once or twice when he first started PBDing, but not often.
Eli is one helluva boss and agrees quickly.
Reilly looks for somewhere he can bake cookies, remembering what he had told Lou, Kyle's mom, back at Christmas time. He wants to bake Kyle some pretzel cookies. He gets the cafeteria to let him make them in there. He remembers that the dough has to be left somewhere cold for a few hours, and so he places it in the fridge and tries to hunt down a card or something. The hunt isn't successful, but he does find a chocolate bar in the lounge. What was it Kyle used to say? 'Chocolate is your get out of the doghouse gift.' Granted, he had been referring to girlfriends back in high school, but it still had to apply here, right? Besides, it is an aphrodisiac, isn't it?
His hunt takes him longer than he expects it will and it's already time to get the dough out of the fridge. He follows the recipe and places the sliced and rolled cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet and puts it in an oven heated to 350. It feels good to be baking. Reilly actually enjoys baking quite a bit, he just rarely has the opportunity.
He waits in the kitchen for them to finish, having nothing better to do. When the timer goes off, he puts the cookies on a cooling rack and munches on one or two. Once they've cooled, the cookies go into a cookie tin leftover from Christmas. (The little tin was red with a Christmas tree and a snowman on the front, showing precisely how well planned this was on Reilly's part.)
Reilly heads over to Kyle's room, cookie tin and chocolate in hand. On his way there, though, he runs into Jeb. Literally. Jeb isn't watching where he's walking (neither is Reilly if one is being honest) and they collide.
Once Jeb realizes he's run into Reilly, he informs him, "Kyle went to your room."
He nods in response and heads off to his own room. Kyle is lying on his bed when Reilly walks in.
"Happy birthday, fuckface," he says, shoving the cookies and chocolate at his best friend.
"Christmas? Really?"
Reilly shrugs. "At least I got you something."
Kyle's attitude changes when he opens the cookies. He smiles over at Reilly. "Thanks, man." Then he sees the chocolate bar and grins a little brighter. "Someone's in the doghouse?"
"You look so fucking hot right now."
Kyle notices the change in subject, but he likes it, so he doesn't comment on it. He merely gets up and shuts the door so that they have a little more privacy.
That's the bright side of getting out of the doghouse. You move straight into the bedroom, and the bed.
I hope I did a decent job with the characters, and I hope you enjoyed. Once more, happy birthday, Nathan. I love you. *gives you birthday hug to go with the birthday fic*