XXIX—Birthday
Henry bounced playfully as he walked over to the table, humming a familiar tune. Setting down the cake, he plopped down cheerily in a seat across from an odd-looking teenage girl, who was fiddling with some device she called a "Nintendo 3DS." He cleared his throat to get her attention.
The girl's face protruded from two curtains of long frizzy blonde hair. She smiled widely at Henry, revealing a gap in her front teeth. "Aww, Henry! Happy birthday."
He cackled with delight. "Nya ha ha! Happy birthday yourself, Raeg—"
"Shhhhhh!" She leapt across the table and covered his mouth with both of her hands.
Henry mumbled something that sounded like, "What's the matter?"
"They'll know this is a self-insert!" she said desperately.
"So what?" he replied, though he had no idea what she was talking about. "What's wrong with that?"
"Well..." She returned to her seat, seriously considering his words. "It's really attention-seeking, I guess. But then again, a lot of self-inserts are really popular these days, though they never exactly shine a spotlight on their own birthday..."
"Uh-huh." He still had no clue what she was babbling about. Instead of dwelling upon it, he cut a slice of cake for each of them. "Here, have a slice of cake."
That seemed to bring her out of her funk. "Thank you," she said graciously.
She took the plate and inspected the slice. "Uh, Henry? There's not...blood in this cake, is there?"
He blinked up innocently. "Huh? Nope. That's cherry filling. I asked Sumia and Olivia to throw a little in there."
"Oh," the girl sighed with relief.
"But now that you mention it," he gushed, "that sounds awesome! Bloooooood caaaaaake..."
"Oh, Henry," she giggled, gathering a delicious forkful. "Happy birthday."
A/N: A day late, but better late than never, I suppose. I'm not sure how I feel about sharing a birthday with Henry... Honestly, it's a little ominous. But it's always been awesome to me, so this was my sad little half-baked tribute to the two of us. However attention-seeking it might have been, I hope you enjoyed. If not, you're in luck—it's all requests from here. (: Until next time, everyone.
