September, 2013. Evening. Living room, current base.

"I freaking LOVE Iron Man!" exclaims Tina from on the sofa, gawking at the tv with a sparkle in her eyes.

"What?! He's a supe!" retorts Billy from an armchair. Frenchie giggles beside her, amused at what was sure to be an interesting argument.

"That's right, he is! An actual superhero," Tina argues.

"Please! He's a narcissistic, billionaire fuck cunt, who wants nothing more than for people to worship him, like every other fucking supe cunt!" Tina's jaw drops, and Frenchie glances at her face to catch that expected expression, feeding in to his amusement as he tossed another chip from the bowl in his lap into his mouth.

"Did you not see him in the movie Avengers sacrifice his life in the wormhole for the world?!"

"He knew he'd survive!" Billy argued.

"What?!" Tina exclaimed as though insulted, then she pauses. "And. Wait a minute. If you hate him, how come you know so much about him?" she cocked a daring brow.

"Marvel movies are at every fuckin' corner I turn these days," Billy sighs.

"Ah, will you both shut up! I can't hear a damn thing!" Frenchie tells, mashing the increase volume button on the remote.

"Tony Stark was able to build this in a CAVE, with-"

"I will fucking break it over your head!" Butcher threatens, referring to the remote and the loudened audio. Frenchie turns to him irritably. Tina sticks her tongue out at Billy, causing him to double over in laughter at the super childish gesture.

Her heart jumps at his reaction, the fact that she made him smile. She grinned at him, when her ears tuned in to Frenchie lowering the volume again. Her eyes glance at the now empty chips bowl, Tina snatches the remote from Frenchie. "Hey!" he exclaims. She pauses the movie he pirated and scoops the bowl from his lap, heading off to the kitchen counters four feet from the couch for a refill.

A moment later, her phone buzzes on the coffee table, and Frenchie looks over to shut off the noise. He then notes what it was saying. It was notifying her of something. Frenchie's eyes light up. "Christina!" he exclaims, grasping Butcher's attention.

"What?" she shouts back.

"Tomorrow is your birthday?!" he states. Tina pauses emptying chips from the bag to the bowl. She thinks briefly.

"Oh yeeeah."

"Well, happy birthday," Butcher smiles as she walks back to her spot with the chips.

"Why, thank you," she grins.

"We have to celebrate!" Frenchie beams.

"Oh, no. no. no," she shakes her head.

"What do you mean 'no'?!" he pushes.

"Come on, guys. It's silly."

"Silly? (what is) silly?! It's your birthday!"

"Yeah, but – I mean, it's not like we're gonna throw a party. Come on."

"But we must have cake. And presents."

"No presents."

"(What?!) Butcher! A little help."

"Well, it's her birthday. Let her have what she wants," Butcher encourages.

"Thank you," Tina says. Frenchie eyes them both in bewilderment.

"Wh-where is MM? He will back me up."

"I believe good ol' Mother's Milk's on a date," answers Butcher.

"Oh. Last week's girl?" Tina smiles.

"I think so."

"(Okay. Fine. Change the subject.)"

"Frenchie's cussing at us," Billy grins.

"Frenchie, come on," Tina chuckles, poking his shoulder. He looks to her reluctantly. "Look. Fine. We can have cake. Only if you bake it," she emphasizes. Frenchie's smile returns.

"Chérie, of course I will bake it," he says as if it was bizarre of her to think otherwise. She laughs at that, and Frenchie's grin widens. He gets a sudden surge of excitement for the day after.

Without warning, he grabs her face and kisses her. Her cheeks are mushed between his hands and her eyes are wide. He then pulls back and grins at her madly, before jumping off the couch as she chided after him. "Frenchie!" He merely retorted with laughter. Butcher was doing the same. She faced the latter, wiping at her wettened lips.

Frenchie entered the adjacent bathroom, closing the door after him. "That fucker's really got it in for you," says Billy. Tina's eyes widen.

"No, he doesn't. He's just very…eccentric," she oddly described.

"Or, the more logical reason."

"Cut it out, Butch," Tina rolled her eyes. "We've been through this before. Me and Frenchie are not a thing, and never will be," she stresses firmly.

"Well, alright love. No need to get trigger-itchy about it," Butcher smirks, a smirk of victory, as though he'd succeeded in getting to her. Tina flips him the bird.

XXX

"Okay. Quickly! Before she gets back!" Frenchie urges MM and Butcher. Christina was parking their van near the base. They'd just returned from an op.

"Quickly what?" MM questions suspiciously. Butcher rolls his eyes, able to guess what Frenchie was doing.

Frenchie rushes into his room, then out quickly with three small gift bags. "Oh, for fuck's sake," Butcher utters. MM inspects the contents of the bag he was handed. A mug wrapped in newspapers. "Frenchie. She said no gifts," Billy states.

"So?" Frenchie retorts, preoccupied with pulling the chocolate-frosted cake he'd baked from the fridge. Butcher attempts peeking a look at his 'gift,' but keys jingle at the door, and Frenchie jumps. "Quickly! Hide the bags!" he urges with swatting hands. MM and Butcher find themselves instantly complying, in spite of themselves.

XXX

After enjoying Frenchie's cake, and him having Christina blow a candle by force (she secretly enjoyed the whole thing), Frenchie decides it's present time. "Now then. We got you a little something," he grins. Tina's expression grows blank.

"What?" she warily asks. Frenchie nods at MM and Butcher, who reluctantly reach to pull out the bags they'd hidden near their seats. Tina's eyes widen at them. "Wh-guys!" she half-exclaims half-scolds. When she refaces Frenchie, he's cradling a bag too. She looks at him accusingly, knowing this was somehow his doing. "I told you: no presents," she says. Frenchie shrugs innocently.

"It just happened." Tina raises her brows at him, unconvinced. She then faces the other two.

"And you were in on this?" she asked, eyes then landing on Butcher curiously.

Behind her, Frenchie was giving them 'cooperate, or I'll kill you' faces, so their eyes were on him, causing her to turn back, only to find him placidly smiling as he was. She squints her eyes at him as MM replied with an amused smile: "Yes, we were. Here," he hands her the bag as she faces him.

Tina's expression lit up, feeling too good to act mad. She grabbed the bag, and dug her hand in, scooping out the wrapped mug. Frenchie's grinning from ear to ear excitedly, causing Butcher to lighten up.

Tina unwrapped the white, ceramic mug. On it, was the print of a cartoon, brown cat cupping its own mug and smiling happily with huge, black, pearly eyes. The cat's mug said 'I love coffee,' the word 'love' replaced with a red heart emoji. Tina smiled widely. "I love it, MM!" she said, causing Frenchie to beam. MM raised unconvinced brows. The mug looked so silly, yet she seemed genuinely happy with it.

"Uh, yeah. You're welcome," MM played along.

"Butcher. Come on," Frenchie nodded. Despite not liking being told what to do, or this whole childish endeavor, Billy complied. Tina smiled meaningfully at Butcher, trying to show gratitude with her eyes as she retrieved the bag. She brought out another newspaper wrapped box.

"What is it?" she grinned.

"Hmhm, we'll see," Butcher mused, literally holding no knowledge about the box's contents. Removing the wrapping, she finds behind a transparent plastic lid, a set of four, silver throwing knives. Tina's mouth parts as she takes one out and runs her fingers across its shiny, cool, smooth, metallic surface.

"They're beautiful," she uttered. Butcher's smile faltered at her tone.

Was it hard to believe that Billy actually liked Tina back? Such feelings he – of course – completely disregarded, latching onto the hope that his Becca was still alive. But…sometimes…it was hard…hard to keep holding on…hard to want to keep holding on…

"Where'd you get these?" she asked, snapping him out of it.

"Uh, well. You know. Here and there," he evaded. Tina smiled at him still.

"Well, they're great. Thank you," she told genuinely.

"Yeah. Course," he glanced at Frenchie who seemed fairly satisfied. Maybe Butcher should have made the effort to get her something himself. Didn't feel right taking the credit, not when she liked it so much.

"Okay. My turn," Frenchie called. Tina turned to him, glaring playfully. Not bothering to wrap the box up, Frenchie pulls it out of the bag, anticipative. Tina's eyes immediately widen.

"Oh my god!" she exclaims, snatching the toybox. Inside, was an eight-inch Iron Man mark 7 action figure. "Frenchie!" she squealed. He laughed aloud, too high on excitement. MM and Butcher shared a bewildered look.

"It's a toy," Butcher states. Frenchie and Tina snap at him.

"It. Is. Iron Man!" Tina exclaims. Butcher and MM can't contain their laughter. Tina eyes them irritably and Frenchie rolls his eyes. Tina turns to him. "Forget them. I love it!" she throws her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug. Frenchie grins and pats her back. "Thank you!"

"No problem, chérie."

From that day forth, birthdays became an event none could avoid, mostly because Frenchie wouldn't let them.

XXXXX