Title: Cupcake
Author: M
Rating: eh, PG
Thanks: to lollobrigida for the beta. t'was quite helpful!
Pairing: Willow/Xander
Warning: no, none that i can think of
Summary: it's the sacred birthday cupcake you know...
Notes: Set Pre and Post Series.. Written for handofdionysus who requested: Xander/Willow pre series fluff or light adventure. Hopefully this fits with those and the other requirements mentioned.
"Cupcake"
by M.
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Willow's memory was a peculiar thing. That didn't surprise her all that much. It didn't surprise anyone who knew her all that much either, 'specially not Xander. Everyone knew she could forget the simplest of things like an appointment at the dentist but easily recall, in the greatest of detail, the most mundane moments. Moments which didn't seem all that important to anyone else but her. That didn't surprise anyone who knew her either. It was Willow, after all, and that was how Willow worked.
She'd learned young to treasure the moments which passed without anyone's notice. Moments like ones spent with Xander. None of those ever escaped her. Xander was a gift from God, the Goddess, and ever single one of the Powers That Be. He could be a curse too but she'd never complain of such. She loved him too much to complain. Well...to complain a lot.
The morning of her twenty-fifth birthday dawned bright and clear and Willow awoke to the warmth of the sun, Xander's arms, and a memory. It was too early to think about getting up and she didn't really want to anyway. So, instead, she settled back and let the memory come.
---
Willow's fourteenth birthday wasn't going to be a good day, not really. She knew that. Her mom had explained why and it was okay. She knew it wasn't anyone's fault. No one was trying to ruin her birthday. Uncle Morry was sick and he didn't have anyone to stay with him except her Mom and well, she couldn't get mad at her for that.
Willow liked Uncle Morry a lot. He made the best funny faces and always told he best silly stories. He visited her all the time when she was little and she was worried about him. She didn't like the idea of him being by himself when he was sick. Her Mom had to go and as much as she was disappointed that her Mom was missing her birthday, she had to understand.
She had to be, and that was the frustrating part. She had to understand even though she didn't want to. She wanted to be upset but...
She exhaled a deep, frustrated sigh, one that started in her toes and worked all the way up through every single grouchy cell. With it out, she flopped down in front of her computer and booted it up. She couldn't spend her birthday the way she usually did so she was going to spend her Saturday the way she always did. At her computer with some munchies and the world wide web to keep her company. It wasn't her choice way to celebrate but there were worse ways she could have spent it. It wasn't that bad but it wasn't...well, it wasn't good.
"Hey there, Birthday Girl," without warning, Xander stuck his head in around the door and grinned at her, "I hear it's not the style to point out a lady's age but I thought I'd risk it." He stepped into her bedroom and presented her with a cupcake, complete with candle atop. "It's not the three tier cake and marching band I ordered but..." He bounced back on his heels a bit. "Happy Birthday, Wills."
She sat in her chair, staring at him in surprised silence, a look of confusion on her face. Xander was supposed to be out of town with his Mom at some family thing. He could he be... "Xander?" Slowly getting up, she tried to remember what he'd said about having to go with his Mom. It had seemed important and he hadn't even remembered it would be her birthday when he'd told her about it...
"Yes, it is I," he nodded once, speaking very slowly and deliberately as if she'd hit her head or something, "Xander. Best friend of Willow since for, like, forever and a day. Thick and thin, sickness and health...Whoops! Sorry, no, took a wrong turn there." He let out a little chuckle and held out the cupcake. "Just blow out the candle, Willow, before I start singing. You so do not want me singing."
"I like your singing." Willow assured, taking a step closer. She smiled a little, then, and looked a this offering for a moment. "It's a very nice cupcake, Xander." She said solemnly, having examined it for one long moment. "Thank you."
"You're very welcome" He answered, equally solemn, though the mischief in his eyes seeped through. "Wax's dripping Will." He pointed out, starting to grin again, "Nobody like's waxy icing. Especially not birthday girls."
"I like waxy icing." She again assured, leaning over to blow out the candle nonetheless. "Promise." She took the cupcake and held it so Xander could pluck the extinguished candle from it's icing. "We're gonna need milk." She decided matter-of-factly. "You brought more, right?" Again, she held up the cupcake. "We can split it if you didn't."
Xander, having happily followed along in her wake, pasted a look of comical horror on his face. "Split the sacred birthday cupcake!" Clamping a hand to his chest, he stumbled back a few steps to rest against the wall, as if the staggering under the weight of the terrible words. "Surely you jest, oh Mighty Birthday Girl!"
The slapstick routine had her giggling. "Nay! I doth not jest, Xander." She put the cupcake on the countertop and went to the refrigerator for milk. "Relax, it's just a cupcake."
"It's the official birthday cupcake, Willow," he corrected. "There was a candle and there would have been singing were my voice not outlawed by the Geneva Convention. It is, indeed a rule, that the birthday cupcake is only to be consumed by the birthday girl. Which then completes the all important cake ritual of the official birthday celebrations." He grinned and nodded at a tupperware container sitting on the countertop. "Fortunately, Mom is a baking machine. I've got enough cupcakes to last me til you're forty."
"Your Mom made these?" Willow stopped with the milk in hand, quite touched by the idea. "For me!"
"Oh yeah." Well acquainted with the Rosenberg kitchen, Xander got the glasses for her,"You know Mom. She heard the words 'Willow' and 'birthday' and before you could say Mr. Christie...she had the mixer a-whirrin'." He smiled at her. "No way we were letting the all important birthday of Willow pass without celebration and song. Well, maybe without song."
Willow watched silently as Xander's face took on a more serious appearance. He meant it. He'd been planning this all week because it was important to him. She was important to him. She swallowed around the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat. "Thank you, Xander." She managed quietly. "Really."
He smiled back, bright and wide, "Happy Birthday, Wills." She smiled in return, wide without any reservation. Her grumpiness had been successfully banished.
She was hugging him before she really realized she even wanted to. The cupcakes and the milk were temporarily forgotten as she pressed her face into the worn material of Xander's t-shirt.
She could feel the hot moisture of tears pricking at her eyelids and she had to swallow against the thick lump in her throat. He was such a goof sometimes. He could do the strangest things, say the dumbest things, and then right when she was about to lose it with him, he'd turn around and do things like this.
Something that was so incredibly sweet and thoughtful that she felt like the most important person in the world.
"Hey there, Birthday Girl." Xander pulled back to look into her eyes, "What's this? Tears? Oh no, we absolutely cannot have those on this most important of days! Birthday girls aren't supposed to cry on their special day. It's a violation of the birthday laws." He brushed at a single tear that had fallen to her cheek."We may not have the whole of the oh-so-high class Burger Barn rented out but we are going to celebrate in high style."
Grasping her hand, he turned to where he'd left his cupcakes and a white grocery bag. "I've not only brought cupcakes. There is Star Wars and the whole day to ourselves in which to enjoy them. Come, my friend, let us celebrate in true, geek fashion."
The smile Willow beamed at him was honest and genuine. This was a good day. Xander, Han Solo, and cupcakes? Forget a party or lack thereof, she was having the best birthday ever and all because of a cupcake, a movie, and her best friend.
----
The memory faded as peacefully as it had come and Willow smiled softly. Even after all this time, that particular birthday was still her favorite. She and Xander always found time to have a cupcake on her birthday because of it. It was their tradition and it always made her think of that. Whether she really realized what she was thinking of or not.
Lying in his arms, Willow pulled her thoughts together and concentrated. It was a slow, casual thing and brought with it the slow awakening that a hot cup of coffee would for someone else. Magic tingled through her, awakening her many senses, and on her outstretched palm a cupcake began to form. It wasn't a fancy one but then Mrs. Harris' baking hadn't been fancy. It had been just every day and that was all she needed.
"Hey there, Birthday Girl," Xander's voice rumbled sleepily into her ear, the only sign she had to his waking. He sat up to peer over her shoulder and chuckle. "Oh sure, show off why don't you?" He asked, kissing her temple. "Most people use ovens to bake."
"Most people aren't me." She teased back with a smile. "When I bake, it's really from scratch." Rolling over so she could face him, Willow held out the cupcake. "Blow."
"It's your birthday." He pointed out. "And the candle's not lit."
"I know." Willow agreed placidly, nodding at it again. "Just trust me and blow, ok?"
Rolling his eyes, Xander propped up his head on his hand and blew. Immediately, the candle lit up with a flame and she smiled. "Perfect."
"Yeah, it kinda is." He met her gaze, smiling. The feeling leftover from the magic which had created the cupcake, the magic that stemmed from the memories between them both, swelled to fill the room and saturated them both. "Happy Birthday, Wills."
Glorying in the feeling, Willow smiled back and blew the candle out. "Wanna split it?" She asked, licking icing from her finger.
"With pleasure." Xander said softly, his gaze gleaming with interest as he reached for her.
In the moments that followed, as it turned out, Willow found out there were better ways for Willow and Xander to spend her birthday than a cupcake and Star Wars.
finis