Strolling out into the back garden of their favorite Thai restaurant in Los Angeles, Willow Rosenberg sighed and wondered why she was feeling a little depressed right now. After all, it'd been such a nice day, starting with being woken up by a good-morning nuzzle from her wife and then the kids stormed in, jumping onto their bed while yelling, "Happy birthday, Mommy!"
Next had come the signed Hallmark card from them all, flowers, and lots of traded hugs and kisses. The office party that afternoon at the New Council's Southern California headquarters at the Hyperion Hotel was just as lovely. Old friends and more distant members of the whole Scooby Gang family had either dropped in or sent their best wishes from all over the world. Finishing it off tonight had been a quiet, private dinner at this restaurant between two women still very much in love with each other.
So, how to explain Willow's current mild discontent? Maybe it was because of reaching the big "four-four" as Xander had jokingly said earlier today, like he wasn't already facing that in a couple more months, too. The fact was, if Willow had been anything other than the Red Witch such as a completely ordinary American woman, she'd even now have been past the midpoint of her possible lifespan.
Nobody, including herself, knew how long the most powerful human female magic wielder in centuries could continue to exist. At the very least, she'd need to deal with this exact problem within the upcoming decade, if not sooner. There were going to be serious issues regarding that, whatever Willow's decision might be about using her supernatural powers to avoid or alleviate growing older.
Pacing in an aimless circle around the garden while waiting for her spouse to return from a visit to the ladies' restroom before heading back home, Willow tried to stop thinking about it. Instead, she hoped that Xander and his family were having a good time with their own kids spending the evening over at his house. Hopefully, the rugrats' sugar rush from movie night at Casa Harris would've worn off by tomorrow—
Stopping short, Willow blinked at the rather odd scene she could currently see through one of the rear windows of the restaurant's set of reserved rooms for group banquets.
In there, the space was at this moment extravagantly decorated with banners hanging from the ceiling, party balloons attached to the main table's corners, and a crisp white tablecloth covering that piece of furniture. Four arrangements of plates, cutlery, and glassware were awaiting their use in a celebratory meal, except there was only one person sitting there at the table right now.
What made Willow suddenly giggle to herself was how cranky that guy alone in the room appeared, glowering off into the distance while wearing a supremely silly conical birthday party hat.
This ridiculous headgear covered with blue glitter was a classic of its kind, down to the ruffled brim and a tasseled ornament at the upper point. The printed words on the hat of "45th Birthday Boy" provided some sort of explanation as to why that disdainful stranger would even agree to wear it, even if he definitely looked like accepting his intestines being eaten by a pack of wild dogs didn't seem so bad in comparison.
An amused Willow couldn't help thinking that unknown person presumably expecting any second now a candle-lit cake accompanied by various pals or kinfolk singing "Happy Birthday To You" earnestly off-key was from all indications not just sharing the same birthdate as hers, but he was exactly one year older today than this witch.
And, boy, was Mr. Grumpy-Pants sulking about it.
Stepping closer, Willow's movement abruptly caught the guy's attention from inside the restaurant, only now recognizing that there was somebody out in the garden looking at him through the window. In turn, this crabby-faced man directed his haughtiest stare at where that rude lady had just intruded upon his solitude.
A swift change of mood by Willow than from before had her impishly deciding to make what's-his-name's birthday really memorable.
She truly shouldn't do it. Any of her apprentices who tried this would've gotten a stern dressing-down from the Red Witch about flummoxing the mundanes, but who cared? Willow Rosenberg was feeling the teensiest bit naughty, so there.
At least Willow had the sense to make a quick check beforehand with her magical sight, just in case. Good! Nothing of the mojo was part of that guy, so most likely he'd soon persuade himself he couldn't have possibly seen what Willow then carried out.
Bringing together her hands with their cupped palms up to her face, Willow smiled over these at the guy suspiciously watching her. In the next instant, a glowing silvery orb of witch-light blossomed into existence, with this tennis ball-size sphere of mystical energy floating easily above the woman's hands.
Enjoying how that guy's mouth fell open in sheer shock, Willow then pursed her lips and blew upon the witch-light, causing this to drift a few inches away from her face. Right after that, the radiant globe expanded into a multitude of coruscating sparkles which illuminated the red-headed woman's wicked smirk before both the globe and the person who'd created this impossible object faded out of existence in the garden.
Snickering to herself, Willow materialized back inside the restaurant, all without being observed by anyone else save for her spouse finished from the ladies', who only raised an inquiring eyebrow at a laughing witch. Giving her other half a very enthusiastic kiss, Willow then murmured to a startled lady, "Oooo, are you gonna get lucky tonight!"
For the next several minutes, all while two females headed home and straight to bed while leaving behind various items of clothing along the way, the Thai restaurant's banquet room had its sole occupant stare blankly at the empty garden. He ran through his mind again and again the incredible series of events he'd just witnessed out there, trying to come to any kind of elucidation about it.
But…there was totally no rational explanation whatsoever for that impossible occurrence!
In his chair, the man physically recoiled from his conclusion. He did not— Would not accept this! If he had to recreate the entire basic laws of physics from scratch, well, so be it.
Nodding firmly, the man pulled out from a shirt pocket a fresh Magic Marker and twisted off its cap. Inhaling the sublime scent, Sheldon Cooper eyed the pristine white tablecloth before him.
All right, then, that luminous globe had been real. It'd existed in the universe and had affected the universe, which made this a good starting point…
Walking down the restaurant hallway together, Leonard and Howard were arguing as usual. Raj trailing after was listening, also as usual. The topic of conversation was why Howard was so optimistic this year that Sheldon would last through the entire party before walking out in a huff unlike all the other times they'd tried to celebrate his birthday when it was just the guys for once.
"…I still can't believe you actually think a girl jumping out of a cake would interest Sheldon," Leonard groused over his shoulder while pushing open the banquet room door. "A girl, no. A toy train, yes!"
Howard shrugged, "Fine, let's do that next year— Hey!"
The aerospace engineer's startled exclamation was due to Leonard halting in his tracks, causing the other two to nearly walk into Leonard standing there. Following their friend's gaze, Raj and Howard saw Sheldon leaning over the table while busily scribbling away on it with a Magic Marker.
Leonard crossly informed his former roommate, "Dammit, Sheldon, we're going to have to pay for this! Couldn't you wait until we get home before putting down your latest bright idea?"
Sheldon, lost in his own mental world, didn't look up or even appear to notice he had company. With sure strokes of his pen, increasingly complex equations were being sketched out on the tablecloth.
Craning his head, Leonard stared at the equations. He frowned, "Hold it, that doesn't make sense— No, wait, that might work…," trailed off the experimental physicist.
"Okay, enough's enough," declared Howard. He began to walk toward Sheldon while saying, "Time to knock it off, homey— URK!"
Once again, Howard was interrupted in mid-sentence, but this time by real pain as heard by that yelp when Leonard's arm shot out to horizontally whack him hard and send Howard stumbling back. Rubbing at his aching chest, Howard directed a genuinely confused expression at where Leonard was still intently examining the new equations being added by the second onto the tablecloth by Sheldon.
Opening his mouth to yell at Leonard for being so rough, Howard and Raj instead heard from him in an awed voice while Leonard absently reached into his back pants pocket and pulled out his wallet, never taking his eyes away from the tablecloth and its equations which were now almost filling the entire fabric.
"Raj, here's my credit cards. Find this place's manager and pay for us using this room all night, if necessary. Whatever he charges, I don't care. Howard, get more tablecloths, now! Steal them if you have to!"
"What's going on?" chorused the other two Cal Tech scientists, even though Raj nonetheless accepted Leonard's wallet.
In the most reverential tone they'd ever heard from him, Leonard predicted, "Nobel Prize work…and that's probably putting it mildly!"
Indeed, a decade later, Sheldon Cooper stood smugly in front of an audience filling the entire Stockholm Concert Hall. On the ultra-large tv screen behind him, humanity's first starship was seen in high-Earth orbit, half completed and ready for its initial journey to Ross 128b, powered by the Cooper Process.
Opening his mouth for his commencing remarks, Doctor Cooper started off with, "It was at a certain Thai restaurant…"
Four hundred years afterwards, overindulgence in bio-energy caused the entire Solar System to be destroyed. Since it was a quite unhurried disaster which allowed everyone there to evacuate well in advance so that even their pets and cherished effects such as the Empire State Building could be taken along, most people considered it just a minor embarrassment not to be mentioned in front of the rest of the galaxy and especially those snooty Rigellian aliens.
However, that last part wasn't Willow Rosenberg's fault, as she was the very first person to tell everyone!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. All Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters and The Big Bang Theory characters are the property of their rightful owners.
Author's Note: Yes, indeed, Alyson Hannigan and Jim Parsons have the same birthdate of March 24, and they were born a year apart with him being the older actor! Hope they had a nice time today with their respective families celebrating this!