After some much-needed down-time—just watching cartoons with Travis, then with Nico after he woke up, then Johnny and Aaron as well after we invited them in—I eventually got up and locked myself into the office for some writing time.

Well, after I watched a ton of youtube videos about dogs, cats, and different music things, and after I revamped my writing playlist.

In other words, I procrastinated for about an hour and a half and then ended up writing about five-hundred words before glaring at the story and closing the window.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Entrer!" I called out, not really thinking about it.

Johnny poked his head in. "Um, was that French?"

"Bite me."

"I don't think we're there yet," He replied.

I frowned a bit, trying to figure out what he meant, then chucked a pillow at his head. "Johnathan Finnian Cahill, get your mind out of the gutter!"

He just laughed a bit. "Um, yeah, I wasn't thinking of it that way. I was more thinking about how siblings sometimes bite each other, but thank you for that." He rubbed his head and neck.

I swear I resembled a tomato, my face had to be that red. My cheeks and ears were burning.

"Geez, what did you and your boyfriend even do?" He finally asked, shaking his head a bit.

"Honestly?"

"No, I don't need…" He quite audibly stopped himself from continuing. "Nico says that he'd watch some show that he had refused to watch before since it's your birthday."

I thought for a moment, then grinned. "Miraculous!" I darted out. "There are episodes in French on Youtube!"

"Seriously? Don't you need to know French?"

"Subtitles, silly!" I bounced happily to the living room. "Besides, the newest episode is supposed to change everything."

"I know," He replied.

I froze, turning toward him.

"I have sisters remember? It's miraculous if I ever get the remote." Johnny shrugged. "Could be worse. They could still be into Barbie movies. Or they could have taken to My Little Pony." He shuddered.

"That's right, you only have one or two brothers."

"Two. I have two brothers. One who's long been gone from our house, and the other who hasn't started having a preference in shows yet. The rest are girls. I'm surrounded," He said it both dramatically and matter-of-factly, which I thought was quite the feat. "Anyway, isn't it a little illegal to watch episodes on youtube before they're released in your country?"

I stuck my tongue out. "Don't get logical on me. I'm still going to watch it when it comes out here, and I'm buying the seasons."

"Do you want a Chat Noir Hoodie?" He teased.

"Uh…" I looked away.

He laughed. "I know, I know. You want one of the awesome ones from amazon or something and not the one from the website."

"Guilty," I breathed.

He just laughed a little and gave me a friendly shove. "Come on, dork. I'll find Glaciator for you."

"You speak French, don't you?"

"Oui, je parle française. Ma mère m'a fait apprendre. Je regarde souvent des films en français." Yes I speak french. My mother made me learn. I often watch films in french.

"I hate you too." I glared playfully at him.

He just grinned, laughing still. "But seriously, I needed a foreign language to get into this school and thankfully mom had made me study it. Even had me spend a couple weeks one summer with some distant cousins who live in France. That was…special. Spent the whole summer trying to explain to them that media manipulates information to get the reaction they want from the public during political events."

"You would talk about that."

"Well, they couldn't follow how Americans could vote for either candidate when both seemed to have so many problems. I also spent the summer refraining from jokes about the French that my dad pulls out all the time." He frowned, seeming to think about all the jokes he could have made.

I shook my head. "Mom gave me three basic rules for conversation. Don't talk about religion, don't talk about politics, and when in doubt make the conversation about the other person."

"Good rules," Travis commented, looking over from the kitchen.

Nico made a face. "Wouldn't religion and politics be grouped together? They're basically the same anyway."

Aaron choked slightly. "No. NO."

I winced slightly. "You see…"

"They're different. A person who is religious isn't necessarily republican or democratic." Johnny's voice was calm, but his movements betrayed some hesitance. "And religion can be a volatile subject in any context, not just political. And politics can be volatile in any context."

Nico didn't look convinced. "Weren't the political beginnings of the nation somewhat religious?"

"Actually, politics could be considered a religion," Travis commented lightly. "But we're violating both conversation rules of Cassie's so, we should drop it. It is her birthday, after all."

"But…" Nico scowled slightly.

I threw a blanket over his head. "It's different. Religion is a belief in higher powers, or that was the meaning, now it also encompasses a set of traditions and practices associated with the belief. It can be anything from believing in the Greek gods, to the various forms of Christianity, to the atheism. Politics are about government, authority, and law. Got it?"

He sort of glared at me. "Why do you always throw them over my head?"

"You're a shadow-gremlin. Only light you're drawn to is Will," I teased.

"Cass, why do you have so much K-Pop in your history?" Johnny asked, smirking at me.

I glared at him. "Birthday girl, just pull up my show."

"I'm just trying to understand you a little better."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up, Cahill."

"They're a good group." Aaron had his laptop out, various stickers plastered on the back. "Which is your favorite song?"

"Right now…it's a tie between Go Go and Not Today," I answered.

He nodded. "Their Halloween video for Go Go is fun."

I grinned and nodded. "Makes me happy."

Johnny frowned a bit, then clicked that video.

"No, what are you doing?" I reached over to take the control.

Nico stopped me. "Hang on, what language are they speaking?"

"Korean, they're a Korean Pop group. Hence, K-pop. Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors for…what?" Johnny watched the screen analytically.

Then it cut to them in their costumes.

"Oh…oh…"

Nico smirked.

By the end of the video, I was fighting my grin and Nico was in an amused stupor.

Johnny just stared at the screen with a bewildered smile. "I'm so conflicted."

I just took the control and pulled up Netflix instead of YouTube, then selected Gilmore Girls and started looking through the episodes for the one that best suited my mood.

"You can learn a lot about a person from their Netflix queue," Johnny mentioned, teasing again.

I rolled my eyes. "You mean that bar they keep hiding from me?"

He laughed. "NCIS, Gilmore Girls, Friends, Leverage, The Office, and Supernatural all in your recently watched list."

"Oh, you caught me, I'm a normal person. I don't take risks in shows, and the worst rating on my list is probably PG-13…I'm boring. Seriously. Oh, I did start watching that American Horror Story show, but…"

"Scared you?"

I shook my head. "I was just kind of bored and confused, then disgusted and bored. Well, one of the episodes scared me, so I ended up watching Supernatural for a couple hours."

"Speaking of…" Nico gestured to the TV. "How accurate do you think that show is? And when are they getting here?"

I shrugged a little. "Hard to say. They sounded pretty busy on the phone."

"Define busy?"

"I'm pretty sure they called while they were in the middle of a fight."

Travis' phone started ringing. "Shoot. It's my classmate." He went out of the room.

I picked an episode and we started watching it.

"Took you long enough to pick," Nico grumbled.

I rolled my eyes, focusing on the show.

We sort of bounced around according to my whims, none of them uttering one complaint about what I chose, which was strange but kind of nice. The day passed sort of languidly, with me doing things that I wanted. I only got teased for about half an hour for my interest in K-Pop.

Aaron was the only one who seemed to understand the choice of music, but then again, he seemed inclined to like most music.

Yesterday could almost be passed off as a bad dream, a really bad dream.

Nico nudged me. "Hey, you okay?"

I shrugged. "I'm really good actually. This is going better than I thought it would. I thought I'd be screaming in frustration."

He nodded slightly. "I know you said you didn't want a present…"

I sighed. "Give it now. Travis should be back any second."

He darted off to grab it, and came back with an odd-looking present. "It's not much."

I took it from him, curiosity peaked. I opened it carefully and then pulled out some drawings. Some really good drawings.

I grinned. "You made these for me?"

He looked a little bashful as he nodded.

I hugged him tightly. "Thank you! I love them!"

He hugged me back, but pulled away quickly. "Monday, we're talking about something."

"Uh oh," I responded immediately.

He nodded.

"Got the food!" Travis called from the door.

We all gathered around to get our food of choice and go back to watching our show.

Travis sat next to me. "Good?"

"Mmhmmm," I grinned at him. "You got the cupcakes too?"

"Of course. I have completed my mission." Travis bit into a bread-stick. "Guess Italy did something right, this food is primo."

"So good," Johnny agreed. "Aaron? Your food is gonna get cold."

Aaron nodded a little, frowning at the plate. "I'm having trouble sensing temperature today."

Johnny poked the food. "It won't burn you."

Aaron looked surprised but started eating.

Nico shuddered. "Don't touch my food, Cahill."

"Didn't plan on it, Di Angelo."

The two started bickering playfully, with Aaron following the banter with mild interest.

Travis chuckled. "Johnny really is good with people, isn't he?"

"Super good. He adapts quickly and makes people feel comfortable. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if he ended up in some sort of leadership position in the future. He's capable." I looked up at Travis. "You said you have to go down tomorrow morning and will be gone for a couple days for school projects?"

"Don't change the subject," He replied, smirking slightly.

"Sorry, did you want to gush over Johnny?"

He snorted. "Hardly."

"Then what more was there to say? Keeping in mind that it is my birthday."

He looked at me, then away. "Nothing, I guess."

I nodded a bit. "Right. So, leave tomorrow and come back when?"

"Probably Thursday, maybe Friday. Then exams are the week after."

"Got it." I added it to my mental calendar.

"Kelpies are terrible," Aaron suddenly said. "Because you really have to actually be afraid of horses, or have someone else there to be able to fight them. That's how strong their magic is."

"Huh," Nico grunted. "So it's like Johnny's charm?"

Johnny tackled him and they started wrestling playfully while Aaron laughed.

Yeah. This birthday wasn't half-bad.

AN: (Not like it's been over a month or anything...)