Happy Birthday Adelene!

==> Allan

Allan hoped he wasn't too early. He wold have arrived 6pm sharp but the invitation Kranz had sent made him a little paranoid. It wasn't like he was even planning to skip out on Adelene's birthday. To be fair, Adelene was only one of his very few... acquaintances. He didn't want to upset her either. He'd be really guilty if either Adelene or Kranz would bring it up to conversation the next time he walks in Blades and Potions.

Actually, another thing that was of his concern was that Kranz had decided to reserve the entire pub across the street. He was expecting they use the shop but then again, that was a shop filled with weapons and suspicious fluids (read: magic potions). That was not a fun business. Secondly, he was already expecting someone is going to pull out alcohol--surely someone was going to drop from that.

Another thing was he was bad at choosing gifts. He wasn't sure what Adelene actually likes so he was stuck between getting her a stuffed animal or something else entirely. She seemed to be... interested in weapons but he didn't think that would be a good choice. In the end, he just found her a nice woolen scarf. It was pattered to look like the night sky. Allan had a long debate about that with himself.

With heavy sigh, Allan arrived at the venue about fifteen minutes before schedule. He hopes he wasn't too early. He cautiously creaked the door open expecting more than a few people have arrived already, only to be met by the Blades and Potions staff.

No surprise there.

"Oh... I guess I'm... early," he said, rubbing the back of his head as he walked to them.

[ Stefan ]

If there was one thing Stefan prided himself on, it was being a good gift giver.

He spent the last week picking out the perfect gift for Adelene. She wasn't like other girls, mostly because she could kick his ass from one block into the next. At first, he thought about giving her a set of throwing knives, but he thought that wouldn't be apt at all.

She was a cutie underneath it all, and her vehement denial of being cute just made her cuter. He wanted to get something to reflect that so he bought her a two feet tall black teddy bear with a red ribbon, with beady red eyes like her. It was supposed to be her. He snickered as he thought about how she'd react when she realized. Kick his ass, probably. He looked forward to it. He wrapped it in red paper.

He glided into the party around 5:45. He left his dorm at 5:40 because he had to pick what shirt best brought out his eyes (it was the darker blue fitting button up) and he had to pick out which of his colognes were most appropriate (it was the musky one). He had to turn into a gust of wind to arrive at the party... not horribly late.

"Addy!" He pulled her into a brief hug before handing her the big teddy bear-shaped gift with a grin. "Guess what it is?"

He leaned forward, as if to whisper a secret to her. "It's a giant motorcycle."

"Hmm..."

Leon had spent a good part of the day jogging around from store to store. He couldn't think of a gift for Adelene. If anything he hopped she was wearing the goggles he had made for her. Because he did manage to pull off making another couple of gifts for her. Nothing too fancy, in his mind anyway. First was a shirt he had printed with "Blades and Potions" printed on the front in the same design as the actual shop. He thought it would be cute and a little inside joke between them. The second was more personal. Leon and his father had spent the past few days forging a sword that had Leon's and Adelene's faces onto the blade. The sword itself was the siE of a lingsword; just slightly wider so both faces could be seen on the sides of the blade. The girp was a light orange with the hilt having a cloyd looking design. Leon had thought long and hard about how to design it. Make things better Leon could make this sword with his ability too. It was in the sheath Leon had on his back. It was more a decoration piece then an actual combat ready sword. The shirt was in a bag Leon was carrying.

Leon arrived and saw Adelene talking with two other boys at the door. This brought a smile to her face as he jogged up. He was wearing a orange windbreaker and jeans, his goggles resting in his hair as he came to a stop.

"Hey Adelene! And hello you two. How is the Birthday Girl today?"

Leon noticed the big teddy bear Adelene was holding. He had to admit that was one hell of a gift and she looked so cute with it in her arms. Leon looked at the other two with his smile.

"Nice to meet you two, name's Leon."

Turning back to Adelene, Leon sets his bag on the ground. It looked like a normal store bought birthday bag. He gave Adelene and the bear a hug for a moment before picking up the bag and setting it next to Adelene's feet.

"Hope you like it. And your other present is right here. I think you might like it. And it is decoration so don't try to stab someone with it. Well I don't see that happening all too much."

With his smile Leon hands the sheathed sword to Adelene, when she has a free hand anyway, and gives off a bigger smile. He did love it when he gave meaningful gifts. And making them too.

Lochlann had hesitated outside the door.

He wasn't going to come at all--the weather forecast wasn't exactly looking good, and he was pretty sure Addy's boss was really, really pissed with him. Lochlann couldn't exactly blame him, but it did makes things awkward when it came to seeing Addy.

He was also worried about meeting her other friends. Lochlann's friends didn't really know Addy, and he didn't really know anything about her friends either, besides their names, sort of.

Ahhh.

Still, he arrived a few minutes after the other two, opening the door and looking in hesitantly. He had Addy's gift in one hand, and a bottle of Cabel's best whiskey wrapped up and tucked under his arm for Kranz. It was probably sucking up if he thought about it too much, but Lochlann wasn't thinking about it too much.

He'd just go in, say hello, and then head out before he could get stuck in the rain.

"Hey Addy," he said. "And friends of Addy."

[ Stefan ]

"It's totally a motorcycle. A motorcycle of the future!" He nodded, ruffling her hair teasingly. "Go ahead and open it, birthday girl. I hope you like it."

More people coming in. Stefan... has never seen these people before in his life aside from passing. Wow. What kind of weird social circle did he step into this time? He waggled his eyebrows at the shy dude at the far end before turning his attention to the booze.

He sat on the counter, pulling out some vodka, malt and rum from the nearby case. He only had a vague inkling of how mixology worked but he was pretty sure he couldn't be that bad.

"Drinks coming in~" he sang, floating to the back of the counter. He rubbed his hands together menacingly, picking up seemingly random food items and "preparing" them around the counter.

"You should've just come here with me! Why were you even hesitating?"

Lochlann gave her a soft grin when she punched him in the abs although it faltered slightly when he heard Kranz's "why you".

"That might have something to do with it," Lochlann said, his voice low, though he was smiling. "Your boss is a man who makes weapons for a living and I am the dangerous monster that kidnapped you.

"Anyway," Adelene patted him on the arm. "Stay awhile. Please?"

"Ahhh... just a little, I need to get home before it--I just need to get home," he said, and then perked up, handing her the gift bag. "I know I gave you your gift at school, but I wanted to get you something to go with it."

The gift was a heavy, dark wool blanket with the images of sheep going in opposite rows across it. He'd gotten it from a woman he worked with at the farm, with the idea that it'd match the lamb pillow from the morning.

There was also a note that said Sorry it's too warm for the summer.

"I ah...I will be right back, Happy birthday, Addy," he told her, and then he headed over to kranz, his face serious.

"Sir," Lochlann said, "I know you don't want me to be here and I can respect that. I will do my best to honor your wishes by not staying long, but it is Addy's birthday and I wanted to show my appreciation for her on this day."

He put the wrapped bottle on the counter. "I'm sorry."

And then he slinked back, close to the door, before he had the urge to jump out the nearest window.

Just as Allan was about to hand his gift to Adelene, another person entered the room and Adelene suddenly disappeared in front of him. He.. didn't mind. Of course he shouldn't. He turned to Kranz instead.

"Good evening, sir. Ah, well, I didn't want to be.. late so I tried coming here earlier," He said quietly. Well. He'll probably just stand with the old man til the party ends then. ...Nah, I could just leave it at the table with the other gifts. It wasn't anything special, he thought.

He let Adelene attend to her guests while he stood right next to Kranz and Sky, the small gift in his hands. Maybe he should just wait until after, if he wanted to give it to her personally. In other events he didn't like how Stefan was being too... forward around Adelene but she seemed to not mind. Allan also didn't welcome whatever that eyebrow waggle meant. He could just let out a sigh. The second person, Leon, he was okay with and Allan was in a decent mood enough to respond with a proper hello.

After that, Allan decided to tune them out and just turn to Kranz and Sky who seemed to have nothing else to do other than... bet about this other guy. Ah, seriously, Allan felt a little more than out of place right now. Not like it was a new thing anyway.

"Was this about what happened last time?" he asked Sky curiously. He... might have heard something about Adelene and this guy named Lochlann but that was as far as his ears caught.