paradisalogs | Eyes wide shut, unopened

"Not a cheater, I just love you lots." She might be cheating just a little, but she hopes it makes Cass feel better.

"Love you more." So very much more, but that's a different kind of secret. And it does help, Stephanie always helps her feel better.

She sits down again, pulling Steph with her onto the couch.

"Should think up punishment, for you."

"I don't know about that," Steph teases, sitting down with Cass and then pulling her close, so that the other girl can lean on her.

"I'm yours to punish as you see fit."

"Well, will probably be stuck... cleaning after party. That might work."

Only it won't at all and Cass will help the moment she sees it's too much work for one person to do on their own.

"Maybe, as... joint gift, can patrol with him. Think he'd like that?"

Steph knows she'll end up doing a lot of cleaning, even if it might be funny to let Ezio think it's tradition to keep the mess of a surprise party for a while. Alas. She is too nice.

"He'd love any excuse to spend time with the both of us, you know that."

The great thing about cheaty body language reading powers? Cass will be able to see this plot if Stephanie does try to pull it off and can do her best to help with it.

"Plus, uniforms." That's half the draw right there.

"He stares. A lot." He's seen her in her suit plenty of time over the year and a half they've known each other, and he still looked. Ezio.

"I'm glad you trust him to behave."

Both with the flirting and the patrolling--she can't imagine Tim being the same.

"I'm creepy, remember? Batghoul? Won't stare at me." She's pretty used to her Batgirl suit not really inspiring the kind of stares that Stephanie means. That second bit, though, is what gets the frown.

"I don't. Trust him to... be himself."

"And what is our birthday boy, exactly?" It's a genuine question.

She just shrugs. It seems very obvious to her and she'd assume that by now, Steph knows what Ezio is.

"Ezio is Ezio."

"That he is." She idly plays with the ends of Cass' hair. It was too bad that Tim just couldn't see past the whole Assassin thing, but Steph's given up on trying to make them get along.

Gently, Cass pushes Steph back so they can lay down on the couch together. After all the excitement with the dinosaurs she's still a little exhausted, so resting is always a good thing. Plus, she gets to use Steph's chest a pillow. Win win.

"What is in bag, anyway?"

No resistance from Steph. She wraps her arms around Cass, comfortable as ever.

"Party stuff. Streamers, confetti, stuff to make a mess in his room..."

Although she really hates the way she keeps managing to get this kind of affection from Steph, it's at least a nice way to end an argument. She just really wishes it could just be this nice all the time, with no guilt involved.

"No food stuff? Not going to... make cake yourself?"

Steph makes a face at that idea.

"I think I'll just buy one. I'll do that before I head over, though."

Probably a good plan, there's no guarantee Cass wouldn't eat it before it even got a chance to get to the party.

"Hope I can... keep him distracted, all day."

She rubs Cass' scalp with her fingertips.

"Please. He adores you. Ezio will be wrapped around your little finger the moment you drag him out."

That gets a pleased hum in response and for a long time, Cass doesn't reply. Were they talking about something? Oh yeah.

"What's he say?" She can't help being curious about that. Adore isn't exactly the word she'd have expected to go there.

"He doesn't have to say anything." Steph knows he'd totally sleep with Cass if the opportunity presented itself. She's not sure how she feels about that, but whatever, let's focus on his birthday! "There's no reason he wouldn't want to spend all day with you."

"Riding should... be good distraction. Can go far, so it... takes longer, to come back."

That seems like a solid plan to Cass, anyway. Maybe she should have thought about this before the night before the actual attempted kidnapping.

"Oh, he'll like that."

She can already imagine the riding jokes.

At least Cass hasn't mentioned being sore after the first time.

"I like it, too. It's fun, fast. Do you ever... go riding? We should together, sometime."

"Yeah, they taught me a while ago. It's pretty fun," she says, but thinking about Lucrezia isn't very fun. She tries to not think about spending time with Lucrezia, Cesare, and Ezio, back when things were not so bad.

"Maybe we can race Ezio."

Of course Cass sees that, so she frowns and hugs Steph a little tighter.

"Don't have to." Not if it's going to bring back memories that only upset her. "We'll find... other hobbies. More milkshake making, maybe?"

"Maybe," she says with a smile. "You and I should probably get better at cooking real food, though. Just so Tim doesn't go on strike."

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