A Birthday Boy

[onebetter]

Who: James, Keith and the people invited to James' birthday party (Toki, Ana, Adelaide, Nana, Ruby, Nadia, Allura & Yuya!)
When: August 13th (Keith part), August 18th (Party)
What: James' birthday (spent at home in Arizona) & James' Soleil birthday party, spent at a Café de la Lune in Soleil.
Warnings: None for party, mentions of NSFW in Keith & James', though anything explicit will be moved off-comm.

[ All people listed above will have received a text message on August 15th. ]

Hey there!
I'm currently out of the country, but my birthday passed recently and I'd like to celebrate with my friends a little once I return home. Are you free on August 18th? I'd love to get a group together and go down to Café de la Lune for the afternoon. It'll be my treat.

No worries if you're not free that day, but I'd love to see you there!

[ On the actual day of, everyone will find that James has reserved the biggest table in the café so everyone can fit comfortably. He's already ordered a few pastries for everyone and is more than willing to order more. James is pretty much beaming. Also his toad is here. Just sitting on his shoulder. Occasionally being fed bits of cake from a special toad-reserved spoon. ]

Thank you all for coming! If I'm honest, I actually had a bit of trouble making friends when I came here. That was new to me. I'm all the more happy to have met all of you. You made me look forward to coming back to France after vacation.

((Feel free to post open top levels and just chit-chat with one another / interrupt conversations, as it tends to happen at group tables. Also no pressure to tag in, anyone who doesn't will just be seen as having been busy that day and not as having skipped his party, haha.))

Comments

[marmoron]

[James following after him in no way makes Keith slow down. If anything, he very nearly breaks into an actual run to try and get a wall between himself and his boyfriend so he can ride out his embarrassment in solitude.]

Yeah. You're real interested in talking about shit that makes you scream.

[A beat as he grabs the door handle.]

I got the message. Loud and clear.

[onebetter]

The message that I was surprised?! Well, congrats.

[ James is absolutely booking it to come after Keith. ]

Also I didn't scream!

[ He did no such disgraceful thing and Keith should be ashamed to slander him this way. ]

[marmoron]

Fine! But you didn't exactly sound pleased about it either.

[He'll concede that point sure, but his heart's still beating way too quickly, and he fumbles with the door before manging to get it open.]

[onebetter]

[ By the time he actually gets the door to open, Keith will find James' hand on his shoulder, holding him back from actually escaping to the back room. ]

Was I supposed to shout out 'Keith, take me now'?!

I'm just... I definitely want to do that with you. I just didn't expect it to be anytime soon.

[marmoron]

Huh?

[He didn't think his face could possibly go any redder, but James' first comment certainly makes thie impossible possible.]

James!

[The name is yelped, though he doesn't make an attempt to push the guy away. Beet red and flustered, Keith raises his free hand to try cover the guy's mouth.]

[onebetter]

Mhmph!!

[ Mouth covering is successful because James didn't really expect it. He ends up taking the hand off Keith's shoulder to try and pry Keith's away from his mouth. ]

[marmoron]

[After a few seconds of struggling to try and keep his hand locked over James' mouth, Keith finally seems to get a grip on himself and lets his boyfriend pull the hand off. He looks down at his feet.]

...okay. Can we start this over. It's just... I had this whole idea of what I wanted to say, but then you found that stuff before I was ready to talk about it and now I'm freaking out.

[onebetter]

[ Free once more, James takes a deep breath. Alright this is just one further relationship step and they can do it. He wants to do it. It's just really daunting.]

I'm gonna go sit down in the front room and you can recompose and then we redo this. Okay?

[marmoron]

[Keith scrubs at his face, still looking at the door rather than making eye contact. James is being nice about this, but there's no redoing any of it, is there. That yelp is still ringing in his ears, after all and he can feel his pulse in his ears from this surge of adrenaline. He takes a deep breath.]

Okay. But if you think it's too soon to y'know... [He swallows.] lose our virginities together, then we really don't have to talk about it at all.

[onebetter]

[ Virginities...? James blinks. In context it's easy to tell what Keith is getting at, but the word choice seems... pretty odd. James resist the instinct to immediately point this out, because he doesn't want Keith to start bolting again. ]

I hadn't thought to bring it up myself, because well... I've been the one pushing you into this relationship. It was me who insisted on dates and kisses and well... more. I thought I should give you breathing space. But if you want it, then... I'd like to.

[ And after a pause... ] Though I haven't considered myself a virgin, since prom.

[marmoron]

[He blinks in kind.]

You fuck someone else before prom started or what?

[It's not something he seriously believes, but James' self evaluation here is too far removed from his own.]

[onebetter]

No?!

[ James waves his hands in physical rejection of the assumption, and as he waves his hand, he also waves Plastic Bag 2, which he's still holding. ]

Just... we had sex. It wasn't that but it was sex.

[marmoron]

[His eyebrow starts going up.]

Yeah? But losing your virginity involves things going into a vagina or an ass.

[Said in a purely matter of fact tone without any sign of hesitation because Keet "sex expert" Yeehawson is legitimately too bewildered to be embarrassed about this.]

[onebetter]

No, losing your virginity happens when you have sex for the first time.

[ The embarrassment is mutually gone now, simply because this is absolutely puzzling. James sounds very certain of himself as well. ]

[marmoron]

[His skepticism increases:]

And who told you that? Your virgin friends?

[A beat.]

The kids who were fucking around at the home would say otherwise.

[onebetter]

Not all my friends are virgins! In any sense of it!

[ He's not some sheltered child who's never heard of sex or met someone who had it, jeeze. ]

The people at the home just had weird standards.

[marmoron]

No?

[Skepticism slowly turning into a light scowl, Keith continues.]

For girls it has something to do with the hymen and guys don't have that, so the parallel would be butt stuff.

[onebetter]

Isn't the hymen thing like... a long-standing social myth? Girls I know seemed really convinced of that.

[ James meanwhile stops looking so indignant and his expression turns more thoughtful. ]

[marmoron]

...as in the hymen doesn't exist?

[SQUINT.]

[onebetter]

No, more like... it can break through so many things in life that by the time girls have their first time, a lot of them have theirs already torn. Sports are a huge factor.

Or... something like that. I never thought this info would become relevant to me.

[marmoron]

[His brow furrows even further.]

Okay, but I never said it was totally sealed off? I mean...if it was then girls wouldn't need tampons or whatever until after they weren't virgins anymore.

[Then a beat:]

Why are we even talking about this?

[onebetter]

I.... yeah, we got massively derailed, didn't we?

[ It's not actually functionally important if they count as virgins right now or not. It's even less important when a girl counts as a virgin, considering there are no girls involved with their relationship.

James breathes a silent sigh. ]

Want to sit down and actually have snacks?

[marmoron]

[Keith breathes out an audible sigh, eyes sliding back down to the bag still hanging from his wrist. It feels like a goddamn millenia ago that he was staring stonefaced at the store trying to figure out what the fuck to buy and thought this talk even had a chance of going well. Should've known it wasn't going to go smoothly at all.]

Yeah. Fine. Not that hungry but you can eat.

[onebetter]

Alright.

[ James makes it back to the sitting area and flops down, examining the contents of Plastic Bag 2. Luckily, that one is indeed far less foreboding and he is able to produce a granola bar. Granola bars are good and safe. He likes Granola bars.

He also has time to actually think and let his brain play catch-up as he chews down the first bite.

Keith... condoms.... lube... virginity... birthday... ]

You know.... you don't have to, but I really do want to hear what you were actually going to say.

[marmoron]

[He starts making his way back towards the futon, not making eye contact.]

Nothing elaborate. Just that... [A pause as he takes a seat on the edge of the futon and lets the bag drop to the floor.] ... we could try something new on your birthday if you wanted to.