Shays' Birthday blues

Haytham had avoided the topic like the plague after the last lecture he'd had from the irishman a few weeks back. All he'd asked was if Shay would like to go out for dinner for his birthday. An hour later he'd still been sat in stunned silence over the furious diatribe he'd listened to. He never mentioned the subject again.

But here was the day and he'd been trying to act normally, although being on edge he'd spent a lot of time in the kitchen after his paperwork was finished for the day preparing something really nice for dinner, a poshed up version of fish fingers with sweet chilli jam and sweet potato wedges. Cooking helped him relax and the shiny surfaces of the countertop was covered in detritus as he worked. He just hoped that Shay wouldn't think he'd gone out of the way for the 'b' word. Haytham hoped his partner wouldn't be much longer, as things had to be cooked fresh and he'd left it as long as possible. Discarding the idea of sending a text as too dangerous, he sighed and made a start on cleaning up his mess.

The Irishman had spent the majority of his day wandering around the countryside, phone turned off and avoiding people at all costs. This was one of his least favourite days of the year. It hadn't always been this way, but he wasn't even sure when it had all started, or why he even felt like it.

Unfortunately, the bitter winds were cutting close, a stark contrast to the warm weather of only an hour ago, when the sun was still above the horizon. With any hope, he'd be able to go back home, have a whiskey, go to bed and put it behind him for another year. Though, he was never usually quite that lucky.

It wasn't long until he was home, the journey passed quickly with his thoughts. Turning the handle of the front door, Shay took a deep breath, hoping for the best as his nose was attacked by a appetising smell coming from the kitchen. Stomach grumbling, he realised he'd not eaten since the morning.

Hoping beyond hope that Haytham would just act like normal for his sake, the ex-assassin made his way into the kitchen, his face devoid of its usual relaxed nature, with eyebrows knitted together tensely. "Hey.." Eying up the food, Shay decided to try and nt jump to conclusions, it wasn't as if Haytham never cooked for them. "What we got?.." Trying his best to push everything aside, the Irishman painfully forced a smile as he leaned against the door frame. "Can I help at all?"

"hey stranger." he'd added the fish to the pan when he'd heard the front door and now turned them over. Haytham was relieved Shay had come home. Given his feelings he might have ended up drinking to oblivion somewhere and get a call at 4am in the morning from some bar to pick him up. Only certain things pushed his lover that way and the 'b' word was one of them. His apron caught on the door, bloody strings, as he opened the oven.

"shit!" the frying pan almost hit him on the head as he bent to untangle the strings but he managed to wrestle it all and check on the sweet potato wedges.
Straightening he regained his composure, hating to look such a fool "No, it's almost done, fish fingers and chips. You could however find some wine?" he shot a glance over at the man looming in the doorway. He'd have to tread carefully.

After a few moments silence he spoke, "I have a few days off. The Russia mission was cancelled and i'd already told Abstergo that i wouldn't be available." He took a deep breath, "I was hoping...maybe if you wanted...if you're free to go sailing?"

Watching the older man stumble through making dinner was the first thing to put a smile on Shay's face all day, but was immediately wiped away at the talk of wine. Keeping quiet, he approached a cupboard getting out two different glasses, a bottle of red wine and an almost completely depleted bottle of whiskey.

"Cancelled?.." Emptying the last of the amber liquid into the shorter glass, he pushed the empty bottle aside and took up the next bottle. "When were you thinkin' exactly?" Forgetting the previous question, he decided the reason was irrelevant.
So far, so good, but he realised Haytham must be feeling a bit awkward and perhaps even curious.

Finishing with the drinks, Shay turned, leaning against the counter-top when he remembered his phone had been turned off all day. As much as he'd like to ignore it until the next morning, he knew he had a responsibility to check for any important updates. Turning it on, the Irishman internally grimaced as a handful of notifications popped up....And as expected, a couple of well wishes for his birthday and some drunken ramble from Hickey, which loosely translated to the same topic... Sighing, Shay simply slid the object back into his pocket, deciding to ignore the messages for now, as much as he now felt obliged to reply.

Serving up the dinner onto some large plates he made sure that Shay had a decent portion. He had a healthy appetite. Grabbing them he forgot to remove his apron as he placed them on the table and grabbed some cutlery from the drawer. He frowned at the whiskey,that was not a good sign, especially after the pinging from the mans phone.

"Was thinking day after tomorrow. Weather forecast is good." Haytham sat and inhaled the scent of the wine, it had always been one of his favourites. He wanted to surprise Shay with the recently arrived Morrigan. It had taken almost a year to track it down and repair it enough to get it transported back here in time for his birthday. Haytham hadn't known how his lover felt about the day and all the social trappings and was going to tell him. After looking at Shays face today however he knew it would be a bad idea.

He felt like he couldn't do anything nice for the man without it backfiring. He was bad at reading people. He shook his head and took a mouthful of the fruity red and gave a lopsided smile at the man. "You know i like spending time with you outside of work." He felt awkward and ran out of small talk. They hadn't been able to sit like this in some time and he'd wanted to have a good evening. He'd missed the solitude and just Shay for company and their own small world.

"Mm, sounds like a plan. A good plan." A small smile curled Shay's lips as he thought about spending time with Haytham, doing what he enjoyed most.

Following the older man to the table, he decided not to mention anything about the apron. Not out of kindness, but out of amusement. There was something about seeing Haytham, who was usually so formal and organised as the grandmaster, doing clumsy little things. It was so normal, but really stood out to Shay, he enjoyed seeing the other man like this.

Sitting down and taking a sip of his whiskey, he tried to push any negativity aside and just focus on the two of them. It was obvious that Haytham was doing all this because of his birthday, but he'd made it remarkably pain free. "I should hope so, too, if you were bored of me already, I can't say I wouldn't be disappointed."

Haytham blushed and cleared his throat, "Of course i do..." he tucked into his food to try and cover his embarrassment. "it's been a while...want to spar in a bit?"

A small amount of fist fighting would make a change from his boring treadmill and weights routine in bland hotel gyms. The last few months had been busy and he was actually relieved when the Russian mission was cancelled, he just hoped that Shay wasn't in the middle of something important and would rush away with two minutes notice.

Strange though that his first thought was sparring, he didn't quite know what to say to not feel awkward tiptoeing around the subject of Shays' birthday and it had been the first thing that had come to mind in the panic. This was supposed to have been a nice meal together at which he'd hand over the dock keys to the morrigan and Shay would be all happy...plans change though.

"Or we could dig out the rum from the stash and get riotously drunk? Whatever you want. I don't get to spend as much time with you as i would like, I never get bored of your company." Uh O, emotions appearing, red alert, time for a big swig of wine.

"Also, it occurs to me that we haven't had sex in 3 weeks, 2 days and," he looked at his watch," approximately 9 hours. So you fucking me senseless would also be appreciated."