A Very Special Day (Lani and I, Open with Invitation)

Lucia grabbed hold of Jazz's hand with both of hers, starting to tug her papa towards the kitchen, and bumping into Justice. "Sorry Auntie!" She said, before resuming her tugging.

"That's not requesting!" Jasmine said on a laugh, following obediently nonetheless; the girl did, after all, have quite the grip on her.

Claire was waiting for both of them, holding the cake in her arms. Lucia rushed towards her with a cry of Cake! and Claire laughed softly at the reaction. Clearing her throat, she started singing, with everyone else joining in. "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Lucia. Happy birthday to you!" She then brought the cake down closer to Lucia, helping the toddler blow out the candles.

Lifting the girl to her hip, Jasmine set about cutting the cake exactly according to how Lucia instructed... after convincing her that she could not, in fact, consume the entire cake on her own.

Claire set about putting the slices on plates and handing one to Justice, one to Tony, leaving two aside for herself and Jazz and, of course, giving the biggest piece to Lucia herself, whom she took from Jazz to put her in her highchair. "Jazz made milkshakes, if anyone wants 'em." She said, gesturing to the glasses on the island before taking one for herself.

Jazz and Tony grabbed their own glasses almost carelessly, not really looking at their actions. Justice, however, though xe took the last glass, did so with care, watching xir movements before moving to sit down and eat, getting comfortable before eating.

Claire spent the majority of her time helping Lucia eat her own slice of cake, at least between sips of her milkshake and idle chatter with everyone else at the table. She seemed a lot calmer than before, her Xanax having thankfully robbed her of most of her apprehension.

Idle chatter came easily to Tony and Jazz, going on about weapon mechanics and techniques, though Tony had largely been left to manage his on his own. Justice, however, seemed most distracted with Lucia herself, trying to have a slight conversation despite the food.

Lucia began to regale Justice with tales about just what was going on inside her dollhouse, how Rey was the new girl in town and she and Finn were best friends and how Kylo Ren was the son of the local business magnate who was trying to buy the property Rey and Finn had just moved on to. Claire stepped away from everyone at the table, taking a few steps back, and snapping a picture without warning, smiling down at it.

Jazz's eyes went to the other woman's instinctively, knowing full and well exactly what she had done. Smiling just slightly, the barest hint of a curl upturning one side of her lip, she nodded, knowing. Tony, meanwhile was chuckling under his breath while Justice appeared fairly enraptured, asking questions here and there to try to keep the story going.

Claire let out a sigh, leaning against the wall behind her, and simply observing everyone, fully content to watch the people she loved and appreciated most, and, in all honesty, still trying to fully calm herself after the episode from earlier.

Jasmine looked at her curiously, eventually stepping around the others to retrieve yet another gift from the backroom. In time, once Lucia had the chance to be able to visit relatives (and that was still a project in the works), Jazz had other plans in mind, but for now, the day belonged to their daughter. As such, that was the way she wished for it to stay, and hell... it could only hurt a little bit to spoil the young girl some more.

Claire had another gift for Lucia as well, but she was saving it til the end of the night. She wanted it to be special, the last thing that the young girl would get today.

Jasmine had learned pretty early on that purchasing a present for a girl that had everything --- including three biological fathers, a biological mother, an adopted father, and countless unofficial and official other family members --- was nearly impossible. Still, she had sought to do so, year after year, and doing so usually meant creating something, herself. This year, it was a sort of photo album/scrapbook, designed to hold several more pages, currently blank and empty, but currently containing various trinkets from escapades the girl had the pleasure of experiencing thus far in her life. It was small, and lame, but it was something Jazz had poured her heart into, inserting various photos, passes, and even a few guitar picks, into alongside quotes and memories.

Claire had learned much the same lesson over the years, especially given that most of the other people in Lucia's life had more wealth than she did. So she had learned new skills over the past 3 years, or applied old ones. She had written Lucia a short lullaby once, and taught Jazz how to play it to back her up. For her second birthday, Claire had painted the ceiling of her room to look like the night sky. This year, Claire had taken up sewing, and her last gift was a teddy bear. Granted, it was nothing special, she had found cutouts online to help make it. But she had done what she could to make it as special as she could, embroidering a message onto the heart on the bear's tummy and using Lucia's favorite colors.

That was the curious thing about lacking money, or even about gifting to a spoiled child: creativity became rampant and key, as even already took the ideas that typically dwelled inside the box. With any luck, the more heartfelt gifts would have much the same, if not a better, effect on the girl, if only by increasing her creative interests.

Jazz said all but nothing as she slipped back into the room, holding a gift box that she'd wrapped the lid and main portion of separately. Handing it over to the girl, she offered a tender, nervous smile, "Papa brought you your present,"

Lucia looked down at the package and smiled wide, clapping a few times. "Presents!" She seemed delighted, tearing into the wrapping paper with ease, and looking at the scrapbook with wide eyes. "What is it papa? 'Nother book?"

Claire just smiled, taking a few pictures of her two favorite girls, still removed from the affair while she allowed herself to fully unwind.

"Special book," Jazz said, scooting the discarded rubbage away so that Lucia had space at the table in front of her. "Look through it, silly girl."

Lucia started to flip through the book, her eyes going wide as she hazily recalled some of the things she was seeing. She flipped past one of Jazz's guitar picks, and pointed. "Papa, it's one of you music makers!"

The woman laughed, "I use my hands to play, too," she said, and the slightest hint of a smirk crossed her face as she took that precise opportunity to meet her girlfriend's gaze. Looking back not a moment later, she grinned, "But yes, it's one of my picks." She gestured towards the border she'd made for that particular image, one of Tony's --- as everyone accepted his claim to the entirety of the band --- smaller "concerts" at a local restaurant. Claire and Lucia had been right up front, cheering them on. The border in question had been made of braided guitar strings.

"I love it papa!" She said, running her hands over the guitar strings and laughing.

Something in Jasmine both broke and warmed, and she found herself grinning dumbly at the child, a tear at the edge of her eye while Tony seemed all-too-interested in the scrapbook, surprised that he'd not seen her working on it at one point or another. Justice, by now, had taken to cleaning up after everyone; the wrapping paper and box were already gone.

Claire blinked at how Justice was doing the cleaning, intercepting her and trying to take the garbage. "Don't worry about that, I can handle it."

Justice waved off the statement, proceeding about xir work anyway, "Enjoy your girl's birthday. It's quiet, and I'd like to be some sort of useful while Tony drools at his own reflection and your girlfriend becomes a soppy mess."

Claire smiled at that, before giving Justice a hug. "Thanks..." She murmured, before she moved over to Jazz, wrapping an arm around the small of her back.