A quick fluffy piece in honour of David McCallum's 85th birthday

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

Entering his shared office for the first time in three weeks, Illya found it empty. Then he remembered that, when he’d spoken to Napoleon the day before, he had said he was heading to Berlin for two days. Sitting down at his desk, Illya sighed contentedly. His chair wasn’t the most comfortable, but following several weeks undercover on a cattle ranch, it felt like sitting on clouds. He had already given his verbal report to Mr Waverly and, as soon as his written report was done, he had a date with a hot bath.

Pulling open the drawer for some report paper, Illya was surprised to find it full of brightly wrapped gifts. There were four in all and, as he lifted them onto the desk, he noted that they all had tags with ‘Happy Birthday, Illya!’ written on the front, and a message on the back.

“Is that today?” he asked himself, out loud.

Looking at the calendar, he realised that it was, indeed, his birthday. Leaving aside the very obviously bottle shaped one, he picked up the first of the gifts. The message read ‘This is to ensure that there’ll always be light in your life. With love from April.’ He carefully tore off the paper and found a small, white candle.

The second gift was from Mark and the message said, ‘This is to bring sweetness to your life’. Hidden within was a jar of honey, which put him in mind of Tavia*, who he had dated for a while.

Taking hold of the third gift, Illya swore loudly as, whatever it was, stabbed his thumb.

“Trust Napoleon to give me something painful,” he muttered.

The message on the tag read, ‘This is so you’ll always have life’. Finding a small cactus beneath the wrapping, Illya immediately forgive his partner for the brief pain. The gifts from his three friends were all traditional gifts, and sentiments, of his homeland. The thought and care they had put into choosing them was beyond touching and he knew he would never be able to thank them enough.

Grinning with happiness, he looked at the tag on the wrapped bottle, which stated that it was from all them, and that it wasn’t to be unwrapped until his party on Saturday. Illya was in no doubt that he would uncover a bottle of vodka but chose to honour the wishes of his friends.

As for the party he had been wholly unaware of, he found he was actually looking forward to it. For many years he had avoided his birthday but, these days, he appreciated the fact he had people who were enough to want to celebrate his birth.


*The Birds and the Bees Affair

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Comments

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

A very happy birthday indeed.

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!
Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ (https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=303).

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Yay, your story made the top 25 posts today. Loved it!

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-)