Hello, fellow Schitt's Creek fans!

I am completely obsessed with both this show and David and Patrick's relationship. Here's a little one-shot I wrote - simply because I have read through all the other David/Patrick fics I could find and was yearning for more. Enjoy! :)

-ArticulateFiction

Patrick's Birthday

David burst through the entrance of the decrepit lobby of the Rosebud Motel, swiftly shutting the grimey door behind him before making a beeline for the front desk. A panic had been slowly building within him all week, and he was finally ready for it to erupt.

Upon seeing his best friend already engaged in a conversation on the phone and unable to immediately attend to his hysteria, he sighed in frustration and rolled his eyes while he leaned up on the desk with one elbow to rest his chin in his hand and stare at her with disdain.

Stevie, looking as equally annoyed with her conversation as David was, looked up at him and rolled her eyes back in agreement. She continued to placate the customer on the line with as much empathy as anyone could possibly expect his notoriously sarcastic companion to muster.

"Yes, ... Yes, I can assure you the sheets and towels are all laundered every day."

David mockingly gasped and clutched his chest. "Lies!" he stage whispered, trying his best to earn her attention away from the phone. Stevie gave him a pointed look that more than implied he better hold his tongue.

"Yes... Okay... Yes, we look forward to having you stay with us, too…" Another eye roll as the insincere comment left her mouth. "Okay, you too. Bye." She slammed the receiver down with more force than she probably intended, making David jump from his propped position on the desk. "Have I ever mentioned how much I hate customer service?" she asked him acidly.

"Hm, well, good thing you've selected a career that literally revolves around servicing customers then, isn't it..." he returned easily. The sarcastic smile he earned from her relaxed him slightly, his own issue momentarily floating to the background as he slipped into the familiar banter.

"I suppose you've just popped in to remind me of my excellent life choices, then", she said, tight smile still plastered on her face.

The memory of why he was visiting quickly swam back to the forefront. "Actually, I have a slight… emergency," he replied, biting his bottom lip and crossing his arms across his chest.

She studied his now nervous stance with squinted eyes. "Like, a real emergency, or like… a David emergency?"

"So... ," he said incredulously, furrowing his brows, uncrossing his arms and placing one hand on his hip while the other gestured towards himself as he spoke, "are you implying that my emergencies aren't as important as everybody else's?"

Stevie gave him a look that suggested he already knew the answer to his own question. "Let's just say most of us don't consider, oh, I don't know… the motel switching from 2-ply toilet paper to 1-ply toilet paper in order to cut costs… an emergency. Certainly not one that warrants calling me and waking me up at 1am to flip out over."

"Well, pardon me for trying to point out the obvious lack of respect for your guests and their dignity that comes from forcing them to use toilet paper that is 1 thin layer away from complete disaster", he replied testily.

She rolled her eyes for the third time since David had entered her place of business. "Fine. What is this emergency?"

David dropped his hand from his hip and started looking anywhere but at her curious face, his right hand starting to play with the rings on his left hand as he avoided meeting her eyes directly. "It, er… just so happens to be Patrick's birthday this weekend," he said self-consciously.

She waited for him to continue, assuming there was more to the story. When he finally met her eyes with a slight cringe, expecting her to understand why he was close to freaking out, she must have realized that was as much as he thought he needed to say. "Okay…," she finally replied. "Forgive me and my simple brain, but can you explain to me why having to celebrate a birthday would be... an emergency?"

David looked at her as if she was dense, then sighed and went back to leaning on the desk. "I feel as though… I should maybe be doing something... of some sort... " he said with a questioning tone, waiting for her to answer. She continued to stare at him as if he was the dense one. "You know, like… buy a gift, or… plan some sort of activity…" He waited again for her to catch on, but her staring continued. He shook his head in bewilderment at her silence. "Okay, so… I take it from your lack of argument that you agree?"

"If you're asking me if I think you should do something to celebrate your boyfriend's birthday, then yes, I would agree…" she finally replied. "I would have thought that'd have been obvious…" she added, looking at him now as if she wasn't sure if he was kidding or not. The distress he was feeling must have shone through just enough to push her over onto his side and make her realize that he was not. "You're not fucking with me, are you?"

"I can assure you that no, I am not, in fact, fucking with you," he answered, completely astounded. "This may come as a surprise to you," he added sarcastically, "but I haven't exactly been in a stable relationship with anyone long enough to be around to celebrate a birthday prior to now."

Clearly taken aback by his statement, Stevie shook her head in disbelief. "Well, I guess you can try buying him something… maybe take him out for a nice dinner?"

He cringed slightly at her suggestion. "Yeah, well, I was kind of hoping for a little bit more guidance than that," he said, biting his bottom lip again.

"The Café Tropical does a mean... meatloaf..."

"First of all, no they don't," he stopped her, Stevie immediately shaking her head from side to side to agree with him as if sorry for even saying it to begin with. "And second of all, I want to do something a bit more… gesture-y…." He instinctively brought his hand up to cover his mouth as he leaned his elbows on the desk and waited for her reaction to his admission.

The expression on his friend's face changed just slightly from confusion to something softer as she seemed to understand what he was getting at. David was not known for being particularly expressive with his feelings towards the people he loved, although he liked to think they knew that was just the way he was and understood it wasn't for lack of caring. Patrick, though, made such a great effort to make David feel loved nearly every single day, and he wanted to return the favor despite how far out of his experience it was. Their relationship was the most important one David had ever forged, and he didn't want to ruin things over his nature to avoid emotionally charged displays of affection.

"You mean, like how he had the first receipt from your joint business framed to give to you on your birthday?" A small knowing smile pulled at her lips.

He couldn't help but grin slightly behind his hand at the memory of Patrick's heartfelt gift. They hadn't even been in a relationship at that point, but it was still the sweetest gift David had ever received. "Exactly like that, yes," he agreed, biting his lip to try to conceal his smile.

"Well, maybe you could just plan an evening for him. You know... doing something that he likes to do. Make it about him. What would be a perfect evening for Patrick?"

He racked his brain a bit. Patrick's preferences were significantly different from what David would have suggested for his own birthday celebrations a few years ago, but not so far off from what he'd want now. "To be honest, if it was up to him we'd probably just stay in with a home-cooked meal and watch bad movies together on the couch," he finally answered.

Stevie didn't seem surprised by his answer. "Well… then, do that," she said with a shrug like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And now that he had said it aloud, he thought that maybe it was.

Then something else crossed his mind. "I suppose it would be frowned upon to have him cook his own aforementioned home-cooked birthday dinner, though... right?"

She gave him the unsympathetic smile that she saved for times when he knew she thought he was behaving a bit spoilt. "It would probably be frowned upon, yes..." she deadpanned. "Although knowing how little experience you have in the kitchen, it may actually be best for both of you if he did anyways."

David gasped for real this time, slightly offended at the comment, although secretly not totally disagreeing with it. "You don't think I can do this?" he asked woundedly. Stevie bit her bottom lip and shrugged. "I can definitely do this," he insisted. "I can cook a meal." He briefly thought again about what he was saying and then drew back a bit. "Well... I can at least try. Surely that would count for something."

She dropped the skeptical look and gave him another small smile. "I suspect it would actually count for a lot," she said. Another pause. "Well, as long as neither of you dies, that is."

Ignoring the last part of her sentence, he pondered some more, still resting his chin on his hand as he stared at the wall behind Stevie. "Okay, so… let's say I go ahead with this 'Evening of Patrick' idea..." he said, meeting her gaze again and lingering as he willed her to figure out what he was asking without having to actually say it himself.

Stevie held his gaze, waiting for him to elaborate again. Realization at what he was implying eventually dawned on her. "Ah," she exclaimed, nodding her head once. "I suppose you would need a kitchen to use,". David bit his lip and cringed at her again. When he didn't say anything back, she continued - "I suppose you'll need my kitchen, then."

"Oh my god, Stevie," he exclaimed, feigning delight with her suggestion. "I will gladly accept your generous offer, yes, thank you."

Giving him another sarcastic smile in reply. "Oh, you're so very welcome, David." He gave her a real smile in return this time, a more sincere indication of his thankfulness that lightened her expression and tone. "I can probably make myself scarce Saturday night."

His smile became teasing. "And by that, I imagine you mean Jake gets to take his little Pony for a ride?" He would never not get pleasure from making fun of her nickname ever since he heard Jake use it for the first time in front of him.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that," she replied, staring daggers at him as he continued to smirk at her irritation to hearing the nickname, "solely because I am actually fond of your boyfriend and think he deserves a nice birthday."

Saturday came quicker than David would have liked. As per his agreement with Stevie, he stopped by the motel's front desk to grab her apartment keys from her after waking and dressing himself for the day. His obvious nervousness about the entire situation seemed to make her limit her jokes at his expense during their brief encounter. Unable to resist at least one crack though, she yelled out to him to make sure he remembered to save both Patrick and her Tragically Hip CD collection before the apartment burnt down to the ground as he exited the lobby with a clipped "yes, okay, thank you."

His plan was to work the morning with Patrick at their store, then take off early to prep for their evening at Stevie's place. He started at a brisk walk towards the coffee house, remembering that he was going to make this day all about Patrick. He picked up his regular order, of which Patrick always commented had a startling sugar content, alongside a tea for his boyfriend. Deciding he could one-up himself at the last second, he added on two cherry danishes before paying. Patrick was a sucker for danishes.

He thrummed with anticipation as the Rose Apothecary came into view. He had never thought he'd ever be so invested in making someone else's day special, but the thought of failing was causing him genuine anxiety. Pushing open the door to the store, he caught sight of Patrick poring over a binder full of spreadsheets at the cash register counter and couldn't help but smirk to himself at how focused he looked.

The object of his affections looked up and grinned that perfectly sweet smile at seeing him enter the store. David felt his heart leap in his chest at the sight of Patrick's reaction to his mere presence, and his nerves quickly ebbed as he realized with startling clarity that Patrick would love anything that he did, as long as he was doing it for him. He returned the smile easily as he walked straight up to the counter with a sudden surge of confidence, depositing the drinks and danishes he had brought in upon it.

Patrick watched him lay the items down with interest, smile still stretched across his face. "Huh, you stopped at the-"

He was promptly cut off by David's mouth suddenly pressed against his with an eagerness that surprised even David, his hands grasping either side of Patrick's face. Patrick immediately closed his eyes and hummed his contentment at the unusually affectionate greeting, his hands instinctively wrapping around David's lower back to draw him in even closer.

The kiss lasted several seconds before David finally pulled back a few inches, hands still gently gripping Patrick's jaw. He felt the familiar swooping in his stomach as Patrick looked back at him with a mixture of astonishment and pure adoration - and, to David's ego's delight, what looked like a pang of lust. "It's your birthday today," he said as he grinned back at his awestruck partner, not really sure what else to say in his dazed happiness.

Patrick laughed at his stating the obvious. "It is." David leaned in for another quick kiss, unable to help himself with their close proximity. "Is this how you greet everyone when they're celebrating a birthday?" he joked as David pulled away a second time.

David shrugged his shoulders. "Only the ones I really like," he said flirtatiously. He reluctantly released his boyfriend's face in order to present him with the spoils of the coffee house down the street. "I bought you these."

"I see that," he answered, smiling with slight surprise at the proffering. He peeked inside the brown paper bag containing the danishes, then looked up at David with adorable excitement as he pulled one out. "Wow, a make-out session and a danish." He quickly took a large bite of the pastry, somehow avoiding landing any of the flakes on his clothes. "Best birthday ever," he said around the mouthful, cheeks puffy with danish. He licked a few flakes off his lips and grinned suggestively as he waggled his eyebrows.

David bit his lip as he tried to not smile too hard at his boyfriend's endearing behaviour. "Standards aren't very high, then?" Patrick shrugged indifferently and continued to happily chew through his first bite. "Well, I guess that's good news for me," he added good naturedly.

Unable to resist temptation for very long, David reached into the bag and grabbed the remaining pastry, taking just as large of a bite as Patrick - which earned him another sweet smile and a wink. He chewed quickly and swallowed, emboldened to tell Patrick of his plans after seeing how well he was doing so far. "So… I may have another surprise lined up," he said meekly.

Patrick raised his eyebrows and smirked. "Really?" He took another large bite, waiting for David to elaborate with obvious amusement at David's strange, out-of-character, dotingness.

"You know, you could try and act a little less surprised that I'm being nice," David said good-humoredly. He had to admit he enjoyed Patrick's banter as much as he enjoyed Stevie's, although for different reasons.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about," Patrick replied sarcastically as he leaned his back against the counter. "You're definitely the nicest boyfriend I've ever had."

David squinted at him with amusement. "Yes, well… a sentiment that would be better appreciated if I wasn't the only boyfriend you've ever had."

Patrick shrugged one shoulder and took another bite of his danish as he continued to smirk in amusement. "Still true," he said, quickly swallowing the bite. "Do I get to know what this surprise is?"

"Well..." David mused as his eyes darted around the room, stopping to take another bite of his own pastry in order to draw out the dramatic pause as Patrick waited for a reply. "I think that would go against the definition of a surprise, don't you?" he finally said, Patrick grinning and rolling his eyes at his delay as David met his gaze and smirked. "I will tell you that you'll have to meet me at Stevie's apartment after the shop is closed, though."

"Meet you?" Patrick asked with slight confusion. "You won't be leaving the store with me, then?"

"Oh, right", David said with a slight cringe as took a large sip of his coffee to wash down the pastry in his mouth. "I forgot to mention I'll be taking the afternoon off."

"Huh. So… it's my birthday... but you get to take a half-day off work and leave me here to run things on my own?" Patrick challenged, obviously entertained by what David's idea of "being nice" meant.

David returned his smirk and hummed in agreement. "Yes, exactly." He leaned in to give Patrick one more kiss, now flavoured like danish, before walking into the backroom to get to work on unpacking their most recent stock delivery - leaving Patrick against the counter and unable to help himself grinning at David's back.

David dropped the two heavy, over-stretched grocery bags he had lugged up 3 flights of stairs in front of Stevie's apartment door with a loud huff, wheezing slightly as he fished the keys out of his pants pocket. He unlocked and opened the door, then pulled the bags the rest of the way over the threshold, panting as he let the door slam behind him. Grocery shopping was more complicated than he'd have thought it'd have been, but not unbearable - carrying everything home, on the other hand… He had never missed his family's old personal chef more in his entire life.

He allowed himself to catch his breath as he looked around Stevie's apartment. Pleased to find that she seemed to have made an effort to tidy up, he promised himself he'd have to do something nice for her sometime soon. He bent down to grab the bags and carry them the rest of the way into the kitchen, just in time for one of the bag's handles to finally give out under the immense weight within it. He stared down at the spilled contents with mild shock and thought to himself that next time he'd ask for more bags.

His menu for the evening sounded delicious on paper, but as he had meandered around the town's small grocery store collecting more and more ingredients, he had wondered more than once if it was perhaps a bit too ambitious for a first attempt. He was planning on making a 3 course dinner - a caesar salad to start, followed by beef tenderloin with au jus, garlic mashed potatoes and glazed carrots, and ending with angel food cake, strawberries and whip cream for dessert. He planned to make everything from scratch, except for the cake that he had decided to buy in order to save time. It would be a far cry from the fine dining he had been used to once upon a time, but exactly the kind of meal that Patrick would love. Not to mention the fact that Schitt's Creek's grocery store only carried so many things - gourmet cooking was almost certainly not an option here even if Patrick had wanted it.

After picking everything up from the floor and dumping it on the counter, he opened up the recipes he had found online on his phone and got to work preparing the roast. Stevie's collection of pots and cooking vessels was almost laughable, but he made do with what he had. The roast ended up going into the oven in a large pot obviously intended for stove-top cooking, but he decided it would have to do after failing to find any other dish he could use.

He started chopping the vegetables for his side dishes as soon as the roast was in the oven. Despite the tediousness of peeling and cutting - and the fact that he nearly sliced a couple of fingers off in the process - he was surprised to find the actions almost relaxing. His thoughts drifted as he worked to Patrick, and how surprised he would be to see what David had done for him. The morning at the store had been busy, even by Saturday's standards, and he had felt bad about having to leave Patrick on his own for the afternoon.

Trying not to dwell so much on the guilt of leaving him and focus more on how he would be making it up to him, he smiled to himself with excited anticipation as he worked. He truly hoped his partner would be happy to what he came home to after a long day at work.

Patrick was finally climbing the last flight of stairs up to Stevie's apartment, curious to see what kind of surprise David had set up for him. The store had been a complete zoo for the last two hours before closing, and he was more than ready to just spend an evening at home with David relaxing. Unfortunately, he suspected David may have planned a surprise party for him. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy parties, especially on his behalf - he just wasn't sure how much excitement he could tolerate after such a long working day.

Nevertheless, he made his way up the hallway and to the door, determined to show appreciation for the party he assumed was on the other side. He'd never want to make David feel bad about trying to plan something nice for him, so he was willing to pretend he had more energy than he did. He leaned his ear into the door with a slight smirk, trying to see if he could hear everyone inside. He frowned a bit as he realized he couldn't hear anything, then decided they must have seen him coming up the street and hid to jump out at him as he entered.

He laughed quietly to himself and raised his fist to knock on the door, then stopped mid-air as something caught his nose in the air. He sniffed again and determined that the something he could smell was something burning. With a sudden sense of nervousness, he looked down the hall to see if he could see smoke coming from anywhere. A sudden trickle of grey near his feet caught the corner of his eye at the exact same moment that a smoke alarm started to screech, and his nervousness turned into full blown panic as he realized with fear that the smoke was coming from Stevie's apartment.

He burst through the door, no longer worried about knocking or ruining a surprise party. "David?" he yelled out with dread into the apartment as he ran towards the kitchen where the smoke seemed to be coming from. "Where are you?"

He skidded to a halt as he finally reached the kitchen before David could reply, where he found - to his immense relief - his boyfriend in perfectly fine condition, waving a tea towel under the smoke alarm in hopes to make it shut off. His terror shrunk as he noticed the smoke wasn't actually that thick and that there were no discernible flames. David's head shot over his shoulder to look at Patrick, his face cringing and silently pleading for Patrick to help fix it.

Patrick lowered his head and put both of his hands on his hips as he exhaled the breath he had been holding since he stumbled into the apartment, allowing his heart rate to decrease for a couple of seconds before acting. Once composed, he quickly went to the window in the kitchen and threw it open to let some of the smoke out, then went over to David and reached up to grab the smoke alarm and unplug it from the ceiling. The incessant alarm stopped immediately.

"Oh, thank god," David exhaled, a hand coming up to clutch his chest as he threw the tea towel onto the counter. "For a brief moment I thought Stevie may actually be psychic."

Confused by the comment, Patrick didn't respond and chose instead to walk back over to shut the front door he had left open in his panic, then returned to the kitchen to quickly survey their surroundings for the source of the smoke. A pot in the sink half-filled with water and a large, black object floating in it caught his attention, and he immediately walked over to examine it.

Unable to identify what the object was, he turned around to face David, only to find him looking slightly guilty as he bit his bottom lip and crossed his arms defensively across his chest. Patrick quirked a questioning eyebrow at him, prompting him to provide an explanation for the mysterious object and the entire scene he had just witnessed.

"So, I tried to cook you dinner…" David mumbled uneasily, eyes darting around the room, unable to meet Patrick's.

Completely taken aback and rendered speechless by the gesture, Patrick's eyebrows shot up to the top of his forehead. A small grin slowly spread across his face as he watched his partner continue to avoid eye contact, and a warmth bloomed through his chest with resounding force. Unable to help himself, he marched the few steps it took to close the distance between them, pulled David's surprised face towards his own, and kissed him with as much passion as he could muster, hoping to convey how much love he felt for him in that moment without the use of words.

David' surprise was fleeting and he quickly responded in kind to the kiss, his arms coming up to wrap around Patrick's neck as Patrick's hands roamed over his sides and his back. He leaned David back against the counter as they continued for a few moments, stopping only when they had to come up for air. David pulled back and looked at him with euphoric amazement as he shook his head, his smile matching Patrick's own. "Um, not to spoil the moment... but you understand that we can't actually eat that, right?"

Patrick laughed and leaned in to kiss him again. "Doesn't matter," he replied when he pulled back again. "You tried to cook me dinner." He leaned in and kissed him a third time, still trying to wrap his head around David's surprise gift.

Another long moment went by as they lingered in the third kiss before David reluctantly ended it. "Okay, well, the keyword here is tried," he said with a self-conscious wince. "We don't actually have anything edible right now except an undressed salad and a store-bought angel food cake."

Completely unperturbed by the lack of dinner, Patrick smiled and released David in order to take another look around the kitchen. He went back over to the sink, curiosity about the black object still nagging at the back of his mind. "What exactly was this supposed to be?" he asked with a teasing smile.

David's hands came together as he played with his rings - as he tended to do out of nervousness. "It was supposed to be a beef roast," he said with a cringe. "But unfortunately, because of forces... totally beyond my control," he added, trying not to smile through the lie as Patrick nodded along doing the same, "it became very badly… burnt. Possibly even inflamed."

"I see," Patrick replied, sucking in his lips to keep from laughing at the adorable antics of his boyfriend. "And you tried to roast it... in a saucepan?"

David nodded as he looked up at the ceiling. "That is correct, yes." His eyes eventually came back down to meet Patrick's, unable to hide his smirk now.

Patrick's eyes now steered over towards the stove-top where he saw some more questionable food items, one that also looked badly burnt, and the other looking like a rather lumpy, glutinous blob. "And that…?" he asked slowly, finger pointing towards the stove.

"Garlic mashed potatoes and glazed carrots, of course," David answered defiantly, still smirking.

"Right, of course," Patrick agreed sarcastically, failing to hide his smile now too at the ridiculousness of it. Despite the fact that he wasn't going to actually eat any of it, another flutter of affection went through him simply because he would have loved to eat all of it, and that David knew him well enough to know exactly what to make. "Don't suppose Stevie has any Kraft Dinner lying around?"

David gave him a look as if he was stupid for even asking. "I think we both know the answer to that question."

Nodding his head in conceded agreement, Patrick turned back towards the cupboards and began rummaging through them, looking for that familiar blue and yellow box. David headed towards the cupboards on the other side of the kitchen and did the same.

"Found it," David exclaimed happily as he pulled the box of KD out. He turned around, clutching the box to his chest as Patrick stretched his arm out, waiting for him to hand it over. "Did you still want me to make it for you?" he asked with obvious reluctance.

Although Patrick genuinely appreciated the offer, he certainly wasn't an idiot. "How about you just keep me company." He gave him a smile to soften the implication, happy to see it seemed to work as David smiled back and nodded in agreement with no hesitation.

"Deal." They grinned at each other for a short moment before Patrick started to work on the Kraft Dinner while David poured them both a glass of wine.

"So," David said around a mouthful of cheesy pasta, "If you had to rate this birthday on a scale of 1 to 10…"

"17," Patrick deadpanned. They were both sitting on the sofa with a bowl of Kraft Dinner, angled towards each other as they ate. David rolled his eyes in amusement and Patrick laughed slightly.

"You know, I'm not as delicate as everyone seems to think I am. You can be honest with me."

"I mean it," Patrick said with a sincere smile now, making sure to hold David's gaze so that he'd know he wasn't joking. David self-consciously returned his smile and looked back down at his dinner, obviously feeling pleased with himself that he managed to pull it off despite the hot mess in the sink. "I er… actually thought you were maybe planning a party for me, so I was pleasantly surprised to find you here alone. Slaving over a hot stove for me," Patrick added with a waggle of his eyebrows. He scooped the last bite of his dinner onto his spoon and put it in his mouth with satisfaction.

"For the record, I would have been much more successful at planning a party."

Patrick didn't argue. Nobody planned a better party than a Rose - that was simply a fact. He instead laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "But you knew I'd like this more."

"But I knew you'd like this more," David confirmed, looking up to smile at him as he also finished his last bite. David had admitted to him that despite his upbringing, Kraft Dinner had always been a secret comfort food for him. He was just as happy to eat this as he was to eat a roast dinner - although he'd probably never admit it to anyone but Patrick.

David stood up and took Patrick's bowl from him, walking them into the kitchen and returning with the half empty bottle of wine. He topped up both of their glasses and returned to his place on the sofa, tucking his legs up underneath himself and leaning one elbow on the back of it to rest his head on. "So... how angry do you think Stevie will be about the pot that I ruined?"

Patrick pretended to ponder for a moment before giving him a teasing smirk. "Well, maybe you could cook her a nice dinner to make up for it?"

"Very hilarious, thank you," David returned with a sarcastic smile of his own. "I expect you'll be holding this over my head for the rest of our lives?" The words had clearly left his mouth before he could realize what he was saying, but a massive flush of warmth spread through Patrick at the implication. They had never really discussed what their next steps would be, and he hadn't been in a hurry to bring it up out of fear that their plans wouldn't line up. Perhaps made clear to him by Patrick's poorly-concealed bliss, David seemed to suddenly realize that he had metaphorically laid all his cards on the table, and looked to instantly regret it.

Always one to love making his boyfriend squirm whenever possible, he couldn't help the deviously self-satisfied look he gave David at his slip-up - just to make sure he would know it did not go unnoticed by Patrick. "Rest of our lives, huh?" He knew his face became impossibly more smug as he watch David look even more embarrassed than before as he started to splutter.

"Um, I just meant-"

Patrick smiled wider and laughed at his boyfriend's obvious discomfort. "I know," he interrupted softly, feeling generous enough to let him off the hook. David gave him a small, grateful smile in return. He allowed his eyes to linger on David's lips. "But yes, I will be." They didn't have to talk about it anytime soon, but Patrick wasn't going to let David think he was the only one thinking about the long-term situation for them.

David's smile stretched just a tiny bit further, his eyes slightly glassy in the way that Patrick knew happened whenever he was ridiculously happy. Unable to resist any longer, he leaned in the rest of the way to capture David's lips in a tender kiss, incapable of not smiling into it as he thought to himself exactly what he had said to David earlier that morning -

Best birthday ever.