FSE

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The dragon smiled at the various members of the Agency that had shown up to wish him a happy birthday. Most of the time they could be a little stand-offish, but even the most distant of them seemed to be a little more welcoming when it was someone's birthday. Some weird looks here and there, but Jace assumed it was just because they weren't used to being sociable with others.

That didn't stop him from enjoying the party, though. They had punch, a bit of alcohol flowing - only because the boss was out and about in the field at the moment, though - and snacks that he loved. The black and red dragon flicked a glance towards one of the other agents, nodding his head with a smile of thanks, and getting a little nod in return before the agent turned back to his conversation.

"Heh," Jace chuckled to himself, shaking his head as he munched on some of the snacks. Little crackers, bits of meat, and some sweet stuff too. There was an ice cream machine at the end of the table, and more than a few of the agents had gone over there as soon as they had seen it. Most of them had stopped to wish him a happy birthday first, of course, but it was clear that the ice cream machine was the real attraction. Not that he blamed them; it was a rare thing to get sweets in here, even during parties.

A little ting ting sound caught his attention as he munched on one of the snacks, and he turned along with the rest of the room to the source of the sound. One of the other agents, an orca, held up a glass, and was only now putting down the knife he'd tapped against it. "Attention, attention, everyone," the orca called out. "Can I have everyone's attention, please? Thank you.

"Now, we all know why we're here, or at least I hope we do. Those of you that are a little slow on the uptake, I give you, Jace!" He gestured over to the dragon, all eyes in the room going from the orca to him. Jace blushed a bit at the attention from everyone, and the orca only added to that when he kept talking. "An excellent worker, a dedicated employee, and someone we can rely on to do anything that the boss asks so that the rest of us don't wind up in a pile of trouble. Happy birthday, Jace; hope you have many more." The orca raised his glass. "To Jace!"

"To Jace!" the rest of the room shouted, drinking their toast to the dragon.

As the orca swallowed his drink, he put it down. "Now, what's a party without a cake? Didn't we get a cake for the birthday dragon?" he called out.

"It's downstairs!" one of the other guys called out.

"Well, that's not the right place for it." The orca looked over at the dragon, and Jace rolled his eyes. "Heh, I know it's your birthday, Jace, but do you mind - "

"I get it, I get it," he said with a shake of his head. "I'll be back in a bit, guys. Third floor, right?"

"Yeah, that's it."

He chuckled to himself as he left the room, shaking his head as he crossed the hall to the elevator. Well, at least the birthday only had him doing one thing that he shouldn't have to be doing. That was a good bit better than a regular day, when the boss came around and kept messing with his head and his body. Not that it was a big deal most of the time, but he appreciated getting a little more warning than he was usually given. Now that he thought about it, it was probably the fact that the boss loved messing with him so much that got him so much credit with the rest of the agency. He took the crap so that they didn't have to.

Well, there were worse reasons to be liked, he supposed. Shaking his head as the elevator dinged and opened, he walked out into the hall. "Let's see....they'd probably put that in the cafe area..." Jace muttered to himself, turning down the right side of the hallway, counting off a few unmarked doors on his way.

When he reached the fourth one, he pulled it open. The cafe wasn't occupied, considering that most of the staff were upstairs at the party, so he had the place all to himself.

It was clear where the cake was. There was a cart in the side of the room that was covered up with a large box that was designed to be moved away, and his name was written on the side. "Heh, those guys," Jace said with a little shake of his head. He walked over and pulled the box off, a little curious what kind of cake they had gotten him.

It was massive, three big layers of cake and icing stretching up from the plate the cake was on. They must have gotten some ever burning candles or something, because it was already lit, the candles providing a gentle light around the cake, a sort of shimmer. The icing was white and reflected the light a bit, making the fires dance in his vision in a very pretty way.

At the top of the cake were two little spiral things. At first he thought they were like lollipops, but they were too small to be something like that. They seemed like they were lit up from the inside, almost, but it was really just the flickering candlelight from the rest of the cake. The white spirals that faced him almost seemed to turn in the candlelight, spinning slowly as he looked at them. It was almost entrancing....and kind of hard to look away from.

Jace stared at the circles for a few seconds before he shook his head, rubbing his forehead for a second to clear his mind. "That was weird," he muttered under his breath. Walking around to one side of the cart, he grabbed it and turned it towards the door. "Better get this upstairs before everyone else gets too hungry to wait. I want some ice cream with my cake."

The door opened easily at the push of the cart, but Jace hardly noticed as he stepped out into the hallway again. He had thought that the little spirals on the top of the cake were pointed towards the side, but either the spirals turned all the way around the cake, or they had gotten turned around somehow. Or had they? He didn't really remember just how it had looked, so he might have been mistaken.

At any rate, it meant that he was looking right at them as he pushed the cart along. It wasn't a bad sight, he thought to himself after he found himself looking at them a bit more closely. The firelight dancing along the spirals really made for some interesting visual effects, the shadows of the flickering lights really making it look like the spirals were spinning. The dragon chuckled to himself, just watching the spirals as they turned, and turned, and turned. When he slowed down, the lights flickered a little faster for a second, and the spirals looked like they were spinning even faster.

The spirals reminded him of his boss, and some of the things that he kept coming up with in the hypnosis department. Usually they involved spirals to some degree. Perhaps the dragon would bring this up sometime, just as a little anecdote. The boss might find it a little funny.

They kept spinning in front of his eyes, and the dancing lights were starting to make him sleepy. He shook his head a few times, and the first time he did it, it woke him up a bit. But after that, no matter what he did, he just couldn't shake the lethargy that he felt. Something about those lights just made him so tired. "And on my birthday..." he broke off with a yawn. "On my birthday of all days. Come on, Jace, wake up. It's your birthday, and you're going to enjoy it without your boss around to mess you up."

No matter what he tried, though, his eyes kept slowly falling shut. Not all the way, or he would have veered right of to the side. It wasn't long before he stopped being bothered by the fact that he was getting so tired, just going along with it. Even the yawns were barely noticeable after the first few times, his eyes drooping further and further shut until they were barely halfway open. His feet padded lightly on the hallway floor, the carpet giving back just enough sound for it be almost metronomic, steady...relaxing...

He could feel his brain slowing down more and more with every step, the look of the dancing spirals filling his vision even if he wasn't quite looking at the things on the top of the cake. They were so bright, but they didn't bother his eyes at all. It just made everything else look a little dimmer, which made him want to look at the lit up cake just a little bit more.

Jace paused at the elevator, one hand blindly reaching for the bottoms. He felt the smoothness of the wall against his hand, rubbing his hand along them, up and down, fumbling for the button. He could have just looked away from the spirals, he supposed, but why would he do that? They were so fascinating to look at, so very relaxing to just stare into. It was just what he needed to do, he realized. His birthday was supposed to be a day when he could relax, and looking at the cake was helping him do just that.

Finally he found the elevator button, stumbling inside as the doors opened. They seemed to move so slow out of the corner of his eyes, but at the same time, he didn't remember seeing them close. It was so hard to keep track of what was going on around him anymore, the only thing that he could pay attention to the lights of the cake, the soft, metronomically rhythmic sound of his footsteps, and the spirals at the top of the cake.

An idea came into his head, flowing into his brain like molasses on top of dessert, a quiet little thought that he barely had time to recognize before accepting it and going along with it. If he was supposed to be relaxing, if he was supposed to be having a relaxing birthday, why was he in his clothes? It was so much more comfortable out of them, wasn't it? They were so tight, after all, he thought to himself. The thought didn't sound much like his normal thoughts, but what other thoughts could be in his head? Only his own, right?

Off came his clothes, slowly falling to the floor of the elevator. His suit, his shirt fell to the floor in a crumpled pile, joined by his shoes. He had to fumble a bit to reach for his socks, adding them to the pile, and he was only slightly aware of his pants coming off. The lights flickered, and the spirals seemed to speed up for a second when he took off his underwear, but it only made him smile. At least, Jace thought it did. He felt his lips turning up slightly for a second before dropping back down to a neutral position. He might have his mouth open too, he realized, just a bit.

The thoughts didn't last long as he kept looking at the candles and the spirals, feeling them draw him on. They were so soothing, so very soothing for him. He sighed softly, only barely hearing the door ding as it opened. It was strange. The doors seemed to open so slowly, but he never saw them fully open. One moment, there was just a crack, and the next moment, they were threatening to close on him again. But there was never a hurry, just a little push forward, the cart keeping the doors open for him to step through.

Muted noise filled his ears for a moment as he stepped back into the party room, but it got quieter almost instantly after he passed the doorway. His eyes half closed, he barely saw anything. His ears filled with a soft buzz that had grown to drown out almost all sound, he could hear nothing. But all he needed to see were the spirals, the lights; all he needed to hear were the soft footfalls of his steps, pfft pfft pfft on the carpeted floor.

Out of the corners of his eyes, he could see several people looking at him, muttering behind hands. He didn't understand why. This was his birthday, wasn't it? Wasn't he supposed to be doing this, bringing the cake to the room? Why mutter behind their hands?

The question disappeared in a second as he reached the front of the room. Slowly, he got another idea. As the rest of the room watched, he slowly got up from the floor, pulling himself up onto one side of the cart. The room was so dark that most of the others were only silhouettes, barely visible at all beyond the light of the cake and the candles, and the gleaming spinning spirals.

His legs spread slightly, his knees on either side of the cake, his hands laying on his thighs. His eyes continued to look down at the cake, but he turned his head slightly to the side, feeling his mouth droop slightly, just barely open. It was so natural, even if he couldn't quite understand why he was doing it. It was relaxing, though, very soothing, and that was all the reason he needed.

The silhouettes came closer, closer. Whispered words from silent lips fell on deaf ears, and he felt a little tingle running through his body....

#

RING RING RING!

RING RING RING!

RING RING -

"Hello?" Jace muttered sleepily, pulling his phone to the ear not covered by a pillow. "Jace speaking."

"Hey, Jace, what are you doing in bed? It's your birthday, remember?"

The dragon pulled himself out of bed slowly, though with a growing smile on his face. "Oh right, I'd almost forgot. Like I could ever forget something like that," he said. He walked over to his closet, pulling out a shirt.

He paused for a second. "I thought I had more of these," he muttered as he counted over the shirts again.

"Something wrong, Jace?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, no," he said with a shake of his head. "Anything I need to do on my way into the office today?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just one thing, really," his co-worker said. "We ordered you a cake, but they said that someone needs to get out there and pick it up. You mind grabbing it on your way in?"

Fighting a weird feeling of deja vu, Jace said, "Sure, just give the address."