DC Headcanon's 6: Sparkle Sparkle!

Rockets Red Glare

Late June, early July, Georgia and Kentucky always went home to their house in Georgia.

It was a precaution, by late June their Floridian neighbors always started the firework show early, and Kentucky, having fought in two wars, always had PTSD attacks because of the loud explosions. The house in Georgia was in the country, off a dirt road that led into the city, and was far enough away from any neighbors so if fireworks were set off, they wouldn't hear them.

The twins always celebrated their birthday there with their partners, cousin, and any other family members. This year would be a little different, as it had been the whole year, but no less special, and Kentucky and Georgia still wanted to make the same effort they always had.

There was no exact time when the twins were born, only that IDC was first and Georgia claimed she was born when the sun first started rising. IDC set her alarm every birthday for sunrise and got up, then went to go get her brother, usually tangled with one of the boyfriends. She had to help him this year walk downstairs to the front porch, but he seemed in good spirits thanks to the work Texas and Wyoming had been doing with him.

"I can walk almost up and down the driveway without much help." DC told his sister happily, although he was being gently helped down the stairs by her. The twins always sat on the front porch together, watching the sunrise on their birthday. In a second it didn't matter who was born first, that they were born to be the governments, DC's breakdown, or who they worked for. They were just a pair of twins, celebrating their 'twenty-second' birthday (technically their two hundredth and thirty-first birthday but that didn't look good on a cake).

"Happy birthday DeeDee." IDC said, handing her brother a perfectly wrapped package. DC took his sister's package then handed a poorly wrapped one back to her smiling nervously.

"Dia helped me wrap it." DC admitted and IDC laughed. The two opened their packages quietly in the rising sun; for DC it was a book about the strangest parts of United States history, for IDC she received a pair of earrings with real pearls. It was a quiet moment between twins who usually had their days filled with chaos and businesses. They usually shared a hug before sneaking off to bed, trying to savor the last minutes of calm before the chaos struck later that morning. IDC tried to ignore the small sigh on her lips over how small her brother still felt, convincing herself that he was getting better, but it was still gonna take some time.

Georgia always celebrated the twin's birthday like it was their first.

It was ridiculous that at twenty-two (technically two hundred and thirty one) Georgia still planned for the day as if the twins were just born but he did, and Kentucky loved him for it. Kentucky was always kicked out of bed around eight am with direct orders to get dressed and get the supplies ordered while Georgia fretted about cooking and rousing the team. By the time anyone got up, Georgia had already cooked a massive amount of food and Kentucky was asleep in front of the couch watching sports highlights.

IDC and DC begged their dad not to make a big fuss over their birthday every year but of course he never listened. Even if the breakfast he cooked had to be in line with DC's treatment (did California sneak him a pancake because 'you deserve a treat' maybe) and they were still in the middle of a pandemic, he still got all the balloons, decorations, snacks, anything they could desire.

"So this happens every birthday?" Wyoming asked as Florida and Angie dumped confetti on New York and Louisiana was trying to make DC laugh with a helium voice.

"You'll get used to it." IDC said with a smile, patting her brother's boyfriend's shoulder.

If Georgia didn't cry when cooking up breakfast, he certainly cried throughout the day, crying about his babies getting older and leaving the nest, finding their own families (the irony was that no, they would never get older unless they chose a different age). The twins were embarrassed, only Kentucky really knew why Georgia got so emotional after each birthday the twins shared, knowing that Vania should be alongside them celebrating.

He would've been two hundred forty-five.

In a way he was celebrating his children who made it, while also mourning the child who didn't. Kentucky always ready on hand for comfort when it became too much, telling him that it was alright, Vania wouldn't want them upset, and that they had two babies who needed their attention right now.

If there was a separate cupcake set aside or a piece of cake placed near an empty chair, no one asked why.

Georgia and Kentucky didn't have the exuberant gifts Gov could get the twins but they always tried to give them something they wanted. Even if DC got last year's model of the Switch for this birthday, or the clothes they got IDC were from clearance, they were both greatly appreciated by their twins and treated like they were brand new. Gov might've made them splurge this year for a nice cake from the nice bakery in Atlanta (translation he paid for it), and it wouldn't be like the party thrown back in Washington for their birthday that was fancy and formal, but this was their family and they preferred these quiet moments to the fancy party that awaited them.

There were always a million pictures taken, pre-cake, post cake, and post-post cake during gifts. Sometimes the dads were in the pictures, sometimes they weren't, sometimes Georgia started to take the picture but started crying halfway through so Kentucky had to take over, but there were a half a dozen pictures by the end of the night.

Thankfully this was when the chaos and general craziness of the day would settle and the house would become nearly peaceful, or at least as peaceful as any house containing the states could be. DC would sit with his boyfriends, trying to finish his piece of cake while they fretted around him, Angie would try and stop IDC from debating with Gov over a politics issue but would be content just to sit back and listen to her girlfriend yell.

And Kentucky and Georgia would be there, in the middle of it all, listening to the conversations around basking in the light of the dying sun and their children. Kentucky with his arm around Georgia and Georgia with his head practically in Kentucky's chest, feeling warm and satisfied. They may have had to struggle to get there and there was still a road of adversary ahead, but they knew they'd get through it together.

Not bad for a farmer and an ex-soldier.