Fall Into Me

~..IV..~

Three days later was Mona's birthday. She worried at first that Minerva would've planned some huge event with all family and friends, but it soon became crystal clear that Minerva intended to spend the day with Mona alone. Soft kisses had woken her up, the smell of her favourite coffee and Cricket's impatient whining. When Mona had opened her eyes, she was greeted with Cricket holding a present in his mouth, sitting handsomely with his tail wagging violently, ears back and eyes basically shut. Mona had taken the present and opened it to reveal brand new riding gloves, which she'd needed for a long time but had never bothered to buy them. That was the first of many little presents of the morning, new perfume, a new dressing gown, some slippers and thick socks.

Mona had put the socks on immediately, and proceeded to slide over the kitchen tiles with glee, Cricket scampering after her happily. Apparently, he'd snatched a present from the pile without Minerva noticing until it was too late, so excited to go and wake Mona up, which was why he'd had one when Mona had woken. Cleo had wandered over for head scratches, refusing to allow Mona to move until she was satisfied with her ears being scratched. Naru had shown her own excitement by ripping up the wrapping paper Mona had left behind and bringing it to Minerva in little strips. Mona could see how irritated that made her, but she smiled through gritted teeth and thanked Naru until she had a pile of roughly thirty scraps of paper, which was only getting bigger.

After they'd cleaned up, Minerva had announced a walk, which got all three dogs riled up, chasing after each other in joy, two out of three skidding to a stop by the door with their harnesses. Cricket was the unfortunate one who misjudged the stop and bowled into a side table, nearly sending a vase flying. Minerva only shook her head, dragging Mona to the wardrobe to get dressed. Little kisses followed, none of which Minerva deepened, but before they left, Minerva had made a comment about needing to set the playroom up for that evening, immediately catching Mona's interest. But no matter how much Mona prodded her, she wouldn't say a word.

During their walk, Mona had noticed the photographer and when she questioned Minerva, she was told to ignore them, or Mona would ruin her own surprise and Minerva couldn't have that. With it being March, the forest was slowly recovering from its brutal winter, buds growing on trees, animals slowly waking from their slumber. Minerva led Mona to a secretive spot, which they had to walk through a small cave to get to. On the other side was a little swimming pool sized pond, waiting for spring to kick it back in to gear.

Some of the trees on either side had grown towards each other, creating a short tunnel of arches which would look beautiful in spring, according to Minerva, which is when they would come back. Minerva guided Mona to stand in a specific spot, and then she arranged the dogs to sit in a row beside them, facing out towards the entrance. Then she drew Mona close and kissed her soundly, taking away every thought she had.

When they made it back to the castle it was lunch time, and Minerva had a skip in her step as she dragged Mona back to the wing.

"Guess the date," she said with a grin.

"Uh, March third, my birthday?" Mona guessed. Minerva half shrugged, conceding that Mona was right but that wasn't the answer she wanted. "I dunno, then."

"Pancake Day," Minerva was brimming with excitement but Mona frowned and shook her head.

"No, it's in February, we missed it."

"We did not," Minerva said indignantly. "I triple checked it. It's forty-seven days before Easter Sunday, which varies year to year. This year, Pancake Day is on your birthday."

"You're kidding?" Mona pulled out her phone to check and sure enough, her calendar told her it was Shrove Tuesday. "You're not kidding."

"No, I am not," Minerva said, "now come here and make pancakes with me."