#[this was cute tho sjsns i hope he's ready for dog ownership uwu]

[justicefanged]

Seldom was his appearance in the life of another under a visage of familiarity and camaraderie――such was not natural of his nature; thus did he resign himself to a simple form of diplomacy: a distantly exchanged trinket on one's namesake day. There was no formal encounter needed this way, no unplanned interaction to disrupt his day; it allowed for pleasantries to exist in the shadows, and that was all he needed.

A mere note:

𝑨 𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒓… 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅.

𝐇.𝐯.𝐕

Attached――a simple sack of ebony, its singular tassel trimmed in a garnet hue. Within rested a volume, bound in a sturdy cover: a simple guide to, well, guidance――structure to one's class, perhaps. Only a jest. But, too, there resided within a flask of shimmering polish, purchased so that the oaf's gauntlets――and other belongings, of course――may survive his rough antics.

Linus hadn't been expecting anything for his birthday. It had never really been much of a celebration for years now, maybe going on a bit of a bender if everything lined up to make it so, but Lloyd had always tried to do something on the day because that's what big brothers did.

So, color him surprised when he found something left for him at the end of a more or less dull day. He knew it wasn't from Lloyd -- they'd met earlier in the morning, making plans to find a good pub when both their schedules allowed for it -- so it wasn't from him.

Eyeing the bag and note for a moment, making an idle pop noise with his mouth as he stalked around the desk until it was right in front of him, it didn't take long for curiosity to win out.

Squinting at the note, it took Linus a little bit longer than he'd ever admit to parse out the words. It wasn't as Saints' damned fancy as some of the scribbles he'd had the displeasure of trying to make heads or tails of, but the blended nature of it sort of threw him for a loop and forced him to reread the short note several times regardless. Fancy people and their fancy letters...

"Huh..."

If he sounded a little baffled to anyone else, that would be correct! Of all the people to find out when his birthday was, and then actually get him stuff for it, Linus sure as hell wasn't expecting it from Hubert. They didn't exactly get off on the best foot.

Opening up the bag now with intense curiosity, Linus scrunched his nose up a bit at the book -- though he supposed he shouldn't be too surprised about that. He flipped through it a bit, lingering on a few pages before he slumped down in his seat and let the open book rest over his face with a belabored sigh. Damn it, he was gonna have to read this, wasn't he? It looked long. Urgh, maybe he could get Lloyd to give him a summary? No, he'd probably get lectured about putting in the effort when it was a gift.

Eventually, the book started to slip off his nose, and Linus scrambled to catch it -- bent a few pages there, oops -- before it could properly fall to the floor. Setting it back down on the desk, the little note following to rest on top of the cover, Linus inspected the other gift he'd been given. A flask! Now, this could be nice! Popping it open and giving it a quick sniff, it was easily confirmed to not be any kind of booze, but it was still something Linus knew how to make better, immediate use of!

"Oho, it's on now, Hubie," he grinned to himself, mischief in his eyes, "Just you wait, I'm gonna return the favor so hard, ya won't know what hit ya!"