#apparently edible glitter were inveted in the 2010s but people already had glitter long ego there are glitter in cave paintings!

[scorchedhearth]

5 + joe/nicky or 2 + andy/quynh?

Those prompts are really clearing up my writer’s block, so this got quite long. It also diverted a bit from strictly Joe/Nicky, hope you still like it!! And lastly, it’s found family appreciation 24/7 in this house, have some pre-canon fun.

Taken from this prompt list

5- “I think the edible glitter, might be a bit much.”

 ~

Joe hears the back door opens and a quick glance at the clock tells him he’s just in time. He’s just done with the cake decoration, the house is mostly set up, cleaned and aired and they even found the good meat to cook something nice for this evening. A meal that is already simmering on the stove and make the whole house smells divine, thanks to Nicky. Nicky who just stepped into the main room, a couple of bottles under his arm.

“What do you think?” Joe asks him, arms wide open and showing him the masterpiece that’s sitting on the counter.

“What do I think?” Nicky walks closer, puts the bottles on the counter and takes a good look at the cake. Well, technically cakes but they’re all stacked together and that makes it only one cake, and isn’t that beautiful?

“It is nice. I like the design.” Joe committed to the scene and used an ample amount of fondant and icing to draw as best a bear and a man on it as he could, completed with a forest behind and river on the side. “It is somewhat heavy in terms of decoration.”

“I think it’s the edible glitter. It might be a bit much.” He found out about the existence of edible glitter yesterday while shopping and he had to buy some to try it. About seven different colors and it is a delightful activity to layer glitters over a cake, it really is. It might have slightly gotten out of hand though.

“You think?” Nicky says, raising one eyebrow. Out of hand as in the entire cake is covered in them, making it shine like one big disco ball.

“Okay, maybe I had a heavy hand with it. But it’s edible glitter Nicky! Look at that.” He trusts one of the small glitter bottles into Nicky’s hand who carefully reads the labels.

“You know we can eat regular glitter, right?” He says offhandedly and yeah, technically they can.

“Come on, it’s not the same. Don’t be a killjoy, isn’t it a nice invention?”

“I guess so.” And then, like the huge sap that he is, Nicky looks at him with unblinking eyes and smiles. “If these make you so happy, then yes, I am grateful they were invented. If only for the way your smile shines.” It’s the way it’s unexpected that catches Joe off guard, even though he saw it coming a mile away with Nicky’s small and gentle smile, the honesty in his voice puts a lump in his throat.

“Nicolo, ya amar.” And now he’s smiling himself. “And you say I’m the romantic one.”

“I don’t go around and embellish the world as those romantics do. I simply state the truth.” And once again, those big, honest eyes turn onto Joe. “If it brings you joy, then it brings me joy too.”

“Come here.” Joe loops his thumbs into Nicky’s belt and tugs him closer to kiss him, something soft and slow, tasting like sugar and mint. It tastes like joy and everything he wants in the world. They have about half an hour before Andy arrives to clean up the rest of the house and lay the table, just enough. Joe steals one last kiss before they get to work.

~

“Happy anniversary!” They both shout at the same time when the front door opens to reveal Andy and Booker, one smiling and the other frowning.

“Anniversary?” She sharply turns her head toward Booker who’s standing by her right. “You were in it?”

“Yup.” He’s grinning like an ass, pumping his chest out like an overconfident rooster might. “And you saw nothing. Not. A. Thing.” He emphasizes each word, deliberately taunting her. “You gotta admit boss, I’m getting better at lying.”

“I’m just getting worse at seeing it,” Andy grumbles but she doesn’t even try to hide her smile, it’s there, on her face and in her voice.

“No, you’re not.” Joe grins as he walks up to her.

“No, I’m not.” She admits and bumps shoulders with him before taking him in her arms. He does a little waltz simply because he can and she’s there, just a few shuffling steps and she laughs in his ear. What a beautiful sound. She pushes away but keeps her hand on his shoulder a little while longer.

“So you’re saying I’m good at lying?” Booker pips up from behind and she rolls her eyes.

“I never said that.” She turns to Nicky who engulfs her in his special kind of hugs, more gentle but just as intense. Joe ears her ‘grazie Nicolo’ and sees Nicky’s smile. One of the world’s wonders for sure.

“Didn’t need to use words boss.” Booker keeps talking as he takes off his jacket.

“You read mind now Book?” She says as she and Nicky pull apart.

“I don’t. But I’m richer now.” He extends his hand toward Nicky. “Come on. We said two hundred if she didn’t see me lie and two more if she said I’m a good liar.”

“She never said you are good at lying Booker.” He retorts, reaching for his wallet in his pocket.

“She did!” Nicky pats himself for a moment before turning to Joe and getting his own wallet out of his back pocket in one smooth movement.

“She didn’t!” Nicky doesn’t take his eye off Booker as he counts bills and Joe’s heart swells with happiness, seeing how easy it is to love this family. “You only get two hundred.”

“You sneaky- I get four!”

“What is this even for?” Andy cut shorts the childish quarrel and throw her own jacket over one of the kitchen chairs. “I don’t have an anniversary.” She walks up to the counter where the cake is waiting for her, standing gloriously on its porcelain plate.

“You have one, it’s just that no one knows the date,” Joe says as Nicky and Booker keep bickering in the background. “You like it?”

Andy, standing over table, is slowly pursuing her lips, judging the enormous blue and white cake covered in glitter and those pieces of fondant Joe had so much fun cutting and styling into flowers, vine, and delicate leaves. The glasses and bottle of champagne are laid on the table next to it, everything you need for a nice party according to this decade.

“Not sure if I can pronounce myself yet.” She touches the fondant piece and seems to frown even more if that’s possible. “What are we celebrating?”

“Ah, you don’t remember?” Nicky is looking at them again and they all hear Booker’s gritting through his teeth ‘we’re not done yet.’ He walks up to them and stands by Joe’s side.

“What should I remember?”

“Today,” Joe, grinning from ears to ears, is already flexing his legs, prepared to start running. “Dear Andromache, today marks one century since you tried to ride a bear like a horse and got thrown into a river because of it.”

“Oh come on. It happened only once!” She looks at the cake again, the vines and nettles and human figure sitting in the midst. When she looks back at them her gaze bores holes in their skull. “Whose idea was this?”

“Not mine,” Booker says, the troublemaker that he is. “I only enabled it.”

“Nicky?” And Nicky, as kind as he is, can also be an ass when he wants to.

“I simply bought the champagne.” He says, leaving Joe alone to bear the consequences of his superb idea.

“Oh you’re done for Joe.” She kicks her heels but Joe was expecting it first and he flees ahead before she can start running.

“Not if you can’t catch me!” He throws above his shoulder.

“You’ll see, I’ll buy you a cake too the next time you do a stupid stunt.”

“Only if you remember it!” The last thing he sees before he escapes the main room into the higher floors is Nicky’s happy face and Booker already taking bets by his side. And Andy’s grin wild. Oh, he loves his family.