#many faintly redundant tags in the hopes I will be able to find this again

[unicornprincessinthetardis]

Hey~. This just kinda spilled out of me, so enjoy xP

Hardup Hall is silent except for the ticking of the clock over the mantle, and the crackling of the fireplace. It’s dark, except for the moonlight pouring in through the windows, and the fire still dancing on the hearth. CINDERELLA sits on the floor in quiet contemplation, watching the dying flames, and hugging her knees to her chest. BUTTONS makes his way quietly down the stairs, a wrapped parcel tucked under his arm. When he reaches the bottom step, he pauses and regards Cinderella for a moment. She doesn’t seem to have noticed him.

“I had a feeling you’d still be up,” Buttons says.

Cinderella startles and turns at the sound of his voice, but relaxes when she realizes who it is. “I finished scrubbing the floor a while ago,” she explains. “Now I’m just a bit reluctant to put the fire out and go to bed.”

“Can’t blame you,” says Buttons sympathetically, coming over to sit beside her. “Terribly drafty isn’t it, the attic?”

“Especially this time of year,” she agrees, sighing. Her eyes fall upon the parcel for the first time. “…What is that?”

Buttons grins and holds it in full view. “Something that might help. Why don’t you go on and open it?”

She gives him a bemused look, but takes it from him, setting the package in her lap and removing the brown paper as carefully as she can, not wanting to make too much noise. Buttons, sharing her concerns, glances warily at the staircase every once in a while.

But fortunately, no one comes charging down demanding to know what they’re doing, or looking for a late-night drink or snack, and Cinderella opens the package without interruption. She gasps softly as she pulls out its contents.

“A quilt~?” she says, standing and holding it out in front of her so she can examine the whole thing. It’s made up of dark blues and pale pinks and creamy whites. It looks expertly made and so, so soft. She wants to wrap herself in it immediately. “Buttons, it’s beautiful. And it’s for me?”

“Of course it’s for you!”

“But why on earth—I mean, what’s the occasion?”

Buttons has gotten to his feet and now blinks at her question, seeming faintly amused. “The occasion? Cinders, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten what day it is?”

She isn’t sure what he’s getting at. “It’s the fourteenth, I believe…”

“But the clock struck midnight a bit ago,” he reminds her.

“Oh right, of course. Midnight does have a way of sneaking up on people, doesn’t it. So I suppose that makes it the fifteenth—"

Buttons sees the moment her eyes light up in realization, and he grins at her again. “Happy birthday, Cinders~.”

She laughs at herself, clutching the blanket and peering up at him over it. “I can’t believe you remembered!”

“Apparently someone around here has to,” he teases. “Sorry to bring it up at such a weird hour. I didn’t want to miss it, but I can hardly give you anything when… they’re around.” (He rolls his eyes in the direction of the staircase).

“But you know you didn’t have to give me anything at all,” she says, feeling a bit guilty. “Not when they pay you so little…”

“Hey, at least I get paid,” he points out. “Which is more than they do for you. And—what else do I have to spend money on, really? What could possibly be more important than making sure my favorite person in the world has something nice on her birthday~?”

Cinderella scoffs modestly, but he isn’t done.

“Honestly, I… I wish I could’ve gotten you something better. Like one of those diamond necklaces or hairpins you see in the high-end shop windows. Or a gown, or at least a spiffy hat! Y’know? The kind of presents a proper lady deserves.”

Of course he knows as well as she does that, even if he could afford to give her those things, they’d only be in her possession for a day or so before disappearing into her stepsisters’ boudoirs, just like every other pretty thing she once owned. If they weren’t destroyed out of spite.

“Because… you are a proper lady, Cinders,” he continues, softly but with conviction. “You’re more of a lady than any of them will ever be—which is probably why they’re trying so hard to make sure you forget it. And I—well, I just hope you never do. Forget it, I mean.”

Cinderella smiles then. “Of course I won’t forget,” she tells him sincerely, before adding, with a playful sort of twinkle in her eyes: “Not as long as I’ve got you around to remind me~.”

Buttons says nothing, just hopes that the redness of his cheeks isn’t too noticeable in the dim firelight.

“And as for those Things A Lady Deserves…” Cinderella drapes her gift across her shoulders and pulls it snug around herself, like a cloak, and sighs contentedly. “Well, none of them keep out the draft, do they? I daresay this quilt is worth more to me than a thousand spiffy hats~.”

Her gaze softens. She regards him for a moment, before going up on her tip-toes to press a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you, Buttons,” she says. “And not just for the quilt; for everything.”

She doesn’t wait for a reply (which is good, because Buttons’ mind has gone completely blank), just slips past him and makes her way up the stairs to the attic, her footfalls as silent as a cat’s.

They both know that things won’t be much different when the sun comes up. The stepfamily will not acknowledge that it’s Cinderella’s birthday. They won’t hold back on the snide comments, and her workload won’t be any lighter. But at least, at the end of the day, her room will be a bit more inviting to go back to, now that it’s brightened with a pretty quilt. And she’ll sleep better under a blanket that’s no longer thin and threadbare. Buttons thinks he’ll sleep better, too, knowing that she’s a little bit less miserable.

Distantly, he remembers to smother the fire before heading upstairs himself.

~~~

Thank you again for this, @starry-nightengale! <3 I do love this so much, it’s lovely, and you really have captured them and the dynamic so well (and why yes, I am basically posting it for an audience of just us two, and you wrote it! XD )

(And apologies to my other mutuals/followers, who this will mean almost nothing to, or at least Buttons won’t, anyhow! All I can say is pantomimes, which will equally mean nothing to most of you, unless you’ve been around for long enough to see one of my rare original posts on the topic from years ago. But practically the whole point of tumblr is gratifying and expressing often niche interests/opinions/fandoms/ships, so even though this one of mine, of ours, is incredibly niche, now I’ve discovered I share it with someone, why shouldn’t I include a sprinkling of it in the already chaotic mélange of anything that crosses my mind, or more often takes my fancy as it crosses my dash, that is my blog? And especially when that involves sharing and celebrating the fanworks of mutuals, which is the case here)