It turned out the entertainment Ben had in mind was board games, and lots of them. While their house had lowmage to play for whenever they got bored, it seemed he’d decided to take the time to recreate a few from his own world and made sure to carefully explain the rules of each before cracking them open and giving them a go, the result of which being Ben's total defeat.

“Hey Thera, how is this possible,” He asked, voice full of exhaustion. “It’s not like I thought you didn’t have a chance at any of them, but I figured I’d at least win the first rounds for sure while you were getting the hang of them. To not have a single victory, am I under some sort of curse?”

She patted his shoulder and tried to console him. “There there, you did your best and they were a lot of fun, we should play them again sometime.”

They really were enjoyable, no worse than any of the other games the world had to offer. Both checkers and chess felt like they could be simplified versions of lowmage, but even more interesting were the cards. With so many games that could be played if you owned a set, she didn’t doubt they were as common on his world as he’d led her to believe.

“Well we can play whenever you want, they’re all yours. Happy birthday Thera.”

She wasn’t sure what to say. It was the first time she’d received a gift from a friend on her birthday, at least someone she could consider a genuine friend. In the past, she’d received things from the children of government officials working under her mother, but she could always see the fear in their eyes and she’d hated it. Receiving a gift from Ben who was smiling at her, even if he seemed wrung out from defeat after defeat was infinitely more touching and she felt a blush spread to her cheeks.

Ben for his part didn’t give her time to say anything. “Anyway, enough time should have passed. Put on something nice and let's go meet with Falk and Sonya.”

“Hmm? Aren’t they just coming here?”

“It’s a surprise. Now come on, throw on whatever you think looks good and we’ll be on our way.”

She felt genuinely confused about what they could possibly be doing but did as she was asked and went to her room, thinking they might be eating at her uncle's home instead, as odd as that would be.

Still, it would be nice to dress up for it. She had a few nicer outfits, but they were only worn occasionally while at home. If she went out there was a greater than not chance she’d ruin it either by training or by hunting, so most of the time she had something old and comfortable on under her cloak.

She ended up going with a light blue shirt with some nicer black pants before throwing her cloak back on and meeting Ben back in the living room. He’d changed earlier, going from his worn-out shop clothes to a plain black shirt and pants, but it was a nice look and he quickly dragged her out of the house.

She hadn’t realised just how dark it had gotten after she’d worked on treating Ben's bruises and playing a few hours of games, but it was clear the sun would set soon and she just hoped Sonya and Falk wouldn’t have been waiting long. 

The only issue was she had no clue where they were going. Her uncle’s house was in the other direction and that was her only guess, with all of her questioning being fruitless, Ben just kept brushing her off.

Seeing no use in that she tried to just enjoy the evening stroll through the town. Almost all of the shops were closed by this point and the streets were peaceful and quiet as dusk began to fall. They spoke about their plans for the next week and where they thought they might hunt next. Ben asked for menu suggestions while she was hoping some traveling merchants that were due to come through would have some new books available. It was nice to just walk around and chat with someone she cared about, it felt normal, and before she knew it Ben came to a stop.

“Alright, here we are,”

She had stopped paying attention to where they had been going eventually but looking up found themselves in front of one of the few restaurants the town had, and the nicest one at that.

“If we’re grabbing take out I think they close around this time,” She told him, thinking about how good the food was the few times her aunt brought some home for them.

Ben just gave out a small laugh. “Something like that, come on, let's go in.”

She worried about bothering anyone when they would be so close to closing but found the restaurant empty save for the staff, as well as Falk and Sonya sitting at a table within.

“Ben, what’s going on?”

He didn’t answer, instead walking her to the table and pulling a chair for her. “Here, take a seat, I’ll take your cloak.”

“You know that’s not happening.”

“I made sure everyone here has resistance amulets, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“What?”

“Just relax and enjoy the restaurant experience.”

She looked to her aunt and uncle who nodded at what Ben was saying and after a bit of hesitation did as she was asked. There was no change in the staff as she looked around so she let herself relax a bit before turning to everyone around her. “Alright, what’s going on?”

“Celebratin’ your birthday of course,” Her uncle answered.

“Okay, but why here?”

“It was Ben’s idea,” Sonya said, turning to Ben and expecting him to go on.

“It’s nothing crazy, you said you liked the food here before so I just figured you might like the chance to try out eating at the actual restaurant and enjoy it fresh. Anyway, We rented the place for a few hours so don’t worry about it and let me know what’s good on the menu.”

“Wait, renting out an entire restaurant isn’t nothing!” She yelled, ignoring Ben’s request. “This is nice, it really is, but you guys shouldn’t spend so much.”

“Well, Falk and I didn’t actually contribute to this at all,” Sonya told her. “Ben just panicked a bit when he found out he only had a week to figure out what to do for your birthday.”

“So you made all of those games on top of arranging all of this?”

“It really wasn’t that much so don’t worry about it. By the way, is anyone going to judge if I order two meals for myself? Everything here sounds great so I can’t decide.”

“You know, you could just ask to try some of ours instead of stuffing yourself,” Her uncle told him with a sigh.

“Oh, I fully plan on grabbing some bites of whatever you all order too, I’ll go last so my orders don’t double-up at all.”

“I can’t believe this,” Thera muttered to herself as she looked over the menu. It was kind and sweet and altogether too much. Even if it had to be done once the restaurant was supposed to be closed, wasn’t this the sort of outing she’d long stopped hoping to have for her birthday? Just a day of normalcy that anyone else could enjoy, going out and celebrating with the people she cared about. Now that she was here, what was she supposed to do?

As Ben and her uncle kept talking about food, her aunt took her hand and lightly leaned in to whisper for her. “Just relax and have fun, this is your day after all.”

She took a breath. Her aunt was right, not many days like this would come, she needed to enjoy it while it was here.

ProbablyATurnip

Thera is my precious cinnamon roll who I just want to be happy while Ben is my primary protagonist, meaning he gets to suffer to help drive the plot. Sorry Ben.

More seriously, I really enjoyed making these last two chapters. Just some happy slice of life feels good occasionally and I liked how they turned out. As I said before, this was a mini arc and we just reached it's end. Ben and Thera got a bit of growth and things are moving in the direction I need them to. Hope you all look forward to what comes next and enjoy the rest of the day!