2019-11-26 - Birthdays and Betta Fish

Escaped convicts and murders aside, Addington Park is quite nice. That is, when it's not raining. It's drizzling at the moment, but that doesn't stop Washingtonians from going to the park, of course. Ciprian is there, standing under an awning and watching the carousel. It's not weird, though, because every time it goes around, a little girl with black hair and bright blue eyes sitting on an elephant waves enthusiastically to him, and he waves back. So presumably he does actually have a child and is not just watching the children creepily.

Not a Washingtonian (perish the thought), Katherine is getting in an evening jog. It's chilly these days, so she's in leggings and a track jacket, her head covered by a New York Rangers baseball cap but for the ponytail that pops out the little gap in the back. She looks like she's been at it some time, given the flush on her cheeks and the saturated, and when she sees Ciprian she slows to a jog and then a walk, hands akimbo as she tips her head backward to catch her breath.

Once she's close enough to talk and not yell, she lifts a hand to wave. "It really is a small town," she says lightly. "One of those yours?" She must have missed the last smile and wave from the child on the elephant.

Ciprian looks over, and though it takes him a second, it's really only a second before he places her. "Hi," he says, inclining his head to her with a little smile. "Yeah, that one." He nods to the little girl, who is once again coming around, grinning and waving excitedly at him. She looks to be about eight years old, or thereabouts, anyway. Sometimes it's hard to tell the age of children. He waves back, before he turns to Katherine again. "It is," he confirms. "We'll probably run into each other a few more times this week. I'm going to guess once when we're getting takeout, and at least once at court."

"Cute," Katherine says with a nod to the kid. She watched the carousel turn for a moment, a sort of wistful expression on her face, but she shakes it off to turn back to him and chuckle at his prophecies of where they'll meet up next.

"Please tell me the best ones. I'm still living out of boxes and I don't cook much more than microwave popcorn," she says with a smirk. "Or at least which I should avoid like the plague. I already added Little Louie's to that list." Her nose wrinkles slightly at the memory.

"Does she always choose the elephant?" she asks, as the little girl comes around again, and she lifts her hand this time to wave, too. "The carousel in the park near my house growing up only had horses, but my favorite was white with red and pink roses on it. I named it Valentine."

The little girl sees Katherine's wave, and as much as one can tell from the few seconds that she can be seen this go around, she seems delighted to have someone else waving at her, too. Her smile widens as he wave gets even more enthusiastic, so much so that if one were her parent one might be worried that she's going to wave herself right off the mount. Luckily, she does not. Ciprian's smile widens a little bit at that, in the way of a parent who appreciates the indulgence of his child who he clearly feels is the best thing on this earth but realizes that everyone probably doesn't think so even though they should.

What he says, though, is, "The Firehouse is great, and there's a good Thai place downtown. Pizza, too, if you like that." God forbid she doesn't like it. That would just be crazy. "He has to let out a chuckle at the mention of Little Louie's, and he just nods, before he continues, "And yeah, she does. She gets pretty disappointed if she doesn't manage to snag it. I don't know if she's named it yet, though. I should ask her. If she hasn't, I may suggest Valentine the Second." He waves again as she passes, then turns to Katherine once more. "Have you been in town long?"

The exuberance from the little girl draws a wider smile from Katherine. "She's really adorable," she says, chuckling at his suggestion for the name. "She probably has a name. Little girls name everything. I remember all of my stuffed creatures had elaborate and dare I say clever names. But you'd ask my brother what his were and he'd say something pedestrian like 'Teddy.'" She shakes her head with mock disappointment, but her lips pull up into a smile. "He went into medicine," she adds, as if that explains everything.

At the question of how long she's been here, she shakes her head. "Couple weeks. Luckily I'm too busy to be homesick for New York just yet. It'll probably kick in just in time for Christmas. You're from here?"

"Thank you." Ciprian slips a hand into the pocket of his overcoat as a little chill moves through the air, but he doesn't seem overly concerned about it. So yes, he must be from around here. "That sounds about right," he agrees. "I don't really remember many of my stuffed animals' names. My sister's were definitely much more creative." He nods then, continuing, "I am. I only left for law school, and then I came right back. If you need some things to do over the holidays to distract you, I can probably tell you about a few, and they won't even be all for the 10 and Under set." It's probably a joke, judging by the slight amusement lurking somewhere in his expression, but he doesn't have time to say much more about it, because the carousel has stopped, and the little girl is running up to them. "Hi!" she says when she gets there. "I'm Ashira. Did you know it's my dad's birthday today? But don't say 'happy birthday' to him because he doesn't like it."

Ciprian's expression shifts into something more wry, and he reaches up to rub a hand over his face. "Ashira, people can say 'happy birthday' if they want to," he replies, though he doesn't really correct her about whether he likes it or not.

"That'd be appreciated. Where'd you go?" Katherine asks, but then Ashira's popping up and she gets the woman's attention instead.

Her brows lift at the information offered and she glances at Ciprian. "How gallant of you," she says with a laugh, before looking back at Ashira. She offers her hand to shake, as if Ashira were a grown up.

"I'm Katherine. It's lovely to meet you. Ashira's a beautiful name," she says warmly, before looking up at Ciprian again. "Bon anniversaire and feliz cumpleaņos," she says instead. "I don't know any others. "

Ashira does, in fact, want to shake Katherine's hand, and she does it in quite a practiced way, so maybe she likes shaking hands. "It's nice to meet you, Katherine," she says politely, even though she can't quite contain that exuberance. She certainly doesn't seem cowed by her father's words, and in fact she giggles at the way that Katherine has gotten around the fact that she'd said not to say 'happy birthday.' "Thank you," she says. "I like Katharine, too. It sounds fancy, like a princess." She looks up to her father then, "Can I go again?"

"Who's birthday is it, again?" Ciprian replies with a little incredulous laugh of his own, but he nods, and says, "Go ahead. Just one more, though."

"Okay!" Ashira says, and she runs off to get in line a second time. Or another time. who knows how many times she's done it so far. As she does, Ciprian turns back to Katherine. "Good compromise," he remarks, probably about the birthday wishes, before he says, "Harvard. That always sounds pretentious until I remember that I live in a town with twelve people. You?"

"There was in fact a Princess Catherine, a long time ago. And then there's Kate Middleton, who is technically a Duchess but married to a prince. She's nice. I played tennis with her once," Katherine says lightly, before adding, with eyes sparkling a little, "I won."

She laughs as Ashira runs off again, and she turns back to the girl's father. "She's very charming. And I don't think it's pretentious. Not if it's true," she says. "Columbia here. It sounds less pretentious, but it isn't, actually, right? Go Lions." She gestures to their little corner of the park. "And I live here too, now. What fun." Her tone is a bit droll, like she's not entirely pleased to be here, but she's trying not to be insulting to a homegrown son.

Columbia is, of course, as well-known and only slightly less well-regarded by the general populace -- and not at all less well-regarded by those in the know, which Ciprian obviously is. "Oh, wow," he says. "I guess we can be big fish in a small pond together. Though I think they generally end up eating each other in nature, so maybe that's not the best analogy to use." His smile widens just a bit at the comment, though he does tip his head a little bit to the side when she goes on. "I take it you haven't succumbed to our charms yet?" he asks. There's a tacit invitation there -- she could elaborate if she wanted to, but it would also be just as easy for her to not, if she did not.

"Maybe Koi fish. They're pretty pacifistic. I'm only a piranha in the courtroom," Kat says with a smirk. She hesitates at the invitation to share, and turns to look at the carousel again. It is very charming, after all.

"It's beautiful here, but I'm very East Coast," she says after a moment. "And there's some complicated boring nonsense no one needs to hear about, truly. Suffice it to say the jury is still out. " Dark eyes turn back on him for a moment, before she asks, "Did you like it back east? Can't beat fall on the East Coast, but I may be happy to be here when winter hits. Or at least happy to dip down on a quick flight to Los Angeles for some sun."

"Oh, well, good. I don't know whether I'd call myself a piranha. Maybe a betta fish." Though they aren't particularly big, but they do eat other betta fish, so there's that.

Joking aside, Ciprian quiets as she answers, and he certainly doesn't push to hear more about the complications, whatever they are. Instead, he nods sympathetically. "I can understand that," he says. "I did like it, but it was very different, and I'm used to being near my family. I might've stayed, but you know how it is." Or maybe she doesn't know, but she can probably guess. "The winter here's definitely easier to tolerate. Rain, I can handle. Constant snow is harder."

"Betta fish are prettier, so let's go with that analogy. I'm stealing it for next time," Katherine quips.

She glances up at the sky to squint at the rain. "I suppose I should invest in a better umbrella," she says lightly. "There certainly is a lot of it. " But weather talk is the stereotypical boring subject, so she steers it back to the very welcome subject of his birthday. "I hope someone gave you birthday cake today. At the very least go out for a slice once you leave here, or some birthday cake ice cream as a last resort. Or do you not like birthday cake either?"

"See, I knew I should've trademarked it," Ciprian replies with a shake of his head. "That'd probably look good on my business card. I don't know if the DA would like it, though. He seems to prefer everyone having the same one." He frowns, as though this is a travesty, but it's obviously not an actual serious frown.

As for his birthday, he laughs, admitting, "I probably will. After she's done we're heading to Tacoma, and we're going to have dinner with a friend. I'm trying to be a little more open to birthday cheer. Maybe see what all the fuss is about. Maybe 39 will be my year. Are you a birthday person?"

The revelation that he works for the district attorney's office draws up Katherine's brows. "So no betta fish on your business card. Unless there's one in the county seal I overlooked," she quips, before touching her chest to add, "Private practice. Partner. Business law, mostly."

Her smile widens. "So I really do hope I don't have to go up against you in court."

As for his question, she shakes her head. "Not my own, but other people's, certainly," Katherine says. "I should let you go, then, so you can go have your birthday dinner. I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening -- and your 39th year."

"Sadly, no. But if you want to use it for yours, I'll allow it." Though the mention of her being a partner has Ciprian looking briefly impressed -- briefly because he probably could have expected it, given the pedigree, and impressed because she's relatively young. "Oh, good for you," he says, before her next words bring a laugh from him. He doesn't seem like a man who laughs very often -- he isn't really shy, obviously, but he's certainly on the stoic side. But that laugh, while again brief, is genuine. "That would be be unfortunate," he agrees once it's faded a little bit.

Her answer gets a nod, and he adds, "Thank you, I appreciate it. It was nice to meet you when you didn't have to immediately run to the office." There's a certain commiseration in his smile there, though -- he's probably done it more than once. "I'm sure I'll see you soon." He turns then, and it's just as the carousel stops. Ashira comes racing back to them, grabbing her father's hand. "Bye, Princess Katherine!" she says with a wide smile -- she's certainly much more free with those than her father. Ciprian laughs again, before he says, "Have a great day." The two of them start away then, Ashira dancing a little bit in front, Ciprian following more staidly behind.