Birthdays come and go

Briar chuckled and gave a little shrug to Lia's questioning of a midnight surprise. "Well... No time like the present, right?" It was a weird time to be giving her a gift, she couldn't deny that, but she hadn't found a good time to present it to her yet and since they had this time alone she figured she might as well do it now. With as many wolves as there were living in the castle and with as busy as she tended to be, finding a quiet, secluded moment was sometimes quite difficult. Fate had them both up at the same odd hour so now was as good a time as any. Besides, she hoped maybe the gift would help give her best friend a bit of a distraction for at least a moment.

After she presented her specially crafted gift, she waited eagerly to see Lia's reaction, but she didn't have to wait long. As soon as she pulled back the cloth wrapping to reveal the beautiful yet protective armor, she saw the tears in Lia's eyes and the shocked disbelief that colored her expression. Briar smiled happily, knowing without a doubt that she had done well with her gift, and her tail brushed against the ground as Lia suddenly leapt up to embrace her tightly. Briar hugged her in return, giving her a gentle squeeze in her forelegs. "I'm so glad you love it," she replied, genuinely happy to see Lia so happy. She knew Lia probably would have loved anything she gave her, but she still wanted to do something special. She doubted that Lia got to have anything of value for her fist birthday so now Briar felt like she was making up for lost time in a way. She was constantly trying to make Lia see how special she was and how much she was loved and this was no different.

Eventually Lia settled back and released her and Briar reluctantly let her go, her turquoise gaze finding Lia's warm eyes again. She gave Lia another wide smile when her friend asked her to help her put the armor on and she nodded in agreement. "Of course," she said as she sat back on her haunches and picked up the piece of armor, loosening the laces that were stitched up one side of the breast plate. When it was loose enough to slip over Lia's head she did just that, picking up one of Lia's paws in her own to help guide her foreleg through the other leg hole before she slipped it on properly. She got up and stepped around to the side where the laces hung from their eyelets, carefully pulling them together until the armor was fitted around Lia's torso, but not too tight.

It was a shame it was so dark so the details and embroidery couldn't really be seen in their full glory, but as she took a step back to admire her handy work she was still pleased with how well it fit. She had mostly made educated guesses for the size and shape, but she was around Lia so much that she knew her build very well. The thought made a slight blush come to her cheeks as she realized she was only that confident in the shape of Lia's form because of the time she had spent admiring her handmaiden and the times they had snuggled together. "It looks wonderful on you," she insisted, grinning as she leaned in to give Lia's nose a small, teasing kiss. "Happy birthday, Lia."

"Briar Fatalis"