But were Ignis less of a clever man, would they be there, as they were now, arm in arm, and with him noticing that minute little stumble and giving her arm a small squeeze with his own as if to catch her, metaphorically speaking, as if the stumble might lead into a fall? Likely not, so that was a consideration he would not even deign to even ponder. Instead, he would stop for a moment so that he could lean in to give her a light kiss, with a soft smile to go with it.

"Say no more," he assured her. "Just as any good birthday party should have a cake, it should probably come with a surprise or two, as well. And here you've efficiently," the slightest pause at the end, just to tack on that little extra weight to the word that he knew didn't need to be there, "combined the both. It'd rather boorish of me to go and let my incessant curiosity go and ruin it.

"Though I do already feel," he added, that faint smile broadening with another kiss, "that dark specter of all my lectures about patience looming over my shoulders now."