Avi places a large box next to the table that he's set for Kirstie's grand breakfast he's made, hopefully she's feeling well enough to actually eat today. He steps back to admire his work, the line of clues, spaced evenly all the way to the bedroom. This is her first birthday they are celebrating within their relationship and he wants to set the standard high for her.
     What is in the box is the one thing Kirstie has been asking him about since she found out about it. It isn't the one thing per say, but it is an instrumentally important accessory for her request to come true. And it's in her favourite colour.
    He smiles to himself and then glances across at the table set up to restaurant standards. The food is covering the table; he'll have to call it more a brunch than a breakfast, just because of the one very important lunch item on the table, mac and cheese. He reckons that'll be packed up for later though.
     Avi rushes forward to straighten a napkin when Kirstie runs up behind him and wraps her arms around his waist. Her hands cross over in front of him and Avi has to laugh at what's in her hands, the first note he left and her phone.
     "What? You left all the other notes behind Kirst?" He speaks over his shoulder, giving her a smile.
     "This is the most important paper you could give me Avi," she holds up a blue square of paper, clutched tightly in her hand. "You, you as is Avi Kaplan have promised to let me take a picture of us to post to Instagram, I mean you wrote 'instantgram,' but it's okay." She leaps at him again, pulling him into another tight hug. She then pulls back and holds up her phone, cuddled into his side she gives a beaming smile to the miniature image of them on the screen.
     "Wait," Avi turns away before she can take the picture.
      She turns a hurt frown to him, lowering her arm.
     "No, I'll still take the picture, I just want you to be sure that this," he points to the ground, "Is the moment you want to capture."
     "That's a good point, how about I take a few today?"
     Avi immediately starts shaking his head, "No-"
     "Hear me out, I take a few then pick the best one to post tonight. And I promise I'll only post one, but I will want to keep the others to remember, so please don't ask me to delete them. You can trust me with this Avi." She reaches out to take his hand in hers and gives him a small reassuring smile.
     "Alright, but try and get some of the food in the picture, I worked hard on it," he jokes.
     "Yes! Get that mac and cheese," Kirstie darts around her boyfriend, grabbing his arm and pulling him down into the same kneeling position as her, the dish between them, behind them on the table. She hands him a fork and picks up another for herself, then with a big goofy grin she holds the fork near the large dish and outstretches the other arm. Avi mimics her and she takes the picture, turning to him with an impossibly happy smile, she leans in to give him a quick kiss.
     "Thank you," she tells him as she turns back to her phone to look at the picture again.
     "No worries, but after that smile I may just have to let you upload two."
     As her head whips around in surprise he holds up a fork full of pasta for her to take. "Seriously?" She questions before she accepts the mouthful, she holds her hand over her mouth as she speaks again, "This is amazing, you made it?"
     "Yes for both. See I really like that picture we just took, and I know there's another good one to come. First though you have to go and collect your notes," he tells her with a laugh.
     Kirstie immediately hops up and races back out of the room.

"Okay, so what I've gathered so far about your plans, we will be going to the park," she counts off her fingers, watching him as he gives her a nod, "There may be a picnic?"
     He nods again, taking a bite from the food on his plate.
     She takes a bite herself and continues to talk with her mouthful, "We've got the pictures happening, and the food, and there's gonna be fun in bed tonight, but I couldn't figure out this one," she reaches across the table to pick up one of the notes.
     He leans over to look at the paper and nods, "Right well that's because this is pretty important." He reaches down beside him to pick up the large box from earlier and places it into her waiting hands.
     "What is it?"
     "Open it Kirst," he smiles.
     With a sly smile she undoes the bow then pulls the shiny silver lid off, removing layers of tissue paper until she finally uncovers the gift. "You are kidding!" She screams, launching her hands into the box, pulling the curved object out as she stands up, letting the box drop and all the tissue paper fly out.
     "You like it?"
     "I freaking love it!" She places the sparkling red helmet on her head then leaps around the corner of the table, "Oh my god, I'm so badass!" She drops into Avi's lap and gives him yet another tight hug, this one being a little more awkward seeing as her head is now a lot bigger. "Avi, it's my favourite colour too," she smiles even though he is unable to see it behind the mouth part of the helmet. "Are we going for a drive today?"
     "Of course, that's why I bought you the helmet hon," he smiles. "And when we're all dressed and ready to go on the ride, I bet that'll be the picture you want to publish."
     "Shit yeah! Us on the bike!" She claps.
     A chuckles escapes Avi, "See, I knew it," he smiles.
     "Okay, let's get dressed and go now!" She stands up.
     "Hold on, hold on," Avi stands too, "When was the last time you upchucked? Because the last thing I need is you to puke on my bike too," his voice is laced with humour but he is totally serious.
     "I'm feeling soooo much better babe, I didn't get up once last night."
     Avi's eyebrow shoots up at the known lie.
     "No-no, okay, once, but that was it and it was hours ago," she assures him. "The one right when you went to bed, not once after that, I swear," her eyes are pleading.
     "Okay well, it's a little drizzly out there but it's supposed to clear up this afternoon, so if you keep breakfast down we're on the bike, if not: we'll go another day, I promise."
     "And I promise it's gonna stay down," she smiles. "I'm just gonna take a shower so I'm 100 per cent ready for later," she bounces in her spot before squealing and running off upstairs.
     Avi smiles as he watches her before beginning to tidy up.
     And Kirstie figures that what Avi doesn't know won't hurt him, because when she throws up she decides not to tell him.

...

"I want to do an expectations versus reality bit, like a pic-"
     "What do you mean bit?"
     "It's a meme. It'll be funny."
     "What's a meme?" He frowns.
     "I'm not explaining things that every normal human being already knows today; today's my day off from that. I want a picture of me on the bike by myself, that's the expectation, it's a joke before you go off on safety and licences and all that shit," she speaks quicker so that he couldn't cut her off. "And the reality picture is me sitting behind you, holding on for dear-fucking life."
     "If you're scared we don't have to do this," Avi places the food in the seat hatch then closes it up.
     "No I'm not, I'm not scared, it's part of the joke," she rolls her eyes.
     "As much as I love to joke around, we do need to take this seriously, I've never had a passenger on my bike before, and I'm a little nervous, so it's okay if you are."
     She smiles, "I'm far too excited to be nervous," she stretches the small distance for her lips to touch his.
      "Alright, let's go then," he clicks the visor on her helmet shut over her beaming smile, it's enough to bring one to his own face. "Pass me your phone," he holds his hand out and steps back as he receives it to frame Kirstie. He waits as she awkwardly climbs onto the bike.
     "Okay ready," she poses, sat up straight, one hand on the handle bars, one hand on her hip.
     "Okay you poser," he chuckles, snapping a couple because one is bound to come out blurry with his lack of know how.
     "Let's go!" She squeals and shuffles back.
     Avi returns her phone as he gets on the bike, awkwardly himself since Kirstie is kind of in the way.
     "So, how do we do this?" He asks of the picture.
     "Selfie," she holds her arm out and with the other hand she slams his visor down so they match. "Mmm, nope, my arm's not long enough."
     "Well you're shit out of luck because I don't know how to take a selfie," Avi chuckles.
     Kirstie rolls her eyes with a smile, "You just hold it out and press that button there."
     "Did I say I wanted to learn?"
     "Did I say you had a choice?"
     So Avi takes the phone and does exactly as she says, "Happy?"
      "Ecstatic," she grins, squeezing him where her arms were wrapped around his waist.
     "You ready?" He asks.
     "Wait, you haven't complimented me on how my jacket perfectly matches my helmet," she grins very cheesily.
     Avi's head drops a little with his deep chuckle, "Your helmet is red, your jacket is red... my helmet is black, my jacket is black, they're perfectly matched, are you gonna compliment me?"
     "No! You're always in black, I'd compliment you if you wore absolutely anything else."
     "Fine, you look great, all matching, well done."
     "I'm going to pretend that wasn't super sarcastic because I love you and I'm very excited for this trip."
     "Okay. Feet up," he instructs, "Don't lean unless I lean, and even then: never as much as I do, and hold tight."
     She takes a deep breath, "Okey doke."
     Avi flicks the stand up as the bike hums to life.
     Kirstie's excitement is ready to bubble over, and she cheers as they take off, the gate to her house closing behind them thanks to a button she's given Avi to look after since she isn't allowed to let go of him, lest he gets mad and stop the trip before it's barely began.

...

Avi swerves the bike left to avoid three great big potholes in the ground and Kirstie clings to him tighter.
     "What would happen if you drove through them?" Kirstie asks in a yell, trying to be louder than the bike.
     "What?" Avi yells out, he'd heard her voice but not what she said.
     "What would happen if you drove through the potholes?!" She yells again, trying to be louder.
     Through the noise and the safety of his helmet he still can't make out the words so he pulls the bike over, turning it off as one of his boots hit the slightly damp ground.
     Kirstie's own boot hits the ground when the bike tips further than she is expecting and she latches onto his shoulder with one of her hands, the other still wrapped tightly around him.
     "What would happen if you drive through a pothole?"
     Avi lifts the visor on his helmet and then hers, "We'd crash."
     Kirstie's eyes widen and she leans back a little.
     "Which is why I avoided them," he adds with a serious expression. "It wouldn't happen all the time, but there were three of them and they were pretty big Kirst." He watches her for a moment before he speaks again, "If you're scared we can walk it back, it wouldn't be that far."
     "I'm not scared Avriel, get this moving," she slams the visor back down, pulls her foot up and wraps both arms tightly around him again.
     "Alright," he laughs, closing his visor a little more carefully.
     "Just be real careful because it's still kind of wet."
     "I'm always careful," he tells her before the bike roars back to life and they take off down the empty country road.
     Kirstie keeps her sparkling red helmet pressed against her man's back as she watches the scenery fly by. They are soon driving along a road next to a practically deserted stretch of beach; Avi knows everywhere the people aren't.
     The beach looks a little dull; it is a drizzly day, but nothing that is going to stop this drive, it is her birthday after all and this is her birthday present. She smiles to herself as she comes to the thought of he'll want to top this next year, so he'll have to let her drive right? The bike or his car, which one would be more likely? She'll have to get her license first; she'll surprise Avi with that. She knows she doesn't want him to teach her, well she does but he wouldn't and it could cause all kinds of complications that they didn't need. Kevin can teach her, seeing as she's not about to go to some random stranger whose daughter is probably a fan, sure, maybe she'll have an easier time getting her license, but that's not the point. Getting your license is something you should do on merit, she wishes she'd gotten it before she was famous, but there's no point in looking back now, it's too late.
     They pull into a small gravely car park that looks to be a back entrance to a large park, a huge one actually. But this small patch before the paths leading onto the trails through the tree's seems more family oriented, and because of the drizzle there is no one here.
     "How bad is it that I want to go on that jungle gym?" Kirstie giggles as she gets off the bike.
     "Well there are no kids around, so you are the smallest person here-"
     "Oh fuck that's almost as bad as riding a horse," Kirstie announces after taking two steps then stopping to grip her inner thigh. "How in the hell," she stands up straight as Avi walks past her, totally fine.
     "I ride the bike all the time Kirst," he shrugs and reaches up to pull her helmet off, his is already off.
     "Yeah but the horses too freak of nature," she runs her fingers through her hair in an attempt to fix the helmet-do she is inevitably sporting.
     "I don't ride horse as often, but often enough that I was fine. Now please take your helmet," he hands it back to her. "And make your way over to that bench, since you're in so much pain," he pauses with a smile, "And I'll get the food."
     "Fine," Kirstie stretches the word with over-exaggeration, her hands clasping bright red that glitters even in the lack of sunshine today. The helmet is so Kirstie that it makes her smile just to look at it.
     She makes her way to the picnic table so slowly that Avi catches back up, "Geez Louise Kirstin," he shakes his head.
     "Shut-up," she whines.
     "Club sandwiches and mac and cheese," Avi names each container as he places them out. "And I don't bake so I apologise for this being store bought," he pulls out a small container with a miniature birthday cake inside.
     Kirstie's jaw drops just a little, "That is the cutest thing I've ever seen, thank you."
     Avi shrugs, "No big deal, but you're welcome," he smiles, and it grows as she reaches for the mac and cheese first.
     "Did you bring a fork?"
     Avi scoffs with laughter, "This isn't amateur hour Kirst," he hands her a fork.
     Kirstie's arm sits protectively around the pasta as she digs in. "I don't care that this isn't warm, and I don't care that my ass is now wet, and yes I know I'm talking with my mouth full, but no one else has ever done anything this special for me Avi and I want you to know how much I appreciate everything. And I'd also like you to know that if you think you're getting any of this," she points at the pasta, "Think again."
     Avi laughs, "That's alright, I'll just eat sandwiches and never make mac and cheese for you again," he shrugs as he opens the sandwich container, rearranging it slightly before taking a bite.
     "That's cruel," she pouts.
     "And I'm joking, go for broke Kirst, I made that for you, bogard if you wish," he gestures to her food.
     "Thank you baby," she grins and doesn't waste a second before tucking back in. Until she decides she has to warn Avi not to touch the cake until she's taken a picture of it.

I@Kirstin: 'Picture of Kirstin on the bike', 'Picture of Kirstie sitting behind Avi on the bike.' "Expectation vs Reality"

I@Kirstin: 'Picture of the miniature birthday cake,' 'Picture of breakfast spread,' 'Picture of her and Avi with their forks,' "Happy Birthday to me!"

A/N: What did you think of Avi's surprise?

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please vote and comment, it makes my day :)

Hannah.