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Juggling a bag and a box on the trip down into town had made Noah nervous. What if something jumped out at him? What if someone asked him where he was going? Well, the second one wasn't such a big problem, he could just say, really, it wasn't secret now and anyway Twitter, but he had enough to worry about without worrying about talking to people too. But he'd made it down here all right, and he hadn't dropped either thing he was carrying, and nobody had stopped him. He hesitated outside the door. There was no reason to be nervous about this, he told himself firmly. It did nothing for the nervousness.

YOU FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS, Laz said patiently. ANYWAY IF IT CAME OUT BAD HE WON'T CARE. YOU MADE IT.

Thanks. I think. Laz's casual assessment hadn't done anything for Noah's confidence in his cooking skills, but the cake had looked all right, and he wouldn't know if he kept standing out here like a chicken. He took a breath an pushed through the door, heading for the corner table and keeping his eyes on what he carried and where he was putting his feet because if he tripped and dropped the cake now it would probably be funny in an ironic kind of way later but it would also suck a lot.

"Hi." Noah grinned at Al, his eyebrows canted a little nervously but his smile bright and genuine. "Here, take the box, it's for you anyway." Both of the items were for Al actually, but the cake was supposed to go first. That was the order of things: cake, then presents. "Um. Do you have like plates and forks?"

Noah put the bag down on one of the empty chairs around the corner table and claimed another one, absentmindedly tucking one foot up under himself the way he did when he was nervous. As Al returned, though, he laughed a little. "You're not sneaky," he informed the other boy, and leaned over to get the errant icing with his thumb.

"Oh my god did you lick it?" Noah sputtered and broke down in giggles. "None I guess, well it probably doesn't really matter but, oh my god you licked it." He kicked the leg of Al's chair lightly. "Weirdo."

Noah squeaked and didn't dodge quite fast enough. "Weirdo," he repeated, and reached over to whack Al's shoulder playfully. He took the plate and fork, looked over at the bag on the chair, looked back to Al with a guilelessly innocent expression. "I got you a present," he explained solemnly. "Try the cake, I wanna know if I made it right?" His tone wavered slightly into uncertainty with the request. The cake had smelled good, but he still wasn't one hundred percent sure he'd done it correctly.

Noah relaxed visibly as Al ate the cake with every sign of enjoying it, even if he was eating it quickly to get to the present. There was still plenty of cake that could be enjoyed later too. He took his time on his own slice, but paused long enough to hand the bag over obligingly, though he tensed up again a little, watching sharply to see the reaction to what he'd picked out.

There were two meticulously wrapped presents in the bag. The larger one contained a heavy and comprehensive cookbook. The smaller one was a small music player; when turned on, the screen would show that it had already had music put on it, a small assortment of pop and rock, and a couple of albums of classical music.

Noah ducked his head nervously, watching the unwrapping process from under his hair, but he smiled in response to Al's smile, breathing a sigh of relief. He'd done okay then. He opened his mouth to explain that he'd maybe kinda gone overboard a little on presents because his Christmas present to Al had only been a regifted book, but before he could get any of that out, he was being bear-hugged. He squeaked a little and hugged back, feeling his cheeks go hot with a blush.

"I guess you like it?" he ventured after a moment.