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Choices. Decisions relating to personal preference. Oliver's most challenging enemy.

"I-I don't know, um..." He looked very uncertain of himself, and eyed Horace's outstretched fist with nervous suspicion. "Chocolate?" He asked, his voice practically a squeak.

"I... don't think so, I'm not really sure," Oliver said slowly. Although he ate junk food in great quantities, he hadn't learned to diversify his tastes beyond the basics. If a ten year old wouldn't appreciate the complexity of a type of dish, Oliver would be likewise hesitant to try it.

On the topic of coconut and nuts though, he had never imagined them in a cake. It made sense in brownies and dessert bars, but a cake?

At the mention of a birthday gift, Oliver began to get flustered once more. "Ah, H-Horace, you didn't have to get me anything!" He squeaked, clasping his hands nervously in his lap. "Th-this is enough, um, a cake... It's been a long time since I had a birthday cake, really..."

"Oh." Oliver couldn't argue with that logic.

He took the bowl and stirred it, a little awkwardly at first. There really shouldn't be any wrong way to stir a bowl of stuff, but this was baking, so anything could happen. When he wasn't immediately corrected or demoted from his task, he became a bit more confident.

"How do you do that without getting bits of eggshell in stuff?" He asked, glancing between Horace's bowl and the discarded shells.

Oliver licked the cake batter spoon, seeming quite content with the progress they had made. It was really kind of neat how everything came together, all those simple ingredients soon to become something magical and tasty. Cake truly was a thing greater than the sum of it's parts.

When Horace suggested they leave, he jumped off the stool. "Ah, o-okay!" He replied quickly, giving the spoon one last lick before giving it a quick rinse in the sink. There would be more dishes to wash later, after all. "We can just... um, leave the cake? It will be okay in the oven while we're gone?"

"No but... I don't want it to get burnt or anything..." Oliver said nervously, glancing back over his shoulder briefly to make sure there were no flames erupting from the oven.

He followed quickly enough, until it was time to actually approach the box. It was a shame thinking about tearing up the wrapping. The extra effort it would have taken to actually print out dinosaurs on paper was almost more touching than receiving the gift itself.

Oliver tilted the box, peeling back one sheet of printed paper before his eyes widened. "H-Horace, oh my gosh..."

"That sounds more like something Finn would do," Oliver babbled quickly, stripping the rest of the paper off the box. "Besides, you would have let me shake it if it were a rock."

For once Oliver almost radiated excitement instead of anxiety as he scanned the box, noticing not only that his first look was correct, it was most certainly a PS3, but that it was also bundled with a game that was right up his alley. The broken tape on the box didn't escape his notice either.

"Ah, is it... did you get it runicked too?" Oliver exclaimed, his expression bright with amazement.

Oliver could feel a tightness growing in his throat as he tried to reply, and for a second he was silent. His eyes started to glisten. All the emotions that had been running through him since getting woken up in the lab had reached that overwhelming point where there could be nothing but tears. They were happy tears, knowing Horace cared enough to do all this for him was the most encouraging, heart-warming feeling, but tears were always a little awkward.

He nodded, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand to keep the embarrassing tears from spilling.