1 1 | B I R T H D A Y
maybe i did steal reggie from julie and the phantoms and not even bother to change his name or the band name. it was either that or abandon this and start writing a fic for him.
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"it's scrappy-doo or nothing"
Saturday night, Garcia pulled up to pick Florence up at her apartment for her birthday dinner. Prentiss and JJ — the baby was home with Will — had ridden with her, and apparently, the rest of the team would be meeting them there. They had just finished up a case in Atlanta where the unsub was using his pick-up artist skills to kill women. All had ended well, or as well as a case could end.
They got all the paperwork wrapped up just in time for Garcia's birthday plans. Florence was a bit overdramatic as she got in the car, complaining about how inconvenient it all was. Inside though, she was excited. She had never had a real birthday party before.
"Okay, so I tried to keep it as lowkey as I could," Garcia said, driving off. "We're going to this pizza place—"
"Oh, I love pizza," Florence piped up.
"I know, Sweetheart," Garcia said proudly. "The restaurant has some band playing tonight, and I listened to some of their stuff. You might like them. Anyways, after pizza, we have a cake and we'll open presents."
"Penelope, I really appreciate this," Florence said, grinning. "But do not even think about asking that band to play Happy Birthday."
JJ and Prentiss chuckled while Garcia sighed. She had clearly been planning on doing that. It didn't take long to get to the pizza place. Everyone else was already there when they arrived. Once she got out of the car, they each wished Florence a late happy birthday. They also each had presents in their hands, which sort of got her excited. Despite saying they didn't have to, she wanted presents from all of them.
They requested a table for eight and waited around the door until it was ready. In the corner, Florence noticed a claw machine with stuffed animals in it and immediately bounced over to Rossi.
"Ro-Ro, can I have some ones for the claw machine?"
"Sorry, kiddo," he said, putting his hands up. "The smallest bill I carry is twenty."
Florence pouted and spun on her heel to face Hotch. "Hopscotch, can I have some ones for the claw machine?"
Hotch crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Those things just steal your money. No."
Florence sighed and rolled her eyes before spinning again and facing Morgan. At this point, everyone was laughing at her behavior. "Derek, can I have some ones for the claw machine?"
Derek chuckled before pulling out his wallet. Florence perked up and bounced on the heels of her feet.
"Here, even though you didn't use a cute nickname to address me," he said, handing her ten one-dollar bills.
"Thank you, Chocolate Thunder," she said before running off.
Florence knew what she wanted as soon as she looked over. There was a stuffed Scrappy-Doo sitting near the top and in the middle with only a few other ones covering it up. She focused all her attention on the game, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get it. The claw would graze the toy but never fully pick it up. Florence was on her last dollar when she was interrupted.
"You know, you could probably get that Daffy Duck in the corner pretty easy."
Florence looked over her shoulder in surprise and saw a boy around her age standing behind her. He had just come out of the bathroom and saw her cursing at the claw machine, so he came closer to investigate. He was dressed in a red flannel shirt and black jeans, which his hands were shoved into. Florence internally admitted that he was kind of cute, but she focused back on the claw machine.
"Maybe, but Daffy isn't Scrappy-Doo. It's Scrappy-Doo or nothing," she told him.
"Might be kinda hard. He's buried under that Marvin the Martian and Pink Panther. Maybe move the claw to the left a little." Florence, with nothing more than a dollar to lose, took his advice. While the claw had the best grip it had gotten so far on it, Scrappy still stayed put. Florence and the boy sighed in sync. "Man, I'm sorry. I thought that would get him."
"It's alright," she said, shrugging. "Wasn't my money anyway. Thanks for trying to help, though."
"So, I can assume you like Scooby-Doo," he said, nodding towards the stuffed animal.
"Oh, at any point in time ever no matter what, I would always rather be watching Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo Two: Monsters unleashed," she admitted.
The boy grinned brightly and laughed. "You've definitely got the right idea about life. But I have an important question."
"What's that?" Florence asked, smiling a little. She couldn't help it — he had a nice smile.
"Which show is better: What's New, Scooby-Doo or Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?"
"See now, while What's New has an absolute banger of a theme song, I have to give it to Where Are You. I love the Mystery Incorporated series too."
"A woman with taste," he said, nodding his head. He was about to say something else, but Florence's attention was drawn away.
"Hey, Ren," Reid called. "Table's ready."
Florence smiled once more at the boy before following the team to the table. She did look back at him over her shoulder and saw him smiling at the ground. She also kicked herself for not asking him what his name was because it wasn't every day she met cute boys who had strong opinions about Scooby-Doo.
There was a bit of an argument about what kinds of pizza they would order, but given that it was Florence's birthday, they couldn't deny her pineapple pizza — much to the displeasure of Rossi, Prentiss, and Derek (Hotch didn't have an opinion on it). They also ordered a pepperoni and veggie pizza, so Florence didn't see why they had to make such a big deal about it.
"Ooh, the band's about to go on," Garcia said excitedly after they had placed their orders.
Florence turned in her seat and leaned on the back of her chair to watch. She was very surprised to see the boy from the claw machine on stage with a bass guitar in his hand. He caught her eye and smiled at her. She smiled back and gave a little wave. There was also a blonde boy on the drums, a boy wearing a shirt with the sleeves cut off on another guitar, and a girl sitting at a keyboard.
"We are Sunset Curve," the sleeveless shirt boy announced.
"Tell your friends," the claw machine boy added, grinning.
The guy on the drums hit his sticks together while counting down before they started playing. Florence found herself nodding along to the pop-rock sound they had. They were clearly having fun, and the girl on the keyboard soon got up and hopped all over the stage as she sang. She looked back at the claw machine boy, who looked like he was having the time of his life. It wasn't until he winked at her that Florence realized she had been watching him for the whole song. She rolled her eyes playfully before turning back around.
"They're pretty good," Morgan said, nodding his head to the beat. "A good choice, Garcia."
"As if I ever make bad ones," she said, grinning. Then she clapped her hands. "Alright, who wants to do presents while we wait for food?"
"Garcia, it's supposed to be cake first and then presents," JJ reminded her.
Garcia pouted and leaned on Morgan's shoulder. "Fine."
They did eventually make it to cake and presents. Garcia had ordered a cake that was decorated to look like a Capri Sun, which delighted Florence to no end. Florence almost got on her hands and knees, begging them to not sing Happy Birthday out loud. But it was pointless. Once the band finished their set, Morgan grinned evilly. Suddenly he held her down while Prentiss strapped a pink party hat on Florence's head.
She sat through a very loud and off-key rendition of Happy Birthday, unable to sink lower in her chair because Morgan was keeping her upright. They drew the attention of everyone in the restaurant as they did so. Florence kept her complaints to herself though, considering she was about to open presents from them.
"Me first," Garcia said, sliding her gift bag across the table. Inside was a new pink laptop bag. There was also a night light shaped like a raccoon, which Florence sighed heavily at.
"Are you making fun of my fear of the dark and raccoons at the same time?" she asked, crossing her arms.
"You're scared of raccoons?" JJ asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That's what you get for not telling me about your birthday," Garcia said, smirking.
Morgan went next. He had gifted her a homemade calendar with pictures of him for every month.
"And you just have these lying around?" Florence asked, trying not to laugh. She could imagine him handing them out to ladies at a bar or something ridiculous like that.
Morgan smirked and wrapped an arm around her. "Just thought I'd give you something for you and Garcia to look at when you're cooped up in your office. June is a particularly good month."
Garcia snatched the calendar out of her hands and flipped through the months. Once she reached June, she grinned and showed off the shirtless picture of Morgan to the table.
"Any day that someone gets to see me shirtless is a good day," he said, shamelessly.
Florence groaned to hide the fact that she was smiling. "Can you not be a Gemini for five seconds?"
After that, JJ gave her a box with two of the Harry Styles candles and a Target gift card in it — that was a much more practical gift than Morgan's. Reid gave her a cooling pad for her laptop, which she had made a comment about needing a new one a few weeks ago. Rossi had bought her a nice pair of brown leather boots. They were shaped similarly to Dr. Martens, but they had some Italian logo on them.
"Ro-Ro, these are way too nice," she said, eyeing the nice boots. Sure, she loved them, but that wasn't the point.
"They're not for you," Rossi said, waving off her concerns. "They're so that I never have to see you come to work in highlighter-yellow Crocs ever again."
Everyone at the table snickered, while Florence playfully rolled her eyes. "Crocs are comfy."
"Those will be comfy too," he insisted. "Just, please. No more Crocs. You work for the FBI."
Prentiss got Florence the ABBA's greatest hits album on vinyl, along with a few new scrunchies. Hotch went last and he got her two things. The first was a nice, pink, fleece, blanket because she often complained about how cold her office was in order to keep the computers from overheating — she never stopped to consider keeping a blanket in there. The other was a book entitled "How to Be an Adult."
"Thank you for all my presents," Florence said while cutting off another piece of cake. "Even the slightly mean ones."
"Well, thank you for letting us celebrate you," JJ said sweetly. "Also, it was very nice to have a night off from changing diapers."
"Oh, how is little baby Henry?" Garcia asked. JJ immediately started showing off pictures, which everyone loved.
Florence slipped away to go to the bathroom. Once she was done, she headed back to the table, shooting an angry glare at the Scrappy-Doo in the claw machine. Before she reached her table the same boy from before came up to her.
"Hi," he greeted shyly.
"Hi," she said back, smiling. "Um, you guys totally killed it up there. And I know you're not the main singer, but you have a great voice too."
"Oh, thanks," he said. His cheeks heated up a little bit. "I um - my name is Reggie. I didn't get to tell you earlier."
"I'm Florence, but my friends call me Ren."
"Ren. That's a cool name. Like Kylo Ren."
"That's exactly how I think of it," she said, grinning.
"Um, I just wanted to say happy birthday. I heard them singing to you," he said. Then he dug through his backpack which was hanging off his shoulders. He pulled out a CD and a t-shirt with the Sunset Curve logo on it. "Thought I'd give you our demo and a free t-shirt — size beautiful."
Florence chuckled as he flashed a goofy smile, and took the CD and shirt from him. "Do you use that line on every girl you give a free t-shirt to?"
"Nope, actually," he said, laughing nervously. "Luke, our guitarist, said that line would work."
"Did that line get Luke a girlfriend?"
"Uh, no. Not yet," he said, shaking his head.
"Maybe find another line then, because I'd say you were doing pretty good until you threw it," Florence admitted. "Scooby-Doo and Star Wars were better angles in my opinion."
Reggie perked up. "I'll keep that in mind."
"I um, should probably get back to my table," Florence said after noticing Prentiss watching them. "Thanks for the merch. I'd say you guys have a new fan."
"Awesome," he said. Before Florence could walk off, he asked her to wait while digging in his bag. He pulled out a folded up flyer and handed it to her. "We, uh, have another gig in two weeks at a park. You should come."
Florence smiled at the invitation. "If I'm not working, I'll try and swing by. It was nice meeting you, Reggie."
"You too, Ren."
Florence went back to her table and tried to fight off her smile so that the profilers at the table wouldn't pick up on anything. If they even thought for a minute that she had a crush on someone, they would be unbearable.
"What's got you so smiley?" Prentiss asked quietly, nudging Florence gently.
"I'm just having a really great birthday. Kinda makes me wish I had told you guys on the actual day," she admitted. "It's nice to have people care about you. I'm not used to it."
"Well, get used to it, kiddo. You're stuck with us for life now."
Florence watched as Garcia tried to shove some cake on Morgan's face while the others laughed at them.
"Sounds like a pretty good life."
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