+Author's note

Congrats on winning 1st prize! ^^

Most of the beer and small talk was spent up in the dingy little rec room. Most of the other mercs had already headed up for the night, save for Joan and Demoman.

Lazy swigs of drinks were exchanged between the two friends, leaning against the chairs, they were feeling the buzz of their drinks slowly catch up with them along with their fatique.

Their faces were tired from the good laugh they shared earlier, and only dregs of small smiles hung on their lips.

Demoman glanced at the woman, a small gleam in his eye.

"Aye, what'cha gonna be doin' fer tomorrow?"

Joan shrugged.

"It's ceasefire. Might as well sleep in or somethin', train or make more explosives or stuff"

The Scottsman raised an eyebrow at her.

"Ya ain't gonna celebrate yer own birthday?"

"My what?"

Joan turned to the left and saw the lewd picture calender and saw a small red circle on one of the dates. Speaking of, who did drew that anyways?

"Oh, right! I forgot"

Demoman rolled his eyes and shook his head at his friend.

"How do ye manage to memorize the entire time table for the BLU spy's infiltrations-"

"-and shower hours!" cut in Joan.

"But forget yer own birthday?" finished Demoman with a chuckle.

Running a hand over her head, Joan scratched right above her eyepatch, and yawned.

"One, that's actually really helpful to the team, and two, Scout asked me to tell him when the BLU Spy's taking a shower so he could mess with the water tempature"

And sure enough, a distant cry of a french man was heard from across the RED base.

Demoman and Joan laughed together at the far off french curses, and wiped tears from their eyes.

"Well, I'm calling it a night. See ya tomorrow Tavish"

Demoman eyed her leave with a small smile.

"Yeah, you too"

+++

Rap Rap Rap

Joan turned in her sleep, ignoring the strange sounds that intruded her peacefull slumber.

Rap Rap Rap

How strange.. Was there something poking her? Naw, that's the wrong sound. It must be her imagination.

Rap Rap Rap

What? What was that? Joan was sure she felt some kind of-

Rap Rap Rap

Okay she wasn't dreaming this. There was somethin-

Rap Rap Rap

"What the f-"

Throwing her covers down, she came face to face with a very large parrot staring down at her, cocking it's head to the side.

"....what?"

"Hi"

She was sure she had seen a lot of weird things in her life, but she was certainly not expecting to be woken by a talking parrot.

Nope.

"Uh... Hi?

Joan slowly waved a hand at the Parrot, trying to adjust to the sudden situation.

"Hi"

She sat up, rubbing her bleary eyes to make sure she wasn't hallucinating any of this.

"Um.. Yeah, what are you doing here anyways?"

The parrot cocked it's head.

"Hey"

Sighing at the parrot's lack of cooperation, she petted the soft head, stroking the neck as the parrot slowly closed it's eyes.

"Where the hell did you.."

Joan then noticed a small RED ribbon on her bedside table, and a small bowl of nuts had been placed there.

"Hm.."

She carefully took a small nut and fed it to the parrot; which in turn started feeding happily.

Satisfied with the treat, the Parrot began to chirp.

"Happy birthday! Happy birthday Joan!"

Wided eyed, Joan looked back at the parrot as it flurried it's wings in joy. It puffed up and moved from side to side in a cute little dance.

"Happy! Happy birthday Joannnnn!!!"

Even the hardened woman couldn't help but coo at the adorable sight. No wonder Demoman was rather quiet last night!

Quickly making a mental note for thanking Demoman later, Joan gave the parrot another nut and stroked it's feathery little head.

"Hey, what else can you do?"

The parrot took the nut from her and cracked it with it's beak.

"Happy birthday! Joan! Hi!"

Then it started murmering lowly.

"I'm a black scottish cyclops..! They got moarr of- Hi! Happy birthday!"

Joan burst out laughing. Apparently the parrot seemed to speak of anything it had picked up from Tavish, including his druken speeches.

"Moaaaar! Hello Joan! You pretty pretty girl!"

"Aw....!!"

The parrot blinked and made a kissing sound, and it's voice deepened, imitading a certain Scottsman on the base.

"I love ye lass!"

And right there, Joan froze.

"..What did you say?"

The parrot cocked it's head again.

"Hello?"

"No!!! Before that!!!"

Seeing that the parrot was waiting patiently for it's reward, Joan hastily handed it another nut.

"Come on! Say it little guy! What did you say??"

"He said 'I love ye'"

Tavish stepped into the room, a small box in his hand and a handful of clumsily picked flowers in the other.

Joan looked up at her friend in surprise.

"Tavish.."

"I love ye lass. I've been wantin' to say that foarrr a long time naow. And (P/n) here helped me do it. Didn' ye?"

The parrot squawked and danced again; swiftly flying onto Demoman's shoulder.

A wide grin spread across her face. Joan hadn't felt this.. bewildered and happy in quite a while.

And here she was, with the man who was in love with her, celebrating her birthday in the most unexpected, and also unique way she could have ever asked for.

Tavish chuckled nervously.

"So, what'll it be lass? What do ye say?"

Joan got up and walked towards him.

"I love you too"

Demoman closed his eyes and leaned towards her, but strangely, Joan didn't kiss him, and the weight on his shoulder got lighter.

"I love you (P/n)~"

Joan gave a mischievous grin at Demo, and kissed the parrot instead. The bird gave a kissing sound, and she winked at the dumbfounded Scottsman.

He chuckled.

"I ain't gettin' any of those easily am I?"

"No" she cheekily replied.