Binary Birthday
How do you say “Birthday” in binary?
Note: I do not own the Marvel characters. This story is just for fun, not for profit. Written by Cindy B.
Wanda/Vision, Clint, Natasha, Tony, Fluffy, Fluffy February, party, Canon Divergent, Everybody Lives, Because I Say So
Wanda wasn’t much of a baker. She’d make brownies from a box once or twice – best version of chocolate in America in her opinion – but she’d never really made a cake. But she was determined to make this one perfect. Two layers of sponge cake, vanilla buttercream frosting, and little purple roses in a circle on the top. And she wasn’t going to use magic.
After all, it was the first time they had celebrated his birthday together. Not that Vision had a birthday, exactly. But it was hard to know what else to call it. One moment he was the most powerful AI ever created, one who achieved self-awareness on his own, and the next he was in an vibranium-infused artificially created body and defending Earth. Since then they’d been pretty busy, defeating Ultron, fighting each other, and finally saving the universe from that psycho Thanos.
All of which meant that celebrating birthdays had never been a high priority. Until now. Wanda was determined that this year, she would throw him a party and that included the perfect birthday cake.
That was the plan. Unfortunately, the results were . . . not perfect. She wasn’t sure how, but when she took the cakes out of the pans, one layer was a little lopsided and the other stuck to the pan a little and a big piece had stayed in the pan. She finally got it out but she didn’t know how to make it stick to the rest of the cake.
Then there was the frosting. She had started with a recipe from the internet, but when she was supposed to add the milk to the powdered sugar, the spoon had overflowed and she wound up with frosting soup.
Wanda was holding back tears when Clint and Natasha walked into the kitchen. It was a mess, with dirty pans stacked up, spilled flour and powdered sugar on the countertop, and a chunk of cake on the floor. Wanda sat on a kitchen stool in the middle of the mess, her face looking as miserable as the kitchen looked.
Clint and Natasha exchanged a look without saying a word. Natasha looked for something tactful to say, but Clint rushed right in. “Wow, it looks like an explosion in here.” He dipped a spoon in the bowl of frosting. “What is this supposed to be?”
Wanda sounded like she was caught between tears and laughter. “That is frosting.”
“So you’re making a cake?” Natasha asked gently.
Wiping her eyes and spreading more powdered sugar across her face, Wanda replied, “That was supposed to be the idea.”
The whole plan came spilling out: Wanda’s realization that Vision didn’t have a birthday, her inspiration to surprise him, her determination not to use magic, and the sad truth that she had no idea what she was doing.
Clint handed her a paper towel so she could blow her nose. “Are you sure you don’t want to use magic?” asked Natasha.
Wanda nodded. Clint and Nat looked at each other again, then the spy took charge.
“Clint, find a fancy plate. Wanda, how about you throw away that cake from the floor. FRIDAY, how long do we have until Vision comes back?”
“Vision will return to the living quarters in approximately 30 minutes.”
“That’s cutting it close, but I think we can do it. Let’s start by getting the cake onto a plate.” They found a nice glass plate. “I think we want the whole layer on the bottom,” Natasha said. “We can use a bread knife to even it out.”
“What about the frosting?” Wanda asked.
“Is there any more powdered sugar?”
Wanda pointed at the empty bag. “That was it.”
“That’s fine. We’ll call it a glaze.”
They decided to use raspberry preserves as the filling and then very carefully put the broken layer on the top.
“I don’t get it, Nat. Why are we putting this one on top? Why not hide it underneath?” Clint asked.
“With any luck, we can turn the broken side to the back and then pretend like it broke when Wanda cuts the cake,” she said.
It turned out the chunk on the floor wasn’t as big as it looked so they were sort of able to piece together the top, then pour the glaze on top of the plate. Even Wanda had to admit that it looked better than she expected.
“Time, FRIDAY?”
“Ten minutes until Vision returns.”
“Right, Clint, see what kind of fruit we have in the fridge,” ordered Natasha.
Clint emerged from the fridge with half a carton of strawberries. “There’s bananas and apples on the counter too.”
“No, the strawberries are perfect.” Natasha used her knife skills to cut the strawberries into perfect little fans and Wanda arranged them in a circle on the top of the cake. Clint swiped his finger into the frosting and licked it off until Nat swatted him. “Go find a candle.”
When they were all done, Wanda was kind of amazed. It wasn’t the perfect cake she had imagined, but it was pretty. Clint assured her the frosting tasted good and reminded her that with enough ice cream, any cake was edible.
Just as they finished cleaning up, Vision came in with the rest of them. “Surprise!” They all yelled.
“What is this?” he asked.
Wanda stepped forward. She still had powdered sugar on her cheek. “It’s your birthday.” Vision started to speak but she put a finger to his lips and continued. “I know it’s not really, but you deserve a party like everyone else.
Vision smiled. He held Wanda close and said, “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
Tony broke into the moment. “So who’s gonna start the song? Happy birthday to you, happy birthday … “
They cut the cake. With plenty of ice cream, it was indeed delicious.
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