"Well grandma, I hope you're not gonna be mad, wherever you are."
There was some genuine anxiety in Zoey's words as she pushed the old candles into the freshly-prepared cake. It wasn't as if she'd ever bought into the superstition grandma had around these things... but there was sentimental value in finally utilizing this old gift from her. Three years since she passed, and there wasn't a whole lot left to remember her by - using these felt like melting down one of the last physical traces of someone she loved.
But grandma had told her to use them, and use them she would. She still remembered when the old woman had given them to her; birthday candles had been such a strange gift, yet her beloved grandmother's gravitas in telling Zoey about them had made it feel much more significant. As the old woman claimed, a wish would be granted to the one to blow them out; not any wish they made at the time, but their true wish, their deepest desire. A bunch of hooey, she thought, but grandma believed it - and she wasn't about to go disrespecting grandma.
It seemed like a good a time to use it as any, especially since it wasn't for her own birthday. No, the slender blonde had just spent her afternoon preparing instead for when her girlfriend would return home from work, having forgotten yet again that today was her special day. Not exactly surprising, given how overworked Akari usually was. Her longtime partner made bank, certainly, enough for both of them to live comfortably on her salary alone... but sometimes she wasn't sure if the young woman's constantly haggard state was worth it.
For tonight, at least, she would be able to relieve some of the exhaustion - all while finally taking the step she'd been anxious about for months now. Once all thirty candles had been arranged in the cake, she hurried back up to their room to check and make sure a certain box was still there. Intellectually, Zoey knew that the ring hadn't gotten up and gone anywhere, but it was a relief to confirm that it was still there, ready to be broken out at the right moment and presented by a kneeling Zoey.
That verified, she headed back downstairs to the living room, satisified with her decorations. It was rather low-key, given that it would just be the two of them. Nothing outrageous or fancy. At least, that was true of the decor; with Akari likely to get home in the next half-hour, there was one final preparation Zoey had to make. One last ritual, one could say, that she had conducted for the last five birthdays in a row, and had no intention of dropping now.
Akari was a wonderful woman. Kind, generous, affectionate, hard-working. As close to perfect as Zoey figured a woman could be. That she had landed such a lady, actually ended up living with her after her modeling career had crashed and burned, was a miracle she would've thanked God for daily if she was even slightly religious. What she didn't like to discuss, and had only told Zoey of after a year of dating, was that she had a certain... kink.
It had struck her as weird, at first, when her girlfriend talked about her fetish for some impossible creature from fantasy. But she had chosen to reject the instinct to be judgemental, and in time, had come to find the whole idea rather fascinating. She didn't quite end up sharing Akari's interest, but she was accepting of it... and even if she hated the whole thing, she'd have done it a hundred times over after seeing how happy her girlfriend was the first time she'd worn the costume. For one night a year, she was quite willing to dress up as something out of fiction, just to give Akari a night where her fantasies nearly became reality.
The package with the costume was neatly hidden at the back of the bedroom closet, secreted away where Akari wouldn't look for it. Not knowing where it lay added a bit of mystery, some excitement in seeing Zoey dressed up after she'd forgotten about the costume. The blonde had taken great pains to ensure it remained in perfect condition, undamaged even after the most ravishing assault from her hungry partner. In a way, it had also aided her health - the need to fit the costume perfectly, year after year, had forced her to maintain a fit body, every bit as healthy and attractive as it had been a decade ago.
All that remained was to don her guise, and immerse herself in her role as the object of her partner's fantastical desires. It was almost comforting, really, to forget about her problems and slip into that other persona. The costume felt like an old friend as she slipped it on, becoming as close as she could be to that which Akari had once been ashamed to feel desire towards. Just for her, Zoey would become...