"I know, he's almost ready." Sarah said from the bathroom.
Instead of talking through the room, Richie got up from the couch and walked over to the bathroom, finding Sarah sitting next to the bath tub on the floor. Daniel was enjoying himself in the tub with bubbles and ducks.
"He's enjoying himself." Richie remarked as he moved the towel off the toilet seat to sit down and join them.
"Yeah, so we might be a little later than 6.30."
Richie shrugged, he wasn't very worried about that either. "Fine by me. The party is for him so what's David going to do?" He watched Daniel splash around, anything that made his son happy, made him happy as well.
"He'll be squeeky clean." Sarah smiled up at him. "He'll be done in a few minutes and I'll get him all dressed."
"You've got his clothes picked out?"
Sarah smiled again, a little excited. "Yeah I got him an adorable outfit to match the party colors. He's going to be adorable."
"That's kind of a given though."
Sarah looked at her son. "Yeah, that's true."
"What do you guys think?" David asked once they finally walked into the convention room.
Richie carried his son into the room, his little head tilted to look at the hundreds of balloons floating on the ceiling above them.
"How many balloons did you blow up?" Richie asked, amazed at how many there were up there.
"Three hundred sixty." David answered.
"You actually counted them?"
"No, man. I can do math. Each bag had 60 balloons, 2 bags of white balloons, 2 bags of silver, 2 bags of green. Math."
"Alright. It's a lot."
Sarah joined them, looking around the large room, not many of the crew had joined them yet but a couple people were scattered around the room. Besides the ceiling being covered in balloons, the walls were adorned with streamers in the same colors as well as the other decorations. A catering table was set up by the far wall, a side table with a very large stack of cupcakes next to it. All the colors matched throughout the room.
"I even made sure Daniel would have some fun." David pointed towards a little bouncy castle with a small ball pit next to it.
"You did good." Richie agreed, David's effort definitely showed off.
"I'm going for that title of best godfather."
"I think you deserve it." Richie agreed with him once again. "But I think Daniel needs to try out the bouncy castle before he can decide on this."
He carried Daniel over to the bouncy castle. It was the perfect size for a toddler or three. He put Daniel down on his knees and urged him to crawl inside to explore it.
Daniel looked around himself, crawling around the vinyl. Richie watched him, waiting for a reaction but not getting one. Instead he moved to put weight down, mimicking a jump. Unlike he had expected, Daniel looked at him with a shocked look of surprise on his face. He repeated it, this time Daniel giggled as it made him move around. His giggle only encouraged his dad to keep doing it until Daniel started full out laughing. That was a sound he hadn't heard before. Quickly he sat up, looking around for Sarah. Once he finally spotted her, he quickly waved her over.
"What's wrong?" Sarah asked worried as she made her way over.
"Watch." Richie said as he made the bouncy castle bounce again, making Daniel bounce around as he sat and enjoyed himself, fullheartedly laughing out loud.
"Oh my god." Sarah gasped, then joined Richie on the floor to watch her son. "He's never laughed like that. He loves it."
"Yeah, he does."
They let Daniel enjoy himself for a little while longer before picking him up and going to socialize. They joined David at one of the tables and pitched in on the conversation.
Richie got a couple drinks from the buffet table, admiring the room as he walked back when a thought struck him. Once back at the table, he pulled out his phone and sent off a text to Noah, feeling smart of what he had noticed.
It had been a week since he talked to Noah, if not getting a response to his question counted as talking. He really needed to put more effort into getting a conversation going with him on most days. At least today he had thought of a Harry Potter reference. For him, it counted.
"You did amazing Lemma." He said to his buddy next to him. "You really did think of everything."
"Oh yeah." David agreed. "Did you see all the cupcakes? I figured cupcakes were trendier than a cake."
"And easier for Daniel." Richie agreed.
He really was amazed at what David had created in the room. The entire room was decorated, the food was perfect for a birthday party and even a table was set aside for gifts. Not to forget that he had thought of entertainment for Daniel. The bouncy castle was definitely his favorite. If he had planned Daniel's birthday party himself, it surely would not have looked like this.
After dinner they opened some gifts for Daniel, glad to see so many people had thought of him and had brought him a gift, small or big. Most of them would have to be shipped home the next day due to lack of space to travel with but clothes and some toys would come in handy.
Richie was sitting at a table with all of his friends and Sarah next to him, enjoying a conversation with some friendly banter when he noticed Daniel had fallen asleep on his shoulder. The little boy had enjoyed the ball pit some more before snuggling up with his dad.
"He's asleep." He said to Sarah next to him, craning his neck to try and look at Daniel's face to confirm his suspicion. "I guess we better go upstairs." He suggested a little regretfully, he was enjoying hanging out with everyone.
Sarah stood up next to him and reached for Daniel. "I'll take him to bed." She said.
Richie carefully let go of him and started to get up as well once Sarah had taken Daniel.
She stopped him with a hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him to sit down again. "You stay here." She told him. "Come up when you're ready."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely." She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss before walking away to take Daniel to bed.
Although he would not have minded to go upstairs with his wife and son, he was glad to be with his friends as well. Lately everyone did their own thing before and after a show but now he got to catch up and just relax with his friends. Some banter and teasing, the way it should be. The part he had missed while he was at home.
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