#dansbirthday

[cherryaire]

dan avidan discography [2005 - 2016], featuring the northern hues, skyhill, ninja sex party, and starbomb

the northern hues ep (january 11, 2005) run with the hunted (june 3, 2007) NSfW [ninja sex for women] (september 29, 2011) strawberries and cream (april 15, 2013) attitude city (july 17, 2015) under the covers (march 4, 2016) starbomb (december 17, 2013) player select (december 16, 2014)

[cherryaire]

Happy 38th birthday to the talented as fuck Leigh Daniel “Danny” Avidan! [March 14, 1979]

[cherryaire]

egobang: wedding rings (can be an AU with no suzy or just like they decide they want symbolic wedding rings because they're romantic saps)

He’s left the choosing of their wedding bands up to Arin, since Arin seemed so excited. Don’t get him wrong, he’s excited too, but he doesn’t necessarily feel he needs a ring to symbolize how much he loves his husband. 

He’s curled up on the couch with a book on his lap when Arin comes bursting through the front door with the mail. Dan spasms and loses his place, but he can’t bring himself to be too miffed because Arin is practically bouncing in place.

“They’re here!” he exclaims, and Dan smiles. Arin ordered their rings off of a well-known Etsy, and he wants to make sure that they fit properly before the wedding. It would really suck if one of them went to slide the band onto the finger and it’s too small or too large. Arin climbs unceremoniously over the back of the couch, nearly clocking Dan in the back of the head. He ends up sprawled half upside down.

“Christ, Ar!” Dan laughs, shoving Arin’s leg away from where it’s propped on his shoulder. “Use the furniture like normal people do.”

“No.”

Well, then.

“Are you gonna let me try on the ring or are you just gonna clutch the package to your chest like a madman?” Arin quickly rights himself on the sofa, tucking his knees under his butt as he faces Dan. He’s so excited and happy and he looks so beautiful in that moment that Dan can’t help but lean in and kiss him softly. It tickles him that Arin’s cheeks still turn a light pink whenever he gives him a kiss, despite the fact that they’ve been together for five years. “C’mon, Big Cat! Open it.”

Arin mutters something about Dan being impatient, but he obliges and tears open the package. Inside is a cardboard box, and nestled within that are two velvet boxes. Arin cracks one open to see who’s it is before closing it again. He hands that one to Dan. 

The black velvet is soft under Dan’s thumb as he pets the box. He stares at it while Arin fishes his own ring box from the package before dropping the empty cardboard container on the floor. He still can’t believe that after all this time, he’s holding his wedding ring. He’d honestly thought he would never get married, especially not at almost forty, but he’s come to realize that it only took so long because he was waiting to find Arin.

“Go on,” Arin says, sounding a little nervous, “open it.”

Dan opens the box and his eyes fill with tears. The ring is a beautiful, light titanium, while the inside is deer antler. The outside is engraved with a line from Song of Songs, in the Book of Solomon. It’s one of the few pieces of Hebrew that Dan actually knows, since he had always thought it was beautiful. It reads אני לדודי ודודי לי, which translates to I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine. With shaking fingers, he removes it from the box and slips it onto his ring finger. It fits perfectly. When he looks up, Arin has his on as well. His is titanium and purple heart wood, with the same phrase engraved. His fits perfectly, too.

“Oh, Arin,” Dan whispers before tugging his fiancé close and burying his face in his shoulder. The smell of Arin’s strawberry shampoo floods his senses, and he burrows closer. 

Arin kisses the side of his head and rubs his back, tracing the knobs of his spine through his shirt. “Do you like them?”

Dan raises his head, showing the tears running down his cheeks. He cups Arin’s face and kisses him, hoping that the amount of emotion he’s pouring into the action translates. When they part, Arin’s eyes are shiny with tears, too. “I love them. I love you.” He kisses him again. “I can’t wait to be your husband.”

links to rings: dans / arins

note: since it’s biblical hebrew, i may be off on it, but everywhere i found without using a shitty translator had the same thing. i sincerely apologize if it’s incorrect!

[cherryaire]

I heard about the prompts for Dan's birthday, so how about either of these choices? 1. All of the Grumps give him a special present each from their own heart 2. Some great Egobang (because why not?)

I pretty much did both! Gotta drop Egobang in there because I’m 100% certified egobang trash!

Brian -

Dan looks at the rectangle package Brian has handed him. It’s wrapped in plain blue paper, and scribbled in the top left corner are the words “Happy birthday, dick.” He knows immediately that it’s a book, and if it’s a professionally bound copy of The Beej, Dan might actually go to jail for second degree murder.

“Of course you got me a book,” Dan says dryly.

“Open it, you idiot,” Brian tells him, and Dan sighs dramatically, if only to annoy Brian a little bit more.

His sass evaporates immediately upon tearing off the wrapping paper, however. Tears immediately well up in his eyes and he has to set the book down next to him on the couch because of how bad his hands are shaking.

It’s a signed, first edition copy of “The Last Unicorn.”  

Brian grunts from the impact of Dan practically tackling him and hugging him tight. “Happy birthday, Danny,” Brian says, petting Dan’s hair.

“Thank you.”

-

Later on in the day, when he sees Audrey, she excitedly gives him a stegosaurus plushie and wetly kisses his cheek before running away, cackling.

Barry/Vernon/Brent -

There’s a large box waiting for him on Barry’s kitchen table. He hasn’t been over too much since he moved, considering how busy they are, so he and Barry have planned to get some take out and watch shitty movies, just like old times. “What’s this?” Dan asks while he hangs his jacket over the back of one of the kitchen chairs. It’s a plain cardboard box, and the only indication that it’s something special is the bow that’s taped to the top.

“Open it,” Barry urges, not looking up from where he’s unpacking their Chinese food. “It’s from me, Brent, and Vernon.”

Dan grabs a paring knife from the block and slices through the tape. He opens it to find several items, and he’s not quite sure what everything is until he begins pulling out shirts. There are six old band tour shirts, plus a Kurt Cobain memorial shirt. There are three Rush ones, a Yes one that he could probably wear as a dress, one from The Cure, and one from Pink Floyd. Dan peeks into the box again to make sure he didn’t miss anything, and sure enough there’s a bubble wrapped parcel in the bottom, which he tears into once he gets his hands on it. Out spills more vintage band merch, this time a Rush patch, three Rush pins, four Def Leppard pins, and an Asia pin. Dan is smiling so hard his face fucking hurts.

“Dude!” he shouts, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. “This is so fucking rad!” He waits until he’s sure that Barry’s hands are empty to sweep the shorter man into a tight hug. Barry laughs warmly and pats Dan’s back. “Thank you!”

“Brent and Vern helped me find quite a few of them,” Barry reminds him. Dan whips out his phone and snaps a picture of the pile of merch before sending it and a very enthusiastic thank you text to Brent and Vernon. Barry helps Dan refold the shirts and put everything back in the box so that they can clear off the table to eat. When they’re settled, Barry pipes up with “and now you can wear more than the three t-shirts you cycle through constantly” and Dan chucks a piece of sweet and sour chicken at him.

Suzy -

“Jesus, Scuze,” Dan grunts, taking the large, heavy package from Suzy and resting it on his coffee table. It’s at least two foot long and two foot wide, if not more. He’s glad that he’s got some open space on his walls left, otherwise he’d have to do a fair bit of rearranging.

Suzy is sitting on the couch next to him, curled like a cat. Arin is in his kitchen unpacking their dinner. “Has he opened it yet?” he calls.

“Not yet!” Suzy calls back. She turns to Dan with a childlike excitement on her beautiful face. “Open it!”

“Did Arin want me to wait for him or—”

“Open the fucking present, Dan,” Arin says from where he’s leaned into the living room. As soon as he’s appeared, he’s gone again, and the sound of clinking plates begins as he divvies out the food.

“Demandy Sandy,” Dan mumbles, but obliges. He carefully tears the black wrapping paper (why had he expected anything else from Suzy?) to reveal a gorgeous map of Middle Earth, set deep into a nice black frame. “Whoa.” He leans in close to examine it, finding that it’s incredibly detailed. 

“Do you like it?” Suzy asks, hopeful.

Dan wraps his arm around her and pulls her tight to his side before kissing her temple. She giggles and wraps her own arms around his waist and snuggles into his side. She smells like peonies and freesia. “Thank you, Scuzy. It’s beautiful.”

Ross and Holly -

While they wait for everyone to arrive at the office for Dan’s impromptu birthday party, Holly comes bounding up to him. Dan can’t help but smile at her. She’s so radiant and the happiness on her face is contagious. She’s carrying a box that’s wrapped in brown paper and decorated with birds. “Happy birthday!”

He takes the package from her and eyes the wrapping. “It’s almost so pretty I don’t want to open it,” he muses. He knows that she drew the birds on it, and it feels wrong to tear through someone’s artwork. 

“I taped it pretty simplistically so you shouldn’t have to tear it if you don’t want to,” she says, pointing to the sparse amounts of scotch tape on the flaps. Dan grins and slowly undoes the tape, taking care to not rip the paper. He’s gonna hang it up somewhere in his music room.

“Oh my God, Holls, this is awesome!” In his lap sits a Legend of Zelda chess set. He’s been meaning to get a chess set for a long time so that he and Arin can also play when they’re at his house, but he had never gotten around to it. He carefully rolls the wrapping paper and secures it with some of the tape he had peeled off before hugging Holly tight, causing her to squeal when he lifts her slightly off the floor. 

“You’re welcome, Dan,” she says breathlessly when he sets her down. “The only thing I ask though is that you let me play a game with you.”

“Deal.”

-

After everyone has had cupcakes and people have begun to clear out, needing to return to their duties or head out to prior engagements, Ross shuffles up to Dan and places two small boxes on the table in front of him. “Hap birth,” he says dryly.

Dan fixes him with an incredulous look before chuckling and shaking his head. He opens the smallest one first, and he’s greeted with a little blue ceramic stegosaurus. He’s a little goofy lookin’ and Dan is immediately in love. “Aww, he’s so cute!”

“It glows in the dark, too,” Ross says, and Dan gasps.

“It’s like the 80s up in this bitch,” he says, reaching for the second package.

“Yeah, if we’re talking about your age,” Ross quips, and Dan uses his long legs to his advantage, lightly kicking his socked foot into Ross’ shin. 

The second present looks so fragile that Dan’s almost afraid to touch it. It’s a replica of a stegosaurus skeleton crafted out of paper. It’s contained in a glass dome. “Dude,” Dan says, astonished. It’s like having a museum display in his hand! He makes sure to carefully wrap it up before putting it back in the box. He really, really doesn’t want to break it. Before Ross can escape, Dan has captured him in a hug, and even though Ross is grumbling, Dan knows he loves it since he’s hugging him back. “Thanks, man.”

“I mean, I needed to get the dinosaur some dinosaurs, right?”

What an ass.

Arin -

It’s weird that it’s two days past his birthday and Arin hasn’t given him anything. It’s not that he thinks he deserves something, but it’s very out of character for Arin to not give someone a gift of some kind for a holiday. He loves any excuse he can get to give someone something that will make them smile.

Dan has settled himself on the Grump couch while he waits for Arin to finish doing whatever he’s doing out in the main office. He scrolls through the subreddit with a smile on his face upon seeing all of the ‘happy birthday!’ messages. He’s hasn’t been super excited about his birthday since he turned twenty one, since after that there aren’t really any milestones to look forward to until you reach retirement age. Getting so much love from his friends and the fans, however, has made him enjoy his birthday a bit more since it reminds him just how awesome people can be.

Dan puts his phone to sleep when he hears the sound of the door opening behind him, and sure enough, Arin comes around the couch and sits down next to him a moment later. He’s holding one hand behind his back however, and he looks nervous.

“What’s up, Ar?” Dan asks. 

“I uh, I have your present, but before I give it to you I wanted to say sorry for it being late. There was a delay on it getting done for some fuckin’ reason.” Dan furrows his brow, confused.

“Okay.” He nods his head. “It’s not a problem, big cat. I’m just appreciative that you got me something, man.”

Arin smiles, and it lights up the entire room. His cheeks are flushed pink when he removes his hand from behind his back and hands Dan a hardcover children’s book. Dan is confused for a few seconds before he fully reads the cover. It’s the book he wrote a few years ago that Arin was going to illustrate. Dan’s mouth drops open slightly with a gasp, and he cracks the book open so that he can flip through the pages.

It’s professionally printed and bound, and it looks like something he could find in Barnes and Noble. The illustrations are fucking gorgeous. They’re not done in Arin’s usual style. Dan brushes a finger over the page, completely enamored. He doesn’t know jack shit about art, but he’s pretty sure that it’s hard pastels and watercolors. The colors are so vibrant and it’s exactly like he had always imagined. 

He only realizes he’s crying when he tastes salt on his lips.

Carefully, he shuts the book and sets it on the table in front of them before he turns to face Arin, who is watching him with bated breath. Dan doesn’t fully know what possesses him to do it—maybe it’s just because it feels right—but he cradles Arin’s face in his hands and kisses him softly on the mouth. Arin’s sharp intake of breath is loud, but after a second he relaxes and releases the breath. The sensation of facial hair against his upper lip and chin is strange—it’s very different, but it’s not a bad kind of different.

When Dan pulls away, he opens his eyes to see that Arin still has his closed. His cheeks are a lovely rosy pink, and his lips are parted and shiny. Dan can’t help but press a second chaste kiss to them.

Dan leans into Arin’s warmth and presses his face against his neck, winding his arms around the younger man’s waist and holding him tight. “Thank you, baby girl,” he says, and Arin shivers at the feeling of Dan’s breath on his sensitive skin. Arin runs his fingers slowly through Dan’s hair, making sure to not catch his fingers on any possible knots. Dan leans into the touch, a complete opposite of the reaction he would have had four years ago. The thought makes Arin smile.

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry it took me like, three years to get it to you.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Dan tells him. “It’s perfect.” 

There’s a long swath of silence before either of them speak again. Dan feels the rumble in Arin’s chest before he hears what he says. “Could I kiss you again?”

He pulls back so that he can look at Arin. A smile breaks out across his face.

“Absolutely.”

all of dan’s gifts

[cherryaire]

For Dan's birthday, Arin and Brian try to bake a cake from scratch

“Why does it look like it has erectile dysfunction?” Arin asks, miffed at the way the cake is drooping on one side. 

Brian is reading over the directions they had written down with a frown on his face. “Arin, why must your handwriting look like someone handed a blind chimpanzee a crayon and told it to write the Gettysburg Address?”

Arin looks over his shoulder at Brian. He’s wearing his apron and he looks adorable, albeit confused as he continues to try and decipher the baking instructions. “What kind of fucking simile is that, bro?”

“A good one,” Brian fires back. “Does this say 3 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder or 3 1/2 tablespoons?” Arin snatches the index card from Brian and scans it. It’s his own damn handwriting and he has a bit of trouble figuring out what it says. 

“Whoops.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Brian mutters. Grabbing a fork from the drawer, he takes a small bite of the cake and promptly spits it out.

“That good, huh?” Arin asks sheepishly.

Brian tugs the apron off and grabs his keys off of the table. “You’re paying for the cake we have to go buy.” 

When they get it home, Brian frosts a giant dick on it.

[cherryaire]

Ninja Ship Party, Dan takes Brian out for a morning swim.

“C’mon, Brian!” Dan says, much, much too cheerful for five in the motherfucking morning. He had to have been drunk or something when he agreed to going for an early morning swim with Dan, because he couldn’t have made this decision while in possession of all his faculties.

Dan has hold of Brian’s hand and he’s dragging him down the hall of the twenty-four hour gym toward the pool as Brian stumbles along behind him. He hasn’t even had coffee yet for fuck’s sake!

“Danny, I swear to God I’m going to drown you in that pool,” Brian says grumpily. The smell of chlorine absolutely assaults his nose when Dan opens the door to the locker room, and he grimaces. It’s too early for chemicals.

“Bri,” Dan begins, “I don’t think you’re awake enough to drown someone.” He shoves his duffel bag into a locker and tugging his t-shirt off. He’s got his trunks on underneath his sweats, and he looks like a fucking idiot wearing his swim trunks and tube socks. Brian makes sure to inform him of this. Dan just rolls his eyes and pulls off the socks before balling them up and putting them in the locker with the rest of his clothes.

“Don’t test me,” Brian threatens as he begins to undress. He tugs his own swim trunks out of his bag, not having the foresight to put them on before he left the house, considering he was still more than half asleep when Dan had shown up at his front door. He’s honestly amazed that he put his shirt on facing the right way.

Brian gives no shits as he undresses, and Dan turns away with a blush when he unabashedly drops his pants to step into his trunks. “I, uh, I’m gonna pop into the shower quick,” Dan mumbles, flustered. By the time Brian has wrestled all his stuff into his own locker, Dan has emerged from one of the shower stalls with his hair matted to his head. 

Brian quickly turns on the spray in another stall, and he swears loudly at the jet of icy water. Now he’s tired, pissed off, and cold. Dan just grins at his unamused expression and heads toward the door that leads to the pool, and Brian begrudgingly follows.

They’re the only two here, and their footsteps echo loudly on the cement. Dan pads to the deepest end of the pool before diving in, sharply slicing through the water and disappearing for a moment before emerging. He swims towards Brian, who is lingering near the six foot mark, staring angrily at the water. “Come on in, Bri! The water’s nice!”

“I’m going to drown you,” Brian threatens again. 

“You can’t drown me if you’re not in the water you piece of shit,” Dan points out.

“Fuck you.”

“Can’t do that if you’re not in here with me, either.” Dan crosses his arms and props himself up on the edge of the pool at Brian’s feet. He always looks so different with wet hair. All of his beautiful bone structure is visible without the massive cloud of hair surrounding him, and the shine of water droplets on his skin is much more distracting than it has any right to be.

Brian ignores Dan’s comment and instead jumps into the water, making as big a splash as he can. The water is, in fact, a nice temperature, something Brian is grateful for after the ice cold water from the shower. When he surfaces, Dan is spitting water out of his mouth and wiping his face. "Happy now?”

Dan leans in and kisses him hard before kicking off from the wall that they’re next to. His lips taste like chlorine. “I’ll be happier if you can catch me, old man!”

“When I do, I’m gonna drown you.”

“Promises, promises.”

[cherryaire]

May i request Danny with a chubby s/o who's been feeling down about their body? Ty!

I usually do these in second POV, but it came out better in third. If this comes out weird, I apologize. I’ve never written anything that uses the pronoun ‘their/them’, so I’m not entirely used to it. If it needs adjusted in any way, please let me know! TW for self-image issues and body hate. NSFW-ish near the end.

Dan scrubs at his hair with a towel, drying it off as much as possible before combing it back to keep it out of his face as it dries and inevitably attempts to envelop his head whole. He hasn’t bothered to bring in anything other than a fresh pair of boxer briefs, and he sheds the blue towel he has hanging around his waist. On his way to the bedroom, he deposits both dirty towels into the laundry basket. He’ll start the washer after he gets dressed, he tells himself, though he knows in his heart that he probably won’t get it started until well after lunch.

He pauses in the doorway of the bedroom, however, when he’s greeted with the sight of his date mate sitting on his giant bed, shirts strewn around them. They themselves are shirtless, and they’ve got their face buried in their hands. It takes a second, but Dan realizes that their shoulders are shaking; they’re crying.

“Baby?” Dan asks, immediately concerned. He climbs onto the bed and settles down across from them and tentatively brushes his hand against their arm. 

“Don’t,” they say, voice thick with tears, and Dan jerks his hand back. Usually they’re okay with being touched when upset, but sometimes it’s a no-no. “Don’t touch me. I’m disgusting.”

Dan’s heart falls into his stomach. He’s been working super hard on self esteem with them, and most days are good. Some days, however, are like this. “Sweetheart,” Dan says softly, hoping to get them to look at him. He doesn’t want to touch them again without consent and upset them further. “Will you please look at me?”

After several seconds of consideration, they look up but keep their arms close to their body to hide their torso. “What?” Their eyes are filled with tears, and Dan longs to kiss them away.

“Can I touch you?” he asks, and they look away, ashamed.

“Why would you even want to?”

“Please?” He holds out until they nod yes, and he takes their smaller hands in his, slowly easing their arms out of the shielding position to rest limply at their sides. 

“Dan,” they whisper, voice wavering.

Their body is absolutely beautiful, Dan thinks. He’s always thought so. They don’t look like a supermodel, but no one does. Their skin has scars and blemishes from acne, and there are rolls of skin and fat and soft curves, and he wants to kiss every inch of it until they know just how breathtaking they really are.

“You’re so beautiful, baby,” Dan says, kissing their forehead. “Everything about you drives me crazy.”

“But what about—” Dan cuts them off with a chaste kiss.

“Whatever you’re about to criticize is just another part of you that I love,” he says. Giving them time to reach out and push his hands away if they want, Dan lays his hand across their hip and stomach, caressing the rolls and curves he finds there. The skin is soft, and the trails from stretchmarks ripple underneath his fingertips. “What’s your brain telling you about your body?”

They chew their bottom lip and rub at their eyes, trying to clear out the tears that still linger on their eyelashes. “That I’m fat and disgusting,” they say, “and that you could find someone, anyone, better than me.”

Dan pushes their hair back out of their face and cups their jaw, brushing a thumb over their neck, feeling the fluttering wings of their heartbeat. He kisses them softly, moving their lips together slowly and sweetly. It’s innocent—something that you would see on TV in a teen movie, but it’s filled with enough emotion to make someone burst. “You’re so beautiful,” Dan reiterates when they part, kissing down their face and to their neck. He makes sure to kiss the blemishes from acne as he passes them. “I love you and every single part of you.” He kisses their collarbones and down their chest, across the stretchmarks and imperfections. One of his thumbs brushes over a nipple, and it hardens under his touch.

“Are you sure?” they ask, voice now growing shaky for another reason all together as Danny continues to kiss over their body, worshiping everything that they find fault with. Dan helps them lay back against the covers and he looks up through his eyelashes as he continues lavishing the skin underneath his lips with attention.

“I promise you,” he says, and squeezes the padding on their hips. “You’re a masterpiece, and there’s no one else that I would rather have right here than you.”

[cherryaire]

Flapbang, Suzy teaches Dan how to make a cake.

When Suzy asks him how he ended up with flour all over his shirt, he replies that he has no idea, though he’s well aware that it happened when she was searching the pantry for shortening. He had fumbled with the measuring cup and dumped at least a fourth of a cup of flour on himself.

Things like this are why he doesn’t bake anything unless it comes out of a box or weed butter is involved.

“Just... mix this, would you?” Suzy asks, exasperated. She passes him the flour and milk mixture, which needs beaten until it’s properly combined. She pokes his chest with the whisk. “Do you think you can handle this?” He takes the implement from her and begins mixing the two ingredients.

“Why, Suzanne,” Dan says with a gasp and a dramatic tone, “quite frankly I’m insulted that you think I’m incapable of such a task.” He’s barely finished the sentence before he’s splashed some of it on the counter.

He doesn’t blame her when she banishes him to the living room while she finishes making the cake.