hugtopia_logs | the pet store was all out of ponies [closed]

♥ Who: Kyoko, Shinji, Kaito, and Magolor if he deigns to bless them with his grand presence
♥ Where: Kaito & Shinji's house
♥ When: July 7th, early evening I guess?
♥ What: b i r t h d a y p a r t y
♥ Rating: G? PG?? I'll update as needed

Kyoko had gotten a little freer about casually stopping by Shinji and Kaito's place lately, especially when she could make up an excuse about swapping ingredients from their replicators, but today marked her first time taking advantage of Kai's unlocked door policy. It also happened to be her first time attempting to enter with stealth.

The final approach down the street to their house took a full half hour, as she ducked around corners and behind confused natives to make sure a certain blond wasn't outside, and paused to listen for faint sounds of a very quiet electric bike. When she drew near enough to fear being spotted from the windows, Kyoko took a deep breath, and called to mind the quick, silent movements she'd portrayed Momiji with--and zipped up to the door. Yesssss!

All that was left in this mission was to slip inside and get to the kitchen without being noticed by the target, and it would be a success. It was only a little harder with the cake box nestled securely in her arms.

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Oh, oh wow, did he really not realize? More troubling, though, did he not expect some kind of gesture, after the answer to 'when's your birthday' had finally been wheedled out of him? Hm. Hmmmm.

"Well, yeah...! So we wanted to do something nice for you."

Hence, dinner! And maybe even? More? What a wild time it would be, if there were More.

"So, happy birthday."

Forgetting would have been less strange if Kyoko didn't know Shinji must have prodded him about it at least a couple times, judging by how long it had taken him to get back to her with that sweet birthday intel. Surely that would have gotten him thinking about it? Sure, Shinji had floated the idea that maybe he didn't want to make a big deal about it, but Kaito really must be the type to not pay attention to the calendar at all, huh?

There was a snort, and then she was grinning fondly at him. Jeez. "To think, I tried so hard to come in secretly, so it would be a surprise."

Well, you see, he'd forgotten that Shinji had ever asked because the day was just a day. There really wasn't a point in remembering it! He was used to nothing, so he expected nothing, and was now realizing (once again) that maybe he was an idiot. It certainly felt like his face was probably doing something stupid, somewhere between trying to smile but mostly looking really baffled. The surprise... was a resounding success??

They had wanted to do something nice for his sorry ass. What was he supposed to do about that!

Flustered to brand new levels of flustering, Kai quickly grabbed another bite of the katsu (that had been made! for him!?) and aggressively shoved it in his mouth.

"It's--!" Very hot. "Really delicious!"

Please don't shove too hot food in your mouth to save yourself from embarrassment.

Between the confused surprise and haste to deflect that attention, Shinji can't help but find himself thoroughly charmed, and, wouldn't you know it, a soft chuckle bubbles up and gets caught in his throat. Glad we got that settled, at least.

"There's plenty more if you're hungry later, but there's dessert, too."

Don't fill up too much!

Seeing such a happily confused Kaito and a laughing--even if they're small laughs that don't quite make it all the way out!--Shinji, Kyoko has to lean back in her chair a bit, suddenly overcome by the warmth in her chest. She'd never doubted that this little plan would be worth it, but somehow she hadn't thought about how nice it would feel? Ah, she really is lucky she gets to be friends with these guys.

"Mmhm!" Letting some of that warmth seep into a chipper smile for Kaito, she dives back into her own dinner. "I'm gonna make you eat a lot~! But it would be a shame not to eat lots of this too, so you'd better open up a portal in your belly."

What! There was more! What!!!

Kai was chewing his bite at light speed so he could dart conspiratory glances between both of them wildly. "What-- what did you guys even do--" Ah, but look at those nice faces both of them were making. This was truly, wholly unfair.

"Geez."

Everyone making soft and kind faces in your direction, how will you possibly cope?

By eating up the rest of that dinner and graciously digging into dessert later, obviously. "We just wanted to make sure you had a nice day, you know?" Shinji's turn to take a bite of that food - ahhh, this really did turn out wonderfully, didn't it?

Kyoko's chomping down on another bite of her own while Shinji talks, but there's a lot of nodding and cheerful hums of agreement as she chews. She'll pipe up again in a moment. "It's really not that much, though--sorry." Her grin is only a little apologetic; it seems pretty clear that they're exceeding all expectations as it is.

"But if I was going to bring over your present and cake anyway, I might as well stay a while and make it a party. Right?"

He could not cope. It was not possible.

"Is that how it goes," he said, a bit quieter now that the initial surprise was giving way to everything else. A present and a cake. Nice food on the big day. Might as well stay and make it a party with terribly kind faces that wanted to be here. This was all actually really overwhelming now that he was processing it.

"I dunno what you think a lot would be, if this isn't much."

It would be pretty easy to think of a bunch of ways to make a huge celebration out of this - a lot of things that Shinji probably wouldn't be up for, and a lot of things that would probably be completely overwhelming for someone who wasn't expecting anything to be happening in the first place. Especially if this much is already A Lot! No reason to make a fun little evening into something unbearable.

"As long as you're enjoying it, that's plenty."

Truly, that's all he wanted to make sure of for today. A nice evening, a good meal, a reason to spoil Kai a little on what has otherwise been a pleasantly uneventful day.

"I guess maybe you are a little too old for balloons and sparklers, even if I knew where to get things like that here," Kyoko muses idly; it's clear she's not convinced. But she's also aware that her own idea of 'too much' would probably just outright kill Kaito.

Shinji is correct, after all. "So if you like it, that's a relief, for sure."

Were balloons and sparklers the birthday standard? Truly birthdays were a mysterious entity. Not being absolutely murdered was appreciated though, he was still able to participate with this milder death.

Mostly, anyway. It was hard not to have the kneejerk reaction that they were making some kind of grave error, but... if he thought about it for more than a moment like he was right now, it became a little more obvious that it really would become an error if he didn't appreciate it the way they hoped he might with those sweet looks they were watching him with. The thought was quickly followed by the realization that he was still, uh, dying, so the expression on his face wasn't matching the wild fluttering in his chest.

"I... yeah," he said at last, just to say something. He just needed that extra moment to pull it altogether so his smile could shyly work its way back on to his face. "I do. I am. Really."

"Good."

There were probably thousands of other things that they could have added to this particular celebration to make it more celebratory, but as far as a first celebration among this particular group, this feels like a good way to test the waters of what Kai might be able to handle. Initial confusion aside, seeing that sincere warmth slowly make its way into Kai's face makes it feel like they really did strike a good balance.

"It's your day, so make sure you eat up as much as you want."

the pet store was all out of ponies [closed]

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