[closed]

[daikonrose]

♥ Who: Shinji, Kaito, and Kyoko!
♥ Where: Kai and Shinji's new digs
♥ When: Ranir 25th
♥ What: birthday? party??
♥ Rating: G probably unless Kai takes off his shirt again

Kyoko's bright mop of hair was a little more mussed than she'd like it to be for a dinner with friends, but it couldn't be helped now. She'd changed out of her Santa of the Clause uniform in a rush this afternoon, eager to put the finishing touches on her gift, and there just hadn't been time to spruce herself up at all after it finally met her approval.

Not that she expected Kaito or Shinji to mind--aah, they really were such good, generous boys. She truly was glad they'd been kind enough to invite her over tonight, of all nights.

Though it had been months now since she'd been given explicit permission to enter their home without knocking, Kyoko still never did so unless s t e a l t h was in order. So she would have knocked today even if her arms hadn't been busy carefully cradling a large, suspiciously cake-sized box.

Comments

[whenyouneedme]

He gave a small shake of his head. Not that he disagreed with her, but there were things that bore repeating. "This has been in the works for a while," he told her. "But now I'm extra glad about it. There's nothin' wrong with sharing, but... I'm glad we can give you one that's all yours, y'know?"

And then he chuckled. "Don't worry though, I probably won't be cashing in favors for chocolate rivers any time soon."

[daikonrose]

"That wasn't supposed to be a birthday party either!" she protested earnestly, though she couldn't keep that smile off her face. "I was just as surprised then as I was this time! So I definitely, absolutely couldn't handle a chocolate river in this house."

[whenyouneedme]

"Exactly," he went on with a little point in her direction, sidestepping the chocolate rivers. "You said you had a real nice birthday before, so we wanted it to be at least half that good, and then I find out you were just being outrageously nice again. So this one is super on purpose. Right, Shinji?"

summoned.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

Here we go, one glass of water set upon the table, ready to prevent any sparkler mishaps.

"Exactly." If Kai's gotta come back to bizarre chats of rabies and princesses, then it's really only fair that Shinji returns to chocolate rivers. That doesn't change the fact that, yeah, they're making today as good as they can specifically for her sake! "We're doing all of this because it's your birthday, and we want it to be nice."

No burning houses down, no chocolate rivers, unless those are things she wants, for some reason.

[daikonrose]

Kyoko leaned back just a smidge from that pointed finger, eyes going round as all those words washed over her, the deluge smoothly assisted by Shinji's return.

"That's... the one I told you about was on purpose too, but...." Ah, she never knew what to do when people felt bad that she was used to sharing her birthday--because it was truly always fine with her! She had fun every time! Having it celebrated at all was enough to make her happy, but having the day pointedly singled out as hers, and so seriously....

And from these two people who knew she didn't even want to be here. Why were they so invested in making her happy? This warm feeling in her chest... if only it could come back to them, and nest in theirs. Something to make them understand how good they were, that they could carry with them forever. That would be nice, she thought as she gazed into the sparkling light.

"Thank you." Her head dipped a little, not quite hiding her dopey smile. "Um, I kinda made my wish already."

Time to uh, pull a sparkler off a cake?

[whenyouneedme]

If they were going to be super selfish and enjoy her presence despite the circumstances, might as well make the circumstances as nice as possible!

Kai had turned a quick (clearly super serious) beam at Shinji when he slid back, and that same smile found its way back to Kyoko only to turn a bit doofy in surprise. "Oh! Really? Nice one."

[hedgehogsdilemma]

Selfishly wanting her to have a good time in their company, that's them.

There's something endlessly charming about that shy little dip of her head, and the gratitude warms his expression over with a fond smile just as much as her declaring that she's figured out a wish does. "Yeah?" That's good! That means it's time to, uh, dunk one of those sprinklers in water? Go for it, whatever feels right.

"I hope it comes true, then."

Whatever it may have been...!

[daikonrose]

"You don't know if it's nice," she countered Kaito with cheer, as she gingerly plucked one sparkler after another off the cake and dunked them into the water, killing whatever was left of the dwindling sparks.

"But... me too." Shinji got a softer tone. "I'll work hard, so it has a chance."

[whenyouneedme]

Kai rolled his eyes good-naturedly. He'd just meant it was nice she thought of one, gosh! But it was fine. No need to correct it when she was being so soft with Shinji. It was those sweet little interactions that really made everything come together.

He still really didn't know how he'd gotten in the middle of it.

Let's just slowly bring the lights back up then so no one was fumbling with cake in the dark. "I'm sure its in capable hands."

[hedgehogsdilemma]

Oh? Kyoko? Are you implying you wish might be... nefarious? Goodness!

"Very capable." Nobody more capable than someone so driven and hardworking, probably.

Goodbye for now, sparklers. You will be seen again, but first they must enjoy some tasty cake. A real treat to top off those sweet wishes. And with that thought in mind, now that the lights are back on, "Ohh, it looks really good."

[daikonrose]

A devious wish for the two of them to love themselves, gosh. Truly she was incorrigible.

But any thoughts of wishes, nice ones or otherwise, were banished when the lights came up and Kyoko found herself blinking at a cake that she... didn't recognize?

"... Oh?" It did indeed look lovely, however! "That's... not the cake I brought?"

[whenyouneedme]

"...That you brought?"

Kai blinked, slowly turning to stare at the box he had set aside.

The box with a suspiciously familiar weight to it.

The box... that probably had a cake inside.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

She brought...

Shinji follows Kai's gaze over to that box, the mystery box that he hadn't thought to address earlier, the one that definitely seems to be

cake sized.

Ah.

"We... um, weren't expecting you to bring a cake."

[daikonrose]

Kyoko followed all these gazes over to... ah, the box is still sitting there, pristine and untouched.

"Right... come to think of it, you never did open it...." Why had she thought that? Really she'd just forgotten all about it in the shuffle, and when the topic of Cake came up her simple brain had automatically jumped to the one she already knew existed.

Instead of more generosity wow gosh.

Dark red flooded her face as she mumbled, "I thought I'd try making you a Christmas cake... because I didn't guess... at all.... Please forget about it."

[whenyouneedme]

By forget about you meant immediately roll out from under the kotatsu to go grab it, right? Right. Cuz that's what Kai was doing, immediately, right now.

"A Christmas cake!" He exclaimed, moving with Great Speed to grab that box. "I'm going to eat it."

Here, let him just scoot that whole cake that he absolutely put zero effort into whatsoever, definitely that was the only other cake around, definitely it was just Eh-- let him scoot that over fully in front of Kyoko so there was room for a whole second cake between himself and Shinji.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

There's definitely a small part of Shinji that thinks that diverting attention away from the clearly more important birthday isn't the best idea, but also, like... if Kyoko already went out of her way to make a Christmas cake, it would be a shame to not have it on the appropriate day, right?

That's. Probably how it works.

"I've never actually had a Christmas cake before," he says, leaning in to get a better look. You're not going to eat it all yourself, are you, Kai? "If you made it, I'm sure it's delicious."

[daikonrose]

Oh no, this was supposed to be an awkward situation and yet! Everyone was being so cute about it! Gosh! Cheeks still pink, Kyoko watched them with round eyes from behind this whole entire cake that had been placed in front of her, gosh.

"It's nothing fancy," she cautioned, and it really wasn't--just a very standard strawberry shortcake at the end of the day, though she'd tried to dress it up with strawberries sliced into flower shapes and generous swoops of vanilla frosting. "But, um, please help yourselves! I'd really... like to try this one, though...."

This mysterious cake that had been prepared for her very own day, goodness.

[whenyouneedme]

The cake that had been presented to Kyoko was a very pretty spiced carrot cake. There was no glossing over the fact that neither of these boys had made this particular cake, it was far too professional and fancy looking. It was sure to be delicious though, as everything Lup made tended to be!

But to be frank this extremely cute Christmas cake also looked incredibly tasty. Kai let out an audible 'ohh~' as he unveiled it. Kyoko hadn't intended it as a birthday addition, but it felt imperative that they appreciate the efforts she had put into it! Because look at it! This very cute cake that she had made for them.

"Two whole birthday cakes means we get cake for breakfast too," he said cheerfully, prepping a slice for Shinji. Here you go.

There were. Definitely. Only two birthday cakes.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

They all get two cakes today! There is no downside to this particular outcome.

"Ahh," Shinji's eyes light up as the cake is revealed, and a pleased smile crosses his face as the slice is passed his way. As Professional at the purchased cake looks, there's an undeniable charm to the one that Kyoko crafted herself, and knowing that she's never delivered a bad result to them, he's certain it tastes just as good as it looks. "Hmm, a little bit of both wouldn't be a bad birthday treat, right?"

How fortuitous!

[daikonrose]

Listen! It was a beautiful cake that had been purchased for her, transported to this house for her, decked out with sparklers for her, and served generously to her!! That was all pretty exciting, and Kyoko intended to honor it!

But she couldn't stay serious about it for much longer, when the atmosphere in here was so light. She huffed at Kaito, though a smile was pulling at her mouth again. "Cake isn't a proper breakfast! But... two slices tonight should be okay."

[whenyouneedme]

Huff at him all you like, his stance wasn't changing!

"Oho, we've been granted permission for two." Let him just get his own slice of this very tasty looking strawberry affair that he was very excited to try. "And then cake for breakfast," he whispered conspiratorially to no one. Now he was just leaning into it.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

The only way to make sure they don't have cake for breakfast is to stick around for breakfast. Just saying.

"One of each, for tonight." And he will politely pretend he didn't hear those sneaky, sneaky plans. Whatever happens to the cakes tomorrow.... we will See. For now, let's just make sure that everyone has their set of slices, shall we?

[daikonrose]

Come on Kai, you couldn't think you were going to just get away with that. Even if your boyfriend was an enabler! "Breakfast is meant to be a full proper meal," Kyoko insisted, but there was a liveliness behind her stern tone; bickering like this made it that much easier to not get wrapped up in sentimentality, and relax.

"Sweets like cake are meant to be a snack, you understand! A snack!" But she was going to happily except a plate with more than a snack-sized portion now.

[whenyouneedme]

"I'm just seeing a whole lot of fruits and veggies going on here," he pointed out as the slices were doled out appropriately. "Real good elements of a meal right there."

[hedgehogsdilemma]

"Carrots, strawberries, carbs..." That's almost a whole balanced meal right there! With Kai leading the charge, the gentle banter doesn't feel dangerous in the slightest, so playing along is honestly nice and easy. What a nice atmosphere they've got going... "I think we could be doing a lot worse for a complete meal."