A/N: Man, I suck at crossposting... Anyway! I wrote this last year for Eddy Appreciation Week on Tumblr. The second fic I did for that week and, for the second time, Eddy only appears at the end. Go figure. Still, this was a fun concept to write. Takes place a few years into the future where the kids are all college age. Enjoy!
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This wasn't how Nazz had planned to spend her twenty-first birthday.
It wasn't that Nazz wasn't having a good time exactly– the party was a blast, honest! All around her, girls were talking and laughing, making fools of themselves with and without the encouragement of drinks only most of them were legally allowed to drink. The music was great, the food was great and, hey, she was now officially counted among those legally allowed to enjoy the drink in her hand! Best of all, it was all for her.
Or, well, it was supposed to be, and that was what was bringing her mood down. She had planned to spend her twenty-first birthday with Kevin and maybe Rolf. They would hang out and catch up like they hadn't been able to for months– play some games, watch a movie or two, pig out and maybe have some drinks that they were now all old enough to enjoy legally. It would be cozy and comfortable and just the kind of good old home town familiarity she needed to get her through the quickly approaching exam time.
Then Kevin went and wiped out trying a bike stunt he shouldn't have tried three days before her birthday. None of the damage he took was life-threatening, but he would be zoned out on painkillers for a good while longer. Meanwhile, Rolf had always been more Kevin's friend than Nazz's, and it felt weird to invite him to hang out without Kevin along. Nazz had resigned herself to a quiet birthday alone until her sorority somehow found out and decided that couldn't stand.
The upshot of it was that Nazz found herself in the middle of a party where she knew half the girls only in passing and some of them not at all. She had received gifts, cards and general birthday wishes, but she doubted how many people in attendance knew or cared that the party was a birthday party, or that it was nominally in her honor. One of the cards was even addressed to "Natalie." As banging of a scene as it was, being used as an excuse to throw a party was kind of a bummer.
Still, Nazz would have been lying through her teeth if she'd tried to claim her mood hadn't jump when someone announced, "Time for the cake!"
It jumped even higher when the cake in question was rolled out by two of the girls in attendance that Nazz knew best. With five tiers, the cake was half again her height and the bottom tier looked almost that wide. The white frosting gleamed under the light and cute little frosting flowers in different colors outlined the edges of each tier. Nazz grinned wide, practically salivating.
But the closer that it came to her, the more something looked off about it. She also noticed that the girls gathered closest to her– the girls she was most acquainted with, the ones responsible for the shindig– were grinning, darting looks between her and the cake. The two girls wheeling it up huddled more and more behind its bulk and she could hear their snickering. Still, it wasn't until the current pop song was abruptly stopped and replaced by a saucy tune she didn't recognize offhand that she realized what had happened.
"You guys," she said, groaning and giggling at the same time, her hand coming up over her eyes though she peered between her fingers to the top of the cake.
Her friends laughed and hooted. Everyone else caught on quickly or already knew, and a cheer rippled throughout the room as the song picked up. Someone hit the lights and the cake was illuminated by spotlight– how had she missed someone setting up a spotlight? – and the room erupted in applause and encouraging hollers.
"Hope you ladies are enjoying your drinks," crooned a voice from within the cake.
A familiar voice from within the cake.
Nazz felt her jaw drop and her eyes bug as the sound of it tickled her ear drums. She hardly had time to think, no way, it can't be, before the top of the cake was flung aside and a familiar figure emerged to match that familiar voice. The familiar grin parted to finish his opening line, "But now it's time for–"
"Eddy?" she shrieked without really meaning to.
"Nazz?" Eddy looked down at her in front of him, still posed. A second passed. Then he looked down at himself and squawked as though shocked to find himself half-dressed and inside a plastic cake shell. He quickly hunched down to hide behind the rim, though he still peered over it at her. "What are you doing here?"
"This is my birthday party," she said weakly, face hot. She was vaguely aware of a confused murmuring throughout the rest of the crowd; someone had stopped the music. Her gaze stayed locked on Eddy's, which didn't even twitch from hers.
Nazz was still looking him dead in the eye when she realized her wallet was open in her hand. She didn't know what bill she pulled free, just that it arrested his attention the second she flashed it. Two waves he watched it, then his eyes were back on her. She thought they probably started to smile at about the same time.
In a blink of the eye, Eddy's infamous "customer service" grin was back in place and, oh, if that wasn't a phrase that she wouldn't be hearing the same way for a while. Eddy popped back into the pose he'd first appeared in and there was a burst of whistles and cheers; the music started up again and it was almost as if the brief, awkward interlude had never happened.
Eddy didn't fall back on whatever prepared speech he'd intended, though. Instead, after showing off a few poses and some flexibility she couldn't honestly say she'd never given a second thought, he descended the cake in two somersaults that drew much encouragement from the crowd and managed to land himself with his knees bracketing Nazz's thighs, balanced precariously on the edges of her chair. He didn't stop grinning and didn't break eye contact as he leaned in to take her money between his teeth.
When he did break that contact, it was only to lean in close to her ear and ask, only slightly muffled by the bill, "What can I get for the birthday girl?"
Nazz giggled and plucked the money from between his teeth, slipping it into his waistband before he could protest. Reclining, relaxed in a way she hadn't realized she wasn't already, she met his eyes again and answered, "Whatever my money's worth."
She felt him shiver, just a little, though the cocky look never slipped. Then he winked, that grin grew even wider, and he launched into a performance that was surely worth whatever it was she had just tipped him. The rest of the girls cheered and whistled and shouted encouragement, some even darted forward with tips of their own, but still it seemed like the two of them formed some pocket of familiarity, of something almost like intimacy.
Definitely not the way she'd planned to spend her birthday, but she definitely wasn't complaining.