Sunlight perfectly landing on her face, Honoka groaned in her sleep and turned to her side, where she found the comfort of the shadows to sleep once more. Her peaceful sleep only went undisturbed for a few seconds before she felt a hand shake her shoulder.
A familiar voice rang in Honoka's ears, "Hey sleepyhead, wake up!"
"Hmm… five more minutes…" Honoka's mumble only intensified the shaking on her shoulder.
"Wake up, lazybones! Breakfast's gonna get cold!"
"Break… fast…?" Now that it was mentioned, there was that a faint hint of that particular smell of cooked eggs, mixed with something else. Something sweet? With that thought in mind, Honoka slowly got up and after yawning, squinted at the blurry figure standing to the side of her bed. Rubbing the sleepiness away from her eyes, Honoka looked once more.
"Ni… co-chan?"
"Finally! And Nico was thinking that her Special-Birthday-Sweet-Nico-Nii-Breakfast would've been prepared in vain!" Nico had put her hand on her chest and sweetly spoke every word of her sentence. A sentence which Honoka only barely managed to make out a couple words of because of the tiredness that still remained in her.
"Special? Nico?" Honoka yawned. "Breakfast?"
"Yes, the great Nico Nii made you breakfast to prepare you for your grand day! You better be- hey!" Nico almost fell down when the half asleep Honoka went from completely being in bed to halfway being in bed and her other half dangling off of it and clinging to Nico.
"Nico-chan!" Honoka called happily before looking up at her with drowsy eyes. "You made me breakfast?"
"Nico-chan's going to bop your head if you let it get cold!"
"Y-Yessir- oof!" Nico's threat was enough to scare Honoka into nodding and trying to salute her, only to fall face first onto the floor. "Ow…" Honoka sniffed as she got up and rubbed her nose.
"Geez…" Nico rolled her eyes and kneeled down to get a closer look to Honoka's red nose. "You'll be fine, shake it off." When Nico's comment had no effect on Honoka, Nico moved Honoka's hands away from her face and kissed her nose. "Nico Nii's healing kiss took the pain away~" she sang before smiling.
Honoka was dumbfounded for a second before laughing. "Wow, Nico-chan. That was lame."
Before Nico berated her any more, Honoka quickly got up and ran out of her room. The incredibly rich smell of Nico's breakfast immediately hit her and she could not help but smile. On the small dining table greeted her a platter of french toast, adorned with powdered sugar and strawberries. Nico held a proud smile on the other side of the table as Honoka gleefully ate her breakfast treat, and it grew bigger with each compliment Honoka gave her.
"Man, I'm stuffed!" Honoka leaned onto her seat, patted her stomach and let out a pleased sigh, her platter now empty. "That was great, thank you!"
"Well, of course it was great! Nico made it after all," Nico huffed.
"Everything you make is great, Nico-chan! Food, music… I wonder if there's something you can't do."
Nico felt her cheeks get warmer for a moment, a pride inside of her swelling. Out of hundreds or even thousands of people who had complimented her, airhead-Honoka managed to make her feel like this, even after so many years.
"Well, the great Nico Nii's gonna show you all the amazing things she can do for her girlfriend. Happy birthday, Honoka."
"Are… you sure this is what Honoka wants for her birthday?" Umi asked Kotori as they stood in front of Honoka's gift in the bedroom of their apartment. Umi was not convinced what they had given up for this gift was justified. She loved that girl as much as Kotori did, but this seemed a tad absurd and unnecessary, even if both of those words did seem to somewhat describe Honoka.
"Yup! I'm sure she'll love it. Don't worry about it, Umi-chan." Kotori nodded, proud of this decision and even more proud of herself for being able to convince Umi of it as well, even if she seemed to be regretting it now.
"We spent too much money on this," Umi pointed out and crossed her arms.
"They're never cheap," Kotori argued, still standing firm on her decision.
"We're never going to get the old ones back, and if we wanted to go back we'd have to buy new ones." Umi still was not too sure about this.
Kotori frowned and perched her head on Umi's shoulder, making her tense up. "You're never home when Honoka complains about this, trust me. This is what she wants."
Umi sighed and relaxed her body. "Fine, if you say so…"
"I'm home! … Girls?" Honoka's voice rang from the entrance of their apartment.
"We're in the bedroom!" Kotori announced before turning to Umi. Umi was still frowning, unsure about their gift. Kotori quickly kissed her on the lips and winked at her before muttering another "trust me".
"Hello?" Honoka peeked from the doorway before walking into the room. "What're you doing here?"
"We were preparing your present," Umi explained before stepping aside to show their gift to her. Not like they were even trying to hide it. "Happy birthday, Honoka."
Honoka gasped and jumped excitedly. "No way! No way! You said it was too pricey!" Honoka gushed before getting both Umi and Kotori in a tight embrace.
"Happy birthday, Honoka-chan," Kotori whispered and kissed Honoka in the cheek.
"Happy birthday," Umi smiled back, now convinced of Kotori's decision.
Honoka let go and in a blink lunged herself at the bed, giggling like a kid as she bounced back. Kotori glanced at Umi and smiled proudly. Umi found it hard to dispute the investment of a king-sized bed and disposing of the three single beds when she saw her girlfriend so happy about it.
"C'mon! You guys do it too!" Honoka called out before taking Umi and Kotori's hands and pulling them both into the bed. Honoka laughed as weight of both of her partners made her bounce more. Satisfied with herself, Honoka lied down and let out a long sigh. Umi and Kotori lied down too, each on one side of Honoka.
"And Umi-chan thought the bed was a bad idea," Kotori commented, much to Umi's dismay.
"K-Kotori!" Umi's protest earned her giggled from the other two.
"I love you guys," Honoka laughed before looking at each of them in their eyes.
"We love you too, Honoka-chan." Kotori scooted closer and snuggled Honoka's arm.
"I've been wanting to sleep in the same bed since we moved in together," Honoka confessed, feeling the most comfortable she had felt lying down as Umi entwined her fingers with Honoka's.
"Well, with a bed of this size that should not be an issue anymore." Umi smiled.
"And sex will be super comfortable too!"
Honoka's addition made Umi sit up, turn her face red as a beet in an instant, and crawl back so fast she slipped out of the bed.
"I'm home!" Honoka announced her presence as she took off her shoes and entered her apartment. Was the power out? All the lights in the apartment were turned off and she could only see the faint light of a candle in the distance. Trying to turn on the lights from the switch did nothing, so Honoka unlocked her phone and used the little light its screen gave off to illuminate her immediate area a little. What a great birthday it had been: she could not get in contact with anyone, Tsubasa was gone by the time she had woken up, and now the power was out.
Tsubasa must have lit that candle, Honoka figured and decided that making her way to it was the best thing to do for now. They probably did not have that many candles, so Tsubasa must have left that candle to both illuminate the living room and to guide Honoka, since it was visible from the entrance. Honoka had to wonder how she was going to break the news to Tsubasa like this, surely the power outage would have her more on the edge than usual. Maybe she should wait until tomorrow? But the faster she told her, the better it would be for both of them. Whilst in her train of thought, Honoka reached out for the candle, only for it to be taken away at the last moment.
"E-Eh? Hey, come back here!" Honoka reached out again for the candle, but it had been moved just outside of her range. That was when she noticed that the candle moved without her touching it. "T-Tsubasa-chan…?" Honoka meekly called out.
The candle then lit up a few more candles than had remained unlit on top of a cake. The candles now brightened the room enough to reveal that Tsubasa had been standing on the other side of the table.
"Happy birthday, Honoka," she greeted her.
"A-Ah… Tsubasa-chan!" Honoka ran to her and hugged her tightly, Tsubasa hugging her back.
"Welcome home," Tsubasa whispered before she got kissed by her girlfriend multiple times. Tsubasa was caught off guard by the first few, but eventually reciprocated with a long kiss.
"Heheh, you sure know how to set up the mood." Honoka grinned as her hand moved from Tsubasa's back, to her side, and slowly slid down her hip-.
To Honoka's surprise, Tsubasa stopped her hand right on its track.
Tsubasa cleared her throat. "Honoka, e-everything in its due time."
"You say that, but you're the one who can never keep her hands to herself!" Honoka frowned and looked away.
"I uh…" Tsubasa was at a loss for words, something that puzzled Honoka even more. "W-We should eat the cake first."
"Fiiine…" Honoka lamented and turned her attention to the cake. "Wow, did you make this?"
"Sadly, I'm not very good at baking," Tsubasa confessed.
"Store bought then?" Honoka asked as she inspected the cake. It seemed kinda big for two people. The top of the cake was mostly covered with thinly sliced strawberries, which only made it look so much more appetizing.
"Do you like it?" Honoka's quick nodding relieved Tsubasa. "Go on, blow the candles."
"A-Actually, I have something to tell you first," Honoka admitted, fidgeting a little. It was hard not to be nervous when it came to what she was going to tell her.
"Blow the candles first, before the wax gets to the fruit," Tsubasa pointed out. She gave Honoka an earnest smile when she saw Honoka pout. "We can talk all you want after this, alright?"
"Okay, if you promise!" Once Tsubasa nodded, Honoka leaned down to the cake, and taking a deep breath, she blew on all the candles on the cake.
The moment the room went dark, the lights of the apartment came back on accompanied by a chorus of eleven people shouting "Surprise!" Suddenly, Honoka saw the table surrounded by all of her friends, former members of µ's and A-RISE alike.
"Happy birthday, Honoka-chan!"
"Happy birthday!"
"Honoka, happy birthday."
"Wow, you guys!" Honoka laughed as she kept hearing birthday wishes from all of her friends. "Did you get all of them here?"
Tsubasa smiled and nodded. "I knew you hadn't seen them all for a while, so this seemed like the best thing to do."
"Thanks, Tsubasa-chan," Honoka whispered and kissed Tsubasa again, holding her as she did so.
"So, what was it that you wanted to talk about?" Tsubasa asked calmly, all of her concerns about Honoka finding out about her surprise birthday party gone.
Tsubasa was surprised to find how minuscule those worries seemed and how hard she had it became to maintain her composure when Honoka announced to the room that she was pregnant with Tsubasa's child.