Kido Tsubomi woke up to the acrid smell of something burning. With a start, she sat upright and tried to get out of bed, only to realise that someone had left a note on her bedside table.
「 To: Danchou
Hey Danchou! Don't bother making breakfast today, Mary and I are up to the task! Have a good sleep! ~
~ Momo 」
Kido facepalmed. She mentally prepared herself as she headed for the kitchen.
"Kisaragi, what are you doing-" She didn't even finish her sentence before she saw a very guilty looking Mary and a distraught Momo trying to get her out of the kitchen. Both had splotches of white on their face. On the floor, she saw a black pile of...stuff. She suspected they were pancakes.
"Danchou! What are you doing here, you're supposed to get some sleep!"
"How am I supposed to get some sleep when things are burning and food is going to waste?" Kido huffs. Not the first day she's gotten trouble from the two clumsy little girls, but sometimes even Kido needs some rest. Ironically enough, they were trying to let her have some rest. In fact, Kido appreciates the thought.
"If you girls really do want to cook, fine. However, let me teach you first."
Upon hearing such words, Mary practically glimmers with elation and Momo salutes sheepishly, surrendering a sorry "Yes, m'am!"
"First of all, I have a question."
"Yes?"
"Are those pancakes?"
Breakfast was actually relatively well done. Well, with Chef Kido's guidance, nothing could go wrong. Except Kido actually cooked most of the pancakes. Well, actually it wasn't so bad. In retrospect, those two actually did fine with putting the cream and strawberries on top.
Now for lunch, Seto decided it'd be a good idea to get some takeout.
"Kido, forget about cooking lunch, let's all chip in and get takeout! What do you feel like having?" Seto asked jubilantly, wide grin stretching over his entire face.
"You're letting me decide? That's...odd, you usually ask Mary. Mary, what do you want to eat?" Kido's brows furrowed in suspicion.
Mary only pouted and shook her head violently. "Kido, it's your turn to choose!"
"Uh...okay? Let's have Chinese food, then?"
"Okay!"
Something was definitely up.
Twenty minutes later, Seto returned with packets of fried noodles, a large serving of fried wontons and some spring rolls.
Kido tried to help with the serving of food but was somehow pushed to her seat by Konoha who placed his hands on her shoulders absentmindedly. Or maybe not absentmindedly. It was hard to tell from his blank expression.
Somehow, Kido looked at her plate and noticed that along with her fried noodles, she had a large piece of dark soy sauce chicken. She looked at everyone else's and noticed that no one had it but her.
"Did someone mistakenly place this on my plate?" She beckoned to the chicken.
Seto grinned. "Nope, it's yours! You ordered it, remember?"
"I didn-"
"You did! Just eat it, Kido~" Kano said suspiciously.
Kido wanted to confront the group, but on seeing them happily enjoying their food, she didn't quite have the heart to.
In her reverie, Kido forgot to give Seto the money for the lunch they agreed to go dutch for. No one reminded her.
"Hey Kido, you said you like Oasis, RADIOHEAD and Shugo Tokumaru's music right?" Shintaro suddenly appeared at Kido's door with Ene in the iPod in his right hand.
"Yeah, why?"
Shintaro walked up to her slightly awkwardly and handed her an MP3 player with his left hand. "T...this is my old MP3 player. I used it before the iPod came out. Since it is no longer in use, I thought I might as well put it to better use by giving it to you, especially since your own MP3 player is on the verge of breaking down."
That left Kido in amazement. Since when was Shintaro so thoughtful and observant? Her initial impression of him was that he was simply an unsociable NEET. "Wow. Thank you so much."
"D...don't even think of mentioning it. It's nothing at all. Since I used to listen to those bands you listen to too, all the songs are already inside for your listening enjoyment."
"Nonsense!" Ene chirped suddenly. "Master only listens to a few of their songs. He added the rest yesterday night."
"SHHHHHHHH! STUPID ENE!"
Kido simply didn't know what to say. "Thank you, Shintaro. Actually, you didn't have to do all that for me. But I really appreciate it."
"A...as I said, don't mention it. Also, just saying, but some of my own songs are also inside there. I felt that it would have been a hassle to remove them. Feel free to delete them off the player though, but if you want to listen to them go ahead."
"Wait, Shintaro, you compose?"
"Uhm. Just a bit! It's nothing much, really."
Ene butted in again. "Yes, Master composes! Listen to the track named Toumei Answer, he wrote it for his past love by the name of A-"
Shintaro switched his iPod off. He looked like an overly ripe tomato.
"Please forget what Ene just said. Alright then, I'll see you later."
Kido was left hanging in awe and confusion at everything.
Somehow, for the entire day, Kido felt like her ability has suddenly ceased to work. Usually, people would not even notice her presence, but today, it felt as if everyone was eyeing her as she walked past.
About an hour before dinner, Konoha was snacking on negima. He held two sticks of meat in his right hand and one stick in his mouth.
Kido was about to nag at Konoha to not snack before dinner when Konoha simply walked up to her and offered her two sticks of negima.
"If Kido snacks on negima too, then it is okay, right?"
Kido was bewildered. Konoha never shared his negima. It was the one and only thing he was possessive about. So why the change?
Before Kido could recover from her shock, Konoha had escaped her line of vision.
Kido sat in her room, contemplating the odd change in the group members' demeanour. Why do they suddenly notice her? Why do they suddenly treat her unusually nicely? Did they all do something really wrong?
Kido couldn't put a finger to it.
All of a sudden, the house went dark. It must be a blackout in the hideout, thought Kido. She got up and headed for the electrical distribution box in the storeroom to reset the circuit breaker when all of a sudden, something three quarters her height smashed into her. She let out a shrill scream which in turn resulted in the something screaming as well.
"H...Hibiya?"
Hibiya said nothing and grabbed her by the hand, leading her to some place. Kido was genuinely overwhelmed by trepidation at this point of time. She feared that Hibiya was possessed, and didn't even dare to utter a word.
All of a sudden, she saw a dim orange light coming from a distance. She heard someone (Momo?) count to three before the entire group burst into the birthday song.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Kido! Happy Birthday to you!"
Every member of the Mekakushi Dan was in front of her, all smiles as Kano held the birthday cake, which had a headphone design with the words "Happy Birthday, Kido!" written on it.
"Happy Birthday, Kido!" everyone said collectively, not a single one of them shouting too late or too early.
Oh yeah, it was her birthday. How in the world could she have forgotten?
More importantly, the entire Dan had remembered her birthday. That solved the mystery of why everyone was suddenly so nice to her.
It reminded her of how no one in her family used to remember her birthday. Now, she had found her true family.
"Everyone...you didn't have to do this. Thank you for remembering my birthday." Kido fought back her tears but to no avail. They rolled down her pink-tinted cheeks, reflecting the orange light from the candles.
Not even Kano made fun of her this time. He had never meant to. In fact, he was the one behind everything. Not that he'd tell her, though.
Momo went forth to embrace Kido in a bear hug. "How could we ever forget? You are our danchou. Everything you do is for our benefit. We should thank you instead." Everyone followed Momo in hugging Kido, including Kano who rushed to put the birthday cake onto the table before joining in on the huddle. All notions of personal space were forgotten.
After around five minutes of fluffy hugging time, Kido suddenly remembered. "Wait...what about dinner? Did anyone prepare dinner?"
A gasp was heard from Momo. "Uh oh, I forgot to microwave the finger food."
Hibiya groaned. "Stupid auntie."
"It's okay!" chirped Kano. "We have cake! We can eat it while the finger food is in preparation."
Kido sat on her bed recalling the events of the day. She stared at the MP3 player Shintaro gave to her, the flower crown Mary made for her, the kinda-cute-but-more-creepy cat plushie Momo gave to her, the headphones trinket Seto got for her as well as the black origami cat Hibiya folded for her. She also remembered the two sticks of negima Konoha gave to her. Not only did they treat her nicely throughout the day, they even got her a cake and gave her gifts after dinner.
Kido smiled slightly. She felt lucky that she was so appreciated as a leader by her comrades. Most of all, she felt glad to be accepted wholly into this family by the name of the Mekakushi Dan.
All of a sudden, a knock on her door jerked her out of her thoughts.
"Leader?" Kano leaned against the door smiling.
"...Is anything the matter?" Kido was a bit unprepared for his entry.
"Nothing much, just wanted to give you something." He thrust a purple package into her hands.
"Open it~" He grinned jauntily.
She opened it to find that it was a black-coloured gorilla toy. It was slightly terrifying-looking, but actually rather hilarious on second glance. It surely did give Kido a jump scare though.
"Kano Shuuya! What is this thing?!"
"It's a gorilla! I thought Leader liked animals, so maybe your list of animals included gorillas."
Maybe Kano really her had thoughts in mind. That realization made Kido soften a bit.
"Kano, this gorilla is frightening! You nearly scared the heck outta me!"
"Oops. Sorry Leader!"
"T...thank you though. I do appreciate the gesture."
All of a sudden, Kido felt a slight pressure on her cheek. Kano's fingers wrapped around her wrist as he kissed her, slight and chaste but nonetheless impactful.
"I hope you enjoyed today, Tsubomi."
The door shut with a click. The birthday girl buried her burning face in her hands. That's when she realised that there was a silver chain with silver hearts hanging from her wrist. Of course, the gorilla was nowhere to be seen.
"Idiot."
Thank you for reading!