Kai arrives home far later than he expected to. He's tired and aggravated—though no more than usual—and the last thing he's expecting to see in his home is an eyesore. But that's what it is: every surface as far as he can tell has been kindly decorated by multicolored silly string; the ceiling can't be seen for all the streamers; and the miscreants behind it all are surrounded by empty bottles of alcohol. Kyouju greets him from the armchair. Rei waggles his fingers from the floor with Max grinning cheekily beside him. They all look relieved to see him.
His eyes fixate on Takao, who appears to have passed out on the couch. Kai remembers belatedly that it's Takao's birthday. Or had been, at least. He's wearing several party hats. Kai isn't sure if that's a step up from last year's tiara or not.
"Did you kill him?" he asks.
"Of course not," Max replies, affronted. "He got sleepy waiting up for you, so he passed the baton."
"What, to all three of you?"
"Hey." Rei cuts himself off to yawn. "It's always a team effort waiting for you to come home."
"I have a job," Kai says as he shucks off his jacket, and tosses them theirs. "I understand the rest of you don't know what that means, but it keeps me away from home sometimes, regardless of what I want."
"We are grateful that you work so hard, especially on Labor Thanksgiving Day," Kyouju says. He's met with impudent eye rolling from the other two.
"Did you get him a gift at least?" Max stares beyond Kai as if a gorgeously-wrapped present will just appear if he just squints hard enough, and clicks his tongue disapprovingly when no such thing happens. "Kai, did you come home empty-handed again?"
"No." Kai lifts up his bag, which contains his briefcase. Rei and Max share a look.
Kai combs his fingers through Takao's hair to wake him. It's strewn with bits of pink silly string. Takao leans into his touch. "Hey asshole," he says brightly, though he's still bleary-eyed. "You missed out on the party of the century!" He says something akin to this every year, but somehow seems to mean it more each time. Kai doesn't know how the others keep managing to pull off such spectacular parties, but he's glad for it, if it means coming home to this every time. Takao's happiness is rejuvenating, filling him with energy that work slowly saps from him throughout the day.
"That's what you're calling what happened to my house?" Kai glances about the room critically. It's uglier when you're standing in the middle of it.
Kyouju at least has the nerve to look guilty. "Sorry about this, Kai. We'll be out of your hair right away."
"Bummer." Takao waves at them. "See you guys next year when he lets you babysit again."
"The three of you will be back bright and early to clean my entire apartment," Kai tells them. Rei looks aggrieved but not surprised. There's a mischievous smile on Max's face that Kai doesn't trust.
"I hope you like Kai's gift," he says. Kai looks at him sharply, but Takao looks at Kai, gaping.
"You got me something this year?"
Kai doesn't know how to answer. Max winks as if he hasn't just damned him.
"Yeah," he says finally. "Close your eyes while I get it. Let's go, reprobates." They make his job easy and boring by actually wanting to leave, which Kai chalks up to a strong, mutual desire to go to bed. The quiet after he shuts the door after them is blissful, so he takes a moment to breathe before he has to go disappoint Takao. And then he hears Max's voice through the door, musing loudly,
"Too bad we forgot to get Takao a cake this year, huh?"
"Yeah," Rei responds, all forlorn, "what's a birthday boy without his birthday cake?"
"Just a boy, Rei. He's just a boy."
Kai thuds his head, gently, against the door. They have to be kidding him. He knows, deeply, that they are not.
Fine. This can be done.
He's surprised Takao actually waited patiently, but upon returning to his side Kai sees that he's dozed off sitting up. Kai shakes him awake.
Abruptly, Takao is buzzing with energy. "Where is it? What is it? Is it a dog? Proof that you have paid time off? Because I, like, need that."
"I am aware," Kai says with a fond roll of his eyes, and drags him into the kitchen. He pushes a clearly bemused Takao into a seat, washes his hands, and then, from his own cabinets, discovers he has everything one could possibly need for baking anything. His counters are soon lined with ingredients and equipment he's now realizing Rei smuggled into his home. At this point Kai's unearthed so much candy that he's sure they could forgo the production of an actual cake and Takao would still be satisfied. He'd ripped into a pack of mini chocolate chips immediately, looking awed at the whole scene.
"We're gonna bake me a cake at three in the morning?"
"I'm baking you a cake at three in the morning. You're just choosing the flavor."
Takao thinks on it very carefully. "All of 'em," he decides.
"This is like pulling teeth."
"That's not fair, look at all this stuff!" Takao gesticulates excitedly. It's true. There are enough ingredients to make several different kinds of cakes. Well, there will always be another birthday.
He waits it out. After actually thinking it through, Takao goes with chocolate, which just so happens to be a flavor Kai is partial to. He gets to work, almost smiling. Takao watches him measure and mix with rapt attention while he babbles about his day. His voice has got a sleepy note to it that Kai finds strangely endearing as he loses himself in the motions.
While baking will never be his shtick, there is something to be said about doing something with your own hands: the sentiment expressed feels more genuine. Kai definitely can use that, considering he's notoriously the worst at expressing sentiment. He supposes working so often doesn't help; although it's not for nothing, it's true that the hours aren't particularly mindful of his private life. Maybe he will take some time off.
"—and I guess it was Kyouju's year to buy the alcohol, but it still embarrasses him to enter those stores so they had to try a few times before they actually came out with anything," Takao finishes, snickering.
Kai grabs a large spoon to help separate the batter into two pans. He glances over at the lull. Takao looks a little melancholy now. "What's wrong, Kinomiya?" he asks warily.
"Can you believe I'm old?" Takao shoves a handful of chocolate chips into his mouth as if to cover up the taste of the word.
"You still several years before you can be reasonably insecure about your age, and even then I won't have the patience for it," Kai assures him.
"I found a gray hair on my pillow the other day."
"Did it happen to match my hair color at all?" Kai shoves the pans into the oven.
Takao hums. "Maybe," he answers, "but you have always been super duper old. Mentally, you're... double my age, at least."
"Which would be?"
"Kai, I don't have to do math on my birthday."
"It's Thursday now, technically."
"Why limit the celebration of the best boy in the world to just one day?" Takao says, batting his eyelashes. "By the way, I can't wait to see how you top this for Christmas."
Right, Christmas. Kai holds in a sigh, but barely. His holiday planning will have to begin as soon as Takao slips into a cake coma if he wants anything to come of it. He figures he might as well get started on that early, and thrusts the batter-covered spoon at Takao, whose big brown eyes get bigger in their childish delight. He takes the spoon reverently.
"Happy birthday," Kai says.
"I love you."
"You can lick the bowl too."
"Seriously! I love you!"
kai you didn't preheat the...okay. takao will remember this birthday for sure. kids, the moral of the story is: true friends will come thru, except for kai, because kai doesn't know the basics of baking.
as you can probably tell this was originally a b-day fic for takao, but it is NOT late as it is still sagittarius season. also i handwaved their ages because... i have the power. thank you, please review, see you at the next mistake.