Happy Birthday to the lovely Rapis Razuri! Thanks for being such a great friend and putting up with my nonsense for almost a year, hahaha. Love you lots, enjoy your special day!
Also, shout out to SIGF for being my beta. I'd be lost without you.
A month ago, while the pair had been getting ready to turn in for the night, Sakura asked Leo if he needed any help planning their son's sixth birthday party. Leo's eyes left the book he'd been reading to look at her and he scoffed. There was an air of confidence about him as he said, "Sakura, please. I have a PhD. I think I can plan a child's birthday party. How hard could it be?"
All they needed was to invite some guests, get a cake, hire an entertainer for the children, and have Forrest open his gifts. Honestly, it was child's play compared to their wedding planning.
With three weeks until Forrest's birthday bash, Leo and Sakura sent out invitations to all of Forrest's friends and booked a magician. Two weeks before the big day, the couple had done all their shopping for party supplies and birthday presents. A week before the party, Leo special ordered a Captain Arthur cake – two tiers with the action hero standing on top of it.
Yesterday, Sakura ordered pizza from the local pizzeria and she and Leo cleaned their house from top to bottom.
Today, the decorations were put up, the presents wrapped and put on the gift table, and Leo put out the goodie bags he'd packed the night before on the kitchen table. He'd chosen to go with goodie bags instead of Sakura's idea for a piñata, because honestly, why would he let a group of children whack a piñata in his home?
As he took a step back from the table, he noticed that Sakura had finished icing the last of the cupcakes she'd baked and went to place his arm around her waist. "Hm, those look good," he said in reference to the cupcakes. They were bite-sized vanilla cupcakes, different ones topped in either red or blue frosting.
He supposed that she was sticking to the Captain Arthur theme.
"Do they really?" Sakura asked, a small smile on her lips. "I just want things to go well for Forrest's first real birthday party, so I tried hard to make them look good." There was never time to give their son a big party, as his birthday usually fell on a weekday. Now that it fell on a Saturday, Sakura thought it would be nice to give him one.
"They do," he nodded. "Do they taste just as good, though?"
As he reached out to grab one, Sakura shooed his hand away. "Don't touch those, they're for the children," she frowned.
Leo rolled his eyes. "As if they need more sugar. One missing cupcake isn't going to hurt."
"Leo," Sakura scolded. He moved his hand from the desserts and placed a gentle kiss on his wife's temple.
"Sorry, sorry," he chuckled. "It won't happen again."
"Thank you," she said, right before she could hear the sound of bare feet padding against the wooden floor. Forrest had come running in from the living room, his hair an absolute mess. Leo was sure he'd gotten that terrible bedhead from his mother.
Cheerfully, he said, "Good morning, Mama. Good morning, Papa."
Sakura moved from Leo's side to extend her arms out for a hug, which her son had readily accepted. "Good morning to you, birthday boy." She lifted him from the ground and held him in her arms so that Leo could place the tiniest kiss atop his head.
"Good morning, Forrest," Leo greeted. "Someone looks quite excited for today."
"Yes! I am!" cried Forrest. "I already saw the presents in the living room! May I please open them?"
"I'm afraid you can't open them right now," Sakura said, and Forrest gave a pout. "But we can open them when all your friends come for the party."
Soon enough, the boy's pout vanished. "Oh, I can't wait until they get here! Is Kiragi coming? Oh, what about Siegbert?"
"Yes, they'll be here," said Leo. "But for now, you should do something about this mane of yours. It's a mess."
When Leo combed through blond hair with his fingers, Forrest shook his head.
"I can take care of that," she said. "Come on Forrest, let's go get you cleaned up, alright?"
"Yes, Mama."
Leo watched the two of them leave the kitchen before eyeing the cupcakes on the counter beside him. After a moment of thought, he decided not to steal one. He'd rather not have his wife annoyed at him for the duration of this party. After all, Leo wanted everything to be absolutely perfect for his son.
Their living room was rather noisy, but that's what you get when you put ten young children in one room. They were rambunctious little things, and watching them get too close to the end tables or hitting the walls made Leo's heart rate increase.
However, he could see his son's smiling face in the crowd of children, and that caused his body to relax. As long as Forrest was enjoying himself, then Leo could put up with their recklessness for a day. Yet while he watched the children play, he couldn't help but feel that someone was missing.
He counted them with his index finger, but the total only came up to nine. Which one was missing? Then, it dawned on him.
Soleil.
The last time he saw her she was in the kitchen with his wife, and he swiftly kicked her out to go play with the other kids right after she asked Sakura for tea. Like father, like daughter, he supposed. That happened over ten minutes ago, though. Where was she?
As Sakura passed by him with the tray of cupcakes in hand, Leo, held onto her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. "It's Soleil. I can't find her anywhere. Did she go back into the kitchen with you?"
"No. Or if she did, I didn't see her…" Sakura started. "Maybe she –"
"Cupcakes!" Asugi cried, and like bees to honey, the kids swarmed around her.
"O-Oh! Okay, hold on just a moment everyone. Everyone will get one." She turned to Leo. "You go look for her. I'll help in a moment."
Leo released Sakura's shoulder and left to check in the kitchen one more, and that's when Soleil entered from the door leading to the back yard. "Oh, hi Forrest's dad," she grinned.
His eyes shifted from Soleil, to the door, then back to her before he narrowed them. "What were you doing out there?"
"I came in here to talk to Forrest's mom again, but I didn't see her. Then I saw your guys' dog through the window and I went to play with him. He's really fun!"
Leo's brow furrowed. "We don't have a dog."
"What? But he was digging in the dirt when I left him," Soleil said. "I think he was looking for something."
"Digging?" he parroted before rushing to the backyard. It was worse than he thought. The neighbor's dog had ruined a part of his rather small tomato garden. Some of the sticks were bent and most of the tomatoes had been squished. His mouth hung open as the dog stopped his reign of terror with a bone in his mouth, and then looked at Leo with his beady eyes.
He barked at him once before hopping over the fence to his own home, and Leo let out a scream, causing Sakura to rush to his side. "Wh-What? What's going on? Why are you yelling – oh, Gods."
Leo's lips pursed into a thin line. His brow creased. "I'm going over there to tell them about that damned dog."
"Dear, no!" Sakura cried. "We can talk to them tomorrow or something. Please don't start anything."
"They started it by not keeping him on a leash!" he snapped. Then he sighed. "I'm sorry. But I worked so hard on that garden."
"I know dear, but today is Forrest's birthday. We don't have the time to approach them about it. We can do it when you're not angry." Although she had a point, Leo was never not going to be angry about this. "H-How about you call the magician and see where he is? He's running rather late, isn't he?"
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah… I can do that, sure. And you…?"
"I think I'll do my best to fix the mess the dog made." She stood on her toes to place a kiss on her husband's cheek. "Please keep an eye on the kids. And please try to keep a level head."
"Sakura, when have you known me to not keep a level head?"
She frowned. "Just now. With the dog."
"Okay, okay. I can relax." He closed his eyes and took a breath for a moment. "See? I'm calm. Calm enough to go call the magician."
"Thank you," she said as Leo turned to leave.
He could hear the children's laughter and screaming from inside the house. Their volume seemed to increase tenfold when he entered. Although unattended for a moment, Leo did a headcount and all the kids were inside of the living room, thank the Gods.
He cleared his throat before saying "Hey!" and all of the children stopped in their tracks, staring at him with wide eyes. Leo noted how some of them had red and blue frosting on parts of their faces where it shouldn't have been, as well as on their hands, and his eyes narrowed.
"Okay, I know you all are having fun, but try and keep your voices down, okay?"
"Okay," they said in unison.
"And whoever has icing on their faces and hands, come see me in the kitchen." When he retreated into the kitchen and no one followed, he went back into the living room. "Kiragi, Siegbert, Nina, Ignatius, Asugi. Kitchen. Now. And hands up where I can see them."
All five children walked into the kitchen, hands above their heads as the stood single file before the sink. With a paper towel dampened with water and with a touch of soap, Leo began to clean the rather stubborn icing off of them.
"Hi, Uncle Leo," Kiragi beamed. His eyes squeezed shut as Leo began cleaning off the red icing that stained his forehead.
"Hi, Kiragi," he said. "I haven't seen you in two weeks. That's a long time, isn't it?"
"I knooooow! I missed you!" he cried. "And then the last time, you didn't even spend that much time with me! You spent it with Dad in front of that checkers board."
"Chess board," Leo corrected. "And I'm sorry about that. Next time, you and I will hang out together, I promise."
"Even if you lose at chess?"
"I'm not going to lose at chess."
"But Dad said–"
"Well, you can tell your dad that he's wrong." Once Kiragi was clean, Leo sent him to the living room while he tossed the old paper towel out and used a new one to get started on the next kid.
Once all of the kids were all cleaned up, he pulled out his phone to call the magician who was now thirty minutes late, but the first two times sent him straight to voicemail.
The entertainer picked up on the third, and Leo let out a breath of relief before speaking. "Hello, I'm calling about the magician that I booked for today. He's about a half hour late."
"...Half an hour late? He should have been there an hour ago to set up," said the person on the other line. "For the party in Izumo, right?"
Izumo? That was all the way in Hoshido. They lived in Nohr. "No, we're in Windmire."
"Windmire? That magician isn't scheduled to come until next week."
Leo could feel the knot in his stomach. "Next week? I booked the magician for today, March 13th!"
"Sorry sir," they said, "we have it set for the 20th."
"Why would you have it set for the 20th, I called almost a month ago to–!" Leo stopped himself and took a deep breath in, and then out. "Okay, look. Forget about that. Can you have someone come to my son's birthday party or not?"
There was the sound of shuffling and fingers hitting a keyboard on the other end. "On such short notice? Afraid not. All our clowns, magicians, whoever, they're all booked for today. The rest are out."
"Excuse me? Oh no, you're going to bring someone to my house. I don't care if you have to drag them from Izumo all the way here!"
"Sir, now we can't do that. What we can do is reimburse you for your troubles–"
"I don't want to be reimbursed, I want the magician for my son's birthday party that I scheduled for today!"
There was a pause.
"So, do you need me to cancel the magician scheduled for next week?"
His mouth hung wide open. "Do I need you to cancel the magician for a non-existent birthday party next week? What do you think, you – Augh! Forget it! Cancel the damn charge on my credit card!" And with that, Leo hit the end call button and buried his head in his hands as he let out a sigh of frustration.
It didn't take long for Sakura to come back inside of the house, clothes stained lightly in dirt and tomato juice. She was going to head upstairs to change into some clean clothes, but stopped to take a look at Leo's posture for a moment.
"Um…" she started, unsure. "I fixed the garden as best as I could for now. How did it go with the magician?"
"He's not coming," Leo grumbled.
"Wh-What? Why not?"
"They scheduled him for next week apparently," he said through gritted teeth. Honestly, how did they mess that one up? He even called to confirm last week.
Sakura's teeth began to sink into her bottom lip. "Oh… what do we do now?"
Leo was silent for a while, racking his brain for a way out of their current situation. The cake wasn't ready yet, and it wasn't time for Forrest to open his presents. How were they going to keep all of them entertained until then?
Then, an idea struck him. One that he wasn't particularly fond of. "Maybe I can get an entertainer for the kids faster than we know it."
"How?" asked Sakura.
"...I know a guy."
"Leo," Sakura frowned. "I'm not so sure about the guys you know. When our car broke down, you said you knew a guy and had Keaton and his friends do the job."
And that didn't turn out too great.
"I know, I know, but what other options do we have here? Sakura, please. Just trust me on this, okay?"
"Okay," she said finally. "Just as long as it isn't Keaton and his friends."
"It's not, I promise you."
"Ahahaha, yes! It is I, the Sensational and Mystifying Odini, Master of the Dark, ready to make ghouls and goblins appear out of my magical top hat!"
Soleil scratched her head. "Um, Ophelia? Isn't that Uncle Odin."
"No, that's not my dad!" she cried as her eyes watched him twirl a wand in his hand. "That's the the Sensational and Mystifying Odini. Two different things."
From a distance, Sakura watched Odin interact with the children, wringing her hands together. "Leo… are you sure this is a good idea? N-No disrespect to Odin or anything, but…"
"Honestly, Sakura?" Leo started. "I'm not sure this is a good idea at all. But it was the only option we had, so I'm going with it." Besides, Odin had a kid of his own and she always seemed to be in a good mood. Maybe he had a shot at keeping all of them entertained, at least until they could pick up the cake.
With the kids occupied, Leo closed his eyes and allowed himself to just relax for a moment, blocking out the children's chatter and Odin's nonsensical ramblings. Just a few more hours of this and he could tuck Forrest into bed before ending this day.
"Leo?" his wife called out to him.
"Yes, dear?" he answered, eyes still closed.
"I haven't gotten a chance to set the table yet. Can you help me with that?"
He nodded. "Of course."
On the kitchen countertop sat the box of pizza Sakura ordered yesterday, along with a folded up blue tablecloth, and stacks of red and blue plastic plates and cups.
While Sakura got the tablecloth ready, Leo removed all the party bags off of the table, and her brow furrowed as she watched him. "I know you said you were going to hand out goodie bags, but what did you put in them anyway?"
"Oh, you know," Leo started. "Things that'll do them good. A toy or two. Little notepads and crayons. Some stickers. Granola bars."
"Leo, they're children," she said before handing him one end of the tablecloth. "They want candy, not notepads and granola bars."
"But what they need is more important, and they need to not have a sugar rush," said Leo as he helped to place the tablecloth down.
"No, that's what you want, not what they need."
True, but could she blame him for not wanting a bunch of children ruining an entire section of their home? As they placed plates and cups down on the table, Sakura spoke up again. "I know you weren't thrilled with the idea at first but… I like doing this."
"What, the party?"
She nodded. "Just seeing the children running around and laughing… it makes me happy." She paused, her index finger gently running over the edge of the plastic plate in her hands. "I know Forrest wasn't planned, but... I wouldn't mind having another one."
Slowly, the plastic cup in Leo's hand slipped away and clattered onto the table as he stared at Sakura with eyes widened in astonishment and his cheeks slightly red. "You want to have another baby?"
She giggled. "W-Why do you seem so flustered over it?"
"Flustered? I'm not – ah… ahem," he cleared his throat. "I didn't think you wanted to have another child since you never brought it up."
"I wasn't sure if you wanted to have another baby," she said, "so that was why I never brought it up."
It wasn't as if he didn't want another child. The thought just hadn't crossed his mind. That and he was content with just Forrest. However, the thought of another little one running around their home and picturing Forrest as a big brother… it made him feel warm. "Well, you and I both know how important siblings are. I think Forrest would make a good big brother."
"Wouldn't he?" she smiled. "I think about that quite a bit."
"Sakura, you should have told me sooner. You know I always want to hear what you're thinking," he spoke. "And besides… thoughts of a new addition to the family are important to talk about."
"I-I know, I know. Maybe later tonight we can talk more about it?"
"Of course. You know, I–"
"Augh! My shin!"
The cry came from Odin in the living room, and Leo and Sakura shared similar looks of worry before rushing inside. The children all crowded around Shiro, Siegbert and Odin, who was on the floor writhing in pain.
Shiro's stance looked aggressive while Siegbert stood in front of him, tears streaming down his face. Upon seeing Siegbert's tears, Sakura instinctively moved towards him, crouching down on his level to wipe them away.
Leo's first instinct, however, was to tower over the rest of them, cross his arms and ask, "Okay, what happened here?"
"He kicked me!" Odin cried.
"Only because you made Siegbert cry!" Shiro fired back.
"How did you manage that?" Leo asked, his voice dull.
"The card!" said Odin. "I pulled the card of Grima from behind his ear and–"
"He told Siegbert that he was gonna fall into eternal darkness and made him cry!" Shiro huffed. "So, I kicked him!"
"A-Am I, Auntie Sakura?" Siegbert whimpered.
Sakura rubbed a soothing hand on her nephew's back. "No, you're not going to fall into eternal darkness sweetie..." Looking from Odin to the rest of the children, Sakura stood up. "How about we go in the kitchen. We can all have some pizza okay? ...A-And I'll get an icepack for you, Odin."
"That'd be very much appreciated," he said through gritted teeth.
"Shiro, you should tell Mr. Odini that you're very sorry for hurting him," said Sakura.
All was quiet for a moment before Shiro sighed. "I'm sorry that I kicked you Mr. Odini. It won't happen again."
As Sakura guided the children to the kitchen, lightly scolding Shiro about kicking others on the way, Leo took another look ad Odin. "You had to have known that wasn't a good idea."
"Gods… I think that's gonna bruise," he breathed. "Ryoma's son, right? He's really strong… how? He's eight."
Ignoring Odin's comment, Leo reached out his hand to help Odin up. "Can you stand, or did a child really manage to incapacitate you that badly?" Begrudgingly, Odin took his hand and Leo led him to the couch where he could properly elevate his leg.
"Can't you just let Odin Dark lie here in defeat without badmouthing him?" he moaned, dramatically resting his forearm on over his eyes.
Leo watched him with jaded eyes, but the thought of Shiro taking a grown man down made him smirk. The phone in his pocket buzzed a few times, before he fished it out and answered it.
"Ah, yes," said the woman on the other line. "We're calling about the cake that you ordered."
Thank Gods. "Is it ready for pickup?"
"It sure is. Are you available to pick it up soon?"
"Of course. I'll be down there in fifteen." After hanging up, Leo shoved the phone in his pocket and pointed to Odin. "No more scaring children."
"It's not like I was trying to!" he cried, as Leo headed towards the kitchen.
"Hey," Leo said to Sakura, grabbing his car keys from the counter. "The cake's ready, so I'm going to pick it up now."
The kids, upon hearing the mention of cake, cheered in delight. Sakura, who had the ice pack pack in her hands, turned her attention away from them. "Oh, that's good news. Be careful, alright?"
"I will," he said, placing a quick peck on her cheek.
Before he could leave, Sakura reached out to hold his hand. "What do want me to do with all those goodie bags?"
Leo's brow furrowed. "...Hand them out, of course. Especially if I'm not back in twenty minutes." Sakura didn't look like she wanted to hand them out at all, but she nodded nonetheless. "Thank you, dear."
He placed another kiss on her cheek, but this time, many of the children witnessed their small display of affection. Their "oooh"s and "ahhh"s filled the air as Leo rolled his eyes.
"Forrest's dad just kissed his mom," Nina teased before taking a bite out of her pizza.
Shiro, who sat next to Nina, mimicked a kissy face, but ended up looking more like a fish than anything. "This is what Uncle Leo looked like! Muah, muah, muah!" She giggled at his antics.
"Is kissing fun?" Soleil asked, genuinely curious.
"Don't you kids have parents?" Leo shot back before Sakura gently ushered him out of the room.
"The cake, the cake," Sakura reminded him. "And here. The um, ice pack for Odin."
Leo took it and casually placed it on Odin's leg before heading out to the bakery. This cake was the last thing on his to do list: party edition before he, his wife, and his son could be left alone for the rest of the evening.
Now that, Leo couldn't wait for.
The bakery was rather empty for a Saturday afternoon, but Leo didn't mind at all. That meant that there'd be no forced idle chitchat with customers more extroverted than him. When he locked eyes with the woman at the register, she greeted him with a warm smile.
"Good afternoon," she chirped. "How may I be of assistance?"
"Ah, good afternoon. I'm supposed to be picking up a birthday cake today." He pulled out his wallet to retrieve his receipt and handed it over to her. "I'm in a bit of a hurry, if you don't mind."
She eyed the receipt for a moment before handing it back to him with a grin. "Don't sweat it! I'll have you out of here really quick! Just give me a moment!"
The baker disappeared into the kitchen for no longer than a minute, then returned with a rather large cake box. As she opened the box to reveal the cake inside, she asked, "Now, does this look good or what?" But Leo couldn't answer her. He just stared.
This wasn't the cake he ordered.
Instead of a blue and red two tiered cake with a Captain Arthur action figure standing on it, the cake was silver, and blue, and acted as the poofy bottom half of a dress for a doll that stood in the middle of it.
"This is… this is the wrong cake entirely!" Leo cried.
The woman frowned. "Wrong cake? But the receipt said the order was for number 18 in the cake book…" When Leo's brow furrowed in confusion, she placed a thin, laminated book on the table and opened it to page 18. "This," she said, pointing to the cake labeled number 18. "You ordered the Princess Corrin doll cake."
Leo stared at it for a moment before looking over to page 19. There was his Captain Arthur cake. He checked his receipt just in case, but the baker was right. Did he really get the pages confused? How the hell did he manage to do that?
"Can I… perhaps order another cake?" he asked. Of course, ordering that Captain Arthur cake would take way too long. The kids would get restless waiting on it. However maybe it wouldn't take too long if the order was something simple.
"Why would you want another cake?" she asked. "What's wrong with this one?"
"The cake is for my son's birthday party."
"...So what? Cake is cake as far as I'm concerned!" she laughed.
However Leo found this to be no laughing matter. "Excuse me, but he doesn't want princess cakes. He… he wants Captain Arthur. That or anything but a princess cake. I can't have this cake."
"Is this the cake that he wants, or the cake that you want?" she asked, her face unamused.
"Of course it's the cake that he wants! I know what I said."
Jadedly, the baker stared him down. "Uh-huh. Well listen, honey. You were the one who ordered it, and you already paid for it, so you're just gonna have to take it home and give your kid the best birthday he's ever had with the doll dress cake."
"...Did you just sass me? Did you just call me honey?" he asked incredulously.
"I sure did. And even if you wanted me to make this cake, I've already got a ton of orders that I need to get done today, and I'm the only one here. So I suggest you take that cake and get out of here."
Then, she closed the cake box and gently pushed it closer to Leo, and he begrudgingly took it while saying, "You're lucky your manager isn't here."
As he left, he could hear her cry out, "I am the manager sweetie, so try again!" and he groaned. Maybe there was another bakery in town that would bake him a cake and fast.
Leo couldn't have been more wrong.
The closest bakery besides the one he originally went to was about thirty minutes away. If he were to drive over there, wait for a cake, and drive home, he'd have everyone waiting over an hour for him.
So instead, he returned home, where he could hear shrill laughter and screaming. He didn't think much of it until he unlocked his door and walked in. The sight almost made him drop the cake.
His wife stood in the middle of the staircase, holding out a stick with a piñata dangling from it as Ignatius, blindfolded, swung a stick around attempting to hit it.
The children all circled around him, but not too close, having their empty party bags ready for the moment the candy finally burst out of the piñata.
"Sakura!" Leo cried. "What is all this?"
"O-Oh!" she squeaked in surprise. "You're back! The children really wanted candy, so I–"
"Where did you get the piñata from? Where did you get candy from!?"
"...Oh Leo, I knew what you were planning when you said you were going to fill up the party bags yourself, so I got these last week! I-I'm sorry, but I had to!"
At that moment, Ignatius landed a hit on the piñata with all his might, and the candy rained down as the kids dived in to grab as much as they could and shove it into their candy bags.
Sakura placed the broken piñata on the staircase before moving to the front door to talk to her husband. "...Do you forgive me?"
"...Did you at least give them the goodie bags I made?"
She nodded. "Oh, they… they looked so disappointed that there was no candy in them. But now, they get two party bags. I-Isn't that great?"
"Yeah, I suppose," he grumbled.
"Oh! You got the cake, right? How does it look?" she asked.
He almost forgot about how much of a cake disaster he had in his hands. "I… uh… ordered the wrong cake. It's quite the opposite from Captain Arthur and we can't even stick a candle in it."
"That's not good… Ah, just show me in the kitchen quickly."
As they passed by the couches, Leo asked, "Where did Odin go?"
"He's upstairs in the guest bedroom taking a nap," Sakura answered. "I figured he needed one. Now, what does this cake look like?"
"Right." Leo placed the cake box in the middle of the table, carefully opening it. "It's Princess Corrin."
Sakura smiled. "Wow, it's really pretty."
"Dear, come on now. It doesn't matter if it's pretty. Do you really think Forrest would want this?"
"I don't see why not," she said, tapping her chin with her index finger. "I remember him and Rahjat watching the show together when I was babysitting for Hayato."
Leo frowned. "The creepy one?"
"That's not nice," Sakura huffed.
"That doesn't make it untrue," he argued. "And besides, maybe Forrest was just being nice."
Sakura shook her head. "Well that doesn't matter right now. This is the cake we have and we're just going to have to serve it."
Leo sighed, and removed the cake from the box while Sakura called the kids inside. As soon as he set foot in the kitchen, Forrest marveled at the cake.
"Oh, wow! Mama, she's so pretty!" he cried, and Leo was in shock. Maybe he didn't know his son as well as he thought he did.
"Forrest…" said Rahjat, who clung onto his arm. "...I love your cake. Can I have Princess Corrin on top?"
"Um, Rahjat, sweetie?" said Sakura. "I don't think that Princess Corrin is a full doll. It's only the top half of her stuck into the cake."
Slowly, her smile widened. "This is fine."
"Oh… w-well, if it's okay with Forrest…"
"It's okay with me, Mama," said Forrest.
Leo could never understand how Sakura didn't think this child was creepy. The way she looked at the doll cake said it all – this child was a weirdo. "Alright, gather around the table," he said. "We're all wishing Forrest a happy birthday now."
Sakura got the idea to stick the number candle they purchased into one of the spare cupcakes, and after Leo killed the lights, everyone began to sing happy birthday to Forrest.
From what Leo could see, he looked positively elated, with his smile wide and his eyes practically sparkling as he watched the gentle dance of the flame on the candle. There was something about the look on his face that made Leo's heart melt, and the stress of the entire day seemed to vanish, if only for a moment.
Leo rested a hand on Forrest's shoulder. "Now you get to make a wish and blow out your candle."
Forrest closed his eyes for a moment, brow furrowed in thought before his wish finally came to him. The "six" candle was blown out, and everyone at the table cheered.
Although he had some trouble admitting it, maybe he wouldn't mind doing this again if it meant seeing Forrest smile like that just one more time.
After all the cake eating, present opening, and horsing around, little Forrest's birthday party finally came to a close. All the parents had come to pick up their children (Odin's wife, however, had to pick up both Odin and Ophelia since he was unfit to take the two of them home by himself), and Leo and Sakura had spent the rest of their evening cleaning while Forrest kept himself occupied with his new toys.
It had been around eight at night when Leo had gotten Forrest all cleaned up and in his pajamas, ready for bed. After Forrest shimmied into bed, Leo pulled the blankets over him. "Are you comfortable?"
Forrest nodded. "I am. Thank you, Papa."
"You're very welcome, son." Leo stood up to leave, but Forrest reached out to grab hold of his hand quickly. "...Did you need something, Forrest?"
"Um… yes," he said firmly. "Papa… I think that… today was the best day of my life. It was so much fun, and I got to see all my friends and my cousins, and I loved my presents, and the cake was so yummy."
Leo stared at his son in awe as his heart began to beat rapidly against his chest. For a moment, Forrest had him at a loss for words. "A-Are you sure? Were you really okay with the cake? And the magician? ...I know you didn't get everything you wanted when you opened your gifts either so…"
"That's okay, Papa. Everything made me so happy," he smiled. "When I blew out my candle, I wished that I could have another birthday party just like this one."
"That's rather sweet of you, Forrest, but you aren't supposed to tell your wishes to people or else they won't come true," said Leo.
Forrest gasped. "Oh no! I'll never have another birthday party again?"
Slowly, Leo kneeled down and took his son in a gentle embrace. "It's okay. I'll… Papa will work hard next year to make your wish come true. I promise."
"Will you?" Forrest asked, and Leo could hear the delight in his voice. "And can I have all Princess Corrin stuff?"
"...Yes, the party can be Princess Corrin themed," said Leo.
"Oh, I'm so happy!" he cried. "Thank you so much, Papa! I love you."
Leo's lips curved into a small smile, and his embrace around Forrest became tighter. "And I love you."
With only just a few small, but rather powerful words, Forrest was able to make this exact moment something Leo would never forget.