Love
Cissnei walked slowly up the front steps of the apartment where she was currently staying, searching in her bag for the keys to her door. She had just managed to grab the key chain which her key was kept on and looped her finger through it to pull it up out of her bag when someone leaped out in front of her from the shadows.
"Boo!" the person yelled, startling her and succeeding in getting a squeak from her as she stumbled backwards and lost her keys once again.
"Reno!" Cissnei scolded angrily, narrowing her eyes as she recognised the face and red hair of one of her friends from work. "What are you doing here?" she added.
"What do you think, yo? I got bored." He shrugged, moving to the side and slipping his arm through hers, dragging her around and walking her back down the stairs to the street again.
"What are you doing, Reno?" Cissnei asked with a sigh.
"I wanted to look at the stars with someone!" he exclaimed with a dreamy sigh. "Isn't this romantic?"
Cissnei stared at him sideways and blinked slowly a few times, wondering what had happened to him and whether he had recently taken a particularly hard blow to the head from Rude. It was possible.
"Are you drunk?" she asked with a frown.
"Of course not! Anyway, here, I'll help you get into your apartment now seeing as you obviously don't want to stay out here with me, yo." Reno sighed dramatically and grabbed her bag from her, darting back up the stairs and inside.
With a groan, Cissnei followed.
She found Reno shoving her key into her door and turning it, swiftly unlocking it and shoving it open before stepping back and grinning stupidly. She walked past him, grabbing her bag as she did so, before throwing it onto her table.
"Keys?" she said, turning back to Reno and raising her eyebrows expectantly, holding a hand out.
"Why do you live in such a shabby apartment?" Reno asked, his eyes roaming around the room curiously.
"I prefer to keep my wealth under wraps." she replied, folding her arms. "This way I fit in more."
"Pfft, who wants to fit in, yo?" Reno scoffed. He shook his head, shoved his hands into pockets and walked out of the room.
Cissnei let out a sigh and sat down on her chair, putting her head in her hands. She would never understand Reno. Never.
With a sudden frustrated and slightly strangled sounding groan, Cissnei slammed a hand down onto her table as she realised Reno had left with her keys.
The nerve of some people!
More accurately – the nerve of Reno!
Pulling out her phone, she flipped up the lid and began searching through her list of contacts for Reno so that she could send him a message to bring her keys back at once.
Just as she was about to select his name, however, her phone gave a small buzz and she flinched.
Quickly manoeuvring out of the contact list, she went to her new message and opened it up, interested as to who was sending her a message now. If it was Reno bragging about having her keys she would rip his head off the next time they spoke.
It was from Genesis.
Ciss, how was work?
Short and sweet. Just a small message to let her know he was thinking about her and wanted to know how she was. She couldn't help but smile, a warm feeling spreading throughout her and making her feel as through she must be glowing.
She quickly typed a reply, saying, Work was fine, Reno was – is – annoying and I'm tired. How was your day?
Cissnei sat there in her apartment with her phone in her hand and continued to trade text messages with Genesis for a good half hour before they both decided it was time to call it a night. All thoughts of Reno stealing her keys were gone from her mind and she only remembered the next day – to find them sitting on her table as if she had left them there herself the night before.
When she left work that day and headed home she tried to keep a smile on her face but found it becoming harder and harder. Today was her birthday and hardly any of her friends had shown up for work. Not even Reno had been there to jump out at her and sing 'happy birthday' really loudly and off-key.
In fact, the friends of hers who had shown up hadn't said anything about her birthday and left early, having finished all their work and getting to go early because Tseng allowed them too.
So as she neared her apartment, the smile once on her face was gone and she dragged her feet slightly. Genesis hadn't even messaged her to tell her happy birthday.
Pulling her keys out from her bag as she walked up the steps, she made her way in to her door and opened it up, slipping inside before shutting the door behind her again and flicking the light on.
"Surprise!"
Cissnei slapped a hand to her mouth and backed into the door, eyes wide in fright and heart beating quickly in her chest. In front of her were all her friends, all smiling at her hugely. There were streamers around the room and a few balloons here and there. Her table was covered in food and presents and she couldn't believe what was happening.
"Oh my gosh." she whispered.
Reno stepped forward and hugged her tightly before steering over to join everyone, who then all said happy birthday to her.
"Did we get you?" Reno asked excitedly.
"Yes!" Cissnei squeaked. "I had no idea!"
"Why else do you think we all got off work early, or in Reno's case took the whole day off?" Elena asked from the side, smiling at Cissnei.
"You took the day off to do this?" Cissnei exclaimed, eyebrows shooting up.
"Yep." Reno nodded and shrugged. "And before you ask how I got into your apartment, I stole your keys last night and made a copy so I could use it to get in. Don't worry, you can have it later so that I never sneak into your room again."
Cissnei laughed and shook her head, amused at Reno and not finding it very hard to believe that Reno had actually done that.
"Cissnei." someone said softly from behind her and she quickly turned around, her smile becoming even wider if that was possible and before she could help herself she had moved forward and hugged Genesis.
"I love you!" she said, before blushing crimson and stepping away from him, looking down at the ground and fidgeting with her hands. Adrenaline raced through her veins and she wished she could have been able to keep her mouth shut.
A finger gently touched her chin to lift her head up and Genesis smiled down into her eyes. "I love you too."
"You know, Genesis was the one who came up with the idea to have a surprise party in the first place." Reno said from behind her, obviously not wanting to be left out of the conversation even though if he was anyone else he would have known not to interrupt.
"You did?" Cissnei asked Genesis, eyes bright with happiness.
"I wanted it to be special for you," Genesis said. "I hope you like it."
"I love it!" Cissnei said quickly, biting her lip after she had. Genesis chuckled and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into him for a side hug.
"Do you want something to eat, or do you want to open a few presents now, or what?" he asked her.
"Did you get me a present?" she asked.
"Well... yes." Genesis said, hesitating only slightly. Cissnei looked at him curiously but he only smiled mischievously and led her over to where the presents were piled on the table. He picked one up and handed it to her.
"This is from you?" she asked to confirm and began opening it once he had nodded.
She pulled off the wrapping paper and then opened the plain brown box to see what was inside of it. Pulling out the object, she gasped quietly as she set her eyes on the book she had been wanting for a while but hadn't been able to find in any shops.
"That's only part of it." Genesis said quietly, shuffling his feet nervously.
"What do you mean?" Cissnei asked, looking up at him and smiling again.
"Here's the second part of your present." Genesis said, pausing for a moment to glance over her face before bending slightly and pressing his lips against hers.
Cissnei's eyes fluttered closed and she slowly put an arm around his neck, kissing him back gently and softly.
"Whoo! What a birthday!" Reno exclaimed happily from across the room and they both blushed, moving away from each other again.
Cissnei carefully put her book back in the box Genesis had put it in and then put it back with the rest of the gifts. Genesis slipped an arm around her waist and bent down to her ear, breathing against it gently for a moment.
"Happy birthday, Princess." he whispered and she giggled, turning to hug him again.
She couldn't have asked for a more perfect birthday.