First Anniversary / Birthday
Lisa's alarm beeped at 4 a.m. and she was fully awake in an instant; pushing up into a sitting position, she pulled the covers away and made a dash to her desk, stumbling once in the process and falling to her knees with a thud before scrambling back up to turn off her phone. She held her breath, waiting for any signs of movement or voices in the room adjacent to hers. She was now a little angry at herself for thinking that by leaving her phone far from her bed there would be no chance of her falling back to sleep. It had been dumb, she was too excited about today to care about sleep in the first place, so the only thing she had accomplished was making a small ruckus when what she needed was complete and utter silence, if either Nine or Twelve woke up, her plan would be ruined. She listened on, staying perfectly still, but their apartment remained silent.
She would have to be more careful now. No more mistakes.
She padded softly out to the hall and peeked into the room next to hers. For once she wished Nine and Twelve were more in the habit of closing their bedroom door, but they always left it ajar in case there was an emergency. She reached for the handle and began closing it, hoping it wouldn't make a noise. She froze when Twelve turned over in his bed, facing her, but he made no indication of being awake and after a beat Lisa softly closed their door.
Their apartment was by no means big, but at least there was a decent distance between the bedroom area and the kitchen and living room.
She turned a small lamp on and looked at her surroundings with determination, nodding once to herself, she got to work.
Some three hours later, Twelve stood with mouth agape just outside his and Nine's bedroom door.
Where had all of this come from?
Streamers of blue, white and red hung from every wall. There were balloons neatly arranged in patterns of three decorating every door and corner of the apartment, some of them casually strewn about on the floor.
The faint scent of breakfast came from the kitchen, a sweet aroma mixing with the particular scent of Nine's coffee as it brewed. Soft yellow waves floated before his eyes as Lisa hummed softly from the living room area. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a handwritten banner neatly taped to their door, framed by theme colored garlands "Happy one year anniversary!"
He heard Nine sitting up in bed and letting out a soft moan as his nostrils detected the caffeinated fragrance coming from outside. "Did Lisa decide to get up early today?" he asked, reaching out for his glasses.
Twelve didn't answer, simply turning to Nine, eyes slightly widened and mouth still open in shock.
"What?" Nine asked and then cocked his head, his eyes turning to slits as he tried reading the banner from where he sat. "What anniversary?"
Twelve was starting to get an idea of what this might be as his brain slowly crawled out of the shock of the moment. "Let's go find out."
They walked into the living room; to say their apartment had been redecorated was an understatement. Lisa had somehow gotten her hands on all things blue, white and red, cushions, throws, you name it. The girl in question stood now on the top of a ladder, her back to them, still wearing her pajamas, and trying hard to knot the remaining side of a bigger banner high above their T.V. set.
"Lisa," Twelve kept his voice soft but the girl's tiny frame still jumped in place as she turned head towards his voice, losing balance in the process, true to her klutzy nature.
Both boys rushed over, Twelve managing to grab her by the waist as she slipped, and Nine taking a hold of the ladder.
"What are you doing?"
"Are you okay?"
Startled, Lisa nodded as Twelve lowered her to the floor "I thought I still had some time until you two got up, it's barely seven. I…ah…um…this," she looked nervously around, wondering if she had gone overboard. "This is to celebrate our first year together, and also, a little birthday celebration for you two? Since you two have yet to—I didn't know when—and I figured…"
As Lisa rambled in nervous whispers to herself, Nine and Twelve turned their heads to read the slightly slanted banner, it read the same lines as the one on their door but with caricature versions of the three of them under the big letters, Lisa was standing in the middle, holding their hands and smiling brightly back at them, a small dialogue bubble floated above her head wishing them a happy birthday.
Lisa stopped mid-sentence when the silence suddenly seemed to become heavy around the two guys standing next to her. Their eyes seemed to travel over the words again and again as if they expected the words to change on them.
"Are you okay?" she inquired, automatically reaching for Twelve's hand and tilting her head at Nine.
"Lisa, I don't know what to—this is—" Twelve squeezed her hand but turned to Nine, whose stare was still glued to the banner, it seemed to be the bespectacled guy's turn to gape, much like Twelve had done earlier "I think you managed to leave Nine speechless and drooling,"
Nine ripped his stare from the banner to shoot a slightly irritated look at Twelve, but even after a moment he couldn't hide the pleased little curve set at the corner of his mouth.
"This is nice. Thank you, Lisa." He said, reaching to touch the top of her head in an awkward pat, before he turned around and headed straight to the kitchen and for his morning cup of coffee.
"I think he needs a moment to gather himself after all that disgusting gushing of emotions." Twelve said.
Lisa smiled, pleased with Nine's reaction. She hadn't exactly expected Nine to be on board with this. She was even prepared to hear him say it was silly or to simply ignore it.
"We have never celebrated a birthday or an anniversary in our lives… not any good ones anyway, and definitely not… this way."
As his words reached her ears, Lisa began turning towards Twelve, detecting the hint of sadness in his tone "Twelve, I'm sorry…"
He pulled her into a tight embrace before she could turn, her back firmly pressed against his chest as he lowered his head to touch his cheek to hers "I hate it when you say sorry when you've done nothing wrong. This is amazing, truly. You're the best, Lisa."
She stayed in his embrace for a moment, letting herself bask in the joy of the moment before finally saying "I…I made breakfast."
He slowly let her go and grinned as she turned to him "Really? Why isn't the fire alarm going off as we speak then?"
Lisa frowned at him "Twelve no-baka!" she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him over to the kitchen table, where Nine was already sat, staring skeptically at the metal plate cover in front of him.
Lisa pouted at them, she took off the covers on each plate revealing a set of dishes: Steamed rice, miso soup, and tamagoyaki. All looking perfect "I can cook much better now, you know?"
"Well it looks…good, actually."
"Looks can be deceiving."
"Yeah, but aren't we used to taking Lisa's meal at face value? What you see is what you get… most of the time."
"Hm, you're right about that… Plus, isn't this still basic cuisine?"
"You two are being unnecessarily mean," Lisa muttered "But fine, if you want we can go out to eat and I'll just—" she reached for Nine's plate but he pulled it back, shaking his head. When she looked at Twelve he was already digging in.
"This is actually pretty good," Twelve said around a mouthful "Really, really good."
Nine nodded.
"Seriously," Lisa muttered, but sat down again, a smile on her lips as she began eating as well.
They were finishing up when Lisa suddenly stood up. "There's cake too!"
Nine and Twelve exchanged looks.
Lisa pursed her lips "I bought it, I know I'm not ready to bake a cake yet."
"It's early for cake." Nine said.
"Yeah, I suppose. I bought candles and all though; a set for each one of you so you can take turns and make a wish and maybe—"
She stopped when she saw the grin on Twelve's face as Nine shook his head.
"… maybe I got too excited."
"You really went all out; and the day just began," Twelve reached out to touch her hand when she sat down again. "Again, thank you, Lisa."
She nodded, her excitement suddenly gone. Twelve glanced at Nine with worry and then tilted his head at her.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing… well, I was…I was just thinking, it would be nice if we could celebrate your actual birthdays."
Twelve smiled softly and Nine sighed "We don't have birthdays Lisa, what you did today, it's more than enough."
"Everyone should have a birthday,"
"It's not essential, we've gone all of our lives without one."
Although Nine's statement was true Twelve still frowned at him. He still needed
"Then… when do you decide you're one year older. You have to at least have a date for that."
"New year's," Nine answered simply "It's easier that way."
"Both of you?"
Twelve shrugged, the move was almost imperceptible but Lisa was now used to the subtleties of his gestures, and the way he averted his eyes told her he wasn't exactly happy with Nine's arrangement.
"Well, I think you should pick a date…um…a date of your liking and separate dates would also be best."
Twelve turned his attention back to her, the ghost of a smile tugging at his lips, but he remained silent as Nine shook his head. "There's no need for that."
Lisa frowned "Of course there is! You told me you wanted to live normal lives. Normal people have birthdays, and I want to be able to celebrate them because you're important to me. I want it to be special, for you."
"This is special," Nine and Twelve said in unison, and Lisa blinked at them.
Twelve laughed "But I see your point, Lisa. I think I would like that."
"Really?"
Twelve nodded, "Nine might be a little harder to convince, but personally, I'd love a summer birthday. Not today though, this a special occasion for different reasons. How about June?"
Lisa beamed at him "Yes,"
"June 20!"
Nine frowned at Twelve "Look at all that thought you gave it."
Twelve smiled mischievously "I can change it whenever I want."
Lisa's smiled wavered "That's not exactly how it works…" but she let it go and turned to Nine "When would you like your birthday to be, Nine?"
"I don't need a birthday."
"Can I choose for him?" Twelve offered, raising a hand and bouncing eagerly on his seat.
"Eh…"
"Absolutely not." Nine said.
"Let's give him a summer birthday too!"
"Twelve, I don't think—" Lisa glanced nervously between the two, Nine was starting to shoot daggers at Twelve with his eyes.
"June 21st!"
"I don't want a summer birthday."
"You said you didn't care."
"I'm fine with new year's."
"We're just trying to help you here."
"Yes, a lot of help you're giving me by assigning my birthday the very next day after yours."
"Ehh…" Twelve's lips curled "Are you saying you don't want my left-over cake?"
Nine narrowed his eyes.
"How about… January, since you like new year so much. But after the 1st , maybe a date within the first couple of weeks?" Lisa offered.
Nine seemed to actually consider this and then frowned at Twelve "Don't think I don't know what you did here. Fine. Pick a date in January."
Twelve started opening his mouth before Nine interrupted him "And NOT the twelfth."
Lisa leaped from her chair, and gave Nine a quick hug before turning to Twelve and doing the same. "Thank you, guys!"
"Now that we finally have birth dates set, and this is our first official birthday, does this mean we're turning one today?" Twelve snickered over Lisa's shoulder.
Lisa laughed, pulling away, as Nine chocked on his drink. "Don't be stupid."
"I'll go mark the dates on my calendar then. Then we can all get ready and go out to celebrate your first unofficial birthday!" Lisa clapped her hands together and walked off to her bedroom.
"I think she's more excited about it than both of us combined." Twelve said, his gaze following the girl until she disappeared down the hall. "It's been a while since I last saw her so happy about something. I don't know how we'll keep up with her today. Not that I'm complaining."
"She'll tire soon. She did get up at 4 a.m. to prepare everything."
"You noticed too, eh?"
"With all the noise she made…" Nine smirked.
Twelve laughed. "We got very lucky, Nine."
Nine didn't say anything but Twelve thought he saw him nod before he got up and started gathering the dishes. "Come on, let's hurry and clean up before she gets back."
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Dolce S.- Even though I had more than enough time to write this I ended up doing so on the very first day of anniversary week and it was a little bit rushed. My fault. I procrastinate like no other person on the planet.
Also, I haven't abandoned my other stories, thank you so much for the reviews, I've just been on a long hiatus of sorts. But I promise they will be updated, eventually. I suck, sorry.
