Sunshine is laying on the floor of her bedroom, with a half-finished drawing in front of her, when a question comes from the doorway.
"Sunshine," Alice says, "can I have a look at your other body?"
Sunshine pauses, in the middle of drawing a tree, and looks up. The question is a strange one, but she doesn't see any reason why not. She nods and stands up, then walks over to her dresser. Her tiny doll body is still sitting there, one-armed and staring blankly into space. Sunshine carefully scoops it up, with one hand beneath its thighs and the other propping up the back, then offers it over.
"Thank you." Alice takes the body and peers over it. Two Hourai dolls hover forward, balancing an open book between them. Alice glances between the doll body and the book, occasionally tracing a line on the page with a fingertip.
Sunshine watches this with idle curiosity. She's never seen Alice do this before.
Noticing her interest, Alice flashes her a reassuring smile, with her finger still marking a spot on the page. "It isn't anything to worry about. I just realized—ah, one moment..."
Alice trails off, her eyes drifting back to the page. That's okay, though. Sunshine can be very patient when she has to be. She watches for a couple of minutes as Alice continues her investigation—checking her doll-body's eyes, inspecting the tips of its fingers, carefully opening the mouth to peer inside.
"Hmm. I think I've found it." Alice looks back to Sunshine, a little apologetic for the wait. It doesn't last long. She beckons Sunshine closer with a hand. "Take a look at the eyes. Do you notice anything strange about them?"
Sunshine looks at the doll-body's eyes. They're blue, but she's not sure why that's important. She shakes her head.
"It's a shade or two lighter than most of the blue eyes that I make. There's a little less cobalt in them. Which means that I made these eyes..." Alice references the book again. "On January 8th of last year, and I must have used the last of them by June 15th, because I fired another batch then."
Now, Sunshine is even more confused. Apparently it shows in her expression, because Alice's smile urges her to be patient. "And your hands..." She raises the doll's single intact arm to show it off. "Are a fairly new design. Do you see that little joint there on the fingers? The first time I made hands like that was on April 27th."
Alice is getting more excited now. Sunshine hasn't seen Alice excited very often, and when she is, it's usually about confusing things. Alice turns the book to show her a page. It's covered in Alice's tidy handwriting. "Between April 27th and June 15th of last year, I only made tolls twice. I made Shanghai dolls both times. But, the second time, I made a note that I was testing a new style of jaw hinge, which your old body doesn't have. So, that means..." Alice's finger slides up the page to draw attention to a line in the ledger. "... I built you on May 3rd of last year. In six days, you'll be a year old."
Sunshine stares blankly at the entry on the page: 'MAY 3 – 3 Hourai dolls, 7 Shanghai dolls, 3 London dolls, 2 Shanghai dolls (explosive variety.)' She's still not sure why Alice is telling her this, but it seems important to her, and that means that it must be important to Sunshine too. She nods and says, "Okay."
"Ah. Er. I suppose that doesn't mean much by itself, does it?" Alice pulls the book back with a sheepish smile, then crouches down to Sunshine's level. "Every year, when somebody turns a year older, people like to throw them a party and give them presents."
Now, Sunshine is paying full attention. "Presents?"
"That's right. And the party too, of course. Is there anybody from school that you'd like to have over?"
Sunshine considers that. It isn't long before she shakes her head.
"You're sure?"
Sunshine shakes her head again.
Alice tries not to look too disappointed. "Well… I suppose you haven't been attending for very long. I'm sure that you'll have friends by your next birthday."
Sunshine is not at all convinced, but that isn't the most important thing on her mind right now, anyway. "Um," she says, "what kind of presents?"
"Well, what would you like?"
Sunshine stares blankly back at her. "Um," she says again. "Um."
"It doesn't have to be a thing, of course. If we aren't having a party, we can do something else instead. If there's anything you'd like to do, we'll dedicate a whole day to it."
The offer leaves Sunshine squirming in excitement, and too overloaded to actually put a sentence together for a few seconds. "An adventure! I want an adventure!"
"It will have to be a little more concrete than that, sweetie."
"Oh. Can we... go to the moon? Like mom and Miss Reimu!"
"… ah. Well, I'm afraid that I wouldn't know how to go to the moon, sweetie. It will have to some something that we can plan in six days."
"Oh..."
Alice gives her a sympathetic smile and a kiss on the forehead. "You have almost a week to make up your mind. Take your time and think of what you'd really enjoy, okay?"
Having a birthday is a lot of responsibility.
Sunshine tries really hard to think of what she wants, but it isn't an easy decision to make. It's the kind of opportunity she won't get again for a whole year, after all, which is longer than she's even been alive. Something so important obviously has to be the most fun, amazing thing that she can possibly think of.
And every time she thinks of something fun and amazing, her parents shoot it down, which doesn't help.
She slides a picture across the dinner table one day—the paper's mostly covered by a single giant figure, four-legged and roaring, with a pair of tiny wings crammed onto its back as an afterthought. A tiny person stands next to it, smiling.
Marisa inspects the drawing. "Oh, hey, pretty nice work. Is that a dragon?"
"Uh-huh!" Sunshine points to the person standing next to it. "And me." The person is wearing a yellow dress, so it should be obvious that it's Sunshine.
"Pretty cute."
"Um! Because." Sunshine rests both hands on the table, and prepares herself before gravely announcing, "I want a dragon for my birthday."
"Hey, that's the spirit! 'cept, the only dragons I know of in Gensokyo are already spoken for. Might be kinda hard to track one down."
Sunshine pouts.
School lets out. Alice is waiting outside, and Sunshine charges straight at her, clinging to Alice's waist and hiding her face against her tummy. "Um! Um," Sunshine says excitedly. "I figured it out. What I want for my birthday."
"Oh?" Alice leans back enough to make eye contact with her. "What is it?"
"A cake." Sunshine talked to the fox kid today, and he gave her that advice. That's what humans do for birthdays, apparently. They eat cake. She feels very proud to have found that out.
"I see." Alice smiles at that, stroking Sunshine's hair back. "Well, we have cake all the time, right? I'll definitely make one for your birthday, but I'd like your present to be something special, just for you."
Sunshine stares at her in mute disbelief. When she'd asked for an adventure or a dragon, they'd said it was too much. Now that she's asking for cake, they say that it isn't enough. Presents are apparently very complicated.
A little tremble of frustration runs through her. She leans in against Alice, tightening the hug. "Okay..."
It's three days before Sunshine's birthday, and Marisa has spent longer than usual playing with her. Over the past couple of months, they've added a bit more complexity to the dragon game. If the dragon gets cornered and beaten up too quickly, she's allowed to announce that she's flying, and swords can't reach her. Sometimes the knight can find a magic sword and kill the dragon in one shot, or shoot sword lasers that hit the dragon even when she's flying. Sometimes if Sunshine wants to involve Ichigo, there can be two knights.
It isn't a very fair game if you're the dragon, but Sunshine isn't quite old enough to realize that yet.
"So," Marisa says, as she slumps down to rest against the base of a tree. She reaches over and scoops Sunshine up, dropping her into her lap. "Figure out what you might want for your birthday yet?"
Sunshine stares glumly down at the ground, and gives a single shake of her head.
"It's a pretty big decision, huh?"
"Birthdays are hard..."
"Mmhm. Want me to tell you a secret?"
Sunshine glances up, and Marisa leans in conspiratorially. "The whole reason your mom's making a big deal about it is that she wants to make you happy. She thinks it'll be more fun if you think up what you'd like all by yourself, but... I get the feeling you'd be happier if I gave you some help. How about it?"
Sunshine nods. She isn't sure she's ever nodded so hard in her entire life.
"Thought so. So, if you could have anything in the world right now, what'd it be?"
That sounds like a really easy question, but it isn't. Sunshine already knows that if she says she wants an adventure, or a pet dragon, or to go to the moon, they're going to say that those don't work. If she asks for a cake, they'll say that it isn't big enough for a present. And they've already told her that she might not be able to learn magic.
What's better than a cake, but not as good as a dragon? Sunshine scowls down at her lap as she considers that. "I don't know..."
"Well, think about it like this, then. What's some stuff you've gotten that made you happy?"
"Um. My big body. Ichigo. Clothes. Candy. ... strawberries."
"See, there you go!" Marisa gives Sunshine a little squeeze. "A new body isn't happenin' any time soon, but all that other stuff is pretty good. If you asked Alice to make you a new doll, or a really pretty dress, or a heap of candy, those would all make pretty good presents, don't you think?"
"Strawberries too...?"
"Oh, hmm. Just givin' you some strawberries wouldn't be much of a present. If you wanted something like that… Hmm. It's kinda a weird present for a kid, but I guess we could make you your own little garden or something."
Sunshine perks up when she hears that. Alice has a garden, so she's familiar with them. Alice's garden is full of herbs and vegetables and things, though. It all goes into their food, but Sunshine isn't very excited to eat most of it. If she had her own garden, though…
"Could, um. Could it have apples?"
"Apples take a long time to grow, but sure, we could plant some if you want. There's lots of other things I think you'd like, though. Watermelons, blackberries, sweet potatoes... now that I think about it, there's lots of fruits and stuff you've still never eaten, huh? Gettin' your big body in winter means you've missed out on a lot."
It takes a few seconds, but Sunshine eventually understands this to mean that there are a lot of other foods at least as tasty as strawberries. Her eyes widen, and she gives a little wiggle in Marisa's lap. "Um! I like that one. A garden. I want a garden, please!"
"Are you sure? A garden's a lot of work, and—well, I mean, you're you so I'm pretty sure you'll be able to handle it, but it isn't always fun."
Sunshine doesn't even need time to consider the question before she nods.
Marisa smirks and leans back, propping her head against the tree. "A weird gift for a weird kid." Seeing Sunshine pout in response, she ruffles her hair. "I think it's fitting. There's a trick, though. We've got to convince your mom that this was all your idea, okay? She'll be happier if she thinks you thought it up all by yourself."
That doesn't sound very hard. Sunshine nods again.
"Maybe you can say Kei—er, Miss Kamishirasawa talked about gardens in school and you thought it sounded fun or something? I dunno."
Subterfuge has never been Sunshine's greatest skill. On some level, deceiving Alice still feels very wrong to her. But, if it's only a really tiny lie and it's to make Alice feel better, that's probably okay.
Sunshine starts to nod, but Marisa reaches down to poke her on the nose. "Can ya repeat the plan to me? Just so I'm sure we're on the same page n' all."
Sunshine goes quiet, staring down into her lap and mouthing sounds to herself, making a few test runs to see if she can even get all of the words she needs from her head to her mouth. "I'll say that Miss. Um." A tired little sigh as she works up the momentum for one of the longest words she can imagine. "Miss... Ka-mi-shi... ra-sawa... um. Talked about gardens. And I want one."
"Attagirl." Marisa squeezes her, and before Sunshine can respond, stands up and hefts her into her arms. Sunshine lets out a soft squeak before Marisa lowers her to the ground. "Now, c'mon, it's almost dinner time. We've gotta wash up or Alice'll get cranky."
It's Sunshine's birthday.
Alice steps outside, shielding her eyes with one hand and cradling a basket of gardening supplies in the other. A patch of ground next to the house has already been prepared, loosened and hoed into rows. It's way bigger than Sunshine's entire room is, and it's still smaller than Alice's vegetable garden.
Are you sure that you want to plant everything yourself?" Alice asks, trying to hide the doubt in her voice. "It's your birthday, after all. We'd be happy to help you."
Sunshine gives a firm shake of her head. Alice has spent most of the past three days trying to gently dissuade her from getting a garden as a birthday present. If it weren't for Marisa's support, she would probably have backed down by now. As it is, she's discovered a surprising reserve of stubbornness.
"Well, you're the birthday girl." Alice smiles and sits the basket on the ground next to the tilled patch. Inside are the beginnings of every tasty-sounding fruit or vegetable that Sunshine was able to think of with Marisa's help, and a few flowers too—little paper pouches of seeds, sprouted plants in tiny pots, dry bulbs that look like tiny onions, and a few larger plants, naked except for the knots of soil around their roots.
"What do you want to plant first?" Alice asks. "Sweet potatoes, watermelon, or strawberries?"
Sunshine freezes as she considers this weighty decision. Her first instinct is to plant the strawberries first so she can eat them first, but Alice already explained that plants take a very long time to grow. Even if she plants the strawberries right now, she'll be waiting to eat them almost as long as she's been in her bigger body. It's still hard to convince herself to point to a small pile of plant slips in one corner of the basket, which she knows are sweet potatoes.
"Good choice," Marisa says. "You remember what we talked about, right? The holes need to be pretty deep so it has lots of room to stretch out."
Sunshine nods and steps over to the end of the nearest furrow, then crouches down next to it. She has a trowel of her very own now, a bonus present that came from the store where they bought all the plants. Carefully, she stabs it into the dirt. She pulls it back and stabs again, forming a lopsided X. Then, she starts twisting it, loosening the soil. Here in the garden, the ground is a lot softer than she's used to. Soon, she has a small mound of dirt. It's easy enough to slip the trowel down into it and scoop some out.
Something moves in the bottom of her hole. Sunshine leans in to peer down at it, but she's too slow. She gets into position just in time to see it vanish from sight.
"Um," she says.
Marisa leans in over it too. "Somethin' wrong?"
"Something moved..."
"Oh, yeah, you've gotta be real careful about that when you're digging a hole. Wherever you go in Gensokyo, the underworld's beneath you, you know? So if you dig in the wrong spot..." Marisa swings her arms up into the air. "Whoosh!"
Sunshine stares up at her. She does not know what 'whoosh' is supposed to mean.
"... all kindsa hell critters will come out. Cats with too many tails, and oni, and spider girls. If you aren't carefully, they'll scoop you up and take you down there, and you'll get so wrapped up partyin' that you'll never wanna leave."
"Oh..." Sunshine looks back at the hole, newly informed of its dangers. She hadn't realized that digging was such a serious topic.
"Marisa." Alice sighs. "Don't scare her. Sunshine, you won't fall into the underworld just from digging a hole. … at least, not one this small, in this part of Gensokyo. We're here to keep you safe anyway."
This is not as reassuring as Alice might think, but Sunshine still nods. She hesitates, then lifts the trowel again. Lining it up with the slope of the hole, she pushes the tip into the loose soil, bracing herself the whole time in case she needs to retreat from an oni onslaught. She scoops the dirt out.
Again, something moves. This time, Sunshine isn't going to take her chances. With a surprised squeak, she hops backward, landing on her butt. Ichigo darts forward to insert herself between Sunshine and the apparent source of danger.
"Ohhh, you weren't kidding, huh? There's a heck of a monster down there." Marisa reaches down into the hole, and Sunshine watches her every move. She fishes out the source of the movement. It's a long, glistening, brown thing, and it wiggles back and forth, squirming plaintively in the air.
Sunshine watches it for a few seconds. The thing is weird, but she's pretty sure it isn't an oni. "Um. What is it?"
"It's a worm. They eat dirt and, uh, make more dirt. Somethin' like that." Marisa stretches out her hand, with the thing draped across her fingers and wiggling at both ends. "Wanna pet him? They don't bite or anything."
Sunshine shakes her head so hurriedly that her hair raises up at the ends. Ichigo still hasn't let up her guard, either.
"Well, alright." Marisa doesn't seem to be in any hurry to put the worm down. She raises her other hand, letting it crawl across the back of her fingers, then holds it out toward Alice. Alice, too, shies back from the thing. "... now that you've got a hole, you can put a plant in it. The roots go in first, remember."
Sunshine nods, and looks down to the bowl of tiny sprouts sitting next to her. Their tops are leafy, and their bottoms are submerged in a shallow pool of water. She carefully plucks one up by the stem, then slips it into the hole until the roots touch the bottom. With her other hand, she pushes the dirt back in, watching it suspiciously for any sign of more worms.
With that done, she looks back to her parents for approval.
"Pretty good," Marisa says. "Now push the dirt down, just a bit."
Sunshine does, then leans back from the hole. As soon as she's sure that she did what she was supposed to, she shakes her hands, trying to get the leftover dirt off of them. Her hands are dirty, and there's nothing to wash them with. The thought of wiping them on her dress doesn't even occur to her. Getting her dress dirty on purpose is the worst thing she can imagine.
"There we go. One sweet potato plant all ready to go. Now we've just gotta do that about six more times."
Sunshine looks down the length of the garden. It had already seemed big, but now she realizes that it's enormous. Planting six more potato plants seems like it'll take all day, and that's not even all she needs to do. There are still watermelons, and blackberries, and strawberries, and...
Sunshine looks to Ichigo and makes a few demonstrative hand gestures. Just in case she adds, "Um. With shovels. Please."
Ichigo doesn't show any comprehension, but she turns and floats off into the cottage. Marisa watches her go. "What was that about?"
"Planting," Sunshine explains.
A minute or two passes. Alice and Marisa both shoot the occasional uncertain glance toward the house. "Well," Marisa finally says. "We should probably get moving again, huh? Here, I'll help out a little."
Marisa crouches down next to the furrow, digging another little hole and sliding a sprout into it. She's just starting to pack the soil when the cottage's front door opens again. Eight dolls, of mixed rank and mixed dress color, shuffle out with tiny shovels slung over their shoulders. Ichigo walks at the front of the procession, now toting her own shovel.
The dolls approach the garden, and Sunshine eagerly waves them over. "Um. See?" She crouches down and digs another little hole. The dolls crowd in to watch. She goes through each step carefully, stressing certain parts that she knows are more confusing. When she's finished and the sprout is snugly seated in the ground, she looks up again and spread her arms. "This far." She demonstrates a distance with her thumb and index finger. "This deep. Um. Please."
The dolls toddle down along the row, taking up positions every meter or so. One by one, they start digging. As they complete their holes to their satisfaction, they form an orderly queue at the dish to grab a sprout and haul it back for planting.
Marisa stands up from her own sprout and pushes her hat back, watching this with amusement. "Not really what I'd imagined when you said you wanted to plant the whole thing yourself."
"She's just being efficient about it," Alice says, giving Sunshine a proud pat on the shoulder.
"Uh-huh. Well, I think it'll be done in about ten minutes at this rate. You made Sunshine a cake, right?"
"Of course. It's big enough for us to share."
"Think it'd travel well?"
Alice shoots Marisa a suspicious look. "I don't see why not, as long as I put it in a basket. … why?"
"How about you two go bundle up and grab the cake? I've got one more surprise."
Normally, when Marisa flies Sunshine around on her broomstick, she stays close to the ground. Alice gets mad when she flies too high, and even more mad when she does tricks. Today isn't like that, though. As soon as they're out of the forest, they start pulling up and up and up.
Sunshine glances back as they ascend. From the air, it isn't hard to find their house—it's at the base of a long column of smoke that rises up from the chimney. By the time she finds it, it already looks tiny, and it only shrinks more and more as they rise higher. Soon, the puffy wisps of low-flying clouds stream past, and then it's completely obscured.
Sunshine tugs her scarf over her face and turns forward again, pressing in against Marisa's back for warmth. When they finally level off, they're way, way up in the sky. On the ground, it was overcast and dark. Up here, there isn't anything blocking the sun, and the clouds form a cottony blanket far, far below them. They look soft and squishy, and Sunshine kind of wants to try squeezing one and see how it feels, but they're going too fast for that.
"It'll be a bit of a trip!" Marisa shouts back to her. "Can you guess where we're goin' yet?"
Sunshine looks around, but there isn't a lot to see. There are clouds beneath them, and some distance behind and below, Alice is trailing them. After a moment's consideration, she leans to the side, with her hands clinging tightly to Marisa's waist. Leaning out far enough, she can see around her, to the area directly in front of them. There's a single thing poking up above the layer of clouds—Youkai Mountain, which still looks tall even from this angle.
She reaches past Marisa to point at it.
"Yep! Youkai Mountain. Pretty cool spot for a picnic, huh?"
Sunshine isn't sure she can shout over the noise of the wind again, but she gives an excited nod in response. Her parents have told her a few stories about the mountain, and most of them are pretty exciting ones. One time, Marisa flew up the mountain, and she spent the whole time fighting gods and youkai. This is starting to sound like an adventure.
Today, though, nobody comes out to attack them. She can see the slope of the mountain rising upward beneath them. When it finally pokes up past the clouds, it lets her realize just how high they are. Even the mountainside is so far down that the trees look like little green puffs of leaves. Trees aren't the only thing to look at, though. A river snakes down its side, punctuated by little clouds of haze where it forms waterfalls. Here and there, she can see pillars of smoke and dots of fire where people must live.
They fly past all of these. The river meets up with a lake, close enough that she can spot their reflection in it as they fly past. The lake is so big that it feels like time has slowed down, making them creep along on the trip from shore to shore. Ahead of them, Sunshine can clearly see the peak of the mountain at the top of the slope, even higher than they currently are.
They don't go all the way to the peak, though. Marisa pulls the broom level, and the mountainside rises up to greet them. This high up, there aren't many trees, and the ones there are look kind of scraggly. There are other plants, though, and below them is a little meadow. Here, Marisa finally descends, slowing down before she comes to a careful stop.
"Here we are!" she says, keeping the broom level so Sunshine can dismount. "That was probably the longest trip you've ever took, huh?"
Sunshine is pretty sure it is. She hops off of the broom. The grass makes a soft sound as her feet sink into it. It pokes up past her ankles, and something about it feels different from the grass she's used to. It feels dainty and tender, like it isn't accustomed to being walked on.
Alice lands close by. "Dear," she says, in a sharp tone that Sunshine has learned means she's annoyed, "are you sure that coming this high up the mountain is a good idea?"
"It'll be fine," Marisa says. "I cut a deal with the tengu. They didn't come out to stop us, right?"
"I'm more worried about the hags."
"Never really seen 'em up this high. I think they don't bother going anywhere they can't catch outsiders."
Her parents keep talking, but Sunshine's attention turns toward their surroundings. The wind up here is steady, a constant, stiff breeze that occasionally builds up into a strong howl that tugs at her clothes. That's not the really interesting part, though. The meadow ends a few meters away, sliding down into the rocky slope of the mountainside. There are just enough trees dotting it that she can't make out much detail of the mountain itself. Past that, though, are the clouds. They stretch out in every direction, with only the very occasional interruption from other, distant mountains. Here and there, gaps between them offer her peeks at the countryside below, little islands of green grass in an ocean of white.
"It feels different when you aren't flying, doesn't it?" Alice steps up alongside Sunshine, resting a hand on her shoulder.
Sunshine looks up to her, then back to the clouds below. It does feel different. She wants to grab a handful of clouds even more, for one thing. She nods.
"It's a nice view. … although if Marisa had told me we'd be coming up here, I would have dressed you warmer."
"I wanted it to be a surprise!" Marisa protests. She walks up to stand beside them, thumbs hooked in the edges of her apron as she looks out over the countryside. "Besides, I've got a really good reason."
"And what's that?"
Marisa doesn't answer. Instead, she grins down to Sunshine. "Alright if I pick ya up, kiddo?"
Sunshine isn't sure where this is going, but she nods.
"Right. Here..." Marisa crouches down and hooks her hands under Sunshine's armpits. In a single motion, she stands up and hefts Sunshine onto her shoulders. "... we go!"
"I'm almost certain that you could've given Sunshine a piggyback ride closer to sea level," Alice says.
"It's not just a piggyback ride, jeez. Anyway, Sunshine, you said you wanted to go to the moon for your birthday, right?"
"Um..." It sounds kind of like a trick question, but this isn't a chance Sunshine will pass up that easily. "Uh-huh."
"Well, this is the highest place in Gensokyo, and if you're sitting on my shoulders, you're even taller. Can't get you all the way to the moon yet, but this is a pretty good start, right?"
Sunshine pauses in surprise, then looks up. The moon is up there, hanging in the afternoon sky. Without any clouds in front of it, it's a little harder to tell how far away it is. Sunshine stares up for a few seconds before tentatively reaching up, stretching her fingers toward it.
Her fingers don't quite touch it, but she's almost certain that it looks a little closer than it did on the ground.
"I can't reach..." Sunshine announces, after a few seconds of this.
"Not quite yet, at least," Alice says, stifling an amused smile.
"That's okay. She's still a growin' girl. She'll get it sooner or later." Marisa pushes her hat aside and tilts her head back, letting her look up and make eye contact. "I know the garden was supposed to be your big present, but I figured one more surprise wouldn't hurt. You're not gonna hold it against me, are you?"
Sunshine shakes her head.
"Good. My plan is, I'm gonna overload you with presents every year until you're a spoiled brat, so then Alice won't be able to stand ya and I'll have you all to myself."
"I'm not sure you could spoil Sunshine if you tried." Alice steps over and offers her arms up to Sunshine. Sunshine leans forward, and Alice scoops her up. Rather than a piggyback ride, though, she pulls her into a hug. "Isn't that right?"
Sunshine gives an uncertain nod.
"Yeah, well." Marisa slides in, hugging Sunshine from the other side. "You haven't seen how good I am at presents. Just wait 'til next year. Gonna see about getting that dragon."
"Of course." Alice's eyes turn from Marisa to Sunshine. "It was a little unconventional, but did you enjoy your first birthday?"
Sunshine nods much more enthusiastically this time. "Mmhm!"
"Good. You deserve the best birthday we can give you." Alice gives Sunshine a peck on the forehead. "Happy birthday, Sunshine."
"Happy birthday, kiddo." Marisa gives her a matching kiss on the other side. "Now let's have some cake."
