Alright my lovelies! I'm so happy to be back! I haven't been to my computer at all today, so this is the first time I'm going to be on it! And then I'll get back to writing some more. I've got nine days before I go back to school, but my schedule is nice enough that I have most afternoons free. So maybe I'll be able to continue to write more and more! Yay!
And of course, I have to thank my reviewers! Thanks so much to I'm Shexy and I Know Itt, Half-Angel-Writer, EowynAhsokaLover, Akemi Tatsuyoshi, and AhhMyLife for your wonderful reviews! I love getting them and reading how constructive they are. You guys are amazing.
So, this chapter is pretty much just fluff. It's mostly a bridge, but hey. I love this story, and every good story has to have it's slow and almost completely pointless moments. And the last chapter as well as this one is basically just that. Nevertheless, I hope you guys enjoy it!
"Yes? You can do that for me? Great. And how much would that cost?" I say as I talk to the bakery that Honey-sempai often orders from.
"Oh...well that's a lot. What if I got the cakes freshly baked, nothing decorated or anything? Yes, just the cakes...really? Well, that's great! Yes, I really think I will order. Give me a day and I'll get back to you. Alright, thank you so much. Have a good day!" I say, writing down a few things. Tamaki comes over to me with a smile.
"Has it been taken care of my dear princess?" I nod.
"Yeah. It looks like the bakery will give me half off for skipping the decorating. That's good. I can do the decorating myself that way." Tamaki gives me a funny look.
"You can decorate cakes, Mari-chan?" I nod to him, looking up from the paper I'd been scribbling on.
"Yeah, I can. I worked a summer job at a bakery back in middle school. My mama and I also decorate candy, cookies and cakes on all sorts of holidays. We used to distribute them to our middle and high schools back in the states. You remember that, Tori?" She smiles.
"Yeah, and they were always really good, too!" We both laugh. I've got the decorations figured out, so all that's left is to find out what kind of cake we want.
"Alright, what kind of cake do we want? Kyoya isn't partial to sweets. So things like chocolate, vanilla, and all of that are out. Maybe coffee? A tiramisu would be nice. But...hmm..." I start to write things down cross things off as I go. I get down to toffee, coffee, and hazelnut cake. The toffee is on the sweeter end, though it's a muted sweetness. Coffee cake is strong if you make it right, and hazelnut is nearly flavorless. It's really nutty and aromatic more than anything.
"Do we want just one layer or many?" I ask aloud.
"How about just one? I think it'll be more than enough." Tori says. I nod and look at Haruhi, who agrees.
"Alright, so that's done...one large sheet of undecorated hazelnut cake. We need to get frosting and pipes to decorate the cakes. Food coloring...hey, what's his favorite color?"
"Aren't you his girlfriend? Isn't that a first date kind of question?" I shake my head at Hikaru.
"I have no clue. We talk about much more constructive things." I say.
"Like what? Having babies? Or maybe it's more like...sex." I glare at the twins.
"No, things like our family and friends. Now hush and answer the damn question." I say.
"Green. That's his favorite color." Tamaki says absently. I smile.
"Alright. That's good. I like that color too." I say to myself. I scratch out some other things.
What am I going to get for his birthday? I haven't thought of a gift yet. Maybe it's time for me to go shopping by myself after school some day.
And with that, the days fly by. We arrange and organize the party, which includes finding the venue—Tamaki's house, we decided—and then we order the cake. It's delivered to Tamaki's the day before Kyoya's birthday, and I arrive early the morning of Kyoya's birthday to decorate the cake.
"My dear princess! The twins are in the reception room preparing it and decorating it! The cake is in the kitchen and everyone else is in the reception room helping the twins decorate. I'll take you to the kitchen, if that's alright?" I nod.
"Yeah, I need to get there and get started." He directs me to the kitchen, and immediately I begin to go to work. I brought other clothes for the party, so I can get as dirty as I want to doing this job.
I go to work first covering the cake in a white frosting. You have to ice a cake a certain way because of how the chemistry works. You can't go back and forth on the very first layer because then you pick up the pieces of cake on the surface and mess up the frosting. So I get down one coat, then another, and then pull out a large bowl—after much searching, mind you—and pour some more icing into the bowl. I mix some green food color into the white frosting until I get a nice color, then scoop it into a piping bag and start to decorate it. First around the base, then on the edge on the top, and then some decoration on the side. I then grab a squeeze bottle and fill it with the green frosting and start to write on the cake. Once that's done, I step back.
"Well Maria, I daresay you did a good job." I say to myself as I start to wash my hands. Tamaki comes in at that moment.
"The room is decorated and we are ready, Maria! Kyoya is on his way. I asked him to come by because I said I wanted him to see something I got. It was hard but I managed to convince him! The cake is done?" I nod.
"Yeah, completely. I'll carry it in and then go change." I say, picking it up and making my way to the dining room. I put the cake down, then get out of the room and find a bathroom. I quickly change and let my hair down. It falls straight down and then I change. I slip on black leggings and then pull on a teal dress. It's sleeveless with a black satin belt underneath that's held in place with a rhinestone design imbedded in a silver setting. I pull my birthday present for Kyoya—wrapped and complete with a bow and a card—and then shake my head. I'll give it to him later. I put it back in the bag at then slip on my black flats that have a rhinestone embellishment on the top of my toes as well. I pull on a black dressy sweater to cover up the skin and then make my way to the room. Everyone's getting ready for Kyoya to arrive.
"Alright, so how long do we have?" I asked Kaoru. He smiles to me.
"I believe the boss went into the foyer just now to get Kyoya. He has no idea. Your dress is beautiful, Mari-chan!" I smile at him.
"Well, thank you Kaoru." I say as everyone gets ready. I see Shima come in—Tamaki's personal caretaker, I found out—and she stands near Tori. I see her talking happily with Tori, and I can't help smiling.
Then, the door opens and everyone yells surprise. Kyoya walks in—a deer in the headlights, might I add—and I just stand there and try not to laugh. I cross my arms and wait for him to cope with the fact that we—they, actually—threw a surprise party for him.
"Happy birthday, mommy!" Tamaki says, which makes Kyoya glare at him.
"Yeah, happy birthday, Kyoya." Haruhi says. Everyone else follows suit until I'm the only one who hasn't said something. I'd rather be invisible today. It's about him today, not me. Plus I've wiped my hands of this. I had nothing to do with it, officially, even though I funded it and helped set it up.
I don't really know if he ever gets used to the fact that he's been surprised. But we manage to get him to sit down, we sing happy birthday. I direct it so that we don't sing off key, which works for the most part. I realize that Haruhi is a lost cause, unfortunately. Nevertheless things go off without a hitch.
"You're a really good singer, Mari-chan!" Honey-sempai compliments to me later. I laugh.
"Nah, I'm okay. Thanks for saying so though, Honey-sempai." I say.
"Stop it. You are!" Tori says to me, and I roll my eyes.
"Whatever. Shut up." I tell her seriously. I don't want her to get started on my singing. She's enamored of it, I can't stand it. So I don't sing much anymore. She mainly just pouts at me.
"Mari-chan, I want to hear you sing more!" The twins say in unison. I shake my head.
"Not going to happen." I say as I eat the cake. It tastes really good. I didn't realize it would taste this good.
"Aw, c'mon. Sing one song for us?" I shake my head.
"No! I am not singing!" I say adamantly.
"Why not?" Haruhi asks, and Tori answers for me.
"She hates her voice. She says that she wishes she didn't have it. But it's amazing! It's like, Christina Aguilera amazing. I wish I could sing like her! She used to sing all the time back home, but she doesn't do it much anymore. Not since she quit choir two years ago." I roll my eyes and ignore her even if she's right. About the choir part, not the rest.
"You will have to sing something for us sometime, then. I'm curious now that Tori has mentioned this." I hear Kyoya say to me from my left, and I shake my head.
"I don't know about that." I say, and then it's dropped when Hikaru and Kaoru start to cover each other in their cake. I can only shake my head with a face-palm. Those two, I swear...
The day ends at nightfall, and after everything is cleaned up and put away, everyone starts to leave. Soon the only ones left are Tamaki, Tori, Kyoya and I. Tamaki drags Tori to the other room, and soon I hear the piano playing. I hear giggling and whispering too, and I can't help smiling. Kyoya sits down next to me, which makes me look at him. He takes my hand and squeezes it.
"Tamaki told me that today you were the one who helped them get everything set up to surprise me. Yet you wanted nothing to do with it. I can tell you that even though I was surprised, hearing that made me happy. Knowing that you cared enough about the others, as well as me, to do this means more than anything. Thank you for a wonderful birthday." He says, leaning forward and kissing me gently. It quickly turns passionate, and I lose myself in it. A soft noise, however, alerts me to the present that I have to give Kyoya. I smile.
"I did manage to get you a gift, Kyoya. But you already know who it is." I say, lifting out of my bag a small box. It makes a soft noise, and Kyoya takes it. He opens it, and out pops Mika. She climbs out of the box and onto Kyoya's shoulder. She snuggles against him and purrs openly.
"I want you to have her, Kyoya. She's not too keen on her sisters and she's kind of the oddball. Storm adores Tori and Ginger loves me. I want you to have her because I know you'll give her a wonderful home." I tell him. He smiles as the kitten loves on him some more. She's not small anymore, but she's not huge either. She's larger kitten size and plays with Kyoya's collar by his neck.
"I'll take good care of her, Maria." I smile.
"Good. Happy birthday, Kyoya." I say, and he looks at me. It's the first time I've said it all day, actually. He then pulls me in for another kiss that swallows me whole.
I'm so happy and thankful for this boy in front of me. I'm happy that he's with me and that he cares about me and supports me. I'm happy that I care about him so much and would love nothing more than to support him. Things between us are only going to get better, I just know it.
Ah, so short and sweet. Charming, really, when you think about it. But still completely pointless. Nevertheless I was happy to surprise Kyoya, no matter how much I hate birthday parties and how uncreative with them I am, as you now well know.
So, I look forward to what you lovely people have to say, and I thank you for reading this!
Much love and later days!
~B-chan