Summary: Nico is overbooked for her birthday. Will Maki have a cure?

Nico's office. Nico's desk. Executive producer Yazawa Nico. Nico was almost impressed. It wasn't a large office, but it had a window. And on her desk to the right of her desktop was a large framed picture of Maki and her siblings looking goofy while enjoying the Christmas lights at Yomiuri Land. Maki had bought them all matching Santa hats and was wearing a red coat with a white collar that made her look like the jolly old elf's close relative. Looking at it never failed to make Nico smile, no matter how frustrated meetings and phone calls were making her. Maki magic.

Maki magic was what Nico needed now. Tomorrow was her birthday and Nico had a morning schedule full of meetings and an afternoon trip out of Tokyo to a photoshoot in Numazu. Nico's new niche was fashion influencer so pics on the beach in the latest swimwear was a mid summer essential. A working birthday. Nico thought it would be more fun, more fans, less train tickets and driver schedules and far too pragmatic photographer portfolios. Even the ones who'd included near porn shots made them look businesslike. The magic was being drained out of everything.

Which is why...Nico closed her eyes, leaned back in her chair, and thought about the last time she and Maki had spent a full weekend alone together, in Kyoto, for Maki's birthday, cherry blossoms scattered everywhere, and Maki glorious in both sun and starlight. Why can't Nico have a birthday like that? Instead, she was staying late at the office to finalize the details of their concert tour, which was finally, after multiple delays, about to happen.

Her door opened and Nico jumped. Maki was there, in a dress that looked like a light trench coat with the shoulders ripped off, a thick black belt, and scattered bold photoprint patches. A straw fedora and kicky black boots with a hint of chain finished the outfit.

"You'll give Nico a heart attack. Knock."

Maki just shook her upper torso, Nico's objections gaining no traction on her bare shoulders, and stepped around Nico's desk, leaning to sit on it, stretching her legs out, hands in faux coat pockets.

"You're finished."

Nico pointed to the schedule she was in the middle of, "Nico's to do list says no."

Maki leaned over, hint of lavender shampoo drawing Nico in, looked very seriously at Nico's screen, and hit the power button. The screen blanked.

"HEY!"

Maki stood. "I have something to show you."

Nico had a brief thought about trenchcoats, fantasies, and what Maki might not be wearing underneath that dress, her hand sneaked out, the fabric was lighter than she expected. "Show Nico?" Nico's voice trembled more than she ever would admit to.

Maki chuckled, and leaned in slowly to stamp a kiss on Nico's cheek, "Later." Her fingers laced through Nico's and before Nico even registered movement, they were on the other side of her office door.

"You just can't kidnap Nico."

This kiss actually had Nico's lips a tingle, "Yes, I can."

Nico nodded. Maki laughed. Nico relaxed. Maki magic. Nico wondered what else her fiancée had planned.

###

"Where are we going?" Nico wasn't familiar with this section of Tokyo. Neither of them spent much time here. This part of Minato-ku was mostly residential, with embassies every couple of blocks. Had Maki set up a surprise party in one?

"Home."

"Home?"

"Home."

This was certainly a neighborhood that Maki's expectations of a house would fit into. What had Maki done?

"You mean, our home?"

"Yeah, my great aunt left me a house in a neighborhood that doesn't have partnership certificates yet, so my parents and I agreed that I would keep that as a business investment and buy a new house."

Nico closed her eyes, fidgeting with the engagement ring on her finger. "You bought a house."

"Yeah. For us." Maki could be so earnest. "It's ours, Nico-chan. You can decorate it however you like. There's a big room in the basement for when Cocoro, Cocoa and Cotorou visit and we pull out the futons. And we can turn the basement bedroom into a recording studio. And there's a room that will make a great nursery…"

"Nursery?" Nico squeaked. She was planning her first tour of Japan and Maki was talking about...

Maki sounded sheepish, "I haven't moved in much furniture yet...just the piano and…"

Nico laughed. Of course, Maki had bought a piano first thing. She'd probably been playing it for a week or however long she'd had the house already. Nico wondered if it was the piano from the Nishikino's music room or a new one.

"Actually, there'll be a baby grand in the music room and a grand piano in the…"

"Two pianos...does this house have a kitchen or just musical instruments in every room? How many rooms?"

"Of course there's a kitchen, Nico-chan. Open so when we have..."

"Stop."

Maki hit the brakes.

"No, Nico meant…." It was too much to be sitting strapped into the bucket seat of Maki's sports car, trying to explain to an excited and eager Maki why just unilaterally buying a…"Just show Nico this house."

The car behind them honked angrily.

###

Maki had picked up on Nico's doubting mood and was nervously driving into the three car garage of a modern building, mostly windows facing the street, dark gray concrete nearly invisible in the night.

Maki turned off the car and pivoted to face Nico, "I…"

Nico could hear the worry in Maki's voice. Time for some Nico magic. She reached out, hands on Maki's cheeks, making sure that Maki couldn't turn away. The apprehension rising in those beloved amethyst eyes twinged Nico's heart in ways nothing else ever had.

"You're amazing, Maki-chan." A long kiss that left Maki pressing for more, but Nico held back, "I love you."

"I love you, Nico-chan." Maki was confused at Nico's change of mood, but the power of the kiss had scattered her worries.

"So give Nico the tour of her birthday present."

Maki's huge grin was worth Nico squelching (for the moment) all the doubts that had rushed her.

###

They had climbed to the top floor, Maki chatty, full of plans. And Nico stepped onto a gleaming marble floor, in a huge room furnished, with precisely one small area rug, one couch, and a polished grand piano. The kitchen had been tucked into a corner. Windows everywhere. Maki was bouncing, excited. Nico was spinning, overwhelmed. The marble floor was cold and slippy under their house slippers and then Maki slid hers off, pulling a pair of socks out of a basket by the elevator, slipping them over her feet, taking a couple of rapid steps and then she slid across the floor, red hair flying everywhere, laughing madly, bumping the couch and falling into it, her trenchcoat dress twisting around her waist, exposing more leg. It was ridiculous and sexy and silly and so very very Maki. Nico couldn't take her eyes off her wife to be.

"C'mon, Nico-chan. How far can you get?"

A challenge. Maki asked that question with no flirty undertones, while nearly falling out of her dress, lounging playfully across a couch. Nico loved this about Maki, these moments of genuine, in the moment joy, not thinking, acting; living, singing, creating music. And Nico loved when that energy turned sultry. But that was a later tonight thing. Right now, across this gleaming room as big as the apartment Nico grew up in, Maki was sitting up, excited to see what Nico would do next, if she could match her efforts, meet the gauntlet thrown. Now, it was time for Nico's A game, not to be outdone by a mischievous junior. Maki and Rin had probably had a tournament when Maki decided where to put the piano. But Nico had two decades of kitchen wax sliding practice and was just darn sneaky. Nico grabbed a pair of cute pink socks out of the basket, put a hand on the steel beams of the atrium just in case, was pleasantly surprised to find the floor had some texture, which gave her the confidence to take several running steps through the hall and aim herself past the couch, trusting her sprint speed to give her enough momentum. Sneaky and speedy, keep Maki surprised. Always a good strategy. Nico grinned, waving at an open mouthed Maki as she passed the couch.

"Ha!" Nico slid to a stop before she hit the floor to ceiling window wall and spun, "You have the best ideas, Maki-chan. More ways for Nico to win."

Maki was hanging over the couch, as happy as Nico had ever seen her, gem eyes aglow with love and mischief. "We're going to have so much fun, Nico-chan."

"Tomorrow, for Nico's birthday, we get a bed."

Maki blushed, but didn't look away. "There's futons in our bedroom suite. I wanted to pick out a bedroom furniture together when you got back from Numazu. And for dinner, there's sushi upstairs on ice."

"Upstairs?" Nico was done being overwhelmed and now just wanted a map.

"Roof terrace. Nighttime view of Tokyo. Karaoke system for parties."

Nico had carefully worked her way back to the couch, "Nico prefers this view." On her knees, she reached fingers out to caress Maki's cheeks, slide through silky hair, pull in ever tempting lips for a kiss that would thrill them both. "And you'll play for Nico tonight, please, Maki-chan? Your piano. In our house."

Maki's eyes blazed with all the warmth of hearth and home and huge, caring heart and Nico didn't care how many rooms there were or how even if her career hit huge heights, she never could have afforded this. All that mattered was this rarest of jewels, the purest of hearts, the woman who had chosen her and wanted this for them.

"I love you, Nico-chan. Happy birthday."

Nico could get used to presents like this, she realized as she fell into Maki, laughing, all their world just this space they shared now on this couch, Nico holding Maki tight enough to make their own gravity, a party no one else could crash.

A/N: In a restless mood so cued up Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia album and the Coffeeshop Christmas Carol playlist and finished this.