I wrote this short story as a gift to my dear friend Putain de Pulagieur for his birthday !
Admittedly I wrote this short story in a bit of a rush, so apologies if its so short and rushed in a way.
But I think I managed to get all the points I was trying to get across.
Hope it still works.
With that said, let's get it started !
Nobody ever said that the life of a headmaster was easy, especially for a school like Hope's Peak Academy.
A good chunk of Makoto's day usually consisted of filing paperwork, reviewing clubs budget, signing forms for students applications and so on and so forth.
The late 20 year old let out a sigh as he filed another piece of paper, when he heard the familiar sound of the door opening
" Hi Kyoko " Makoto greets his wife with a tired smile.
" Long day ? " Kyoko asked with a smirk as she approached with a cup of coffee.
" You don't know the half of it "
" Well, I got something to keep you awake " Kyoko put the cup of coffee on the desk, which Makoto happily took a greedy sip of it.
" Thanks Kyoko, I needed that " Makoto felt the slight surge of caffeine giving him the energy boost he needed.
Kyoko got a text and checked her phone as she continued to talk to Makoto " So how much longer do you think you'll be ? "
" Maybe...an hour or so ? " Makoto answered slightly confused " Why do you ask? "
" Oh, nothing I just thought that I would head home first " Kyoko shrugged as she put her phone away.
Makoto groaned slightly, he was hoping that he could ask her to stay to help work out this paperwork, but his good nature couldn't ask if she was already keen to go home.
"...Alright, I'll be back as soon as I can " Makoto said with a sigh.
" Sorry baby, but I got some stuff that needs some work when we get back " Kyoko said vaguely as she gave him a kiss on the cheek " And I think you'll like it..."
" Oh ? "
" You'll find out soon enough, see you back home, I'll take a cab back " Kyoko said as she left the office.
Makoto took a deep breath as he looked at the remaining paperwork.
" Okay...let's do this "
Needless to say, that coffee gave him just enough energy to finish his work. Barely.
It was already evening by the time he got back to the house, pulling into the driveway
Though he did notice strangely enough that the lights weren't on...strange, did Kyoko go to bed early ? Its way too early for bed even for her.
Odd.
He opened the door with his key and entered a very dark living room, he couldn't see anything until-
" SURPRISE !"
The lights suddenly flicked on downright blinding him in the process, and confetti was suddenly launched at him.
" AAAHHH !"Makoto screamed as he fell back on his butt at the sudden surprise in his own house.
" Ooops ! Sorry Makoto..."
" Sorry man !"
Once the surprise wore off and Makoto got a second to catch his breath, he could see the people who had just surprised him.
Kyoko was there, along with Hina, Komaru, Hiro, Toko, his parents and even Togami showed up !
" Guys, what's going on ? Why are you all here ?" Makoto asked as Kyoko helped him off the floor.
"Dear, don't tell me you forgot " His mother said simply.
" Its your birthday Makoto !" Komaru yelled out.
At that moment, Makoto felt as though someone drenched him in cold water. He knew he was forgetting something today !
" Really ? I completely forgot about it...thank you all so much for doing this !"
" Its no problem Makoto...sorry I had to leave you to do all that paperwork, but I got a message from Hina that said they needed help setting things up here " Kyoko explained, making the luckster remember her sudden need to leave earlier.
" Its alright, I couldn't be more grateful to you all " Makoto said with a smile.
" We got you some gifts too !" Hina said as they all basically shoved their gifts onto him.
His parents got him a new phone that he's been needing.
Komaru gave him one of those exclusive manga editions that they both got hooked into a few months back.
Hina got him a pair of swimming goggles.
Toko handed him a mystery novel titled ' Blood on the Ice', which sounded interesting.
Hiro handed him some kind of handcrafted talisman...which Makoto warrily took and pondered throwing away later.
Togami being Togami, just gave him check with a number on it.
They all looked at the former affluent prodigy before simultaneously saying" Seriously ? "
" What? Is my gift not up to standards ? " Togami rolled his eyes.
" You could have at least tried to put some heart and thought into it " Kyoko chided.
" I simply don't see the point in getting some stupid gifts that have little to no value " Togami defended " At least, money has some essence of monetary value to it "
"Still you could have put some more thought into it than just writing him a check of..." Hina looked at the check " Fifty thousan- FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ?! "
Indeed, everybody's eyes widened in shock at the sheer amount of money that the Affluent Prodigy gifted to Makoto, to the point where it made some of them feel insignificant about their gifts.
" Oh my god...thank you Togami " Makoto thanked the prodigy.
" Think nothing of it...this amount of money is miniscule for me " Togami waved him off.
" What about you Kyoko ? What's your gift to Makoto ? " Hina asked the detective.
" Well..." Kyoko leaned in and whispered to Makoto " That's for later tonight..."
The luckster blushed, while some of his friends just laughed at his embarrassment.
" Now that we got gifts out of the way, let's blow out the candles "His father said as his mom presented him with a very nice cake with his name spelled out.
Makoto chuckled at the atmosphere, despite how childlike it may be...he still enjoyed having birthday's like this. Being surrounded by his friends and family...it made him happy.
And as he blew out the candles, they all shouted in unison.
" HAPPY BIRTHDAY !"
The night that followed was definitely one of the best birthday's he's had and he was grateful that this was the world he lived in now.
Well...this one was incredibly short and even shorter than I would have liked.
I hoped this one was okay at least, since I didn't really have a lot of time to write this one.
Hope you enjoyed Pupla !