HAH! This chapter is officially edited and made gramatically correct
(according to my '94 Microsoft Word, anyway. ^_^;;).
On another note (as I still have to meet the required 'author giving way too much personal info' quota) I had a REALLY crappy day. So all the work angst happening to Yamato is, in fact, stuff that happened to me more or less. I *will* use this story as therapy from my crappy job. ^_^;; Sorry if that's irritating.
For translation notes, see the bottom.
-------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7 - Birthday Wishes
"So, that is why we think that you would be inappropriate as a manager, Yamato-kun. I'm sorry, but we have other people who are more interested in the position. You just have too many other things going on in your life to really devote your attention to this," the strange woman said. Yamato stared at her blankly. He hated his manager. He hated her short, curly, dark blue hair. He hated her huge, ugly glasses that made her eyes seem to bulge out. He hated how she treated him like a stupid, lazy kid even though he worked his ass off at this job.
"Uh huh," Yamato said in a monotone voice.
"So, please go back to work." She turned back to her paperwork.
Sighing, Yamato stood and went back to the front of the store. He really wasn't happy. Although he had been there for almost a year, some new guy was getting the manager position that had opened up. At one point his manager had even begun to train him, but had someone who hated him do the training. Therefore, he was turned down. Again. Reaching the counter, Yamato called the next customer over.
"Hello, how are you?" The irritatingly cheerful customer asked him. He just stared at her blankly. "Oh, one of those days, is it? Oh well, you'll be fine, I'm sure. It's my daughter's birthday today, so I was wondering if you had any gift cards."
Continuing to stare at her blankly, Yamato raised his hand and pointed to the huge, obvious gift card display directly behind the customer.
"Oh! Oh my! There they are!" she chortled.
"Yeah."
"Yes, well, I'd better hurry! The party is going to be in just a few hours and we've got about twenty ten year old little girls coming over!"
"Birthday..." Yamato mumbled.
"What's that?"
"Oh, nothing." He finished the transaction and wished her luck, bitterly. "Twenty ten year old little girls? She must be crazy. Still... I can't help but feel like I've forgotten something. Let's see, it's not Takeru's birthday, it's not Sora's. Then, huh... who else do I know?" Then, it hit him. "Oh crap! Taichi!"
Yamato immediately ran to the phone and called around for someone to cover the rest of his shift. Finally, he bargained it out of one of the new guys with the promise of a free meal. At 13:00 he finally got to leave, and immediately ran to the grocery store. "I can't believe I forgot his birthday! It was four days ago! After he let me move in with him and practically pays for my room and board by himself! Stupid work. I was hoping to get that raise so I wouldn't be such a bother..."
Upon reaching the grocery store, Yamato went directly to the bakery. "Hi, uh, do you have any cakes that could be ready in about thirty minutes?" The woman behind the counter wearing the hair net just stared at him.
"Thirty minutes?"
"Yes! If I had more time than that I'd make one myself!"
"Well, yes. We have this one." The woman pointed to the cake sitting behind her on the counter. "It's vanilla icing with strawberry cake. Very popular with the girls."
Yamato sweatdropped. The cake was round, big enough for four or five normal people, but just enough to fill up Taichi and still leave Yamato a small piece. The size was perfect. The decorations on it however, were not. Little pink rosettes ran around the edge, and in the center were two big pink hearts. Over all of this, it said simply, "For My Honey" in English. "This... is all you have? Are you SURE?" He was panicking. He had to have a surprise for Taichi tonight to make up for forgetting, but this was ridiculous!
"Yes." The woman turned to walk away.
"No, no. I'll buy it," Yamato said weakly.
***
"A party? Tonight?" Hikari laughed. "Are you kidding? I've got a photo shoot in two hours, and then I've got to meet Takeru-kun after that for dinner!"
"But I forgot Taichi's birthday! I bought him a cake and everything! I don't want to be here by myself with him! It'll be a little weird, don't you think?"
"Well, yes. Especially since... um... well... you know."
"Huh?"
"Oh. Never mind," Hikari stated nervously, winding her finger in the phone cord. "I mean, you should be used to Taichi, you do live with him, after all."
"Yes but-"
"Oh! I've got to go! Have fun!" Hikari hung the phone up and sighed. She would have loved to join the boys in their little party, but she had to get to work. Picking up her camera bag and keys, she headed out the door. "Poor Yamato-san, he doesn't even know!"
***
Whistling to himself, Taichi walked up the stairs to his third floor apartment. It had been a pretty good day, apart from Koushirou teasing him for getting henpecked by Yamato. "Then again, it's probably a good thing Koushirou's loosened up enough to make fun of me!" Taichi laughed and stuck his key in the lock, only to find that the door was open. 'Huh, I thought Yamato would still be at work...'
The door swung open to reveal a surprise for Taichi. The apartment was pitch black, the only lights were candles lit at the dinner table. Yamato sat at the far side of the table, wearing a dark blue yukata. His hair was neatly brushed, and the candlelight reflected off of his eyes in a way that made Taichi want to melt.
"Yamato..." Taichi felt as if he'd walked into a dream. "What... what's all this?"
"Happy birthday, Taichi. I'm sorry I forgot it. I hope this makes up for it."
Slowly, Taichi put his things on the floor, and walked over to the table. "Wow..." he mumbled as he sat down. Yamato stood formally, and served the meal. He had surprised himself with what he could throw together in only two hours. He had prepared sashimi for an appetizer, and sekihan and tai for the main course.
"Itadakimasu!" Taichi said happily, and dug into the meal. "Wow, Yamato, you really outdid yourself! This is great!" he said happily, in between bites.
Yamato simply smiled. He had been silly to think things would be awkward! 'It's just Taichi, after all!'
They ate in silence until most of the food was gone. Yamato began to clear the table. "Hey, I've got to help! You cooked!" Taichi said, standing.
"Oh, no! This is a party for you! You're not doing any work! Anyway, there's one last surprise." Yamato carried the plates into the kitchen.
Taichi watched him leave the room, and sighed happily. 'No one's ever done anything like this for me. Yamato is perfect. He's just... perfect.'
"Happy birthday to you!" Yamato began to sing as he walked back into the dining room. Yamato stumbled through the English words, doing his best to pronounce them right. He was also carrying the cake, which was now lit with candles. "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Taichi, happy birthday to you!" Yamato paused and sat the cake onto the table. Pulling up his chair to sit right next to Taichi, he said, "Well, make a wish!"
Breaking eye contact with Yamato, Taichi slowly looked down at the cake. He stared. He blinked, then he stared some more. "Um, Yamato?"
"Yes?" Yamato said nervously.
"This cake... is kinda... um..." Taichi blushed after reading the saying on the cake, wondering if Yamato knew what it said.
"Pink?" Yamato sighed. "Sorry, last minute. Had to take what they had..."
"I see." Taichi chuckled a bit, disappointed that it wasn't on purpose. He then closed his eyes, made his wish, and blew out the candles. Yamato leaned forward and cut two slices of cake. He placed them on the desert plates that he had insisted that he and Taichi needed to buy, and handed Taichi the larger one.
"What did you wish for?" Yamato asked, after tasting the pink concoction.
"Mmmmm... this is pretty good!" Taichi said happily.
"Well?" Yamato asked again.
"Don't you know you're not supposed to tell your wishes? They wont come true if you tell." Taichi took a huge bite of cake, getting icing all over himself.
"You're such a mess!" Yamato laughed softly, and wiped the icing off of Taichi's nose with his finger. "There's just no hope for you... you know that?" He trailed off, as he found himself staring into Taichi's eyes.
"Yamato..." Taichi whispered. "Thank you... for the party. I really..." Taichi leaned in closer to Yamato. He could feel the blonde boy's breath on his face, it was warm and smelled sweet. "...appreciate it..."
"What did you wish for, Taichi?" Yamato said softly, entranced by Taichi's face in the candlelight.
"I wished... for you..." Taichi moved in closer, until their lips met. Closing his eyes, Taichi felt himself melt. Yamato did nothing for a moment, then, he slowly returned the kiss. Taichi's hands found their way to Yamato, and pulled him closer. The blonde boy let out a little moan, and shivered slightly. They sat like that for what seemed like an eternity, and yet, not long enough.
Slowly, Yamato broke their kiss, breathing deeply. He sat back in his chair and opened his eyes, only to see Taichi looking at him lovingly. "I'm sorry," Yamato mumbled.
"Don't be sorry..." Taichi's expression of happiness turned to one of worry.
"I didn't mean to do that." Yamato said, clearing his throat. "It was a mistake."
"...a mistake?" Taichi winced.
"I should go." Yamato carefully pulled away from Taichi's grip, and stood. "I don't want to bother you."
"You're not bothering me, Yamato!" Taichi cried desperately. "You've never been a bother! Please don't go, I need you to stay with me."
"You don't need me here, Taichi." Yamato said.
"Yes, I do!" Taichi stepped in front of him, blocking his exit. "I do need you here. I need you here because I love you!"
Silence filled the room. Taichi's eyes widened as he realized what he had said. The color drained from Yamato's face, and he gently pushed Taichi aside. "I'll be back. I just... need to be away for tonight. I'll be back tomorrow. Please, don't... don't be upset." With that, he took his coat from the closet and walked out of the apartment.
"I knew it... I knew I would ruin everything..." Taichi collapsed to the floor and stared at the wall, in shock. He didn't cry.
------------------------------------------------
Important translation notes:
Yukata: The cotton yukata is an informal kimono and is popular as a home garment, especially for summer wear.
sashimi: raw slices of fish
sekihan and tai: sekihan is red rice, and tai is sea bream, a kind of red fish. Red is considered to be a lucky color. On festive occasions, the tai is served broiled completely whole from head to tail. The wish for good luck is thought to be better conveyed through the 'full and perfect shape'.
Itadakimasu - What you say before eating a meal. Sort of like "thanks for the food".
On another note (as I still have to meet the required 'author giving way too much personal info' quota) I had a REALLY crappy day. So all the work angst happening to Yamato is, in fact, stuff that happened to me more or less. I *will* use this story as therapy from my crappy job. ^_^;; Sorry if that's irritating.
For translation notes, see the bottom.
-------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7 - Birthday Wishes
"So, that is why we think that you would be inappropriate as a manager, Yamato-kun. I'm sorry, but we have other people who are more interested in the position. You just have too many other things going on in your life to really devote your attention to this," the strange woman said. Yamato stared at her blankly. He hated his manager. He hated her short, curly, dark blue hair. He hated her huge, ugly glasses that made her eyes seem to bulge out. He hated how she treated him like a stupid, lazy kid even though he worked his ass off at this job.
"Uh huh," Yamato said in a monotone voice.
"So, please go back to work." She turned back to her paperwork.
Sighing, Yamato stood and went back to the front of the store. He really wasn't happy. Although he had been there for almost a year, some new guy was getting the manager position that had opened up. At one point his manager had even begun to train him, but had someone who hated him do the training. Therefore, he was turned down. Again. Reaching the counter, Yamato called the next customer over.
"Hello, how are you?" The irritatingly cheerful customer asked him. He just stared at her blankly. "Oh, one of those days, is it? Oh well, you'll be fine, I'm sure. It's my daughter's birthday today, so I was wondering if you had any gift cards."
Continuing to stare at her blankly, Yamato raised his hand and pointed to the huge, obvious gift card display directly behind the customer.
"Oh! Oh my! There they are!" she chortled.
"Yeah."
"Yes, well, I'd better hurry! The party is going to be in just a few hours and we've got about twenty ten year old little girls coming over!"
"Birthday..." Yamato mumbled.
"What's that?"
"Oh, nothing." He finished the transaction and wished her luck, bitterly. "Twenty ten year old little girls? She must be crazy. Still... I can't help but feel like I've forgotten something. Let's see, it's not Takeru's birthday, it's not Sora's. Then, huh... who else do I know?" Then, it hit him. "Oh crap! Taichi!"
Yamato immediately ran to the phone and called around for someone to cover the rest of his shift. Finally, he bargained it out of one of the new guys with the promise of a free meal. At 13:00 he finally got to leave, and immediately ran to the grocery store. "I can't believe I forgot his birthday! It was four days ago! After he let me move in with him and practically pays for my room and board by himself! Stupid work. I was hoping to get that raise so I wouldn't be such a bother..."
Upon reaching the grocery store, Yamato went directly to the bakery. "Hi, uh, do you have any cakes that could be ready in about thirty minutes?" The woman behind the counter wearing the hair net just stared at him.
"Thirty minutes?"
"Yes! If I had more time than that I'd make one myself!"
"Well, yes. We have this one." The woman pointed to the cake sitting behind her on the counter. "It's vanilla icing with strawberry cake. Very popular with the girls."
Yamato sweatdropped. The cake was round, big enough for four or five normal people, but just enough to fill up Taichi and still leave Yamato a small piece. The size was perfect. The decorations on it however, were not. Little pink rosettes ran around the edge, and in the center were two big pink hearts. Over all of this, it said simply, "For My Honey" in English. "This... is all you have? Are you SURE?" He was panicking. He had to have a surprise for Taichi tonight to make up for forgetting, but this was ridiculous!
"Yes." The woman turned to walk away.
"No, no. I'll buy it," Yamato said weakly.
***
"A party? Tonight?" Hikari laughed. "Are you kidding? I've got a photo shoot in two hours, and then I've got to meet Takeru-kun after that for dinner!"
"But I forgot Taichi's birthday! I bought him a cake and everything! I don't want to be here by myself with him! It'll be a little weird, don't you think?"
"Well, yes. Especially since... um... well... you know."
"Huh?"
"Oh. Never mind," Hikari stated nervously, winding her finger in the phone cord. "I mean, you should be used to Taichi, you do live with him, after all."
"Yes but-"
"Oh! I've got to go! Have fun!" Hikari hung the phone up and sighed. She would have loved to join the boys in their little party, but she had to get to work. Picking up her camera bag and keys, she headed out the door. "Poor Yamato-san, he doesn't even know!"
***
Whistling to himself, Taichi walked up the stairs to his third floor apartment. It had been a pretty good day, apart from Koushirou teasing him for getting henpecked by Yamato. "Then again, it's probably a good thing Koushirou's loosened up enough to make fun of me!" Taichi laughed and stuck his key in the lock, only to find that the door was open. 'Huh, I thought Yamato would still be at work...'
The door swung open to reveal a surprise for Taichi. The apartment was pitch black, the only lights were candles lit at the dinner table. Yamato sat at the far side of the table, wearing a dark blue yukata. His hair was neatly brushed, and the candlelight reflected off of his eyes in a way that made Taichi want to melt.
"Yamato..." Taichi felt as if he'd walked into a dream. "What... what's all this?"
"Happy birthday, Taichi. I'm sorry I forgot it. I hope this makes up for it."
Slowly, Taichi put his things on the floor, and walked over to the table. "Wow..." he mumbled as he sat down. Yamato stood formally, and served the meal. He had surprised himself with what he could throw together in only two hours. He had prepared sashimi for an appetizer, and sekihan and tai for the main course.
"Itadakimasu!" Taichi said happily, and dug into the meal. "Wow, Yamato, you really outdid yourself! This is great!" he said happily, in between bites.
Yamato simply smiled. He had been silly to think things would be awkward! 'It's just Taichi, after all!'
They ate in silence until most of the food was gone. Yamato began to clear the table. "Hey, I've got to help! You cooked!" Taichi said, standing.
"Oh, no! This is a party for you! You're not doing any work! Anyway, there's one last surprise." Yamato carried the plates into the kitchen.
Taichi watched him leave the room, and sighed happily. 'No one's ever done anything like this for me. Yamato is perfect. He's just... perfect.'
"Happy birthday to you!" Yamato began to sing as he walked back into the dining room. Yamato stumbled through the English words, doing his best to pronounce them right. He was also carrying the cake, which was now lit with candles. "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Taichi, happy birthday to you!" Yamato paused and sat the cake onto the table. Pulling up his chair to sit right next to Taichi, he said, "Well, make a wish!"
Breaking eye contact with Yamato, Taichi slowly looked down at the cake. He stared. He blinked, then he stared some more. "Um, Yamato?"
"Yes?" Yamato said nervously.
"This cake... is kinda... um..." Taichi blushed after reading the saying on the cake, wondering if Yamato knew what it said.
"Pink?" Yamato sighed. "Sorry, last minute. Had to take what they had..."
"I see." Taichi chuckled a bit, disappointed that it wasn't on purpose. He then closed his eyes, made his wish, and blew out the candles. Yamato leaned forward and cut two slices of cake. He placed them on the desert plates that he had insisted that he and Taichi needed to buy, and handed Taichi the larger one.
"What did you wish for?" Yamato asked, after tasting the pink concoction.
"Mmmmm... this is pretty good!" Taichi said happily.
"Well?" Yamato asked again.
"Don't you know you're not supposed to tell your wishes? They wont come true if you tell." Taichi took a huge bite of cake, getting icing all over himself.
"You're such a mess!" Yamato laughed softly, and wiped the icing off of Taichi's nose with his finger. "There's just no hope for you... you know that?" He trailed off, as he found himself staring into Taichi's eyes.
"Yamato..." Taichi whispered. "Thank you... for the party. I really..." Taichi leaned in closer to Yamato. He could feel the blonde boy's breath on his face, it was warm and smelled sweet. "...appreciate it..."
"What did you wish for, Taichi?" Yamato said softly, entranced by Taichi's face in the candlelight.
"I wished... for you..." Taichi moved in closer, until their lips met. Closing his eyes, Taichi felt himself melt. Yamato did nothing for a moment, then, he slowly returned the kiss. Taichi's hands found their way to Yamato, and pulled him closer. The blonde boy let out a little moan, and shivered slightly. They sat like that for what seemed like an eternity, and yet, not long enough.
Slowly, Yamato broke their kiss, breathing deeply. He sat back in his chair and opened his eyes, only to see Taichi looking at him lovingly. "I'm sorry," Yamato mumbled.
"Don't be sorry..." Taichi's expression of happiness turned to one of worry.
"I didn't mean to do that." Yamato said, clearing his throat. "It was a mistake."
"...a mistake?" Taichi winced.
"I should go." Yamato carefully pulled away from Taichi's grip, and stood. "I don't want to bother you."
"You're not bothering me, Yamato!" Taichi cried desperately. "You've never been a bother! Please don't go, I need you to stay with me."
"You don't need me here, Taichi." Yamato said.
"Yes, I do!" Taichi stepped in front of him, blocking his exit. "I do need you here. I need you here because I love you!"
Silence filled the room. Taichi's eyes widened as he realized what he had said. The color drained from Yamato's face, and he gently pushed Taichi aside. "I'll be back. I just... need to be away for tonight. I'll be back tomorrow. Please, don't... don't be upset." With that, he took his coat from the closet and walked out of the apartment.
"I knew it... I knew I would ruin everything..." Taichi collapsed to the floor and stared at the wall, in shock. He didn't cry.
------------------------------------------------
Important translation notes:
Yukata: The cotton yukata is an informal kimono and is popular as a home garment, especially for summer wear.
sashimi: raw slices of fish
sekihan and tai: sekihan is red rice, and tai is sea bream, a kind of red fish. Red is considered to be a lucky color. On festive occasions, the tai is served broiled completely whole from head to tail. The wish for good luck is thought to be better conveyed through the 'full and perfect shape'.
Itadakimasu - What you say before eating a meal. Sort of like "thanks for the food".