"Happy Birthday, Rae!!" Prosper sang a week later, shaking Rae awake. She groaned and swatted at his arm, mumbling something incoherent about monkeys and gelato. "C'mon, Rae, get up! It's your birthday!"
"Prosper—" she whined, punching his arm hard and burying her face into her pillow.
"Rae, get up!" Prosper shouted, opening the blinds to the window she slept next to. She hissed like a feral animal, trying desperately to curl away from the rays of the sun.
"Prosper! What in the hell did you do that for!?" Rae snarled. Prosper wrenched her arms away form her, smirking as he pushed his face close to hers.
"Because vampires don't like sunlight!" he said mockingly.
"I am going to KILL YOU!" she shouted, jumping out of her bed with a speed usually reserved for felines. Prosper squeaked and ran away from her, stomping down the stairs. Rae beat him to the ground by swinging out over the second floor balcony and dropping to her feet. Prosper screamed in shock and abruptly changed directions, tripping over his feet as he scrambled towards the haven of the stage.
Unfortunately, Mosca and Riccio were coming from the opposite direction, holding a large plate stacked over its capacity with floppy, syrup covered pancakes. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you," they were singing, smiling proudly as they marched the feast.
Prosper panicked, but was still going to fast to stop. "MOSCA! RICCIO! LOOK OUT!!"
"Happy birthday dear Rae—"
"AHH!"
Crash!!
Prosper slammed into Mosca, who lost his grip on the plate. Riccio was crushed as Prosper and Mosca fell, and the pancakes flew up into the air. Rae saw the collision and tried to halt, but she landed in the pile of arms and legs. "Look out!" Riccio yelped, but the pancakes fell on their heads, drenching them in syrup and powdered sugar.
"Aw, no!" Bo said in dismay, walking onto the sight. "Rae, we spent all night on those!"
"I'm sorry," Rae giggled. She pulled a piece of pancake off of Prospers forehead and tasted it. "But I must say, you did an excellent job."
"Well, I came to see my loyal gang," a voice called from above, "But all I see is a pile of elbows and knees. With some syrup."
"Hey, Scipio!" Bo shouted excitedly, watching as Scipio slunk out of the early morning shadows on the second floor. He grinned and flicked out his own whip, which he snapped around a rafter. He jumped and swung down to the floor, landing gracefully on his toes. A silver box was tucked carefully under his arm.
Rae, Mosca, Prosper, and Riccio untangled themselves from one another, shaking the pancakes from their hair. "I see you've been practicing," Rae murmured in his ear while the others were too preoccupied to notice. Scipio picked a piece of dough out of her hair and flicked it away, tasting the syrup from his fingertips.
"I swing around some quiet parts, the old abandoned Campos, ya know? It's good practice, with all the parts under construction, ropes and bars and poles all over the place."
"Construction…che tanti cose del cazzo! What a load of shit!" she cursed, making an obscene gesture with her hand. Scipio chuckled at her, curling up his whip and attaching it back to his leather belt.
"Rae!" Prosper scolded, "Will you watch your language around Bo? He's like a blonde little sponge; he doesn't need to absorb your bad tongue."
"Well, I wouldn't be cursing if the stupid nobles weren't trying to renovate a condemned part of a thousand year old city. They need construction where people are living! They worry about modernizing because they don't think Venice will keep its ancient beauty. Bunch of fessi, they are."
"Well, don't hurt their feelings by calling them idiots, Rae. They love to believe they're intelligent," Scipio grinned, winking at her discreetly as if to say 'Because I know exactly how those stupid nobles work.'
"Presents!" Bo shrieked suddenly, appearing from nowhere and jumping on Rae's back. "Rae, you gotta open your presents!!"
Rae looked genuinely shocked, glancing around at them with her garnet-amethyst eyes. "Presents? I-I wasn't e-expecting…"
"What, you think we would let you have a birthday and no presents?" Mosca laughed, squeezing the stuttering Rae tightly.
"B-but we can't afford…"
"We've found a way now," Prosper said with a grin, gesturing over to the safe with a nod of his head. Since they had begun making more money, it required a safer place to be. "Thanks to you."
"Open mine first," Riccio said proudly, holding out a violin case.
Rae took it from his hands and opened it slowly, looking inside with a bright smile. Her violin had been polished and shined, new strings added in. Her bow looked new as she pulled it out. Her old one had been spotted from where she had accidentally touched the horse hairs too often. "Thanks, you little rat," she said affectionately, pulling him in for an embrace.
Mosca pulled out a small box, and when Rae opened it she pulled out a Discman. "You were talking about wanting to learn songs on your violin," he said shyly, "So I figured now you'd have something to listen to them on."
"Oh, thank you, Mosca," she grinned, kissing his cheek.
Prosper handed her a poorly wrapped package as he blushed. "Sorry, it's a bit of an eyesore—I couldn't figure out how to wrap it…"
It was a long, deep chocolate brown pea coat, with a pair of matching gloves and a soft, gray cashmere scarf. "So you don't have to wear that old, moth-bitten black one you found. Oh, and look in the pocket."
Rae felt around in the jacket's pcket before pulling out a wad of bills. "For losing the bet," he smirked.
"Our presents were sort of coordinated," Scipio said, giving her a rectangular black box. "Now you have some nice thieving clothes to where. And, this..."
Rae opened it and gasped, her fingers trembling slightly. Inside was a gorgeous harlequin mask, with rich red, blue, green, and yellow paint lined with silver to create the harlequin pattern. The bottom half of the mask, beneath the eye and across the bride of the nose, was black and swirled with silver designs.
"T-thank you, guys," she smiled, tears pricking in her eyes. She pulled the two in for a hug, both of their faces pink.
"My present's a surprise!!" Bo squealed, rushing around the room and jumping on various backs. "We have to start getting ready, proprio adesso! Right now!"
"Ready?" Scipio asked suspiciously. "Ready for what?"
"It's a surprise!" Bo repeated in exasperation, throwing his little hands up into the air.
"How can we get ready when we don't know what we're getting ready for?" Prosper smiled at his little brother, ruffling his fair curls.
"You have to wear nice clothes!" Bo said, "Scip and Rae stole nice clothes for all of us, remember? You have to wear those!"
"I dunno wanna wear those darn rich-boy pants you stole!" Riccio whined, trudging over to the table and plopping himself down with a scowl, "They make me feel weird."
"Wear them!" Bo commanded, her eyes shining defiantly. "And stop arguing with me, Riccio, you're gonna spoil Rae's birthday present!"
"Fine then!" Riccio stuck his tongue out at Bo, who simply smiled brightly and flounced over to where all of his own clothes were folded.
"Yay!"
Love it? Hate it? Suggestions? Con-crit is welcome, friends, please R&R.