The few days between Teruhashi's birthday and her party seemed to move a bit more slowly than the others. Saiki and Teruhashi had quite the laugh when she received the birthday postcard from Makoto the following day. Makoto was all smiles (or in this case, full of the unearned hubris of a kid's show detective), but two trained sets of eyes were more than capable of seeing how upset he was in front of a moai head alongside a powder blue haired girl that couldn't have been older than 14. Despite his best attempts to hide his face behind the finger pointing toward a lightbulb as contrived as the show's plot above his head, the two could see the slight dishevelment of his otherwise perfectly quaffed hair and the faintest impression of a temporal vein peeking out behind his knuckles.
True to his word, Saiki had taken the initiative to go over to her house whenever they had the chance to spend time with each other, which had become more and more frequent recently as Teruhashi's schedule began to open up a lot more.
Finally the long awaited morning before Teruhashi's birthday party had come at last. The party's host turned side to side in front of her mirror to inspect her outfit. Her light, summery, white and blue polka dot top accented with frills at the neck and the ends of the sleeves complemented her yellow skirt quite well. The skirt even had extra strips of fabric sewn into it to be wrapped around the waist that Teruhashi decided to tie into a perfect bow in the front.
Good, nothing out of place.
She moved to brush her hair, but turned around when she heard an all too familiar soft gust behind her. Saiki had appeared with a white, short sleeve button-up with lightweight but dark green colored slacks and a plain brown belt looped around his waist.
"Oh, you're here early!" she chirped, closing her eyes and smiling contentedly. After her quick greeting she turned away from him to start brushing her hair, its locks trailing behind her as it gently rose and fell as if lifted by an ethereal wind until it completed its motion.
Saiki's x-ray vision had failed again, so he didn't reply as he watched her approach her vanity.
She quickly but gently smoothed her dress as she sat down to avoid mussing it and pulled her azure locks aside, exposing the nape of her neck.
No teasing this time?
"Not right now, I need to get ready first," she replied without skipping a beat. Recently she had started to settle to his presence much more. Just a few weeks ago similar words would have been some sort of scheme to goad him into a trap thinly veiled by humor, but now presented with much more sincerity. Supposedly it was a flirting tactic for a woman to casually expose the nape of her neck, but her singsong thoughts told him that was not her intention. She no longer tried to fill almost all gaps with conversation. They found themselves settling into comfortable silences much more than they used to. They needed breaks between the small talk continuing education lessons at some point, he surmised.
He estimated that he saw her true face around 30% of the time that they spent together, but on her birthday it had been about 90%. He didn't hate this change.
Teruhashi hummed internally, paying no mind to the boy observing her mundane routine. Things had changed since her birthday. The air wasn't extremely tense before, but the truth of his words during their private celebration had crept up on her. Now that they had sussed that out, she could see him start to relax more. For some reason the conversations felt similar, but somehow different. They still bickered and played mind games, but it felt much lighter. She really couldn't place it just yet. There was one thing she had not brought up yet that she still needed to. She had delayed it before because they were still settling down from the ordeal, but she thought she was ready for the truth now.
"What was the power surge you had during my birthday?" she asked, pausing momentarily to inspect her hair. She heard him swallow but he remained taciturn. She could tell this was difficult for him, so she gave him his space.
"My powers are at least partly tied to my emotions, so the issues I mentioned caused my powers to flare and trying to suppress them made it worse."
"You felt guilty?" she mused, having resumed her delicate brushing.
"…Yes."
She nodded thoughtfully. That was tough for him to admit. "Thank you for telling me," she said, finishing up. She rose to face him, looking up at him with her big blue eyes. She employed no scheme this time, only smiling gently, a reassuring expression that wordlessly communicated, "I'm proud of you."
He nodded, seeming to catch her meaning. Those were all the words that needed to be said. She twirled in front of him for no reason whatsoever, which got a chortle and a head shake out of him. That was good enough for now.
"Thanks for my best birthday yet, " she said quietly, maintaining her soft smile and clasping her hands down by her waist.
"Why are you thanking me? I almost ruined it," he said seriously. His brow furrowed to a bitter frown.
"Not at all," she nearly whispered, shaking her head at him. A warm, fuzzy feeling tingled through her spine and through the rest of her body. She made no efforts to quell it.
He jumped as if a jolt had coursed through his body. His eyes shifted back and forth until they met her gaze and his brow vibrated as if he were frightened, but his eyes told a different story. She saw his irises shine for a fleeting moment, but quickly reverted to a raised eyebrow and a short huff.
"I don't understand that at all."
He quickly stopped and gazed off for a second before meeting her eyes again.
"Yumehara is almost here," he said. "She wants to talk to you about me, so I'm going to leave soon and come back on foot."
She nodded and hummed in response, prompting Saiki to sit down on her bed as they fell into a comfortable silence. Continuing her routine, Teruhashi turned away from him again to check her face for non-existent blemishes save the flushing of her cheeks. The silence continued far longer than she thought; he should have left as soon as he relayed Yumehara's presence. Finally he left, his timing so precise that the sound of the doorbell and the gust of wind layered each other as he whisked himself away.
"So, Kokomi, how did it go?" Chiyo asked expectantly as they returned to her room from the front door. Her narrowed, mischievous eyes told Kokomi that she wouldn't accept much less than a marriage proposal. It was only natural; Chiyo had been instrumental in setting and up the party date and covering for her more intimate birthday celebration, so this conversation was the least she could do.
"It went really well! I had a great time," Kokomi said, smiling warmly as she finished getting ready. "He really liked the cake and we had a lot of great conversations," she said, distracted by what she was doing.
"Not good enough. What did he get you?" Chiyo barked.
Teruhashi's face burned a nearly luminous crimson.
"He painted a picture of me."
"HE WHAT!?" Chiyo's eyes sparkled as a string of drool hung out of the corner of her mouth.
Kokomi shrank at the extremely animated exclamation.
"Y-Yes," she whispered almost imperceptibly quietly.
"How in the world did he land on that?"
"Remember that time we were partnered up in art class and he couldn't draw me?"
Chiyo considered briefly. Her eyes lit up when she remembered.
"Kokomi, there is absolutely no way he doesn't have feelings for you. He literally MADE a gift for you."
Kokomi sighed. "I was over the moon when I got it, but..."
"Ah, ah. No buts," Chiyo said as she raised a finger to her friend's lips to hush her. "He already knows you like him and he still did that anyway."
"Our relationship is complicated..."
"The only thing complicated about it are the excuses for why you two aren't together already. Kokomi, you're usually so confident with everything, are you alright?" Chiyo asked softly.
Kokomi flinched. "...I'm really not who you think I am."
Chiyo's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"
"I'm actually really anxious about a lot of things." Kokomi said, hanging her head in wistful, ragged, unfettered candor.
Teruhashi practically heard the gears in Chiyo's mind click together behind her vacant stare.
"So you didn't 100% learn everyone's info so you could be perfect, it was at least partially because you were nervous. About what, though? You're more than fine the way you are," Chiyo said soothingly.
"I was feeling a bit better that day, so I wanted to make someone feel a bit better as well," she said quietly. She couldn't tell exactly where the truth ended and the lie began, but she was not quite ready to let Chiyo in on that part of her.
"I did it almost on a whim and it spiraled out of control so quickly..." she trailed off, casting her head down to the side with trembling lips, reflexively chiding herself for making the rookie mistake of giving anyone an inch.
She gasped as she felt Chiyo's arms wrap around her.
"Kokomi, I know 95% of my dialogue is about love, but that remaining 5% is going to be about self-love. It's ok to say no."
Kokomi reciprocated the hug. "I did eventually, but it was too late. I don't know how to stop doing it," she whispered sadly, tightening her encircled arms.
Chiyo disengaged to gaze straight into her friend's eyes. Her intense concentration made Kokomi more than aware that she knew the fainting incident was no fluke. "Kokomi, I had no idea it was this hard for you. It's ok to say no."
Kokomi's face fell, prompting Chiyo to embrace her with renewed vigor. "I'm sorry. I should have known better. I knew you were stressed but I didn't think it went this deep."
Kokomi nodded and tightly wrapped her hands around Chiyo's back. The two remained intertwined, sharing the comforting warmth of an earnest hug until a form of telepathy called social skills told them that it was time to move on.
Chiyo broke away from Kokomi to stand tall and proud. Her balled fists sat above her hips and a confident grin adorned her face. She took a deep breath and snapped a finger up to make a profound declaration.
"Have no fear! Chiyo Yumehara, Emotional Support Master, is at your service! Let me be the umbrella for the tears falling on your hear..." Chiyo's face twitched. She was so close to having her moment.
Kokomi, ever the socialite, caught onto this immediately. "Is something wrong, Chiyo?" she asked cautiously, narrowing her eyes in concern.
Her friend's brain had unfortunately encountered a fatal error. Chiyo stuttered the letter "t" over and over again as the previously conjoined gears in her mind slipped out of place, causing her body to shudder as if she were hit by lightning until her subconscious was finally able to reboot her conscious.
"N-n-n-no, I don't wanna talk about it," she sputtered. Her face blanched and her eyes waxed over as if her soul had been forcibly ripped out of her body.
"Well how can you be an Emotional Support Master if you can't show me how to do it?" Kokomi prodded her lightly while emoting with a calm, friendly smile. Chiyo stopped for a second to consider her friend's words and then broke into a giggling fit followed closely by a second set of mirthful, cute laughter.
"Fine, then you will become my protégé in the ancient ways. I will teach you everything I know," Chiyo said, striking a karate pose.
"That's a little too on the nose, Chiyo," Kokomi said mischievously, raising her eyebrow at her and flashing her a small grin.
"On second thought, maybe you can just take the title of master," Chiyo said curtly. The color that had returned to her face seconds ago was once again drained by her embarrassment at her inability to break her bad habit of taking on her many crushes' idiosyncrasies.
Kokomi smiled gently. "We've all got things to work on."
"I guess that's true," Chiyo said, matching Kokomi's amiable expression.
Their amiable expressions were startled in equal measure when they heard the doorbell ring.
"So, Saiki, what did you get Teruhashi-san this year?" Kaidou asked in an attempt to assuage his nerves at the prospect of going to a girl's much less Teruhashi's room again.
Before Saiki could respond, the gorilla made its presence known with a loud guffaw. "You should have gotten her Monster Hunter! Everyone likes Monster Hunter!" Saiki could not quell the spontaneous anger rising in his chest, but thankfully Kuboyasu bought him time to ameliorate his fury.
"I dunno, Nendou, Teruhashi-san doesn't seem like the gaming type. You can't just get people things randomly," he said with a nonchalant shrug.
Right, Nendou is awful at picking gifts.
"Why not? What's the point if you never try anything different?"
"There's a limit to trying something different, I mean if you got her a Tamagotchi or something first as a primer..." Kaidou trailed off. He grabbed his chin between his thumb and his pointer trying to find an analogue to the various harebrained schemes he had devised to recruit fellow chunnibyou.
"You'd need a game console for that anyway," Kuboyasu shrugged, marking the only instance of common sense in this inane drivel.
"I made Teruhashi a marble statue where I channeled all of my positive thoughts about Teruhashi into every stroke!" Hairo interjected, unable to contain his excitement at the prospect of gifting his concentrated enthusiasm once again.
No one asked, Saiki grumbled.
Of all the things to be upset about, Saiki decided to stew on the fact that Teruhashi had gotten a marble version of the wood statue Hairo made for his birthday (it was the principle of the matter, not the gift itself). Was he the second cutest girl in school now? Where would Hairo have even gotten that marble?
"Well Teruhashi is amazing at making sweets, so I got some cacao for her to make them with!" Mera said excitedly, holding up a large yellow gourd like fruit. Saiki saw the faintest trace of face paint on her cheekbone.
You went to another continent to get her birthday present? You should have just bought it. Perfect pretty girls really do live life on easy mode.
"Ou! I also went with Mera and picked up some weird beans, maybe if Teruhashi is a gardener she can plant them and they'll grow into a giant bean stalk," Nendou said, pulling out a small sack and opening it.
"Dude, those are coffee beans. You're probably not going to get much out of them," Kuboyasu quipped.
Besides the fact that those beans are already roasted. If it were anyone but Nendou I would immediately think they stole it.
Unbeknownst to everyone, a certain psychic's face flushed a pink as bright as his hair when the smell of high quality coffee beans filled his nose.
"What's with your gift-giving sense, Nendou! You should know better!" Kaidou screeched, but his admonishment fell on deaf ears.
Mera did the same thing. Didn't either of them have something better to do?
"Hey, hey everyone, let's calm down now. We're going to celebrate a treasured friend's birthday! Let's not be so hasty," Hairo said placatingly.
"Oh, what did you get her then, chibi?" Nendou said with a menacing grin.
"N-n-none of your business, idiot! Just know that mine's better than yours!" Kaidou sputtered back.
He wrote another letter.
"Oh come on, chibi! Lemme see! I wanna get even more excited too!" Nendou exclaimed with childlike enthusiasm, grabbing for the turquoise tasseled backpack that Kaidou brought his "girl's room" supplies in. He won't be needing any of that.
"So, Kuboyasu, what did you get Teruhashi-san?" Hairo asked Kuboyasu casually, ignoring the enthusiastic melee behind him. Kaidou was doing surprisingly well at keeping his bag away from Nendou, deftly avoiding Nendou's uncharacteristically sloppy attempts to restrain him. Hopefully Hairo would stay in casual mode at least until they got to the house.
"Well, I'm not exactly sure what to get her, but I found this small blue puppy statue that she might like," Kuboyasu said. He remembered that he had found the statue sitting alone in a box on a store shelf. Of course, Kuboyasu could not stop himself from talking to it as if he shared some sort of kinship with it.
That's a bit too lucky. Then again, this is Teruhashi we're talking about.
"Ah, we're here!" Mera piped up. They approached the door and rang the doorbell. Yumehara and Teruhashi answered the door after a short delay.
"Welcome, everybody! Thank you for coming to celebrate my birthday!" Teruhashi said cheerfully, opening the door to let them in.
Hairo hefted the cake onto Teruhashi's kitchen table and everybody stacked their wrapped gifts against the wall neatly. Inside the box was a mocha and strawberry cake covered in a thin layer of polished chocolate coating topped with beautifully arranged strawberries and chocolate coffee beans and strawberry icing piped into kisses around the rim of the cake. They moved to cut it, but Teruhashi stopped them.
"We're waiting for one more guest. Thanks for your patience!" Teruhashi announced with a bow. The others separately pondered on who it could be, but Saiki already knew the answer.
They were interrupted by the doorbell. Teruhashi opened up the door to reveal one Mikoto Aiura.
"Yo!" she succinctly greeted them with a quick wave. She nodded to Teruhashi as if to thank her for the invitation which elicited a polite but welcoming smile from the recipient. As soon as Aiura got to a spot where she could move freely she set her small gift-wrapped box and shouted, "Let's get the party started!" She struck Freddie Mercury's signature pose, shooting her arm up into the air, spreading her legs, and pointing the second arm toward the floor. Whether or not it was coincidental was of no consequence, she had ignored the confused looks that her presence had created all the same. With that much spontaneous, excited spunk, the others had no choice but to raise their own arms to cheer. Hairo predictably rode the wave of excitement only slightly more enthusiastically than the others.
"Happy birthday, Teruhashi-san!" All present popped party crackers for her.
"Thank you all so much for coming!" Teruhashi exclaimed.
The conversation developed into small talk as they prepared to cut the cake.
"So where did you find this cake?" Teruhashi asked casually as she went to get a knife.
"The flavor combination was a bit strange, but we thought the cake looked interesting so we all pitched in for it," Kuboyasu replied.
"We found it at an admittedly random sweets shop," Hairo added, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
"It was one of the few cakes I could prevent myself from eating since it's covered in hard chocolate, so I couldn't smell it," Mera added brightly, as if she should be complimented for not eating someone's birthday cake.
This cake truly was written in the stars. The most unbelievable part of this is Mera somehow avoiding eating the cake, Saiki grumbled, but it was quickly drowned out by the prospect of getting a piece of it.
Simultaneously the remaining characters were having a conversation to understand why someone they had no idea Teruhashi even knew had shown up to the party .
"Mikochin! I'm so glad you came!" Yumehara squealed, clapping her hands.
"Yeh, Teryukoko and I happened to meet up before this and she seemed pretty cool so I'm grateful she invited me!" Aiura replied happily.
Saiki himself was a bit surprised as well. He knew Teruhashi and Aiura had met up but he had no idea it had such an impact on her; Aiura had been very blasé about it. He was glad they were able to talk it out; Teruhashi could use more girlfriends.
"Hey, it's the boobie gyaru! How ya been? Wanna go get ramen sometime?" Nendou said tactfully.
"As long as I don't have work, I don't see why not?" Aiura shrugged with a coy wink.
"N-N-Nendou! W-W-We barely know her!" Kaidou stammered. He was apparently on a girl overload from the surprise guest, especially one so provocative.
"Aiura, how do you know Yumehara so well?" Kuboyasu asked, a bit caught off guard from the appearance of someone who appraised his "mullet aura" and cuddled up to him after taking one look at him. He was still a bit awkward around women as well after his experience with the challenge disguised as a love letter, though he'd never admit it publicly.
"Oh hey, it's Arenetto! Chiyopipi always asks me for compatibility checks on a certain someone; but other than that we just kinda clicked, y'know?" Aiura said with a cheeky grin.
Yumehara blushed furiously. Kuboyasu raised an eyebrow.
"I wonder who Yumehara likes," Kaidou thought. Oblivious as usual.
That minor distraction did not keep him from hatching a stupid plan. "So, Aiura, the Jet Black Wings challenges you to an initiation test to see if you're worthy of fending off the Dark Reunion…" he said mysteriously, placing his hand in front of his face while opening his fingers to leave space for his eye. You could practically hear his theme song playing from how hard he reverted back to his chunnibyou fantasies to calm his nerves. Aiura cut him off.
"Lame. I already like you guys so no need to go through the formalities, Kaidounami."
Since when does she use last names for those inane nicknames?
The injury to Kaidou's ego fell by the wayside when she implied that she already wanted to be friends with him. He somehow forgot about the appraisal of his chipmunk aura as well. Bygones be bygones as the saying goes.
"Really?" Kaidou said with clasped hands and starry eyes.
That was quick even by his standards.
"Yup!" Aiura said with a cheerful nod.
Yumehara knew Aiura had no romantic feelings toward Kaidou, but she couldn't help but feel slighted by the fact that it felt so easy for her to get Kaidou into that state. Getting beaten by Teruhashi was enough. Maybe she should be more direct.
"Well, if you insist," Kuboyasu shrugged with a smug grin. On the inside though, Aiura's apparently enigmatic personality had fooled him once again.
"Ok, all! Let's go ahead and start!" Hairo announced a bit after the table was set. They all sang happy birthday and cut the cake. The cake was every bit as heavenly as Saiki wished for. The sponge of the cake was a mocha infused layer cake with a somehow light and robust strawberry cream separating the layers. The smell was just as heavenly as the taste, like a perfect marriage of aromatic coffee beans and a caramel-like, fruity aroma. This cake and the one Teruhashi made were neck and neck in quality. Saiki managed to get the name of that sweets shop from their thoughts, so he would definitely be going back there.
He furrowed his brow when he noticed everyone staring at him.
What? Saiki raised an eyebrow, clearly rankled by all the attention and the giggles and sole guffaw from Nendou that had started.
"Having fun over there?" Aiura quipped. She flashed him a sly side eye and received a frosty glare in return. All present laughed heartily, much to his chagrin. Aiura had instantly made inroads during small talk just as expected and started to cement her position in Saiki's permanent friend group. This cake was pretty good, after all. Wasn't he allowed to appreciate it without everyone taking notice?
The cake is very good. What do you want from me?
"Wow! He said very!" Yumehara said, clapping as if she were observing a child performing some insignificant activity for the first time.
Don't baby me.
"Oh, isn't it time for presents?" Nendou interjected. All eyes turned to him, then to Teruhashi.
Thanks for that, Nendou, Saiki thought, breathing a huge internal sigh.
"Wow, Hairo! This is fantastic!" Teruhashi exclaimed, marveling at the geisha statue he made.
"I'm glad you like it! I think I could have done better in some places…" Hairo sheepishly said, turning his head down.
"No, it's more than great! Thank you so much!" she interrupted.
Next up was Mera.
"I got you this cacao for making sweets!" Mera said, handing over the fruit.
"Where did you get this?" Teruhashi inquired. Her perfect pretty girl selective paralysis kicked in the knick of time to preclude the eyebrow twitch that an average pretty girl would have almost certainly allowed through.
Jeez, selective paralysis? I'm not sure if I should be impressed or concerned.
"On a work trip to South America!" Mera replied. No details in her head.
"I'm honored you thought of me enough to pick that out while you were on a work trip. I'll treasure it!"
Kuboyasu followed Mera.
"I got this dog statue for you. I wasn't entirely sure what to get but I just kinda felt it I guess," Kuboyasu said cheerfully.
"It's so cute! I love it! Thank you so much!" Teruhashi replied. As much as she wanted to hug it to her chest, she schooled her expression to ensure Mera didn't feel bad.
Great save.
Nendou interrupted by shoving his sack of coffee beans in front of Teruhashi.
"I went to the jungle with Mera and I found these weird beans. They smell pretty good and they could grow into a giant beanstalk if you plant them. I made sure to get a lot so you can get plenty of beanstalks," Nendou said proudly.
How considerate.
"Thank you, Nendou! I'm really excited to have fresh coffee in the morning!"
"The gift isn't bad, but I don't understand what the obsession with South America is…" Teruhashi attempted to parse the gift.
Join the club.
"Oh, these don't grow into beanstalks? Hmm…" Nendou pondered. He grabbed his chin between his thumb and his pointer and stuck his tongue out, confused by something he had made up.
Kaidou went next while Nendou was lost in his nonexistent thoughts. What the village idiot could possibly be achieving was unknown.
Kaidou cleared his throat. "Teruhashi-san, I wrote you a letter to let you know what you mean to me. I hope the rest of the group feels the same way," Kaidou said shyly, his lip trembling at the thought of reading such a letter to a girl, much less Teruhashi. But he mustered up the courage.
"Dear Teruhashi-san,
I used to always think that you were so far away from me, but now that we've spent more time together I can see your kind and caring soul for what it is.
Despite your hectic schedule, you still make the time to join us on our admittedly silly adventures. It's been a joy seeing you relax more around us. You somehow feel the same but different, like you've softened over time. I hope we have helped you with that.
I'm glad to be able to accept you for who you are.
I know I still get flustered around you, but this does not take away from the fact that you are my treasured friend.
I've always had trouble making friends, so thank you for being someone I can consider a friend despite our many differences.
Shun Kaidou "
He noticed all of that?
"Gwahaha, chibi, you wrote Teruhashi-san a love letter?" Nendou guffawed, pointing his finger at Kaidou. Kaidou's face burned bright red.
"N-N-No! Did it come off like that?" Kaidou stammered.
Not to anyone except that moron.
"Nendou-kun, please don't interrupt a passionate moment! Kaidou poured all of his fiery youth into that letter!" Hairo said. Tears streamed from his fiery eyes and his right biceps was comically flexed, popping out more veins than normal people should have.
I agree with what you said, but not the reaction.
"You really think so?" Kaidou scratched the back of his head sheepishly while maintaining his very flushed face.
Teruhashi had been gobsmacked by this point and finally collected herself enough to respond to Kaidou's gift. "Kaidou, that's one of the most thoughtful things anyone has ever said to me. I'll treasure it forever!" Teruhashi said, clasping her fingers together. She was beaming ear to ear, making no attempt to hide how much that letter meant to her, overcoming even Nendou's perpetual need to harass Kaidou. Tears streamed from the eyes of all present with one predictable exception. His knowing grin was acceptable enough.
Although he'd probably never admit it, he did like to see others happy and this was probably the happiest he had ever seen Teruhashi outside of their private interactions. He hadn't really noticed it before because he was so focused on interacting with her, but he had to admit that the way she looked when she was happy was quite soothing. He had never understood the excessive happiness from others at anything she did, but he felt himself get a bit closer to it. Observing her shimmering aura that perfectly accented every part about her, he could understand why people thought she was so pretty. He felt a bit of a twinge. He must have said something wrong, but he couldn't figure out what.
I don't understand the sentimentality, but at least she's happy.
Aiura was up next.
"Hey, Teryukoko, I got ya this!" she said, showing a cheerful smile. Teruhashi's eyes lit up when she peeled the wrapping paper off of the box. "I know you have trouble relaxing sometimes so I thought this might help you out! It's an essential oil diffuser with a few different scents. I got you peppermint, lavender, and tea tree to start but there are plenty of others to choose from!"
"That's so thoughtful, Aiura! I love it!" Teruhashi exclaimed. She removed a brown cylindrical device with a small slot on the top for steam to escape. Any previous underreactions to her gifts were immediately drowned out by the warm glow, effervescing the room like a perfect-temperature steam room. Teruhsahi's happiness was absolutely infectious, eliciting happy coos from all present except for the nose-picking gorilla and the tsundere psychic.
"No problem, Teryukoko!" Teruhashi's golden glint bounced off of Aiura's teeth, creating a comical lens flare effect as she flashed a peace sign and a wink.
Saiki started to feel feelings well up in him that he didn't know he had. His mind strained against his cranium as his heart strained against its own muscles, unable to decide whether or not to thud fervently in his chest or stop completely he tried to stop for what felt like minutes until it was Yumehara's turn to present her gift.
"I got you some floral perfume! I hope it helps you reel in your Mr. Right," she said, mischievously side eyeing the target but passing it off as a normal head movement. The target's eyebrow twitched. As much as he wanted to glare at her, he wasn't sure if Yumehara knew that Teruhashi's crush was unreciprocated. Aiura wanted to react strongly as well, but managed to quash her short-circuiting thoughts before she physically reacted.
You could not have picked a worse time to do this, Yumehara.
"Thank you, Chiyo! If it happens it happens, I don't need to rush it." Teruhashi's expression brightened, but her aura had diminished significantly. The others hadn't caught on, but the illusion could break at any moment if they weren't careful.
"Stupid. I should have known this would happen. I just wanted to put aside our differences and try to actually be friends, not have some stupid love triangle plotline!" she chided herself, but was also able to keep her expression under wraps as well. Saiki grimaced internally. Even he felt legitimately bad for both of them.
Aiura's thoughts whipped into a storm of anxious trepidation. For the very first time, he felt her confidence falter, ripped up from its foundations by the storm winds roaring through her mind. She pulled away to make her presence less known. Her lip started to tremble. Her thoughts were nearly indecipherable, but Saiki knew she had noticed more than just the isolation of an unrequited crush. No, she had noticed something about HIM as well.
He tried to shut out her thoughts by shutting his eyes and taking slow, imperceptibly deep breaths. When Aiura's thoughts settled a bit, he looked up to see Teruhashi entertaining the guests happily, but the pit of sorrow was still firmly lodged in her gut. Rescued by his knight in shining armor again.
"I'm fine, Kusuo," he heard as Aiura's countenance became genial once again, joining the animated discussion about something or the other. How was he going to get himself out of this one? Time slowed to a crawl as he feverishly ran through every possibility, but he found nothing. He stood alone, surrounded by his impregnable Walls of Jericho.
"... Saiki-kun! Saiki-kun! Stay with us!" He met her intense gaze and gave her a quick nod. Aiura's eyes widened and she let out a small gasp as a thunder crack arced through her thoughts. Saiki grimaced, but managed to twist it into a garden variety Saiki scowl before Kaidou addressed him.
"Hey, Saiki, what did you get for Teruhashi-san?" Kaidou cordially asked, an innocent smile adorning his face.
He quickly foisted over a box with a strawberry cheesecake cupcake, casting his eyes to the side and crossing his arms with a curmudgeonly frown on his face. All present giggled jubilantly.
"Aw, you do care! You're just a tsundere after all!" Chiyo cooed playfully.
I don't want to hear that from you right now.
It took everything in Saiki's willpower to push down a venomous glare. It wasn't really her fault; she was completely unaware of the ramifications of her actions. Maybe she and Kaidou were actually perfect for each other.
The rest of the group was only aware of the outward appearance of the cupcake. It had a smooth, perfectly whipped white icing top with, of course, fresh diced strawberries covering it. The sponge was colored a deep red reminiscent of a red velvet cake and sturdy enough to not fall apart when eating but not so heavy that it weighed in the stomach. In the center there was a light, but full bodied cheesecake filling that elevated the dessert from excellent to divine. All of this concentrated strawberry goodness was wrapped in a beautiful paper emblazoned with the logo of the pâtisserie he had gotten it from and blue and pink chibi cherubs. He may or may not have spent a little too much money trying the cupcakes to see if they were worthy of Teruhashi's refined tongue.
"Well if there's one thing Saiki knows a lot about, it's sweets! I'm sure this will be great, Teruhashi-san!" Kaidou said.
"Yeh, nice going, man!" Kuboyasu reached over and gave Saiki's back a friendly tap and a jovial thumbs-up.
"Ah, this is the power of youth!" Hairo said with tears streaming from his eyes and another exuberant thumbs-up. Saiki swore he saw Hairo's eyebrows thicken and his hair settle into a bowl cut.
What is it with you and impassioned stereotypes?
"Oh, those chibis are pretty cool looking. They kinda look like this chibi over here," Nendou said, thrusting his finger out toward the incensed chunnibyou.
That's what you care about?
Kaidou opened his mouth to censure Nendou, but was interrupted by feral growling. Mera's arm bulged as the opposing one gripped it tightly, revealing veins larger than Hairo's as drool hung out of her gritted teeth. It had taken her everything to not eat the whole cake and overcome the smell of the cupcake in the box, but seeing it was a bit too much for her. A little psychic intervention assisted her restraining arm as everyone watched Mera with wide-eyed stupor. Her struggle went on for several minutes until she finally gave up and let her arms hang limp. All present broke into excessive exultation.
"We're so proud of you, Chisatocchi!" Yumehara said, wrapping her arms around the bespectacled savage. Mera breathed heavily but leaned into Yumehara's embrace.
"I can't believe I did that!" Mera thought, completely flummoxed.
That's because you didn't.
Since the audience hadn't heard from Aiura yet, she made her presence known with a slow clap. "Great job, Chisapoyo and Kusuo-san!" her eyes squeezed shut as she laughed giddily. Both Teruhashi and Saiki felt a pang of guilt in their chests.
The rest of the party proceeded as normal. They played games and talked until everyone started to get tired. Aiura managed to calm herself down and have fun until they reached the end of the night when everyone started to go home.
Saiki sensed that Aiura and Teruhashi needed to talk and left early to maintain their privacy. They both sat on Teruhashi's steps as they waved Saiki off. The ever-present hum of cicadas surrounded them in the cool evening air. A light breeze caressed their skin as if to blow away the high emotions from the party. Teruhashi tucked her legs into her chest as Aiura let her legs splay out, leaning back on her hands and letting her feet dance.
"I'm really sorry about what happened today." Teruhashi's face had contrition etched into the same spots of her running mascara from August 6th.
"It's fine, Teryukoko. You didn't know. Thanks for inviting me to your party though, it was really big of you to do even though we're supposed to be love rivals," Aiura said cheerfully, but her voice bore a palpable edge in its undertone.
"There wasn't a doubt in my mind that you deserved to be here. I don't know who would have accepted me if they knew what you know about me."
"I know it's rough for you. I saw a few black feathers when I looked at your aura. Knowing what I know now, it seems like you've got your own secrets to keep too."
Teruhashi gasped and buried her face into her legs tightly.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," Teruhashi warbled sadly.
"I know you're doing the best you can. You can't control everything."
"What about you, Aiura? I don't want to talk about me the entire time, though you could say I'm a bit used to it." She laughed bitterly.
"Obviously, I came to PK because I was looking for a soul mate and I thought that person was Kusuo. I wanted that to be him so bad that I put a lot of expectations on him and probably pushed him away because of it. Maybe I kinda shot myself in the foot transferring for someone that I didn't even know would love me. I think my nature of doing good to a fault probably turned him off as well." She mirrored Teruhashi's bitter laugh.
"Why is that?"
"I don't know for sure, but I think being a telepath probably hardened his heart over time because he heard so many disgusting thoughts from people. Even if I know people think them, it's not the same as actually hearing them. Not to mention he can't save everyone in need. I can only do so much heroics but he has the power to alter the world whenever he wants to. All it takes is one mistake to ruin everything or he'd die tired if he did everything in his power to help people, so even though I disagree with his outlook I don't necessarily blame him." She stared off into the horizon.
"I think you're right. That's really thoughtful of you," Teruhashi said kindly.
Aiura gave a small shrug as the cement of the steps scratched the tips of her nails. "Well, I think at this point, you win. He obviously likes you a lot and you're way closer to him than I could probably ever get. I think I just need to move on at this point," she said with a resigned tone.
Teruhashi felt a slug of guilt drop into her stomach. "I'm sorry, Aiura." She bowed her head into her legs.
"Don't be. You can't force anyone to do anything. I wish I had learned that lesson earlier."
"I spent my entire life essentially forcing people to do things with my beauty. I'm far worse than you."
"Maybe. But I know you've done a lot of work to undo that distorted perception of the world that power has given you. Despite your faults, you're way nicer than you have any right to be. I think he respects that a lot."
"I appreciate the compliments, but for once I don't want this to be a competition."
Aiura blew air out of her mouth. "You're right. There's still a lot of growing for me to do."
Why do you still need to grow? I'm the childish one. Everyone needs to grow, but it feels almost cruel that someone like her had to go through this.
Aiura positioned her legs under her hips and pushed off of her hands, rising to her feet. She turned toward Teruhashi.
"Well, thanks for talking with me Teryukoko. After this whole thing blows over, maybe we can hang out some more."
"I hope so too," Teruhashi said, offering a sad smile.
"Aight, I'll catch ya later then!" Aiura smiled and left with a cheerful wave. However, Teruhashi's night was not quite over yet.
"Kokoooooomii!" she heard off in the distance. She gawked and recoiled when she heard the source of the noise. A hospital gown clad Makoto scurried over to her with a casted left arm in a sling.
"Onii-chan, what in the world happened to you? Are you ok?" Makoto annoyed her, but he was still her brother. She helped him inside as he babbled about the source of his injury.
"I am deeply sorry I couldn't be home with you today. I was on my way to take care of some boring stuff when I came across some hyenas eating a rotten corpse; one of them rushed me and bit my arm, but my staff was able to get that one off of me and hold the others at bay. As a side note did you know that hyenas have one of the highest bite forces in the entire animal kingdom? I figured that out when it snapped my arm like a twig." Makoto fell into uncomfortable laughter. Teruhashi did not join him.
"No possible idea where they could have come from. They called animal control to get the hyenas out, but there still aren't any leads. At least I get a big insurance payout."
"I'm so sorry this happened to you. At least there's one silver lining."
"Well the doctors said I'd need a suppository"- Teruhashi immediately glared at him, not that he noticed-"so I might need help with it..."
"Buzz off."