"Angela…" Worriedly said Malkuth, while glancing at Angela.

The AI looked at the Sephirah of Control. It couldn't be helped, both of them had decided to take it upon themselves to finish this task in the kitchen.

They had found a roadblock when they realized that… neither knew how to cook.

'I have read many books in my free time, even if they had become repetitive at this point, one was specifically about cooking. After the countless times I went through it, I thought that preparing a dish would have been easy.' Angela thought with a frown on her face and her lab coat covered in flour and apple juice. Her own personal room had what one would consider a small library. Since she didn't need to sleep, she took out the bed to have more books inside of it.

Malkuth was quite troubled herself, 'It shouldn't have been that hard. Add butter to a pan, place flour and heat to form the bottom… how did I end up with a combustion to the face?' The top part of her metallic body was covered in soot.

Trigger had a fondness for apples, and seemed to enjoy apple juice the most.

So they had both decided to make an apple pie and some apple juice. It was simple in hindsight… not so much in execution.

'How did we manage to screw this up?' Neither Angela nor Malkuth knew. They somehow thought of the exact same thing at the exact same time.

Angela quickly calculated how much time they would have to finish this, "There is only half an hour left…" She said with a frown.

Malkuth groaned and looked at the mess in front of them, "Alright… we can salvage this." She didn't sound confident, but at the very least she was determined.

The AI hummed in agreement, before glancing at the… attempt of paste. Malkuth, even if she somehow made it explode, had formed a big circular crust, which should have been soft and flexible now. It looked more like a cookie.

Malkuth looked at the attempt of a juice Angela made, and it was… like apple syrup, or mashed apple. It was like the filling of some kind of candy.

Both quickly glanced at each other, an idea forming in their heads. It was unorthodox, but with the time left it was their best bet.

Apple cookies.

—--

Rober and BongBong quickly came to the realization that trying to sew without proper tools was a bit of a challenge.

BongBong had some experience with this, living in the Backstreets meant not a lot of clothes, so you had to be a conservative person and pick the cheapest option. Learning to sew was easier than buying new clothes.

Rober, on the other hand, knew Trigger's tastes the most... amongst them is his love for crows. So they decided to do something simple.

A scarf styled after black feathers, which they thought would be a bit hard, but a black Sephirah with yellow patterns just came into BongBong's room and dropped the feathers and just nodded at them.

They didn't question it at all.

BongBong was sweating hard. Without a machine, they had to take a piece of metal from the walls of the facility and forcibly fold it to make something close to a needle. It took… various attempts at getting it right.

For the threads, they just dismantled their old suits that L Corp handed to them on their first day.

Rober glanced at the clock in the room and gulped, "Almost done, right?" He had been folding metal for quite a while now. Those impromptu needles didn't last long… surprisingly enough, those feathers were very tough. A lot tougher than the walls of the facility.

BongBong gave him a thumbs up.

Yeah, they could do this.

—--

Dakota sighed while looking at the book in her hands. Trigger was a guy that trained a lot and seemed to enjoy it to some degree.

So with not a lot to go off of, she decided to hand him her favorite combat book. There is a reason that her build was so solid for someone that lived in the Backstreets, that thing had taught her well.

'It should teach the suicidal ass of Trigger a thing or two.' She thought with a grin. The guy was a fucking tease and loved to fuck with anyone if he got the chance, but he also stuck by what he says and does.

She glanced at the time, it was almost the moment of truth. Honestly, the fact that Gonzales of all people thought of this idea first kinda baffled her, not that she would ever admit that.

This wasn't enough to pay back the E.G.O classes, but in her personal opinion, it was a step in the right direction.

—--

Bethany wasn't sure what to take with her, moving around her room to find anything noteworthy that could be used as a gift.

Well, the plan did come a bit out of left field, so she was left with little time to prepare… well, anything.

'Agh… what do I even give to someone like him?' Bethany thought while throwing off a pair of socks, because of course those weren't going to be enough.

Suddenly she perked up. It was something he said as an offhand comment, Trigger likes leaning against a wall to fall asleep with a sitting position on the floor.

His neck must pop like crazy when he does that, she looked at the socks and the pillows that come with each room, an idea forming inside her head. She wasn't the best at sewing, but this would do.

'A neck pillow would do wonders for him.' Bethany thought with a big smile. She could make this work, she just had to act fast.

—--

Amelia grumbled to herself with bruises on her face. The regenerators could have dealt with those, but she was a bit too busy helping Gonzales with decorating the Training Room.

It wasn't much, really. Some tables and chairs from the cafeteria, and whatever random shit they found around, but considering what little they had… it didn't look half-bad.

"Ame, can you pass me the blue sheets?" He was still loud, no doubt about that, Gonzales was just like that all the time. Amelia for her part grumbled at the nickname.

She didn't hate it, that much was obvious, but she was also a prideful woman, so hearing that just put her on edge. Still doing as told, she passed the blue sheets to him, which they rolled around to make these arcs on the roof while nailing them… with a lot of force, so that they stayed in place.

She glanced at the digital clock she brought with her, "Almost time. Well, at least we finished." Trigger's reaction would be interesting, to say the least.

Gonzales smiled brightly while hopping down from the chair he was using to reach the roof, "Aye! The Magical Comrades should be ready to bring him in at any moment!" He reached under his suit and pulled out dog tags. It was something he had come up with.

One said 'Companion' the other said 'Friend'. Amelia thought it was sappy as all hell… and also admitted that Trigger would like them.

Now they just have to wait.

—--

Trigger was understandably confused. After he was done with training Amelia, he left towards his room…

Just to be suddenly grabbed by Joy, who opened one of her circles next to him and snatched him into her bed, under the pretense that she needed a body pillow.

It didn't last long, considering Justine was waiting right there to greet her sister in arms with a lariat.

All of it devolved into an argument about basic human decency, to which Trigger had to play mediator, since both of them had been… unusually fired up.

'I can tell they aren't that angry at each other… what's going on?' Trigger thought with a confused expression. Their acting wasn't bad and if it weren't for his ability to sense emotions, they could have actually pulled one over him.

Seeing that they wouldn't be doing this without a good reason, he just played along. It has been quite a while since both of them interacted, so maybe they were just doing this as an excuse to meet each other.

Justine… then reached under her dress and pulled out an old styled hand clock. Trigger blinked at the sudden action.

Joy leaned forward to see the time too, both suddenly smiled at him, "Seems like it's time." Justine said with what sounded like eagerness.

Joy's smile was a lot more wild, "Finally! Was wondering if time was slowing down for a second there… well at least we already gave him our gifts."

Trigger was completely lost, "Umm… what?" He asked unsurely when Joy grabbed his hand and opened a portal.

"IT'S TIME TO PARTY!" She shouted before jumping in, dragging Trigger with her, Justine sighing while following right behind them.

…

Silence was present inside the 'decorated' Training Room. Trigger stared up at the blue sheet, crude paper cuttings with the words, 'Thank you, Trigger!' up there.

Then the ice was broken.

"Angela, Malkuth… where the hell is the pie and juice?"

"Dakota, you are my best agent… but shut up."

"Really? A book about fighting? He is meant to relax here, you know!"

"Shove it, Amelia! You are giving him dog tags, like what the fuck?"

"Comrade, I'd say they are a sign of friendship… unlike that furry worm over there."

"It's a scarf, you big lug, and I'll have you know it took a lot of effort to make."

"Bong!"

"Bethany, what kind of pillow is made with socks?"

"First, it's a NECK pillow. Second, where are the drinks? I only see those… weird cookies."

"I've seen bad decoration… but holy shit, you guys suck at this!"

While that was happening, Justine sighed at how everything went wrong in an instant. She glanced at Trigger to see his reaction and gasped.

That caught everyone's attention, they were pleasantly surprised.

Trigger went through various expressions, but all of them carried just a bit of joy in them. First was bafflement, then it was denial, after that came realization.

Then he covered his face to try and keep the tears in. He removed his hand and looked at everyone with a teary face and a soft smile on his face.

"Thank you." It was all he said.

Everyone glanced at each other, the mood suddenly improving, remembering who they even did this for.

To show him their appreciation for his actions.

And if that reaction was anything to go by… they got the message across.