Short Stories

Surprise Party

Summary: It's Hajime's birthday, so now the rest of VOID has to plan a party.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Heeeeeeey Hajime!" Emma said, slipping into the seat next to Hajime in a dramatic fashion.

Hajime groaned. "What is it?"

"Soooo, I was wondering if you wanted to go walk around the town with me!" Emma offered. "It's been so long since we've done something that was just the two of us. It'll be just like the old days!"

"What do you mean 'the old days'?" Hajime asked.

"Oh, you know... Like the ten minutes after we met, after you-know what!" Emma got a slightly dark expression on her face when she said 'you-know-what', but she quickly got over it and was back to her happy expression.

Hajime thought about it for a moment. "You know what, sure. I have nothing better to do. It's healthy to go for walks, anyway." He said, standing up.

Emma gave a small squeal and stood up next to him. "Wonderful! Let's get going!"

She fell into pace a little behind Hajime as they walked out of the room, so that she could signal with her hands without Hajime noticing.

The signal she was making in particular meant 'Everything's working, go do what you need to do!'.

And it was meant for a journalist, wizard, and painter who were hiding behind a corner, watching the exchange. And at Emma's signal, they dispersed and ran back to their 'secret base'.

Mikado hummed contentedly as he pulled a freshly baked vanilla cake out of the oven. He knew that Hajime usually wanted everything to be healthy, but not even Hajime would turn down a bit of cake every once and a while.

Just in case though, he made it vanilla, which he was pretty sure was a 'healthy' flavor.

He set it out to cool, and admired it for a brief second. He always felt proud of himself whenever he successfully baked something, as he was a lot better and more used to cooking. He was trying to get better, though.

Though apparently that one short moment of admiration was all it took for something to go wrong, as he started to smell something burning.

"Oh shit!" He cried out, turning around. The yakitori he was cooked had burned, and it started smoking.

Quickly, he turned off the stove and dumped the yakitori in the sink, then took a breather.

"Of course it's today that I accidently mess up a meal..." He muttered under his breath.

Nonetheless, he gathered himself and began making a new batch, this time keeping a careful eye on it.

Nikei picked up a few more streamers and hopped on a chair, decorating the walls. While he didn't know why he was usually in charge of decorating, he would be damned if he didn't do a good job.

They didn't usually have so much decorations, but some of them were from the Christmas party they'd had yesterday. He'd chosen the ones that looked like they could belong at any party, and not the ones that screamed 'I'M A CHRISTMAS DECORATION'

He finished putting up the streamers with a huff, then scanned around the room. It looked pretty good. Not on the level of a super fancy party, but enough to let Hajime know that he tried.

As Nikei looked everything over, he noticed a loose streamer on the floor.

Huh. That wasn't supposed to be there. He quickly went to pick it up, but it was caught on to something. It wouldn't budge.

Confused, Nikei tugged on it. It wasn't moving.

He pulled on it harder. It came loose, but so did the decorations on the wall.

Nikei began grumbling curses under his breath, and began fixing the decorations. All he could think was Hajime better damn well appreciate this.

Iroha could barely see over the pile of gifts she was carrying. Of course, she didn't really mind, since they were all for Hajime's birthday, but she much preferred seeing to not seeing.

She dumped them on the table and then collapsed backwards into a bean bag.

"Iroha! They're scattered everywhere! At least make sure there's enough room for everything else before you collapse!" Nikei scolded, coming over and organizing the gifts.

"Sorry, I'm just sorta tired." Iroha apologized. "When's Hajime and Emma coming back, anyway?"

Nikei shrugged. "Hopefully not too soon, Mikado still hasn't brought any food out."

"Are you sure about that?" Mikado teased as he came out carrying two plates, and using his magic to carry two more. He placed them onto the table with a flourish. "There we go!"

"Wow, they look so good, Mikado!" Iroha complimented.

Mikado nodded, pleased, and Nikei's phone buzzed. It was a text from Emma.

Emma: Am I okay to bring Hajime back?

Nikei: Yeah, everything's set up.

Emma: K, be there in 5 minutes

"They're on their way." Nikei announced, putting his phone away.

"Oh! That means we need to hide, right?" Mikado asked.

"Um, I think Emma's gonna be covering Hajime's eyes as they come in, so we don't need to hide, but you can if you want to!" Iroha said.

Mikado nodded, and the three of them began checking to make sure nothing was out of line. Soon, the door opened.

"Emma, can you get your hands off my face now?"

A giggle. "Almost! Hang on!"

Emma and Hajime walked in, with Emma's hands over Hajime's eyes, and she winked. She began silently counting down from three, and when she got to zero, she let go of Hajime.

"SURPRISE!"

Hajime blinked, looking over everything from the gifts to the food to the decorations. He smiled. "What's all this?"

"Your birthday party, silly!" Iroha exclaimed. "Cause today's your birthday!"

"Yeah, I remember." Hajime chuckled. "Didn't think you'd guys do something like this, though."

"Of course we would, we're your friends." Mikado said. "Now, let's get to enjoying your party that we worked so hard to set up, shall we?"