Days Go By | lavashipping

**.*****

Kai frowned at the person standing in front of him, dressed in fancy clothes for whatever reason. The cover of the night plus the fact how vacant this place was weren't helpful in the person's case at all and Kai's instincts were kicking in.

“Why…?” they trailed off, not really sure what to ask exactly.

“Mr Brookstone has sent a limousine for you.” Then they reached into their pocket and Kai's heart gave out for a moment just as his muscles tensed up. “He told me to give this to you.”

Although hesitantly, Kai took the yellow paper from him. It was a birthday card with a picture of cheese on it and Kai had to chuckle despite himself. He didn't look inside yet, instead he followed the guy into the limousine which seemed to be the same as the one they shared on the way to the show. At least from what they could recall.

“What are you up to this time?” he wondered quietly on his own, looking over the card.

Sorry I had to leave early
I hope you'll still be up for some ice-cream
♡

The limousine pulled up by a building which could as well be considered his second home at that point with how often he spent time there. Kai walked all the way to Cole's door, unlocked it with their own key and was met with a dark, silent flat lit up by candles.

Well, the silence didn't last long because just as Kai closed the door behind them, a few clangs and annoyed mutters sounded from the kitchen. Which meant Kai knew where to go.

“You know, it's unwise to leave fire without supervision.” He put the box on a table before leaning on his arm against it.

“Kai!” Cole only turned his head to look at them. He didn't even change his clothes. “I thought you'd wait in the living room!”

“And miss out you fighting for life with kitchen utensils? No way.”

“I just– The ice cream just wouldn't budge, that's all. Go sit down, it's a surprise.”

“All right, all right. Yell if they start a revolution.”

“I'm not that terrible in the kitchen,” Cole replied. And just as Kai left the room, he could hear as he quietly asked, “Am I?” and had to chuckle.

While Cole fought his war in there, Kai settled down amongst the candles and proceeded to fail a don't-stare-at-me contest with some package which was placed on the table. A package too neatly wrapped to be some ordinary package. And no matter how much they tried to get interested in anything in the room, they kept glancing back at it. He tapped his fingers on the armrest.

“Stop staring at me like that.”

“Yeah, I'm afraid you're asking for the impossible.” Upon hearing his voice again, Kai turned to smile at Cole, then at the ice cream sundae in his hands. “Sorry, I–” Cole hesitated, looked around. “Well, I guess I do have candles, just not the right kind.”

Kai chuckled and waved for the bowl. “Don't worry about that, gimme the bad boy.”

Sitting down and handing Kai the ice cream, Cole chuckled along, not taking his eyes off them. “Happy birthday, Kai,” he murmured since the silence of the flat allowed it. “Once more, that is.”

“Thank you.” Kai was more than eager to dig into the mountain of ice cream and cookies and caramel sauce but paused right before to say, “Just– Not that your voice isn't music to my ears already but are we really gonna sit there in silence with you watching me completely destroy this all by myself?”

“I'm glad you asked,” Cole replied with a grin before turning around, bending over and fishing something from underneath the table which Kai didn't previously notice thanks to the nice package still waiting there. It was also a box but obviously older and more beaten down. Cole gently caressed it before looking back at Kai. “Any guesses?”