Beneath The Surface

Act 46 - The gift I love most is you

Normal text
Thinking
Onomatopoeia

Astaroth's POV
Astaroth was in the hotel cafeteria, absent-mindedly picking at a breakfast plate that's assigned to her. She couldn't really taste the bland food since all her mind was on the hot potato sitting in her pocket. It's a small box containing a ring—Ahri's birthday gift. She's meant to be giving this to her today. But now she's having cold feet. Astaroth didn't know how to present the thing without seeming so ostentatious. If it was the tactless Kali, she'd likely just tossed it over immediately. But that can't be good, right??? She didn't know. All these fell under uncharted territories. Astaroth never celebrated such occasions when she's young (no one appreciated her birth, certainly not her crass parents!). She only just celebrated her first one a few months ago! So she can't claim to be an expert at this. Although she did do some basic research, it wasn't thorough enough because of the tight schedule. So she was still nervous when it came to the actual day.

After the slightly disturbing showmatch, Evelynn suddenly brought up that Ahri's birthday was coming in a few days. That damn mother hen had really left such an important occasion to the very last minute! Her cheeky excuse was that the fox lady usually didn't care about this sort of fluff. Apparently, she, too, never celebrated her own birthday before. Evelynn's idea was that since the 'loner' finally made some new friends this year, maybe she wouldn't be completely annoyed by this 'troublesome' event. All in all, they had less than a week to prepare everything... Not enough freaking time! Astaroth was stressing over the fact that her incompetence might screw up this momentous occasion. She only recently learnt that one was supposed to pick out a present on birthdays. And now she's also assigned the holy job of planning out what to do on that day itself??? Someone, just kill her now.

To make matters worse, Evelynn wanted it to be a surprise. Which also happened to be the most difficult part—getting Ahri to not follow them while they went out hunting for treasures. It took every bloody lie and reassurance that she wasn't playing with the others behind her back for Ahri to begrudgingly stay back in the hotel room. Though she let it be known that the queen bee wasn't happy with this arrangement in the form of sulks and grumbles. The last thing Astaroth saw was the woman pouting alone in a desolate room while her perky ears drooped sadly before she's shepherded away...

*Flashback starts*

"Why not just tell her?" Astaroth asked quizzically.

She didn't feel comfortable leaving an upset baby fox alone. Especially not when her fluffy tails slumped lifelessly as she used the blanket to bundle herself into a tight dumpling. Ahri refused to look at her. Which only gave Astaroth more crippling anxiety. The seemingly broken tails might as well be the shattered pieces of her heart. She wanted to go over to soothe her aggrieved baby. But Evelynn merely pulled her along while cheekily bidding the already fuming lady farewell.

"Like I said, it's only effective if it's a surprise. Just let that hoe sulk for a few days. On her birthday, everything will naturally fix itself," Evelynn mused nonchalantly while dragging her up the moving stairs to the third storey of the mall.

Astaroth pursed her lips, unconvinced. Meanwhile, Kali and Kaisa were having a blast without worries. They're intrigued by the moving steps called escalators. Both stuck their heads out, marvelling at the magic that's automatically carrying them upstairs, allowing mere humans to transcend beyond the planes of mortality. Or so Kali claimed. She's convinced that they're floating. How did Astaroth never realise the brat's a dork???

Once they reached a junction, the mother hen immediately delegated jobs, "Kaisa, bring Akali with you to pick out some cosmetics. The fox prefers colours that are not too strong. Only exception is red."