Family Friends: A Tyrus High School AU

8

Cyrus was woken from his Saturday morning lie-in by the sound of loud knocking at his door. Groggily, he stumbled down the stairs of his mother's house as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. 

He was surprised to see TJ, gel-free with a gleam in his green eyes. 

"What time do you call this?" Cyrus asked, his voice was clearly not accustomed to being awake.

"11:30 AM. You know, when we agreed to meet?" TJ retorted rolling his eyes.

Cyrus pulled his friend inside the house and ran upstairs to get ready. When he returned, he returned with 5 vibrant boxes that all had various sizes.

"You left before your 11th birthday and I know your birthday was this summer so I thought I'd give you these now. You see, every year I'd get you something for your birthday in the hopes that you'd come back and I could give them to you. After my parents' divorce, since you were a family friend, it was kind of a touchy subject to talk about you because it reminded them of when they were together. But I really missed you, so I did this to pretend you were still around. Okay, I'm babbling. Happy belated birthdays!" Cyrus said, his voice clear and enthusiastic as it usually was.

TJ wore a wide-spread grin on his face. He was so touched that his old friend had remembered him. 

He opened a small gift wrapped in metallic blue wrapping paper first. The somewhat juvenile handwriting indicated that it was from some time ago. "Dear Thelonius Jagger Kippen" it read, TJ snickered at Cyrus' constant use of formalities. Inside it was the sheet music to all of their favourite songs for TJ to play on the piano.

The next gift had slightly smaller and neater handwriting on it. It was large and had a bright orange wrapping paper. Inside was a muffin maker kit. The next present was a carefully sketched canvas drawing of TJ that both Cyrus and Andi had worked on together the previous year. The next was a filled in diary of the inns and outs of Cyrus' life over the ages 11-14 so he could catch up. The final box was filled with the DVDs of all their favourite movies and box sets from their childhood.

"This is the most thoughtful thing that anyone's ever done for me," TJ said,his eyes slightly clouded as he encircled his small companion in a tight embrace. He felt the softness of Cyrus' cheek against his own and they both seemed to heat up, despite it being a pretty cold November.