Chapter Text
Let's just be blunt, they all planned something.
Something for him in particular. And it was no wonder, considering that it was June and June was his birth month.
It was not a brag by any means, but Mitsuya was confident enough that the club always went all out for him.
Even if he had explicitly forbidden them from doing so.
He didn't even need to guess that they had been preparing for a surprise for him when they had their club on Thursday.
Thursday, that happened to be his birthday.
When he entered the room, everyone had been eerily quiet, like they had been doing their best to try to ignore him. They didn't do their usual greeting when Mitsuya was about to start the club.
Yasuda did the worst job of acting by sitting at the back of the room, instead of her usual spot, near his desk.
Mitsuya huffed.
"In case you think I didn't notice, I know what you are trying to do." He took a seat, starting to prepare his own project. It was a new jacket for Toman, and as usual, the first one would be his as his trial and error, before he moved to creating one for each of the founders.
"Yasuda-san, if this is your doing, I kindly ask you to come forward."
Mitsuya didn't expect Yasuda to act startled. She was a sweet girl, of course, but Mitsuya knew what a rascal girl she truly was.
"Busted, Prez," Yasuda laughed. "Can you even pretend to be at least, surprised?"
Mitsuya shook his head. "You know, I always told you all to not act differently to me. That, including calling me, Prez, like I had been telling you for ages, Yasuda-san."
"Habit dies hard, Prez," Yasuda snatched Mitsuya's bag, so fast that he didn't have time to react properly.
"What are you—" Mitsuya began, before sighing, noticing that nobody had prepared their kit on the table. They did plan something. "Okay, yes, it's my birthday, I know you all are gonna congratulate me and I am deeply grateful for that, but can't we skip all the hassle of singing happy birthday and just start the club?"
Shimura and Ayase pushed their desk, as the other members opened the way for them. Sitting on it, was a giant box, decorated with a big ribbon and a very festive wrapper.
"I told you about no gift policy—"
"—and we respectfully didn't listen, Mitsuya-kun," Shimura grinned.
"This is from all of us, Mitsuya-san," Ayase said. "We all chipped in to get you a collective birthday gift, so it actually didn't cost us arms and legs like you clearly think it did. We are happy to be able to give you this present, and we sincerely hope you will accept it."
"Yeah, Mitsuya-san! It's no biggie for us!"
"If anything, this is a cheap gift, compared to what you have been teaching us!"
"That's right, Mitsuya-san, we still hope you like it though!"
It was very hard to be annoyed when Mitsuya could feel how genuine these girls were.
"Prez, happy birthday from all of us." Yasuda opened the door, and other girls whom Mitsuya ashamedly didn't notice were missing earlier, coming in, and bringing a cake with candles on top.
But, the most surprising thing apparently popped his head behind the girls, grinning ear to ear as Mitsuya dropped his jaw.
"Draken?"
"Heya, Mitsuya, happy birthday."
Mitsuya didn't cry, okay?
There was just something in his eyes when he turned around and hid himself behind Draken.
Even if he adamantly refused to celebrate his birthday, everyone seemed to not listen to him.
After a while, he decided that a whole room of girls plus one enabler boyfriend against himself was a losing game, Mitsuya started accepting that maybe having his birthday celebrated was not a bad thing.
The club members genuinely had fun, throwing a surprise party for him. In addition to the birthday cake, courtesy of Shimura and Yasuda, they were all bringing food and drinks to be shared. Draken even had an enormous plastic bag from the convenience store, full of various snacks, as his contribution.
And despite how Mitsuya stubbornly disliked being the receiver of the happy birthday song, he strangely enjoyed the off-key singing from Draken and the enthusiastic chants from the girls.
Mitsuya didn't cry, okay?
Well, okay, maybe a little bit, when everyone encouraged him to open the collective gift, and he found out, they didn't just give the most thoughtful gift, but also something that Mitsuya had dreamed of having.
His own sewing machine.
"It's okay, Mitsuya, you can cry quietly, behind my back," Draken whispered, intentionally shielding him. Mitsuya punched his arm, but even the admonishment he tried to put into action felt weak, with the way he couldn't help but sniffle.
It had been longer than the usual club activity when finally the party was over. It was so much fun, the cake was delicious, and so were other foods that everyone was bringing. The birthday wishes had been passed to Mitsuya, and Mitsuya didn't even hesitate to hug each one of the club members to show his appreciation.
But to his surprise, apparently the surprise didn't just stop there.
Yasuda, Shimura, and Ayase were the last ones to leave after they had cleaned up the room.
Mitsuya wasn't so stupid to not notice that the three of them and Draken had been communicating in some sort of way. It seemed that they still had one last thing in store for him.
"Out with it," Mitsuya crossed his arms. "What are you planning now?"
Yasuda, Shimura, and Ayase only gave him identical Cheshire grins, before they bid him and Draken goodbyes, not without teasing, "That's for you to find out, Prez!"
Leaving Mitsuya with Draken and his stupidly charming, all-mysterious smile.
"You enjoyed, today?" Draken prompted taking a seat across from him. Mitsuya followed to sit down.
"I need to tattoo the no-celebrating-my-birthday rules on my forehead so that it will be super impossible for them to miss it," Mitsuya pretended to grumble, but he couldn't keep his face from smiling along for too long.
Despite everything, they really had made today, the best day ever. "I'm really happy."
"You think, I can get a pass for your rules too?"
Mitsuya tapped his chin thoughtfully. "It depends, how spectacular are you gonna be?"
Draken lifted his school bag and pulled out a neatly wrapped box.
"O, the honorable Takashi Mitsuya, please do judge me."
Mitsuya snickered, but he tugged the box by its ribbon to his side, as he carefully unwrapped it. He couldn't help to wonder what kind of gift Draken would get him.
Is it a Walkman?
Is it the new CD of Red Hot Chili Peppers?
Is it something that has to do with Impulse?
Is it—
Nothing had prepared him for the thing that he took out from the box.
He wouldn't be surprised, if it was just a regular T-shirt.
He wouldn't be surprised if, it was the T-shirt from the official merch of the band he listened to.
He wouldn't be surprised if it was a customized T-shirt that Draken got him to match his interest.
He wouldn't even be surprised if Draken didn't give him an actual gift, but merely gave him a gag gift, probably a T-shirt with funny jokes or something.
But this T-shirt was nothing like any of that.
This was even more limited than any official merch he could only dream of.
The T-shirt was adorned with a familiar dragon slithered elegantly on the front.
And it was not just any dragon.
It was the dragon with a crooked body line and uneven stitches on his head, with a slightly messy finish on the tail.
It was not perfect by any means, but it was everything for Mitsuya.
Because this was crafted by the inexperienced hands that Mitsuya had been very experienced with.
If the sewing machine rendered him speechless, then the T-shirt might just make Mitsuya forget how to breathe.
"I need to tell you, that the imperfections you see are intentional, Mitsuya, because the only perfect thing is you," Draken grinned. "Also, I got us a twinning T-shirt, in case you wanna be sappy with me and wear them for our date this Saturday, that definitely wasn't sponsored by your generous club members—"
In another chance, Mitsuya would snort at his lame flirtation and reprimand him for being an enabler to the club members, but this time, he merely croaked, almost too quietly.
"Shut up, I'm trying so hard to not fall in love with you again, right now."
Draken laughed. "Aw shucks, Mitsuya, again? Why not?"
Mitsuya didn't say anything back, but the way, he suddenly leaned forward and grabbed Draken's face as response was enough answer, don't you think?
Because, yeah, why not?
"How does it feel?"
"Huh?"
"To be utterly, hopelessly falling in love with me?"
"Like a dream comes true."
"Re-really?"
"Yeah, that's what you wanna hear, don't you all? I can hear you behind that door, Shimura-san."
"Sorry, Prez, I've told them to leave but they didn't listen!"
"Please take a bunch of pics on your date, Draken-kun!"
"Will do!"
"We will not!"
They did though.