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“Quick, now !” Camilla exclaimed, clapping her hands while walking around the room. “If we want to surprise Leo, we need this cake to be finished, and for the decorations to be put accordingly ! Peri, get your head out of that !”
And she kept going on and on, almost giving Corrin a headache. When she told everyone her idea of making a surprise party for Leo, she didn’t expected Camilla to be so intense about it. This whole thing has been going on for days, with her older sister debating about which gifts to buy, where to hold the party, at which time in the day they should surprise Leo… at this point, she couldn’t wait for this party to finally start. That would mean lots of fun for all of them, and also a full night of sleep.
Camilla is a good leader, Corrin must reckon, but she isn’t a good planner. Putting Odin and Niles in charge of the cake was a terrible idea, she knew it. And Laslow and Peri at the decorations ? Laslow has a correct sense of design, it was more Peri that she was worried about. With years she spent in her childhood manor and in the vast, dark halls of the Nohr castle, she feared that the girl would make the room too morbid for a birthday party. Luckily, Laslow was here to snatch out the fake skulls off her arms.
“This is it !” Odin said. “This will be the most grand, the best, the most wonderful cake ! So beautiful our ancestors’ spirits will be jealous, and future generations will feel deep resentment for reasons unknown to them ! Yes, I can feel it ! My blood tells me so !”
“Shut up and melt the damn chocolate !” Niles interrupted him.
“No yelling !” Peri yelled, thus contradicting herself.
At least, Corrin can thank Camilla for one thing: giving her and Xander the peaceful job of wrapping the gifts. Or well, she thought so, as she quickly discovered that, while Xander is good at many things, he can barely wrap a single gift as Corrin already had three ready.
So that made four wrapped gifts. Out of twenty. She used all of her strength to hold back a sigh. Courage, you still have a few hours until Leo finished his patrol. She smiled at that thought. While Leo would be the last person to complain about having chores to do on his birthday, she didn’t failed to notice his somewhat disappointed expression as Xander gave him this precise duty.
“Where are our Hoshido friends anyway ?” Xander groaned. “Things will go much faster if they were here”
“I know that they are on their way, big brother. Trust me about this”
She took care to send her siblings a rather threatening letter ordering them to help them for the party, and also assist it.
“Speaking of the devil !” Camilla said as the door knocked. “It’s probably them”
People from Hoshido quickly filled the room, with… even more gifts to wrap. Luckily, they also bought other stuff with them that could be extremely useful such as cupcakes Sakura cooked and decorations Hinoka made. Keaton, until now sitting in the corner of a room, was quick to follow Sakura and her plate of cupcakes.
“MY ACHING BLOOD ! THIS CAKE WILL PUT NOHR INTO ENTIRE SHAME !”
“For once, Odin, shut up”
“Don’t you see ? It’s-it’s terrible ! The aura, it’s aura is so bad ! So horrible !”
Niles groaned and gestured towards the cake.
“Look at it, Odin. Look at it. It’s a good cake, believe me. Leo’s gonna love it. I mean, it’s so… red”
“OF COURSE IT’S RED ! YOU DIDN’T TOLD ME YOU’LL SHAPE IT INTO A TOMATO !”
“It’s better than giving him an actual tomato with a candle stuck on it”
The day turned out to be extremely long. Sakura and Ryoma had to take charge of the cake since Leo’s retainers couldn’t stop yelling at each other, and Keaton was put into the corner for not leaving Sakura and her cupcakes alone. He was sitting there, facing the wall and groaning unintelligible words, but words Corrin was certain that Sakura and Elise weren’t supposed to hear. Azura started rehearsing for the happy birthday song (”Why putting so much effort into it ?” Ryoma asked. “It’s just a song”) and Elise decided to help Corrin and Xander to wrap the gifts, along with Hinoka, Setsuna and Azama. Or, well, Hinoka was doing the work and yelling at her retainers for not doing anything.
“He’s a prince, he probably have everything he wants already !” Azama would say, followed by Setsuna sighing.
But suddenly, as everyone was making sure that everything was okay, the door opened to reveal an exhausted Leo. His hair, his armour, everything was a complete mess… a dirty mess.
“I fell into mud”
He said this in the most deadpan tone, until he realized what was currently happening. Quickly, a smile showed up on his face, and his gaze went softer.
“Happy birthday, Milord !” Odin yelled while pointing at the cake, before grasping the plate and running to him. “We made you the best cake, Sire ! Niles kept saying it was horrible, but I know that you would love such cake and- AH !”
One foot slipping on the rug, and there was Odin, lying on the ground with the cake splattered everywhere, dots of red covering the floor (and Leo’s face).
Silence. Xander looked ready to commit murder, Corrin was close to a nervous breakdown, Niles started running at Odin, who immediately stood up and ran away. But all of this was quickly interrupted as Leo’s clear laugh filled the room. Taking a bit of cake off his cheek, he quickly put it into his mouth, his smile widening.
“This is… You guys are too good for me. I am honoured to have friends like you. But, for the love of everything good, never let Odin and Niles cook again”
Several people started to laugh as the two retainers would diss each other. They had huge difficulty to hide the smile on their faces, though. Corrin could understand them, she couldn’t stop smiling either. While this whole thing was about to turn into a mess, everything ended up well.