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Toshinori hadn’t remembered his birthday was coming up until literally the day before. It’s not like it was anything special, he was just turning thirty-two. All of the major adult milestones like drinking or old enough to get his driver’s license were well behind him. In past years he had indulged himself with going to the movies or a nice dinner, but he’d never made a big deal out of it to others.
“You okay, Big Guy?” Jade Mantis asked, tilting her head. All Might belatedly realized that he’d stopped talking in the middle of a conversation with the vigilante. That had been rude.
“Oh, nothing. I just belatedly remembered that it’s my birthday tomorrow.” He laughed up at him. Jade Mantis blinked up at him, looking almost surprised. But the look soon faded.
“Oh, okay.” She acknowledged, but then returned to the business at hand. “As I was saying, I think the Purple Hawks may have a backer with one of the Yakuza families…”
Inko knew right away that she had to do something for All Might’s birthday. Was it in anyway her business? No. But butting into things that weren’t her business was a solid 90% of being a vigilante, so why stop now.
Maybe Inko was projecting a bit here, but she had grown up in a household where her birthday was treated as no big deal. Sometimes, when she was little, she had actually forgotten when it was due to how unimportant it had seemed to her parents.
After she had ran away from home, Inko would use her birthday to try to do something nice for herself, be it buying a candy bar or sleeping out on the beach that night, letting the sound of the waves drift her into sleep. (Yeah, hard to celebrate your birthday when you were functionally homeless). But the point was she would try to acknowledge it in some way, if only as a proverbial middle finger to her parents.
All Might never mentioned any kind of friends or family. Sure, he seemed to get along well with the other pro heroes, but never enough to mention going out to drinks with them or socializing off of work hours.
So, (as when making a lot of decisions) Inko decided to go ‘fuck it’ and just do something for him.
Toshinori had just changed out of his hero uniform when he got the text.
Roof of the Mustafa Cinema. Be stealthy.
After a quick google search to find where that was, Toshinori was up up and away in a matter of minutes.
“You said you wanted to talk to me about something?” He asked, landing on the rooftop of the movie theatre. It was about an hour after closing time, but he still regarded Jade Mantis’ warning and softened his landing so as to not damage the building.
“Happy Birthday!” She called out in broken and heavily accented English, holding out a cupcake. It was a large cupcake, with rainbow colored frosting swirled on top and a lone candle sticking out of the top.
All Might started laughing. Jade Mantis started pouting. “Hey! Don’t be mean I was trying to do something nice for you. And English is way harder than Russian anyway!” The hero forced himself to simmer down, even as the giggle echoed in his throat.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You are, you are. I was just surprised, is all.” He sobered himself. “Though, you called me all the way out to Mustafa just to give me a cupcake?”
“Well, and I may have prepared an additional present for you inside.” The vigilante smiled.
“Thank you, but it’s really not necessary—“
“A movie marathon of all the Christopher Reeve Superman films, and free popcorn refills.”
“—for us to keep the good people waiting any longer, let’s go!” He grabbed her hand and jumped off the roof of the building, landing with ease. The sign on the glass doors said ‘closed for private showing’. Jade Mantis gave a small wave through the glass, and an usher came to unlock the door.
“How did you set all of this up?” He asked once they were seated in the main theatre, with two large servings of popcorn, snacks, and large sodas balanced on their laps.
“I saved the owner from a car jacking a month ago, and he said I could stop in anytime. Not that I do this for favors! At all!”
Before any further conversation could occur, the movie started. It was entirely in English, and even though Inko didn't understand the language enough to ever be able to follow along without subtitles, she would be happy that All Might could. From the moment that the theme song started playing, the pro hero's eyes were glued to the screen, and a goofy grin plastered on his face.
Jade Mantis smiled to herself, and whispered: “Happy Birthday, Blondie.”