Chapter Text
Eiji hummed softly as he arranged the bouquet of daisies in the glass vase sitting on the kitchen table. He paused when he noticed some of the flowers were starting to droop down the side of the container, most likely the result of the vase being overfilled. Each week the size of the bouquets he had been receiving was slowly growing, and the brunet had already gone through three or four vases in an attempt to contain the weekly assortments.
Glancing down at the handwritten card attached to the bouquet always made his heart flutter. They tended to be sentiments or compliments that Ash most likely could not bring himself to say in person. Eiji kept all of them and tended to reread them whenever he would get a gnawing feeling in his gut over the other boy being out too long or coming home too late.
In the middle of separating the assortment into different vases, Eiji heard a few knocks on the door. The brunet shifted nervously in his seat, he wasn’t expecting Bones or Kong today.
“Eiji, it’s me. Open up,” Max’s voice was faintly discernible from the hallway.
Letting out a sigh of relief, the Japanese boy unlocked the front door to be greeted by the older man. “How are you, Max?”
“Jeez, always so polite, Shunichi is the same way—“ he stopped mid-sentence as his eyes landed on the ring on the Japanese boy's finger. A knowing grin slowly spread across the older man's face.
Once he noticed Max’s staring, the brunet sheepishly tried to hide his hand behind his back.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Max playfully tugged at Eiji’s arm so he could get a better view of the white-gold band. “Don’t tell me I missed the wedding?"
“I-It is not like that,” the brunet stammered, his face quickly heating up.
“Edward!”
Both of them turned to see Mrs. Coleman hurrying over from the elevator, nearly dropping her dry cleaning as she rushed to greet Max. Eiji wasn’t sure if he was relieved or terrified that she had interrupted their conversation.
“Nice to see you again,” Max responded politely as he shook their neighbor’s hand. The look on his face clearly signaled that he had forgotten her name.
What kind of journalist forgets people’s names so quickly?
“I am surprised you are home from South Africa so early, I remember Eiji mentioning you would be there another week or so.”
“Ah, well, I had to get back for, uh,” the older man paused as he quickly glanced around the hallway. “Ash’s birthday in a few days,” he finished confidently.
“W-what?” Eiji spluttered, caught off guard by the response.
It wasn’t really Ash’s birthday, was it?
A beat of silence passed before a huge smile spread across Mrs. Coleman’s face, “Oh, how lovely! That must mean you will be in New York this week, then?”
“Well, I couldn’t miss my boy’s birthday, could I?"
“Great! We all have to celebrate. Mark and I will come over for dinner, how does Thursday sound?”
“That sounds great, right, Eiji?” Max winked as he threw an arm around the younger boy’s shoulders.
“I—"
“Splendid, oh I’ll make sure to invite Leslie and Chad, too.” Mrs. Coleman nodded as she turned towards her apartment, "Well, I have to go hang this laundry up, so I will see you both on Thursday. Say hello to Ash for me; I will make sure to buy him something nice!”
What just happened? The Japanese boy stared incredulously at the closing door across the hall.
“What a pushy woman,” Max let out a sigh. Seconds later, a mischievous grin crossed the journalist's face, “however, I am excited to sample my future son-in-law’s cooking at this birthday party.”
Eiji swatted the other man’s arm off his shoulder. “What is it that you want, Max?”
“It can wait until Thursday, I will see you then, soon-to-be Mr. Okumura-Calenreese.”
The brunet glared at the older man, who seemed to be truly enjoying himself. “Goodbye, Max,” he muttered as he headed into the apartment, then promptly shut the door.
***
Pushing a piece of sweet and sour chicken around on his plate with his chopsticks, Eiji’s stomach churned in anticipation. Why was he always put in these situations?
Ash, who was eating rice straight out of the takeout carton, which the brunet had told him multiple times not to do, was giving him a questioning look.
“Um… Max was here today,” Eiji started awkwardly. He grimaced at the other boy sticking his chopsticks upright in the container of rice. “Ash, that is gross, what if I want to eat that tomorrow?"
“Aw, sweetie, don’t be like that,” the blond teased in a sickly sweet voice, “one body, one soul until death do us part, isn’t that right my dear fiancé?”
Eiji pursed his lips and turned towards the window in silence. Anything he chose to say would just result in more teasing, anyways.
Glancing at the windowsill, he noticed some of the carnations in one of the overfilled vases were starting to lose their red petals. No matter how many times Ash made fun of him for it, or complained about the apartment turning into a garden, Eiji insisted on keeping all of the flowers until they died. Besides, he could tell the blond enjoyed it since he had caught the other boy smelling the bouquets several times out of the corner of his eye.
“You said Max came by, right?” Ash decided to break the silence. “I told him to just come to the hideout if he needed to relay information.”
“He was here... but when he was outside, Mrs. Coleman came to talk to us—”
“What?” The blond said abruptly, “That idiot didn’t say anything, did he?”
“Well, um,” Eiji trailed off as he stared past Ash’s shoulder at the wall. He could feel the other boy’s intense gaze on him. “He said that it was your birthday this week."
The tense atmosphere seemed to instantly melt away as the blond burst out laughing. Eiji felt his face warm as he glanced away from the wall to look at Ash. The skin around his green eyes crinkled and bits of rice came flying out of his mouth as he continued to laugh.
“My birthday,” he said after a few breaths. “I didn’t know it was already August, I could have sworn it was April today."
“August?” Eiji gasped, “your birthday passed, and you said nothing?”
“What’s more surprising is that my lovely fiancé doesn’t even know the day I was born,” the blond smirked.
“Wait, I did not say that! It was Max—“
“I’m so hurt, Eiji.” Ash dramatically leaned back in his chair and put his hand over his heart.
“Y-you do not even know my birthday,” the Japanese boy scoffed.
“Sure, I do.”
“Okay, when is it?"
“It’s in…” Ash paused for a moment before finishing, “May.”
What? How did he know?
“Fine,” Eiji glared across the table, “what is the day?”
“I don’t need to say, I have already proven myself as the better fiancé here,” the blond gave a smug grin before continuing to eat out of the container of rice.
The brunet bit back a response as he angrily picked up his chopsticks. He figured he should refrain from mentioning that their neighbors were going to be coming over until Ash decided to stop acting like a brat.