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“Heeeeeeey Randy!!!” Xavier’s voice came through the door as he knocked, startling both Randall and Kino, who were sat in a makeshift pillow fort watching movies. Randall huffed and paused Wolf Children, the movie they were currently on, before getting up and answering the door. Xavier was indeed standing there, in his candy-cane pyjamas from what Kino could see. That would make sense, it was late, most of the Sides had retreated to their rooms for the night.
“Xav, do you realise how late it is?” Randall spoke, sounding a lot grumpier than Kino knew he really was. He always acted like he hated Xavier, even though they were best friends, but it seemed to work for their dynamic.
“I know, I know, but Kino’s not in their room and I assumed they’re here, am I right?” At hearing their name, Kino got up as well and walked to the door, confused. Why would Xavier want to see them so late at night?
“As you can see, yeah they are. What do you need?”
“Welllllllll, Kino, I was wondering if I could borrow your arm for a bit? I realised I haven’t done any maintenance on it in a while, and we wouldn’t want it to randomly act up.” Their arm? It had been so long since their arm played up that Kino had almost forgotten that it was prosthetic, but they simply nodded, taking off their pyjama shirt to allow access to the join between their skin and the metal.
“Great, thanks!” Xavier beamed, slowly detaching the arm from Kino’s torso to minimise any discomfort. “I should be able to get it back to you tomorrow, probably around lunchtime, okay? G’night!” And with that, Xavier walked off back to his own bedroom.
The next morning, when Kino woke up, it felt like a normal, average day that could become productive or be slow, it seemed to be neither at the moment. However, as Kino became more awake, they also became aware that Randall was nowhere to be seen. He had left a small plush wolf in his spot in the bed, and even Iridium, Randall’s dire wolf, wasn’t in the room. That was strange, Kino noted, as Randall never usually left them before they woke up. Maybe something had happened?
Confused, Kino got up and headed downstairs, still in their pyjamas and clutching the wolf plush Randall had left behind. It still smelt like him slightly.
When Kino entered the kitchen, they were met with Morpheus, who had pulled a chair from somewhere and was reaching for the top cupboard. As he grabbed what seemed to be a packet of biscuits, he noticed Kino and smiled tiredly.
“Hey, Ki, you’re up early,” Mori spoke, carefully climbing down, biscuits in hand. “I was just about to head up to bed myself.” Morpheus was Kas’ Sleep, and he was nocturnal, only waking up when the others were heading to bed, and going to bed as everyone else woke up to start the day. Kino rarely ever saw him, as they tended to sleep earlier than most.
Kino smiled and held up the wolf plush, and luckily, Mori seemed to get the message. “Ah, Randall? Living room, Xavier dragged him down a while ago.” Xavier? That was weird, normally Randall was allowed to sleep in as long as he wanted. However, Kino got the answer they wanted, so they nodded their head in thanks and headed through to the living room.
“*SURPRISE!!!*” The yell rang out as soon as Kino stepped into the living room, causing them to jump and let out a squeak of fear. As they looked around the room, they noticed every other Side, except the Shadows, gathered in the living room, surrounded by balloons and streamers and a banner hung on the far wall that read ‘Happy Birthday Kino!’ Birthday?
“Today marks one whole year since you joined us, Kino!” Xavier spoke up, stepping forward while holding a large box. “Which kinda makes it like your birthday! So Randy and I decided to throw you a birthday party to celebrate your first year as a Side!” Kino was speechless, well, more than normal. They had no idea how to react, and soon enough their vision became blurry from tears. It was all so overwhelming, everyone had come together to celebrate *them*?
At noticing the tears, Randall quickly broke from the crowd and came over, gently wiping their tears away.
“You okay?” he asked, keeping his voice low. All Kino could do was nod, as the largest smile they had ever had made its way onto his face.
“Well, come on!” Xavier piped in, and Randall moved so that Kino could see all the others again. “It’s time for your presents!” Presents? Was this surprise not already the present? “Okay, you have to open mine first!” Xavier placed the large box he was holding on a table that must’ve been placed there for the purpose of present-holding, and Kino carefully unwrapped the golden wrapping paper and lifted the lid of the sleek, black box, which was rather difficult with only one arm. And that realisation, plus seeing inside the box, was when Kino realised what this present was.
Inside the box was an arm, was it their arm? It looked incredibly similar but was plated with silver and gold that reflected the light coming in through the windows, making it almost glow.
“Damn,” Randall spoke up, obviously he hadn’t known exactly what Xavier was going to do. Speaking of, Xavier was nearly vibrating with excitement.
“I hope you like it! I used your original arm to make sure that all the measurements were correct, to keep it a surprise, but of course we can work on it more if it’s not quite right yet!” Kino hadn’t stopped smiling and immediately hugged Xavier as best they could with one arm. “Aww!” Xavier returned the hug, glad to see that Kino liked the gift.
The rest of the party went similarly, after Xavier attached Kino’s new arm so they could more easily open the rest of the presents, which were mainly new video games and consoles, although the triplets had made them an adorable flower crown with roses dyed in the non-binary flag colours, which they wore for the rest of the day. Even Mori stayed up much later than he normally did, gifting Kino an incredibly soft pillow shaped like their logo before crashing on the couch, obviously exhausted.
After a day of having fun and eating way too much of the massive, hexagonal cake that Fea and Avis had made together, everyone was dead tired, including Mori, who only woke up because he had to do his job. Randall and Kino retired to the former’s room after Kino deposited all of their presents into their own room. As Kino sat down on Randall’s bed, feeling truly drained from all the excitement of the day, Randall opened his closet and pulled out two small, wonkily wrapped presents.
“Didn’t want the others to see these...” Randall trailed off, handing the packages to Kino. “I’m not great at wrapping...” Kino merely shook their head, mouthing ‘they’re perfect’ before opening the smaller of the two.
Yellow fabric slid out of the wrapping paper, and as Kino inspected it, they realised that it was a beanie, much like Randall’s own but in a warm yellow, and slightly messier stitching. Kino’s smile lit up even more as they put it on, causing Randall to also smile. “It looks great on you...” Kino then turned to the larger present and unwrapped it, revealing white fabric. More clothing?
It was a hoodie, a white hoodie much like Kino had made Randall for his own birthday, except the text was different. Printed on the front of the hoodie were the words ‘I am an original’ in yellow letters, and the hoodie also had yellow accents. It felt wonderfully warm and soft to the touch, and Kino simply stood up and pulled Randall into the tightest hug possible. “I’ll... take that as a thank you?” Kino nodded, leaning up to kiss Randall’s cheek before pulling the hoodie over their head. It fit perfectly, unsurprisingly as Randall probably asked Xavier to conjure it up especially, and that night, Kino slept in their new hoodie and beanie.
Randall couldn’t bring himself to tell Kino that he had asked for the fabric and had sewn the clothes together himself, or the many times he caught himself with the needle or unpicker and swore under his breath, cursing the rotten hoodie material to damnation in hell. No, Kino would only worry that he put himself through pain for them, pain that he was all too happy to endure seeing the enby curled up by his side, adorably snuggled into their new hoodie. So, Randall would pretend he hadn’t had to go to Fea about five times a day for three weeks straight to heal his injured fingers and had Xavier conjure him a secret room to sew in. That would remain a secret, at least for a little while. Randall would do anything for his enbyfriend, after all.