Work Text:
"What? Weather, it’s your birthday?"
All Weather gives in response is a noncommittal shrug.
"I guess it is."
He could have at least told Emporio. Today, the child just so happened to get a peek at his information (part of their everlasting search for Weather’s past) and discovered that according to the papers, the man’s birthday is literally today. That’s not enough time to plan anything!
Emporio looks to Anasui for support on this extremely pressing issue. The latter seems about as fazed as a bookshelf, laying back in the piano.
"Dangit! I didn’t even get you a present or anything! What am I supposed to do now, Weather?"
Weather flips through a page in the book he’s reading. “You don't have to.”
The room is horribly silent. Emporio crosses his arms.
"Well," he continues, muttering. "It looks like I’m just going to have to take matters into my own hands."
With a hop and a step, he’s suddenly out of the piano room. He’s not even sure anyone noticed his disappearance. Good.
Now… time to find something acceptable to give Weather.
He scoffs to himself.
After finding out the significance of birthdays (there was a song titled ‘Happy Birthday’ in a piano instruction book and Emporio had Anasui explain to the group exactly what a birthday is), Weather always gave Emporio little trinkets he found around the prison on the child’s self-assigned birthday.
(Those include: a couple of nuts and bolts, a pen with a dolphin printed on the side, three rocks of different colors, a seashell, and the feather of some large bird.)
The man never gave himself a birthday, as he claimed he didn’t need one. Trying to be like Anasui, Emporio assumed, who willingly withheld that information from the child.
But now he finds out that Weather had a real birthday this whole time and didn’t tell him? God dang it.
"Oh, birthdays aren’t for adults," Anasui claimed (part of his reason for not giving Emporio his date), but Emporio isn’t about to not repay the favor that Weather has done for him.
So, first of all… to find the gift. He has his eye on the prison store (literally; he’s in a trashcan across the hall from it). It’s not like he hasn’t stolen from there before, but is there really anything that would be a sufficient gift? Either way, the stand is being manned right now, and he can’t wait to grab his things until after it closes.
Dang.
He’ll just have to find something somewhere else--
Suddenly, he feels someone slither up next to the trashcan he's hiding in.
"What do you want?"
It's Anasui.
"Diver Down can get your shit for you."
Emporio looks up at him. The man’s expression is as untelling as ever, stoically looking across the hallway at the store.
"You don't have to help me if you don't want to. It's fine."
Anasui scoffs. "Shut up. Tell me what you want."
"Uh… I…"
Emporio hadn't really thought about what he wanted to get for Weather yet.
Maybe a CD? Not that he knows what kind of music Weather likes.
In hindsight, he doesn’t really know anything that Weather likes. In contrast to Anasui, who displays his distaste readily, Weather seems to be indifferent to absolutely everything.
(Except his TV guides. Emporio knows he likes those.)
"A couple of TV guides, please. And some paper. Gum, maybe. Any good CDs?"
"Mm-hm," Anasui muses. "Do you think you'd be able to put a Rolex back together before tomorrow?"
"Do I what?"
"Can you reassemble a Rolex before six in the morning tomorrow? I'll help if I can."
The child hesitates a little. "I mean… probably?"
"Good."
Anasui snaps his fingers.
"It's done. I'm going back to the room."
Emporio can see the slight glint of gold in his closed fist as he walks away. When he reaches to feel the ground behind him in the trash can, his fingertips meet the classic texture of sheets of paper.
He quickly shoves the items into his neverending pockets.
Is this all? Should Emporio go and prepare the present, then?
Oh! He can get some food. To help with the party.
It's currently around 8:30 pm, and dinner for the male prisoners was at 7. By this point, there aren’t any people still in the cafeteria or the kitchen, so he can do his job smoothly. He's no stranger to stealing food from the prison, of course, but there has never been anything exceptionally special served (felons don't deserve sweets, of course). Additionally, food is shipped in each day by trucks, not made at the prison. He'll have to work with what he has.
Breaking past the grated curtain and door locks that bar the kitchen isn't hard. This is something Emporio’s known how to do since his mom was alive.
He shuffles through the various food shelves. There really isn’t anything good today; everything actually edible is only available in the middle of the day between meals.
The only acceptable things he finds are three hamburger buns and a mostly-filled bottle of water.
Alright. That'll have to suffice.
He shoves the bun and a few napkins in his pocket and runs out of the kitchen.
Time to make this a great celebration! It must be at least somewhat reminiscent of a normal birthday.
Though, now that Emporio thinks about it, Weather has probably never had a normal birthday. Or at least doesn't remember any. And yet he gave Emporio things on his …
That's why it's his job to give Weather a great one now! So this’ll be his first!
Though he has to get back to the piano room first, and get this together--
Crap.
In all his thinking, Emporio didn't pay attention to anything else. So now he's tripped on a grate in the hall just outside of the piano room. He's thankfully able to catch himself with his hands before his head hits the concrete, but the fall sends all of Emporio's items tumbling out of his pockets.
When he picks himself up again, he finds a puddle of water next to him. In it sits half of the paper items, too many of the buns, and one of the CDs, cracked.
Oh no. Oh no.
The lid on the bottle must have not been completely closed. And Anasui isn't going to help him get any more supplies. The man doesn’t help unless he has something to gain, and there can’t be anything more that he wants.
Dang.
Emporio measures his losses and picks up what's still salvageable.
It's not too much. One TV guide and half of a bun are acceptably dry, and he’s not sure if CDs still work when wet (if so, he has two. If not, he has one).
He’s never failed this hard before and of course it’s when it matters most.
He's close to crying, maybe.
Because he had this one chance and he let it slip through his fingers. He’s disappointed everyone.
The walk of shame back to the room continues likewise. Emporio hesitates before jumping in the crack, but after a deep breath and the reassurance that he’s definitely not crying, he’s in.
Weather turns away from his book to look at Emporio.
"You're back," he says.
"Yeah…" Emporio hiccups, trying to keep the tears out of his eyes. "It was for nothing, though."
Weather raises an eyebrow. Emporio walks across the room and sets the fruits of his defeat on the cabinets in the side of the room. When he pulls out the now-closed water bottle, he kicks it onto the floor.
"Wow," Anasui remarks from his current spot, the floor under the piano. "What happened?"
"It's nothing."
Emporio hiccups again.
Weather's silent footsteps approach where the boy stands. He peers over at the items.
"And this is for…?" he whispers.
"Nothing."
A wind blows past Emporio's ear.
"I told you you don't have to get me anything."
Yeah. Yeah, you did. And now you don’t have anything.
Emporio is silent.
So is Weather.
The only sound in the room is the clinking of Rolex pieces against each other under the piano. Clearly Anasui is doing well.
With one of his long arms, Weather reaches over Emporio's shoulder and carefully grabs the single intact hamburger bun.
"Cigarette?" he calls over his shoulder.
The box hits him square in the back of the head.
"You owe me," Anasui yells.
Weather takes the bun and the cigarette box and sits down on the floor, setting the bun centrally in front of him. Taking a cigarette out of the box and tossing it back at Anasui (who catches it one-handed), Weather holds a hand out in Emporio's direction.
"Lighter. Please."
Emporio hands him the lighter. He's a little confused on what Weather is doing.
After a couple of tries, he gets a solid flame, which he uses to light the end of the cigarette.
He stabs the other end into the middle of the bun. A thin trail of smoke from the lit tip leads up to the ceiling.
Of course! This is supposed to be like a birthday cake! They can sing the song and then Weather will blow out the candle!
He’s… still trying to make this kind of a party.
Anasui looks up from his watch just for a second.
"Is that supposed to be a cake? It looks like shit."
Without hesitation, Weather's stand dumps a good amount of water on the man's head.
"Goddamn! Alright, I'll join your stupid little party."
He sets the watch down and crawls out from under the piano to sit on the piano seat. Fingers poised over the keys, he asks Emporio,
"You know the words, right?"
Emporio node fervently. He knows them, or some approximation of them.
Of course, Anasui begins playing and Emporio fumbles over the words, but it’s a song! They’re playing something! For Weather’s birthday! And Anasui doesn’t tear into Emporio for messing up singing (like he usually does).
Once it’s finished, another sudden burst of wind flies over the cigarette to fully snuff the smoke out.
They sit there in silence for a few seconds. It appears neither Emporio nor Weather knows what to do from here.
“Anasui… do we…?” he begins.
“You each take pieces of the cake and eat it. Don’t give me any of that shit, though. I don’t want it.”
The child gives an intense nod. Weather grunts and gingerly picks up the bun, carefully removing the cigarette from the middle and tearing it in half. He hands one of the halves to Emporio and takes a bite out of the remaining one.
Emporio's half of the bun tastes like ash, but it's still good.
Tastes like… not quite victory, but definitely something akin to it.
"So," Anasui begins. Emporio notices that he’s turned on the TV. "What are we watching? What do you like?"
Weather takes another silent bite of his bun.
"Yeah, yeah. You want to watch the one with the raccoon and shit. I'll pull it up."
The man gives him an affirming grunt, then stands, reaches back on the cabinet to grab the TV guide Emporio brought from the store, and takes long strides over to where Anasui sits by the TV.
He then turns back to Emporio and reaches out an arm.
As the kid finishes his bun piece, he smiles a little sadly.
"I'm sorry."
Weather blinks. "For what?"
"For trying to set up a birthday or something for you and messing it up."
"It's fine. Was good anyway. I liked it."
Anasui sighs loudly and dramatically. "Oh my fucking god. Can you two just shut up and watch the thing already?"
Emporio finally grins.
"Yeah!"