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Shinji had been acting weird all week.
Perfect.
“Gosh.” Yu tells him, flipping through a magazine on their kitchen counter. “Here’s another gossip rag commenting on my birthday tomorrow. Don’t they know I hate getting old?”
She watches his shoulders from behind to check if they’ll jolt in surprise, but he keeps totally steady- a good sign. When she’d mentioned it to him last Monday he’d literally flinched, spilling coffee all over the counter as he tried to play it off. This time, she’d specifically waited till his fresh cup had cooled.
“You’re not getting old.” He swats back playfully, seeming pleased to have come up with a complimentary answer to her question. Turning back to her with a tight smile, he plants a kiss softly into her hair. “I’ll see you tonight?”
“Mmhmm.” She coos back, taking a deep breath of him before he pulls away. After a long night on duty, his woodsy musk- a literally built-in cologne- was enticing enough to make her delirious. She had half a mind to make him call off and crawl back in bed with her. If only he wasn’t so responsible all the damn time. “Have a good patrol.”
The second that the door clicks she hops up and tosses the magazine into the trash, shoving it to the bottom of the can to dispose of the evidence. There was no article about her upcoming birthday, nor had there been an email from the agency last week asking if she was going to take the day off for it or not. Both ruses had simply served as gentle reminders for Shinji. As well-intentioned as he was, he still needed some nudging every once in a while.
It wasn’t that she was trying to drop hints for him that he needed to do something special about it (though that would certainly be on brand for her)- in fact, it was quite the opposite.
She’d specifically set the bar low for him when they celebrated his birthday in May- while he was out on an assignment she’d ordered dinner from his favorite farm-to-table-nonsense restaurant and made a cake with loopy, lopsided lettering so they could celebrate at home, just the two of them. There was no big fuss and no extravagant gifts, unless you counted the flameless candles she’d bought to set the mood a little (as it turns out, open flames next to your actually-made-of-wood boyfriend was a definite no-no, a lesson she’d learned the hard, and slightly embarrassing way)- just a quiet date night for the two of them.
And that was all Shinji needed to do: the bare minimum. If there was cake or something? Great. If there wasn’t? A card would suffice. Basic acknowledgement was all that was necessary.
As much as Yu loved celebrating herself, it was leo season after all, she really didn’t want to put any pressure on Shinji. And besides, she pretty much treated every day like her birthday, so why would tomorrow really have to be all that different? The real reason she’d been subtly reminding him was because of what happened last year.
He’d forgotten.
No big deal in Yu’s book since she had kinda figured he would. In fact, she’d thought it would be kind of funny to see the look on his face when he realized- she’d tease him a little and they’d go out to dinner or something after their shift and laugh about it. Apparently that had been a huge miscalculation on her part.
Instead, he was mortified. Blabbered all night about how he was the world’s worst boyfriend. To this day Yu has never seen him so distraught. She’d had to spend hours consoling him and assuring him that it didn’t matter, but her understanding only seemed to make matters worse. He spent the next week trying to make it up to her with an assortment of absolutely heinous and useless gifts, including but not limited to: a giant white teddy bear with a demented face and demonic red eyes, a calendar with talking puppies for a year that was already half over, and a pack of sparkly pink accessories geared for middle-schoolers that just reminded him of her!
This year she figured she’d save them both the time and embarrassment. She couldn’t risk having to fake a smile when presented with another one of his apology “gifts” ever again. Better to just bite the bullet and remind him.
But the next morning, Yu is worried all over again. They wake up and eat breakfast, same as always. Yu hogs the bathroom and he, as respectfully as possible, gives her shit about it. Since they’re on shift together today, they ride to work together.
And he doesn’t say a goddamn word.
At this point, all Yu can do is hope and pray that he keeps on forgetting. No recognition at all would still be better than last year.
They ride the elevator in silence and he squeezes her hand goodbye before heading to his office to get things sorted for the day. Yu should probably start doing the same, but figures if there was ever a time she was allowed to slack off, it would be today. Instead, she heads to Edgeshot’s office for a bit of morning gossip between teammmates. Shinji may have forgotten what day it is, but Kamihara certainly wouldn’t have. She lets herself in.
“Hey,” She greets, walking toward the desk he’s currently hovering over. “Can you do me a favor and not remind-”
“Takeyama- impeccable timing.” He interrupts her, not looking up. “We’re absolutely swamped. I don’t know what’s going on today but I swear this city is on the verge of chaos. We need all hands on deck.”
Yu laughs. Kamihara didn’t get as much credit as he deserved for his dry humor- people we’re too busy assuming he was a stick in the mud to realize his wit. It takes her a moment of silence and an odd look for her to put it together.
“Oh- you’re serious.” She says.
“Are you ready for the field?” He asks, not missing a beat. Yu has no choice but to spring into action.
“Of course.” She tells him, all business.
It really does turn out to be just one of those days. Yu doesn’t even get a lunch break because she’s too busy busting her ass to get across the city for various incidents. By the end of the day, she pretty much wants to kill whoever is in charge of their dispatch line today, because surely other people had been closer to some of these events than she was. It was almost as if Yu had been the only person who showed up to work that day.
To top it all off, the last thing she’s called for is to fight a villain with a dirt quirk who had taken it upon himself to relocate as much dirt as he could manage into the river so he could emerge from it as a giant mud monster. Yu took him down, obviously, but the encounter had left her completely soaked from the waist down and covered in mud everywhere else. When she disengaged gigantification, she almost drowned in the pool of sludge she left behind.
She was absolutely exhausted. At this point, any thoughts of her birthday had been long since abandoned in favor of the fantasy of a hot bath and a long night’s sleep. She quickly collects her stuff when she gets back to the office, not even bothering to start on the muk coating her hair. Shinji waits for her in his office.
“You ready to go?” She asks. He’s startled to see her in her current state, looking her up and down with a confused expression.
“You… don’t want to get cleaned off first?” He asks, dubious.
“I’ve got better products at home.” She tells him, shuddering to even think of whatever generic shampoo/conditioner combo they kept on hand in the on-site showers would do to her hair. She’d have to go home and shower all over again after that, so why bother?
He blinks at her.
“Okay.” He says, jumping up from his seat. “Okay! I’ll let Kamihara know we’re leaving for the night.” He sends out a quick text and they head out into the dusk.
Shinji decides they should walk home tonight, a fate the Yu would usually argue against at all costs, but the weather is nice and the city seems to be in good spirits. The summer air is thick, promising a storm, and Shinji’s hand is sweaty in hers as they wander slowly down the street, but neither of them make any effort to pull away. After the day she’s had, she’s actually grateful for the peaceful moment with just the two of them.
“We should get something to eat.” Shinji says, stopping suddenly. “What about here?”
Yu almost laughs. ‘Here’ is a crowded karaoke bar with cheesy fluorescent signs boasting song titles that haven’t been updated in years. It probably doesn’t even serve food, not unless that food came out of a microwave or a vending machine.
“Yeah, I’ll pass.” She tells him, brushing by. “Let’s just order something when we get home.”
“Come on,” He insists, not letting go of her hand and not budging from his spot. “It’ll be fun.”
“Shinj. I hate karaoke.” She says simply, hoping to leave it at that. His eyes widen.
“No you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.” She reminds him. “We’ve talked about this. Several times. People getting up and embarrassing themselves, or worse- not embarrassing themselves and being secretly really good and better than me at something?”
“We’ve never talked about this.” He says darkly.
“Yeah we have.” She reiterates. “Remember? It goes hand in hand with the whole why would I do something if I’m not the best at it thing?”
He stares at her blankly. She has to resist the urge to roll her eyes. They’d been invited to do karaoke by random friends and co-workers and Yu had demanded they say no every time. Even if Shinji couldn’t remember that, surely he knew that she hated singing in front of people.
“So.” He says, clearing his throat. “You’re saying... that you wouldn’t want to go to karaoke under any circumstances?”
He looks so pathetic as he asks that Yu can’t quite bring herself to drill the final nail in the coffin.
“Look. It’s been a long day. I’m filthy. If you really want to go do karaoke another night, we can go just the two of us- but this is the last thing I want to do right now. Okay?” He doesn’t answer her. Instead, he swallows hard as he looks back and forth between her and the entrance with panic. She feels her eyes narrow, an uneasy feeling settling in her stomach. “Shinji. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” His mouth says one thing, but his face says another. Suddenly he’s stiff as a board, hanging his head awkwardly. Yu understands the situation immediately, all the pieces finally falling into place.
“Shinji.” She levels. “Please tell me that there’s no one waiting for us inside that bar.”
Before she can press him any further, someone opens the front door on their way out and a wave of sound from inside hits their ears.
“What is that?”
“Nothing.” He tells her, eyes shifty.
“Really?” She demands. “Because it sounds like Midnight and Mirko dueting "Take Me or Leave Me" from Rent .”
His face falls. Fuck.
“I thought it would be a good idea, really.” He tells her, falling all over his words. “We’ve been working on it all day and-”
“Wait- we? Who is we?” He doesn’t meet her eyes, which tells her everything she needs to know. “Hold on- are you trying telling me that while I was running around all day, responding to dispatch after dispatch by myself ... you and Kamihara were busy planning a surprise party at a sticky dive-bar masquerading as a karaoke joint?”
“No, definitely not. We- uh- we did not do that.” He says adamantly. “That would be… completely unprofessional. Let’s go home.”
As if on cue, Kamihara walks out of the bar in his street clothes and looks around. When he spots the two of them on the sidewalk, he freezes.
“I, uh- what a coincidence to see-”
“She knows.” Shinji tells him, putting him out of his misery. Kamihara sighs heartily.
“But we had you fooled for a little while there, no?” He asks, a twinkle in his eye. Yu has no choice but to smile and nod. “Act surprised when you come in, would you? Everyone is very excited about the big reveal.”
He pokes back inside, leaving the two of them alone on the street again. There would be no going home now that they’d been spotted.
“Big reveal?” She asks him, cocking her head.
“I’m so sorry. If you want to leave we can-”
“No, it's fine.” She assures him. He looks unconvinced. She puts on a smile. “I do wish you had insisted on that shower, though.”
He looks genuinely apologetic.
“I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.” He says sheepishly. “Really though, if you want to leave right now, we can. You don’t have to go in there.”
“No, I want to.” She says, surprising herself by meaning it. “It’s sweet that you went to all this trouble for me. Misguided, but sweet.”
“Really?” He asks, looking relieved.
“Really.” He smiles so wide that she instantly forgets any of her misgivings. “I’m not singing though.”
He laughs. “Anything you want.”
And that’s how Yu, covered in mud from head-to-toe, is shanghaied into attending her own karaoke themed surprise birthday: for Shinji. He was the only person she’d ever do something like this for. The more she thought about it though, the more she realized that was true of him too. She can’t imagine him making this much of a fuss for anyone else but her, so how could she possibly be mad at him?
Especially when he’s done a way better job than she’d have given him credit for.
“Surprise!”
Someone pulls a lever and an array of sparkly balloons in purple, orange, and white come falling from the ceiling, each of them catching the light of a large disco-ball as they float softly to the floor. The rest of the room comes into view, decked out in matching streamers and filled with all of their friends- each of them wearing matching Mount Lady horn headbands. In the middle of the venue, centered with the stage, is a big fluffy white cake.
“Red velvet.” Shinji murmurs in her ear. “Your favorite.”
Yu is completely dumbstruck.
“You did all of this?” She asks, trying to take all the little details in. He scratches the back of his head modestly, a prideful smirk creeping onto his face.
“Happy Birthday, Yu.” He says simply. Yu doesn’t even know what to say. Her eyes are starting to get misty as the two of them are swept away, seated in two prime seats in front of the stage as someone hops up on to it. A crown is placed delicately onto Yu’s head.
For someone who hates karaoke, Yu has an amazingly good time.
Death Arms sings a rousing, if not a little too emotional, version of “My Heart Will Go On.” Kamihara dances to some Taylor Swift and gets the whole crowd laughing. At some point, they all fall down an Abba rabbithole and hear everything from "The Winner Takes it All" to "Dancing Queen." Toward the end of the night, Thirteen gets up and shyly sings a Coldplay song, cheeks blushing red as everyone quiets to listen to her sweet voice- the exact kind of performance Yu didn’t want to be compared to.
But as the cake is being cut and the night is coming to a close, Midnight shoves Yu and Shinji on to the stage and cues up a song: “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” They try to protest, but it’s useless- Kayama and Kamihara all but body-block the stage entrances.
When the music starts, Shinji throws her a wink before delivering the opening lines so brutally off-key that they spend more of the song laughing than singing. The effort was unbelievably valiant, which did not go unnoticed. Yu didn’t have to perform a single line seriously.
They say all their goodbyes, packing up extra slices of cake for their now-drunken friends to take home with them. Yu realizes that her face is sore from smiling so long- yet, she isn’t quite able to shake it. Midnight and Edgeshot leave last, giving them both big hugs before heading off into the night.
When they finally step out, the storm Yu had smelled earlier has come to fruition- but instead of hailing a cab, they run the rest of the way home through the rain, holding hands. The droplets wash all the remaining dirt off of her skin, wiping her clean. By the time they reach their building’s lobby, they’re leaving behind greyish puddles on the sleek, marble floors with every step. The receptionist behind the front desk shoots them a dirty look as they step onto the elevator, but they barely notice.
“So… did you have a good birthday?” He asks as the doors close behind them, thumbing a stream of rainwater from her cheek and tucking a stray hair behind her ear.
“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” She tells him, leaning in close. “Any birthday spent with you is a good one.”