Work Text:
7:24 AM | 128 BERLINT PARK AVENUE
Today was a special day for the tiny Forger. On her adoption papers, her first family informed her that her birthday was on March 25, which if Anya was marking her Bondman special calendar correctly, today was the day! Last night, Anya wasn’t able to sleep, jumping on top of her bed for her very first birthday celebration. “Anya’s birthday is tomorrow, Anya’s birthday is tomorrow!” She chanted as the bed sprung, Bond looking at the door and her in a worried manner. She wasn’t able to read his mind in time, leading to Loid having to tell her to go to sleep or else she won’t have enough energy for tomorrow. This year, her birthday was on the weekend, so she got to spend the whole day with her family!
When she woke up, she jumped right out of her bed and ran right into the bathroom, dragging her pink stool towards the sink and brushing her teeth, brushing till her teeth could shine. She wanted to be presentable for her big day, after all!
As soon as she stepped out and into the living room, she saw her father, Loid Forger, in the kitchen, dragging his fingers across the pages of an oddly thick cookbook.
“Good morning Anya. Happy 7th birthday.” He finally said, looking up from the book with a gentle smile on his face. “Did you get your birthday wishes prepared, yet?”
Anya furiously nodded with Bond on her side, who released a big yawn. “Mhm! I did!” She replied with her usual energetic tone before her face suddenly dropped, looking more serious as she pointed a tiny finger at him. “But, I’m not gonna tell you until after breakfast!” Loid let out a small sigh and looked back into his cookbook before closing it, remembering every single detail of the recipe already. “Uh huh. Sure.”
As Anya sat on the table, Yor walked out of her room letting out a big yawn before turning to Anya, her face covered with a tired smile. “Look who’s grown a year older, today.”
“It’s me!” She shot up from her seat, standing on her chair with her hands up in the air as if she was caught robbing a bank.
‘ One year closer to death. ’ Yor mused to herself, her face shrunk.
Oh.
Anya’s hand slowly dropped as she sat back down, quickly forgetting her thought as she caught a whiff of her favorite breakfast: fluffy pancakes!
“Make sure to eat quickly, but don’t choke!” He gently chided her as he placed the plate down. As soon as he did, she started to pick up her fork, grab the whole pancake, and ate it all in one bite.
“Whoa.”
“I wearned it from you, Papwa.” Anya answered with a full mouth, gulping it down with no complications.
All he could do was look at her like she was the gunk on the bottom of his shoe, worried that he might have to start eating slower. “Alright…”
“Anya, did you figure out your wishes?” Yor asked, holding in a nervous laugh.
“Mhm! But, it’s a secret!” She quickly pointed out, eating another pancake, which caused Yor to giggle.
“Eat slower!”
As soon as she finished her breakfast, they all gathered in the living room, with Anya and Yor on the loveseat and Loid in the armchair with Bond’s head on his lap.
“So, are you ready to tell us your wish?” He asked, petting Bond as his black beady eyes slowly started to close.
“Anya has multiple wishes.” She responded with a sinister grin as if she was planning something mischievous, and she was. She was.
“As long as they aren’t too difficult…”
Anya took in a big inhale before screaming out her first wish. “I wanna paint your nails!”
“Absolutely not.” He answered quickly with a deadpan expression covering his face, his arms crossed against his chest.
“Gaaaaan!”
“Loid, it’s not harmful. Besides, it’s her birthday.” Yor gently retorted, her hand resting on Anya’s back as she started to cry.
“Yeah, it’s my birthday! Gosh, Papa, you’re such a meanie!” She choked out, wiping her tears away with a shaking fist. When she started to look up, she noticed her father’s conflicted face. A few seconds later, he let out a sigh and put out his left hand.
“Only one, though.” He hesitantly agreed, his cheeks red as Anya’s smile grew bigger, lighting up the living room as Bond snoozed once more.
“I’m gonna go get it! Thank you, Papa!” She thanked him as she ran into her room to get her small nail polish bottle she got when she spotted it at her local pharmacy. When she came back, Loid was shocked at her color choice, but relaxed his face before anybody in the room could notice. When she started to paint, he noticed that she really tried to steady her hand, which as a result of that caused one hell of a decent paint job. He did have to clean up the edges a bit, but that’s alright.
“Papa looks so pretty!” She giggled as she struggled to close the bottle. “Don’t you think, Mama?” Anya asked her as she turned around. Instead of her usual smile and her expected answer, which was, ‘Yes, he looks very pretty, Anya!', she was met with one hell of a sight.
Yor’s face was bright red, her eyes as wide as saucer plates as she continued to stare at his hand, her own hands twitching closer and closer to his.
“Mama?”
As soon as Anya spoke, she snapped right back out of her trance and choked out her answer. “O-Of course, sweetie. Papa looks… very pretty right now…”
Loid looked away bashfully as his hand was still afloat in the air. “T-Thank you.”
“Papa, I have another wish.”
“Oh, uh, yeah sure, and what’s that?” He replied, his cheeks losing its color and returning to normal.
“The new Spy Wars volume’s out, can I get that, too?”
“N-Now?”
Anya nodded as she got up and gently pulled Bond out of his lap, quickly shifting to the floor.
“Uh, sure. Just keep your mother company, alright?” He agreed as he got up and quickly put on his coat over his white t-shirt.
“Sir, yes sir!”
“God, what has Yuri been teaching you?”
As soon as Loid entered their local bookstore, he was greeted by the only cashier working there.
“Welcome to our lovely store!” She said in a cheerful tone, her right eye twitching in annoyance. In order to not annoy the poor worker any further, he gave a simple nod and smile as he headed towards the comic book section.
“Volume 20, volume 20…” He whispered to himself as he dragged his pink nail against the spine of the unorganized Spy Wars books. As soon as he spotted it, his eyes lit up as he took it out of the shelf.
When he walked up to the register, he noticed that the cashier quickly put away what he deemed as a cigarette pack and a lighter before flashing a smile.
“Did you get everything you need today, sir?”
“Mhm, this is it.”
As soon as he placed the book down, he felt eyes on him. When he turned around, a familiar head of black hair quickly turned around, looking back at the bookshelf.
“Yuri?”
He slowly turned around with a furious blush across his face as he tried to calm down. “Y-Yo. Fancy seeing you here, Lottie.”
“Fancy seeing you here, as well. What are you doing here?”
“I, uh…” Yuri paused before clearing his throat and looking down at the copy of volume 20 he had in his hands. “I heard it was that chihuahua girl’s birthday today, so I thought I’d get her something from here…”
“Well, that’s awfully sweet of you.” He replied with a smile as his fingers drummed the counter as the cashier was ringing up the book. Yuri’s eyes started to travel from Loid’s face towards his fingers, noticing the pink shine on his nails. His eyes widened in surprise and grabbed his hand towards his face to get a closer look
“And what is this, Lottie?!” He yelled in surprise as he pointed at each and every nail on his left hand, acting as if he caught him cheating on his sister.
All Loid could do was just look at him confused as the cashier stared at them, her jaw dropped, forgetting her task. “It's… nail polish?”
“Uh huh, and why do you have it on?!”
He deadpanned as he slowly pulled his hand away from him and went back to drumming his fingers against the counter. “Yuri, that was Anya’s birthday wish.”
The silence was nearly deafening, with the only thing filling it was the cashier’s tiny chuckles as she tried to hold in her laughter while checking out the book.
“O-Ok sir, that will be 2 dalc.” She choked out in between her muffled laughter, her knees nearly giving in.
He dug through his pocket and pulled out two 1 dalc bills and grabbed the book and receipt before walking out the door with a small “thank you”.
The cashier turned towards Yuri with a strained smile. “Did you get your things?”
“Uh huh.” He muttered as he threw down Spy Wars volume 20 on the countertop.
“Uh, I’m not usually the one to talk, but you’re buying this for that other man’s daughter, right?”
“Yeah, why do you care?”
“He just bought this.”
“You’re joking.”
“No, I’m not.”
“I hope you get fired.”
Sylvia was behind her desk as Loid stood in front of it, his hands obediently behind her back as she passed down a file to him.
“Apparently there has been another group of terrorists trying to start another war. We got their leader in one of the rooms and we need you to get some information out of him.” She said as she crossed her arms against her chest, her red hair resting on her shoulders.
He took a deep sigh before responding.“Again? Yeah, I’ll do it.” Once he picked it up, Sylvia noticed the pink tint on specifically his left hand, causing her to raise an eyebrow.
“Twilight, what’s that?”
He took a glance at his hand before looking back into the file, nonchalantly responding, “Oh, it’s just nail polish.”
“Yeah, I got that… But why?” She asked as she squinted her eyes, scanning him.
“Ah, well…” He paused before looking up from the file. “It was Anya’s birthday today, and that was her wish.”
“Well, it looks cute on you, You should wear that more.”
“I don’t think that will be the best for the future, Handler.”
She let out a hefty sigh before returning her eyes to the item in his hands. “Anyways, headquarters wants it done as soon as possible, so you need to hurry.”
“Of course.” He placed the file down before walking down the hallway, searching for the interrogation room number.
While looking, he spotted Nightfall down the corridor with a piece of paper in her hands.
“Good afternoon, Twilight.” She greeted him while stealing a glance.
All he did was nod while increasing his pace. Even though she didn’t say anything, she most definitely noticed it. Everyday, she seems to see something new. His glasses were one thing, and she certainly didn’t fail to notice the sudden shine on his hand. Her heart suddenly started to get faster, but her face remained unfazed.
Twilight, for such a composed man, you somehow succumbed to a little girl’s stupid desires…
Oh, how adorable! God, let’s run away together, Twilight! Let’s grow old together! Let’s have kids so they can paint your nails!
As he walked into the room, he looked down to see a young adult with a scrunched up nose and he was blindfolded.
“So, I’m assuming you decided to attempt to start another war?”
“Pfft, like I’m telling you Westalian pigs.” He scoffed, looking away from his direction.
“Let’s cut to the chase. Why did you do it?” Loid asked. Before the person on the floor could speak, he quickly stopped them.
“Let me say it. You wanted Ostania to get to the top, was that it?”
“Why did ya ask me if you already knew, old man?” He snickered before his face was quickly plunged to the ground by his hand, spitting out a tooth.
“What the hell was that for?! You just broke my tooth!” He mumbled. As soon as he did, his face was being pressed harder against the concrete floor, his face covered in agony.
“I suggest you fuss up before I break something other than your teeth.”
“G-God! Okay, fine, just let me go!”
As soon as he got up, he started to complain about his cheek, but it wasn’t too long as he stuttered all the information he knew, stopping himself from complaining any further.
“Thank you for your cooperation.” Loid calmly said, brushing off his suit while he walked towards the door.
“Cooperation my a-!” He was cut off as the door shut, leaving him to his own thoughts. As he walked out, Loid took a look at his nails and realized that there was a hint of his natural nail peeping out from the top of his ring nail. Apparently, the terrorists hair strand found its way under his nail when he forcibly pressed his head against the floor, with that piece of polish probably in his hair as he was thinking this.
“God, my nail polish is chipped!”
Loid was now home washing the dishes after a hefty dinner with Yor by his side, watching him tentatively. When he turned on the water to wash off the extra soap, she noticed that on his left hand, his ring nail had a centimeter of natural nail peeking out from the top.
“Loid, how did your nail polish chip?” She pointed out, hovering her finger over his nail as he pulled it out of the sink.
“Ah, there was an incident at work. I can’t quite remember.” He said as the lie spewed out from his mouth with a light chuckle to sell it.
“Want me to paint over it for you?”
“Will that be any trouble?” Loid’s cheeks suddenly developed a small blush as he pulled his hand away from her.
“Not at all.” She smiled ever so gently and she itched to grab his hand, hers just hovering in the space between them.
“Then you may.”
She grabbed his hand once he dried it and led him over to the living room, the two sitting on the loveseat with the nail polish still on the coffee table as Anya forgot to put it away. Once she started to paint, Loid noticed how ever so precise she was, making sure that none of the polish ever got on his skin. Once she was satisfied with the results, she started to bring his fingers close to her lips in order to dry them.
As soon as she started to blow, he suddenly twitched, feeling the sudden wave of realization hit him as to how close his fingers were to her… her…
When she looked up, she started to scan his features. How red his cheeks were currently, how wide his eyes are, especially how blue they are with the tiniest specs of green in his irises, and how irresistibly cute he looked embarrassed.
Noticing how close his fingers were to her lips, she suddenly started to have all of those embarrassing yet wonderful memories of the many times where in work parties, he would always kiss her knuckles before taking her over to the floor and he would always ask her for a dance. One of the many things she’s learned about her husband is that he really liked showing her off no matter how humble he seemed, and if she was being honest with herself she did as well.
With a sudden rush of confidence, she brought his finger to her lips to give it a quick yet tender kiss, satisfied with the short squeal she earned from her usually stoic husband. As soon as she looked up, she couldn’t help but let out a tiny giggle and cracked the goofiest smile. “You look silly.”
He looked away bashfully with bright red still lingering on his cheeks. “Y-Yor, please…”
With her extra courage left, she decided to go the extra mile and got out of her seat to give him a ginger kiss on his forehead, his nose, and before she could do as more as she would have liked, the door suddenly swung open, a figure holding a shopping bag with the corner strangely splattered with someone’s blood showing themself. The figure apparently turned out to unfortunately be Yuri.
“Yooor! Your dear brother is here!”
The position they were in was not the best. With Yor’s hand on his cheek and how red Loid currently was, Yuri managed to connect the dots, but made a few stops.
“Y-Yor?!”
“Yuri, it’s not what-” He tried to say before he was interrupted by an incredibly flustered Yor.
“YURI?! God, did you ever learn to knock?!”
“What were you two just doing?! Yor, I thought you were pure!”
She let out a scandalous gasp before getting out of her seat and smacking him towards the wall. “YURI!”