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The collector had never felt as home as he did now. He was currently in the owl house along with all of his amazing friends. King, Eda, Luz, that weird owl thing he still didn’t really understand but hey, he was fun…ish. The collector had been around for who knows how long and he had never seen anything so… unique? That’s what he would describe the tube-like bird. Nothing else seemed to fit the crazy and most often deranged demon.
It had been three years since they had defeated Belos. The collector still had problems with how he let that monster get away with so much stuff but now was not the time to think about that. Now was the time to be with his fam- friends. He didn’t often come to visit but when he did he wanted to make it count.
The collector leapt off his seat and walked over to the kitchen to see Eda cooking some type of cake. He could see some fairies, weird concoctions, along with some standard milk and eggs from the human realm while Eda made preparations to the fire she set up. It was a bit difficult with one hand so she had King along with her to pass her stuff.
The collector smiled as he got up on a stool and leaned against the table, curious as to who they were making this for.
“Oooo, this looks so fun! What are you guys making? Can I help?” The collector asked excitedly to his two friends.
Eda turned and smirked at the boy.
“Thanks for the offer kid but me and King got this. We’re just practicing making a cake for Luz’s upcoming Kingcenera or her birthday to avoid confusion. ”
King got up on the table, raising his arms in the air. “YES! Name this event in my honor!” he yelled to no one in particular.
Eda smirked before giving him a noogie on his head. King pushed her away with a couple of neighs and pushes of his arm.
Eda let go but King had his own retaliation in mind. “I am the King of demons! I decree from now on I get no noogies!” King said as he raised his arm towards the owl lady.
Eda rolled her eyes. “You may have had a growth spurt king but you are still the most adorable thing alive.” She teased which only left King more frustrated but eventually he conceded defeat.
He put his head down in mock sadness and walked over to sit by the collector who watched the interaction with mild interest. Usually he would laugh and even join in but something stuck with him.
He couldn’t help but voice what he was thinking. “What’s a birthday?”
That question made both Eda and King freeze in their tracks. They each gave each other a glance, checking that they indeed heard what he said. Eda had to ask to make sure, she couldn’t have heard that right?
“What did you say, kid?” Eda asked, unsure of how to really frame the question.
The collector tilted his head, confused. Didn’t they hear him? “Silly owl lady. I said, "What's a birthday?”
Eda frowned as did King. Did they really not notice that the collector didn’t have a birthday after all these years? They have had countless other parties and they never even thought that they missed anyone. Turns out their newest member had been left out after all this time.
“Do you really not know what a birthday is?” King asked, confused. Eda walked over and gave him a light slap on his head. They didn’t want to make this worse than it already was but it seems that the damage was already done.
“Stop making fun of me… I don’t know what that is. Why aren’t you guys telling me?” The collector asked, now sad that his friends weren’t being nice to him.
King rubbed his head while Eda walked over and sat next to the Collector, pulling him in for a side hug.
“Hey kid, we’re not making fun of you, we're just… confused as well. We thought you knew what that was.” she said gently, rubbing smooth circles on the kids back to calm him down.
The collector felt very nice in a hug. He didn’t get them often even after his long life. He wishes he had more of them.
“Here, let me explain it to you. A birthday is a yearly tradition for us witches and humans. We usually celebrate with cake, presents, and a big party for the person with a birthday. For example, with Luz, she is turning 18 because she is passing the day she came into this world. We all have birthdays and since there’s so many of us, some of us share that special day with strangers, loved ones, maybe even our beloved pets on occasion. You get it now, kid?” Eda asked softly, smiling down at the kid.
The collector let go of the hug, now thinking to himself. “Wow, so that’s how people tell their ages? I always thought they just picked a random number and just counted up on a random day. That makes sense now.” The collector said cheerfully.
However, he stopped as he had a realization. “Wait, so how old am I? I don’t know my birthday… I don’t even know if I ever even knew in the first place. ” He trailed off, now realizing that he missed such a fun sounding tradition for so long. How old was he? He knew that he lived for much longer than everyone else but he just assumed it was just a long time.
Eda was getting a bit panicky along with King. Last thing they wanted was to make the kid sad. They each looked at each other. Seeing if the other had the same idea. They each smiled before nodding in confirmation. They knew what to do.
Eda gave a subtle signal for King to distract while she got her phone out. During these years they had developed an actual line of communication between the human and demon realm. Granted, it was spotty at times but it did the trick. King got the collector out of his seat before leading him away from the table to go play. The collector was surprised by the sudden change but he certainly wasn’t complaining. He laughed and smiled with the King as he was led outside.
Eda smiled at the interaction before getting back to her task. She clicked a certain teenager’s profile in order to tell her the plan.
After two rings, Luz picked up. It sounded like something was on fire in the background while a scuffle was breaking out. Eda sighed in exasperation. Same old Luz, she could even argue as an adult she was even worse with this stuff.
“Heyyyy, Eda! Now’s not a really good time! Hunter and Gus are fighting over the last cookie and they are using their magic now.” A crash was heard in the background making Eda chuckle at the kids' antics. She picked at her fingers with her one good hand while Luz excused herself from the call momentarily.
“No! Bad Hunter! Get off my ceiling fan! I will buy more cookies so just split it! Gus! If you use one more illusion spell I will tell Matholmule about your crush on him.”
That seemed to have worked as the noise suddenly stopped. Luz came back to her phone out of breath but still alive.
“Sorry about that. The boys finally calmed down. For now…” Luz said as she stared the boys down from her room. They each chuckled nervously before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Luz rolled her eyes, typical boy witches. Acting like children, Luz could never.
“Anyways, Eda. What did you want to talk to me about?” Luz asked.
Eda chuckled from the previous interaction. She would comment on it but she needed to get this done.
“Hey, kid. I know you’re pretty busy at the moment but something came up with the collector. Apparently he’s never had a birthday before.” Eda said somberly.
Luz gasped, nearly dropping the phone from what she heard. She put her phone back up to her ear, not really believing what Eda said.
“What do you mean he never had a birthday before?! Everyone has birthdays! We even hosted one for Hunter!” Luz practically yelled into her phone, making Eda’s ears hurt.
“Kid, slow down. We’re gonna make it up to him. I was hoping in like two days we could set something up. Like I said, I know it’s so close to your own birthday but we could really make the kids day.” Eda said, trying to convince Luz to go with her idea. She figured she might say yes but who knows what the kid was thinking. She was turning eighteen after all. It was a big moment.
Eda was a bit alarmed that she hadn’t heard anything from Luz. It had been a couple of seconds with no response. Eda faintly heard something from the phone and leaned in. Was that someone writing something?”
“Alright Eda, I’ll be there as soon as I can, I just need to run to the store with Amity and we can make his birthday so great. Anyways, Love you. BYE!” Luz rambled quickly before hanging up.
Eda could only blink at how fast the girl could talk. How she could get so many words out in so little time still boggled her mind till this day. She shook that thought off as she walked over to the window, eyeing her two kids playing out in the sunlight.
They looked like they were playing tag with the collector, sort of cheating with how he was floating in the air but King was too stubborn to give up. Suddenly, a familiar presence came behind her.
“Heyyyy, what’s this about a birthday…” Hooty asked with his usual questioning tone. Eda rolled her eyes.
“Hooty, we literally celebrated your birthday last month. This is about the kid. Also, do you still have that long table in you somewhere?” Eda asked.
Hooty twirled his head upside down, eyes as bleak as ever. “That wasn’t my birthday! That was my creation day… Us worm demons have another birthday… Want to see how it works!” Hooty asked excitedly.
Eda shuddered at the implications of what that could mean. “Nope! I’m good, Hooty.” Hooty stood still as if he was pondering whether he was going to say it anyway.
Eda took no chances. “Hey look! There’s Lilith in the trees!” she pointed out her window in a random direction.
Hooty reared his head and didn’t even bother waiting as he crashed through the window. “LULU!”
He stretched himself over towards the forest, not find anything. “Hey… She tricked me! I shall have my revenge-Ooo a flying squirrel!” Hooty didn’t hesitate to eat the small thing.
He looked around in confusion. “What was I doing again? Must’ve been nothing! Oh well!” Hooty retreated back to his little cubby hole to watch King and the collector play. Not having a clue on what had just happened.
*2 days later.
Eda had tasked King to distract the kid all day. She had lent the Titan a boatload of snails and told him to go crazy. King gave off a greedy laugh before noticing that Eda was still behind him. He chuckled nervously before pocketing the money and leaving the owl house with the collector in tow.
It had now been a couple of hours and now everything was ready. Luz and the rest of the kids had really outdone themselves as they brought balloons, banners, a huge cake, a bunch of snacks, and of course, an entire table full of presents for the kid. Sure the kid could create anything but it was always nice to give stuff. The kid deserved it for all he’d been through.
Now each of them stood anxiously as they waited for the collector along with King to arrive. They had spent a lot of time and they wanted this to go perfectly. It’s not everyday you get to spend someone's first real birthday. Ok well, they did it with Hunter but that was three years ago at this point.
Each of them stopped in their racing thoughts as they heard voices coming from outside. It was them. Each of the teenagers along with Eda and Lilith hid themselves behind anything they could find.
Lilith groaned as she was squashed next to her sister. “This is unbelievably stupid. We can use illusion magic for crying out loud!” Eda rolled her eyes, elbowing her sister.
“Learn to have some fun! Dork.” Eda whispered slyly.
Outside, King and the Collector were now arriving. King tried keeping a grin off his face but it seems that the collector noticed it.
“What’s so funny?” The collector asked curiously as they walked up to the door.
King tried playing it off. “Oh, you know. Nothing…”
The collector narrowed his eyes but simply shrugged. People were weird sometimes. King sighed before trying to open the door only to find it not budging in the slightest. He tried pulling harder but again nothing worked.
You would think after three years the two would realize that Hooty would always be there. He was simply staring at the two as they arrived and they hadn’t yet noticed the worm demon.
“Hi y’all! Have fun on your little trip! I wish I could go… Next time can you take me?!” Hooty asked, twirling his head to be right in front of King's face.
King chuckled nervously. You had to tread carefully with how Hooty interacted. King could still remember when he danced and apparently offended his mother. He didn’t even know Hooty had one.
“Yeah, maybe next time, Hooty. Although I wouldn’t know what you would buy… Anyways can you let us in?” King asked nicely.
Hooty narrowed his eyes. “How do I know you’re not clones…?” he asked suspiciously.
King rolled his eyes. Hooty always asked the same questions. “Your best friend in the whole wide world is Lulu. Now please let us in, Hooty!”
Hooty smiled before opening the door. “Hi King! Hi Collector! Welcome home!”
The collector smiled at the demon’s antics. He may be unique but it was his personality. He found it endearing. As the Collector thought of this, King had run off into the dark house in order to go along with the surprise. The collector turned around to find no one around him in the dark.
He was getting a bit nervous as he looked around. “Uhh, guys? You in here? King? Anybody?”
Suddenly, the lights turned on and the collector was shocked to see all of his friends holding all types of stuff. Cake, banners, gifts. Where did this come from? Was this for him?
“Surprise!” Everyone said, including Hooty who had opened his door to look.
The collector smiled and ran up to get a closer look at things. This was all so cool! What was this for though? He didn’t do anything to get this?
“Woah! What’s this for, Eda?! Did you do all of this?” The collector asked, looking up at the owl lady.
Eda chuckled, kneeling down to be face to face with the kid. “Of course this is for you, kid! Since you didn’t have a birthday. Well, we decided to make you one!”
The collector started to build tears in his eyes at all of this. He actually was really happy. Why was he crying?
Eda noticed along with the others. They each frowned, thinking that maybe he didn’t like it after all.
“Hey, kid. No tears ok. We don’t have to do all this if you don’t want to.” Eda tried reassuring but all she was met by was a strong hug by the short kid.
Eda was surprised by the hug but returned it not a second later. She had never gotten that strong of a hug from the kid. Looks like he just didn’t know what to say.
The collector broke the hug, still with tears in his eyes but this time smiling. “Is this really all for me?” the collector asked, still not believing he could get all this.
Luz took the lead this time as she kneeled down to the collectors level. “Of course, Collector! Me and our whole family have been wanting to make this really special for you. So why don’t we have a fun day that’s all about you!” she shook the collector lightly, making him giggle.
The collector wiped the rest of his tears on his cloak. “Yeah, I would really like that.” he said shyly.
The rest of the partygoers all cheered. The party was on its way and the collector had never been as excited as he was now. There was so much to do but so little time. He wanted to do everything!
It seemed that Luz sensed his thoughts as she grabbed his hand gently before walking over to the table. “Here, why don’t we start by painting first. Amity took the time to set up all this. We can do it together.”
Luz sat the collector down before sitting next to him. The rest of the teenagers joined along with Eda and King. Willow helped grab the paint they had set up prior and passed it to everyone.
The collector got a whole bunch of paints that ranged from all sorts of colors along with a couple of brushes. He wanted to start but didn’t know where. He looked up to see King across from him.
The titan didn’t even bother with the brushes. Instead, he decided to simply dump his entire hand in the paint, drenching it entirely before slapping it on his canvas. The paint splattered a bit on Eda as well as Gus. They both eyed the small titan in fake annoyance. King noticed but simply shrugged as he kept on pelting his canvas with his fist in all sorts of weird ways.
The collector laughed along with this and decided he would do this as well. He pulled up his cloak before dipping his fingertips in the paint. He didn’t want to be that messy. Luz took the time to watch, wanting to lend tips in case the little guy didn’t know what to do.
It seems that he was just fine though. He looked like he was using a bit of his magic to make the colors mix in a more glittery way. It kinda reminded Luz of how she used to write her glyphs. She smiled a bit bitterly about her lost technique. Even after three years she still missed it. That didn’t matter today though, today was about the collector.
The day progressed quite fast after that. There's a saying that when you have fun, time flies. That was the case for today.
Each of the teenagers took turns in their own parts of the party.
Willow had made a makeshift roller coaster with some old wagons along with some powerful plant magic. Collector and King were partnered together and had a blast as they rode around in all sorts of wacky turns and loops.
Hunter had set up a space adventure that he had spent the entire two days setting up. He even made tiny goggles for King and the collector to complete the experiments. It was a bit based on his obsession with the Cosmic Frontier and he had geeked out a bit with it but it seems they enjoyed it.
Gus’s part was next with him putting on a human magic show. Complete with card tricks, some difficult illusion spells, and even a live bunny pulled out of a hat. Hooty tried to eat it and for a bit he actually did but luckily he had spit it out after a scolding from Lilith and Eda. Also Gus found out that apparently you couldn’t just kidnap random animals from the human realm. Such a shame.
Raine had showed up a bit later due to them having their duties to attend to but they decided to chip in as well as they put on a show with their many different instruments. They played any song the kids recommended and soon enough everyone all got tired from the continuous dancing.
The day had gone very quickly. After the collector stuffed himself with cake, it was now time for presents. The collector couldn’t believe how many he got. Everyone had gotten him something.
Gus had given him an illusion enchanted deck of cards. Hunter had given him a copy of Cosmic Frontiers. Luz had given him a new cloak that he could wear. Eda gave him a shiny new hat as well. He had nearly cried with all of them and he couldn’t stop thanking them for what they did for him.
With all those done, all that was left was King’s gift. King was a bit nervous as he held something behind his back. He really hoped the collector would like this. He had spent a good bit of time on it and had some help from Camilla with her sewing skills.
“Uhhm. I really didn’t know what to get you for a while but I hope you enjoy this.” King said.
The collector tilted his head before gasping at what King revealed. It seemed to be a near exact copy of Francois with instead the eyes being switched and now being his own eye color. King gently handed the fuzzy toy over. The collector grasped it gently in his hands, not really believing what he had been given.
“A-Are you serious? For me?” The collector asked shyly.
King looked on the ground as he nervously dragged his foot around himself. “I mean yeah. I know you love Francois so much but I wanted to give you something that’s purely yours and always will be. You can name them whatever you want.” King said softly, looking back up to the boy.
The collector ran up to King before pulling him in for a hug. “I love it! I love it! I LOVE IT! Thank you so much, King! This is the best thing I’ve ever gotten!”
King returned the hug fully. A small purr emitting from his throat from the delight he was feeling. He was glad his brother loved it so much. King froze for a solid second before shaking his head. Yeah, brother sounded nice.
They soon broke apart from their hug. All the teenagers along with adults smiled at the two’s interaction.
Eda spoke up from her spot on the couch. “So kid? What are you gonna name it?” The rest of the partygoers agreed as they asked the same question.
The collector smiled, staring down at the fuzzy bunny. Everyone waited in anticipation as they wanted to get the new name of the collector’s new friend.
The collector snapped his fingers. He had the perfect name.
“His name is Bob.”
Everyone was shocked at the simple name but they really couldn’t blame the kid. Bob sounded like a great name.
The end.