Work Text:
rosé was drifting in and out of sleep, having stayed at the drawtectives agency extremely late to finish up the paperwork she did incorrectly.
just as her bobbing head was about to knock over the intimidatingly tall stack of 'oopsies,' rosé heard a faint knock on the door.
"come on in, jancy," she called. nobody else knocked that cautiously, and jancy was the only other person who'd be here this late.
the door cracked open and jancy's smiling face came into view. "you really are a detective. you knew it was me."
rosé laughed to herself and shook her head. "not much detective work to be done. york doesn't knock, and grendan always does that silly little pattern. you're the most normal."
jancy's eyes brightened and her smile grew. rosé looked back down at her large stack of papers, pretending to read something to hide the embarrassed look on her face.
jancy cleared her throat and opened the door a bit further. "i brought you something."
rosé perked up at that, tilting her head like a puppy as her pen fell out of her hand to the wooden desk beneath her.
"ooh, ooh! i like stuff! gimme!" rosé bounced a bit in her seat.
jancy sighed in mock annoyance and pushed the door open fully. she stepped into the room holding… a plate? with a turtle on it? rosé squinted her eyes, leaned forward, and-
“happy birthday!”
…huh?
jancy's smile softened as she saw rosé's jaw drop open. "how did you…?" rosé murmured under her breath.
jancy tilted her head and only then did rosé notice the turtle-shaped strawberry cupcake in her hands.
"i'm a pretty good detective, you know," jancy stated, deadpan, "and i'm your… honorary mother? i should know this stuff."
rosé chuckled at that, shaky and confused.
"but i don't even have a birth certificate, like… technically, i don't have a birthday."
jancy hummed to herself in thought. her eyes darted from rosé to the cupcake, then vaguely to the door behind her.
"don't think too hard about it. do you want the cupcake or not?" jancy grinned and angled the small plate a bit so the horizontal candle protruding from the turtle's behind wouldn't fall onto the floor.
"agh- gimme!" rosé cried, reaching out so quickly that she almost knocked over the intimidatingly tall pile of paperwork to her right.
jancy nervously offered the plate to her daughter-slash-employee, who gladly took it and blew out the candles in one breath.
there was a beat of silence as rosé took her first bite, appearing deep in thought.
"you know…" rosé began through a mouthful of turtle head, "on all my other quote unquote 'birthdays', i wished for a family."
she turned her gaze to a picture frame sitting on the corner of her desk. it held a slightly blurry photo of the drawtectives, rosé and grendan in the front with york and jancy behind them. the glass was a bit cracked from falling onto the floor repeatedly, but the smiling faces of the four of them were still intact.
rosé looked back to jancy, a wide grin causing her slightly misty eyes to squint.
"i'm glad it finally came true."