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“Happy birthday, Hitori.”
Hitori smiled, gently, fully, at her three partners as they handed her her birthday cake. She carefully set it down, taking a deep breath before blowing out the candles.
A moment of comfortable silence passed between the four of them. Ryo, surprisingly, was the first to stand up and press a kiss to the crown of her head. “Glad you managed to make it through another year.”
“Well, that’s morbid,” Nijika said, but both her and Ikuyo were chuckling softly. The latter stood up next, a kiss to Hitori’s cheek, followed by one on the other courtesy of Nijika.
“You know, looking at the candles from here it almost looks like this is your eighteenth birthday,” Ryo commented once she’d sat down again. “Good times.”
Hitori almost scoffed. “Don’t remind me. I was terrible back then.” Despite her words, a small smirk had made its way onto her face.
“Hey, I think a birthday is the perfect time to think back to the past!” Nijika sat down and nodded at Ryo, giving her the go-ahead to cut herself a slice of the cake. Ryo didn’t need to be told twice. “After all, it’s kind of like… seeing how far we’ve come?”
“Or how boring we’ve gotten,” Ryo replied, mouth full of cake.
“Aw, but there’s value in that too!” Ikuyo sparkled as usual. “Besides, we’re the ones to determine how ‘boring’ we’ve gotten! I think we’re still doing fine.”
“Yeah, and at least nowadays there’s no birthday drama happening.” Nijika sighed. “We managed to just sit down and have a nice party for once.”
“Like I said, boring.”
“Ryo, please swallow before you speak.”
Hitori laughed. It was a nice laugh, the other three thought; it had never quite lost its slightly awkward nature, it didn’t shine in bright gold the way Ikuyo’s laughter did, but in its irregularity, it sparkled like a million gemstones – a little unclean, a little misshapen, but beautiful and priceless.
A forlorn look passed across Hitori’s face as she looked out of the window. Bright skies, not a single cloud in sight, and that at this time of year. Three wonderful, lovely women that she got to spend all of her life with from the moment they’d met. She really was lucky.
“You know,” she eventually spoke up, “I don’t know about you guys, but… if even just one of you would be missing from my next birthday party, then I want this birthday to be my last.”
The silence was heavy, but Hitori was not going to take back those words. She meant every little bit of it.
Slowly turning to look at her wives, she saw them look at their rings – their smiles sad, but strangely content.
…Still, the silence was growing a little uncomfortable.
Luckily, Ryo was there to help break the awkward atmosphere as usual.
“What was that about my comment being morbid?”
Nijika whacked the back of her head.
It felt kind of wrong to say this, but the rest of Hitori’s birthday was nothing of much note. There was no dramatic moment unfolding, no new revelations being made, no story to be told.
In the end, it concluded the same way so many moments of their lives had done before.
At some point, Ryo had gotten out her bass, Hitori back on her guitar, Nijika making due with a cajon since she could hardly spontaneously carry a whole drum set into the living room. With Ikuyo on vocals, they made music together.
Just like they’d done for many, many years now.
Just like they continue to do today.
To reach out, and touch someone’s heart.