Work Text:
The date slips your mind sometimes. You know the day of the week, but the date… such a finicky thing. Quest found himself asking a coworker, peering just over the cubicle as he stood to clock out for the night.
“Hey,” he smiled, polite. “Do you happen to know what day it is?”
The coworker nodded, “Yeah. Tuesday.”
“Pardon, I meant the date,” he laughed, shyly. A mistake he made too often.
“Oh, no worries man. The…” his coworker peered over at their calendar. “The 24th. Oh — happy birthday.”
It was his birthday. Truly, sometimes it was just like another day. Surely he thought after what his partner did the last year or two he’d remember by now to keep an eye out for surprises. Quest’s smile grew to something more genuine as he remembered, and the coworker’s wish was definitely an appreciative reminder.
“Thank you.”
—
The traffic was leisurely, moderately paced. An accident had occurred, but he had just left at the right time to not be one of the ones sitting there in traffic for ten whole minutes. If he had left a few minutes earlier, he would have been stuck behind… a bunch of cars, it seemed, considering how much he could see ahead. The radio played in the back, he didn’t even notice it on until the song switched to some annoying ad. Didn’t bug him, the volume was too low.
He just wanted to go home to see his partner. He woke up earlier today, before them, and he hadn’t necessarily checked his phone to see if they sent a ‘happy birthday’ message. They probably had something planned — again, they always seemed to. But he wouldn’t get his hopes up too much. It’s bad to assume. However, knowing his partner, and how secretive they had been…
He pulled into the little parking garage of his apartment, parking in his spot. His partner’s vehicle was there, which meant they were home. Which was nice, of course, sometimes they both had longer or shorter shifts. He headed into the actual apartment building, taking the elevator up to the floor. He checked his phone, reading the messages from his partner first.
LovelyLola:
”Happy birthday!!!! [confetti emoji times so many]
”I have a surprise when you get home, see you then, love you [heart emoji]”
The smile that returned to his face was subtle, as he pocketed his phone and shook his head. Always up to something, they were. Especially today. At least his assumption was right, they did do something. He mentally began to prepare as the elevator stopped at his floor, letting him off. He was ready for confetti, to be pied, jumpscares… just about anything they could pull at this rate.
The door to his apartment was… unlocked. It never was unlocked. Normally they both locked it out of safety habit — this area could have all the wrong people in it, you never truly knew. He walked in very quietly, before a whole group of people turned the corner from the kitchen.
“Surprise!!!” They cheered. Soon the faces were recognizable to him, they were at first just a blurred blob. Toasty, June, Nightowl, Biglady, Two2, and his lovely partner. Toasty was in the middle, surrounded by them all, holding a cake. It was angled wrong, and… it fell.
His lovely partner did try to catch it but got their hands covered in messed up cake. They sighed, and there was an awkward silence before Toasty said, “It’s my mess, I’ll clean it. Sorry, Quest.”
“It’s okay.” He rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m just glad you’re all here! How did you all get here?”
As if practiced, they all said his partner’s name. Of who, had went to the kitchen to wash their hands. Once they walked out, they had procured another cake — in a casing and everything. “I didn’t think Toasty and Nightowl would secretly tag team and buy cake stuff, so I had already ordered one…”
There were a few sighs of relief. “Thank goodness!” June exclaimed, “We spent a lot of time on that cake though. We each had a gel icing colour…”
“I appreciate all the effort, you guys. This is amazing!” Quest was blown away.
“Yeah, well everyone was invited,” Biglady smiled, beginning to help Toasty clean the cake mess. She just picked it up with her bare hands, heading over to the garbage.
Two2 nodded, keeping a little bit of a distance and making a face (akin to horror) at how Biglady just seemed unbothered by picking up a glob of crumbly cake and icing. “Onion was busy, Salo couldn’t commute right and Xyx had a case to represent today.”
“Bloombot couldn’t attend,” June chimed in, joking. “Unfortunately.”
“Haha.” Quest let out a half laugh at that, rolling his eyes. “I know you all must have put aside some time for this. I couldn’t be happier.”
His partner moved closer and pressed a kiss to his cheek, squeezing his arm affectionately. “Happy birthday.”
He leaned down to press a kiss to their head, “Thank you so much.” His head lifted after a small moment as he smiled and spoke to everyone. “Now who wants cake for supper?”