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For the longest time, Asuna had tried to ignore her birthday. It was always turned into some stuffy formal event where she had very little say, and her parents usually used it as an excue to network with other businessmen and women with children her age – even her friends were chosen based on who would be most financially beneficial.
So, she’s delighted when she wakes up on the thirtieth to the sound of Kazuto’s voice.
“Asuna, happy birthday! Are you awake?”
She had stayed over the night before with the specific intention of waking up together on her birthday, but she still can’t quite believe it’s real and not some wonderful dream.
She rolls over in his bed, snuggled in his giant grey blanket that she’d stolen from him sometime in her sleep, and sees him kneeling on his side of the bed with a gift bag in his arms. The bag itself is already a distinct teal-blue shade, and Asuna’s eyes widen in shock when she sees it.
“I told you not to spend a lot on me!” she says as she sits up, but Kazuto responds with a shrug and a comment about saving from jobs for Kikuoka.
Slightly guilty at the thought of the price tag, Asuna gently opens the bag and rifles through the tissue paper until she finds a long blue box. Her eyes flicker in excitement for a moment before she excitedly opens it, gasping when she sees the necklace inside. It’s one she’s had her eye on for months, a long silver chain with a baby blue sapphire sparkling at the end of it.
“This is too much! You already bought me one necklace, I can’t accept another!”
Kazuto shrugs again, a lopsided grin on his face as he watches her blush. “I know you’ve wanted it for a while, so… There’s more in the bag, too.”
She practically drops the box back onto the bed, digging through the paper again until she finds a smaller box. She shoots him a half-hearted glare (she really is guilty for how much this must have set him back) but she opens it, making a mental note to go above and beyond for his own birthday the following week.
This time, the gift is a pair of matching earrings, baby blue. It’s only then that she notices the ring on her finger matches, and she smirks.
“Did you buy all of these together?” she asks, a laugh dancing on the edge of her voice.
“I figured it was a good idea to be prepared… and then Tomo talked me out of giving you jewellery last year…” Kazuto blushes.
Asuna leans over and kisses him, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him down to lay next to her. She gently runs her fingers through his hair, giggling when he melts against her. He’s always been a sucker for it, even after all this time.
“Thank you,” she whispers, kissing him again. “I love them and I’ll wear them all the time.”
Their morning cuddle doesn’t last as long as either of them hopes, because they’re all too quickly interrupted by a knock on his bedroom door and the sound of Midori and Suguha asking if they’re awake and decent. Asuna calls out that it’s okay for them to come in while Kazuto frantically pulls a blanket over his shoulders to pretend that he isn’t shirtless.
“Happy birthday, Asuna!” Suguha grins, holding out a gift bag of her own while Midori follows behind her with two plates piled high with breakfast.
Asuna holds her arms out for a while, thanking the pair of them as Suguha rushes over and jumps on Kazuto’s bed to hug her, her knees landing roughly on Kazuto’s abdomen as he grunts. She buries her face in the younger girl’s shoulder, hugging her tightly and thanking her over and over.
Over the years, Asuna had come to think of the Kirigaya family as her own family, and Suguha was truly like a sister to her. Especially as Kazuto and Asuna’s engagement got closer and closer, the girls became nearly inseparable. It was a bond and a friendship Asuna considered herself beyond lucky to have.
“C’mon, open the gift! I wanna know if you like it!” Suguha encouraged, letting go of Asuna and clambering to sit at the foot of the bed instead of bruising her brother’s torso.
Asuna opens the gift bag curiously. This one is larger than Kazuto’s, it’s pink and covered in glitter, which gives nothing away regarding the content inside, and it’s filled with the same white tissue paper as Kazuto’s. Perhaps they’d bought them together? Then her hands firm something round and hard, and she’s perplexed.
She takes one out of the bag carefully, and her face lights up as if she’s been handed a diamond. It’s a bath bomb, with some crystals at the top and glittery marbled streaks all through it. Midori prompts her that there are a few more, which Asuna takes out to inspect, her smile growing bigger each time. There are some nice lavender ones, a cinnamon-looking one, some floral ones, and a beautiful gold leaf one that Asuna had been so disappointed to find sold out when she’d tried to buy one. Not only that, but there are some fancy body scrubs and body washes too, the kind that even Asuna kept reserved for special occasions.
“These are beautiful, thank you,” Asuna hugs Suguha tightly, and Midori sets the tray down on Kazuto’s desk so she can join in too. Asuna feels herself start tearing up and curses herself. She hates crying in front of people, especially Kazuto’s family, but she can’t help it. It’s barely been eight hours and she’s already having the best birthday of her life just by being in their company.
“Happy birthday, darling,” Midori coos, kissing the top of Asuna’s head, “I hope you like them. I asked this one what kind of bath things you’d like and he had no idea what he was talking about.”
Kazuto pouts, obviously embarrassed by his lack of knowledge on something that he should’ve probably known about his bath-loving girlfriend, but Asuna gives him a gentle smile and thanks him for trying anyway.
“How does it feel to be two decades old?” Suguha asks and Asuna pales.
“I still feel mostly the same as I did when I was eighteen,” she thinks for a moment before she continues, “but now I have more experience and worse knees.”
She’s lucky to be growing older, and each birthday brings a small amount of sadness in mourning for the people who didn’t get to grow older with her. But, simultaneously, she dreads her twenties. So much happens in this decade, and she knows for a fact that, despite entering the decade feeling like a teenager still, she’ll be ending it as a married woman with children, a house, and a well-built career. The thought of how much can change in just a third of her life is a little dizzying.
But then she sees Midori, still happy and bubbly as the teenagers she’s raised, and she relaxes. She thinks about Klein and Agil, approaching their thirties now with renewed outlooks on life and more stability than they had when they were her age. They’d all offered her advice, and she was trying to remind herself that nothing about her had to dramatically change overnight.
“We also made you both breakfast,” Midori nods her head towards the tray on Kazuto’s desk, “and as much as I’d love to stay and enjoy a meal with you, I still have work today and Sugu has school. But, Asuna, you’re welcome to make yourself at home here, okay? And happy birthday again.”
Asuna thanks her again, giving her one last hug before she and Suguha both head towards the door. Suguha skips down the hallway, rushing to finish her own breakfast before she’s later than she already is to school, and Midori lingers in the doorway for a moment.
“Is everything okay, Mom?” Kazuto asks, concerned.
“You’ve both grown up so much the last few years,” she says with a smile, then she shakes her head and sighs. “I sound like an old woman. Don’t hurry to grow up all the way, okay? I wish I had time to enjoy being this young again.”
Then she leaves, and Asuna is left to set her gifts back into their respective bags while Kazuto climbs out of bed to bring over their breakfast.
“For you,” he grins, passing her a plate of eggs, rice, and a small bowl with some diced fruits.
“Your family is so lovely,” she comments as she begins to eat, and Kazuto gives her a look she can’t quite place. She cocks her head to the side, “What?”
He shakes his head, laughing, “They really like you. They were stressing about your gift for a few weeks, and any time I tried to ask you what you wanted you’d tell me to not spend so much money on me.”
“I feel bad accepting expensive gifts!”
“You only turn twenty once and it’s a big deal, we wanted to get some nice things for you,” Kazuto responds, already demolishing his egg. “Besides, you’re a proper adult now, I wanted to get you some proper adult jewellery. Like earrings to replace the ones you got for your eighteenth, and necklaces to replace the scarf I gave you, and…” he mumbles something under his breath, but he shovels food into his mouth so Asuna can’t distinguish it.
“What was that?” she asks.
“Nothing,” Kazuto lies, then he starts blushing as his gaze trails to her finger, and she understands. He wanted to upgrade her promise ring eventually, too.
They eat in contented silence for a few moments before Asuna finishes her plate. Kazuto looks over at her, surprised she’s finished before him for once.
“Hey, you usually don’t finish before me, are you okay?”
Asuna blinks, staring at her empty plate as if she’s only just realised it was gone, and then she shakes her head.
“I guess I’m just really hungry, it’s probably just excitement from me birthday…” she looks over to Kazuto’s fruit.
“Do you want mine?” he asks, then he’s trying to hand-feed her a grape before she can respond. She giggles, swatting his hand away and informing him that since she’s a proper adult now she’s more than capable of feeding herself.
“But it’s cuter this way.” Kazuto insists, so Asuna relents and opens her mouth. She blushes as he pops the grape between her teeth, and there’s something that makes her feel extraordinarily bashful about the way he makes eye contact with her as she bites into it, but she looks away in a burning blush before he can say anything.
She finishes chewing, embarrassed, while Kazuto finishes up his meal and sets the plates aside on the tray again so they can go back to cuddling. He lays down, running his fingers through her hair and prompting her to join him.
She stretches for a moment, then she falls back on top of his chest. Of all the ways to spend her day, lazing in bed with the love of her life sounds like the best one.
“Thank you, by the way,” she mumbles, kissing his collarbone as she starts locking their legs together. They’re wearing the matching pyjama pants he had surprised her with last night, and she gets butterflies from the thought of it.
“What for?”
“For this morning and last night,” she clarifies. “Getting to wake up together is the best birthday gift I could ask for. And the necklace is very sweet. Plus, you made us hot chocolate and we’re an excellent teddy bear to hold all night.”
“Uh-huh,” he gives her a smug look, “and nothing to do with midnight?”
Asuna flushes, stammering for a response. Of course being woken up just after it clicked over to her birthday was sweet, and he had sounded adorable sleepily singing Happy Birthday to her, and then he’d given her a necklace of his initial and her heart had practically burst out of her chest.
And, of course, the few hours of him wholeheartedly worshiping her while she melted under his touch, until she was a sweaty, panting mess.
She shakes her head as if that will clear the memories away before she gets too flustered.
“Nothing else?” Kazuto prompts, and Asuna smacks his shoulder.
“What else are you trying to get me to say?” she asks, knowing perfectly well what he’s trying to get her to say.
Kazuto laughs, kissing the top of her head and rubbing her back, “I’m sorry for keeping you up. You can sleep in as much as you want today.”
Asuna kisses his neck, her breathing already starting to slow. They’re going on a nice date in the afternoon, so she has time to catch up on the sleep that had been (albeit, quite pleasantly) stolen from her in the early hours of the morning.
And, as she starts to fall asleep again, she feels butterflies swarm in her stomach at the thought of her own gift for Kazuto’s birthday so soon — a tiny, unassuming plastic stick hidden away in a birthday card, alongside a five-week ultrasound photo.
Her twenties were going to be a time full of changes indeed.
Even still, curled up in her boyfriend’s bed in matching pyjamas while she listens to his heartbeat and his snores, she can’t help but feel like she’s still seventeen, hiding away in that little cabin by the lake.