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Nazuna’s birthday had gone a bit how he expected. At least for the beginning. He woke up that morning to a barrage of texts from Shu, and one from Mika. He was extra tired, having stayed up the night before to watch the clock turn to midnight. His morning routine was sleepy, but he did spend a bit of extra time in the mirror making sure his hair was just right. It was getting long again, wasn’t it? Shu would probably cut it for him soon. He liked doing maintenance on him and taking care of him like he truly was a little doll.
Nazuna honestly didn’t mind it at first, but recently it seemed to be troubling him. What if he wanted to cut his hair shorter, would Shu like that? Would Shu even let him? He was the centerpiece of Valkyrie, and if he truly went through with getting a haircut Shu might even make him wear a wig on stage to maintain consistency. No, it was better to just leave it how it was. Golden blond, layered nicely to his shoulders.
Classes were fine, a few of his classmates said happy birthday to him. But what he really looked forward to was meeting up with his unitmates after class. Even though things were a bit stressful right now.
His voice was changing. Change. Something Shu wasn’t quite fond of. They’d recorded their old songs, but the audience would soon tire of hearing the same thing over and over again. Nazuna thought to himself. He’d need to keep practicing, to make his new voice sound even better.
Suddenly, Nazuna snapped out of his thoughts when Mika spoke.
“Happy birthday Nazu-nii!” exclaimed Mika, handing him what looked to be a white shirt. He was clearly excited, mismatched eyes squinted slightly from his large smile. Nazuna was taken aback. Mika made him a present?!
“..... Th… thank yew~”
Mika grinned. Nazuna was very soft spoken, wasn’t he? He only knew him to be such. So every word he managed to get out of him felt like a thousand. He seemed to be even more quiet when Shu was around.
But Shu was preoccupied right now, talking on a … cup phone. Mika tilted his head. Did those even actually work? He tried making one as a kid but never got a response. Perhaps because he needed someone to reply on the other end of the line.
“Shh! I have an important phone call!” said Shu, sitting cross legged with Mademoiselle on his lap and his cup phone line dangling out the window. He looked both elegant and silly, as Mika soon realized was possible for instances Shu seemed to get himself into.
Both Nazuna and Mika disregarded their interrupting of whatever Shu was doing to inspect the little blouse. There were a row of evenly spaced buttons that fit perfectly into the holes on the other side. The sleeves had some frills at the end, sewn on with the utmost care. Mika was especially proud of it because it was the first thing he’d sewn on his own. He was a bit clumsy with sewing, and he pricked his fingers a whole bunch of time, as evidenced by the amount of bandaids he had right now, but he soon got the hang of it and it was as if the shirt was miraculously getting better the more he worked on it.
Well…
“Hmph, times have changed. Quite untasteful, live performances have been reduced to performance showdowns. We need to make sure that we’re standing above and beyond any other group that shares the stage with us. That’s why we shall do extra practices, starting now. I’ll make our stage outfits, they need to be perfect,” said Shu. He set his cup phone down as if he were hanging up. His hands went to fix Mademoiselle’s hair, petting it softly to put it back into place.
“Oh! I’ve been sewing a lot! Look, I made Nazu-nii a shirt, can I help?” asked Mika. He wasn’t up to par with Shu quite yet, but he definitely had improved since he started sewing.
Shu looked at him, sly smile spreading across his face. It was amusing, Mika’s view of his own skill. He brought his hand to his chest, speaking haughty.
“While I would appreciate the extra hands, I’d have to do twice as much work fixing every single mistake you made. Do you know how long it took me to fix that ‘shirt’ you made for Nito? I couldn’t help but laugh every time I saw the pitiful progress,” said Shu.
“Oshi-san! That was ‘spozed ta be a surprise! It wasn’t done yet! Why’d ya look at it before it was ready! That was private,” whined Mika, balling his fists at his sides.
“If it was private then you shouldn’t have left it in a place so obvious. Kakaka, it really is our gift to Nito, isn’t it?” asked Shu, leaning back in his chair. Mika’s cheeks went bright red. He shook his head.
“Nngah… It was ma own gift… I felt like the shirt was gettin’ better overnight after every time I left, but that was actually ya comin’ in afterwards an’ messin’ with it, wasn’t it!” said Mika, connecting the dots. Oh! He really thought he could have made Nazuna the perfect little gift. Maybe his skill really was bad. No wonder Shu didn’t want him to help.
“You seriously believed you could make something like this? So dim witted, truly, your appearance is your only redeeming feature. You should thank me more for perfecting the outfit. I’m sure Nito appreciates it. He can actually wear it now,” declared Shu, gesticulating with his hand for extra emphasis.
“Nngah… It ain’t fair! It was ‘spozed ta be a present from me! Yer stupid, stupid Oshi-san!”
Nazuna couldn’t help laughing as he saw the two of them argue about the present. It was so on brand for Shu to try to make everything about him. Even if he did appreciate the shirt being actually wearable, it was charming for Mika to have tried his best to make something. He understood why he was upset, but it really wasn’t too big of an issue. Shu could just be a control freak sometimes, and Mika would learn that very soon.
“Kagehira! Move out of the way, I missed seeing Nito laugh,” said Shu. He grabbed Mika by the shoulders, pushing him to the side before llooking over at Nazuna, whose face went stone cold serious in the meantime. “Nito, laugh again for me, will you?”
Give me something to laugh over.
“And now he’s back to being expressionless. Kagehira. Take these tickets and sell them. Now,” said Shu deflating. He plopped a box of tickets in Mika’s arm like a forklift.
“Eh? Why d’we gotta sell our own tickets?” asked Mika, confused. “Hey Nazu-nii, wanna come with?”
“Non. This is your punishment. Nito needs to stay here, with me, and pose beautifully so I may gaze upon his figure and be inspired.”
Nazuna zoned out while Shu was talking. Selling tickets… They’d never had to sell tickets before. People usually bought them because they wanted to go to their show. What an odd change of events.
It was his birthday… He didn’t mind spending time with Mika. But he wanted to spend time with both of them. Nazuna shook his head, and grabbed Shu by the hand. Mika followed suit, as the two of them dragged him out the door.
“Be careful! My arms will surely pop off! Oh… like little dolls moving on their own…”
Nazuna rolled his eyes. Shu was being so dramatic, wasn’t he?
Selling tickets was a bit more difficult than expected. A lot of people straight up ignored them while they stood there holding them out, trying to get their attention. But it was fun to see Mika and Shu try elaborate ways at getting people’s attention.
“Phew, I’m tired. We sold half a box…” said Mika, looking down at the bunch of tickets he had. “I’ll see if I can get some sold durin’ class tomorrow. An’ Naru-chan can help me.”
“True, people who know you are more likely to purchase tickets. I suppose every once in a while there is an independent thought in that vacant head of yours,” said Shu. Mika blinked twice.
“Eh! Oh! We almost forgot!”
“Forgot what?” asked Shu, crossing his arms.
“What kinda cake d’ya like, Nazu-nii?” asked Mika. “If I hafta guess… strawberry?”
Nazuna nodded. Strawberry was very good. He used to pick it as a kid because it was his favorite color, but the taste was deliciously sweet, and a bit tart. But cake… Why cake? He hadn’t been paying much attention to anything, mostly silently handing out tickets while pointing to the sign Mika and Shu had made.
“Oshi-san, we gotta go out for cake,” said Mika, bringing his hands to his chest as if he were begging.
“Huh?! What makes you so certain we ‘gotta’ do that? We have things to do. Your dancing last practice was rather sloppy, it was as if you were a rag doll,” snapped Shu. “Didn’t I make it obvious we needed to work extra hard?”
Mika chewed on the inside of his cheek. Yes, last practice his dancing wasn’t up to par… But he was still learning! He only joined Valkyrie a month ago. Normally that would be no excuse, but today was Nazuna’s birthday. They should celebrate him. Mika nodded his head.
“Eh? But what kind of birthday is there with no cake?” asked Mika. Nazuna perked up a little.
“Your petulant questions serve no purpose other than to irritate me. Did the absence of cake refute the immutable fact that our dear Nito was born today and is now one year older?” asked Shu. Mika furrowed his brows.
“I mean no, I guess…”
“You guess, or you know?”
“I know…”
Mika glanced over at Nazuna, but his gaze was averted, looking off to the side. For as long as Mika knew him, Nazuna was very quiet. Not just in lack of speech, but in expressions as well. His face was frozen in neutrality, eyes glossy. In a sense, he truly was the perfect doll. With no discernable emotion, anything could be projected onto him. At least, it seemed that’s what Shu tended to do.
“See? Nito doesn’t mind, does he,” said Shu, using the absence of any feedback to justify his own point. “Besides, cake is nothing but empty calories. I work hard on your outfits, I don’t want to have to take them apart because they don’t fit anymore.”
Nazuna looked away from Shu even more. What happened to the Shu that used to sing his praises constantly? The Shu that would shower him with affection whenever he got a chance. One piece of cake for his birthday wasn’t a big deal in Nazuna’s mind, but Shu was incredibly neurotic about that kind of thing. His cheeks reddened in embarrassment for even wanting cake to begin with, now feeling ashamed.
“Nnah, it ain’t fair,” sighed Mika. He looked over at Nazuna, who was staring off at the distance. Shu could be a soil sport sometimes. A lot of the time. He was uptight and had very specific ways he liked to do things. He already ruined, well… technically he improved the shirt Mika made, but he ruined the surprise of Mika making a shirt all on his own. And now they couldn’t go out for cake?!
There was no use arguing any more about it. When Shu made up his mind on things, usually only Nazuna could convince him otherwise. But Nazuna was silent right now. They already got Shu out and selling tickets with them, he likely wouldn’t budge about the cake.
Shu tried not to think about the incident any more, but by the time he and Mika got home, and Shu had locked himself in his bedroom, it was all he could think about. It wasn’t unreasonable to want to uphold a certain standard for Valkyrie, after all their art was under a new form of scrutiny. Before, it used to be that anyone who specifically wanted to see their shows would buy tickets and come. But the way the system worked now, they needed to have a show off. Valkyrie’s art was not meant to be a competition. It was supposed to exist as a pure rendition of their artistic values. Tasteless people would now view their performances, and they really wouldn’t get what was going on in them. Everything was going to be so much more difficult. Everything needed to be so much more perfect. In order to thrive in the new system, they needed to go above and beyond, and really capture the hearts and minds of everyone who watched their magnificence.
Shu continued to sew, running the fabrics through his sewing machine. It was getting late, and he didn’t have enough time to work earlier since he was out selling tickets. He didn’t regret it, the little moments with his unitmates always made him less depressed. But it just meant that he had to work extra hard to make sure they didn’t fall behind.
He heard a thump.
Peculiar.
Shu paused working and stayed very still, until he heard another thump. Something stupid was happening.
He tiptoed out of his room and made the way down the hall, hearing a few more strange noises coming from the kitchen.
The perpetrator was exactly who he expected.
“Kagehira. It’s almost midnight,” snapped Shu, re-tying his fluffy maroon bathrobe. “What could you possibly be doing?” Though the scene before him was quite clear. Pots and pans filled with some sort of beige, a dusting of flour or maybe sugar across the counter space, two eggs sitting by the bowl filled with some mysterious sludge.
“M makin’ Nazu-nii a birthday cake since y’wouldn’t let us have some earlier,” said Mika. He looked down at the recipe he was using. “Yer mom said I could use the kitchen so long as I cleaned up afterwards.”
“You asked my mother about this?!” asked Shu. Mika shrugged.
“Yeah, she said it was ‘cute’ that I was makin’ him a birthday cake,” said Mika.
“Nito is cute. You making a birthday cake is not cute,” said Shu, taking the whisk from Mika. “You’re making a complete mess, look at you… You’re covered in cake batter.” Shu grabbed a napkin and wiped some of the batter off his shirt, then got the bit that ended up on Mika’s cheek. “How does something like this even happen?”
He claimed it wasn’t cute, but the more Shu took in the situation the more he had to disagree with himself. Mika just wanted to make Nazuna happy! What kind of jerk doesn’t let his beloved have a piece of cake for his birthday? Mika was working so hard, and in the dark as not to wake up the rest of the family with lights, that he got cake batter everywhere…
“Hmph. It seems you aren’t adept at making cakes. I shall assist,” said Shu, cracking the eggs into the batter.
“Ngah! This was ma cake, not yer cake,” grumbled Mika. “Yer the one who said Nazu-nii didn’t get a cake.”
“I’ve changed my mind,” said Shu. “One piece of cake won’t hurt.”
Mika looked as if he were trying to compute complicated math in his brain. Shu switched up everything on him, and arguing might only make him change his mind again. It would be better just to take the win than point out all the inconsistencies in Shu’s logic, even though it bothered him a lot.
“Hmm hmm~ bakin’ with Oshi-san,” said Mika as he added some vanilla.
“You have to measure that! You can’t just put things in all willy nilly!” sighed Shu.
“Eh? But I’ve made cake before a buncha times. I always helped make them at the orphanage fer all the younger kids,” said Mika. He stuck his finger in the batter. “I promise it’s good. It ain’t perfect, but well-baked foods make my tummy hurt. This one uses a buncha common ingredients. Here, try some. Say ah~ Oshi-san!”
“… I will not put your finger in my mouth. Nor do I condone sticking your fingers into the batter.”
“It’s for Nazu-nii!”
Shu sighed. Of course, if it was for Nazuna, he would taste the batter. But with his own clean utensil. He took a very tiny spoonful and brought it up to his mouth.
It was deceptively good. Simple, yet decadent. Mika had done a wonderful job with the strawberry extract, it was sweet but not overwhelming, and was very smooth.
“… It is acceptable. I think Nito will enjoy it.”
Mika beamed.
They put the cake batter into a tin and then into the oven. Shu set a timer, then sat down on one of the chairs.
Shu seemed like he calmed down.
“I wanted ta make the cake m’self too,” said Mika, pouting a little bit. “Since yer the one who wouldn’t let him have any earlier. Now yer gonna get all the credit too.”
“This is my house you stay at. And you’re using my ingredients. It’s as much my cake as it is your cake,” said Shu, crossing his hands.
“Well I’m makin’ the cake ‘cuz I love Nazu-nii an’ ya didn’t even wanna get him some cake. ‘S not fair!”
Shu’s cheeks pinkened. He loved Nazuna too. So he needed to make absolute sure that he was also included in this cake gifting. He wouldn’t dare let Nazuna think Mika cared for him more than he did.
“Oh? Is that so? Well then how about I throw the cake out after it’s done baking, and then Nito goes back to getting no birthday cake. Because that’s the alternative,” said Shu.
Mika couldn’t argue with that logic. As prim and proper as Shu liked to portray himself, he was also incredibly immature sometimes. But the thought of Nazuna’s birthday cake that he put so much love into would get thrown out…
“Fiiiiiine. It can be our cake,” said Mika, crossing his arms. Shu grinned.
“Kakaka, I shall prepare the frosting.”
The cake was finished a little around two in the morning, the two of them heading to bed.
Mika could hardly keep himself from spoiling the surprise all day until classes were finally over and he could meet up with his unitmates.
“Nazu-nii! We brought ya somethin,” said Mika, taking the top off the container the cake was in. “I know we didn’t go out fer cake yesterday, but here’s one Oshi-san an’ I made fer ya together.”
Nazuna looked down at the cake. It was pink! His favorite. But did Shu actually make this too?
He wondered what changed his mind. He seemed so adamant yesterday that he was not getting a birthday cake. Nazuna glanced over at Mika, who was getting a paper plate ready to dish up a slice.
“Thanks… Mikachin,” he said, softly.
Shu looked at him expectantly.
“Nito? Aren’t you forgetting someone?” he asked, grabbing Nazuna by the hands. Nazuna let him, keeping them very limp. He ignored Shu. “I too helped with the cake.”
Mika couldn’t wipe the silly grin from his face. He was glad Nazuna realized the cake was all his idea, even if Shu technically helped.
“Nito! Do you see the frosting? Notice how even it is? Do you think Kagehira could have done that? Non! For it is I who frosted it,” said Shu, looking over at the cake. “Cut him a smaller piece. He’s going to get sick.”
Nazuna ignored Shu and took his hands out, grabbing the plate from Mika and taking a fork. Before Shu could do anything, he took a bite. His eyes lit up.
Delicious!
“Nyehe, ignore Oshi-san, he’s jus’ cranky ‘cuz he stayed up past his bedtime again,” teased Mika.
“You also stayed up far too late. It’s why you have dark circles under your eyes. People are going to think you are a zombie on stage instead of a doll,” snapped Shu. Mika handed him two pieces of cake.
“Do you not know how to count?” asked Shu.
“Nnah, one’s fer ya, the other’s fer Madonee,” said Mika.
“... She cannot eat.”
“I know, but we gotta lotta cake an’ it didn’t feel right leavin’ her out,” said Mika. Nazuna laughed once again. Something about Mika cutting a slice of cake for Shu’s doll was funny to him. He was so pure hearted, and it was fun seeing him get competitive with Shu.
Shu finally saw it this time, and it warmed his heart. He really needed that. Things had been so stressful lately, and seeing Nazuna’s pure smile made all of that worth it. He had worried about adding another person to Valkyrie when it had been just him and Nazuna for a whole year, but Mika added something to Valkyrie that was irreplaceable. He hoped these times would last, for as long as they could.