Work Text:
November 11th, 2012 - Three days after Gary was kidnapped by Herbert…
…and less than a week before the worst time of our lives.
…
I was rudely awoken by my phone’s alarm. I couldn’t help but be a little annoyed, I had never been a morning penguin.
Then I remembered.
It was my birthday. My twenty-second birthday, to be precise. It had been over two decades since I hatched. The thought made me feel old. Nevertheless, I smiled as I reached for my blaring device and unceremoniously silenced it. Today was going to be a good day… hopefully.
I got out of bed and made myself some waffles for breakfast: one plain, one with butter and syrup, and one with chocolate sauce because it was my birthday. While I ate, I read the various “happy birthday” messages from my friends and family on my phone. This was my favorite part of my birthday, being appreciated by the penguins I cared about. It wasn’t like they didn’t appreciate me other times, but this was different.
I finished my breakfast quickly and did everything else I needed to do before I could go to the EPF Command Room. Even though it was my birthday, I still had to work. “An agent’s work is never done” or however the saying went, especially now that-
No, I shouldn’t think about that right now. I just woke up not too long ago. Ruining my mood this early won’t help anything.
Pushing those thoughts to the back of my mind, I grabbed my things and got ready to leave. I used my EPF phone to teleport and…
“SURPRISE!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SILVER!!”
“OR HAPPY HATCHDAY!!!”
The whole EPF Command Room was filled with balloons and other assorted party decorations. I looked around in shock before noticing Rookie, Jet Pack Guy, Dot, Paige, and several other agents in front of me. They were all wearing party hats and Rookie was holding an extra one that I assumed was for me. A few of them chuckled at the term “hatchday”, though whoever said it wasn’t wrong.
“You guys…” I said, “did you really do all of this for me?” I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I somehow always was every time.
“Of course we did, mate!” Paige replied, “This isn’t the first party we’ve thrown for you, and it was Rookie’s idea again.” We all shared a laugh at that last part because she was right. Rookie was always the first one to come up with birthday party ideas for me.
“Yeah!” Rookie exclaimed, throwing his wings in the air, “I ordered all the decorations and stuff and JPG put them all over the Command Room!” He motioned to everything around us and the other penguin in question silently nodded in confirmation, an almost unnoticeable smile on his beak.
“And Paige and I baked the cake,” Dot added, “my igloo’s kitchen was… a mess.. again.” I could only imagine the chaos that occurred.
“So.. the usual for these parties?” I joked, grinning. We all laughed again. Those were always everyone’s jobs whenever they threw a birthday party for me. Mainly because Rookie was a bit too clumsy to help with anything else, but he never seemed to mind.
“Anyway, I really don’t know what to say… thank you, everyone,” I added before turning to Rookie specifically, “and as for you, come here.” I went up to him and, after taking my party hat and putting it on, suddenly gave him a hug. He started to hug back just as I gave him a kiss right on his beak, causing his feathers to ruffle in surprise and a blush to appear on his face. Some of the agents in the room let out “aww”s or wolf whistles in response to our PDA.
“Jeez, Sil, not in front of everyone…” he mumbled, smiling sheepishly, after I pulled away. His sunglasses had fallen down his beak a little, allowing us to properly gaze into each other’s eyes…
“Get a room, you two.” Dot teased, pulling us back to reality. We looked around to see everyone either rolling their eyes or giggling and Guy staring at us somewhat sternly with an eyebrow raised. Even after two years my relationship with Rookie was still a big deal within the EPF. Not in a bad way, thankfully.
“Uhh.. come on, guys!” Rookie exclaimed a little awkwardly, still blushing, “Let’s go eat the cake and stuff!” He immediately began waddling over to the table in the middle of the EPF Command Room and we all followed behind him as the other agents dispersed and got to work.
The table was full of plates and utensils, presents in wrapped boxes and bags, and a large chocolate cake in the middle. Not only that but next to the cake I noticed a bottle of…
“Wow, blueberry wine?” I asked in surprise, briefly lifting up the bottle to examine it, “Isn’t it a bit early in the day to be drinking?” Not that I was complaining. It was my birthday, after all, and blueberry wine was my favorite.
“The Director said we were allowed to have some.” Dot replied, “We still have to work today, obviously, but it’s been pretty quiet with Herbert since…” She trailed off, not wanting to mention the elephant in the room.
Right, G went missing a few days ago and all the evidence points to Herbert…
Part of me couldn’t believe I’d already forgotten, but then again I was trying to not think about it much on my birthday. My partial shock in the moment at having a party thrown for me also made me forget.
“Anyway, um, speaking of the Director,“ Dot continued, “they wanted to wish you a happy birthday.” The mood immediately lightened up at this and we all sat down at the table to wait for the Director to appear on the large TV screen nearby. After around a minute, the screen turned on and the figure of the Director, their identity hidden by the dark filter over them, filled the screen.
“Good morning, agents, and happy birthday, Silver.” they said, “It’s been good to have you on the force for another year, you’ve been an invaluable asset to us and we all hope to have you for many more years to come.” I blushed a little, somewhat embarrassed by the praise. I liked the attention, but sometimes it was overwhelming.
“Thank you, Director, I’ve been enjoying my time here.” I replied, “I plan on putting a stop to Herbert once and for all while I’m around and I’ll continue to protect the island afterwards.” I quickly saluted them out of respect.
“I’m certain you will,” they agreed, nodding, “but don’t worry too much about that until after the party, I’ll be watching and celebrating from my office… try not to drink too much.” The last part brought a laugh out of everyone and the Director disappeared from the screen as it turned off. I always liked that they broke their professionalism every once in a while to make jokes. It reminded me that, at the end of the day, they were a penguin just like the rest of us. I wondered who they actually were, though…
“Let’s have cake!” Rookie suddenly exclaimed, pulling me from my thoughts. He really wanted that cake. Everyone agreed that it was time to eat, but the candles on the cake were lit first. They all sang Happy Birthday to me, with all the other agents around the room joining in, and I blew out the candles after making a wish. We then each got a piece of cake and a glass of wine before digging in. I had the first bite and the first sip, of course.
The party was nice, and I had a lot of fun just chilling and talking with everyone until we had to get back to work, but I couldn’t help but notice the tension in the room. Clearly everyone was thinking about Gary. I didn’t blame them, honestly.
We already discussed it before, and right now isn’t exactly a good time, but… I have to bring it up. Sorry, guys.
“I don’t want to bring the mood down, but since this is my birthday party…” I suddenly said, catching everyone’s attention, “I wish G was here to celebrate with us, I can’t believe that bastard of a polar bear kidnapped him.” I grumbled and took a sip of my wine as Rookie put a wing around me in an attempt to be reassuring. It helped a little.
“We’ll find him,” Guy stated, “we have agents and even regular citizens scouring every inch of the island for him, Herbert will not get away with whatever he’s planning.” The search parties were formed the moment penguins realized Gary was missing, but it had been three days since then and he still hadn’t been found. Only his broken glasses were found on the floor of the Everyday Phoning Facility and the building itself had a Herbert-sized hole where the door originally was.
“I don’t know what that polar bear is planning this time, but we’ve stopped his schemes before,” Paige added, “I’m sure we’ll be able to do it again.” I knew both she and Guy were right, but something in the back of my mind kept nagging me that it wouldn’t be so simple. Maybe I was overthinking it. Either way, I could worry about it after the party was over.
Once the cake and the wine were finished, I was finally able to open the presents I received from everyone. They ranged from new clothes, video games, and other things. I never had anything specific in mind for what I wanted for my birthday, so I appreciated all of it. Then came the cleanup. We left most of the decorations up, they’d be removed later, but some of them were a little bit in the way. Not to mention we needed the table for work stuff, so that definitely had to be cleaned. Afterwards, just as we all went off to do our own things, Rookie approached me.
“So.. did you maybe want to go to the Pizza Parlor and the Coffee Shop after work?” he asked only a “little” nervously. He was so cute.
“Of course, I’d love to.” I replied. That wasn’t the only thing I wanted to do, though.
“But after that,” I added, leaning towards Rookie to whisper in his ear as a smirk formed on my beak, “do you want to.. come back to my place?” My tone was suggestive, he’d definitely know what I meant. After two years, anyone would. It wasn’t anything we hadn’t done before.
“I.. y-yeah!” he managed to stutter out, “Sure!” I leaned back away from his ear to get a good look at how flustered I’d made him and his feathers were just as ruffled as when I suddenly kissed him earlier. He was blushing more than before, though.
“I’ll see you after work, then.” I said, my tone still slightly suggestive, before I turned around and went to see if I was needed anywhere else. I glanced behind me to see Rookie covering his eyes with a dumb smile on his face while waddling in the opposite direction. Consequently, he ended up running into a wall. I giggled and shook my head. I was glad that no one else was nearby, because we would’ve definitely gotten even more teasing than just Dot telling us to “get a room”. Guy would’ve probably told us that we should be getting back to work and not flirting. Speaking of which, it was time to do just that.
Despite the fact that I enjoyed the party and had stuff to look forward to later, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something horrible was about to happen…