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“Hey Phil?” Technoblade asks, looking over the rim of his glasses to his partner. Calendar in hand, he’s trying to at least somewhat know what’s going on in his life and the lives of the people he cares about for the next few months.
“Mmmyeah?” Phil extricates himself from the chests of Techno’s that he’s currently organising. Allegedly. It looks more like ‘emptying onto Techno’s floor’ at the moment. He sits back on his heels, swiping his hair out of his face as he looks back over at Techno. “What’s up?”
“When’s yer birthday?” It’s a bit of an out-of-the-blue question, but in all their many, many, many years of knowing each other, Techno… doesn’t think he’s ever asked. It’s just never come up. It probably should have.
Phil makes a face. “Don’t have one, mate,” he replies, chuckling, and reaching up to re-tie his hair into a tail.
Techno makes a face in return. “Bro, that’s physically not possible. Even gods have birthdays.”
“Good thing I’m not a god!” Phil replies cheerily.
“Bruh. C’mon,” Techno presses. “I’ve seen you murder like, ten people because you were bored. You can at least tell me yer birthday, surely.”
Phil laughs, that bright, birdlike cackle that Techno would know across continents, and he shakes his head. “‘S not like that, mate, I promise.”
With a flap of his wings, Phil hauls himself off the ground, fumbling about for his cane as he does so. He only travels about five steps though, opting to deposit himself on the arm of Techno’s chair in such a fashion that Techno knows will have Phil not-so-subtly squeezing himself in next to him in due course.
“You were absolutely born, though,” Techno points out. “Therefore, birthday.”
“I mean, what d’you count as ‘born’?” Phil asks, resting an arm on Techno’s shoulder, and hooking his chin over too.
Techno blinks. Repeats the question in his head. Blinks again. “Uh… bein’ born?” What is Phil even asking?
“So would that be my mother laying my egg, or me hatching?” Phil continues. Right. Okay. That’s a very good point that Techno did not consider that he really probably should have. He knows about birds. He knows about Phil. He knows about how much bird Phil is.
“See?” Phil says after Techno remains silent. “No birthday.”
“Okay…” Techno tries, thinking. Maybe it’s time to look at this from another angle or twelve. “What about less literal. Like my namin’ day?”
“That’s different though, isn’t it?” Phil asks.
“Nah, not really. Piglins don’t celebrate the birth, Nether kills too many babies fer that. When you get yer name you become yer own person. That’s what we celebrate.”
“But yours changed?”
“I mean, yeah. I changed my name, so my namin’ day moved. It’s about celebratin’ me an’ who I am, Phil, surely you have something.”
Sure enough, Phil is trying to worm his bony legs in beside Techno. There isn’t really enough room, but Techno shifts over to make a little bit more. As per usual, Phil ends up half in his lap, which, as per usual once again, is exactly where he wants to be.
“Not really.” He shrugs, picking up the calendar and looking at it. “Never really been a problem until now.”
“Man, it’s not a problem,” Techno retaliates.
“Calm down, I’m just teasing.” Phil reaches up and ruffles Techno’s mane in the way he knows always annoys him. “I just… yeah. Never really mattered. Been alive for so long I don’t remember much about my childhood, going to be alive for so long I’m just gonna forget anything that isn’t important.”
“But that’s the point,” Techno says, looping his arms around Phil. “You’re the important thing. That’s what a birthday or a namin’ day or whatever you want to call it is about. You.”
“Pshhhh,” Phil replies, pointedly turning away. “Stop being all sappy.”
“You are the one who literally crawled into my lap.”
“And? You’re the one who didn’t kick me out.”
“Look, Phil,” Techno says, reaching up and cupping his face, forcing him to look at him. “You know I love you, right?”
“‘Course.”
“Great. So trust me when I say yer important. At the very least yer important to me. An’ I want to celebrate you. You, not… some other arbitrary day that someone else says is important because of somethin’ I don’t even care about.”
Techno’s pretty sure that the only reason Phil’s still looking at him is because he’s holding his face in his hands. As it is, Phil’s eyes are darting about, meeting Techno’s for a moment before dropping down, and there’s a red on his cheeks under his feathers. Good, he’s actually heard what Techno’s said, instead of just letting it go in one ear and out of the other.
“Mate,” Phil ends up saying, eventually. His voice is all soft, and Techno just grins. “You don’t- ‘m just me.”
“Exactly,” Techno replies, dropping his hands from Phil’s face and holding him loosely again.
“Are you sure about this?”
Techno chuckles. “Nothin’ for me to be sure about. This is about you.”
“Okay, well- I guess. What… what day though?”
“‘S up to you,” Techno says, shrugging a little. “Could pick an important day to you, or just a random one. Your choice.”
“Gods, who’s idea was it to get me to make important decisions,” Phil bemoans, resting his head on Techno’s shoulder. “I didn’t come over here for all this thinking.”
Unfortunately for Phil, Techno knows all his tricks. And even more unfortunately for him, Techno is just as stubborn as he is, and is very adamant that Phil’s birthday be a day that he chooses. He’s only really half expecting to get an answer within the next month.
“Bruh, I literally just said you could pick a random day.”
“Fine, fine,” Phil whines. “What about… today?”
“Today?”
“Yeah,” Phil says, shrugging and using the movement to wriggle a little bit closer. “I mean, don’t have much else going on, right?” That is a good point. “And, like… y’know.” He shrugs again. “This… whole conversation is important to me, or some shit.”
“Aw,” Techno coos, snuffling his snout into Phil’s hair in that way he knows always annoys him. “I’m honoured you think this is important.”
“Ah, fuck off,” Phil grumbles, swatting at Techno. “Fuckin’ emotions. So overrated.”
This time, instead of shuffling closer to Techno, he pulls out of his grip, readjusting his hair yet again and shaking out his wings.
“Literally all I asked was when yer birthday is,” Techno teases, pushing his glasses back into place and reaching for the forgotten calendar.
“Yeah, but you made it all soft,” Phil pouts, wrinkling his nose. He’s back with the emptied chests again now, and seems to be starting to organise things into separate piles, instead of just one big one.
“What can I say, I think my partner deserves to be celebrated, can’t fault me for that.”
“Shut up, you can’t be mean to me, it’s my birthday.”
Techno just laughs, something hearty and happy, and after a moment, Phil’s cackle joins him.
It is, after all, Phil’s birthday today.