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"No! You're hanging the banner in the wrong spot!" Nobara shouts and Megumi and Yuuji deflate and the sign that reads: 'Happy Birthday Maki!' sags with them.
"But you told us to hang it here!" Yuuji whines.
"I absolutely did not! You two bozos just didn't hang it in the right spot!" Nobara shouts at them and they groan.
"Do we have to move it again?" Megumi whines.
"YES!" Nobara barks at him and he and Yuuji groan and drop their tired arms and the banner along with it.
"It's been a rough year for Maki." Nobara explains.
"It's been a rough year for all of us. Yourself included." Yuuji points out to her eye.
"Salmon." Toge says in agreement from where he was stirring together the cake batter with Panda in the kitchen.
"Okay well it's been an especially rough year for Maki and today is her birthday so we have to make this one special so she knows she's appreciated!" Nobara stresses to everyone.
"I'm sure she already knows how much we care about her." Megumi assures Nobara as he comes down the ladder with Yuuji.
"I know but as her best friend it's my job to make sure that she has a perfect birthday!" Nobara exclaims.
"I don't think that's necessarily the responsibility of a friend-" Panda starts.
"JUST SHUT UP AND BAKE THE CAKE!" Nobara barks at them.
Panda and Toge shivered in fear from her tone and got right back to frantically throwing together ingredients.
"We've got to hurry and get this all set up!" Nobara stresses. "Yuuta can only keep Maki distracted for so long!"
And speak of the devil, her phone pings. A text from Yuuta.
"CRAP!" Nobara explains when she reads his text. "Their sparring session is over! I'm gonna need him to convince her to do another round! Thankfully it shouldn't be hard. He can convince her to do anything." Nobara points out with a huff of jealousy as she recalls her previous plan of her being the distraction while the boys set up the party.
Nobara ran up to Maki as she walked through the dorm corridors. "Hey Maki! What are you doing today? Do you want to come shopping with-"
"No." Maki answered flatly and Nobara stood there frozen in shock that she'd been turned down so swiftly.
Nobara quickly caught back up with her.
"Okay well I wasn't planning on just buying clothes I also wanted to go get food-"
"No." Maki answers the same as before and now Nobara was stressing.
"Go to the park?"
"No."
"Go get some nice warm hot cocoa?"
"No."
"I have two tickets to a movie do you want to go-"
"I said no!" Maki finally barked at her and Nobara hung her head in defeat.
"You're no fun." Nobara mumbled and kicked a pebble on the ground.
Maki huffed until she looked in front of her and saw Yuuta leaving his dorm room with his katana on his back.
"Hey Maki-san! Want to come spar with me?" He asked cheerfully and Maki smiled instantly.
"Absolutely!" Maki answered with no hesitation causing Nobara to let out an exclamation of jealousy snd stand there fuming while Maki and Yuuta walked off to the training grounds together.
"I'll never forgive you for this Yuuta Okkotsu." Nobara mumbles and kicks her foot. "But using his Maki influencing powers to help me out will help a little bit." Nobara says and texts him back telling him to spar with her again.
Yuuta sighs when he sees her text. This is the second round he's had to do with Maki now because the party set up was taking longer than expected. And now it would have to be a third.
"Hey Maki-san wait up!" Yuuta says as he stops Maki from packing up her training staff. "I want to go another round."
Maki smirks.
"Really?" She asks, looking him over like she was impressed with him. "You're not too tired yet?"
"Never. Especially not with you firing me up." Yuuta says and gets back into a ready stance.
"Oh I'll fire you up alright!" Maki banters back before charging at him with her training staff.
Nobara let out a sigh of relief when she got Yuuta's text that he bought her some more time. She'd have to use it wisely.
Unfortunately the others didn't.
"What do you mean you never turned the oven on?!" Nobara screams at Toge.
"Salmon roe…." Toge starts.
"Don't you salmon roe me!" Nobara immediately snaps at him and Toge recoils up against the wall, fearing for his life.
Nobara screams and tugs on her hair.
"Great now we're going to have to delay this party even further!" Nobara shouts and whips out her phone to text Yuuta again.
"Wow you lasted a lot longer this time." Maki says and looks at Yuuta panting on the ground.
"Yeah." He gasps. "You did great as always." He gives her a weak thumbs up and she laughs.
Yuuta gets a text and his whole body tenses.
"I've already sparred with her so many times! I don't think I can keep her away any longer!" Yuuta texts back to Nobara.
"Well do something! Anything to distract her! Please!" Nobara begs him in text form and Yuuta watches Maki start to leave and panics.
"Well Nobara said I should go to the kitchen for dinner so I'll see you around." Maki says and starts to walk away.
"Wait Maki-san you can't go yet!" Yuuta exclaims scrambling after her and running to stand in front of her.
"What why not? Yuuta you're exhausted you can't possibly want to spar again?!" Maki exclaims with a short laugh, finding his insistence on staying with her in this place amusing.
"I don't I just… I uh…" Yuuta starts stuttering and fumbling and Maki tilts her head at him "I just want to spend more time with you that's all…" Yuuta admits shyly and rubs the back of his neck.
Now she was the one blushing.
"More time with me… alone?" Maki asks and tentatively steps closer to him.
Yuuta looks down at his hands and presses his fingers together.
"Yeah." Yuuta says and Maki smiles and steps right in front of him, looking up at his face as he tries to duck it away from her.
"Any particular reason?" Maki asks him softly and Yuuta takes in a deep breath.
His heart was pounding. He didn't know what came over him but he just leans down and kisses her quickly.
It wasn't long. Just a quick peck but it was enough to have him wondering if he just did the dumbest thing he ever did in his life. Until Maki smiles brightly at him.
"Yuuta…" She sighs happily. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for you to do that!"
"Huh?" Yuuta chirps until gasping as Maki suddenly jumps into his arms and he catches her.
"Whoa Maki-san!" Yuuta exclaims and Maki grins wickedly.
"C'mere you amazing bean sprout!" She teases before kissing him deeply as they both fell onto the ground.
"Okay now we finally have everything ready! Places everyone! She's coming!" Nobara instructs everyone to hide as she turns off the lights in the room.
Maki opens the door and flicks the light on. Everyone jumps out and shouts "Surprise!"
Maki gasps and smiles.
"Aw you guys! You did this all for me?" Maki asks and smiles as she looks at all of the decorations.
"Salmon." Toge says and shows her the cake.
"Yeah Nobara organized the whole thing." Yuuji says and points to the brunette who was brimming with happiness beside him.
"Aw Nobara that's so sweet thank you!" Maki exclaims and gives Nobara a hug.
Nobara hugs her back then gasps when she sees Yuuta stumbling in behind her.
"Oh wow! This place looks great! You guys did an awesome job!" Yuuta compliments and everyone stares at him with their jaws hanging.
"What is it?" Yuuta asks when he notices their expressions. "Is it something on my face?" He asks.
"Yeah! It's the fucking lipstick! Dude what did you do!?" Yuuji asks him.
"Me." Maki says casually before walking over to get cake while licking her lips and rubbing her hands together.
Everyone gasps and turns to Yuuta who was stunned at how Maki described their little escapade in the courtyard.
"Nonono nothing like that happened!" Yuuta quickly assures everyone. "I-it was just kissing! A lot of kissing!"
Nobara gasps and grabs Yuuta's jacket collar and yanks him down to her height.
"I told you to distract her and you chose to make out with her?!" Nobara exclaims.
"I just gave her a kiss! Making out was her idea!" Yuuta defends and Nobara shrieks and blushes.
"Hey uh, did you just hear that Yuuta only kissed you as a distraction so we could set up this party?" Megumi informs his cousin as she cuts herself a slice of cake.
"Trust me the way he was kissing back it wasn't just a distraction." Maki says with a cocky smirk as Megumi's face turns red and he walks back over to Yuuji for comfort.
As Maki places a candle on her slice of cake she looks over the room and sees Toge and Panda discussing whether or not to pop their party poppers and Megumi dissociating on Yuuji's shoulder while he tried to get Nobara to give Yuuta some space and she couldn't help the bright smile that forms on her face along with the warm feeling in her heart.
"Best birthday ever." Maki says to herself before blowing out her candle.