Chapter Text
"Surprise!"
A party horn blares all too loudly, Mira thinks her eardrums exploded with it. Where did Zoey even buy that, Mira feels like just the sound it makes alone might have broken a few laws.
A few pieces of confetti falls down slowly, like feathers from a colorful bird shot mid-air. Mira's eyes follow the pile of rainbow fluff as it lands on the wooden floor, then looks up to meet Zoey's beaming smile and Rumi's nervous one.
Mira's ears ring. She raises an eyebrow, "what is this?"
"A surprise party!" Zoey shouts. Her ears probably still ringing too.
Rumi shuffles and offers Mira a cone party hat. Offers, as in she bows a 90 degree angle and offers the hat gently cupped in both of her outstretched palms to Mira.
Mira takes the hat, though it did nothing to stop her confusion. "Okay…? And what is the party for?"
Zoey's beaming smile falls at that, makes way for a series of baffled faces. "Wah?? hgrhdk? asldfkawe???? what!?" a lot of wierd noises. "Your birthday of course!"
"…Oh."
Mira looks around the dining room, at the colorful banner haphazardly tied up with messily painted words and adorable little drawings, and at the steam and aroma of Celine's cooking wafting through the room.
For her.
Suddenly, her eyes are blurry and it's not just because her glasses fogged up.
"Eh? Mira!?"
A sob. Mira wonders who is crying and—
Oh. Oh no. It's her. She's crying in the middle of her birthday party in front of everybody. She covers her mouth with her palm, tries to stifle her sobs. She can almost hear her parents chastising her for causing a scene at her own party.
The dishonor this would bring to the family. How the media would eat this up and never let go. How this would cost them money and ruin their reputation and sabotage future deals and—
Except—
Except her parents and their endlessly judging gaze aren't here. Except the media isn't here. Except there aren't any pristine ivory white walls and flawless carpets and gilded lights, and all there is is the aged wood and the colorful decorations and sounds and smells from a home well lived in.
A home made from an earnest love.
Her parents and their stoic silence aren't here, and Zoey and Rumi panicked noises are.
And they're here because they care.
Eventually, Mira's sobs die down, and so do Zoey and Rumi's panicking, though they still flit around and hover.
Mira removes her glasses to wipe tears from her eyes. "Sorry about that," her voice hoarse and shaky.
Zoey "What was that? Did we do something wrong? Was the party horn too loud? The confetti too messy? Is everything too colorful?" Zoey gasps, clutches her pearls like she was Batman's mom and she just got shot, "Is… is the birthday banner too ugly?"
"What? nO??" Mira clears her throat. "No, of course not. Everything looks perfect."
"Reallyyy?" Zoey and Rumi points giant puppy dog eyes. Mira suffers -99999 damage.
She can't help the small smile from forming on her face. "Yes."
"Even the banner?" Somehow, their giant puppy dog eyes got even bigger.
"Yes, even the banner. Especially the banner."
"Yayy!!!" Zoey and Rumi cheer and high-five each other. Then, turns to Mira at the same time, "then why we're you crying?" Eyes filled with so much care and worry it's overwhelming that Mira thinks she'd prefer the giant puppy dog eyes actually.
"I just… wasn't expecting you guys to do anything."
"Whatttt?"
"Nooooo, did you think we were just going to be all sad and quiet on your birthday like you were yesterday?"
"Well, that's how they've always been." She wipes the tear droplets off her glasses just to do something with her hands. "Just sad and quiet, sometimes with a side of fancy dresses."
"Well fear not, Mira! We're going to make a lot of happy noises today! From now on all your birthdays will be joyful and noisy!" Zoey cheers, Rumi nods rapidly.
Mira puts her glasses back on her face. "I think you're going to make a lot of noise today. Rumi's going to quietly clap you on the sideslines."
Rumi gasps indignantly. "I can make a lot of noise too!"
"Oh yeah? Prove it princess."
Rumi takes a large, deep, impressively long breath—
and belts out a very impressive high note for 23 seconds straight. Mira thinks she might have ascended heaven or something.
Rumi pants and struggles to regain her breath. "See??"
Mira fixes her skewed glasses, that were also probably blown away. "I wouldn't count that as noise."
Rumi makes offended noises. Mira takes an extra party horn from Zoey, smirks at Rumi. "This is."
And she blows.
(Three sets of ears were ringing after that. They made lots of noises throughout the day. Party games and homecooked food. Rumi, Zoey, and Celine spent the rest of the day making sure Mira knows she has a place here in this home.
No social rules or expectations, no overarching chess game of making connections.
Just them. Her family.
Mira doesn't think she has ever felt this happy in her entire life.
Other than the day she met her girls, of course.)