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“Oh, and Blackquill?” Edgeworth said, turning back and lingering in Simon’s doorway. “If you’d like to come in late on Friday, I would have no issue with this.”
Simon tensed at his desk. “Why do you say that, sir?”
Some strange expression passed over his face – something like shock and regret. “Ah…no reason, besides the fact that you might be quite tired from Thursday.” He ducked out of the doorway immediately, just as Simon called after him to ask what was happening on Thursday.
Simon was still so tense, and he almost snapped his pen in half. God, what was going on? He felt his heart speed up, and his stomach drop. He knew what was happening on Thursday. It was his damn birthday.
For about a month now, his friends had been acting very strangely. Athena and Klavier were always bizarre, but they had been particularly odd as of late. He first was suspicious when he caught them conspiratorially whispering with one another. It was not strange his best friend was in the prosecutor’s office that day, but Athena almost always made a direct beeline for his office. When he asked what they were discussing, their lie was laughably obvious. These things happened way too often again through the rest of the month.
Athena would drop hints and ask provoking questions. Nahyuta had just arrived back in the states earlier that week, and his reason for being here was flimsy at best. Yes, fine, he loved Nahyuta, but he did not love him when the threat of a forbidden birthday party loomed.
It was now Wednesday, and he had been on edge for the whole week. Athena already had plans for after work tomorrow to do something with him. When he asked her time and time again what exactly it was they were doing, she was frustratingly tight-lipped. If he didn’t love her so much, he would forcibly remove that smile from her face. Simon asked Klavier almost daily what exactly it was they were planning. He even tried to get Athena to tell him while she was drowsy and dozing off next to him, hoping that her sleep-addled state would let her reveal the truth. Nahyuta always ensured on their phone calls and video chats to change the subject immediately – since they didn’t speak often, there was usually something more interesting to talk about, anyway. Even now that the monk was here, he remained silent and expertly dodged the questions Simon asked.
He couldn’t decide if he wanted Thursday to hurry up and arrive or take its sweet time. On one hand, he had not really celebrated a birthday in many years, since prison parties were not a good time. He lost a lot of years for a good reason while behind bars, so he did not like to think about those seven lost birthdays much. He also knew that his horrible friends were without a doubt planning some surprise party or event for him, and he would rather die than attend that. But Simon was also desperate to get things over with, so he found himself growing rather impatient for Thursday.
Nahyuta woke up him gently and far more sweetly than he normally did. That was a perfectly acceptable wakeup call; Athena’s wakeup call for him that day was to scream into his ear on the phone when she called at the crack of dawn.
The monk, apparently, had court proceedings to take care for most of the work day, so he would not be around much. When he was leaving Simon’s office to go to the courthouse, he said to him, “I’ll see you later tonight, Simon. At the – at home.”
“The what?”
“Nothing, nothing!” He left and slammed the door shut before he could demand any more information from the monk. Simon’s lip curled, and he wondered how he could get out of this unsurprising surprise party. He wouldn’t hate the idea of it so much if when, months ago, Athena asked him what he wanted to do, and he said nothing, under no circumstances will you throw a party; she swore that she wouldn’t. What a brat.
Midway through the stressful day (made worse by receiving a letter not only from Aura but also the Phantom), Klavier Gavin came a-knocking. Simon regarded him warily.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Herr Blackquill?” he asked, clearly fighting a smirk from forming on his lips. “Are you enjoying dein Geburtstag?”
“Nein.”
He laughed as he settled himself onto the black velvet couch in front of Simon’s desk. He looked like he knew something Simon didn’t. He probably did.
“I passed by Prosecutor Sahdmadhi earlier,” he stated. “He seemed in rather a good mood. He must be having a good birthday of yours.”
Simon would not reveal any details, no matter how subtle Gavin was being. Besides, he was certainly in on whatever secret goings on would occur that night, so Simon was not particularly happy with him.
“Well, I’m actually due in court soon,” Gavin suddenly said, standing almost just as he had sat down. He reached into his breast pocket and produced a little envelope. “These are for you.” He thrust the envelope into his face.
Gavin looked a little sheepish as Simon peered into the envelope, finding tickets to a rakugo show next month. He’d heard from Uendo that he was working on a few routines, yet why he now possessed the tickets to see the show, he was not sure. So he asked. And Gavin laughed at him.
“Do you not like dein Geschenk?”
“Why you insist on still speaking German around this office is beyond me.”
He flashed Simon the dazzling smile he used for the paparazzi. “I heard your Sad Monk has an important court date that week. Perhaps have him sit through another show with you, since he has lost his taste for it since that trial.”
Simon did not understand.
“You buy me these tickets and suggest I attend with someone who is not you?”
“Ach, ja, bu – ”
“I can barely tolerate a few hours with Nahyuta. Therefore, you and I will go together.”
This time, the smile was genuine. “Ja, okay, Herr Blackquill.” He flicked his bangs away. “I wanted to give you those now, since I won’t be able to attend tonight.” He froze.
“Attend what!” Simon roared. Gavin dashed from the office before Simon get up and catch him by his goofy hairstyle. He appreciated the gift very much, although he was concerned with the fact that apparently Gavin was unsure of if they were friends or not. He was even more concerned with whatever was tonight.
He was still on edge when Athena slammed her way into his office, popping off a popper and screaming in excitement. He loved his best friend but damn. Relax.
“On a scale of one to ten,” she said, coming around to his side and tearing the papers from his hands and setting them aside, “has this been the best birthday or what?”
“It was not in prison, so automatically at least a 2.”
“Great!” She was still cleaning things up.
“Why are you working so hard to get me out of here?” He didn’t like the implication that they needed to rush somewhere to be on time. He feared the evening.
“We just…have to go. You can’t spend your birthday evening in your office.” She whistled for Taka, who flew from her perch to land on Athena’s own shoulder. “So let’s go!”
“Where are we going?”
“My place!”
Oh, god, she’d probably brought in everyone they knew to decorate her apartment; there was probably a cake that was in the shape of his face, and he was going to beg for death. He couldn’t handle a surprise party. The whole journey back to her apartment was grueling and twisted his stomach. He reluctantly climbed the steps to her apartment and waited with baited breath as she fumbled for her keys.
She pushed open the front door.
“God, it’s so dark in here,” she mumbled to herself. Simon planted his feet in case he needed to bolt. She flipped on a light switch – no one was there. No one jumped up from behind her couch or hallway or closet to scream at him.
“You okay there, Simon?” she asked. She was grinning, like she knew what he would be so nervous about. He hated her, most of the time, honestly.
She ordered his favorite takeout just as they got there, and she told him that Nahyuta had stolen all of Simon’s anime and dumped it off with her earlier that day, so Simon could choose what torture he wanted to inflict on Athena. Hehe, excellent. She never could get into any of the shows the way that he could, so she rarely ever watched it with him. It was suspicious when she said they could only watch so many before they would need to go again, but he couldn’t badger her about it, as the food had arrived. And the episode had already started by the time he had a chance to ask again, so she shushed him violently.
He was able to relax again after a while. He loved being with his best friend. It was nice and calming, and they ended up just talking over the anime episodes after a while. Simon half-expected her to interrogate him on why he didn’t like celebrating his birthday, but he gathered she was a smart enough woman to figure that out on her own.
And suddenly she was forcing him up, dumping the dirty dishes in the sink and ushering him out of the apartment. She kept muttering darkly to herself that they were going to be late.
Late where.
But they just ended back up Simon’s house…? He kept protesting and wondering who had planned out this whole day, since it made little sense for Athena to leave her own house like that. She did not answer him and instead forced his keys out of his hand to unlock the door. He tried not to panic as his own apartment was pitch black, but Athena just charged down the hallway to flick on the main light.
“Oh, hey, Nahyuta,” she said casually.
Simon peeked around the corner, finding Nahyuta sitting on his couch.
“Why were you sitting in the dark like that?” he asked the monk.
“So you would think Athena and I had gathered your friends here to throw a surprise party for you after living in fear of this exact thing happening all day,” he answered, getting up and kissing him.
His frown was mighty. “I hate you both.”
“Everyone was in on it!” Athena called from the kitchen. “They all knew there wasn’t a party, but we had to make sure you thought there would be one. Because we hate you, too.” She emerged from the little room, carrying a little cake with a little candle in it. He wouldn’t let them sing to him and chose to unceremoniously blow out the candle. When he made fun of the poor lettering on top of the frosting, Nahyuta squawked indignantly – icing was not an easy art medium to use, thank you very much.
When Athena left, off to the Wright-Edgeworth residence to grab some evidence from her boss and claiming that she didn’t want to be around when Nahyuta gifted Simon with his present (ew, stop), Nahyuta brought out the real dessert: alcohol.
“Did you genuinely believe we would host an unwanted surprise party for you?” Nahyuta asked.
“Yes, you and Athena are terrible. Whose idea was it?”
“Hers, naturally. I am not so terrible.”
Simon doubted that. The living in fear aspect of the day put a damper on things, but he would rate it a solid 7. He feared for the next year.