“what’s this?” tsukidate asks, setting his bag down on a chair.

his teammates on the other side of the room, who were previously pushing and shoving each other around as they blocked the table from tsukidate, stop moving and all turn their heads slowly around to face him.

“you’re not supposed to be here yet.” onagawa blurts.

“watari-senpai was supposed to stop you!” futaba also blurts, he then claps his hands over his mouth realizing what he said.

misato sighs, as if realizing what a mess his team is, and opens his mouth to say something just as watari bursts through the door screaming and out of breath.

“ahhh! sorry he took the other way around and i don’t realize till too late! my bad!” after he finishes yelling he seems to see tsukidate standing there.

“oh hey, you’re here...” he looks around at their teammates. “did i just ruin the surprise?”

“sorry we’re late, i forgot the ice cream at the store and had to go back for it. i got the cake my wife baked though!” coach shida calls from the door.

tsukidate watches as his teams look at each other with panic in their eyes before running to the hallway just as shida comes in holding a food container. the boys try to stop running and shida tries to hold the cake up in the air to protect it from damage. but all the chaos and confusion causes the cake to topple over and start to fall to the ground. with a yell everyone can tell it’s to late to grab to cake as it makes it’s way to the floor.

just then a hand shoots out and grabs the cake. kurikoma squats on the floor cake held in one hand, piece sign help up by the other. everyone lets out a collective sigh.

“so what’s the cause for all this chaos?” tsukidate asks, eyeing the nervous team.

~ ~ ~

“so this was all for my birthday?” tsukidate asks before he takes a bite of the cake on his plate. everyone around him nods as they eat their own cake. tsukidate takes another bite of the delicious cake. coach shida’s wife had make a vanilla cake with a bonsai tree drawing in icing on the top. and then shida had bought some ice cream to go with the amazing cake.

his teammates had all gotten him gifts and tsukidate couldn’t wait to go look at them again in his room. futaba had gotten him some plant encyclopedias that he said could also be read like dictionaries when needed too. misato had bought him a gift card to one of the well known plant shops in the area. shichigahama had bought him an apple tree sapling to plant in the garden outside, he even got permission from the school first. onagawa had painted a box like a concert stage and gotten five flowers all in the colors of the tan-tan girls. he had pointed out the ma-chan flower and started going on about how pretty she was even as a flower and how she was still better than the others as a flower. watari got him a venus fly trap because he had found out about this fighting plant and wanted to see one in real life but couldn’t keep plants alive himself. kurikoma had edited a picture of team and replaced the people with plants she thought corresponded well to their personalities. she said she bought a frame and was planning on hanging it in the kitchen. and finally coach shida had brought the homemade cake the his wife made but he also painted a plant pot with their team uniform designs. he explained how he took up painting after his injury and picked up his paints again to make this gift.