#until now!!

“Give me some—” he started, but then Wakatsuki reached her room’s door and wrenched it open.

“Go buy some yourself,” she called before immediately closing the door on his face.

And Satoru sighed again.

...Then a wicked grin came over his face before he quickly teleported himself inside.

“I want chocolates,” he said, and Wakatsuki jumped.

“Fucking hell—”

He grinned. “You’re going to give me chocolates, right?”

Wakatsuki huffed. “No. Out.”

Satoru let out yet another exasperated sigh, only slightly exaggerated as he leaned against her desk, throwing his head back. “But then who’s going to give me chocolates?” he whined.

“Not me,” she responded, grabbing her pillow and chucking it at him.

Satoru snickered as he grabbed the incoming pillow with one hand, watching as Wakatsuki turned away with a huff.

Yeah, okay, he really did want some chocolates, but also it was just really fun to tease Wakatsuki like this. As she turned to her closet, seemingly trying to ignore his presence there in her room, Satoru’s grin widened as he made himself comfortable, adjusting himself against her desk as he threw her pillow back onto the bed.

“Don’t you have anyone else to go bother?” she asked, slightly exasperated, as she closed her closet back up before walking towards him with an unimpressed stare.

“Suguru is busy,” was all he said in response, and Wakatsuki rolled her eyes as she slapped at his arm—shooing him away from her desk.

Satoru stepped away but remained close by, crossing his arms as he watched Wakatsuki pull some textbooks out of her bag and arrange them on the desk.

...Then his eyes were drawn to the calendar she had on her desk, effectively distracting his thoughts from more calls for chocolate. Because there was a specific date marked there on the calendar with an exclamation point, and even though he initially thought it was Valentine’s Day, at a second glance he realized that it was actually two days before.

Tomorrow.

What was important about tomorrow?

“Wakatsuki,” he called, eyeing the calendar. “You got any special plans for tomorrow?”

Wakatsuki raised her head, confused, before her eyes also fell on the calendar. “Ah...” she started. “Sort of. It’s my birthday.”

Satoru blinked, surprised.

Right, he didn’t actually know when Wakatsuki’s birthday was...

“It’s...” she started again. “It’s actually my first birthday...”

Satoru blinked again, this time confused.

“...How old are you again?” he asked, and Wakatsuki let out a half-hearted scoff.

“I’ll be sixteen,” she answered, but that still didn’t answer his general confusion. So he kept staring at her until she finally let out a defeated sigh. “I didn’t actually know when my real birthday was before coming to Japan, okay? So this year will be my first time actually celebrating it.”

Ah. Right.

He’d forgotten about Wakatsuki’s... whole thing with her parents and foster homes and whatnot. Guess since she hadn’t known who her parents were while growing up, it made sense that she also wouldn’t have known the actual date of her birth...

“...You’ve had a weird life, Wakatsuki...” he muttered, and Wakatsuki scoffed again.

“Says the weirdo with the weird glowing eyes,” she responded, and Satoru let out a gasp, his hand ripping off his sunglasses.

“How dare you! My eyes are beautiful!”

He batted his eyelashes at her for good measure. Wakatsuki snorted.

And as a bickering session ensued, the subject of both Valentine’s Day and Wakatsuki’s birthday was seemingly forgotten...

-

Yura let out a yawn as she stretched herself out in bed, the last tendrils of sleep slowly escaping her. It was a Sunday, which meant no class—and for once, she had decided to take the day off from any sort of training.

Because it was her birthday.

Yura’s eyes shot open, staring at her room’s ceiling as she remembered just what day it was exactly. Her birthday—and, more specifically, the first time she would ever get to celebrate it.

Yura immediately sat up, blinking at the sunlight streaming in through the glass doors that led outside. The day looked sunny and bright—a perfect fit for the occasion—and her lips shifted into a grin.

Her spirits were high once she decided to get out of bed, figuring she might as well get started for the day. She had planned on sleeping in today as a little treat to herself, but despite turning her alarm off yesterday, it seemed that she’d still woken up roughly on the usual time anyway.

Oh, well. Maybe her subconscious had been just that giddy about today, just like her body currently was.

My birthday, my birthday, Yura sang in her head, humming out a vague melody as she finished getting dressed. Her happy thoughts were only interrupted by a knock on her door, although that still didn’t stop the giddiness she felt inside.

“Happy birthday!” Shoko called as Yura opened the door—then promptly shoved a box in Yura’s face. A gift, Yura realized, her body perking up even more at the realization.

Yura couldn’t keep the grin off her face even if she tried as she opened her gift.

“You said you wanted one,” Shoko said as Yura pulled out a water bottle from the box—a fancy water bottle, one that kept your drink at just the right temperature for a really long time. Shoko must have remembered Yura looking at this exact same brand the last time they’d gone shopping, but as Yura examined it closer, she noticed this one also had her name custom-printed on it.

Yura grinned wide, nodding vigorously at the other girl. “Thank you,” she responded. “Gojo broke my old one a month ago.”

Shoko looked amused. “I know, it‘s why I decided on it.”

Maybe a water bottle may seem like a simple thing to give someone, but it was hard to describe just how much this one gift seemed to bring Yura joy. Her first gift for her first birthday—the first of many, she hoped, now that she could actually celebrate it properly.

“So,” Shoko called, clapping her hands together in a rare display of excitement. “Are you ready for a birthday day out?”

Yura’s grin widened even more. “I still need to finish getting ready, though.”

Shoko released an impatient sigh, throwing her head back. “So slow. You’re starting to turn into Gojo.”

Yura opened her mouth in pretend shock. “Me? I would never!”

“Uh huh,” Shoko nodded. “You two would make a great pair.”

Yura let out a gasp. “Take that back!”

-

Even though Yura had been looking forward to her birthday, she actually hadn’t worried too much about it in the preceding days. Sure, she kept thinking about it with excitement, but she hadn’t really made any specific plans on how she was going to celebrate it.

So in the end, she and Shoko ended up just going with the flow once they finally got to the city, leaving the school behind so they could have a true day off from any kind of work. No expectations had been set for what they were going to do today, which Yura thought made the day all the more exciting and novel as they spontaneously decided on what to do next.

So to start off, they ended up having breakfast at a nice café—and thankfully, Yura had purposefully eaten very little before leaving just so they could do something like this, letting herself indulge in more sweet foods than she normally allowed herself this early in the day. And once breakfast was done, they decided to do some birthday shopping, the two of them walking around Shinjuku together—mostly browsing the stores, to be honest, and only occasionally actually buying anything.

...In hindsight, this was actually turning out to be like a normal day out for them. They weren’t doing anything ‘extraordinary’ or ‘super exciting’—but Yura didn’t mind. If anything, she preferred it this way, the comfort of the usual strangely appealing. Shoko had actually asked her a couple of days ago if she wanted to throw a party, but Yura had declined—she’d never really been into celebrating her birthday like that before (mostly because it’d never felt right to celebrate a ‘fake’ birthday), so she wasn’t about to start now. And, well, birthday party standards sure had been raised by Gojo, whose birthday a couple of months ago had been an extravagant affair; Yura sure as hell hadn’t expected a whole ass buffet to be served at the school that day, the event turning into a massive party that saw a ton of people from outside stopping by to try to suck up to the fabled Gojo heir.

So yeah, maybe that event had scared her off a little from parties in general, even if she knew that she was no golden heir so she wouldn’t be having a celebration like that either way. And sure, they had actually thrown a regular birthday party for Geto a week or so ago... but she didn’t feel like having one of those either. Just doing something simple and fun was enough for her, and Shoko thankfully played along as they spent the day doing exactly that.

“We should go karaoke,” Shoko eventually suggested once they’d gotten tired of all the walking around they’d been doing. And Yura perked up at the idea, since she’d actually grown quite fond of karaoke in this past year...

It was the middle of the afternoon when they entered their preferred karaoke place, and it thankfully wasn’t so busy that they had to wait in line to get themselves a room. So they quickly got settled in, ordered some snacks, and started singing—although Yura had to admit that the room did feel a little empty with just the two of them there...

...Granted, by thinking that, she had probably just jinxed it—because not even half an hour later, the room’s door was slammed open right as Yura was in the middle of a song, making her yelp into the microphone at the sudden intruder. Her surprise was quick to turn into annoyance, though, when she spotted a familiar white-haired figure standing there, and then it turned into confusion when she saw that he was holding on to a balloon.

“Wakatsuki!” Gojo let out, and why did he sound annoyed when he was the one who interrupted them in the first place? “Why weren’t you at the school?!”

Yura scoffed, incredulous at his tone of voice. “How is that any of your business?!”

But instead of Gojo responding, Geto’s face popped up from behind him. “Because he wanted to find you but you weren’t there,” Geto said, waving a hand. “So he dragged me all the way here for that—also happy birthday!”

Yura blinked at him, slightly surprised again. “Ah, thank you?”

“Exactly!” Gojo exclaimed. “What do you mean you’re not having a party, Wakatsuki?!”

Yura blinked again. Why did he sound so... pissed off about it? “I didn’t want one?”

Gojo huffed, finally stepping further inside the room, Geto following him and closing the door behind them.

“That’s too bad!” Gojo continued exclaiming like she had personally offended him in some kind of way. And as he approached them, Yura then noticed that he was carrying a box in his other hand, a box that was suddenly slammed down onto the table in the middle of the room. “There!” he said, finishing up by thrusting the balloon he’d been holding right in her face.

Yura continued blinking at him, still somewhat confused and surprised about it all. Her eyes eventually landed on the balloon he was still urging her to grab, the golden 1 flopping around in the air with every insistent gesture that he made.

She took hold of the balloon’s string, still confused. “What...?”

“It’s your birthday, stupid,” he said, and realization finally dawned on her.

Slowly, Yura looked up at the floating 1 she was now holding.

He had actually... bothered to get her anything?

“...I think it’s missing a 6...” she finally said, eyeing the balloon.

Gojo huffed, but he seemed amused as a grin played across his lips. “Nope—you said it was your first birthday, didn’t you?”

Oh.

He remembered that?

Gojo moved, stepping away from her while Yura was still stuck on the whole balloon thing. She only half-noticed him opening that box he’d brought, but her eyes quickly zeroed in on the mouthwatering chocolate cake that was revealed to be inside.

(It also had a lone 1 as a candle on top.)

A strange feeling was brewing inside her as she stared at the cake, surprise and something else fluttering around in her stomach. It left her momentarily speechless, her hand still clutching at the balloon’s string, her eyes flicking between Gojo and the cake as her brain struggled to react properly.

“...I’m surprised the cake didn’t fall apart when you slammed it down like that,” Shoko commented, amused.

“The many uses of Limitless,” Gojo responded, flopping down onto the sofa as Geto followed along.

Shoko snorted.

“So,” Gojo continued. “Are we singing or what? You absolutely bombed that song, by the way,” he nodded at Yura, then at the screen displaying her very low score.

Yura scoffed, finally snapping out of it. “That’s because you interrupted me!”

Gojo waved a dismissive hand, and Yura scowled harder at him—anything to distract her from this weird feeling in her chest.

“Sorry I didn’t get you anything,” Geto spoke up, interrupting another bickering session between her and Gojo. “Satoru only told me it was your birthday today.”

“It’s okay,” Yura responded, pushing down her annoyance at Gojo... even though she was very tempted to throw her microphone at him.

(The truth was that she hadn’t expected Gojo to get her anything either.)

“My turn!” Gojo declared, picking up the song catalog to choose one for himself. And Yura didn’t actually feel like arguing against it even though he had just invited himself here, and as their two-person karaoke session turned into a four-person one instead... Yura found she had nothing to complain about.

Why hadn’t she invited the two boys to come along today? She honestly wasn’t sure. Maybe she’d just figured that they had better things to do than to celebrate her birthday... which made it all the more surprising that they’d actually come here on their own. Shoko eventually admitted that she had texted them the location of this karaoke place, but only after Gojo had asked her about it—which brought that weird feeling back to Yura’s chest...

“You should do a duet,” Shoko urged, motioning between Gojo and Yura. “Actually, birthday girl should duet with everyone.”

“That sounds like a terrible idea,” Yura responded.

“That sounds like an amazing idea,” Geto added, a mischievous grin on his face.

Yura shot him a deadpan look.

(He could be as bad as Gojo sometimes.)

Even though it was her birthday, it seemed that Yura had been outnumbered; she was quickly forced forward again in order to duet with, ugh, Gojo, Shoko grabbing her balloon and tying it around Yura’s wrist so she could have her hands free. Granted, the duet eventually turned more into a duel between the two of them—a singing duel, and the only kind of duel that Yura could ever hope to win against Gojo.

Still, though... Yura couldn’t deny that it was fun. The golden 1 balloon kept flopping around in the air with her movements, and Yura had to admit that she was getting carried away with all this sudden excitement. And since Gojo had apparently paid for an extension of this room, there was no hurry to wrap this party up...

This party.

Had she accidentally gotten a birthday party after all?

Yura’s lips tugged up when Gojo eventually declared it was time for cake (because he wanted some), and that same strange feeling from before came back in full force once they lit up the 1 candle. Yura closed her eyes on instinct when it was time to blow on it, readying herself to make a wish—only to suddenly pause, her eyes cracking open again as she stared at the lit candle.

‘I want to find my family,’ had been her go-to wish, year after year for as long as she could remember. ‘I want to know who my real parents are.’

Well, she couldn’t use that wish anymore now, could she?

“What are you waiting for, Wakatsuki?” Gojo urged, and she shooed him back with a hand as he threatened to blow on her candle himself.

“Shut up, I’m thinking of a wish,” she said, her eyes flicking to him before returning to the cake.

Gojo snorted. “What, is the cake a genie—”

Shoko slapped his arm, making him shut up.

And finally, Yura had her wish.

I want to celebrate my birthday next year just like this, she wished, blowing out the candle. Maybe a strange wish to make, considering all the things she could have asked for, but...

Yeah.

Yura would be happy just having this again next year.

-

Bonus

“Wakatsuki.”

Yura turned her head. “Hm?”

Gojo shot her a look. “You know what this means.”

She paused with the fork halfway to her mouth, a piece of cake hanging off it. “...What?”

Slowly, a grin spread across his mouth.

...She didn’t like it.

His shoulders perked up. “Now you owe me chocolates on Valentine’s Day!”

This fucker.

“I said you’re not getting any!” she exclaimed back—and another bickering session promptly ensued as they all dug into her chocolate cake.

-

(...She almost did get him chocolates, though. That had been a good cake...)

(Unfortunately for him, he ended up annoying the hell out of her the day before. So no chocolates for Gojo; instead, the chocolates she bought were happily consumed by her and Shoko as they made sure to let him know he wouldn’t be getting any...)