Celeste's Birthday: A Short Celesgiri Story

Part I

What can I do, though? Kyoko thought, sitting on the side of her bed. It was nighttime—the announcement had played a while ago; at least an hour. Kyoko hadn't even realized how much time she'd spent thinking about what she could do to make her girlfriend's birthday special. No, it's just a birthday, she wouldn't care anyways. I shouldn't let myself get caught up in something so stupid. She would think every now and then. But, yet again, she felt the need to do something for Celeste's birthday. She just didn't know how.
Suddenly, it hit her. Makoto would know how to help. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it before. He might have some more...experience in this area. Birthdays were never very important in Kyoko's life. In fact, she didn't remember celebrating hers ever in her life. But she was aware that they were more meaningful to others, and was willing to comply for her friends.
No doubt Makoto will be in his room. She immediately got up and walked outside to Makoto's room nearby. She hesitated for a second, still questioning if this was all even worth the time, but sighed and ringed the doorbell.
In a matter of seconds, the boy answered the door.
"Kyoko? What are you doing here this late?" He asked, sounding just the slightest bit annoyed. "What about the nighttime rule?"
"Makoto, I need your help. Ludenberg's birthday is tomorrow, correct?" she started.
"Um...yeah, I guess. I didn't really know." he admitted, obviously confused.
"We need to do something for her birthday. I'm just not sure what."
"That's so sweet of you, Kyoko! That's pretty unlike you, no offense." Makoto smiled, and Kyoko couldn't tell if it was a genuine smile or a forced one.
"Nevermind that." she added quickly, a bit embarrassed. "I assumed you'd know a thing or two about birthdays."
"Actually, I don't know if I'm really the right guy for that. I never really celebrated birthdays growing up, they were just kind of...there." he admitted.
"Interesting. I was sure you'd know something..." Kyoko was pretty surprised—knowing Makoto, she would expect him to be a "birthday" kind of guy. "Then who would?" she asked.
He thought for a moment, looking down at the floor. "Maybe Hina would," he started after a fee seconds. "She definitely seems like the type who'd know something about that."
"True." Kyoko, still somewhat embarrassed about the situation, turned and left the room, not even checking in Makoto was following her.
"Kyoko, wait!" he called out. "So we're both just gonna go up to Hina's room? I don't know, isn't that kind of...suspicious?"
"I went up to your room." Kyoko pointed out, not looking back but only stopping for a second.

Ding, dong, the doorbell rang as Kyoko pressed it in.
After about thirty seconds, a scared and angry Hina opened the door.
"WHO'S—oh, Kyoko?" Kyoko noticed visible sweat building up on her forehead. She took one step to the right to reveal a nervous Makoto behind her.
"And Makoto? What are you guys doing here?!" Hina took one step back.
"Don't be scared, Hina," Kyoko started. "We have a quick favor to ask."
"Um, okay? Why in the middle of the night, though?" she seemed to relax a little.
"I apologize, but it's something we need to do before the morning." Hina nodded. "This may be a strange question, but dix you happen to celebrate...birthdays growing up?"
She smiled. "Of course I did! Birthdays are the best!"
"Good. We need your help celebrating Celeste's birthday."
"Oh, is her birthday tomorrow? That's cool! Yeah, sure, I can help out." she motioned for them to come in her room. Kyoko walked in without a word, followed by a somewhat reluctant Makoto.
"Did you guys ever celebrate birthdays growing up? Please tell me you did." She does seem to care a lot about birthdays. Kyoko noticed.
"Uh, not really." Makoto answered.
"What?!" Hina had that same look on her face she did when she talked about sports or food. "Both of you?"
Makoto looked over at Kyoko. She nodded slightly.
"Oh geez, then we need to make this a good one than! Even if it's for Celeste!" she smiled sweetly again.
"We need something not elaborate, but enough to make her feel appreciated." Kyoko explained. "Maybe something we can give to her at breakfast, perhaps."
"You probably knew all this since birthdays are so commercial and all, but a party consists of pretty much three things: a cake, presents, and decorations." Hina offered.
"Yeah." Makoto added.
"Donuts are enough like cake, right? Hina's said before about the donuts they keep here." Kyoko thought out loud. "And the only presents we could possibly give her are items we've collected. As for decorations...I'm not sure how we could pull that off."
"Donuts would work fine." Hina confirmed. "But would we have time to make them in the morning? We might have to make them now and store them somewhere."
"True," Kyoko agreed. "We'll go to the kitchen soon after we figure out all of our plans. Celeste also loves milk tea—we should make some for her, too. That can easily be done in the morning, however."
"I have a few things Celeste might like," Makoto started. "I mean...how's this weird black strap I found?" he nervously pulled out something from his one of his oversized pockets.
"Makoto, that's a thong." Kyoko remarked without any emotion on her face.
"Oh, dammit! Sorry!" He rapidly stuffed it back in his pocket. Hina laughed nervously.
"This is the only thing I can think of that Celeste would like." Kyoko left suddenly, quickly heading back to her room to grab something she had found a few days before.
"It's a teacup." Hina observed when she came back to the room and showed the others. "Perfect! Where did you find it?"
"Somewhere." Kyoko knew neither of them would question it after that.
"Like you said earlier, we can probably forget about decorations. There's not much we can do about that." Hina said. Makoto and Kyoko nodded.
"Let's go to the dining hall, then." Kyoko turned and left, the others following behind her.

However, when they arrived, they saw something they didn't expect.
Mondo and Taka stood there, leaning on the counters.
"What are you guys doing here?!" Taka demanded.
"What about you two?" Kyoko denied the question, feeling slightly annoyed.
"Just gettin' some food. And you?" Mondo asked.
"We're here to help celebrate Celeste's birthday!" Hina explained.
"Celeste's...birthday?" Taka inquired. "It's tomorrow?"
"Yep." Makoto confirmed.
"Ah, we'll have to celebrate!" Taka smiled standing upright.
"Exactly. That's why we're here." Kyoko explained.

After a long night of preperarions (in which Taka and Mondo somewhat helped with), they all agreed to meet back in the kitchen thirty minutes before the daily breakfast meeting. Kyoko and Taka had insisted that it wasn't nearly enough time, but the others felt it wasn't worth coming any earlier than they truly needed. Kyoko, however, had decided she would come to the kitchen even earlier by herself.
Kyoko walked back to her room slowly, a small feeling of regret growing inside her. What if this really was just a waste of time? What if was a stupid idea? But knowing there was no going back, she entered her room and lie down on her bed, pondering the situation she was in.