Truth & Lies

heart in...

  post s2; wherein awashima dealt with the surprise birthday party from her colleagues and yet there was another one at the bar she frequents  

"Happy Birthday!" He had decided to pop up from behind, startling the composed atmosphere the visitor held.

Awashima was surprised when he wasn't by the counter where she usually finds him.

Usually.

Instead, he came from around the back, a cake in hand, lit candles on top of it. And he slightly closed the distance between them, beaming at her.

"...Thank you...you didn't have to though." She was unable to comprehend what was clearly happening. And so she stood with a lowered presence, feeling awful at the thought Kusanagi had to be compelled to do this.

Kusanagi peered at her droopy expression, "Hey, cheer up?" He beckoned for her to sit and toast the only two drinks on the mini table in front of the couch.

"...I just feel a little surprised..." Melancholic, in fact, she wouldn't say.

"In what way is that, Seri-chan?"

"I wasn't expecting another surprise for the day."

He stifles a giggle. "You should have. Come, sit with me." And she did.

Surely, he had also done this to some of his patrons, she thought to herself as she takes a sit beside him. Her hands finding themselves clasped together, fidgeting.

"—you're one of the only people who deserve this treatment, Seri-chan, don't let that bother you."

Was he reading her mind or was that just a simple of a guess? Why must she flinch at that statement of his? Perhaps it was the reflex, or that she didn't assume he would entirely have guessed what she was thinking of.

What she was insecure of.

He sets the plate down and raised his glass for a toast. Reluctantly, she raised hers and their glasses clinked.

"Blow your candles."

That got her on the track of their usual banter.

"I'm not a child, Kusanagi..." It was hardly a fight she was bringing up.

"Humor me," He pleaded. A look she particularly didn't like as it furthered her from saying the words 'No', as per the usual. "— pretty please?"

"I can't believe I'm actually being persuaded into this..." It was more to herself than to Kusanagi. If there was one weakness of Awashima, outside of work, was that she could hardly bring herself to say no to someone once they gained over her trust. It clouds her rational thinking and instead plays along. As said, with a pint of hesitance, she did blow the candles off the cake.

Or if it was even a cake at all, for most of the thought. That was the notion, until it was topped with anko yet topped with another anko and the list goes on.

"You don't seem too happy." His voice seemed of worry, she couldn't blame him for that. Had he went overboard or was this not to her liking? It rarely mattered as Awashima never complained but it was her special day and he didn't want to ruin it.

(He has yet to give her the gift he bought for her)

"Overwhelmed... that's all." The words I know you wanted to ask had been left on the atmosphere, unsaid but nevertheless understood.

"Hey, everything's going to return to its peaceful state, Seri-chan." And she lets his assertive hand rest on her shoulder. The temptation to pull her to himself was there but he knew of her space and he respects it that much he'd probably confess it till the day he dies or some other thing happen to the both of them. The latter was unlikely, the former wasn't.

(Exactly, she thought. And she feared peace. Peace was a never-ending period of formulating what ifs and it's an excruciating time of not actually knowing when danger would come. Awashima was fond of fights, as much as she wouldn't bring herself to admit it, whether it was mentally or physically. Peace never sat right with her. She never got along with it perfectly. )

"You used 'Hey' twice now," An attempt to drift away the talk, away from what she didn't want to face but was hit with the realization. In her special day at the very least. She already emptied her drink along with the anko residue it came with. She didn't notice. "You're not so okay yourself too."

Kusanagi would play along. Another chuckle rose from his lips.

"Mmm, but that bit comes from whether you'll like my gift."

That got her attention. The slightest intonation of the word gift perked her cerulean blue eyes up.

"But to not ruin the element of surprise, will you close your eyes, mademoiselle?"

The curiosity that nipped on her pride won over her. Slowly, he lifted his arms up as he hurls the enormous gift from the back of the couch. It wasn't wrapped but it was kept clean.

And then that's when she realized she was in contact with something similar to a fur.

"You can open it now, Seri-chan."

When she did, teddy bears in semblance of one certain bartender, a highly-ranked officer in disguise as he is actually a king, and her, sat in her lap, almost as if they were looking at her in awe as she does to them. Perhaps it was a childish action she should've neglected to do but she has her arms wrapped around them in split seconds, as if she was a little girl and had gotten a gift she wanted ever since.

"Y-you shouldn't have..." Stuffed bears or any stuffed toys at all, would immediately send her mood to the highest degree it could ever achieve. And to top that, these ones were personalized and something she was actually planning to have, at least sooner or later. Her voice shook. She was too overwhelmed to even utter a rational thought.

"I actually wanted to ask before if you wanted to complete your set," He chuckles yet another time."Aren't you even the least bit curious to how I knew, at least this time of the year, Seri-chan?"

"I have my suspicions," She hmped at his statement, the tsundora (tundra) she was as what mostly Kusanagi liked twisting into. But as her eyes fluttered open again, it shone with joy and that was all Kusanagi wanted to see. "— but I wouldn't even want to indulge them."

"So? How was it?"

"Do you even need me to say so?"

"A man gets curious, Seri-chan."

"That now I would purposely decline."

Kusanagi felt amusement at her response. It was the usual snarky remark but it had a joking tone to it that he didn't feel was amiss to the rocky conversation they were having.

"I also had another surprise but it'll make it seem so overboard."

"Now a woman gets curious. What is it?"

Kusanagi was a little bit reluctant to let her hear what the next thing he was going to do. It was ridiculous but it's his last resort to cheer her up; he had acted on an instinctive notion that she was feeling a bit desolated from reality and how time had passed by.

With a bit of hesitance, he trails, "I decided I would impersonate Munakata-han with these glasses on."

Before she even had the time to comprehend what exactly he was about to do, he already wore the nose glasses and spoke in a low, monotone voice in a horrible attempt to impersonate her king. No it wasn't taking out the honor she held for her king but rather if she and Fushimi weren't just too embarrassed to see him speak in the nose glasses from back then, this would've happened.

And she finds lightness within it and laughter rose from her chest.

"You're being utterly ridiculous right now, Kusanagi."

"But you like it." It was the truth.

"Indeed," Awashima paused; taking off the nose glasses he had humored her in for a good 5 minutes before he too had succumbed to laughter. After wiping the tears that found their way to the side of her right eye, more or less from the endless giggles she had let loose, she spoke only two words of gratitude, "Thank you."