"So what do you want for your birthday?"
Gren looks up from his shelving to see Crowmaster standing next to him with a notebook in hand.
"World peace, and for you and the rest of our mutual friends to stop teasing me every time I get a text from a certain female friend." He responds, earning a laugh from his friend.
"Okay but material wise, like a new pair of pants, potted plants, some books, shirts, a horse?"
"I can't keep a horse in my apartment, and with this job I can't even care for one so cross that off."
"So an exotic potted plant then? Corvus can easily get you that thanks to his girlfriend."
"And have Ginger knock it over after two days? Not a good idea, but thank you."
"Tickets to a musical then?" Crowmaster suggests. "Or some nice pants?"
"Why don't you just surprise me?" Gren asks. "Instead of asking me what I want, you know I like surprises as long as they're not bad ones."
"I'm still getting you a plant."
Gren nods absentmindedly as he pulls his phone out of his pocket to send a message to Amaya, before tucking his phone away in his back pocket. "So who's coming to the party, we need to make reservations."
"Aside from me and Corvus, Runaan and Ethari said they'd go, Ella said she would come as well, so that's six people." Crowmaster responds and slips his notebook into the front pocket of his jacket. "I'm guessing Amaya hasn't responded to your invite yet?"
"I just sent her a message asking her again if she is planning on going, but no response." Gren says and sighs. "I mean if she can't go because she has a show that day, it's fine. I'd just like a confirmation so we could put in the reservation."
"Well I'll put in a reservation at the wings place for seven, in case she says yes." Crowmaster says with a nod. "I'm sure she'll respond soon."
🔹🔹🔹
"Hey, is Amaya alright?" Kazi asks, giving their roommate a worried look. Amaya was laying face down on the couch with her face buried in a pillow with Janai sitting on the floor next to her and holding her hand.
"She's having a small crisis." Janai responds, to which Amaya lifts her head from her pillow and flipped her off. "Hey we don't allow that in the house."
"Oh, why is that?" Kazi asks in surprise. Normally Amaya was so calm and collective with anything, but this was the first time they've seen her like this.
"She can't decide if she should go to Soren's birthday party, which she had been planning for months to go to, or go to Gren's birthday party that is going to be on the same day as Soren's party." Janai explains. "I mean I can understand why this is such a crisis, choosing to go to a very close friend's party or to the party of the person I've been crushing on since- HEY!"
Amaya had flung a pillow at Janai's head and was glaring daggers at her before signing something at Kazi.
"She said to ignore everything you just told me." Kazi translated and gave a nervous laugh. "And she said something very inappropriate I won't translate."
"Typical Amaya." Janai sighs before looking back to her friend. "Look, if you are so worried about offending either of them by not showing up to their parties why don't you tell them the situation. I'm sure Soren wouldn't mind you missing out on his party since it's not on his official birthday and you can always celebrate it with him that day since your sister's family is celebrating it with his. Or if you still want to go to the one we're going to be at, you can spend maybe an hour or two at the restaurant with us and I'll drive you to Gren's and you can spend the rest of the time there. Problem solved. At least maybe text either of the two to tell them of the situation."
Amaya looks to Kazi, who gave her an encouraging nod before she sits up and pulled her phone out of her pocket.
[Amaya]
We need to talk, it's about your birthday party
Almost immediately Amaya gets a response from Soren.
[Soren]
Something came up?
[Amaya]
This friend of mine is celebrating his birthday party this weekend and he invited me to go. Problem is that it's on the same day and around the same hour as yours
[Soren]
Well you know I'll be seeing you at the party my family is having for me on my actual birthday, the one at the bar is just for the friends and coworkers (which you are)
[Amaya]
Yeah, but the thing is I have been planning to go to yours for ages, and he recently invited me and I really don't want to be rude in turning down his invite
[Soren]
Then don't turn down his invitation, but if you want to attend both parties you can spend an hour at mine, eat your food, chill and one of us can drive you to your friend's party
[Amaya]
That's what Janai suggested. I'll let him know I'll be attending his at a later time
[Soren]
Sounds like a plan 👍
Also "friend" of yours wouldn't happen to be the same friend who Janai told me left you his dog so he could visit his family around Christmas?
Amaya looks up from her phone to cast Janai an annoyed look, which she returns with a shrug.
[Soren]
And maybe the same "friend" you kept throwing flowers at during that one tournament?
[Amaya]
If Kasef shoves your face into your birthday cake I'm not going to stop him
[Soren]
Suspicions confirmed :D see you Saturday!
🔹🔹🔹
"So glad you could make it, it's nice to meet you!" Gren says as he shakes the hand of the girl Corvus had introduced to him as Ella. "Corvus has been talking about you non-stop."
"Has he now?" Ella asks, casting Corvus a smug smile, to which he returns.
"It's been so long since we've all hung out." Ethari chuckles as he removes his coat. "By the way, is Amaya coming? I'd like to see how well she and Runaan would get along."
"She's coming later, her friend is also having a birthday party tonight but she said she'll come." Gren responds with a smile.
Earlier that week Amaya had sent him a confirmation text that she was coming to the party, she just wanted to spend time with her friend who was having a birthday party the same day he was having his. Gren honestly didn't mind, but it was nice to get a confirmation that she would at least be coming and get to properly meet his other friends.
"So Gren has a lady friend? Same one who came to the shop with him and they got to use the discount we had for him?" Runaan asks as he takes his husband's coat as a waitress came to lead them to their table.
"He kept insisting it wasn't a date." Ethari laughs as Gren's cheeks grew warm. "Look at him, he's blushing!"
"Hey cut it out, it's his birthday so be nice." Crowmaster laughs as they are seated at their table. "So birthday boy, what do you want to eat? I'm paying for what you order."
"You really don't have to." Gren says with a shake of his head. "I'm just getting my usual with a glass of lemonade."
As their waitress was taking their orders, Gren caught sight of another table near them with...Amaya and Janai? Wait was that the party group Amaya said she was going to before his?
"Janai!" He suddenly yells, abruptly standing up and waving one arm. She looks up in surprise and turns in his direction, her confused expression morphing into a happy one.
"Gren! What a surprise!" She says as she gets up from her group to talk over to his table. "Wait you're celebrating your birthday here?"
"Y-yeah!"
"Well guess I don't have to drive Amaya to another place tonight other than home."
"Gren, who's this?" Corvus asks.
"Oh this is Janai, she's Amaya's roommate and one of the knights at the arena theater we saw when we went for your birthday." Gren explains and his friend's face lights up. "How's Beast doing, missing Ginger?"
"Hardly, she's stopped giving Amaya the cold shoulder a week after you took Ginger home." Janai laughs as one of the other occupants of the other table comes over, a girl who looked around Corvus' age.
"Janai, something up?" The girl asks before her eyes fell on Gren. "Hey you're the man with the corgi! I saw you the day my boyfriend and I were leaving the apartment to walk our dogs, the big Irish Wolfhound and the border collie!"
"Oh! I remember you now!" Gren says and smiles. "You two live on the floor above me?"
"Oh no I don't, my boyfriend and his roommate do." The girl says with a shake of her head as the other people from Janai's table approached with Amaya in tow. She gives Gren a cheerful wave and signing something to him before she hurries to the door of the bar.
"So you're the friend Amaya told me about, and the one we saw at the arena that night." A blonde man, who Gren recognized as one of the knights and as the boy with the wolfhound, says and held a hand out to him. "I'm Soren, nice to meet you."
"Hey why don't we put our tables together?" Janai suggests as Amaya returns with a colorfully wrapped box. "We'll just pay for our food."
"Are we allowed to do that?" Crowmaster asks as three of the other group left to grab their tables and dragged them while the others brought over chairs.
"I'll just let our waitress know." Soren assures him as someone places a chair next to Gren.
Thankfully the staff didn't mind that they decided to put their tables together, so there was no problem. And much to Gren's delight, Amaya's friends actually seemed to be getting along with his.
"So what do you guys do for a living?" Kasef asks Corvus and Crowmaster as their food was arriving with their drinks. "Amaya mentioned to us that you work in a bookstore."
"I work in a bird shelter, I help care for all sorts of pet birds and the occasional wild one." Crowmaster says proudly. "We even have a murder of crows living in the sanctuary that come and visit me when I'm outside cleaning up."
"Sounds like a place my girlfriend's family would enjoy." Kasef says with a chuckle. "They're so obsessed with birds, one of them even works in the city's zoo with the wild parrots they have."
"Runaan and I run a bakery, Corvus works as mall security, Ella runs a plant shop." Ethari adds. "What do the rest of you do?"
"Well Janai, Amaya, Soren, Sabah, Marcos and I are actors for an arena that's a dinner and a show kind of place. Sabah and Marcos are stand ins in case one of us can't make it to a show or if it's our day off." Kasef explains. "Enya...I have no clue what she does."
"She tailors clothes." Janai says and Enya laughs. "How is that hard to forget? She keeps having to fix Soren's clothes every time they get ripped during practice."
"And I fix the saddle blankets and the costumes of the horses." Enya adds. "But I'm mostly helping run a costume and dress shop my dad owns, and from time to time I even patch up or adjust clothes that need altering."
[Enjoying the party?] Amaya signs to Gren, who had been sitting next to him since they all our their tables together.
[Very much, your friends are a pretty interesting bunch.] He signs back and smiles. [And I'm glad they're getting along with mine.]
"Hey you two, stop flirting and eat your food!" Corvus laughs and Gren's face heated up.
"We weren't flirting!" He protests.
"I don't know sign language, but I'm pretty sure I saw your cheeks turn pink when you two were talking." Soren chuckles.
"Soren, stop teasing him." Sabah scolds. "Look at him, he's as red as a strawberry!"
"Umm... that's a beautiful tattoo Enya!" Gren says quickly, gesturing to the bright pink flowers on Enya's shoulder and hoping to change the subject. "Wild roses, right?"
"Hm? Oh yes! It's my soulmate tattoo, Soren has one that's on his wrist of sunflowers." Enya said, gesturing to the flowers and smiled.
"That's actually really cute." Corvus laughs. "Ella and I have matching flowers on our wrists."
"Flowers are nice, but this is much more impressive." Runaan says, rolling up the left sleeve of his sweater to reveal swirling patterns going up from the back of his hand and twisted around to go up his arm. "Ethari loves making swirling patterns in the pastries, and when we found out we were soulmates I got these."
"Mines just a simple one." Ethari laughs showing them the back of his hand to reveal a pair of crossed arrows over a crescent moon. "But I think it's still beautiful."
"Oh mine looks like that, only it's over a sun and it's on the back of my leg." Marcos says. "You know what I love about these soulmate marks? They can say the most romantic or beautiful things and turn into something symbolic, and then you have weird ones like Soren and Enya's before they turned into flowers."
"Oh my god please tell me it was hilarious." Ella laughs as the couple looks away in embarrassment.
"It had something to do with nuggets, that's what Amaya's sister told me." Janai snickers. "Chicken nuggets to be exact."
"Hey not all of us can have something romantic like Kasef's!" Soren retorts.
[You are right, we are a rather interesting bunch.] Amaya signs to Gren discreetly. "Also, the gift I brought earlier, wait till you get home to open it.]
[Why?] Gren asks as the others started laughing and arguing over something.
Amaya simply gives him a secretive smile. [You'll see.]
Once they had all finished eating, the cakes were brought out.
"Ethari spent countless hours baking and decorating this." Runaan stated proudly as Gren's cake was placed in front of him. "And it's your favorite, strawberry shortcake."
"And knowing me, someone is cutting me a large piece that I'm probably not going to finish."
"Want me to push your face into your cake?" Janai jokingly asks Soren.
"Absolutely not." Enya says with a frown. "You will do no such thing."
"Okay one, two-"
"THREE!" Kasef yelled, shoving Soren's face right into the cake. Gren almost expected the other man to get mad, only for him to wipe some of the frosting off his face and burst out laughing, causing his other friends to start laughing. Enya shot Kasef a look and proceeded to try and clean Soren's face with some napkins, muttering under her breath.
"Eww I think some frosting got up my nose!" Soren groans, earning a laugh from his friends.
"Please don't shove my face into the cake, I'd like to go home without frosting in my hair." Gren pleads, giving his friends a look.
"I'm not even going to touch you, Ethari would have my head if I wrecked his cake." Corvus said holding his hands up.
"He worked especially hard on this, so no face smashing." Runaan agrees, casting them a look. "I'll certainly be the more angry one if that happens."
"Here." Gren says as he placed the first slice in front of Amaya. [You really have to try Ethari's strawberry shortcake.]
Amaya gave him a surprised look before a smile came to her face. [Hey Gren, you have something on your nose."
"What-" Gren felt her smack his nose and heard everyone laugh around his burst into laughter. "Wait did she just hit me on the nose with frosting?"
"She did!" Ella laughs. "You made the cutest surprised face!"
"Aw come on!"
"Better on the nose than in the nose!"