Kayel had heard those heavy footsteps coming, but he hadn’t expected them to come all the way over, and he definitely hadn’t expected a tap on the shoulder.
“Oh, Ret! Kuta! Hiya, what’s up?”
Kuta shrugged, but Ret was holding his communicator and showing it vaguely in Kayel’s direction.
“We missed your birthday again.”
“What… what do you mean?” Kayel asked.
Ret glanced at his communicator, then showed it to Kayel again. “According to my clock, which I do not know if it is accurate or not, yesterday was the first of the fourth. That day is your birthday, yes?”
“Uh, yeah, it is. And you have my birthday written down in your calendar or something?”
Ret nodded. “I have yours, Tenuk’s, Nyssi’s and Kuta’s birthdays saved as yearly alarms. And my birthday too, because it is also Relkir’s and Rethais’s birthday. But also, the first of the fourth was the day I was exiled and… I would always request that day off work before I met you all, so I could be sad and on my own. But that was yesterday and today is now the second of the fourth and we wondered if you wanted to celebrate.”
“We?”
Kuta also nodded. “I feel a little bad that we remembered to celebrate my birthday but we have forgotten yours repeatedly. We also need to make things up to Tanos because his birthday was apparently the day after our wedding and we missed that too. Also, I feel a little more bad because I have no idea how old you are.”
“You have telepathy.”
“I do, yes, but I do not like being rude and taking information I require without asking…” Kuta paused briefly, then turned to Ret. “I am certain that your sibling Relkir once said something similar to me, and pulled the same confused expression that Kayel is now making.”
Ret grunted. “Well, they do have a point. You do have telepathy. But you do not like using it. But it is also a little unusual because you… you went inside Kayel’s mind or something to.. remove some claws?”
“That is true…” Kuta turned back too Kayel. “You did recover nicely from having the influence of that awful telepathic Skyavok removed. If I were to guess and not use my telepathy, I would put you in your late twenties.”
“Late… twenties?” Kayel stuttered. “No, I think I’d be about 34 now. I was definitely over 32 years old when we got booted out of our universe. But I’ll definitely take the compliment!”
“Wonderful!” Kuta smiled. “So, back to our original trail of thought, Ret and I wanted to know if we could assist you in celebrating your birthday. Whether it was purchasing alcohol for you, getting you a specific gift or being a designated flyer so you can go to the space mall and drink.”
“Alright, back to my original questions, why are you two wanting to celebrate with me?”
Ret shrugged some more. “You deserve nice things. And you have been a bit down as of late. And also I think no one else knows it is your-”
All of a sudden, Nyssi exploded into view, having borrowed Tanos’s teleportation powers, and she had brought Tanos with her. Tanos hadn’t had much choice in the matter, clearly, because he was currently dog-shaped.
“It’s your birthday? It’s my favourite armour-gal’s birthday?”
“Apparently it was yesterday…” Kayel glanced at Tanos. “Tenuk, buddy, why are you a dog?”
“You are a very cute fluffy puppy!” Kuta exclaimed, trying to hold in the urge to pet Tanos.
“You can pet me if you want!” Tanos smiled. “I was helping this big Beh’en guy fall asleep. He had a pretty nasty corruption removal thing and Nyssi and I were helping ease his pain and lessen his trauma. And also some people are dog people, not cat people like Ret is. But yeah, Kayel, is it your birthday?”
“It was yesterday. We missed it.”
“We should celebrate anyway!” Nyssi bounced excitedly. “Like you said to me when I refused to celebrate a few years back, we’re still young, we should celebrate bigly! Also, I NEED to celebrate bigly this year because next year I think I’m going to be 40 and I’ll be old. And Tanos will be 60 and legally allowed to have sex. But that’s next year. Kayel, today is your special day, we ought to do something!”
“I… I guess…” Kayel frowned. “But I don’t know what I want to do.”
“You do not have to spend time with us, if you do not want to. Kuta and I just wanted to let you know it was your birthday so you can choose to do something, if you want to.”
“That’s the thing. I do want to do something. But all I want to do is basic stuff that isn’t particularly interesting or exciting.”
Nyssi rolled her eyes. “Who cares if what you want to is exciting or whatever? It’s your special day. If you want to spend it snuggling up with your new Voidborn buddy who got back earlier, that’s fine.”
“Eh, nah. Veekay needs to rest, he’s suddenly exhausted… I kinda just go somewhere nice and sit and eat ice cream.”
“Do you want to be left alone or do you want company?” Kuta asked. “I have no issue leaving you four to it if you want a little Xeno Dessaron One get-together. After all, you four have a special relationship that goes past me marrying one of you.”
“Do… do you mind?” Kayel frowned some more. “I kinda am craving that sort of thing we did when we first got together and took up all of Retvik’s house.”
Kuta smiled. “I just said I do not mind. As long as I can have Retvik back tomorrow.”
Kayel hesitated, then smiled too. “Sure thing. Tenuk, do you mind flying us to the mall?”
“I haven’t flown in a while, so yeah, I don’t mind.”
“Wonderful!” Kuta clapped their hands together. “I shall inform the bosses then cover for Nyssi and leave you all to your trip. Happy birthday, dear!”
“Heh, thanks…” Kayel smiled properly. “You guys are great…”