nemoi bemoi @nemoibemoi - Tumblr Blog

cissia tries to surprise belle for her birthday; 7.2k words (i don't know how that happened); suibian temple mention, stars of lyra mention, uhhh a lot of factions get mentioned + some phaethon sibling bonding time at the end

Birthdays used to bring Cissia a feeling of contempt. The thought of people singing songs to her, bringing her carefully chosen gifts, making her blow out candles and make a stupid wish… Ew! Cissia couldn’t help gagging at the very thought of it! Thank god nobody ever thought to do that for her, nobody ever remembered a day for her… Because she doesn’t want them to. It’s weird, and creepy. Who in their right mind would want something like that?

… Birthdays also stirred another emotion in Cissia. Envy. It curled low and ugly in her gut as she peered into the Pubsec office with Belle, and saw a group of scary officers celebrating one of their new members’ birthdays. Singing her the song, giving her gifts, letting her have the first slice of cake… Whatever, Cissia had said. I don’t need that stupid stuff anyways.

But maybe Belle had noticed that small pit of longing, of envy in Cissia’s stomach, tucked just beneath her obnoxious bravado. Because the next day, Belle practically forced Cissia into celebrating a day she couldn’t even name or remember– Keyword, forced! Cissia didn’t want to do it at all, no thank you! But…

… It was nice. Being celebrated. Even if it wasn’t your traditional cake and candles celebration, and Cissia couldn’t even bring herself to choose any of the– extremely pricey– things in the Galleria for Belle to buy as a gift. The feeling that maybe, her birth into this world was something good to someone, that someone was happy she was around… It was something that kept her nice and warm when she slept on the managers’ couch that night.

So naturally, it’s Belle’s turn.

Cissia had marked the date in her mind. She had been subtly gathering intel on the exact things Belle likes for the last few weeks– “Belle, what’s your favorite cake flavor?” “Belle, what would you want to do on your birthday?” “Belle, if you had a choice, would you want your birthday to be celebrated at home or in a restaurant?”– and now, it’s time to put the plan into action!

Cissia hit the town with her Belle birthday fund savings, a fat pouch in her hand containing all her newspaper clippings and coupons, and a slip of paper noting all the currently running discounts at stores in her messy scrawl. Cissia’s primary target? A cake. According to Cissia’s super stealthy intel gathering, Belle has no preference for cake flavors– But Cissia does, so she’s buying a cute little egg custard cake!

She pauses in the center of the shopping district, closing her eyes to help her focus on untangling all the scents and smells filling the air… There's a store offering samples of a new flavored caramel to her left, a laundromat running a lot of dry cycles, a grocery store… Then, she catches a whiff of custard.

Like a hound catching a trail, Cissia’s eyes fly open, before she darts down the street. It’s like she can see the scent trail in the air, a heavenly scent of egg custard luring her through crowds and foot traffic until finally, finally, she sees the bakery just down the street– But an offhanded conversation between two highschoolers catches Cissia’s ear, bringing her to a dead stop.

“He bought me a bunch of stuff for my birthday, but it’s like… What am I supposed to do with it?” one of them asks, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s not even stuff I asked for. All the gifts are really expensive, so I can’t just refuse them, but…”

“But you wanted something more personal?” her friend suggests, prompting a gasp and nod from her. “Yeah, I agree… It feels like he didn’t actually know what to get you, and he was just throwing a bunch of ‘valuable’ stuff at you hoping one of them would be something you liked.”

The girl nods again, sighing. “I just wish he’d try to put a little more effort into what he got me, instead of just blowing all his money on stuff I don’t even like.” Her friend hums, clicking her tongue and shaking her head disapprovingly. “Yeah. Handmade stuff is much better than store bought.”

… Handmade? Cissia freezes, her eyes widening. Crap, she didn’t even think to ask about whether Belle wanted handmade gifts! And Cissia doesn’t even know how to make stuff, she isn’t exactly the craftiest person around. But, on another more important note…

… Does this mean Belle wouldn’t like a store bought cake?

Cissia hovers in the middle of the street, frowning as a cyclist barely manages to weave around her. Surely the “handmade better than store bought" logic doesn’t apply to food too, right? Cissia doesn’t even know how to make a cake, she hardly even cooks her own meals!

Before she can even consider what she’s doing, she’s already looked up egg custard cake recipes on her phone and rifled through her pouch for any coupons on the ingredients… It looks like her decision is already made.

She stares longingly at the bakery– In fact, she’s pretty sure she can see the egg custard cake sitting in the storefront window– before sullenly turning away and slinking off down the street. It’s alright, Cissia didn’t need to buy the cake anyway– She can follow a recipe instead! She’s… alright at following orders from her demon boss. Following a recipe can’t be that much different. Besides, the cake was probably gonna be crazy expensive; A majority of her savings were allocated to the cake alone. Surely ingredients for a cake won’t be that expensive, right?

She was wrong.

Cissia stares down at her nearly empty wallet, the once plentiful dennies having been almost completely stripped dry; She could feel their worth in the heavy grocery bag in her other hand, filled with flour, sugar, and all the works. “Jeez…” she mutters, slightly dazed as she leaves the grocery store, “I barely had enough for everything…” Even her coupons barely saved her.

Cissia shook her wallet, prompting a handful more dennies to make their presence known. All in all, she’d say she had… 2500 in dennies? Cissia fights the urge to whine, kicking at the ground as she stands in front of the mall. Cissia definitely didn’t have enough to buy materials and make Belle something special or cute like a little snake plushie– although, it's not like Cissia can make a plushie in the first place– and if she bought her any snacks as a gift… Well, that’s hardly a proper gift! And more importantly, Cissia will probably eat it all before she can give them to Belle.

She was about to just give up on the present altogether, turning away with the intention to walk home, when she notices a small craft store. In its display window, she sees what looks like red paper cranes hanging from clear, thin string. In an instant, Cissia is pressed against the window, looking at the paper cranes with a narrowed gaze. “Paper… can do that?” She hadn’t even considered that something like paper could be used and made into little animals…

… Wait.

“Belle would love this!” Cissia exclaims, her eyes widening as she leaps back from the storefront window and immediately dashes inside the store, buying as much pretty colored paper as she could afford with her dennies.

Unfortunately, it’s only once Cissia arrives back at her cramped company-covered apartment that she realizes… Buying origami paper didn’t mean she bought the skill to turn them into cranes. It’s fine, she’ll just… She’ll look up a tutorial! The Interknot has everything these days, she’ll just pick one and make them while the cake is baking.

Cissia hums a happy tune to herself as she drops the paper on the little couch, walking to the kitchenette and laying out all her ingredients– Butter, milk, vinegar, flour, caster sugar, and imitation vanilla extract since she took one look at the price of the real thing and immediately put it back on the shelf. Either way, vanilla tastes like vanilla, no way it’d have that much of a difference on the final product, right?

As always, Cissia has a stock of fresh eggs in her fridge, and takes out a few before laying them out on the counter. She pulls up the recipe on her phone, before frowning. A baking tin…? As if people just have one lying around their company-covered apartment?! Cissia spends a minute digging around the cabinets before she resurfaces with an aluminum pan, the kind one would see at a family reunion holding food to be shared. She stares at it curiously, before tentatively setting it down on the counter. It should be fine… Right? Aluminum can stand high temperatures, right? It’s a metal, right?

Cissia decides to not worry about it.

She spends another moment actually trying to find the recipe instructions, scrolling past the terribly sad and depressing tale of a woman whose husband’s dying wish before succumbing to cancer was to have a taste of this custard cake until she finally starts to see some numbers appear in a bulleted list. Then, she preheats her little oven to 320° fahrenheit, puts some milk on the stove on low heat, and pulls out a bunch of bowls for mixing.

After struggling to separate the eggs into whites and yolks, with one poor soldier falling on the floor and sending cold goo all over Cissia’s foot, she manages to combine the yolks with the caster sugar– likely with a bunch of extra calcium. Eventually when her oven beeped to let her know it was done preheating, Cissia realized she didn't have an electric mixer.

“Crap…!” she whines, looking through her tiny kitchen twice over in the hopes that maybe an electric mixer might manifest in a dark corner, but as expected, an apartment only made for employees to rest for a moment before clocking back into work won’t have anything for baking. She finds a whisk, though. Cissia slowly turns around, looking back at the rather innocuous bowl of egg yolks and sugar, before groaning and dragging herself back to the counter. “Belle, you’re lucky I care so much!” she grunts, gripping the whisk and bowl with white knuckles as she hisses in annoyance. Far away on Sixth street, a certain video store manager sneezes.

What the recipe said would take five minutes with an electric mixer took roughly seventeen with Cissia’s rigorous mixing of the yolks and sugar by hand– Not including the breaks she took for her poor, untrained wrist. Seriously, she’d rather go on fifty missions to apprehend bigshots for her demon boss than beat any mixture involving eggs or sugar by hand again. With that out of the way, though, she adds in the butter and vanilla, thinking the hard part is over– Until she fumbles the imitation vanilla’s bottle, spilling what would be well over a year’s worth of real vanilla– but luckily isn’t– into the bowl.

Cissia freezes in place, her eyes growing as wide as saucepans. “... You gotta be kidding me.” For a moment, it’s just her and the bowl with a spreading dark brown splash. Then, she shyly dips her pinky into the mix, bringing it to her nose and giving it a sniff.

She pauses, before deflating with noticeable relief. “Oh thank god, it actually doesn’t smell that bad.” While it was a little strong, at least it wasn’t overwhelming like she heard it would be online. Maybe this imitation stuff isn’t all that bad. Cissia smiles, popping her pinky into her mouth to lick off the mix.

A moment of strong gagging and water guzzling later, with Cissia clinging to her sink for a solid five minutes as her tail thrashed like crazy behind her and she fought the urge to throw up the tiny amount of straight fake vanilla she ingested, she calmly and carefully spooned out the excess fake vanilla back into the bottle. It’s a real feat that she doesn’t chuck the bottle across the room– But knowing herself, she probably didn’t screw the stupid lid all the way on, and that would probably end with her whole corporate living space getting doused with fake vanilla. And her demon boss taking the cost of replacement furniture out of Cissia's paycheck.

Sifting flour is one of those things Cissia imagined would be really easy until she actually pulled out her sieve. The first step– Where all she needs to do is put the flour in the sieve– already spelled doom and despair with how she dumped the flour, resulting in a giant cloud of white going up to her face and all over the counter. However, bravely, Cissia soldiers on. She taps the side of the sieve repeatedly, careful to keep the sieve over the bowl– But for some dumb reason, no matter what she does, the stupid flour just won’t sift! Cissia growls, her eyes narrowing at the flour before she hits it a little harder a few times. Nothing.

“Are you serious? You’re supposed to go through!” she hisses, as if the flour had missed the memo when she first put it into the sieve. “What’s the point of this anyway?! It’s already a powder, do they want it more powdery?” She scoffs, promptly overturning the sieve and dumping the rest of the unsifted flour– Which was basically all of it– into the bowl, folding it in with a spatula.

She burned the milk.

Cissia turned around with the purpose of acquiring her decently warmed milk, and found that not only was it about to bubble over with a wall of froth at least two inches over the lip of the pot, but she also found the realization that oops! Her company-afforded stove is rather crappy, and the one burner she set the milk to heat on was the one burner with a habit of jacking up the heat to hell’s bathwater no matter what she turned the dial to.

… The milk went down the drain, with the second attempt being under careful supervision by Cissia– And a different stove burner too.

Once the milk was added in, with Cissia taking a break to wash her face and hands and chin and neck and everywhere really, of flour, she looked at the recipe again for the next step– Before immediately groaning and falling to the floor with a dramatic cry. There, in the middle of her phone screen, lay the innocent words: “Add the egg whites to a separate mixing bowl and beat with the electric mixer until stiff peaks form.”

“... You can’t be serious!” Cissia whines, grabbing her phone and looking at the step again. She groans, slumping over for a moment. Her wrist still hurt from beating the yolks and sugar… Cissia contemplates calling her demon boss, but the strong shudder that immediately ran down her spine at the very thought of willingly contacting that monster on her free day made her scrap that idea.

After her moment of melodrama, Cissia pulls herself to her feet, looking at the bowl of separated egg whites with a reluctant pout before she grabs the whisk, rinsing it off in the sink before she grabs the bowl and starts whisking. “I’d rather just get you over with in one fell swoop, than deal with you again and again after multiple breaks!” she mutters, a fierce determination momentarily taking away all ability of feeling her wrist– Or maybe that’s just the pain canceling itself out, who knows.

Once the peaks started to stiffen, which took an amount of time that Cissia doesn’t want to discuss, she added in the vinegar before continuing to beat the whites for another five minutes. After those five minutes are up, she pauses her whisking, her hand visibly shaking as she slowly raises the whisk out of the egg whites. “... Those peaks look pretty stiff to me,” Cissia mumbles to herself, before immediately dropping the whisk and the bowl onto the counter as she rushes over to the couch and falls over the back of it, cradling her wrist to her chest with a strong whine. There's no doubt about it in her mind– Cissia definitely wasn't built to be a baker.

Folding in the egg whites with her non dominant hand, she leans in a little bit to give the bowl a nice long sniff. Although she may be permanently turned off from all things vanilla, and there’s probably more than a few egg shells and flour clumps in the batter that she just couldn't mix out for some unknown reason, but despite all that, she'd say… The batter was smelling pretty good.

She pours it in the aluminum pan, before carefully sliding it into her oven and shutting the door with an excited giggle. Cissia happily skips over to her couch again, turning around and falling over the backside with a relieved sigh. “Finally…” she groans, stretching her arms and legs before twisting fully onto the couch and picking up the origami paper she had left on the cushions over an hour before.

For a moment, Cissia was really fighting the urge to take a nice long nap, but the couch was too stiff and cold. It’s nothing like the managers’ couch, which was nice and warm with plenty of pillows and throw blankets for Cissia to nest in… And that thought reminded her why she was doing all this in the first place.

That’s right… The managers let her crash on their couch all the time. They buy extra snacks because of her, keep more eggs for her, and now whenever one of them goes out for groceries, they’ll always ask Cissia whether she wants anything too. Belle celebrated her birthday with her, buying her all sorts of eggy foods and even taking her through the Galleria in order to pick out a present.

As if Cissia even has a place to ask.

She’s still for a moment, staring up at the popcorn ceiling of her cold apartment. This cake and gift should be more than just for Belle’s birthday… God knows they both deserve everything and more for all they’ve let her do. Cissia drags herself up into a sitting position, wiping the flour off her phone screen with her sleeve before she looks up a paper crane tutorial on the Interknot. These are going to be the most beautiful damn cranes Belle and Wise have ever seen if she’s got anything to do about it!

Apparently there’s a lot of different terms for folding paper. Between figuring out what a “valley fold” is, constantly pausing and resuming and rewinding the video, and tearing her paper more than a few times with her long nails and constantly redoing folds until the paper was too weak to continue, Cissia manages to pump out one wrinkled, shoddy, rather pathetic looking crane. She stares at it for a moment, holding it in her hands with an unreadable expression.

Then, she crumples it and tosses it behind her, grabbing another sheet to start over again. I’ll get it right, she thought to herself, I still have plenty of paper left!

As she folded, smoothed, tore, crinkled, and threw away crane after imperfect crane, she started to smell the cake cooking in the oven. Her apartment was beginning to fill with the yummy smell of faint vanilla, almost making Cissia want to sleep again. She yawns, wanting nothing more than to drag herself over to Sixth street and crash on the managers’ warm couch again… Instead, she continues her folding, eventually churning out one rather nicely made paper crane with blue and gray colors. Cissia holds it in her hands, appraising it carefully for a moment… Before she smiles, nodding and gently setting it aside on the coffee table.

She hums faintly to herself as she folds another crane with yellow and pink colors, this one coming out less messy than her last one. She sets it right next to the blue and gray, before starting again on her last crane made of blue and orange.

Cissia is in the middle of folding the wings down when she suddenly notices the vanilla smell turning… burnt. She freezes, her eyes widening as the crane drops to her lap and only one question remains on her mind. How long has it been?

Leaping over the back of the couch, she skitters to her oven and yanks open the oven, almost reaching in with nothing more than her hand before she quickly fumbles around for a glove. She takes out the pan, her jaw dropping as she sees the entire top layer was a dark brown, with patches of burnt black sending smoke in her face as she sets it on the counter and kicks the oven shut.

Cissia stares at it for a moment. It’s impossible to see if the layers of the custard cake actually separated since she didn’t have any glassware to use… And it’s not recommended to touch the cake until it’s fully set in the fridge…

She swallows nervously, before slowly inching away from it. The burnt smell isn’t bad, it’s just… More than Cissia would’ve preferred. Maybe she can scrape off the burnt layer, so long as it’s only the surface of the cake…?

Cissia whines, making her way back to the couch. “I should’ve set a timer…” she mumbles, flopping onto the cushions and picking up her Belle crane from the floor. Finishing the crane was uneventful, but it turned out her best one by far, with its more crisp folds and confident edges.

Cissia takes a moment to look at the three she made, all sitting side by side on her coffee table. She smiles, before reaching out and gently nudging the Cissia crane closer to the other two. Then, grabbing a black marker, Cissia scribbles on two eyes and a goofy smile on each crane. With the hard stuff out of the way, now comes the easy part… Bringing it to the video store!

The next day, she cut a tiny piece off of the cake, taking a peek at the layers with bated breath. Then, she blinks in surprise– It actually separated, just like the recipe said. The custard layer looked a little stiff, but one taste let her know that overall the texture was just fine, if not a little strong with the vanilla. The burnt part of the cake was also… Saveable. Nothing a butter knife can’t fix.

Once it was ready– without the recommended fruit toppings to decorate since she didn’t have any– Cissia popped on the lid to the tin. She carefully folded the cranes’ wings down, before slipping them into her pocket as she flounced out of her cold apartment.

Taking the subway to Sixth street, Cissia taps her foot rapidly as the lights fade in and out of the cab. As soon as the train rolls to a stop and the doors wheeze open, she’s out, hurrying off the landing and rushing up the stairs towards the morning light of Sixth street. Breaking out into the sun, she looks around, immediately spotting the Random Play–

–And a giant crowd of people.

“... No way the managers are working on Belle’s birthday,” Cissia mutters, taking a few steps closer before her jaw drops. Through the dense crowd, she spots them.

Teal uniforms. A woman with pink hair, a man with a yellow headband, a thiren, and a blue oni. Her eyes widen. “You’re kidding me.” What the hell is Section 6 doing at Random Play?! The crowd was filled with all their fans, each one trying desperately to get an autograph or a picture or both as the hollow specialists politely brushed them off, slipping inside the video store. Cissia immediately feels a shiver run down her spine, about to turn tail and go home, but she can’t! It’s Belle’s birthday, and she didn’t put in all that work the day before just to run away now!

But no, there’s more– A sleek black car pulls up outside Random Play too. Crisp black vests, a female shark and male wolf thiren, a girl with green pigtails, a tall ghostly lady with two mini bangboo at her side, white frilled aprons on the girls and a tucked red cravat on the man… Cissia blinks, no recognition in her brain. Either way, she’s certain the managers aren’t bougie enough to have hired a whole maid service for one day– But it’s now that Cissia notices the large, sleek, black box held by the girl. From where she’s standing, she can faintly make out the words Victoria Housekeeping Co. embossed in cursive on the front.

“... You’re kidding me.” Victoria Housekeeping?! Those are the guys who get hired by the uber-rich folk, aren’t they?! Thing is, Cissia’s fully certain now that the thing in that box is a cake… She’s heard of the maid service that doubles as a hollow service, reporting directly to the mayor himself. And Belle did mention she worked with a maid service when they went to the Ballet Twins statue that time…

Cissia feels her stomach sinking, looking down at her pathetic aluminum tin pan. But she pauses, her ears picking up on a faint rumbling sound… Suddenly, something loud and fierce rips past her, sharp laughter followed by a whole bunch of motorcycles?! And what did she expect, they all come to a screeching halt outside of Random Play, the biker gang dismounting their motorcycles as two of them– Both girls, one with green hair and the other with blonde pigtails– skipping ahead and calling out for Belle. Cissia immediately stiffens, a sense of danger making the hairs on the back of her neck raise– What does a biker gang from the Outer Ring want with the managers? They didn’t get into trouble, did they–? But Cissia notices the name written on the back of one of the biker’s jacket. “‘Sons of Calydon’...?” Cissia mumbles, before she blinks. “... Oh. They’re the guys who own my hometown now.” That place she remembered as rundown and dangerous was nothing like that anymore. It was warm and open, the people living there carefree with no fear of danger or hunger. Last time Cissia went there with Belle, she said it was them who caused the change…

… Wow. Cissia didn’t know Belle had so many cool friends. Standing on the side of the road, holding her aluminum cake with her paper cranes in her pocket, she feels a little pathetic.

Instead of entering through the front door like she wanted, Cissia quietly walks around to the back instead. Climbing the fire escape, she slips into the video store the same way she did the first time, but instead of brashly raiding Belle’s room for snacks, she just plops down on Belle’s couch instead. Setting aside her cake and taking the paper cranes out of her pocket, she curls up into a ball, her tail wrapping around her as she pulls a blanket over her shoulders. Sounds of the commotion downstairs drift up to Cissia’s ears as she waits for Belle to come up, an odd tangle of feelings in the pit of Cissia’s stomach.

Out of the corner of her eye, though, she notices something that wasn’t there before. Cissia blinks, narrowing her eyes as she shifts on the couch to get a better look. There, sitting on the table with a cream envelope beside it, was a deep royal purple jewelry box with a silver bird insignia. She tries to resist the urge for a moment, but it’s hard to fight her nosy tendencies as she snatches up the box and envelope, tearing it open with her nails and pulling out a handwritten letter in looping cursive. It faintly smells of a rich wood cologne, and if that wasn’t enough of a sign, the paper itself felt thicker and fancier in a way that only someone with more than extra money could afford on a simple letter.

Dear Belle, Cissia reads to herself, we’re in a rush, so I’ll unfortunately have to keep it short. While we haven’t been able to speak to you in some time and weren’t able to see you in person, we hope you still had a splendid birthday. I would have gotten you something less flashy, but Vivian insisted that you deserved nothing less than the flashiest thing money could buy. I suppose I can agree, since you are akin a glowing star spreading warmth and life to those around you, and should be celebrated as such. I hope your day was filled with joy, surrounded by friends and family gathering just for you. Enjoy yourself, and once again, happy birthday. As per usual, please burn this letter once you are finished reading it.

From, your dearest friends at Mockingbird.

… Mockingbird? Cissia blinks, before slowly turning her gaze to the royal purple jewelry box. She slowly unclasps it, gripping the top and prying it open. Inside lay a silver necklace with large pear-cut sapphire stones inlaid in a dripping pattern, with the center stone cut into one fat heart. Each stone was easily within seventy to ninety carats.

This was the kind of jewelry bought as an investment rather than a piece to wear. The kind inherited through family generations, bought to be sold when the going gets tough.

… This was definitely worth more than Cissia’s value as a NEPS asset.

Absolutely bombshelled, Cissia could only close up the box and set it on the table along with its perfumed letter as she curled back up on the couch again. Looking at her aluminum tin, she feels even more pathetic– And then feels guilty, because why does she feel bad in the first place? Belle is allowed to have other friends, she’s allowed to have cooler friends! Cissia should be happy that Belle is so loved, that she has whole government factions making time to come see her on her birthday.

… But still. It’s a little embarrassing, wanting to surprise Belle on her birthday– Only to find that twenty, or more like fifty, other people had the same thought. Cissia sighs, before she hears footsteps coming up the stairs. Instead of Belle, though, it’s…

“Wise?” Cissia calls out, watching him stumble and nearly fall with his arms filled with gifts from everyone downstairs. She uncurls from the couch, hurrying over to him and quickly taking half the boxes.

“Cissia?” he says, blinking in surprise at the sight of her before he glances downstairs. Loud cheering erupts, Belle’s voice faintly heard over the noise. “Uh, Belle’s a little busy right now… Being her usual outgoing self. You won’t be able to see her for at least thirty more minutes if you wanted some one-on-one time.” Cissia gapes at him for a moment. Thirty minutes?! In the end, though, she doesn’t object, nodding somberly as she trudges into Belle’s room with Wise trailing along behind her. They set the boxes down on the floor, before Cissia flops back onto the couch again, Wise joining her on the opposite end. He pulls out his phone, scrolling idly as he deflates from all the commotion downstairs.

“... Is it like this every year for you two?” Cissia asks after a moment, breaking the silence as Wise glances up from his phone. He shrugs, nodding. “Yeah, pretty much,” Wise says, “It feels like the crowd visiting for our birthdays got exponentially larger in the last two years.”

He sighs, staring longingly out the doorway. “There’s so many people now that I, her brother, barely get to talk to her on her birthday. This year we actually had to set ground rules for everyone, since last year we had so many dinner invitations and surprise parties and group hangouts, we physically couldn’t be everywhere all at once…” Wise chuckles weakly.

“All things considered, this year is actually pretty tame. It’s just…” He glances at the looming stacks of gifts with a sour face. “... Now we have to deal with all their gifts at once, instead of staggered over the course of the day. Let’s see,” he pauses, reaching over and grabbing a box, “This one’s tagged from Astra and Evelyn, along with a majority of the other boxes… She sent us a message saying she bought Belle a bunch of clothes from the best dressmakers and seamstresses across the continent. I don’t know where we’re gonna put all these.” Cissia blinks after a moment, her eyes widening.

“... Wait a minute. Did you just say Astra? As in, Astra Yao, the idol singer?” Wise freezes, before wincing. “Yeah… You’ll get used to it after a while. You saw Section 6 out in the front, right?” Cissia’s eyes were still as big as saucers, though. Wise smiles nervously, before moving on.

He shifted to sorting out the gifts on the floor, making piles from each person who visited and talking out loud about them to Cissia. “Aw, the Angels got her light sticks and plushies… Shifu sent cash like usual… this one’s from senior Fufu, this one’s from Xiao’Guang, Yuzuha and Manato sent this one…” After a moment, he notices the royal purple jewelry box and torn envelope on the table. “Oh, is that from Hugo?” Wise reaches over, popping open the box before his whole body goes rigid. He’s silent for a long moment, Cissia watching as he visibly short-circuits. After a moment, Wise shuts the box, setting it back on the table. “... Definitely Vivian.”

It continues like that until the gifts are sorted into many shorter piles, except for the overwhelmingly large stack belonging to Astra Yao and Evelyn. The whole time, Cissia stayed curled on the couch, humming every so often as she watched Wise put the boxes and bags into their respective groups. There were so many… Her three cranes paled in comparison. Once it’s all done, he sighs, leaning back against the couch.

“... That’s not even all of it. I already know our friends over in the Obol squad probably sent something that’s gonna arrive a little later, and she hasn’t gotten anything from Dialyn or Xiao’Zhao yet.” He sounds tired. Cissia can relate, even though she hasn’t even spoken to Belle yet.

“That sounds tough,” she says, resting her head on the arm of the couch. “... You know, I wanted to surprise Belle for her birthday.” Cissia sighs softly. “Since she celebrated mine with me, made it feel like it was worth something… I thought I could do the same for her. And, just in general– You two have done a lot for me, so I thought it would be a nice opportunity to thank you both.” She shifts, propping her cheek on her hand.

“I guess I should’ve figured that she’d be busy, though,” Cissia says with a laugh. “Just, I didn’t expect this many people.” Wise nods, shrugging. “Yeah, she does that. Between the two of us, she’s definitely the more charismatic one.”

“I mean… I’m glad they all care so much,” Wise continues, “And I’m glad they stop by every year and send gifts for our birthdays, but I mean…” He shrugs. “I don’t know. I kinda miss getting up early to set up a little party for her downstairs, with everyone from the neighborhood invited out for some food. It’s not tailored clothes from across the continent or a silver necklace with the fattest gemstones I’ve ever seen in person before, but it was… It was nice, being able to actually spend time with my sister on her special day.” Wise pauses, before he laughs, rubbing the back of his neck as he looks up at Cissia. “That probably sounds weird, right…? I am glad she has people to spend her day with, but I just–”

“No no no, I get it!” Cissia says, sitting up immediately. “Like, I feel bad that I can’t spend time with her because of all those people, but then I feel bad for feeling bad in the first place because I feel like I’m getting all controlling!” Wise’s eyes widened, before he nods furiously. “Exactly! And I want to be supportive, but also I barely even got to say goodmorning to Belle before gifts and people started arriving, nevermind a happy birthday.”

“Mhm, mhm– Not to mention, my gifts are so sad compared to that,” Cissia says, pointing at the leaning tower of gifts from Astra and Evelyn, “Even if I made it all myself, how does it hold a candle to fancy imported clothes or a cake made by literal maids and butlers?!” Wise runs his hands down his face, nodding gravely.

“Exactly. I don’t want to view it as a competition since she’s my sister, but there’s still nothing I could make or buy that would come close to the value in some of these gifts,” Wise says with a heavy sigh, “And I hate to even think that Belle is just smiling and accepting my gifts purely because I’m her brother, and not because she actually likes them…”

Cissia shudders, wincing. “Yeah, that would suck… I’d probably cry.” It was silent for a long moment, both Cissia and Wise looking at each other with a sense of camaraderie in their newfound sympathies, before Cissia notices the silence. Not just in the room, but the whole video store.

“Uh… Guys?” Belle starts, standing awkwardly in the doorway to her own bedroom as Cissia and Wise snap up to look at her. “I sent everyone off already.” The silence immediately becomes stilted, as Cissia and Wise realize Belle heard most if not all the stuff they said. Belle shifts from foot to foot, before stepping inside and moving between the piles of gifts to sit in Wise’s vacant spot on the couch.

The silence still stretched, before Cissia broke it. “Um. Belle,” she starts, suddenly feeling a wave of nerves as she clumsily grabs her aluminum tin and the paper cranes, “I, uh… I wanted to surprise you for your birthday, but obviously that wasn’t possible,” she says with a laugh, “But, um. I made you a custard cake, and I folded some cranes for you and Wise.” She pulls off the lid, setting it aside to reveal the cake. Belle’s eyes widen, before she leans closer to take a better look. Cissia also folds out the wings of the cranes, showing them to Belle a little shyly.

“See, um, this blue and orange one is you, this one is me, and this one is Wise…” she says, feeling embarrassment burn her cheeks. “I-I know it’s nothing compared to the other stuff you got, but I thought you’d like them… I thought they looked cute…” God, is Cissia shaking? She could feel the faint tremble building in her hands, and that made her cheeks burn hotter. “A-And, I just wanted to say thanks… Since, you know, you both let me crash at your place whenever I want, and you both take good care of me when I’m staying over,” Cissia says, glancing between Wise and Belle, “So… yeah. Happy birthday.”

Belle reaches out, gently stilling Cissia’s hands with her own. She smiles, taking the cranes with such care that one would think they were precious stones anywhere near as large as those sapphires. “Cissia, I love them!” she says, and Cissia dearly hopes she means it. “They’re so cute– I like their little faces,” Belle says with a giggle, before reaching out and wrapping an arm around Cissia’s shoulders. “You’re so sweet… You’re welcome, Cissia. Don’t worry about it, seriously.”

“... You know, I understand why you both think I won’t like your presents,” she says after a moment, before she pulls away a little, “But… I do like them. Wise, you know I keep that plushie you got me last year on my bed, right?” Wise immediately perks up, his head snapping around to look at Belle’s bed to see for himself.

“The point is, I value everyone’s gifts, no matter how expensive or inexpensive. Because at the end of the day, they all took time out of their day to try and find me something they thought I’d like– And that is more important to me than anything else.” Belle smiles. “Which includes you two, so stop thinking I’ll hate your gifts just because I already got so many!” Wise looks at her, his eyes big and slightly watery– although, maybe it’s just a trick of the light as he stumbles to his feet.

“Hold up, I left your present in my room,” he calls behind him as he spins around the corner into his own room, returning a moment later with three coupons. He hands them over to Belle, watching as her eyes widen. “... I asked General Chop if he could do me a favor for your birthday, so… Tonight, our dinner will be free.”

Belle gasps, before immediately kicking her feet and jumping up to hug Wise. “Seriously?! Oh my god, hell yeah!” He hugs her back, smiling as he melts. “Uh huh. Happy birthday.”

Cissia smiles, that knot of feelings in her stomach starting to unwind. Then, she pauses. “Wait, why’s there three?” she asks, Wise and Belle looking at her. “Who else are you guys gonna take?”

It’s silent for a moment. Slowly, Cissia’s brain works through it, the cogs turning until her eyes widen. “... You’re kidding me. Are you for real?!” She points at herself, and Wise nods. Immediately, she smiles, setting aside her cake as she leaps up to hug them both extra tight.

“You guys!! You didn’t have to! Seriously, you don’t have to, I don’t mind not eating–?!” she starts, before Belle works her hand free and pinches Cissia’s arm. “Ow– Belle, what was that for?!”

She huffs, taking one coupon and shoving it into Cissia’s breast pocket. “You said so yourself, right? We take good care of you, we let you crash at our place whenever you want and as long as you want…” Belle smiles then. “You’re part of the family, Cissia. You’re coming to my birthday dinner, and you’re eating for free.”

… Cissia might cry.

She sniffles, before burying her face into her shoulder and squeezing them both as hard as she can– Until they start protesting, Wise frantically patting Cissia’s shoulder to get her to stop. Cissia finally lets go, wiping at her eyes before she smiles softly.

“... Okay.”

Since the prolonged time outside the fridge made Cissia’s cake a little too warm for her liking, they all went out for dinner at Waterfall Soup first. When they returned, stomachs full and moods lifted, Wise carried up the few extra boxes that arrived at the video store before they all bundled up together on the couch, Belle sitting in the middle as she chose her favorite thriller movie to put on the TV. Cissia cut out squares of her custard cake onto little paper plates with plastic forks. Wise turned off the lights, and once everyone was settled, Belle hit play.

Sitting there on that tiny couch, squished against the arm and Belle’s side, making loud commentary on the perceived strength of the villain and how Cissia would easily beat him up if she were in the movie, she felt… warm.

It was really nice.

-------

A/N: Genuinely i could not tell yall what happened. I don't know how it ballooned up into 7.2k words, i deadass thought it would be like 3k max. I wrote this in 11-point font with 1.15 spacing on google docs. it's ELEVEN pages long. I don't know how this happened, literally this evening it was at like 2.7k and I was like "??? why are you getting so fat" Also her sifting flour experience came directly from me LMAOAOAOAO i was making pandan cake with a buddy and she put me in charge of sifting flour, I'm standing there like "heh this is gonna be EASY",, i don't know if I just had shitty technique or what, but most of it went outside the bowl, and gently tapping like she instructed me to just didn't work 💔💔 so she kicked me off of sifting flour duty ALSO origami. In my opinion, it's one of those things where you need to learn to just do it. Like, the fact that the fold doesn't have a "spot" for it to happen or a "spot" for it to land shouldn't matter, just do the fold anyway and let it fall where it will. When I was doing origami, this idea that the fold had to have a "spot" for me to do it literally kept me from finishing any shape. To be honest there were a LOT of interactions I wanted to write between Cissia and other characters (i.e. seeing victoria housekeeping co. at the grocery store and realizing they were getting ingredients for a cake for belle too) that i obviously didn't include, but i'll probably write them as their own snippets later + they'll be linked here later Also pt. 3 I was at like 2k words before I remembered that I CAN'T BAKE. i know, it's really hard to tell. I didn't know what cake she was making, especially when I remembered that there's a lot of results that pop up when you look up "custard cake", so I followed this recipe for her cake, it looks really yummy and was the closest to what I was imagining. FINAL also, i feel like I didn't imply this enough, but they DO come over and send lots of gifts for Wise's birthday too– but they also know that (imo) he's the much more introverted sibling, so they don't stay over as long and they don't celebrate as hard as they do with Belle. okay that's all, hope you enjoyed ☆

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