“Can I open my eyes yet?” Kent asks, hands still over his face and feeling like a five year old.
He hears Snowy laugh. “Just hold your fucking horses- careful, there’s a door there-”
Kent bumps his head into it just as Snowy warns him and lets out a quiet “ow” as Snowy clearly tries and fails to muffle his laughter.
“Okay, hold on-” Snowy’s hand lifts away from its place on Kent’s shoulder and a moment later he says, “Open your eyes!”
He’s across the room now, right in front of the dining room table, and he’s standing next to-
“Mom,” Kent lets out, and she rushes toward him, squeezing him in a big hug that makes him feel like his organs are being squished, but in the best possible way.
Emily attacks him from behind a second later, and if there were any of his organs that hadn’t been squished by his mother, they were all fucked up now.
“Jesus, kiddo, you been working out? You’re gonna kill me over here,” Kent laughs, and his mom and sister finally let go.
Kent finally realizes, and looks over at Snowy in awe. “How did you-”
“Flew them in this morning,” Snowy says, sipping the beer he’d obviously been working on before Kent arrived, and Kent would’ve thought he would look more smug, but he actually seems bashful for once.
“How’d you get off work?” Kent turns to his mom. He knows she has a tight schedule, and even though Kent is able to support her much, much more now, she has too much pride and still works as much as she’s able. Which is a lot.
“This lovely young man somehow got all my coworkers on the phone and bullied them into covering my shifts for a few days,” she smiles, winking as Snowy’s face reddens.
“It wasn’t that big of a deal, I just- knew you’d want them here, y’know, on your birthday and stuff, and I know you miss them a lot, so...”
Snowy takes another drink of his beer, his cheeks flushed and looking more embarrassed than Kent’s ever seen him. He’s usually so cool, calm, and collected, seeing him like this- over something wonderful and generous he’d done for Kent- is, well... it’s a lot.
Kent walks over to him, wraps his arms around his waist, and settles his head on his shoulder. “Thank you,” he says, quiet and soft, and Snowy rubs circles into his hair.
“Anytime,” he replies, giving him a chaste kiss on the forehead before separating. “Now, it’s not a birthday-Independence Day-combo without some meat of some sort, so let’s get cooking, huh?”
“You say let’s, as if it’s not just gonna be me in there doing all the work,” Kent’s mom says, rolling her eyes.
Kent puts his arm around her as they walk into the kitchen. “Hey, I can hold my own in there! You taught me everything I know, remember?”
“That’s true, you’re my good boy,” she says, kissing his hair wetly.
Emily punches his arm once they settle in against the kitchen counters. “You gonna let me drink yet?”
“Whoa, not ‘till you’re of legal age, kid,” Kent laughs as she frowns and crosses her arms.
“I bet you didn’t wait until you turned 21,” she says grumpily, and Kent and Snowy meet eyes across the room and smirk at each other.
“I’m perfect and I’ve never broken a rule in my life,” he replies, grinning. “You got a lot to live up to.”
He helps his mom cook burgers and make potato wedges, and by the time they’ve all eaten and are sitting at the table stuffed full, Emily decides it’s time for presents. Her own is a drawing of Kent she’d done in anime style, something she’s been obsessed with lately. She always texts him going on and on about some new show she’s watching- he can’t tell apart the characters and has to put up with lectures about how “Kagome is from Inuyasha, not Pokemon!! God, Kent!”
He loves it anyway, because he loves everything Em does, and he kisses her on the cheek and tells her he’ll frame it and put it in his bedroom. His mom hands over her gift- it’s a ring that spins, and he doesn’t get it at first put she puts it on his finger and shows him, and says that it’s for stress, and he’s honestly a little struck stupid from how thoughtful and amazing she is. She always is. Her gifts are like this every time, something small but meaningful, something he’ll use every single day.
He hugs her for an embarrassingly long time, and when they pull away they’re both a bit teary. But the Parson family have never been sentimental types, so they just smile at each other and he says thank you a few more times and she waves him off, looking happy and soft.
Snowy’s present is in a box, and when Kent opens it he groans and lifts it out for his mom and sister to see- it’s a teddy bear, the kind where you get to personalize it with whoever’s jersey you want. Of course, it’s a Falconer’s teddy bear, with golden fur and blue eyes, and a Nick Snochowski jersey on its back.
“No, listen,” Snowy says, grinning, “I didn’t get it to be an asshole, it’s for when you’re on a roadie, right? So you can hug lil’ Snowy here, and look-”
He squeezes its paw and a sound byte of Snowy saying, “Love you, fucker,” echos from the speaker in the bear. Kent laughs again, and Snowy looks really proud of himself.
“So it’s like I’ll be there with you!” He leans back in his chair, smiles. Kent rolls his eyes and says thank you. It is a pretty cute gift, and besides, they both know the real birthday present is his family being here.
It’s getting late, so he sets his mom and sister up in the guest room and goes back to his own room with Snowy, flopping down on the bed. It’d been a good day, but a long one, and he was tired.
Snowy lies down next to him and plays with his bangs. He still hasn’t cut them, but Snowy’d said his hair looked nice at this length, so he’s holding off on the haircut until he gets to be unexcusably shaggy looking.
“Thanks for... all of this. Today,” Kent fumbles out, and Snowy smiles.
“Hey, that’s what I’m here for, yeah?”
He pecks Kent on the nose. “Enough with the sappy shit though, I’ve been waiting all day to get you in your birthday suit, birthday boy.”
Kent rolls his eyes even as he’s slipping off his shirt and climbing on Snowy’s lap. “You are so not fucking smooth.”
