Tai-nii-chan's Birthday

Taishi had his suspicions of what his friends' plan was from the very beginning.

It was a bit too on the nose for him to not notice. They had found out his birthday was close as soon as they arrived at a town near the one he had grown up in with his orphanage. And, so coincidentally , Ata and Ryoma had gone off the next day to do something by themselves and left Taishi with everyone else just walking around the town, killing time with whatever looked interesting at the moment until Ata and Ryoma had come back at night.

He pretended to not notice it, though. After all, if they were planning some kind of surprise for his birthday, he wasn't really gonna complain about it. Plus, he wouldn't mind surprising everyone back by revealing he had them all figured out from the beginning.

Or, at least, that's what he had planned to do. Until he had actually been brought to his hometown blindfolded, only allowed to take it off once he had stepped into the orphanage with Ichiro and Maasa.

And when he did take it off, he was greeted by his friends, the other orphans, and all of the orphanage's staff shouting "Surprise!"

The entrance area had been fully decorated just for this. The dining table had been moved there from the dining room, the cake sitting on top of it. All around the room there were balloons, and behind the table there was a banner on the wall that had 'Happy Birthday Tai-niichan!' written on it.

Of course he had expected them to put their all into it. What he didn't expect was how it would affect him. He didn't expect to feel that happy, seeing all his dearest people there so happy just because it was his birthday.

He got snapped out of his thoughts when he felt a tear roll down his cheek. He quickly wiped it away, hoping no one else had noticed it.

"You softie! You're crying!" Maasa playfully hit him in the stomach with his elbow as he laughed.

"I'm not!" He glared at Maasa, feeling his cheeks heat up.

He heard a familiar, gentle giggle approaching him. It was one of the orphanage's caretakers, Marlene, who was basically the closest thing Taishi had to a mother after he had started living at the orphanage. "There's no shame in crying, Taishi." She patted his head with a warm smile, an action that reminded him of his childhood. "But I guess it means you really haven't changed a bit ever since you left." She chuckled.

Taishi opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by one of the smaller kids suddenly hugging his leg after running at him at full speed.

"I missed you, Tai-nii-chan!" The little boy said with a smile, snuggling his leg.

Taishi couldn't help but smile, patting the boy's head. "I missed all of you too."

"We made you a gift!" A little girl came up to him, holding a small gift wrapped in a blue package.

Taishi crouched to take it from her hands. He opened it, finding a bracelet inside.

It had all sorts of little spheres and cubes and star-shaped pieces in it. Even a few animal-shaped ones. It didn't really look all that cohesive, but Taishi didn't mind. If anything, it just made it even more special in his eyes.

"Everyone picked a thing to put in it! This shark was me!" The little boy said, pointing at the shark piece in the bracelet. "The cat was Makoto, this red ball was Chidori, the yellow star was Amy, and- uh, I don't remember who picked the blue star."

"It was me!" The little girl jumped happily.

Taishi chuckled, then put the bracelet on his wrist. "Thank you. I like it a lot." He gave both of them a hug.

"I made you something too." Marlene now had a gift bag in her hands. "I had actually started making it out of habit even before your friends came here. Guess it was a good thing I did that, huh?" She giggled.

Taishi grabbed the bag from her hands and looked inside. She had made him a blue-green scarf. He had expected nothing less. She did always make knitted gifts for all the kids on their birthdays. Be it scarfs like that one, sweaters, gloves, beanies or even bags or other stuff that wasn't just clothes. She never missed a single kid's birthday. It felt so nostalgic to hold something made by her again.

"Thank you so much." He said with a warm smile.

"Uhh, should we give our gift already too?" Ichiro asked, and then laughed awkwardly. "Sorry. I just didn't think you would give yours right away. I was just a bit surprised."

"If you want to." Taishi shrugged.

"Here it is." Kyotaro stepped closer to him, holding out a small box.

"It's not handmade by us, but we hope you still like it." Ata said with a small smile.

Taishi raised an eyebrow, with no idea of what it could be. They had only very recently found out about his birthday, and he hadn't asked for anything either. It wasn't like they had that much time to prepare.

But when he opened the box, he was very pleasantly surprised.

It was a gun holder for his belt. But unlike the one he currently had, this one was in a perfect state. It was probably brand new. And not only that, it also had colorful star patterns sewn on, each of the 8 stars a different color, the biggest one being blue.

"When did you get this?" Taishi asked, taking it out of the box so he could run his fingers through the stars. And he couldn't help the wide smile on his lips as he did so.

"Apparently, that guy we helped at the last town had a client cancel an order he was already halfway done with." Ichiro explained. "So he offered to finish it and give it to us as a bonus on top of his payment. We just asked for different colors for the stars he hadn't done yet."

"Well, I loved it." Taishi said before taking his old gun holder off of his belt. It was a bit worn out and was definitely not gonna last more than a few weeks. So the gift was very convenient as well.

Ryoma rubbed the back of his neck. "We weren't gonna accept at first, but then Maasa pointed out your old one was pretty much falling apart. This one looks like it should last a long while, though."

"Maasa did that?" Taishi raised an eyebrow.

"Yes I did!" Maasa said with a proud smile, raising his head up high.

"Thank you, then."

Maasa seemed a bit surprised to hear that. He opened his mouth to speak, but then blushed when he couldn't come up with a response aside from "You're welcome!" And then he stepped away to hide behind Taiju and Nanao, who both laughed at his reaction along with Taishi.

"Let's sing Happy Birthday so we can cut the cake!" The little boy said as he and the little girl pulled him by the arms towards the table. Taishi laughed as he went along with them.

After Taishi had been brought to stand behind the cake, one of the other caretakers lit up the candles. Marlene turned off the lights, and they all started singing.

As they sang, Taishi was quite glad that he was far enough from the candle light that it made his face hard to see. He didn't want everyone noticing there were tears forming in his eyes, and he was trying really hard to stop them from rolling down his cheeks.

He had just been so happy to see the orphanage kids again. He was glad they were all safe and healthy, despite the fact that he was gone and thus couldn't help them out. He was glad none of them hadn't changed at all.

And he was glad his friends had gone through the trouble of organizing this, and trying their hardest to keep it a secret from him so they could surprise him. And even though it had been a bit frustrating to be dragged around all over the nearby town, it had also been quite fun. The more he thought about it, the less he felt like rubbing it in their faces that he had figured it out days earlier.

When the song ended and he blew the candles, he knew right away what to wish for.

He had wished for both his families to remain as they were: happy, healthy, and most importantly… Safe.