If It's Together

Birthday.

I couldn’t remember the last time I cared about my birthday.

Not to speak badly of my parents who always tried to make my birthday as special as they could, but I never really felt it. At least, I hadn’t felt much when it came to my birthday in a while.

The fact that today was my birthday hadn’t even crossed my mind.

So…

“Um…”

That was all I could let out.

The last thing I would’ve ever expected was having my birthday celebrated, never mind having Ze’Seki and Totoro join in too.

They were breathing heavily and had weak smiles, so something obviously had happened, but…

“Guess we didn’t make it in time,” Totoro laughed.

“Darn, and we were so close too,” my aunt cursed.

“…” Ze’Seki simply stared at the ground, still holding that weird box.

Running down the stairs was the person I had just overpowered, Kokoro. She was breathing heavily too as she said, “Sorry, I really tried holding him back…but I was…defeated…” she finished dramatically.

I was speechless.

For many reasons.

They were saying things, but I really couldn’t hear them. My mind was in a daze.

None of them had to do this. Actually, they looked like they’d gone through much more effort than it was probably worth.

“Why?”

That’s all I needed to know. All I had to hear the answer to was that. Why would they want to do all of this for me?

You know the answer to that, I could practically hear Nor say.

“What do you mean why?” Kokoro wrapped her arm around me, “I already told you we cared about you, didn’t I?” She smiled.

“Especially, Ze’Seki here,” Totoro added.

“Definitely,” Kokoro agreed.

“H-Hey!” Ze’Seki protested.

The other three laughed at her expense, but soon even she broke into laughter.

“…”

I still didn’t have much to say. If anything, I felt like I shouldn’t say anything. I didn’t know how much I could hold back if I were to speak.

Totoro nudged Ze’Seki whose eyes widened for a second before she cleared her throat, “H-Here.” She handed me the weird-looking box.

I absentmindedly took it and inspected it. At first, I thought it was made of shiny plastic, but upon a closer look, I noticed it was actually made of metal. I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to know what type of metal, but it was pretty light all things considered.

The top and bottom were single blank plates, but the other four faces each had panels with things inscribed into them.

The moment my eyes locked onto them, it was like a switch was turned in my brain. For some weird reason, they were all math problems with a keypad to input the answers.

I tried to hold in a laugh, “Am I supposed to do these to get inside?”

They all looked at Ze’Seki, so I could only imagine it was her idea to do this.

She nodded, “Y-Yeah.”

Well, she knew me quite well. There was nothing more that I would enjoy doing than some math problems. That might sound sarcastic, but I genuinely meant that.

“Who chose the problems for these?” I asked.

These were actually difficult problems. None of these were something that Ze’Seki would’ve known, based on what I knew she knew, and Kokoro wasn’t the biggest fan of math in general.

So…

“That was all me,” Totoro proudly stated.

As the engineer, that made sense.

Click!

While he was boasting, I had already finished the first problem.

“H-How did you finish that so quickly?!” Totoro marveled.

“He’s just like that,” Kokoro puffed out her chest.

Even I was a little surprised I finished it so quickly. My mind wasn’t entirely focused, I was basically running on autopilot. My hands shook with every second that elapsed.

Like a machine, I began solving the second problem. Although a bit more difficult, it didn’t take long before a second Click reverbed around the room.

“You’re really something else. I was expecting you to take all day tackling that box.”

“Then you should’ve made it harder.”

“These are problems harder than our grade level!”

­Click!

The third problem was finished without a hitch.

Now I was coming to the last one.

For some reason, my heart was racing. What do I mean ‘for some reason’, I knew exactly why my heart was racing.

At this point, there was little excuse I could have to keep being the way I’d been. The reality Nor forced me to see was becoming clearer with every moment, but I was, more than anything, afraid of facing it.

But I couldn’t just face away from it.

I had to agree with Nor, I was getting pretty tired of going back on what I’d learned.

And so, I finished the last problem, making the box let out a—

Err!

—Not the sound I was expecting…

“Well, it’d be a miracle if you got all four of them right that quickly. I’m just glad I stumped you with one,” his shoulders drooped.

“I don’t want to be the one to say it, but I think you messed up with the answer for this one.”

“H-Huh?” Totoro’s head snapped towards, “T-There’s no way, I was extremely careful with it.”

Click!

“You made a slight mistake with the last number.”

“Are you telling me that you figured out where I made a mistake without even seeing how I did the problem?!”

“A bunch of people mess up the same way with this problem. I just imagined you did too.”

“You’re…unfairly good at this…”

With that final click, the top panel detached from the rest of the box.

Ina, Kokoro, Ze’Seki, and Totoro looked at me with anticipation.

There was only one thing left to do.

I lifted the panel.

After another splash of confetti, this time coming from the box, I was greeted by three items. I can say with certainty that not a single one was what I expected.

A figure.

A TV show box set.

And Sea Chips.

Oddly enough, the chips were the closest thing to what I expected.

You know, this would be some elaborate bit where the end result was nothing but a small bag of chips. I personally would’ve gone with that—

I blinked, feeling my eyes go blurry.

“…This…” I tried speaking, but I was getting choked up.

Before I realized it, Ze’Seki had moved the box to the side and hugged me tightly. Her warmth was one I recognized but couldn’t fully say I was used to.

“Happy birthday, Araldo,” she whispered, “…and…thanks…for everything.”

I chuckled at her words, “I’m the one who should be thanking you…idiot…”

Of course, I wrapped one of my hands around her back. It wasn’t a proper hug, but it was the best I could manage with a box in the other hand.

Well, since I was at it, I felt like I should do one more thing that I thought was long overdue.

“Hey, um, Ze’Seki?”

“Yes?” She looked up at me. Those golden eyes that had caught my attention from the moment I saw them glowed deeper than I ever thought possible.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you…I guess…”

Now that I was trying to say it, it was really hard to do so.

---

Kokoro — Is he going to do it?!!?

Totoro — I mean, it looks like he is!!

They messaged each other so quickly that it was almost a blur. Thankfully, neither Araldo nor Evy were paying any attention to them.

Still, with only those messages, they listened intently, waiting for the moment to happen…

“Do you…want to…”

They both leaned in, even Ina behind them joining the fun.

---

But off in the distance, a certain immortal being was facepalming. Having a read on every single one of his thoughts, he already knew what Araldo was doing before he actually did it.

“Not what I had in mind, but I guess that will do,” he said to himself.

---

“Do you want to be my friend?”

Evy blanky stared at him.

Everybody blankly stared at him for a moment.

Then, joining into the facepalming were Totoro, Kokoro, and even Ina.

Although a few seconds of silence passed by, it was eventually broken by Evy’s laughter. Everyone looked over at her as she said, “No one asks people to be their friend. That’s just weird,” she continued laughing.

The familiar words made Araldo’s face turn deep red.

“But yes,” She continued, “…I would love to be your friend…” but even with that answer, her laughter still couldn’t be contained.

“Y-You’re just making fun of me!”

“A little,” she admitted.

Even as she laughed at his own expense, Araldo didn’t feel anger in any sense. Just a sense of happiness at seeing the smile on Evy’s face.

---

Totoro — So, I guess that means the TZC is still open for business.

A fact that he very much was enjoying right now. Although, he wouldn’t have minded if it ended there.

Kokoro — Unfortunately…it seems Ari hasn’t fully opened up yet. But no matter. Now that there is a gap in the armor, we can go full swing!!!

Totoro — That’s…yeah, I guess you’re right.

It was quite a bit dramatic, but he was noticing Kokoro was just like that.

---

This surprise party was as scuffed as it could possibly be. The fact I had to help put up some of the decorations took away a lot of the surprise part of the party.

Still, there wasn’t a moment I wasn’t smiling.

I still didn’t have a good idea how Ze’Seki learned of my liking for the Transforcons series, but my original guess was that Kokoro had told her about it.

But apparently, that wasn’t the case.

One of those gifts, the show box set for the Transforcons, was one that I questioned more than the rest. I hadn’t seen it in a while so I’d definitely wanted to give it a rewatch, but honestly, it was Ze’Seki’s comment that sold me on it two-fold.

“I was thinking…” she said nervously, “Maybe we could watch it together…”

“Yeah…I’d like that.”

And so…the party, which was barely even that, went on for the entire day. For the cherry on top, we didn’t have to eat food made by Kokoro. Instead, we ordered things to be delivered.

I think everyone was relieved about that—except for Totoro who’d never had the displeasure of tasting it.

But at the end of the day, I could genuinely say from the bottom of my heart that I had fun. And for the first time in a long time, I looked forward to what came next—after the test that was.

However, with all the help Ze’Seki had given me, I didn’t have anything to worry about. I was more than prepared.