Hanma's Birthday~

On Thursday morning, I eventually noticed how someone decided to spam my second phone with calls, there were as many as twenty missed calls, all from yesterday afternoon.

"Who had so much time on their hands?" I took a closer look and realized all of them were either from Hanma or Jun. And if I had to guess, Jun most likely called on the tall guy's behalf.

"What could the giraffe possibly have wanted?" Usually, people send a text when they can't reach someone, but it must have not been urgent if I haven't received an explanation for this erratic behavior.

"Should I call him back?" Either I call him now or during a school break. But then I remembered how there was a possibility of Kisaki catching me in the act, he was ought to find it suspicious if I talked with someone in a lower voice tone than usual.

I shook my head, despite the probability of Hanma still being asleep at this point in time, I decided to try my luck in this initiative.

"Let's see." I found his contact and hit the call button. It took him whole five signals to pick it up.

"Who's this?" He asked in a raspy voice, which was followed up by a yawn. It truly sounded like he was still half-asleep, could I even have a proper conversation with this guy under such circumstances?

"You called me, so I'm trying to figure out, what for." It took him a full minute to figure out what I was talking about.

"Jesus! Right, why didn't you pick up?" So what kind of excuse was probable? Right in this day and age, it was still considered common to forget your device at home.

"Sorry, I forgot to bring my phone to school and I came really late yesterday so I haven't noticed you contacted me." He seemed to have accepted my reasoning.

"Forget about it, just come to the headquarters today!" He demanded, I rolled my eyes but decided to at least ask what my presence was needed for, perhaps if it was something reasonable I could check in on those idiots.

"What for?" I asked bluntly.

"Come on don't be so mean~ It's my birthday today~" I glanced at the calendar that was standing on my desk, the date being the 27th of October. I grabbed a pen and noted his name on it while adding the word birthday to it.

"I guess I will come by... but only after my class is finished." After I gave him congratulatory words, I disconnected the call by letting him know I needed to go.

I started to prepare for school but was found in a dilemma, what could I possibly give a dumbass that only ever liked fighting and annoying me.

"Maybe a kiss." He sure would have liked that, but there is no way I could do it as Jesus.

"Or perhaps something simple as a shirt or hoodie." Since the cold season was nearby, a hoodie it was, maybe one purple in color.

"But isn't Keisuke's birthday also around the corner... Yes pretty sure he said it was at the beginning of November." I turned the pages to have a look at the next month.

"I was right, it's on the 3rd of November." I already had a unique present planned, and even came up with a whole explanation behind my thought progress. I smirked, knowing full well it would take some people aback because it wasn't something you usually offer to teenagers.

When I was in school and encountered Kisaki it was peculiar to find him wondering where I have been for the past two days looking kind of worried for my wellbeing.

"Oh... are you finally paying more attention to me?" I asked, but my tactics to tick him off didn't work so I decided to answer honestly.

"I didn't feel well so I stayed at home... and then ended up fainting and was sent to the hospital... you know the usual occurrence for a sickly child." Kisaki just sat there quietly for a while, until he took out some notes and mentioned.

"Here is the homework you missed." I looked at him teary-eyed.

"You were thinking about me when I wasn't here? So considerate." But only got a click of a tongue as a response.

"You don't mind if I leave a kiss mark on your notes right?"

"Don't even think about it." I just laughed at his response and left our conversation at that.

The school day passed rather quickly, and at lunch, I got to hear some concerns about my health from the twins and Senju alike, it took some time to assure them it was ok for me to be back in school.

Then during the afternoon, I found myself walking around the city in search of a present for this giraffe.

"Yes, this hoodie will keep him warm." I nodded my head and went to the cash register and paid for my purchase.

"Let's keep the receipt in case this won't fit him." I shoved it into my wallet considering its importance.

"Could you pack it up for me, it's a present for my friend." The cashier nodded as I waited patiently, talk about incredible service. Now I just needed to go back home to change my outfit and purchase food along the way.

So it took me more than an hour to arrive at the Valhalla headquarters, but the first sight I got to witness was the fact that Hanma, Kazutora, and Keisuke as well as a few others were consuming alcohol?

Who did Hanma request to buy it for him? And how did they convince Keisuke to participate in it? Wasn't he scared of his mother's rage? Did Kazutora push him into it?

"Jesus you're here, come drink with us!" Hanma yelled across the hall as I felt my eye twitch in annoyance.

"Between you and my Latino mom, she's the scarier beast whose rage I don't even dare pursuit of awakening." Keisuke shuddered at my explanation, probably being aware of what would happen if he returned back home today in this state, but Kazutora seemed eager on refilling his glass and forcing him to drink more.

"You're such a prude sometimes." Was Hanma's answer but he didn't think of pushing me into drinking because I placed the cake and food right under his nose.

"For your stupid ass, be grateful." Hanma looked at the cake and then at the food.

"You bought it for me?" He seemed moved at the gesture.

"The real present is here." I just threw the bag onto his lap and looked around spotting Jun.

That's when Venus made its presence known as the first mission of the day popped up.

'Would you rather scold Shuji Hanma or Jun Honda?' I preferred dealing with someone sober than drunk, so I waltzed over to Jun's side.

"Why didn't you stop this madness?" He just blinked at me utterly confused.

"On what kind of authority?" Jun questioned as I continued creating a small role-play session.

"As the mother of this family I work really hard to make our ends meet, yet you can't even pretend to care, allowing our children to partake in teenage drinking. I thought as my spouse you had my back." Jun seemed to have realized where this was going.

"I do care, but what I am supposed to do when all they do is get into fights and follow the bad crowd, there is a limit to how much I can do."

"That's not true, you could have snatched their bottle." I pointed at it as Chome joined our corner, sitting there and enjoying the show while munching on some snacks.

"And get beaten up in return, teenagers are scary." I whipped out a flip-flop because I thought it would be funny to carry it around when Jun mentioned I reminded him of a scary Latino mom. He shrieked and then gained his composure back while saying.

"Let me go to the store and buy some milk." Hearing this we both roared in laughter, while Chome decided to question what we were doing.

"Just messing around, like usual." I whipped out some more snacks and then the three of us were watching Hanma take out the hoodie from the bag. He seemed rather happy with the present, even yelling something obscure in the progress.

"Jesus, you're so good to me, sometimes you make my heart beat like crazy." I think I felt myself being hit by an arrow, was this giraffe for real? Did this amount of kindness get to him, but I called him names and was downright rude, was he ok?

"Ah seducing people per your usual practice I see," Jun said smugly, maybe he already heard some rumors about Keisuke liking me as well.

"I just gave him a present, knock it off." The clock was ticking, but the guys were just drinking more and more, when I thought they were finished they even whipped out another bottle.

"Why aren't you drinking with them?" I decided to ask Chome.

"Drinking means either staying here and sleeping on a cold hard floor or getting caught by the cops for underage drinking, I rather not." He did have a solid point, did it mean that neither of the other dumb-asses didn't consider the possible consequences.

"Now I have to stay and make sure those two are okay." I then glanced at Jun and stated.

"You going to help me bring those two back home." I pointed at both Kazutora and Keisuke.

"What do I get in return?" He seemed quite serious.

"Longevity in friendship." He just crossed his arms not pleased with the suggestion.

"Okay okay, I can pay for your next meal." He cheered.

"Even when I drag you to a luxury restaurant?" He gave me a cheeky smile while I just sighed.

"If you mean to drag me to a place with snobbish and posh people, where dining etiquette is a thing, don't even think about it." He thought about it for a hot minute.

"Then sushi, expensive sushi?" If he meant one where the chef prepares the meal in front of you then yes that was something I could go behind.

"You have a deal." Jun seemed quite excited, in fact, he looked so cute, I couldn't stop myself from pinching his cheeks.

"Hey!" he yelled as I just laughed, that's when a mission notification appeared.

'Would you rather scout Chome or Chonbo to your little traitor squad?' I looked at Chonbo that looked pissed drunk at this point and then and Chome that was more interested in his snacks than alcohol consumption.

"Chome, I need to talk with you for a while, so let's step outside." I guess since I usually shared my snacks with him, he complied with my request and so the three of us walked some distance away from the building.

"Listen I will be brief about it, how about you join my side Chome." He scratched his head not being sure what I meant.

"I came to this gang to have an overlook on my brother."

"You have a brother... is it Jun?" I shook my head, but Jun himself found it funny.

"I'm confident in not needing surveillance." So he says, but I didn't trust him to keep himself safe.

"Nope Kazutora, he's my big brother." He looked at me wide-eyed.

"Wait... are you that girl I saw at his house, a few months ago?" He questioned as I nodded my head, I guess it wasn't so hard for him to believe it since he wasn't there when I joined and revealed my fake face.

"But wait what do you mean join your side?"

"If needed I will stop Kazutora from fighting Mikey, somehow I have a feeling he will try to use all means necessary to defeat him, but since they were friends before I think they just need a push to talk out their differences." Chome thought what I was telling him was interesting, I guess he wanted to create some intriguing drama at the fight scene.

"What do I get in return for aiding you?" He asked, me having the best possible solution.

"How about a week's worth of snacks?" He shook his head not being convinced.

"Month?" I added another suggestion, not really knowing how much supply that would be.

"How about we bargain in kilograms instead." Was he trying to extort me?

"Hmmm, how about five kilos of snacks?" Since some packages were light that would still be a lot, but he disagreed.

"Make it ten and I'm onboard." I guess since the system asked me of it and even would grant me 2 points for this event.

"Sure we have a deal." Jun was not amused.

"How come you are giving more to him?" He questioned me.

"Perhaps because you may just stick yourself to me like glue under the pretext of best friends and will extort some food from me in the future." Jun whipped out a notepad and started to take notes.

"Are you for real?" We spend some time outside making it seem like our outing was nothing suspicious just three guys out together during the evening.

But once we returned each person that partook in drinking was passed out drunk.

"That was quick?" Jun mentioned as I agreed, considering it just got dark outside, I was about to scoop up the boys but then noticed Kisaki's dog watching us like a hawk, because I didn't trust him, I took the last piece of cake and handed it over to him.

"Here have some." Thankfully he didn't seem too suspicious of my gesture and took off his black mask to eat and when Chome and Jun were looking away, I threw some Pixie Dust into Choji's face and caught him before his body hit the floor.

"Oh, you must have been really tired." I left him there on the floor and just draped a blanket over him, and then requested cooperation from Jun.

"Let's call a taxi and dump them inside while we will drive their motorcycles to my house." Jun wondered.

"Wouldn't they get suspicious?" I shook my head.

"We can just tell them Keisuke was still awake and asked you for help or something, and you obliged."

"But what are you going to tell Keisuke then?" I looked at him was he serious, just tell him the opposite tale. Before we left I tidied up the place, so tomorrow there wouldn't be any horrid smells from the leftover food.

Thankfully there weren't any mishaps happening, and because I told mom about turning up late with my brother, our parents were already asleep, so them getting caught drunk wouldn't be a problem. I even phoned Keisuke's mom and informed her that her son would be staying at my place tonight.

"So do we put them both in his room?" Jun asked I could tell he was exhausted from dragging Keisuke up the stairs. I was thinking about it but he decided to ask something else.

"Say can I stay the night?" I didn't want to let him out so late, besides he seemed depleted from all energy.

"Sure but you will stay in my brother's room, while I drag this other drunkard into mine." He seemed rather confused at my arrangement.

"Listen we are supposed to not be familiar with each other, so it would seem weird if I let a total stranger sleep in my room." He seemed understanding.

"Just please don't act like a creep, though if you want we can partake in some conversation before going to sleep," I suggested.

After putting the two guys into two respective beds, I made us some night snacks while Jun took a shower. I gave him some of my oversized clothes to change into and we partook in some small talk before heading to bed.

However when I returned to my room, Keisuke seemed to be awake, yet still drunk as ever.

"Michi, I missed you." Was the first thing he said his limbs basically wrapping around my body, as I deeply pondered about what to tell him to get him to go back to sleep.

"As you see I'm here, however, it's already bedtime, so be a good boy and go back to dreamland"

"I don't wanna, not until you give me a kiss." I sighed but decided to comply and gave him a peek on the forehead.

"Is my little Keisuke satisfied? Will you go back to sleep now?" Yet he shook his head.

"Not this kinda kiss." I decided to not tolerate this any longer and chose to get away from his grip, but nothing seemed to have worked.

"Okay okay, one kiss and you will get yourself off me, right?" He agreed, so I cupped his face in my hands, but found myself just staring at him instead, where did the hesitation come from? Wait, was I just tired, or was my heart really beating at an unexpected speed. I guess Keisuke's patience ran out because he was the one to initiate the kiss. Once he pulled away he just said a simple.

"Goodnight." And went back to sleep. I just sat there bewildered.