Title: birthday, remembered
Rating: G
Fandom: Baten Kaitos
Relationship: Kalas/Xelha
Wordcount: 380
Short summary: Kalas is surprised by Xelha and the others for his 20th birthday.
“Happy Birthday, Kalas!”
“Wow, uh…”
Kalas is momentarily lost for words, overwhelmed by a few things: the amount of people in the room, the amount of noise suddenly from their well-wishes, the amount of smiles…
The fact that today is indeed his birthday and he completely forgot.
Sure, Kalas keeps track of his age, but it used to be a measure of how much time had passed since losing Fee and Gramps. Since they were the last two he had celebrated with, the last two who had cared… Another year was another year not having completed his revenge. So when that business had been completed, well… Because everyone had scattered after the defeat of Malpercio, Kalas forgot just how many people he had met on his journey and how many people cared.
“Thanks, everybody.”
Everybody included Xelha of course… Gibari and Reblys, Lyude, Savyna and Mayfee, Mizuti and Kee, Larikush, even Ladekahn and Corellia…
“Xelha arranged everything,” Lyude explains as Kalas double checks he counted everyone. Oh, is that Trill?
“For her special one!” Mizuti chimes in.
Xelha smiles sheepishly. “Well, I wanted to see everyone again so…”
“It’s not bad to meet up like this,” Savyna states.
If even Savyna smiles so warmly… “Still… How long ago did you start to plan this?” Kalas asks Xelha.
“Well, I was curious about your birth date so I asked Dr. Larikush about it. Then I sent word out to everyone.”
“Uh huh.”
“Mizuti was the hardest to find. I ended up telling them when they visited most recently.”
Kalas briefly recalls Mizuti and Kee stopping by a month, two months ago? Xelha really did get started early…
“Mizuti always knows when something big is happening!”
Everyone laughs. “So there you go,” Xelha concludes.
“Thanks, Xelha.” Kalas pulls Xelha in close for a hug. “This means a lot.”
“You’re welcome,” she murmurs into his left ear.
Kalas just holds onto her for a while, hopefully conveying further just how much this celebration means to him through his action because words in this situation… Words are not enough.
“Just kiss her if ya want, man,” Gibari teases, when it is obvious Kalas has lost track of time.
Kalas blushes. “Shut up.”
But he does follow Gibari’s suggestion. It is his birthday after all.