Chapter Text
“What are you all doing?” Kido asked the group of people that were crowding the kitchen. He wasn’t expecting any of them to be awake at this time since it was early. Nearly half of them aren’t morning people.
“Ah. Good morning, Kido.” Mogami grinned and went towards the man and slung an arm around him.
“Why’re you up so early?” Mogami asked
“That should be my line. You’re the one who’s not supposed to be awake for another hour or so. So you tell me, why are you awake so early?”
“You’re not being cute here.”
“I’m not intending to be cute here. If you want someone to act cute, go to your student.” Kido retorted, trying to look at what’s happening in the kitchen but was getting blocked by Mogami.
Rindo entered the room and saw the group. “Oh are you all cooking? Maybe I can cook something too.”
Mogami removed his arm around Kido so fast that it took the man to realize that there’s no weight leaning on him.
“Now, now, Takumi. You know what, let’s go to the training room. I have some things I need to point out about your fighting style so let’s get that done for today.”
“Eh? But – “
“Okay, let’s go!” Mogami dragged Rindo by his shirt to the training room, successfully pulling the male away from the kitchen.
Kido just looked confused before sighing. If they’re not going to tell him anything, then he might as well do something else.
He could feel a stare on him and turned to look at the source and saw Jin looking at him.
“What’s wrong, Jin?”
“Nothing, nothing. I just thought the whole interaction you had was amusing.” Kido raised a brow before smirking. That wasn’t the whole truth.
“You tell the stupidest lies, Jin.” Jin blanched at the familiar phrasing that he heard from his mentor once or twice before.
“Why — Mogami-san kept saying that before too. Do you two just share that sentence?”
Kido laughed at the teen’s reaction, moving closer and ruffling his head.
“No. It was something that a close friend of ours liked to say and we kept hearing it so many times. I couldn’t help but use it just now since you gave me the best opportunity to do so.”
“You two must be really close to him, huh?”
“Yeah. I wonder what he’s doing now.” He muttered, thoughts about Yugo and how he’s doing on the other side came up.
“Did you say something, Kido-san?”
“Nothing.”
— — — — —
“Happy Birthday, Kido-san!”
Kido was standing surprised at the entrance of the door when he was pulled by both Rindo and Shinoda and pushed into the kitchen and was greeted by confettis.
“Ahahaha! His reaction really was the best! Did you get the picture, Jin, Shin?” The two aforementioned people grinned and gave a thumbs up.
“Happy Birthday, Kido-san.” The two who pushed him in greeted from behind him with similar mischievous grins.
Kido laughed and grabbed Rindo and rubbed his head hard, “So that’s why you two were snickering around like that, huh?”
“Ow, ow, ow, ow…!”
Shinoda tried to move away to not get caught and end up the same way as Rindo was but was foiled when Namekata blocked his way with a suspicious smile. His suspicion was answered when his shirt was suddenly grabbed by someone and he was placed in a headlock.
“Where do you think you’re going? Both you and Rindo will have to pay for dragging and pushing me here.” Kido grinned.
“It was Mogami-san’s idea!” Shinoda yelped.
“Oh?”
“Kido, heads up.” What? Kido turned to look at what Mogami was referring to when the said male suddenly threw a pie at his face.
“Oh, perfect hit. Maybe I should add a bullet trigger to my set next time.” Mogami teased.
“You asshole..” Kido cussed with a smirk before taking the pie that Kai handed over and threw it at Mogami who moved swiftly to the side and let the pie hit both Shin and Jin.
“Tsk, tsk. Such a bad aim. Maybe you need glasses, Kido.”
Everything was such a mess after that with all the mini food fights going on before they could actually start eating the food they prepared.
— — — — —
Kido looked up from his cake with a smile, “Thank you. For celebrating this.” Everyone who was sitting looked at him before they smiled or grinned respectively.
“We’ll celebrate it every year! If we can’t celebrate it, we’ll give you gifts instead. That’s a promise!” Namekata declared. The others nodded in agreement.
“We’ll give each other presents on their respective birthdays then. That way we’d always have things to look forward to.” Mogami said while setting down the drinks on the table with a smile.
“Who’s next after Kido-san then?” Konami asked, looking away from her food.
“Our resident Mischievous Brat.” Everyone simultaneously chorused while looking at the said person who had his drink dripping down his mouth as he stared at them in betrayal.
“....I hate all of you. Why can’t we just forget that nickname?” Shinoda groaned, wallowing in his misery as he heard the others chuckling.
“That’s impossible. You keep proving us right in giving you that nickname almost everyday.” Kido pointed out while the others nodded.
“No I don’t.”
“Kido-san’s sliced car would like to say otherwise.” Jin added with a smirk while the others snickered at the reminder of the sliced car.
“He’s got you there, Shinoda.” Rindo snickered and got a faceful of a pillow thrown by Shinoda.
“Shut up. Like you can say anything, Mr. I shoot my teammates.”
“It's not my fault you can’t dodge bullets.”
“You try getting used as a human shield by Mogami-san then we can talk.” Shinoda retorted back.
“Oi, don’t drag me to your mess.” Mogami chimed up from where he was at.
Kido turned to the other man with a raised brow, “From what I’m hearing, it seems to be your fault though.”
“From what I’m hearing, it seems like they need more training.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“Why, thank you.”
Jin, Konami, Reiji and Yuri looked away laughing when Kido stood up and went after Mogami who vaulted over the couch and away from Kido. He got tripped by Chihiro though so he ended up getting kicked by Kido and got a faceful of the remaining pie.
“Damn it, Kido!”
“Sucks to be you.”
Laughters and some cussing were heard here and there in the small building for the whole day.
— — — —
Kido sighed in his seat, looking out the window with an indecipherable emotion in his eyes.
“Past is past. It can’t be changed. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t make it less painful to not long for it. Sometimes I wish everything could just be like how it was back then…”