Yes, another work in which Mika makes a feature, but I couldn't write a birthday prompt without her in it. So in her first year at NRC, because she doesn't remember when she was born, she never really had a birthday party. However, when the new school year at NRC started, the gang did have a small party as an anniversary of meeting Mika. However, as she slowly regains her memories, she realizes that her birthday was two months after the anniversary gathering, so she thought it would be selfish for her to expect the gang to throw her another party in her honor. She has let Lilia (who actually joins Malleus on NRC campus for both of their internships) know of her discontent of this, but you know Lilia and his big mouth.

Link to original post: https://old.reddit.com/r/TwistedWonderland/comments/xe5lzy/twstober_prompt/

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November 19th. Ever since Mika regained her memories, the closer that date came, the more it stuck with her. Her birthday. For a whole year at Night Raven, she had no idea that her birthday had even passed. She was officially seventeen years old today. She tried to not think about not celebrating her own birthday. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. When the new school year started, her friends (well, mostly Kalim) threw a shin-dig to celebrate both Grim and Mika’s anniversary of arriving at Night Raven College since both of their birthdays were unknown and it was very unfair to not celebrate when everyone else had a birthday party. It made Mika happy to see that her friends thought about her. However, with the birthday out in the open (all thanks to Lila’s meddling), who wanted to celebrate a birthday twice?

Much to Heartslabyul’s credit, they do celebrate unbirthdays every week, but it wasn’t the same. Birthdays were meant to be a special once a year event. If Mika got dedicated to two parties, it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else. Instead of making a fuss (as Lilia and Ruggie would’ve encouraged her to do), Mika stayed quiet and continued with her schoolwork as usual.

“Really, Mika? You didn’t take Ruggie’s offer on nagging everyone about your birthday? You just remembered it! Isn’t that special?” Grim had an excellent point but…

“No, Grim. I can’t do that.”

“You’re way too nice for your own good. You’re just going to throw this chance away?”

“We had a party already. I can’t force them to do it again.”

“Um, for one thing, had you told Kalim about it, he wouldn’t care the least. It’s another excuse for a party. Secondly, if Riddle finds out about this, he’d scold you for a lifetime. Thirdly, Ruggie’s gonna throw a fit about not seeing you open presents. What about Ace and Deuce? They’re gonna think you’re having one of those mouse fits again.”

“Grim, just leave it, alright? I don’t feel like celebrating it twice. Is that so hard to ask?”

The “not a cat” hid his tail in between his legs and flopped his ears onto his head. Seeing him so disappointed hurt Mika in the heart. It had been a while since the two of them had enjoyed a celebration of any kind.

A vibration rattled from Mika’s vanity table. She turned to her phone and checked to see who texted her today.

“Hmm?”

“What’s up?”

“It’s Jack. He says he wants to see me outside.”

“Outside? The ghosts aren’t letting him in?”

“He didn’t say.”

“What the Seven is this about?”

“You’re asking me that?”

“He’s your boyfriend, not mine.”

“Oh, that’s what you won’t claim as both of ours. Okay, fur ball.”

Mika trotted her way down the stairs to the front door. She cursed herself for being so short that she couldn’t see what was going on outside.

The moment the door opened, a bomb full of confetti flew into her face. Mika shrieked.

“Happy Birthday, Mika!”

“What the heck is this?”

“Come on, Birthday Girl! There’s a birthday world to explore.” The Heartslaybyul duo, Ace and Deuce, yanked Mika off the front porch and toward the most colorful setting the Ramshackle yard had ever looked in the eleven months she spent on the Night Raven campus.

Tables of games and food lined up in three rows. With each activity conducted, Ruggie, Kalim, Ace, and Epel had their phones out, snapping pictures of every happy moment. Jamil and the Octo trio made sure that Mika was well fed above all the other guests. Whenever Grim tried to sneak some extra cake into his tiny, grubby paws, Jamil would snap his spatula near him to scare him off, reminding Grim whose day it really was today. The Diasomnia gang organized some competitive games, the classics according to Lilia’s sense of party planning. As per usual, Sebek cheered for Malleus to win as Silver and Riddle face-palmed, pretending not to know the man. Then, lastly, Jack made sure that every one of Mika’s birthday presents were accounted for. The birthday girl sat around the present pile as the others took pictures of her joy as she opened every gift from her friends. Mika was thrilled to have new clothes and trinkets to decorate her room in Ramshackle with.

By the end of the long and gloriously fun day, Mika had birthday memories to hold her off until the next year. She thanked everyone graciously for the surprise party, and she was grateful for everything everyone has done. When it was time to close the party down, Riddle called everyone to help clean the yard, except Jack and Mika. Though Mika was unsure about leaving everyone else to do the heavy lifting, Jack ushered her back into the Dorm house, telling her not to worry about it.

Now that they were alone, Mika was able to remove herself from the fun setting to the setting she was in before she was pulled outside to celebrate.

“How did you figure out that my birthday was today?” she asked. “I never told you or the others about that.”

“I know you didn’t, and that’s why I’m peeved,” Jack responded.

“What?”

“You didn’t think that you would be able to say anything to Lilia without him spilling the beans to me, would you?”

Lilia? Of course, it was Lilia. That bat’s mouth needs to be stapled shut sometimes.

“You asked me a question. I answered. Now, you owe me an answer. Why did you hide this from us?”

Mika’s cheeks flushed red.

“Come on. We went through all this trouble to throw you a party. Throw me a bone here…no pun intended, but you know what I meant.”

“You already threw me one, so I didn’t think it was necessary.”

“Are you talking about when the new school year started?” Jack’s eyes widened in shock. Mika looked at him, and she could tell that he wanted to exclaim, “Did you really count that as a “you” party?” Instead, Jack said, “That was a student fair compared to today. Yeah, we gave you presents two months ago because that was the day we first met you, and since you didn’t remember your birthday still, we thought it was unfair to make you feel left out.” He scratched his neck and blushed.

“Which is why I didn’t want to make you feel burdened to do something for me again, especially since it was so close to September.”

“Mika…” Jack flattened his hand and bonked the top of her head with the pinky side of it. “If you thought we’d say, “Screw your birthday,” you need a new set of friends. Fortunately, we are better than to think something so asinine.”

“So are you still mad at me or what?” she asked.

“Mad? For Seven’s sake, Mika, the world is not against you…not anymore anyway.” Jack gently pushed her up against the wall. He perched her chin under his fingers and tilted her head up enough, so he could kiss her as he so desperately craved for the entire duration of the day. When their lips parted, she was welcomed by Jack’s snarky grin. “There’s one more thing.” He searched his uniform pocket. When his fingers came back out, he had a second tooth necklace dangling from them. “Took me a bit, but I finally have the ability to show you as my soulmate,” he said, looping the necklace around her neck. He wrapped the straps twice and clicked the ends together, making sure that the jewelry piece wasn’t too loose or choking Mika.

She did have a lack of breath, but the wide grin that crept onto her face told Jack the reason why. When he was done setting the gift around her neck, she kissed him again, but ended it shortly to tell him how much she loved it. “You know what I also love?”

Jack perked his eyebrows.

“If you stayed over, so I could tell you how much you and all this means to me.”

“Consider it done. By the way…”

“Yes?”

“You owe me later for smearing that frosting onto my face.”

Mika started laughing. “Hey, Ruggie posting it to Magicam is not my fault.”

Jack smirked, romantically lifting his beloved off the ground and heading for the stairs, so they can finish the rest of Mika’s special day.