Aizawa led her inside the small room on the side of the bar they frequented. It was dark, so Elly couldn't see until he manually flicked the lights on.
"<i>Surprise!</i>"
The room was packed full of their mutual colleagues and friends wearing comical foil hats and blowing noisemakers. Hizashi hadn't been allowed one of those, of course, so he had resorted to throwing confetti. He flew into his task with extra enthusiasm, resulting in a double handful of glittery rainbow paper tossed in her direction.
Elly blew the multicolored dots off her face, her eyes squeezed shut and furry ears flicking more bits onto her shoulders.
"Oops! Sorry!"
Aizawa rubbed at the back of his neck, beginning to look nervous. "I thought this would be a good idea; if you're upset, we can, ah, slip away in the back." He paused, calculating the mood of the room and correctly accessing it as 'mostly drunk'. "They probably won't even notice."
She slowly turned to face him, her expression dumbfounded. "You - you did this? But you <i>hate</i> public displays - and, and this is all ..."
"I thought you would enjoy it."
"I love it!"
Aizawa's brows drew together in confusion. "But..."
"I love it more <i>because</i> you did all this when you hate social stuff. You did it for me anyway. That's - that's so special." She placed a hand over her mouth, her voice breaking.
"Don't cry, please..." He cringed as he heard them yelling at him in the background. "They're going to think I've said something insensitive and try to help."
"Pfff! Too bad." She laughed and he grinned, relieved. "There's a song that goes, 'it's my party and I'll cry if I want to'. They're happy tears, though."
Aizawa swallowed hard, blushing and hating himself for not being able to control the physical reaction.
"Happy birthday, then."
She touched his shoulder lightly, her eyes shining. "Thank you."
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