Happy Birthday Nikooo!

Devlog Weekly Update 02/09/2024

It's September 2nd and that means that our darling Niko is celebrating his birthday today!!!

In light of this LOVELY occasion, please enjoy a little drabble and some art from darling Athra on Xitter!

The summer before senior year of high school, Niko had been very, very busy. There were photo shoots and fashion shows and trips and meetings with his agent, and in between it all he had been working hard on some designs he’d hoped would get him into fashion school.

You hadn’t been able to spend a ton of time together, and you were both feeling the absence of each other.

But as school began and his schedule became even busier, you knew that his 18th birthday was coming up. It was a big one, and you were prepared to make it special.

“Clear your schedule for your birthday, pretty boy,” you’d texted him a few days in advance.

“And if I don’t?” he responded.

“Then you can face my wrath, loser.”

Niko assured you that you would have him all to yourself on his birthday, and with that in mind, you started making the plans.

After school, he waited for you in your usual meet-up spot, and you walked home together, hand-in-hand.

“You have a surprise for me, don’t you?” he asked, smiling wide.

“Maybe.”

“Shut up, I can read you like a book,” he laughed. “What is it?”

“I didn’t say I had a surprise for you! I think the middle-aged moms fawning over you on TikTok is starting to go to your head.”

“Fine, fine,” he said. “No surprise. Just a normal day then.”

“Totally normal,” you agreed.

When you made it back to your respective homes, two mirror-image houses that set side by side, you continued holding his hand and, without a word, guided him to the big tree that grew in the sliver of land between them.

You’d spent so much time together with this tree – climbing it as children, looking between its branches to talk to each other out of your bedroom windows. It was part of your love story.

And beneath its canopy was a picnic blanket and a basket that you knew Niko’s mother had filled with some of his favorite foods. When you knelt down to open it, you pulled out a container of kare kare, a small vegetable tray (you were sure to tease him here about needing to maintain his figure) and another small container that held maja blanca.

“Now, I didn’t prepare all of this,” you began, pulling out dishes and silverware. “But it was my idea, so …”

“So you’re perfect.”

You stopped, momentarily taken aback by the sincerity in Niko’s voice.

“You didn’t have to do anything for me, and you did,” he told you, kneeling down in front of you and grabbing your hands. “I would have been happy just to spend time with you, but you thought enough about me to do this. It means a lot.”’

His voice had gotten deep and quiet – a telltale sign that he meant what he was saying.

“Of course I did something for your birthday, Niko,” you said. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he responded. “More than anything.”

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