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“Caboose is right and you all know it!” Donut said slamming his huge white binder on the table. It’s only been a day since Caboose mentioned that they should throw a birthday party for Washington, and Donut was one hundred percent on board. He could picture it now; the greatest surprise party ever. Of all time. “Wash deserves a day off and his birthday is the perfect excuse!”
“But, a surprise party? For Wash? Doesn’t that seem like a bad idea after everything he’s been through?” Simmons asked from where he was sitting next to Grif. His hands tightened around his coffee mug and he quickly looked around the room at his friends.
After the war ended, they were all offered their own places to live, but quickly realized that being apart from their friends was not as easy as they thought it’d be. They decided that it would probably be for the best for everyone to move to the same block. Which is how everyone found themselves at Donuts house at six-thirty in the morning, in their pajamas and slippers along with coffee and doughnuts. They all sat at the long dining table with sheets of papers and pens scattered in front of them. Everyone, but Washington.
“He’s changed…” Carolina started and looked at everyone individually, “He’s starting to act more like the rookie everyone teased and loved during Project Freelancer. He’s happy.”
Tucker smiled and pointed both of his thumbs at himself, “All thanks to this guy,” he said, but almost everyone ignored him and continued to stare at Carolina. She was the only one that acknowledged him; she crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head lightly with a small smile forming across her face.
When she didn’t say anything more, Donut broke the silence, “See! Carolina’s on board!” he looked over at her with a soft pleading look, “Right, Lina?”
Carolina studied him and looked down at the papers on the table, “Alright,” she said. She picked up the paper and read the title to herself, ‘Operation: Surprise Birthday Bash.’ She looked at Caboose and said “So, what did you have in mind?” Caboose smiled at her and began ranting off things that everyone was positive he was making up on the spot. Seriously, pancake cupcakes? Would Wash even like that?
By eight am, everyone had their jobs. Tucker was in charge of invitations and keeping Wash distracted on the day of the party. Caboose was in charge of the party games; they just hoped that they made sense. Grif and Simmons were in charge of food and drinks; everyone knew that Simmons was the best cook around - he loved to cook for Grif - and Grif made the best mixed drinks. Donut was in charge of decorations. Lopez was the DJ. Sarge and Dr. Grey were in charge of finding the best location to have the party; they were the best choice for this job because after the war ended, Emily would drag Sarge on miniature adventures across Chorus. And Carolina was in charge of being charge.
****
The day of the party was quickly approaching and Wash was heading home. He had left on a business trip along with Kimball and a few others, on the other side of Chorus. Carolina was supposed to go with her, but when she got sick Kimball insisted that she should stay home and relax.
Everyone was expecting them to arrive the day of the party, but a call from Kimball changed everything. They were to be expected home two days before. How could they keep it a secret for two days? The party was huge! Everyone was invited; Kimball knew that. They needed an emergency meeting.
“Hey, I’m good! But not that good! I can’t keep a secret from him for two days!”
“Tucker, it’ll only be one day. We’re all going to help you out, but we still have our own jobs to worry about,” Carolina said looking at Tucker “Plus, they won’t be arriving until late Thursday, so he’s most likely just going to want to rest.”
“What about Friday? You know Wash! He won’t want to stay at home all day,” Tucker said running his hands through his hair, “He’s going to want to hang out with everyone. And see how you’re all doing.”
“I can help you on Friday” Caboose said loudly, “I can bring Freckles with me! And we can play board games and color and watch TV and color-”
“Alright,” Carolina said, “Caboose can help you out on Friday. Are you done with the invitations?”
Tucker rolled his eyes, “Am I done with a million invitations? Of course I am! I just set up an event on Basebook. Good thing Wash doesn’t have Basebook.”
After Carolina checked in how everyone was doing and they all assured her that everything was going well, she ended the meeting.
****
Carolina was right. The night that Wash arrived all he wanted to do was take a shower and go to sleep. Tucker was thankful for that; he knew if Wash asked how his week went, he was sure he was going to spill the beans.
****
The day before the party, everyone was busy trying to get everything done. Simmons had gotten some people to help him with the food, because cooking for an entire planet and trying to keep Grif from eating it all, was not something that he could handle. Sarge and Emily found a perfect location; it was a near a waterfall and had plenty of room for everyone to sit. Donut kept everything relatively simple, considering that it was going to be outdoors. The location was pretty enough that Donut did not want to mess with it. Lopez had to set up his DJ system to a generator that Carolina and Sarge brought over from town.
Tucker had a more difficult time with his part. He knew that he couldn’t keep Wash inside their house all day, so he was thankful that Caboose was coming over. He woke up to Wash starting to get out of bed.
Tucker quickly reached over and grabbed his wrist, “Whoa! Where are you going?” he asked trying to hide the panic from his voice. Why was he panicking? He was supposed to act natural.
Wash narrowed his eyes, “I’m going to make coffee?”
“I can think of another thing that can help you wake up,” he said waggling his eyebrows and a smirk across his face.
Wash felt his face get a little hot, but quickly got into bed again.
****
Tucker and Wash spent all morning in bed, and Wash needed to get up. He wasn’t the type to spend all day in bed, so he quietly got up while Tucker was asleep again.
Tucker woke up to an empty bed and quickly made his way to the kitchen; trying to act casual. Wash was dressed and drinking a cup of coffee. He was leaning against the counter reading something on his data pad.
“Wanna go get lunch at that little place by the school?” Wash asked still looking down at his data pad.
“No!” Tucker said quickly and Wash looked up at him with wide eyes and mouth slightly gaped, “Uh… I mean, why not have lunch here? I can cook something for you.”
“Tucker, you hate cooking.”
“Pssh! Who said that?”
Wash rolled his eyes, “You did- you do. Everyday.”
“Whatever, dude. Prepare to be amazed at how awesome of a cook I am.” Tucker said making his way into the kitchen. Wash slowly moved out of his way, but kept his eyes on him. Tucker noticed him staring and rolled his eyes, “What?”
Wash shrugged, “I don’t think I’ve never seen you cook.”
“I’ve cooked for you before, babe.”
“Actually, you’ve heated up food that Simmons cooked for us” Wash said crossing his arms over his chest and Tucker rolled his eyes. “Seriously though, let’s go eat.”
“Caboose is coming over” Tucker said.
“Caboose? Why is he coming over?”
“I don’t know. It’s Caboose.”
Wash sighed and slowly nodded, “Fine. I’ll cook something.” Tucker smiled and made his way out of the kitchen.
****
Once Caboose came over, Tucker felt himself relax a little more. Caboose was able to distract Wash with his stories and games almost the entire afternoon, but once evening started to roll around, he needed to head out.
“I need to finish my job, Tucker.” Caboose said arms crossed over, “Making up games is not as easy as it sounds.”
Tucker ran his hands down his face, “Caboose you don’t need to make up the games yourself” and Caboose looked at him like if he was speaking a foreign language. He rolled his eyes, “Fine. Whatever. Thanks for helping me out, man.”
“You are very welcome, Tucker” he said with a giant smile. He headed out of the kitchen from where he was talking to Tucker and made his way to the door. “Bye, Tucker. Bye, Wash,” he waved, “See you tomorrow!”
“Tomorrow?” Wash asked, but Caboose left and closed the door behind him. Tucker widened his eyes and slowly started to back up towards their bathroom. “Are we seeing him again tomorrow?” Wash asked Tucker.
Tucker simply shrugged, “I need to pee!” he yelled.
****
By dinner time, Wash really wanted to leave the house. He felt like he needed to get some air. “Want to have dinner at Simmons and Grifs? I haven’t seen the gang in a week.”
“Dude, why don’t we just order a pizza?”
“Ok, what’s going on?” Wash asked crossing his arms and looking down at Tucker who was laying down on the couch.
“What do you mean?” Tucker sat up and his heart started racing.
“Why don’t you want to leave the house?”
Tucker shrugged, “I haven’t seen you in a week dude. I just want to spend time with you.”
“Tucker, we’re going to dinner together. You’re going to be with me either way”
“Yeah, but…” Tucker didn’t know what to say.
Wash took a seat next to him, “But what? Are you ok? Are you in trouble?”
Tucker didn’t know what to say. He knew that if they left the house, someone was sure going to spoil the surprise. Or he would see that Simmons and Grif were busy preparing for the party. Wash was sure going to notice that none of their friends were available to hang out. And notice the balloons leading the path to the party. But he also knew that he wasn’t good at keeping secrets from Wash and he was going to burst out the reason they couldn’t leave. So, he did the next best thing.
Tucker shrugged and pulled Wash in for a kiss. Wash rolled his eyes and kissed him back.
****
Later that night when they were in bed, Wash noticed that Tucker was still acting strangely. He was extremely focused on his data pad and kept messaging someone. The quiet DING filled the quiet room.
“Who are you talking to?” he finally decided to ask, placing his own data pad on the his lap.
“Huh?” he asked still looking down.
“Who are you messaging at this time?” Wash asked glancing at the time.
“Oh. Uh, it’s just Grif.” Tucker replied placing down his data pad on the night stand.
Wash narrowed his eyes, “Seriously, what’s going on, Lavernius?”
Tucker rolled his eyes, “Nothing is going on, David. I’m just talking to Grif.”
“I know you. You’re hiding something from me. What is it?”
“I’m not hiding anything!” Tucker said crossing his arms over his chest; heart pounding.
“Tucker.”
“Wash.”
“Why don’t you just tell me what’s going on? If you’re in trouble, I can help you.”
“I’m not in trouble.”
“Then what’s going on?”
“Nothing is going on, Wash. I’m just tired and stressed out from work.”
Wash sighed, “Are you sure? Work has never been this stressful for you.”
Tucker shrugged, “It’s just been a long week, Wash. Plus, I missed you,” he said leaning towards his boyfriend.
“I missed you, too.”
****
The next morning, Tucker woke up before Wash to check in on how everyone was doing. He quietly got out of bed and glanced back making sure Wash was still asleep. He headed to the kitchen and sent out a group message. Everyone replied within minutes saying that everything was going great. Simmons and his crew were able to get all the food ready and Grif had made buckets of drinks. Donut had finished decorating the location and Caboose had made up almost twenty new games. Carolina assured him that she double checked, herself, that everything was a go. She said that they should start heading out around noon. Tucker let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in. He only needed to stall for a few more hours.
By the time Wash woke up, it was eight am.
“Happy Birthday,” Tucker called from the kitchen when he saw Wash walking down the hallway.
Wash smiled, “Thank you” he said making his way to kiss Tucker.
“So, what do you want to do today?” he asked Wash, while pouring him a cup of coffee.
“I just want to spend the day with you and everyone else,” he said reaching for his coffee.
Tucker nodded, “Ok, babe. But first,” he said grabbing the mug out of Washs hands, “Birthday sex.”
****
When it hit noon, Tucker told Wash that they should have lunch with friends; Wash agreed. While Wash was in the shower, Tucker messaged his friends informing them that they were going to head out in thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes later, Wash and Tucker headed out the door. Tucker sent a quick message to the gang saying that they were on their way.
As soon as they opened the front door, there were balloons tied to their fence. Wash turned to Tucker, who just smiled and continued walking down the street. There were balloons everywhere, Wash noticed; all along their neighbors’ fences.
“Why are there so many balloons?” Wash asked him. Tucker simply shrugged and remained quiet. Wash narrowed his eyes, but let it go.
They made it a block before they reached downtown, when Tucker grabbed Washs hand and turned right.
“Tucker, where are we going?!”
Tucker let go of his hand and ran straight into a field.
“Try and catch me!” Tucker yelled with a laugh. Wash smiled and ran after Tucker.
Once Tucker reached the small forest he waited for Wash to catch up before he ran in again. He didn’t run too fast because he didn’t Wash to get lost.
“You’re slowing down, old man!” Tucker yelled.
“Shut up, Lavernius!” Wash laughed.
Wash was able to keep up with Tucker and once he reached him, he noticed the waterfall and the decorations.
“SURPRISE!” everyone yelled, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”
Wash blushed and a huge grin formed across his face. He turned to Tucker who just smiled and said, “You said you wanted to hang out with everyone.” Wash laughed and kissed him.
“This was not what I meant, but thank you.”
Everyone slowly started to make their way to the man of the hour. People shook his hand. Others hugged him. Dr. Grey actually kissed him on the cheek and Sarge quietly threatened him when he shook his hand.
Wash took in his surroundings. Everyone was there, old friends and new. The waterfall was a beautiful backdrop to the people sitting around and socializing. Simmons stood near the food station to make sure everything was ok. Caboose was playing a game with people. Lopez was playing music. Donut was chatting away with Carolina and Kimball. Sarge and Emily were sitting under a tree talking to some people; Sarge was no doubt telling them a story from his time in Blood Gulch - those were everyones favorites. Tucker and Grif were chatting away; both drinking a beer.
Tucker turned to look at Wash and smiled. He headed towards him, “Happy Birthday, old man,” he said quietly.
“Thank you,” Wash said with a smile.