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When the beginning of May neared, Paul Jones knew his time was running out.

The day snuck up on him, much as it did every year. Dates were never his forte - hell, anything that had to do with organizing or calendars or remembering s**t wasn’t his thing… but he eventually remembered. Maybe not months in advance, maybe not even several weeks but he always seemed to remember just in the nick of time.

Planning was another one of his character flaws - he acted on impulse, he acted rashly, he wasn't very good at taking his time and thinking things through. He’d come up with several ways of making the particular day a special one but he’d yet to figure out the big wow factor.

What did one get a guy who was in charge of the money - who made all of the important decisions for the family?

What Paul needed was a Know-It-All.

Unfortunately, the only Know-It-All that he knew happened to be the man he was married to. Noah had the cleverness, the good ideas, the last minute gems that could save the day. Ever since they moved to Destiny City, all of his connections had either been through Noah or work related, so relying on anyone just wasn’t…

Wait.

Oh for ******** sake.

It took exactly two beers, twenty minutes and a helluva lot of exhales before he pulled out his cell phone to call a number he never thought he’d independently call on his own. With Noah at work, it was now or never....

And hell, maybe the furball could use some of his hoodoo to come up with something super classy for the classiest guy he knew.




Itsuki was sleeping in a windowsill, lovingly blanketed with springtime sunshine. He almost slept through the mental ringing of his NekoCommu device, but luckily, phone calls were fairly rare and were thus always important! One ear shot up and the cat chirped and puffed himself awake, absently pulling the device from its subspace pocket. Tapping it to his ear, the NekoCommu wrapped itself around his fuzzy ears like a headset.

“Moshi moshi~” greeted the cat. “This is Itsuki~!”

The gruff voice on the other end came as a surprise. Only one person Itsuki knew could sound that honto beefy, whether purposeful or naturally.

“Paul-sama! Daijoubu des--- oh!”

Paul sounded panicked. Quickly did the older Jones explain that Noah’s birthday was mere days away, and Paul lacked something to really stun the redhead. Paul was good at many things - punching, being beefy, having just the right amount of stubble, punching more things and drinking beer, but he lacked ideas. There was only so much the beefy man could do, he said probably minus the beefy part, for Paul likely didn’t describe himself that way.

“Ah, Paul-sama~ I didn’t know Noah-san’s birthday was so close! He’s a very fancy man. Hmmm… Let me hop on Google~!”

Whether or not Paul realized Mauvians were well-versed in technology remained to be seen. Still on the call, Itsuki hopped down from the windowsill to trot over to Zach’s laptop (bought with his new job’s first paycheck, mostly used for school). Propping it open and turning it on, dextrous beans slid easily across the, keyboard. “Well, let’s see… there’s a wine-tasting tour on Sunday that includes dinner! There’s also an outdoor movie theater that’s opening on Saturday…”

Hmm… there simply had to be something better on here.

“Eh…? Paul-sama, does Noah-san like symphonies? The Destiny City Chamber Orchestra is playing downtown on Saturday night! Doors open at 7PM… What about that?”




The phone was pressed tightly against his ear as he paced around the house, both ashamed at himself for having been reduced to talking to a cat about such matters and proud to have recalled someone that probably knew everything there was to know about everything going on in Destiny City.

He babbled, just as to be expected, spouting out foreign word after foreign word until he dropped one that Paul did recognize.

s**t. He could have been ******** googling this s**t the entire time. <******** the device against his ear and shoulder, the large man took to the staircase, skipping every other step as he made his way into the bedroom where his own laptop was kept. It was a ******** joke that he even had one, some shoddy excuse for him to talk to Noah through when he was out of town on business, but maybe it would come in handy for once for something besides Skype calls and porn.

At the mention of wine (and food), Paul's ears perked, then immediately lowered. As much as he would enjoy copious amounts of alcohol, he could already see it as a recipe for disaster. Itchetki seemed to agree, moving on to the next thought.

An outdoor movie wasn't a half bad idea… if one wanted to spend the evening surrounded by families full of ******** snot-nosed brats. He'd rather stab his own ear drums in advance, thanks.

Then...Itchooku suggested the orchestra and it gave Paul pause….and not just because Paul struggled in trying to spell orchestra.

Going to an orchestra seemed about as exciting as getting a broken tooth pulled or a series of stitches put in. Scratch that, stitches sounded better than sitting down and watching a group of ******** nerds blowing on their horns all night.

But...this was for Noah.

And it…well…it did sound pretty ******** classy.

“Do you…” Heavy breath filled the receiver as he typed in the attempted word for the third time, Google's autocorrect finally realizing what he was trying to say, “D’you think he'd like that? You know… it sounds fancy as s**t, right?”

He paused as his eyes skimmed the details on the order page, his heart sinking as he saw the credit card required lines for ordering. Noah watched their spending like a hawk, so using the card he'd been given for groceries and s**t was out of the question.

“I...I have cash,” he fumbled his words, the irritation in his tone growing, “Can you just… y'know, make this s**t appear? The ******** is the internet good for if I can't buy anything from it!?”



“Daijoubu, daijoubu, Paul-sama. We got this!”

Cash didn’t work out in the immediate timeframe, but the Mauvian had a plan - Melody had given him access to a debit card with a small amount of money on it for emergencies. This sort of situation definitely counted as an emergency, and the amount of cash on the debit card was enough to cover two tickets (this was a special occasion, after all!) With a few flicks of his squishy toe-beans, two tickets in prime seating were arranged for Jones, party of two. Itsuki even indicated that it was Noah’s birthday and asked if the staff could make special arrangements. Maybe a dozen roses? Or just one might be enough.

“I’ll have the tickets sent to your email! All you have to do is pull up the email on your phone and show it to the ticket counter. There’s a code they can scan. Now you don’t have to worry about losing your paper tickets! Isn’t technology sugoi~? I’ll meet you and you can give me the cash - don’t worry, I already paid for the tickets. I bet you didn’t know I have a debit card!”

Itsuki would have winked if Paul could have seen it.

“I found some prime seats in the balcony area, right in the center. You won’t be surrounded by so many people, and you won’t be so close that it’ll be super loud. Don’t worry, it’s pretty fancy up there~ Very romantic.”

Oh! Speaking of fancy…

Itsuki raised a paw to his chin, contemplating (not that Paul could see it, but it looked good!). “Paul-sama, do you have a tuxedo? You should definitely consider renting a suit if you don’t have one already! Symphonies have a honto fanshii~ dresscode, you know. Do you need me to arrange a suit rental too? I can do that, you know. We Mauvians are very technologically-inclined, fufufu~”



He wasn't going to lose his masculinity to some computer guru of a cat.

Teeth gritted together, jaw clenching almost painfully tight as he tried to make sense of what the cat was telling him. He'd bought the tickets. He was having the tickets sent...to his phone?

Whatever the ******** that meant.

Itchooki made it all sound so simple, which only made Paul less inclined to admit when he was confused. He'd… He'd figure it out, once he got the email notification. Surely it was self-explanatory, once it went through, right?

“Stop by this weekend and I'll get you the money.”

Pause.

“Wait - don't come by. I'll leave it under the pot on the front porch.”

The very last thing he needed was for Noah's intimate birthday to be crashed by a cat with good intentions. He was starting to grow fond of the little furball and having slippers made out of the Mau wasn't the best way to make friends.

He automatically winced at the mention of tuxedo. Dressing up was far from fun for the older man, but he knew Noah was into that sort of s**t and hell, the kiddo looked pretty hot in a suit himself. It was what it was.

“I got it taken care of. Probably need to go get them cleaned… will get on that now, actually.”

Shifting the phone, he closed the links on the laptop before folding the laptop shut. He had a few more errands to run before Noah got home and if he wanted to keep things suspicious-free, he needed to act now.

Taking a deep breath, Paul Jones swallowed his pride as he muttered quietly, “Thanks, kitto. I owe you one.”




“Oh! Don’t forget a cake! Noah-san likes cake, right? Maybe not, since it’s not very healthy, but every once in a while is okay, right?”

Itsuki was a fan of cake. And sushi. And fish. Quite a lot of things, really.

“I hope it goes well! You care a lot about Noah-san. I think it shows through with your desire to make him happy! It’s very wholesome, when you think about it. Paul-sama, I bet your heart goes dokidoki when you see your husband~ Fufufu~”

Yes, it was teasing, but it was all in good fun. Itsuki closed down the laptop now that his task had been completed. The ticket confirmation and instructions would already be delivered to Paul’s email address. Hopefully he could follow the instructions and not panic at the box office. Surely it would go well! What Paul may have lacked in foresight, he made up for with enthusiasm.

“I’ll drop by and pick up the money this weekend~ You just make sure Noah-san has a good birthday, okay? Tell him. otanjyoubi omedoto for me~”