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“Hey, Sun!” Beachcomber waved as he approached Sunstreaker’s table. The shorter man was grinning and carrying a small pink bag. He sat the bag down next to Sunstreaker’s drawing pad and bounced once on the balls of his feet. “Happy birthday!”
“Uh, thanks?” Sunstreaker blinked at the bag for a moment. He almost asked how Beachcomber had known, but obviously they knew when Sideswipe’s birthday was given how long he’d been dating Cosmos. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I wanted to.” Beachcomber’s smile widened. “Go ahead and open it.”
“Okay.” He picked up the bag and opened the top. A small card was tucked inside, on top of a ball of tissue paper. Sunstreaker opened it and smiled at the message inside, a generic but sweet wish that he had the best of days followed by a doodle of a sun rising over a beach. Then he pulled the ball of tissue paper out of the bag and started unrolling it.
After what had to be three meters of carefully layered paper, he reached the center of the ball and the gift that Beachcomber had given him. And felt his breath catch.
“Oh, Beachcomber, thank you.” He was holding a small set of hand made watercolor paints, imported from a maker in Kaon at no small expense. He knew how much these had cost, because he had been showing them to his twin a few weeks before and wishing out loud for enough money to buy them.
“You are very welcome. I can’t wait to see what you paint with them.” Beachcomber’s phone beeped, cutting off anything else he might have been about to say. “Dang, gotta go! See you later, Sun! Have a great day!”
“Yeah, you too. Thanks again.” Sunstreaker looked up from the paints long enough to smile at the other man. Then he stared at them again, touched and surprised all over again. These paints were not the kind of gift you gave to someone who was just the brother of the guy dating your own brother.
“Hi Sunny!” He was startled out of his thoughts by Glyph sliding into the chair across from him and holding a small box, clumsily wrapped in brown paper that might have been a grocery bag before it was gift wrap. “Did Uncle Beachy give you your present?”
“Yeah, he did. Did you know what he was getting me?”
“Yep.” Glyph nodded. “He asked me to double check and make sure it was the right ones and everything. Uncle Sides said they’d be perfect, do you like them?”
“I love them.”
“Good. I hope you love our present too. Rook and I worked really hard to get the money for it.” She lifted the box, but didn’t hand it to him. “But you can’t have it til he gets here.”
“That’s okay, I can wait.”
“Good morning, Glyph,” Cosmos approached the table, carrying two drinks. He set them down and kissed Glyph on the top of the head. “Happy birthday, Sunstreaker. I see I missed Beachcomber.”
“Yeah. I take it you knew, too?”
“I did.” Cosmos grinned. Then he pulled a box, just a bit bigger than Glyph’s, from his apron pocket. “We, um, might have done a group gift.”
Sunstreaker’s eyes widened as Cosmos set the box on the table next to the pile of tissue paper.
“Open it with the kids’ gift.” Cosmos smiled again. “I’ve got to get back to the muffins before Sideswipe ruins them.”
“His muffins aren’t that bad,” Sunstreaker retorted automatically. Then they all laughed. Sideswipe’s muffins were edible, but they didn't hold a candle to Cosmos’. “Thank you for the gift.”
“You’re welcome. I hope you get a great deal of enjoyment out of it.” Cosmos patted him on the shoulder before going back into the kitchen.
A moment later, Sideswipe came out of the kitchen, carrying a large package wrapped in sparkly yellow paper. He was smiling at something Cosmos must have said, and Sunstreaker was struck by the realization that he could have gotten nothing at all for his birthday and it would have been enough just to see his twin so fragging happy.
“Happy birthday, bro!” Sideswipe beamed at him as he set the package in the window, out of the way.
“Happy birthday, bro,” Sunsreaker replied with a grin. “You in on it, too?”
“Yep! It’s a family tradition, group gift for the newest member.” His twin’s smile widened. “They got me a dresser and new clothes after Cosmos and I were living together. My jeans had been getting threadbare, apparently.”
“They were,” Glyph agreed without hesitation. “I could see your butt through that one pair!”
“Anyway!” Sideswipe blushed faintly and Sunstreaker didn’t suppress his grin at his twin’s discomfort. Not nearly enough people managed to embarrass his brother. “Mom asked a couple months ago what you wanted or what would be a good idea and we just started planning. It was more fun than i was expecting.”
“Did you just call Coundown ‘mom’?” Sunsteraker wasn’t precisely surprised by it, especially since their mom had died so young, but he was surprised by how normal it felt.
“Huh.” Sideswipe blinked. “Guess I did. Hope she doesn’t mind.”
“She won’t,” Bumblebee interrupted, approaching the table with Rook and Bumper. Rook didn’t hesitate to scramble into the chair next to his sister and stare at Sunstreaker expectantly. Bumper walked up to Sunstreaker and climbed into his lap, then held up a box wrapped int he same brown paper as Glyph's. “She’ll probably like it, even. Sunny, please open the gift from Bumper and I before he explodes.”
“He’s been really excited to give it to you,” Rook agreed.
“Okay.” Sunstreaker took the box, thin and light, from the youngest of Bumblebee’s kids.
“I picked it,” Bumper told him with a grin.
“I bet you did great.” Sunstreaker lifted the tape on one corner and then tore the paper off when a shake revealed that the actual gift wouldn’t just fall out the open end. He smiled at the box of pencils, six in assorted hardness levels, made from compostable materials with flower seeds encased in the very end.
He wouldn’t have picked this exact kind himself, but he appreciated the thoughtfulness and the fact that they were very useful. And he also appreciated the fact that Bumblebee hadn’t overextended herself buying a gift she couldn’t afford.
“These are great! Thanks, Bumper!” He hugged the boy and looked up at Bumblebee with a smile. “Thanks, Bee. I needed new pencils soon.”
“Now ours!” Glyph interrupted before anyone could say ‘you’re welcome’. She handed Sunstreaker the box she’d been holding, and he was surprised by how heavy it was.
Glyph and Rook watched intently as he tore the paper, ripping around several layers before revealing a polished wood box, carved with a stylized sun and moon on the top. He opened it carefully, delighted to find it closed with magnets, and studied the interior before deciding that it would hold the few pencils he had in his apartment along with the ones he had just received.
“Kids, this is beautiful. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome!” Glyph beamed.
“We pulled so many weeds to get it,” Rook added with a dramatic groan.
“They did,” Bumblebee agreed. “They took jobs from anyone who’d hire them, pulling weeds, washing cars, whatever. I’m really proud of them.”
“I am too,” Sideswipe agreed.
“You should be, and so should they. This had to cost as much as the watercolors.”
“Mister Whirl cut us a deal,” Rook disagreed.
“But it was still a lot,” Glyph said with a frown directed at her brother. Then she smiled back at Sunstreaker. “You deserve it, though.”
“I don’t know about that,”Sunstreaker replied. “But I’m glad you think so. I really love it.”
“Good!” Both older children chorused with matching grins.
“You can open mine now, if you want,” Sideswipe said, smiling brightly. “Or you can wait til after Countdown gets here. I know she didn’t think she’d be able to make it til she was on her lunch break.”
“I’ll wait, I think. Birthday or not, I’ve still got a project to get turned in for work today.”
“And I’ve got to get Bumper and Rook to school. And Glyph has to get herself to school, too.” Bumblebee sighed. “Will we see you for dinner?”
Earlier, he would have said no, but after this… “If everyone’s getting together, yeah. That sounds nice.”
“Great, see you later! Come on, boys!” Bumper hugged him before sliding down off Sunstreaker’s lap and going with his mother, and Sunstreaker felt warmed by the gesture. He had known the youngest of the kids had liked him, but he hadn’t seen it for the inclusion that it was until now. “And Glyph, don’t you dawdle just because your uncle let you have cocoa for breakfast again!”
“I won’t mama,” Glyph replied.
“I’ll make sure she leaves on time,” Sunstreaker assured Bee. after all, that was the sort of thing families did for each other.
And well, it turned out that his was a lot bigger than just Sideswipe.