Kokichi stood outside his apartment, watching as firefighters rushed in. He turned to the green alien by his side.

"Shuichi isn't going to be happy when he gets back."

Earlier that day

"Have a good day," Kokichi said, watching his beloved walk out the door. "Save lots of people!"

Shuichi laughed. "Sure thing. Love you."

"Love you too."

The door closed.

Kokichi sighed, a little sad. It was lonely sometimes, having a detective as a boyfriend. Shuichi was almost always at work or working at home, which meant they didn't often get to do anything together.

He plopped himself down on the couch, trying to think of something to do until Shuichi came back. He knew he should just get a job, but the thought of working now that he'd quit Dice made him depressed. It made it seem like the fun part of his life was over. Not that he didn't enjoy being with Shuichi, but it was boring when Shuichi wasn't around. Kokichi had even tried cooking and cleaning to fill the monotony, but that just made him feel like housewife, which was unacceptable.

Aware of the direction his thoughts were going, Kokichi decided to go for a walk. Maybe some fresh air would clear his head. He headed for the front door, and narrowly missed getting hit in the face as it flew open.

Kokichi stumbled back, expecting a robber to rush in. Instead he saw Shuichi's best friend, Kaito, standing in the doorway.

He put a hand over his racing heart. "Holy fuck Kaito, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

Kaito looked down at the short boy. "Oh, uhh, sorry about that," he said civilly. It wasn't a secret that the two didn't like each other, but for Shuichi's sake they tried to avoid all out war from breaking out between them.

Kokichi huffed in annoyance. "Why are you even here this early in the morning?"

"I wanted to drop this off before Shuichi left for work," Kaito said while holding up a gift box. "From the looks of it, I must have missed him."

"Why did you bring a gift?" Kokichi asked, confused.

Kaito raised an eyebrow at him. "You didn't forget, did you?"

"Forget what?"

"Today is Shuichi's birthday."

Kokichi stared at him. "Oh shit."

"How could you forget his birthday?!" Kaito demanded.

"Look, I've been dealing with some personal stuff, okay." Kokichi ran his fingers through his hair. "That doesn't matter now. You need to help me set a party up for him so he doesn't realize I forgot."

"I've already have stuff I gotta to do today," Kaito complained. "Besides, why should I help you?"

"Because Shuichi would be so sad if he learned I forgot his birthday, and you wouldn't want your sidekick to be sad, would you?"

"Ah, fine, but you owe me one," Kaito relented.

Kokichi grinned. "Great! Now go to the store and buy stuff to decorate this place."

"Huh? Why me?" Kaito protested. "What are you gonna be doing?"

"I'm going to bake a cake of course," Kokichi replied.

"Do you even know how to bake a cake?"

"No, but there's a cook book in the kitchen. How hard could it be?"

"Alright, if you say so." Kaito started to leave when he turned back around. "Hey, what kind of decorations should I get?"

Kokichi shrugged. "I don't know. Just get something that looks nice."

"Got it. You can count on me, the luminary of the stars!"

"Yeah, yeah," Kokichi said as he shooed Kaito out the door. He took a deep breath. "Time for the cake."

He went to the kitchen and took out the cookbook. Its cover was shiny and unwrinkled; as far as he knew, Shuichi never used it. Kokichi flipped through the pages, finding quite a few cake recipes. In the end, he decided on a simple vanilla cake.

"Let's see. I need eggs, flour..." he trailed off as he rifled through the kitchen for the necessary items. "Baking soda? What's that? Whatever, I'll just use Panta as a substitute. They're both soda, right?"

Once he located all the ingredients, Kokichi threw them all in a bowl haphazardly and mixed them together. He poured the resulting goop into a cake pan and threw it in the oven.

"Whew, all done," Kokichi said as he dusted flour off of his hands.

At that moment, Kaito returned, arms so full of shopping bags Kokichi couldn't see Kaito behind them.

"Hey, where do you want me to put all this stuff?" Kaito asked.

Kokichi just blinked at the mountain of bags for a moment. "What the hell did you buy?"

"I bought stuff for the party like you asked me to. The store was showcasing all these space themed party items, so I bought a ton." At this point, Kaito got tired of holding all the bags and put them down in the kitchen, revealing the costume he was wearing.

Kokichi looked down and put a hand over his face. "Kaito, are you dressed as an alien?"

"Yeah, they were selling the outfit at the store too. Pretty neat huh?" He put out his arms and gave a little twirl.

"Kaito! It was supposed to look like I planned the party. Shuichi will know for sure it was you when he sees the place looking like outer space." Kokichi sighed in frustration. "Whatever, it's too late to get more decorations. We can just say we planned the party together. Anyway, take off that stupid costume and help me put up them up."

"Hey, don't call the costume stupid! It's super cool, and I'm keeping it on."

"No you're not. Shuichi isn't a five year old kid. If you wear that costume you'll just make things super weird."

The two argued back and forth, eventually leading to Kokichi chasing Kaito through the apartment in an attempt to take the costume off by force.

Suddenly, Kaito stopped, making Kokichi bump into Kaito and fall to the floor.

"Ow! What the hell Kaito?"

Kaito looked at him. "Do you smell something?"

"Huh?"

"It smells like something's burning."

Kokichi inhaled deeply through his nose. The smell of smoke permeated through the apartment. "Shit! The cake!"

The two rushed into the kitchen and opened the oven. Black smoke billowed out, making the pair cough.

"Kaito, we need to get out of here! Call the fire department!"

They ran out of the apartment and waited. Soon, the sound of sirens filled the air.

Kokichi stood outside his apartment, watching as firefighters rushed in. He turned to the green alien by his side.

"Shuichi isn't going to be happy when he gets back."

As if those words had summoned him, Shuichi walked up beside them, his eyes wide.

"Shuichi! Um, how was your day?" Kokichi asked nervously.

"It was fine," Shuichi said absentmindedly. He stared disbelieving at their apartment. "What happened?"

"I... we..." Kokichi stuttered. He tried and failed to think up an excuse. "I wanted to do something special for you're birthday because you're not around very often, so I baked a cake. Kaito was helping me with decorations but we ended up fighting and the cake set our oven on fire or something."

"Wait, it's my birthday today? I totally forgot."

Now Kokichi was the one staring. "You can't be serious."

Shuichi blushed, embarrassed. "I guess I've been a little too distracted with work."

Kokichi shook his head, throwing his hair over his face. "What was even the point of all this then?"

Shuichi tucked Kokichi's hair back. "I'm sorry I've been working so much lately. You must have been pretty lonely if you were desperate enough to bake a cake to get my attention."

Kokichi pouted at him. "What do you mean, I was 'desperate' enough to bake a cake?"

"Don't you remember why I'm the one that normally does the cooking?"

"No"

"So you don't remember the time you used toothpaste as cupcake frosting, or the time you put hot sauce instead of tomato sauce in the spaghetti?"

Kokichi crossed his arms. "Those things never happened."

"They definitely did." Shuichi smiled at him in amusement.

Kokichi tried to stay upset but couldn't help smiling back. "Okay, so I'm bad at cooking. What about it?"

"Nothing. I just meant that there are other things you're better at." Shuichi looked at him meaningfully.

Kokichi caught on to what he meant and grinned. He reached up and cupped Shuichi's cheek. "Would you like a demonstration?"

The two leaned closer, their faces inches away, when someone cleared their throat, making them both jump. They turned to find Kaito, who they had forgotten.

"Maybe you two should wait until you're alone for that," Kaito said awkwardly. "There are a bunch of firefighters and... bystanders-*coughmecough*- that may feel uncomfortable seeing you guys have your moment like you don't know anyone else is here."

Shuichi blushed again. Kokichi just smirked.

Eventually, the firefighters cleared out. There was no major damage to the apartment, though the landlord wasn't particularly happy with them.

Shuichi sighed at the mess in the kitchen. "This is going to take a while."

"I'm sorry I caused so much trouble," Kokichi said sadly.

Suhichi hugged him. "I should be the one apologizing. I promise, I'll spend less time at work and more time with you."

Suddenly, a mischievous glint entered Kokichi's eyes. "Now, where did we leave off?"