Chapter Text
Scott wakes up to the smell of fresh baked croissants and noise outside the room.
For a moment, he doesn’t remember where he is, but then he feels arms wrapped around his waist.
“Good morning.”, Scott whispers, slowly turning around into Kip’s face.
“You’re really close.”, he jokes with a soft smile on his face.
“Good morning.”, Kip mutters, half-asleep.
“You’re very comfortable.”, he admits before he moves to lean on the bed frame.
“Any plans today?”, Kip asks.
“No, not really.”, Scott replies and leaves kisses all over his face.
“Hey, we should get up.”, Kip yelps while on his way to fall out of the bed.
“Careful.”, Scott advises with one hand under his back.
He helps him back on the bed before he watches him get ready.
“Come here.” Kip’s request and him being pulled inside the bathroom doesn’t give him time to react.
He feels Kip’s attention on him when he realizes that his mind is elsewhere.
“You’ve been staring.” Kip points out.
“You’re just so beautiful, it’s impossible not to.”, Scott defends himself, but doesn’t stop looking.
After what feels like forever, they get dressed and find themselves in the living room.
“This smells fantastic.”, Scott remarks and can’t keep his eyes off the set dining table.
“Good morning and I hope you’re hungry.”, George greets them once he sits down at the the table. “Definitely. Thank you.”, Scott says before grabbing the first bite.
They start their breakfast in silence, but fall into a light conversation.
“Is it good?”, Kip asks as he watches Scott take bite after bite.
“It’s perfect.”, Scott admits. “Seriously, it’s really good.”, he adds, trying to hide the memories coming back in.
Still the way his voice breaks a little at the end doesn’t get unnoticed.
“You better get used to it.”, George states. “You’re always welcome here and you haven’t yet tasted my cooking skills.”, he goes on to lighten up the mood.
“There’s still so much waiting for you.”, Kip says with a smile on his face that gives him no reason to feel emotional.
“You’re the best.”, Scott gets out in between kissing him and squeezing his hand. “That goes for you too.”, he says to George which makes all of them laugh.
Now that the room is filled with nothing but joy again, they continue until every plate is empty.
“I’ll take care of everything.” George rushes them away from the kitchen.
Following the strict order, they go back upstairs to do a whole lot of nothing before Scott suggests to take a walk.
“Let’s enjoy the sun.”, he says and his voice can’t hide his excitement.
“Let me grab my jacket and then we can go.”, Kip replies. Nonetheless, he watches Scott for a moment, before he remembers how to move.
Going on walks has become a routine for them. Whenever they have time and acceptable weather, they head outside. They walk towards the park nearby and don’t talk. Often, they spend the hours in silence; a breath of fresh air in between all the stress.
They don’t feel rushed when they’re outdoors, so after a while they end up wandering back home and continue with their day.
A silent decision was made that this is going to be a resting day.
That’s how they end up in the living room with the TV playing in the background, them keeping up a conversation or being stuck in a book.
“What?”, Scott asks.
They have been sitting there in silence for a while.
But now, he feels their eyes on him with some form of anticipation to it.
“Why are you looking at me like this?”, he asks confusedly.
“Didn’t you forget something?”, Kip asks.
“No? Did we have plans and I messed it up? Should I have said something? What’s wrong?” Scott stumbles over his own words.
“I’m a terrible boyfriend.”, he thinks and the panic is written on his face.
“Did you ever look at what date it is today?”, Kip tries again.
“No.”, Scott admits and opens the next best calendar around him.
“What’s today. I feel like I should know.”, Scott assumes, but he can’t think straight anymore.
He doesn’t has to, because in the next moment he hears them singing and out of nowhere a cake appears in front of him.
“Happy birthday.”, they say in unison while George puts down the cake in front of him.
“It’s my birthday.”, Scott slowly realizes.
“I forgot my own birthday.”, he says in disbelief.
“Why?”, he whispers.
This brings him back to the last what could have been a beautiful birthday and remembers how he was a coward.
He doesn’t say anything else as he’s caught in his own thoughts.
“Hey, Scott, look at me.”, Kip asks of him. He kneels down and gently reaches for his hands.
“Don’t think about the past. I know that you’re punishing yourself again, but we’re here together and none of us will leave.”, he reassures him and pulls him into a hug.
“I’m sorry.”, Scott mutters. “Why did no one congratulate me?”, he gets out right when the doorbell rings.
“Who’s that?”, Scott wonders, but already gets pushed towards the door.
His hands are shaking when he opens the door and immediately gets pulled into another hug.
“Happy birthday.”, he hears people say. “I don’t think you want to hear us sing.”, Carter jokes.
“Carter? Eric? What are you doing here?” Scott is still highly overwhelmed and doesn’t know what to do.
“It’s your birthday, so we came to pick you up.”, Eric explains as if it’s obvious. “It took you really long to figure out what day it is.”, Carter remarks.
“How?”, is all that Scott manages to get out.
“It’s all thanks to George who kept us updated.”, Eric says with a big smile on his face. “We have a surprise for you, so you better get dressed.” Carter rushes them with excitement.
Scott has no time to react, because someone is putting his jacket on for him and guiding him out of the house, afraid that he would trip otherwise.
“Are we–?” Scott wants to ask, but then the ice rink comes into their sight and he knows where they’re heading.
“Surprise.”, Eric says while they enter the building.
“We might have found a way to have this for ourselves.”, Carter admits with a grin.
“Thank you.”, Scott mutters, unable to form any logical sentence.
He never imagined that one day he could live his dream and share it with everyone that he loves. For so many years, he didn’t believe that he deserves it; that he’ll live long enough to experience this.
But standing there on the ice surrounded by friends and family fills him with warmth; a wave of gratitude overcoming him.
“I love you so fucking much.”, Scott whispers as he leans in to kiss him.
“I love you too.”, Kip replies and kisses him back.
“Come on.”, Scott invites him to skate together.
It feels great to just skate for fun, but he almost trips when he hears a, “Can I join?”, followed by a , “Happy birthday.” from someone he didn’t expect here.
“Elena?”, Scott blurts out in shock. “Thank you, of course, you’re welcomed.”, he goes on.
He’s still a very private person, but sometimes the more the merrier seems to be true.
The afternoon proceeds with lots of laughter, more sweets and heavy breaths from all the exercise. They do nothing, but skate, play tricks on each other and enjoy the time together.
“And now?” Scott asks, looking at everybody with anticipation.
“Now, we go home, well to my place and eat.”, Carter replies.
“So what we usually do, but with more people.”, Scott figures out.
“Exactly, making it a bit more special.”, Carter agrees.
“Come on, the food will get cold.” Eric is the one to hurry them back to the car and to Vaughn's place.
“Calm down, the food is not going anywhere.” Scott lets out a laugh.
Back in the car, he leans back surrounded by Kip and Elena.
He feels Kip's head resting on his shoulder and their hands intertwined.
He knows that Elena and the others are watching them with a faint smile on their faces.
“One can live like this.”, is Scott's conclusion.
Once they arrive and stumble through the door, they’re greeted with a set dining table full of all kinds of food.
“Not to get sappy, but I'm glad that we're friends. It’s nice to finally have a birthday where we don't celebrate alone though. Seeing you happy is what we always wanted and I still regret that you didn’t feel like you could tell us. But luckily everything turned out okay. To you, Scott.”, Carter says while raising their glasses.
“I hope that you enjoyed this day. You’re not getting rid of us anytime soon, but I hope that it’s okay that we kept you from your alone time with your boyfriend.” Eric goes on, but can’t hold in his laughter. “Sorry, I had to.”, he quickly apologizes
“You're such idiots.”, Scott complains, half-jokingly. “Thank you for today. You always do so much for me and I still haven’t figured out how you don't get tired of me. It must have been exhausting over the years, but this friendship is all that I ever had and I really appreciate you for that.”, he goes on, his smile growing bigger and bigger.
“It's nice to hang out together.”, he shares.
It's something simple, but they all know the weight of these words.
After the sentimental exchange of way too sweet words, they fall into a comfortable silence with jokes and laughter filling the room.