Cake By The Ocean

Birthdays were interesting things. As one got older, they stopped being so important, but Dahlia wasn’t going to let this one slide. It was the first birthday for either of them since they got together, and she wanted it to be epic.

That meant she needed help.
A lot of it.

Dahlia wasn’t ashamed to admit that either, and had roped in Professor Kukui, the remnants of Team Skull, and Guzma’s “kids” to lend a hand. The plan was simple enough — keep Guzma off of Melemele so that everyone else could prep the party on the beach and then she would bring him over for “dinner”. It was absolutely foolproof, even if it meant pretending to have forgotten Guzma’s birthday — not hard since she found out about it from his mother — and make him go searching for fairy types in Malie Garden.

~~~

Time was funny sometimes. Because he’d been so busy training, he wasn’t keeping up with the date very well and it often fell on Dahlia to make sure he got to their dates on time.
It seemed like everyone he knew was packed on the sandy beach next to Kukui’s lab — the professor and Burnet were dancing on a raised platform that, if one was being charitable, could be called a dance floor; his mom was with Moon’s fixing up food on the grill and one of this old grunts, sometimes accompanied by Nanu; Plumeria had comandeered a small area to set of DJ equipment and was keeping the whole beach entertained with her sick beats, the kids were moving between playing in the waves and hanging out and dancing…

It…
It was good, he had to admit.

After a hour or two of just chatting and greeting everyone, Kakui was pushing Guzma on stage, despite the fact that he just grabbed a drink and didn’t want to make some grand speech. He probably would have done more than grumble, but Dahlia and Burnet were both there helping the professor along. Guzma knew well enough to pick his battles.

There was yelling from the peanut gallery. “SPEACH! SPEACH!”

“Oi, shaddup if ya want me to speak!” There were chuckles, but the yelling subsided as everyone gathered around the stage. Guzma rubbed the back of his neck, giving a rueful smile out to the crowd. “Yeah, you know me — short an’ sweet. Thanks everyone for being here to celebrate. Don’t get shit faced because if any of you wander into Ten Carat by mistake, I ain’t recusin’ you.”

There was another smattering of laughter, and even more applause, as Guzma raised his can of beer in cheers before drinking it down. Those with drinks did the same as fireworks went off over the Melemele Sea, courtesy of Moon and her frankly terrifying archery skills.

“You,” he told Dahlia later in the night, as the couple slow danced on Kukui’s makeshift stage, “are way too good to me.”

Against his shoulder, Dahlia laughed, although he couldn’t see much of her face with her hair in the way. He could, however, feel the curve of her smile as she said nothing, just humming in contentment.

Yeah, this… This is way better than he could have hoped for himself.