Mark’s eyes slammed open.

… And then he took a moment to relax in the warmth of the bed. Winter wasn’t here quite yet, but it was getting close. Two days away! And yet, it was already chilly everywhere except for under the big, fluffy comforter.

And then Mark threw the blankets off and hopped out of bed.

Shirt on! Jeans on! Breath of purity/impurity for easy cleaning!

And then out into the living room, straight to the kitchen. With an eager pull, Mark opened the big fridge and grabbed the eggs. Farm fresh! Disastrously expensive at 150 points per dozen, eggs were hard to get these days, but Mark had connections, and not just through Eliot.

There were two official stores for foodstuffs, though a lot of people were talking about building farmer’s markets, and a few people actually were growing their own stuff to sell, but not really. The store Mark had bought these eggs from was the ‘Worker’s Store’, at the farms. It got everything first. The common store, at Castle South, got everything second. Sometimes that meant the common store didn’t get eggs at all.

But Mark had gotten eggs, and he was going to make pancakes for breakfast. They hadn’t had pancakes in a week! Mark had even gotten some fresh syrup for today, too!

With a happy smile, Mark opened the cabinet and grabbed for the unopened bottle of...syrup.

The syrup was gone?

… No no no. Mark shook his head. It was a full bottle, special for today.

Maybe Mark had put it somewhere else?

He went looking.

Not in the fridge. Not in the pantry. Not in the cabinets anywhere…

Mark frowned… He turned his gaze slowly to the side, to the trash can.

Did he want to go poking in the trash? No. No he did not…

Mark went poking, anyway—

He froze. There, sitting covered in coffee grounds, was the 1,500 point syrup bottle. It was glass and fancy. The price had been 1,200, but the price went up since two weeks ago. The glass bottle was empty, save for a little bit of brown residue puddled at the bottom corner of the bottle.

“I’m gonna kill someone.”

… He looked at the egg carton.

Had it felt a bit light, when he picked it up?

Mark opened the egg carton—

He almost slammed the lid shut, but he didn’t want to break the 7 eggs that remained. And then Mark went into the fridge, looking for the strawberries and blueberries he had gotten from the farm, and those containers were half empty, too. The frozen hash browns were opened, too...

… This was his fault, actually.

Someone had eaten some of the food, and Mark had never made a point that some of this stuff was special, for today.

Mark went about making breakfast, but smaller than he had been planning, all the while thinking about how all of their finances as a team were kinda just thrown around, and nothing was actually set regarding who paid for what, or what stuff was free-for-all, or not. It had been a fine arrangement when it was just Mark, Isoko, and Eliot, but now Sally was here, and the food Mark expected to have was missing, because Sally made extra meals all the time.

How big of a deal was this?

… It was a nothingburger.

Mark let it go, and he made the special breakfast as well as he could.

Isoko was the first to stir inside of her room, waking up slowly and then all at once. Sally was second, her vector going from inward to outward and then suddenly flashing left and right before she focused on herself, and her breathing. Eliot was asleep and he was going to stay that way until Mark knocked on his door.

Sally came out of her room first, saying, “I smell pancakes and sausage!”

She was pretending she hadn’t eaten most of the stuff last night, though inward she was cringing. Mark smirked a little, and said nothing about any of that.

Instead, Mark said, “The full spread will be ready in 20. I have some pancakes ready already in the oven though, if you want to start on those. We’re out of syrup, but we do have jam and sugar.”

“… This is a special breakfast, isn’t it.” Sally paused. “And I used up the last bottle of syrup?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Mark turned and smiled. “Jam and sugar is fine.”

Sally stepped closer to the kitchen, to look in the oven and then at the massive container of batter Mark was currently spooning onto a small lake of butter. The batter sizzled. And then there were the cut up berries and stuff, and Sally sighed.

Sally said, “You’re doing a spread.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Mark named off what he had done, “Fruit pancakes for everyone and plain pancakes mostly for Isoko, but you can have some of those if you want. Sausage patties. Hashbrowns. I was going to make eggs, too, but all of those got used in the pancakes, and that’s fine, Sally.”

Sally frowned a little, embarrassed, saying, “Sorry. I didn’t know you were making… a lot.”

“It’s Eliot’s birthday. February 10.”

“Ahhhh… fuck.” Sally breathed deep, and then she looked to Eliot’s room. She whispered, “He’s asleep, yeah?”

“Yes. He should—”

Isoko came out of her room, yawning.

Mark continued, “—be sleeping until we wake him.”

Sally asked Isoko, “Buddy with me to the store? I need to replace the syrup from last night.”

Isoko paused, blinking a lot. She wasn’t fully awake right now, but she got there quick enough. And then she looked at what Mark was cooking. “You’re… making a lot of food?”

“You might not like your birthday, Isoko, but Eliot hinted that today was B-day at least twice in the last week.” Offhandedly, Mark added, “Also his mother called and made sure that we were doing something special for him.”

Isoko whispered, “Fuck.” And then she told Sally, “Okay. I’ll get… dressed. Fast. Grocery. Yes.”

They were out the door in under a minute.

Mark continued to make breakfast.

Sure enough, Eliot remained peacefully asleep while Isoko and Sally took 15 minutes to go to the store and come back, carrying the second-to-last bottle of syrup and also a pre-decorated sheet cake. The cake was 3,500 points, which was so incredibly overpriced that Mark laughed, but it was a big cake, enough for 10 people, and it read ‘Happy Birthday!’ in bright green icing on a white base. It was a good cake.

With everything prepped, Mark knocked on Eliot’s door with gusto, saying, “Wake up! Breakfast!”

Eliot shocked awake, but, as usual, he remained in bed. Usually he could just stay there like that for ten minutes, but not today!

Mark, Isoko, and Sally stood around Eliot’s closed door, prepared with the cake on a small table. The candles were waiting to be lit, but they’d probably eat it after breakfast. It depended on what Eliot wanted, really.

They weren’t about to let him take his time getting up, though.

“Come get breakfast, Eliot!” Isoko said to the door.

Eliot got moving, grumbling, “Okay okay.”

And then he opened the door and stood stock still, eyes going wide as he looked at the cake, and at the smiling faces of his friends. Mark felt his surprise and then joy, and then a deep sense of something else that was hard to put into words. Something close to love.

“Happy birthday!” they chorused.

Eliot got a little teary-eyed.

Breakfast turned out pretty good.

Eliot had opted to have just a small slice of cake, after everything else, but everyone else had a normal slice. Sally had a lot, which was fine. Finances didn’t matter that much, and Mark had to tell himself that several times over. He wasn’t poor anymore. He could just buy more stuff, and he should buy more stuff, too.

Soon, Mark was cleaning up, dishes clattering as he put them away, while Eliot was on the couch with Sally, talking about city planning. Isoko was helping Mark clean up.

“That was a good breakfast,” Isoko said to Mark.

Mark grinned. “It was pretty good.”

Isoko smiled softly as she placed the leftover cake into a clearing she had made in the fridge, and then she turned around and asked everyone, “What’s everyone want to do today? I want to go on another hollow gourd harvesting trip so that means Mark with me, unless other people want other things.”

Eliot and Sally were in the living room, talking about something, but they turned and listened.

Mark said, “I’m good with vine farming. You talk to Barba yet? Or some other harvester?”

“I haven’t talked to her yet, but I’m hoping she’s available,” Isoko said. “Vivant crystal was one of the big listings on the big board this morning because winter is almost here and vivant crystal doesn’t happen when all the plants are asleep, and the hollow gourds are one of the best sources of those.”

Mark nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Mark wanted to know if Julie had used his adamantium yet, anyway. It had been almost a week since he had given the eldest Sacredcut sister about 300 grams of adamantium. She should have made something of it by now, right? And Barba was good to party with. How was she doing?

Eliot and Sally gave each other a look.

And then Eliot turned toward Isoko, saying, “Sally and I can hang out today by the farms and the trash. I need to go through the trash pile again and turn it all into usable stuff.”

“Plans made!” Mark announced.

Soon, everyone was getting ready.

Planning for each day was usually rather easy, but planning still needed to be done. Eliot usually needed to do something for the settlement like take care of the trash, and everyone needed to figure out meals, too. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day; it still had to be done. They usually ended up doing dinner all together, with every other meal usually happening individually. Today was a special day for breakfast, though.

A great start to the morning.