"heya kiddo." Sans was simply laying on the couch. Clover was pacing around nervously, it was just him and Sans here, to Clover's chagrin.

"Hey Sans?" Clover sat down on the available couch with a great deal of trepidation. It was a good thing Sans was short.

"what's up? i'm all ears kid."

"Do you think I'm messing something up? Everyone's been avoiding me today..."

"whaaaat, on your birthday? nah, i'm sure everybody's got something planned for ya kiddo. tibia-nest i wouldn't worry about it." Sans couldn't just go out and tell the kid what had been asked of him... Buuuut, he sure could drop hints. A shame that Clover seemed to be stuck in their own little world...

"I mean... It's not like birthdays are that important anyways..." Clover pouted and sunk even further into the couch. He didn't quite seem to realize he'd never told Sans it was his birthday today either...

"don't worry about it kid. it'll all be fine, don't let it balloon out of proportion on you." Sans's grin seemed as if it widened for just a moment... That had really been A grade material on his part, but unfortunately, it seemed the kid still didn't get it. Yeesh, he might have to bust out the gut busters if things didn't go up from here...

"Not even Papyrus is here... Guess I should've expected all of this, birthdays never really were any good." Clover sunk fully into the couch. He'd even pulled his hat off so he could lean further in. An act seldom committed by the human turned monster.

Sans finally sat up. "ah c'mon kid, don't be such a downer! heh, you're even making me show a bit of backbone here..." Sans's smile didn't abate, but he did feel a bit worse when he laid eyes on Clover and how miserable he looked.

"...look, just trust me kid. you didn't do anything wrong."

Clover sighed in response.

"tell you what, how about i call paps up and he comes over to hold you steady till..." Sans mulled that one over. "for an hour or so. you know i'm no good at stuff like this, heh."

"Nah... No need. They're having a better day without me anyways..."

Sans's smile widened a bit more for real this time, and it was entirely a nervous tick. "uh... heh... c'mon kiddo you're gonna put me in an early grave here."

"..."

"...arright, y'know what kid? lets take a shortcut and pop in with your mom for a bit." Sans, for the first time in... He wasn't sure how long it'd been, took the initiative for doing something. He was usually pretty down in the dumps, but man, it was a real bad case of whiplash to see somebody else doing even worse than he was on any given day.

"...What's the point?" Clover rolled over. "I'll just stay here for the night and come back in the morning..."

"oh come on kid! even i wouldn't be able to sleep from now till morning! plus, you can't just take the couch kiddo, i've got a reservation myself, set for the forshingable future." He totally could sleep till morning from now by the way. "guarantee you you're just overreacting, everyone will be practically ready to burst when they see you."

Sans was getting dangerously close to just telling Clover that it was a surprise birthday party...

"...You really think so?"

"kid, i know so."

"...Promise?"

"promise."

"...Okay."

"Alright then, come on. I know a shortcut."

...

Clover always felt a little woozy whenever he took one of Sans's shortcuts... Something about them just always felt off, for some reason. It never lasted long though, and as soon as he could stand again, Clover laid eyes on his home. And also Martlet who just so happened to be walking outside right as they arrived.

She froze on the spot as she laid eyes on the pair of them, but managed to will her body back into action a moment later. "Oh, uh, hello Sans, Clover. What are you two doing here so... Uh... Early?"

"heya." Sans waved at her. "might want to talk to your kid for a bit."

"...Why?" Martlet tilted her head confusedly at Sans. He only had to watch Clover for an hour and a half while everyone came over and got everything set up. What could've gone wrong in that short amount of time? "Clover, is everything alright?"

"...Yeah."

Martlet cringed, that was not a tone of voice that spoke to things being fine.

"Hey, hey, Clover, what's wrong?" Martlet frowned as she approached. Hadn't Clover gotten over most of... Well, gotten over wouldn't quite be the right pair of words... But Martlet could've sworn Clover didn't have any reactions like this anymore! At best they just got a little upset, now he sounded like somebody had just forced him to watch as his family was ripped apart in front of him!

Clover very purposefully avoided eye contact as he muttered his next words. "I said m'fine..."

"Clover." Martlet lowered herself to Clover's eye level as was routine for her at this point. "You know if anything is wrong, you can tell me right?" She laid a wing on his shoulder and gazed on with concern, still though, Clover avoided meeting her gaze.

"Nothing's wrong." He looked even further to the side.

"that ain't what you told me kiddo." Sans shrugged innocently in the near distance. That earned him a real good glare from Clover, but he merely shrugged again. "jeeze buddy, no need to give me the hawk eye."

"Clover... Please. You don't need to hide things like this from me, I'll never judge you for any of it, you know that right...?"

"I know..." Clover muttered even more quietly, before sighing and dragging his hand over his face. "It's just... It's dumb, alright?"

"I don't think you'd be this upset if it was just something dumb Clover... If you really don't want to talk about it, I'll leave it be but... You KNOW you can tell me anything, don't you?" Martlet stood up after a moment of silence, but she paused when Clover once again began to speak.

"I... I know." Clover sighed. "I just... It really is dumb. I thought everyone was avoiding me cause it's my birthday."

"W-wha...?" Martlet tilted her head in genuine bewilderment.

"...See? It's dumb."

"Clover... Why would you think that...?"

"Well, cause you all didn't wanna have to deal with any expectations from me for my birthday. So I was stuck with Sans..." He turned to face the aforementioned skeleton. "...No offense o'course."

"only a little taken."

Clover couldn't tell if that was a joke or not.

"I mean... That's not the reason you wanted me to go over to hang out with Sans, was it...?" Clover mumbled as he turned back to face his mom.

Martlet's beak hung open in shock, but she quickly moved to correct it. "N-no! Of course not! We... I had you head over because... Because... Uh..."

Clover tilted his own head a little bit.

"I... I'm sorry, would you mind waiting outside for just a minute or two? I need to uh, grab something from inside."

"...Sure." Clover was starting to feel real nervous about the lack of a direct answer.

As Martlet hurried off into the house, Clover nervously turned to face the skeleton at his side.

"That's... That's not really why I was over with you was it?"

"you know, you sure do have a thick skull for a bird."

"...What's that supposed to mean?"

Sans's eye sockets narrowed. "kid, i really don't know how to make this any more obvious. so i'm just gonna lay out the facts for you real quick. it's your birthday, your mom had a freudian slip of the tongue, literally everybody you know has gone missing, and that one joke i made earlier."

"...I don't get it."

for some reason or another, Clover simply seemed to be incapable of realizing that there was a surprise party brewing in his home.

"Okay, uh, change of plans!" Martlet called out to Clover as she slipped outside. "Clover, could you please come over here?"

"...Sure mom, what's up?"

"You'll see in a second, come on!"

Clover hesitated, but nothing ever came of being afraid of the future. Sans didn't follow after him, but Clover had the feeling they'd be inside regardless.

"Alright, you were worried that everybody wanted to avoid you right...?" Martlet patted Clover on the back as they ushered them inside. It was dark, very dark. The lights were off, the windows were covered. It got even darker when Martlet closed the door behind her and Clover.

"Yeah..."

"Weeeelllll... Guess what Clover?"

"...What?"

Martlet flipped the lights on.

"Happy surprise birthday party!"

"SURPRISE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!"

"Suuurpriiiise!"

"Happy birthday Clover!"

"Happy birthday Clover."

"Surprise!"

"surprise."

Martlet, Papyrus, Kanako, Starlo, Ceroba, Dalv, Sans... Everybody who Clover would think a friend was present. Well, there were some people he'd met before that were missing... But they were more acquaintances rather than anything else so it still counted!

Confetti went up each and every way, though not nearly enough to be unpleasant. Though, it almost got in Clover's beak given it was he whose beak was now hanging wide open.

"We've been setting this up ever since you left the house, heh..." Martlet gestured to the rest of the house, it was really all the works. Homemade cake, presents in a pile, decorations laced across the building. "Sorry, I knew you didn't really think much of your birthday so I should've figured you might've thought something was wrong... But, hey, you're alright, right?" Martlet nervously smiled.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD LEAVE A FRIEND HANGING LIKE THAT!" Papyrus held a hand to his chest in (sort of) mock hurt.

"I..."

"I mean, what, you didn't really think you'd just have the day to yourself did you?" Kanako cheekily added on as she smiled at Clover from across the room.

Clover's beak twitched up and down as he tried to process the situation. How long had it been since anything like this had even happened? He couldn't remember. It'd been years at the least. The last time he'd had a proper birthday had been...

Clover couldn't remember when.

After a second or two of awkward silence, a voice cut through the room and drew everybody's attention.

"Okay! I'm starving, how about we all-"

"Kanako." Ceroba eyed Kanako stoically and squeezed her paw a little tighter.

"...Sorry."

"Well, she's not wrong!" Martlet chirped happily as she turned back to Clover. "How about we cut the cake and the birthday boy can decide the... The..."

Tears were welling in Clover's eyes.

"C-Clover?"

...

It was all so much. Out of literally anything that could've happened today, this was certainly not what Clover had been expecting. Just another disappointing day to add onto the list. Just the same as his tenth, ninth, eighth, seventh, sixth, and fifth birthday. He just couldn't help it, he started to cry. Something that had been denied to him for over half of his life, just, given to him in an instant. Friends and family all around him, all there for him. His little emotions just weren't built to handle this much positivity!

Though, oddly enough, out of any event that had happened in the entirety of the Underground, this, by far, brought back the most of Clover's memories from back up on the surface.

"Happy birthday Clover!"

A faceless man held Clover up in the air, faceless, because no matter how hard Clover thought about it, he simply couldn't remember what they'd looked like. It was just him and Clover, nobody else present, and nobody else had to be. Despite being in tears, Clover felt much calmer than any moment of clarity he'd had in recent memory.

"Love ya kiddo, never lose that enthusiasm."

Miscellaneous words filtered into Clover's cognition as he stood there stunned. A simultaneous joy and misery danced within Clover's mind as he recalled something back up on the surface with a level of clarity he'd never even hoped to have. His fifth birthday. With his dad, he couldn't remember their face... Or even their name... But despite that, he only cried harder in the moment. Not out of misery, but out of a profound sense of loss. Yet also a profound feeling of joy. It was complicated.

Colors, images flashed past Clover's mind rapidly. Words, feelings, people, it all blurred together. Eventually, the words culminated into something else, a sound. Something primal, something that gave him more than a headache just thinking about it.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Something dragged Clover back into the present. It took him a few seconds to realize that the scenario before him was in fact, not a vivid flash back, but instead the here and now. It took him an even longer few seconds to realize that his mom was hugging him close.

"Clover, please, I'm sorry-"

"Thank you." Clover threw his all into hugging his mom back. "Thank you... Thank you so much...!"

And that, was when the dams burst.

...

"Ceroba, would you mind cutting the cake while I uh... Go change?" Martlet offered the knife to who she figured was the most responsible adult in the room. She couldn't really do it herself if she was up in her room, which she would be for a minute or two, because her current shirt had been soaked.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"M'sorry." Clover sniffled on the couch as Kanako offered him another napkin.

"It's really no problem Clover." Martlet smiled reassuringly and waved a wing in his direction. "Sometimes you just need a good cry, nothing wrong with that."

"But..."

"No buts! I'll be back down in a little bit, save a slice for me!"

"WELL... I'LL ADMIT, THIS IS NOT WHAT I HAD BEEN EXPECTING TODAY." Papyrus held a gloved hand to his chin, but quickly shrugged. "BUT IT MATTERS NOT! MRS. FOX LADY, LETS GET TO CUTTING! I'M STARVING!!!"

"c'mon bro, i'm sure you could wait a little longer. besides, it'll probably be a, litt-"

"SANS! DON'T YOU DARE FINISH THAT PUN!"

"Hm." Ceroba smiled a little, then turned her attention onto the cake itself, away from her daughter, Clover, Starlo, and Dalv.

"So... You are sure you're alright?" Dalv questioned the still red eyed child. Whom nodded in response.

"Yeah, m'fine... Just... I remembered a whole lot just now."

"Alright, well just let me know if anythin's wrong partner. I'd hate to see one of my favorite kids having a bad day on their birthday." Starlo sat down next to Clover and stretched out.

"Well count me jealous." Kanako added on absentmindedly, before realizing that maybe that wasn't the best thing to say to a still emotionally fragile Clover.

Said Clover, looked as if they were just about ready to curl into a ball. And they were already half way to doing such a thing given they were hugging their knees.

"I uh... Didn't mean that." She halfheartedly mumbled to try and resolve that rift, but it didn't go over that well. Dalv glared at her a bit, but obviously not with any real malice. Starlo returned a gaze of similar heat right back to the vampire though, so they quickly calmed themselves.

"...Uh... Well, if it means anything... No judgment?" Kanako hesitantly added on.

"...Thanks."

"...You're welcome."

"For the birthday boy himself." Ceroba put on a forced smile and handed a plate over to Dalv. Who nodded and promptly offered the plate to Clover.

"You heard her, for you!" Starlo chuckled as Clover's eyes flickered in his direction.

Clover sucked in a breath, and properly sat up. "Thank you Ceroba."

"No problem, it is your birthday after all. Now, who else wants a slice?"

Dalv handed Clover the plate, and he took it tentatively. The cake was chocolate and caramel...

"Oh my..."

Clover felt like face palming right there and then. Sans was right, he totally WAS dense.

"Hey Clover, if you were to have a cake, what frosting would you want?"

"...I guess Chocolate and Caramel, why?"

"Oh, no reason!"

Martlet had barely even tried to hide it, had he really just been that convinced that he wouldn't have a birthday party?

"Everything alright there friend?" Dalv raised an eyebrow at Clover's reaction.

"Hindsight's twenty twenty." Clover responded with the slightest bit of humor in his voice. Which, made Dalv smile, expeditiously.

"Glad to hear it."

"Sooo..." Kanako mumbled. "Maybe a bit of a bad time to ask, but Clover, how have you been doing? You haven't visited in a few days and I was starting to get a little bored. But then I heard it was because your mom was getting your birthday party ready and everything, so I figured I could tide myself over while I waited. But now, it's finally time! So answer me, what have you been up to?"

"...Whaddya think I've been doing? Nothing really that exciting to get done y'know." Clover shrugged and took a fork to the cake.

"Well, I dunno! I guess I just thought a human would be up to more than the usual monster...?"

Clover blinked a few times with the cake in his beak, both Starlo and Dalv had similar reactions. He thought for a moment, before swallowing and looking straight into Kanako's eyes. "Uh... Just so y'know, that's still a secret to the skele-bros..." He whispered as he glanced over his shoulder to make sure that neither of them were listening in.

"...Oh! Uh... My bad?"

"Alright!" Martlet called out from the top of the stairs. "I'm good!"

By now, Ceroba had passed out a piece of the cake to everybody except Kanako, who she was currently in the process of approaching. Suffice to say, Martlet hadn't missed out on much.

Once she descended the stairs, she took her rightful place in the center of the room. "So, well, I was thinking, after that whole fiasco, how about we open the presents a little early? I'm sure it'll cheer you right up Clover!"

Once again having been caught with a beak-full of cake, Clover took a moment to swallow before responding. "...Sure, that sounds good."

He wasn't expecting too much anyways, even back when he had actual birthdays it had never been anything extravagant. That was fine, mind you. It's just that this whole eight person group was a bit more then he had been "used" to.

So, when he took a count of how many gifts there actually were... It sort of threw Clover for a loop.

"Are those... All for me?" Clover finished off the last bits of his slice as Kanako and Martlet finally got their own.

"You betcha Clover! Each of us gotcha a little somethin." Starlo smirked and pointed at the pile with his fork, flinging a few crumbs and getting a mild glare from Ceroba.

"I..."

"Well, go ahead and pick one!" Martlet chirped and beckoned for Clover to stand. They couldn't just carry them all over, obviously, so he had to go to them.

They apparently weren't labeled, so Clover just took a random one. What else could he do really?

With as much care as possible, he unwrapped the gift. He didn't want to create too much of a mess out of the wrappings, so he kept the tears mostly clean. The gift had been about the size of his hat, so Clover wasn't expecting anything that crazy... But, well, he was certainly surprised in a good way!

"That'd be from me Clover." Starlo proudly crossed his legs and leaned back. "A little style from me to you, oh and also cards from the other four. They couldn't be here today, unfortunately, but they'd sooner quit the five then completely miss your birthday, heh."

Clover held up a brand new poncho with stars in his eyes. He didn't really need to put it on, but he felt it appropriate to do so. Wasn't like he had his other one on at the moment. He was currently wearing one of his long sleeve shirts, so it fit. The poncho was... Admittedly a little bit large for Clover, but his feathers helped to hold it in place, somewhat. "Thanks Starlo, it's great!"

Starlo shot him a finger gun and urged him to open his next gift.

Clover nodded at the gesture and grabbed the next box. This one was a lot smaller in comparison to the previous gift, but that didn't mean Clover thought any less of it. When he rapped on it once, he felt a solid object lying in wait, so without further adieu he precisely tore into the gift. Side bar, claws made doing that way easier than it would be with normal hands. Another thing he had to be thankful for he supposed.

Once he finished pulling away a good strip of the gift wrapping, Clover got a solid look at what was inside. And it looked like... Books?

"I got you those." Martlet smiled a little nervously. "I know you really like reading, and you're a lot better at reading than most kids your age and you liked that history book... So I got you the rest of them...!" She tried to be enthusiastic about it, but she just couldn't help but be nervous.

"They're amazing, thanks mom!" And with that she breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Clover hummed contentedly as he reached for the next gift, which was... Oddly bone shaped? There was also a gift oddly bottle shaped next to it... But regardless, Clover went for the bone first.

Clover, once again, ripped open part of the gift and proceeded to pull out its contents. It was... A carving of a bone? An actual bone? It was a bone.

"DO YOU LIKE MY GIFT CLOVER? I FEEL IT IS AN ARTFUL REPRESENTATION OF OUR FRIENDSHIP, NYEH HEH HEH HEH!"

"It's great, thanks Paps." Clover smiled and nodded... No, it wasn't a fake smile, why would you think that? It was Papyrus's thoughts and feelings in an object, who wouldn't like such a thing?

Next up, was the oddly bottle shaped gift. Clover went about opening it in a similar manner to all the others and... It was a bottle of ketchup.

"everybody likes ketchup." Sans winked.

"I guess you're not wrong." Clover shrugged and agreed. Three gifts remained now.

Yet another smaller gift awaited him, but Clover was still just as eager to get to it. This time... It was another book, a relatively small one.

"To be honest..." Dalv started. "I wasn't really sure what to get you Clover, so, I asked your mother about the things you like. She... Said you liked reading. Quite a bit. So I figured... Why not let you get a good early look at my own work...? You're the first person to have a copy of this book Clover. Nobody else has read a single word, I hope you enjoy it."

Clover nodded thoughtfully. "Thanks Dalv, I know it can be hard to put yourself out like that."

He smiled a bit nervously and nodded back.

Now, two gifts remained... One smallest so far, and one even smaller than that. Might as well go from big to small.

Next up... Was... Was that a phone? And along with it a charger, but it was relatively small so it hadn't been noticeable in the gift wrapping.

"That's from me!" Kanako shot up almost immediately, though Ceroba added onto that after a moment.

"And from me."

Martlet blinked in confusion for a few seconds, wasn't that like... Really, REALLY expensive right now? It was rather new technology wasn't it? She'd considered buying one for Clover, but when the price tag amounted to months of work... Even AFTER she'd managed to get herself off probation about a week back, (go Martlet! Work ethic recognized!?) she figured she'd have to settle for something else. But Ceroba could just... Afford to give it out as a gift? She paled a little bit. How much money were they sitting on...?

"What exactly is this?" Clover inspected the brick of technology as he asked the question.

"A phone silly! Now you can keep in touch with me even while you're not over at The Dunes!"

"...Oh. Oh!"

"Ohhhh!" Kanako nodded with great enthusiasm.

"...Wait, but how does it work?"

"It-" Kanako started, but was quickly cut off by Ceroba.

"She can explain it later, for now, how about you open up that last gift?"

"Oh, uh, okay!" Clover did a quick head count. So... He'd gotten a gift from Starlo, then his mom, Papyrus, Sans, Dalv, and lastly a gift from both Kanako and Ceroba... Why was there still one left?

Regardless, he went for it, and a moment later, he held a bright badge with the letters "DEPUTY" carved into it.

"...Starlo, did you get me a second gift?" Clover tilted his head at Starlo.

"...Nah, who is that from?"

"I BELIEVE I CAN ANSWER THAT!" Papyrus interjected himself with a raised hand.

"...Please do." Clover motioned for him to continue.

"YOU SEE CLOVER, YOU HAVE A SECRET ADMIRER! WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO ALSO BE MY FRIEND! FUNNY HOW THAT WORKS OUT! BUT, THEY ASKED ME TO DELIVER YOU A GIFT!"

Clover could've sworn he saw Sans's expression darken for just a moment out of the corner of his eye.

"AND AS YOU CAN SEE, GIFT DELIVERED! I TRULY NEVER LET MY FRIENDS DOWN, NYEH HEH HEH HEH!"

Clover continued to stare at the badge. Regardless of whoever had sent him it, it was pretty nice... But... It gave him a bad feeling, for some reason. He wasn't quite sure why though.

"Uh... Well..." Martlet cleared the silence that had begun to hang in the room. "There's actually one last gift for you, Clover!"

"Oh, what is it?" Clover innocently turned in Martlet's direction.

Martlet rummaged around in her pockets for a moment, before pulling out a slightly crumpled piece of paper.

"Uhh... Ignore the wrinkles! Buuuut, this is the official paperwork for you to be enrolled in school starting next week!"

Clover almost frowned, but reigned it in at the last moment. Well... He supposed it wasn't really THAT awful, he had brought it up himself after all. But...

...Talk about a bitter sweet gift.

"Now, I reserved a table at Honeydew resort for your birthday!" Martlet spun around and pointed toward the door, this was apparently news to everybody else.

"Wait, how come we set all this up then?" Starlo waved around to the rest of the building, what not with the decorations everywhere.

"Because it's the thought that counts. Now, come on!" Martlet chirped, but then paused. "I mean... Unless you don't want to? I could always just cancel it if you'd rather stay here Clover..."

Clover deliberated for a moment, but his answer was pretty easy. It was only egged on by Kanako's puppy dog eyes.

"No, I'd love to. Thanks mom."

"Alright, then what're we waitin for?" Starlo kicked open the door (and Martlet winced) and stepped outside. "To the birthday boy's palace!"