JE, Wishful Thinking

Title: Wishful Thinking
Rating/Warnings: G
Summary: Shintarou shares his birthday wish with Shintarou.
AN: Happy magic birthday day, Shintarou and Hasshi! I totally hope you did actually go to dinner together, as magic group babies. Written for Shiritori.

Wishful Thinking

“Let Watanabe go,” Iwamoto said patiently, long used to Snowman pickup duty. Hashimoto loosened his grip so that Watanabe could wriggle loose, giving Iwamoto a token pout.

“Hii-kun is no fun,” Hashimoto informed him, sticking his tongue out.

“You two can play tomorrow, geez,” Iwamoto said, pushing Watanabe down the hall in front of him. Watanabe gave Hashimoto a last wave over his shoulder. “It’s like I’m picking you up from the daycare or something.”

Chuckling, Hashimoto turned to head back to A.B.C-Z’s dressing room since surely by now something interesting must be going on, when he bumped right into another interesting playmate.

“Sorry, Hashimoto-kun!” Shintarou said, shaking off the minor collision. “I was thinking about something.”

“Don’t mind, don’t mind,” Hashimoto said easily. “Happy birthday soon.”

“You too!” Shintarou grinned at the reminder, and Hashimoto wondered what Shintarou had planned for his festivities. It wasn’t the good one yet, so it couldn’t be anything too, good…well, probably. A.B.C certainly hadn’t made it to the good one for Hashimoto, and Shintarou was the baby of his little cluster of idiots too.

“Shall we go out?” Hashimoto asked on a whim. “I’m free after work today. Senpai’s treat and all that.”

“Yeah, sure,” Shintarou agreed readily enough. “Should we ask anybody else, or…”

“Hmm.” Hashimoto thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Nah, only magic birthday members allowed,” he decided, making Shintarou laugh.

Hashimoto sprang for sushi since it was Shintarou’s favorite and Hashimoto liked feeling like a good senpai. Things were pretty comfortable between them despite the age gap, and they spent dinner chatting about work and friends. Eventually they wound down a little, full and tired from a long day, and as Hashimoto finished up a story about Goseki punishing Tsukada for exactly what was in that box when he reached in, Shintarou’s smile was a little wistful. Hashimoto had a pretty good idea what it’s about too, but he played it light for Shintarou’s sake.

“So, got a birthday wish in mind yet?”

Shintarou’s side-eye said he knew what Hashimoto was up to too. “There’s a thing I want, but…it’s too much, probably.”

“Pfffft!” Hashimoto announced loudly, making Shintarou jump a little. “Birthday wishes are wasted unless they’re for something out of your reach. If you could do it on your own, you wouldn’t have to wish for it, right?”

Shintarou’s brow furrowed, like he was thinking hard about that. Hashimoto wondered if maybe he was doing that thing again that Kawai warned him against, forgetting that not everybody was as magic as him, especially impressionable kouhai. But then again, Shintarou had the magic birthday too, and he couldn’t be that impressionable by now, could he? Whatever, Hashimoto decided; he sure wasn’t going to be the type of senpai that would tell guy that he couldn’t make any wish he damn well chose on his own birthday.

“Did you wish for them on birthdays?” Shintarou asked, watching Hashimoto’s face. “Your group, I mean.”

“Yup,” Hashimoto answered, thinking especially of the last year he’d had to. “On birthday candles and shooting stars and when all the numbers on the clock line up. Even when Tottsu got mad about it and when Kawai said I should use them on myself. I guess he didn’t really understand my wish, though.”

“You wanted to keep them for yourself,” Shintarou guessed, and Hashimoto beamed at him because he understood. “It’s a selfish wish after all, isn’t it?”

“That’s totally fine for a birthday wish,” Hashimoto informed him.

“I just…” Shintarou fidgeted with his water glass, staring down at his hands on the table. “Ever since I got so tall, I feel like such a mess at work, at dancing, at singing, at everything. But with those guys, that doesn’t matter. To them, I’m still me.”

“Plus you’re youngest! That’s definitely best,” Hashimoto said, getting a wry smile out of Shintarou. “Then you get taken care of the most. So getting spoiled making selfish wishes is definitely fine.”

“Thanks,” Shintarou said, looking a little less tense. “Thanks for dinner, too. I hope you have a good birthday.”

“They’re all good in Ebi.” Hashimoto leered, making Shintarou blush and squirm a little. Well, here was hoping those guys might do something interesting for Shintarou, good birthday or not.

When they stepped out of the restaurant, Shintarou startled a little when Hashimoto hugged him, but Hashimoto held on good and tight for long enough that some of his magic had enough chance to rub off on Shintarou. He might not need it at all, Shintarou seemed to be something special all on his own, but Hashimoto figured it couldn’t hurt.

He had done pretty well for himself, in terms of birthday wish payoff, after all. Maybe this year it wouldn’t hurt to lend somebody else his wish.

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