The Perfect Picture

Ayabun had had an amazing time making special wreaths as gifts for her friends with Elvira. After having delivered them all, aside from the one she decided to keep, she was beyond thrilled. Looking at the box the next morning she decided she may as well put it out now. She decided to set her own on the big round table in the dining room however, she frowned. The room could do with more decorations.

Grabbing a big length of colorful fabric she settled it lengthwise across the middle of the table, and set the candy wreath directly in the center. It would look fantastic with the candle lit. But something still didn’t feel quite right. There was too much space around it. So she went into the other room to fetch some of the nicest wine glasses she owned, with a colored rim on them. Placing the six glasses out carefully around the table with perfect spacing felt better, but still it seemed empty.

Next came napkins, in a color that looked great with the cloth and the wine glass rims, she tucked them gently under the glasses and then fetched herself two bottles of wine to sit on either side of the wreath. That looked much better, but there was still so much room. How could she fix that?

Her Furdin Alch gently rubbed against her leg and she crouched down to give him a pat. Somewhere in the background Duckling started rustling through some things, no doubt the clean basket of laundry she forgot to finish up with the other day. At least that meant they finished their food.

“What am I going to do Alch?” She asked her imp. In response all he did was lean into her for more pets. She knew if he could have in this position he would have curled up in her lap. Just as she went to pick him up however, Duckling made a noise in the other room.

Scurrying into the room she found Duckling sprawled out on the floor, apparently not making a mess of the clean laundry. Instead he had gotten himself into an old box. Alch came in quickly behind Ayabuns heels and rolled his eyes before jumping up onto the bed and staring down at the mess on the floor.

“Duckling what happened?” She lifted the little yellow corvat up and checked it over. Thankfully it didn’t seem hurt. Though now her albums were a mess. “Seems you need to go to bed early. No more trouble today.” Setting Duckling down on a fluffy round imp bed, she knelt on the ground and got to work.

Picking up the scattered images strewn over the floor, she tucked several in between pages in random albums. She could sort those out later. Though as she shoved the books back in the box, she paused as she looked over the images still on her floor. She could remember that one. It was a picture of the first day she brought Alch home, to think they had come so far. And there was a picture of Duckling helping himself to a bubble bath she had run before she could even hop in.

Picking those up she tucked them away on top of the growing pile in the box. On a whim she picked up a picture of Bon-bon and Kikeko. They were sharing a slice of cake from the last time Ayabun had made them a treat.They looked so happy. Goodness, when was the last time she had gone to visit them before dropping off the wreath earlier? The next picture she picked up was one someone else had taken, it was her and Strudel out having desserts at a new shop that had opened. The two of them had been so silly that day.

Another picture she had was one of Limon, she was sprawled on all fours covered in yogurt, but it looked like she had just walked out of a fun time in the back room, aside from how angry she was laughing at her predicament you’d think that much spilled yogurt would have been a problem.

The last picture she glanced at was one that had been taken at a party, she had convinced Ione to go with her as her date and talked them into matching outfits with her. Ione wasn’t usually one for parties, but if snacks were involved she could usually sucker her ‘coffee’ into going with her.

Smiling at all the pictures, she shook her head. “You know what? I think I know what I’m going to do.” Duckling was already sleeping, but Alch looked at her from the bed with a small tilt of his head.

Ayabun shoved the boxes back into hiding, and headed back to the main room to make some calls. With that settled, she spent the next three hours of her day cooking and baking. All little things one could pick up and eat on the go. There were little breaded tofu dogs on sticks, cheesy garlic bread bites, small rice balls, breaded and wrapped cheese balls, veggie skewers, and asian style tofu balls making up the main dishes to munch on. Alongside a veggie tray, and cheese and crackers and pickle sticks.

For treats, she made both chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, there was also cut up pineapple and some grapes, slices of kiwi, strawberries of course, both plain and covered in chocolate. She had also made some shortbread and sugar cookies, mini handheld apple pies, and macarons. Just as she finished setting the last of the items on the table, there was a knock at the door.

Opening the door with a smile revealed Limon and Ione, of course they were the first ones to arrive. Ione’s usually quiet voice held a hint of annoyance, as was usual with their littermate. “I made sure we would be on time.” Ione said, as they went to give Limon a nudge, however Limon was already hurtling herself through the door. Her arms went around Ayabun in a surprise hug that almost toppled them both the floor. Ione shook their head as the girls giggled.

“I brought along some of those mini coffee cakes you asked about.” Ione stated, holding out a box. Before Ayabun could say where to put them, or even thank Ione for the trouble, Limon could no longer contain herself.

“I can’t believe you called, gosh I was actually going to be going out today but they cancelled at the last minute because of something else. So it was going to be movies and sweets to myself when you called. Ione almost didn’t wanna come, I had to beg and plead for an hour-” Ione cut Limon off there.

“In my defense, She never even told me WHO had invited us out to a party. Limon also neglected to mention you were making home made snacks.” At that Ayabun watched Ione do a quick scan of the room.

“The snacks are in the dining room~ Why don’t you go put the coffee cakes somewhere they will fit in there and-” Ayabun didn’t get to finish, Limon was already prancing off, half dragging Ione along with her, not that Ayabun had any time to fuss. Just as she turned to close the door, Strudel was lifting a hand from across the way, crying out for her to wait.

“Strudel, I’m glad you could make it~” She chimed.

Strudel didn’t bother running over but they did hurry their step. In their hands was a big jug of fancy sweet tea. “Of course, I wouldn’t miss an Aya-party for anything. You brought the sweetest gift recently.” They handed over the jug of tea, and shut the door behind them.

“I have one on the dining room table here too that you can snack on, and plenty of goodies to go around. This tea will make a great addition~” Ayabun led Strudel to the dining area and made sure Limon wasn’t getting into any trouble.

Going by the scowl barely hidden on Ione’s face, and the mischievous grin Limon was sporting, she had at least been attempting to get up to no good. They both greeted Strudel happily enough however, and Ayabun made a note that they were welcome to pour themselves a wine glass of whatever they liked while they waited. Strudel was the first to do so, picking the wine glass nearest to them and filling it up with some of the sweet tea they brought with them.

Ayabun heard another knock at the door. Turning to go answer it, she could hear Ione asking Strudel about what they made the tea with. A small smile tugged her expression. She knew exactly who was at the door, she just hoped they managed to find someone to stay with all their imps for a while. Much as she adored them, there were simply too many to bring everywhere.

Kikeko and Bon-Bon were hand in hand smiling wide, each of them had a small bag with a box in their free hands. Ayabun embraced them both carefully. “I’m glad you could both make it~” She invited them both in, closed the door and gestured for them to follow. Kikeko talked about their latest stay at one of Burrogatories more famous hot springs, and Bon-Bon went on about how well the imps were doing.

Bon-Bon placed chocolate snowballs in a neat pile on a plate on the dining room table, while Kikeko pulled out a box of sprinkled cake pops, opening it up and setting it down beside the snowballs. “Bon-Bon and I spent a little time in the kitchen baking together before we came.” Kikeko started.

Bon-Bon smiled. “We were very surprised when you called, since we had just seen you yesterday when you brought that pretty wreath you had made. We had to put it up somewhere the imps wouldn’t be able to get it.” Ayabun watched Bon-Bon turn to her partner. “You’d be amazed how few spots were safe. We’ve even had to lock up a cupboard a few times before they were better trained.”

Kikeko laughed shyly. “They are clever though, they know how to get into the locked ones now too. So we have to really be on our toes.” Kikeko turned to Strudel then and offered a polite wave, before asking them how they had been.

Bon-Bon talked to Ione for a while about the coffee cakes they had made, asking if they were the same ones they served in the cafe. Ione shook their head and talked about how these ones would be even better.

Ayabun gently balled up a napkin and tossed it at Limon, who giggled and threatened to throw a strawberry at her. Challenge accepted. Limon tossed a berry from across the table and Ayabun half made a fool of herself trying to catch it in her mouth. She succeeded, but it still caused a round of giggles from everyone. Strudel added some clapping to it however so she took a mock bow.

At some point, Bon-Bon put on music, while Kikeko poured wine for anyone who wanted some. Ione was casually having some of the more savory snacks and Limon had taken it upon herself to try to eat a cake pop while upside down on the nearby couch. Strudel had managed to sneak Alch a small snack, though to their dismay it didn’t seem to help them befriend the imp at all. Ayabun sat in the seat she had taken, sipping a glass of wine poured by her friend, while she nibbled a snack from another.

Everyone seemed so happy, talking, dancing a bit, being silly, enjoying the snacks. Maybe those Cherubuns were on to something with these kinds of get-togethers. Not that she hadn’t had some before. Her conversation with Elvira the other day came to mind, about how Dove mentioned this time of year was one to be thankful. Ayabun teared up a little bit, and glanced at the candy wreath in the middle of the table.

At first, she was quiet. “Thank you…” Strudel was the first to catch it, though barely. They asked what she said, which had the others all turning towards her as well. Kikeko saw the glassy look in her eyes and immediately went to grab a nearby box of tissues. Ione stammered out a quick question to see what might be wrong. Bon-Bon turned the music down so they could hear her better.

Alch jumped into Ayabuns lap at that point, gently curling up and rumbling out some gentle purrs. Taking a deep breath as Kikeko handed her a tissue Ayabun shook her head. “I just wanted to say Thank you. All of you are amazing friends, and I’m so glad we could spend this time together.” She could feel the sting in her eyes, blinking a few times to ensure not a single tear fell.

“I actually called you all today because Duckling knocked over some of my old Albums, there were pictures everywhere. I realized it’s been a while since we got to really hang out properly. And we’ve done so many fun things together.”

The other buns started to smile, talking about different things they had done together, trips that had gone on, all the good lunches and snacks. Even Ione admitted to enjoying a party or two they had been to with Ayabun. In the end, Ayabun ended up going and grabbing the photo albums, and showed her friends a few of the pictures that she had looked at earlier as well as a few others.

Kikeko piped up about how this event would also make for a memorable photo. Strudel went and found a camera Ayabun mentioned the location of. Ione and Bon-Bon cleared a nearby table and got the camera angle just right. Limon set the timer, and they all posed for a few photos by the dining table.

They were setting up for the final photo, moving all the chairs out of the way, and standing in front of the dining room table so there wasn’t much to see though it was clear there had been a party. They rearranged themselves a few times at Limon’s beckoning for ‘the perfect shot’ Ione rolled their eyes but agreed. So everyone settled into their newest positions. Strudel set the timer on the camera this time, and got back to their spot. Everything was now ready.

And then Limon giggled. Just as the last picture was about to snap, she said “NOW!” To Ione, and before anyone had a moment to try and guess what was happening. Ione sighed, but followed through with Limons Plan.

The final picture had Limon between Kikeko and Ayabun, and Ione between Bon-Bon and Strudel. The two of them were smiling at different levels, while the other four buns now had cake covered faces. Everyone was laughing or smiling, there was cake everywhere, but that ended up being the best picture of all.