Nico’s schedule rarely left room for personal things and time to himself. It meant that he was often missing his family and friends special celebrations, leaving him to rely on sporadic text messages and online gift-cards.

It was the only thing he had time for.

It made him feel guilty whenever he’d scroll his social media in his limited free time and see pictures of every family brunch he missed, and every niece or nephews birthday party he had to skip.

But maybe all it took was the right motivation. That motivation being you, in all your beautiful glory.

Nico knew your birthday was coming up from all your excited ramblings over the phone about plans you wanted to make and all the things you wanted to do. But he also knew you dulled it down around him so he wouldn’t feel guilty when he’d inevitably not be able to be there.

That was what had him frantically searching for some kind of fix. He didn’t want to send you some lame gift card, followed by an apology that you’d accept because you were too kind and forgiving to ask for more.

You deserved better. And he was going to make sure you got it, because he wasn’t going to fuck it up.

The relationship for him was new and delicate. Something he wanted to cherish, out of fear it would crumble and slip through his fingers like all the one’s before. No. He was going to do everything in his power to make you happy.

He had everything planned. It was just time for the execution. 
The night before your birthday, he sent you a message. All it read, was, “I’m sorry, angel. There’s not enough time to see you before I need to board the flight to my next away game.”

He knew you’d be upset, and it crushed him—but it just meant the pay off would be so much better.

Your birthday rolled around, and you hadn’t heard from him yet. You’d probably refreshed your messages while at lunch with your friends at least a hundred times, waiting for it to load in a ‘Happy birthday’ message from him. But it never did.

When you went home afterwards, you dropped your bag onto the counter with a sigh. It hadn’t been a bad day, but the one person you were most looking forward to hearing from; you hadn’t heard a single thing.

A couple minutes later, there was a knock on the door. You stood, and a moment later you were opening the door to…

“Nico!?”

Nico smiled at your shocked tone and face. “What? You seriously think I’d miss my best girls birthday?”