It was early in the morning as John giggled and sat up in bed, crawling over to the edge to look at the calendar on the wall. It read September 8th, and right in the box on the calendar date was written in bright bold letters “Uncle Marz’s birthday!”, and the gator smiled softly as he quickly got out of bed, and silently but swiftly leaving the room. Marz usually did a lot of stuff to take care of his nephew, and so for the day, John wanted to return to favor and smiled happily as he entered the kitchen, and started rummaging through the fridge and pantry. “I wonder if he’ll want pancakes for his breakfast, or bacon?” John wondered as his tail wagged as his chubby bottom stuck out of the fridge as he searched. He heard a voice from behind him that had a amused chuckle as it spoke. “A little early to be up and in the fridge huh chubby buns?” A male voice came, it was John’s other uncle Mar.
“Oh hey uncle Mar, didn’t mean to wake you if I did. I’m not searching the fridge for me, i'm looking for something to make uncle Marz for his birthday, as a gift and to repay the fact he does so much for me.” John gave a soft and sweet smile showing he was sincere in what he wanted to do as Mar chuckled and nodded softly, seeing as the boy was definitely in the right heart to do that. Mar walked over and nodded as he looked in the fridge and grabbed a carton of eggs and some supplies to make pancakes. “Well if you’re going to make him a breakfast, than let me help you. You’re still a bit too young to be working an open fire on the stove, and your dad would tan my hide if I let you get burned doing so, so I’ll handle this. But what you can do is set the table and make some juice.” Mar told the boy and smiled as he rubbed his head, he wanted to let John do this for Marz but he also had a responsibility as his uncle to make sure he didn’t do anything to dangerous since John was a kid still.
John nodded and saluted in a goofy fashion, getting a laugh out of Mar as he sent him to the table with a playful slap to his backside, making John yelp and jump in surprise before giggling and walking to the table to get it ready. He grabbed 4 plates and smiled as he set them around the table, and making sure each plate got a napkin and a fork to accompany it, and smiling as he did such. John was cautious and swift but was also a bit clumsy at times and nearly dropped a plate when he was grabbing it, luckily Mar was able to see from where he was cooking and used his aura to catch whatever the innocent little gator dropped. “Okay, tables all set, now I gotta make the juice.” John said to himself and smiled as he skipped into the kitchen happily and goes to get a pitcher and starts filling it up with water. “What flavor would he want?” John asked himself as he looked, and after a few minutes of taking his time and talking to himself, he grabbed out a small thing of grape juice and goes back to mix it with the water.
While John stirred and added in sugar, Mar smiled and plated the pancakes and a side of bacon, seeming to have ready his nephews mind and went with both choices for breakfast. Mar walked to the dining room and smiled proudly at the neatly set table, glad his nephew was able to do it without much help, and smiling over to the gator who cautiously brought the juice to the table. Mar smiled and set the food on the table with the juice before placing a cover on the food, turning and picking John up. “Alright, foods ready. Now, let’s go get your uncle.” He smiled and started carrying John up the steps with a kiss to his forehead, showing he was impressed with what the boy wanted to do for his uncle, and was proud at how mature John had been to do such a thing and plan it himself.
Before they got to Marz room, John gasped and had his uncle put him down. “Wait! I need to get and get his present from my room first.” He said and hopped from his uncles arms and ran to his room in a hurry. Mar was a bit surprised at the rush, considering that John could’ve given Marz the gift at any moment, but shrugged as he figured John just really wanted Marz to see the gift. John soon returned with a small box and smiled as he looked at the Lucario man. “Okays, now I got the gift, we can wake him up.” He said and goes to knock on the fox man’s door, mar smiling softly as he rubbed his head. “Hopefully he likes it all. I want him to like it so he knows how much I appreciate all he does.” John said to himself, Mar overhearing a little bit and smiled. Mar knew That Marz knew John appreciated everything he did, but it was still sweet to see John wanting to prove it.
A few moments later an orange fox with a white underbelly opened the door in a big red onesie, yawning a bit as he saw the Lucario and the gator, and blinked a few times. “What did you to do?” He asked, not immediately remembering the day and had a odd suspicion that his nephew and brother had gotten into some trouble, Mar chuckling and pretending to be offended while John giggled and jumped into his uncles arms, the fox gasping and stumbling back as he caught the gator and chuckled. “Happy birthday uncle Marz!” John said and hugged his uncle tightly, nuzzling into him as he smiled at the fox that was still in his pjs, like John was. Marz chuckled a bit and nodded as he yawned “oh yeah, it’s my birthday. Thanks buddy.” He smiled at the gator and carried him as he followed Mar to the dining room.
Upon entering, Marz saw the food and the table all set and smiled softly as he knew these two were responsible. Marz smiled warmly and gently placed John in his chair, while Mar went and got another Lucario a black and red one, and walked him in to join them, yawning himself as he seemingly just woke up to. Josh saw the food and smiled as he wished Marz a happy birthday and took a seat, very silent and shy like he usually was. Marz smiled as he saw everything set up and saw John place the box next to his uncle and knew it was his present. “John, Mar, this means a lot to me that you two woke up early just to make breakfast and get me a gift. You guys didn’t have to do that, birthday or no.” He smiled at the two as they both chuckled.
“Let’s eat.” Mar said and helped serve up Josh and John, before serving himself and letting Marz take what he wanted, the family starting to eat happily as Marz smiled warmly, loving the taste of the food and just enjoying the company of his family. Breakfast was pretty quick as they soon were all done eating and Marz was sitting back and toying with the gift. Marz picked up the box and walked with John to the couch, having a feeling that he and John should be sitting together when he opened it. “Alright buddy, let’s see what you gave me.” He said gently and started carefully unwrapping the gift, blinking softly as he looked into the box and saw a hand made picture frame, a homemade card and a small object wrapped in cloth. He picked up the picture frame and it was a picture of Marz holding a sleeping John, a few years back when he first started taking care of him, and the frame around read ‘best uncle ever.’ And Marz held it to his chest and teared up a little with a smile. “Oh goodness, John. I love it.” He said gently and hugged the gator close to him.
“Read the card.” John says and smiled as he eagerly handed him to card made in crayon and pencil, with a small drawing of them together. Marz smiled and opened the card and started reading, the card saying:
“Happy birthday to the best uncle ever, for being friendly, caring and protective of me no matter what I go through. I couldn’t ask for a better uncle, or a better friend. I love you and appreciate you for all you’ve done for me, and I hope that never changes. You always hold me when I’m sad and scared, and you’re always there to make me laugh when I don’t feel happy. You’re the best uncle ever, and I wouldn’t ask for anything better. I love you uncle, signed, John.”
Marz smiled and wiped his eyes as he lifted John and sat him on his lap, and kissed his cheek softly. “John, thank you. I love the gifts, they mean a lot. Thank you so much.” He said as he held him, while grabbing the small object that was wrapped up. He chuckled when he unraveled it to see a hairbrush with john's name written on the back as he laughed softly. “I have a feeling I know what this is for.” He laughed and hugged John tightly to him, and nuzzled him gently. “Thank you for this John, I love you kiddo.”
“I love you too uncle Marz. Happy birthday.” John said and lied his head on his uncles shoulder, and slowly dozed off. Waking up early seemed to have made John need a nap, and so Marz lied back on the couch and held John so he could nap, happy with the gifts he had received.
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