nick stood in front of the closed kitchen door, making me walk up towards him with a confused expression on my face. "why are you standing here like that?"

"close your eyes."

"what? no, why should i-", i started to ramble but were interrupted instantly. "i said", nick repeated himself. "close. your. eyes."

"you're scaring me.", i said, closing my eyes nonetheless. "good girl.", you can practically hear his idiotic smile at these words, making me cringe. "keep 'em shut." i heard the door open and a hand grab mine to guide me into the kitchen slowly.

"what the fuck are you doing?", i was unsure of what to expect but trusted him with not letting me walk into anything. "there's a chair behind you, sit down"

and i did as i was told.

"take it off in three, two, one"

his voice got distant as i pulled it off, opening my eyes that had to adjust to the light first.

i opened them for real this time and what i saw was almost making me fall of the chair.

karl and nick but also three other boys that i could identify as alex, george and a tall blonde that would have to be clay stood in front of me with a huge grin on their face as they started to sing 'happy birthday'.

i look around to see a self baked birthday cake standing on the counter, along with a few presents and some drinks.

.

.

we spent the whole day together playing games and talking, joking around, eating and just enjoying each others company. we also took a bunch of pictures and videos considering we didn't have a lot of time together, they clarified that they'd only stay for the day and all their flights, including nicks, were flying off at two in the morning.

i still can't believe that they all flew here and got me stuff, going through all of that trouble just to meet me for my birthday, especially clay since he hadn't face-revealed to anyone besides nick yet. they said they wanted to met up anyway it the date just seemed to fit for everyone so they decided to surprise me with it.

we all got along perfectly and they made me feel like i was a part of their friend group for ages, treating me like a close friend since the beginning. i felt really welcome in their middle and like these people were my home.

"ash i know you're not sure about this but we wanna hang out more with you and have you present online as well, just have you in vc's when we stream or play something with us you know?", clay looked at me with a soft smile, i knew they'd try over and over again.

"yeah", alex stared to talk. "see, you don't have to be present and post on any social media but just not be that closed up and give it a chance, i'm sure you'll like it if you just gave it a chance. i also really wanna post a pic of today and talk about it on stream with all of you, come on"

all eyes were on me as i finally hummed in agreement. "fine", i smiled at their cheering. "finally", nick grinned.

"just keep my face off of the internet still", clay stated, making george lean against his chest, smiling up. "of course we will, idiot"

"one last round of mario kart before we have to head to the airport.", alex sighed. "we will definitely meet again soon for longer, just not at karl's tiny one bed apartment.", george laughed, making all of us nod.

"definitely."