"So, that's it." The man said, putting the finishing touches on the paperwork. He dotted his 'i's, dashed his 't's. Then, he straightened his glasses and looked up at the Asian in front of him in the blue police uniform that was now official. "You're good to go. You've graduated from basic training."

Shin beamed at him. "Thanks."

Now all he had to do was talk to some people about job hours, and talk with Kealey and Sam.

On second-thought, he decided to put Sam off for a long while. What the man didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

Stepping out onto sidewalk in front of the station, Shin summoned a shard platform and took off for home. Lucky for him, his ribs were pretty much healed now. Platforms, he could do. Otherwise, he'd have had to ride his Porygon pony to the apartment instead.

~*~

He touched down on the sidewalk. The doorman arched an eyebrow as the pink platform vanished. Shin shrugged through the doorway, fiddling with his phone.

Send.

He sent her the pictures, as well as a message. 'Be home soon. I have a surprise.'

Then, he boarded the elevator. And waited to reach their floor.

Kealey was worn out. Watch nights at the Mansion, were new and necessary. They were also tough and she hadn't made it back to the apartment until early that morning.

Sure, she could have slept in, but she'd wanted to get home. It was Shin's birthday after all! So, when she got home to an empty apartment...she was mildly disappointed. It turned out he'd gone to the police station for something. Armed with her new information, Kealey had done anything but sit idle. She'd started cooking.

It was nearly 11 am, and Kealey didn't know if Shin had eaten breakfast, but he was going to eat it again if he had. There were eggs, and bacon, and some chocolate chip pancakes, and maybe a couple of waffles. She'd kind of gone all out. She had birthday candles too, for the top of the pancake stack. This was going to be a good start to a good birthday.

Her phone buzzed, and Keaely grabbed it from the counter in one hand with a mixing bowl in the other. Swipe, swipe, 'open picture mail.'

The bowl fell from the blonde's arm, splattering the extra pancake batter all over the floor, the apron Kealey was wearing, and her face. That was...that was a....that was a GIANT bulbasaur? Was there going to be a new movie with a giant real life bulbasaur? Was that the surprise....or had Shin somehow found one and was riding it home?

She heard his key in the lock and read the next message. He had a surprise? For her? On his birthday? The batter splattered Kealey waited for the door to open so she could find out.

In, Shin went. Instantly, he smelled it. The food. Good food. And lots of it. There was also the faint aroma of batter, and Kealey.

His eyes fell on Kealey. Shin blinked.

Batterwitch?

He glanced around for any mailboxes. Saw none. Looked back at Kealey.

"You're all dressed up." He gestured to the batter. "What's the occasion?"

Did he really not know? First, Kealey had to grin at Shin in all his police gear. She liked it almost as much as when he was wearing the Garo coat she'd made him and flying around on a shard platform.

Forward she moved, shaking her head and planting a kiss on his cheek. "I dropped the batter when I saw the bulbasaur..." she said, a little breathlessly. "Where was that? Is it real?"

Besides that. "And silly...I should be dressed up anyway. It's your birthday."

She smiled. "So I made breakfast."

Her lips moved away from his cheek, leaving batterstains. It slightly marred his appearance. Or might've improved it. He did not notice. She had smiled.

Shin grinned at her. "I helped a kid out yesterday who could turn into a giant Bulbasaur. It was the first time his power had activated. It was crazy. There was also a Mr. Mime."

And whoa, it was his birthday?!

"I forgot!" Shin laughed. "Thank you, Kealey. You look good enough to eat." He was sure the pancake batter that had actually been cooked would be tasty, too.

A kid. Who could turn into GIANT pokemon. It was an amazing thing, and Shin had helped him. It made Kealey want to make that cute little d'aww noise that people sometimes made when something was really cute. Kealey wondered what had happened to the kid...and if maybe...sometime...she could meet him. They could deal with that later though.

Shin had forgotten about his own birthday! To be honest....Kealey couldn't blame him, she'd forgotten her own birthday a bunch of times. In fact, Shin had been the first one to celebrate it with her in ages. Birthdays were important, she'd decided, especially when you had someone to spend them with.

Kealey hadn’t realized just how much batter she'd had on her face when she kissed his cheek, but now she grinned at the way he looked, standing in the doorway in his police blues and batter on his face.

And she looked good enough to eat.

"I'd hug you for that...but I don't want to spoil your uniform. It looks too good."

Something else occurred to the blond and she grinned over her shoulder, making her way back towards the kitchen so no food burned.

"Was the bulbasaur the surprise?"

"Nope." Shin said. His voice drifted over his shoulder to Kealey as he turned to close the front door. "I finished police training and get to be a full-fledged officer soon. I think they said the badge was in the mail." Unlikely. They were probably going to contact him at a later date to award it to him, all official-like. But it just sounded so cute saying it like that, he couldn't resist.

She was so cute when she was bouncing over the Bulbasaur, too. It had been worth hiding it from her in order to surprise her from out of nowhere with gigantic cuteness today. She would probably keep focusing on that, rather than the pride bellowing in his gut over coply duties and a future in law enforcement.

He wondered if they'd speed up his actual duties, too. Since he was a member of the X-men. Surely, he'd be able to get on the same thingy as Cervantes and Drake? Merci, was it? Sounded French.

Into the kitchen Kealey went, glad that the way the new apartment was set up enabled her to still see Shin as he shut the door. She shut off the stove and moved the hot pans off the range top just as Shin explained the surprise.

"Really?!" she said, beaming with pride at her boyfriend. He'd been so dead set on this course of action for so long, and he'd finally accomplished at least part of his goal.

"Are they really going to send the badge in the mail? How long with it take it to get here? Does this mean you'll get to drive a police car around the city?" the questions were flowing fast...between the bulbasaur kid and the announcement Shin had just made, Kealey was all in a tizzy.

"I can't wait to see the badge...Officer Shinbo." It had a nice ring to it, and Kealey couldn't help but giggle a little as she said it. Sure, being a cop was dangerous...but cops wore bulletproof vests all the time. They didn't have to make them with their mind.

>>"Really?!"

"Yupyup." Nod nod. Cute cute. Her, beaming with pride. He grinned right back, mind focused on cute things, like silly ideas such as sending police badges in the mail. And aprons. And Bulbasaurs.

"They probably won't send it in the mail." He replied. "I think I'll be getting it from a higher-up soon. There might even be some sort of ceremony. Like a Police School graduation thing. I dunno." He was pretty sure if there was, they'd breeze past that pretty fast, in the wave of a hand. The sooner he was a cop, the better. As to the other million questions. Shin smirked.

"I'm hoping I'll be able to transfer into MRC with Cervantes. I'm not sure how I feel about doing parking duty or working beat."

Officer Shinbo did have a nice ring to it. It had a ring to it, indeed. His mind drifted to rings and he closed the distance between them, and rested his hands on her hips, drawing Kealey into a kiss.

She liked the surprise. Both of them. That was good.