Hello! For all of you that listed my story in their story alert, I THANK THEE. Really, I appreciate it. It makes me want to write again. And thanks to sakurenjiDREamer I got my spark back! Oh, I also advise you to read this story with the ¾ setting. Enjoy. =D

"Three… Two… One…"

She whispered sleepily. Already in her pyjamas, she was ready to go to bed. Her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier by the second. But tired as she was, she didn't want to go to sleep. Not yet at least. The digital alarm clock on her bedside table changed its digits to 00:00. It was official.

"Happy birthday to me." she said softly. Now she was ready to go to sleep. It's a quirky little tradition she started when she was just a little girl, saying "Happy birthday" to herself. Her eyes began to close and she was slowly drifting off. That was, until her phone rang.

Frowning, she stretched her hand out to grab her phone out of her drawer. The caller ID simply said "Unknown Number".

"Who would call at such an ungodly hour?" she thought to herself. She considered rejecting the call and going back to bed, but she just didn't have the heart. What if it was an emergency?

"Hello?" her voice came out rather groggy.

"Fucking manager, open your window." This was no emergency, she knew that much.

"What? No! Do you know what time this is?"

"Well, duh! Who do you think I am? An idiot? Now just shut up and open your goddamned window! It's getting fucking cold out here!"

She hung up. It's not her fault he was out there when winter is just around the corner. So she sat back on her bed and pulled back the comforter.

Her phone rang again. This time she was wide-awake and irritated.

Keeping her voice calm, she answered it, "What is it Hiruma-kun?"

"Open. Your. Goddamned. Window. Manager."

She sighed and walked over to her window, phone still on her ear.

"Okay, hold on a second."

Who she saw was Hiruma, sitting on branch of the tree that was in front of her window. His grin was spread across his face.

"Happy fucking birthday, manager."

"Wha- Hiruma-kun wha-"

She didn't get to finish her question because she was cut off by all of her Deimon friends standing by the tree.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMORI!"

Everybody was there. Sena, Suzuna, Kurita, Musashi, the Huh-Huh brothers. Everybody. Some were holding out boxes wrapped with colourful paper and with ribbons on them. Her eyes started watering. She covered her mouth with both of her hands and muffled a squeak.

Hiruma was still sitting on the branch, his eyes softened a bit. Just a bit.

"Get out here and let's party!" He shouted. Everybody cheered enthusiastically. Mamori quickly grabbed her robe off her chair and ran out of her dorm room. Oh, they were definitely waking a couple of people up. She hasn't seen them for a while, with university getting in the way and all that. Still, she never would have expected them to go through all this trouble just to surprise her. And what a surprise it was. Never in a million years, would she ever think that she was going to celebrate her 18th birthday like this.

When she got there, Sena and Suzuna were holding out a cake. Precisely eighteen candles were alight on top of it. Hiruma then jumped off of the tree and landed without a sound. Only the dead leaves beneath his feet rustled a bit. Mamori couldn't help but smile at everybody there. She beamed, simply beamed. Even with the dim candlelight they could all still see the tears forming in her eyes.

"Make a wish and blow out the candles, Mamo-nee!"

"Suzu-chan, Sena… Everybody… You didn't have to do this." She sniffled.

Sena smiled, "We didn't have to. We wanted to."

"You guys…"

Tears were rolling down her cheeks now.

"Just blow out the damn candles, fucking manager! It's melting on to the cake!"

Hiruma was now standing beside her. Gesturing her to hurry up and get on with it. She drew in a breath…

…and blew.

Everybody cheered. They proceeded to hug Mamori and wishing her a happy birthday. Hiruma on the other hand, pulled out a detonator of some sorts and his hand was ready to press the button.

"Now for the main attraction…"

The sky lit up with dozens of different colours. The dead of night became as bright as the Fourth of July. Fireworks. Tons of them. The Deimon High School Football Team just stared up at the sky in awe. Only Hiruma could put on a fireworks display this big without a permit. The display went on for what seemed like an awful long time. Nobody said a word, they all just stood there and watched.

"YA-HA!"

As if broken out of a trance, the rest of them joined Hiruma in cheering, including Mamori. She laughed, screamed and cried at the same time. This was definitely the best birthday celebration she had ever had. And who else was responsible?

Mamori went around and hugged everybody there. Telling them how much she had missed them. She wasn't lying either. The sight of them all together made her think of how happy she was during high school. She was still happy of course, but there was something about seeing them all eating, talking, essentially being happy together that just made her feel warm inside. She was certain that the sound of the fireworks going off alone had woken half of the town up. Now the sound of the rowdy boys partying was definitely going to wake up everybody on campus grounds. Yet, she couldn't care less. They will always be 'her' team, 'her' family, 'her' closest set of friends, even if they had gone their different paths now.

And the cake was awesome, too. The filling was the same filling as Kariya's creampuffs! She hadn't had that for ages. She should really thank whoever thought of that idea.

"This cake is amazing!" Kurita's voice could be heard from somewhere in the middle of the crowd.

"I know right! Who ordered this cake?"

"I don't know Mamori-san. Hiruma organized everything. He just called me to be here by midnight."

"Really? Me too! Although, You-nii did say to bring plates and blankets. I guess he knew we were going to picnic out here in the middle of the night." Suzuna chirped in.

After finishing her last (third, it's her birthday. Give the lady a break.) piece of cake, Mamori got up and walked over to Hiruma. He was leaning against the very tree he was on before. When he saw here coming he smirked.

"Like the surprise, manager?"

She could feel her lips forming a smile against her will.

"Yes. Yes, I did actually."

"Good." He sounded a bit smug. Honestly though, when doesn't he sound smug?

"Thank you, Hiruma-kun."

He certainly did not expect her to stretch out her arm like that. Warning him not to do this sort of stuff again, maybe, but definitely not this. Not her holding out both of her arms, waiting for a hug. He could see one of her eyebrows quirked up. So he stepped up and wrapped his arms around her waist awkwardly. She completed the hug by wrapping her own arm around his neck.

"Thank you so much, Hiruma-kun." She whispered in his ear.

"You're fucking welcome, ke ke ke ke…"

He tightened the hug. They held each other just a little longer than a normal hug. Just enough for her to feel him smirk against her hair and just enough for him to imprint the feeling into his brain. They stepped away from each other albeit a little uneasily. His hands moved to her forearms and held her in place.

"And the cake was delicious! I didn't know Kariya's made birthday cakes."

"They don't. Ke ke ke ke. I had to…persuade the head patisserie into making that fucking cake. He was more than willing to help." His smirk turned into something more like a very cocky grin. He was definitely pleased of himself.

"You didn't threaten him did you?" She cocked an eyebrow.

"Hell no." Of course he did.

"Hiruma-kun?" She crossed her arm, making Hiruma let go of them.

"I said I persuaded him. It's between that damn patisserie and me. Your job is to devour that fucking piece of cake with fatso over there."

He turned her around and pushed her towards the direction of Kurita. She was never one to just blindly follow orders, though. She turned back on her heels.

"Whatever you did, give him my compliments."

"Done."

Mamori opened her mouth, but was cut-off by someone tugging on her robe.

"Mamo-nee, I have to go home. My mom found out I sneaked out."

Behind Suzuna was Sena. He flashed Mamori an apologetic look and said, "I should probably walk her home. Happy birthday Mamori-neechan."

After both of them gave a quick hug to Mamori, they went home.

One by one all of them said goodbye to Mamori. It was nearly dawn when Juumonji dragged a drunken Togano with him and wished Mamori a last birthday wish. Well, at least they cleaned up after themselves. Mamori was tired; she didn't want to spend her morning cleaning up the aftermath of a party. She let out a yawn. She's going back to bed; she can probably afford to sleep a couple more hours.

"Aren't you going back to your dorm, Hiruma-kun?"

The man she was talking to stopped in his tracks. He was grinning.

"Why? I can always go back to yours." Grinning still, but he didn't look like he was joking.

Mamori's cheeks turned pink for a split second, before turning back to her usual pale shade. She held out a hand and he took it.

"Come on then."

His step fell in line with hers and together they walked into the dorm. Her head leaned slightly on his shoulder. Once in her room, Hiruma let go of her hand. He stopped just outside her door. She turned around to look at him, her expression indicated she was confused.

"Go back to sleep, I have somewhere else to go."

"But-"

She was cut off again. She was cut off a lot today. But this time it was by his lips touching her forehead lightly.

"Happy fucking birthday, fucking girlfriend." He smirked.

With that said, he walked off. Mamori was left blushing and with her heart beating like crazy.

"Thank you."