Disclaimer: I don't own FFXIII.

Birthdays

Fang smirked as the candles flickered out on the cake. "Ha!" she shouted, triumphantly as she watched every single one turn into a puff of smoke.

Her friends all began to clap and cheer her on. Snow wrapped an arm around her, ruffling Fang's hair.

"Oi! Leggo!" Fang said through laughter. Etro, she loved birthdays. Even if she was turning five hundred and twenty three (Technically speaking). It was an excellent excuse for a party and a get together. Hell, even Sazh was there. And the old man wasn't much for partying.

The only one who didn't look like they were having fun was Lightning. Fang's expression was on the verge of souring. The one whom she wanted to have the most fun wasn't enjoying herself at all.

She'd probably rather be working, Fang thought to herself angrily. What a woman to fall for.

"You know, I have trouble blowing out the candles on my cake, and you just did over a hundred," Sazh congratulated her. Serah and Vanille had told her that the plan was to fit five hundred candles on the cake, but only around one hundred would fit.

It didn't matter much to Fang. The only thing that mattered to Fang was if everyone was enjoying themselves.

Six out of seven would just have to do.

When it came time for presents, everyone gave out theirs to Fang except for Lightning. When it came time for Lightning's turn, she waved off their gazes and said, "I'll have it soon."

Fuck, really Light? Fang thought to herself, unable to push down the anger any longer. It's my birthday, I'd never do this on yours.

But never the less, Fang let it go by without drawing too much attention to it. She'd have a talk with Lightning later.

Drinking came next, to Fang's pleasure and Hope's annoyance. The kid wasn't old enough and Lightning's expression shouted, 'Just try it.'

Fang almost laughed. Almost.

An hour passed and that was when Lightning announced she was leaving. For Fang, that was the last straw. Everyone else was going to stay late into the night, and here was Sunshine just leaving as the sun went down.

The door closing prompted Fang to ask to everyone, "Is something eating at Light?"

Vanille nodded, "She seemed to be…off tonight."

Naturally, everyone turned to Serah. "Hey, don't look at me!" she held up her hands. "Lightning doesn't tell me much about what's bothering her."

"But you can't think of anything that'd be bothering soldier girl?" Sazh asked.

"Perhaps it was just a bad day?" Hope suggested, trying to save some face for Lightning.

"She's been like this for the past couple days," Fang said. "Actually, ever since I invited her to this party she's been…depressed?"

"Why?" Snow simply asked. "I thought Lightning would be happy to celebrate Fang's birthday."

Piercing the silence that whisper could break, Serah gasped loudly, "Oh, fuck!"

"Woah, language, little Farron," Fang said with wide eyes. Serah didn't swear.

"Something wrong?" Snow asked, concerned.

"It was Lightning's birthday three days ago," Serah breathed. "I completely forgot."

Fang noticeably twitched, and she wasn't the only one who had a look of some form of guilt about them. The huntress had no idea that hers and Sunshine's birthdays were so close.

So she thought we'd forgotten about her, Fang realized, understanding Lightning's behavior.

Because we did.

"I'm an awful sister," Serah moaned.

"Hey, no you're not," Snow tried to comfort his wife. "We were all busy planning for Fang's party."

"And we should have been doing something for her too!" Serah exclaimed with anger. "This is all my fault."

Lightning sighed as she stared down at the wrapped gift in her hands. She should have just given it to Fang tonight, instead of holding onto it.

It had taken her ages to figure out how that Bhakti worked. But thanks to her efforts, it had led to the photo album in her hands.

Why couldn't I have just smiled for Fang? Lightning groaned. She didn't deserve that. She didn't know my birthday was even close to hers.

A selfish part of her wanted to be angry at Serah for forgetting, but she couldn't even manage that. She loved her sister too much to be angry.

But it couldn't stop the feeling of loneliness Lightning felt.

Forgotten.

Would she forgive them? Yes, she didn't want to make it a big deal. Even though she felt that at the moment when she had the most friends that, they'd abandoned her.

Shut up and focus, soldier, Lightning's mind barked. Go give Fang her gift and apologize for leaving early. Then leave it rest.

Sighing, she got out of her car she hadn't left and made her way back to Fang's house.

A knock on the door sprang Fang out of the conversation. Jumping up, she said, "I got this. You all keep yapping."

Fang left a general chuckle behind as she left the room and got to the front door. More than a little curious about who it was, Fang opened the door.

Lightning.

"Sorry about before," Lightning started before Fang could say anything. "I'm just having a bad day. I wanted to give you this before I left." The rosette's hand held out a wrapped gift the size of a book. Fang mutely accepted it.

"Wanna come back inside?" Fang asked after a moment of silence.

"I…think I'll go home. Sorry," Lightning apologized again.

I should be the one apologizing.

"Light…wait," Fang said as her friend began to turn around.

"Hmm?" Lightning turned her head back to she could see Fang out of the side of her vision.

"Happy birthday," Fang said.

Lightning's eyes widened and she turned around completely. Fang walked up and gave her a hug, bringing her mouth to Lightning's ear saying, "I figured that's why you were sad. Don't tell the others I told you, but we're throwing you a surprise party. The timing got fucked up when we didn't realize my birthday and yours were so close."

"So you guys didn't forget…?" Lightning whispered.

A part of Fang hurt for lying to Lightning, but it had to be done. "Of course not, but now you've gotta pretend to be surprised. And well…you should probably still head home to keep up appearances." Fang bit her lip, afraid how Lightning would take the last line.

Thankfully, not badly at all. "That's logical of you Fang, I'm impressed. I'll go home and ah…not expect anything until next year."

Did Lightning just wink at her?

"Hang on, let me open this first," Fang said, gesturing to the package. With skillful fingers, Fang tore away the bright wrapping paper and found a leather bound book in her hands.

"A book? Not quite what I expected from you, Light," Fang said honestly.

"Open it," Lightning advised.

Fang did so, and her breath hitched in her throat. Inside was her childhood, memories she cherished and forgotten.

"Light…" Fang struggled for words.

"Don't," Lightning said. "I can see everything you can't say. Make sure to take a look at the last few pages."

And with that, the soldier walked off into the night to her car.

Fang quickly opened the book to the last couple pages. Pictures from their journey. When had Lightning taken these?

There was even one of just the two of them while in Gran Pulse.

"Thank you, Lightning," Fang breathed. She walked back inside, clutching the book to her body tightly.

"Who was it?" Vanille asked. Everyone turned their attention to Fang.

"Lightning. Don't thank me now, but I just saved all our asses," Fang grinned. "I 'let slip' that we were planning a surprise party for Lightning and we just got caught up with my birthday."

"So that means…" Snow said slowly.

"We don't have an unhappy soldier on our hands anymore. But we should probably figure out what we're doing quickly," Fang laughed.

"What's the book?" Hope asked while Serah and Vanille inevitably huddled to plan.

"Light's present to me," grinned Fang. "I think Vanille's going to like it."

"Oh! Let me see!" Vanille said jumping at Fang.

The night erupted back into merriment and planning for Lightning. And sure enough, when Lightning woke up the next morning, a surprise party awaited her.

Fang gave her a suggestive card and a kiss.

Lightning was pleased.

Author Note: Not my best work, but I like it. For the life of me, I cannot remember what the hell Bhakti does. I just know that he takes pictures, or at least a ton of other fics think that.

I'll admit I'm one of the people who doesn't say anything about my birthday to see who remembers. A bit of a jerk move, but I hate being one of those guys who prances about screaming, "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!"

And I really need to get it into my head that Fang is taller than Lightning. I almost fucked that up in this fic.