AN well my other Balex story is officially closed, so here I am starting a new one….which I sooo shouldn't do. But the other fandoms have more than enough stories to keep them busy.

It was the seventh of January and almost everyone in the resistance residence was gathered in the kitchen.

"You know I get that we need to do something for her birthday, but did we really have to get up at five am." Birkhoff grumbled as he drained his second energy drink of the day.

"If we want to have everything finished before she wakes up, yes." Nikita muttered as she accidentally hit him with a plastic bowl on her way past him. Michael was already counting eggs under the careful directions of Ryan.

"Do any of you even know how to cook?" He asked, grabbing a priceless piece of machinery out Nikita her hands. It was Alex her birthday and with all the stress they were under they felt it was necessary to have some fun. Birkhoff was however, fearing for his kitchen with the way the other three were moving around.

"It can't be that difficult, we have the recipe. No Michael we need three eggs for one cake but we want it twice this size, which means six not five." Ryan pointed out trying to get everything sorted.

" It seems like you guys have everything under control, just leave my kitchen in one piece okay? Call me when you guys start icing the cake, that's when the real fun begins!" Grabbing another energy drink Birkhoff moved out of the kitchen.

"You are not going to help for Alex her birthday? Come on Nerd she is your friend too!" Michael called after his retreating back. It didn't have any use as Birkhoff had already put in his earplugs and started working on something with a small laser. "Jerk!" Michael muttered. Baking the cake however took more than either of the participants had realized. Following the recipe turned into trying to stay as close to it as they could. Half the bag of flower ended up over Michael as Nikita stumbled on some bowl Ryan had dropped a second earlier. One egg broke on the counter, leaving a gory mess there in combination with the spilled flower. It caused a lot of commotion and laughter, unfortunately they also forgot to be silent.

"What's going on around here?" Alex questioned as she walked into the destroyed kitchen. Everyone froze with what they were doing. She was clearly still riddled with sleep or she would have laughed at the rather strange sight of three agents trying to bake a cake, and failing miserably.

"Congratulations!" Nikita suddenly exclaimed, rushing forward to hug the shocked girl. That activated the guys to come out of their own stupor and congratulate the girl as well.

"Okay, thanks you guys…but that still doesn't explain what you guys are doing here in the kitchen?" Her pointed look made the other three look around and see exactly how big of a mess they had made.

"Well we are trying to make you a birthday cake." Ryan took a step backwards as if expecting some sort of punishment.

"And while they are trying and failing at that, they also decided to destroy my kitchen." Birkhoff commented from his desk. "Congrats, by the way."

"Maybe the destruction of the kitchen wouldn't have actually happened if you had helped us Nerd." Michael bit back.

"I had better things to do, thank you." The other man waved away his comment.

"Like what? Playing with your toys? Getting a gamers thumb?"

"Guys please…" Alex cut in, already dreading what was going to come. At least it reminded her of her birthdays at home. Her mother had always a row with her father when she thought the gift too expensive. Which was always.

"I was busy finishing Alex her gift." Birkhoff bit back as he handed Alex a small box.

"You got me a gift?" because they were all wanted people they rarely visited shops. Even the groceries were home delivered. She hadn't exactly expected any gifts considering their delicate situation. Not that she had actually expected them to remember in the first place.

"Well technically it is home-made. So the only brand-name that baby has got is Shadow walker." He pointed out. Curiously she opened the black box and nearly dropped it when she saw what was inside. A beautiful silver bracelet was in the box. It's frame was an intricate design of silver ribbons, giving it an ethereal kind of look. In the middle there was a light blue diamond, just the right size. Not big enough to be too flashy but not too small to fall away in the silver design.

"This is homemade?" She exclaimed as she got it out of the box.

"Well there was a case a few years back where Percy wanted a real diamond necklace replaced with one that could be mistaken for the real version. I made the machine that could produce fake diamonds with the exactly same cut and learned how to mold silver. It came in rather handy with making this." He shrugged his shoulders as if it was nothing.

As she moved the silver bracelet in the sunlight she noticed there was something etched underneath the diamond. It stated her name, her date of birth. "From the one and only; Shadow walker." She laughed. "Thank you Birkhoff, it's the best gift anyone has ever given me." She hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Which made him redden, getting a knowing smirk from Michael.

Nikita pulled at Alex her arm trying to get a better look at the piece of jewelry, Ryan and Michael joined her as well. "Nerd this is one impressive piece of work." Nikita praised as she made the fake diamond catch the light.

"Yes, well it's fake…so don't try cutting through any windows or something stupid like that." Trying to take away some of the looks he was getting. It was just a gift, nothing more.

"Are you kidding me, I'm not sure I even will wear it. I'd hate for something to happen to it." The smile Alex gave him made sure he knew how much the gift was appreciated. "I'm going to take a shower you guys." She took a look around the kitchen. "You might want to clean up the kitchen." And then she was gone.

Her door was open, and usually he wouldn't peek into anyone their room, god knows he was still scarred from the accidental glimpse in Nikita and Michael their room, but the door was wide open. You were just inviting people to look into your room when you did that. Alex was standing near her dresser and from the looks of it she had been crying.

"Alex, is everything okay?" he knocked on the door first, which startled her.

"Oh yes, everything is fine Birkhoff." She wiped away a few of the tears that were still on her cheeks.

"It doesn't look fine to me. Look I know I'm not Nikita or something, but do you want to talk?" the last thing he wanted to do was deal with an emotional female; he never was good with emotions, or females for that matter.

"It's nothing really. I'm just being very silly." She gave him a smile that was probably meant as reassuring, but didn't really get the message across.

"Okay, do you want to explain that or is this that once of the month thing you females go through?" He so did not want to hear anything about that. She laughed.

"No it is not one of those monthly things. It was just your gift…"

"Now look if you don't like it, it doesn't matter…" he cut her off.

"Birkhoff I absolutely love it, no one has ever done something like this for me before. It must have taken you hours to make this thing." He only now noticed she was holding the box with the bracelet in it.

"Well it wasn't that much work….but wait if you love it, why are you crying?" Gods women were confusing as hell.

"It's just that…oh how can I explain this." She huffed. "I have had the most outrageous gifts when I was younger. Expensive, large and the latest designer things money could buy. While my father never approved of laptops and mp3s and such, he did like to spoil me. He even bought me a horse when I was eight." She crashed down on her bed.

"I'm still not really following here Princess." He leaned back against the door, still not getting her point.

"We are friends Birkhoff, and like you said I usually go to Nikita and such, and yet you gave me a better gift than those people who loved me ever did. You made an effort to create something beautiful, just for me." Her face said something like 'Are you getting the point now?' but he still wasn't getting it. "I was crying because I was happy Birkhoff!"

"Right, remind me to never make you a gift like that again then." He joked as he finally relaxed.

"Well I would love to have a matching set of earrings. Seriously though, you could start your own jewelry line when all this is over."

"Oh please Sunshine, the nerd vibe doesn't particularly help with the ladies. I do not need the gay vibe added to it as well. That would absolutely kill my social life."

"I don't think this makes you gay Birkhoff, and any girl would be lucky to date a man who can make her the most beautiful and unique jewelry in the world. Not to mention you are loaded. How did no one in Division ever know that?" She moved across the bed till she was sitting with her back against the headboard.

"Do you really think I'd tell Percy I have more than a few millions in my bank-account. It would be used by Division in seconds. Your married to them, what's mine is yours and all that crap." He moved over to sit next to her on the bed, it was a lot more comfortable than the wooden door.

"It would have helped you with getting the respect from the recruits. They weren't particularly fond of you." Alex joked.

"Oh please like I'd need their respect. They are the ones that are being send outside to be slaughtered, I did all the fancy computer work. Not to mention I can take any of them in hand to hand combat." He boasted.

"I'm sure you can." The sarcasm was dripping from her voice.

"Oh you don't believe me, miss hotshot? I'll prove it to you then, tonight you and me in the gym. Let's see whose laughing then." The challenge was on.

"Oh really, are you forgetting I was trained by Nikita. I am going to kick your ass."

"Just make sure you do not break a nail, honey." He cajoled back, inspecting his own fingers as if she wasn't important enough to look at.

"Oh I won't, just don't do any hair-pulling its combat, not a bitch-fight." They held the serious straight faces for about ten seconds before they burst into laughter. A call about starting the icing of the cake made them get off the bed.

"Hey Birkhoff." She called before he left the room. "Thanks again for the gift and not calling me an idiot just now."

He gave her a small grin "No problem Alex. By the way, just because I didn't say it, didn't mean I didn't think it." He closed the door behind him before the pair of socks could hit him in the face. "Good to see you are feeling better." He yelled through the door, another thump of socks hitting the door made him smile. Things weren't always easy around here, but Alex sure as hell made them fun.

There were five different colors of icing available: a lot of white as that was going to be the base, green, blue, red and purple were there to be made into festive letters and decorations. It started out exactly as they planned, covering the cake with it, until one fatal accident. Michael was getting rather bored as the girls put of the white icing and started twiddling with his spoon accidently launching a big goop of green icing. The blob of green stuff flew through the air hitting Nikita full on her forehead. You would think a spy would have the reflexes to duck. Nikita narrowed her eyes and then scooped up a big ball of white goo. Michael backed away his hands raised in defense, only to duck when the projectile was fired. It missed Michael but hit Ryan in the face who had been standing behind the other man. Deciding not to miss out on the fun Birkhoff launched a red missile at an unsuspecting Alex. The red icing hit its target right on the back of her neck, dripping down the back of her shirt. She turned around eyes blazing. "THIS MEANS WAR!" She yelled shooting some blue goo back at Birkhoff. The two females grabbed the white and blue bowls ducking behind the counter while the guys grabbed the remaining three.

While the guys conversed about how to attack, Nikita and Alex build a rough version of a paintball gun with the available kitchenware. It was a good thing Division trained agents to be inventive when in a serious situation. The first shot missed Ryan by an inch, hitting a small photograph instead bringing it down to the floor. The message was clear though; the girls were armed and not afraid to use it.
The guys had huddled behind the other part of the kitchen counter which was unfortunately not equipped with material to make a gun. With a couple of silent hand-movements the guys split up. Michael took the middle aiming with his spoon to shoot as many colorful missiles over the counter to keep the girls preoccupied. The other two guys circled the island from both sides to make sure they couldn't escape. The first look Birkhoff threw around the corner gave him a white face and he quickly moved back trying to get the icing out of his eyes and nose. Ryan took a blow to the shoulder, which while not that terrible still landed pretty hard from such a close distance. "Now!" Birkhoff yelled and they moved quickly to capture the two girls. Nikita and Alex shot up to be able to defend themselves better only to end up being sitting ducks for Michael who didn't seem to be slowing down with his spoons. They were all being battered with several colors but eventually they ran out of icing. Nikita went first throwing her hands up in surrender after which Michael and Birkhoff had to give up as well. The last shot was fired by Alex, giving Ryan a beautiful blue hairdo.

While the kitchen had looked rather messy earlier that day because of the cake batter, now it was a festive mix of colors dripping of the walls and cabinets. Alex grinned "Well I am the birthday girl….so have fun cleaning up." She joked as she ran off in search of a warm shower, leaving the other agents to the mess.

AN: Well this is it for now but this one it really to be continued. I am also wondering whether I should start an original story of my own (so just fiction not FANfiction ;) ). What do you guys think?