Summary: When it's Terra's birthday, the crew of Returners throws her a giant party!
A's Notes: Just something quick I wrote. It's just meant to show how the littlest things that makes Terra happy, especially on her birthday! October 18th!

Happy Birthday!

It was a cold October morning in the town Mobliz. The leaves had turned brown and golden for fall and winter. The air was breezy and fresh, the scent of cold weather and winter seasons was in the air. Squirrels and various other little woodland creatures could be seen here and there, but mostly in Terra's gardens!

One morning Terra was picking the foods growing in her gardens when she heard the hum of the airship she remembered from her travels and glanced up into the sky to watch as the giant airship flew over her and towards the clearing in the fields. She rose, dusted her clothes free of dirt and fixed her hair and hen hurried down to the airship.

She was surprised to see Celes instead of Setzer! The blond woman pleaded with Terra to come with her to South Figaro and have a day to themselves for relaxing or talking, or even sightseeing. But Terra kept saying no, because no one was there to watch her children. Terra didn't anticipate Sabin and Locke heading out of the ship to meet them.

"We'll watch `em, Terra." Locke said, walking over to wrap an arm around her shoulders. "I'll cook for `em and Sabin can play with them—"

"I need someone to watch them, Locke." Terra giggled.

"Oh of course we'll watch them, Terra!" Sabin chortled; his throaty laughter filled the air. He whistled and shouted for the children and almost instantly the air was filled with squeals and laughter of children. And then a swarm of children ran from some of the houses and a little more from the woods and flocked to the visitors.

One of the little boys, Timmy, jumped at Sabin. "Whad ya bring us, uncle Sabby!" the big bear like man laughed and dug through his pockets and held out a bag.

"Lots of things! But I'll keep them secret until your mama here agrees to go with Aunty Celes." The children then turned their attacks on their mother. Another boy, Richard grabbed at Terra's skirt and pulled on it until she leaned down to listen.

"Mama! Go with Celes!"

Terra frowned. "But who will care for the gardens, Richard?" he was silent.

"I will!" a little girl, Cera, called out. "I help all the time anyways! Go with Celes!"

"Yea! Go with Celes! I wanna play with the new toys!" Kevin shouted from behind Locke.
"Go on mama!" Bradley cried out, pushing pass the twin girls Claire and Sam. The two girls pinched him and it started a war, but Sabin and Locke quickly broke it up before Terra could use it as a reason.

Not wanting to cause distress to her children, or make them angry at her, she sighed, reluctant. "Alright, alright, you guys win." They all started to cheer. "I'll go – but you two," she pointed a finger at Sabin and Locke who quickly straightened up and put on a knightly appearance – which made the children laugh – stood saluting. "you better make sure nothing happens, or I'll make something happen. Understand?" they nodded. "Alright then…." She looked over at Celes. "When do we go?"

"If you think you can hurry, right now please."

When Terra was done packing a day's worth of clothes, she headed to the ship with Celes. Before she entered the airship, she turned to look at her little village of babies and smiled warmly. Never had she thought she'd love someone as much as she does for her children. Whenever she thought of them, it brought warmth to her heart. Those little angels were the first ones to love her, outside of her friends. Sure they were frightened by her at first…but overtime, they grew on her and her on them. She smiled even more when she remembered when they first started to call her 'mama'. She sent a heartfelt wish for their safety and then turned and entered the aircraft.

[-;-]

"We need to hurry children!" Sabin shouted to the mini crowd of children. "Terra will be home some time tomorrow! Hurry with the decorations! Come on now! Hurry it up!" Sabin heard Locke shouting and turned to see the Chocobo they brought in sitting on him. The kind monk brought out into laughter and headed over to help the thief. "So where are the others? Are they doing their job?" he asked as he lifted the giant bird off of Locke.

The thief nodded as he coughed and stood. "Of course they are! Why would they risk their lives? You'd probably Blitz them or something…."

"Sabin! Sabin!" Sabin turned to his name and saw Setzer running away from three boys who had paint filled fruit-balls. "Stop them now!" One fruit-ball of paint flew pass the man's silver hair and exploded against a box of decorations.

"Guys, stop it! You'll ruin his purdy hair." The kids stopped and started to laugh at Setzer. The silver haired man crossed his arms, clearly upset.

"Right, right….make fun of the one who flew you here and flies in your food! Right!" and then he stomped off, muttering to himself as he grabbed a basket of decorations and headed into the house. Sabin turned to the kids.

"Did you guys use the water paints I gave you on the houses? Mama's favorite colors, right? I told Celes and Edgar the right colors." He chuckled when the kids nodded. "Good! Lots of paint! Be sure you don't use the real stuff, okay?" they nodded and ran off, randomly throwing Terra's favorite colors at the houses – which could be easily washed off with rain or buckets of water. He saw twins and called them over. "Where are Edgar and Relm? Are they doing what I said?" the girls looked at each other and then looked at him.

"They are on the hills."

"Ah, good. Run along and help Setzer with the decorations. Try to cheer him up, kay?" they giggled and ran off. Sabin decided to head up the hill to see how Relm and Edgar were doing before checking up on Cyan and Umaro. He knew Mog and Gau were going to be a problem…so he saved them for last. When he rounded the hill, he smiled at the view. Edgar had designed machines on a piece of paper with detail on how they ran and Relm drew them to life.

There were hoops for tossing rings and balls at, there was a target game with the fruit-balls, and there was even a smaller version of the merry-go-round Edgar built in Figaro. It had Chocobos to ride, dragons, friendly beasts, dolphins and a few other creatures.

Relm had just finished a few things when she noticed him and called out to Edgar. The king looked up and smiled. "Ah, Sabin…she isn't here, is she?"

"Nope, not yet!" He grinned. "I hope she loves it…or at least not hate us forever for the one day destruction." He looked around. "Everything looks nice up here! I hope she likes these games…"

"I don't think she will." Relm admitted, looking over at the stunned twins. "Terra doesn't really play games, or at least these…she'll love it simply because her children helped and they love it."

"But Terra should love what happens on her birthday…" Edgar muttered. "As far as we know, this is her first celebration of her birth." The king rubbed his chin. "What do you think she'd like, Relm?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "She just likes it when we are around. That's the only other thing that makes her happy besides her children…"

Edgar and Sabin put on their thinking hats and Relm suddenly felt left out. They both got into this weird void when they were thinking. Their faces would turn to one of deep thought, and usually it would take more than talking or shouting to awaken them from it. They were very insightful and very intelligent. But what were they thinking? Not knowing really annoyed Relm. She rolled her eyes and then finished a few more drawings, which sprang to life before her and took the place she wanted them to take.

"We could have Relm make more Moogles…?" Sabin suggested, lost.

"We could just give her Mog then!" Relm laughed, getting back to her work.

"Then you think of something, smarty pants!" Sabin growled, turning away from her. Edgar rubbed his chin before looking down the hill at the children.

"Guys….I don't think we'll need to do anything further."

"What do you mean, Edgar?" Sabin blurted. "We want this to be Terra's best b-day!"

"Exactly...Don't worry about it guys, I'm sure she'll love this."

[-;-]

The next day, on a cold morning of October 18th, Terra arrived back at Mobliz with her close friend. But before the young woman could step off the ship, Celes stopped her, explaining that she wanted to spook the kids a bit by wandering back and around the town and then into the buildings. Celes could see the suspicion in Terra's eyes, yet her trust in Celes pushed the suspicion away and told her to follow.

As Celes led Terra around back – nearly a fifteen minute walk away from her town – Terra's early suspicion increased. She couldn't hear the children, and usually they'd run out further than this toward the fields to play ball. She decided to ask.

"Celes…why is it so quiet?"

"Oh, Sabin and Locke must have taken them up north to fish. You know how they love fishing…" Terra was convinced. Not all of her kids would like fishing; then again, they all loved Sabin and Locke, so maybe they did get the children to fish.

Terra could see the first house, which was the same house that led underground for the sleeping quarters. There was still no sign of children. Even though Celes gave a reasonable reason for the disappearance, Terra just couldn't help but feel that something was up – wrong or right.

When Terra opened the door, it was dark inside. No candles were lit, none of the windows opened, the blinds shut. It was completely dark. Terra frowned and stepped in, reaching for the emergency candle she kept on the table to the left. She couldn't find it; she turned to ask Celes for help when she saw her gone and the door closed. "Celes….?" She whispered, looking around in the dark. "Come on…this isn't funny." She said, annoyed as she went for one of the windows.

And then, suddenly, all the windows rushed open and all her friends and children jumped up and yelled: "Surprise!" Terra gasped at the sudden shouting, but when it settled, she smiled at the view of all her friends and children.

"What's going on?" she asked, a little worried as she lifted a little girl, Lily who was about five, onto her hip. Lily hugged her by wrapping her arms around her neck.

"Appy birday!" Lily coed as she snuggled closer to her mama's warmth. Terra frowned, but hugged the girl. Sensing Terra's confusion, Celes smiled. As Celes spoke, Terra lowered Lily to the ground.

"It's your birthday today Terra! We're only celebrating it."

"Happy Birthday," Setzer came up and hugged tightly. "My gift's the biggest one." He whispered to her, causing her to giggle. Sabin shoved him away.

"Happy B-day!" he chirped, hugging her so tight, she felt like she was going to be smashed. "My gift isn't really that pricy…" Terra hugged him back.

"I'm sure I'll love it, Sabin."

"Terra," Locke came up with a decent sized box. "Don't open it until everything settles down…Happy birthday, Ter." She hugged Locke.

"Thank you Locke." Celes interrupted.

"That's actually from both of us. Locke stole most of it—" Locke put his hand over her mouth and pulled her away. Gau came up with Mog and Umaro. Mog was the spokesman.

"We got you something you can't really have around you…you can see it when you go outside!" Terra smiled and scratched his head, hugged Umaro and did the same with Gau, only she placed a gentle kiss on Gau's cheek.

"Thank you guys, you're so kind." Cyan came up, hesitate.

"M'lady….I couldn't think of a thing thine heart desired."

"That's okay Cyan—"

"—but I did decided to lend mine own hand to Mobliz. If thou ever need mine support, please seek me out." Terra nodded and gently hugged him, knowing he still felt a little awkward around her. Next were Relm and Edgar.

"Our gift is also outside." Relm chirped. "Let's head out! I hope you like it all!" and then she took Terra's hand and led her outside to see the objects of their creation. Terra's eyes went wide at the paint randomly splattered against her houses, the decorations she mentioned she loved back at the Nikeah Festival that went on when she was traveling and all the colors she loved. The children swarmed around her, jumping at her and talking all at once.

"We did da colors!" The twins asked.
"Do ya like it mama?" Timmy was gesturing to the decoration placement.
"I did the purples!" Cera shouted, pointing to the purples against the houses.
"Yea, do you like it?" the others asked.

Terra laughed and leaned down to hug them, or rather allow them to dog pile her with hugs and kisses. "Of course I love it, children." She answered, trying to calm their excitement. They were so happy…she had to thank her friends afterward, she had to.

"Mama! Can we go play on the toys?" Terra nodded and the children shot off to play.

"Don't worry," Edgar came up. "The paint washes off." A sigh of relief escaped her lips. "Relm and I were hoping you'd enjoy the machines we made."

Sabin raced pass Terra, shouting. "Fruit-ball war in the field!" Terra giggled when some of the children jumped on his back and he carried them off, the others running behind him to the fields.

Celes put a hand on Terra's shoulder. "The only way it would work is if we didn't tell you we found out your birthday…."

"Yea, had to be a surprise." Locke crossed his arms but a sly grin appeared on his face. "You do like it, don't you?"

"Of course I do Locke," she hugged the two one more time. "I appreciate everything you guys did…it's wonderful."

"I knew ya would!" Locke laughed. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to take Celes to the merry go-round….?"

Terra laughed. "I don't mind, go."

"I hope you like it…" she heard Edgar's voice and glanced over at him with a warm smile on her face.

"I love it…you guys made me really happy today."

"Good…there's another gift I made. I left it in your room, on the bed." He walked over and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. "Happy birthday Terra, you deserve it." And then he pulled away, lightly kissed her hand and then turned to head up the hill and find Relm.

Terra sighed as she watched Edgar head up the hill. She looked around at her friends and children.
Thank you Edgar….thank you all.