Disclaimer: I'm back! And this time with a series of one shots based off of the musical Tick, Tick...BOOM! by the late Jonathon Larson. Each fic is based off of a song title. As usual, the characters do not belong to me as they were created by Takeuchi Naoko.

Inspriational Lyric: "They're singing happy birthday, you just wish you could run away"

For Fighter, birthdays were a celebration, something to look forward to, so why Healer seemed to be dreading the day made absolutely no sense to the dark haired Starlight. Especially since Healer was to have her coming of age that day.

"Perhaps she's worried that you will do something stupid like you did last year."

"Oh, and you had nothing to do with that, Maker?" After a moment, Fighter started to laugh. Perhaps it did make sense that Healer would hate birthdays, but that still didn't mean she had to so touchy about it! For the entire week, the short one of the small group had been quicker to anger and gods forbid should someone touch her.

"I'm sure she'll be fine. Now remember, she isn't to know that the princess will be at the dinner as well. It's to be a surprise."

"I know, Maker! Don't worry so much. C'mon, we need to get to training. They're choosing who will be her guards at the equinox festival; we need to be the best team there!"

The rest of the day went by as normal with training and preparing, although Fighter was slightly concerned with the fact that Healer was faltering but figured it was just because she was distracted by it being her birthday. No matter, though. It was just one day of training. Besides, there were other things going on and Fighter was sure that this day would be one to remember. Of course, she was upset that all the pranks had been cancelled, but with Kakyuu involved, it had to happen that way.

"Where is she? We told her that--" before Fighter could continue on with her tirade, she felt a hand on her arm and looked up to the face of Kakyuu, which caused the normally suave girl to blush.

"Why don't you go and check on her? She seemed unwell during your training today."

Unused to being in such proximity to her princess, Fighter could only nod and get up to do as she was told. As she got to Healer's room, Fighter just rolled her eyes. Chances were the short one was just being difficult.

"Oi, Shrimp, come out already! We're waiting on you!" Receiving no response a slight twinge of worry was felt. Healer had seemed off during the day. Was it possible that something was really wrong?

"Healer…? I promise, Maker and I haven't done anything today to torment you." Not even a sarcastic quip. Something was wrong. Trying the door, Fighter was relieved to find it unlocked.

Upon opening the door, Fighter was shocked to see Healer curled up tightly in the corner of her room. She had no idea what was going on, but something was obviously hurting her friend and she wanted to help.

"Healer…?" Stepping in carefully, the self proclaimed leader made her way to Healer, putting her hands on the girl's shoulder, who just flinched away, "How can I help you?"

"Make it stop…"

"Make what stop?"

"All of it, I feel everything. I try to block it but every feeling, emotion, death, I feel it all…" It was then that realization dawned. Healer had always been able to sense things such as emotions, but only if they had been strong. But with her coming of age, it would make sense that her abilities would advance quickly.

"Healer, focus on me, okay? I can't make it stop, but we'll work through I this, okay?" Fighter couldn't believe that she hadn't realized it sooner. As leader, she was supposed to take care of her teammates, and she had failed. First things first, though, she needed to contact Maker. Getting up, Fighter left the room and called her other team member with her communicator.

"Maker, we need to cancel."

"Why? Is everything alright?"

"Healer's empathy is going haywire, so I'm going to stay with her tonight to make sure that she's okay."

"Understood."

Closing her communicator, Fighter returned to Healer's room and helped the empathy onto her bed. She still had no idea how to help the girl, so Fighter just decided to hold Healer and start discussing plots against Maker, anything to distract the thirteen year old.

How many hours passed, Fighter didn't know, but soon enough, Healer fell asleep although she seemed quite content to keep Fighter with her. Smirking, the taller girl just stroked her companion's silver locks as she settled in for the night.

"Happy birthday, shrimp."