A/N: A one-shot by me!

It's short, plotless and pointless, but still...I'm very happy with this story!

And I hope that you'll be happy with it too.

It's a sunny day on Besaid Island where we are all gathered in the village. By all I mean:

Me, Yuna, Tidus, Lulu, Wakka, and uhm… Baralai, Nooj, Leblanc, Ormi, Logos, Gippal and…who am I forgetting now? Oh right! Brother, Buddy and Shinra, that's it.

So not all of us are here, one person in particular is left out, and this has a very good reason. You see, that person's birthday is today, and we're all together at the village preparing for her birthday party! Yes, that's right, her birthday party! And not just anyone's birthday party…Paine's 19th birthday party.

And it's meant to be a secret, for her that is.

We had send her out to the beach a while ago, telling her that she had to pick up Vidina who was out playing with Botta, a guy from the blitzbalteam of Besaid. The minute she was gone, we all started to preparations.

At the moment I'm hanging up the decorations, but then suddenly my dearest cousin Yuna calls out to me.

"Rikku! Could you come over here for a second?" she asks me. And of course I come over, because she's my dear, sweet cousin Yunie, and I always come over for her.

"Yeppers!" I call back and jump of the ladder, hopping my way down to Yuna whom was standing at Lulu and Wakka's tent.

She pulls me a little closer towards her, almost making me trip over my own feet.

"What's up Yunie?" I ask her with a perky voice.

Yuna smiles at me and points at her watch. "Paine is going to be back soon, and we're not done yet!" she exclaims, her smile fading away.

I purse my lips and look around, noticing the very few decorations I had managed to hang up and how Gippal, Tidus and Baralai were still struggling with the tables and chairs. Wakka was out to get wood, together with Brother and Buddy for the fire tonight, and the food wasn't even displayed yet, because Lulu was still busy cooking it. The only thing that was ready, was the gift table.

Leblanc, Ormi and Logos are in charge of the music. Hnm…maybe that wasn't such a good idea…

"Yeah…what do think we should do?" I ask her in a slight panic, because we can't let Paine see what we're doing, that would ruin everything!

Yuna smiles at me and it makes me smile back because I know she has an idea. "We should send someone to the beach to distract her." she says, and I nod, because that's a good idea.

"Who do you have in mind?" I ask, not noticing the sheepish grin she was giving me. I blink a couple of times when she's not replying and after a while realisation hits me. "You want me to distract Paine?!" I yell out. She must be kidding!

Yuna places a finger over her mouth and 'shushes' me. "Not so loud. Yes, I want you to distract her, now go!" she says, and points towards the gates.

I blink again and throw my hands up in the air. "What?!" I ask her unbelievingly. "I'm not going! Paine is going to see right through me! I can't hold her back!"

Yuna grabs me by my shoulders and turns me around, pushing me towards the gates. "You'll do fine." she says, and with a final push, I'm standing outside the village. "Now off you go. Good luck!" she says and waves shortly before she bolts back to the tent.

Again I blink (I'm doing a lot of blinking today, am I) and turn around on my heels, looking at the bustling village. I think instead of 'dear cousin Yunie'…I'll use 'mean cousin Yunie' from now on. "Why me." I mumble with a sigh. I turn around and stomp off towards the beach where Paine is supposedly at.

--

"How am I supposed to do this?" I whine as slump my way over to the beach. It's indeed a beautiful day and if I were in any other situation I would stop and enjoy the view at the monument, but thanks to my 'mean cousin' Yunie, I have to go and distract Miss grumpy face.

My day is so ruined.

I stomp my foot on the ground and continue on walking. When I'm at the waterfalls I can see three figures coming towards me and I curse, because I know who those three people are.

"Crapcrapcrap." I curse and run towards them, trying to think of something along the way.

Botta is holding Vidina and Paine is walking next to the two, with her arms crossed over her chest. She sees me from afar and raises an eyebrow.

When I reach them I grin nervously. "Hiya everyone!" I exclaim loudly and wave.

Paine raises an eyebrow. "What are you doing here."

"Well I uhm…I wanted to uhh…it's just that…" I stammer. I wasn't able to think of something during my run towards the group of three, so now is the time to shake one of those brilliant lies out of my head. "You know I've uhm…there's…yeah." I say and scratch the back of my head with a nervous laugh. Have I mentioned that I'm not good a lying?

Paine frowns and leans over a little closer. "Are you sick? Or did you trip and hit your head?" she asks.

I bite my lip and try really hard to think of something. Then an idea hits me and my face clears up completely. Paine notices this and raises her eyebrows. "What's going on Rikku?" she says, with slight suspicion in her voice.

I take that moment to grab Paine by her shoulders and I start jumping up and down excitingly. "I've found a sphere! Yes I have! And it's right over there!" I exclaim, pointing towards the beach, and I compliment myself mentally for the beautiful scheme I'm about to pull out.

Paine blinks and looks at Botta, whispering. "She has completely lost it."

He laughs loudly and pats me on the head. "Good luck with the sphere hunt, ya." he says. "I'm going back to the village. Vidina is getting a little bit tired." And with that he walks off, leaving me behind with Paine, who's still looking at me with suspicion.

"Come one Paine! Let's go find that sphere!" I say, hitting my fist up in the air.

Paine narrows her eyes at me. "A sphere?" she asks blankly.

And I nod excitingly.

"A sphere…" Paine confirms

And again I nod my head excitingly.

Paine sighs. "Alright, let's go." she says, and walks back to the beach.

I do a little victory dance behind Paine's back and I jog after her.

We reach the beach in less time then I thought and I start to get all sweaty and nervous, because we're here to look for a sphere, but there is none…and what will Paine do when she realizes I've been lying to her.

I swallow hard and try to walk in a slower pace, to buy more time.

"So, where is this sphere you were talking about?" Paine asks and turns around to face my nervous face.

I have to do something about my nervousness or she'll see right through me. So I swallow again and put on my Rikku-grin. "Alright, follow me!" I exclaim happily, and walk towards a direction. I have no idea where I'm going, but at least the scheme still works because Paine is following me.

I stop when we reach the water and I tap my chin with my index finger. "Uhm…" I think out loudly, not daring to turn around.

I can hear Paine sigh, she's probably getting agitated. Oh boy!

I look around me and spot that little old fishing cot nearby. "It's over there!" I exclaim suddenly, and I'm sure Paine got a little startled back there. I'm well known for my outburst, ghihi.

"Let's go." she says in a bored voice, and we walk towards the cot.

Again I try to walk slowly, but Paine just walks past me and arrives at the cot sooner then myself.

I suck in breath as she starts to search through the mess that surrounds the cot.

"I don't see a sphere around here, Rikku."

I grin sheepishly. "Well it's uh…it's inside the cot! Yes that's it!" I say and wring my hands together out of nervousness.

Paine shrugs and goes inside the cot.

I start to shift uncomfortably, swaying my arms back and forth. What if she finds out that there is no sphere! Maybe…maybe I should make a run for it!

I'm just about to turn around when Paine calls out to me.

"Rikku! Found it!" she yells, and I blink.

"Found it?" I ask in a confused look. She found it? There's an actual sphere in there?!

I guess my luck hasn't run out today!

I hit my fist up in the air and yell:" Coming!" cheerfully.

I skip towards the cot and enter. I can see Paine standing before me with her arms crossed over her chest, but there's no sphere in sight.

"Eh, where's the sphere?" I ask her, still scanning the inside of the cot.

"There is no sphere." Paine says in that monotone voice of hers.

I blink and swallow hard. "Tysh ed! Cra dnelgat sa." ((Damn it! She tricked me.)) I think. Cold sweat starts to break out from all sides and I carefully cast a glance at Paine who is starring at me with a blank expression.

"Ehehehe….ehe….yeah…" I start to stammer and scratch the back of my head. "You know…here's a funny story…uhh…"

Paine taps her foot on the ground impatiently. "What's going on Rikku." she demands.

I bite my lip and go over my options.

1. Make a run for it.

2. Tell her the truth.

3. Lie and tell her that the sphere is somewhere else.

4. Tell her that it was all a joke and laugh really loud so it'll seem extremely funny.

5. Blame it all on Yunie.

I think I'll pick 5, because my 'mean cousin Yunie' is the one who got me in this situation in the first place.

"Yunie did it!" I exclaim in my defence.

Paine raises her eyebrows and takes a step forward. "Yuna did what?"

"She uhhh…told me that there was a sphere down here! Yeah! And then she asked me to get it for her!" I tell Paine, but I can't see just by looking at her face if she believes me or not. Damn Paine and her blank face!

"You're lying." she says, and takes another step forward.

Ah, so she does think I'm lying.

"Yeah well...No! I mean 'no well'…I'm not lying, really! Yunie is lying! Go scold at her, please!" I say and put my arms up in defence, while closing my eyes.

"Rikku, what is going on? First I'm asked to get Botta and Vidina, even though Botta got instructions from Lulu to come back when Vidina would grow tired. And then you came, telling about a sphere that doesn't exist. What is going on?" Paine asks, glaring at me with very very scary red eyes.

"It's uh…well Yuna said that uhm…she uhh…ehehehe." I think I'll pick option 1 now.

And I run out of the cot and back towards the village, with Paine hot on my trail.

"Come back here Rikku!" she yells after me, but it only makes me run faster.

The only thing on my mind right now is: getting back to the village and hide in one of the tents. Or perhaps when Paine sees all the presents and decorations she'll forget all about chasing me and be happy and cheerful and not at all scary.

I only hope I'll make it to the village before Paine grabs me by my hair, ah!

Lucky for me I just remembered that I have a smoke bomb in my pouch. I quickly take it out and throw it towards Paine who stops in shock when the bomb hits the ground right in front of her.

A loud 'BANG' is heard and I can hear Paine yelp.

Perhaps throwing a smoke bomb wasn't such a good idea…?

But I decide to take advantage of the situation and run towards the village as fast as I can.

I reach civilisation with a pounding heart in my chest and I fall face first on the ground, completely exhausted from running, the minute I walk trough the gates.

"Rikku?!" I hear someone yell my name and footsteps are quickly followed.

"I'm okay." I mumble, waving my hand in the air.

"Cid's girl, what are you doing?" I hear Gippal say, and I grimace at the nickname.

I crawl back to my feet and give him an angry look. "Start using my name, Gippal!"

He chuckles and shakes his head. "Yeah, she's alright."

"Omg! Paine?" Yuna calls out and my eyes widen.

I can feel that she's standing behind me, and she's probably not so happy.

Or perhaps she is now that she's here and seeing all the decorations?

"Rikku." she says through clenched teeth.

Maybe not.

"It's hurt time." she says, as she grabs something from her pocket.

I look, I see and I duck.

BANG

…

I can't believe she threw a budget grenade at me.

Everyone laughs loudly when the dust is finally gone.

I look down at my thieves outfit and it's completely ruined. I had forgotten the damage a grenade could do to a person.

Paine isn't looking very healthy herself with her warriors outfit torn here and there.

She's looking around her with amazed eyes.

"What's….what's all this?" she stammers and I frown.

What's all this? You just threw a budget grenade at me, that's what!

But I quickly realize she's talking about the decorated village and the huge stack of presents on a table near Lulu and Wakka's tent.

"Well we uh," Tidus starts.

"We're giving you a surprise party." Baralai finishes.

Paine looks at Baralai and blinks.

"Surprise party?" she asks confused. "Why?"

She seems to have forgotten all about the smoke bomb! Yay for me!

"Because it's your birthday!" Yuna exclaims, holding up the birthday cake she has been holding which I just now notice.

"I…I thought you had forgotten…"

We all smile.

"Of course not silly!" I yell, throwing a fist up in the air. I'm all back to my bouncy self again. I don't even care about the burns that the budget grenade gave me. All I care about right now is celebrating Paine's birthday! Whoop!

Paine looks from one to another and slowly, very slowly, begins to smile.

"Thanks you guys." she says, and she even starts to grin.

Maybe my day isn't so ruined after all?

"Happy birthday Paine!"

If you notice any grammar errors, please inform me!

Read and review please!