Author's Note: This is my first Buffy the Vampire Slayer story. The story does take the events of the season eight comics into account. If you are not aware of the comics, it will contain spoilers.

"Happy birthday, Buffy."

Xander placed the cake on the table in front of her as Willow cleared away the papers and Dawn produced a stack of plastic plates. For a moment, she stared, dumbfounded by the cake.

"Happy Birthday, Buffy!" was written in blue icing against a white background. Lighted candles surrounded the script, dripping colorful drops of wax on the cake as they burned. There were several but she was relieved to see it wasn't the full thirty.

She raised her eyes to the smiling faces of her friends. They had remembered her birthday. They had remembered when she had forgotten. She blinked back tears.

"Hats! I forgot the hats!" Willow scurried out of the room to fetch them.

"Hats?"

Dawn nodded. "Be glad it's just hats.

"Great."

"Hey," Xander said, "it's not every day that the Buffster has a birthday, let alone turn thirty."

"So, how does it feel?" Dawn asked with a huge grin. "You're practically middle-aged now, sis."

"I am not!" Buffy protested. "I'm not middle-aged. I'm still cool." As Dawn snickered, she turned to Xander. "I'm still cool, right?"

"Absolutely."

"Hey, I found the hats!" They were the cheap cardboard cones of different colors with elastic chin straps that featured "Happy Birthday" in glitter. Buffy laughed when Dawn snapped the strap of Xander's hat under his chin. "And every birthday girl deserves a tiara!"

Buffy accepted the plastic tiara with a smile and dutifully placed it on her head. "Thanks, Will."

Dawn snapped a picture, briefly blinding the Slayer. She grouped Xander, Buffy and Willow around the cake and took a few more pictures. She glanced at the cake. "Hey, guys, we'd better sing before there's too much wax on the cake."

"Sing?" Willow squeaked.

"It's just 'Happy Birthday'," Xander said. "You can do it."

Dawn counted to three and the trio began to sing. Buffy looked down at the cake to hide the tears that were welling in her eyes. The writing on the cake blurred as she fought back the tears.

Thirty. She was thirty years old. She couldn't believe it.

She never thought that she would live this long.

Slayers had a short lifespan. Reaching and surviving eighteen had been a huge milestone. Making it to twenty-five was practically unheard of.

No other Slayer had made it to thirty.

Ever.

Another first for the great Buffy Summers.

She had now spent half of her life as a Slayer. At times she had trouble remembering life before Merrick, before vampires, before demons. Life had definitely been simpler then.

She had lost so much over the years. A part of her heart had died when she killed Angel. The last part of her innonence was shattered when her mother died. She had lost her life twice to save the world.

She had lost so many newly called Slayers in the battle at the Hellmouth. She was losing more still in the battle against the Twilight. And Giles, more of a father to her than her father had ever been, was still a fresh loss that she felt deeply.

So much blood. So much death. So much destruction.

Her friends stopped singing. She forced herself to look up at them. With a steadying breath, she realized that while she had lost a lot for being the Slayer, she had gained a lot, too.

She had her friends. She had a sister. She had the ability to kick some serious butt and save the world time and time again.

"Aren't you going to blow out the candles, Buffy?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, we're getting some serious wax on that cake," Xander noted. "Are we sure these candles are even safe?"

"Of course they're safe!" Willow cried. "You think I would use unsafe candles on a birthday cake!"

"No," he said. "I just wanted to make sure that you just didn't pull some candles out of some witch stash."

"They're from the supermarket, Xander!"

"I call a corner piece," Dawn announced.

"Oh, man, I wanted a corner piece!"

"Xander, it's a sheet cake," Willow pointed out, rolling her eyes. "It's got four corners. You'll get a corner piece."

"Oh, yeah. Cool."

"I still call a corner piece," Dawn said.

"Everyone can have a corner piece if they want one." Willow turned to Buffy. "Please, blow out the candles.

Smiling, Buffy took a big, dramatic breath in. 'Middle-aged, my ass.' And she blew the candles out.