It was a pretty normal day. Team Three got a little overenthusiastic with the grenades. Nooj tried to take on a pack of fiends single handedly and had to be tackled into the ground to stop him. Gippal stumbled over some machina and practically made love to it right then and there. They all ended up bleeding and exhausted.
You know. Just a normal day.
So when Baralai started chuckling while Paine was bandaging a wound on his chest, their first thought was that the fiend must have hit him harder than they thought. But he shook his head and started apologising almost immediately.
"I just remembered what day it was," he explained, as though he expected the others to understand.
They all looked at him, nonplussed.
Baralai shook his head, still smiling. "Happy birthday Paine."
Paine stared at him as though he'd started speaking another language, then looked down at herself. She was hot, tired, caked in sand and sweat and blood and potion, and patching everyone up so they could do it all over again tomorrow.
Soon, she was laughing too.