Disclaimer: I do not own The Prince of Tennis of any of its characters. It's Eiji's birthday, so I simply just HAD to write this one because, well, he's my favorite character in The Prince of Tennis,

Birthday Boy!!

Ring, ring, ring...

A hand reached up and shut the alarm clock shut. A particular red head sat up on his bed, yawning. Rubbing his eyes open, Eiji pushed the covers off of him. He walked into the bathroom. He reached for his favorite toothpaste and started brushing his teeth. When he was done, he went back into his room to start changing into his school uniform.

"Let's see...anything after school today?" he looked at the calendar. What day was it today? Scanning down the calendar, he found the date. Ah here it was, November 28th....wait a sec....28TH!?

"Nya! I was so stupid!! It's my birthday, nya!!" said Eiji, happily. He raced down the stairs, ate breakfast, and sped out of the house. He was excited, and he simply couldn't wait to see what the other regulars were going to do for his birthday...

At school...

"O'Chibi!!" Eiji glomped the dark-green haired first year. Ryoma made an 'umfing' sound when Eiji hugged him.

"What is it, Kikumaru-senpai?" asked Ryoma, "Oh, right. Um, Happy Birthday,"

"Waii, arigatou O'Chibi!!" and with that, Eiji gave Ryoma another hug. The bell rang...

During classes...

Eiji managed to slide into his seat unnoticed before the bell rang. Fuji was beside him.

"Ohayou, Fuji, nya!!" said Eiji, cheerfully.

"Oh, ohayou, Eiji," said Fuji, "something made you really happy today?"

Eiji blinked. Fuji forgot about his birthday? He couldn't have. Fuji and he knew each other for many years, how could Fuji possibly not know?

"Eh, Eiji, you're really fun to tease, you know that?" asked Fuji, "Happy Birthday,"

Eiji let out a sigh of relief, "Nya, Fuji, don't scare me like that!!" he wailed. Still, he was happy that the smiling tensai didn't forget about his birthday.

Throughout the whole day, all of the other Seigaku regulars wished him a Happy Birthday. Eiji was really happy that no one had forgotten about his birthday, but he felt as if something was missing. He couldn't really put his finger on it, but he knew that something was just bugging at him. Eiji shook his head. Nah, he was probably just thinking too much. Thinking always got him into more puzzling problems, and he didn't want to get into ANY of those. He walked into the tennis courts.

Silence.

Eiji blinked. Was he hallucinating? He rubbed his eyes. No one was there. All he saw were just the empty tennis courts. What happened? Why was no one there?

"Oi, Eiji-senpai!" Momo's voice called at him.

"Nya, why isn't anybody here?" asked Eiji.

"Eh, Eiji-senpai, did you forget? There's no practice today,"

Eiji blinked. What? No practice today? Impossible. Tezuka would never cancel a day's practice in the tennis courts. Besides, he could've sworn that he saw the words, "Tennis practice today after school," on the calendar. This is weird...way too weird.

Shrugging, Eiji looked up. Momo was already gone. Well, if there wasn't any tennis practice after school, he might as well go home. He stopped. That feeling came back again. That SOMETHING was nagging at him again. What exactly was missing? He absent-mindedly walked out of the school grounds. He was so lost in his thoughts that he did not notice that someone was in front of him.

CRASH!

Both students fell on the floor.

"Ow..." Eiji looked up, "Fuji, nya, sorry!!"

"It's okay. I wasn't looking, too," Fuji lent a hand for Eiji to stand up. He noticed that Eiji had a confused look on his face, "Something wrong, Eiji?" he asked.

"I don't know, nya..." said the redhead.

Fuji tilted his head slightly. "Wanna come over to my house? It's your birthday, how about hang around a bit?" he asked. Eiji's expression slightly cheered up. "Nya, okay!"

The two third-years walked down the sidewalk and headed towards Fuji's house. When they reached the Fuji residence, Eiji called his mother to let her know that he was at a friend's house. Yuuta showed up.

"Oh, Eiji-senpai, happy birthday," said Yuuta (A/N: isn't he just so polite??? sorry, I have a soft spot for Yuuta!!) and he went upstairs to his room.

"Thanks, Yuuta," called Eiji. Fuji gestured at Eiji for him to come. "Let's go into the living room. We can play some video games,"

Eiji eagerly bounded towards the living room. It seemed like Fuji had somehow eased that feeling of something-was-missing in his mind. What exactly was that feeling supposed to mean?? Eiji stepped into the living room.

"SURPRISE!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EIJI!!!!!" Confetti and all tons of sparkly stuff were thrown all around. Eiji was frozen in his tracks. All of the Seigaku regulars were there.

Fuji smiled, "So, was your little suspicion fulfilled, Eiji?" he asked.

"Nya, how'd you know that I was wondering about something?"

"You can't hide secrets from me, Eiji. Besides, we all knew that you'd be feeling that something was weird, even though we all remembered your birthday,"

So this was what that feeling was. Eiji knew that something was missing, he just didn't know what. What was missing was only a single thing, the true happiness. Eiji was happy that others remembered his birthday, but what made him even happier was that his friends put together a little surprise for him. They had let him meddle around in his puddle of confusion, and then they fished him out with a rod that was like a helping hand.

"Nya, arigatou minna!!" said Eiji.

"Don't just stand there, Eiji-senpai!" said Momo, "You've got cake, presents, and games to play!!"

"Cake first, nya!!" said Eiji. A cake was on the table and on it were the letters "Happy Birthday, Eiji!!". Fifteen candles were on the cake.

"Make a wish and blow out the candles!" said Oishi.

"Just make sure you don't blow spit on the cake, too,Eiji-senpai," said Ryoma.

"Echizen!!" everyone yelled.

"...gomen..."

Eiji took a deep breath, made a wish, and blew out the candles. All out in one breath, too. Everyone was given a slice. After cake was present-time!! Presents were piled up on the table. Eiji eagerly opened every single one. Fuji gave him a teddy bear to go along with his Big Bear Daigoroo. Oishi gave him a stuffed kitty that was a hand puppet. Momo gave him several tubes of his favorite toothpaste. Kaidoh gave him new headphones. Tezuka simply gave him a red scarf. Taka gave him a recipe book for some sushi. Ryoma gave him a huge bag of cotton candy, explaining that he simply did not know what to give and since Eiji was always so hyper, cotton candy seemed to be the answer, when asked. Inui's gift was the craziest. Five bottles of aozu all filled to the top. Everyone backed away from the juice, well, except for Fuji, that is...

Soon, it was game-time!! Fuji turned on the stereo and had the music on loud. Videogames were set up, along with Dance Dance Revolution, or DDR. Everyone started playing DDR, laughing at the way they were dancing on the dance pads. Tezuka refused to do any dancing, and it was the same for Kaidoh. Karaoke was set up, too. Momo and Kaidoh were against each other. Everyone was laughing so hard when they heard Kaidoh singing, not to mention that Inui was also writing down several notes in his notebook...

Time flew by and the clock struck 10 in the night. It was a fun night and everyone said their good-byes and left home. Eiji walked down the street with a happy grin on his face.

"I'm the happiest person alive on earth!!" he thought happily when he went to bed.

Author's notes: Well, how'd it go? XD I got kind of sick of writing birthday fanfictions in which it was always a surprise for Eiji, so I kinda modified things around and started this little story. R&R, please!! I think I screwed up a bit on this one...