Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 47th cycle. Now cycle 48!

Cycle 48/Day 1000 special: So, yes, in this cycle, a milestone I had to do something special for.
In this cycle I'm passing my 1000th consecutive day of gleekathon! So for this, the cycle will feature:
* 21-day/chapter story for the Sunshine Girls series (This Little Light of Mine)
* 14-day/chapter story special for day 1000 (Let Me Tell You A Story)
* One-shot installments from 12 series + 2 non-series
* And for this cycle and this cycle alone (I swear), 7 'triple shift' days, with 3 chapters/stories going up in the day!

This is a double shift day. There will be one more upload today: This Little Light of Mine, chapter 19.

"Something About Those Birthdays"
16/15yo Mike/Tina
Chang Squared series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

(Day five of birthday week for the one and only, the fabulous, the exquisite, yes, mag721! :D)

One year had passed since she had led him on a scavenger hunt for his fifteenth birthday. Now today Mike was turning sixteen, and as much as she'd been waiting on that day to come, when it did arrive, it felt like she was stunned, shocked… a year, a whole year. They'd been together nearly two years now. They had started out the day she'd turned fourteen, and now she was nearly sixteen. They had both grown so much, as people and as a couple, so easily that time had not felt long or drawn out, more like endless and wonderful, even despite the harder times like what getting kicked off the Cheerios had done to her at first.

But now today was about Mike, his birthday. The day was split in three. There was the party with his family this morning, then later the party with his friends, and then it would be just them, for what had become their birthday tradition: movie night.

She had thought hard about what to get him. She wanted it to be special, both to acknowledge that he was turning sixteen and that they had been together for so long. Everything felt too big or too small, and her father would look at her with that smile like she'd just lost her mind… maybe she had. She knew Mike would be happy with anything, that if she just… drew a smile on a napkin or something, he would be happy, but she wanted to give him something more.

She got to his house, finding it had already been 'invaded' by more Changs than she could keep up with. When she had finally found Mike, he was looking like he wanted to get away as soon as possible from his grandmothers and a couple of his aunts, so she had slipped in and dragged him away under some excuse or another.

"I've never been happier to see you," he breathed and she laughed, throwing a 'you're welcome' smile followed by a kiss.

The party with his family had been a lot more of that, except it could only go so far, seeing as it was his birthday and they were all there to see him. She knew what the hang up was. The fact that he had given up football and taken up dance more seriously was raising a lot of questions. Mike did his best to answer, even knowing they weren't the answers they wanted to hear.

When the party was over, he looked exhausted. He sat up on the edge of his bed, breathing out. Tina came up, crouching, kneeling, giving him a smile. "Time to get changed, time to go… You'll like this part," she reminded him, and he smiled back.

They changed clothes, and then they went to the pool, which they'd reserved for the party. Everyone else was there already, Cheerios, football players, other friends from school, and they welcomed the birthday boy by promptly hoisting him up and tossing him in the water. Tina laughed, couldn't help it. After the wreck his family party had been, this was something more likely to make him enjoy his birthday.

For her part, she still had to deal with bitter Cheerios, but she wasn't in the mood for their business. They were like relentless little…

"Hey!" Mike came when he saw her just up and dive into the water. He swam up just as she resurfaced.

"Having a good time?" she asked him, pushing hair out of her face.

"Yeah, it's great," he promised, looking around and back to her. "Are you okay?"

"Nothing you need to worry about," she insisted. She didn't want her mess to ruin his party, especially after the rest of it back at his house. So she moved around him, throwing her arms over his shoulders. "Get swimming, Michael," she called, and he laughed, dragging her off. It was successful in letting him forget her frustrations, and the same went for her as well.

The rest of the party had been made easier by sticking together, but what was for certain was the closer they got to it, the more they just wanted to get to the last part of their day, at Tina's house.

When they got there, she fell back to the couch with a dramatic sigh and he smirked, coming up to drop at her side and take hold of her, pulling her close, much to her surprise. She laughed, quieted by being brought to look so close into his eyes. "It's been an awesome birthday… and all day all I wanted was to get to this," he told her and she beamed.

"You and me both. Ready for movie night?" He nodded, didn't move. "You're going to have to let me go," she pointed out, and he nodded. "Are you telekinetic?" she poked at his unmoving arms. "You can hold me again when the movie is on," she promised.

"Well if you swear," he smirked, and she held out her hand for him to shake. A moment later, he was lifting her more than helping her up to her feet. She put the movie in, and at the same time she pulled the wrapped present from the cabinet under the television. She returned to the couch, finding curious eyes following the present in her hands. "That for me?"

"I don't know, it's not my birthday, so it's not for me… Maybe there's another… No, you're the only one here whose birthday it is, guess it is yours," she sat facing him as he turned to her. "Now I have to warn you, it's not much, probably silly…"

"I'm sold already," he nodded, and she handed it over. He gave the cursory shake of the wrapped thing. It sounded as though there were a number of objects inside. "I didn't break it, did I?"

"Just open it," she smirked, so he did. The first thing he pulled out was a bow tie, and then laces. "Call it my commitment to the fall, or your Glee Club survival kit. There's a whistle in there, in case Ryerson gets any ideas." He laughed, and she knew he loved it. "No matter what happens, we are going to go in there and show them we mean business," she nodded, and he did the same.

"Thank you," he told her.

Once they had actually turned to face the movie, they had gone in for the good cuddle up they had started at before. Mike kept his whistle, and when one character would show up, he'd blow the whistle. On the fourth ring, Tina had looked up to him. "That's my ear."

"Sorry," he cringed, giving a smaller sound of the whistle.

"Better," she smiled.

By halfway through the movie, he had seen she had fallen asleep in his arms. He wasn't sure how to move her, so he didn't. He was nodding off as it was, so he just allowed himself to drift off as well. She always made his days better, and today was no exception. He went to sleep thinking of the next birthday, which was her sixteenth, which would also be their second anniversary. He had to start thinking on it. He wanted her to feel as special as she was to him every day.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!