He-e-eyyyy yall! I just felt like writing this because as all you Reborn fans know, today is Yamamoto's birthday :D and since it's only 3 days away from my own I felt obligated to write this since he is one of my top 10 fav Reborn characters~ Enjoy and review~


6:30 am. The sun was not yet up over the horizon, but would be rising within the next half hour. The morning was still for the most part, only the occasional chirp of a bird could be heard to signal the night would soon end and give way to dawn. In Namimori Japan, there are few that would be up at this hour, most opting instead to remain in bed before awaking to go to school or work depending on the age group.

There was however at least two people up at this early hour. One such person was a black haired Japanese male. He has black spiky hair and soft brown eyes gleaming with a kind of calm and joy that only he possessed. In a pair of simple blue sweats, the athletic baseball star was out for his usual morning jog. On his back was a blue cylindrical shaped sack, holding within his signature sword, Shigure Kintoki, which he never left home without. By now it felt unnatural to not have the sword on his person with all of the crazy adventures he and his friends had been in this past year.

Focusing on his breathing while enjoying the fresh morning air, Takeshi Yamamoto smiled to himself. Today, like every other, was a good day and bound to be full of the usual fun that he had come to see as normal from his friends. However, today was a bit more special, and anyone who knew him would notice an extra spring in his step. The calendar date was Wednesday, April 24, a normal day to most of the human population, but to Takeshi that meant a cause of celebration.

Today was his birthday.

As Takeshi wondered what the day would hold on his special day, he heard an all too familiar roar approaching him quickly from behind. Turning to look behind him, Takeshi was unsurprised to see a white haired teen with tanned skin, grey eyes, and a scar on his left temple. A white bandage adorned his nose and his face was contorted into an intense expression, with his mouth opened wide as he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"EXTREEEEEMMEEEE!" Ryohei shouted. Takeshi laughed and waved at the older teen.

"Morning, Senpai!" Ryohei locked his gaze into the birthday boy and the previously scary and intense face he wore was replaced with a bright smile.

"Morning, Yamamoto! It's an extremely good day for a jog, no?" Takeshi nodded, although in the back of his mind, even he couldn't fathom in what realm what Ryohei was doing could be considered jogging.

Ryohei opened his mouth as if to say something more, but then he suddenly snapped it shut with a frown. Takeshi recognized that look as one that indicated his senpai was trying to remember something. The boxer opened his palm, and looked at a barely legible message that had been smeared by his sweat. Even so, just a few key words reminded him of the important matter Tsuna insisted he remember.

Ryohei beamed again, although this time he seemed a bit nervous, as he always was when he was trying not to screw up or accidently let a secret slip.

"Senpai?" Takeshi questioned.

"I WILL EXTREMELY SEEYOU AT SCHOOL LATER! AND H—ERR-CONTINUE THE EXTREME WORKOUT!" Takeshi watched the sun guardian speed away with confusion. He shrugged it off; Ryohei was just like that sometimes. He was sure it wasn't anything important, and if it was, his senpai was so bad at keeping secrets that it was bound to come out by the end of the day.

Reentering his house, the strange encounter now far from his mind, Takeshi dashed up the stairs and hopped in the shower. He got out and got dressed in his Nami-chuu uniform. Grabbing his bag from the corner of his room, he went downstairs for breakfast with his dad; although he had taken a bit longer than usual with his jog, Tsuna always woke up late, and they always barely made it before the bell, so he had time to eat.

"Morning, Takeshi," his father greeted from behind the bar. He was making breakfast, omelets if Takeshi's nose didn't deceive him.

"Morning pops," Takeshi returned with a smile. His father placed the breakfast foods down on the table and the teen and his father chatted idly over their food. Both men glanced at the clock and noticed it was a quarter to 8; time to leave.

"Ah, better get going if you don't want to be late," Tsuyoshi warned his son. Takeshi nodded, finished off his glass of milk and dashed out the door, barely hearing his father's 'have a nice day'.

As he walked the usual route to school, Takeshi just realized something a bit off-putting; his father didn't wish him a happy birthday.

'Well, the restaurant has been pretty busy lately. And it is still early in the morning.' Takeshi reasoned. Satisfied that he would hear it after school, his omnipresent smile once again found its way onto his face as he continued on his way to Tsuna's house. After a while he noticed something was off; he hadn't run into Gokudera yet.

'Maybe he got up a bit early. I'm pretty sure that I'll catch up soon enough.' He started jogging a bit, determined to catch up to his friends. He still hadn't spotted Gokudera and he began to worry. Was his friend sick? But even if he was he would still drag himself to school to be beside Tsuna, much to the young boss's chagrin.

As he ran over the possibilities in his head, he knocked on the front door to Tsuna's house. His mother answered, and much to Takeshi's surprise, Tsuna and Gokudera had already left for school.

'Weird. I guess the kid got Tsuna up earlier than usual today and Gokudera is always nearby so…' He thanked Nana for the information and continued to on his way to school. Refusing to let the day's odd string of events get him down, especially on his birthday, Takeshi marched onwards, his smile still in place.

But the day just kept going downhill from there.

During morning baseball practice, he hit a ball a bit too hard, even surprising himself, as it went soaring straight into the Disciplinary Committee room. A very irate Hibari glared down at the rain guardian, and even from that distance, Takeshi didn't miss the bright red and quickly bruising mark on the prefect's forehead. Oops.

It was only Takeshi's exceptional fighting skills and Tsuna's intervention that kept him from being bitten to death by the prefect, not to say he didn't get away unscathed and sporting a detention for that afternoon. Later on during the day, Tsuna and Gokudera barely spoke to him; even Kyoko and Chrome seemed to be acting a bit more reserved around him. If Ryohei spotted him in the hall, he would quickly turn around and shout something about 'extreme in school training' before running away faster than a speeding bullet.

Even during lunch, his friends kept sending him apprehensive glances and whispered to one another in secret. Only Reborn and Hibari seemed to be acting normal and it was really starting to bug Takeshi. By the time last period rolled around, his smile was beyond forced and his mood was going downhill. Not even his teammates from baseball wished him a happy birthday.

Detention with Hibari consisted of strenuous activities, as in running for his life after fixing the window...before accidently breaking it again. Today just wasn't his day.

On his way home—alone again as Tsuna and Gokudera had gone on ahead without him (well, it would be a waste of time to wait for him when he was the one with detention, not them)—Takeshi was feeling worn out and was about ready to just drop on his bed and sleep. However he couldn't shake the feeling of disappointment that no one seemed to remember his birthday.

'Well, the breaking the curse for the kid was a huge deal that was only settled about a month ago and Tsuna is still being trained now that he has officially been named the successor of Vongola…and the baseball team does have a tournament coming up. What am I getting stressed over? Everyone has their own concerns and lives to worry about. Besides, what's one day compared to a bunch of fun days with friends?' That's right, birthday or no, life still goes on. But still…it did kind of sting that no one remembered…

As he walked into his house though, his father was behind the counter, cutting up some sushi, and gave his son a brief 'welcome home before getting back to work. Although why he was working was a mystery to Takeshi; the restaurant was empty. But he was so tired that it didn't register that his father's restaurant was never completely empty, even on slow days.

Takeshi closed the door to his room behind him, and fell flat onto his bed, not even bothering to change clothes. He needed a nap after the day he just had. In the back of his mind he registered a bit of a commotion going on downstairs in the restaurant, but he just attributed it to a few rowdy customers and dropped off to sleep.


An hour later, he was woken up by his father knocking on his door.

"Oi, Takeshi! You okay in there? If you're asleep wake up for a bit and come downstairs for dinner okay?"

"Sure pops," He replied groggily. He heard his father's retreating footsteps and stretched his arms and legs before getting off of his bed. Changing out of his school uniform into a pair of jeans and a tee, he opened the door and went downstairs for dinner. Food did sound pretty good right then.

He paused when he reached the last step. Now that he was rested and more alert something seemed off. The lights were off, and the room was extremely quiet when his father was supposed to be down here with dinner. Not to mention he felt other presences in the room. His hand tightened around the hilt of his sword (When did he grab that…? Force of habit is what he finally attributed it to) and he got into a fighting stance, face serious and ready for action before he flicked on the restaurant lights.

He nearly just barely managed to stop his sword from cutting off Tsuna's head as the rest of the room's occupants shouted 'SURPRISE!' This effectively drowned out Tsuna's signature shriek and Gokudera concerned 'Juudiame'.

The teen blinked once. Twice. Thrice, before lowering his sword and staring in awe at the sight before him. There were all of his family and friends. Tsuna, Gokudera, Ryohei, Lambo, I-Pin, Fuuta, Bianchi, Reborn, Chrome, even Hibari and Mukuro were present. Along with his father, his baseball team, the Arcobaleno, and the Simon family. The room was decorated with streamers and balloons that had certainly not been there when he returned from school earlier—so that's what all the commotion was about. It also explained why his dad's restaurant was empty; he had closed it for the party.

There was a large gift table piled high with presents of several shapes and sizes (and if he wasn't mistaken he could see a gift from…was that Squalo's name on the tag?) And in Tsuna's shaking hands was a cake that read 'Happy 16th Birthday, Yamamoto'.

"OI, BASEBALL-FREAK! IS THAT HOW YOU THANK JUUDAIME FOR HIS KINDNESS?!" Gokudera roared in outrage.

"Haha, sorry about that, Tsuna." Takeshi amended as he kept feeling happier and happier as he looked around the room at all of his friends and loved ones.

"It's no problem, Yamamoto," Tsuna assured as he finally got over the shock of nearly being decapitated by one of his guardians. He made a mental note; no more surprise parties for Mafiosi.

Tsuyoshi approached his son with a huge smile on his face.

"Sorry about not saying happy birthday, your friend here told me about the surprise party so I pretended to have forgotten to get even better!"

"RIGHT!" Ryohei shouted "SAWADA EXTREMELY PLANNED HIS PARTY AND TOLD US TO EXTREMELY REMEMEBR TO NOT WISH YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNTIL NOW!" So that was the big secret Ryohei was trying to keep. As his friends each told their parts about their involvement (from Reborn using a remote control ball to break the disciplinary committee window to give Hibari an incentive to play out his part in keeping him occupied while they prepared, to Tsuna and Gokudera leaving without him this morning to check on the cake and decorations and make sure everyone remembered their parts) Takeshi could stop himself from smiling even larger with each passing second; to think his friends would go that far for him…

"Thanks guys. Thanks a lot!" Takeshi exclaimed happily. This was certainly the best birthday he had ever had.