Happiest Birthday of All

Kurt

A few weeks had passed since the rescue. Then the professor called us into his office for a meeting.

"This is actually a bit of a surprise even to me," he began, "for Honey doesn't think about it much…but her birthday is coming up."

That announcement set all my friends in an uproar, and I could only stare in shock.

"And," he went on, "she has never had a party on any birthday in her past that she can consciously remember."

Katya treated this as a disaster. "Never?"

"Never. Her birthday is two weeks from today, so I expect you will all have plans to make?"

Jean spoke up. "I'll keep us all telepathically linked, so that we don't accidentally all get her the same thing!"

"If you decide to include Honey in that," the professor warned, "in order to find out what she would want most, be careful that she doesn't notice you. She's more sensitive than most."

"Yes, sir."

As we all went out, I started racking my brain. What could I get her? It wasn't as if I could go out and buy something!

The professor saw to it that food was ordered, since Honig wouldn't be surprised about the party if she was the one making the food. Jean not only kept us linked, but helped the girls make decorations. Everyone took turns going shopping for gifts.

I didn't know what I could do, so I stayed out of their way. And when her birthday finally came, I figured I could at least write up a message in a card.

Honey

I thought I sensed a new kind of energy in the air on my birthday. It was a kind of excited tension.

I walked into the main hall and…

"SURPRISE!"

I jumped a mile!

There were balloons and streamers all over the place, and a banner that read "Happy Birthday Honey!" in large, clumsy block letters. Practically the whole school was there, yelling out their own congratulations as I slowly walked down to them.

"Yeah," I laughed, "thanks for the heart attack – just what I needed!"

"We wanted you to have a surprise party," Kitty protested, while still laughing.

After we all laughed for a while, played some random games and had cake and who knows what else – I was still a little stunned and didn't remember this part very well – everyone started giving me presents.

Most of the presents were pretty funny, especially since I thought I saw Jean's touch in that everything was something I'd wanted:

Some CDs – one for Wicked, among others,

A DVD for the movie trilogy The Lord of the Rings,

A spiky dog-collar (I'd forgotten I'd wanted one, back when I was interested in looking tough, even though nobody would see me in it at the time).

Actually, "everything" was stretching it: I actually had fairly simple desires, if DVDs and CDs were simple. Most of the stuff was funny because there was a joke in them. For example, Bobby had gotten me a pair of mittens with pompoms on the wrists. I had so many gloves, and he bought me mittens!

The biggest surprise was when Scott walked up to me, holding out a small box. "You have your license, right?"

"My…"

"Driver's license."

I stared at him. "You got me a car?"

"Well…it's a combined present," he called as I dashed over to the window to look out at a green car parked right in sight, "from myself, Ororo, Hank and the Professor."

I confess, I dashed back over and jumped him in a hug.

The party was almost over, and it was getting dark, when it suddenly hit me: I hadn't seen Kurt.

"Um, Professor? Where's Kurt?"

"He asked me to give you this." And, giving me an envelope, he rolled away.

I quickly opened it, and pulled out a card. On the outside, it just said "Happy Birthday." Inside, though, it said, "Meet me on the roof."

Just that, nothing else.

I stared at that card for a long time. Then I set it down and pulled out my Nightcrawler token, pushing it into my glove. "Well, let's see what he's got to say."

A puff of smoke later, I was on the roof, and there he was, just sitting there staring out like some kind of gargoyle.

"Hey there, Blue." I shoved the token back into my pocket and sat down next to him.

"Hey."

"What's up? Besides us."

He sat quiet for a long minute. Then he finally spoke. "I wanted to get you a present for today, I really did."

"Hey, it's not that big a deal."

"But it is!" Gesturing around, he turned to look at me. "Ich liebe dich, Honig, but what can I give you that you haven't already received?"

I stared at him, hooked on his first words. Did that translate to what I think it translated to? It took a few minutes to get around to the end of his sentence. I thought about that. Then I turned my attention back to him and answered.

"A boyfriend?"

Then it was his turn to stare at me. "You wouldn't mind…" he waved at his furry face, "kissing…this?"

I grinned a little, thinking just how far out of my comfort zone I was going to act, and retorted, "I've done it before." Then I leaned over and kissed him on the lips.

That went on for a couple minutes, especially once he started kissing me back – neither of us had that much experience, but it was amazing all the same.

"Mmm," I heard Kurt mumble just before I had to come up for air.

"You like?" I whispered, not even trying to keep the slight blush off my face.

"You're as sweet as your name suggests." Then he took me into his arms.

The two started kissing again under the stars, with Honey sitting in Kurt's lap, his tail wrapped around her leg and his arms around her shoulders. Then there was a puff of smoke, the stench of brimstone, and the two lovebirds were…somewhere else.

A/N: Where did they go? Who cares? I'm leaving that to the readers to guess. And, what Kurt said in German? It translates to, if anyone doesn't already know or guess, "I love you."