Hello! Thank you for the reviews! Please read and review this one!

---Jaime

Disclaimer: I do not own the Titans, but I do own this story, and I greatly enjoy writing it.

Ch. 10: Birthday Suprises

It had been a little over a month since Rune had come to Titans Tower. Every day she had been there, the Titans (including Andrew, Covyll, and Sebastian) had taken turns teaching Rune self defense. She was progressing well, and Raven, who had been informed every week about Rune's success, was very proud of her daughter. Red X was also proud of Rune, he simply did not like the fact that she was with the Titans.

Currently, Rune was in her dark bedroom after a long training session with Starfire, the only light coming from the monitor. She had been at her computer for a good three hours before she realized that it was almost midnight.

'...I guess I should go to sleep. I can keep reading tomorrow.'

She closed out the windows and turned off the computer, now blind due to the lack of light in her room. Even so, she stood and made her way slowly to her bed as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She crawled into bed, not bothering with pyjamas, and pulled the covers over herself.

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Knock knock knock knock knock!

"Rune, wake up!"

Knock knock knock!

"Rune, come on, get up!"

Knock knock knock!

"Come on, Rune!"

Ignoring Sebastian's loud knocking, Rune continued to lay in her bed, though she was now fully awake.

"Oi, wench! Get your ass out here!" Covyll said. Rune glared at her ceiling, but smirked when she heard the satisfying 'thump' of a body falling to the ground. "Geez, I was only trying to help..."

"Yeah, well, stop calling her a wench!" Sebastian said. He tried knocking on the door a few more times before Andrew offered his assistance.

"Hey, Rune," he said. "You need to wake up!"

"I am awake," she stated aloud, knowing full well the others could hear her.

"Well, you need to get out of your bed and come out of your room."

"Why?"

"Because we said so, ya damn- OW! Hey! Adults can't hit children!

"Serves you right," Sebastian said to a complaining Covyll.

"Because, um... you just need to!"

"But why? You've yet to give me a good reason to get out of bed." The next person to answer, however, was not one of the teenage boys outside of her door.

"Because your parents are here, and we're not going to wait forever for you to get out of your bed," Raven said from the foot of Rune's bed. Rune, out of shock, jumped about a foot in the air and landed with a painful 'thump' on her floor. Rubbing her elbows as she stood, Rune looked over at her mother, who was smirking.

"How'd you get in here?" she asked the violet haired woman, walking over to her closet for a change of clothes.

"You honestly think a locked door will keep me out? Hurry up and get changed, and come to the main room when you're done. Your father's here, and I have to go watch him to make sure he doesn't start a fight," Raven answered, walking over to Rune's door and then phasing through it.

Rune blinked, suprised that her mother had just gone through the door, then got dressed and brushed her hair. She walked out of her bedroom and saw that everyone had left, so she walked down the halls and to her destination. When the main room door slid open for her, she was bombarded with confetti and loudness.

"SUPRISE!" Everyone yelled at the same time. Rune had been shocked into silence at the sudden noise, so she took in her surroundings. There were balloons and streamers all over the ceiling. On the table was a cake with white frosting and ten place settings. Over by the couch was a pile of boxes wrapped in colorful wrapping paper. And last but not least, a sign came down from the ceiling that said "Happy Birthday, Rune!" on it.

After concluding that this was indeed a birthday party, Rune walked into the room with a very subtle smile on her face. She was led the the table by three hyper teenage boys (gee, I wonder who they could be?) and forced to sit in front of the large white cake. Everyone soon followed, taking their seats. They sat as follows: Nightwing, Starfire, Sebastian, Cyborg, Andrew, Covyll, Rune, Raven, and Logan (A/N Remember- 'Logan' is 'Red X' without the costume on). Starfire expertly used her starbolts to light the seventeen birthday candles quickly, and everyone stared at Rune with smiles on their faces.

Hesitantly, Rune asked, "Um...shouldn't we eat breakfast before cake?" The adults in the room saw logic in this, but Andrew, Covyll, Sebastian, and Beast Boy (who was still a little short for an adult, but he looked older) argued against this point. Eventually, Rune sighed and stared at the birthday candles curiously.

"Happy birthday to you," everyone began singing, as Raven used her powers to close the curtains and turn out the lights, the only light now coming from the flames of the candles.

'What should I wish for?'

"Happy birthday to you,"

Wish for what you really want.

'You again? Hm... what DO I want?'

"Happy birthday, dear Rune,"

'I'm going to wish...'

"Happy birthday to you." As everyone finished singing the song to Rune, she took a deep breath and made her wish as she blew out all of the candles.

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Everyone sat at the table devouring their slices of cake, while having conversation.

"So, Logan, where did you meet Raven?" And so it began. Nightwing waited for Logan, a.k.a. Red X to answer his question, while Raven inwardly groaned, knowing that this would be a long interrogation if no one stopped it.

"I met her at a bookstore, on Rikers and 3rd," Logan lied convincingly. Raven and he had already decided the answers they would give beforehand, so the Titans wouldn't know that they were lying.

"And when did you decide to marry her? After how long, I mean."

"Hm...probably about a year after we started dating." Well, that one wasn't a lie.

"And did you get her pregnant before or after you got married?" Raven and Logan both glared at Nightwing, the former about to yell when Logan beat her to it.

"That's none of your buisness, and don't ask us such personal questions again, or-!"

"Just don't ask us such personal questions," Raven interjected, stopping Logan from saying something that could give them away. Nightwing nodded slightly, then resumed his questioning of Mr. Falle.

Ignoring the interrogation, Beast Boy turned to Rune.

"So, what'd you wish for?" he asked. Rune promptly blushed at the question and averted her eyes to her slice of cake. This grabbed the attention of the other teens and Cyborg.

"Well? What did you wish for?" Covyll asked.

"...I can't tell you that," Rune replied.

"Why not?" Andrew asked?

'Because it's personal,' Rune thought, forgetting that Andrew could read minds (which, thankfully, he wasn't doing at the moment).

"Because if she tells us," Sebastian said, "it won't come true. Right, Rune?" Rune nodded, thankful for the excuse, and the conversation continued.

"Oh, okay. Well, I would have wished for a moped!" Beast Boy said, going starry-eyed at the mere thought.

"Dude, you're an adult! Get a job and buy one!" Cyborg said.

"No way! I have had bad experiences with jobs! Everything I worked with blew up in my face! The game station, the vacuum, the balloon, the moped-everything!"

"Yeah, whatever. So, Rune, ready to open your presents?" Andrew asked. Rune shrugged indifferently, and was immediately dragged over to the couch by Andrew and Sebastian, everyone else following. Nightwing decided to stop his interrogation for the moment, and walked over to the couch with Rune's parents.

After everyone was settled either on the floor, like Rune, or on the couch. Rune picked up a package, opening the card first to see that it was from her mother. She slowly tore the wrapping paper and saw that the gift was three different books, each one being at least five inches thick. Minus the Falles, everybody's eyes went wide and their jaws dropped when they saw how thick the books were

"Woah! It'll take you at least a year to read all of those!" Sebastian said. Rune rose an eyebrow at his statement.

"Actually," she said calmly, "I can get them all finished in three weeks." This shocked them even more. Rune set the books aside and thanked her mother, a smile only showing in her eyes. She picked up the next gift and saw that it was from Andrew. After she unwrapped it, she saw that it was an old movie called "Memoirs Of A Geisha", that had come out at least fifteen years ago.

"I remembered you mentioning that you wanted to see this, so I did some research and found it for you..."

"Thank you, Andrew. I have been wanting to see this," Rune replied, making the boy smile. She went for the next present, and the next, and the next, until there were none left. She thanked everyone for their gifts as she gathered them up and took them to her room, while the others cleaned up the party mess.

Once in her room, Rune set all her items down on her bed.

'Let's see... I got books from my mother, movies from Andrew and Beast Boy, and Cyborg and Nightwing each gave me 100 dollars. I got some CDs from Covyll, a stereo and some CDs from my father, Starfire wants to take me shopping, and-'

Looking around, Rune noticed that Sebastian never gave her a gift. She really didn't know what to think of it.

'Does that mean that Smarty (she had named the voice in her head) was wrong, and that Sebastian really doesn't want to be my friend?'

Hey! I'm never wrong!

'...Yeah, whatever. Oh well, I guess he just...'

Not being able to find a fitting reason for his actions, Rune simply ignored the fact and went back out to the main room where everyone was waiting to go.

"So, where are we going?" Rune asked as they all headed out.

"To the mall so Starfire can buy you a gift, and to the movies, and then out to eat," her father answered.

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Like Logan said, they all went out to the mall to celebrate Rune's birthday. Starfire ended up buying her a small, extremely soft black teddy bear with red eyes (she doesn't really like stuffed animals, but Starfire wanted to buy her one, so Rune picked the color). Then they went to the movie theater and saw a movie called "Pretty Fly (for a dead guy)". The movie, which was meant to be an action/horror film, turned out to be so stupid that everyone had tears in their eyes from laughing. Rune was the only one who managed to stifle her laughter before the tears erupted, so her eyes weren't red like everyone else's. After that experience, they all went to a pizza place and each ordered a few slices.

By the time they all got back to the tower, it was nine at night, and everyone was tired. Rune thanked them all for the fun day and the gifts, then went off to her bedroom, while everyone else also went to their respective rooms (Logan and Raven went to Raven's old one to spend the night).

Rune put all of her gifts away in her room and dressed in her pyjamas, which were composed of a loose-fitting, soft red shirt and soft black pants. She had just brushed her hair, and was about to get into her bed, when she heard a light knock at her door. She made her way over and the sliding door opened, revealing Sebastian with his hands behind his back. Red eyes met blue as they stared at each other for a minute, until Sebastian finally spoke.

"Hey, Rune. Can I, er, come in?" he asked. Rune rose an eyebrow, but nodded her head and stepped to the side to allow him entrance. He walked past quickly and watched as she went and sat on her bed. Silence filled the room, but this time Rune broke it.

"...Was there something you needed?" she asked. He nodded, and brought a big box out from behind his back. Rune didn't know how she missed it when he came in...

"I, uh... I wanted to give you your birthday present seperately, so..." he walked over and sat next to her on the bed, the box sitting between them. Rune was suprised at first, but soon recovered and looked at the box. Then, slowly, she opened it and peered inside.

"Meow!" her present said, as it looked up at her with big blue eyes. Rune, now utterly shocked, looked from the young cat to Sebastian, and then back again. She pulled the thing out of the box, and Sebastian took the latter off of her bed. Examining the cat, Rune saw that it had soft, pearly white fur, bright blue eyes (much like her own), and a small pink nose. It was pretty young. Old enough to be separated from it's mom and to eat cat food, but young enough that it was still a little small.

"You...you got me a kitten?" Rune asked incredulously, her eyes wide. Sebastian nodded, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"Y-yeah, I did. I remembered you saying that you were a cat person, and that you would have one as a pet if you ever got the money, so I went out and..." Rune looked at Sebastian now, and he could see that true happiness shone through her sapphire eyes, as a ghost of a smile played about her lips.

"Thank you," she said. Sebastian smiled, relieved that she actually like the gift he got her. She looked down at the little cat, who was currently pawing at her pant leg with interest, then asked, "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"It's a boy, they said. He doesn't have a name yet, but once you name him, we can go to the pet store and get him a tag." Sebastian reached down into the box and pulled out a few other objects. "I bought him the other things he needs already, so you don't have to worry about that..." He held a small bag of hard cat food, some yarn, a food dish, a water dish, a small litter-box, a bag of cat litter, and a small black cat-bed. He took them to the wall that had her bedroom door on it and arranged them nicely, before walking back to Rune and asking, "So, what are you going to name him?"

Rune thought seriously for a moment, before answering, "Yuho." (A/N Pronounced 'YOU-ho') Sebastian smiled and nodded. Rune looked the little cat straight in the eyes, and said, "Do you like your name, Yuho?"

"Meow!"

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Sebastian had stayed in Rune's room for almost a half an hour talking with her, before he decided that it was time for him to go. He walked to her door and looked back at her.

"Good night, Rune," he said.

"Good night, Sebastian," she responded ashe turned to the door and it opened. He stepped out into the hall, and was about to leave, when Rune said, "Wait." Sebastian spun around to face her and saw that she was in the doorway. He was about to question her, when she wrapped her arms around himin a friendly hug. She was blushing a little at her actions, but not nearly as much as he was. She finally let go after a moment and stepped away. "...Well, thank you, for Yuho, and..." she said akwardly.

"N-no problem."

Finally, Rune returned to her bedroom and closed the door, and Sebastian went off to his room. She crawled into bed and pulled the covers over herself and Yuho, petting the white cat softly as she drifted off to sleep.

Happiness! Okay, this was the tenth chapter! It was cool, if I do say so myself. So, do you guys like Yuho? I DO! Bet you guys thought Sebastian wasn't going to give her a present, right? (probably not). When Rune hugged Sebastian, think of the hug Raven gave Beast Boy in "Spellbound". Okay, well anyway, thank you for reading, and PLEASE REVIEW! I would greatly appriciate it!

---Jaime