CHAPTER 37-Surprise!

Jocelyn grabbed Riley as soon as she walked through the door and pulled her upstairs. Once they were in Riley's room, she said, "Tell me everything."

"There's not much to tell. Some of his sisters are really nice, some aren't. The girls they wanted him to hook up with are completely shallow, as expected."

"You didn't kiss him or anything?" She flopped back on the bed. "That's disappointing."

"Jocelyn!"

"Sorry, Angelo had a bet going."

"Great. What else did I miss today?"

Jocelyn sat up. "Everything's set. Duo almost found the cake, though. Hilde caught him and chewed him out for trying to spoil his dinner with junk food. It was a close call."

"They still don't suspect anything?"

"No. Once you left, the others joined Duo and the boys watching those superhero movies. They got into an argument over which movie was the best and I'm sure they're still going on about it. It was kind of funny because Heero kept volunteering to get snacks from the kitchen just to keep everyone else out while Sally and Dorothy were cooking."

"You guys did a great job. This is going to be fun. I only hope Quatre isn't all birthday'd out."

There was a knock on her door. Riley opened it and Braxton dashed in.

"Riley, hide me."

"What did you do?"

"Well, Wufei was going to walk in on Sally wrapping his birthday presents, so I kind of kicked him and ran."

"Braxton! Couldn't you think of something else?"

"We're running a little low on excuses, Riley. It isn't easy keeping him busy without letting him tear you a new one."

"Did you try asking him to teach you some new meditation techniques?"

Braxton looked at the ceiling. "Dang it! That could have taken up most of the day!"

There was a banging on a door down the hall. Riley opened her door and cautiously looked out. Wufei was standing in front of Braxton's door, his arms folded, foot tapping, and a look of annoyance on his face.

"Something wrong, Wufei?"

He looked at her. "I didn't realize you were back. How did it go?"

She shrugged. "Okay, I guess. Quatre's still single, if that's what you mean."

He tried not to smile as he nodded. "Good. His sisters get worse every year. I don't think you realize it, but you really did do him a big favor today."

"Were you looking for Braxton?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I was. Have you seen him?"

"He said something about thinking you wanted to beat him to a pulp. What did he do?"

"He came up behind me, kicked me and ran off. I want to know why."

"What were you doing?"

"I was going to ask Sally if she needed help with anything. She seemed to be rather preoccupied today."

Riley frowned. "That's unusual behavior for Braxton. You don't think that they'll need another day off, do you?" She tried to sound genuinely concerned.

"I'm afraid they're going to have to learn how to handle stress. We cannot afford another frivolous day until we're prepared for whatever is coming. Maybe you should have a talk with all of them. They seem to listen to you."

She nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

Wufei turned and wandered back down to the entertainment room. Braxton breathed a sigh of relief when Riley came back in.

"Thanks, Riley."

"Next time, pick something less dangerous to do. Come on; let's go see if Sally needs any help."

The three of them slipped quietly to the rear of the house and into the ballroom. Dorothy and Relena had decorated it in streamers and balloons. The tables were set and ready for dinner and there was a table set up with presents stacked on it. There was a table that held the cake, ready to be cut for dessert.

"This looks great!" Riley said, impressed.

"We couldn't have managed it without the Maganacs. If they were stuck working on those suits today we would've been sunk," Relena told her. "Good thing Heero and Rashid were in on it so we could swing it."

"What else do we need to get done?"

"Sally and Hilde should be just finishing dinner. You can go see if they need help with it."

Riley, Jocelyn and Braxton slipped out of the ballroom after checking to make sure the coast was clear. Sally was just pulling pot-stickers off the stove. Hilde was gathering up food from the fridge and placing it on the counter to be taken down to the ballroom.

"Hey, Hilde, need any help?"

"Of course. Here, you guys can grab the cart and start taking food down. I think they're starting to get antsy, Zach and Heero both seem to be running out of reasons for them to stay in there. They've been arguing about the X-Men movies for the last hour."

Braxton and Jocelyn loaded the cart and started down to the ballroom. Riley was about to grab a dish and follow when Heero came in, looking a little harried and followed by Alex and Angelo.

"Sally, I don't know how much longer we can keep them in there."

"Riley, go down and see if you can keep them busy for about ten more minutes," Sally said, handing Heero a dish to take to the ballroom. She loaded Alex and Angelo down as well.

Riley made her way down to the entertainment room. She stood in the doorway for a minute, to gauge the conversation.

"I'm telling you Duo, the original X-Men Trilogy is better than this campy remake."

"No way, Zach. The effects are totally old school. There's nothing about the older ones that's better than the new ones."

"I think you're not going to agree and should just drop it already," Wufei said. He was sitting on the couch between Duo and Zach and Riley thought he was going to smack both of them. Quatre was sitting on the arm of the couch and Trowa was leaning against the wall, just listening to the argument.

"Well, Duo is wrong about one thing," Riley said, smiling when the five looked at her. They hadn't noticed her.

"And what would that be?" Duo asked.

"You said there's nothing about the older ones that was better than the new ones."

"Yeah. And?"

"You're wrong."

"How would you know? You haven't seen the new ones."

"Two words: Hugh Jackman."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Riley smiled. "Everything. On top of being completely talented, he's a total hottie as Wolverine."

"You're basing his acting skill on the fact that you think he's hot?"

"No. I'm basing his acting skill on his Tony Award and the numerous other awards and nominations he's gotten for best actor. The fact that he's hot is just a bonus."

Duo rolled his eyes at her. "But your reason for thinking the old X-Men movies are better is still because you think the guy playing Wolverine is hot?"

"You say that like you expect me to knock him down and rob him of his virtue. Are you telling me I'm not allowed to find anyone attractive?" Riley struck a defiant pose and gave him a small pout.

"I'm just sayin' that it's not a good reason to say a movie's good."

"So there isn't a single movie that you've ever claimed was good just because you found one of the actresses attractive?"

Duo opened his mouth and then shut it. He'd sat through a number of horrible B-movies just because he'd thought one of the actresses was hot. And some of them he'd watched several times, convincing himself that the real reason he was watching it had something to do with the acting or the costumes, the music or the set design. All lies of course. At least the actor she named had a record for picking award-winning movies that still made best movie lists.

Wufei and Trowa snickered softly as Quatre shook his head in amusement. Getting Duo to shut up had been a long running game amongst the other four pilots and in the last six months Riley had surpassed the collective number of times they had managed it in 15 years.

"That's what I thought." Riley heard Sally call her name from the direction of the kitchen and turned to look out the door and up the stairs. Sally gave her the 'ready' signal and she nodded.

"Well, looks like Sally has dinner ready. We'd better go before it gets cold."

They followed her out but were surprised when she passed through the kitchen and down the back hallway.

"Well, come on," Zach said, following her.

The four pilots exchanged confused looks and followed. They noticed a complete lack of anyone else and wondered just what Riley was up to. She and Zach slipped into the ballroom. When the four pilots entered, they stopped short.

They hadn't expected the setup and the entire population of the house was there. Riley was standing off to the side, her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. The look on the four pilots' faces was priceless.

"Happy Birthday!" the group shouted.

Duo turned to Riley. "You planned this, didn't you?"

"It wasn't just me. Sally and Relena wanted to do something for Wufei and Quatre and since Trowa's birthday is in three weeks anyway and I missed yours, we decided to catch you all at once."

He grinned. "I wondered why Heero didn't kill you yesterday."

"We had to get him in on it or we never could have pulled it off."

Quatre was eyeing Riley, trying to decide whether or not to be annoyed that she'd lied about knowing it was his birthday. He decided he couldn't stay mad about it and grinned at her, shaking his head. Wufei and Trowa didn't say anything, they just looked surprised.

"Well, come on," Sally said, breaking their shock. "Let's eat before it gets cold."

The food had been set up buffet style and Sally and Hilde had prepared each of the pilots' favorite dishes, along with sides to go with them. Riley sat with her plate and was joined by Zach.

"So what are we doing for the boys' birthdays?"

"Their birthdays are all in March and April, so we'll deal with it when we get closer. I think Relena said Heero's is in May, so we'll likely do his and yours together." She frowned. "Maybe we should just pick a day each month and do everyone's birthday for that month. With the Maganacs there are too many of us to do individual birthdays."

Zach nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure the other women will agree with you. Otherwise there'll be a special dinner needing to be made every couple of days."

Hilde and Duo joined them and Riley ran her idea past them. They agreed it was probably the best solution for celebrating and Riley made a mental note to talk to the other women about it. After all, the pilots had already said they weren't big on birthdays but the women felt differently. They thought that any reason to get the men to relax and enjoy life was worth the trouble.

Quatre put his plate on the table across from Riley and put his hands on his hips. "You lied to me this morning." He frowned at her.

"Would it help if I said I felt bad about it? I didn't particularly enjoy lying to Lilah at your instruction, either." She bit her lower lip, not exactly sure how upset Quatre was with her.

A smile played at the edge of his frown. "Okay, so I'm not really mad. I can't believe you guys went to all this trouble, though." He sat and tucked in to his food.

"Rashid helped."

"Well that explains some stuff," he said.

"Like what?"

"Like why he was so reluctant to help me get out of going to that party today. Usually, he helps me come up with an excuse."

"Maybe having him keep you busy today wasn't the best idea," Riley said thoughtfully.

"So how did that go today, anyway?" Duo asked.

Quatre shrugged. "Could have been worse. I told off one of my sisters."

Duo gave him a look that said he didn't believe it. "Why?"

Quatre realized that he didn't want to say what had finally made him snap at Mirah. "I had my reasons. It was time for it, anyway."

Trowa, Wufei and their wives joined them, inadvertently distracting Duo from questioning him further.

"So I suppose this means I won't be beating Braxton to a pulp," Wufei commented as he sat.

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that," Riley responded, grinning.

Duo gave Wufei a funny look. "What'd he do?"

Wufei ignored the question, shoving a pot-sticker in his mouth. Trowa gave Wufei the once over from the corner of his eye, but chose not to comment. He'd suspected something was up all day, especially since Heero had started volunteering to bring them more junk food during the movies they'd been watching.

Heero hated Duo's junk food diet and had been trying to steer the younger boys away from it. The first time he'd gone up for food, Trowa had thought maybe he was going to bring down something healthy. But the soda and potato chips he returned with set Trowa to wondering. He knew it was Quatre's and Wufei's birthday, but he never suspected that he would be part of any surprise, especially since his birthday, well, the day he'd chosen as his birthday, was three weeks off.

It made perfect sense, now that he put all the pieces together. The argument between Heero and Riley the night before, Heero actually allowing her to get away with talking to him the way that she did, the insistence that they all 'bond' instead of doing their own thing that day...yes, it all fit now.

"Riley," he started quietly, "wouldn't it have been easier to let us work in the hangar all day instead of keeping us out and otherwise occupied?"

"Maybe. But Relena and Dorothy wanted the Maganac's help and if they were helping with the suits that wouldn't have been possible. Even if they'd just left for a few hours, you guys would have been suspicious. And besides, when was the last time you can truly say you took a day off?"

He didn't answer her, but he did think about it. He didn't know when the last time was he took an entire day off. Relena sat next to Dorothy, and Heero sat next to her.

"Thanks for your help today, Heero," Riley said.

"Hn. If you ever talk that way to me again, I'll kill you." He didn't look at her as he said it, but at his plate, trying to hide a smirk as Relena smacked him on the arm.

Riley laughed. "I don't think that will be a problem. You have no idea how hard it was not to laugh and give it away."

"I wish I'd gotten to watch that," Zach said.

"Oh no, if you'd have been there I know I wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face."

"So would you really have rewired the door?" Duo asked.

"That's for me to know." Her smug look made the pilots wonder just how far she would have gone to get her way.

"I think I'm glad you're on our side," Trowa deadpanned, bringing a round of laughter.

Once everyone had finished eating, the Maganacs cleared out the dinner dishes and Rashid assigned a group of them to wash up so the women wouldn't have to do it later. After the presents were opened, it was time to cut the cake.

Tariq and Jahiz were wary of it, remembering all too well the pies from Thanksgiving and they refused to take any until Braxton had eaten half of his piece. They were teased mercilessly by the other soldiers. Wufei wasn't going to have any cake, but Sally forced a bite into his mouth and he had to admit it was good, so he conceded to have a small piece.

"So who made the cake?" Duo asked.

"I made the cake but we used Riley's frosting recipe," Hilde told him.

Duo perked up. "Was there leftover frosting?"

"Yes, Duo, and before you ask, yes, there are graham crackers," Riley answered.

He gaped at her. "How'd you know I was going to ask for graham crackers?"

"Mom always let us make graham cracker and frosting sandwiches with leftover frosting," she shrugged, unintentionally reminding Duo just how much he'd forgotten about his early childhood.

"That sounds disgusting," Wufei said. "Doesn't that much sugar make you sick?"

"That's what a glass of milk is for," Duo told him. "It neutralizes the sugar."

"Let me know before you eat one of those. I may not want to be around for that sugar rush."

"You can't knock it 'till you try it."

"Yes I can. It's completely unhealthy, even for a human garbage disposal like you."

Quatre shook his head, Trowa shrugged and Heero remained impassive as the two argued. There was no getting the two to agree on food matters. All in all, the party went well and everyone had a good time relaxing and visiting.

Riley was glad when they decided to break up for the night because it had been a very long day and she was tired. When she got to her room, she was surprised to find a single purple rose in a vase on her nightstand. She had no idea where it came from, but allowed herself a smile as she drifted off to sleep.

A/N: According to what I can find, Heero's birthday is May 2, Duo's is June 11, Trowa's is Jan 2 and Quatre and Wufei share a birthday on Dec 12.