A/N: Day 31, Rayla's Birthday. The final prompt of Rayllum month, boy, what a ride.

Chapter Summary: It's Rayla's birthday. She knows it, her parents know it. But can they afford to fly out for a single day just for her birthday? Nope. She knew it, they knew it. So Rayla's birthday is off to a swell start... College AU.

Word Count: 3,417

Effort & Time

Rayla didn't hate her birthday.

But boy did today suck.

She understood that being on scholarship entailed a lot of sacrifices for her and her family. She couldn't afford to slip up, slacking off was never an option. She devoted her extra time and skills to practicing; to perfecting her accuracy and strength, to keep up her stamina, and to maintain her physique. Of course, her studies played into it as well. She focused on preserving her grades as best as she could. She gave it her all and supplied her genuine interest wherever possible. Philosophy was her best course and easily took her attention and time. Literature was fun in its own right, but not without challenges. And history was… well, history. The other courses weren't much of a bother at all.

While Rayla had a rough time balancing her workload and football, practically juggling it all at once, she still did it because shew knew failing wasn't an option. She didn't have options. She had no cop out, no failsafe, no backup career—she had to stay here. Katolis was now a new home to her. Because it had to be. Which essentially meant that she had to leave behind her old one. She couldn't bring all the memories and mementos like she wanted, all she had to settle on was just her ability to remember them. That's all that she could have. She wanted to have her parents there, but they couldn't afford to take time off and she couldn't exactly afford two plane tickets for a visit to Scotland.

So basically, no parents this birthday. But they promised to make time in September. Because that's all they could manage. She sighed, shaking her head at her phone. What a stupid day.

"Rayla," she heard, "c'mon, look at me." She looked down at her phone, and frowned at Runaan's face. He was frowning too. But she could tell he was mainly upset with himself more. He did not look proud of himself for telling her this. She could see the self annoyance plaguing his mind. "Please."

She frowned. She wasn't being fair. "I know… I know it's not your fault—"

"It is," Runaan disagreed, "I'm so sorry I couldn't book time off—"

"Da, it's fine," she dismissed. "Ya don't have to, I'll be fine."

"I sent a package!" she heard Ethari's voice echo in the back. "Something I made."

Runaan rolled his eyes and sighed. "Honey, I told you she doesn't want your silly inventions."

"What I make in my workshop is art! Ya just don't understand it!"

"It's fine Da," Rayla assured him, "I love anythin' Da makes me."

"Told ya!"

"Eth, stop tinkering for God's sake and say goodbye to your daughter!" Runaan shouted.

Rayla laughed, smiling at both her fathers' exchanges. Her smile grew as soon as she watched Ethari walk into frame. He had a pair of safety goggles hanging down from his neck with a few splotches of dirt and oil all over his cheeks. He beamed his classic toothy smile as he flashed a peace sign at her. "Happy birthday Ray-Ray, sorry we couldn't make it! But if ya want we can do a facetime to sing happy birthday, just bring out a cake or somethin'."

Rayla giggled. "Nah, it's fine Da. Thanks."

Ethari shrugged. "If ya say so, Sweetheart!"

Runaan sighed as he offered a warm smile. "Happy birthday," he softly said, "if you need us we're always a call away."

"I know Da," she rolled her eyes with a soft smile. "Thanks. For… callin'." She looked at her fathers and maintained her smile. "I'll call ya soon okay? Bye!" she waved at the camera.

"Bye!" Ethari shouted.

"Bye Sweetheart!" Runaan waved.

The called ended and Rayla sighed. Her warm smile fell within seconds. It wasn't as nice or as long as she wanted, but she was glad she was able to get one out of today. She banged the back of her head against her locker and closed her eyes. "Happy birthday to me," she muttered under her breath. There was a stinging in her eyes, a sudden pain she was desperate to fight back. A knock on the change room door disrupted her from her self pity. "Hello?" she tiredly called out.

"Ray?" Soren's voice came through. "You good in there? The other girls said you kinda just… stayed back… just wondering… if you're okay… is all." he awkwardly filled in. She knew Soren wasn't exactly a feelings type of guy, so she was not in the mood to deal with his around the bush beating behaviour.

Rayla sighed. "I'm fine Soren," she gritted out.

Soren chuckled. "No, yeah, sure, definitely! But uh…" he cleared his throat, "a certain someone is here to see you!"

Rayla's face dropped. That was exactly the last person she needed to see today. She was too deep in the pits of bad mood she couldn't just do that to Callum. Her usual spunk and happiness couldn't be on display for him this time, she just couldn't muster up the strength to do that. She groaned as she stood up from her spot. "I'm on my way, just finishing up." She sniffed. She hadn't even realized how close she had come to crying. This was pathetic. It was just a birthday. She'd have more.

Rushing out of the locker room, she immediately came face to face with Callum's natural eager smile. "Hey Ray," he greeted. "That was a great game!"

She managed a small smile, as she rubbed the back of her head. "Right, thanks," she awkwardly muttered. "I, uh, ya need somethin'?" She mentally slapped herself. Of course he didn't need something. He just wanted to hang out with her. Like usual. "I mean, um, what's… what's up?"

He stared at her in bewilderment. "I um… no-nothing?" he replied. "I just wanted to know if you're down for a studying session tonight."

Rayla couldn't hold back her frown as she shrugged. "Sorry, I uh… don't think I'm in the mood. Tonight. I might hold off on studying…" she began walking forward, past Callum and down the hall, "I'll call ya, 'kay?"

Callum placed his hand on her shoulder, shooting her a concerned look as she halted in her place. "Rayla… you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," she nodded, completely ignoring the hurt she felt from lying to him. That was genuine, heartfelt concern. But she just didn't have it in her to tell him. She was just too sad. She backed away, jerking her thumb over her shoulder. "I'm serious."

He pursed his lips as he retracted his hand, seeming unconvinced by her reassurance.

She mustered up her best smile and flashed him a beam. "I'll call ya. I swear."

::::

She should've called him.

But she was not in the mood. She was sitting in her dorm room, all by her lonesome in the late evening. Just cross legged atop her bed hugging her pillow close to her chest. She wasn't crying. Her eyes just stung with tears, she was on the brink of crying. But she wasn't crying. Her cheeks felt damp and her nose felt hot, but she wasn't crying. She was just being selfish. She was stupid for even being so selfish.

How could she ask so much of her parents when they barely managed to even afford her high school enrollments? How could she ask her parents to make a trek across the world when they couldn't even manage a week off? How could she expect them to send endless gifts and presents when practically all of their income went toward rent? How could she?

Rayla closed her eyes, fighting back her tears. She had been dealing with this from a young age. She's had to get used to it. She was old enough now to understand that she couldn't expect things to change. Not like she wanted. Ever since she was a young girl all she had going for her was income issues. Judgement for how poorly she dressed and how boyish she looked. Snarks and sneers for her how cheap her lunches and bare her allowance was. Looks and loathing for how rundown and rough her home looked. She was cheap, and she knew it.

She lived the cheap life for ages. Her childhood has always been the bare minimum of expectations. And she was okay with it.

She really was.

She had to be.

She just couldn't ever expect—

You would not believe your eyes

Her head shot straight up from her sulking. She was hearing things.

If ten million fireflies

Lit up the world as I fell asleep

Her eyes widened as they flew to her phone resting on her nightstand. She clicked the power button and found nothing playing on her screen. Where was it coming from?

Lit up the world as I fell asleep

Her eyes grew wider as they glanced over to the door. She rushed out of her bed and stared at the door. It was coming from there. Her attention flew over to her desk, grabbing a pair of scissors with a fierce grip. If movies had taught her anything, random music playing from a locked door—but not just any music, but her favourite song? It was the bait for a trap. Stab City was the most logical destination. She slowly approached the door, hand reaching over to the handle, with her new fashioned weapon arched up and ready. If she was going to die on her birthday, very fitting she'd die hearing her favourite song too.

"Ray," Callum's voice came through, "open the door please!"

A breath of relief escaped her. Then immediate shock. Why was he here? She tossed the scissors back onto her desk and whipped open the door. "Callum what the hell are ya—" she stopped herself as she took in what Callum was doing.

He was holding his phone out, blasting Owl City on full volume, with a wide grin on his face. In his other hand, he held out a single Hershey's kiss chocolate in his palm. "Kiss?" he suggested.

Her eyes widened even more. "Wh-What?" she stammered out. Did he just—

"Chocolate?" he rephrased, staring at her in confusion. "Hershey's kisses right? Or did I get it wrong again?" he pouted.

She laughed. Right, that was what she was thinking too. "Right, right," she nodded, "I erm, sure, thanks." She grabbed the piece and unwrapped it, tossing it into her mouth. She stared at him with a smile as she chewed on her sweet.

'Cause they'd fill the open air

And leave teardrops everywhere

You'd think me rude, but I would just stand and stare

Callum cleared his throat. "I um, are you going to let me in?"

"Right, right!" Rayla shouted. She stepped aside. "C'mon in."

Callum beamed a smile as he walked inside. He rushed over to her bed, throwing his bag and phone on top it. "So! I come bearing gifts," he announced, flipping open her messenger bag, he turned it over and dropped an entire pile of Hershey's Kisses chocolates and his sketchbook, onto her bed. "Kisses to last you the entire night, or rather, hour, considering how quickly you devour these," he jested. "And, while you do that, I was thinking I could show you my recent sketches? I dunno, if you want to that is."

Rayla shut the door, causing him to shoot his attention over to her. She was staring at him with a wordless smile. There was no way… "How… why are ya here?"

Callum grinned. "Because I want to spend time with you."

She felt her cheeks flush as she rolled her eyes. "I'm being serious."

"Let's just say it pays to be Facebook friends," he winked at her, picking up a piece of chocolate. He flicked it over to her with a laugh, she caught it with ease but maintained her confusion. She stared at him as he sat down on her bed.

'Cause I'd get a thousand hugs

From ten thousand lightning bugs

As they try to teach me how to dance

She chuckled to herself as she walked over to Callum and sat beside him, scooting herself up the bed to cross her legs. She unwrapped her chocolate and smiled, "Are ya gonna elaborate on that?"

"'It's Rayla's birthday! Say something on their timeline!'" he said in a mock elated tone. He chuckled as he raised a brow. "Next time you're upset no one remembered your birthday, try telling them."

Rayla scoffed. "Like ya did?" She had found out from Soren so last minute she practically jetted over to his dorm straight from practice. She was sweating like crazy and exhausted, but she instantly took him out to celebrate. Even though he argued, he went along very willingly.

Callum snorted. "I always forget my birthday." He smacked his head. "Photographic memory isn't exactly flawless long-term memory." She laughed at his weak defence, because out of context that made no sense. "I'd forget if it weren't for Clauds and Soren always reminding me and my folks greeting me."

Rayla rolled her eyes. "Still, I would've appreciated a better heads up."

"Hey, we celebrated," Callum pointed out, "It was just delayed. And I loved that art gallery, best gift ever." He narrowed his brows as he smirked, "And what about your heads up? It's already eight."

Rayla sighed. "I… it's not a big deal."

Callum bumped her shoulder with his. "Hey… whatever the reason, I know you deserve a nice day." He smiled at her. "I get that… you might feel lonely because your parents aren't here but…" he grabbed his sketchbook and easily flipped through the pages. He stopped and showed her. "I hope I'm enough for now."

This was the greatest sketch she'd ever seen from him.

For countless times, she had been the muse of his focus. Her features he had done to a perfection. Her expressions captured with realism and beauty. She had always been created with the most ease and effortless time. His landscapes sketches were done with the most detail and attention, focused on every piece of shading, every outline, everything. They were always lined to a perfection. Because that was what he was as an artist. A perfectionist.

But this… was different.

A boy, with a hesitant and scared half-smile. The creases in his face clearly selling his forced attempt to look happy. He looked so insecure. His mophead hair flopping down, covering his forehead, it was unkempt and ruffled. But the genuine happiness in his eyes, it was the story of a man trying outside his comfort zone. It was cute.

Because it was Callum.

"Ya… ya did a self-portrait?" she asked. "It looks… beautiful."

He chuckled. "You've always told me to do it. But, I dunno. It felt very weird, just looking at an old photo or something." He rubbed the back of his head as he held the book out to her. "It's… it's something, right? I just… I know it's a weird gift, but I-I thought you'd like it. Something sketched from me—"

"Which is literally ya?" she teased.

He flushed, laughing. "Yeah, sorta, maybe—"

"I'm kidding," she smiled. "I liked it," she thumbed her fingers over the details, smiling at the effort and time told within them. "It's… very ya. A Callum special." She grinned. He smiled at her, lifting up a piece of chocolate. She happily accepted his offering and quickly unwrapped it, popping it into her mouth.

To ten million fireflies

I'm weird 'cause I hate goodbyes

I got misty eyes as they said farewell

She took a deep breath after finishing her chocolate. "Thanks…" she said. "I… I know I was kinda distant earlier but… thanks…"

He waved her off, "Don't worry about it."

"No, I want to worry 'bout it," Rayla shot down, shaking her head. "Because… because ya're my friend." She took a deep breath. "It did hurt. Knowing that they wouldn't be able to make it. But… I can't be mad at them. It's not fair to them." She shrugged, looking down at her empty wrapper. "I can't be selfish. It's not right—"

"Ray," Callum spoke up, placing his hand on hers, "it's not selfish to want to have your parents for your birthday." He smiled at her, "It's what any kid would want. It's fair for somebody to want to spend their birthday with family. Nearly everyone in the world wants that. It's not selfish."

"But…" she bit her lip. "I… I'm here because I have to be."

"I know. And I'm sure they know you're working your hardest to keep this scholarship but that doesn't mean they expect you to shoulder the burden all on your own," Callum explained. He chuckled. "Rayla, family's all about sharing. You… you owe it to them to talk about this more. And you owe it to yourself to get this off your chest. That doesn't have to be today, or tomorrow, or anytime soon." He made sure she was looking at his eyes, and she was. She was giving him her whole hearted attention. "And that said, you also deserve a birthday. A happy birthday."

She rolled her eyes at his dumb grin.

"And I… hope that this is okay… for now."

I'd like to make myself believe

That planet Earth turns slowly

She scoffed. "Are ya serious?" she rhetorically asked. "Ya come into my dorm, playing my favourite song," she gestured to his phone, "then ya bring some of my favourite chocolates and willingly show me your latest art?" She laughed. "From ya? This is the best birthday gift ya can ever give me."

Callum snorted as he pulled his hand away from her. She had no idea he had been holding it for that long anyways. "Good to know our contrasts," he joked, "I enjoyed the art gallery you took me too, and you like, modern electronic pop songs and small chocolates are what do it for you."

"And your art," she heavily stressed. It was probably her favourite part of his gesture.

"And my art," he repeated with a chuckle. "Well, I'm glad you liked… this… uh, feel free to skim through the rest of what I've got. I've been doing more landscape, especially at the football field."

She smiled as she began flipping through his pages. He never really let her look through his stuff. The only exceptions had been when he had shown her himself or when he just flipped through a couple pages, leaving to barely catch a glimpse of their details. They were beautiful. She looked at each one, took in each image. "These are amazing…" Her thumb grazed the lines of shading he had done over the bleachers of the stadium.

"Thanks… I'm… I'm glad you like them," he told her with a nervous smile, "That, uh, that this is enough…"

She smiled as she continued looking through his art. Her smile growing brighter as she came across a page of him and her. The two were sitting down, back pressed up against each other. He had a book in his hand and as did she, both were reading. It was a very rough sketch, the attention to shading and outlines were barely worked over, and the detail in their hands and hair were basic. But… she noticed how great the features were in their smiles. The genuine, passion drawn into their faces. She felt that. It was very them.

This moment, was very them.

She chuckled to herself, taking another piece of Kisses chocolate and popping it into her mouth. He had no idea what this meant to her. With a simple smile, like the very same he had drawn, she looked at him and giggled. "Cal, this is more than enough."

He smiled at her, seeming satisfied with her reassurance. The two sat in a peaceful silence, casually eating the sweet treats as Rayla flipped through his art, with Callum occasionally pitching in his commentary. Rayla couldn't help but smile the rest of the night.

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep

She looked at Callum, and was happy to see him smiling too. She was happy to have him as a friend. Happy that tonight, on her birthday, he was with her.

Because my dreams are bursting at the seams

Because that's all she really needed, she supposed.

A/N: And that... is that. I'm sorry if this didn't seem like the grand scale ending everyone expected, but I think I'm happy with what I was able to churn out in such limited time. You all might be confused as to why I posted this literally a day early, but as I said, I'm going on a trip to Ireland for a week with my family, so I had to post it sooner than later because I did not want to miss out. And besides, I started Rayllum month by posting literally 2 hours into July 1st, so it's very fitting I finished early too.

Now, that said, the post on my blog that usually takes my followers to FFN and Ao3 will scheduled to post tomorrow, but I'll say the same things I wrote on the post here.

31 days, 31 oneshots. Albeit, some drastically longer than expected, some shorter, some not good, but all in all, it was fun! Thanks to rayllum-week-and-month for all the prompts! For spreading the rayllum love to the TDP community, getting more and more people into this. It's really great. I'm not sure if anyone's seen my earlier post back in February, but I talked about how I was an avid Rayllum shipper ever since September, when the show first aired and I felt really sad about how small the Rayllum community was. But it's been an amazing ride seeing it grow with all these crazy talented and determined artists, writing and drawing for a month.

Don't be discouraged if you didn't finish the entire month, or fell behind (like me) or anything like that, Contribution is what makes a community. And at the end of the day, that's what we are.

So, the hiatus... I have two ongoing fics that are essentially my main focuses. ZPIC and LoA: Untold Story. ZPIC has been a long devoted story of mine, for over two years now, and I intend to finish it. And LoA is just a Aang and Toph pairing that I really want to explore, so I gotta see it through. Don't worry, whenever I have the chance, I'll be sure to update this oneshot collection, but I won't ever abandon it. You best believe there'll DEFINITELY be an update sometime before Season 3 of TDP. So don't worry.

But, if you do have prompts or suggestions for me to write, please DM me on FFN or on Tumblr! Please do, it'll help me keep track of all the suggestions you give me!

Review Responses:

SassySapphire: Don't worry, I think I've got a good grasp on how much you love this MBtMS, thanks so much for all your reviews!

Or-lan-do626: Best believe mans a smooth criminal.

Until next time,

- Bleh