Title: Happy Birthday to Me!

Author: Relick

Rating: G

Pairing: Kurama X Botan

Summary: It's Botan's birthday, and Kurama's struggling against all odds to bring the cake. Will he succeed?

XOXOX

Ding-dong!

Botan excitedly opened the door of her apartment, eager to hurry her guests inside. In walked Yusuke, Keiko, Shizuru, Kuwabara and Yukina. Even Hiei had come to visit the perky ferry girl. They all poured into the small apartment with only one purpose in mind.

"Happy birthday, Botan!" Keiko exclaimed, throwing her arms around her friend. Botan was absolutely beaming, more so than usual. It's not every day that a girl reaches her one hundred and eleventh birthday, and all her friends had come to celebrate with her. All except for one. Botan looked around frantically for her missing guest.

"Where's Kurama?" she asked Hiei, the only one not in the middle of a conversation at the moment.

"He should be here soon," the young fire youkai answered. "He said he needed to stop by the bakery and pick up a cake."

Botan's concern quickly turned into absolute bliss and her smile became more radiant. "Kurama went to get me a cake? Oh, I can't wait!"

XOXOX

Kurama stood outside the bakery, holding fast to the box in his hands. People were walking every which way, and Kurama didn't want to make a wrong move that could in any way damage his confectionery treasure. "Kuso…" Kurama thought to himself. "I'm going to be late." Not wanting to waste any more time, he took a step into the crowd, clutching to the cake box.

That's when someone opened the door to the bakery from behind him, bumping into him, causing him to trip.

Kurama watched in horror as the box flew a few inches away from him. Lunging towards it, he snatched it in midair, but not before stumbling over a few people who blocked his path.

After apologizing profusely to those that he tripped over or stepped on, Kurama strengthened his grip on the cake box and proceeded to the subway station. The night crowds were beginning to thicken as the sun lowered its head, slowly darkening the world. The sun's light was soon replaced by streetlights, artificially brightening the city once again. Tokyo was definitely a city that never slept.

Kurama finally made it to the subway station and bought a metro card. He hurriedly boarded the subway and stayed near the door, in order to get out as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, the subway became extremely crowded within a couple of minutes. Kurama outstretched his arm to the wall of the train and pushed his body into the massive crowd of people behind him to keep the cake from getting smashed. He remained in this uncomfortable position until he finally reached his stop.

As soon as the train stopped, everyone poured out of subway car, smashing Kurama into a wall. Thinking quickly, he lifted the box over his head, keeping its contents unharmed. Kurama shook off the pain of his collision with the wall, and continued on his way to Botan's party.

The sidewalks were becoming too packed with people to walk carefully, so Kurama decided to take a detour through an alleyway. "I should be able to get to Botan's with no problems from here," he thought as he ran past stacks of boxes and old cans.

Not watching where he was going, Kurama unknowingly stepped on the tail of an old alley cat. The cat yowled in pain, and darted off, crashing through several boxes.

BANG! CRASH!

The disturbed boxes now proceeded to tumble down onto Kurama, threatening to smash the cake. Seeing no way to escape, Kurama did the only thing he could think of.

He protected the cake with his own body! The boxes crashed down onto Kurama's back, threatening to push him down and destroy his prize. Struggling to stay above the cake, Kurama gently pushed it away from under him and let himself drop to the ground.

"This really isn't my day…"

XOXOX

It was getting late, and the party guests were growing restless. Kuwabara had stepped out for a bit, fed up with waiting. They all slumped over the table, still awaiting Kurama's arrival. At this point, they didn't care whether he showed up at all and wanted Botan to just open her presents and let them all go home.

"Not until I blow out the candles," Botan insisted. "And that means that we have to wait for Kurama."

Yusuke groaned. "I don't think he's coming Botan,"

"He'll be here!" she retorted, still smiling as broadly as she had when the party started. That was about four hours ago, but Botan still hadn't given up hope.

Kuwabara returned from his walk and presented Botan with a nice cake with a lit candle on top. "Here, Botan. Happy birthday!" Botan stared at this cake skeptically. She licked her finger, and smothered the small flame with it. She then took the cake and put it into the refrigerator. "I want the cake Kurama is getting me. I won't accept any other." Everyone groaned.

XOXOX

Kurama was just one block away from Botan's apartment. He was covered in dirt and scratches. Panting, he held the cake box close to his chest and ran as fast as he could to where everyone was waiting for him. He was almost home free!

Almost.

As he rounded the corner, Kurama bumped into one of the biggest, ugliest youkai he had ever laid eyes on. And he found he wasn't alone, as two bigger, equally ugly-looking youkai snuck in on him. Miraculously, the cake was unharmed, but Kurama wasn't sure he could say the same of himself very soon. Sure, he could take these guys down any other time. But he had come too far to risk damaging the cake he promised for Botan.

"I'm terribly sorry," Kurama said quickly. "Are you hurt?"

"No," the first youkai said. "But you're gonna be!" With that, the three youkai began their attack. Kurama had no other choice now but to run. Holding tighter to the cake, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, with the youkai at his heels, all the way to Botan's apartment.

XOXOX

"I'm sorry Botan," Keiko said comfortingly to her blue-haired friend.

Botan smiled. "About what?"

Before Keiko could answer, the door flew open as Kurama burst in. Everyone got up simultaneously to greet him.

Just then, the three youkai pounced on top of Kurama, causing him to lose his grip on the cake box. The cake flew out of the box and through the air, almost in slow motion, and smashed onto the floor.

The whole room fell silent. The youkai looked up to see the whole party glaring at them, their eyes seeming to glow red. Botan was the angriest of them all. Her body seemed to be emitting a powerful aura, and the youkai could sense it, along with her growing rage. "Get…out…" she huffed at them. The uninvited guests stammered out a few words that couldn't be understood, and Botan didn't want to hear what they had to say. "NOW!" she screamed as she jumped into the air and kicked them, quite literally, out of the apartment.

As the youkai were flying out of the apartment, Botan summoned her oar out of midair. With it, she smacked them with it, as hard as she could, over the horizon.

Never underestimate the power of a pissed off ferry girl.

Botan dusted off her hands and walked back to her friends, who were all staring at her in awe. Except for one.

Kurama was kneeling over the destroyed cake, completely silent, his scarlet locks draped over his eyes. He looked like he was ready to cry. "All that…all that for nothing…"

But Botan knew how to remedy any situation. She went to the kitchen and grabbed a plate from the cupboard. Then she gently lifted the cake onto it, and put one candle on top. All her friends, Kurama included, watched her with great interest. Botan lit the candle and closed her eyes, making her birthday wish. She then blew out the small flame.

Everyone cheered and threw confetti at the birthday girl. Kurama was completely bewildered and Botan smiled at him. "Why waste a perfectly good cake?" she said as she took a small bite. She looked as if all of heaven was dancing on her tongue. After Botan had swallowed the bite, she threw her arms around Kurama, thanking him several times over, and knocking him to the floor with a thud!

All their friends laughed at the couple, and then went to grab some of the long awaited cake. Kurama still lay on the floor, holding Botan close to him, lightly kissing her lips.

"So, what did you wish for?" he asked.

"That's my secret."

"Do you think it's going to come true?"

Botan grinned. "It already has."

XOXOX

To commemorate the start of Spring, I offer you this proposal. I'd like to make this fic into a compilation of romance oneshots from now to June 20. I'd like it if you guys would write your own YYH oneshot love stories, and send them to me through my e-mail. I will personally read and proofread all the fics sent to me and post them as soon as possible.

Now I'm sure you're wondering, "What's the point? I can just post it with my own account." That's very true, but, hey, what's stopping you from doing both? And don't worry, all authors will get full credit for their works.

If you would like to add to this compilation, please abide by the following rules:

1. MUST be Yu Yu Hakusho related.

2. At least one character from YYH should be included in the pairing. But that's not stopping you from including other anime characters. Heck, you can even pair Vash the Stampede and Genkai if you feel so inclined!

3. Can be shonen-ai or shoujo-ai.

4. NO SEX SCENES! You can make references to sex, but please don't be too graphic about it.

5. Can be as long or as short as you want, as long as there's a beginning, middle, and end.

6. Have fun with it! Writing is supposed to be fun!

7. Include your penname, the title, rating, pairing, and a summary

I look forward to seeing all your works. Please leave a review on this story, and send me yours at the address on my bio page.

Till next time! Ja ne!