A/N: Written for reider52's birthday, and for anyone else whose party was cancelled.

"Oh, do hurry Susan!"

"Shhh! We can't let anyone hear us!"

"Well, if Susan would just open the door and let us inside-"

"The handle is stuck! Now shhhh!" The Gentle Queen gently jiggled the knob one more time, and the door slowly opened. She stuck her head inside—Edmund edging forward till he almost pushed her.

"There's no one inside," Susan breathed in relief. She opened the door all the way and the three quickly tumbled inside, shutting the door behind them and looking around.

"Do we have the balloons?" she asked in a whisper, and Lucy dug into her bag and pulled them out.

"Here—in every color I could find."

"Blow them up, please. And Edmund!" her whisper went slightly higher, to catch his attention. "Streamers?"

"Peter is bringing them," he reassured her in undertone. He set the brightly wrapped present—a copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—on the pillow on the bed, and then went to help his younger sister blow up balloons. Susan took a black marker and began sketching silhouettes on them, of Kings with drawn swords on a blue background, Queens on horseback (one with a drawn bow) on the purple, Fauns with pipes on their mouths and lines of music streaming in the air above their heads on the green, and, on the largest yellow balloon, the face of the Lion. She paused, looking at it once she finished.

"Shall we tape them up now?" Lucy asked in the loudest whisper yet, her face alight with joyous mischief. Susan shook herself.

"Yes, at once, and Edmund, would you cut ribbons to stream down from them? All white and gold, as we would in Narnia." Edmund bowed, half-jesting, but the same joy that lit Lucy's face twinkled in his deep eyes.

He had finished with half, each balloon with six or seven curling ribbons, when a soft knock on the door made them all freeze.

"Hello?" a low and kingly voice called.

"Peter! Get in here!" Edmund hissed, yanking the door open and hauling his brother inside.

"Did you get the streamers?" Susan asked, coming up with expectant eyes.

"Red and gold, as the Queen ordered," he responded, reaching into the backpack slung over one arm.

"I'll twist them together if you'll hang them?"

"At once, my Queen. I fear our birthday friend returns momentarily, so we must be swift!" With the resolution born of a hundred battles, the High King stood on a chair and held the two taped ends of the streamers together, fastening them to the ceiling as his sister twisted them together so the red and gold alternated colors as she walked backwards, unraveling them.

They put the streamers in all four corners, running in an X across the ceiling, and Edmund took the large painting of Cair Paravel (made by Queen Lucy) and set it against one wall. Lucy added a bow to the top of it, their last present.

"There, I think we are done," Susan said, spinning slowly to check all their decorations.

"Not quite," Peter said, and carefully from his backpack took out a beautiful banner that read HAPPY BIRTHDAY in many-colored letters. Around each letter animals peered and peeked, their smiling faces so happy it was clear they could speak and think.

"Oh, Peter, that's perfect!" Lucy cried in a breathless whisper, and Peter willingly yielded her one side, the two of them hanging it up on one wall (and if it covered a few things, well, it was a temporary banner). Finished, the Four gathered at the door.

"Now that's a job well done," Edmund said in satisfaction. "We should be off."

And so they were, but their whispered, "Happy birthday!"s lingered in the air, waiting with the birthday surprise.