As long as Hashirama could remember himself he never had big parties. At least not before Konoha and even then it was more like a close family and friends get together, talking and eating whatever dinner he had ordered the cooks to put together in the kitchen. He has never celebrated his birthday with what he would call a big party.

Hashirama is a social creature. He loves to be around people which is why he barely ever enjoyed his birthdays. The thing which brought joy to his special day were his mother and brothers. It was a good excuse to hug them for longer than 30 seconds before they start to squirm. And there were the presents. Butsuma never gave him a present, not even a pen, while the rest of his immediate family gave him small but thoughtful items, his favourite headband was from his mother (he had told her that he was planning to grow his hair out when he grows older), his favourite brush was from Tobirama, and Kawarama and Itama had combined and given him a small but cute tea set.

It wasn't big but it was warm.

Then mother, Itama and Kawarama died. His brothers in the war and his mother passed away in the middle of her 5th pregnancy, of illness and the stress it put on her body (his cousin Akari said that she knew a combination of herbs which could heal her but she wasn't allowed to go and collect them (they didn't have them in clan compound)) And in the end it was only him and Tobirama.

It was... Lonely. Even after they started to invite Touka and Akari to his celebration tea (after the death of his mother and two of his three brothers he didn't have energy for something bigger and he doubted that his father even remembered his birthday). It was bittersweet. Then Mito moved to the Senju compound and it was less bitter and more sweet.

He shouldn't be glad that his father and Uchiha Tajima killed each other, he really shouldn't but he couldn't help it. He now had the tools need to him to start walking towards peace except one thing. Madara and the rest of the Uchiha on the same page as him.

After Konoha was founded he made sure to invite Madara and his heir. They always attended and it was no longer bitter, only sweet. Only that he was an awful friend and nearly chased Madara away with his lack of attention. His brother and his cousin did their best to keep the Uchiha in the village but Tobirama wasn't enough for Madara and Hashirama was too much for his battered heart. Akari on the other hand managed to worm her way in Madara's heart and place band-aids over the wounds, kiss them and say that things always get worse before they get better.

Then people started throwing him birthday parties all over Konoha. He made sure to go to each and every one and stay for at least five minutes but they never failed to make him feel awkward. He barely knew those people yet they threw parties for him... He never liked it but he was too nice to upset them on purpose. They chose him as the Hokage after all.

When he talked with his brother and Mito about that problem they both threw all kinds of theories why it made him uncomfortable even to think about others throwing him parties for his birthday (he has never had a problem with other kinds of parties) but it was Madara who got to the root of the problem. He was so used to the thought of only a handful of people remembering his birthday that people outside of his inner circle knowing about it made him uncomfortable.

Then Madara invited him and his family to his birthday and they were all surprised. There were celebrative decorations put up all over the compound and there were many tables put on the main road, on them different kinds of food and cutlery near by for use. Then Hikaku explained everything to them (apparently they always celebrate in such manner, how wholesome).

After that... After that you could say that Madara Made sure that he had the best birthday party ever. He somehow stopped the other celebrations of his special day and gave him that one thing he never knew he wanted and needed, but his father denied him. He got his father-in-law to attend, give him good wishes and a thoughtful present. And in a way it was even better than if it was Butsuma who did those things.

AN: This is for the Founders Week 2020 day one Hashirama's birthday. Enjoy UwU.

Tobirama and Madara: Running around, trying their best to kill Writer's Block.

Writer's Block: YOU WILL NEVER CATCH ME!

Me: Is looking back at what I have written years ago...

Also me: I wrote this?