A/N: In honor of Renji and Orihime's birthdays (which were a few days ago, yes I realize its late, haha) I made a fic for them! BEWARE OF FLUFF (you've been warned)

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Happy Birthday

Renji had never thought of birthdays as a big deal. He had grown up poor so birthdays didn't matter for most of his life, and then once he had become a shinigami he was much too busy to worry about such things as birthdays. Really, what was the point of a birthday for a soul anyways?

But he had found that not everyone felt that birthdays were so unimportant. He had made the mistake of mentioning to Inoue Orihime that his birthday was coming up, August 31st to be exact. She had nearly pounced on him in excitement, telling him that her birthday was coming up soon as well, just three days after his. She had then proceeded to begin planning a joint party for the two of them for all of their friends to attend. Renji had just scratched his head awkwardly and agreed, not wanting to ruin the girl's obvious fun.

That day during lunch, the two sat down together and Orihime made a list of things they would need for the party. Renji, feeling unhelpful in his birthday ignorance, told her he would help however he could but admitted he knew nothing about birthdays.

"It's ok Renji-kun! Just leave it to me!"

"You sure Inoue? I don't want you to have to do all the work."

"I know, I'll make the invitations and you can mail them for me ok?"

Renji had consented to do this job, even though he didn't know what this 'mail' thing was. Orihime assured him it was easy; all he had to do was take the invitations and put them in the big blue box at the street corner by her house.

That evening, Renji came by and Orihime had gave him the letters and sent him on his mission while she returned to making the birthday cake.

Meanwhile, Renji, who was on his mailing mission, hit a snag in the form of not one, but two big blue boxes at the corner. He looked back and forth between the two boxes, one was metal, the other plastic, but both were undeniably big and blue and had an opening.

Growling to himself, he noticed that one of them had a strange white arrow pattern on the top which, taking it as a good sign, he deposited the letters within it and went on his way.

The next day at school Orihime was so excited about the party she failed to notice that no one had mentioned anything about it. After school, she had promptly hurried home with a gleeful smile spread across her face, to get ready and wait for their friends to start arriving.

The first guest to arrive had been Renji, looking slightly lost but grinned broadly at Orihime who greeted him and sat on the floor at the small table.

"I'm really happy we could have a party Renji-kun! Isn't it exciting?" she asked him giddily, taking a seat across from him.

Thinking that her excitement was very contagious, Renji had to agree that he was excited about having his first real birthday party.

"I just can't wait to eat some of that cake," he replied, eyeing the cake that sat between them, the two candles flickering slightly from the moving air.

The two grinned and fell silent as they waited.

…and waited…

…and waited some more.

"Ano…Renji-kun…I don't think anyone is coming," Orihime voiced after an hour of waiting. "I'm sure I put the right date on those invitations! Did you remember to mail them?" she wondered, her head cocked slightly to the side.

Dread came crashing down upon Renji as he started to realize that the fault could very well lie in him.

"Er…I put them in a blue box. The problem was there were two blue boxes so I put them in the one with the arrows on it."

Orihime tapped a finger to her chin in thought for a moment, her face scrunched up for a moment before understanding dawned upon her.

"Oh! I see now! The arrows must be for the recycling container," she giggled and Renji held his face in his hand. "Gomen Renji-kun. I forgot about those."

Renji frowned and dropped his hand. "But it's my fault no one knows about the party," he pointed out, wondering how she could still be so happy.

"That's okay," Orihime smiled and Renji felt his spirits lift considerably. "Maybe we can just have another party! But for now let's make a wish and blow out our candles!"

"Eh? Make a wish?"

"That's right. If you make a wish before you blow out your candles it will come true."

Renji gave the girl a disbelieving look but in the end decided to give it a try. Looking at the bright eyed girl across from him he made his wish and blew while Orihime mimicked him with her own candle. He knew his wish was a longshot, but he didn't expect this wishing thing to work anyways.

After the two had finished, Renji helped Orihime wash their dishes and put things away.

"I hope you had a happy birthday Renji-kun," Orihime voiced as the shinigami prepared to head out. "I-it was what I wished for."

Renji blinked in surprise at her statement and felt warmth spread inside him at her thoughtfulness.

"You wasted your wish on me?"

"I didn't waste it! I just wanted you to have a good birthday and I thought I'd do everything I could to make sure you did, that's all…"

Renji gave the girl an odd look before a thought hit him and an impish grin spread across his face.

"S'that so? Well, you know, my birthday wish didn't come true."

"Ah, it didn't?" Orihime frowned, looking up at him. "What did you wish for Renji-kun?"

Renji's grin widened as he bent forward slightly and pointed to the corner of his mouth. "I wished for a birthday kiss."

He had done it mostly as a joke, so when Orihime paused for a moment and then tip-toed up to plant a soft kiss against the corner of his mouth as he had indicated, he was quite thoroughly surprised.

But, he thought, it was a good surprise, even if it did cause his face to heat up.

"Uh…thanks Hime…" Renji voiced awkwardly, looking down at the girl who now held a thoughtful expression upon her face.

"Um, Renji-kun?" the girl began, smiling shyly. "Do you think I could…have a birthday kiss too?"

Orihime brought a slender finger up echoing his actions a moment ago. Only this time, she undoubtedly pointed to her lips.

Renji's eyes widened a fraction more at the girl's boldness while observing her small smile and wide innocent eyes.

But his shock was short-lived and a moment later he was grinning and leaning towards her, a hand moving to cup the back of her head.

"Anything for the birthday girl."

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A/N: hopefully that wasn't too bad...I really liked the idea of them having a birthday together... Don't worry reviewers, I haven't forgotten your pairing wishes, just be patient. Oh, and please review! Current wanted pairings: Shuuhei/Hime, Hitsu/Hime, Bya/Hime, and Ichi/Hime..I think those were all so far. If you have any other requests just say so in your review : )

--Miss Soupy