"Jadeite, it'll be my birthday next week, will you come?"

Jadeite sat at the Tsukino dining table, watching TV with Shingo, and stroking the purple plush cat in his arm behind her ears.

"Thanks for the invitation, Luna, but I'll be very busy - what day is that, Wednesday?"

Luna couldn't help but purr at the thought that he remembered her birthday. Of course she knew Jadeite remembered everyone's birthdays, but still she had had doubts he'd take cat birthdays just as serious...

"Yes. I'll have some cake with the girls in the afternoon, but maybe you can come over before..."

Jadeite put out his cell phone and activated the time planner. "I could come over in the morning, if that's okay for you. I could teleport over later as well, but if you have the house full of guests, I'd rather not."

"That's okay. I'd actually prefer you to be my first guest, Jadeite. And I have a birthday wish..."

Luna jumped to his shoulder and whispered into his ear: "I'll only tell you when Shingo can't hear it."

Jadeite turned his head. "Shingo, go pee, Luna and I need to have a little girls' talk."

Shingo turned his head and watched him incredulously. "What?"

Jadeite grinned. "It'll involve a lot of pink and shiny things, and it'll just mess up your hormones so that the pathetic stubble you try to grow in your face will fall off immediately."

"Why don't you go pee then if it's such a secret?"

"Hey, I can't take a girl to the toilet to talk about her birthday! There's a time and a place for opening the fly if you want to impress a girl, mind my words. Learn from your sempai, boy."

Luna giggled some more. Shingo sneered and shot the very pink piping and the very shiny studs on Jadeite's uniform a long and piercing stare before he got up and went out.

But Luna suspected he'd listen at the door, so she stayed close to Jadeite's ear.

"You know, in human terms, it'll be my sixteenth birthday. I'll become a woman. And I have a special wish to you, Jadeite. I want you to give me my first kiss as a woman."

Jadeite's face lit up.

"Your first kiss as a woman?"

"Well, not counting that smooch that Sugao gave me in cat form, my first all over."

"Wow. That's a big honor. Thank you. You're so beautiful now, I guess you have to fight

boys off each day. There's only the being beheaded on the spot by the senshi problem. I don't think they'll like the idea."

"We don't have to tell them. It's not like I'm trying to steal you from Mars or so. And... you know... that party that the senshi are throwing me... they'll... well... introduce me to some secrets of womanhood... and I'd rather get my present from you before that..."

"Senshi games?" asked Jadeite and his grin got wider. "Wow, that'll be a party, huh?"

"You know?" squealed Luna.

"Sure. Mars and me... have a kind of agreement about it... you're not asking me that favour because you feel guilty about you and Mars and me, are you?"

"Err...no... probably a bit..."

"Because if you feel the same about Nephrite, you'd better not ask him the same. He's very jealous. And he's not a plaything for beginners."

"I know. Err... I... I heard about it... err... but Jadeite, really, I went through all the boys I know - in my head of course, in my head, stop looking at me like this, you idiot! - and I analyzed their potential, but I always ended up comparing them to you, so the choice was kind of obvious..."

"That's very flattering, Luna, I don't know if anyone has ever analyzed my potential before. But are you certain you have included them all? Kunzite for example is a great kisser."

Luna hissed and dug her claws into his shoulder, her plush standing on edge. Kunzite wasn't exactly a cat person. And Luna wasn't exactly a Kunzite person, always keeping a fan's length away from him.

Jadeite chuckled.

"And how about Sugao again, for the symmetry? He has already shown potential, hasn't he?"

Luna hissed again, and hit his face with her paw, claws out. "You're so silly, Jadeite."

That was the moment Shingo came back, finding Jadeite in giggles and Luna sulking, clawing and complaining, and he shook his head.

"Man, Jadeite, how can you be a big warrior and chosen by destiny, and all the time just fool around like a little girl? You're worse than Usagi."

He dropped on his chair next to Jadeite, and Jadeite smacked his arm for that comment.

"Talking about the obvious, Luna," he said and pointed to Shingo with his chin, only to get attacked by her claws again, laughing his ass off.

"I don't get it," sighed Shingo. But, if he was honest, he didn't want to, seriously.

He was too old for this kind of behaviour since about first grade.