A Hidden Heart

8 - Birthday

"No.." Error looked into my sad eyelights. "But I could probably get some.."

"Yay!" I cheered.

Error opened a portal, and wrapping paper fell out; that was convenient, but..

"Where'd you get that?" I wondered.

"I dunno." Error shrugged.

"Shouldn't you pay for something like that?"

"..I got it from a secret storage compartment I have for, uh, emergencies..like this." Error explained.

"Oh. Okay!"

I folded up my gift for Nighty, making sure it was nice and neat as I folded the wrapping paper around it. Error offered his strings to keep the wrapping paper in place, and after a small amount of struggle, Nighty's gift was wrapped and ready for him! The rest of my time with Error was spent talking about what we would do next time I visited, and when it was over, he opened a portal back to Nighty's castle for me, and I thanked him before walking through, holding my gift to Nighty close. Immediately, I decided to run to Nighty's and my room, intending to hide the gift until tonight; I didn't want to give it to him early, and Nighty always opened his gifts at nighttime - at least, that was the way it had been before, and I wasn't sure if he had changed his preferences. Once I had hidden the gift under my pillow, I decided to act natural for the rest of the day and go to the living room. When I arrived there, I noticed that the lights were off; that was weird, since the castle's lights were magic, and they weren't meant to be off unless someone turned them off - the living room's lights were always on, even at night! Deciding that it had been an accident, I flicked the light switch, and the lights turned on once more.

"Happy birthday!" A group of voices yelled, making me jump; I..had not expected that.

With the newfound lighting in the living room, I noticed a very large change from when I had seen it last. In short, it was colorful. There were floating balls on strings everywhere, and there was a big banner on one of the walls that read, "Happy Birthday!" When I looked down, I saw Nighty, Dust, Cross, Horror, and Killer, and all of them seemed..happy. Then I realized..I had been thinking so much about Nighty's birthday that I had forgotten that it was mine, too! I grinned widely and giggled happily as I ran up to the others, hugging them all as tight as I could; I hadn't even expected them to remember! 

"Thank you!" I bounced around the room, looking at all the colorful decorations. 

"Maybe we didn't need a cake, after all." Killer let out a small laugh, but he caught my attention.

"Cake?!" I grinned wider, if that were even possible; I loved cake!

"Yeah, cake."

Thus, the celebration began. I was a little upset when Nighty said that decorations and cake were for me and not both of us, but he soon explained that he had had hundreds of birthdays, and he said that he had more fun seeing me happy than any party would have given him. I still insisted that he enjoyed himself, though, and he did! The first thing on the schedule was cake, and all of us had a slice of the delicious cake the others had gotten! After that, it was time for my second favorite part (the first was the cake, obviously), which was presents! Naturally, I wanted to see my gifts; I could hardly wait, but I held myself back.

"Nightmare?" I looked up to my brother.

"Yes, Dream?" He responded.

"Are we going to open all the presents now?"