Unlike the calm and more or less anti-social Rai, Ryusei liked to make a bigger deal about his birthday than his team mate had. Even if Rai had claimed he hadn't wanted to do anything and didn't just completely forget about it in the first place. Ryusei insisted on having some kind of a party, not that they could do much when their orders were to stay in the base.

It worked out well enough, though, and Aya had used her connections to get some food ordered into the base. With whoever of their friends could make it there, it ended up being a decently nice party, and it was obvious Ryusei enjoyed himself.

Rai didn't say much during the party, but he did just happen to follow Ryusei into the younger man's room after the party was over, and they ended up in bed a moment later. The whole thing did end up with Ryusei complaining Rai was taking it too slowly, but he had some paying back to do from the previous month, and in the end, slow or not, Ryusei couldn't complain about the sex.

"Oh, and Ryusei?" Rai said casually after they were done and were just lying on the bed, half-asleep. "Happy birthday."

Ryusei laughed at that. "Hey, thanks. You didn't really say anything all day, so I thought you were just playing Mr. Cool Guy again. Which you probably were anyway. Mmm, comfy..."

"Here," Rai handed the younger man a package, which he picked up from the pile of clothes. It was wrapped in plain paper adorned with the logos of a local toy store, showing how creative Rai was with wrapping presents. "I bet you thought I didn't get you anything."

"No I didn't!" Ryusei retorted, even if he had thought Rai hadn't bothered. "Fine, I kinda figured that since I didn't get you anything, you..." He mumbled as he tore off the paper.

Rai shrugged. "What do you mean you didn't get me anything? You did, so did I at least get the right item or...?" That was about as far as he got, as Ryusei sat bolt upright on the bed, ripping the rest of the paper away and staring at the toy.

"Wow, whoa, the new limited edition Burnblade 3 figure with the..." He ranted on about something-or-the-other that the figure had, which Rai knew nothing about and wouldn't have cared about in the first place. "How'd you know I wanted this?"

His team mate sighed then smiled a little. "You've only been raving about this thing for the last two weeks? Also, do you remember how your new toy release catalog was missing last week, and you made a huge deal about it? It was me. I stole it and showed it to Rob to confirm what that figure was."

"You-" Ryusei muttered then just shook his head. "But oh well you're forgiven, this is totally awesome! Why didn't you give this to me in the party, I would've loved showing this to everyone and..."

"Because," Rai replied with a smirk. "You'd been more interested in that for the rest of the evening, and I wouldn't have gotten an opportunity for the other part of the gift, now would I?"

Ryusei stared at him for a moment, attempting to figure out what Rai was talking about. "Wh...? Oh," he said after a while as he got it. "Oh come on! Bah, I'm not that bad, am I? But still, thanks, Rai, this is cool! Best gift this year, see how..."

Rai just shook his head. He didn't need to reply that.