A/N: This is a belated birthday gift for my sister Riley (AKA Queen Violet). Her birthday was June 11th. Be sure to wish her a happy belated birthday!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade.

Birthday Surprise

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this." The platinum-haired Russian growled indignantly as he continued his precarious backwards walk down the stairs.

Ian stopped for a second to adjust his hold on his and Bryan's cumbersome load before replying.

"It's Tala's birthday, Bryan. He's always given it up in the past for our convenience. And remember last year when he was in a coma for his birthday?"

"Okay, okay." Steely eyes rolled as the pair carefully picked their way down the steps so as not to fall.

"I thought Tala deserved something from us for once," Ian went on, "and this is something I know he's wanted for a long time."

"How did you ever get Kai to agree to letting us keep this monstrosity in his basement?" Bryan hopped off the last step, jostling the kennel and earning a yipe from its fluffy occupant.

"Watch it!" His violet-headed companion scolded as he himself tenderly ended his descent. "The last thing we need is for you to render it braindead."

"Tala's used to my many unfortunate accidents." the older teen smirked, "He'd get over it eventually."

"Probably not." the short-for-his-age boy said off-handedly, beginning to walk and cuing his companion to do the same, "Kai said we can keep him in the old lounge room we used to always hang out in. Believe it or not, he actually wants Tala to have a great birthday this year, too. He's letting us do whatever we want as long as we do nothing for his birthday."

Bryan chuckled. "That's not going to happen."

Ian grinned devilishly, "Spencer's in the lounge right now decorating for the party."

"Just as long as we don't have to shout 'Surprise!' I'm okay." Bryan backed through the partially opened door.

"Where do you want this, Spence?" Ian directed the question to the organized member of the team.

"Um..." The gentle giant turned his back to the 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' sign he was hanging to survey the room. "How about the corner next to the door? He'll most likely walk right past it when he comes in. You know Tala."

The delivery boys waited until Spencer had spread out a blanket for the kennel to sit on before positioning it in the corner.

"The room's looking nice so far." Ian complimented, looking around at the streamer-strewn walls.

"I still say we should've hung up a big poster of him in his Nazi costume." Bryan sounded slightly amused at the memory.

Ian and Spencer ignored the extremely Bryan-esque comment.

"Ian you should probably take that thing outside to do its business before we give it to Tala." The muscular blond continued hanging the birthday sign.

"'Kay." The midget consented as he moved to open the cage.

The cage door fell open, allowing a small Siberian Husky puppy to hobble out. Mentally 'aw'-ing at the dazed pooch, Ian pat him softly on the head. Sky blue eyes that weren't unlike Tala's blinked up at the youngest Blitzkrieg Boy before the animal curled itself into a fuzzy ball to take a nap.

"Oh great." Bryan droned sarcastically, looking at the puppy from behind Ian's kneeling form as he handed Spencer another parcel that he'd been sent to retrieve, "You picked out a dud."

"No, I didn't." Ian rose to his rather unimpressive height, faced Bryan, and crossed his arms in his typical stance of defiance. "All puppies sleep."

"Well I think you should've picked out something a little more energetic; Tala's gonna be bored." The falcon kept the argument going for the sake of doing so. He couldn't help it if Ian was quick to defend himself; Kai and Tala had pinned it on insecurities caused by his short stature. "Maybe a Chihuahua. I hear they're plenty peppy."

"No wonder you don't get dates, Bryan." Ian changed tactics, adopting his opponent's annoyingly indifferent fighting style, "You're rude, stubborn,"

"Um...guys?"

"Not now, Spence," The pint-sized 'insult artist' waved his friend off. "I'm on a roll."

"Okay, then." Spencer shrugged. "Just thought you should know that Tala's present is soiling Kai's carpet and I'm not cleaning it up."

"What?!" Ian looked around wildly for the tiny gray and white animal. He found the creature sitting in the corner of the room next to an incriminating wet spot on the carpet. Seemingly knowing that anger was to come, the puppy rolled onto his back with a look of guilty innocence on his face. The snake groaned; who could be angry when faced with the puppy-dog eyes?

Bryan's slightly sadistic, maniac laughter filled the room.

"I'm glad someone's getting a laugh out of this!" Ian sneered.

"Bryan stop laughing at Ian's misery. Ian, take that thing outside so it can relieve itself further if it needs to." Spencer wrinkled his nose at the messy carpet. If Kai came home to that...it wasn't pleasant to think about. "Bryan, clean that up."

"What?!" came the foreseen explosion, "No! Make Ian do it! It's not just my present!"

"You bought it." the blond countered.

"They don't sell puppies to minors and you'd already bought the easy one!"

"Just clean it up!" Spencer's voice held the tone it got when he was undeniably serious about something. Of course one shouldn't defy the hulking beyblader when he was like this; just Bryan's luck.

"Fine." he huffed.

"Ha ha!" Ian mocked, holding the puppy to his chest, "Look who's laughing now, Bry!"

The mentally troubled boy growled out something close to 'pipsqueak' and hurled a stapler at his teammate's quickly retreating form.

"Bryan!"

Kai mentally groaned at how Tala's birthday was turning out so far. He leaned back in his chair, his forefinger and thumb moving to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was developing one of his migraines. Oh, joy. Ian, Bryan, and Spencer's half of Tala's birthday had better be going well since his was quickly turning into a brutal form of torture.

His task had been simple; keep Tala occupied until he got the call, confirming that the rest of the Blitzkrieg Boys were done setting up for the party. Any other day he could've done that and done it so that he and his best friend actually enjoyed themselves but it was Tala's birthday so something just had to go wrong.

Wanting to do something non-threatening (ha ha) for the redhead's birthday, the phoenix thought he's take Tala to go see the particularly violent R-rated movie he'd been raving about constantly. When they arrived at the theater and tried to purchase their tickets, they were told that, even though the movie had been out for almost a full week, it was sold out. Ironically, someone had brought a theater-full of people for their birthday.

Grudgingly they'd changed their plans and saw a PG-13 movie, thinking they'd be safe because it had 'Crushing' in the title. About halfway through the film, when Betsy and Joe were staring into each other's eyes for the eighteenth time, the pair realized it was never going to get gory. No wonder the ticket salesman had looked at them weird when they bought the tickets. Kai decided it was best to leave before the birthday boy started crying mushy globs of dead brain from viewing the chick flick.

Alas, the horrific day didn't stop there. As they stood up to leave, Kai and Tala were recognized by half of the people in the room. They took off at a run a split second before the mob of hormone-driven fangirls hopped seats to chase after them. They were chased halfway across the city before evading the enemy by clawing their way up a fire escape.

But happiness was not to be. As he leaped onto the rooftop, Tala slipped on the wet surface.

And now, here they sat in the hospital. Tala looked just about ready to either cry or throw himself off of a cliff as his arm was being wrapped in a blue cast. What a way to spend your birthday.

When his cast was done Tala found himself being quickly ushered out of the building by Kai, who obviously thought he'd been through enough trauma for one day.

"Can we just go home?" The Blitzkrieg Boys' captain begged, obviously downtrodden. He didn't care what he might mess up; they'd understand. His day was going from bad to worse and all he wanted to do was curl up in his consistent state of misery.

He would've rather just fallen off the roof than gotten a cast on his arm. It came with its own free list of things not to do, like beyblading. It was like being dead, but being alive to suffer through it.

Kai sighed. He was half tempted to say 'Okay' and take Tala home. If he thought he was having a bad day, he knew it must be going horrible for the injured boy. The guys weren't done setting up yet, but, on the other hand, he'd feel even more guilty if he ended up being responsible for another broken bone.

"We'll go home, Tals, but let's stop at Charlie's first and get you a Quadruple Chocolate Sundae. Ice cream can't be messed up." The smoky-haired young man knocked twice on a tree as they walked by.

"Okay." Kai knew his weakness.

"Quit your grumbling, Bryan."

The reluctant maid, as he had so dubbed himself, gave up his vigorous scrubbing to give Spencer a sneering glare that would've scared most people off instantly. Bryan just had that affect on people.

"That's easy to say when you're not the one kneeling on the only carpeted floor harder than diamond tipped nails and grinding a foul-smelling substance into it until your knuckles bleed, cut by the tips of the minuscule carving knives whose patterns will remain forever imprinted on my soul. Oh, the torture you put me through!"

Seaborg's wielder chuckled as he hung balloons with an artist's eye. "I've always admired your poetic mind."

"Oh, thank you, Master! His Majesty graces me with a...a compliment!" he held his hand over his heart. "Doth this floor shine brightly enough, Your Honor? I pray I've done thee a great service even though methinks the midget would've done better. He is much closer to the ground than I and my back sometimes gives out because of my withering age."

Sometime during his speech, Bryan had stood and swept into an oddly graceful bow.

"Actually the stain was gone a while ago. I just didn't know what to do with you so I made you keep cleaning."

"What?" The bowed figure snapped his head up to glare icily at his twisted slave driver. "I'll kill you."

Spencer was commenting on how the younger teen's bark was worse than his bite when the yapping of a puppy was heard signaling Ian's return.

"Does it really take that long for a puppy to go to the bathroom?" A ticked off Bryan blurted out.

Ian huffed.

"I played with him a little, too. And I tied a ribbon around his neck." he held the animal up to show Bryan the baby blue bow.

"Because bows aren't feminine at all." Sarcasm was delivered by the truckload.

"He's a birthday present!" The vertically challenged boy shouted into his opposer's face. "Birthday presents need bows!"

Deciding to step in before things got violent, the group's peace keeper finished tying his own bow and stated, "At least you chose a blue ribbon to bring out his eyes."

Shrugging at the odd looks he got, Spencer ordered Ian to get the cake and Bryan to put away the cleaning stuff. Whipping out his phone, he texted a simple 'OK' to two recipients.

Kai gave a small exclamation of surprise when the phone in his pocket vibrated; he always forgot he put it there. Grinning at the message he received, he dragged an uplifted-by-chocolate Tala out of Charlie's Diner.

"Where are we going?"

"Home!" Kai replied as the wove through other pedestrians.

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because because, Tals."

When the duo reached the Hiwatari mansion, Kai pulled Tala around to the back entrance. The phoenix didn't stop yanking his companion around until the reached the basement.

"Why are we down here?" Suspicion showed in Tala's voice for the first time that day.

Kai smirked mischievously and pushed open the door to the lounge.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

The newcomers both smiled and turned to each other.

"Surprised?" they asked in unison.

"Wait," Kai said, "what?"

"They told me this was a party for you." Tala poked Kai in the chest.

"Well they told me it was for you." Kai poked him back. He turned to Spencer. "What's going on?"

"Neither of you would let us do anything for your birthday." The bulky blader looked smaller under the penetrating glares he was receiving. "We decided to trick you so we could celebrate both your birthdays. Since they're on the same day, we couldn't not celebrate them."

"We felt like we owed it to you." Ian piped up.

"Yeah, even though we hate you sometimes," Bryan added, "you're still our friends."

"That's sickeningly sweet." Tala said bluntly with an upward twitch of his lips.

Anyone who was thinking of replying was disabled from doing so when a hearty woof sounded from a puppy who'd been ignored for too long.

"What was that?" Tala raised a cynical eyebrow.

Ian pushed past the two birthday boys to the kennel they'd passed up just as Spencer had predicted. When he picked up the Husky and held him up for Tala to take, he could tell that the wolf's heart had just melted.

"Aw!" The redhead crooned, taking the furry bundle into his arms and letting it lick his face. He laughed and scratched the pup's head.

"And this is for you." Spencer handed Kai an air-holed package which was greedily opened.

Kai gasped as he lifted out a puny black kitten with staring yellow eyes.

"Thank you so much." The new owner of the kitten looked uncharacteristically teary eyed as he fingered the silky golden bow around his pet's neck.

"You guys didn't really have to do this." Tala shifted his hold on his new puppy whom he'd dubbed Blitzkrieg.

"We wanted to." Bryan said simply.

"I think we're both glad you did." Kai said as the little black fluffball, Midnight, gave a meow of agreement.

Maybe this wasn't such a bad birthday after all.

"Hey, Tals. What happened to your arm?"

A/N: First of all, Tals is not a misspelling of Tala. It's a nickname. Second of all, Kai didn't knock on a tree for some random reason; he knocked on wood. Is that just an American thing? It's supposed to un-jinx something. Kai didn't want to jinx the ice cream by saying it couldn't be messed up, so he knocked on wood. :)

I hope you liked this epic failure of a birthday present. Her present to me is twice as long and ten times better. I'd suggest reading it once she gets it up.

Review?