The Seventh Member of the Storm Hawks

A Reason To Celebrate

Piper barged into Nika's room at the break of dawn, today was Aerrow's birthday and she wanted Nika to look perfect for it. Quietly she prodded the fourteen-year olds arm until she was swatted away, "Piper it's four in the morning, go back to bed." Nika moaned tiredly, Piper blushed when she realised that it was way too early to do anything especially if it woke up Aerrow and ruined the surprise. "Fine, I'll be back later." She whispered threateningly, Nika just gave a tired thumb up before letting her arm drop onto her head. "Cool." She mumbled, with that Piper snuck back into her room, retrieving the "treasure hunt" papers and hid them in their respective places. From Aerrow's room to every other room in the Condor, even hiding it under the cake plate. "Perfect." She smiled before tip toeing back to her room.

Like the crystal navigator promised, she was back in Nika's room and jumped on her bed to wake up the brunette. "Wake up!" She screeched, Nika timed hitting her off so she wouldn't get hurt before flopping back onto her bed. "No! You get up now!" Piper yelled, pulling Nika up by the arms. "You'd think it was MY birthday." Nika complained before yawning, she wasn't happy by being woken up especially when she had planned to get up early anyway, "Well it's the next best thing for you!" Piper sang, the brunette swatted her away wishing she would stop being such a morning person already. "Don't push me." Nika glared before it faltered due to another yawn escaping her lips, not having the energy to blush at Piper's comment. "I'm up! Let me shower and stuff first." Nika groaned realising that Piper wasn't going to leave until she gave Nika a makeover. "Fine but be quick!" She hissed, Nika simply waved her hand to show that she heard – her usual morning routine with the bathroom was to kick the door loudly to make sure that no one was in, she quickly showered and brushed her teeth before changing into grey shorts and t-shirt and headed back to her room. Piper clapped her hands and pushed Nika into a seat before styling her hair and applying some makeup. "If I look horrible then I will not talk to you for a month." Nika spoke bitterly, she didn't mind having a make-over but as long as she didn't look like a clown. The brunette kept her eyes closed during the entire thing, shivering when Piper began to play with her hair – she could feel that is had been pinned up and was rather excited to see it. Ten minutes later, she was allowed to open her eyes they widened when she stared back at the girl in the mirror before her. "Uh Piper, who's that?" She asked dumbly, Piper giggled and put a hand on her shoulder, "It's you silly! Oh, we need to put your dress on!" She exclaimed, Nika blushed – Piper had done a great job, even more than those back home. "Piper, I'm not wearing my court dress!" Nika laughed, standing up but Piper shook her head, "But it would look perfect!" She whined before handing Nika the dress and turning her back. Nika silently and bitterly cursed Piper who had found her dress when she was moving her stuff into her new room. "Put it on!" Nika sighed and quickly changed, the dress was a little big for her but thanks to Piper the dress was altered to fit her properly. "Oh, you look beautiful!" Piper cried before hugging Nika, "Is your present wrapped up?" She asked, Nika nodded and pointed to the corner of the room where a fairly large package wrapped in yellow paper. "He's going to love them, and you." Piper smiled before lifting the present and guiding Nika to the bridge – everyone but Aerrow was awake and ready to yell surprise at him.

The guys were gathered in the bridge, Stork complaining about birthday parties being the cause of four out ten squadron casualties. Piper pushed Nika forward, as much as the brunette wanted a twister to swallow her whole – here she was the only one that had really been dressed up, everyone else had more casual clothes rather than their usual attire. They all turned when Piper began to giggle at Nika's reaction, "Woah! You're wearing a dress." Junko smiled, not believing that his best friend was wearing a dress, Nika blushed and looked at her feet – mentally cursing Piper for finding her sandals that she had hidden the week before. "At least Junko knows what a dress is." Stork commented sarcastically, Finn elbowed the Merb seeing the dangerous look Piper was sending him. "And Piper needs to learn she doesn't scare me." He muttered making sure she didn't hear by quickly shifting his eyes. "Well you look nice, not as good as Piper though." Finn smiled, Nika and himself had talked out their differences and apologised to one another for getting on each other's nerves. "Thanks Finn." Nika smiled, "There's a reason why I hid this!" She exclaimed when the dress began to annoy her, she hated skirts and when it brushed her legs – she always thought it was a small creature crawling on her. "Oh, just wear it!" Piper hissed playfully, the sound of Aerrow's bedroom door opening made everyone go and hide somewhere – Finn running from his spot to turn the lights off before diving back behind the couch but not before falling over his feet and smacking the floor like an idiot. Nika stifled a giggle behind her hand whilst safely hiding behind a pole.