Here's the story in it's entirety! Edited a little for continuity and with an ending added by me. Thanks for writing everyone!

      

In retrospect, Minako may not have been the best person to choose for this task. "AIEEEEE!" came her scream from the bedroom. Artemis' jumped; tail flaring up before he ran into the room.

"Minako? What's wrong?"

"My cake is what's wrong!" Minako pouted as she sank to the floor dramatically, nearly too ashamed to look at her own severely burnt cake. If he had eyebrows, Artemis surely would had raised them. "You were baking a cake?"

Usagi, who had been concerned after hearing Minako's scream, ran into the room at this time, not seeing the ruined cake.  "What do you need help with, Minako?"

Artemis could feel a headache coming on. Tail twitching slightly, he asked "Why were you baking a cake in your bedroom?" 

Minako pouted, sensing that Artemis was already exasperated with her.

"Because it was supposed to be a secret, obviously!"

"But why here?" asked Artemis. "You could have gone somewhere else, you know."

"Where else would I have cooked it, the bathroom?" Minako shook her head; "That's gross, the only non suspicious places are here and the bathroom, and I chose here!"

Usagi broke into the exchange by exclaiming "Even I know not to try to bake anything in the bedroom!

"Seriously Minako," added Artemis, his patience near it's limit, "Why did you need to make this... Cake... In the first place?"

Minako looked to Artemis, shock clearly on her face. "I can't believe you Artemis!", she cried, "How can you not know?"

"How can you not know what?", said Rei suspiciously. She cast a sideways glance at Minako, prying for an answer.

Minako floundered, open mouthed and not wanting to spoil the surprise. She kept gesturing obnoxiously to Usagi, who was still present in the room, hoping they would catch the hint.

Usagi looked nervously between Rei, Artemis, and Minako; clearly torn between whose 'side' she should take in fear of upsetting one of her friends. "Um...we were baking a cake for our...for our...home economics class!"

Ami got Minako's hint, understanding what the surprise was supposed to be for.  Meanwhile, Rei couldn't resist commenting to the love senshi girl "You go to great lengths...."

"Great lengths?!" Minako spluttered, but then she slammed her mouth shut, not willing to get into it with the hot-headed priestess.

Artemis couldn't keep from shaking his head, confused with his charge just like he was every other day. "I thought you learned after the "Nurse Minako" incident that you shouldn't do anything housewife-related," he said.

"Do you want me to help you with your cake?" Makoto asked as she entered the room. She looked around, trying to gauge the situation.

"It's too late, Mako-chan," Minako said glumly.  "It's already ruined."

"We could always start over again, fresh," she offered, trying to sound encouraging.

Makoto leaned over to get a better look at the cake, her mind whirling with potential ways to save it.

The secret was almost ruined! But, maybe the power of Makoto's cooking skills could save it?

Makoto cracked her knuckles; It was about to get serious. She turned to Minako and spoke: "I'll need frosting, butter knives, sprinkles, napkins and a few spatulas; This cake isn't dead yet."

Minako started to fetch the items she could while saying "I can provide most of those, but I don't have any more frosting, and I'm not sure I have enough spatulas."  Then Ami chimed in with "I have some frosting at my home, and while I'm there, I can bring my spatulas."

Minako was eager to make the cake. She turned to Ami, "why don't I go with you?" she asked.

"I have plenty of pink sprinkles and fondant frills," Chibiusa chirped with a slight smile. "I keep these right on hand for cake emergencies just like these!"

First Ami replied to Minako "If you can keep up with me - because I was planning to run there to save time."  Then she bent down to Chibi-Usa to nicely tell her "You should get those out while we're gone, because we'll probably use some of them."

Chibiusa scurried off to the kitchen, to find a tall stool. Climbing onto the counter, she grabbed the cake decorations off of the very top shelf.

Chibiusa ran back into the room, nearly tripping. "I've got them!"

As she flung out her hand, the lid popped open. Sprinkles shot out like firecrackers, coating the group of girls in the sparkly sweets.

Meanwhile, Ami had already left to go to her home, with Minako close behind.  Soon, they were heading back to the home where the rest of the senshi girls were gathered, carrying Ami's spatulas and frosting.

Chibiusa blinked, watching as the shiny pink dust covered everyone head to toe. Stunned, all she could spit out was a: "Whoops."

Everyone shot deathly Chibiusa glares that all seemed to say, "This is your fault."

At that moment, Ami and the rest of the girls entered the room with the supplies. "Oh my," exclaimed Ami, looking at the sprinkled mess.

"That's alright, Chibiusa," soothed Makoto, "I can work with this!"

In seconds, she was at work. The girls watched in awe as Makoto shaved off the burnt outer layer of the cake, mixed and spread the frosting, and salvaged the sprinkles to create a design on the top of the cake. "Phew!" she exhaled, "All done. And now we can present it to the birthday boy," she winked.

"Boy?" asked the girls, confused. "I thought this cake was for Usagi?" said Minako. "I thought it was for Rei!" said Usagi.

Chibiusa and Makoto both laughed, "Sorry, we had to trick you!" said Chibiusa, "We knew you'd tell if we didn't."

Makoto lowered the cake to the floor. It was frosted in white, the sprinkles arranged to form a simple cat shape. "Thank you Artemis! We baked this cake in appreciation of all the times you've put up with our messes and shenanigans. We know it's not always easy on you."

The cat looked startled. Any worries he'd had about cleaning up the room melted. "For... for me?" His eyes started to water. To cover up his tears, he dove headfirst into the cake, coming up with a face full of frosting. "I'm juss so toushed," he mumbled through the mouthful. The girls all laughed. The cake was a success after all!

Thanks for participating in the Senshi Birthday Celebration Chain Story.

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