Title: The Knight and the Blacksmith

Genre: Romance, Drama, and Humor

Summary: Cecily leaves Housman to hone her skills as a knight. Upon returning she finds out there are other things that have changed or perhaps have always been.

Rating: T for now at least

Part 2: Birthday Wishes

Cecily awoke in her room; a week has past by, the date, the twenty first of November, her birthday. Her eighteenth birthday more specifically, but she woke up with an unusual normalcy. Typically her birthdays had a different feel to them than other days of the year. But when she hopped out of bed there was no special feeling, there was nothing.

"Guess mom was right about getting older. 'Birthdays seem to matter less and less to you'." She recited the words her mother, Lucy had told her a few days earlier.

"I wonder what time it is, Aria's already up?" she rubbed her eyes and walked over to her bedroom window. Cecily took a quick glance over at the clock on the opposite wall, 9:37 am. She looked around at the sun-drenched valley that rested beyond Housman in the distance, and then looked down to see something really out of the ordinary.

"What on Earth is Luke doing here so early!" she squealed, covering her mouth. She didn't realize the loudness of her little outburst until Luke and Aria looked up at her window.

"Eek!" Cecily squealed again shutting the curtains. From outside Luke and Aria heard a loud thud come from Cecily's room and her moan in pain shortly afterwards.

"Sheesh, for a noble knight, she sure is a klutz." Luke remarked while placing a long box covered in wrapping paper against the tree, which stood adjacent to Cecily's house.

"Well it wouldn't be a day for Cecily if she didn't trip over herself." Aria added.

Back in Cecily's room, the lady knight picked herself up off the ground after tripping over a chair and landing in her piled up armor.

"Nice one Cecily, I'm sure the whole neighborhood heard that one." She said to herself. She dusted herself off and proceeded to get dressed and her usual morning routines. However, she would not practice her swordsmanship today on account of it being her birthday and all. Plus she felt a little embarrassed after the loud trip she just had to go down to Luke, who always had something to say.

Clad in her day dress she walked downstairs and into the dining room to see her mother finishing up breakfast.

"Oh you're finally up Cecily!" Lucy got up from her seat and went over to give a hug to her daughter.

"Happy birthday Cessy." She said softly, using the name she called her daughter years ago when she was little, as Cecily hugged her back.

"Thanks mom." They broke away from each other and Lucy returned to her seat.

"So, Cecily dear, how does it feel to be another year older?" she asked, while Cecily sat herself down in the seat next to her.

"It feels like nothing, I guess you were right about what you said the other day."

"Well you know a mother's always right." Flo had just walked in upon hearing Cecily enter the dining room.

"Look who's finally up, you know Cecily you sleep like a rock now since you've come back." Cecily chuckled in response.

"Guess it's just a habit I picked u-"

"Hang on, Cecily, aren't Aria and that blacksmith waiting outside for you?" her mother interrupted.

"Oh shoot, gotta go!" Cecily quickly got up knocking her chair down behind her and ran out the room.

She scurried through her house finally making it to the backyard where Luke and Aria had been waiting.

"About time you got out here. Is that any way to treat company?" Luke said in his usual arrogant manner.

"H-" Cecily was about to give Luke a piece of her mind when Aria cut her off.

"Well she's up now. By the way isn't there something you wanted to give our birthday girl Luke?" Luke's face grew a little red for quick second before he shook it off.

"Uh, yea there is…thanks Aria," he mumbled, walking to the tree where he had put the box from earlier.

"I'm going to go inside, I haven't had breakfast yet." Said Aria, leaving Cecily and Luke alone. A nervous Cecily spoke.

"Um, what is she talking about Luke?" she asked, her voice shaking from whatever thoughts crept up in her mind.

"It's nothing like that dork! Don't flatter yourself." Luke shouted, his face getting red again.

"Well what is it Luke?" She asked, getting more and more curious. Luke held the box out for her to take.

"Here…ha…ppy birthday, Cecily." He said feeling embarrassed for reasons unbeknownst to him.

"W…thanks Luke," she said taking the box from him. It felt surprisingly light considering the size of the box.

"You know…you can be really sweet when you want to be Luke." She said smiling, as she began to unwrap her gift.

"What is this?" she said tearing the last of the wrapping paper off.

"Um, Lisa wrapped it last night, she's still back at my house sleeping I let her have the day off." He said nervously scratching the back of his head.

Why am I acting so weird it's only Cecily, the weirdest person I've ever met. He thought to himself when he looked back at her, seeing her smile. He felt even more anxious.

He walked next her, holding the cover on the box shut.

"Wha-"

"I want to say something before you open this…" Luke said looking at Cecily.

"…" She was silent, so Luke can speak.

"When you came into the forge the day you got back and saw me working, it was this I was working on. It's not a sacred sword but it's the best I've made so far. And after all the time we've known each other, everything we've been through, I think you've earned this…" he said, placing his hand over hers and opened the box to reveal a katana in its sheath.

"Oh my god, Luke…I don't know what to say…"

"You don't have to say anything yet." She looked at him confused.

"What..." she stopped when she noticed something stopping her from pulling the sword out from its sheath.

"You chained it!" she yelled, making the windows of the house shake. Luke had wrapped a chain around the katana locking it shut with a pad lock.

"Do you have to yell?" Luke shouted holding his ears shut.

"What the heck is this?" she held the chained up sword to his face. He pushed it back at her.

"I said you can have it but I didn't say you could use it yet!"

"WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT MEAN!" she yelled again, fuming with frustration.

"Looks like they're at it again." Aria said sitting in the dining room with Lucy and Flo.

"They're going to be so good together." Flo added.

"And here I thought Cecily would never find a man." Lucy said thanking her lucky stars her tomboy daughter has a chance at love.

"I better get out there before it gets really bad." Aria got up and headed outside.

"A katana is different from other swords, so it requires a different skill set to use it. I figured a dork like you, who's been obsessing over one for God knows how long would know that!" he yelled in protest.

"Stop calling me a dork, you jerk!" she said as she shoved him by his shoulder.

"I just call them as I see them, dork!" he shouted pushing her back.

"JERK!"

"DORK!"

"Jerk…"

"Well it takes one to know one!"

"You son of a…" Cecily said through grinding teeth, her face getting red in anger.

"Okay, everyone calm down, relax. Deep breaths." Aria came in at just the right time.

"What on earth are you two yelling about?" Aria asked as she stood in between Luke and Cecily, the latter looking like she was going to bite Luke's head off, while he returned to the cool and collective disposition.

"This, honestly what kind of inconsiderate jerk does this!" Cecily shouted her face still red, as she held the chained up sword in Aria's face.

"A padlock? You really must not want her to use it yet don't you Luke?" Aria asked in a nonchalant manner.

"Wait, Aria you know about this!" Cecily shouted again, this time her voice squeaking towards the end.

"Well what do you think we were doing while we waited for you to come down silly?" Aria said with a smile on her face.

"Are you mocking me?" Cecily grumbled giving Aria the death stare, she really wasn't in the mood.

"It took you long enough to catch on." Luke retorted, crossing his arms and turning away.

"Aria, hold me back!" Cecily barked as Aria tried her best to restrain the lady knight.

"Relax, just read the card in there and you'll understand. Don't get so bent out of shape, dork." Luke said as he walked away from the other two.

"I'm not a dork!" she yelled out to him, as Luke now was on the road heading back to his home.

"Where is he going anyway?" Cecily asked.

"He has to go back to work, but he did say Lisa would come by later and give you her gift."

"You talked about all that"

"Hey, you were up in your room for a while." Aria reminded Cecily.

Cecily took a few deep breaths and finally managed to calm herself down.

"You know Luke does teases you like that on purpose." Said Aria hand on her hips, as she pointed out something that she thought was obvious.

"What…why!" Cecily shouted again, for the umpteenth time that morning.

"That's why, you get so worked up whenever someone says something about you, even if it's a compliment." Cecily knew that Aria was right. She recalled an instant when Luke said she looked 'nice' in a maid's outfit Flo gave her to wear, and she reacted by yelling and running in the opposite direction. There were even a few cases where she had actually hit Luke and ran away, of course, yelling.

"So what, that's how I am, and if he doesn't like it too bad." That statement of hers made Aria smile.

"He does like it, that's why he teases you. In his defense you do look adorable when you pout your lip at his backhanded comments. And your cheeks get a pink-ish hue when you're ticked, it's so cute."

"It is not!" Cecily protested, doing exactly what Aria described, making the demon sword laugh.

"Stop laughing Aria…"

"Whatever, what does he mean by card?" Cecily asked and just then, as if on cue, a small, folded card dropped out of the box the katana was in.

"Huh" Cecily looked down to see the card had her name written on it in beautiful calligraphy.

"I guess this is the card Luke was talking about." She examined the front of it closely.

"I never knew he had such nice hand writing, it's nicer than yours." Aria inquired. Cecily growled at Aria for that comment.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Cecily said as she flipped the card over to read it, and get her answer as to why Luke had locked up her new katana.

Dear dork,

You probably noticed by now that the katana is chained up to its sheath and is locked up tight. If you haven't either you're really slow, or you just haven't looked yet, but my money is on the first one. Come by my house early tomorrow morning and I'll explain further on how to unlock your katana, as I don't have a lot of room here. I'm sure Lisa will drop by later, I have work to do so I can't go. Anyways, happy birthday Cecily.

-Luke

"I guess I have to swing by his place tomorrow if I want to unlock the sword, but why tell me in a note?"

"Well Luke is one awkward boy after all."

"That's most certainly true. Well let's head back inside, I still haven't had breakfast yet." With that the two women went inside.

Lisa arrived a couple of hours later and the three of them went out to eat lunch. Later that night, back at Cecily's house, her mother and Flo had prepared a cake for her. It was chocolate and it tasted delicious. The rest of her birthday was happy, fun and peaceful, but there was the next day.

Cecily woke up the next day before sunrise. She prepared for her workday, in armor and all left for Luke's.

"Hey Cecily wait up!" she heard from behind her. It was Aria running to catch up, and she was holding a bag of sorts.

"Hey Aria…what's with the bag?" she asked as her friend huffed and puffed after running.

"This…nothing, I just have a few errands to run. I wanted to walk you to work."

"Oh, okay, thanks, but I'm heading to Luke's house first." Aria nodded

"That's fine, I was kind of hoping you'd go there." Aria said, muttering those last few words.

"What?"

"Nothing, let's get moving." She quickly turned down the question as they made haste towards Luke's house.

When they arrived all seemed quiet. The lights were off and there wasn't any smoke coming form the forge. They walked up to the front door, but right before Cecily knocked on the door she heard.

"Over here you two!" Both Cecily and Aria turned to see Luke, who was standing behind them in a similar shirt Cecily wore when training only it actually covered his entire torso and had short sleeves.

"What are you doing Luke?" Cecily asked. Luke raised an eyebrow at her.

"You didn't figure it out yet…I'm training you."