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A/N: A bit of context of this celebratory oneshot: this is set a little in the future of the World Trigger universe, whereby big events like the Second Large Scale and Galopoula Invasion has occurred, alongside the Rank Wars leading up to the Away Mission that has been established thus far. So this is going to be a very "slice-of-life" chapter with possibly a little bit of spoilers to my Fic's progression? Anyways, hope y'all enjoy!

As the Sun hung lazily in the late afternoon sky, three university students were coming to the end of their group study session. As the study session was drawing to its close, one of its members was frantically packing their belongings.

"That's rare that you're rushing, did you get activated for a mission or something?"

"That can't be, he hasn't gotten a call from HQ the whole time we were studying, right?"

"Oh, that's right. So what's gotten Taiki so frantic?"

Osamu and Ai began speculating about Taiki's frantic behaviour as they began packing up as well. Taiki, however, did not seem to notice his friends' talking about him. Between shoving his belongings into his bag and glancing at the clock on the library's wall, Taiki did not have the attention span for his friends at the moment.

"Hey Taiki! Where are you in a rush to?"

Ai waved her hands in front of Taiki, snapping him out of his frantic packing. Osamu and Ai both blinked in surprise as Taiki flinched a little.

"Oh, right. I forgot you guys were still here. Ah- Erm- Ah- I'm meeting Yu-Nasu Squad today to celebrate Yuuko-san's birthday."

"You know you don't have to pretend, right? Everyone at HQ knows you and Kumagai-san are dating."

"Wait, Taiki and Kumagai-senpai are dating?"

"Okay, almost everyone."

Ai sighed and corrected herself as Osamu, once again, proved to be oblivious about things that did not involve the Tamakoma Branch directly. Taiki did not look up as he continued to pack the last of his belongings

"Look, those rumours have been going on forever. You really haven't heard of 'em before, Osamu?"

Taiki betrayed nothing as he dodged the claim, leaving Ai to raise an eyebrow questioningly as she eyeballed him hard. Osamu nodded a little as he seemed to recall hearing about the rumour at some point in time.

"You're really going to meet with the whole of Nasu Squad?"

"Yes, I am. We agreed to celebrate her birthday together! Everybody made time for this today, y'know? It's not easy to gather university students working under Border afterall."

Ai had to concede to Taiki's point, as even this study session the three of them just ended did not come by easily. With patrols, defense missions, Rank Wars and the like, being a Border agent was time consuming enough. Add a packed university schedule and you get really busy individuals who barely had much time for leisure. So much so, that even a study session amongst peers like this could count as leisure.

"Well, I'll go on ahead. See you guys around!"

"Send Kumagai-senpai my regards, Taiki!"

"Yeah, send Kumagai-san mine as well."

"Sure thing!"

And with that, Taiki departed from the group and library, quickly making his way through the hallways of the university. Whilst Taiki was not lying about meeting with Nasu Squad today, he had planned on surprising Yuuko beforehand, hence his rush. While everyone was studying in the same university, their faculties were quite scattered across the campus, and in order to get from the library to Yuuko's faculty, Taiki needed a whole ten minutes on foot.

At least, that would be the time required if Taiki was brisk walking and not running and jumping over every obstacle in his way. At his pace, Taiki reached Yuuko's faculty building in two and a half minutes flat, and managed to catch her just as she was just leaving her lecture with her classmates.

"Yuuko-senpai!"

Taiki called out to her after catching his breath. Yuuko turned over and smiled as she saw Taiki walking over.

"Oh, it's Boyfriend-san! Guess we better make ourselves scarce!"

"How sweet! He's here to celebrate your birthday, right?"

"Well, happy birthday! Enjoy your date with your boyfriend!"

"Girls! I told you it's not like that! Sheesh!"

Yuuko's classmates giggled amongst themselves as they left the two on their own. Shaking her head a little at her friends, Yuuko turned to greet Taiki with a raised eyebrow.

"Didn't we agree to meet at the family restaurant?"

"We did, but I figured I could come by and surprise you before that!"

"You're really not helping the rumours, y'know?"

"Well, it's not like they're completely untrue, right?"

Yuuko sighed deeply as she rapped Taiki's arm gently, before linking arms together.

"So, there's a reason you came to pick me up, right? I don't believe you just wanted to walk together."

"Cutting to the chase, eh?"

"Yup! So spill, what's the real reason you came to pick me up from my lecture?"

"Fine. It's this."

And Taiki sheepishly took out a little gift bag, before handing it over, a wrapped gift sitting within. Yuuko eyeballed the bag and its content expectantly as she accepted it.

"Can I open this now?"

"Please do. But it's really not much though. I just thought it'd be better to give this to you when we're alone then with Rei-senpai and the others around."

"Aw, are you getting embarrassed? I still can't get used to how bashful you get at times like this. But it's a side of you I really like too!"

Yuuko smiled brightly as she broke from their arm link and opened Taiki's gift. After getting through the nicely done gift wrap, Yuuko could only smile at the engraved cloud-shaped plate sitting inside its box. And engraved on the plate was none other than Yuuko's name in full. Taking the plate out of the box revealed it to be attached to a simple chain, and on the reverse side of the plate was a symbol for Aries.

"Thanks Taiki, it looks beautiful."

"Erm- Want me to put it on for you?"

"Yes please!"

Yuuko handed the necklace to Taiki as she grabbed her ponytail and lifted it. Taiki moved behind her and gently brought the chains around Yuuko's neck before latching the hook and catch. Yuuko looked down at the plate sitting on her chest, and smiled to herself. Pulling Taiki close, Yuuko linked arms with Taiki once again as they continued on their way.

"I really should've seen this coming, huh."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, I guess I did somewhat see this coming, but I kinda forgot about it halfway through the day. Afterall, you didn't do anything when you wished me a happy birthday this morning."

"Ah, right. Well, the necklace was only ready for pick-up at lunchtime, so I couldn't give it to you any earlier even if I wanted to. But with that being said, once again, happy birthday Yuuko."

"Thanks! I really appreciate this! Oh, but we should hurry a little before we're too late."

"Ah, you're right! Oh! Osamu and Ai send their birthday wishes as well."

"Aww, remind me to thank them the next time I see them, yeah?"

And so the two merrily chatted about their day as they continued on into the setting sun.

A/N: Well, that's it for the birthday oneshot! I just thought I'd do something to commemorate my best girl's birthday during this period, since I have plenty of time on my hands. And I'm still working on Chapter 3, so look forward to that! Though I don't have any tentative release date right now, I'm definitely still working on it! Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this more laidback setting and a big happy birthday to Kumagai Yuuko!