And finally...Yuki gives something for Ikuto on his birthday and it is...special.

A Special Gift

Throughout the day, Yuki spent a lot of time with Ikuto on his 20th birthday as he shows Yuki around a couple of places that he hangs out in when he gets some time to himself and it really shows that Ikuto's willing to share those places with his future mate because the love runs deeper than anything. Ever since the defeat of Kuzan, the two have never been much more closer than anything and it literally made their cross-species relationship grow stronger by the minute and it shows no signs of questioning in differences. Ikuto showed Yuki his hideaway places from a huge hill with a spectacular view of the sun to an open secluded forest area with a huge tree that reaches close to the sky, a waterfall with a cave behind it and an abandoned village that Ikuto calls his future home.

Yuki was immediately blown away by this place and she just pictured it as the picture-perfect place for spending a lot of time there together and she said, "This is really incredible."

"I had found it 5 years ago because it used to be someone's home that originated there. The best place about it is that it's private, no one could ever find it except for friends and family and when the sun goes down, you can barely tell that the sun was there. I spend a little bit of my time there...sometimes until like 10:30." Ikuto answered.

"It's a really great place. What do you do there?" asked Yuki.

"Meditate, some training on my own, hang out on the inside of the house or cave, climb trees to watch the sunset, howl at the moon at night...things like that. But I had already thought about living there and spend the rest of my life with that special someone that I will someday marry." Ikuto replied, looking at Yuki at the last part.

Yuki blinks her eyes and smiles at Ikuto and said, "Sounds nice."

"Yuki...I want to make a promise to you." Ikuto said, holding her paws.

Yuki was listening to whatever Ikuto has to say in his heart and Ikuto said, "I promise that I'll do everything in my power to protect you, keep you safe and put your life above mine. There's nothing I want more other than spending the rest of my life with you."

"I want that same thing too. Ikuto...I wouldn't want anyone else to spend my life with other than you." Yuki added.

"Everytime I see your beautiful face, my tail wags for you so fast." Ikuto responded.

Yuki saw Ikuto's tail wag faster and goes up as well and it really made her feel amazed that his tail wags only for her and she said, "Each time I hear your voice, I feel safe and warm."

"When I look into your eyes, my heart melts so hard." Ikuto added.

"Whenever you touch me, I just freeze and just feel weak at the knees and I get so breathless everytime." Yuki added.

Ikuto looked directly into Yuki's eyes very deeply and she stared back at him and both of them kisses each other on the lips while wrapping their arms around each other and it's a very deep passionate kiss where they had explored in each other's mouths, evoking into a huge love session where the kiss lasts 13 minutes and both of them are really happy to be in each other's lives and neither one of them could imagine their lives without each other.

After just 13 minutes of full-on passionate kissing, they paused and looked at each other in the eye as Yuki smiled at him and with a little hint of pep in her, she said, "I have a little surprise for you."

"What's that?" Ikuto asked, his ears perked up.

Yuki giggled at this and she said, "You'll have to wait until your birthday celebration tonight."

Ikuto was definitely willing to be patient just for her, but he's definitely passionate when it comes to surprises and his tail wags in response to this and he's just excited about what's gonna happen later on his birthday.

Later that evening

Yuki and the rest of her siblings alongside Max, Saori, Miyo, Lei and several of the Crimson Wolf members and their newly adopted children were gathered around the Yashida house to surprise Ikuto on his birthday and Lei came to Yuki and said, "This was a great idea to bring in some of Ikuto's old friends."

"Thanks. I had to find where they live and once they found out it was his birthday, they were ready to surprise him." Yuki answered.

"He'll definitely appreciate you for it." Miyo added.

"Guys, Ikuto's coming!" Maximus II shouted.

Just then, everyone went to their hiding spots very quickly and Lei darkened the room up a little bit before Ikuto could even come in and once it was very quiet, they could hear the door open and in comes Ikuto, Yang, Kira and Akashi coming in the room and Ikuto was a little confused as to why it's so dark in there and he said, "Can you guys see anything?"

"Not a thing." Kira replied.

"Hey, Yang...mind if you open a few windows?" asked Akashi.

Akashi knew what he was gonna be up to as Yang opened all the windows and as soon as everything's brightened up...

"SURPRISE!"

That jolt of surprise was unexpected for Ikuto and as he looks up, he couldn't believe his eyes as everyone was in his house for his birthday and everyone said, "Happy birthday, Ikuto!"

Ikuto took a few deep breaths to get over the happy shock he received and he said, "Whoa...all of this for me? You guys..."

Just then, several of Ikuto's old friends came by and wolf piled him and Ikuto was so happy to see them that he definitely didn't see that coming and he said, "You guys are here! This is so awesome!"

"Were you surprised, Ikuto?" asked Maximus II.

Ikuto chuckles a bit and replied, "Yeah, I was definitely surprised. This is so cool!"

"Well...it was all your girlfriend's idea." Suko responded.

Ikuto looks up at Yuki as she came over towards him and puts on a party hat and Yuki told him, "Told you this would be worth the wait."

"You're awesome, Yuki." Ikuto said, happily.

Just then, everyone celebrated this day with a dinner and some cake; Ikuto's favorite butterscotch chocolate on the shape of a full moon and the whole evening was completely the best times of Ikuto's life and after the party, Yuki and Ikuto were looking at the moon outside and now was the perfect time to give him a little gift. She pulls out a little piece of jewelry from her pocket and puts it on Ikuto's neck and once Ikuto looked at it, he was surprised to see a silver-gold yin-yang necklace.

"Is that...?" asked Ikuto, very surprised.

"Yep. We're two halves of a whole. You're my better half and I'm your other better half as well. This way, we both help each other whenever we can." Yuki answered.

"That's amazing. I love it so much. Thank you." Ikuto said, smiling.

"I hope you had a great birthday." Yuki said, smiling back.

Ikuto looked deep into Yuki's eyes and said, "I have the best birthday ever along with my awesome girlfriend. I couldn't think of anything else better than that."

Both of them were definitely lucky to have each other in their lives and wouldn't trade it in for anything else in the world other than spend the rest of their lives with each other.

Pretty much the end of the story! Stay tuned for the epilogue!