Here's the next chapter, guys! I have a couple of surprises this chapter… Just fun surprises, not twists. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

November 27, X790

It was morning and Spiral was lying in his bed, his castes and bandages removed. Upon waking up, he felt both sides of his bed to check to see if Hikari had snuck into his bed again. He was a little surprised to find that he was the only one in his bed that morning. He got out of bed, grabbed an apple out of his bowl of fruit, put his jacket on and walked out of his apartment. Since Roseshade was right along Fiore's coast, when winter drew near the air would simply get a little nippy, especially in the early morning. After a little bit of walking, Spiral finally arrived at the guild hall and opened the door. Upon entering, he could see that the guild hall was dark and there was no one in sight.

*… That's odd…* Spiral thought to himself before tapping the ground to sense if there was anyone else around. "… All right, come on out, guys!"

Pretty much every member of the guild came out from behind the bar counter, underneath a couple of the tables or inside the changing rooms that led to the showers.

"Great, now you've gone and spoiled the surprise." Jason said, rubbing the back of his head.

"What surprise?" Spiral asked.

As the Blaise used her fire magic to precisely light the candles in the guild hall, the illumination revealed a giant cake standing in the middle of the guild hall.

"Happy Birthday, Spiral!" Everyone cheered.

"Oh, guys, thank you." Spiral smiled. "You shouldn't have."

"Hug for the birthday boy!" Hikari exclaimed as she came out of nowhere and glomped Spiral.

"How old are you now, Spiral?" Heart asked.

"I'm now 15." Spiral answered.

Blaise was then whispering to Jason.

"You did a really good job on the cake, Jason." Blaise whispered. "How were you able to make one so big?"

"… That's not the cake I made." Jason said. "It's still in the kitchen."

"Then…" Blaise said as she looked back at the cake. "What-?"

Just then, two swords came out of the top of the cake, sliced downward along the sides and out of the inside of the cake appeared Veil.

"… Okay, who put a stripper in my cake?" Spiral asked.

"You're that woman from the Bladed Foxes!" Jason shouted, pointing right at her.

"I thought they were all arrested!" Karina said.

"Apparently not." Jason said as he readied for a fight. "Here for revenge?"

"Actually… I am here to join your guild." Veil said.

"What?!" Jason exclaimed.

"Very well, then." Blaise said. "Please come to me in my office and we'll discuss things there."

"Master Blaise, you're not seriously considering this, are you?!" Jason questioned.

While all that was going on, Azusa had brought in the real birthday cake which was a simpler, smaller size than the one from earlier. The candles were already lit and she placed it on one of the tables.

"All right, Spiral, make a wish." Azusa said.

Spiral sat down at the table and blew out the candles to which everyone clapped.

It had been about an hour after the cake was served, the guild members were all chatting with each other. However, Melody had just taken a seat next to Spiral.

"Have some more fun, will you?" Melody asked. "It's your birthday!"

"I'm fine… it's just…" Spiral said. "I feel like… I'm missing something." He looked toward Hikari, who was talking with some of the other girls.

Melody noticed who Spiral was looking at and lightly nudged him with her elbow.

"I think I know what you're missing." Melody said. "Go ahead and ask her out."

"W-what?" Spiral reacted with a blush on his face.

"It's obvious she really likes you and it's just as obvious that you like her." Melody said. "How long have you two known each other?"

"Four months."

"So you can have a normal conversation with her, but you can't ask her out? What are you still being all shy for? You know that she's not going to say 'no', especially not on your birthday, so what's stopping you? Ask her out now."

"But-"

"'But' nothing! NOW!"

Spiral got up and walked over to Hikari.

"H-Hikari?" Spiral spoke up to get her attention, his face blushing red.

"Yes, Spiral?" Hikari asked.

"Um…" Spiral stumbled over his own words. "W… will… Will you… Will you go out with me?!" He almost screamed the last part out loud.

Hikari blushed and pretty much everyone in the guild turned toward them.

"Spiral… Do you mean like… a date?" Hikari asked.

"Y-y-yes." Spiral answered.

"Oh, of course I will!" Hikari exclaimed as she hugged Spiral.

Everyone else in the guild hall raised their drinks and glasses and cheered.

A few hours later at sunset after the festivities had died down Spiral and Hikari were sitting outside a local ice cream shop with the former holding a light blue ice cream on a cone and the latter holding a strawberry ice cream cone.

"What kind of flavor is that?" Hikari asked.

"Uh, it's called Blue Moon." Spiral answered. "It tastes really good."

"Can I have a lick?" Hikari asked.

"But… I already licked it."

Hikari leaned over at licked the blue ice cream.

*… That was… actually kind of cute.* Spiral thought to himself. *… And kind of sexy.*

"You're right, it IS delicious!" Hikari said.

"You know, you didn't have to pay for these." Spiral said.

"Don't worry about that." Hikari said. "It's your birthday. Let me pay for this date."

"O-okay." Spiral lightly blushed.

"You're so cute, Spiral."

"I really like this ice cream place. One of the best aspects of it is that it's open all year round."

"It makes sense since Roseshade is right along the coast and is warmer than most other towns."

While those two were on their date, Foster and Meredy were sitting at another table outside the ice cream shop.

"Thanks for bringing me here." Meredy said. "You're always so nice to me."

"Well… there's a reason for that…" Foster muttered to himself.

"What was that?" Meredy asked.

"Nothing. Are you enjoying the ice cream?"

Meredy took a bite out of some ice cream on the top of the swirl and gave a cute smile as she chewed. "Yes, it's yummy! It's even better than the rumors said!"

"I'm glad you like it."

"Hey, Foster, can I ask you something?"

"What is it, Meredy?"

"Do you… do you like me?" She asked with a blush on her cheeks.

"You mean 'regular' like or 'like' like?"

"Uh… never mind." Meredy then looked over Foster's shoulder to see Spiral and Hikari sitting at another table. "Aren't they two of Phoenix Dawn's wizards?"

Foster turned around to get a quick glance at them before turning back to Meredy.

"Yeah, they're the other two S-Class wizards." Foster said.

"Looks like they're on a date, too." Meredy said, but then realized what she had said, blushed and frantically waved her arms. "I-I mean, not like what we're on is a date right now!"

"Oh, n-no. No." Foster stammered. "I wasn't insinuating that at all. N-not that I would mind being on a date with you, it's just-Ah, dammit! I'm messing up my words."

"Heheheheheh!" Meredy giggled.

"… Man, Ultear's going to be pretty mad that we snuck off again."

"I feel bad that you took all of the blame for me last time. If we get in trouble for this, I'll take the blame."

"Aw, you don't have to do that, Meredy."

"I can't just let you bail me out every time. I need to take a share of the punishment otherwise I won't learn anything."

"… You have a good point, but after this time we share the blame."

Meredy nodded. "Oh, our ice cream is melting!"

As the two attempted to finish the rest of their ice cream cones, Foster kept making glances at Meredy and couldn't help but admire just how adorable she looked whenever she was eating.

Back at the guild hall, Jason was sitting at a table with a scowl on his face and his arms crossed as Aqua walked by.

"What's wrong, Jason?" Aqua asked.

"I'm not comfortable with the fact that Master Blaise just allowed that Veil into the guild." Jason said. "She was with the Bladed Foxes when they attacked Roseshade last month."

"What about Melody and Frost?" Aqua asked. "You didn't seem to have any problems with them."

"That was different." Jason replied. "They were mercenaries, not members of a Dark Guild."

"Well, you'll just have to deal with it." Aqua said as she sat down next to him. "On a change of topic, has Spiral asking Hikari out on a date given you any ideas?"

"… No, can't say that it did."

"… Maybe it's saying that you should look for someone else." She started to fiddle with her short, blue hair a little. "Maybe someone from the guild who's close to your age?"

"… Ohhhhh, I get you now." Jason nodded his head. "Let me get back to you on that."

Jason got out of his seat and walked out of the guild hall while Aqua just watched.

"… He's not going to give anyone an answer." She said to herself as she turned back and rested her head on her hand.

Later that night, Spiral and Hikari had returned to his apartment building and stood outside his door.

"I had a great time tonight, Spiral." Hikari said. "Did you have a good birthday?"

"Yeah, I did." Spiral answered. "Um…" He started rubbing the back of his head. "Could I… could I ask for one more thing?"

"Of course, what is it?" Hikari asked.

"Uh… C… could you close your eyes for a minute, please?"

"Okay." Hikari closed her eyes.

Spiral took in a deep breath, blushed furiously and started to move his face closer to Hikari's face. After a couple tense seconds of hesitation, he gave her a peck on the lips. He pulled away a little bit, but remained close and she quickly closed the gap and kissed him back. The two were locked in a romantic kiss for a few minutes before Spiral finally pulled back with a furious blush on his face.

"Uh… I should probably go to bed." Spiral said. "Alone."

"R-right." Hikari said, blushing just as much as he was.

"I mean, it's not that I don't want you in bed with me-Dammit! I-I mean we're too young for-"

"It… it's okay, Spiral. You're not ready to… have me yet. Th-that's fine, I mean we've only been on one date so far."

"B-but I would like it if we could go out again sometime."

"Of course."

"Well… good night."

"Good night."

Spiral entered his apartment and sighed deeply. "That went better than I thought it would…"

As Hikari left the apartment building, she noticed Melody leaning next to the door and leered at her.

"What do you want?" Hikari asked harshly.

"Is that any way to treat the person that finally pushed your boyfriend to ask you out?" Melody asked. "I think the real words you're looking for are 'thank you'."

"Do you think this will give you forgiveness?" Hikari questioned, still with a violent expression on her face.

Melody looked at her for a second. "Well, probably no-"

"Thank you!"

Melody was completely blindsided by Hikari's glomp and fell to the ground.

A/N: It's official! Spiral and Hikari are now a couple! But they're still kind of young, so they're not going to **** each other just yet… or maybe not because I'm still trying to run the details in my head. I also decided to take this opportunity to build on Foster and Meredy's chemistry and show Jason's stubbornness at this point when it comes to women. How many of you think he'll be in for quite a rude awakening when the Tenrou Island team returns? Also, that thing with Veil is a request from the person who submitted her. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Stay tuned for next time!