*Currently Riku is locked in a battle with Saruhiko*

*Riku turns towards the screen*: Oh um hey, so yeah the next chapter is here, but I think Saru is being a bit of a problem right now. But nothing I can't handle! Anyways sorry for they delay, but here is the chapter! In the mean time I gotta fight Saru and find out where Hikari went.

Chapter 27

The sun was setting just as the nocturnals were beginning to wake up. Saru stirred slightly, but curled back up into his covers. He made no attempt to get up as today was that day. It appeared as if Saru was attempting to bury himself in the sheets to avoid the events of today.

Next to Saru, settled in a nest of old, worn out clothes was the little baby otter. It was shifting slightly, squeaking softly before nestling itself into the crook of Saru's neck.

With a sad smile, Saru protectively wrapped his arms around the little bundle of fluff and tried to doze off for a bit longer.

But it seemed that his solitude would not last much longer. Several consecutive knocks at his door drew his attention away from his peaceful bliss.

Saru grumbled in annoyance before pulling the covers over the majority of his head, leaving the baby otter and a portion of his face uncovered.

The knocks came again followed by the door opening slightly. "Saru?" It was Zack's voice. "You awake yet?"

A knife imbedded into the door was the response.

A long exhale was heard from Zack. The door then creaked open. A couple footsteps followed and then stopped. "Come on Saru, I know how you feel about today. But hey… I got cake." Zack held up a nice looking cake with pretty looking frosting decorating all of it.

After Zack brought Saruhiko's attention to the cake, a series of four thunks came from knives that had embedded into the walls. Two of the knives had bits of cake and frosting on them, matching with two streaks of frosting on Zack's arms. There was a fifth knife that had been thrown, the blade half sticking out of the cake pointed at Zack's torso.

The three knives that did go through the cake had cut it into six slices, although the pieces were slightly uneven and the intersection was a bit messy. Other than that it looked fairly decent.

When Zack saw that there were no more knives to be thrown, he relaxed his shoulders. Despite going through this each year ever since Saru learn how to use knives, it still made him a bit jumpy.

Zack managed a chuckle once all of his nerves went away. "Hey not bad. Now are you going to come out and actually eat some?"

"Tsk. It'd be neater if you didn't flinch." Saru grumbled out, sitting up slightly in bed. The baby otter squeaked at the loss of warmth, so Saru picked the bundle up and cradled it to his chest.

"You can't expect me to know exactly when and where you throw your knives," Zack replied. "Sure I know how to dodge, but it still comes out of nowhere."

"It's the exact same pattern every year, how can you not remember something so simple."

Zack sat down on the edge of the bed. He laughed slightly. "Okay, I guess you are right there. But hey, maybe one day I'll get it right. Now are you ready for some cake?."

Saru just grumbled out nonsense before burying himself back under his covers.

"Oh no you don't," Zack replied. He then stood up from the bed.. "Hey Cloud, can you come in here and hold the cake for me?"

A second later Cloud came in and took the cake from Zack's hands. Zack walked over to the bed again and ripped off the covers. "You aren't going to stay cooped up in your bed all day. Don't make me carry you out of here."

Curling up around the otter at the loss of his blankets, Saru proceeded to glare at Zack. On the other hand, Zack just chuckled lightly and quickly picked up Saru, and holding him in his arms. From behind snickers could be heard from Cloud.

"This is undignified…" Saru muttered, a light dusting of red started to appear over his cheeks.

"Well it's one way to get you up and moving," Zack laughed. "Now you can get dressed and head to the kitchen, or… I can carry you out right out in your pajamas."

"How about neither," Saru grumbled.

"Okay, being carried out in pajamas it is," Zack replied cheerfully as he turned to face the door.

"That is not what I said," Saru grumbled, though he made no effort to get out of Zack's hold.

"Well it's what I decided," Zack said as he headed out the door of the bedroom.

Saru could hear Cloud laugh again. He shot a quick glare to the blond, but only laughed again. "You know how Zack is. He won't listen when he has made up his mind."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13," Cloud replied.

"Why do you know that? Have you been hanging out with Zexion?"

Cloud shrugged. "Just something I read once."

Saru sighed again as Zack carried him out of the hallway and into the kitchen area. Zexion and Riku were already sitting at the table and once Saru was in the room the boys stared over at him. They chuckled quietly seeing that Zack had to resort to carrying Saru out, but they didn't speak out on the matter.

Finally getting to the table Zack set Saru down on his feet. "There, now you are here and we are going to eat cake!"

Saru turned and started to walk back towards his room, grumbling about not wanting to be up. But when he got to the hallway Cloud blocked his way. Before either of them could speak Zack went up to Saru and placed a hand on Saru's shoulder. "Hey, come on. I got these cake and everything else for today. Can't you stick around and be with us?"

"Tsk. Fine, but after this little party, I'm going back to bed."

Zack let out a sigh. "If that's what you want…" It was only a murmur, but it was loud enough for Saru to hear. For a moment Zack's eyes fluttered with a bit of sadness, but he quickly sprung back to his usually cheerful demeanor. "Okay! Cake and party time!"

He took the cake that Cloud was still holding and brought it over to the table. When he set it down Riku and Zexion looked to the one knife still lodged in the cake. Zexion raised an eyebrow as he looked to Zack. "Saru threw the knives to cut the cake again?"

"It's just a regular occurence by this point, so I can't really tell him to stop," Zack replied.

"At least this time he did a better job than last year," Riku added.

Saru slowly meandered over to the table, taking a seat in the chair the cake was in front of. Cloud took his seat at the table as Zack went to place a few candles in the cake. He then removed the knife and placed it to the side.

"We don't have to sing or anything, not that we've really done that before, but hey," Zack started to say as he smiled. He then lit the candles on the cake. "Happy Birthday Saru." He then ruffled Saru's hair slightly as everyone else chimed in on saying 'Happy Birthday'.

With a huff, Saru halfheartedly blew out the candles.

After that, Zack served up the cake and everyone began eating in. There wasn't too much conversation at first, though eventually a few various topics were talked about between the boys. Zack attempted to ask about how the date had gone, but Riku ended up trying to avoid talking about it as much as possible. Saru on the other hand started throwing the candles at Zack when the questions were directed towards him.

"Okay okay," Zack said, blocking the candles with his hand. "You guys aren't ready for any talk on that yet I guess. But let's move on then to the presents!"

Saru glared at Zack with annoyance while still eating cake. Zack on the other hand moved to the closet in the hallway and got out a stack of presents. He placed them over on the table in the living room section. "Well, I will just be here when you guys are all ready."

Soon after Cloud was the first to get up and go over there, taking his seat right next to Zack. Shortly after Riku and Zexion finished up their cake. Riku head over to the couch while Zexion cleared up their plates and put them in the sink. After that he joined the others, and all that was left was Saru himself.

He took his time though on eating the remainder of the cake. But after he finished he stood up and made his way over to the others. He let out a sigh before sitting down in front of the stack of neatly wrapped presents before him. But then he noticed something right away. There were only three presents. Though he had the thought that it was very well possible that Zack and Cloud combined their presents, but he would just have to open them to find out.

The first present on the top of the stack was a medium sized box wrapped in paper that was covered with moogles and cactuars. The second beneath it had little chocobos running across the box. And the third was much more plain with simple red stripes with black.

Saru glanced over to Zack as if to say 'really?' upon seeing the wrapping paper of the first box.

Nestling the baby otter bundle on his lap, Saru picked the top box off the stack and carefully began to open it.

After the wrapping paper was off and the box was open, he stared at the contents that was inside. Slowly he picked up a large plush of a moogle. It was about 12 inches tall and was rather soft and plump.

Saru turned to face Zack. "I presume this is from you."

Zack smiled. "Yup! Thought it was rather fun looking, so I thought why not."

Saru proceeded to half heartedly throw the plush at Zack's face. It smacked into his face before he caught it, now holding it in his arms. "What? You can never be too old for fun plush toys."

"Well you never seem to be too old, I don't know about the rest of us," Riku said jokingly.

Continuing on to the next gift, Saru's mind began to wander. As that first gift appeared to be just from Zack, did Zexy and Riku combine for a gift, or did someone not have a physical present that would fit in a box? When he opened the next box he saw that there was another plush. This one though was a large sized chocochic. When he squeezed it ever so slightly it made a cheery 'kweh' sound.

The little baby otter squeaks in response to the 'kweh'.

"Hey see? Your otter likes it," Zack commented.

"Which of you bought the chocochick?" Saru asked, looking to his remaining two brothers first.

"Not me," Zexion said.

"Me neither," Riku commented. "My gift, if you haven't guessed, isn't here. It's actually not something I could wrap up and package."

Saru then turned to face Cloud, and in response Cloud smiled a little. "Yeah it was me. Zack roped me into buying it alongside the moogle."

Cuddling the chocochick to himself, Saru proceeded to squish it, causing it to let out a long 'kweeeeh.'

Cloud looked to Zack and smirked. "Looks like he likes chocobos more."

Zack sighed and looked at the moogle. "Huh maybe should have gotten the moogle with sound."

Giving Zack a look of annoyance, Saru continued on with the last box, Zexion's gift for him based on what Riku said about his. After it was unwrapped just like the rest, he looked to see something different than a plush doll. Instead it was a book with an ivory color. There was a fancy detail around the border and it was titled, "Tier 1 and 2 Black Magic Spells".

Opening up the book, Saru began flipping through the pages, muttering out a quick 'thanks' to Zexion.

Another sigh was heard from Zack. "Aw come on, he gets a thanks but not me or Cloud?"

Saru just glared at Zack, before setting the book down beside him. Turning to Riku, Saru spoke up. "So then, Sparkles, what's your gift?"

"Oh, um, well it's a bit hard to explain," Riku started to say as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It's best to explain it a bit later if that's all right."

"Hey!" Zack interrupted. "Don't ignore me here!"

"I'll thank you when you decide to actually get me a gift that I want."

"Maybe next time you could write me a list then, and no if it is more knives I am not getting you any more," Zack replied.

"But I did write you a list." Saru muttered under his breath.

Zack tilted his head to the side. "When?"

"Six months ago," Saru deadpanned.

Zack opened his mouth to ask another question, but Cloud placed a hand on his arm. "Just let it rest Zack, you know you won't get a proper answer out of him."

"But… Yeah you are right," Zack said sighing heavily. "Just give me the list when you can, Saru."

Saru just rolled his eyes. "So long as you don't forget it exists next year…."

"I'll remember, don't worry!" Zack said as he jumped to his feet. "So now that we got that done, we could play some games!"

"You're rather energetic tonight, aren't you," Zexion commented.

Zack shrugged. "Just trying to make tonight as fun as I can make it! Now let's play some games!"

"I didn't agree to any games," Saru said to Zack before turning to Riku. "Now, what is it with your gift that I still have to wait on?"

"Well if you don't want to play any games, we could go to it now. I mean if that is all right with you Zack," Riku said as he turned to look at Zack.

"Ah, well if you two are going to go out and do something for Saru's birthday, then that is fine by me. Gets him out of the house at least," Zack said with a light chuckle.

"Let me get dressed and get this over with this then." Saru got up from his spot, and handed the otter over to Zexion to watch over before getting dressed and heading out with Riku.

"So you're not going to tell me where the f**k we're going, are you?" Saru asked grumpily as they had been walking for quite some time now.

"It's not really an easy thing to explain," Riku said as they continued through the forest. "It's not really something to talk about with others, well at least how I feel about it."

Saru quirked an eyebrow in curiosity. "It's related to your past."

Riku tensed slightly, almost stopping. "Y-Yeah… It's connected to my past. Just… a place I know of that I visited a few times when I was a child."

"Why are you taking me there then?"

"Cause… I never knew much about your own past until recently. So this thought came to me to do this, and just hope that it goes well," Riku replied quietly.

"Do you even have a plan or is this just an impulse?"

"I had been thinking about a gift, but then this came to me after… well you know when you told Zexion and me," Riku said.

"Why after all these years did we all finally decide to bring up our pasts?" Saru pondered out loud.

Riku shrugged, not knowing how to answer. It was a strange thing that had only recently occurred, and how it came up neither of them could understand. "Don't know… guess it was bound to happen at some point I guess. It's just a bit further by the way."

"If I knew it was going to be this far I would have waited until another day." Saru grumbled out.

"Well it would help if we could just fly there, but… unfortunately you somehow can't fly like the rest of us. And you refused to let me carry you there," Riku said before sighing.

"My limit is one embarrassment per day." Saru stated flatly.

"If you say so," Riku commented.

After a few more minutes they finally came to a small clearing. In front of them was a building that looked like it was built out of marble. Fancy details and intricate designs covered the entire place. It looked ancient and full of magic and mystery all in one. The lights were on in the building, but the windows were frosted, making it impossible to see inside from the outside.

"We're here now," Riku said as he approached closer to the front of the building.

"Where is here even?"

Riku sighed and finally turned to face Saru. "You ever heard… of the Spirit Sanctuary?"

"Isn't that place just a myth? A fairytale place told to children who have lost their parents?"

"It's set up that way…. Unless you have connections how to get to the place," Riku said, lowering his head slightly. "It's not just for a child who has lost their parents, it can be for anyone who you've lost and want to see again."

Saru looked at Riku in surprise. "So not only is this place real, but you have the connections to come here… and you've brought me here, why?"

Riku kept his gaze lowered. Saru could heard slow and deep breaths coming from his brother. The thing he was about to say was just a hard thing in general to even talk about, but Riku had gotten Saru all the way here. He knew he had to give it a try even though he didn't know what the outcome of his answer would be.

Finally Riku raised his head, keeping a calm expression for what he was about to say next. "I brought you here… so you could… you know… see your mother again."

Saru didn't have a verbal reaction, but his expression says it all. It was a mix of shock, sadness, and a twinkle of hope in his eyes.

"Are you ready to head in then?" Riku asked softly, not wanting to push Saru too much if he wasn't ready yet.

"Yeah… I'm ready." Saru whispers out, with a bit of hesitation in his voice.

*Riku is still fighting off Saruhiko, dodging as many knives as possible*

Riku: Well *pants* we finally are getting somewhere with the plot again. More interesting things are to come next chapter! Though I still have yet to find Hikari.

Seconds later Hikari walks in, holding a nicely decorated cake: Oh, there you are Riku, we're a day late for Saru's birthday. So we are going to celebrate it now.

Riku stops fighting Saru: Oh... Oh yeah! His birthday was the 7th of November. Well, happy belated birthday Saru.

Hikari: Happy late birthday Saru. Anyways *looks at the readers* Hope you guys enjoyed the latest chapter.

Please follow/favorite/review as we like feedback.

Until next time, nyah~