A/N: In the Paying it Forward universe, this is a follow up to "Belated Birthday Bash", where Easter, St. Patrick's Day AND Celes' birthday are on the same month (one year later). Why does Celes and Lasswell want another belated celebration for the second year straight? Pairings: Lightning/Fang (married), Celes/Locke (married), Terra/Fina (endgame engaged) & Seven/Sice (endgame engaged)
Triple Blessings for Celes
One would think that Celes wanted her birthday to be celebrated on the actual day like everyone else, but after what happened last year, the Vector native must have been thanking Lady Luck for THREE things happening during the month of March: her birthday, St. Patrick's Day AND Easter, in the same month, no less! As for Lasswell, who's been growing out his hair ever since the haircut that Serah Villiers insisted that he get, has been secretly wanting to celebrate his birthday later in the year. Knowing that Celes has a birthday that's relatively the closest to his, he felt that they are starting a new tradition of celebrating their birthdays at a later point in the year as opposed to the actual day (early March for Celes, late January for Lasswell). In a way, this made the Fangrai couple feel SO much better as they don't have to put worry on their finances at certain points in the year, plus Fang was happy to hear that Lasswell wanted to celebrate his birthday with the Cole family. Celes was another mother to both him and his older sister Seven, who is surprisingly fond of Lasswell's birthday being celebrated at a later point than usual. Why? It was during the belated birthday party last year that she secured her girlfriend, Sice. The teenage couple were hoping that the belated birthday party this year would be a new tradition, considering that both St. Patrick's Day and Easter land on the same month this year. It was the event that they became a couple, and the happiest day of Sice's life thus far. Seven is known to make her happy.
It was the Sebusai couple that wanted to have an intimate party for family and any of their mates/friends, plus each of their classmates are among the guests of this year's celebration, as each of their classmates were WANTING them to be a couple for some time before their wish became a reality a year ago. With the celebration being later than anticipated, five of Seven and Sice's classmates can celebrate their birthday later than the usual date as well, something that Lasswell wanted. Lightning was NOT AT ALL surprised to hear that each and every one of Seven's classmates, including Sice, saw Lasswell as a younger brother, and were all happy to hear of Lasswell's idea to have a belated celebration for them (Deuce, Trey, Cinque, Nine & Queen all have birthdays from January-March, something Lasswell and Celes both have in common) since the excuse for certain classmates that they're forced to hear are either 'It's too cold' or 'I'm broke', the very two excuses that would break Lasswell's heart if he heard it from his family at any point. It was because of the timing of both Easter and St. Patrick's Day being held in March for this year, Celes had asked the Fangrai couple about holding her birthday over Easter weekend along with Lasswell's and some of Seven and Sice's classmates, as the trio had discussed this with the Vector native in advance. Seven was happy to see that Lasswell and Celes thought of the affected classmates along with themselves.
The love Celes and Lasswell have for all of Class Zero was that of family.
XXX
Easter Sunday, the end of March. The theme of decorations are tied to Lady Luck and the colour green. At first, Lightning couldn't help but laugh her arse off - the Villiers and Estheim families can attest to this - as it was the same hue of green that Fang's eyes, yet after a while, everyone was greeted to the rare Lightning smile that was meant for the select few that Lightning viewed as part of her family. Each member of Class Zero today became the newest members of Lightning's family due to that rare smile, where Lucien and Enya even made it to the celebrations this year. After joking with Serah about the decision tied to Lasswell's hair last year, they all saw how sharp Lasswell looked when he put his hair back in a tail of sorts that made Odin the horse proud! Everyone was greeted, with Jack and Deuce both marveling at the sight that the area of the Yun-Farron household was among the most spacious they've ever seen so far. It didn't take long before the cake Sice made for each person whose birthday had passed made their appearance, and the intended person was able to get the first slice of their cake. Nine, who's just as bad at words as Sice, only gave a thumbs up for his cake. Deuce's cake was in the form of her favourite flute, which pictures of said cake HAD to be taken before Deuce cut that first slice. The same can be said for Trey's cake. Queen gave side hugs to the Sebusai couple since Seven had some input to that cake and Queen was the reason why
With beverages ranging from flavoured water to ginger ale and Strawberry Dr. Mog, and the food having something for everyone at that, each guest was enjoying their food in silence as Fang's cooking was the talk of town, especially since Fang and Lightning got married. Celes often went after seconds and thirds of Fang's cooking, which was followed by Sice's parents when they were alive and even the rest of Class Zero (especially Jack and Cinque) often got extra plates to take home. For this year, there were extra plates of Fang's cooking already set aside for the Cole family, due to a pay issue that Celes is resolving with the Guardian Corps and Locke is getting ready for his treasure hunting expedition trip with Fang in a couple of weeks that will last more than a month. It broke the brunette's heart that the GC is having payroll issues that's affecting more than one person, despite the fact that Lightning is all over said issue, with her and Hope putting a fix to that at the speed of the older Farron sister's namesake, if not quicker than that. Upon finding out that factors beyond their control had become the reason why the issue occurred in the first place, Jihl Nabaat found herself in prison for everything she's done over the years, along with the involvement in the payroll issue, causing her to lose everything she ever had in her life. For Celes, this would be the first of three blessing she would find out about on this day. Jihl finally paying the price for everything she's ever done to her and those she cares about.
As for the next two blessings...one of the other two would involve the Sebusai couple.
XXX
All throughout the celebration, the one item that EVERYONE spotted at some point was how nervous Seven was. Fang, Lightning & Lasswell all knew that Seven wanted to pop the question to her girlfriend, knowing that Seven wanted to spend the rest of her life with Sice. It was over the last several months that Seven worked her arse off to craft SUCH a beautiful engagement ring for Sice so that the white-haired teen will be asked to marry the silver haired teen... along with Terra and Fina planning on getting engaged on the same day, with Seven and Sice, for the two lasses having arrived later than usual due to circumstances beyond their control. Terra and Fina both brought extra food for the Coles along with Lightning, Seven and Lasswell plus varying beverages all can enjoy. Fina impressed Celes with a custom one litre bottle of Strawberry Dr. Mog! The presents brought to the property were those that each of the intended recipient had wanted or needed. What some people don't know was that each of the two couples all have a ring to propose to their respective partners, meaning that they are all on the same level in their relationship. Terra and Seven both wanted to propose to Fina and Sice respectively, moments apart. If anything, Lightning didn't give a shit about Seven and Sice planning on going to this level in their love this young, as she and Fang were at a similar age when they got engaged. If you know, you know... Lightning happily mused to herself.
Speaking of Sice and Fina, this duo wanted to pop the question to their respective partners, although Seven and Terra were blissfully unaware of it all. Lucien and Enya gave Terra and Seven words of encouragement of their plans to propose. Although some would feel that Seven and Sice are too young to marry, they knew each other the best, and in ways that no one else would. Some call their love Puppy Love, but it's real love. In some ways, it was inspiring to those who have been with their partners for years and years, some of them ending up parting ways. When Seven began her affectionate rant to and about Sice, the white-haired teen was taken aback with the ring Seven crafted by hand herself was finally seen after the silver-haired teen dropped to one knee, after saving all that money for all those years just to make the ring. It was moments later that Sice followed suit to drop down to one knee and propose, then Terra dropping to one knee and Fina FINALLY going down on one knee, all proposing marriage. The 'Fuck yeah, I'll marry you' sounded like a chorus where everyone cheered right after the fact. About time the lot finally got engaged... Celes happily mused to herself, knowing that she'd been wanting the two couples to get engaged at some point. This joyous event turned out to be blessing number two for the Vector native, and to see Lightning agree with the call, this made Celes' heart soar.
The final blessing that Celes got from the celebration? Lightning showing why the older Farron sister proved to be a lass of her word. Celes' pay issue at the GC got resolved, and the Vector native got paid handsomely, and Celes felt that some of those earnings would help the Sebusai couple with the Agito Training.
Seven and Sice are like daughters to Celes.
FIN
A/N #2: Next story is in the Second Time Around universe, where the Fangrai and Sebusai couples give Rydia a birthday she won't forget about and for the best reason.
