This is my late birthday gift for my best friend, @lauritanaomystery . I’m sorry for it taking a long time on it and I hope you love it.
Laurel and Sisa belongs to @lauritanaomystery
The rest of the characters belongs to MysteryBen27
Laurel felt nervous about what her boyfriend Lewis was doing. He knows it’s her birthday, hence why he’s covering her eyes as they’re walking. She had gotten a call from him after her shift, saying that should come over at his mansion. Of course she would adore seeing her boyfriend, they’ve been together for years since high school. As she had driven all the way from the town to the deep woods where his mansion lies, she parked her car on the side, or what might be his driveway from the tire tracks on the rocky gravel. It wasn’t long when she found him floating at the stairs, in his ghost form, smiling and excited for her to be here. Now where they are standing, Lewis leads Laurel up the stairs, carefully making sure she doesn’t trip. “Lewis, you don’t have to cover my eyes if it’s a surprise.” She tells him. She wanted to take them off but it’s that feeling Lewis could just do it again. So it’ll be better not to try that so time wouldn’t be wasted.
Lewis wants it to be super special for her. “I know….but….” He couldn’t think of anything else after that but. “Just wait until you see what we planned.” At the top of the stairs, Lewis leans over to her side and opens the door.
“We?” Laurel questions, now knowing that more than him have planned out this surprise.
As the doors open and Lewis takes his hands off of her eyes, Laurel gets a blast of her group of friends wearing party hats while all of them say, “Surprise!” Just in shock, Laurel had a loss of words, in a good way. All of her friends: Vivi, Arthur, Mystery, Jax, Galahad, and even Jax. Not to mention her best friend, Sisa, her loyal feline/illa.
Around the room, decorated with confetti, balloons, party hats, and much more. Laurel felt like she was going to faint, but luckily she keeps it strong and breathes in and out. “Wow, you guys really did an amazing job at this setup!” Impressed, she goes around the room, getting a good look of what they’ve done. There was a banner on top that said, [Happy Birthday, Laurel], a lovely birthday cake with a picture of her as the icing. It’s like a dream come true.
As she goes around, Vivi comes over and wraps her arms around her waist, giving her a gentle and warm hug from her blue sweater she wears. “You are so welcome, Laurel.” She says with love and comfort. “It took us a while to get those stringers up top.”
“We were thinking about using Mystery and Galalad as our step stools but….” Arthur looks over at the two, Mystery in his dog form and Galalahd as his hamster, who both look back with a glare. They really didn’t want to have dirt all over their clean furry back, even if Arthur couldn’t reach the very top as he was standing on the two.
“I just did it myself since I could float.” Lewis adds on. He didn’t know whose I idea was for using Mystery and Galahad but the two secret kitsunes will make sure that won’t happen again.
Sisa rolls her eyes, though she’s lucky that as an illa, she can do more than what a kitsune can. “Come on you guys, we can’t just stand here talking. Let’s get the partying going!” Transforming into her true form, she jumps her way over to Laurel, licking her head as she curls her body around her like a snake. “So Laurel, what do you want to do first?” She asks.
Laurel didn’t know where to start. In fact, she didn’t know what to do. “I have no idea.” She says with honesty. “What do we have?”
For the others, they smile with joy. They know exactly how much fun they’re all going to have. “Well, let’s start with the gifts and then we can move onto the party games.” Sisa suggest before uncoiling her and leading her to a table full of gifts, perfectly wrapped up nicely.
“Oh my, you guys really went all for it on these gifts.” Laurel says, amazed at how many presents there are. She didn’t know what she even needed in the first place but her friends knew exactly what to get her.
“Well why don’t you open them and see what you got?” Vivi encourages, grabbing the first gift from the stack, which could be hers, and gives it to Laurel.
The birthday girl looks down at her gift, as if it was a small rectangular box. She wanted to shake it, but there is that chance it could be fragile inside. She rips the wrapping paper slowly until what was inside was finally revealed to everyone else. It’s a jewelry box from a popular store that Laurel loves to go to on some days. “Vivi….you shouldn’t have.” Laurel is stunned and when she opens that box, she lets out gasps with her eyes beaming with joy. It’s a necklace with a golden chain and a sun as the decorative. It was beautiful enough for her to grab it and wear it around her neck along with her other necklaces she’s wearing. “Thank you so much!” She lunges at Vivi, giving her a big hug.
Vivi knew she’ll enjoy the necklace when she and Lewis went shopping for her. “Well, it was Lewis’s suggestion…and mine too since I agreed.”
They couldn’t tell by his face, but Lewis is blushing hard. He’s proud of himself for picking out that gift for Vivi to buy for Laurel. In fact, he can’t wait until Laurel opens his gift for her. “Here, let me get mine.” He grabs his from the stack, a gift that’s twice as big as Vivi’s and a little heavier.
“Thanks, Lew.” Laurel smiles as she doesn’t waste any time unwrapping the gift. Inside was a cardboard box. Laurel didn’t understand it so she looks up at Lewis with confusion.
“Open the box.” Lewis says with encouragement and excitement. Opening the box, it reveals this heart shaped picture frame, made out of pure gold, with the picture of herself and all of her friends in it, the ones who are at the party. She remembered this photo, it was when they were having a sleepover at Vivi’s place. Jax had been the one who took the picture but quickly got himself in it so he wouldn’t be the only one left out. It was a beautiful picture and with that golden heart around it makes it even better. “Well…..how is it?” If Lewis could land on the ground, his feet would be hopping softly.
Laurel’s eyes tear up with joy as she places the box on the ground gently, with the picture inside, and lunges at Lewis with an incredible hug. “It’s perfect!” Her voice shouts with extreme happiness and Lewis is relieved he made the right choice for his gift for his girlfriend. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She repeatedly says.
Arthur, stunned by how much gold there was, had to be concerned. “How much money did that cost?” He asks as Vivi slaps the back of his head gently with a scoff. Turning towards her, he says, “What?” In a tone as if he didn’t do anything wrong.
All Vivi does is sighs and says, “Don’t ever say that when they’re having these kinds of moments together.” She does have a point in which Arthur regretfully realizes.
“Right…..” He goes silent and lets the couple enjoy the hugging some more.
After the hug, Laurel looks back at the rest of her friends with smiles on their faces. She looks back at the cake, knowing how tasty it looks, and figures that she could do the other gifts another time. “Let’s have some cake, shall we?” The others cheer and Mystery licks his lips. As more than anyone else in the room, Mystery has been a fan of cake. Even as a kitsune, he’s never had cake before and it was Vivi who let him have a taste before they even knew his real form. Since then, he had been caught trying to eat a piece from the cake before anyone else. A real habit the kitsune has. But Vivi won’t blame him, she had been that way too. But tonight, that will not happen.
“Well in that case, let Mystery go last before he devours the entire thing.” Vivi jokes and Mystery lets out an annoyed huff.
The dog rolls his eyes at her and the hamster just chuckles, knowing how true that is. Mystery didn’t seem too pleased with the hamster laughing at the joke. “Oh come on, it’s true though!” Galahad defends himself.
“I would like it if you were more sympathetic to me, Galahad.” Mystery tells him.
“We’ll see.” Galahad leaves a big grin on his face before Arthur picks him up from the ground. “To be honest though, you did laugh at me when I accidently fell on my face when I was trying out my new legs.”
Mystery wishes that he had a good reason, but he had none. “I mean, it was funny.” Mystery will admit and Galahad sighs in a good way. And so the group circles around the table with the cake and Lewis was in charge of cutting it. He’s perfect at making symmetrical lines and equal cuts. Then again, he’ll have to make smaller pieces for Mystery, Galahad, Sisa and Jax, if he can eat cake at all. Laurel is the first to get her slice since it’s her birthday.
She picks out the corner piece of the cake and puts it on a plate. Picking up her fork she walks over to the side and enjoys her cake while the rest gets their slice. After this, she’ll go back and open the rest of the presents. But after that, what else is there to do?
_______________________________________________________
The party was almost over once the night became very late and everyone started to become tired, especially for Arthur since he’s becoming more of a heavy sleeper since he’s stayed up almost every night for the past week. Galahad will take him home soon once he passes out. Laurel was sitting on the stairs with Lewis, talking about their plans for their next date tomorrow night. The birthday girl was thinking about going on vacation, somewhere up north or even to a different country like England or France. Lewis liked the idea too, as someone who has wanted to go there but never has. They had their money saved up for it and were excited that they could go soon. As they chatted about it, Vivi came up to them. “There you two are, I’ve been looking for you.” She said, a little bit exhausted. The mansion is quite huge so it is almost impossible to find them.
“Hey Vivi, is something wrong?” Laurel speaks up as she gets up from the stairs.
Vivi shakes her head and replies, “No, I’m just here to tell you that your…ummm….” Vivi had a hard time trying to say it, but it wasn’t like she was afraid. Vivi couldn’t keep a straight face as if she was trying not to laugh. “Your….ride is here.” She finally gets it out.
Laurel didn’t plan any rides nor was expecting any. “What ride?” She questions. Was she going home early and who was taking her? Lewis looked surprised too since he didn’t know about this either.
“I’ll show you.” Vivi happily and willingly leads them to the back of the mansion, through the dining room where there should be doors that lead to the backyard. As they open the door, the two find themselves in a nice surprise when they find Mystery, in his kitsune form, with a bow tie around his neck and a saddle on his back. “This is your ride.”
The birthday girl was speechless, same for the ghost. Mystery and Vivi had planned to take them for a ride in the woods, a nice little walk and back to the house in one piece. Although it was Vivi’s idea, Mystery hadn’t thought of a gift before tonight and this was his only way to show Laurel his loyalty and friendship. “I……don’t know what to say.” She chuckles at the end.
Lewis wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, but from how confident the kitsune looked, Mystery knew what he was doing. “Don’t say a thing at all, Laurel. Just hop on.” The kitsune smiles and lowers himself to let the couple on his back.
The birthday girl carefully hops onto his back and Lewis got on right behind her. Now sitting on Mystery’s back, he stands right back up and moves around a little to make sure they can hold onto him safely. “Just keep them safe, Mystery. I don’t want anything terrible to happen to them.” Vivi tells Mystery.
The kitsune says, “What about me? Don’t you want something terrible to not happen to me too?” He’s a bit concerned when Vivi cares more about them rather than him, and he’s been with her longer than them.
“I care about you. I just think you’re more powerful to handle anything in these woods. Plus, you’ll be able to run back with them riding you still.” She explains, giving Mystery a gentle pat on the nose as he doesn’t even flinch just a little.
It does give him some confidence that he’ll be able to watch and protect them as he gives them a peaceful ride. “Well, then I should get going then.” Mystery turns around and walks straight for an open trail into the deep woods. Laurel and Lewis give their waves towards Vivi until neither of them can see each other anymore. Now with the adventure starting, the couple explores their surroundings while they keep going on with their conversation.
“Which country should we start our vacation in?” Lewis asks. That’s one of the parts they couldn’t figure out, along with what to do there and what to do first as they get there. Planning things isn’t an easy obstacle for them to overcome. With arguments, questions, and even disadvantages to the activities they could do there, it may not be the dream they could look for.
Laurel didn’t know what place they would go. Still, it’s a hard decision and time isn’t unlimited. “Honestly, I have no clue.” She says with a bit of frustration. “I’ve been looking at some of the places and almost all of them look so creative and astonishing to explore.” Silence crept up behind them once the two didn’t talk more about the plans. Laurel looks up ahead at the trail and begins to notice how dark it’s becoming, besides the light coming from Lewis’s burning hair. Worried, she leans her head to Mystery who doesn’t seem afraid nor lost. “Can you see well?”
The kitsune scoffs positively. “I can. Like Vivi said, it’s my job to keep you two protected at all cost. So I have to thank her for giving me that night vision potion before.” Vivi had tons of tricks up her sleeve, including ones where Mystery had helped her be a test subject for harmless potions like the night vision.
“That’s good. Hopefully it doesn’t wear off.” Lewis said, wrapping his arms around Laurel, to give her even more protection in case something jumps out at the three.
“It shouldn’t, or I don’t think it should until we get back.” Mystery tells them, now going a bit quicker on the trail. “But hey, I can still get us back if that’s the case.”
“Really?” Laurel asks, not that she’s doubting Mystery’s skills. “How so?”
“I can smell the cake all the way over here so I know exactly where to go. And my senses do alert all of my surroundings from trees and living things that could attack us.” Seems like Mystery has this all figured out. All he hopes is that scent doesn’t disappear on him. So Mystery walks on the trail, his tails swishing around as some accidentally hit Lewis’s back. The ghost doesn’t mind as long as he focuses more on his girlfriend who yawns and stretches her arms.
“Tired, hun?” Lewis said as he kept her close.
“Maybe. I don’t know if it’ll be a good idea to fall asleep at the moment.” Yet she still felt like she could, like how Arthur could pass out any night during his work.
“Let’s just head back home then.” Patting Mystery’s furry side, he gets the kitsune’s attention. “Can you take us back home?”
Mystery nods his head and turns around and uses that scent of the left out cake to get him back to the mansion. “We’ll be there in a couple of minutes. So hold tight, Laurel.” He means by not going right to sleep just yet. She didn’t know if it was the cake or how long she had stayed up, but sleep was getting the best out of her. As her eyes felt heavy, she can only feel the arms of the ghost holding onto her as their ride tries to take them back safely home. Then, her eyes rested and leaned back on Lewis’s chest. The sound of the golden heartbeat, beating on her left ear in its relaxing and rhythmic pattern that relaxes her body into the state of slumber. “She’s asleep already, huh?” Mystery should’ve known it would be this quick.
“Yeah, she’ll rest on my bed once we get back.” Lewis says as he brushes the side of her cheek. For once, he’ll have to carry her to his bed.
________________________________________________________
As minutes pass by, Vivi becomes more worried by the second. She didn’t hear any of the howls nor any screams coming from the woods and yet they still haven’t arrived. She was this close to going into those woods to find her friends and guardian. Finally, she could see Mystery with the two on his back still coming back. “Phew, I was getting worried there for a second.” As she gets closer, Vivi can see Laurel resting on the kitsune’s back with Lewis holding her. “Wow, that walk really wore her out?” Something she never gets to see from her best friend.
“Yep….I’m gonna let her sleep on my bed tonight. You guys should go back home to sleep too.” Lewis tells them as Mystery lowers himself again to let Lewis off of his back with Laurel in his arms.
“We’ll do that. Arthur and Galahad had just left and Sisa is now resting in the living room.” Vivi looks back at Mystery who’s all worn out too. “Ready to go, fur ball?” She pets Mystery’s fluffy head as he smiles and licks her face. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Mystery transforms into his dog self again with the saddle slipping off of him but the bowtie still attached to him. “Have a goodnight you two and tell Laurel I said happy birthday.”
“I will.” Lewis promises. Vivi and Mystery leave his backyard through the side, where her car is parked out front. Lewis takes Laurel inside through the dining room back doors and back into the main hallway. From there, he floats all the way upstairs and into his master bedroom. Gently, he lays Laurel on one side of the bed and moves to the other side before getting all cuddly with her. With a kiss, he whispers, “I hope this was the best birthday ever.” He knows he won’t get a response out of her as she’s sleeping, but maybe he can tell her in the morning once the two will wake up. So he rests and sleeps, with his glowing eyes going dark and his body as close as to her’s, the ghost rests. This really has been a great birthday for her and she’ll remember it as her best memories throughout her life.