A soft breeze blew over the hill, bringing the scent of newly bloomed spring flowers through the small gathering at the summit. Soft rays of light filtered through the buildings atop the distant mountain, coating the hilltop in an orange glow. Yuuki tucked her purple-tinted black hair behind her ear, keeping it out of her face while is danced in the wind. The cat ears on top of her head were pressed down in order to let the wind glide gently over them. The raccoonkin next to her, Kiara, was in a similar pose.
“There’s not much left to do before Aria and Nic arrive.” Kiara had a checklist on the smartphone in her hands.
Next to the women was a park table full of foods that each person liked, alongside a specially made cake for the occasion. They had decided on hosting this small party within the park to get away from the light pollution of the city. With Sarman’s small grill next to the table, they wouldn’t have any problem cooking up the food they had brought.
“Yeah…” Yuuki was nodding her head when a loud crash came from the two trees directly behind them.
“I’m okay!” Sarman yelled from the ground, lying on his back beneath where he should have been. The banner that Sara and him had been tasked with hanging up was drooping on one side. For her part, Sara was looking down at Sarman, struggling to hold in laughter.
With the vigor of a healthy young man, Sarman jumped back up and was quickly scaling the tree again, despite the rather large new tear in the sleeve of his t-shirt. While he worked to get his side of the banner fully up. Sara jumped down and joined the other two by the table.
“I know that this is an anniversary event for the book, but why the hell are Kiara and I here? We barely have any screen time past the first part!” Sara said as she straightened out the small wrinkles in her shirt.
Kiara began to fuss over how her fiance looked, helping her with straightening out the wrinkles and making sure her hair was straight.
` “I’m sure the author has bigger plans for you two in the future. Right now, it seems to be focused on Sarman and I.” Yuuki made excuses for the Author while fidgeting with the sleeves of her kimono. Watching the couple in front of her, Yuuki’s eyes kept flicking to the man still in the tree.
As he finished putting the banner up properly, Sarman jumped down and actually landed on his feet this time. He grabbed his flannel off of the table and quickly threw it on before joining the other three at the front of the table.
“So what’s left to do? Just grilling up the food?”
“And lighting up the tiki torches around us for light once it gets too dark outside. Think you can do that?” Kiara looked up from fussing over Sara and gave Sarman one final task.
Sarman had a sly grin on his face as he pulled out his usual small lighter. “Salamander here and I can get that.” As he said the name of the lighter, he flicked it open, revealing a small flame. “Salamander doesn’t get to do small things like this so often in the story, so it’s a nice change of pace.”
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Once Sarman had left to light the torches, Yuuki felt her phone buzz with a notification. When she opened it, the phone automatically opened to the Aerial messaging app, where she had one unread notification.
“We’re almost there.” - Aria T.
Aria was currently making sure that Nic didn’t get to the park before they were ready. However, there was only so much stalling that she could do.
“They’re almost here, get ready!” Yuuki called out to her companions on the hill, forcing Sarman to light the torches much faster so they could all be together when Nic arrived. Once he was back next to her, Yuuki responded to Aria with a simple “We’re ready” text.
It didn’t take long for the four of them to hear Nic and Aria talking as they walked up the hill towards them. Thanks to the trees just below the hilltop, neither group could see the other until they were practically the same group.
“Happy Second Anniversary!” They yelled as soon as they saw Nic, causing him to stop in his tracks.
“Is this for Irradiated World’s second anniversary?” Nic asked incredulously. “We didn’t do anything last year for the first anniversary, right?”
“That’s why we decided to do something big for this anniversary, like an entire little short story surprise party!” Aria responded as her short dress fluttered in the wind.
“Is there cake at least?” Nic asked. His stomach growled from beneath the Irradiated World shirt he was wearing.
“Sure is!” Sara waved Nic and Aria over to the park table, where their special designed cake had the words “2nd Anniversary!” on top. But before they could eat it, they were interrupted by more people appearing from within the park.
Chapman was the first to arrive, patting his son on the back with some serious force, almost causing Sarman to face plant into the cake they were about to eat. “Well done on getting through 2 years!”
“Yes! This is quite the party for 2 years of online publishing.” Crystal mused as she walked into the clearing, Noah Verilo’s arm intertwined with hers. The two had a ghostly translucence to them.
“We’re all quite proud of you for surviving this long.” Yuuki’s family appeared behind the two of them. As soon as they saw the table full of food, the eleven-year-old Mirai ran to the table, while the sixteen-year-old Kyouta tried to hold her back. Nobu and Luna Ito simply looked on at their three kids in admiration.
“I’m sure your Father/Mother would be proud of you.” Nic and Aria’s surviving parents said almost the same exact thing simultaneously, causing the two to get teary-eyed.
“This is a wonderful celebration.”
“It sure is.”
“A beautiful celebration of those who still live, and especially those that were taken too soon.”
“And it’s wonderful to get to see them again.”
Rust, Cyril, Oz, and Riko were the last four to arrive at the party and say their thoughts.
Yuuki was tearing up seeing everyone with them. They weren’t sure if everyone would have been able to get there in time, but she’s glad they did. And looking at her five friend's faces, she was sure that they all felt the same.
Without saying anything, the six of them knew just what to say.
“Thank you all for coming on this journey with us!”