Tattooed

The Party

[One month later]

---

"...happy birthday to youuuuuuuuu!" Everyone sang before Ezran took a deep breath and blew out the candles on his birthday cake and cheered loudly.

"Congrats little brother, you're officially a teenager now!" Callum laughs as he hugs his sibling tightly. "How does it feel?"

"I don't feel any different, still feel like I'm twelve." Ezran laughs before he feels a hand on the back of his head. "Ah don't Soren!"

"That's Rayla!" Gren laughs as he quickly grabs the cake and pulls it out of the way before the older girl could smash the new teen's face into it. "Gotta at least save this one at least."

"Yeah, his dear aunt and father already smacked his face into a store bought cake this morning." Sarai says, side eying her sister and husband as they gave her innocent smiles before turning to Gren. "Thank you so much for letting us host the party here, we'll try not to make a mess."

"It's alright, I've had to clean tougher stains out of the carpets that were worse than cake and juice, it's a skill I've been improving on for years."

Gren had decided to close the bookstore for today, only opening it for his and Amaya's friends and family to celebrate Ezran finally turning thirteen that day. They had some tables set out with snacks and drinks, and everyone was free to eat on the beanbag chairs as long as they didn't make a mess and cleaned up afterwards. Originally they had planned to host the party at the jousting arena, but unfortunately couldn't because one of the seating areas needed to be reconstructed after a guest accidentally broke several seats in a drunk rage the day before. And Gren had offered to let them host the party in his bookstore, which Ezran and his guests didn't mind. At least they had somewhere indoors to host the party at, and not opting to host it at at park when there was so much snow outside right now and everyone could read if they got bored.

"So, now that I am at this important milestone in my life, when should I be expecting a soulmate mark?" Ezran asks as his mother starts to cut the cake.

"It happens around the age of thirteen, like maybe a while after you turn that age." Soren says as he takes a slice and passed it off to Rayla, who passes it to Callum. "I remember that Enya and I both got ours on the summer we turned thirteen, and it took us about...five or six years to find out we were each other's soulmates."

"Ha! Took me and Callum less than three months." Rayla laughed before cutting a piece of her slice. "Though I will admit, I was skeptical about him being my own soulmate for a while."

"Yeah and you both kept denying that you liked each other." Claudia laughs as she ruffled Callum's hair. "Took me, your brother, my dork of a brother and our best friend ages to convince you otherwise."

"Sounds like quite the story." Gren chuckles as Amaya handed him a slice of cake before giving him a peck on the cheek and grabbed some frosting to put it on the tip of his nose. "Oh come on!"

"She got him again." Soren laughs before the older woman snags a bit of chocolate frosting off the cake and dabbed it on his nose. "Hey!"

"You deserved that!" Rayla snickers loudly.

"You guys want me to tell it, or should Enya tell it?" Claudia asks, guesturig to the said girl who was sitting off to the side with the dogs and trying to keep a husky from jumping on her as she was trying to keep a plate of food out of it's reach.

"Ez get your dog!" Enya yells as the husky tries to jump and attemptedto push him back with a foot. "Zym get down! Bad boy!"

"How about we tell it?" Callum suggests as he hurried over to grab the husky off his friend. "And funny story, this all started because of an English assignment we got paired together to do."

"I remember that, oh I used to tease you so much for it." Harrow laughs as his wife gives him a slice of cake. "Gosh to think both of you would end up together, I could't ask for a better future daughter-in-law."

"Dad!" Callum exclaims in horror as he and Rayla's faces flush red, earning a laugh from their friends. "We're only dating!"

"So go on, tell me how it went." Gren laughed as he sat himself down on a chair and Ginger leapt onto his lap. "And maybe later Sarai and Harrow could tell us about her and Harrow's soulmate experience, and Soren and Enya as well."

"Oh please no, it's embarrassing." Enya groans, burying her hands in her face. "Just as embarrassing as the words I had on my arm for years."

"Can't be as embarrassing as mine and Harrow's, I nearly ran him over with my car when we first met." Sarai laughs as her husband blushed. "And a week later he accidentally hit me with his bike after I dropped Callum off at daycare."

Gren laughs as he hears Amaya pull up a chair to sit next to him and shifted so her head would be sitting on his shoulder, their hands intertwined.

"Well I'd say our experience had some...embarrassing moments too." Callum chuckled as they all took a seat. "Alright, it all started when Rayla transferred to our humble little school and got seated right next to me in English..."

As the teen starts his story, Gren's eyes began to wander to the other partygoers. Sarai and Harrow were snuggled up on a single beanbag chair together and attempting not to fall off, Claudia was busy reading a book ge couldn't see the title of while eating her cake, Soren and Enya were seated on some chairs while feeding each other cake as their dogs watched in hopes of getting a piece, Bait and the husky Zym were seated around Ezran as he and Aanya were listening to Callum and Rayla while the two older teens were retelling their story, Ethari and Runaan were eating cake in another corner of the room while chatting with who must have been Rayla's parents. It made him happy to see his friend and his now girlfriend's family enjoying themselves well. He looks back at Amaya, who looks back to him and both smiled at each other.

I love you Gren feels Amaya sign into his palm with some taps and he felt himself blush before he gently taps it back and gave her hand a small squeeze.

Will we be as happy as they are? Gren wonders as he looks back to the other party guests, smiling and laughing. They have all been together much longer than us, so only time will tell. I do hope we last as long as they do, that's what we both want.