Ch 31-Birthday Cake

It's been months now since I've been in Luofu and it has been quite fun. I'm already able to go back home since more than three months have gone by but... I don't want to leave yet not when I still have so much to learn, to grow, and the people that are here.

Wukong to me is the closest to having a father that I've had myself even in my past life. I mean my dad visited around every three months but I'm pretty sure he was just there to see my two little brothers and not me so I didn't interact with him much. they both had more of a childhood with him than me.

Dan Feng has also become like family to me specifically as a big brother. I've gone and visited him whenever I have time and we always spar, play games, or just have tea quietly in each other's presence near each other. And I appreciate and enjoy every moment I have with him. In my past life, I also had brothers and got along with them but not like this since they were like 16 and 12 and they were both very young but I still love and miss them as they are both still my brothers.

I also get along with Jing Yuan and YangXing(Blade) but they are more like borderline acquaintances and friends to me. I have also met the last and weakest of the 6 strongest of the High clouds the Foxian Baiheng. I remember that she died brutally in Star Rail so I'm glad to see that she is alright. She is also the person who leads the police that takes on Skyboats matters so in other words Baiheng patrols the skies and Jing Yuan takes care of things on the floor.

Now to the last person Jingliu, things with her have been rather weird. we tried to kill each other when we first met to living together. and after months of me staying in her house, we have gotten closer than I thought I would.

I'm guessing that it has a bit to do with the stunt I pulled on the first day I came to the Luofu. From Wukong I found out that in the thousands of years that Jungliu has lived, she has never had any sort of romantic relationship with anyone.

She always gets romantic letters and marriage proposals from many clan heirs that she has met in social gatherings after all she still is the secretary of the Luofu and assistant of Wukong. But she always rejects or uses the letters as fuel for the fireplace.

the stunt of me calling her a 'close friend' and taking her away bridal style in front of the clan heir I met when I came here spread throughout the Luofu and many people looked at me with jealousy in their eyes and an admirer even sent some people to deal with me. of course, I killed them all and even took care of the young master who sent them creating a huge fuzz.

Wukong of course found out and asked me why I just didn't tell him about it since he could have dealt with the problem himself, but I'm sure he was just worried about me. but I just answered "I know that idiots like that exist everywhere and you can't kill every single one of them but idiots with money and resources will only mean more trouble for me. and I don't like leaving loose ends since they only become more troublesome if you leave them alone".

hearing my words he became more worried at my thought process and told me that I should just tell him next time so he can deal with them by the law and I assured him that I would since I just wanted to make an example out of them so the others wouldn't think that I won't do shit to them.

And it worked, after the incident nobody sent any more people after me.

But back to Jungliu, we've gotten closer and not family close like Wukong or Dan Feng but like close close.

funny enough I had one of those cliche bathroom incidents where Jingliu walked in on me getting naked to get inside the bath but all she did was get red and try to get out apologizing.

but my dumbass thought it would be fun to tease her so I approached her naked asking what was wrong. and that got her riled up making her go as red as her eyes and blasted me with ice.

let's just say that I was lucky that my little brother didn't fall off from getting turned into a popsicle.

Anyway, after that incident, she gave me side glances here and there whenever we were together and in the morning when I make breakfast. the incident must have made her conscious of me as a man more than she already was.

But for me its a good thing and a bad thing, why?. because I do like her and I would like to get close to her but I'm not going to stay in this timeline for too long maybe I will stay here in the Luofu for a few more years and then go out and explore a bit before going back but that's it. After that, I'm gone and I don't know how to deal with that.

The only hope I have is to get close enough to her and convince her to go back to my timeline with me or something but her dedication to her job and the Luofu is what gets in the way.

*Sigh*

Anyway, il try to get closer to her from now on and I have just the greatest idea for that. A birthday, I had asked Wukog when his birthday was and he asked me back what a birthday was.

Apparently, they don't have Birthdays around here or even the moths or time around here. how they tell time year-round is by seasons and by the sun's placement in the sky. I can tell the date by my phone just fine but they can't so I decided to introduce them both to the Adepti here.

I had presented a calendar and a watch I bought off the system store for a few points and to say that Wukong was excited about the idea was an understatement. for a civilization with flying boats, I'm surprised that they haven't invented a way to measure time or divide the days in a year.

giving them both to him, he made calendars for the Adepti and also wanted to create watches like mine for others but making a watch for everyone and affordable for everyone would be hard because of the material cost so I recommended making a huge tower that had a clock on its four sides so that everyone could know what time it is.

Let's just say that I accidentally became the founder of how to measure time and a year. I also kind of accidentally created the Big Ben from London but who cares, right?.

but because of the calendar, I also introduced the birthdays I asked Wukong about so everyone just chose a say in the months of the season they were born in and bam now everyone has a birthday now.

Back on Jingliu, she was apparently born during winter since her race name is literally the heavenly snow crane. they lay their eggs during the winter and hatch midwinter. so she chose December 14, my birthday is also on the 14 but in March so that's a nice coincidence. 

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December 14-

"Alright you ready" (Meliodas)

"Yes I already have all the concealment barriers ready so she won't notice a thing" (Dan Feng)

Right now me, Dan Feng, Wukong, YingXing(Blade), and Baiheng are hiding inside Jinglius house waiting for her t return since today we decided to give her a surprise birthday. the thing is that Jinliu would sense our presence so i had Dan Feng make some concealment seals inside the house.

When i told the idea to them they were all for it since this was something they all had never done before so they were all pretty pumped up for this.

we have the living room of the house decorated and a cake I specially made with the absolute limit of my S-rank cooking skill. It's a vanilla carrot cake with glaze lily extract making it smell really good.

Waiting inside the house with the light turned off along with the others an hour went by until the door opened.

"SURPRISE" everyone screamed making Jingliu Jolt in surprise.

Without thinking she raised her hand and ice started to form around her.

"H-Hey calm down it's us!" I exclaimed in nervousness as I saw Jingliu getting ready to attack.

"HUH?" Jingliu exclaimed in confusion. "What are you all doing" she asked.

"Did you forget, today's your birthday and I got everyone together to make a surprise birthday party for you"

Hearing this the ice surrounding her disappeared as she lowered her hand.

"*Sigh* you all scared me to death!, I didn't even sense any of you" she exclaimed

"Of course you didn't I had Dan Feng make concealment seals inside the house so that the party would really be a surprise," I said with a smile.

Hearing me her lips twitched "That ain't something you should be happy about, I almost blasted the whole house with ice!" she yelled.

"Geez alright calm down, look here we even have a decorated cake for you," I said as I tried to calm down the fuming Jingliu

"... did you make it?" She asked

"Well of course I did, I wouldn't let anybody else cook for you besides me, After all, I'm pretty sure that you would go into withdrawal if you stopped eating my food" I joked making everyone chuckle.

Hearing my words Jingliu gave a rare blush and snatched the cake from my hands "F-fine il forgive you just this once" she said as she made a knife and plate out of ice to cut out a piece of cake.

"Hey leave some for us!" (Everyone)

Everyone saw that Jingliu was trying to take the cake for herself so they tackled her to get a piece after all they had also become addicted to my cooking after tasting it once

'...I'm really going to miss this

"Hey Meliodas tell Jingliu to give us a piece!" Said Baiheng as Jingliu made a wall of ice to eat the cake in peace.

'Fufu~ I guess il enjoy these moments as much as I can with them' I thought as a smile formed on my face

"Hey give a piece!" I yelled as I helped the other catch Jingliu.

These types of moments were we are all together like these are the ones I treasure the most. We might fight all the time and argue, but we still care about each other.

I look at Wukong and we both nod our heads to each other.

He raises his fist and punches the ice shattering it all. Seeing the opening I quickly rushed to Jingliu and before she could react I picked her up along with the cake.

"W-what are you doing" she said with a red face.

"Well if I don't do this then the cake and dessert will escape" I said with a teasing smile.

Hearing my teasing she didn't attack me but instead got redder and hid her face on my chest.

"Thank you"

"Hm? For what?"

"For all of this, we all have gotten together and partied before but... looking at their genuine smiles makes me happy, they've all had it hard," she said as she looked at me with a smile.

That's it... that smile is so precious that I want to hug her immediately, you know what maybe I will.

"Hm if that's the case then I will need to pick up the tab for the cake, smiles, happiness, and bunch of other stuff I won't bother mentioning"

"Tab?"

"Yup a tab"

"I see, then what do you want? Gold, perhaps an Adeptal technique of mine?"

... wow she really is kind of dense with flirty stuff unless your direct with it.

"Hmm~ they all sound nice but this will suffice"

*Chu*

"!!!"

Saying those words I had already lowered my head and kissed Jingliu. A single tender moment where her mind shut down and panicked at the same time but she didn't push me back and instead enjoyed the kiss.

After a few seconds that felt forever, I parted my lips from hers only to see an atomic red Jingliu still being carried by my arms.

'Dam she makes me want to tease her more, hmm is making people blush a type of kink' I thought to myself

'Now that I think about isn't it a bit too quiet' Thinking those words I looked around to a grinning Dan Feng, Baiheng, Jing Yuan, Wukong, and even the stoic YingXing(Blade) who had a smile on his face.

Looking at Wukong he only gave me a thumbs up with a smirk on his face making him look like a proud parent seeing their son pulling a good girl.

Chuckling to myself I put down the still-red Jingliu 

"Alright lets party!!!"

"Yeah!!!" (Everyone)

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A/N: I've written this chapter in inspiration from a certain one-eyed cat hehehe