GoldenTalesGeek: Welcome to chapter 5! I'm glad everyone appreciated me bringing Chester and Arche together like that. I'm sorry for taking so long to get this chapter up, though.

Arche: Although, it seems that Sakura Irving was a little sensitive about you implying about pushing the limits of this fanfic's rating a bit.

GoldenTalesGeek: Don't worry about it, Arche. She and I have already sorted out all that. Hey, since you're here, please do the disclaimer.

Arche: Alright. GoldenTalesGeek does not own Tales of Phantasia. That belongs to Namco.

GoldenTalesGeek: Thanks! Enjoy the latest chapter everyone. I should warn you: the beginning of this chapter may be inappropriate for younger readers.

Chester 5: Christmas Shopping

Cless was walking down the hallway, singing a song his mother used to sing to him as a child. Then he opened the door to Klarth's room and said, "Good morning, Klarth!"

Immediately, the summoner bolted upright in his bed. "Oh… Cless," he groaned, rubbing his eyes. "Don't… do that again."

Cless smiled in spite of himself. "What's the matter, Klarth?" he asked. "Didn't sleep well?"

Klarth scoffed. "How could I," he asked the swordsman indignantly. "With them on the other side of this very thin wall?!" He gestured towards the room that Chester and Arche had occupied for the night.

"A bit noisy, were they?" Cless said, laughing.

"Arche was bad enough, but Chester!" Klarth spat angrily. "He was louder than she was. He actually sounded like he was exerting himself."

Cless put his ear to the wall. "I don't hear anything now." he said.

"Well, they're between bouts," Klarth said bitterly. "Give them a few seconds."

The summoner yawned and flopped back down on the bed. In Chester's room, both his and Arche's clothes were strung out all over the floor. Both of them were in the bed, under the covers, and Chester was showering the back of Arche's shoulders with kisses and stroking her hair. "Mmm…" Arche cooed. "That feels nice…"

"Hang on a minute," Chester said.

The archer then began to bang his fist against the wall and moan passionately. In his room, Klarth bolted upright in the bed again. "By the Goddess Martel, there they go again!" he exclaimed. Cless just snickered in reply and left the room.

Chester kept banging on the wall and moaning until Arche stopped him. "You were louder than that, believe it or not." she said, laughing.

Chester laughed and started kissing Arche on the lips. There was then an abrupt knock at the door. "Chester, would you mind telling Arche that we'd like some breakfast before we go out to do our Christmas shopping?" Mint asked.

"Gotcha, Mint." Chester replied in between kisses.

"Thank you." Mint said. Her footsteps were then heard walking away from the door.

"Why can't they serve themselves?" Arche asked.

"Well, after the nice little appetizers and the fantastic soup you made last night, I'm sure we're all very curious as to your abilities with cooking breakfast." Chester replied.

"Well then, I'd better get right to it, shouldn't I?" Arche said, getting up and heading for the door.

Chester, still in the bed, then cleared his throat loudly and said, "Clothes."

Arche's face turned beet red, making a sharp contrast between her skin and her pink-colored hair. "Right," she mumbled. "Clothes are a good thing."

"They usually are," Chester replied.

"Oh, be quiet!" Arche snapped, putting her hair back into her trademark ponytail.

Soon, both Arche and Chester were dressed. "Aren't you coming?" she asked Chester.

"I'll be along in a minute." Chester replied.

"Okay," Arche said, kissing him and leaving the room.

Chester flopped back down on bed. "Well Ami, I've found her," he said aloud, as if he was talking face-to-face to his kid sister. "I hope you're happy now."

He then got up off the bed, and left the room. He ran into Cless in the hallway. The swordsman was still snickering from earlier. "What's got into you?" Chester asked.

"Both you and Arche kept Klarth up last night," Cless said, laughing.

Chester laughed out loud. "It's not that funny!" Klarth's indignant voice sounded from his room.

"You'd better tell Arche to make Klarth some strong coffee for him." Cless suggested in a low voice.

"Okay, I can do that," Chester said, nodding. "If you tell me when you began liking Mint."

Cless was taken aback. "H-how did you find out about that?" he demanded, blushing furiously.

"Arche told me last night while we were having hot chocolate," Chester explained.

"I should've known better than to tell Arche…" Cless grumbled. "But, to answer you, I've liked Mint since we talked about her mother's unicorn earrings back before we fought Dhaos for the final time."

"I thought so," Chester said. "Well, I'll go tell Arche about the coffee. See you downstairs."

"See you," Cless said.

Chester headed downstairs and entered the kitchen. Arche was busy scrambling eggs. "Hey," she said. "What kept you?"

"Cless stopped me in the hallway," Chester explained. "He said Klarth needs some strong coffee to drink."

Arche laughed. "We kept him up last night, didn't we?" she asked.

"That's what Cless said," Chester replied, nodding.

"All right, I'll fix some for him while I'm whipping up breakfast." Arche said.

"I'll let Cless and Klarth know," Chester said.

"Good, I don't want you spoiling my special breakfast surprise for everyone!" Arche said, shooing the archer out of the kitchen.

As soon as Chester was out of the kitchen, he poked his head back in again. "No kiss?" he asked.

Arche kissed him on the cheek. "There, I kissed you," she snapped. "Now, please get out!"

"Okay, okay," the archer conceded, and left the kitchen

Arche sighed deeply. "Sometimes, I really don't know about him…" she muttered to herself as she went back to preparing breakfast.

Soon, the dining room table was covered with food; a huge bowl of scrambled eggs, a large platter of pancakes, one plate of bacon, another with sausage links, two huge pitchers; one filled with milk, the other with freshly squeezed orange juice, and a large pot of coffee. After setting the table, Arche walked to the edge of the stairs and called out, "Breakfast is ready!"

Immediately Cless, Chester, Mint and Suzu were downstairs, with Klarth lagging behind. "Oh, I'm definitely getting too old…" he moaned.

"That's nonsense, Klarth!" Arche snapped. "I'm older than you, and I still feel great!"

"Well, you're a half-Elf," Klarth grumbled. "I'm only a human. There's a big difference."

"Fair point," Arche agreed. "Anyway, let's enjoy a little breakfast, hmm?"

Cless and Chester gaped at the feast of breakfast food spread out before them. "This is a little breakfast?" they asked.

"All right, maybe I got a little carried away…" Arche replied, shrugging her shoulders.

After breakfast, everyone headed out the door to do their shopping. Chester was the last to leave. "I can't promise I'll find you a good present," he said to Arche. "But hey, I'll try and look, all right?"

Arche laughed. "Just find your way back here, ok?" she said, kissing him on the cheek.

"I will," he replied, kissing her in return.

"C'mon, Chester!" Cless shouted. "The TechBirds aren't gonna fly themselves!"

"Be right there!" Chester shouted back. "See you later."

"See ya," Arche said with a wink.

Chester rushed over the rest of the group. "Sorry," he said.

"It's all right," Mint said. "I'm sure Arche wanted to say good-bye in her own special way."

Chester cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah," he replied. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Cless brought out the Wing Pack and released the TechBirds. "You know, I never thought I'd have drive one of these again," Klarth said, eyeing the magitech vehicles and shaking his head in disbelief.

"Oh, you'll be fine, Klarth," Cless assured him. "It's a lot more comfortable than when I riding Pegasus. Man, I thought I wasn't gonna walk right for the rest of my life."

Chester laughed as he got onto his TechBird. "I remember you telling me that, Cless," he said. "I never quite believed it, though."

This time, it was Cless' turn to laugh. "Hey, why don't you ask Arche about it later, Chester?" Cless suggested as he got on his TechBird. "She was flying with me at the time. Only she was on her broom."

"Let's just get going, Cless," Klarth said as he boarded his TechBird. "The sooner we get our shopping done, the better."

"All right, all right," Cless said with a sigh.

Everyone started the engines on their TechBirds and flew off towards Alvanista. In a manner of seconds, they had landed in a nearby forest, which was a perfect cover for them to repack the TechBirds without any of the citizens of Alvanista seeing anything. "All right, they're all packed," Cless said. "Let's go."

The group exited the forest and entered the town. People were looking up, pointing towards the sky, and scratching their heads in confusion. "It seems some of them have spotted the TechBirds," Klarth whispered to Cless.

Cless nodded in agreement. "Mention the TechBirds to no one," Cless admonished the group. "Understood?"

Everyone nodded. "Hey, let's meet up at the Adventurer's Guild after our shopping's done," Klarth suggested.

"Good idea," Cless agreed. "It's a good place to grab a bite to eat."

And the party went their separate ways. A little later, Chester ran into Cless in a shop that sold women's dresses. "What are you doing here?" they asked each other.

"I'm looking for a nice dress for Mint," Cless said.

"I'm looking for a dress too, only for Arche," Chester replied.

Cless picked a beautiful, flowing white-colored dress with gold-colored lining for Mint. It looked similar to her healer's uniform, and yet it also looked different. Chester picked a very nice pale blue-colored dress for Arche. It looked like something Arche -with her tomboyish attitude- would be happy to receive, yet indignant to wear.

The store offered to gift wrap the boxes for Cless and Chester, who gladly accepted. They paid the gald for the dresses and went their separate ways to buy stuff for the rest of the party. Pretty soon, everyone was the Adventurer's Guild, getting a bite to eat. "So, was everyone's shopping fruitful?" Cless asked as he took a bite out of his sandwich.

Everyone nodded their heads. While they were eating, they discussed what customs they observed during this time of the year. "It is customary in Japoni for people to make presents for one another instead of purchasing them," Suzu said.

"That would explain why you purchased raw materials instead of just presents," Klarth said.

Suzu nodded in reply. "Before Toltus was destroyed, the whole town would celebrate Christmas by having a festival," Cless said.

"Oh yeah," Chester said, remembering. "There were games for the kids to play, plenty of food, live music, and the town square was set up for people who wanted to dance."

"Sounds pretty fun," Klarth remarked. "I wish the Euclid in my time period was bustling with that much activity around Christmas."

"What's wrong?" Mint asked. "Don't you guys celebrate Christmas?"

"Oh, we do," Klarth replied. "It's just pretty low-key compared to Toltus. We just gathered at my house and exchanged presents."

"Why at your house, Klarth?" Cless asked.

"It was the only house big enough in Euclid to accommodate everyone," Klarth replied.

"That reminds me," Cless said. "Why didn't Milard come with you? Was she invited?"

"Oh, she was," Klarth said. "She just didn't want to come. Milard's never been a very social person. She did say I could go, as long as I didn't do anything very detrimental to Aselia's timeline."

"I guess that makes sense," Cless replied.

"How about you, Mint?" Chester asked. "How did you celebrate Christmas?"

"Before my father died, we used to just exchange gifts," Mint said. "It was nothing too fancy. In fact, this is the biggest thing that I've ever done during this time of the year."

"Well, let's finish our lunch and head back to Arche's house," Cless suggested.

"Yeah, I hope she's okay," Chester said without thinking.

"Chester's got a girlfriend, Chester's got a girlfriend…" Klarth whispered teasingly.

"At least I told her how I felt!" Chester whispered back tersely. "Cless hasn't even told Mint he likes her yet!"

"Cless likes Mint, huh?" Klarth asked.

"Yeah, Arche told me last night," Chester replied.

"Hmmm…" Klarth murmured, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"What?" Chester asked.

"It looks like we're going to have to play matchmaker again…" Klarth replied.
"What do you mean by 'again', Klarth?" Chester asked.

Klarth was taken aback. "You mean, Cless and Mint never told you about Nancy and Elwin?" he asked.

Chester shook his head. "They never mentioned it."

"Well, let me tell you what happened…" Klarth said.

The summoner proceeded to tell the young archer the story of how they brought a young couple from the past together, and about their marriage. "That explains why Arche jokingly asked Cless to marry him," Chester said after Klarth had finished his story.

"That's right," Klarth said, nodding. "That's also why I feel we have to play matchmaker again. Although, Suzu's a little bit young to be involved in this,"

"So you, Arche, and I have to try to get them together?" Chester asked.

"Precisely, Chester!" Klarth exclaimed, patting Chester on the back.

"What are you guys talking about?" Cless asked.

"Chester needed some relationship advice," Klarth lied.

"Are we leaving soon?" Chester said, feeling uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I just paid the bill," Cless said. "Let's get back to Ymir."

A few minutes later the party departed Alvanista, and headed into a nearby forest. Cless released the TechBirds, and everyone flew off. As they approached Arche's house, she came running out of the front door and leapt into Chester's arms. "So, find anything good?" she asked.

"You'll have to wait and see," Chester replied.

"Aw, you're no fun," Arche said with false disappointment.

"If that's the case, why did you choose to be with me?" Chester asked teasingly.

"You're a good kisser." Arche replied, kissing him.

"Okay, you two," Cless said. "That's enough. Let's go inside."

Chester set Arche back down. "Killjoy," they chorused.

Once inside Arche's house, she asked if anyone was hungry. "We're full, thanks for the offer, though." Klarth replied.

"I didn't make breakfast that filling, did I?" Arche asked, taken aback.

"No, we stopped at the Adventurer's Guild for lunch after we finished our shopping," Chester said.

"Ah, I see," Arche said. "Well then, I'm gonna go to my room for a bit."

"I'll go with you, Arche," Chester said.

"Okay," Arche replied. "I could used the company,"

Chester went to follow her, when Klarth grabbed his arm. "Be sure to tell her about us planning to get Cless and Mint together." he whispered.

Chester just nodded in reply. He then followed Arche up the stairs. "What did you tell Chester?" Cless asked.

"I just wanted him to tell Arche about something he and I were discussing earlier," Klarth replied.
"And, what was that?" Mint asked.

"Don't worry about it," the summoner replied cryptically. "You'll know in due course."

Meanwhile, in Arche's room, she and Chester were visiting a blissful world of their own making…

GoldenTalesGeek: Whew! I finally got this chapter done! I hope you guys don't react too negatively as to how I started this chapter. I was struggling with how to do so, and I wanted it to be funny, but I didn't want to push it too far.

Klarth: As far as I'm concerned, you nearly crossed the line!

GoldenTalesGeek: Pipe down, Klarth. It wasn't that bad! Well, read and review!