Author: Eloarei
Series: HINABN
A/N: A bunch of people over on dA were writing some really sad stories, a few weeks back, so in order to combat the sudden rash of depression, I decided to write the happiest story EVER. =D
Don't forget to read the alternate ending when you're done. ^^
HAPPY STORY
OoOoOoOoO
One day, Hanna woke up from a wonderful dream. Yes, it had been lovely. He'd been riding on a happy magical unicorn, with beautiful rainbow sparkly wings. They were flying to the moon, and the unicorn was telling him stories about its home world, a gorgeous land with flowers and cute little animals everywhere, and lots of waterfalls. And as the dream was fading, Hanna had the most amazing feeling that today was the start of something really great!
His zombie companion was looming over him as he awoke. The slight smile he wore had Hanna grin, as he mentally added another checkmark to his growing tally. He didn't have too long to calculate what number this smile had been, because Ringo presented him with a tray of delicious-smelling sausages and pancakes, covered in butter and maple syrup. His grin widening, he thanked his friend and dug in, deciding that today was indeed starting off quite wonderfully.
The rest of the morning went rather normally. Hanna browsed the internet a little as Amadeus cleaned up around the house, attempted to teach the undead man the steps to one of his favorite dances, and made a few origami cranes, before eventually deciding to check the mail. He skipped contentedly down the hall and slid down the banister of the staircase, jingling the key to his mailbox. He hadn't really been expecting anything, but was pleasantly surprised to find a thick envelope stuffed in the tiny box. Curiosity got the better of him, so he ripped it open and peered inside. He could hardly believe his eyes when he read the letter.
Excited beyond reason, Hanna dashed back up the stairs and pulled open the door to his shabby apartment, yelling, "Anderson, guess what?"
The zombie looked at him curiously, his own unique way of saying, "Like, oh my gosh, Hanna, what could it ever possibly be?"
Hanna responded enthusiastically, "I got a letter from- ok, you're never going to believe me- remember how I told you about my aunt Candice who, y'know, well, she passed away a while back?"
"Hm..." the zombie thought. "No, I don't recall you telling me anything about your family?"
The redhead looked surprised. "Oh, I didn't? Huh. Oh gosh, right, I just got so excited about that alligator, it completely slipped my mind! Er, well, anyway. It turns out she's actually alive! Yeah, she lives in Florida, and she's sent me tickets to go fly and see her! She says she has some great news for me! And the best thing; she told me I could bring seven friends! So let's go!"
So they went.
Luckily enough, Hanna, and Ples both happened to have a week of vacation that they could take immediately, Veser and Toni were on summer vacation, Conrad could do his commissions from anywhere with that handy laptop of his, and Worth and Lamont decided that their business could do without them for a while, so they all packed up and were on the plane the next evening.
The plane ride was a ton of fun, with so many of Hanna's friends to share this first experience with. The stewardesses didn't even have to tell Worth not to smoke, because he had conveniently left his cigarettes at home.
They touched down in Florida after several hours in the air, and there was a limousine driver waiting for them at the gate with a big sign that said "HANNA FALK CROSS". When he spotted Hanna, however, he dropped the sign and walked up to them.
"Ahh, Mr. Cross," he said, smiling kindly at Hanna.
"Woah, how did you know it was me?" he asked, amazed.
"You look just like madam Candice," he responded. "I could spot a relative of hers from a mile away!"
The man led the party to a luxurious stretch-limo, where they lounged comfortably, helping themselves to the contents of the tiny fully-stocked fridge, until they arrived at their destination half an hour later. Getting out of the car, they realized that they had been summoned to a gorgeous mansion, complete with well-groomed rose garden, and bordered by extensive orchards.
"Madam Candice is asleep at the moment," he told them. "But she would like to see you all in the morning. Please make yourselves at home in the meantime." He then showed them to their rooms and bid them a goodnight.
"Well I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep," Conrad said, "so I'm probably going to work on a few projects." He was about to shut the door to his room when Hanna grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back into the hallway.
"Wait!" he shouted, still overly excited from the amazingness of this trip so far. "I'm too hyped up to go to sleep either, and Alejandro never sleeps. And I'll be everyone else wants to stay up and have a look around, right guys?"
A few nods from the others (some enthusiastic, others a little tired but relatively complacent), and Hanna was leading the party to where he was positive there would be a pool. "There's always a pool in houses like this!" he reasoned, quoting a good handful of movies about exorbitantly rich people.
Indeed, there was a pool, one of those nifty half-inside, half-outside pools that are probably not very logical, and it was no time at all before everyone (except Alexander) was stripped down to their underwear and splashing around happily, not even slightly self-conscious about what the others thought of their silly, lame, or out-dated underpants, because, hey, they were in a freaking mansion.
They swam and splashed and partied for a good long while, under the beautiful moonlight. The undead man had located the huge kitchen and brought out some steaks for grilling, and a grand old time was had by just about everyone. But then the horizon began to lighten, the sky becoming streaked with pink and blue, and they decided it was time to retire for a while, lest Conrad burn to a crisp.
Hanna still wasn't tired when he and Remington returned to their room, so he laid happily on the plush bed and let his mind drift while the zombie browsed the novels on the bookshelf by the window. The redhead had begun to wonder what Aunt Candice could possibly have to say to him, when Silvan spoke up from his comfy armchair several feet away, his voice just a bit less monotone than normal.
"I wish I was a millionaire," he said. Hanna cocked his head in confusion but the zombie continued, as if he hadn't stopped, "so I could give you a great life like this."
The redhead didn't know what he'd been expecting, but it certainly wasn't such a bold declaration from his usually stoic undead friend.
"D'aww," he said, his eyes watering just the slightest bit. "I don't care if I'm poor, Spartacus. Just having you as a partner and friend means more than all the money in the world!"
The zombie truly smiled at Hanna's heartfelt response. Without anything to say, he crinkled his eyes happily at the boy and went to back to reading his book, leaving Hanna to drift to sleep with the thought of their beautiful friendship as a lullaby.
It was probably 3PM by the time he awoke once more. The gorgeous sun was shining through the soft curtains, indicating that today was bound to be beautiful. He was content to lay in bed for a few moments, before he realized that his undead friend was not in the room, which further reminded him that today was the day he would get to see his beloved Aunt Candice, and hear whatever wonderful news she had brought him here to share.
He was about to wander out into the hallway in his wrinkly boxers when he noticed a clean outfit had been laid out at the foot of the bed. 'This isn't one of mine, he thought, when he inspected it further. But heck yes, it's got checkers on it! He donned the awesome new outfit, silently thanking the butler or house-elves, or whoever else had set it out, and skipped into the hallway.
The rest of the house was still clean and empty, but he found his friends (even grumpy nocturnal Conrad) enjoying a lavish breakfast in the dining room.
"Morning, Hanna!" they all greeted him, between bites of exotic fruits and flaky pastries.
"Hi guys," he responded, as he eyed the table. His gaze fell upon a bowlful of expensive-looking foreign candies. "Sweets for breakfast? Sweet deal!" he cried happily, helping himself.
The lot of them conversed comfortably for a while. Hanna was pleased and surprised to find that Conrad was in a really great mood.
"I feel like a whole new person," the vampire said, grinning at Hanna. "I could hardly believe it, but when I woke up a few hours ago, there was a bottle of pills on the dresser with a note telling me to take one before I came out. I did, because I figured it couldn't hurt. I mean, I'm already dead. But I feel fantastic! The light doesn't bother me at all!"
Hanna was about to grin and slap Connie on the back in some sort of congratulatory move, but paused when he noticed the doors to the dining room open, and a grand figure walk in. He gasped when he recognized her and her unruly mass of curly red hair. "Aunt Candice!" he shouted, and ran to her.
The woman beamed at her nephew and enveloped him in a tight embrace. The others looked on in awe and the beautiful family reunion. Tears were brought to their eyes as the relatives' emotions overwhelmed them.
After a few moments of rejoicing, Hanna pulled back from his aunt and looked her in the face, an expression of wonder on his features.
"But how?" he asked. "I thought you died in that fire, all those years ago!"
She smiled kindly at him and patted his head, smoothing down the messy curls. "It doesn't matter," she told him. "What matters is that we are both here now. Oh, Hanna, I've missed you so much." She blinked the tears from her eyes and kept speaking. "But I'm sure you want to know what I called you here for, don't you?"
The room was silent, everyone in attended watched raptly, waiting for the big news.
"Hanna," Candice began. "It's about your parents. The truth is, they weren't killed, ten years ago. They were kidnapped by the government in order to protect them from a demon. But now the demon has been vanquished, and they're finally free. Hanna... They're here, and they want to see you."
She motioned behind him, and the tiny redhead whipped around, just in time to see a previously-unnoticed door creak slowly open. And from behind that door emerged the greatest thing he'd never again expected to see. With a shout of uncontainable joy, Hanna flew across the room and into his parents' waiting arms.
"Oh Hanna, we thought we'd never see you again!"
"Mom, Dad, I can't believe it's really you! I was alone for so long, but now you're back! I can't believe it, you're really back!"
The hugging, kissing, and rejoicing went on for a very long time, until everyone (even the zombie) was emotionally exhausted, at which point it was decided that everyone would catch up over a nice warm dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Cross told wonderful and sometimes scary stories about their adventures working for the government, and how glad they were that their son had grown up into such a fine young man, with such fine friends. Hanna introduced each one of them specifically and in great detail, saying again and again how wonderful each of them was, and how he'd have been lost without them.
The revelry extended long into the evening. When finally everyone had nearly gotten their fill of this beautiful joyous occasion and planned to head to bed and take it back up in the morning, Aunt Candice approached Hanna.
"That wasn't all I had to tell you, Hanna," she said. "I also wanted to ask if you and your friends wanted to stay here. Permanently. It such a large house, and I could really use the company. And I'd love to have you around. You always were my favorite nephew."
Hanna resisted correcting her with the fact that he was her only nephew, and instead beamed happily at her. "I... I'd love to! Oh, but I'll have to ask Lysander. He might rather stay in the city. And, y'know, I'd feel bad leaving him by himself. So, right, I'll have to ask."
As it turned out, his undead friend was more than happy to stay, provided he would be near Hanna. Conrad, as well, decided he would stay, since his work was simply internet-based. Not to mention he had quickly become addicted to Candice's amazing SPF-one-million pills, and was ecstatic to be able to enjoy the sun again. Lamont and Worth both had a few business ends to tie up, but said they'd probably be back within a few weeks. Ples felt bad about leaving his job so suddenly, so went back to give his two weeks notice, but otherwise had little tie to the city and opted to treat himself with this extremely early retirement. Toni still had family in the city, so she went back, but promise she'd at least stop in for a frequent vacation. And to Veser it was no contest; no family was holding him back, and the sparkling blue waters of the Florida coast were too compelling to want to leave them.
And so they spent the rest of their days in the lap of luxury, playing when they wanted, never having to work again, and basking infinitely in each other's company.
Hanna's life was now complete. He had his friends, he had a beautiful place to live, and most importantly of all, he had his family back. He couldn't erase his gruesome past, or the memories of being alone, with with time, love, and copious amounts of money, his sad and tattered heart would soon be whole again!
THE END.