"Okay, count to ten, and then you have to find me!" Lyon told his father with a bright and mischievous look. "I got it." Dan smiled. Drago gave him a knowing nudge and he grins again. "Go on, get ready!"
"Alright, ready Scorch Wing?" Lyon said to his Bakugan. "Never more." The Pyrus attributed Phoenix-like female replied in turn.
"One…" Dan called out as Lyon dashed off with Scorch Wing. "Two…." Dan heard light footsteps and assumed it is Runo. "Three….."
"Dan?" The voice isn't Runo's and Dan whirled around. "Alice!" "And Shun." Shun was next to Alice, his footsteps as quiet as usual. Their two twin boys are already greeting Lyon excitedly, and they begin a game of tag.
"It's been such a long time!" Alice gave Dan a sisterly hug. "Where's Runo?" "She's in the house, caring for Kirito." Dan beamed when he mentioned his wild-and-free son. Then he spotted the baby girl in Shun's arms and exclaimed, "Hey, is that Asuna?"
"Yes." Shun was looking at his daughter with pure admiration, which was beautiful to see in a man so closed off.
"SHUN! ALICE! OH MY GOSH YOU'RE REALLY HERE!" Runo burst out of the door wearing a messy apron with Kirito, their toddler son, in one arm and a bowl of unknown batter (it's better not to ask) in the other.
"The minute I saw Daniel and Shinon in the front yard I thought I was dreaming!" The flustered young woman laughed and then turned to glare at Dan. "Well, what are you waiting for? Be a gentleman and help your wife out, will ya?"
"Oh…right." Dan grabbed Kirito from Runo and set him on his legs. Kirito laughed and wobbled out to play with his Bakugan, a gentle Haos Bakugan named Silver Lion.
"Come inside. You have to tell us what you've been up to." Runo ushered them inside. "Well, I've been working from home on my own private business." Shun began as they drank tea that Runo had hastily brewed up. "It's quite successful."
"QUITE successful?" Alice reprimanded her husband gently. "He's the head of a major company now." She informed her friends almost proudly. "He and Marucho have partnered up." "How is Marucho?" Runo questioned, setting her mug down.
She screamed out the window at her two sons, "KIDS, DON'T STEP ON THE PETUNIAS IN MRS. LEE'S YARD!" Turning back to the startled couple with a smile, Runo continued, "It's been such a long time since we've seen him."
"Marucho is now the head of HIS company." Shun explained. "He also got recently engaged with his girlfriend, Jewels." "Aw, they make a cute couple." Runo sighed. She rummaged in her cupboard and brought out a clunky looking object. "Dan, catch this." She commanded, throwing a huge photo album in his lap.
Dan let out a yelp because the album was heavy…and had sharp corners. Ignoring her husband's moans, Runo flipped the pages and carefully stroked the paper.
"Here…this is a complete record of our entire history as the Bakugan Battle Brawlers. I kept it here, you know, as a habit—" "Obsession." Dan put in. "A habit I swear to continue till we are all dust." Runo finished, glaring at Dan. "I'm already showing Lyon how to print photos off his own Polaroid camera."
She handed it to Alice, who opened the heavy cover open to the first page, which was filled with photos of the Brawlers when they were children, taken by their parents or guardians. Shun ran his thumb over a picture when he was a boy, standing next to his mother with a smile on his face.
"I can't believe you have this." "She's a stalker, man." Dan piped. "She invades all possible photo albums of her friends and filches incriminating pictures because, hey, that's Runo!" Runo gave Dan the hundredth glare of the day, but she softened when Dan leaned upward and kissed her cheek. "Hey, I wouldn't trade you for the world, okay?" He murmured in her ear. Runo smiled, and returned her attention to their guest, who were rapidly devouring the album.
Images of the past stared up at them, consisting of their adventure with Naga. The group picture that Runo's dad took was still there. Then there was the issue with New Vestroia. A very formal picture of Ace, Mira, and Baron stared up at them. A not very formal picture of the same friends also smiled up at them.
Then the affair of Gundalia presented itself next, with Ren and Fabia smiling at them from their respective throne rooms, Gundalia and Neathia. Then it was Mectanium Surge, as Runo dubbed it in a note attached to the album page, where friends such as Team Anubias and Team Sellon goofed off in, laughing at the party that Dan and Drago ditched. "Wow, you sure missed out Dan." Alice teased, turning the page over.
Then came a series of engagements, weddings, births, and even deaths, for the Brawlers were already older. The first to be engaged were Joe and Chan Lee, and there was a picture (shaky because Julie was too excited to hold the camera still) of a calm but obviously excited Joe, and a terribly blushing Chan, but she was crying so that was a good sign.
Then the next was Shun and Alice, and it was a flawless, out of this world perfected proposal, because Shun was Shun and Alice was Alice. Dan now finally plucked up his courage to ask Runo, whose first reaction was to punch him, then kiss him.
Then the next series of engagements came in a blur, Ren and Fabia, Ace and Mira, Billy and Julie, and some unexpected proposals. Klaus had finally found his princess, a drop-dead gorgeous, noble-blooded woman named Tryn, who battled Bakugan as an occupation until she met Klaus and the two were engaged in a matter of weeks (It was a knee on the ground, a huge diamond ring, a picturesque sunset on the beach proposal. Klaus was delirious with metaphors).
Keith found a spit fire of a girl named Corraine, who matched his flame with gasoline, and was said to have accepted his proposal with a dare. "Let's see if you can stand a lifetime with me, you hear?!" She had shrieked to his face, and Keith just sighed and kissed her despite her quickly dying protests (she loved him fiercely despite her denials and will murder anyone on sight if that person was female, pretty, and eying Keith like a steak, which was…a lot).
Marucho and his old girlfriend Jewels were next to be struck by Cupid's arrow, and the two were happily married. Wedding photos were next, and they were white, flowery, or in Julie's case, absurdly pink. Poor Billy resigned to it, but he was happy as long as Julie was, so it all worked out in the end.
Then came the first death of many. Dr. Michael died in a lab accident, and all mourned his loss. A tear formed in Alice's eyes, but she smiled to know at least her grandfather died in peace, working in the place he was happy in.
Then, unexpectedly, Ren was next. The foursome sat in silence, remembering how a sickness fatal to Gundalians had swept through the country, killing thousands of nobles and peasants alike. Ren had struggled to survive the disease, but finally gave up his life at the end of the outbreak, ironically. He died with a smiling sigh, gazing up at his panicking wife with his hand on her tearstained cheek. "Good night, Fabia." He had whispered to her, his last breath hitching in his throat. "I'll see you in the morning." Fabia had cried for days, caressing her husband's face until she had to retire into her own room from exhaustion. Even her sister could not stem Fabia's grief.
Only one bright side to this dark time persisted in surfacing, for Ren's child was born shortly after, an active girl with vibrant white hair and golden eyes….Ren's. This was the first child of the Brawlers. Then Joe and Chan's son was born, ebony haired with mild caramel eyes, an immense pride to Joe and a major happiness to Chan. Then Dan and Runo's son, Lyon, a dark blue haired boy with oak-colored eyes, was born, excited and hot tempered, like both his parents.
Ace and Mira's twin boys were born in the middle of a brawl, of all places, and Klaus and Tryn's daughter was born on the equinox of spring. "It's good luck." Klaus said proudly, not caring at all about elegance or royalty when he stood by his daughter and wife's bedside covered in blood and water, a gaze of complete adoration etched in his face.
Then it was Billy and Julie's twin children, a girl and a boy, who were born in the middle of a safari expedition, with no pain whatsoever (at least that's what Julie said at the time), yet were punctuated with scream of mental breakdowns (Billy's) or frustration (Julie's). Keith and Corraine's son was born last, because 1, Cor didn't want a child, 2, Keith did, and 3, Cor finally agreed if it was a girl (she somehow forgot she wanted a girl when her son was laid in her arms, crying and perfect and altogether adorable).
And the series of firstborn slowed, for the Brawlers were beginning to drift. Dan and Runo moved to Wardington for good, due to work issues. Shun and Alice stayed in Bayview, while Billy and Julie had to go to Africa to stay with the mission work.
Marucho had work concerns as well, and his company and contract required him to constantly roam the globe (literally). And as usual, Ace, Mira, Keith, and Baron were Vestal grounded due to irregularities in the teleportation system, and without Dr. Michael or Marucho around, travel were a lot more difficult, plus they were always occupied with family or business anyway.
Fabia was occupied as well (after all, she had two kingdoms to run now) and Team Anubias and Sellon were lost in their own world. Then…
"That's the end of the album." Runo commented helpfully as Shun shut the book. "I'm working on another scrapbook, featuring events from the past two years. It HAS been awhile." "That's putting it mildly." Alice said softly, rousing little Asuna from her nap.
"Almost…let me see…." Dan began counting on his fingers. "The card rained down from Vestroia when we were twelve, encountered Vestal and the Vexos at age fifteen, saved Neathia and Gundalia at age sixteen, then discovered Mechtagons at age seventeen. Then for three years we made a life for ourselves, dated pretty girls (cue modest blush from both wives) and drank and battled our own guts out (cue a roll-of-the-eyes from Shun)."
Dan continued to count years, eyes narrowed in concentration. "Then we had a series of weddings, consummated them, ("!" from his horrified listeners), had children, and moved to God knows where on the globe, which took about five years in all." Dan added all the years up. "All in all, it has been thirteen years since the card came down, again, not counting the year when no one communicated." He settled back with a smile at his impressive math skills.
"Wow." Shun finally said. "I know, right?" Dan lay back with a triumphant sigh. "I never thought I'd see the day when I will count to more than ten." "I didn't mean your counting skills, idiot, but the time that has passed since we first discovered Bakugan." Shun said bluntly. "I mean, we all grew up, left certain things behind us, and moved on to new experiences."
The young ninja stared out the bay window overlooking the huge backyard, where his sons were tickling Kirito without mercy with Lyon defending his little brother manfully. "Look at us. We're not the same children who watched the cards rain from the sky."
"Getting philosophical, eh?" Dan smirked. "No, I'm just getting warmed up." Shun said with a straight face as he began to recite Plato's Republic. Alice groaned. "He always does that whenever he's stressed." Asuna said, "Mama?"
And Alice began to coo to her daughter, "What is it, my darling? Oh, yes, Papa is saying his philosophy again, isn't he, precious?" Shun ground to a surprised stop as Asuna laughed and nodded, her black curls bouncing around her face. "Dada funny."
Dan snorted with laughter, almost choking on his own tea, until Runo thumped him on the back and told him to act like a man and not like his old teenager self. Shun just shook his head, smiling, leaning over and giving a gentle kiss to Asuna's forehead.
Outside, Drago, perched on the older Kuso boy's shoulder, thought he caught a brief glimpse of a pale white dragon swooping across the sky.
The Brawlers may be apart, Runo thought to herself as she slid the album back onto the shelf of her bookcase, but deep down I know that we are all still connected. Like Wavern said…
Thank you everybody. From the bottom of my heart.