A.N: So, here's the mini-finale to "All the Rest" and final installment to the "Halfway There" Universe. This story was never about character death, as the other chapters may have left you to believe (though I did leave a lot of hints other wise), but on the concept of human life. Hopefully, this epilogue will help give us all a bit of closure. Thanks for reading, you guys! And thanks to Kitsune55 for beta-ing for me! You guys are all awesome!
Title: All the Rest
Epilogue: Ending at the Beginning
Dark hair blew against the onslaught of winds and leaves billowing past the near middle-age woman dressed entirely in black as she stepped forward and knelt before the aging tombstone in front of her.
Gray eyes which used to sparkle with an inner-glow others grew to admire darkened indescribably as the woman trembled for a moment.
"Mother?" A small adolescent boy with platinum blonde hair and dark eyes knelt beside the fallen woman as her body shook from both the cold and misery overtaking her slowly. "Mother, please calm down."
"Nate, I just… can't…"
"Yes." Another pair of pale white hands came around her slim frame as familiar gray eyes encompassed the woman's vision, a face so familiar to her husband's taking her breath away. "You can."
"Lawliet…" Sniffling, Maki nodded before slowly staggering up, looking down at the gravestone once more before turning and refusing to look back.
"Your father would have been so proud…" Lawliet could have swore he heard her whisper as she grabbed Nate's arm and walked away from their father's gravestone, head hanging heavily against the torrent of winds blowing harshly around them.
"Hey." Turning around, Lawliet almost smiled as a familiar brunette with an equally familiar limp made his way up the cemetery's pathway. "Sorry about that."
"It's alright." Grabbing his lover's hand, Lawliet propelled him forward so that they both faced his parent's marker. "You had your own respects to keep as well."
Raito shrugged as he thought back on his own mother, who laid just four rows down from where Lawliet's father now rested.
"It's going to be hard for her. She'll need you now more than ever." Nodding his head, Lawliet dug into his suit pocket and took out-
"A stone?" Raito blinked as Lawliet smiled to himself.
"His lucky stone. He said it won him his first date with my mother."
"… Just how did he do that?"
Lawliet then sweat dropped as he remembered his father's… proud story.
"… … … He threw it at her first date's head when she wasn't looking and made himself look like the hero."
"Unsurprisingly, that sounds like something the both of you would do." Raito snarked, eyes actually alight with amusement.
"I am my father's son, Raito." Lawliet grinned as he made a small patch in the ground and buried the stone within it. "And this stone should stay with its original owner."
"You're so nice."
"Of course I am. Besides… I have my own good luck charm."
"Oh really? And what's that?"
Smiling to himself, Lawliet simply patted the ground before standing up and strolling out of the cemetery. Not looking to see if Raito was following or not, Lawliet once again plunged his now dirty hand within the same pocket as before, this time pulling out a small piece of paper.
Opening it up, Lawliet simply saw three words inscribed in it, the writing not his own, but familiar none the less.
"Raito… what are you working on over there?" Lawliet wheeled his chair so that it was sitting in front of his boyfriend's mattress, his hands trembling as they grasped the pen with a tenuous grip, at best.
"A reminder, of sorts…"
"For yourself?" Lawliet looked a bit skeptical as he stared at the boy with unwavering dark eyes. "You're not very forgetful, though…"
"No." Raito then put the pen down on his lap as he carefully folded the paper between his long, shaky fingers. "For you."
Handing it over to Lawliet, the grin on Raito's face simmered down to a small smile.
"Always for you."
Reading the words over and over, they swelled until Lawliet sighed out his relief.
Lawliet almost laughed as he unfolded the small piece of paper and looked down at the neat writing before him, scribbled in english with near perfect penmenship. Carefully caressing the front of the paper, dim gray eyes closed as Lawliet savored the simple meaning behind Raito's equally simple words splashed onto the tiny piece of white paper.
Don't give up.
And just when he thought Raito couldn't get any cheesier...
Lawliet felt his heart swell with glee.
And just when he thought he knew better, as well.
He would never forget, either.
"Lawliet?! Hey, wait for me! I'm technically crippled, you bastard!"
"… … I doubt a small limp that will eventually go away in time is that high up in the handicapped category, Raito!"
"TELL THAT TO MY ACHING LEG, YOU JACKASS!"
"… … Gladly!"
"THAT'S IT! JUST WAIT TILL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, L LAWLIET!"
"Now that just sounds like fun."
"Gah!"
One story ends…
Another story begins.
Maybe there's more to life than just death, after all.
If so, then I'm more ready than I've ever been to face it.
Here's to all the rest…
Hopefully, it'll be better to us than everything before it was.
But…
That's another story in itself, isn't it?
Owari