Black and White
Plot Summary- Aster and Zane tie the knot, but when anything can go wrong, it tends to.
Disclaimer- I do not own Yu-gi-oh Gx or its characters. Or any of the songs mentioned in this fic.
Chapter 7: Happily Ever After?
Aster's POV
(A few days later)
I glanced at the clock just as it struck 8 o clock. Atticus was do here any moment and Zane not long after him. A bottle of very fine wine—a wedding present from one of my sponsors—lay in my hand.
It was so childish and evil that I wondered where the thunder was. I should have been more resistant to doing this but Atticus had practically asked for it when he dropped Layla literally into Zane's lap. I pulled off the cork with my teeth and took a swig right from the bottle. Why not? Half of it was being wasted anyway.
It was a shame really. It was sweet and gentle, so much so it practically glided down the drain. But we didn't have any more wine around the house and Atticus needed to be taught who he was dealing with. I pulled back and poured a little more wine into the glass. I swirled it for a minute before drinking a little more of that. Wasn't it odd that my first time in this apartment was when I was actually drunk on wine? Now here I was again, only this time sober enough to appreciate the sentiment. Then, I had been lost in this strange place—now it was home. I was almost sad that we'd be moving out in a few weeks.
But soon, that place would be home too. Even if I hadn't grown up in the apartment complex our penthouse was in—anywhere with Zane would be home to me.
Without warning the door cracked open. I had to stop myself from laughing. Show time.
Actually, laughing was good—it would add to the illusion. "There you are, Atti. I was wondering when you'd show up." I slurred. Atticus closed the door and gave me a confused look. In the time him and I had become friends, he knew I despised having and using nicknames (hero and As being the two exceptions). But never in my life had I addressed him as 'Atti' especially with so much affection.
He noticed the wine in my hand and laughed. "Decided to party without us? Aster, Aster, Aster…" He tsked as he walked forward and reached for my glass. "Zane would not approve."
I pulled my glass away and gave him a dopey smile. He had fallen for it! Now I had him right where I wanted him. I turned to set my glass on the coffee table."Zane isn't here…"
I turned and took a giant step into Atticus's personal bubble and never looked back. Putting my face uncomfortably close to his. Atticus's amusement wavered for a moment—poor fool. "Ah yeah… Good one Aster. If I didn't know any better-"
"It's much more fun when you don't know better." I purred and put my hands against his chest. This was when Atticus started to panic. His hands grabbed my wrist as he pulled them away. I leaned my head against his shoulder instead. "Atti, you smell so nice."
"Aster, you're just drunk… Here, you better sit down until Zane gets home."
He started guiding me backwards towards the couch. An idea hit me but I wasn't sure if it was too far or not. Then I remembered what Zane said "Show no mercy."
I tripped myself on the edge of the couch. With an "opps", I grabbed for Atticus and pulled him with me. Atticus landed right on top of me and before he could regain his guard, I wrapped my arms around him.
I think I liked the look on Atticus's face a little too much. "Aster, listen to me! You're husband—remember, the guy you married a few weeks okay—is going to be home soon."
"Better make this quick then." I pulled him closer and growled. Almost on cue. Zane opened the door. I turned to him slowly trying to act dazed and confused. While his eyes read amused, Zane's mouth was down turned in a snarl.
"What the hell are you doing Atticus?"
"What? No. It's a misunderstanding! Aster's drunk and…."
Atticus pushed himself off of me and backed away from Zane. I watched as Zane crossed the room in several large steps—placing himself just as close to Atticus as I had been previously. Only this time, Zane looked like he could murder Atticus. "I should kill you for even touching him." Zane said in a deadly low voice.
I noticed Atticus was shaking and decided enough was enough. I let myself laugh. Zane started laughing too making Atticus confused. Finally, I stood up and told him. "Maybe next time you'll think before you put a girl in my husband's lap."
It took him a moment to realize that it was a prank. When he did, Atticus took a sharp intake of breath followed by a nervous lap. "Oh my god, really you guys? Thank god—I almost had a heart attack."
Zane allowed Atticus out of the corner. "That was kind of the point. I'll have you know, a lot of thought went into this prank."
"I bet." Atticus picked up my wine glass off the table and finished up its contents. I gave Zane a knowing look. I felt a little guilty that we had caused Atticus so much grief; but at the same time it felt good to give him a little taste of his own medicine. Mostly, it felt good to establish that when he messed with Zane he messed with me. And nobody messes with us.
Nobody would destroy the life I've worked so hard to build.
Zane's POV
(Late September)
"Aster?" I called out as I entered the penthouse. The only thing I missed about that old apartment (besides my early memories of Aster) was that it was really too much trouble to find him when we had somewhere to be. For example, we had to be at this very; very nice restaurant in about twenty minutes or else our seats would be given away. And I doubted that Aster would enjoy spending his birthday in a café.
It was hard to believe that over a year ago, Aster and I really connected. That the man of my dreams had walked into my life and never walked out again. I was thankful for the day we went to the lake just like I was thankful he was born in the first place.
I vaguely noticed the crumbled paper on the table featuring a story about Louisa's big dueling career. A long with her on the cover was the man she was currently seeing—Bastion Misawa, who she had met and became friends with at the wedding.
I remembered reading the article and realizing just how mature my protégée/younger cousin had become.
Reporter: How has your family issues affected your career? Did it give you a bad image at first?
Ms. Duncan: Well, of course it has. Rising above my family and my own past has been the hardest thing about becoming a duelist. Lots of people were confused when Evelyn Francis started dueling as Louisa Duncan. Who's Who? But really—once my story came out and people realized just how awful my parents were, there was a lot of encouragement. People were writing letters and telling me how inspiring I was to escape it—I just wish Ollie had too.
Reporter: And if you don't mind me asking. How is your brother doing?
Ms. Duncan: He's making progress. It will still be awhile before he can even think about leading a normal life but I think he's finally starting to be happy. It may be horrible to say but once my father received his prison sentence and my mother passed on—It felt like a huge weight was lifted off both him and me. There's nothing to stop him from being the person he wants to be, so now he can focus on just that.
Reporter: One more question before we end the interview—who do you most contribute your success to?
Ms. Duncan: Oh, who do I begin with? Of course I thank my sponsors and my many fans. I thank Mrs. Howard Francis, who took care of me after my parents were arrested and recently adopted me as her daughter. I thank her unfortunately deceased son—Ronny Francis, who helped me get away from my parents once and for all and I miss every day of my life… I think of him like a brother and I wish he was around to see what I had become. I want to thank my new boyfriend, Bastion Misawa, for keeping an eye out for me for all this fame and glory. And most importantly, I want to thank Zane Truesdale, my mentor and cousin—without him, I would have never tried dueling again and… if it hadn't been for him, I might have ended up in the same place as my brother. He gave me a second chance as well as my life back—and I will never forget him or his husband, Aster, for what they have done for me.
Louisa told me the same thing in person but the fact that she would say it was touching to say the least. Blair was making her own career in the dueling ring and in fact, was widely popular in the young male crowd (nothing serious yet but the girl was still young). And while I hadn't gone to visit Ollie for obvious reasons, my mother goes to visit him occasionally. She gave me an update in a note she sent with the gift I had her make for Aster.
Ollie's doing well. It was strange though. The other day he asked me how you and Aster were doing. I told him about the wedding and said you both were doing well. When I did, he smiled and said "I hope one day I can find something like that—not nearly as obnoxious or dumb—but with just as much love." I just never figured him to be the type to be so…reflective.
By the way, I don't know why you despise his smile so much—I think it's handsome.
I felt like compiling a list, but it wasn't anything my mother didn't already know. Besides—I guess in a way, the only time I had ever seen him smile was when he was scheming or had some ulterior motive. Maybe if I saw it without all the pain and malice—I wouldn't mind it so much.
I climbed the stairs up to our bedroom—figuring Aster was still getting ready. I opened the door and saw that my husband was in fact in the room. But not for the reason I thought he was.
Aster was all dressed, groomed, and ready to go as his eyes were fixated on the t.v. I was confused when I stopped to listen "What do you think he'll be?"
The noise was too broken for it to be a show—it sounded like a home movie actually. I walked forward and looked to the screen.
Before my eyes, a woman sitting at a desk appeared. One hand was quickly writing down something while the other was rested on her very pregnant stomach. Despite the picture I had seen of her, the woman had long hair that rested flatly down her back in a neat pony tail—silver hair to be exact.
Shiloh Phoenix rolled her eyes as the camera man—presumably Aster's dad—continued. "Do you think he'll be an artist? Or a mathematician? Or maybe he'll be professor just like his mom?"
"He could be a she for all you know." The voice was low but was still very much female.
"Hmm, I have a feeling Aster will be a boy."
"Aster? That's… a girl's name sweetheart." Shiloh leaned back in her chair and became thoughtful. "I guess it'd give him character wouldn't it?"
"I bet he'll be handsome, and smart just like you. Your eyes, your hair and everything." Silas responded. "My charm too."
"And our giant egos, don't forget that." Shiloh joked. With Aster's unique personality, I never would have thought anyone, not even his own mother, could match it. Shiloh shrugged. "As long as he's healthy, happy, and ours… then he or she will perfect to me."
"Now please Silas—I have work to do. This has to get done before the baby's born or else I'll have to work during mater..."
The screen went black; I turned back to Aster as he was shakily setting the remote down. I sighed, sat down next to him, and wrapped an arm around him. "You okay?"
He took a couple deep breaths and nodded. "Yeah, I just… Never really realized that today was her death date as well as my birthday."
"Where did you find this?"
"It was in one of the last boxes. I knew it was there I just… could never bring myself to watch it." I started stroking his hair as I listened to him talk. "I shouldn't even miss her, and I guess I don't but… It must have been hell for dad to be happy for all my birthdays when he had lost the love of his life that same day. And seeing this and realizing that she was a real person with real dreams and ideas—I just wonder how he could do it."
"He had to for you." I added.
"But how?... I mean, if I was in the same position—if I lost you—I could live on but, it'd be hard to be happy ever again. Let alone, smile like it never happened to begin with." Aster said softly. My heart ached for this man… the orphan boy who had lost and gained everything in such a short amount of time. "How could he be so brave?"
I thought about it for a moment, and carefully answered. "Well, think about it this way… A birthday happens once every year. But a person only dies once. That means he had eight birthdays to prefect the act—eight birthdays to get over what happened to your mom. And while he had a reason to mourn on that day—he had every reason to celebrate."
I pulled away from Aster for a moment and went to the dresser where I had left his gift for tonight. "Here, this might cheer you up a little bit." He gave the gift a peculiar look and bit his lip. Perhaps unsure if he should open it now or later. "Just open it."
With a shrug, he took the present and ripped away the wrapping. Underneath was a black and white scrap book with a small frame near the corner. In that frame was one of our wedding photos that were taken right before the reception.
In the picture, my hands were enclosed around his. I pressed his fingers to my mouth while he wore an amused grin. Aster criticized the picture publicly for showing too much affection but I asked my mother to use it, thinking he might think differently between just the two of us. The smile that unconsciously graced his face told me I was right.
"You had your mom make a photo album for us?" He flipped to the first page which featured me from duel academy and his promotion pictures.
"I didn't have a lot of the photos of us before we were teenagers. And by 'us' I mean you." I said carefully. Now that he had found them among our things, maybe we could include them. "So, I just had her do from just before we met to when we got married."
He flipped another page and found the promotion poster from our duel. At first, I thought the picture would ruin the mood considering the events that follow; but Aster started laughing instead. "I remember when they told me I was dueling you. I was so pissed."
"Why?"
"Well, because you were an amateur—at least in my eyes you were." I raised my eyebrow at him which made him laugh even more. "So when I first saw you—trying to hide your cockiness under your cool exterior—I wanted to destroy you. It never hit me until now how…well, funny that is."
"Hmmm." I said thoughtfully and smiled. At least he was happy again. "I guess it is funny. Like I've said before, it's hard to believe that just a few years ago, I despised you."
"Just despised? I think mortal enemies could have taken a few lessons from us." He placed the book besides him so he could wrap his arms around me. "Thank you, Zane… It's really wonderful."
I held him close and patted his back. "Well, technically, you should thank my mother—she made it."
"I will." He agreed and we but off our embrace. Aster stood from the bed and extended his hand. "Shouldn't we be going?"
I grabbed it and pulled myself up. "We're never going to make in time for our reservations." I sounded more okay with that thought than I actually was. "But, I was thinking you and I could go to that café I took you to for your birthday last year."
"The one just down the street from where we use to live?" I nodded and he chuckled. "Sounds good to me. At least this time, I won't have to combat a hangover."
I took one last look at the album before following out the door. It really was odd how much we hated each other when we first met. But I guess it's not the first impressions that are exciting—it's the things you learn after them.
A year ago, I brought home some kid who was sad, lonely, and most of all confused. And I related to it because in some aspects I was just the same. Sad because of the things I had done, lonely because no one understood, and confused as to if I'd ever find love again. Then months later I realized that not only did I find it; it was more wonderful then I ever would have imagined. And while so much has happened in a year; I was happy to know I had many more to look forward to.
The funniest thing of all was that it was the boy who had destroyed my life so many years ago, that made it worth living once more. And loving him was worth all the pain I have and will suffer.
Hey guys! Thanks once again for all the wonderful support I've received for this series. Your wonderful reviews and kind words have kept me writing this series 2 years after I've started. But I feel there is always a point where a story must end. But hopefully, I'll have some more Zane/Aster and some other couple stories coming up soon. Also, I have a few more chapters of Live and Learn to finish, so please enjoy those and thanks again for all the support. You guys rock!
