Epilogue: One month later…
Evanna was wearing a dress.
Actually, so were Yue, Tali, and Rae. Evanna's was a dark red with gold lace on the hem. It was nothing incredibly fancy. Tali was wearing a beautiful and dark leaf green, and it was perfect against her red hair, which was wavy from constantly being in a braid, but an effect Tali liked.
Yue had been forced into a gorgeous purple evening gown by Rae. It had pearls on the skirt and the hem, but looked fantastic on Yue no matter how much Yue complained that it was either horrible, or choking her, something Rae insisted it was not. Rae herself was dressed in dark gold. It had a large bow in the back, and the skirt was ruffled. Rae truly loved what she was wearing, unlike Yue. And her brown hair was also wavy like Tali's.
The reason the four friends were wearing these dresses was because they were at a party in the King's castle. Ironically, it was taking place in the throne room; however it had been repaired and was back to its usual brilliance.
The room was brightly lit with candles, and a quartet played. There were quite a few people, most of them the new senators of Kagari. King Percival had tried and convicted every senator of treason, and put them in prison for life. Many people believe they should have been killed, but Percival felt they should live a while longer to feel shame for their actions. The surviving sisters of Discordant Harmony were also tried and convicted, so they joined the senators in prison.
Percival had decided to throw this party in honor of the kingdom not being taken over, and to show off his beautifully restored throne room. Mostly about the Kingdom not being taken over though. This was why everyone who had been at the battle was there, all the guards who had fought and survived, and Evanna, Peter, Eric, Rae, Yue, Tali, Carter, Damian, Altair and Ezio.
Oh, and for those curious about Alan's fate, he's returned to the Messenger's Corps after a harsh reprimand and a short time in prison.
Now, back to the party.
Evanna, Tali, Rae, and Yue were hanging back, watching the couples dancing.
"What is it about people dancing that is so cute?" Rae wondered aloud.
"I have no idea. Why do you think it's cute?" Evanna asked.
"Hmmm, maybe cute is the wrong word to use." Rae agreed thoughtfully.
Tali smiled at them and drank more wine.
Just then, Carter, Damian, Peter, Eric, Altair, and Ezio appeared. None of them had seen the women in their dresses yet, so Peter and Eric were gawking and stuttering about how amazing their wives looked.
"Neither of you have seen us in dresses since we got married I guess." Evanna said, grinning at Peter. "I should tell King Percival to arrange more parties then, shouldn't I?"
Peter nodded enthusiastically.
"In which case, I'll be right back." Evanna grabbed a glass of wine from a passing waiter and set off.
"How do you get one?" Damian asked Peter in awe.
"What, a wife?"
"Let's start with girlfriend."
Peter smiled at Damian and patted his shoulder, then told him cheerfully, "Risk your life on a dangerous suicide mission. Or, do what I did, and get caught by the enemy. It works better than you might think." Peter added the last sentence in a whisper, and then set off to join Ezio a few feet away.
Damian stood thoughtfully for a second the said to himself, "Risk my life on a dangerous suicide mission." He paused, then continued, "I can do that." Then he walked over to a group of single women to start a conversation.
… … …
Ezio was staring at Rae when Peter walked over. "Think she'd dance with me if I asked?" Ezio asked Peter mournfully.
Peter patted Ezio on the back, understanding how he felt. "You won't know until you ask." Ezio stared at Peter in terror.
"I can't ask her!" He exclaimed in horror.
Peter sighed, "You know, it was Evanna who told me she loved me. I think she's braver than me, and that's why." Peter glanced at Ezio and grinned. "But I asked her to marry me." He shrugged, and advised Ezio, "Take the risk. You never know what you might regret."
Peter left Ezio to puzzle over what he was going to do, and walked over to Tali. "Evanna back yet?"
Tali chuckled and nodded up at the throne, "No, but she's coming now."
Evanna came sweeping down, grinning in a self satisfied way, and she told Peter and Tali triumphantly, "Another party is scheduled."
"What'd you have to do to make that happen?" Tali questioned her friend, smiling widely.
"Oh, nothing serious. But he knows what the consequences are." Evanna said calmly, but she shot a meaningful glance at Percival.
Percival smiled weakly at her, turned to the servant beside him and whispered urgently to her.
Peter smiled and told his wife gently, "You're scaring him."
Evanna shrugged. "Like I haven't done that already." She rolled her eyes. "You worry too much. He'll be fine."
Shrugging, Peter instead asked her, "Dance with me?"
Evanna blinked in what appeared to be surprise and said quietly, "Haven't done that since we got married either. We definitely need to go to more parties."
Peter led her onto the dance floor, with Tali watching them and grinning bemusedly.
"Funny how all four of us married our best friend since we joined the Corps." Eric said to Tali, also watching Peter and Evanna.
"It's nice." Tali agreed. She turned to him and asked, "Will you dance with me?"
Eric laughed, "I thought you would never ask!" He took Tali's hand and pulled her out onto the dance floor near to Peter and Evanna. Tali copied Evanna and rested her head on Eric's chest.
… … …
Carter and Altair had joined Ezio. They were each holding a full glass of wine in their right hands. They watched as Damian led a pretty blond girl wearing a midnight blue dress onto the dance floor.
"And there goes another innocent lad to the turmoil of love and marriage, leaving behind us bachelors forever." Carter announced sorrowfully.
All three simultaneously drank deeply from their glasses.
… … …
Yue was standing in the courtyard, the castle garden before her. Most shamefully, she was drunk.
Deciding she needed fresh air, she had come outside to the garden. Yue started walking among the flower beds, leaning down to smell a rose. She stood back up too quickly, and felt lightheaded. Carefully, she stumbled over beside a fountain and sat down.
Yue clutched her head and muttered a curse in Ang, her native language. "I gotta stop drinking. Think about your painful hangover that will happen tomorrow."
"Yue?"
Yue looked up. "What?"
"Where are you?"
"By the fountain."
Altair appeared a moment later beside Yue. He raised his eyebrows at her. "You drunk?"
Yue sighed, "Yes, I am. Gloat about my pain if you must."
Altair shook his head and sat down next to her. "I don't think I will."
"Why'd you come out here?"
"I didn't see you. I got worried." Altair shrugged.
"Aw, you were concerned about me."
"Well, you are my friend."
There was a moment of silence in which Yue looked over at Altair. "You care?"
"Of course! I mean, who else will comfort you when your old friend turns out to be a-"
"Yes, indeed." Yue interrupted. "I remember."
An awkward pause came between them.
"We've had some crazy times too though, haven't we?" Altair asked Yue suddenly.
"I… suppose."
"Come on, you must remember that day training when we got into a fist fight!"
"Oh, then? Yeah, that was a fun day. You proved a lot of people wrong that day. Me included, apparently," Yue added with a laugh.
"And, the day you beat me. And I had to give you a prize, so…" Altair trailed off, and Yue blushed.
"So you gave me a teddy bear."
"Yeah. But you kept him."
"He reminds me of better days."
"Better days?"
"Well, yes. The days before Katie, and the Red Shadows. When things were easier. More fun. 'Course, now I've got these days with all of you Rangers and assassins and such. Hard to decide which I like better now."
"Weird how the favorite parts of your life always seem to involve me."
Yue smiled, "What can I say; you've been a huge part of my life."
"You've been a huge part of mine."
Yue glanced over at Altair. "I have?"
"Yeah, sure. We grew up together, trained together, fought, became friends, met new people, and tried new things. We've done lots together."
"What about Rae?"
"What about her?"
"What do you think of her?"
"She's a good friend now." Altair shrugged. "She's a good person to have on our side, and I know because I've trained with her too. Why is it all the girls can beat me up?"
Yue laughed, and replied, "We're just that amazing."
"Yeah. You are."
Yue blushed furiously.
"Listen, Yue, this going to come out of left field, but please don't panic."
Yue raised her eyebrows.
Altair took a deep breath, and said clearly, "Yue, will you marry me?"
A stunned, ringing silence, where Yue and Altair looked at each other.
Yue blinked rapidly. Then she closed her eyes, thinking hard.
She did have feelings for Altair. She had known him very long. She had known since the day they had met he was very interesting. And she cared about him, and what happened to him. And she had certainly been jealous of Rae when they had all first met.
But here… final, long awaited proof that Altair cared back.
Yue opened her eyes.
"Yes."
Fin.
A/N: Heeey! Look, the story is done! And just soak in that epic cliffy ending you got… Mmm, just think of the drama!
Anyway, my genius writing besides, I've got a few things to say. You know, I've gotta take a moment to be sappy and reflective and make you cry. So here we go:
Frogata: Words cannot describe how epic you are. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Emrald9: Thank you, so much, for everything. You were the idea for this story, you supplied endless ideas, and they were frequently very good. I mean, look at the pub idea! It saved me the effort of coming up with a cover story. I know we've had some issues, but I just want to thank you for all your hard work and dedication.
NanaHassan: You helped force me to write my Harry Potter oneshot, but I've really valued your friendship. : ) So thanks!
All of my friends and family, plus various reviewers, favoriters and story alerters: Thank you for all of your support and reading and enjoying my story!
To the various people who I am sure read this and were either too lazy to review or did not have an account and didn't realize that you can review without having an account (which literally took me years to discover): Thank you for reading anyway, I hope you enjoyed!
And to conclude, I love you all for your patience and support, and I hope you stick around for all of the companion one shots, and the next story in the now trilogy, which will be called… Endless Night, and features more action than ever!
Peace, Love, FanFiction and cake! See ya around!
~ Rosefeather :D
