"You'll watch them closely, won't you, Akako-chan?" Kazuha asked fretfully, setting a now eight month old Akari in pen with an eighteen month Mamoru.
"Obachan!" Mamoru exclaimed, toddling over.
"Ru-chan! Be a good boy for Akako-obachan, I've got to hurry or I will be late. You will watch them this time, Akako-chan?" Kazuha asked again after speaking to the child.
"Yes, I only turned away for a second last time; I just had forgotten it was Kaito-kun's son I was dealing with." Akako said and Kazuha nodded, kissing her daughter's head and ruffling Mamoru's hair before racing off towards the main dining room. Shinichi and Ran had left for the past three months to go back to the Eastern castle and had just returned, claiming good news. They had called all of their friends to hear it and Akari had not wanted to cooperate with her mother that morning, running the young woman later than she had even dared to imagine being.
She threw open the doors and raced over to sit beside Heiji, who was grinning infuriatingly.
"Kari-chan give you trouble?" he asked, still grinning.
"Yes, and who was no where to be found? You, of course." Kazuha said, trying to be upset and failing.
"I was busy trying to get Kudo to spill, but he wouldn't breathe a word. Neechan is coming out in just a minute. I heard they brought the squirt with them too." Heiji said back, the squirt referring to the young Northern prince, Conan, whom Shinichi and Ran were fond of.
As predicted, Ran came out onto the raised platform of the dining room, holding both Shinichi and Conan's hands in her own. Conan immediately broke free and went to hug Heiji around the neck quickly, before crawling onto Kazuha's lap and asking about his new favorite person, Akari.
"Is she bigger now?" he asked excitedly.
"Oh, yes, she's much bigger. She's even starting to crawl. Pretty soon she'll be walking and then she can play with you and Ru-chan." Kazuha said.
"Really? Can we go see her after Ran-neechan's done talking?" Conan asked, bursting with excitement.
"Of course. You know you're always welcome to come up and visit with us, Conan-kun." Kazuha said, smiling broadly.
"My mother said that too. She said she wants me and Kari-chan to get married but I told her that Kari-chan's just a baby and babies can't get married. Everyone knows that." Conan said and Heiji frowned.
"Hey, you tell your mom that we don't want anymore of this marriage talk until Akari's older, and that it'll be up to her, got it, squirt?" Heiji said and Conan mock-saluted.
"Yes sir!"
"Okay everyone, we've got something important to say to you all!" Ran said loudly and the room quieted down. Conan slipped out of Kazuha's lap and migrated towards Kaito and Aoko. Kaito grinned at the young boy and pulled a yoyo out of his pocket to offer to him. Conan accepted eagerly and sat next to the older man, making the trinket spin towards the floor and then sail back up again skillfully.
"You guys are the first to hear this, so don't go telling everyone, okay? The big news is.....I'm pregnant!" Ran exclaimed and after a moment's pause, the assembled people cheered. Sonoko stood in the back of the room, smiling and leaning heavily a dark skinned man who was blushing heavily. His name was Makoto and he was a waiter as well as being one of Shizuka's new dasanteki, recruited to fill in for Kaito, who could not take as many missions now due to his family obligations. Ai, Genta, and Mitsuiko filed out of the kitchen to see what the commotion was about and were surprised to see the vast majority of the room's female population hugging Ran on the platform, Shinichi standing by and looking amused.
"...Ai-chan?" Mitsuiko said after a moment and the blonde child turned to him.
"Yes, Mitsuiko-kun?" she said, visibly more childlike than she had been a few months earlier. She felt as though the weight of all she had seen had been lifted slightly, in the months after Ayumi's death. The little girl was probably up in heaven, pulling the worries off her friend like children pull petals off flowers. Ai felt indebted to her for this act that she could not be sure was ever committed.
"I....I really like you, Ai-chan. Will you be my girlfriend?" he asked, blushing and thrusting a pilfered daisy in her direction. She took the flower, studying it carefully before reaching towards his hand with hers; their fingers did not lace, but neither let go.
Up on stage, Ran was fielding questions left and right. How far along was she? Had she gotten morning sickness? Was it to be a boy or a girl? The last one, she answered. "Our sorcerer, Agasa-san, said it will be a boy. I haven't decided on any names yet, there is plenty of time."
Kazuha backed up from the crowd and found Heiji and Conan waiting for her next to the stairs for the platform.
"Come on, Kazuha-baachan, I want to go see Kari-chan!" Conan exclaimed and she took him by the hand and led him to the castle's nursery, where Akako was keeping her promise and diligently watching the two children there. Conan ran off immediately to play with them, hugging them both before trying his hardest to encourage Akari to crawl to him, always being careful with the soft baby he'd become so fond of.
Kazuha leaned back into her husband's embrace and watched them. It had taken a long time to get here and come to this, but she found that she was no longer the broken girl Heiji had brought home with him that day that seemed so long ago now. She felt complete, in a way that left her satisfied and hoping that everything would stay the same. She knew it couldn't, but she hoped all the same. She hoped that they would all stay like this forever, Ran, basking in the glow of her pregnancy, Conan, wide-eyed and innocent as he played with a tiny Akari, who still needed her parents in everyway. And while she longed for that teenager that her daughter would turn into one day, the teenager she felt sure would fall in love with the dashing young man Conan would become, she also hoped that that daughter was a long ways away.
She had been young and naïve when Kaito had found her that day. Upon arriving at the castle, she had quickly gone from young and naïve to young and in love, which was a far more dangerous thing to be. Then she had become young and grieving, not only for Ayumi but for her unexpected pregnancy. Finally, she was just broken, neither young nor old because it made no difference to the broken. Now? Now she was somewhere in between, she had seen too much to be young, had too much life to be old. But she was happy, content. And, with Heiji by her side and her child, soon to be children if she had any say in it, around her feet, she felt as if she could always stay that way.
Not all fairytales have happy endings. But this one did.
And they all lived Happily Ever After.
And that's it! It's finally over. I'm quite proud of it, myself.
KIRBY: Me too, I think I prefer this one over Project Arachne, more drama and conflict, and the ending isn't so bittersweet either, though I'm fond of Arachne's ending, personally. The spider-babies would not have turned out as perfect looking as Ran did. It would've been creul to allow her to have those children, to her and them.
Kirby-chin, we're not here to talk about Arachne, we're here to finish up this story.
KIRBY: Ah, yes, of course. Sorry.
It's okay. We'd like to throw in a special shout-out to s2lou-chan, who not only helped me and Kirby-chan when it came down to the important stuff, but also managed to review every single chapter, even on those occasions I double posted. And, she is also the reason behind the amount of Kaito/Aoko romance in this story; everytime you witnessed a sweet little moment between those two, you can know in your heart that it was written smiling about how much s2lou-chan would love it. So, everyone give her a round of applause and go read her stuff, you won't be disappointed. Also, IMPORTANT: This story may be taken down in the future, because I have plans to change the names to English ones and hand it in to a publisher to see what they think. Please, don't take this the wrong way, each and everyone one of your reviews meant the world to me, I swear, but I want to see if I can make something of myself, you know? But, if it helps to know, I'll save all of the reviews and keep the original sotry on my computer, so if it falls through, I'll put it right back up.
KIRBY: And, as our last piece of business, I'm proud to announce that, for my next Pet Project, I am considering revamping and extending the vampire!Heiji story. You can probably expect it sometime in the near future. Thanks again for all the support everyone and please continue to read and review!
Bye bye!