(A final author's note will be posted tomorrow along with a chapter of "extras." Stay tuned.)
EPILOGUE: ONE YEAR LATER
"Calm down," Mai said, laughing as she let go of a half-inflated mint green balloon so that it flew, squealing, across the dining room toward Serenity. "It's just a birthday party. There will be like, ten people here, and half of them are your family."
"I know, I know," Serenity sighed. "But it's her first one, and I want it to be perfect."
"Rosie's not even going to remember it. Just admit you're trying to impress your boyfriend."
Serenity groaned, but she also couldn't suppress a guilty smile as she got down off the stepstool where she had been standing to garland over one of the dining room's bay windows. Plenty of things had changed over the past year, but Mai's way of getting straight to the point definitely hadn't.
"Well, you know, he's just always going to all these fancy corporate parties," Serenity said. "His stepfather even used to host them here. If you think about it, this is the first social event to happen here at the mansion in like, fifteen years. I want it to really blow his mind."
Mai rolled her eyes and picked her balloon back up, re-inflating it and using a piece of tape to attach it to the end of one of Serenity's garlands.
"Trust me, he's not thinking in those terms at all. But either way, don't worry, we've still got two hours. By the time we're through with it, this place will be adorable. I love your color palette, by the way; you have a knack for this."
"You really like it?" Serenity asked, stepping back and taking a look at the decorations they had managed to put up so far. "I figured the mint and gold were bright enough to pop, but wouldn't look too bad with the color of the walls in here. And maybe the coral accents would tie it all together a little bit."
"Yeah, it's great," Mai agreed. "I'd say that you might have a future in event planning - that is, if you ever had to work again a day in your life."
Though Serenity's instinct would normally have been to react with embarrassment at the way her friend pointed out the wealth of her new family, Mai's words actually reminded her of something else. Suddenly excited, she turned her back to her masterpiece and leaned against the table.
"It's actually funny you should mention that, because I'm thinking about getting involved with the family business," she said, a little bit of mischief in her eyes.
"What family business?" Mai demanded. "Theme parks? Corporate networking? Fashion trench coat design?"
"You're close: game design," Serenity replied proudly. "I'm taking a coding class. As soon as Rosie's a little older, I'm going to see if I can start working at the corporation's software design firm and earn my keep a little bit."
"Look at you go!" Mai exclaimed. "Maybe Rosie's genius came from both sides!"
"I wouldn't go quite that far," Serenity said, laughing. "But I'm picking it up pretty well, or so they tell me. All those months last year of nothing but lying in bed doing number puzzles had to be good for something, right?"
Mai raised her hands up, as though in surrender.
"Hey, all I'm saying is you're a better woman than I am. The second your brother wins the lottery, I'm graduating to full-time trophy wife. Well, trophy girlfriend, I guess."
The two laughed, and Serenity shifted a few things around on the table.
"Speaking of that," she said, taking a seat and reaching for a pile of white and gold tissue paper and some scissors, "have you mentioned anything to Joey about getting married? He asked me something about it the other day."
"Not whatsoever," Mai replied, taking a seat beside her. "What on earth did he say?"
"Nothing too intense, he just asked me how long I thought two people should be together before they got serious about getting married. I'm not sure how it came up. Anyway, I just told him that I thought it depended on the people and the circumstances and everything."
"That's interesting," Mai said, reaching for a few sheets of tissue paper and some scissors of her own. "But no, we haven't talked about it in awhile. I mean, I think we're both assuming that we probably will eventually, but he wants to see if he can get into management with the construction firm first, and I'm not in any hurry. So we'll just have to wait and see… but that's very interesting that he brought that up."
"I'm fairly certain the flower on her hair band doesn't go in the center of her forehead," Seto observed.
"What do you mean?" Joey demanded. "Fashion's all about symmetry, right?"
The toddler sitting on the changing table in front of them looked back and forth between the two with piercing blue eyes, grinning through the fingers she held in her mouth. She wore a mint green dress with a metallic gold sash, and her blonde, ringlet-like curls tumbled down around her ears. For the moment, a giant tulle bow was centered in the middle of her forehead, giving her an almost unicorn-like look.
"Hey, grab that cloth over there," Seto ordered, pointing toward the crib.
"Why can't you grab it?" Joey demanded.
"Because I'm googling toddler fashion so we can settle this once and for all. Now grab the cloth before she drools on her new dress, or Serenity will kill you."
"Kill us, you mean."
By the time Joey had retrieved the spit cloth and started wiping off his niece's chin, Seto was holding up his phone triumphantly.
"All of these are off-center," he said. "I rest my case."
"Alright, alright," Joey conceded, setting down the cloth and sliding the elastic band on the baby's head so that the flowers were situated a few inches closer to her right ear. "Better?"
"Well, this is not my area of expertise, but it's definitely more like the pictures."
In between the mundane moments of his day-to-day life, Seto still occasionally felt his thoughts screech to a halt at the realization of how altogether unexpected all of it was. Two years ago, nobody on earth could have made him believe that he would one day be spending a saturday morning hanging out with Joey Wheeler in a spare bedroom-turned-nursery, getting his daughter ready for her first birthday party.
That he would welcome Yugi and all of his friends into his home to eat cake, drink champagne, and toast to the future.
And that, perhaps craziest of all, he would be glad to do all of it.
Joey interrupted Seto's thoughts with a yawn and a stretch. He walked over to the empty rocking chair and took a seat, putting his sock feet up on the ottoman that sat in front of it.
"So, is, uh, everything ready for this afternoon?" he asked.
"My only job was getting Rosie ready," Seto replied. "Serenity's taken on everything else, from the decorations to the cake to where everyone is going to park. But as far as I know, it's all fallen into place."
Joey shook his head.
"That's not what I meant."
"Oh," Seto replied quickly. "The other part."
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small black velvet box and flipped it open. The sunlight that streamed in through the floor-length windows caught the facets of the brilliant stone within, throwing a few tiny circles of light onto the nursery wall.
"I mean… it's in there. There's not much else to get ready, is there?"
"Well what are you going to say?" Joey asked.
Seto paused for a moment.
"I've thought about it, of course, but I don't think it's the kind of thing I want to write a script for, and I'm not the type to memorize a poem to recite or anything like that. I'm just going to wait for the right moment, then tell her what she means to me and ask her the question. Honest and to-the-point."
Joey shrugged and nodded, leaning back in the rocking chair.
"You really aren't upset?" Seto asked. "This is your last chance to be honest."
"No," Joey said, responding more quickly than Seto would have expected. "I'm really not."
Then came the pause that Seto had expected before. Suddenly uncomfortable, he distracted himself by examining the ring for the millionth time.
"I'm sort of nervous, I guess, but I'm not mad at anybody," Joey continued finally. "I didn't really realize it until everything went down last year, but I almost see Serenity as like… my kid as much as my kid-sister, if that makes any sense."
Immediately thinking of Mokuba, Seto nodded.
"Believe me, it makes sense."
"Well, anyway, I guess I just have all the same hang-ups a parents would have about something like this. Is she too young? Is she going to be happy with this forever? Will it change the way she and I interact with each other? You know. That stuff."
"But nothing about it being me?" Seto asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Believe it or not, no," Joey admitted with a chuckle. "Which sounds crazy, I know, but I'm just being honest. With all that happened last year - the scariness and the hospital visits and everything - I guess you really proved yourself, whether I wanted to admit it or not. Bottom line is, all I ever wanted for Serenity was somebody who would encourage her to follow her dreams, let her stay close with her family and friends, and love her like crazy. I guess you fill the bill after all."
Seto found himself smiling a little in spite of himself as Joey got to his feet.
"Ugh, I gotta get moving or I'm gonna fall asleep before the party even starts. Hey, I got an idea: let's take a picture of Rosie with the ring!"
Though he initially thought the suggestion sounded a bit ridiculous, Seto found himself inclined to give in after giving it another moment of thought. Joey knew Serenity well, after all - maybe it was a keepsake she would find cute. Shrugging, he gently removed the ring from the box and held it out to his daughter.
Rosie's eyes immediately brightened at the sparkle, and she reached out a chubby hand and seized the ring immediately. Once it was in her possession, she stuck her thumb through it and gazed, enraptured, at the diamond.
"Uh-oh, you've got a material girl on your hands," Joey said, laughing. "Whenever I see Mai look at jewelry that way, it usually ends with me dropping a month's salary. Gimme a second to get the camera set up here…"
Joey pulled his phone out of his back pocket and held it up. Seto watched as he moved a few feet to the left, then the right, presumably trying to block the glare of the light coming in through the nursery windows. Finally, it seemed like he got a perspective that met his approval.
"Hey Rosie - baby girl… ! Look at Uncle Joey! Yeah, just like that. Gimme that smile!"
Joey snapped a dozen or more pictures, then lowered his phone to look at what he had captured. Seto stepped forward to look over his shoulder and was about to comment on one of them, but at that moment, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.
Rosie had started to lift the ring toward her mouth.
Realizing at the same moment what was about to happen, both men lunged forward in tandem in an almost choreographed move of desperation. Joey snatched back the ring, and Seto immediately grabbed a set of plastic toy keys to replace it before the baby could realize something had been taken away and decide it was the time for a tantrum.
Once the moment had passed, they exchanged a guilty look and Joey handed back the ring. Seto pushed it back into the cushion in the box and put the box safely back into his pocket.
"Well, that was almost bad," Joey said, laughing nervously.
"Yes… I'd rather not have to save my proposal until the ring turns up in a diaper. How about we don't mention this to Serenity?"
"Way ahead of ya."
"...happy birthday to you!" the chorus finished, dissolving into claps and cheers.
"Can you blow out the candles, Rosie?" Serenity asked the toddler on her lap, where they sat at the head of the table. "Let's blow together!"
To nobody's real surprise, it ended up being just Serenity who blew out the single gold candle on the towering cake. Rosie, even if she had been able to understand what was taking place, was entirely distracted by the sea of faces and decorations surrounding the table. She kept looking back and forth between her father, her uncles, and the rest of the group, her eyes wide with awe.
"Yay, good job!" Serenity exclaimed, helping Rosie clap her hands together. "Did you make a wish?"
The baby only gurgled happily, but at that moment, Seto leaned over and placed a hand on Serenity's right arm.
"If you don't mind… I actually have a wish."
The room fell silent. Joey and Mokuba exchanged a knowing look, but everyone else seemed entirely caught off-guard - Serenity perhaps most of all.
"Okay," she said, laughing a little. "Um… what's up?"
"Well… two years ago, almost to the day, I walked into a coffee shop to get my usual order and was caught off-guard by a new face behind the counter. At the time, I thought the biggest change that was going to come from that was the earl grey tea you managed to talk me into. I was wrong - to say the least."
There was a quiet wave of laughter around the table. Down near the end, Téa's eyes widened, as though she might have caught on to what was taking place.
"Between then and now, there have been a lot of moments of uncertainty and fear, and I've made mistakes and acted in ways that were frankly unworthy of you and the gift you were giving me," Seto continued. "I hope that in the time that's passed - as much as it's possible - I've made up for that and proven I can do better."
"Seto, of course you have," Serenity said softly, shaking her head. "You don't have to - "
"If that's true, then my wish is… that you'll say 'yes.'"
Looking away for just a moment, Seto reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. He put it down on the mint green tablecloth and slowly opened it up.
Seeing what was inside, Serenity gasped and raised a hand to cover her mouth.
"Serenity Lorraine Wheeler," Seto said, gently taking hold of her left hand, "will you marry me?"
Serenity froze in disbelief, staring down at the ring within the box. Though everything within her screamed that Seto - and everyone else - was waiting on the edge of their seats for a response, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the delicate band with its ring of diamonds and huge, pink-tinted center stone. She also couldn't seem to wrap her mind around the enormity of what it symbolized.
This man - who had so unexpectedly become her best friend, her source of strength, the axis on whom her world turned - wanted her, forever and ever.
Lifting her eyes and meeting Seto's gaze, she found her voice.
"Yes!" she exclaimed. "A thousand times, yes!"
Once again, the table erupted in cheers. Seto slid the ring onto Serenity's finger, where it fit as though it had been made for her.
By that point, everyone was out of their seats, clamoring to get a closer look and congratulate the couple.
"Come on over here, you little munchkin," Mokuba said, leaning over and groaning as he picked Rosie up off Serenity's lap. "Mommy and daddy have some celebrating to do."
As soon as Rosie was out of the way - busy digging her fingers into the top tier of the cake, which Mokuba seemed to be encouraging - Mai leaned over Serenity's left shoulder and grabbed her hand to get a better look.
"Cushion-cut champagne diamond - about three carats," she proclaimed. "Stunning clarity for a colored stone. There's about another carat and a half's worth of white diamonds in the halo."
"So it meets your approval then?" Téa said, laughing.
"Yes," Mai replied. "Joey, take notes!"
"Take notes, how about 'take out a bank loan?'" Joey groaned.
Still, he was smiling.
"Hey, let's crack open the champagne!" Duke exclaimed, grabbing one of the bottles that lined the center of the table. "This is a day to celebrate!"
"As if you need an excuse to get drunk," Tristan called from the back of the room.
"As if you'll be far behind me!"
Yugi looked on, smiling, as the champagne bottle was passed around and everyone took turns fussing over Serenity's ring.
"Good thing Rosie's not old enough to realize that you two have totally taken the spotlight," he teased.
"I think Kaiba was just trying to save money by making two parties into one," Joey suggested. Looking up and seeing the scene in front of him, he sighed in frustration. "Hey, Mokuba, give me the baby - she's getting frosting in your hair."
Somehow, amidst all the chaos, Seto and Serenity managed to lock eyes again.
"Are you happy?" he asked softly.
"Yes," she replied. "The happiest."