10 years later
Hiro wakes up to a feeling of a soft breath tickling the base of his neck. Looking down, he finds the two alluring horns of his companion staring him in the face while she herself remains sleeping peacefully, clinging to him amidst a sweet dream.
Lifting himself up slightly, careful not disturb her, he gazes out the window at their bedside, as the sun peers over the mountains on the horizon and the new day begins, the glow of red, orange and blue being cast across the sky above them. Their small apartment in the sky-rise building gave them ample opportunities to marvel at views like this one.
His eyes then wander to his ring on the nightstand, accompanied by the congratulatory card given to them by their high school friends. The cover had made him smile a bit, but internally he was groaning after receiving it.
'We know you're a bit hornier than the rest of us, but don't get too ahead of yourselves!'
A cheesy pun that also served to tease them, an unholy combination the eight of them had found amusing apparently. Hiro appreciated the thought regardless, however. He still couldn't get over the air of familiarity each of them had, the likelihood that they were among the nameless and faceless characters of his past that he'd never truly remember had become more and more prevalent in his mind. A sad thought, but deciding not to dwell on it, he returns his attention to the girl who was the center of his universe instead. This time he finds her staring up at him with tired eyes.
"Why are you awake?" Zero Two sleepily mumbles.
"Because I like to watch you sleep." He says half-seriously.
She groans and tucks her head back against his chest.
"Weirdo."
A comfortable silence falls between them for a few moments before Zero Two speaks up again.
"I want it to be tomorrow already..."
Hiro smiles a bit.
"Hang in there, it won't be long before we're on the beachside somewhere far away from here; today will be gone before you know it."
"I don't like that either..." She says.
"Hm?" He tilts his head.
"If the day goes by too fast, I won't be able to enjoy my time with you as much..." Her conundrum now apparent to him.
He laughs and can feel her smile forming against his chest. Deciding it was time for his day to begin,he attempts to raise himself up, but she holds him in place.
"Five more minutes?" She pleads.
Hiro pauses and then relaxes himself back onto the bed. Five more minutes it was.
The prick of a needle entering her arm causes her to wince, and she tightens her grip on the hand of her husband. She bit her lip, trying with all her might to avoid looking at where it was sucking the blood from her body.
"That should do for now," the doctor announces, removing the syringe.
Zero Two patiently watches as the doctor places a band-aid over the hole in her arm.
"I hate this place..." Zero Two grumbles.
Hiro leans over to plant a kiss on her forehead.
"Almost done, and then we can go get packed and ready for tomorrow, okay Zero Two?" He whispers.
She hums in approval, tucking her head into the crook of his neck, absentmindedly fiddling with the golden band on her finger with her thumb. Zero Two eyes the blue-haired doctor curiously as he inserts a veil of her blood into a machine next to his computer, patiently waiting for the results of the exam to appear.
"I'd ask you to avoid the PDA in my office, thank you," the man calls.
Zero Two huffs, and orientates herself so that she can sit up straight on the cushioned exam table.
"Fineeee," she begrudgingly responds. The more cooperative she was, the sooner she could leave this dreadful place.
The doctor then turns to face them, a warm look in his one, operational, dark brown eye.
"We really can't thank you two enough for everything you've done," the man states. "I was beginning to doubt that we'd ever find a reliable method of controlling the expression of YBCs genome."
He shakes his head.
"To think we originally thought it was only because your YBCs were completely inactive that you were able to survive with such high concentrations. You two truly are miraculous."
"Yeah, yeah, can we go yet? Being here the day before we leave for our honeymoon isn't exactly what I had in mind." Zero Two complains, becoming more impatient.
She was well aware of the good they were doing by participating in the research and donating blood samples, but that didn't mean she had to enjoy being in that cramped, uncomfortable room that only brought back bad memories. It was made worse by the fact that she couldn't even indulge in the affections of her darling without being chastised like a child.
The man chuckles at her response before turning back to examine the data that had appeared on the computer screen.
"Hmm," he lets out, voicing his intrigue at something in the blood examination.
"Something wrong?" Hiro asks, slight concern in his tone.
"It appears Hiro will have to take over the majority of the test work for a while," Hachi states ambiguously. "Sakura, would you have an idea as to what hCG is?"
Zero Two's heart skips a beat at that question. She feels Hiro stiffen beside her, as her hands instinctively go to cover her now gaping mouth.
"You mean..?" Hiro questions.
"It appears we were worried about nothing after all," the doctor replies. "Klaxosapiens may have become sterile over time, but their original genetic code wouldn't allow for such a thing to be possible. It's only logical that you would retain your reproductive functions. It's not very often that we discover this sort of thing in a blood test, however, it seems we've run into an interesting coincidence..."
The man smiles earnestly at them.
"Congratulations, you two." He says, standing to leave the room. "I'm glad you'll finally be able to find the happiness you deserved."
The second statement was too quiet for Zero Two to catch, and she found herself unable to hold back the emotions welling inside her chest. Relief, fear, and overwhelming joy mixing into a tearful reaction as she throws her arms around Hiro.
Soon enough, an entirely unfamiliar chapter of their lives would be opened to them, a whole new story waiting to be written. They'll have their ups and downs, highs and lows, but Zero Two knows that as long as they're together, things'll be alright. After all, that's how it's always been.
AN: Short and sweet epilogue to finish things off completely here, It was a 50-50 whether I was going to put this out here, but I really wanted to completely wrap up my thoughts on this as I stated last time. I'm eager to move onto writing a new story, it's looking like a complete story re-write for the most part and I think I'm going to have a lot of fun writing it. Unfortunately, it will be a lot more time consuming than this story was and I'm running into a season where I will have a lot less time to write. This implies that updates won't be very consistent (I'll try to the best of my ability to keep them somewhat so) and far more paced out. That's all for my obligatory update AN besides a quick thank you to my beta-reading peers in Cerasus for giving me your early opinions and critiques!
Enjoy the rest of your summer everyone!