Wings of Avalon: Yes! That was the main thing I wanted to get across in these last chapters - healing. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. You're right, it's hard, and it doesn't always look like we think or hope it will, but they're all healing in their own ways.

coolmegan123: Thank you! I'm so glad you loved it!


I don't know if I'm ready for this. Are you guys? Maybe you are, maybe you're like "oh my gosh it's about time that this series was finally over" lol. I guess I do feel that way, in a way, but I'll also miss it and miss all of you! Anyway, I'll save the rest of the mushiness for the final notes, which will be coming in the next few days. Enjoy this last chapter!


Epilogue

Perspective - Meli

Six months later

I was prancing anxiously next to my bike when I finally saw Riku crest the hill in the distance. It wasn't that he was late, the boy was hardly ever anything but right on time. It was more that my excitement had ushered me out the door fifteen minutes early, and therefore I had been standing on this corner of sidewalk long enough for that excitement to turn into nerves that tingled all across my body every time I thought about what was going to happen. Periodically Liv would butt her head up against my leg as a reminder for me to keep breathing, poor thing unsure whether or not she was about to have to use her training to pull me out of a panic attack. I scratched behind her ears absentmindedly as I watched Riku's bike glide closer, with Sora and Kairi right on his tail.

"Livvy!" Sora cried, abandoning his red bike before it had completely come to a stop in favor of rushing at my dog and throwing his arms around her. She licked at the back of his head, the only thing she could currently reach, and he snickered.

Groaning, Kairi ditched her bike as well, but only to grab Sora's arm and yank him back to his feet. "When are you gonna learn you're supposed to ask first? Yes, she's a cute puppy, but she has a job to do and you're distracting her!"

Sora rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry, Mel."

"It's alright." I smiled at him. "You can pet her right now."

His eyes lit up, and he immediately dove back down to his knees, ruffling Liv's ears with both hands. She was all too happy to lap up the attention. I was her favorite person, of course, but in the past two months that she had been a part of my life she had gotten just as attached to all of my friends as they were to her. Though I was pretty sure she had a special spot in her heart for Riku. Maybe it was because he was around me the most, or maybe it had something to do with their shared job of taking care of me. There had been more than one occasion that both of them had sat with me through a flashback or panic attack, each applying grounding pressure and offering support in their own way.

Secretly, though, the position of Liv's second favorite person belonged to Dad. It had been his idea initially for me to get a service dog, though Mom had been the one to do most of the research and most of the pushing me to go for it. And even though he claimed he 'wasn't really an animal person', he was constantly slipping her little bits of whatever he was eating. Therefore automatically earning him the title of Liv's second favorite.

"Who's the sweetest doggy in the world? You are!" Sora gushed, then whispered, "Don't tell Pluto."

I smacked him on the shoulder. "Come on, Sora, not in public, you'll mess up her rep. You know she likes everybody to think she's tough."

A Doberman Pinscher hadn't been my first choice of dog breeds. There were several choices for good PTSD service dogs, including "cuter" ones like Golden Retrievers and Labs, and I had been leaning toward those to start with. But through many discussions with Riku, Kairi, and my parents, I had realized that something more "guard dog" like was exactly what I was looking for, and Liv really had ended up being the perfect match.

Strangers thought she looked scary. Whenever she and I went walking through a crowd, everyone gave us a wide berth, so I didn't have to be so hyper-vigilant about who might be out to get me. And if anyone did ever threaten us, growling and barking from a Doberman was a lot more threatening than some of the other breeds.

But really, it was just like Sora said - she was the sweetest dog ever. She'd rather get a belly rub than fetch a ball, but she was always up for hanging out with me while I was training. At night she took up three-fourths of my bed, but she woke me up from nightmares by kissing my hands and face. And she had the puppy dog eyes down to a science when she wanted love or food.

"Hey, Sunshine." Riku wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me in for a kiss. "How was your day?"

"Pretty good. I was having a hard time concentrating, though. Too excited. How was school?"

"That's understandable," he smiled. "School was...meh. Same old." He kissed my forehead, then leaned in close to my ear. "Did you take your meds?"

It was a valid question. There had been a period where I was known to randomly stop taking one or both of the pills that Annaisha had prescribed me without telling anyone, just because I didn't like some of the side effects. Of course, the results of not taking them - especially quitting cold turkey - had been worse than anything else, but I was stubborn and had a hard time remembering that in the moment. Eventually, though, we had been able to get the dosage right so that the side effects weren't so bad, and I was happy with where I was.

Riku still asked me every day. At first it had annoyed me, and we had gotten into a big argument about whether or not he trusted me. Now, though, I saw it as the caring act and gentle reminder that it was.

"Yes," I whispered back. "Did you take yours?"

It was a joke and a serious question all at once. There had been talk of putting him on anxiety pills at one point, but he'd ended up doing well with continued therapy and adding yoga into his training regiment. Starting his days off with that period of relaxing, stretching, and clearing his mind had done him a world of good, and I now sometimes referred to his yoga sessions as his medicine. He was, in some ways, a different person now. Staying at home, focused on ourselves and each other instead of on saving the world was exactly what all four of us had needed. Seeing how happy he was these days made me want to cry.

"Yep." Straightening, he tipped his head toward the small building we stood in front of. "Are you ready?"

Suddenly the butterflies were back, and I had to take in a deep breath to keep myself from starting my nervous dance back up. "I...I think so."

"You're not backing out, are you?" Kairi asked, hands on her hips.

I shook my head vigorously. "No way! I wanna do it still. It's just…"

Riku crushed me in closer. "We know. You've got this. And we'll all be right there with you."

"Yep!" Sora jumped to his feet and struck a pose with his arms raised. "We're your team! Go Meli, go Meli, go go go!"

We all laughed, and I looked down at my dog who was watching us with detached interest. "Well, Liv?" Her attention immediately shot to me, her ears perked forward. "I guess it's time to go in."

The shop was brightly lit and blessedly quiet when we entered. The latter was thanks to Dad, who had done his overprotective father/'I'm the mayor I might as well use it' thing and come in with me the week before to make sure the owners would make all the accommodations that I needed. It was embarrassing. I still didn't like to be coddled and fussed over. But I was slowly learning to take care of myself - and in turn, let others take care of me sometimes - so I didn't complain too much. Besides, I really wouldn't have been able to get through this if he hadn't done so.

I was finally doing it. I was getting a tattoo to cover the scars on my back.

One of the things they had done was make sure my appointment was at a time where the shop would be relatively empty. That hadn't been exactly necessary, but it did make me more comfortable, especially when I thought about baring my skin in front of other people.

We had also introduced them to Liv, and made sure it was alright if I wore noise-cancelling headphones during my appointment. Mom and I had finally pinpointed buzzing sounds as a trigger for me, so it was important that I could block out the sound of the tools.

"Ah, Miss Meli. Welcome back!" The lady that walked out from the back room had also been a special request of ours - there was no way I would have let her male partner work on me.

"Hi, Ellee," I waved.

"I've got your final design here. Wanna check it out?"

"Yes!" I eagerly stepped up to the counter and took the paper she held out to me. When Dad and I had been there we had provided her with Kairi's sketch of the flowering vine and a photo of my back that Mom had taken. Ellee had promised to work on a layout that would cover everything I requested while staying true to the look of the original, and it seemed she had delivered.

"This looks great." I smiled up at her, holding the paper a little farther to the side so the others could see from where they had crowded behind me. "I'm really excited!"

"Alright, well let's get started, then!" She gestured back toward the chairs farther into the shop, then led the way to the one in the back corner.

Riku, Kairi, and Sora got settled into their own chairs, with Riku's being the closest to mine, while I got out of my shirt and covered myself with a towel. Walking out like that was actually the most nerve-wracking part of the whole process, but my friends had all promised to look away until I was settled so that I wouldn't have to think so much about their eyes being on me. Once I was in the chair - I was so glad that they had chairs I could sit backwards in, instead of having to be flat on a table - Ellee took her place on one side of me while Riku and Liv planted themselves on the other. Liv's warm fur was beneath my palm, and Riku's hand was rubbing softly up and down my arm, his smiling face right in my field of vision.

"You ready?" he asked.

I took another steadying breath, then nodded. "Yeah."

"Remember, just signal me if you need a break," Ellee said.

"And I'll be keeping an eye on you, too," Riku reminded me.

"I know." I took the headphones that Kairi offered me and settled them over my ears, smiling at the beginning song of my playlist I had created for the occasion that was already going. Then I gave Riku's wrist a squeeze and Liv's head one more pat. "I'm ready."


Three years and four months later

The sun was bright on the horizon, casting sparkles over the crests of the waves. A chill shook my shoulders, and Riku pulled me in a little closer, dropping warm kisses onto my skin from the nape of my neck along my shoulder.

It had been a while since we had gotten to go on a real, formal date like this, so I had dressed up a bit for the occasion. A teal dress, with a high scoop neck in the front but a plunging back to show off the delicate flowers that branched out there. Sparkling silver earrings, longer than I usually wore them, hanging just out from underneath my short-cropped hair. Grim had hardly been able to take his eyes - or hands - off me all evening, and even after all this time that still gave me shivers down to my toes.

"Hey," he said softly in my ear, "let's walk up to the tree."

I smiled at him. "Okay."

Leaving our picnic blanket and empty basket behind, we held hands and strolled slowly to the shed, up the stairs, and out over the bridge. None of us spent much time on the play island anymore, but it still kept a special place in each of our hearts. There were so many memories.

The first time I ever saw the beach in person.

Meeting Xion.

Saturday morning training sessions.

Date nights like this one, tucked into Riku's side with his jacket wrapped around me.

Introducing Kaj and Zeph to my home, though that was quickly ruined by Xemnas.

Coming back to this view anytime I needed solace.

A party with all of our friends, and finally letting go of so much fear.

"You alright?" Riku's voice broke into my thoughts. I swiveled to look at him, noticing we had arrived at the top and were standing next to the crooked paopu tree.

There was another memory - the day that he brought me here to share a paopu fruit. Neither of us knew whether it would actually somehow magically entwine our destinies, but it represented hope, and a promise.

"Mm-hm. Just remembering."

He smiled softly. "Yeah. There's been a lot of good and bad along the way, hasn't there?"

Sighing, I rested my head on his shoulder. "Mostly good, though. A few years ago I didn't think I'd ever say that, but...it's been mostly good."

He kissed the top of my head. "Can you believe we've been together four and a half years?"

"Seems like just yesterday, but an eternity at the same time."

"You're right." He shifted, turning to face me and taking my hands in his. I looked up into his eyes, and his face was shining with an emotion I couldn't quite place. "It's...it's not enough for me, though. Meli, I...I want you for a lifetime. You have been the best thing in my life for these past years, more precious than anything I could have ever imagined, and I want it to keep being you and me, together, for the rest of our lives."

As soon as I started having an inkling of where he was going with this, my heart started pounding in my ears so loudly that I could barely hear him anymore. I wasn't sure if my feet were still touching the ground. But when he let go of my hands in order to drop to one knee, pulling out a small, black box, I immediately stopped breathing and started crying.

His eyes shone almost as brightly in the waning light as the diamond ring in his hand. "Meli Yoshida...will you marry me?"

My hands were clasped over my mouth and I didn't think I could speak, but I somehow sobbed out the word "yes" anyway. A great big grin broke out on his face, and that gave me the clarity I needed to say it again. "Yes! Oh my gosh, yes."

I wasn't sure how he even got the ring on my finger, I was shaking so much, but he did, and then my arms were full of my fiancé.

My fiancé.

I was never gonna get tired of that word. At least not until I got to call him husband.

My feet really did leave the ground then, because Riku was swinging me around in a circle. I was laughing and crying all at the same time, my mind still in such shock that the whole situation didn't seem real. But it was. We were engaged. We were getting married.

He placed me down on the ground again and grasped my face in both hands, smacking a kiss onto my lips. "I love you so much. You have no idea how nervous I've been."

I laughed brightly. "Did you really think I could say no?"

"Well, I sure hoped not!" He laughed, too, then caught my hand and held it out to admire the ring. "Do you like it?"

"It's beautiful. Perfect."

"You're perfect."

"No, you."

He captured my smiling lips in another kiss, this one lasting much longer than the last. I was going to get to do this every day for the rest of my life. Every morning I'd wake up to his handsome face, and every night I'd fall asleep in his arms.

It was the greatest happily ever after I could imagine.

Finally breaking off the kiss, he rested his forehead against mine. "I love you, Grim," I whispered.

"I love you, Sunshine."