Disclaimer: Not mine, not even when they live in my room and take up my bed and eat my food…

Disclaimer: Not mine, not even when they live in my room and take up my bed and eat my food…

AN: OhmiGod – look! It's…. it's an ending!!! But gee, guess what, I'm already writing another one… ;O I can just hear you, yelling for me to stop already…! ;)


Walking The Dividing Line

Part 20

Epilogue

"Have you thought about changing your name?"

"Hm?" I twisted around to look at Quatre, pulling the large welder's goggles up off my eyes, blinking at him in the shadowed crevasse of Sandrock's Cockpit. We were crammed back-to-back into the tight space, working together to reconnect the controls for the left arm back into the cockpit's motherboard. The connections had been fried during his last mission, when he'd had a close call with a missile. The arm had been a mess – it had taken a week of full-time repair to get this far.

"Changing your name," he repeated, eyes flashing through the goggles he was wearing; his cheeks were smudged with grease. I was sure mine were as well. "I mean… I know you're not even really who you used to be. And maybe… it would be easier to forget. Not that you haven't," he added quickly. "But… a new beginning. Maybe you deserve that."

I smiled. He was always so concerned….

And then my mind turned to his words. 'A new beginning…'

"No…" I mused, still turning his idea over in my mind, considering the option he'd just presented to me. "You're right… I'm *not* whoever I was… and I won't ever be that person. I'm not Alison anymore – at least, not the person she started out as."
Quatre nodded, turning around momentarily to pull another piece of solder from the roll behind him. "Just something I was thinking about," he said softly.

I nodded, and pulled the goggles back over my eyes.

"I don't know about deserving that," I said, turning back around to my half of the cockpit, "but I can't say I wouldn't like it."

* * *

"Koji."

Quatre and Trowa were sitting at the kitchen table, discussing something about their next mission. Two pairs of green eyes rose to meet mine as I spoke.

"Koji?" Quatre repeated.

I nodded.

Trowa was silent for a moment more. "Orphan," he said, as if turning its meaning over in his mind, testing it.

Quatre looked from his companion back to me.

"I thought it kind of fit," I told him, shrugging slightly. "Since I'm kind of an orphan after all of this. In a way. It's hard to pick a name – especially for *yourself*. You have no idea!"

He smiled at that. "I think I like it," he said after a moment.

I smiled back. "Well, then, I guess I just have to see if it sticks."

"Koji," Quatre smiled, before suddenly standing up and coming over to me, standing in the doorway. "But you know, you're not really an orphan anymore."

I blinked at him, surprised by his soft tone, by whatever I saw in his eyes.

"You're welcome here for as long as you want to stay, you know that," he went on.

I nodded. "I… I know. But thank you. For everything, Quatre. You – I owe you my life. More than a few times over."

He shook his head slightly, the soft kitchen lights flashing through his irises as he did so. "Forget about it," he replied. "You don't owe me anything. Just be happy."

I nodded. "I am. I like it here. I like helping you guys. I like being worth something."

He was still smiling. "Well then," he said, "welcome home, Koji."

The End