Epilogue: Empty Chairs for Invisible Girlfriends

*The two were quiet for a very long time. Both perched on the end of one of the small beds, staring into the vacant white wall in front of them. Neither had any words to share with the other, and neither would have wanted to share even if they did. Their silence, though long and unbroken, was comfortable. Both of their souls had grown old together in the short months they had been in the past, and the level of understanding had passed the need for spoken words and gestures.

"It still hurts Hiiro?" Serena finally whispered to him, questioning what they had both been thinking.

"It will take a long time to let the pain fade. My body aches."

"You mean your heart aches."

"So does yours, I'm not the only one who is still being hurt by the past. Serena, what if we get home. Will we both be this way, unchanged?"

"I should be asking you that question. As your friends said, we are the same soul, trapped in different bodies." Hiiro snorted, and Serena tilted her head to look at him, breaking her stare at the wall. "What?"

"I believe they said it in a less graceful manner. In fact, I believe Duo suggested you were the 'female Hiiro'." Serena gave him a tiny side smile.

"So he did. But the question still remains. Are we even the same people we were before we traveled time?"

"Absolutely not." Hiiro nodded. "I cannot go back to who I was. I came here to find peace of mind, and it was shattered. I've had my realization that no matter where I go, or when I go, every human society is the same. There is no perfect place or time."

"If there was, don't you think we would have found a way to replicate that utopia on a world wide scale in our present? History… history is what we make of it. It is the way events and actions men have taken all skewed and biased. But our present, well, we are living it. In a way, the present is better than the past because not only do we learn from our mistakes, but we can create our own. We can't do that here."

"I'm not the only one who's changed. You're more talkative."

"I have someone I trust to talk to." She blushed and traced the pattern of the bedspread between them. "It makes a big difference."

"Agreed. So neither of us are the same people as when we left. And both of us wish to go home. But I suppose the biggest question then is, if we can get home, will we act differently when we get home, or will we revert to who we were?"

"I don't know. Our time… it scares me. I like to study history because it's tangible. There are facts, artifacts, bones, and set dates. I already know what happened. Our time, well, I don't know what's going to happen, so I get scared." Hiiro finally tore his eyes from the empty wall and looked at Serena. Her head was bent, locks of gold cascading down over her shoulders and face, hiding her expression from his vision. Very gently he reached out and took hold of her hand, which was still tracing the pattern on the bedspread.

"I'll protect you." Serena's head shot up, and her electric blue eyes opened wide in surprise at Hiiro's conviction. Could he… did he… She stopped. Looking at him, reading his eyes, the way he implored her with them, the worry lines that were etched softly into his forehead, the tiny crinkle between his eyebrows, the way he held her hand gently within his… and she knew. He was telling the truth. So many times had he already saved her life during this trip, ad now he was offering to do it for the rest of life. Part of her was ecstatic. He was offering to protect her! And the other half thought how did she know she could trust him? The two sides battled, her unsure self losing to her more confident side.

And then she had a revelation. She was tired just as Hiiro was. She was tired of fighting to hide. It had been a constant battle hiding from people, making sure she would never get hurt emotionally had taken its toll on her physically and mentally. Well, she was tired of it all. Tired of running. And Hiiro offered her a safe alternative to her outdated lifestyle of reclusion.

"You'll protect me from life?" She repeated carefully.

"You and I both know you don't want protection from life. You want protection from being hurt. Emotionally." Hiiro narrowed his eyes. He knew what she needed, and he wasn't about to be overstated. While he had said protection, he was never going to allow her to hide behind him form the rest of the world and the people that resided within it. But he also knew that she didn't truly want that type of protection any longer. Her head no longer dropped, he could read her eyes clearly as they shimmered, his reflection shining in her unshed tears. The innocence she radiated blew his mind. Her eyes, bright and untouched by the hell of real war, her skin, pure and ivory without imperfection, her slightly parted pink lips, dropped in awe of his words. Everything about her warmed his heart and intensified his feelings ten fold.

"As long as you can protect me from some of it… I can learn to deal with the rest. But I need someone there, someone I trust to fall back on…"

"Serena." Hiiro growled. "We're here together, and if we get home, we'll be there together. You fall, I catch you." Serena didn't answer, but brought her small hand up to Hiiro's face. He shuddered slightly as her soft, warm hand cupped his cold cheek.

"And I promise you Hiiro…you will never feel as much pain as you have in your past."

"I believe that." Hiiro told her, catching her gaze. "Because all you have to do is tell me that, and my pain instantly dulls and I feel as if I've just woken from a nightmare; complete relief washes over me." Serena smiled.

"Such a sweet talker."

"Maybe I just have someone sweet to talk to." Hiiro smirked. Serena pulled her hand away from his cheek and pushed his chest away. They both broke into laughter and fell back onto the bed. Serena turned to lie on her side, and Hiiro crawled up behind her, placing his arm across her waist and pulling her into his body. And they lay, peaceful and sweet together as a gentle sleep over took them.

)(

"Are we sure we want to do this?" Catherine frowned. "It just seems wrong. Destroying the time machine? Why can't one of us try to use it, or, or…"

"Cathy, don't make this any harder than it already is." Trowa placed his arm around her shoulders. Together the couples of the Gundam pilots and their girlfriends watched over the lifeless hunk of machinery that had changed their lives so drastically.

"Please, can we just get this over with?" Hilde closed her eyes and squeezed Duo's hand. Duo was already openly sobbing into her shoulder. He had lost his comrade, his best friend to an error in human intelligence. Damn the machines, damn human intelligence, and damn himself. He might just as well have sent Hiiro on the mission that had ended his life!

"Duo, this was not your fault." Wufei placed a hand on the braided pilot's shoulder. The Chinese warrior was allowing a single tear to fall as he spoke his words.

"It was no one's fault. No one could have predicted this would happen." Dorothy told them gently.

"But if I hadn't suggested that we even build the machine… Hiiro and Serena might still be here today."

"Quatre, no one forced Hiiro to go. No one forced Serena either. In fact, we warned them about the danger numerous amounts of times. There was only so much we could do. Hiiro has always been stubborn, and Serena knew what she was getting herself into." Trowa tried to console his friend.

"Please, can we just finish it already?" Hilde pleaded, still watching Duo weep freely into her shoulder.

"Is everyone ready?" Sally asked as she stepped up with a giant gun.

"Wait. I want to say something." Duo sniffled. "It's only fair that I be the one to give the eulogy. Hiiro. I don't know where you are, or when you are, or even if you're still alive. But I pray that you are, I pray that you've found happiness. Hiiro, you never told us why the fifties. And I don't care anymore. I just wish you were home with us, your comrades. Our team isn't complete without you, and it will never be complete again.

"No one can ever replace you, whether it be physically in Wing, or in our team, or in our friendships. No one will ever be able to hold a gun to my head the way you did. No one will ever be able to be so unemotional as you were, no one will ever be as cold. Compared to you, no one will ever be so much as close to perfection. Hiiro, you were Perfect. Never doubt that. And I'm only sorry I couldn't measure up to your standards.

"We decided that in honor of who you were, we would destroy the time machine with a gun. It's our way of giving you a soldier's burial. It's what you deserve, what you would have wanted. Buddy, we'll always miss you. Amen." Duo, who was still sniffling, turned around to see that there was not a dry eye in the room. Every single pilot, from Wufei to Trowa to Quatre and himself, as well as Hilde, Dorothy, Sally, and Catherine was crying unashamed for their dead friend.

"Beautiful." Quatre sniffed. "Alright Sally, go ahead and blow it away." Sally cocked the gun and just as she placed her finger on the trigger, she heard a voice.

"No, stop." Trowa forced her to come a halt. "One more thing. I want to set the time back to the present. That way he died here, not in some unknown place in some unknown time."

"Good idea." Wufei nodded. Trowa stepped forward and punched in the date, AC 202. Then he stood back and sighed. "Alright. Now you may—" The room lurched and suddenly the air in the room, which has laid stagnant before, swirled around as if gusts of wind had broken through. Just as suddenly as they had kicked up, the winds disappeared, and everything was still for a moment more. Then the lights flashed on and off briefly, and everything in the room shut off. Wind kicked up once again, and finally, when it died down for the second time it appeared everything was over.

"What the hell was that?" Wufei screamed.

"What happened?" Dorothy breathed.

"Is everybody alright? No one was hurt?" Quatre voiced his concern. After checking to see that everyone was just as they had been before the strange phenomenon occurred, he then surveyed the room. And gasped. When the rest of the group heard him gasp, four guns were drawn and aimed immediately at the direction to which Quatre's eyes were glued.

Standing within the center of the room were two familiar figures. A chocolate colored mop of hair framed very dangerous prussian blue eyes as they glared around the room in alarm—gun in hand. Within the man's free arm stood a short, petite woman with waves of sun-kissed blonde hair cascading down around her and big oceanic blue eyes opened wide in surprise. She leaned in closer to the man on instinct, and he held her tighter for good measure.

"It can't be…" Trowa gasped. "Hiiro…"

"Hiiro?" Quatre whispered. Hiiro instantly lowered his gun.

"Quatre. Duo. Trowa. Wufei. Sally, Hilde, Catherine, Dorothy." He acknowledged each of them in turn.

"Hiiro!" Duo yelled. Running from Hilde's arms, he threw himself at Hiiro. Hugging the stoic boy as tightly as he could, he caught Serena up in the hug too. "You're alive!" Soon the others joined in, hugging the quiet couple as they tried to recover from the shock of being surrounded by familiar faces.

"What the hell happened? You're alive! And back! How?" Quatre wondered as tears of joy clouded his eyesight.

"Don't know how it worked, but we definitely just traveled time again." Hiiro confirmed. "It looks like we're back Serena."

"Serena…" Hilde breathed. "You're so different looking… so much prettier…" Serena flushed.

"What happened to you two?" Wufei asked impatiently.

"We traveled time—to 1945, occupied France. Then we were shot forward in time to 1954 France, and went to America. And now… we're back here." Serena shrugged lightly. With Hiiro supporting her, facing people wasn't nearly as hard as she had imagined it might be.

"You mean… it worked?" Hiiro nodded.

"I assume you changed the correct dates on the machine, which allowed us to change times?"
"Possibly…" Trowa muttered. "We did change the times from 1945 to 54, and then to AC 202. Incredible. So Hiiro, you made it to the fifties. Was it everything you had wanted to find?"

"The fifties… nothing is perfect Trowa." At Hiiro's words, a few glances exchanged between the pilots.

"Found a new mentality Yui?"

"Yes." More glances were exchanged. Hiiro's actions were highly unlike him, down to the point where each of the boys secretly wondered if maybe he had been brainwashed.

"We thought you were dead…" Catherine mumbled, breaking the silence.

"But we're not. We're home." Serena smiled lightly at her.

"Optimist." Hiiro muttered in her ear. She smiled more brightly and looked at him.

"Maybe the glass is half full after all; who really knows?"

"I know I want a shower. And a bed." Hiiro grumbled.

"You can have anything you'd like…" Quatre told him, breathing slowly to make sure he continued to breathe. Hiiro was catching him so off guard that he was forgetting a few important functions. "We saved your old room for you, just as you left it." Hiiro nodded.

"Thanks." He then turned and took off down the hall.

"Serena, I can have a room ready for you too, if you'd like…" Hiiro stopped in his tracks at hearing Quatre's voice talking to Serena.

"I would appreciate it very much, thank you Quatre." She managed. It really wasn't so hard after all.

"She would appreciate it, but I need to speak with her first. Which room Quatre?" Hiiro intercepted the conversation. Quatre paused a moment, slightly taken aback. Then he smiled.

"You can put her in the room between Catherine's and yours Hiiro. Serena, you're welcome to stay for as long as you'd like."

"Thank you."

"Quatre, dinner still at six thirty?" Hiiro asked.

"Still. Nothing's changed… will you be eating with us? For a first time?"

"Yes." With that, he lightly tugged at Serena's hand, and she followed him out of the darkened hanger and back up into the finely furnished mansion.

Up the carpeted steps, over expensive Arabian and Oriental rugs, past classic Greek and Roman sculptures and vases, through halls decorated with vast paintings done by Renaissance artists, all the way to a hall that was decorated with old Japanese and English swords. Broad swords, katanas, bokens, cutlass', machetes, all littered the walls. Hiiro ducked them into a room that had two large katanas above the door. Quickly he closed the door behind them and locked it. Only then did Serena have the time to look around.

Hiiro's room was furnished in black and mahogany. One wall was entirely made of shelves, and it was host to a number of books on weapons, tactics, and other such paraphernalia. His bed rested against another wall, and the sheets were pulled up, staunchly made to perfection—not a single wrinkle showed. The black drapes were drawn across what looked to be a large window with a balcony, and a desk the sat in the far corner was littered with paperwork and computers. There were two small armchairs near the window, and Hiiro had instantly picked one to collapse in.

"Your room?" She asked unnecessarily. He nodded.

"My room."

"So what did you want to speak to me about?" She asked curiously.

"We're back."

"I noticed."

"I don't know. Maybe I just wanted to have you to myself before you begin taking on the world. You're already more comfortable with my comrades."

"You talk about them so much I feel as if I know them. I do fee more comfortable talking to them. But you were there too… it's not so hard when you're around." Hiiro smirked and grabbed her waist. Pulling her into his lap, he wrapped his arms around her.

"You'll be staying for a while. A long while."

"If that's true, I had better see my room." She told him gently.

"Later." He shushed her. Serena looked at him skeptically for a moment, then lay her head upon his shoulder.

"Alright. That just means I'm sleeping here for now…"

"Good." Hiiro smirked as he closed his eyes too. "We're even now."

)(

"Well, Hiiro did say he'd be down for dinner… he even made sure it was still at six thirty. So where is he? And Serena? I haven't seen her all day either."

"All I want to do is catch up with my buddy. I want to know how time traveling was, what he did and saw, and why the fifties. Other than the fact that they were Perfect. And I want to know what happened to Serena. If I didn't know any better, I'd say Hiiro gave her a fashion sense!" Duo snorted.

"Duo! How rude!" Hilde slapped him.

"Sorry babe. Pass the peas please." Hilde passed him the bowl his eyes were so intent upon.

"It's almost as if nothing has changed. We know Hiiro is here, but he's not here at the table with everyone else. It's odd, but strangely comforting in a way."

"You call that comforting Catherine?" Dorothy laughed. Suddenly the room grew slightly cooler, and seemed a little smaller.

"Hiiro, Serena, you made it!" Quatre smiled at them. They both nodded, and Serena gave him a small smile. As they rounded the table, Hiiro pulled Serena's chair out for her, and she thanked him as she gracefully slipped into it. He pushed it in and took his own seat. The table was silent with awe.

"You know Serena…" Hilde broke the silence. "We used to have a joke about the chair you're sitting in."

"Really?" Serena asked, looking down at her empty plate.

"We used to joke it was saved for Hiiro's invisible girlfriend."

"Guess she's not invisible tonight." Hiiro muttered loud enough so that the table heard him. Serena simply smiled, and Hiiro smirked. "Quatre, the blue bedroom is still open."

"So Serena's not staying? Oh, that's too bad." Quatre choked on his words.

"I never said that. I just said the bedroom was empty."

"Hiiro…" Serena gave him a reprehensive glance, and he stopped.

"Wait just a darn minute Yui. You expect us to believe you went to the past, fell for the historian that went with you, and are now back, talking, and have a girlfriend? Not likely." Wufei snorted.

"Why not Wufei?" Sally asked, grinning like a maniac.

"It's just not Yui! There's no way! Nothing in the world could convince me."

"Nothing?" Sally prodded her boyfriend.

"Short of a kiss? No. And that's laughable." The table's occupants began to chuckle, all save two. Hiiro growled lightly, and Serena simply blushed.

"Is that so Wufei?" Hiiro snarled playfully. Then he grabbed Serena's hand and forced her to stand with him.

"What's going on Hiiro?" She whispered, a little nervous.

"Just proving a point." Hiiro told her objectively. Then he looked at the table for a second, as if sizing it up. After a moment, he took his arm and swiped at everything on the table, knocking it out of the way. Taking Serena, he flung her into the table and wrapped his arms around her neck, pulling her head into his until his lips crashed upon hers. Sweetly and delicately, but with brutal force, he swept through her mouth, loving the tingling in his lips, the heat building in the rest of his body, and the lightheadedness that was associated with kissing Serena.

Serena allowed his attack as elegantly as she could, being sat upon a table and plundered before a crowd of people. Every last inch of her body craved the touch of Hiiro's skin against her own, and the maddening drive to have more brought her to a level of ecstasy which she had only dreamt of before. Moaning sweetly into his mouth, she let him know just how much she adored the feeling of being wanted this way so deeply.

When they finally broke from the kiss, Serena smiled at Hiiro and ran her fingers through his messy coffee colored hair. "Sweet talker." She muttered.
"You don't look so invisible to me anymore…" He groaned back, wishing he had kept their kiss up much longer. When he turned back to Wufei to gloat in victory, he found he had no need.

The Chinese pilot sat with a napkin plastered to his face, shock and awe etched into every muscle. "Wufei, when you have a bloody nose, you're supposed to tilt your head back. I know Hiiro and Serena are very interesting, but it's for your own health…" Sally tried not to giggle as she lectured her boyfriend.

"My girlfriend is not invisible any more." Serena giggled, and Hiiro smirked. Not that she had ever been invisible to begin with… *

The end.

~~~Well everyone, that's it! My final chapter for my final fic. For now. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I'm sorry it's taken me so long. Was it worth your wait? I certainly hope so! Please review & tell me what you thought on a scale of 1-10, 1 worst, 10 best, and why!~~~

~~~I know that it may seem like I'm leaving ff.net for good, but that's not true! I'm still an avid reader, and I keep up with everything going on in the site. I just need to take a break from writing for a while. I will be back though. I know everyone seems to think this is it. It is, but only for a while. I will make a come back, so always look for me! And yes, I promise to keep my stories up on ff.net for everyone always! I still have two other on going fics as well, so I'm not gone completely yet. Just look for me, and I'm easy to find! Much love and thanks to you all for your support, Vixen ~~~