Yuri's face began to ache.

Selfie after selfie after selfie- there would be at least five hundred pictures of the prolific writer uploaded to Instagram that day, all with people she never expected to be reading her books. Young people, old people, small children. Even gruff, muscular men admitted to be reading her novels on the job. Who could've guessed?

After signing yet another novel for a man who looked like he was affiliated with the Yakuza, Yuri leaned back in her uncomfortable folding chair. "Wow...," she let out in quiet wonder. "I could've never imagined you reading my books. I must've really struck a chord...ah!"

MC pressed a can of cold Boss coffee (not sponsored) to his wife's cheek and she flinched back in happy surprise. "Told you so."

She pouted. "Hmph. Don't look so smug or you'll be sorry."

He sat down next to her and they both took a swig of well-deserved coffee. It was getting late after all. It was stated on the event page that the panels would close at five pm, but as avid writers and readers do, each interaction wasn't just a signature and a selfie. No, they asked interesting questions and she gave interesting responses like a game of professional tennis until the person next in line became annoyed. Or at least until MC shook her shoulder a little bit to snap her out of her literary flow, much to his displeasure.

And it meant that most panels had stayed for five hours more, even when everything had been sold out and pens had run out of ink. There were just so many people who wanted to meet every single author in that convention.

"Darling, can you see if Sarah could lend us another pen?," Yuri asked, rummaging through her- no, their stock. "Those glittery purple ones- dear? What's wrong? Why're you smiling like that?"

"Huh? I'm just happy. I can't be happy?"

"Absolutely."

"I mean...God. Isn't it so...surreal? How did you do it? How does anyone sell 120,000 copies of anything? I read that fewer than 500 novels sell more than 100,000 per year."

Yuri began to blush in sync with MC, who had nothing but her in his mind.

"And it got me thinking the same thing. What you're writing about...the stories you tell? It must really resonate with everyone."

"I guess. Did it resonate with you?"

"...something like that."

"I can't really smile too hard because my face hurts...haha. But I'm just as happy too. Because finally, finally, finally, finally! I paid you back for all those years you took care of me."

"Uh yeah- I can't have you making more than me," he quipped. "Makes me look bad, y'know?"

"Oh dear~!," she giggled. "I'm going to make ten times more than you! Who knows what I'll have you do...sleep at the right times...eat healthy food...stop working so much...?"

"How emasculating."

"And then I can invest some money into your company and then you can make ten times more than me and then we can...I don't know. Have a kid? Or two?"

The air turned sour. Of course, this wasn't the first time either Yuri or MC had thought about the idea. They knew each other inside-out and backwards. MC knew that Yuri had gotten a taste for life the moment she fell in love, and from then on she was addicted. And getting married, having a child, becoming a good writer, wife and mother...it was only the natural progression she had to follow to get her fill.

But it came with a condition. One that they, especially MC, was made aware of a year back. It was permanently etched in his mind, and on one of their lifeless faces was the face of their future-child.

"Oh..." Yuri realized what was up. "MC I'm really sorry I-"

"-it's okay. Sorry."

"I was just...thinking out loud."

MC sighed with a shaky breath. "I want this to happen. But...I...God, they just died...out of the blue. And I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself if that happens to our kids."

"It won't. I promise."

"Y-Yeah. Maybe moving someplace else might help. After we felt like we've had a good foothold in our careers."

"I'm ready when you're ready darling."

"You've really thought this through huh? What if I get cancer or something-"

"-then I will beat it out of you myself. There is nothing- absolutely nothing! That you can do to- oh, hi there! How are you? Thanks for reading my book!"

And soon enough, a line that looped back around on itself formed at their table, mostly consisting of businessmen and women who worked late and heard that the convention was still open like an illegal gambling scene. And they all had dog-eared and bookmarked purple novels in their hands.

Game face. MC threw their coffee cans in the bin before making himself useful.

"...daddy daddy! Don't let go!"

"I gotchu kiddo."

"Anna, wrap the string around your finger like this. You don't want your balloon flying away now."

"Mommy, can we have ice-cream?"

"How about it Nick? Has Anna been a good girl?"

"Hmm...no."

"What?! I've been good! Stupid daddy!"

"I don't make the rules sweetheart- ow! Ow! Okay! Okay, chocolate fudge sound good then?"

She felt a pang of emptiness inside. With a small box of pens, damaged books, letters and gifts tucked in one hand and a cigarette in the other, Monika couldn't keep her eyes off them. Even when the mother noticed and asked her if everything was okay- if she was "waiting for someone or needed a ride home?" She didn't say a word and just stared. At least, until MC appeared behind her holding a bigger box of more stuff from the convention.

"You ready to go?," he yawned.

She turned around with a smile. "MC! Yup, totally ready~!," she sang. "I didn't forget anything did I? Oh! My scarf!"

"You're wearing it. And what did I say-" MC swiped the lit cigarette from her fingers. "-about smoking? I thought you were going to quit?"

"I'm wearing my scarf?"

"Monika?"

The brunette giggled. "MC? Where's Yuri? Still cleaning up? Maaaan, that girl needs to take a break. Must be exhausting being married to her right?"

"Umm...no," he clarified. "You can't be exhausted if you already were in the first place. And for your information, we're actually thinking about having kids sometime soon."

"Really?! Wow MC! That's ambitious!," she exclaimed. "But wouldn't you need to buy a house first? And how could you support the kid with Yuri's career being as chaotic as it is?"

"I...ah. I'm sorry," he sighed.

"What for?"

"I shouldn't be talking about this. I know it makes you upset."

"Upset? I'm not upset."

"Remember that party we went to on August? Well, you got seriously fucked up and started clinging onto me and saying all sorts of things."

"Like...?"

"...like how my marriage makes you pissed."

It was no stretch of the imagination- Monika couldn't remember a time when she didn't end the night either drunk or drugged. She looked down at her feet and idly drew patterns on the ground with her toe. "You dummy. Of course it does," she sighed. "I love you. Always have, always will. And it hurts when I'm not there with you."

"Hm."

"But...I know how happy she makes you. That's what this is all really about, isn't it? If I really loved you, I would let you decide who to love and who to spend the rest of your life with. And...and anything else is just selfishness on my part."

She locked eyes with him. It was clear she was holding back tears.

"So...yeah. Please please please. Keep Yuri happy. And don't become miserable like me."

"You don't have to be miserable. You can find someone else to love."

"That's the thing MC," Monika groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Do you know how long I was trapped in DDLC? Sure, you could describe it in years or decades, but whatever you're thinking, it was infinitely longer. All by myself. Not knowing when I'd leave like Yuri or Nat or Sayori...I'd pretty much been broken until there was nothing left of me."

She noticed purple in the crowd of people streaming out of the convention hall, and leaned closer to MC.

"And then you showed up," Monika whispered up at the man. "How could I not love you? Half of me is pretty much made out of you."

"I get that, but I'm married. To someone else. What other choice do you have except find someone else too?"

Monika, for the first time, laughed like MC had told her the funniest joke in the world. "Ah...I don't know. I want to believe in love. I want to believe that marriage is worth suffering for. I guess we'll find out huh?"

The bottom half of Yuri's face was hidden by an even larger cardboard box. "You guys ready to go?," she yawned in the exact way MC did minutes ago.

"Yup! Let's go~!"

AN: Thanks for the kind reviews gonzaleznael18 and Ga1acticGeek! Sorry for the lack of chapters, I've just been wrapping my head around this story. I couldn't really figure out how to bounce off chapter 10, so I figured hey just do a one year time skip.