A/N: I'm on a roll lately! Maybe I can get the next one out even faster. Let's hope. No guarantees.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Yu-Gi-Oh GX nor the song with which this story shares a title.

Chapter 5

Aster POV

After having spent the majority of our morning and afternoon in our bedroom, Zane and I had to pull ourselves apart from each other if we had any hope of getting to Jaden and Jesse's on time. They wanted us there around 7:30 and it was currently 6:45.

"Zane, we have to get up." He only wrapped himself tighter around me. We hadn't even bothered with the blanket anymore and the only thing keeping us warm was the proximity to each other. "Zane, come on." He wasn't responding, more he was just being difficult, so I decided to make him respond. I slapped him dangerously low on his back just hard enough to make him jump up from the bed.

"Aster! What was that for?"

I got up after him and started to gather my clothing. "Excuse me if I don't want to be late to the party Jaden and Jesse are or so graciously throwing us." I had pulled on my boxers and through Zane's at him. "Now get dressed. Unless you want to go out in public wearing nothing.

"You don't seem to mind that."

"No, but only in the privacy of our own home." I walked up to him. "And who knows who would try to steal you away from me after catching sight of that body of yours?" I slapped him again and went into the bathroom to put myself together.

When I came out Zane had thankfully gotten dressed. I looked at the clock and it said 7:15. "Aster, it's about time you came out of the bathroom. I thought you were the one who wanted to get ready quickly."

"I wanted to get ready so I knew I'd have time to get ready properly. And now we can get there on time. If we did things your way, we'd never leave the bed you insatiable sex fiend."

He was ready to play along. "Oh, I'm the insatiable one am I. May I remind you that it wasn't who was begging-"

"Okay that's enough. Argument over." It was unnecessary to repeat anything either of us said in those moments.

He just laughed at me. "Aster, you get embarrassed so easily."

"Not my fault." Luckily he let it go at that point. "Let's go."

The drive to the apartment was much more comfortable and we had calmed down from our marathon enough to get in a mindset that we had to go out in public and not act like complete children.

We arrived and rang the bell only to be greeted by none other than Jaden and Jesse. They welcomed us and when we got inside we realized that we had been the last to arrive. At least we weren't too far behind the rest of them.

I took a look around and as it always went at Christmas and Thanksgiving, Jaden had made way more food than eight people could possibly eat. He made enough for thirty and we never ate all of.

Dana greeted me. She was wearing a red and white short sleeve dress that went down to her knees. She always had something to wear for any situation be it a meeting, a recital, or a party. She was always the best dressed out of all of us.

She walked back to Hassleberry as we took our jackets off and joined the rest of the group. They were all chatting idly, eating the food Jaden had laid out. If we didn't eat as much as we could, Jaden and Jesse would be dealing with more food than they could eat until the end of the year. Atticus didn't seem to mind the food. He always ate more than the rest of us. Occasionally Bastion would step in and tell him not to eat so much, but he was just letting Atticus eat for the moment.

Jesse had planned more this year than most years. He'd gotten all of us to bring a small gift for a white elephant which we had never done before. I ended up with a giant make up kit. When I had opened it every person started laughing, Dana and Hassleberry laughing the hardest. They were no doubt the ones who brought it. Leave it to Dana to get items none of us would ever need to use.

After everyone had calmed down, we all got up to clean up the paper. Jesse put all of it into a bag and told us all to make ourselves comfortable again. I had sat next to Zane just as Jaden pointed out, "Would you look at that? Atticus and Bastion are under the mistletoe!" All of us shifted our view towards where Jaden was looking.

Sure enough the two of them were standing by the Christmas tree under a mistletoe. "Jesse you didn't tell me you'd hung up a mistletoe."

Jesse shrugged. "I didn't think I need to."

The real question was whether or not Atticus and Bastion were going to follow the tradition of a mistletoe. We all stared at them, which honestly probably did not help them at all, but we want to see what they would do.

Bastion refused to look at anyone, obviously embarrassed. But after a few moments, Atticus looked between us and him and smiled. To all of our surprise, he gently grabbed Bastion around his waist and pulled him towards himself. And then he kissed him.

It wasn't a kiss of two people who were unfamiliar with each other. The two of them looked like they fit together, like they had done this before. And they held on to each other longer than two friends would have. What was going on here?

The two of them pulled apart and all of us could just stare. No one knew what to say. Of course Atticus always found something to say. He smiled and took his hands away from Bastions waist. He took Bastion's hand in his and laced their fingers. "So, I guess the cat's out of the bag."

It was Zane who actually spoke next. "So you mean you two are . . . together?"

Bastion rubbed his head with his free hand. "Yeah, if that's how you want to put it."

Dana was next. "How long now?"

They looked at each other. "Officially? About two weeks."

Officially? What was that supposed to mean? No one asked about it though.

"Well, I have to say that I for one did not see this coming." Jesse said what we were all thinking. It was true that they weren't exactly the ideal pair. I considered the rest of us. Zane and I balanced each other out. I had what he lacked, and vice-versa. We both had demons in our past, but neither of us cared about that. We knew we could trust one another and that we would comfortable doing anything with each other or saying anything to each other.

Jaden and Jesse were made for each other. They were so in touch with one another's needs and they looked out for each other. they knew when the other was unhappy the other knew immediately. Both of them had great attitudes most of the time and it made their company very enjoyable. I'm sure the two of them knew that they were two halves of a whole. They didn't balance eachother out in the way that one had what the other didn't, but more in the way that they were so similar, they couldn't help but be attracted to each other.

Dana and Hassleberry were the very definition of balance in a relationship, physically and emotionally. Dana was this tiny girl who looked like she could lift anything heavier than ten pounds. She was the shortest of all of us while Hassleberry was the tallest. He was a big guy, taller than zane and wide in the shoulders. He was a good foot taller than Dana and that was only physical attributes. Dana and Hassleberry brought out things in each other that neither of them knew about. Hassleberry made Dana more willing to have friends, and Dana made Hassleberry more willing to open up to everybody.

But Atticus and Bastion. Two people could not be more opposite. Bastion was the incredibly smart math and science genius who would be teaching scholars at the university level. He was an intellectual who loved knowledge and discovery. Atticus was someone who didn't really have a direction in life, not in the way that he was a deadbeat, he just didn't know what he wanted to do. He sold clothes at a men's wear store. And he's not exactly the next Copernicus. He wasn't into science and math. what ever one of them was interested in, the other would never associate with. How the two of them even became as close friends as they did was beyond us, but now in a relationship. I would not think of any possible reason the two of them would be attracted to each other, and yet they were. I wasn't sure if their relationship would last, but that's a risk they were going to take together.

We all got over the initial shock of that revelation and went back to enjoying ourselves. I ended up talking to Dana and Hassleberry.

"So do you and Zane have plans for New Year's?" Dana asked.

"Actually we're going out to a vineyard for the night and spend some time just the two of us."

"That sounds like a great way to spend the holiday."

She continued to talk after that, but I didn't really continue listening. I just thought about the coming year and what it could possibly hold for my future with Zane.

Less than a week later, Zane and I found ourselves back at his family cabin. The wine tasting had been that afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. That vineyard had high quality wine, some of the best I could remember having had tasted.

Zane I think enjoyed himself too. He isn't as much an appreciator of wine as I am, but he went with me and I loved that he was willing to step out of his comfort zone to make me happy.

We were laying on a blanket under the oak tree by the small lake in comfortable silence. I had my head against his chest and I held his hand in mine. He really cared for me, and I for him.

I had never had many people I cared so much for, other than my father, but he was gone now. I never thought that I would allow myself to open up to someone again after losing him, but I guess nothing ever really goes how you plan it to go.

"I love you." I don't really know why I said it. It was true, incredibly true. Maybe I was just reminding myself that I did love him. I don't know why I needed that reminder. Maybe I was paranoid slightly that I would lose him when I woke up and found out this was all a dream.

He just looked at me, but didn't say anything. Then he moved his arm to check the time. "11:58."

Was that inappropriate to say? Did I do something wrong? He always said it back. Always. I opened my mouth to ask about it, but she shifted and moved me off of him. "Zane . . . ?"

He looked nervous. What was going on? Once we were kneeling in front of each other, he grabbed my hands and sighed. "Aster . . ."

Oh no. No no no no. He wasn't breaking up with me was he? He couldn't. I didn't know what I would do without him. I had already lost the person I cared most about once before. I wasn't going to let it happen again. I wanted to ramble off reasons why I wanted to stay together with him, but in the end, I decided to just let him speak.

"Aster, it has been five years. Five of the greatest years of my life. For a while I was sure that I was destined for a life of loneliness." He paused bringing his hand to my face. "But then you walked into my life. And granted, we may not have had the best introduction, but once we moved past that, I realized that I was wrong about you. We're not so different. We have both done things we're not proud of, but that doesn't make us bad people.

"We became unlikely friends. We found a commonality in each other. A balance to what we were missing. My whole life I only ever had my brother and I ruined that at one point so I had no one. And I know that you had no one except your father for your entire life. And for the first time, we allowed someone new to breach our defenses. I never knew that I could meet someone who could teach me it was okay to let someone in, let alone let my self love someone as much as I love you. And I never thought I would be so lucky as to earn the love and devotion of someone as great as you. You are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. I am only twenty five years old, but I can't imagine anything in the rest of my life can compare to your companionship."

At this point he'd let go of me and reached into the pocket of his coat. It gave me a split second to think about what he was saying. He wasn't breaking up with me? Who would give that speech and then break up with someone? What was he doing? I could feel my heart pound in my chest at the unknown of this situation. I loved Zane, with all my heart, and I knew that as long as I had him, nothing would come between us. I looked back at zane and he had pulled a small box out of his pocket.

"Aster, I am not perfect, far from it, but you have given me the privilege of your love, but I want to know if you will give me the privilege of letting me be your husband? Aster, will you marry me?"

I was shocked, utterly shocked. I knew I loved Zane and that he loved me, but I had not once given thought to marriage. It just never seemed like something either of us would the type of person for. And yet here we were. Out on this lake at the start of new year, Zane holding this ring out in front of me waiting for my answer. And I just stayed silent. This was something I never thought would happen, and now that it was, I couldn't help but be excited. This was the start of the rest of our life. We had many years ahead of us and it all started with this promise that no matter what happened, we'd love each other for the rest of our days together.

I slowly took his face between my hands and looked him in the eye. "Yes."

The look on his face was ecstatic. I don't know how long he'd been planning this, but now, that didn't matter. He offered me the rest of his life and now I was willing to offer him the rest of mine. "Yes, Zane, I will marry you."

He slowly removed the ring, a plain silver beautiful band, from the box. His hands we shaking so I steadied them with my right hand. I helped him settle the ring on the fourth finger of my left hand and it felt perfect, as if it was something that had always belonged there, but that I had been missing for twenty-one years. We looked at each other and we kissed then, our first kiss as an engaged couple. Zane was no longer my boyfriend. He was my fiance. It was passionate and loving. It was the signature on the promise we had just made to each other.

We pulled away and Zane pulled me closer to him putting his forehead against mine. He wrapped his arms around my waist and said "I love you. God, I love you so much."

I buried my fingers gently in his hair. "I love you too, Zane."

We didn't say anything more after that. We only kissed again. We expressed our care for each other in the most basic of ways and I couldn't think of anything else I could have possibly wanted. He pushed me down on the blanket and pulled at my shirt as I pulled at his. In that moment, we both needed each other in the most intimate way possible. It was something both of us trusted each other in doing and now, it seemed like words simply could not express the way we felt anymore.

And in that moment, nothing mattered any more. The only thing that mattered was that I had Zane, and Zane had me. And nothing could change that.