Enjoy. I should have the epilogue up tonight as well.

It had been a few months when he was finally given the job at the new restaurant. As much as Shin cared for the pottery shop, he needed to get out of it. It wasn't his thing anymore. Also with him working elsewhere forced Sayoko to start working again. He saw that she was starting to feel better and was more open to talk.

He and Martin still e-mailed each other. It was always the same question; was he coming back? Martin joked that if Shin didn't return that he'll fly over to drag him back. Oddly enough, Shu was making the same threats of kidnapping him to bring him to Tokyo. Then came the awkward third wheel in a chain of horribly written, English e-mails between Martin and Shu. At least Shin felt loved that his two best friends fought over him, as weird as it was to have two men fight over him.

For the time being, Shin was laying in bed looking at a picture of him and Gabby. He really felt bad about leaving and he tried to get her to talk back to him, but he always received nothing.

He was waiting for the game to come on. Ryo told him that he and the rest of the national team were heading overseas to play a friendly match and that it was going to be on TV. A hundred and something minutes later, Shin and Claudia found themselves standing on the couch waiting to see if their team would pull off the comeback. The other team was currently attacking. Coming up to try and take it away, Ryo made the tackle, tripping the guy.

"Red card? Are you serious?" Shin was now jumping off the couch, "That was a bullshit call."

Claudia even pitched in, barking.

"Tell them, girl." He then sat down on the couch with a thump, "Oh, it's already time to get ready for work."

For the most part, work during the week wasn't too bad. There were not many problems until that Saturday night. Shin had decided that some asshole was just trying to mess with him. The customer had ordered a rare steak, and then complained that it wasn't rare enough. Sighing, Shin decided to not fight it and just redo the meal. When it was brought back for a second time for the same reason, Shin gave the waiter a glare.

"Did you tell this person that if I cooked it less, it would just be raw?"

"I told him that." The waiter said, not happy about the night.

"Fine, I'll redo it and then I'll take it out."

Taking another steak out, he let it sit on the grill for a second before flipping it over and doing the same. Shin then walked out, heading to the table. From afar it was a party of five but since it was in a corner with a separating wall, he couldn't really tell who was there. As he got closer, he started to notice that Ryo, Sayoko and the kids were sitting there. For a moment, he thought he saw Nasuti also sitting there, but she was on vacation and the woman's hair was lighter than Nasuti's. Then he just realized that the last person was the one person who told him that she'd never leave Europe. Looking back at Ryo, he saw that the warrior of fire was giving him a huge grin.

"Thanks buddy. Byauken prefers his steak raw."

Shin then gave him a glare, "I cooked one of the best cut steaks for a tiger?"

"Yep, oh, if you still have the other ones, I'll take them too, but more cooked."

The two kids were now laughing at their uncle's face that he was making. He was about to asking why she was here, but Ryo read his mind.

"Yes, it was a trick to get you to come out from back there, and the two of us ran into each other in the airport. She was looking lost, and I just happen to be there to catch a taxi. When I recognized her, I told her that we'd come surprise you."

"Looks like you did." Sayoko said, showing a smile.

"Thank you, Ryo." Shin said, bowing his head.

"It's my pleasure. I couldn't just leave her there, confused out of her mind."

Because of work, he couldn't really stay and talk. For the rest of the time though, he felt butterflies in his stomach. He had given Gabby his key to his apartment. And he expected to hear something about leaving so he made sure to rehearse what he was going to say.

Knocking on the apartment door, he calmed himself as she opened it. Claudia was heard barking as she was excited.

"Gabby, I'm sorry about leaving so quickly and I brought some ice cream and…"

She was giving him a smug look as she interrupted, "Shin, just come in and kiss me."

"Yes ma'am." He grinned.

THE END

…Almost…

Sitting on a couple of lawn chairs, soaking in the sun, Seiji and Touma were enjoying the view. Well, Seiji was because Touma was dying to say something. Seiji didn't understand why it was taking his friend so long to spit it out though. So, he spoke up first.

"Okay Touma, you're squirming over there. What's on your mind?"

"You know how I said that I wasn't going to have any more kids?"

"Oh jeez Touma, do I have to explain sex ed to you and why protection is important?"

"No, I just want to know why it just happens even though we were being careful."

"Okay genius, I'll explain to you very carefully."

"No, I know why, I just want to know why?"

"You have bad luck."

As to add salt to the wound, a kid bumped into Touma's chair, spilling his drink on him.

"Oh, what the hell?"

Seiji started laughing. For punishment, Touma kicked his chair over.

"What the hell?"

"Haha, you spilled your drink." Touma pointed.

"You're a dead man."

"Please don't. I have two kids and a third on the way."

It then turned into a wrestling match, with Seiji standing over him squeezing Touma's nose.

"Boys."

Both of them looked up to see their wives shaking their heads.

"Tom, you're worse than the kids." Carla said.

Touma gave her a nasty look. As she continued to rip into him, he realized that Seiji and Nasuti somehow escaped.

"Seiji, you bastard!"