"Are you sure this is the right place?"
"Yeah, I think so."
The school was just like any other high school. The neat, brick building stood tall in the middle of a upper-middle class neighborhood on the southernmost end of Florida. Birds chirped loudly in the trees. People strolled down the sidewalks with smiles, friends, excited pets, and an overall content mood. I was familiar with it all.
The first flight out of Manaus just happened to be to my home state. But we'd been laying low here for so long that Manaus was nothing but a distant memory.
But our actions were still going viral. After a devastating forest fire was finally contained in the Amazon, someone discovered the charred remains of Luka's home. At the same time, the drug world was thrown into chaos, since no one was in charge of managing or distributing anymore. The authorities had only just discovered the undercover mission of Skye. With Miku gone, all sorts of confusion had been raised there as well. The world had still not connected the dots between the events of Meiko's death, Skye's destruction, and the Amazon forest fire, and maybe they never would. But we didn't care. From our comfortable hotel room, we watched all of it unfold in the news. Even if they did discover everything, they would never know it was us that did it. This heroic act wasn't our aim. Only a positive side effect of our final contract. And we took pride in it.
Flower had already launched off to Kansas, which she preferred over her original choice of Texas. Her flight left two days ago.
Anon had left even sooner than that. Yuma's forged certificates had obviously impressed some doctors over in Norway, whom offered Anon a job right away. Not that, after our final mission, we needed jobs. Splitting up our money six ways would make us the six richest people alive. Jobs were just for show.
After teary goodbyes, she left the next day.
Kanon had left for Quebec that morning, with Yuma soon to follow. He was at the airport now.
That left Rin and I.
Before he'd left, he was able to give me some extra information on my family at my request. After all the effort he drove into developing Rin and I's lives so quickly after we escaped, I was surprised at his willingness to grant me one last favor.
But we had to hurry. Our flight to Cambridge was leaving in two hours.
Rin was hurriedly accepted to college there, while Yuma found me an animation company to work for. Not entirely my expertise, but I was excited. Once we landed in the new country, Rin and I's first step would be house hunting. The second step would be taking a trip to Kettlewell to clear out our base. Yuma arranged for our cut of the cash to be there, as well. We were going to need a big house to fit all those money bags.
"I don't think security is gonna like us creeping around like this," Rin warned. We walked along the sidewalk, hand in hand. Her bitten arm was long since cleaned, wrapped, and well on its way to healing.
"We're not gonna be here for very long," I assured her. "I promise."
She didn't say it, but it was obvious she was concerned someone would recognize me. I eased her worries a bit with my hat and sunglasses. After all, this was my high school.
But that wasn't why we were here.
Yuma, while doing his check up on my family, discovered that my little sister had made it out. She was off living with some other relatives in the state. She'd escaped the restraints of our controlling parents and was now living the normal, teenage life.
And she'd chosen my high school.
Was it the news of my death that motivated her to leave? Did she choose this school because of me? Did she ever think about me? Did she even remember me?
Unfortunately, I was unable to ask her any of these questions.
"Is that her?" Rin asked, pointing to a girl sitting on the steps in front of the entrance.
I shook my head. "Nope, not her."
"What about her?" She pointed to another blonde sitting among a large group of snickering teens.
"Nope."
"Her?''
I laughed. "You're just pointing out all the blondes."
"Well how am I supposed to know?" She said defensively. She pouted adorably. "What about her?" Her voice had lost most of its enthusiasm in her pout.
I followed her pointing finger, ready to dismiss another random girl. But, to my great surprise, sitting in the grass with two other girls, was Lily.
I hadn't expected to find her at all, let alone so quickly.
Her hair had grown so long. Mom never let her wear her hair down and last time I saw her, it was pulled into a neat bun behind her head. The stiff, tense expression she wore everyday at the dinner table was gone. In its place was a happy, relaxed smile. She chatted with her friends happily.
"That's her," I confirmed with a sigh.
Rin's pout changed to curiosity as she looked over the girl. "She seems to be doing good."
"Yeah,'' I agreed. "She is."
The palm trees swayed in the gentle breeze. The salty smell of the nearby ocean filled my senses. Fluffy clouds flowed through the clear blue sky, casting the occasional cool shadow on the ground below. I took a deep breath. It was a perfect day.
"Len," Rin tugged at my hand. "We should… probably go."
Lily laughed with one of the girls next to her. She was sitting far away, but the heartwarming sound was just audible.
"Yeah.'' I smiled down at her. No more missions, no more enemies, no more secrets. We'd never have to worry about whether or not we'd live to see the next day. I'd never have to kill another person, never have to watch Rin be attacked and hurt, never climb fifty floors of godforsaken stairs. In fact, with this year behind me, I didn't have to do much of anything anymore.
Except be happy with my girl.
I squeezed her hand. "Let's go catch this flight."
I felt a short, simple ending would suit this story best. I had another ending in mind that I may write and post as an alternate ending in The Collection short stories, but for now, this is it.
Wow, what a ride. It feels like I wrote this so long ago and I'm only just now posting it. I'm sorry again for the wait guys, I just started college and life has been crazy. But I am still planning future fics, and I have a TON of ideas. More than I can write. Anyway, if you guys have any requests or anything, let me know! Maybe it'll inspire me some more :)
And, as always,
Thanks for reading! Love you guys!
