Last chapter!

"You definitely didn't plan on this, did you?" hisses Hirako, clapping Ui on the shoulder. The smell of gardenias and lilies and roses is almost overpowering, but that's what Hairu wanted.

Ui shakes his head. "Tsukiyama insisted."

"Yeah, I figured." An almost-smile twitches over Hirako's face. He's wearing a dark suit. "Congratulations."

Ui swallows and nods. His parents didn't come, not that he expected them to, or even wanted them to. He does plan to mail them a picture of himself and Hairu and Masanori, just in case they want to see. They can burn it, or they can throw it away, or they can keep it.

Karren appears next, arching her eyebrows. She, too, is dressed in a tux, but with diamond earrings. "It's time, Bowl Cut."

Ui scowls at her. He tugs at his sleeve, hanging loose.

"If you hesitate, I will hunt you down and skewer you," Karren warns. "Fuck those new ghoul laws and everything everyone is working for."

Ui glares. "I wouldn't even think of that! That wasn't it at all."

"I know, idiot." Karren blows out her breath, sending lavender hair flying. "I'm teasing you."

"It wasn't funny," he informs her. His palm, slick with sweat, slips against the material.

She shrugs, playing with one of her earrings. "It doesn't feel real or something?"

Ui blinks.

"Yeah, I know how that goes," Karren says. She glances at her shoes.

With Tsukiyama?

"I loved him for so long," she admits. "Practically from the first time I saw him."

"When she called me my first name," Ui says. "By mistake. She was so embarrassed—and I told her it was fine, I didn't mind. And she was so skilled, and she laughed all the time, and—" He stops.

Karren gives him a small smile.

We can relate, Ui realizes. A human and a ghoul. An investigator and someone whose family and later household were killed by ghoul investigators he commanded.

"It's time," Karren repeats, and this time Ui lets her lead him out to the wooden altar in this small church where he waits. Stained glass shows images of a baby in a manger, a god rising from the dead. Ui's lungs constrict in his chest as Tsukiyama plays the piano.

And the doors open, and Hairu appears, Arima holding her elbow and escorting her. But she's looking at him, not at Arima. She doesn't so much as glance at Arima when he slips away and Ui takes her hand. She looks like a princess, lace draping her.

"Touka told me ghouls get married by leaving bite marks in each others' shoulders," Hairu reported, changing into her pajamas.

Ui froze. "No."

"Why not?" Hairu giggled, climbing on top of him. Her lips brushed his shoulder, her teeth scraped his skin, but she just kissed him.

His voice trembles, and Ui realizes he has tears in his eyes, but so does she.

"Since you said I can call you Koori, does that mean I get a promotion?" Hairu chirped, years ago. She dunked a melon bun in coffee.

"No!" Ui burst out, aghast.

"Soon?" She batted her eyelashes, stuffing her mouth with the melon bun. "Wiff ew ash mah pahnah I fink—"

"Talk with your mouth closed!" Ui squawked.

Hairu swallowed, but made no apologies. She just grinned at him. "With you as my partner, I think I can get promoted pretty soon. I heard you're a great investigator. The hope of the Arima squad." She winked, and Ui felt his face burning, and kicked himself. No, no you don't, Koori!

"You may kiss the bride."

Ui lay there, the second night they spent together. Hairu slept with her back to him, and he listened to her breaths, slow and steady. You really want to be with me?

At the very least, he knew it wasn't a one time thing. And while part of him kicked himself for getting involved with a younger colleague like this, part of him still felt like he was floating, because she initiated. She wanted to be with him. And she was such a good person, and his biggest fear was that he didn't deserve her.

She's smiling. And her green eyes are glowing, and she's looking at him like the sun's shining from him when it's really from her.

Ui presses his lips against hers, hand pressing the small of her back. You really do want me.

You love me.

I love you.

Someone who sounds an awful lot like Shio lets out a wolf whistle, and another voice that sounds like Hajime tries to copy, but fails. Ui's face burns, but Hairu, she laughs.

"Well," Eto says. "The twerps got married."

Arima nods. He's happy for them. And the world he and Eto gave everything to build—their humanity, their goodness—it might just come to fruition.

Arima's chest tightens. He rises and walks over to them, passing what sounds like Kaneki trying to get a very pregnant Touka to eat more, Akira laughing with Takizawa, Mutsuki drunk and giggling and and teasing Urie, and Higemaru and Aura protesting a makeout session that's likely between Saiko and Hsiao. He hears Fueguchi Hinami and Kirishima Ayato laughing together, and Yomo Renji's voice, and then his laughter stops.

Some will never forgive him.

He doesn't fault Yomo.

Arima makes his way towards the head table, Eto holding his arm and guiding him. "Congratulations," Arima says.

"Thank you," says Ui.

"I'm—" His chest throbs again. "Really proud of you both."

Ui sucks in his breath.

"Thank you," Hairu says.

Arima nods, and then he walks away.

The RC cells they're giving Hairu, Masanori, Hsiao, Kaneki, Mutsuki, Urie, Takizawa, and Amon should slowly their aging to normal rates for years. Kimi offered it to Arima too, and he's been taking it mostly because Eto yelled at him too. But he's already old enough, and the effects of aging can't be reversed. He probably doesn't have long to live. Maybe a few years. Maybe ten, if he's lucky.

He's surprised how much he hopes it's longer. Furuta's still kept under lock and key for now, a prisoner. Hearing his brother scream about how he didn't want to live every single day pokes Arima with memories. He wants Furuta to live. I'm no better.

"But she still wants to be with you," Furuta sneered. "Everyone worshipped you. They hated me."

"I don't hate you," he said.

"I do," commented Eto.

"Can we go somewhere quiet?" Arima asks Eto. She acquiesces, taking him to a different room. He groans and eases himself down.

She grabs his hand. "Thank you," he ekes out.

For being there.

For not leaving.

Her fingers press his face. You made life worth living again.

He remembers her losing her father, watching as he died in that tank. She hadn't said anything to him, but he felt her hand stiffen in his grip, and that night, she curled up and didn't want to talk. Just like he doesn't want to talk now, because the relief is so great. He didn't ruin everything for Ui and Hairu.

Eto's lips find his, driving in. Neither of them are good people. Maybe that was the fairytale all along, that they could be good, when all they could do was love and live. "That dumb Kirishima wants to have us over for coffee next week," Eto mumbles in his ear.

Touka. Kaneki really found someone special. "Sounds good."

She stops, leaning her head against him, and she's enough, or part of enough. The air smells like her hair and flowers and singed wicks. He hears so many voices around them. Hirako's. Shio's, and Yusa's, and even Rikai's. Kaneki's. And he hears Masanori, giggling.

"I don't know how to feel about being back here," Hairu says.

Ui nods. His hand rests on her shoulder. She leans against his chest. He's still self-conscious about his missing arm, but she doesn't care. She helped him change the dressings for weeks, and now it's healed, but scarred.

Mutsuki stands to Hairu's left, Urie's hand on the small of his back. He's not wearing his eyepatch. Akira sits with some of the children, watching them paint. Takizawa helps one child tear the petals off a flower.

"Amon has some things to figure out," Akira told her. "With Donato and all."

"He still needs to learn that he can love him and hate what he did," Ui said to her after he spoke to Amon.

"Since when did you learn that?" Hairu teased, and Ui looked across the old CCG office they were standing in, straight at Tsukiyama and Karren.

Flowers bloom all around them. Pink roses, iridescent hyacinths, white lilies. But there's still no laughter. It will take time, Hairu thinks.

"This place is strange," Ui comments, looking around. She hasn't been there since the night they rescued Ui and Masanori.

"It's nostalgic being back here," Hairu responds, crouching down. She sets Masanori's feet down. He's too young to walk, but he can stand up if she holds him by the waist. He reaches for a daisy and plucks the petals off, throwing them in the air with a laugh. "Silly Melon Bun."

Juuzou's been working with some of the kids left here regularly. Kaneki said something to her the other day. The soul is healed by being with children. It's from a Russian writer he likes. If there's any hope for the world, it's through these kids. Which is why they've all been visiting as regularly as they can, and also working with the Oggai. Today Mutsuki and Urie brought about five of the Oggai, including Hajime, to meet the Garden kids. So far it seems to be going okay. At the very least no one has tried to kill anyone.

"This was no place to grow up," Ui says, voice quiet. "It was wrong."

Hairu looks up at him. His eyes smolder, and she knows that if there was a time machine he'd travel back for her. But there's no need now. "But I survived it." She wouldn't go back even if she could. But if she had to, she would choose not to grow up here.

Ui nods.

"Hey," says Takizawa.

"Hey," says Hairu, looking up at him. Masanori waves. Takizawa blinks, glancing around as if Masanori must surely be waving at someone else. But he's not, and Takizawa swallows, sheepishly waving back. The baby giggles. "You're taking Kimi's medicine, right?"

Takizawa nods. He stuffs his hands in the pockets of his baggy pants. "Not sure what the point is, though."

"Why not?" Hairu demands. She scoops Masanori up and stands. Ui frowns at the ghoul.

"Someone like me," Takizawa says. "Others deserve it more. But Akira asked me to, so."

"Because she wants you to live," says Hairu.

"I know." He sighs. "People still look at me like—you know."

"I do know," Ui says in a low voice.

"Huh?" Hairu blinks.

"Furuta told me—when I was in prison—about being a murderer," Ui ekes out, the word clearly still bitter for him to say. But true, and right to say, and if it was right, Ui would do it. "Of ghouls—still murder. I just thought it was right, but it wasn't."

"Mr. Justice Ui Koori considers himself a murderer?" Takizawa snorts. "Give me a break."

"You're a smart-ass," Hairu retorts.

"Hairu, the kid!" Ui cries.

"Ui, he's like eight months old."

"Hairu, I don't want his first words to be smart-ass!"

Takizawa cackles.

Silence echoes. The smell of the flowers is no longer sweet. It's sickening. Hairu's stomach turns.

"How do you get up each day, then?" Takizawa asks, looking at Ui. "By telling yourself you had no choice or were just doing what you thought was—"

Ui's face reddens. "I have a kid. And her." Now his face looks like a cherry. "And she knows."

And I'm still here, and you know, and you're here.

"What are you going to tell him?" Takizawa asks, nodding to Masanori.

"I have no idea," Hairu confesses. Ui looks as if he wants to vanish just thinking about it.

Takizawa nods, pressing his lips together.

"She loves you," Hairu says suddenly. "She always has, Takizawa. You, and Amon. She told me, after you both—after she thought you both were dead."

"Mado?" Takizawa snorts.

"Can you really doubt it?" Hairu asks. "She knows what you are—were. And she still took those blows for you."

Takizawa snorts.

"Talk to her," Hairu encourages.

"Maybe I will," says Takizawa. He nods. "Thanks."

Masanori coos. He reaches out his arms for Takizawa.

"What's it doing?" asks Takizawa, backing up. Masanori strains.

"He likes your hair, probably," Hairu says.

"My son is not an it," snaps Ui.

"Oh." Takizawa looks as if he's about to shrink when Hairu approaches. Masanori chirps, grabbing a fistful of his hair and giving it a yank. "Ow!"

"Easy, Melon Bun," Hairu says.

The baby throws his arms out for Takizawa.

Ui curses. "Fuck."

"Ha!" Hairu yells. "Hypocrite!"

"Hairu!"

"Hold him; I need to mock my husband." Hairu shoves Masanori into Takizawa's arms and jumps up and down in Ui's face. "Who's the swearer now, Ui Koori? What if Masanori's first work is fuck? What's better? Smartass or fuck? Which do you prefer?"

Ui moans.

"Cute," comments Akira.

Hairu turns to see her approaching, smiling wryly as Masanori grabs a fistful of Takizawa's cheek.

But Takizawa's laughing.

Finally. Ui unlocks his apartment door, a bag full of melon buns hanging from his arm. He'll have to cook tonight, too, because Hairu trying to cook set off the smoke alarms in their building three times already. Once in the middle of the night, after Masanori fell asleep after two hours of wailing.

There's talk of creating a new police force with humans and ghouls to enforce laws on ghouls. There's no peace, not yet, but at least there's consideration of it.

"Hairu?" he calls.

"In here," she calls from their small bedroom. Ui pauses, seeing Masanori fast asleep in the crib.

Ui pushes open the door. "I bought—" He freezes, dumbfounded. "What the hell are you wearing?"

Hairu turns to him, fighting a grin. She wears a tiger-striped romper, a headband with tiger ears, and gloves that she curls up at him. "I'm a tiger."

"But why?"

"Because I look cute?" She giggles.

"You look weird," he states. "I have to make dinner."

"No!" Hairu protests. She pounces on him from behind, wrapping her arms around him and pretending to paw at his chest. "Koori," she complains.

"If this was supposed to seduce me, it's—"

"You don't like it?" Hairu exclaims.

Ui gulps and turns around. A smirk grows on Hairu's face as he focuses on the way it cinches at her waist, how the soft fabric dangles over her thighs. "You look—beautiful as always."

"Not as always."

"No," he agrees. Fuck.

"I knew it would shock you," Hairu proclaims. "Karren and I were searching for a way to do that. She suggested I wear it on Halloween, but—"

"Please don't; my heart can't take it," Ui tries to joke. The rest of their bedroom—small bed, and horse pictures Hairu insisted on getting from a secondhand shop even though they aren't that great—fades. He can still smell the flowers, though, the ones he buys Hairu every week.

Hairu claps her hands together. "If you don't want me wearing it, you can take it off me." She prances over to the side of the bed and wiggles her eyebrows.

"That's not sexy," Ui informs her even as he kicks off his shoes. "Hairu, that thing has a tail! What the hell?"

"I was thinking Masanori needs a little sibling," says Hairu.

Ui rolls his eyes and grabs a condom, foil wrinkling under his fingers. "He's not even a year old yet."

"I want him to have a happy family," says Hairu, getting to her knees. "All the things I didn't have."

The thing he didn't have, either. Masanori might not have horses or prestigious schools, but he'll have them. Ui nods and crouches on the bed, leaning forward to kiss her. Every time he kisses her, his heart still beats like a schoolboy's. She likes me. She loves me. She married me.

Hairu pulls his hand up and kisses his ring. Her hands reach to tug his tie, pull him over her. She fumbles to undo the buttons on his shirt. He struggles to find the zipper on this costume. His hand pins hers, shirt gaping open, and he plies her gloves off. Breathless, he pulls back, looking in her huge green eyes.

"Aw, Koori," she whispers, her hand coming up to cup his face. They drift to his stump of an arm, and she leans up to kiss it. He tugs the zipper down. She's not wearing anything underneath.

You gave me hope. And when she presses her lips against his throat, he knows he gave her hope as well. She slides her hands down his hips, unbuttoning them and shoving them down. Her arms wrap around his waist, holding him and guiding him. He kisses her breasts. He knows now the way she bites her bottom lip when he starts, the moments she'll squeeze her eyes shut and her fingers tighten on his back, how her mouth will reach for his just before, and her face when she starts trembling always looks different. today her mouth opens, and her eyes focus on him, and her name is the only thing he can say.

He lays his head on her chest. She kisses his scalp. "Guess what."

"Huh?" Ui arches his head back, looking up at her. She squirms out from under him.

"You're dense," she informs him. "Hints still go way over your head, don't they?"

"Huh?" Ui repeats. He props himself up on his one elbow. She brings her face close to his. Sweat glistens on her skin.

She reaches out to pluck a strand of his hair off his cheek. "I'm two days late."

"For what?" Ui asks, mind still foggy. And then it hits. "Holy shit!"

"We haven't been great about condoms. You didn't put it on today."

"Fuck."

"Last time you said you wanted to know right away," Hairu reminds him. "I mean. I don't know. But."

"I'll buy you a test," Ui says. He can't wrap both arms around her anymore, but she wraps hers around his. "I'll stay with you while you take it."

"You stay out while I pee."

"Fine." I've done it again? I'm the worst.

"Stop," Hairu snaps, tapping his temple. "Don't get upset. Whatever the result is. I'll be happy. You'll be here. We have a family."

And you're here. And you're not going to die young. Ui gulps. "Hairu… Hirako will never let us live this down if it's positive."

"Well," says Hairu. "I don't think you're awful."

You know what I'm thinking. He smiles at her.

"I think you make me happy," Hairu adds.

"I think I love you," Ui says.

"I think you married me."

"I think you look cute even as a tiger."

Hairu rolls her eyes. "I think you look sexy without your arm."

Ui moans. "I think you should shut up."

"I think you should make me."

"Hairu, I kind of can't move right now because I only have one arm and you're holding me."

Hairu launches herself over him, driving her mouth down into his.

Thank you for reading all of this! I really appreciate it.