Happily Ever After

Warning: This fic is post series- After defeating the mad hero and restoring Shion.

Disclaimer: I do not own this series.

Ferris had been awakened when she felt someone touch her shoulder. On instinct, she grabbed her sword and drew the blade to whomever it was who disturbed her beauty sleep. She felt the person back away, keyword being felt because her vision was still a bit fuzzy. As her vision cleared she saw that it was just Ryner. She slowly put her blade down and watched as Ryner gave a sigh of relief.

"Good morning to you too, sweetheart." The solver of all equations greeted her with a small smile on his face.

She hummed before looking out the window, seeing the sun had already risen and was shinning very brightly- In other words a perfect sunny day. "Ryner, what time is it?"

Ryner followed her gaze and gave her another of his easy-going smiles she loved so much. "It's a little past nine."

She nodded as she got up from bed; she stretched a bit before walking over to him. "Have you opened the shop yet?" She asked as she began getting ready.

"Of course." He answered, and she smiled, clearly pleased with his answer. "Right now, Iris, Arua and Kuku are taking care of things." He continued, but frowned after a second.

"Ryner?"

"Ferris, just wanted you to know apparently dad is coming over today." He told her as he looked at her with a bit of worry in his eyes.

Ferris face remained emotionless, but she scowled inwardly. Lieral Lieutolu was not her favorite person, after all he did kill Ryner once. Not to mentioned he used Ryner's temporary death to toy and to test her feelings for Ryner. She really believed he was gone forever at the time, and that had made her so mad and so sad at the same time, that without thinking she charged at Lieral. Only to be beaten by him and have her memories of their encounter erased from her memories.

Of course, after the war he did return them, but she still felt bitter and angry at him. Actually, she dislikes and still doesn't trust him. But she'll put up with him, only because he was Ryner's father. If it wasn't for that fact she would have long impaled him on a colossal, special made dango stick. She didn't get why Ryner forgave him so easily, but Ryner has always been like that and that's one of the things she loves most about her husband.

Yes, her husband, who proposed to her during the war and who currently owns a dango shop with her called 'Legend Dango'.

As she glanced at Ryner, she saw an unreadable look in his eyes. She merely waved her hand as gave a small sigh. "Well, I guess it can't be helped. But can we at least serve him our shop's special poison dangos?" She asked, getting an excited look on her face at the thought of Lieral getting poisoned.

"Oh, but we did that the last time he came to visit. Let's give him something else today, how about one of our shop's new dango?"

"One of our shop's new dango?" She repeated, a smile forming on her face and her eyes brightening at the prospect.

"Yup, I call it the Lieral Toxic Poison special." He answered with both pride and mischief in his eyes.

At that point, Ferris felt so proud of him. She felt as if he was proposing to her all over again. She felt so happy that she could kiss him, and she did. It began as a soft kiss but ended up as a passionate make out, one that might have progressed to other things but was interrupted when a pot hit Ryner in the head, making him break the kiss and fall downwards to the floor.

"Get away from my sister, you wild beast!" Iris yelled as she began to throw knives at him. Ryner, having sensed the incoming attack got up and began dodging the very sharp projectiles aimed at him. "Oi, Iris cut it out. Actually why do you still do things like these? Your sister and I have been married for over a year now!"

"Shut up, wild beast! I know you only tricked my sister into marrying you, but I won't be tricked. I will eliminate you to set my sister free." She yelled as she stopped throwing knives and began throwing swords at him. Ferris, who had been watching previously, stepped in when one sword came dangerously close to beheading Ryner. "Iris, stop. You're wrecking our room and Ryner won't be able to make dango anymore if you continue with your attacks. Besides, Sion won't be too pleased if you eliminate Ryner."

Iris stopped immediately. The prospect of Sion disliking her for killing the wild beast that was her brother-in-law was terrifying. She could probably stand anything but that. She stuttered words to tell Ferris that she understood before dashing out the room to probably help out at the shop. "She really got it bad for Sion doesn't she?" Ryner asked casually from his place on the floor.

"Hmm. I can just see it now, in five years she'll make an excellent bride for Sion." Ferris said, full of certainty over the matter as she nodded to herself at her words.

"Doesn't Sion have a say about this? I mean, what if he gets married before then?" Ryner asked wearily, when he heard his wife's tone.

"No, he doesn't and as his best friends we will do our best to ensure that he won't. For both his and Iris' sake." She replied to him without missing a beat.

"Hahaha, Sion's got it rough too…"

"Ryner, we've wasted enough time already. Let's head out to the shop."

"Alright, alright." Ryner replied, as he picked himself up from the floor. He then held out his hand for her. "Shall we go then, partner?"

"Hmm." Ferris confirmed, as she placed her hand in his before they both walked out of their room and went downstairs, to the first floor of their house which was conveniently also their dango shop. Once they got there, they saw that they had quite a lot of customers this morning. Their three little helpers seemed to be very hard at work, Arua was serving some dango that Ferris had prepared beforehand while Kuku was pouring some tea for a customer and Iris was currently taking three jobs at once, taking orders, taking charge of the counter and collecting the dirty plates.

Ferris greeted the children first before taking her place in the kitchen while Ryner took his place at the counter. Thanking Iris while she was on her way to collect a dirty plate. She gave him an 'hmmpf', but he grinned in response because he knew that it actually meant 'you're welcome'. It was funny how well he could understand the girl by her actions, perhaps it was because it was because of Ferris' influence that he learned how to do this. After all, his wife used to be quite hard to read.

Ryner was brought out of his thoughts when a customer went up to the counter to pay for his food and tea. Ryner then checked the notebook that kept track of the orders and gave the customer his bill. Work went on after that and it was around eleven when they suddenly got a surprise visit from Sion and Claugh. Iris instantly brightened at the sight of him and ran over to hug him. Sion returned the hug and gave his greetings to her and the others in the shop before he and Claugh walked over to the counter where Ryner was.

"Yo!" Ryner greeted them as they reached the counter.

Shion gave a smile before looking around. "It seems you guys are as busy as always."

"Well, we sell pretty good dangos."

Claugh gave a snort. "Please, everyone knows your shop is one of Roland's best."

"Ahh, king Claugh how have you been? We haven't seen you in a while." Ryner said, addressing the red head.

"Been' well. Things pretty busy in Estabul and stop calling me 'king."

"But you are one." The other males both replied at the same time.

Claugh sighed at the answer before retorting. "I might technically be a king, but that's only by name. Noa is the real ruler of Estabul. Besides, I'm still working for Shion."

"Okay, then should I call you Field Marshal Claugh, then?" Ryner asked with a small sly smile, Shion mirrored Ryner's smile as they looked at the king of Estabul.

Claugh's face split into a huge grin. "I'd just prefer Claugh, but that works too."

The three of them shared a laugh at that. "So, what with the surprise visit?" Ryner asked after their laughing session. "You guys usually come here on the weekdays, while we visit you on weekends."

"Well, we came because Claugh just came back from Estabul and he told me he missed your shop's dangos." Shion answered as he gestured at his red haired friend.

"The dango in Estabul don't taste as good as the ones in your shop, even Noa agrees with me." Claugh answered before continuing. "So, that being the case I'll order three plates of Wawa berry dango and order five boxes of mix dango set A to go."

"Gonna, give those to your wife?" Ryner asked, as he wrote down Claugh's order.

Claugh gave a nod to affirm this.

"Good man." The other males both said in unison. They knew better than to make a woman mad, one of them had personal experience with his wife while the other knew from his female attendants.

Claugh laughed at what they said before realizing something. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Some of my men in Estabul told me they wanted to try the Legend Dango shop's dango. I'll also be ordering around another five boxes of mix dango set C to go. Set C is the one with the original flavors of dango right?"

"Yup, so Shion what about y- Wait! Don't say anything!" Ryner said suddenly, surprising the two.

The two males looked at Ryner strangely and said male began explaining. "I've made a new recipe, I want Sion to try it. It's called the Sion special."

Sion and Claugh blinked, before bursting into laughter.

"Alright, alright then I'll take a Sion special then." The Roland king said in between laughs

"Good. Now I'm sure that my wife would like to talk to you, so I'll go get her." Ryner said before leaving the counter to go to the kitchen.

Ferris was quite surprised when Ryner entered the kitchen instead of Arua. "Ryner is something wrong?"

"Nope, actually things are perfect. Sion and Claugh are here by the way. Why don't you and the kids take a break and I'll serve up some snacks? I'll take care of things here in the kitchen, so you go ahead and have a nice long chat with Sion and Claugh." He replied as he began to check the list of orders. "Let's see five boxes of mix dango set A and five boxes of mix dango set C…" He mumbled as he went to a cabinet and got the said boxes.

"But what about you?" Ferris asked as he bound the boxes together to make carrying them easier.

"Don't worry about me. There haven't been any customers after Sion and Claugh, so I'll catch up with you guys after I finish with these orders." Ryner said as he finished binding the boxes. Ferris nodded before heading outside. She searched the shop and found Sion and Claugh sitting in a table near the counter. Before she joined them, she praised the children for their hard work and told them to take a break. They smiled before running outside to play.

She then headed to Sion's table and sat on the available seat next to the Roland king. "Yo, Ferris. You're looking well."

"Hmm. You two are looking well yourselves." She replied with a small smile on her face.

Shion laughed. "Thanks, Ferris." Claugh didn't say anything but showed a small smile. There was a moment of serene silence between them, before it was broken by a shout. Iris came running through the door, one of her pigtails was gone and as soon as she saw her Claugh, she ran to him.

"Big brother Claugh, help! My ribbon was blown away by the wind, I can't find it. Help me look for it." She said as she began dragging Claugh outside, not even waiting for his answer.

There was another moment of silence before the two of them started laughing. "Who would have thought that the feared 'Death God with a black Hand' would be powerless against children?" Sion said as he stared at the door that Claugh was dragged out of.

Ferris merely laughed again before looking at him. "So, how are things at the castle?"

"The same as usual, if not more peaceful now." He answered with a smile.

"I see, that's good." She said, and then her expression suddenly turned a bit sad. Sion was about to ask what was wrong when she spoke up in a soft voice. "So, how's my brother? Is he doing well?"

Ah, Lucile. Sion didn't know what to say to her at first, he considered lying but he knew she deserved to know the truth. "He's the same as usual, he still protects me from the shadows but he and I haven't really had a conversation since you know…" He trailed off and Ferris sighed, she knew what he meant. Ever since the Mad Hero had been defeated, her brother became different. Right now, the only person that only had contact with him was Sion and that was only because it was her brother's duty to protect him.

Sion gave an inward sigh before deciding to change topics. "Ferris, do you believe in happily ever after?"

Ferris looked up and met Sion's gold eyes. "Happily ever after? As in from fairy tales?"

"Yes, that." Sion affirmed and Ferris just shook her head.

"You don't?" Sion asked, while looking at her in surprise.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Ferris asked, confused.

"You see after the Mad Hero incident I've started to notice some things I've never noticed before. Well, it's just if you think about it, we're not living in a fairy tale. Actually most of our stories have been filled with sadness, pain and misery but now? We're not alone anymore, we have people to depend on and people we can share our burdens with. Don't you think our lives are a reverse tragedy, and if you think along those lines then you can consider our life now as the happily ever after that we've always wanted and dreamed of?" Sion explained and when he finished, he saw that Ferris was deep in thought.

"You mean how things are back to normal?" She asked, after a minute.

"Yeah, like how I was still welcomed back by Roland as its king and how the others forgave me." He replied, his eyes becoming slightly teary when he remembered that.

Ferris smiled before continuing what Sion said. "Or you, being welcomed back as the hero king that saved the Menoris continent from the berserk Mad Hero."

"Or how Gastark and Roland have a non-aggression pact."

"Or how Roland is now a sanctuary for those with Blessed eyes."

Pretty soon, it became a game for the two with the challenge being to be able to list more. One that both of them wouldn't mind winning. "Or how the Mad Hero is no longer mad and how no one really minds me when I'm in your dango shop."

"Or how Claugh and Noa got married."

"Or how Calne and Eslina got married."

"Or how Miran Froade is currently engaged to the first princess of Luna and is away most of the time."

Sion chuckled at what his best friend said, he knew she wasn't very fond of Miran. "Oh, Come on. He's not that bad of a person, just ask Claugh."

"Maybe to you two and to others but not to me. Anyways it's your turn"

Sion just shook his head as he continued to laugh. "Or how you and Ryner finally got married."

Ferris blushed at that and Sion began laughing. She then huffed and turned away to the side. As she thought on what to say, a cruel smirk graced her face as she realized what she could tell him. "Like you and my sister getting married one day."

When Ferris said that, Sion choked midway through a laugh and ended up getting a coughing fit. Once it subsided, he looked at Ferris incredulously but wisely chose not to pursue the matter. "Or you, owning a dango shop with three hundred original dango recipes."

"Or Roland's complete restoration and development."

Sion was losing things to say, so he just blurted out the first thing on his mind."Or how Ryner has a new hobby of gardening."

There was a moment of tense silence between them before they couldn't hold it in anymore and laughed to their hearts' content , as funny as it was, it was true. Sion's best friend, Ferris' husband and the Greatest mage of Roland's new hobby was gardening.

They laughed for a bit more before an exhausted Claugh returned with three happy children. Iris hair was already in two neat pigtails. The four of them went to sit on the table with Claugh sitting in his original seat opposite Sion. Arua sat next to him, and Kuku sat next to the boy. Iris sat on Sion's other side and as soon as they were all seated, Ryner came out of the kitchen with a huge traditional tea tray on one of his hands and a bundle of boxes on the other. He gave Claugh the boxes and Claugh mentioned his thanks before placing them in the space between his and Arua's chair. As Claugh was doing this, Ryner began serving tea and snacks for everyone, as soon as he finished he put the tray on the counter and sat down next to Ferris.

He inwardly laughed when he saw how everyone was looking at Sion's Sion special. He was most amused at Ferris' reaction, because at this moment she was giving the Sion special one of the most intense gaze he had ever seen her give. "Ryner, what is this?" She asked, turning to him.

"Isn't it obvious? It's one of the new dango recipes I came up with. I call this the Sion special." He said as he looked at the dango in Sion's plate with pride.

After hearing his answer, Ferris continued her observations looking at the dango that was black in color but had a mysterious sparkling glaze on it and when she leaned closer to the dango, she smelled a very fragrant aroma coming from the dango? No, it was coming from the glaze, she realized. At that point she was torn to three, one part was mad at Ryner for having to let her suffer through the experience of seeing and smelling a new dango creation, but didn't give her any.

Another part felt pride at her husband's new masterpiece, because for her any dango are masterpieces. Now that she thinks about it, she really did have the best husband in the world. After the war, when she was spending most of her time as an apprentice to the Wynit dango shop, he surprised her by suddenly becoming another apprentice. It was not long after that she discovered two things: one was the fact that Ryner had actually become an apprentice just to support her dream of owning a dango shop.

That fact always makes her feel giddy and warms her heart, at the same time. Especially when she remembers how she found that out. The second thing was that Ryner had been born blessed by the dango gods. In other words, he had a natural talent in making delicious dango and tea which went perfectly with dango. She felt really lucky to have a husband who can cook such delicious dango for her.

But going back to her original thought, the last part of her couldn't wait to try the dango later, she'd definitely make sure that he would make a Sion special for her. So, for now she just watches Sion take a bite of the mysterious dango and watch as his face lights up. "Ryner, this is really good." He praises him, before taking another bite. It wasn't long when their little break was almost over when Sion had suddenly fallen asleep.

"Whoah! Sion you ok?" Claugh said, as he jumped out of his seat.

"Don't worry he's fine. That's just the Shion special's side effect. I made it with Winter Chrysanthemum flowers. That flower is known for having lots of nutrients and is used for several medicines, but isn't really used for food because it makes anyone who eat it go to sleep. I thought it'd be perfect for Sion- who doesn't get enough nutrients or sleep. But don't worry the flower doesn't have any other side effects. " Ryner explained, as he reassured Claugh.

Claugh nodded before deciding to take Sion back to the castle, he paid his bill and was about to pay for the Sion special when Ryner stopped him saying it was: 'On the house' and left soon afterward. Supporting Sion with his right side and carrying the boxes of dango on his left. The children went out with them to make sure that he didn't drop anything and anyone. This left both Ferris and Ryner alone.

"It was a good idea, that dango." Ferris commented, as she looked at the other dango that was left uneaten by the Roland king.

"Forget about it, the effect of the Sion special can range from one to ten hours. I don't think we can manage the shop without you." Ryner said before laughing because of Ferris' pout just then.

"Besides, we still have to serve a Lieral Toxic Poison special later to dad." At his words, Ferris brightened immediately. "I'm also not that cruel of a husband to deny my wife her favorite food either, don't worry I made a special new dango for you to enjoy later after dinner."

"A special dango for me?" Ferris said excitedly, her eyes shining with love and excitement at the thought of a new treat.

"Yup, I call it the Ferris special. Look forward to it after dinner." Ryner said before kissing his wife in the forehead and heading to the kitchen.

Ferris stared at the doorway her husband had passed through and smiled. She really found her happiness. As Sion said, their lives were far from being a fairy tale but yes, she realized that right now she and those she loved were finally had their happily ever after.

Thanks for reading!

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I paired Iris with Sion because according to Wikipedia, Iris thrives for praise from Ferris and Sion and I had no idea of who to pair him with.