Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters get in. Thanks so much for reading, I hope that you liked it!

Epilogue

A Little Over A Year Later

The weather was perfect, blue skies and sunshine as snow fell gently down to the already fluffy white snowbanks that surrounded the outdoor rink. It was the second annual Drama Club Christmas Party, the majority of the club's members and anyone else that had helped stage this year's productions present to take advantage of the opportunity to get together with friends and empty their teachers' wallets a little, since pizza was coming and there was hot chocolate and cookies for later. Also present were some of the alumni from the year before, home for Christmas and happy to spend some time with their juniors if it meant free food and a chance to catch up with their friends.

With Buffy in his arms Eames kept an eye out for Arthur's car as they completed yet another lap around the rink, his darling due to arrive with the pizzas at any minute. Last year they'd just had the food delivered, but the pizzas had not been hot enough to his darling standards and so Arthur had decided that he would pick them up this time around to insure they were. Arthur was picky like that when it came to pizza, which Eames total didn't understand since room temperature or even cold pizza was still the bomb.

A hand slipping through his, Eames looked down to smile at Ariadne as he shifted Buffy over to the other arm so that he could take her arm properly. "Hello, Poppet."

"Hello back. How was England?"

"Absolutely lovely, thank you for asking. And your Christmas?" He, Arthur, and Buffy had just gotten back after five days in England for the holidays. It had been lovely being home with all his family, though they would have to spend a great deal of time visiting with Arthur's mother over the next few days to make it up to her, the not being here for Christmas. Robert and Hikaru spending the holidays with her had only swayed her ire so much, and pointing out that they'd spent last Christmas with her had not been a valid argument either.

"My sister was especially passive aggressive, my Uncle Steve got plastered and smacked my grandmother on the butt, and I got some really ugly scarves." The smile Ariadne wore made it clear that was only the tip of the iceberg. "So does your mum still love Arthur more than you?"

"Alas, yes. She adores his dimples. Plus she loves that he dresses me better."

"So she's forgiven him for seducing you into staying in the States."

"It would appear so."

Though technically speaking it wasn't Arthur's fault that they weren't currently living in England. They had decided last spring that they would go to England for a year to see how it went, but then he'd gotten a call from a couple of mates that had scratched that idea. The plans to go in together to form a troupe had fallen through, at least for the time being, and so keeping his job at the Academy to stockpile more money for the endeavor made more sense than going to England when neither of them had a job lined up over there. Arthur had offered to put up the money to cover the two friends who'd had to back out, but Eames had turned him down. At least for now.

Grinning, Ariadne cleared her throat to get his attention as she pointed towards the nearby parking lot. "Speak of the cutie and he shall appear. Time to eat, baby!"

"Brilliant."

)

Coming to a graceful stop, he'd been skating since he was old enough for Arthur to strap him into skates, Robert was ready to grab Hikaru's arm just in case as his boyfriend came to a much less graceful stop beside him. For all his many talents his boyfriend had not gotten the hang of skating yet, and Robert wrapped an arm around the other teenager waist just in case as they left the rink since falling was not an option. Last winter had been the first time Hikaru had ever tried skating and falling a bunch of times in public had not endeared him to it. But this was their drama club reunion, and Hikaru was willing to spend a little time on the ice to make him happy so Robert was doing everything he could to make sure that his boyfriend didn't end up doing a face plant in public.

As it was he'd already promised a full body massage later just to get Hikaru on the ice, Robert thought with a smirk. The fee for making up a public fall to Hikaru…well Robert shivered a little in delight just thinking about it.

Taking a seat on one of the many benches situated around the rink Robert looked over and smiled at his boyfriend, Hikaru looking very happy to free himself from his skates so that they could head over to get themselves some pizza and take a break from the skating.

"No need to hurry, Arthur promised to keep a pizza back for us."

"Always good to have an in with the teachers." Hikaru agreed, though he continued to attack his skates like their existence on his feet offended him.

"Hey, Fischer, Saito! Want us to save you a seat?"

"Thanks, but we're eating with Mr. Gordon and Mr. Eames!" Returning their wave Robert watched their former classmates walk away for a moment before he turned his attention back to undoing his skates, thinking to himself not for the first time that maybe he should change his last name. Fischer meant father to him after all, and thankfully he hadn't had to so much as see the old man in almost a year. Which was a trend he wanted to keep going for the rest of the bastard's life. And name wise, well he could probably go with Gordon, he didn't think his god family would mind him taking their name if he asked, but he also…well it was sort of stupid…but if he got married to Hikaru down the road, or some other man if he and Hikaru didn't work out, well he could take the other guy's name then. Changing your name twice in a lifetime was a little much after all.

Of course he also had plenty of time to figure things out too, since the way he figured it, he and Hikaru were planning to start up their own company when they were done school and while they were probably going to call it 'Inception', they might change their mind and decided to use their last names or name. He could wait till then to decide what his last name was going to be.

Having finished removing their skates and donning their winter boots Robert and Hikaru tied the laces of their skates together before placing them over their shoulders and heading towards the rest of their group. And as always Robert felt a little thrill run up his back when Hikaru took his hand as they walked, meshing their fingers together because even though they'd been together for a year now, it still gave him a thrill that they were a couple, their first term living in residence together a dream. And soon they'd start looking for an apartment off campus together, a place of their own which would most definitely not include neighbors who played loud music all night long or came in at three in the morning drunk off their asses. He got why his godfather had told them they should have the dorm experience their first year, he did, but that didn't change the fact that Harvard was hard enough without constantly being bombarded with distractions.

Both of them taking a seat at the picnic table Eames was already sitting at with a pizza box in front of him, Robert took the paper plate he was handed with a word of thanks, Eames giving him a wink before holding out one to Hikaru.

"Arthur's just grabbing us some drinks, then we'll be good to go. The children can serve themselves, obviously." The kids in question had descended upon the pizza boxes like a swarm of locus, and none of them wanted to get in the way of the teens before they were fed.

Setting down the cans of pop he held, Arthur retrieved the other two from his coat pockets and passed them over before taking his seat beside Eames.

The two looked good together, Robert thought as he watched Arthur and Eames while they all dug into their pizza. He really hadn't thought it would work out so well, but all their differences…well they either didn't seem to matter to the other, or it balanced them out in some weird way.

All in all, life was good.

)

Taking another slice because what the hell, it was the holidays, Arthur bit into his third piece with a low sound of enjoyment, his lips curving into a smile as Eames gave his thigh a squeeze under the table to show his appreciation of the sound. Even if he wasn't the one who had caused it. Or maybe Eames was just trying to distract him from the fact that his lover had just returned with a forth slice, which Eames's stomach definitely did not need given the amount of treats his lover had been consuming since December started. But it was the holidays, Arthur told himself, so he didn't say anything about the unnecessary slice even though Eames would be bellyaching about his overly full stomach later.

The idiot had been doing that a lot lately.

Rolling his eyes at the thought, though his exasperation was tempered with affection, Arthur allowed his gaze to slide over to where Mal and Dom were holding court with the Labradoodle puppy Mal had bought five months ago. Everyone wanted to play with the little guy, which Buffy wasn't overly thrilled with, no surprise. Hence the fact that they weren't sitting together, since it was best if the puppy didn't antagonize his Pomeranian further by chewing on her tail, which the puppy was prone to doing while in Buffy's company.

Dog issues aside though, it was damn good to see his best friends sitting together, looking happy and right again.

Mal and Dom weren't a couple at the moment, or at least not 'officially' according to her, but they'd been spending more time together since things with Maurice Fischer had come to a head a year ago, and Arthur thought that even if their marriage was truly over the two might be able to become friends again. He hoped so. For their sake and his, Arthur mused ruefully, since he was really starting to enjoy them not putting him in the middle of their lives all the time.

Not to mention the fact that he wouldn't always be around to take care of them, since odds were he'd eventually end up living in England at some point. Not for another couple of years as it stood now, since Eames had signed a contract with the Academy, but someday in the near future. He was pretty sure Eames's mother would never forgive them if they didn't give living there a try at the very least.

And it was best to keep Eames's mother happy since he planned on making her his future mother in law if everything went according to plan very soon.

He'd considered proposing for Christmas, but that was cheating gift wise, especially since they'd decided that the tickets to England and the sightseeing they'd done while there was their gifts to each other. Plus if they'd gotten engaged in London, without his mother present to see it, she'd have strangled him with his own baby blanket. Which she still had and was apparently saving for the babies she expected them to adopt at the earliest convenience. Or so she'd strongly suggested for quite a while now.

So he was going to get down on one knee on New Year 's Eve instead. Ring in the New Year with a ring on Eames's finger that said the other man was his. For life. God help them.

He was nervous about it, especially since they had never seriously talked about getting married, but Arthur had no doubt that Eames loved him and wanted to be with him for the rest of their lives. And Eames did have just enough sense to realize that Arthur would make him miserable if he said no when he was going to go to the trouble of making the proposal a memorable one for him.

"Penny for your thoughts, Darling?"

Turning his head Arthur met Eames's questioning gaze, and rather than answer he just leaned in to seal his thoughts with a kiss, both enjoying it immensely before Arthur pulled away and smiled wide enough to show off his dimples.

"My thoughts are always worth more than that, Mr. Eames. You should know that."

"Yes, Darling."

Amused by Eames and just them in general, Arthur leaned back in for more kissing to distract his man from asking any more questions, his ploy working perfectly.

Naturally.

)

Four days later Eames said yes, Arthur's mother was very happy, and they all lived happily ever after.

The End