Epilogue

Ienzo cleaned his glasses and stretched. His wrist was aching from all the writing. Truthfully, it would probably be faster and more efficient to type rather than write by hand. But in this case the computer felt colder and more inorganic than usual.

It was a beautiful day. A cool breeze blew in from the window behind his desk. It would be good to go outside, to get some air.

His gummiphone chimed with a text. I hate skateboards. Just set 3 different kids' broken bones. I'll be back in 10 if you want to grab lunch.

I was about to ask you the same, Ienzo wrote back. Demyx had taken much more quickly to the gummiphone than he had. It seemed as though, whenever they were apart, he felt the need to send Ienzo every little passing thought through his mind.

Times had changed.

He looked to the table where he had been working. Prints, files, and plans were spread around haphazardly. He really should tidy up, lest some rogue breeze sweep it all away.

"Baby, are you a library book? Because I'd like to check you out." Demyx smiled slyly.

Ienzo fought the urge to roll his eyes. "You've used that line before."

Demyx gave him a kiss. "You been here all morning?"

"More or less." He started rolling up the delicate print paper. "I wanted to take another look at it before I show it to the committee. Incorporating Dilan's suggestions was necessary, but now I suspect I'm developing carpal tunnel." He shook out his hand. "But I suppose you can fix that for me. It is quite convenient to have my own on-call physician." Demyx only ever got better at healing.

"Even would murder you if he heard you call me that." He took Ienzo's hand into his own and ran his fingers across the bone. A warmth replaced the pain. "I'm not a doctor. I'm a healer. In training."

Ienzo flexed his fingers. "I think he's a touch jealous."

"I don't see why he should be. He doesn't have to chase kids around just to get them to wear helmets."

Ienzo put the plans in their cardboard tube and sighed. "I don't think I'll ever be fully happy with it. It's been an exercise in creativity, if anything."

"Well. For what it's worth, I think it's great."

He stacked the books neatly. Botany, architecture, spiritualism. Ienzo took off his glasses and set them aside. "In a way, this feels as though it's my firstborn," he said softly. "It's a complete end to this part of my life. Now I'm to head into the unknown."

"Isn't it exciting?"

Ienzo shrugged. "I'd say nerve-wracking. Shall we get lunch? I could use some fresh air."

"There was this new noodle place I wanted to try out. I can't remember the last time I had some half-decent udon. Think you can spare an hour or two on me?"

"Maybe. If you behave."

Demyx rolled his eyes.

They set off. The castle was a work in progress. They'd all spent some time here and there trying to tidy things up, but Aeleus especially had invested in repairs. This week in particular he was painting, covering the soft green in a pale blue that brought more light into the narrow halls.

"Good job, man," Demyx said to him. "We're going to town for lunch. You want anything?"

He nodded and kept painting.

"I guess we'll surprise you," Demyx said.

It was a beautiful spring afternoon. Radiant Garden's famous flowers were just coming into bloom. The first breath of fresh air made him sneeze. "Yes, my favorite time of year," he said dryly.

"If you took your allergy medicine like I told you, you wouldn't be such a wreck."

He exhaled. He'd never quite get used to Demyx lecturing him.

The town was full, alive, constantly growing. It was looking more and more like the place it had once been, but there was still a sort of rawness to it. They ordered their lunch and sat outside.

"It probably won't ever be like it was, but it certainly does give me a kind of hope," Ienzo said. It was easier now than ever to hope, and dream, despite his anxiety for what the future held. Stress of change was different than existential dread.

"It's grown on me," Demyx said. "I like it here." His healing work, especially, was helping him get to know the townspeople.

"It does feel rather more like home than it used to. Though I suppose it's more the people than anything."

Demyx smiled a little.

"If you were able to travel freely again, would you?" he asked.

Demyx considered this. "I don't know," he said slowly. "I've seen a lot in my time. Kind of enough. But I haven't seen the worlds when they're at peace. What about you?"

"Part of me says yes, absolutely. But the other part…" He shrugged. "You've got to either hide or assimilate to maintain world order, which does take a certain amount of work."

"What's the point of world order? What happens if it isn't upkept? All these years, and nobody could give me a good answer."

Ienzo furrowed his brows. Truthfully, he had no answers either, other than the half-baked "tremendous possibility for conflict". But with so many displaced due to darkness, the cat was out of the bag, so to speak. The noodle between his chopsticks broke in half and disappeared into the broth. "I'm not entirely sure," he said. "Perhaps it warrants some investigation."

"Maybe you can work on that next."

"Maybe," he said cheerfully. "Though-this world is barely stabilizing."

"Last time I talked to Cid, he said that they're going to have to start planning some kind of government," Demyx said. "Even though there hasn't been any real crime or anything, someone's still gotta step up." He scraped at the bottom of his bowl and frowned when he found nothing else. He had to eat almost constantly to maintain weight, especially using so much magic.

"I'd heard. They'd called Ansem down a couple of days ago. They offered him the job. He was once sage king, after all." Ansem had seemed almost guilty when he'd told Ienzo.

Demyx whistled. "How did that go?"

"He turned them down. Said he didn't want power, and didn't deserve it. He did say he would serve as adviser to whoever ends up in the position, should they want his advice. Cid and Leon are going to organize a town hall. And then eventually there will be elections." Privately, Ienzo agreed. Even though Ansem had once been a kind ruler, the guilt of what had happened remained. He didn't trust himself. Ienzo suspected that, between the war and his time in the realm of darkness, he was psychologically too shattered to handle the responsibility.

"I wonder who it'll be." Demyx grimaced. "Wait. Does that mean they'll have to live with us?"

Ienzo chuckled, and tried to brush off his worry. "Wouldn't that shake things up. For some reason I don't think that would go over too well. If you haven't noticed, we're all just a touch insular."

"Have I noticed. They're barely accepting me. "

"Oh, don't be too hard on yourself. I think Ansem rather likes having you around. It makes him feel young."

Demyx hesitated. "How are things between you two?" he asked cautiously.

"Improving," he said. "All the while improving. There's more bitterness in me than I thought. But I assure you I am working through it. We both are, and we're both willing, which is what matters." It was true. While building such a bridge was difficult, to Ienzo it was necessary work. They shared memories, vulnerabilities. He was still unpacking the anger he felt towards Ansem, which some days rose more harshly than others.

"You don't have to forgive him to love him."

"I know. But I feel as though I need to, to move on." He set his chopsticks aside. "Are you still hungry?"

Demyx sighed. "Always," he muttered. "Aerith said eventually my body will adjust to using so much magic so frequently. I beg to differ, though."

"Are you still enjoying it?" Demyx's training separated them for long hours, which wasn't always easy. But it wasn't as though they could live their lives joined at the hip-nor was it healthy.

"I feel like I'm doing what I'm meant to. And I don't have to give up music, either."

"You can be passionate about more than one thing, you know," Ienzo said lightly. "Shall we head back?"

"Yeah. Think I need a nap. Fucking skateboarders."

"In another life you'd be one of them," Ienzo said.

"I hate that you're right."

Ienzo shouldn't have been nervous, but he was. "How does it look?" He appraised the meringue. "Almost. Not quite."

Demyx was whisking furiously.

Ienzo took the bowl from him and put the topping on the lemon pie. He felt twitchy, paranoid. Dinner was ready. They just had to wait.

"You still anxious?"

He sighed. Ienzo took the bowl from him and started to put the topping on the lemon pie. "I realize it's illogical, but that doesn't make it go away. "

"They're going to love it. I know they will."

"Part of me feels like I'm rubbing salt in just-healed wounds." It may have been dealt with, but the specter of the experiments hovered over them.

Demyx hugged him from behind, and Ienzo couldn't help but give into the comfort. "They think about what happened all the time," he said in a low voice. "This is closure. And you know closure can hurt a little sometimes."

"I suppose." He had a point. "Would you mind letting go of me? I've got to put the pie back in."

The dynamic at the table was vastly different than it had been the first time they'd all gathered here. No more uniforms, no more hierarchy. The conversation more casual, less stilted and formal. More natural. For a moment Ienzo drank his wine and soaked it all in.

"Aeleus, you know I detest that powder blue. These are scholar's residencies, not an infant's nursery-" Dilan rambled on.

"Well then perhaps you can fix it yourself," Aeleus said calmly.

"I do despise those skateboard miscreants," Even was saying to Demyx.

"I know, right?"

"You should've let them heal naturally. Teach them a lesson about being careless."

"I mean, uh, that's kind of against my code of ethics but-"

Across the table, Ansem caught his eyes and nodded once. It was an understanding of some kind, though what he wasn't quite sure. Ienzo bobbed his head in response.

They cleaned up. Had dessert. Before they could all drift off to bed or elsewhere, Ienzo cleared his throat. Demyx took his hand and squeezed it. "I'm sure you all know by now what I've been working on," he said. "I'd like to present it to you now, before I turn it over to the committee for approval." He got up and retrieved the roll of plans and his written works. He smoothed out the blueprints in front of them. "It's a garden. For those who fell."

He'd been meticulous in his research. They could've easily created an empty space to keep the sets of mortuary tablets. But this felt hollow, dull, lifeless. He'd chosen several sets of blooms, one for each type of loss incurred during Radiant Garden's struggle with darkness-those killed by the initial fall, those who became Heartless, and lastly, those who had fallen because of their research. He'd chosen the breeds for their symbolism, and for how well they would keep and take root. Each flower would represent one soul lost; at the back of this garden he imagined a wall with all their names, as well as books with more information about each person lost.

It was this aspect that had taken most of his time. There was plenty of information about their hundred subjects, but when it came to the rest, it was all a bit piecemeal. The committee had had a good deal of records concerning who had been deemed a casualty, but still there were bits missing. For weeks he'd gone on foot, interviewing those who were willing to speak. Some of the responses were vociferous; others were struggling too much with grief, or preferred to keep it quiet. About ten percent of the names were still completely lost. And might not ever be found again.

Their reactions were mostly what he'd expected.

Aeleus and Dilan were stoic, though Aeleus patted Dilan's shoulder. Even, though clearly moved, fought to keep his face impassive. Demyx cried. Ansem stood and reached across the table to take Ienzo's hand.

"That will do," he said.

The days and weeks passed-the committee accepted his project with open arms. When they were able to allocate the resources, work on the garden started. Nearly all of them, committee and castle alike, spent a good deal of time working on it, planting seeds and tending to the new flowers, engraving the stones and plaques which would hold the names. Building benches. Giving people space to mourn, or celebrate, their lost loved ones. Ienzo spent most of the summer in a constant state of soreness and dirtiness, covered in uneven splotches of pink sunburn.

And then it was done. There was going to be some kind of ceremony later on for the whole town, but for now he was glad to be mostly alone. He stood at the small altar, where some of them had already lit incense and candles.

"Hey," Demyx said. He held something in his hands, wrapped in white cloth. "You okay?"

"Yes." The sun was setting, casting a warm light over everything. "What is it you've got there?"

Demyx gestured. "Come on. I want to show you something." He led him through to a corner of the garden. A small red maple sapling had been recently planted, freshly enough that Ienzo could still smell the dirt. It was one of the breeds they'd chosen to recognize whole families that had been lost. A pair of mortuary tablets lay at its trunk. He took the object covered in white cloth and set it just behind them. "Didn't want it to get dirty when I was working." He pulled the cloth away.

Ienzo's breath hitched. "This wasn't part of the plan."

"Maybe not. But I talked to Ansem about it, and he agreed that they belonged here." Demyx had somehow kept the photo from inside of his parents house. It had been repaired, and framed sturdily. "I figure if you want to think about them, you can come do it here," he said.

He blinked quickly against the tears. Ienzo hugged him. He didn't have to thank him. Demyx knew how much he meant it.

Once he had his composure back, he patted his eyes dry. Kissed Demyx softly.

"Everyone's going out to get a drink, if you want to go," Demyx said. "I figure we all kind of need one after today."

Ienzo nodded. "I should like that very much."

And they left the garden together.