Several things have happened that kept me from posting this epilogue earlier which included tennis matches, school work, getting my braces (they couldn't make me a normal kid and get them way back in middle school:-( ), random spouts of sickness (which we will not go into detail of) team tennis sleepovers (which were really fun), major power outages, and all about lazyness. It feels so weird posting the epilogue, because now its truly over. Wah! I miss it already! I've been trying to work really hard on my new story, but I've been so busy lately. My new story actually was first influenced by Axel's mom in this story...that should tell you something right there.
I've also discovered a need to either a) work on my drawing skills alot or b) never draw by candle light again. I drew Saix by candle light looking grumpy the night the power went out and showed it to my mom. She looked at it once and said, "She looks mad!"
...at least she got the mad part right.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, commented, suggested, alerted, faved, read, and took the time to even look at my story. You have all inspired me in some way or another. It's been a random and joyous ride, and I'm sad to see it end.
Epilogue
So Axel and Larxene broke up. Again. Though Axel claims that he isn't going to get back together with her this time. He keeps saying "well we weren't 'together' together anyway. And besides, it's not like I was planning on marrying the chick anyway." Maybe this time he will stick to his word. Kairi keeps talking about you. Every time she is with us somehow you become the subject of discussion. She never said anything…flirtatious to you did she? Roxas and Sora's mom has been visiting them a lot. She finally got herself out of rehab, though I have my doubts it will last very long before the twins are back here at home and she is in a another facility. Sora tackled Roxas yesterday, after he used the word "abode" which has been officially banned from the house after that. Demyx and Namine are still together and still as sickening as ever with their baby talk and nose nuzzling. Tifa and Aerith were walking down the hallway together yesterday, holding hands like girls do when they are best friends. Needless to say it was a shocking occurrence. I guess the banned together in the "Ex Girlfriends of Cloud" club. Snicker Doodle is officially to big to sit on my lap anymore or be picked up by anyone. She ran into the screen door yesterday and broke it. Mom was the only one who didn't find it remotely funny.
Like all of Zexion's emails, the letter ended short and abruptly, like it needed no concluding line or paragraph. The words flew from one topic to another, as if he was trying to get a lot of information down in a limited space. The news on Larxene and Axel was nothing new. They both flitted from one thing to another like butterflies, getting bored with routine quickly. I hadn't expected them to last very long. No one really did. Zexion hadn't mentioned anything about Riku and Sora, but I suspected that they were still together.
"Marluxia!" Lizzie's voice rang out through the house. A moment later she appeared at the doorway from the kitchen, cradling her small white kitten in her arms. Mom had given it to her a couple days after we returned, as if it was a peace offering. In return she had presented me with the shiny new laptop which was now sitting on my lap.
I raised my eyes to meet hers. She had a large smile plastered across the face as she swayed her torso back and forth slightly. "You promised me you would help me make chocolate covered strawberries! Please can we do it now! Please please please?!" She hopped up and down from one foot to another, causing her cat to leap out of her arms and dart across the room to the couch. Lizzie pouted for a moment at the loss of her pet before turning back to hopping up and down. I smiled at her, clicking the computer closed.
"Alright, alright I'm coming." Lizzie squealed with delight and hopped off to the kitchen, leaving me to trudge along behind her. The first few days after I returned home were strange. The house seemed foreign and too quiet with out a dog barking and loud bursts of laughing, yelling, and video game challenges. Mom had spent two complete days talking to Lizzie and me almost nonstop, urging us to tell her everything that had happened during her absence. When I looked back on it, there was a lot that had happened during my brief time there. The time Zexion had gotten hit in the face with the racquetball, when the power had gone out because of the thunder storm, when Demyx and I had practically gotten lost in the grocery store trying to find frosting, the large cold that had spread through the house like wildfire, Axel's exile to dinner duty and his failed attempt at lasagna, and all those countless game of Clue. Coming back to the small house I had spent most of my life in was weird. It felt too small, peaceful and empty. My mother had fixed up the outside as best she could and had put down new carpet in the living room and gotten a new stove, but that was it. It was still nothing compared to the comfy, large, and slightly random house I was used to.
"Here, we should dip oranges and bananas in chocolate too, just to see what they taste like." Lizzie thrust the box of strawberries into my hands along with a freshly peeled orange as she pranced across the kitchen and snatched two bananas off of the counter. She smiled brightly at me as she came back across the kitchen and thrust a strawberry into the gooey melted chocolate. I studied her as she hummed softly to herself and twirled the strawberry around before setting it down on a piece of wax paper she had spread out neatly earlier. She had cut her long hair and put in dark caramel colored highlights. She also had braces, which her foster mother had been eager to purchase for her.
The front door slammed open and shut, and a minute later our mother strode into the kitchen, setting her purse down on the table. She had landed a job as a receptionist at a dentist's office, so she always wore brightly colored scrubs to work. She looked almost like a real person now a days, pulling her hair back in loose ponytails and officially leaving drugs in her past. She still had to go to meetings three nights a week, but she was still on a steady climb towards the mother I had known as a child.
"Mmmm, that looks delicious." She snatched a freshly dipped banana slice off of the wax paper and popped it in her mouth.
"Hey!" Lizzie shrieked. "These are for later!" Mom smiled lightly at her, planting a kiss on the side of her head. "Ok, no more for now. But that doesn't mean I'll eat them all later!" She sang out she left the kitchen and headed towards her bedroom.
"Oh no you won't!" Lizzie called after, giggling. She slid the last piece of fruit around, an orange slice, in the chocolate, dipping it down to cover it completely in chocolate. Quickly she extended her hand to me, trying to avoid letting the still runny chocolate melt.
"This is for you!" She exclaimed, her usual smile on her face. "For the best brother ever!" She put the lid on the leftover chocolate and placed it in the fridge before bolting from the kitchen. A moment later I heard the t.v. flicker on. Lizzie had found a new love in nightly newscasts in our time apart, so it was no surprise when she had shrieked with joy on discovering that I would be on one of her news shows. She and Mom had both sat on the couch together, beaming happily at the t.v. watching the botox princess with the heavily dark eyebrows sitting on our couch. I still referred to Ms. Avery as Mom, and her house as my house. It was just too weird not to. Meanwhile I had sat in the chair, my eyes frozen to my other family, none of us even attempting to clone Stacy's fake as her hair cheerfulness. It made me laugh, watching Axel arch and eyebrow and hold in a snort of laughter every once and awhile at her questions, since I had been sitting behind him on the couch. The happiness of just seeing all of them again, even though it was just in pixel, was brief as it interview reached the point in which Mom had turned to me and ruffled her hand through my hair. "Oh what a nice lady." My biological mother had complemented when it was over. "I'm so happy you were with her." I had sat staring at the rest of Lizzie's newscast in silence for a long time, unable to get the image of Mom's loving look of affection out of my head.
Later, after Lizzie had forced Mom and I to eat every single one of her chocolate dipped fruit pieces with her, I had sat down and opened up my email again, feeling slightly nauseas from all the sweet chocolate. I was intending on writing Zexion back when I discovered an email from Axel.
Despite what ever you hear, Larxene and are over for real this time. Everyone probably thinks we will get back together just because we still talk to each other but we are not. Period. So. I needed to ask you this because she is driving me bloody insane. Did you know about Kairi's insane crush on you? Or did it develop after you left? Because she all she wants to talk about it is you. You you you. I keep telling her to call you or email you or something but she won't listen and gets all giddy and girly about it. If you wrote her something I bet she would have a heart attack. Do it, please? Just for me? I need entertainment in my life!
Always,
Axel
Oh and you need to get your ass over here soon. I still have a thousand Clue rematches with you. I will be revenged!
Below it Axel had added Kairi's email, along with a thousand other pleases. I smiled, reading the email over again twice. I really had had no idea that Kairi had liked me, making me wonder myself if she had develop it after I had left. I typed a quick response to Axel and Zexion, before typing Kairi's email in the address line. I'd thought for a long time of what to write to her. I made it simple, how are you, how's school, how's life in general.
I closed the laptop, staring ahead of me in the darkness of the living room, the only light flooding in from a nearby streetlamp. After awhile I set the computer down on the chair and trudged down the hallway to my bedroom, thoughts of my other family drowning out everything else.
Marluxia graduated from high school and went on to study to become a botanist. Kairi took two weeks to reply to his email, but after that the two got steadily close, but never really dated. Marluxia visited both of his families on holidays and breaks, spending equal time with both and staying in touch with all of them.
Axel stayed true to his word and never got back with Larxene, though he did go through many one night stands during his first semester in college. He went on to the same university as Marluxia, becoming his roommate. Despite his outward attitude, he managed to study and resist the temptation of several parties and keep up with his school work. He never went back to living with his mom, who is still living in a mental hospital.
Roxas and Sora went to live with their parents shortly after Christmas. Their father never grew into a fatherly figure, but their mother had become almost suffocating with her love. Sora had Riku stayed together, even after Riku graduated from high school and moved three hours away. In February, their mother went back to rehab, this time for cocaine addiction, and they returned to their foster home. However, in late May their mother was released from rehab again and swore to make permanent changes in her life, which she stuck to. The twins moved back in with her shortly after her second discharge from rehab.
Demyx stayed with Namine after his graduation, going on to study marine biology and music. He stayed in touch with his two stepsisters, and in short communications with his mother, who still blames him for his stepfather's conviction. He broke away from his stage fright and joined a band, in which he was the main singer and guitarist.
Zexion went on to a special fine arts college, majoring in drawing and acting. He still stuck to his books and impressed many people with his large intelligence. He spent all the holidays with his foster family. Shortly after graduating high school he went on a search for his mother, but never located her. His father, however, attempted to contact him shortly after the interview with Stacey Springsteen had appeared on t.v. Zexion never contacted him back.
Ms. Avery retired from foster care after the latest six, claiming that it would feel too weird to replace any of them. She stayed active in the field however, and helped locate the perfect home for foster children.
Ah the end. For good and serious. Wow...this is weird.
Oh and feel free to message me whenever. I'm always on fanfiction whether or not I'm writing at the moment. I love talking to people about anything, no matter how random it is :-)