Love and Family

Plot Summary- Zane and Aster begin planning their wedding and new life. But planning a wedding is hard enough—and then Zane's parents come to make things all the more hectic. Can they get through it smoothly? Or will a family secret destroy everything?

Disclaimer- I do not own Yu-gi-oh GX or its characters.

Note- Just thought I'd mention , that if you guys like my first two stories—Steve the Purple Dinosaur has an awesome story called All For You that I can't get enough of! It's an excellent story about everyone's favorite couple so check it out if you get a chance :)

Aster's POV

I couldn't see a thing. I thought Zane and I were above these types of 'surprises' but I guess I was wrong. I leaned back against the leather seat of his Mercedes and let the smooth movement take me away. "Can I at least have a hint?"

"No," He said, bemused at the current situation. I rolled my eyes beneath the blindfold.

"Then I'll guess…This isn't a surprise wedding is it?" I asked, running my left hand over my engagement ring. It had almost been two months since we he asked me to marry him. I hadn't wanted to make a big deal out of it, but I didn't want a Vegas wedding either.

"Really? That's your guess? You think I have the patience and creativity for a surprise wedding?" I heard him sigh as he stopped the car. "You're hopeless…but we're here. Don't take your blindfold off yet."

When I heard his car door open, I lift my hand to try and lift a corner of the blindfold. A hand—not my own—slid in front of my vision. "Someone's not playing by the rules." Zane seemed to find the action more humorous than aggravating.

I groaned and tried to move away from his hand. "This isn't fair! You have to give me something to go on! You can't…"

He turned my head and planted a kiss on my lips. His lips moved against mine slowly and sensually. Kissing was usually our way of getting what we wanted—usually I played this trick, but he had caught me by surprise. When he stopped, he readjusted my blindfold. "Trust me; you're going to love it."

He closed his car door and came to my side. He opened it and helped me get out. He guided me from behind, gently pushing me from behind. He would tug on my shoulder when we stopped so he could open a door. At one point, he didn't ask me to move again. I felt a swift jerking movement, followed by the feeling of going up. "Why am I in an elevator?"

He chuckled and put his arm around me. "You'll see soon enough."

The elevator stopped suddenly, I bounced up for a moment. I heard the ding of the elevator open. "Okay, you can take off your blindfold now."

I quickly reached up and grabbed the blindfold, pulling it off my eyes. Zane had this amazing way of surprising me. It was one of the many things I liked about him. While I had learned to read people from a young age, Zane seemed to have this ability that prevented me from doing so. It kept things interesting.

But even if I could, I would have never expected this. I walked into the hall I use to run in as a child. Facing the same wallpaper my father and I shared a mutual hatred over yet looked forward to seeing at the end of a hard day. This was it. This was home.

"We're at the Miyazaki apartment complex…" I muttered to myself. I saw Zane's smile as he continued to lead me to the first door. He opened the door and led me inside—just as I suspected, it looked exactly like my dad's old apartment.

"Yup, remember how we've been looking for a new place to live for when we're married?" I nodded slowly. Yeah, we had been looking for a bigger place—but this wasn't exactly bigger. In fact, if anything, this was down-sizing. "Well, I've kept something from you. While we've been looking, I've paid off the top two floor attendants to leave and bought them from the landlord—Everyone's officially moved out so we can start construction."

My eyes widened as I turned to face him. "Construction?"

He nodded. "We're going to build a penthouse. I talked to a foreman already and he said we shouldn't have any problem getting it done within eight months."

I was completely astounded. He had done all that? Just for me. "But it must have cost you a fortune..."

"I have plenty more money—it would have been about the same amount we would have spent on a house or paying rent on a penthouse. Besides, this is what you wanted right?"

More than anything. I wanted my dad near me as I prepared to take the most important step of my young adult life. And this was the closest I would ever get. Zane stroked my cheek. "I know it's hard, not having your dad here and knowing he won't be there at the wedding... And this might not make up for it, but at least you can include him in some part of your life."

I finally broke out into a smile. Zane ran his thumb over my lip. "There you go, that's the response I wanted."

I wrapped my arms around him and held him close. Zane drift his arms around my waist and held me close. I couldn't thank him enough for this. I could never show him how much this meant to me and just how moving it was.

I pulled away, trying to keep my emotions submersed—for now that is. "So…should we go back to the apartment and celebrate our new home?" I said in a low seductive tone. He grinned and kissed my forehead.

"Sounds perfect to me."

()

I had pushed him against the wall in our apartment elevator. Kissing him fully on the lips and moving down to his neck. My teeth grazed against his neck and I listened to him moan softly.

His started to ring and I rolled my eyes. "Don't you dare answer it…"

He hesitated, trying to push it from his mind. But by the third ring, he gave in. He checked it and sighed. "It's Syrus, hold on…" I stopped biting his neck and nuzzled his shoulder as he spoke. "Someone better be dying."

"Oh good, I'm glad I caught you." I heard Syrus say over the phone. Wish I could say the feeling was mutual. "Listen, mom and dad called and…"

"Sorry, but I can't possibly talk about mom and dad right now." Zane said in annoyance and hung up the phone against Syrus's protests. The elevator doors opened and after checking to make sure no one was in the hall way, he swept his arms under my legs and lifted me up into his arms. Both of us laughing in the process. "You're going to kill me one of these days, hero."

"Oh I can think of quite a few ways to make that happen." I said, wrapping my arms around his shoulder. His phone started to ring again. Zane rolled his eyes.

"Get my phone, please." He said walking down the hall. I reached down to get his phone out of his pocket and held it against his ear. He took on a very serious tone. "Look Syrus, I'm about to tell you something no brother wants to hear from another or say to another since you don't seem to get the picture…I am about to have mind-blowing sex with Aster on every surface in our apartment."

"Zane!" Syrus and I simultaneously said at the same time.

He persisted. "That being said, my hands and every other part of my body, will be busy. So I won't be able to talk about mom and dad or anything else. So you'll have to call me another time."

Syrus sighed and continued in a disgusted tone. "You might want to reconsider because…" He hung up the phone against and attached his lips to mine. He slammed my back against our apartment door. One hand set to reaching under my shirt while the other focused on getting the key into the lock. When he unlocked the door, it swung forward, causing him to push me along with it against the wall of our apartment.

We heard the sound of a throat-clearing cough. Zane and I froze and looked up.

Syrus was sitting on the arm of our couch while two people were seated on the couch. One was a small, almost frail looking platinum blonde woman. Her hair fell over her shoulder and down the side of her stomach like spiraling water fall. Her eyes were the same greenish-grey that Syrus had, but she didn't have glasses. Her face had a few lines but she still looked surprisingly young. The man looked almost exactly like an older Zane. His hair was cut and streamed with white areas from graying hair that made him look distinguished as opposed to old. He also wore a pair of square rimmed glasses that marked the apparently genetic eye problems. Surprisingly, he also looked stronger than any of the younger men in the room.

I didn't have to be a genetic scientist to figure out who they were. I was coming face to face with Zane's parents.

Zane's POV

"Mom!" I dropped Aster to his feet, pulling my hands far away from my young fiancé. I didn't blush—well, at all, but I was pretty sure my face was red. "Dad, um…what a surprise."

"I guess so." His father said in a raspy, older version of my own voice. My mom tried to hide her shock under a big, friendly smile. She got up and walked over to me.

"It's our fault for intruding. You know, I forget you're a full-grown man sometimes." Mom wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me tight. Her head barely reached my chest but she had a way of making me feel like a small child. I knew it wasn't intentional—my mom wasn't the kind of person who used guilt or schemes to get what she wanted. But it just always ended up that way.

"No, it's alright…I'm you're here." I looked up to Syrus; he had a smug, 'well-whose-fault-is-this?' look on his face. I fought the immense merge to wipe it off. He did, in all technicality, tried to warn me. But why did they come to my apartment in the first place. "I'm just…surprised, what are you guys doing here?"

Dad stood up and moseyed over in the same slow, calm way, he always did. "Well, some friends of ours were getting married and….while we were in Japan, we figured we'd visit for a few days."

"I hope you don't mind if we stay at your apartment, but Syrus said he and Chazz were repainting theirs and…" Mom's eyes drifted to Aster as if she hadn't seen him when we were pawing at each other. She smiled warmly. "Oh, I'm so sorry! Zane where are your manners, introduce us."

She knew who he was, everybody knew who he was. But I guess maybe she didn't know that we were dating (well, now engaged), since my parents resided in Greece. They moved there after Syrus went off to duel academy since it was a 'long-lost dream' of my mother's to live in Greece and well—for as cold as my father was, he lived to make my mother happy.

None the less, I initiated the introductions. "Aster, this is mom Clarissa and my dad, Samuel…Mom, Dad…This is Aster Phoenix."

"Oh, and you must be the reason why Zane's so happy." Mom held out her hand warmly. Aster, looking confused and nervous, took her hand and shook it. He nodded politely.

"It's…a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Truesdale…Um and you too, Mr. Truesdale." Aster switched to my father. My father stared coldly at Aster—or so it looked anyway. My dad always had this cold presence about him. The staring was odd though—my dad barely looked people in the eyes when he spoke to them, let alone stare at them.

My mother caught on to this too. "Sam?"

"Oh right…It's nice to meet you Aster." My father said at last, sternly shaking his hand. "I'm sorry but…you looked familiar."

There was something off about my dad's tone of voice. I didn't press it; there was already enough awkwardness to go around and I was sure my mom would add to it.

"It is nice to meet you at last, Aster and please, just call me Rissa. Zane didn't tell us he was seeing someone new, but you know him. He was always the secretive one."

"You know, up until now." My brother said, feeling very brave at the moment. I leaned around my dad and glared at him.

"Yeah, I think Syrus was always more secretive. After all, you never knew about his online habits."

Syrus flushed red with a horrified look on his face. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure I do… You were such a Dyon Liesh fan, right Syrus?"

"Enough!" My father stated in frustration. My mother was confused at the current topic of conversation. He knew who Dyon Liesh was, and so did Aster, who was trying to conceal the smile that crept across his face. After all, he was a pretty big erotic romance novel writer.

My mother shrugged and smiled. "Dinner, my treat?"

And an interesting one it would be.