A/N: and the epilogue... enjoy!

There are not many things that Jou figured he wasn't capable of doing, but going upstairs to see the dead body of his best friend was one of them. Not long after Atemu, Yuugi, Bakura, Ryou, Mariku and Malik disappeared upstairs, he borrowed Mokuba's phone and called Seto. He must have sounded pretty bad, because less than two minutes after Seto picked up the phone the CEO was leaving his lawyer's office and was on his way home to deal with the situation.

In retrospect, Jou had no idea how he would have made it through those first few weeks without Seto and Mokuba.

The police swarmed the house immediately after Seto placed a call to them, because having three dead bodies was definitely worth some investigation. Seto handled their presence calmly and rationally, not even throwing out the couple of officers that kept making pointed comments under their breath about him. He walked a fine line in telling Jou what he wanted to know, but never giving him so much information that he just couldn't handle it. Because there were things about the whole situation that Jou desperately did not want to know.

Considering that this was right around the same time that Seto was slowly being exonerated for Pegasus's murder, the suspicion was on him pretty heavily for the first six weeks or so. Foul play was the term of the day. But no matter how many detailed tests were run, there was no proof that Yuugi, Ryou or Malik had been murdered. Autopsies confirmed that their hearts had collectively given out within minutes of each other. According to the coroner, Yuugi had died first, then Malik and finally Ryou.

And that's when Seto introduced something very interesting: carefully edited footage of the night the yamis and hikaris had confronted Croquet in the hotel room. One glance at that tape, plus the leaked video that the media had gotten a hold of that contained several very clear surveillance shots of Pegasus Crawford alive several months after he was supposed to be dead, and things went south very quickly for Croquet. It was extremely satisfying to see how fast the man's plans unraveled; he'd been so sure that he would never get caught that he had done very little to cover up his misdeeds.

It was a satisfying day when charges were dropped against Kaiba Seto and he was an issued a formal apology, after which he fired the Big 5 and purchased Industrial Illusions for mere pennies of what the company had once been worth.

After all that, it was finally time for the three hikaris to be laid to rest. Funeral services had been postponed until the investigations were completed, and now the day had come. Croquet was in jail pending a trial. Yuugi was being laid to rest. Ryou's body had been returned to his old city under the care of his father, while Malik's had been collected by his family and taken back to Egypt so that he could be buried there.

Jou looked into the mirror as he nervously straightened the coat of his suit. He'd been surprised to wake up that morning and find it waiting for him in the bathroom, but then maybe he shouldn't have been. For a man who had prided himself on being a cold hearted asshole not that long ago, Seto was becoming surprisingly adept at anticipating all of his needs.

He still didn't live in the Kaiba mansion. Not officially, anyway. Though he technically spent way more of his time here than he did at his apartment. At first he'd been religious about going back to check on his father, but as the days went by it was getting harder to feel the weight of the responsibility that had kept him loyal for so long. Seeing how someone like Seto, who wasn't even twenty years old, dealt with the stress and upheaval of the past few weeks was making him realize how pathetic his father was for delving into the bottle.

"Guess I didn't turn out like him after all, did I, Ma," he muttered under his breath. That was one of the things that stung the most, that his mother had been so certain that he would be exactly like his father. Even without Seto and Mokuba, he wouldn't have been. Jou was better than that.

"Talking to yourself is supposedly the first sign of insanity, you know."

Jou didn't jump. He was too used to Seto popping up at seemingly random times for that. But he did smile, just a little, because it was automatic by now: hearing Seto's voice always made him want to smile. "After everything we've been through, I'd be shocked if I was still completely sane," he replied, turning around. "You can only deal with magic for so long before you go a little strange."

Seto made a face. Even after all this time he still didn't like talking about magic. "Are you ready?"

"No," Jou said honestly. Was he ready to bury Yuugi, who was dead at the age of seventeen? No. He didn't think he'd ever be ready for that. Sometimes it was still so hard to wake up in the morning and remember that his best friend was gone. And not because of an accident or illness or anything like that, but because he'd chosen to. "I'm not looking forward to seeing Yuugi's grandfather."

"I thought you were close to him," said Seto.

"I was, but... whatever happened between him and Yuugi that day, it really didn't go over well. I tried to call him a couple of times and he never answered. When I went to go see him, he wouldn't open the door." Jou tried for a light-hearted shrug. "Pretty hard not to get the hint after that. I figured that maybe he blamed me for what happened."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I know. I just don't know if he does." He sighed and walked across the room towards Seto. "Whatever, it doesn't really matter. I just want this service to be over. I'm glad we're not going to the church." He paused right before he got to the door, even though Seto shifted to give him enough space to get through. "I'd rather not go to any of it, actually."

"Then let's not," Seto said simply, folding his arms. Jou looked up at him, astonished, and the CEO actually cracked a smile. "You did everything that Mutou asked you to do, sometimes more. You already said your good-byes to him, right? There's no sense in dragging this out if you don't want to."

Jou opened his mouth and then closed it. He really had no response to that. He'd been thinking of the funeral as something he had to do, to be there to present a good front and comfort Anzu, and it had honestly never really occurred to him that he didn't have to go if he really didn't want to. It felt sort of disrespectful to even think about not going, but Seto was right. He'd made his peace with Yuugi's decision, sort of, as much as he could: he was still angry on some level, and maybe he always would be because it hurt to be left behind. But that didn't mean he had to aggravate it anymore.

Clearly sensing that Jou was wavering, Seto added, "Besides, Mutou made his decision. He figured out what was best for him and went through with it. I can't begrudge him that, but I also can't imagine him being pissed if you do the same thing."

"You would come with me, right?" Jou asked after a moment.

"To the funeral? Yes, I already told you that we would."

He took a deep breath. For the past few months he'd been holding onto Yuugi, to Atemu, to the weird little world he'd been briefly introduced to. He had to let it go. He had something good here, with Seto and Mokuba, and Jou was terrified of losing that. "I think I'd rather swing by the apartment while my dad's at work and pick up the rest of my stuff."

Seto's eyes widened slightly. He had not repeated the initial offer to Jou, but nor had he rescinded it. "You want to move in?"

"Yeah, if I'm still welcome." Jou smiled crookedly, hoping that the fact that his heart was pounding didn't show. "I want to leave all of this stuff behind. I'm so tired of worrying and being angry about things I can't change. I just... I want to focus on you and Mokuba. If that's okay."

By way of response, Seto's warm hands cupped his face and drew him in. Jou fell into his arms eagerly, raising his head for the kiss that had been a long time coming. He'd been uncertain before about letting this happen, but he wasn't now. And when it came, that tender, sweet pressure, he trembled and felt Seto's arms wrapping around him even more securely. It was safe, welcoming; somewhere he had been searching for a very long time. He thought he could be happy here.

RMA

The night after Malik's service, the Ishtar house was quiet. Isis watched the television for a little while, though she was paying far more attention to the quiet sounds of her parents and Rishid moving around above her. Even after all this time, it was weird not to hear Malik stomping around. He'd always been so loud even when he was trying not to be, and without him the house seemed strangely silent.

After a couple more minutes of blankly staring at the screen, she switched it off and got up. She turned most of the lights off and slowly climbed the stairs, walking down the hall until she was standing in front of Malik's bedroom. It looked exactly the same way as it had the day he'd left the house, and it wouldn't be changing any time soon. Isis couldn't imagine packing his things away into boxes that would go into storage or be given away. But at the same time, looking at the room and knowing he wasn't coming back was incredibly painful. She couldn't stop herself from entering, pushing the unmade covers back and slipping inside. The pillow smelled a little of sweat, and she put her cheek against the rough material and cried.

It was a long time before she fell asleep, and when she did she had a dream. In this dream she saw her brother again, and he was smiling and laughing in a way that Malik had never been capable of in life. There were several other people with him, and they appeared to be having some kind of party because they were all gathered around a table. She didn't know these other people, but at the same time when she first glimpsed their faces she felt a strong pang of recognition, a connection that surged through to her very core. None of them knew she was there and she couldn't speak or attract attention in any way, could only stand in a corner of the room and watch as they talked and and laughed and exchanged kisses and embraces with love and familiarity.

Right before she woke up, though, Malik turned his head and looked right at her. He smiled.

The feel of her mother shaking her shoulder brought Isis out of her deep sleep. Most of the dream faded from her mind in the way that dreams do, but she realized that she felt a lot more peaceful now than she had last night. The deep sorrow over her brother's death had lessened, and she sat up and hugged her mom very tightly. "It's okay," she said softly.

"What do you mean?" her mom asked, hugging her back.

Isis smiled. She didn't know how she knew this, but she was very confident when she said, "Wherever Malik is, I think he's fine. He's happy. They all are."

And that's all she wrote, folks. Literally, in the case of the YGO fandom, at least for now. Thank you for the fantastic comments on this story. I know many people were shocked the hikaris actually died, but it felt like the only appropriate ending. I was asked if the spell could have been reversed if the yamis had enough time to investigate, and the answer is probably not. In my mind, it was pretty much permanent.