The end is nigh.  And I don’t mean because there’s sixty-nine days until December 21, 2012.  I don’t think that’s going to happen.  I think the Mayans either had a sense of humor or the Spanish got to them before they could finish the calendar.  It’s one of those two… possible both… I’m rambling.  Ignore all of that.  Hope you are enjoying the story!

Quote of the Chapter:

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so you can learn to let go. Things go wrong so you can appreciate them when they’re right. You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself. And sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”

~ Marilyn Monroe

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Epilogue Part One

Chopper

I woke up without opening my eyes.  I was in that state where you’re borderline awake and borderline asleep at the same time.  What happens is up to you.  The place was dark and I immediately snapped my eyes open, fearing I would be back in that hellhole entrapped by the Belkans.  Relief surged through me when I recognized the room as that of one of Versailles’s.  I let out a sigh before I realized my arm was wrapped protectively around someone’s waist.  My stomach somersaulted, wondering who it was because for a brief moment, I thought I was sleeping with someone other than Blaze.  However, then the memory of last night came rushing back and for the second time in less than two minutes, relief flooded through me.

Blaze was curled up in a ball, but she was pressed against me as much as physically possible.  Her blonde hair was contained by her sleeping on it.  Her cheek was red and I realized I must’ve been sleeping on it.  Blaze’s arms were pulled up to her chest as if she was cold.  I couldn’t blame her.  The air conditioner had kicked on and we had, in the middle of the night, kicked off all the blankets.  Carefully, I used my legs to shift the blanket up high enough for me to reach it so I could cover us up.  Thank god Blaze was a heavy sleeper because I was neither the quietest nor the stealthiest at shifting the blanket up.  Somehow, I managed it and we ended up well covered by the blanket.

Sleepiness suddenly hit me again and I felt like I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.  I rested my head on Blaze’s cheek and fell back asleep.

I woke up again to the high-pitched ringing of the room’s phone.  I was now on my back with Blaze resting her head on my chest.  Her arms were still pulled up tightly to her chest though.  How on earth was she sleeping through that blasted ringing?  With a groan, I picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Chopper?  What are you doing in- wait, does she know?” Grimm’s voice inquired hesitantly.

“Yeah, she knows I’m alive,” I said quietly, looking down unconsciously at her. “Wasn’t the happiest of greetings at first but that’s a story for another time.”

“Well when you two stop doing the unspeakable things-”

“We haven’t done anything!” I snapped, more loudly than I intended.  Blaze stirred slightly.  So my voice could wake her up but the telephone ring from hell couldn’t?  Of course, because that just makes so much sense…

“Uh huh,” Grimm said drolly. “Listen, keep her occupied today.  Don’t let her come into the dining room.”

“Grimm, this is Blaze we’re talking about.  She does what she wants,” I pointed out bluntly. “Y’all couldn’t keep her from sneaking out of my parents’ home and coming here.  How on earth do y’all think she’s going to listen to me?”

“Because,” Grimm started as if it should be as obvious as the sky is blue, “she’s not going to want to let you out of her sight for a while now that you’re back.  Why don’t you go see your family?  I’m sure they’re worried about Blaze leaving in the middle of the night and I know they’ll be unbelievably happy to see you.”

“Yeah, but why do y’all want her out of the room?” When Grimm explained the situation I smiled.  Only Blaze… Then an idea popped into my head.  What the hell?  I had been gone for a while so why not?  I explained my plan to Grimm who nearly yelled from excitement. “You have to play You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling.”

“I think that is one of the most brilliant plans you’ve ever come up with.”

“Chopper… who is it?” Blaze murmured.  I looked down at her.  Her eyes were open slits, just enough where I could see her hazel irises.

“Go back to sleep sweetie,” I whispered.  She nodded and did as she was told.

“She wake up?  So you two weren’t doing the unspeakable?”

I hung up on him. 

Looking at the clock, it was almost ten in the morning.  Blaze and I had been asleep for almost ten hours.  I also noticed I had no feeling in my left arm from Blaze sleeping on it.  I didn’t mind but the prickling sensation traveling up and down my arm was making me constantly shift it and constantly making it involuntarily jerk.

“You’re fidgeting.  Are you okay?” Blaze mumbled, opening one of her eyes half way.

“Yeah, my arm is dead.” Blaze shot up and looked at my arm worriedly.  I observed with an abrupt abject horror just how jumpy Blaze was at the mention of specific words and at specific sounds in just a few seconds.  Almost all at once, a car engine backfired and a door creaked open from somewhere outside in the hallway.  Blaze jumped rather violently and whether she knew it or not, edged right next to me, almost cowering against me.  I then saw how much Rald had messed her up.  I wanted to kill him with my bare hands for it.

“Not literally, Blazing Star.  It’s numb from you sleeping on it,” I assured her as I sat up.  I gave her a kiss on the cheek.  She turned and looked at me sheepishly.

“So who was on the phone?”

“Grimm.  He told us to take the day off and he suggested I go see me parents.  To be honest, I’ve been wanting to but I couldn’t because you were there and everyone didn’t want me seeing you just yet.”

Blaze smiled softly. “Go see your parents.” After a moment’s hesitation, she added, “I’ll stay here so you can have some privacy with them.”

“No,” I said quickly. “I want you to come with me.  If I am standing at the door and one of my parents opens the door, they’re going to have a coronary.  You have to prepare them… plus I don’t want to do this without you.  You’re my family as much as they are.”

She didn’t reply for an agonizing minute and I figured she was going to be her usual stubborn self and not do what she was told but to my amazement, she said, “Okay.  I’m going to take a shower so I look presentable.” Blaze gave me a quick peck on the cheek and got out of bed.  She grabbed clothes and a towel and shut the bathroom door, leaving me to my thoughts as I lay back down on the bed.

How on earth was I going to break the news to my parents that I was alive and (somewhat) well?  It’s not like I could just waltz on in there and go ‘Hey mom!  Hey dad!  Hey Mel!  I’m alive!’ Yeah, don’t think that would go over so well.  I mean, I know they love me and I know they’re going to be beyond happy to see me but seriously, I think my parents might have a coronary.  Don’t want to sound mean but they’re not that young anymore…

How would they act when they finally stopped flipping out I was alive?  Would they even flip out?  Would they act like Nagase and flinch away from me?  Would they act like Cassie and barrel into me to give me a hug?  Would they act like Blaze and completely lose it and try to shoot me (my family knows how to use guns)?   There were so many possibilities whirling through my head I was making myself go crazy.  I stood up and headed over to the dresser and stared at my reflection with an absurd thought flashing through my mind that I felt like a girl for doing this (not that I’m trying to stereotype girls).  But I wanted to do it.  I took in my appearance, and pardon the language here, but I looked like shit.  My hair was scraggly and long, something I was completely unused to and something I completely despised.  All during my high school years, I never understood the long hair for guys look.  I didn’t mind it if guys had long hair, but I didn’t understand it.  I can’t tell you how many times girls would think a guy was a girl because his hair was so long.

Moving on from my rant, my eyes looked hollow and dull.  The bags under my eyes were a prominent purple and it looked like I had aged about ten years.  I know it was from lack of sleep and nutrition and compared to the first day I saw my reflection, this was an improvement, but still… and my irises were dull.  Whereas before they had always had a mischievous spark in them, now they were tired and alert, exhausted from the ordeal and tense for any threat that might try to capture me or Blaze again.  I wasn’t going to let that happen.  I wouldn’t survive another experience like that.

My face was pale.  In fact, I looked like Frosty the freaking Snowman.  I had been going outside in the courtyard in the middle of Versailles away from the prying eye of the paparazzi but I was having a hard time getting tan.

I looked at my arms.  Whereas before they had been muscular and buff, they looked like sticks that could easily be snapped in two.

I wasn’t used to being weak.  I wasn’t used to not looking like I could hurt anyone who threatened me or people close to me.  I wasn’t used to looking like Frosty the Snowman.  I wasn’t used to looking like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo with my long hair.  Hell, all I needed was some red bell bottom pants, a green t-shirt and a brown Great Dane with black spots and I’d be set (I already had the ravenous appetite).

I hated this.

I despised it.

I wanted to get rid of this image of me and get back to my old self.

“Chopper?” I hadn’t even noticed that Blaze had come up next to me.  I jumped slightly from surprise and turned to look at her.  Her hair was dried and perfectly straight.  She was in a dress with a black top and a tan bottom.  Blaze had put on some makeup just to her standards that she decided she was presentable enough to go out in public.  Of course, I always thought she looked presentable, with or without makeup.

“How’d you even recognize me?  I look nothing like the old me,” I muttered.  She didn’t answer right away.

“You are still the old you.  You might have long hair, you might be thinner, you might look paler, but you’re still you.  I would recognize you anywhere anytime.” I looked at her and even with the makeup, you could tell she had lost color in her face.  You could tell she’d lost weight.  But it would take someone who knew her well to know how much the experience had messed her up.  Even almost a month later, she was still scarred from it.  We both were.

I only gave her a smile and a quick kiss before heading into the bathroom.

It hardly took me ten minutes to take a shower.  It would’ve taken five if my hair hadn’t been so damn long.  I had tried to convince the group that I needed a haircut but apparently, in the weeks I had been here, there had been no time.  I could remember plenty of times we could’ve sacrificed a meeting to go get my hair cut but alas, that didn’t happen, much to my annoyance.

I put on some jeans a blue tee and headed out of the bathroom.  Blaze was on the bed, curled up in a ball with a book next to her head.  It reminded me of the old times when none of this had happened and we were just nuggets on Sand Island; when Blaze wasn’t feeling like she had the responsibility of all of our lives on her shoulders; when they all hadn’t been called traitors and chased from the only base they had really known and called home.  We live in a screwed up world, just saying.

I walked over to her and gently shook her awake.  Blaze nearly slapped me but I managed to duck.

“Sorry,” she apologized sheepishly.  I grinned.

“I see you haven’t changed much,” I joked. “Come on, I decided before we go see my parents, I want to get a haircut… and some pie.”

“You’re as bad as Dean Winchester,” Blaze noted with a smirk.  I grinned; we were back to our old routine of cracking jokes and not thinking about what lay ahead of us… or for us, behind us.  For a few brief moments, I forgot everything we had been through and it was liberating.  Blaze captured me a kiss and I hovered over her.  I wasn’t sure how long we kissed but we both ended up on the bed.  I didn’t mind.

“I thought you said you two weren’t doing the unspeakable, Chopper,” an amused voice observed from the doorway.  Blaze and I jumped apart as if we were caught in some clandestine act.

“Grimm!” I snapped but my embarrassment made it hard for me to be angry.  I tried not to laugh but that was easier said than done.

“We were just kissing, Grimm.  Besides, I’m sure you and Cassie have done the unspeakable with how happy you two have looked lately,” Blaze said nonchalantly but there was mischievous spark in her eye.  God I missed that look.

Grimm flushed a deep crimson and Blaze looked somewhat shocked. “Wow,” she said, “I was just joking.”

“I see you still have your psychic powers,” I joked.  She nudged me playfully before going up to hug Grimm and saying, “Good to see you.”

“You, too.  You look great,” Grimm told her.

“I feel great,” Blaze replied.  He smiled and something told me Grimm didn’t mean she looked just physically great.  I made a mental note to myself to ask him later what Blaze had really been like when I was gone and to not hold back any more like they had been.  I wasn’t stupid.  I knew they had been withholding specific details from me, probably because they knew I wouldn’t like it. “How did you know Chopper and I were together?”

“Told me when I called this morning.  So how did you do it, Blaze?” he queried.

“What do you mean?”

“How did you leave the Davenports’ house without them stopping you?”

Blaze looked somewhat guilty. “Called in a favor from some of Chopper’s friends: Jensen and Jared.”

“Did Jensen hit on you?” I inquired seriously. She laughed and shook her head.

“How did she react to you, Chopper?” Grimm questioned with raised eyebrows.  While Blaze put one hand to her head from shame, I grinned from ear to ear and said, “That’s a story for the whole group to hear.”

Grimm tried to protest but when Blaze told him it wasn’t going to happen, he shut up.  Wow, she had really honed her ‘Captain’s Orders’ skill.  We told him what our plan was for today and that we’d be back around seven.

“That’s perfect!” Grimm exclaimed.  He and I shared a look and Blaze glared at both of us.

“What are you two up to?” She asked suspiciously.

“Nothing,” I lied.  I knew she would see right through it but I knew she would know not to argue.  Grimm left us after telling us to not do anything we wouldn’t tell our parents and Blaze literally kicked him in the butt and out of room and shut the door before realizing we both were meaning to leave the place.  I grabbed my aviators that I had left in Blaze’s room last night when I had been in here, looking at the pictures she had posted everywhere.  Blaze grabbed her jacket and aviators and we walked out hand-in-hand.

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Blaze

It always worried me when Chopper shared a look with someone else that clearly said the two of them knew something that I didn’t… did that make sense?  Anyways, it was driving me insane and Chopper could see that because he said, “Don’t worry, you’ll see later.”

I snorted.  Our four body guards kept a neutral but protective distance, two behind us and two in front of us.  I felt secure, especially with Chopper by my side.  The trip to the barber shop was quick and easy and it was obvious that having his hair back to its short, cropped look lifted Chopper’s spirits immensely.  He said he didn’t like looking like a blonde Gene Simmons even though he looked nothing like Gene Simmons in the first place.  Then we walked to Shipley’s Donuts and on the way, Chopper bought me a single red rose; his explanation, and I don’t know how he remembered this, was that he had promised to give me a rose after we helped President Harling (the first time).

Finally, I told him, “It’s almost one.  I think we should go see your parents now.”

A look of complete and utter trepidation crossed onto his face.  He was probably wondering how they were going to react and wondering if they were going to try and shoot him like I did… I still can’t believe I almost shot him…

One of our bodyguards was Alex.  He called for Versailles to bring a black Escalade to pick us up.  Chopper shifted from foot to foot while we waited for the truck and once we were on our way to his childhood home, he fidgeted the whole way there.

When there was only a half-hour left before we were to arrive at the Davenports’ home, I called the landline.  Melissa picked up.

“Hello?” she sounded slightly frantic.

“Hey, Melissa.  It’s Blaze,” I replied.

“Blaze!  Damn, we’ve been worried about you!  When you didn’t come down this morning and I went to check on you and you weren’t there and all that was there was a note saying you went to Versailles on urgent business, I thought you’d been freaking kidnapped again and that the kidnappers had lied and-”

“Melissa!” I interjected hastily. “I’m fine.  It really was urgent business… but it was more personal than professional.  I’ll explain when I get to your house.”

“How far away are you?”

“Thirty minutes.  Are your parents home?”

“No, why?”

“Tell them they need to come home straight away.  This is urgent.  It has to do with why I went to Versailles last night.”

“And it involves us?” She sounded dubious.

“Yes, but I can’t explain it over the phone.  Please, just make sure you’re all there when I get there,” I pleaded.

“You’re not pregnant, are you?”

The question shocked me so much that my reply was clipped and flustered sounding so she probably thought I was lying when I went, “What?  No.  Definitely not.”

We talked for a few more minutes before she finally conceded to my insistent requests.

“Is she okay?” Chopper asked in a voice that defied his calm look.

I nodded. “She seems suspicious.  I think she’s actually a little pissed that I took off in the middle of the night.  Plus her first thought when I told her that I need to talk to all of them was that I was pregnant.”

Chopper started cracking up.

The last thirty minutes we rode in silence.  Chopper wouldn’t stop fidgeting, whether it was shifting his hands or having a one-man thumb war.  I stared out the window and let my thoughts wander.

Chopper was different.  There was no doubt about that.  He was more serious and             quiet.  I knew that his imprisonment by Rald had taken a toll no one could understand, not even me.  I had only been imprisoned a couple weeks.  Chopper had been imprisoned for over six months.  That was unimaginable to me.  I wanted to wring Rald’s neck.

Slowly, I started seeing the old aspects of Chopper.  His humor was slowly returning.  His habitual bantering that he almost specifically aimed at Grimm was coming back.  This morning I wanted to scream from joy but everyone thought I had already lost my mind.  No need to give them anymore.

“Blaze!” Chopper called, snapping his fingers in my face.  I blinked and looked at him.

“What?” I queried innocently.

“We’re here.” His brow was furrowed in worry and I realized I was slipping back into my old habits when I was having the ‘Chopper-crashing-into-the-stadium-and-dying-and-scaring-the-bejeezus-out-of-me’ dreams and when he had been going nearly out of his mind trying to get me to open up about what was going on.  Gosh dang it…

“I’m fine,” I assured. “Now listen, wait in the car.  I’ll come get you when you can come in.”

He nodded stiffly and after giving him a quick kiss, I hopped out of the car and practically ran up to the steps.  I knocked nice and loudly on the door.  Melissa opened it barely a few seconds later.  She smiled at me and frowned at the bodyguards in the black Escalade.

“I’m not sure if your face is at the black Escalade being so stereotypical for the bodyguards or at the number and size of the bodyguards,” I said.

Melissa smiled gently. “Both.  Come on in.”

With one last glance at the SUV, I entered the Davenports’ home.

_______________________________________________

Melissa

Blaze seemed different.  She seemed more upbeat, more outgoing, and happier.  The shine in her eyes that had been there when she came in November was back.  Something had happened last night. 

We went into the living room where my parents were pacing.  When they saw Blaze, they both gave her hugs.  Apparently, they saw the sudden change in her too because my mom instantly asked, “You’re glowing… are you pregnant?”

Blaze looked confused. “No.  Not pregnant.  Why does everyone keep asking that?”

I’m so much like my mother sometimes it scares me.

“Please, uh, sit down,” Blaze requested.  She seemed unusually flustered.  Her face was flushed and she kept biting her lips and running her fingers through her hair.  What on earth was going on?

“What’s that matter?  You’re really high-strung,” I noted as I sat down.  My parents still refused.  I think they thought Blaze was high or something.

“Did you take too many pain killers?” My father questioned, studying Blaze.

“What?  No!  I haven’t taken any since last night.  Please, sit down though.  Seriously, what I’m about to tell-slash-show you is going to be beyond shocking and uh, no offense, but I don’t want any of you having coronaries.  I almost had one.  In fact, I flipped out when I saw… well, you’ll see,” she rambled.  My parents listened and sat down on the couch.  We were all staring at Blaze with perplexed expressions.  She kept repeating to prepare ourselves over and over as she left the room and I don’t know what was making her so anxious.  I heard the front door open but not shut.  There was a brief moment of silence.  Then there was a pair of much heavier footsteps along with Blaze’s soft ones.  They approached the doorway to the living room but stopped.

“I can’t do this…” someone, a male, whispered frantically.

“You can do this.  You have to do this.  They miss you,” Blaze consoled.  Who was this person?

“How are they going to react?  I’ve been-”

“I know but they’re your family.  They won’t react like I did…” Blaze sounded somewhat shameful.

“They also didn’t go through what you did,” the man said gently.  You didn’t need to see either of them to know that these two held a dear place for the other in their heart.

I couldn’t take anymore and I decided to go see who it was for myself.  I stood up and briskly walked to the doorway.  I stumbled backwards when the visitor looked at me.

“Melissa?” My parents inquired in an alarmed voice.  They stood up and ran to me as I covered my mouth in… shock barely covered what I was feeling.

“Alvin,” I whispered.  My parents were staring at my brother, their son, clutching their hearts.  Now I knew why Blaze had said she didn’t want them to have a coronary.  I think I was about to have one.  However, I didn’t stay stationary for long because my feet moved me of their own accord to my brother.  He stood, rooted to the spot, as if frightened that if he moved, I would retreat away.  Fat chance of that happening.  I threw my arms around him with such force that he stumbled back.  I didn’t realize I was crying… okay more like sobbing, until I tried to wipe my tears on his shirt but it was already soaked.  His arms were wrapped around me, squeezing the living daylights out of me, but I didn’t care.  I felt my parents join in the hug and we were reunited as a family.  I suddenly thought of Blaze.  She was just as much a part of this family as we all were.  Hell, she and Chopper had been engaged.  She was going to be my sister-in-law.  Chopper seemed to have the same idea and I saw that as he turned to look behind him for his fiancée, there were tear stains on his face.  He pulled a sticky note that was on the banister.  He read it and with a small grimace and looked up the stairwell before looking back at us.

“I guess I have a lot of explaining to do?” He looked sort of sheepish.

“You have no idea, little brother,” I told him.  He grinned and the four of us walked into the living room.

He started out with him being shot down, jumping out of his plane, and waking up in a hospital with a couple unfamiliar guys surrounding him.  When he was able to leave, which coincidentally was when the famous air squadron the Razgriz was attacking Sudentor (I seriously want to meet them and thank them for saving our country) and he said he actually said a comment over the radio (something about a big tunnel) before getting conked on the head and waking up in pitch blackness.  After that, he told us the Belkans had tried to extract information from him.  I could tell he wasn’t giving us the full story; I think it was because it was too horrific.  I wondered if Blaze knew the whole story.

Then he got to the part where Blaze entered and how he remembered having an instant connection with her.  So even with amnesia, he still felt connected to the same girl?  Maybe that’s what true love is.  He said that when he finally figured out it was Blaze, he went stark-raving mad trying to save her.  He kept gritting his teeth in the parts with Rald.  Then it dawned on me that my brother was talking about the Waldemarr Rald.  I had heard horror stories of what Rald did to his prisoners and now I realized why my brother had held back on what had happened.  He did go into a little detail about Blaze’s torture.  He explained that she’d been tasered repeatedly to the brink of unconsciousness and then how she’d been stabbed and how she’d single-handedly shot Rald.  He downplayed his rescue of her but my parents and I were still in awe.  How had either of them survived the ordeal?

“And yeah, that’s the story,” Chopper finished.  He said it as if he said “School was fine” or “I’m going to wash the dishes.”  He said it way too casually.

My mother and father’s faces had been drained of color and I guessed mine was probably the same.

“Um, listen,” My brother began, scratching the back of his head. “I was thinking…”

He explained to us what had been on his mind and my mother and I both started crying again.

“That’s fantastic!  We’ll go into town and you can slip away with one of us so we can-” My mother started.

“And we’ll keep her occupied,” I offered.

“How do women know exactly what the other is thinking without finishing the sentence?” Chopper queried.

“It’s a woman thing,” I joked.  He smirked.

“I’m going to go find Blaze.  She’s been quiet too long,” Chopper said.  He gave us all a tight hug before going up the stairs to find her.  My family and I elapsed back into tears after he left.

_______________________________________________

Blaze

I was sacked out in Chopper’s bed, curled in up in a ball to try and stop the pain in my stomach.

It wasn’t working.  Lately, I had been able to go for longer periods of time without any pain, but when the pain did come, holy Razgriz, that was real hell.  Besides genuinely wanting Chopper to have alone time with his family, I also didn’t think I’d be able to sit through everything without blacking out from pain.

“Blaze?” I opened my eyes to find Chopper level with me, staring at me with his crystal blue eyes.  I smiled but I think it turned out as more of a grimace.

“You’re stomach?” he queried.  I nodded.  He pulled out an orange pill bottle and I could’ve cried from relief.  It was the painkillers the doctors had given me.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” I murmured, snatching the bottle and downing a pill with no water or anything.

“It sounds like you fended for yourself pretty well while I was gone.  My parents want to go into town.  Do you want to stay here?”

I waved him off. “I’m fine.  I’ve been in worse condition before.  Let’s go.”

He helped me up to my feet and we went downstairs together.

The trip was brief because the sun was sinking and we had to be back at Versailles by seven.  Chopper and Melissa had slipped off somewhere for about half an hour and came back looking triumphant.  Chopper wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed me on the head but didn’t tell me what he and his sister had done.

Goodbyes were tearful and truthfully, all of us were crying.  It took fifteen minutes before any of us could gather up the courage to separate.  Chopper and I cuddled in the Escalade on the way back to Versailles.  His head rested on mine.

When we arrived, he led me to the dining room on the second floor.  I was curious to know why but I figured dinner had been set up and we were joining.  When the door opened, there were at least a hundred people staring at me as they shouted, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

I stood frozen in astonishment as the realization dawned on me.

Leave it to me to forget my own birthday. 

I was twenty-five…

Chopper wrapped his arms around my waist as he whispered into my ear, “Happy birthday beautiful!”

Everyone was there.  Harling, Pops, my squadron, my brother, Cassie, Bartlett, Nastasya, Andersen, Cipher, Pixy, and Geller were at the front; they barraged me with hugs.  Then Henri Rald appeared and he looked so shy and out of place that I ran up and hugged him.  I had wondered vaguely what had happened to him but I had been so preoccupied with Henry/Chopper that I had forgotten about Henri Rald which made me feel super guilty.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said softly.

“Same goes for you,” I said sincerely.  The crew from the Kestrel was there too and I gave each of them hugs too.

After that, the party went into full swing.  Music blared and cocktail drinks and beers were being downed one after another.  I couldn’t count how many people were completely smashed.  I danced with Chopper most of the night who seemed to be more elated than usual.

Near midnight, I took a break with Cassie and Nagase at the bar.  We were just shooting the breeze when Chopper came up with microphone in hand.

“Excuse me, Blaze,” he said.  Something about this whole setup seemed familiar but I couldn’t place it.

“Don’t worry, Captain, I’ll take care of it,” Grimm assured.  He had his aviators on for some reason…

Chopper hit Grimm’s shoulder and they both bowed before Chopper started singing: “You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips!”

Grimm jumped in: “There’s no tenderness like before in your finger tips!”

Chopper began again: “You’re trying hard not to show it!”

And then of course, everyone jumped in:“Baby!  But BABY!  Believe me I know it!  You’ve lost that love and feeling!  Whoa-oh that love and feeling.  You’ve lost that LOVE and feeling now it’s gone, gone, gone. Whoa-oh-oh-oh, ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, bum, bum.”

My face was red as a beet as all the guys sang and Nagase and Cassie were cracking up.  I didn’t like all this attention focused on me.  And of course I realized the scene from Top Gun but I don’t think Chopper was trying to get me to date him since, well, we already were.

“Blaze!” Someone shouted as they started singing:“Baby, baby, I’d get down on my knees for you!”

I wasn’t able to find the source of the caller so I looked back at Chopper.

… Who was on one knee and was holding open a velvet box with the most stunning ring in it.

“Blaze, will you marry me?” he asked softly.  I didn’t hesitate as I answered yes and tackled him to the floor in a hug.  The crowd laughed and cheered at the same time as Chopper and I untangled ourselves and he slipped the ring onto my finger.  The crowd chanted for us to kiss and we conceded.  Our arms wrapped around each other.

I don’t remember much but I do remember that pretty much being the best kiss of all time.

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Wow, long chapter.  Not very event-filled but I have to wind the story down somehow!  Thank you to the people who reviewed the last chapters!  They were very much appreciated!  Please review!