Epilogue: Settling Down

*The next morning when Serena awoke, she looked around and sat up quickly. Where was she? What had happened? What was going on? Then her nose caught a whiff of a wonderful scent and her mind traveled back to last night. She smiled in remembrance. She must have fallen asleep in Hiiro’s arms… and now she was in his bed!

She was fairly sure he had slept on the couch in the other room- he wouldn’t have slept in the same bed with her, he wouldn’t have done that without her consent, she knew. And now the smell of cooking food… smelled so good! Throwing back the covers, she padded quickly into the bathroom to make sure she looked semi-presentable, then made her way to the kitchen.

“Morning wife.” Hiiro smiled at her. He was standing at the stove, shirtless and flipping pancakes.

“My goodness! If this is what you do for me after a night like last night, I’d like to see what you do after a good night!” She giggled. He smiled. She had never been this openly happy with him, and it thrilled him beyond imagination.

She had fallen asleep the night before sometime after their first real conversation as civil people, and he had slipped her into his bed without her stirring. Then he had slept on his couch, knowing full well she wouldn’t like them sleeping in the same bed, married or not. Still he had been up early and been hungry, so he had decided to cook.

“I thought last night was a relatively good night for us. We didn’t kill each other like Mina predicted.”

“True.” Serena laughed. “What are you making?” She asked as she watched a pancake flip.

“Chicken and salad.” He told her, deadpanning expression on his face. She actually laughed.

“Really? Then can I help make the salad?”

“Set the table.”

“I see.” She sniffed. “You don’t want me in here. I understand.” He looked up, almost believing she was really hurt. Then he saw her expression and smirked.

“Fine, you can help me flip the pancakes.”

“I don’t know how!” She shook her head. He grabbed her hand and pulled her over. “No, Hiiro, you don’t understand. I’m one of those people who loves food, but burns water.”

“That is, by the way, physically impossible. The water doesn’t burn- it boils into steam. So you should be able to cook now. Look, it’s easy.” He forced her to stand in front of him and gave her the spatula. The he poured a small amount of batter onto the grill. “All you do is wait for the batter to start bubbling on top. When it does, it’s ready on the bottom. Then you flip it.”

“I’ll do it wrong!” She cried out, seriously worried about ruining the pancake.

“No, look. It’s bubbling. Just dig the spatula under the pancake gently, that’s right… now lift up and flip!”

“I did it! And it isn’t burned!” She jumped up and down excitedly. He laughed a deep, hearty laugh and Serena rubbed her back into his chest. She liked the deep, soothing melody of his laugh, and the feeling of his bare chest rumbling with laughter. Hiiro noticed Serena’s movement, but did not comment on it, wanting not to scare her away.

Just as Serena was finishing setting the two forks out on the table and Hiiro was bringing the pancakes and eggs out of the kitchen, they heard a knock at the door. Serena grinned.

“You might want to dress Hiiro, I think someone’s at your door.” He nodded and watched as she tucked her hair behind her ear. His silver cross still jingled around her wrist, and the ring he had given her still around her left ring finger. He smiled lightly. She was his. But she was also right... he had company.

“Would you get the door while I throw a shirt on?”

“Sure.” She chirped. Walking over to the door, she peered out through the peephole and laughed. Outside stood Mina, Ami, Relena, Sally, and Quatre, Wufei, Trowa, and Duo, not to mention Zechs and Noin. Opening the door, she let all ten of them in. “You found us.” She groaned unconvincingly.

“Serena! You’re smiling! What did you do to Hiiro?” Mina immediately commented.

“I didn’t ‘do’ anything. We were about to eat breakfast.”

“And you’re interrupting us.” Hiiro’s voice echoed from the hallway as he met them at the door.

“Sorry Hiiro. We wouldn’t have visited so early, but a few of the girls were worried that one of you would end up dead before the night was over.” Trowa told him, his emerald eyes laughing.

“Both of us are still alive and kicking. Or do you all need to have your eyesight checked?”

“We’ll have our eyes checked when you go in for that CAT scan Yui.” Zechs clapped Hiiro’s shoulder.

“Fair enough.” Hiiro nodded.

“Ok, well, I’m hungry.” Serena spoke up. “And now my pancake is getting cold!”

“You can make another one.” Hiiro reminded her.

“Hiiro, you do not want to put Serena near a stove- she can burn water.” Ami informed him. “And that isn’t even physically possible.” It was at this point Hiiro looked at Serena and raised an eyebrow, and she began to laugh.

“I told you I could burn water!”

“You didn’t burn the pancake though.” He reminded her.

“True.” She wrinkled her nose.

“Ok. What happened to you two? Last night you hated each other, and now, well, now you’re both being happy and polite and getting along. Who poisoned who?” Duo asked.

“Why don’t you all join us for breakfast?” Serena suggested, evading the question successfully. Hiiro scowled.

“I don’t want them all around. You’re my wife, and I want to eat my breakfast with you. Not them.”

“And what was I supposed to say, get lost?”

“I’d have taken out my gun, and they’d be out the door in a flash.”

“Hiiro, I’m missing my pancake!” She whined. He sighed.

“Let’s go eat.” She smiled and grabbed his hand, dragging him into the other room.

As breakfast commenced, they had to cook a few more pancakes and eggs to feed everyone, but it was nonetheless a very fun meal. Not everyone could fit at Hiiro’s small dining table, so half of them stood while eating, or sat on the floor nearby. They made idle small talk until Relena finally got right to the heart of what they were all truly wondering.

“So what happened last night?” Serena and Hiiro both nearly choked on their food.

“Nothing!” They denied together.

“She’s right, something must have happened. You two are way too happy. Hiiro, did you get some?” Duo was smacked by five women for his question, and three of them had to stand and walk over to him to do so.

“No. We talked a few things out, that was it.” Serena stated. It was a general comment that should have covered pretty much everything without giving anything away.

“Like?”

“None of your business.” Hiiro finished.

“And then you…?” Ami tried to get them to expand.

“Talked some more.” When it was obvious the couple would say no more, the others simply gave up. And then they latched onto a new topic.

“So what did you two decide for living arrangements?” Sally asked.

“Well, we decided that I would move in with Hiiro- he has two bedrooms, but one needs to be cleaned out.”

“So you’ll be living with him but not sleeping with him. Interesting.” Wufei grinned, and Sally grinned at him. Hiiro and Serena rolled their eyes. These were their friends? Quatre stood.

“Well. I think we’ve imposed on these two enough, don’t you all?” There was a general groan that went up around the room, and Quatre looked at all of the again. “We really have imposed too much, we should all get going.” Slowly everyone else around the apartment agreed, and stood slowly.

“Congratulations!” They all managed to grumble to their hosts as they left in a flurry of activity. When they were all done, Hiiro and Serena collapsed on his sofa.

“Thank God- they’re all gone!” Hiiro sighed. Serena smiled and leaned in, resting her head on his shoulder.

“We have a lot of dishes to do.” She told him. He groaned.

“No! This was your idea, you do them.”

“Will you help?”

“No, your idea, you clean up.” He smirked. She frowned.

“Jerk.” Hiiro snorted.

“Hnn.”

“You know how rude that is?” Serena asked him.

“I think I remember someone saying something along those lines once, yes.” He smirked again. Serena gently kissed him.

“I love you Hiiro.” She yawned and snuggled up to him, closing her eyes. He blinked. She… she loved him? She loved him! Hiiro smiled a true, genuine smile. He finally had what he had wanted- the woman he loved was his, in both name and soul.

“I love you too Serena Yui.” He watched her mouth curl in a gentle smile, and he smiled down at her. She was so pretty, so innocent when she was asleep… Asleep?

“No! Now I have to do all of the dishes!” *

The End.

~~~Wow! It’s over. It’s really done. I feel so… empty, useless, ect. But it’s done! I do hope you’ve all enjoyed reading this! I worked so hard on it, and I hope it’s as good as I wanted it to be! THANK YOU ALL FOR READING AND REVIEWING! Please REVIEW and RATE ME: 1-10, 1 worst, 10 best! Much love- Vixen~~~ Rix13Rix@aol.com