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Epilogue Omi glanced around curiously as they walked up the sidewalk. They still hadn't gotten around to getting their bikes replaced, so they'd been taking the subway for the last few weeks since the bomb and the kidnapping. They were on their way to Shuuichi's family's house, where a party was being hosted to celebrate the end of the terror. "What did Manx say?" Hiroshi asked him, referring to the meeting Omi and the rest of Weiss had gone to that morning. "Weiss is back in operation, but as a training group," Omi told his lover. "We won't be doing field work, we'll be training new groups to do what we used to do. Plus she's got me doing research for missions for the groups, since I'm still the best hacker Kritiker has." He rolled his eyes. "From some of the things she was saying, I think she's got some crazy idea of making ME Persia in a few years!" Hiro chuckled. "I can't think of anyone better," he said, ducking the mock-punch his boyfriend swung at him. Omi tugged at his shirt for the thousandth time as they approached the front door. "I can't believe Shuuichi's mother agreed to host this party," he whispered to Hiro as his lover rang the doorbell. Hiro grinned at him. "She started speaking to him again after she heard about the bombs and the sniper on the news," he told him. "I guess she realized that her son being gay wasn't worth losing him over. I'm glad - Shuuichi's pretty close to his family. They're great people." "How are they going to take the news that YOU'RE gay, too?" Omi asked him impishly, and Hiro rolled his eyes. "Gods only know... Hey, Shuuichi!" he greeted his friend as the door opened. "C'mon in, you're the last ones here," Shuuichi scolded them, ushering them inside and showing them where to put their jackets. "Everyone else is in the living room, and my mom's in the kitchen making snacks. Can you believe it? She's a fan of Yuki's writing - she hasn't left him alone since he got here!" he rolled his eyes at the vagaries of parents, and bounded back down the hallway. "C'mon, hurry up!" "Some things will never change," Hiro chuckled as they followed him more slowly. Shuuichi disappeared around a corner ahead of them as Omi nodded his agreement. The hallway was lined with framed photographs, showing all manner of places and people. Many had Shuuichi in them, surrounded by people Omi assumed were his parents and younger sister. Hiroshi was in a fair number of them as well, and Omi paused to exclaim over a picture of the two boys at age five. "Awww, you were cute!" he crowed, pointing. Hiro blushed. "Shuuichi's dad is an amateur photographer," he told Omi. "He takes pictures of EVERYTHING, so be prepared to be blinded by the flashes today." Omi giggled, and turned to look at the rest of the pictures. A formal black and white portrait caught his eyes, and he felt his heart leap into his throat. "Oh my god..." "Omi?" Hiro caught his arm to steady him, looking concerned. "What's wrong?" Omi stared at the photograph with a sort of sick fascination. He knew that picture, knew it very well - he'd last seen it when Ouka had introduced him to her mother. Two men stood behind a woman with a toddler in her arms, two teenagers filling out the rest of the picture. "Does everyone in the world have a copy of this picture except ME?" he exclaimed, voice shaking. There was a crash behind them, and he spun to put his back to the wall, heart racing. A plump, forty-something woman stood with a hand over her mouth, staring at him; the ruins of a tray of teacups lay at her feet. Omi stared back at her, feeling eerily like he should know her. "Mamoru?" she finally breathed out, making him jump again. "You're Mamoru, aren't you?" "H-how do you know that name?" he nearly squeaked, shaking. Everyone who knew him by that name was supposed to be dead - everyone in the photograph behind him. She took a step towards him, but stopped when he jerked away from her, keeping the same distance between them. Distantly he was aware of observers in the other doorway, the one that led to the living room. "Mom?" he heard Shuuichi ask hesitantly. "Don't you know who I am?" she asked Omi, ignoring her son entirely. "Don't you remember me?" "I..." Omi choked on the word, and felt Hiro's hand on his shoulder, steadying him. "I have amnesia," he told her, glad that his voice stayed relatively steady. "I really don't remember much before I was eleven." She collapsed down to her knees, looking faint, and Shuuichi raced over to catch her. She waved him away. "They said you were dead," she murmured, still staring at Omi like she'd seen a ghost. "Reiji said they'd taken the ransom money and killed you anyway..." Omi's lower lip trembled, and he controlled it fiercely. "He refused to pay," he said hoarsely, bitterly. "He told them they were welcome to me. They never got any money from him." "That unmentionable bastard," Shuuichi's mother swore, tears on her face. "First he took my sister from me, and then you..." "Your... sister?" Omi repeated uncertainly. She got to her feet again, coming towards him when it seemed he wasn't going to bolt. "Your mother was my oldest sister," she told him gently, and his eyes widened. "I was very close to her, but after she married Takatori I hardly ever saw her. Just before she killed herself, she asked me to watch over you - but Reiji would never let me near you, and then it was too late." "Omi and I are COUSINS?" Shuuichi blurted out, amazed. Omi felt like he would surely wake up any moment - this was too good to be true. "It would explain the remarkable resemblance between you," K pointed out from where he leaned on his crutch in the doorway. "I... I thought my family was all dead..." Omi stuttered, in shock. "I... cousins?" She gathered him up in a huge hug, and he didn't protest, embracing her back slowly. "I still have family?" he whispered, not quite believing it. "This ROCKS!" Shuuichi exclaimed, punching the air as his mother pulled away. "Wow, this is so cool! I never had a cousin before - Mom's other sister doesn't have any kids, and Dad was an only child, and we NEVER saw you and your brothers!" "You're lucky," Omi muttered under his breath, but thankfully no one caught it except Hiro. The guitarist gave Omi's hand a reassuring squeeze, and the look in his eyes showed the he knew just how much this meant to his lover. "You are always welcome in my home, Mamo... Omi," she amended perceptively when he flinched at the hated name. She glanced down at his hand clasped in Hiro's, and sighed a bit. "Though it appears I'm going to have to get used to the idea that this apparently runs in my family." She patted his hand to show that she meant no offence, and he gave her a watery smile. "Thank you," he whispered, squeezing Hiro's hand back. "Thank you so much! You'll never know how much this means to me..." He trailed after her into the living room - into his COUSIN'S living room - feeling somehow as if he'd been rewarded for surviving everything bad that had happened to him. He had his lover by his side, his friends all around him - and he had FAMILY again. He couldn't ask for anything more. | |
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|Chapter 1| |Chapter 2| |Chapter 3| |Chapter 4| |Chapter 5| |Epilogue| |