69The Future
Hi! Wow, it's been so long since I wrote a fanfic (last time was literally 2014 heh). I kinda ran out of things to write about Lorien Legacies until now. I've had this story about everyone's future in my head for awhile, but one day I was like 'I want to write this!' And I wrote it all in 2 days.
This chapter is about the future 10 years later, inspired by what I wrote in Adam and One's chapter (chapter 4 go check). Adam is 31, Marina is 28, Eight Sarah and Six are 27, John Nine Five and Sam are 26, and Ella is 22. Their looks don't change much, and they've matured quite a bit. It's more of descriving their future than actual action and comedy. Sorry if there's too many romantic bits, and the atrocious grammar. Please read on and enjoy!:)
Chapter 9
Shipping: Everyone
10 years later
Nine POV
"Move it left, right, no two inches left..." Six orders. I huff and push the couch back and forth, as I've been doing for the past 5 minutes. As usual, you have to listen to the lady.
"Is this fine?" I ask between gritted teeth.
"Oh no too far left! A bit more to the right, yeah, yeah, okay! Stop that's it!" Six claps her hands in glee and I stand up in relief.
"And we're done!" Six sings as she tacks a sign that reads "Welcome to Nine and Six's House" on the front door. We stand back, admiring the house we've just bought. Six rests her head on my shoulder and I hug her tight, feeling for the millionth time how lucky I am to have her beside me.
After 10 years of dating, 5 breakups and 3 engagements, we've finally been together long enough to confirm our love for each other, and have finally bought a house. Six the stubborn girl had rejected me for a whole year before finally accepting, only for us to break up repeatedly because of our hot tempers.
However, even when we try to avoid each other, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, Six has never slipped out of my mind, and I find myself keep coming back to her. And I know she feels the same way.
"I'm so happy we're doing this." Six whispers softly, gazing at the huge bungalow, three storeys high with mahogany floors and clear glass floor to ceiling windows. There's a jacuzzi and swimming pool at the side yard, and a beach nearby where we take morning walks. After all, we're in Malibu.
As well as attending the UN Ambassador and Lorien Holdings meetings (where Johnny is president for both and made us all join), me and Six are chilling around, going for glitzy glamorous parties, entertaining guests and basically just being a celebrity. My party nature never stopped, it's in my blood. Six, on the other hand, hates the fame and attention, always scowling during events or making me early. I've got this feeling she's only in Malibu because she loves the beach and the ocean. Oh, and me of course.
Six insists on working, and guess what she's doing? Teaching kids to fight. Tae kwon do, martial arts, her own fighting techniques. She runs a small fighting school and it's pretty successful. I know she truly loves it, seeing the competitive and determined flame in her eyes, one that she always had during the war and will never truly leave. Fighting keeps her busy and also lets her teach others how to defend themselves.
And me? I'd like to say that being a socialite's my job, since I get paid for it after all. But it isn't. I've been fixing cars. It's a secret, of course: my clients don't even know it's me that fixes their cars. I'll rather die than let people know that I, the rich party guy is a car mechanic. I don't need the money, but it's something to keep me busy. Also it's as something to remind me of what my Cepan loved, that there are things that make you happy even in hard times. All of us have come so far since the war.
"Ten years together and this is finally happening." I agree. "Can you believe, if you've been less stubborn," I pinch her cheek, "this could have happened long ago?"
"It made us wiser and make less mistakes. I think there could be no better time than this." Six argues, punching me lightly. Her sapphire ring glinted brightly from her finger, and I'm thankful I listened to Johnny to spend a fortune on the ring, since girls like that kind of thing. I hug her tighter, not wanting to let her go. Inside, I know she's right. Now's the perfect time to be together.
"I'm so glad I have you." I bend down closer, while she wraps me in her arms, our lips touching...
"Sir, do you want this part in or out?" We spring apart to see a bored looking workman staring at us. Insufferable insensitive jerk.
"You've got to be kidding. Get out." I say roughly. All the workmen look at me wide eyed and one by one, wordlessly filed out of the door.
"That was mean." Six scolds me.
"They stopped me from kissing you." I pout.
"Next time even if everyone stared, I'll never stop kissing you." At this proclamation, Six kisses me, and this time, we don't stop.
Marina POV
"Mama! We're home!" I look up to see my four year old Reynolds and two year old Adelina running towards me. I smile, stretching out my arms, and they jump into it, cuddling me.
"Rey, Addie, how's pre school?" I ask.
"I drew our family." Rey said proudly, taking a painting out of his bag. I see four blobs of different colours, two larger and two smaller. I look up to see him beaming and hug him tighter.
"That's beautiful darling!" I tack the painting onto the fridge, then glance at Addie. "What did you do today?"
She gave me a toothless grin, holding up her fingers. "Wan to twee fou fi!" She counted proudly. "You're so smart dearie." I hugged her as Rey frowned. "I could count long ago."
"You're my smart dearie too then." I say fondly. "Now go and call daddy for me!" Watching my two children scamper/toddle away, I am once again reminded how blessed I am.
It was no surprise that Eight and I were the first to get married at 22 years old. We may young, but we've dated for 4 years by then and we knew there was nothing we wanted more than getting married and starting a family. So we did, and I gave birth to Reynolds and then later Adelina, naming them after our Cepans.
Nothing matters more to me than my family. Eight has always been loving and thoughtful; we hardly argued, and when we did we forgave each other easily because of my gentle and his good humored nature. Reynolds and Adelina both have Eight's curly brown hair and impish hazel eyes. Both are fun loving and cheerful, although Rey is mischievous and throws petty tantrums (probably because of his uncle Nine) while Adelina has my sensitive nature too and is more talkative than me. I already know both of them will grow to be beautiful and loving. Our family may not be perfect, but it's a family I've never had and one I'll always treasure.
"Daddy's home!" My kids screech, running back into the house. I look up to see Eight, my Eight, walking to the house, looking tired yet cheerful. He's still the same Eight I've known, but with a more protective and paternal nature, which just makes me love him more.
After the war, Eight and I wanted to stay away from all the attention, so with the help of the government, we chose the perfect place to stay.
A farmhouse.
It may seem comical, since Eight and I didn't intend to be actual farmers, but it worked out well for us. We owned huge pieces of land that stretched far and wide. It's in the countryside of California, remote and quiet, just how we like it. There's more than enough space for the kids to roam freely. Ella stays with us during the holidays when she's not in university 2 hours away. Nine and Six live only an hour away, so we visit often.
With my healing Legacy, I became a Healer, working regular shifts at a hospital or when someone sent for me. Eight became a horse trainer, teaching children with learning disabilities how to ride horses as a form of therapy. Using his legacy, he'll shape shift into a horse for the children to ride on at first, so regardless of what riding ability they had, they'll never fall. When they get the hang of riding, they can then use the normal horses.
When Eight sees me, his smile stretches even further, and my heart still tap dances even after 10 years of being with him. "Marina, you look beautiful." He grasps my arm and gazes into my eyes, making me shiver.
"You just saw me a few hours ago." I teased.
"That's long enough." Eight leans closer to me and we kiss, a soft gentle kiss that I want to hold onto and cherish, just like I do for all my moments with him.
"Ew! Mummy and Daddy's K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Rey yells, covering his eyes. Addie shrieks and claps, not knowing what's going on but following her brother anyway.
I pull away reluctantly, Eight and I exchanging grins. They're so adorable even when they're annoying.
"You've got us." Eight raises his arms sheepishly. "So now I'm...going to catch you!"
"Ahhhh!" Our kids scream and run, with Eight fake panting after them. I lean against the doorway, looking at them fondly.
There's no place like home.
John POV
"Happy Anniversary." I smile as Sarah and I clink wine glasses. We've been married for a year.
"I'm so glad you took the day off." Sarah says happily as she cuts her steak with radishes and fries. She's been eating strange food for awhile.
Especially since she's seven months pregnant.
Sarah used to be an elementary school teacher, but she took temporary leave to take care of the baby. I know that Sarah will be a perfect mother, and I always feel a sense of pride when I see the small sign of life she's holding.
I'm President on the UN and Lorien Holdings, which I founded. With the government and the Loric, we discuss the current state and what we hope to improve on Earth since the Earth was made our new home. I've travelled all around the world, meeting politicians and interacting with everyone since I'm the most 'diplomatic'.
However, after all the travelling, I'm never happier to return home.
Paradise, Ohio.
After the war, Sarah and I decided the best thing to do was to head back to Ohio, the first place where we met and we fell in love. Everything there had our happiest memories, before the Mogs found me, when we could pretend we were normal teenagers in love.
It's a quiet small place. Chatting with the neighbours, going to the movies and our favourite restaurant, lying on the lawn chairs, star gazing with our hands closed around each other's, it's a place we love. Sam, Malcolm and Mark (whom is now our ally) also lives here and we meet often. Sam is dating Emily who practically pounced on him when we moved here, and they've been inseparable ever since. It's far from the rest, but Eight our loyal chauffeur teleports us to California regularly when we have our weekly potlucks. Finally after the war, everyone's happy.
"John." Sarah breaks me out of my reverie. "I'm hungry."
I frown. "You're eating."
"I'm not hungry for this." Sarah sighs, pushing away her plate. "I want mango icecream with beans as the topping and some curry."
"Like that isn't weird at all." I mutter, but prepare it for her all the same. I want the baby to grow healthy and strong, and if that's what it takes, then I'll listen to all of Sarah's whims and fancies. Besides, Eight advised me: happy wife, happy house. Angry wife, plain stone cold misery.
Thanks Eight.
I pour Sarah's leftovers into Bernie Kosar's bowl, which he laps up immediately. BK and all the Chimera except for Dust (living with Adam) and Stanley (Nine's namesake, living with Nine) live here too, where we care for them and find ways to breed them to revive the Chimera population. BK rubs my leg: Thanks, boss.
No problem, I wink at him. I set Sarah's plate down, and she surprises me with a bear hug. "I'm sorry for being a brat. Thanks for being so patient."
"I know it's not your fault. After all, you're the one carrying the baby." I laugh.
"Yes, you're the one who doesn't have to wake up halfway through the night to vomit, feel kicks in your stomach and have cramps-"
"Okay, okay I get it." I hold up my hands. If sounds horrible.
"I'm kidding, it's the best feeling, holding our child." Sarah says, her voice full of love. She snuggles into me and I hold her tight.
"I can't believe we've been married for a year." She smiles.
"Yeah, Nine says the way we go on about it, we were a married couple from the start." I laugh.
"Come on, he and Six have been a life love opera, how they keep separating and getting back together. He claimed to be a bachelor, and now he's the one settling down." Sarah grins.
"Now we just have to get Adam and Sam to quickly marry."
"Stop with the matchmaking." Sarah punches me lightly. She gets up, but I stop her. "Let me. What do you want?"
"I'm pregnant, not sixty." Sarah folds her arms stubbornly. "Anyway, I'm just getting your anniversary present."
"I'll get mine too." I smile. I love that both of us are romantic even if Six always gags and rolls her eyes at us, calling us cheesy.
Sarah comes back into the room, holding a gift. I unwrap it, finding a scrapbook of our first year of marriage.
"This is wonderful. Thank you." I say in admiration as I flip through the scrapbook, knowing how much effort and time she must have put in.
"Mine isn't as good, but-" I pass her a small box and Sarah opens it. It's a locket with the words engraved. "John and Sarah. Happy first anniversary! I love you."
"I love this John." Sarah kisses me on the cheek. "I love you."
"I love you too." I kiss her lightly, then the kiss gets more fiery and passionate in this small, quiet room. We don't say anything, just wrapped up in each other, as we share another previous memory.
Dinner is forgotten.
Adam POV
"Work's done for the day. Want to grab a bite?" My close friend Lucas asks me.
"Can't meeting Mila for dinner." I roll my eyes as Lucas hoots, but inside I'm nervous. After many years of loving One, it's hard to believe I can finally move on. Yet Mila is everything I've always wanted, and I'm so glad to have her.
Post war may have been happy ever after for everyone, but not for me- in the beginning, at least. Many knew I was a Mog and despite the Garde insisting that I'm a hero and friend, I'm still treated with hostility or jeers at times because of my roots.
I finally managed to find happiness when I completed my computer engineering degree in Stamford and moved to New York. It's hard to believe that of everyone, the emo quiet guy moves to such a bright busy place. The government offered me a job in doing computer coding and over there, no one cared who you were, so long as you completed your work. Which for the first time, I kicked ass at.
The bright lights, the loud streets, the tall buildings, the skyscrapers and my glitzy apartment is familiar and warm to me. Best of all, I've met Mila who broke down my walls, made me discover myself and realise I had the actual ability to love.
I enter The Shack, a steak restaurant and spotted Mila, who beamed brightly and waved at me. Petite with chocolate brown hair, she was patient, thoughtful, funny and a good listener. She was so different from One, but both had managed to read my mind and knew all about me. The difference was that One was forced into my brain, while Mila actually took the time to know more about me and dig deeper.
Now if only we were dating.
Smiling nervously, I sit across her. "I ordered your usual." Mila said brightly.
"Thanks." I smile. I swallow, wondering how to ask her what I've been trying to ask for the past two months.
"Mila, I have to ask you something." I blurt out without thinking. Shit, shit, no I'm not prepared. Mila looks at me questioningly.
"I..um..er.." I stutter. Stupid Adam. Any five year old can do better than that. "I mean, do you...like,uh.."
Mila stretches her arm across me and grasps my hand, smiling at me encouragingly. Immediately, I feel a wave of warmth and comfort wash over me.
"Do you want to be my girlfriend?" I blurt out. I look down, face flushing red. She's going to slap me, leave the table or worse, laugh at me.
But nothing like that happens. I look up to see Mila looking slightly perplexed. "Adam, we've been going out everywhere for two months. We know everything about each other. Haven't we been dating or did you think we were just friends?"
Oh crap. Is she angry? "No that's not what I meant! You're everything to me, but I've never said anything, and I was afraid you'll say no.."
"Adam." She looks at me firmly. "Others may reject you, but I love you, and never doubt that. Don't be afraid to ask me anything, okay? We're dating." The way she said that, with finality, made me feel calm. But I still had one tiny worry.
"But we haven't even..well..kissed."
"That's what you're worried about?" Mila gives me a surprised look. She reaches over and kisses me on the lips, then sits back, watching me. "Better?"
"I..I.." It was short, but so good that I was speechless.
"Good." She winks. "I love you and we'll make this work. Now let's continue eating."
Ella POV
"And that's the end of the chapter. Thank you students." Class is over. The students walk out of class, talking excitedly to each other. They all have plans to hang out, except for me. There's something I got to do.
Leaving Marina and Eight and attending university wasn't easy for me. I attended a year late because I was afraid to move out of my comfort zone, talk to humans and move on with life. It took convincing from the rest to study art and be independent. I had trouble settling in and making friends, but I'm coping now.
I make my way out of the campus, carrying a bottle of water, clothes, money and food. As I walk, the houses become smaller and smaller, quieter and quieter, more and more broken down. Finally, I turn into a dusty street, ignoring the vacant stares of single mothers and drugged up men, and enter the dilapidated hut.
There sits Five.
He's awake, which isn't usual. What's usual is the beer bottles, strewn all over the sticky and dirty floor, joining the used clothes, food packs and needles. Five sits on the couch, guzzling a bottle of beer. His once buzzed hair has grown out long and greasy, he had a paunch and his teeth was tainted yellow and rotting. His eye patch was dirty and moist, and clearly hasn't been changed for awhile. His crumpled shirt had beer stains all over it. It's hard to believe that he's only 26 years old, he looks like a crusty old man.
And yes, if you haven't figured out, he's an alcoholic and drug addict.
"Ella," He drawls, taking a long gulp of beer, "how nice to see you."
I wrinkle my nose in disgust. "I told you to stop drinking." I scold.
"Am I supposed to listen to a little girl? No. Just because you killed Setrakus doesn't mean I have to kowtow to you."
I clench my fists tight, resisting my instinct to turn away and flee away from this awful place, this awful man. I slosh some cold water roughly at Five, and he drops the bottle, covering his face. "Argh! What did you do that for!" Instinctively, he grabs me by the shirt and pins me to the wall.
My chest constricts. "Put. Me. Down." I breathe out.
Five's face slackens and he loses his grip. I move away from him silently as he staggers back to the couch, mumbling "Sorry, sorry. Don't know what's up with me."
I shake my head slightly. I know he didn't mean to be violent, that's what drugs and alcohol do to you, they control your actions. Cautiously, I remove the food, clean clothes and money out of the bag and place them on the table. "Don't spend it on drink of drugs." I warn.
Five chuckles, though it sounds like a hoarse wheeze. "What else can I spend it on? The war is over, I was a traitor and coward, no one cares about me anymore." He waves his hand around the dirty house. "While you all are famous and rich, I'm sitting alone here, just drinking my life away. Who comes to visit me? No one. All of you are busy living your happy perfect lives." He spits the last three words out as if they were poison. The bitterness in his voice is heart-wrenching.
"I've been visiting." I say quietly.
He fixes me with a glassy stare. "Yeah, don't know why you bother. I betrayed you guys, and you still come to annoy me. Probably some Mother Theresa complex. Treating me like a charity case."
I feel my face grow hot. "Maybe I'm just here to keep you alive." I snap.
He laughs scornfully. "Don't you get it? I don't want to be alive. I want to get out of this miserable world. You're wasting your time here."
"Then I'm leaving." Without waiting for a reply, I grab my bag and leave. Just like I have been doing for the past 8 years since the war ended.
I leave the house, blinking away hot tears away from my eyes. Why do I keep visiting Five, when the rest have forgotten about him, when he's treating me so badly? What good is he alive?
He's one of us. He saved my life. It's only basic human kindness to keep him alive, I try to tell myself. But I have another question that I'm afraid to answer.
Why do I care about him so much?
Hope you liked it! Sorry if it got draggy and boring. What are your feelings on each pairing, and which pairing did you like the most? Do you think Five and Ella should get together? Please comment and provide feedback!
I planned to write a reunion with all of them together, but this chapter got too long. If response is good I'll add one..how about a wedding?;) if there are any other pairings you want me to write please suggest it!
Hope you enjoyed this! Please review!:D