Milkshake Hearts

Epilogue: Tenth

"Hey, Rosie! How's the LA test going?" Chris asks, brightly, pulling his daughter into a hug as Nathan does the same to Shayne and Julie to Courtney. As much as Rosie wasn't officially moving to LA for her veterinary trade program until later in the summer – probably August sometime – she'd taken the opportunity of a week off school for the sophomores who were switching into trade schools instead of going on through regular high school to fly over to LA and stay with Shayne and Courtney, just to get a feel for what it'd be like to actually move there. Plus, it means she could help them set up for their 10th wedding anniversary party, given there was quite the long invitation list.

Rob, Dianne and Roger had all helped organise, too, having arrived at their house – out of the Valley, now, and with a lot more of a backyard and a little more space inside than that first house they'd bought together a decade earlier – early Saturday morning to set up tables and chairs outside and help finish preparing the food they'd done themselves (although the whole thing was a little potluck-y, given everyone they'd invited had offered to bring things).

"How's the shop going, Nath?" Shayne asks, although his question is quickly overtaken as Damien and Saige appear beside them all and Damien rushes to greet Nathan, too – somehow, their friendship had transcended time and, despite the fact Smosh was now simply a memory for all of them, Nathan had become a regular guest on some of Damien's streams (and, occasionally, doing guest characters on Saige's D&D streams given he'd taken it up himself when a few of his friends got into it in high school).

"Hey Damien, Saige!" he greets them, enthusiastically, before shifting to face all of them, "yeah, the shop is good, I think I'm getting the hang of it and Dad doesn't have to check everything I do anymore."

"Give yourself some credit, buddy, you're doing well," Chris tells him, laughing lightly and patting his son on the back. Much to Chris' joy, Nathan had chosen to go into an apprenticeship at the workshop after he graduated high school a couple of years earlier and he was steadily on the path to taking it over once Chris decides to move on, although that probably wouldn't be for a while.

"Hey, it's good to see you guys, haven't seen you since the wedding Saige!" Julie moves over to greet the two who had wandered over to join them, as Courtney and Rosie move back inside for a moment to sort something out, Shayne and Courtney's recently-acquired Australian Shepherd Ginger (they'd tried to stick to the spice names to match Mocha and Nutmeg, who were still around although much lazier than they had been when they were younger, even though Ginger only had the slightest hint of orange fur in one patch behind his neck) following along beside them back into the house.

It had been an odd side effect of Damien's closeness to Shayne's family for so long – when he and Saige had married five years ago, he couldn't really not invite Nathan, so he ended up inviting most of Shayne's family, too, because why not? – but it had worked out well, and Saige greets Julie happily and asks how she'd been going with the small-scale crafting business she'd started online, having abandoned her return to consulting once Rosie was in middle school after only a few years for the sake of her work-life balance.

The rest of their friends and family slowly arrive and filter straight into the backyard through their open side gate over the next half hour, everyone from Damien and Shayne's old So Random co-stars to the Valleyfolk, Courtney's family, and a host of their friends from Smosh, who had stayed quite firmly as Shayne and Courtney's closest (plus Shelby, of course): Kimmy and Shane; Tommy and Kevin; Noah and Tiffany; Ian and his fiancé who were due to soon join the others as married – plus, of course, Jackie and Keith, both with their own partners. Olivia and Sam were, as was often the case even back in the Smosh days, the main missing piece from the group they referred to as their Smosh friends, but given both of their careers had skyrocketed, they were much too busy and living in a different world to the rest of them – not that they were rude about it, they just had a lot on.