Happily Never After

21. Hester.

This is the end!!!!!!!!! After months and months of hard work, two failed attempts, and some more hard work, Happily Never After has now become my first completed story! I'm so excited, it's actually probably unhealthy.
I just want to thank you all again, so so so so so much for all your amazing support, and a huge, special thank-you goes out to  pastel_gremlin who's been here since (almost) the beginning, and has supported me so kindly for so long. Even when I went through a period where I couldn't write for weeks - you all remember that, don't you? Somewhere around Chapter 19, when I didn't publish anything for ages - he was there to cheer me on with messages and comments and re-reads. Also, you should totally go check out his amazing Hestadil fanfics...I assure you, you will not be disappointed.
Thank you all so much!!!!! And now, we open the curtains/pages/screen to chapter 21, the final chapter, of Happily Never After.
-smo

When we pull apart I am almost out of breath, and as I gasp I realize that my face is hot and probably red - hopefully Ani can't see it too well, I think. But then I notice that even she has just a little bit of pink in her cheeks - the most colour I've ever seen in her.

We are absolutely silent for a second and all I can hear is the fading whispers of the group ahead of us - for now they are really ahead. We should catch up - but we don't.

I look Ani in her beautiful, blood-red eyes and find her staring right back.

We giggle, struggling to keep it quiet.

Then I realize that one of the group could have seen us kissing. Would they have said anything? If they did see us, clearly they at least had the respect to stay quiet - that would mean it wasn't Hort or Tedros, thank god.

I guess all there is to do is hope no one saw us in the first place.

We start to crawl again, but I freeze, stopping Ani beside me with an arm.

"Hey, Ani?"

"Yeah?" she asks, sounding concerned.

"I love you," I tell her quietly. And this time it is not desperate, out of fear or out of need to comfort, but simply out of just what it seems - love. This time, unlike the others, it feels real, it feels asserting, it feels like the truth. Because it finally, finally is.

"I love you too," says Ani, smiling. And then we crawl again, more quickly this time so we can catch up to the group.

"Hey, Ani?"

Ani looks at me again, now looking concerned as well as sounding it. "Yeah?"

"What did..." I start and have to pause for a breath, wondering if Ani will like my question. "What did Dovey say to you back there? When she had you lean in to her...?"

Ani looks incredibly relieved. I guess I'm allowed to ask after all.

"She...she told me to...to be your Agatha." Laughing - apparently at herself - Ani has gone very quickly from relieved to embarrassed. "It...it's weird, I know. But, well...it helps me to - to think of us as-"

"Hey, no, Ani, stop it. Don't be embarrassed. I get it, it's like...well, it makes sense." I find myself trying to comfort her, but at a loss for words to do it with. "It's okay."

~~~~

Not much later, we all stop, and Tedros is about to complain when Nicola speaks up from the front.

'There's - there's a door."

"Well, go through it!" Tedros exclaims, impatient.

"Hey, chill!" Ani shouts. "Didn't we save you from near-death less than an hour ago? Maybe it's time to trust our judgement instead of your stupidity. "

Tedros shuts up, but I hear him grumbling under his breath.

"I'm going through the door," Nicola reports. "Wait...there's another door here. It's like...it's like I'm in a cupboard."

Nicola is whispering now; she must have realized that if the tunnel does not indeed lead to the soldier's home, or if the soldier is as brilliant a liar as he seemed kind, then being found can and will end disastrously. I see a tiny shaft of light, barely a finger's-width, appear as she opens the door just a crack.

"...I am in a cupboard."

And apparently Nicola believes it safe to come out of the cupboard, because light floods the tunnel as she opens the door.

I hear a shout of surprise and I'm prepared to hurry back through the tunnel, and then I hear Hort try to jump out behind Nicola while also trying to draw his sword.

Then, instead of the clangs and other assorted noises of battle I'm expecting, the sounds of relief and laughter reach my ears. I can pick out Nicola murmuring, "Thank god," and the hearty chuckle of a middle-aged woman - presumably the soldier's wife.

"It's alright, children," says the kind voice. "If my husband sent you here, then chances are I'll be hospitable. Of course, if you're not here because of him, I'm afraid you'll have to wait while I get out my heaviest pan to smack you with."

There's a bit of an uncomfortable silence, everyone unsure of how much this woman is kidding.

"Oh, loosen up," she says, and we all try to smile. "I'm only joking!"

Slowly we all make our way out of the tunnel disguised as a kitchen cupboard, and stand in a cluster.

Once I'm upright, I move just out of the way so that Ani can follow, last but obviously not least - not at all. When she is out of the tunnel, she stands beside me and reaches for my hand. I let her take it, squeezing her cold one, white as a sheet, and lace our fingers together. We turn our heads and look each other in the eye, holding back smiles.

And then when we look back at the group, we find them all staring.

My heart drops a little, and then flutters at the idea of everyone knowing about Ani and I, and then swells with love for the girl squeezing my hand, for comfort as much as to comfort me.

"Lovebirds," says Hort mockingly, making a face of disgust I can see is only partially real. But Ani and I just smile.

"Actually, it's more like lovebugs."