I Won't Say I'm In Love ✔ (Complete)

I won't say I'm in love

(Epilogue, part 2)

"Mom! Luna! You're back!" Chase shouted, joyfully dancing on one spot with his little paws and then running towards them.

Ace's face lit up completely, relief washing over him. "You're safe!" He ran to hug them as well.

"Dad! You'd said they'd be safe from the start." Chase said, raising a questioning brow at him.

Ace coughed, masking his worry. "Of course they'd be. What did I tell you?"

Brainy chuckled slightly; they had just stepped off the other spaceship, and they were already wrapped in a warm hug.

"We had a lot of fun! Right, mom?!" Luna said excitedly (she wasn't nearly as shy or insecure anymore) while she wagged her tail and looked at her.

Brainy smiled at her.

"I'm glad everything went well." Ace sighed, shoulders slumping.

"Well... Not necessarily everything." Brainy muttered, almost inaudibly. The pups didn't hear, now leaving to play together, but Ace did.

"What do you mean?" Ace asked softly, sensing something did go wrong.

Brainy pursed her lips; unable to answer for a while. But then sighed deeply and turned away. "...I met up with Mother."

Ace almost gasped, but managed to avoid it. "What?" His first reaction was to be angry that Brainy was forced to reunite with someone who hurt her so much in the past, but seeing her expression, he calmed himself before answering. "That sounds bad. Did anything happen?"

Brainy nodded, still not looking at him. "...I talked with her. She... She apologized."

Ace's eyes widened. "Really?" He scoffed. "Sounds like it's a little too late for that."

His mate shook her head. "No... It... It actually made me feel better." She smiled a little, though a bit weakly. "But then... She passed away." There. She said it. She felt a lump inside her throat.

Ace frowned, moving towards her and leaning his head over hers in a n embrace. "I'm sorry... It wasn't your fault."

Brainy hugged him closely, putting her paw over his. "I know... But it still hurts a little."

She knew things may seem difficult now; with her most likely soon coronation to become commander and her mother's death, but being with her family did make her feel as if everything would be okay. Soon enough.

She saw Luna smiling brightly, showing Chase the new magic spells she'd learned.

She met gazes with Ace and smiled warmly. He smiled, too.

Yeah, everything would be okay.

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"Hey, Chase. What were you and Dad and doing while me and Mom were gone?" Luna asked, practicing her "magic" stance, back legs and forelegs apart with her paws firmly on the ground. Her ears were slowly rising into the air, glowing green just like her mother's.

The grey, green-eyed puppy turned towards her with a happy grin. "We were in Earth for a while!" he said, throwing himself at a tennis ball and catching it between his teeth. "Dad took me to the police station, 'cause Mr. Batman, ya know, Dad's partner–"

The ball fell out of his mouth, rolling on the floor. He chased it again. "He called us in." He said with a muffled voice.

Luna tilted her head. They did visit Mr. Batman sometimes, and her dad did still work with him, but most of the time he didn't call them for anything in special. "Why?"

"Because he said there was someone who wanted to meet us."

Hearing this, Luna was even more surprised. "Huh? Was it Mr. Krypto?"

Chase slowly shook his head, remembering the subject who wanted to meet them. A small smile full of warmth grew on his face. "...It was Grandpa."

"Eh?!" Luna almost jumped out of her own fur. "G-Grandpa?!" She never thought they had a grandpa.

"Dad's dad!" Chase explained, chasing the tennis ball around again. "He recognized dad on one of the newspaper pictures and Mr. Batman realized he wanted to see us– Well, see Dad." He laughed. "He didn't know I existed."

"Whoa...!" Luna shouted out in both admiration and astonishment. "W-what..." She stuttered again, and took a deep breath to correct it. "What was he like?"

"He looks a lot like Dad! And like me! He has a blue nose. That's how he recognized Dad. And he's a spotted Great Dane like me–"

"No, no. I mean..." She shuffled with her paws. "Is he good?"

"Oh..." Chase squinted his eyes a little. "Well... He..." He hadn't really thought about that. He was way to excited when he met him. But thinking back now...

"Yeah." He nodded. "He immediately hugged Dad as soon as he saw him... And he cried." He chuckled a little. "And he doesn't look like the kind of dog who normally does. He looked very strong and intimidating, but he's really nice with me and he hugged me a lot, too."

Luna felt relieved. She smiled.

"He said he really wants to see you and Mom, Luna. I can't wait till we see him again!" He grinned, jumping around and wagging his tail as usual. But then his energetic cheer wore off. "When the burglars broke in and hurt Grandma, he was out working at the police station... That's why he wasn't there. And he couldn't find Dad or Uncle Sean."

Luna's floppy ears lowered even more. "He must have been really sad..."

"Yeah..." He smiled a little again. "But he was really happy when he found his family again."

Luna cheered up, too. "I'm glad our family is all together now!"

"Yeah, me too!"

"Pups, time to sleep." Brainy called out from another room in the space ship.

"Whaaaat?! But it's still early!" Chase immediately whined, as he always did at bedtime.

"It's really late." Brainy told him, smiling and shaking her head as he dragged his feet.

"Kyle and his siblings go to sleep waaay later!" Kyle was one of Krypto's puppies and Chase's best friend.

"Kyle and his siblings have way too carefree parents." Ace playfully rolled his eyes as he directed them to their rooms.

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Now that their puppies were asleep, so were Ace and Brainy. Tomorrow would be a new day. The rest of the Dog Star Patrol would return and work would come back as usual.

But now they were just resting, enjoying their time together and cuddling close.

And even though she loves him, and so does he, (at least out loud...) they won't say they're in love.

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The end

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I hope you enjoyed this story :) Thank you for reading!