Epilogue

I had pulled a total Nadeshiko.

I admit it. I'm guilty.

I packed up my bags that night. I left a note on my bed. I walked out of my dorm, undisguised, for the first time in weeks besides the dance. I left without a word to anyone.

It wasn't my choice, and never was. I had to leave because Kirishima had found out, and the Headmaster found out that he found out. (Which sounds totally repetitive.) He had expelled me, in a sense, but it wouldn't go on my permanent record since I hadn't actually done anything wrong. It was a metaphorical expulsion, but if I didn't leave, they would actually kick me out.

To top it off, I was headed for Europe.

There was nowhere else I could go, since my mother was still jobless. But I didn't blame her, since the economy wasn't great and she had been trying her hardest. And besides, my father now had all legal rights over me.

These thoughts ran through my head as I sluggishly dragged my suitcase up the ramp to the airplane. The other ones had been checked in and were in the cargo hold of the airplane.

I knew nobody around me, and nobody knew me. I was alone again. I didn't even have the courage to say goodbye to the ones I loved in person. I couldn't stand seeing them hurt, and in a way, it would've been hurting me, too. And I was much too selfish for that.

Figures. Just as I had found happiness, it had been torn away from me. It really only reinforced my belief that happiness didn't exist.

I missed him already. As much as I tried to stop my heart from aching for him, I missed everything about him. His ridiculous long, purple hair, his wide, ochre eyes, his kind smile, his fair skin, the tilt of his head, the way he smirked only at me. The practical and funny things he would say, the stranger bits, the heartfelt conversations. How he understood me. How he cared for me.

"Would you like a drink, ma'am?" Absently, I nodded, and a slender yet toned arm placed a Coke in front of me. My favorite. I glanced up sharply.

"How did you-" Then I stopped, gaping.

Nadeshiko smiled down at me, clad in a flight attendant uniform. "Is there a problem, miss?"

I looked around me to ascertain that no one was watching, then lowered my voice and hissed, "What the hell are you doing here? Scratch that, how did you even GET here?"

"Excuse me? What do you mean, you're out of ice? We've only just taken off!"

"I-I'm SO SORRY! I-I'll try and get some for you right away!" A very familiar, panicked voice said. I groaned as I turned to see Amu, dressed the same way as Nadeshiko, frantically trying to push a cart down the aisle.

"You'd better," The blonde in the seat sniffed. Something about the angle of her face seemed familiar, but I couldn't see much else since sunglasses masked a large portion of her face. Even so, there was no mistaking those huge pigtails.

I sweatdropped. Was Amu really so dense as to not recognize Utau? A devilish grin split Utau's face as soon as Amu left. She laughed and turned to high-five the brunette next to her, his face also obscured by shades, but his mouth in a familiar, easy grin. Kukai and Utau made a good pair of pranksters.

Remembering my original question, I turned back around, but saw that Nadeshiko was already sashaying down the aisle to the area where the flight attendants make their coffee and shit.

I cursed under my breath and attempted to get up, but a sudden wave of turbulence caused me to fall back into my seat (and a yelp to be heard in the back, undoubtedly from a certain rosette's mouth) and an actual flight attendant came over, telling me shit about how I had to buckle up or whatever.

I nodded, but as soon as she turned around I took off and headed towards the back. Amu and Nadeshiko were the only ones there, since the actual attendants were now doing their job.

"I don't even know what to say right now. I have way too many questions," I said, glaring. Amu blinked rapidly and Nadeshiko smiled innocently.

"Wh-" I started, but Nadeshiko cut me off.

"Wait a second," and then Nadeshiko disappeared into the bathroom. A few moments later, Nagihiko stepped out. "Okay. Continue," he said, now clad in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with his hair down.

I glared. "As I was saying, wh-"

"Hold on," he said, cutting me off again, causing me to throw my hands in the air. "You want to know why we came for you? Because we love you. You want to know how we got those uniforms? Well, you must know that Hoshina Utau used to be a model. You want to know how we got on? Turns out having charas do come in handy at random times. You want to know how we knew where you were? Kairi's a genius with computers and tracking. You want to know where all of us are? Amu and I are here, Utau and Kukai are in seats 21 A and B, Tadase is in seat 24 F, Kairi and Yaya are in seats 23 D and E, and Ikuto is in the overhead compartment." He pointed upwards. "Does that answer all of your questions?"

"Why the hell is Ikuto in the overhead compartment?" was all I could utter. A muffled voice sounded above me.

"Believe it or not, it's quite comfortable for one in here. Or two, if Amu would deign to join me."

"N-Never!" She flushed.

Nagihiko looked at me seriously. "Really, Rima. What were you thinking? Did you really believe that we'd just let you go?"

"You guys let Nadeshiko go," I muttered, "so I figured you'd do the same for me."

Amu rolled her eyes. "Nadeshiko is different. Nagihiko showed up to confuse us more, and besides, she seems so unmanageable."

I bristled. "Are you saying I'm manageable?"

"Is that a bad thing?" Nagihiko asked wonderingly, and Amu sweat dropped.

"I-I mean, it's just that you're smaller, so you seem easier to drag back, and- okay I'll stop talking," she stuttered, lowering her head when I shot her my Glare of Death and Doom For Calling Me Short.

I sighed. "Well, you guys had better not get found out. You have passports, right? And since you all go to boarding school, you must be pretty rich. Buy a plane ticket back."

Amu looked pointedly at Nagihiko, who whistled innocently.

"You do have passports, don't you?"

"I may or may not have left them on my kitchen counter," Nagihiko replied cheerfully.

I groaned and started banging my head against the wall. "My friends are so stupid, my friends are so stupid, my friends are so stupid…"

"Excuse me miss, but you aren't allowed to be back here. You too, sir," a flight attendant told me in a hushed voice and looked at Nagihiko. Since he was dressed in regular clothes, he no longer looked like a flight attendant.

"Of course, ma'am, we'll go back to our seats right away," he said smoothly, taking my hand. "Now come on, Rima-koi."

I blushed and bristled at his use of 'koi'. I mean, I never really officially became his girlfriend. Plus, the way he said it was sickening, and I was 100 percent sure he had done that on purpose. "Don't call me that," I hissed. He only smiled in reply as we sat down in our seats. (No wonder there had been an empty one next to me.)

I decided to ignore Nagihiko, simply because he was smirking and being smug about how he had snuck on an airplane. His atmosphere of braggy-ness was overwhelming me. I closed my eyes, and tried my hardest to ignore his presence.

"Hey, Rima, did you miss me?" His voice, his very attractive voice, penetrated my thoughts and made me twitch. How had he known?

"Aww, don't act like you didn't. I can see it in your face." Something in his voice had changed a little. Whereas it had been teasing before, there was a bit of hurt and longing in the last sentence. I debated internally about whether or not to respond, but didn't get a chance, because a pair of arms enveloped me and I could smell Nagihiko.

"I missed you too, Rima," he murmured into my hair. "Why did you just leave? Why didn't you tell any of us?"

I swallowed a bit. "I… I don't… it just would've hurt too much. I couldn't have dealt with it."

"And you thought I could?" His voice sounded just a bit angry, but mostly disbelieving. "Rima, do you honestly believe that we thought you weren't worth going after?"

"Yes," I whispered, opening my eyes and looking up at him. His ochre orbs were melting, almost, and made me feel guilty beyond repair.

"Mashiro Rima," he said sternly, "Don't you dare say that ever again. I love you, okay? We all do. You're beautiful, you're funny, you're caring, you're kind, and you're perfect."

I broke away from his arms and glared back at him. "I am NOT perfect."

"Oh, but Rima," he said softly, brushing my hair away from my face. "You're perfect to me. You may not be perfect to everyone, but you are exactly what I need. Do you understand?"

I wasn't really sure what was redder, my face, or the untouched can of Coke.

"Well," I sputtered, "There's still the problem of what you're going to do next. If you get caught…"

He smiled. "We'll figure it out. Tadase's sparkle attack really comes in handy sometimes."

I laughed a little. Then I stopped. "That's not all I meant. I mean, I had to move to Europe, and part of the reason I didn't say goodbye was because I thought we were going to break up. I mean, I'm there, and you're in Japan, and it just wouldn't have worked."

He frowned. "You say 'I mean' a lot, for someone who doesn't mean what she says at all."

I frowned back. "I do mean it."

He shook his head. "Rima, I know you better than that. You don't give up. And I know you love me. You never stopped, and you wouldn't have just left me there and moved on. You were just planning on torturing yourself to save me the pain."

I blinked. "Wow, you make me sound so self-sacrificing and heroic."

He lightly punched me. "Because you are, you know. Look, I don't know what'll happen next with us. But I'll talk to your dad. I'll talk to my mom. Maybe if we have some kind of engagement, my mom can help pay for your tuition to the all-girls private school." He smiled to let me know he was joking about the engagement. I didn't think I would've minded too much, though.

"But Rima, tell me you don't love me. Tell me that you don't want us to be together. Because if you said that, I'd tell you right away that you're lying. This will work. We were meant to be, no matter how cheesy or sappy that sounds. And if we weren't, I'll defy fate so I don't have to lose you."

I nodded slowly. "You're the only one I've ever loved, Nagihiko. You know that."

"Not even circus boy?" He teased. I managed a small smile.

"Really. I promise it'll be okay. I love you, Mashiro Rima." He said, hugging me again. He gave a small kiss on the nose.

"I love you too," I whispered, closing my eyes. "This will work."

All around us, people on the airplane exploded into spontaneous applause and I smiled to myself. What a strange way to start the time where I'll finally be happy.

After all, it isn't everyday that your boyfriend sneaks on a plane and drags along your friends, forgets the passports, and declares his love for you in a poetic way in front of a bunch of strangers three thousand feet in the air.

Okay. Obligatory end of story long A/N. First off, thank you all so, so much for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following. I actually can't believe I got so many reviews for six measly chapters. This is the first story I've ever finished, so I hope you guys thought it satisfactory!

The thing is epilogues is that I thought maybe it wouldn't live up to your expectations. I really hope it did, because I didn't really have an idea of how to go about it. I didn't want to like, plan out the rest of their life or something, but I also didn't want it to be another cliffhanger.

A lot of people have been asking me if I'm going to make a second season, or continue this fic. The answer? Probably not. I'm currently working on my first Amuto project (in this fandom, a lot of people write terrible Amuto fics, so hopefully when mine comes out it'll be good enough for your enjoyment :) and I can't juggle three stories. (AMI hasn't been updated in like, forever. I apologize.) But also, if I did continue it... well, there's nothing to write about. This whole story is about Rima going to boarding school and pretending to be a guy. If she's not in boarding school anymore...uh, there's no point. And I don't have any good ideas.

Haha, that's all. I'm really hoping to get to 75 reviews by the end of this fic. Maybe eighty. Or ninety. Or a hundred if you're feeling generous. Okay, now I'm just getting greedy. I love you all and I hope you continue to read my work!

~Sea