I present to you the 17th and final chapter of Courtship.

I do not own Highschool of the DEAD or its characters.

Updated: 11/2/13

The small white dog raised his head as he heard a noise in the distance. He had grown to twice the size he had been as a puppy, but was still not much larger them a regular house cat.

He got up from his place on the stoop of the dojo and walked in the open door. Barking once, he wagged his tail as a pretty girl of fourteen ran over to pet him on the head. She put on her shoes and ran around to the back of the building, with the dog at her heels.

Out back, there was a short driveway that led from a wooden gate to a single stall garage. The girl ran to the gate and opened it to the sound of a high-powered motorcycle, as it turned down the alley that ran between the houses.

The red and black bike turned into the drive and pulled into the garage. The rider shut it down, got off and removed his gloves and helmet.

"Onii-san! Onii-san did you have a good day?" the girl asked as she ran up, after closing the gate back.

Komuro Takashi placed his helmet on the seat and dropped his gloves in it. He accepted a hug from his little sister Alice before bending down to scratch Zeke's head, "Konnichiwa Alice-chan yes, and how was your day today?"

Alice sighed, "I've been cleaning the dojo all day. I never thought I would say it, but I'm ready for school to start again! I'm tired of cleaning every day!"

Takashi laughed knowing the girl was exaggerating since she had just gotten back that Monday from a weeklong trip to the Takagi beach house with Saya, Kohta and Saya's parents.

"Where is everyone?" he asked.

"Oji-san is in the office working and Onee-san is in the dojo waiting on you," she told him.

He held out his riding gear and leather jacket, "Take this to the house please and start some tea if there is not some already some made. We'll be there in a little while."

She smiled and started running toward the house with the items singing out, "Come on Zeke! Takashi-kun and Onee-san are going to play kissy face for a while!"

The man shook his head and chuckled. He truly dreaded the day the first boy would show up at their door proclaiming his love for the girl. Ah well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, he thought. Of course, I could always have Kohta snipe him from a distance!

He walked slowly toward the dojo while thinking about the last five years since the girl had come into their lives. The terrible death of her parents, Saeko finishing high school while learning to be a big sister, all of them finally graduating, and the death of Rei.

He had gone through a depression after she died, but slowly Saeko pulled him out of it. He and Kohta had entered the police academy that spring, and after a half year of school time, then after another half of on-the-job probation time, they had graduated as full police officers. Takashi had applied for motorcycle traffic duty and been accepted, while Kohta tried out for the SAT. No one was really surprised when the young shooter made it the first time, and since then, he had become recognized as one of the top snipers in Japan, just barely behind his mentor Minami Rika of course.

No one, except Saya, had been surprised when Kohta had marched up to Don Takagi at his congratulations party and asked for Saya's hand in marriage. The Don only glanced at his wife for a moment before telling Kohta he would be proud for him to be his son-in-law. With this consent, Kohta turned to a stunned Saya and loudly proclaimed his love for her and asked her to marry him.

Saya went ballistic, but after a few minutes calmed down and then threw her arms around him and told him yes.

Feeling the mood, and a few drinks, Takashi had turned to Kage and made the same request. Kage had looked at Saeko for a second and then said, "Yes I believe it is about time, I approve." Turning then to Saeko, Takashi went to one knee, and told her it was time for him to honor the promise he had made to her several years before. She smiled and said yes before leaning over to kiss him. They held the kiss for so long that the others started whistling at them and crying out, 'get a room already!' The two couples had a double wedding and then honeymooned in Hawaii.

That had been almost two years ago. Since then their lives had become a blur of work, play and family.

They had also received a measure of justice. They had avenged Rei.

Not long after Takashi started motorcycle duty he stopped a car suspected of drunk driving. He was surprised to find the driver was Shido Koichi, former teacher. Besides being drunk, Shido had his pants down around his knees, and there was a half undressed, underage girl in the car. Takashi had smiled evilly as he called for backup and then sent a message to Chief Inspector Miyamoto Tadashi.

Takashi was more than happy to escort Shido into the East police station, but was surprised when he found Kohta and Rika standing in the hallway outside of booking, geared up and armed.

Kohta had walked up to Shido, a sinister grin on his face, and said, "Hello Sensei, remember me? Hirano Kohta, the boy you told would never amount to anything. I'll be protecting you while you are in our custody. It's a pleasure to serve you. Oh…and by the way…allow me to introduce the inspector who will be questioning you, Miyamoto Tadashi." Kohta stepped aside to let the man see Tadashi who was trembling with rage, his fists balled up.

Shido pissed his pants.

By the end of the day the former teacher had squealed like the proverbial pig, telling everything he knew about his father's activities. It didn't take long for the warrants to be issued and the hunt for Senator Shido was on.

He almost got away, but a certain high level sniper shot out the tires on the private jet as it taxied towards the runway at a small airport outside the city.

Inspector Miyamoto had let Takashi put the cuffs on the senator. It had been a feeling of satisfaction he would never forget.

Takashi stepped into the doorway of the dojo and removed his boots before bowing to the shrine. He turned toward his wife, who was standing in the middle of the practice floor holding two bamboo shinai.

She tossed one to him and went into an attacking stance. He grabbed it out of the air and went on the defense. They danced back and forth, shinai cracking and popping as they struck and hit. This went on for a few minutes, before they finally pushed in close to each other, swords high and locked, standing almost chest to chest. Then Takashi leaned over and kissed his wife.

A smile crossed her face as the sword play was forgotten and they deepened the kiss, slowly easing to the floor. The couple knelt thigh to thigh, as they had loved to do for so long, and simply absorbed each other for a while. They finally pulled back and gazed into each other's eyes.

"How was your day, my love?" she asked.

"It was fine, just a basic day of running down speeders and drunks," he replied. He looked closer at her. "There is something…what do you want to tell me?"

Saeko blushed and laughed lightly, "You have always been able to read me, Takashi." She took his hand in hers and placed them on her belly, "My lord…I am with child."

Takashi's eyes widened as the words sunk in. A huge grin split across his face as he hugged his wife to him, "Are you sure?! I mean, of course you're sure or you would not be telling me, but has it been confirmed?"

Saeko laughed out loud now and pulled back to place her hand on his face. "Yes my love. Two self-tests and today I slipped away to see Doctor Marikawa and she has confirmed it. She thinks I am about seven weeks along. I know we had not really planned on this, but you are happy right?"

Takashi laughed, "Of course I'm happy! The timing is not bad really, we're fine financially, thanks to Saya's investment plans she set up for us, plus Alice is more than old enough to help you with the baby. Papa Kage is going to be overjoyed. He has been hinting around since we got married. Have you told anyone else?"

She shrugged, "I told Saya as soon as I found out because I was so happy I thought I would burst. I wanted to tell you before saying anything to anyone else."

He got up and held her hands as she stood, "Well let's go and tell them right now."

They crossed over to the house, hand-in-hand, and entered through the front. Kage was sitting in his spot at the table and Alice was just setting the tea down. The couple came in, knelt down facing Saeko's father and she said.

"Father, we have something to tell you."

A/N: It is with much emotion I end this story. As I have said before, this started out as an experiment of doing a story in the HotD universe without zombies. I think it worked and it also turned into a labor of love.

The original name of this was going to be, The Courtship of Busujima Saeko, but as a friend pointed out (Thanks Rass001!) I couldn't leave out my other favorite couple, Saya and Kohta, so it changed to simply Courtship.

Another thing was I challenged myself by setting this story to a T rating. This caused me to work harder in the long run because I do truly love writing the love scenes between these characters, but for the lemon, well, we'll leave that to my Living with the DEAD story where they are more on the edge of life and death.

I want to thank my three beta editors, MarshalZhukov, jm1681 and Rassilon001, for their time, work, and knocks on the head keeping me on track and moving forward. Please give their stories a look see; I don't think you will be disappointed at all.

I also want to thank everyone that has provided commits, insight, and reviews. They kept me going when I was dragging and gave me thoughts on how to look at future chapters as I went along.

I will be starting back up with Living with the DEAD in about a week, hopefully, just as soon as this fellow named Isaac stops knocking on my door and goes away.

For the final time in this series, and as always, PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW AND/OR FAVORITE!