Happy Endings are painful for me to write.

So thanks for 2k I can justify this pain.

♤~♡~3 Years After Masks Epilogue~◇~◇

Ouma's POV:

This was the best birthday I had in years, despite most of my friends not living in the same area anymore we had all come together today to celebrate and it meant a lot to me. We even had an edible cake again this year.

Well, I say all my friends, but in truth, the room only had four other people and that broke my spirit slightly.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to the rat lord~"

"Wait what?" I asked my smile dropping but some of them just laughed while the others continued the song. "Happy birthday to you!" they quickly finished and Takura popped the confetti cannon all over the apartment.

"AND MAYBE MORE!" Nao quickly added earning him a thwack on the head from Tsuki, "don't ruin this moment for me!" she scolded, "but come on it's not every day a poor sad individual turns 24" Nao protested.

24...

"At least he gets to feel his age! What was I thinking about adopting kids?! I haven't slept in months!" Genkei complained, deep eye bags under his eyes as Takura snorted, "and here I thought you loved your family" he teased, "I do! Parentings hard though! My swear jar keeps getting extensions and at this point, all my life savings are going to disappear!" he whined. Takura just rolled his eyes, but he looked equally tired.

The two of them had adopted a toddler this year, Yuriko, and were the first people in DICE to even have kids or get married for that matter. But I doubt that mattered because that little girl now has three uncles and an aunt who make sure to give her extra candy to stress out her parents.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are depressed singles.

"Love...what's that like?" Tsuki mumbled depressed as we braced ourselves for her to once again recount how she figured out the guy in the coffee shop she had a crush on for months turned out to be married the entire time.

"Speaking of love, how's Saihara?" Nao teased egging me on, "he's still coming over right?" he asked, "don't tell me you two aren't even friends anymore! I've been shipping this for what seems like a decade now so if you tell me it's going to finally die I will break down" he warned.

I rolled my eyes, "he's coming over, he got stuck in traffic I told you this ten times already" I reminded a bit annoyed, "being married is terrifying" Takura admitted, "I thought since I lived with this guy for years I would know everything! BUT ONCE YOU'RE MARRIED HE DOESN'T NEED TO HIDE THE FACT HE DOESN'T CLEAN THE MICROWAVE ANYMORE!" he insisted.

"You're not hiding that BL collection either mister! I thought you said you didn't watch or read that stuff!" Genkei protested but his smile told me it was all in good fun, Takura eyed him quickly thinking of something else.

"You spend all our money on useless items from wish just to make me go crazy!"

"Did I mention he walks around in a onesie now? He walks around in a monkey onesie"

"He burns anything he touches-EVEN THE ICE CREAM! How do you BURN ice cream?!"

"Learned it from Chiasa-AND OH GOSH IF YOU KNEW WHAT THIS GUY LIKES IN-"

Takura quickly shut Genkei up with his piece of cake and Genkei smirked in victory, "thanks for rubbing it in guys, you know..." Tsuki mumbled small tears in her eyes, "don't worry, I'm sure people won't judge you that hard for being 27 and still hasn't had her first kiss yet" Nao told her before a pillow was flung in his face as Tsuki cried in despair.

"See this is why Nao is gonna die alone," I told the group to some small laughs, "what the hell! I chose this lifestyle!" he protested, "I have an announcement to make" Eiji spoke up and Genkei raised an eyebrow.

"You're kidding" he argued, "you have to be kidding before anyone else in this group the one who finally gets a relationship is..." he built up as Eiji showed a picture of...

...

"I have adopted a new cat," he told the group, a hint of pride buried in his voice, "Eiji we're talking about our depressed love lives and how we're going to die alone, what does a cat have anything to do with this?" Nao asked.

"It belongs to my new partner," Eiji told the group, and Genkei spat out his drink as he fell out of the couch dying of laughter, "WHAT?! HOW?! AFTER ALL THOSE BLIND DATES?! YOU WEREN'T EVEN LOOKING FOR A RELATIONSHIP!" Nao screamed.

"So much for 'I chose this lifestyle'" I mocked smirking as I enjoyed the chaos, Tsuki practically stole Eiji's phone as she excitedly showed a picture with him and his partner, Eiji for once looked a bit embarrassed.

They had a more androgynous look to them, with light pink hair in a messy short style and green eyes, they seemed a lot more cheerful and more creative than Eiji by a longshot and seemed to be wearing handmade clothing and accessories.

"So what's their name~," Genkei asked as he seemed to be recovering from his near-death experience, "Tachibana Arisu," he told us, Nao continued to be wailing as Takura also peeked at the phone, "they look nice, congrats," he told Eiji who seemed to appreciate the one normal response.

"So...now we have three singles in the friend group instead of four, welp better than I expected" Genkei admitted, "I mean technically Riko, Takashiro, and Mirai are all single too" Tsuki argued, "Riko and Takashiro are only now getting out of parole so they don't count, and Mirai...Mirai is Mirai" Nao defended as he looked down.

A strange dismal silence fell upon the group.

Riko and Takashiro had been given parole the previous year but both told Saihara that they wouldn't see the rest of us out of fear of someone connecting us to the phantom thieves, while I understood why I still missed them a lot and hoped they were doing well.

As for Mirai, she was getting better after what happened with...with Ace a few years ago, and while she slowly was coming back to reality it was becoming clear she wouldn't be the same and even if she did get better she might never leave the mental institution she was placed in.

Tsuki, Takura, Eiji, and Genkei couldn't even visit her because she couldn't recognize her and when they did try to introduce themselves it only gave her severe panic attacks and migraines to awake once again not remembering them.

So Nao and I had taken the time to make sure she gets a visit at least four times a week, but I knew he visited daily. He was hoping, waiting for something to change.

And I didn't have it in me to tell him otherwise, even though every time I saw the young girl who used to be one of my friends I already knew she was gone.

"It's been years now since Chiasa...and Kazue..." Tsuki brought up but then fell back silence.

"Alright who got me gifts?" I quickly asked trying to bring the conversation back to a lighter topic, Takura quickly got up excited.

"Oh! You're going to hate this!" He said as he handed over a gift bag and I opened it up.

It was a crudly made homemade t-shirt that had number one uncle written on it along with a mug that said rat lord. It however was barely hung together for dear life.

"Sorry about the mug...Takura had the idea to try pottery...and this was the best of them" Genkei said with a look of embarrassment.

"That's payback for the time you gave Genkei an airhorn as a gift! My hearing has never been the same" Takura grieved.

"Hey that was-"

Ding Dong

...

"HE'S HERE!" Nao shouted as he opened the door to a fearful Saihara...Shuichi.

"Uhh...hi?" Shuichi greeted as he walked in nervous to see my friends practically waiting for any sort of interaction between us.

They'll need to keep waiting.

"You're just in time for the...for the drinks..." I started when I saw two figures enter in behind him.

One was a girl with chestnut hair, once I remember it had been pulled into two twin pigtails only now it was a long braid on the left side. She had a small scar on her chin, and a big smile, she was wearing a light pink dress with a white overcoat.

The man had red curly hair that was probably recently only starting to be grown out, he was tall and huge like he'd been working out but had freckles across his face and matched the girls smile...

Genkei dropped the glass he was holding, Tsuki immediately started crying, Takura stared as if he couldn't believe it mouthing out words to himself, Nao had for once shut up, and Eiji even had to brush away tears.

"What took you so long?" I choked up asking, "sorry traffic" Takashiro apologized laughing.

"Hi guys! Did you save any cake?" Riko asked tears in her eyes as well as without another second the group seemed to collapse into a spree of hugs, scolding the two for what they did that night at the warehouse, and more hugs.

I had never smiled and cried so much in my life, as I glanced back at Shuichi who smiled at this as well as I brushed away tears.

"I swore I would never cry in front of you again, and what did you do?" I accused, "sorry, I made a promise to bring you back your family though. All of your family" he reiterated.

"You're such an softie" I told him, "me? You're the one who's crying on their birthday!" Shuichi teased.

I stared at my friends, Riko was obsessing over the photos of Yuriko and begging when she could see her, and Takashiro was doing his best to console everyone still in shock.

"Hey...hey Shuichi..." I mumbled, he turned to me as I reached out my hand, "do you...want to go for a walk...?" I asked.

He nodded as we left the room hand in hand.

♤~♡~◇~♧

I looked over the summer sky as the breeze brought fresh scents of bread and flowers.

"Won't they miss you?" Shuichi asked concerned, I shook my head, "are you kidding? You brought Riko and Takashiro they'll barely notice I'm gone" I told him.

I looked over at a makeshift amusement park being built as I motioned for him to sit on the bench with me.

"How have you been doing?" Saihara asked, "honestly? These past years...Ive done a lot of thinking...on what I could have done differently to stop what happened to my friends...to what could have saved Chiasa, Kazue, and Miri...

"But I've also been so happy I can't describe it...for the first time in my life I feel almost safe and..." I glanced over at Shuichi.

Hesitant I reached for his hand, he didn't resist as I held it and squeezed it a little as I brought out a small golden chain I had been wearing as he gasped.

On it was my engagement ring.

"I kept it. Couldn't sell it, and I think...no I want to give us a second chance, obviously we're not fiances again...but I think we've both had a chance to actually grow up these past years...so I think I want to try this again." I told him. "Only if you want to though" I quickly added.

Shuichi nodded happy, some tears in the corner of his eyes as I brushed them away, "now who is crying?" I asked as he laughed and after a moment of hesitation we kissed.

Nothing would erase the past.
The lies. The betrayal.
But we both knew that.

And this time, we would do it right.