Sanctuary II

It was the evening of the bonding ceremony's reception, and everyone had been dancing, eating and drinking all afternoon. The reception party was held in the penthouse suite of the tallest building in Sanctuary.

Roisin and Atlas were stood on the balcony looking over the city below.

"Today has been great, but..." Roisin began.

"But nothing, Roisin, don't cloud your mind with things that will get you down" Atlas smiled as he kissed Roisin's forehead. Roisin smiled and nodded.

"Ruby did well today in the ceremony" Roisin chuckled.

"Yeah, she's really coming along now. I've been helping her practice her flying" Atlas smiled.

"I had noticed she seemed more graceful than usual" Roisin nodded.

Ruby was sat on the glass roof above, listening in, she smiled before flying back indoors, to where Dex and Syl were sat drinking at the bar.

"So, I said to the teacher, 'No, you go clean the engine room'" Syl laughed.

"Why did they have you cleaning engine rooms? Not very educational..." Dex pondered.

"Oh, it was because I may have accidentally set fire to the mathematics classroom" Syl shrugged.

"How... did you manage that?" Dex asked, as his eyebrow rose.

"Well, I'd just learned the ignite spell in the class before" Syl admitted. Dex chuckled and continued drinking.

Ruby giggled, then flew toward the main table where she landed in front of Ariel and Ashe, Ariel smiled and petted Ruby.

"You did a good job today, Rubes" Ariel smiled.

"Ashe 'n' Arool!" Ruby cheered in her adorable little voice.

"We've been looking forward to this day for such a long time, we're glad you could be a part of it" Ashe nodded. Ruby smiled at Ashe, who cut a thin piece of cake and place it in front of Ruby, who began eating away.

"Oh, I hope you packed your suitcase, like I told you to" Ashe smiled.

"Hmm, I had thought you were joking..." Ariel teased.

"Har har" Ashe said sarcastically. "We're going on a honeymoon!" She smiled.

"Hmm, where to?" Ariel asked. "There's not exactly a lot of places to go" She smirked. Ashe nodded.

"That made it hard to choose" Ashe smiled. "In the end I chose a place on the seafront in Ishtall" She added.

"Hmm, in Neon Beach?" Ariel asked.

"Yeah, a new hotel there, it's state of the art!" Ashe replied.

"I always wanted to go there, back when we were at the Academy, I remember seeing the neon glow from the air-carriage landing. Back in Aranei, we never had anything like that, it was all grey or black" Ariel smiled, and explained.

"Sounds depressing" Ashe nodded.

"I mean, the city did have some okay greenish areas, along with bars and the like, just, not to the extent that Ishtall and other cities do" Ariel added.

"I mean, there is nothing stopping us from settling down in Ishtall, once everything is over" Ashe smiled. "Get a nice little apartment overlooking the ocean, maybe have a family, and all that good stuff" She added.

"That sounds like a good idea" Ariel nodded, then looked at Ruby. "Maybe build a roost for this little one" She smiled. Ruby let out a small squeak, then went back to eating.

"To the future of this weird little family we've found ourselves part of" Ashe smiled, as she motioned to the Luna family, and the others, then raised her champagne glass.

"To our future!" Ariel nodded, as the two stood up, and headed to the balcony with everybody else, as they headed outside, fireworks were set off across the city.

Ruby flew outside and perched on Roisin's head to watch as they exploded in a dazzling array of colours across the night sky. Illuminating the slowly recovering wasteland for miles around.

"To Ashe and Ariel!" Roisin smiled as she took a sip of champagne.