Roses & Ferns (An OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Love Story)

Epilogue

By Jen Joyce

   When morning arrived the next day, both the Bodega and Boxmore were shocked right down to their very cores.

   At Boxmore, Boxman and the rest of his kids were reading the note that Raymond had left behind before leaving; he had kicked open Raymond's room's door when he didn't turn up this morning and none of his other children knew (or at least pretended not to know) where he was. Right now, they were all sat at the kitchen table as they read the note and mysterious small, black box in Boxman's bird hand; his human hand was holding the note.

"Dear Family," It began.

"By the time you read this, I'll be far from all of you. I've been seeing someone for the past two months or so as of now, and she's made me feel so much more than just a robot who can easily be replaced from just the press of a button and far more than someone who can be discarded and discontinued from a flick of Father's switch as easily as a tossed, crumpled-up piece of paper. My Rose has also informed me that she's pregnant with my child, so I need to take responsibility for being a Dad toward my child, my siblings' niece/nephew, and Boxman's grandchild.

"But I know the type of person you are, Father (if you were the one reading this). If I told you face-to-face, you'd just act on your rage and discontinue me and possibly do worse after you've exposed my Rose to my deconstruction first-hand. So, both of us ran away from this place and started a new life elsewhere.

"Don't even bother trying to find me. I ripped out the tracking device you installed on the phone you gave to me and destroyed it. The remains will be in a black box on top of this note.

"Signed Raymond

"P.S. I quit this job."

   The robo-siblings felt saddened by the way Raymond wrote it with such strong emotions like these; their guess is that Raymond bottle up these feelings for a long time. They were also worried about how big of an outburst their Father was about to go into.

   When they looked over to their Dad, however, he didn't seem to be angry. He didn't really seem to be showing much emotion, but this was probably due to his hair covering most of his facial expression. He was fiddling with the box that held the destroyed tracking device's remains inside of it in his bird hand while his human hand was clenching onto the note, tightly.

   Their Dad got up from the kitchen table they were at, note and box in tow, and began to leave the room. Before he exited the room completely, Boxman paused in the doorway and uttered to his kids, "Take some time off from Plaza attacking, kids. I'm not...really in the mood to send any of you over there right now. Not sure if I ever will be..." and then he left without another word.

   Back over at Gar's Bodega, all of the usual Bodega employees were inside the building, doing their normal things and jobs as everything seemed completely normal until they heard Mr. Gar yell at the top of his lungs so loud that it was a surprise that Boxmore's residents didn't hear it in the backroom.

   Obviously, all three of them ran to where Mr. Gar was, prepared to fight if Boxmore sent out an attack from behind, and saw Mr. Gar on his knees as he looked at the note in his hands. It took Enid asking what was wrong for Mr. Gar to snap out of his state and handed them Fern's note; he didn't have enough strength to tell them what it said.

   " "Dear Mr. Gar," Enid read aloud.

   " "Due to unforeseen circumstances, I have decided to quit my job at the Bodega. The reason for this is due to the fact that I'll be expecting a child that belongs to my boyfriend. I wish I could disclose his name here, but if I do, I'll only be putting him, myself, and our child in more danger than I wish. I don't have any Social Media accounts so don't bother trying to find me there. I wish I didn't have to quit this job that I've grown to love, but I have no choice."

   " "Forever grateful for this opportunity, Fern Penelope" "

   All three Bodega employees had different reactions to this news.

   K.O. tried to act as surprised as he could from this news, loudly gasping and asking what she meant by that; deep down, he knew that Fern only quit because she didn't want the baby's father to be revealed. Just because he's a kid, doesn't mean that he isn't aware of what goes on around him. He also knew that it was wrong to keep the truth from his friends like this, but he also knew that it might cause more harm than good if he told them at the moment. Maybe later on when all of this has calmed down?...

   Enid just covered her mouth with her free hand and mouth the word "no", not wanting to believe what was right in front of her. While she and Fern had never been close, the times they did interact was one of the few things that brightened her usual mood a bit (third only to K.O. and her usual slacking off). Contrary to what others might believe, Enid and Fern actually had a pretty decent relationship when they were left by themselves. Fern usually told her some of her hilarious work stories from when she was working odd jobs in her younger years to earn some work experience and technos for herself. So, Enid was heartbroken from this news but not as bad as Elodie's betrayal had been.

   Rad was probably the most heartbroken out of them all, so much so, that Rad had some tears forming in his eyes. Rad's crush on Fern has grown ever since she showed what she's capable of when she fixed his van for him. He's been trying to get Fern to notice him by using subtle hints for a couple of weeks, but Fern didn't seem to even register it. Then, after a small break to "research" (which was really him binge-watching cheesy teen romance movies with flat characters, poorly written-out plots, and over-the-top drama) he decided to act like a totally over-the-top, stereotypical jock who shows off every chance they get.

   But after what happened yesterday, Rad decided to apologize to Fern during their next lunch break and just confess his feelings for her while pulling out a box of chocolates and a bouquet of ferns he bought yesterday. But now, after finding out that Fern's been dating someone for over two months and has just quit her job and was now probably living with him right now? Rad knew he was gonna have to throw the ferns away and possibly the chocolates (if his mood didn't lighten up enough for him to be able to eat them without feeling sick).

   Both business establishments lost important members that day, but as for the newly wedded couple of ex-business rival workers, it was more of a relief to finally be away from the stress of the rivalry and to just be together.

   At this moment, Fern and Raymond were sleeping in a two-person tent in another forest, not at all related to Hero's Forest. They traveled a good twenty or so miles before Raymond and Fern's exhaustion caught up with them; so, they decided to set up camp for the night and catch a bus ride to continue their way to Neo Riot City.

   After all, as of this day, they were starting a whole new life together. They're gonna need all the energy they could get.

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A/N: I'M FINALLY DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, it looks like things are finally wrapped up, right? Fern and Raymond have tied the knot, left their old lives behind to start a new one, and best of all, Boxman's not gonna try to go after his son and daughter-in-law out of a blind rage! So that means the story's done, right?

Well...it ain't.

This isn't the end of Fern and Raymond's adventures. Though, the adventure won't be continuing here, my dear readers.

No, no, no.

I'm gonna be starting a new book called, "Roses & Ferns 2: City Plants" that'll feature our familiar wedded husband and wife going through the ups and downs of being married, adulthood, and preparing for their baby. Maybe with some surprises here and there.

However, I'm gonna take a few months or so off before I post the sequel to my story. Writing is incredibly hard. I can see why it takes a while for fan-fiction writers to update.

But before I go, I wanted to say thank you for all of your support throughout this whole story.

So, until next time, be nicer to the writers of fan-fics you like. Seriously, we have a very, very cruel life of writing these chapters out and we don't need any more unnecessary stress from our readers.

- Jen Joyce                              11-13-19

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