Vol. 3: Chapter 151: Epilogue: The big day
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Belgian Trivia

Koffiekoeken: I looked for a translation but nothing I found really struck me as right. Literally, it would be coffee cakes. Closer to what it really is would be Danish pastries. I think we just have our own kinds. These are often bought to serve as breakfast, served with coffee on festive occasions, or on Sundays. Some people buy them on the way to work to serve as lunch. Every Belgian Bakery has an equivalent of this picture, and almost every Belgian will be able to name every pastry in it.

kofiekoeken

Claire’s POV

The alarm clock did not need to wake me up. The excitement and nerves took care of that for me. It had been ages since I had woken up in my old room. Next to me, Emma was still enjoying her dreams. My godchild had grown up to be a very bright young lady. I was glad that we managed to preserve that happiness she always projected, and I was really proud of her when she told me she wanted to follow in my footsteps. It was only a little later, that I had realized she meant it as working for the CYA and not as a cook. Well, as long as she kept that bright and sparkly character of hers, I would support her in anything she wanted, but the realization that she saw me more as part of the CYA than as a professional cook had disappointed me a little bit.

 Anna on the other hand had been super enthusiastic about it and had started giving her masses of yuri to read. Anna had been acting all high and mighty about it. It reminded me of those first days when we founded the FBY all those years ago and I could not help but watch it with an endearing look. Emma on the other hand reminded me more of how eager Fien used to be in those days.

While I was getting up silently, so I would not wake her up, my good intentions evaporated on the spot when the door of the room flew open, “Good, at least you are up already. I can’t believe this day has finally come! My baby girl is finally getting married!”

I thought I was nervous, but mom seemed to have taken it to another level. I think I even spotted a little tear in her eyes.

Emma had of course not slept through the ruckus, and the second she realized who was standing at the door she shot up and ran toward mom for a hug. I envied her energy in the morning. I always needed a few minutes to get up after waking up.

“Bernie has bought us breakfast and is already brewing coffee. We are expecting Thea’s crew any second to get all of you ready, so go on and take a shower, the other girls will arrive soon.”

Half of us were getting ready at Femme Fatale and the other half at the Lyst estate. I wondered how Anna was doing. Even though I traveled a lot for work, usually Anna found a way to come with me, so nights like these that we did not spend together had become really rare.

After my shower, I arrived at a crowded breakfast table. Frank, Sam, all the kids, mom, and Aunt Bernie. It had been ages since we all had breakfast together. The spread of "koffiekoeken" that Aunt Bernie had bought was making this look like the festive occasion it was, and all the kids were of course happy beyond words with all the sweets in front of them. It was just a bit sad that Anna could not be here.

While I was watching the children enjoy themselves, mom whispered “Soon you and Anna will have some of your own.”

All the adults started laughing when they saw my cheeks flush.

“Well, you’ll no longer have an excuse once you are married. Have you seen how happy Mary and Tory looked yesterday?” Sam said.

“And I can imagine Anna should not wait too long anymore either.” Aunt Bernie added.

All these comments made me blush harder and harder.  I mean Anna and I talked about having children but having your family discuss the subject at the breakfast table still made me feel embarrassed beyond words and I was sure that that embarrassment only led to teasing me even more.

Luckily, I was literally saved by the bell when the other girls arrived.

They had stayed the night at a nearby hotel and had finished eating breakfast together before coming here. I could feel the aura of nervousness coming from them too. This was our big day after all. Today all of us would get married.

“Sorry we are later than expected,” Therese said. “Yes, word got out where we were staying, and we had trouble leaving the hotel that got surrounded by fans,” Elsa said apologetically. Well, she sounded apologetical, but it seemed that she quite enjoyed the fuss, and I felt like she presented that fact more as an achievement than anything else.

“We’d better leave for the palace in time too, the morning news broadcast said that there were thousands of people camping on the Avenue de Parc Royal just to get a glimpse of the Yuri Jeanne D’Arc who changed the world.” Mia then said.

Elsa looked jealous of me like I had beaten her to something, so I said “I am pretty sure it is the result of the combination of all the people that are getting married combined that is having this effect. Quite a few of us are famous these days.”

Elsa had never lost her competitive streak with me. No matter how famous she got, I was the yuri Jeanne D’Arc that had changed the world, and she could get just as troublesome as in the old days when she found something new to compete in. Luckily my side-step seemed to have worked, and she quickly turned bright again.

Since it had been big news ten years ago, when the queen promised to marry us, and all of us had been in the focus of the press ever since. There was no reason for her to doubt my reasoning.

With all that attention on us, we got lucky that the biggest scandal to ever come out over the years had been the discovery that Mia was in fact SinSin sensei. It had been Vital’s doing. He thought it would have been a way to get back at Kath, but I heard the Romeo and Juliet fan club’s numbers had grown exponentially after that. Those events had also proven that we had a Vital mole in our security team, so to prevent further leaks, only Valerie had remained as security at the lab, and she had started recruiting her security staff for the lab out of their fan club which had led to Mia sometimes needing security for the security staff… I remember dealing with that mess like it was yesterday.

Gazette walked up to me and said “Thank you for making this day possible for me Claire. You have been my best friend for ages now, and you’ve never let me down.”

Then, not leaving me any time to react, to evaporate the embarrassing atmosphere she created, she pushed all of us together and took out her phone attached to a selfie stick, and shouted “Smile, this is the first picture of our wedding album!”

We talked a little while we were waiting for Thea’s crew to arrive. Fien had immediately taken the chance to go and preach to Emma. She really loved being the senior, and I could see that Emma loved the attention Fien was giving her. Fien had really grown so much over the years. I could see why they were making her the new CYA director.

Soon enough, Thea’s crew arrived and the apartment above Femme Fatale got really busy and a lot of people were fussing and moving around to prepare the five of us for our wedding.

Even though Thea herself would be working at Anna’s place, the crew Thea had sent was really amazing and I noticed Thea was checking up on them at regular intervals. She wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

My wedding dress looked truly angelic. The beautiful white robes with embroiled flowers were accentuated by my fiery red hair.

Mom finished it with the necklace that my father gave her. The beautiful necklace with a bright stone that had the same green color as my eyes brought the right attention to my bosom. “I am sure he will be watching you from heaven today.” I noticed a little tear form in her eyes and she said, “Even if your name becomes Lyst, never forget your father, he will always be with you”. I never realized she cared so much about the name change, and even though I never knew my father I answered “I became a chef. The best there is, just like him. His legacy will continue that way.”

Mom started crying and gave me a hug earning her the ire of the people that had just done my dress and make-up. “You are the most beautiful bride. Go out and make us proud.” Mom said. Then she ran to Aunt Bernie and started crying there. Mom had gotten pretty emotional, but I could see these weren’t gloomy tears. She was truly happy for me.

I looked around the room at the other girl’s dresses.

Elsa’s dress was more silver than white. I was pretty sure Thea had picked that color to make her fit in perfectly with Tina’s purple hair.  I started to pick up on how Thea picked her colors over the years. It made me wonder how she would make Anna’s dress fit in with mine.

I was surprised by how stunningly stylish and risqué Elsa’s dress was at the same time. Some of those see-through parts really showed Elsa’s figure. I wasn’t sure I would feel comfortable in that dress, but Elsa did not seem to have a problem with it. Wearing risqué clothes came with being an idol after all and she had the figure to rock that beautiful dress.

Therese’s dress on the other hand looked really cute and wholesome. Her pink hair got accentuated with pink silk roses and ribbons spread across it. I was pretty sure Eve would be happy with a cutesy bride like that.

At the same time, Mia was being dressed in a sexy white pantsuit with a top that looked like the corset of a classic wedding dress. Her stiletto heels gave her a sexier atmosphere than the other girls.  She still had quite the rebellious spirit, and this suit showed that of alright.

Fien was having fun with Mia, and the crew was constantly telling her to stop moving. But her dress looked magnificent. I am sure that if she would be calm, Fien would look like an innocent golden-haired princess from a fairytale

Gazette shone brightly as she was being dressed in a very classic type of wedding dress with a veil. Except for some slight hints of pastel blue in the flowers on her, it was completely white and the long white gloves on her arms made her look even purer. She reminded me of Snow White in some ways. It fitted her picture of an ideal wedding perfectly. Thea had done an amazing job fitting all those dresses to everyone’s character.

While I was admiring the other girls, I hadn’t noticed Aunt Bernie approaching me.

“We need to talk in private Claire. It is urgent.”

Not on my wedding day I thought. Even though I had long since retired from the CYA, Aunt Bernie had recruited me into the yuri secret services of the Yuripean Union. I was their famous secret agent double petal 7. Nobody except she knew. I wasn’t even allowed to tell Anna which had bothered me for years, but in the end, I was helping her behind the screens, so I thought it wasn’t the worst of secrets, and if it ever came down to it, I would choose Anna over anything in an instant.

When we were alone in Emma’s room, she said “Anna met the queen yesterday at the other bachelorette party.”

I felt a pang of jealousy enter my chest. At the very last moment, she decides to show up. Hasn’t she got any shame?

Aunt Bernie saw my face grimace and started laughing. “Sorry Claire, you misunderstand it’s nothing like that. The queen got secretly engaged to a Dutch princess. They need our help to make the Dutch royal house accept the marriage. It is a top priority international Y-file, and I am assigning you to it. Not only are you our top agent, but you are also the only one with any real experience in changing the mind of a royal family.”

I let out a sigh of relief. Not that I really wanted to help Trixy, I was still angry at her for everything she did 10 years ago. Just thinking of it made me want to chop something up in the kitchen. But if I could get her to get married, I would put my biggest rival out of the picture for good. So, I decided on the spot, “I’ll take care of it.”

I know my motivation wasn’t the purest out there, but hey, can you blame me? Queen or not, she had singlehandedly created the biggest crisis in my relationship with Anna over the years. I could still feel my heart grow tense and the stone in my stomach anytime someone just mentioned her name.

I just needed to come up with a way to help them, because I just made a large promise without any idea if and how I could pull it off.

“I knew I could count on you, Claire. You aren’t our top agent for nothing. Go show those royals what happens when they come face to face with the yuri Jeanne D’Arc.”

A Y-file popped up for double petal 7 on her wedding day... The next chapter will be the very last one, after that, I will post a little afterword and a word of thanks!

Make sure to tune in one final time for the Y-files in a few hours to read the ending of the story!

If you like my story, please add it to your reading list, hit the like button, and leave a comment. It is always motivating to hear from my readers.

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