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You and Max are back at Gallatin. It's been so long since you were last here, yet it feels like yesterday you were just exposing Lady Renaldt's insidious money-making scheme.
The Starlings have fared well under Max's and your leadership. The group has gone from being an unofficial ragtag band of carousing Gallatin students, with students coming and going as the school years went by, to being the foremost political organisation advocating for worker's rights and progressive politics in Westerlin. It's gotten so big that the original student group in Gallatin College has now become simply the youth wing of the wider Starling Party.
It's also looking likely that you might become Prime Minister in the next election, due to the Starlings' popularity among common workers, who have recently gained suffrage rights thanks to their tireless campaigning, as well as massive funding and support gained from the social and familial networks of the many ex-Gallatin students in the Starlings, including you and Max.
Gallatin itself has also done well under Mr Griffith's administration and Archambault's supervision. You've heard that Miss Dalca has turned to teaching a dedicated Civics class where she can freely and openly espouse her political opinions, leading to Mr Blanchard taking over Philosophy and Karson taking over Athletics. Hartmann has taken over Etiquette, though you hear newer students have been getting less and less interested in that particular subject.
Miss Dalca was one of the first people to sign up to join the Starling Party when you became officially recognised as a legitimate political movement. No big surprise there.
Through all the controversy and political turmoil, Max has been at your side. Even when some of the more carefree Starlings left the group, saying it was becoming part of the establishment by getting into politics, Max stayed with you. You imagine Max when you first met her might've left with them.
Sitting down in the grass, Max looks at you with her dark brown eyes, just as sparkling as the day you first met when you joined her in mocking Lady Renaldt on the first day of your year at Gallatin.
"You know, Sasha... sometimes... I wonder how my life would've turned out without you."
Max smiles.
"A lot of things would've been worse. Who knows, I might've gotten sent to those mines if you hadn't exposed Lady Renaldt. Without you, the Starlings would never have been more than a gang of students causing chaos for the sake of it."
You smile back at her, sitting down next to her.
"I just did what was right."
Max lies down on the grass.
"Maybe I would've drunk myself to death. Or overdosed. If it wasn't for you..."
Max sighs and turns to you with a lovestruck smile.
"I love you, Sasha. You have no idea how much you mean to me."
"How about Delacroix?"
"Yeah, I love them too, but they never made as much of a difference as you did. Honestly, sometimes I think you're like the main character in a novel or something."
You chuckle.
"Oh come on Max, it's just a matter of being in the right place, at the right time, and doing the right thing."
Max scoffs playfully.
"You make it sound easy."
You lie down next to Max. You hold her hand and you both stare up into the sky together.
"I think, in a way, everyone is the main character of their own novel. The novel of their life. Some stories have happy endings, some have tragic endings, and some are more interesting to read than others."
Max turns to you. "That was so deep."
You guffaw. "It was, wasn't it?"
You spend the next few hours reminiscing and laughing with your wife.