I cannot live without my soul

Cas had always hated rain.

Before, when he was still a kid, it’d mean his father had withdrawn to the house, shooed inside by the weather. The drizzle clung to him, an extra layer of irritability slicked on top of an already volatile man. Like a mist of motor oil and gunpowder.

Later, it had meant nights with little sleep, hunched in doorways, or park benches, or, when he was lucky, the cramped space between the men’s shoe store and the thrift shop on 48th. It meant waking with wet shoes and fever sinking into his underfed bones.

Now? Gabriel and Luca warming his apartment with their light and laughter? The rain outside was almost comforting. Homely.

He’d never really thought of himself as being particularly attached to his apartment, but seeing it as it was now, plucked apart around him and gently dismantled by loving hands, Cas saw the echoes of himself spelled out over the years.

The broken, old skateboard he’d bought second-hand when he’d first started going to Crimson Beech High. He'd nearly run Margo over doing kick-flips in the parking lot. She’d shoved him off and snapped it clean in two without ever breaking eye contact, and right then, Cas had known they’d become great friends.

The box of illegal fireworks he’d bought with Rory that one 4th of July weekend. The prick had chased him with a Roman candle, shooting shell after crackling shell of brightly coloured explosion at his ass, cackling like a maniac all the while. Cas had ducked and weaved and laughed his ass off, the vampirism freshly-settled in his cells giving him speed enough to avoid each searing, galaxy burst. The lights had danced against the water over Montworth Bridge; Cas watched on through eyes of silver, knowing he had never seen fireworks even half as beautiful before.

There was a compact of metallic eyeshadow —the first he’d ever bought— far from striking range of his father’s fists and curious about his hitherto quiet and unexplored bisexuality. Nicole Morelli, of all fucking people, had lounged with him in one of the Nexus common rooms and taught him to do a flawless cut-crease.

Cas’s venture into living in an apartment of his own, a place he could fill with stuff of his own, it was an open floor to find out more about himself. Sure, he’d lived in the Nexus in the years immediately after his turning, and he’d gone to ground for a while to let his old self truly die, but he hadn’t ceased to be a Venandi in all the time he’d slept.

The Venandi weekly stipend kept on rolling in. Astoria might be a hard ass at times, but she took damn good care of her kids. Even though he was still leery of relying too heavily on it —old habits die hard and all that— Cas had woken from his years-long slumber to find himself in possession of a damn healthy savings account.

So, he’d done what any young man thrust into sudden means would do, and bought a truly shitty car and paid his first months’ rent for his very own apartment.

Hair band posters. Glam rock and punk on blast. Hot pink eyeliner and fresh piercings that healed as he watched and his first pair of Docs with chains that rattled around his ankles with every swaggering step. Buckles, straps, hardware on every last scrap of clothing he could thrift. Patches and badges and eclectic pieces of fashion like that denim jacket New Kid had creamed their pants over. There was a time before Cas settled on his current aesthetic where his outfits all but screamed his sexuality with a stolen megaphone.

Once, he’d wondered what his old man would say if he could have seen him. He’d promptly decided he didn’t give a shit.

It didn’t matter that his old man didn’t get it. He hated Cas enough already, what did it matter if his son wasn’t straight on top of everything else? Honestly, Cas thought his father would have had less disdain if he’d just come out as gay instead of bi. It seemed to have pissed him off more that his kid was “halfway normal”.

As if Cas had had a girlfriend when he was fourteen, but when they broke up, he just up and decided he liked guys as well.

“Just because”.

Like he’d had a chance to be a “real man”, but he’d up and ruined it by liking guys, too. Because he wanted to act out, be a freak, piss off his old man on purpose.

Cas threw a shirt into a duffel bag with a snarl. Honestly, if his sexuality had been a choice, Cas would have chosen to be bi anyway, for that exact reason. Fucking prick.

He’d gone to Pride for the first time with Val one year, their cheekbones smeared with bi flag glitter, the bomber jacket he wore splattered with vibrant pinks and purples and blues. In the negative space on the back, it bore a giant middle finger.

That was how Cas felt about his bisexuality, sometimes.

He wore it loud, he wore it unapologetic… he wore it shirtless beneath his jacket, save for a harness biting tight across his pecs, and damn but it looked good on him.

He’d hooked up with a guy for the first time, that night. A mutual friend of Val and Remus on coven exchange from Morocco, who he’d gotten to know over shots and several hours grinding at some oversaturated neon club he’d long since forgotten the name of.

Cas swore he was still getting glitter out of his pubes a full year later.

…Totally worth it, though.

Eventually he pulled back from the sheer amount of colour in his wardrobe — it was easier to thrift edgier, streetwear fits in monochrome palettes, and besides, dyeing his hair scratched that particular itch. Now, if he wanted to to wear his sexuality so loud the homophobes choked, he had two fucking flawless boyfriends he could make out with in the middle of the street downtown.

‘What’s got you smirking?’ Luca asked, aiming a kick at his shins as he wandered past to grab the packing tape.

‘Oh, you know.’ Cas shrugged, batting him back with a feral grin. Luca squared up, laughing, bouncing on the balls of his feet. ‘Just thinking about sticking my tongue down your throat.’

‘Do it, coward.’

Luca launched a jab at Cas’s stomach. Cas let it connect, mostly because the butterfly-soft punches Luca threw when they didn’t have vampire blood in their system made him laugh, they were so fucking light. Cas juked to the left, grabbing Luca by the shoulder to tug them into a grapple, the line of their spine warm and fluid against his chest.

‘Keep talking shit and I might!’ Leaning down, Cas grazed his teeth along Luca's neck, nipping sharply, before he pulled them into a kiss.

He loved feeling his boyfriends smile when he kissed them, Cas thought, a satisfied growl warming the back of his throat. It made him want to burn down the world, just to keep them warm.

Cas’s apartment had been a place for him to just be, to become. Choi Taeyong was shoved aside and buried, surfacing only when the nightmares clutched him by the throat and he woke in a cold sweat, thrashing and tangled in his sheets as phantom, uncaring hands wrote the echo of bruises into his skin.

It hadn’t necessarily been a place of healing, Cas supposed, hauling a stack of towels from the storage closet to pad around a framed wall print of a Harley Davidson Gabriel was taking down from the wall. But it had been a place of refuge for him to get to know himself as an adult, with all his scars. Every facet of his identity. A place to find a version of himself he liked.

Gabriel groaned as he eyed the next art piece on the wall. He tugged it down, turning it over in his hands so Cas could read the words on the front of the warped metal.

“Evidence Locker”.

‘Tell me you didn’t steal this from the Sheriff’s Office,’ Gabriel said.

Cas grinned. ‘Alright. “I didn’t steal that from the Sheriff’s Office”.’

‘You’re supposed to tell the truth, not just regurgitate what I say!’

Cas dodged the sign as Gabriel lobbed it at him in exasperation, reaching for him and pulling him into a hug, just because he could.

‘Don’t think you can charm your way out of this,’ Gabriel chided, winding his arms around his waist.

‘I always do,’ Cas said, and bent his head to kiss him. Laughter, sunny and gold, burst against his lips.

Gabriel hummed happily. ‘What was that for?’ he asked. His tone might have been accusing, but Gabriel couldn't keep the smile from his face.

‘Mmm, advance payment for vacuuming later,’ Cas teased, and meant “because I love you”.

‘Menace.’ Chuckling, Gabriel tossed the sign into the trash pile.

Healing would come, Cas knew. And with Gabriel and Luca in his life, especially? He didn’t stand a chance of keeping the fractures in his soul locked up in the dark. Those two motherfuckers poured goodness into everything they touched, made them shine with love.

He’d be no different.

It had been a beautiful, sunny day and the sun cast a warm glow over the kitchen as Gabriela and Cas spent the whole morning baking a cake for Ripley. The sweet smell of vanilla filled the room, bringing her back to the times she’d helped her grandmother bake when she was a little girl. She whisked the buttercream for the topping while Cas stood at the other side of the counter, rummaging through a cupboard, searching for the chocolate chips Gabriela had sworn were laying around somewhere.

“I can’t find shit in here,” he complained, “you guys should clean this thing up.”

Gabriela scoffed. “You’re one to talk! If you struggle now, I don’t know how you ever find anything back in your room.” She always got overwhelmed by the mess the second she stepped inside.

She still couldn’t believe he’d agreed to team up with her to give Ripley a Valentine’s gift together. She was really glad he wanted to help, mind you. She knew it’d mean a lot to Ripley that they’d voluntarily worked together for her, without her asking them to. So did he, she knew that. 

Ripley cared a lot about the both of them. Of course Gabriela would rather have her all to herself. But it never felt like Ripley favoured one over the other, something she found both frustrating and admirable. Ripley had a lot of love to give and at the same time that was one of the many things she liked about her. Even if the other object of her affection happened to be Cas Harlow, of all people…

She definitely didn’t mind getting to boss him around all afternoon, though.

“Can you hand me the pink—” Her hand shot up to catch the little bottle of food colouring he threw at her. Predictably, he still pushed her buttons whenever the opportunity rose. Thank God for vampire reflexes, she thought.

Annoyed, she frowned at him. “I said hand, not throw.” 

“I knew you’d catch it, no need to cry, Adalhard.” He shrugged and smirked at her.

She rolled her eyes and decided not to argue with him any further.. they were almost done anyway. 

As she whisked the pink dye through the cream, her phone alarm started buzzing. The cake had cooled down enough for them to be able to add the filling. A few minutes ago Cas already wanted to get on with it, but she was very particular about following the instructions as accurately as possible, she really didn’t want to mess this up. She’d asked him to fetch the chocolate chips from the cupboard he was currently searching through—with increasing exasperation—knowing full well they probably weren’t in there. She just needed to keep him busy while waiting.

Cas slammed the cupboard shut. “Okay, fuck this shit.” 

“Careful! You’ll break the freaking door!”

He gasped. “Ooh, I almost got you to say fuck!”

He grabbed a knife and sat down at the dinner table to get started. He’d been surprisingly cooperative. And honestly, he turned out to be a lot better at baking than Ripley was. Not that that was a great feat, though. Amused, she chewed her lip, remembering the fiasco from a few weeks ago. Ripley had insisted on helping her out with the cupcakes for Jade’s birthday and somehow managed to mix up the sugar and salt. They only found out when they taste-tested their cupcakes after they got out of the oven. Ripley had still eaten two of them, refusing to throw them out, before she’d intervened.

Cas on the contrary, was pretty good at following her instructions, something she hadn’t really expected from him. Or not anymore, at least.

She glanced over her shoulder as he carefully cut the cake into three neat layers, brows furrowed in concentration. He was so clearly doing his best, she thought it was kind of cute. He really liked Ripley.

While brainstorming about their gift, they’d quickly agreed that they absolutely had to cook or bake something for her. It wasn’t even a question, Ripley loved to eat and she loved when you spent time making something for her.

But Cas thought that two people couldn’t just give one shared present. That’d be lame. And besides, a cake would be gone after a day. They had to give her something she could keep too. 

Since Ripley kept stealing his leather jackets, he thought they should give her one of her own. Not that that would keep her from borrowing his jackets, Gabriela thought. But something told her Cas wouldn’t mind anyway. 

She’d bought her a nice leather jacket and even helped him a bit with customizing it. He’d joked that she had to do her part too. He’d shown her how to apply spikes and studs on the jacket, and though she’d been nervous about messing up, she was happy with the end result of her work. 

On the back Cas had painted a beautiful picture of a werewolf howling at the moon in front of a starry blue sky that turned deep purple towards the bottom. She was amazed at how he’d managed to make its fur look so soft and real and how nicely the colours of the sky blended into each other.

She’d gasped in delight when he first showed it to her, not hiding how much she loved it. There was no way Ripley wouldn’t absolutely love it, it was so perfectly her.

Back when they—well, you know—he already enjoyed making art and he was very good at it too. Of course over the past three decades he’d only gotten better. She couldn’t even draw a stick figure so it really was something else to her. He’d still gotten shy in response to her compliments, just like he used to.

After finishing the buttercream she fetched the chocolate chips from a different cupboard and melted them down. They’d planned to put the melted chocolate on top and let it drip from the sides. While she applied the pink buttercream coat onto the cake, Cas watched a tutorial on YouTube on how to do the drip pattern. She couldn’t help but smile a little at how seriously he took it, though of course she appreciated it.

“Why are you making that face?” Cas narrowed his eyes and kicked her leg under the table.

She kicked him back. “I’m not making a face.”

Cas frowned as he looked up for a moment before he started pouring the chocolate into a piping bag. “Yeah you are and it pisses me off.” 

“I just think…” She was unsure if she should be honest or not. “I think it’s sweet that you’re doing your best for her so much.”

“Gross.” He grimaced and stood up from his chair so he could get started. “Okay now shut up for a sec, I need to focus on this…”

The drip pattern turned out great, to Gabriela’s delight. Now the part she was most scared to mess up, was behind them.

Together they further decorated the cake with more buttercream and chocolate. Once they were finally done, Gabriela was very happy with the end result, which was considerably better than she had expected.

She fetched her phone so she could take a picture of it. “She’s going to lose her mind when she sees this!”

“She better… I did not just spend hours working on a cake with you, for her to be like ‘Oh that looks nice I guess’,” he grumbled.

“But she wouldn’t do that.”

“No, she wouldn’t.” He smiled. 

She chuckled and looked up at him. “Thanks for doing this with me, Cas. You’ve been very good today.”

He grimaced. “I’ve been good? How old am I?”

As she started stacking the dirty bowls, Gabriela mumbled, “Forty-nine in a few weeks, if I’m not mistaken.”

Cas frowned and went silent, probably doing the maths in his head.

She chuckled and shook her head before glancing at the clock. “We still have about an hour and a half left before she’s done with her shift and you’re going to help me clean up this mess.” She motioned around the kitchen, both the dinner table and the kitchen counters full of dirty bowls and kitchenware.

Cas already moved towards the door to the hallway. “No way, I’m done helping for today.”

She shrugged. “That’s fine actually, you’d only slow me down anyway.”

She smirked when he immediately turned around and started gathering dirty utensils from the countertop. 

It took them a bit over an hour to clean the kitchen. They’d lost time bickering over how to load the dishwasher and dropped a glass bowl in the process, which also had to be cleaned up. So in the end he did slow her down. But she still preferred that over him leaving her to clean up by herself.

She put her hands on her hips as she glanced at the clock. “I’ll get dressed real quick and then we can leave.”

Cas protested as he glanced at the time on his phone, “Can’t we just leave now? You already look good.” 

The regret radiated off his face as he said ‘good’ but Gabriela decided not to tease him about it. “I’ll be done in five minutes!”

Cas sighed. “You better have gotten faster than when we, uh—” He cleared his throat, not wanting to finish the sentence. “I don’t wanna miss Buffy, I swear I’ll just leave without you!”

Gabriela was already running up the stairs when he was halfway through his sentence. 

She’d already laid out an outfit for today: white tights, a cutesy short pink dress with white lace accents and a cropped white knitted cardigan. She’d pair it with pink boots with small heels, making her a little bit taller. She braided two strands of hair and fastened them with a bow clip.

When she got down again, Cas was on the couch in the living room, absentmindedly scrolling through his phone. He sucked in a breath when he looked up at her, quiet enough that she wouldn’t have heard it, had she still been human. Quickly he turned his attention back to his phone and mumbled, “we’re just gonna hang out at her house right?”

She chuckled as she applied some clear raspberry flavoured lipgloss, looking at his reflection behind her in the mirror. “Feeling underdressed now?”

“No, it’s… It’s corny. You’re corny.”

She ignored his comment as she screwed the bottle shut and put it in her bag. 

Cas had gotten up to get the box with the cake from the kitchen and stacked it on top of the box with the jacket, ready to leave.

Ripley’s eyes lit up when they entered the coffee shop. Gabriela held the door open for Cas, who was carrying the boxes. Ripley just handed a customer his order, happily wishing him a nice day. They sat down at a table by the window while they waited for her.

Cas rested his cheek on his hand as he watched Ripley at the counter, so cheerful you wouldn’t guess she’d already been working for almost six hours. Something about the way he looked at Ripley nowadays made Gabriela feel warm inside. She liked what Ripley brought out in him, she didn’t nearly dislike him as much as she did just seven months ago. God, had it only been seven months? 

When he glanced in her direction she quickly looked past him, out of the window. She was glad when he didn’t call her out on staring.

Once Ripley could leave, she hurried up to their table. “Hey, guys!” She bent down in between them and gave them both a kiss on the cheek, after which she sat down across from them and sighed, slumping in her chair. “I had such a busy day, I’m exhausted!”

She eyed the boxes. “Are those for me?” She already moved to open the box with the cake, but Cas slapped her hand away. “Ow!” She giggled.

Gabriela elbowed him. “Yes, but you gotta be patient!”

Immediately Ripley got up. “Alright, let’s get outta here then. I got something for you guys at home too!”

Ripley was practically jumping from excitement by the time they entered her house. Bram matched her energy as he excitedly greeted them when they all walked into the kitchen. Cas put the boxes on the counter and bent down, stretching his arms out so the small dog could jump into them. Animals had always liked him, apparently that hadn’t changed after he became a vampire.

“Okay I’ll go get your gifts, we can all open them together!” Quickly Ripley left the room while Cas turned into Gabriela’s direction so she could pet Bram.

Gabriela could hear her stumble on the last few steps of the stairs and Cas sent her a knowing, amused look. Their Ripley… She thought it was so cute how excited she could get. Ripley was big on gift giving anyway and Gabriela was excited to see what she’d gotten for her and Cas.

A few minutes later Ripley barged into the room, balancing two big boxes in her arms, one wrapped in black wrapping paper with skulls and one in pink paper with hearts. She couldn’t make it more clear who each present belonged to. She was wiggling on her feet as she set them down on the dinner table. “Open them up! Open them up! Last week lasted like a million years, I’ve been so excited to finally give them to you guys!”

When Gabriela picked up the pink box she immediately noticed a spicy, savoury smell coming out of it. That could only mean one thing…

“Ripley…” She gently started. “I think… you mixed up our presents.”

“What? No way, I checked like thrice before wrapping—”

On her right side, Cas had already ripped the wrapping apart and burst out laughing as he pulled a fluffy pink bear out of the box. 

“Seriously?!” Ripley exclaimed, before both she and Gabriela joined him and started laughing.

When they all finally calmed down, she and Cas swapped their boxes. Gabriela started rummaging through the shredded paper Ripley had filled the box with. Alongside the bear—which she loved, by the way—she’d gotten her a pink little box with colourful jewelry inside of it, some bottles of nail polish, lots of chocolate and a bunch of self made coupons with little doodles of the two of them, which she could exchange for various date ideas. 

She marveled as she unpacked the box. This was so special to her, not just because Ripley obviously had done her best to think of nice gifts for her. But also because throughout the past few decades, she really hadn’t expected to ever fall in love again, let alone someone who’d treat her this way. Someone who’d be this excited to make her happy. 

She opened an arm so Ripley could hug her. “Thank you so much, Ripley. I love it so much!”

Cas had gotten a similar bear as her, but black and with a skull face, a jewelry box with skull ornaments on it, of course filled with jewelry that fit his tastes more, a make-up palette, a few packs of spicy ramen she hadn’t seen in any of the stores in Crimson Beech yet and the same kind of coupons she’d gotten, though with different date ideas. He hadn’t said anything yet, but she could tell he was in awe and didn’t really know how to react.

Ripley hugged him from behind and placed a kiss on the back of his head. “Do you like it?”

“I, um, I love it.” He quickly blinked a few times, cleared his throat and got up. He placed a quick kiss on Ripley’s cheek before walking back to the kitchen counter. “Now’s your turn, Buffy!”

Elated Ripley let out a giggle as she clapped her hands together once. “Which one’s from you?”

Gabriela had gotten up from her chair and joined them, placing a hand on the small of her back. “Actually, these are from both of us.”

“Whaaat? Like you guys worked together? Without killing each other?”

Gabriela smiled at her. “I— we know you care a lot about both of us and well..”

“And we fight a lot and it’s probably really fucking annoying for you...” Cas continued.

Gabriela picked the box with the cake up and set it down next to the other one. “So we felt like coming together and working together for you would make it even more meaningful.” 

“Also I’m broke.” Cas added bluntly, the girls both snorting in response. 

“Ah yeah, there’s the real reason.” Ripley playfully punched his arm before biting into his shoulder, giggling when he pushed her away. “In all seriousness, that does mean a lot to me. I—”

Cas groaned and guided her towards the counter. “Ohhh my god, just open the fucking presents already and keep the speech for after!”

She chuckled as she opened the box with the jacket first. She gasped as she held it up in front of her, not even having seen the back yet. “Holy shit, I love it!”

“You should look at the back, there’s more!” Gabriela instructed her. “You’re going to love this so much!”

Ripley let out a yelp when she saw the back. “Oh Cas, you painted this, right? Obviously you painted this. That’s insane...” She laid it on the dinner table to get a proper look as she marveled at all the details, feeling over the studs and spikes as she mouthed wow.

“Golden Girl here did all the studs after I showed her how.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, which made her heart do a little jump. It was almost like he genuinely seemed… proud of her?

Ripley still stared at the jacket with twinkling eyes. “I love it so much…” She took off the big sweater she was wearing, so she could put it on. Gabriela loved how it looked on her, it fit her perfectly. She already knew Ripley would be wearing it all the time.

Cas set the box with the cake down on the dinner table. “And the next one!”

Ripley pulled up the lid and gasped again. “You guys baked together?!”

Gabriela giggled. “And it went surprisingly well too!”

“He didn’t just sit around and make you do all the work?” 

“Nope! And he did most of the decorations!”

Ripley threw an arm around Cas’ waist and kissed his cheek. “That’s how I know you liiiike meeee…” She looked at the cake again. “Seriously though, it looks so pretty, I almost feel like I shouldn’t eat it…”

Gabriela handed her a knife before walking back to the kitchen to get some forks and plates. “I hope you’ll like it!”

Ripley cut off a piece for everyone and when she finally tried a bite, her eyes rolled back and she started shimmying happily. That’s how Gabriela knew she loved it before she even said anything. “It’s delicious! You guys need to team up more often, I think I’ll need one of these at least once a month. Or maybe twice… a week!”

Even Cas enjoyed the cake, which made Ripley very happy too, she always complained when the two of them were eating and he didn’t join them.

Ripley cleared her throat as she cut off another piece for herself. “It really means so much to me that you guys would do this for me together. It makes me happy to see you guys getting along better lately. I'm glad I don’t have to like, celebrate Valentine's day with you guys separately today.” She shot them the brightest smile of the day yet. “I feel like the luckiest girl in the world right now!”

Gabriela placed her hand over hers, gently rubbing a knuckle with her thumb. “So do I.” 

Cas cleared his throat. “I definitely also feel like the luckiest girl in the world.” 

The girls laughed in response and Ripley raised her glass. “That makes three of us then. To um, a great first Valentine’s day together.” Her partners clinked their glasses to hers. “And to being the luckiest girls in the world!”

Glen and Bridget Zhou’s car pulls up just in front of Evie’s house. Evie and her husband-of-three-weeks Aiden step out of the car, and Evie grins as she sees her house again. 

“Home sweet home.” 

“You want us to help carry your luggage inside?” Glen asks.

“Yes please, thank you!” Evie replies. 

The four of them carry the luggage from Evie and Aiden’s honeymoon trip, into a space in the living room, then go back outside to send off Aiden’s parents.

“Thanks for driving us from the airport, Mom and Dad,” Aiden says. 

“Of course,” Bridget hugs them both and kisses her son on the cheek. 

“You sure you don’t wanna stay for a bit?”

“You two are probably tired after that flight, so we’ll let you have some time to yourselves…” 

“That’s true.”

The two couples say their goodbyes, then Bridget heads back to the car with Glen and they drive off. Evie takes Aiden’s hand in hers.

“Let’s go in?”

“Yep!”

They walk up to the front porch of her house. Evie opens the door, but before Aiden has a chance to go inside, she bends down and puts an arm under his knees. 

“Evie, that’s for when we move into our own house…” Aiden says teasingly.

“Yeah, but we don’t exactly have our own house yet, so I might as well do it now.” 

“Classic Evie Ayana,” Aiden chuckles. “The Evie Ayana that I love~”

Placing her other arm under his upper back, she carefully yet swiftly swoops him into her arms, carrying him. Aiden places a hand on her shoulder so he can turn and kiss her firmly on the lips, before speaking in a soft yet husky tone. 

“I love when you do that~”

Evie returns the kiss with equal fervor. “And I love doing it~”

Evie carries Aiden through the doorway and into her house and sets him down on the couch, then goes briefly to close the door. 

“So, what should we do now?” Aiden asks. “Order some McDermont’s, watch a movie… and we seem to have the house to ourselves, so maybe we can do something… fun later?”

“All of that sounds great… but there’s something I need to show you first.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“It’s in my room… you want me to carry you there, or no?”

“I’ll walk this time. Lead the way…”

They go to Evie’s bedroom, and Evie gestures to the wall above her dresser. There, is a string of fairy lights going across the wall. Clipped to the string is a series of photos… photos of them. 

“Evie…”

He gazes across the string of photos, recognizing each event it came from. Their photo from Brian’s pool party on the first day of Berry, their photo from the homecoming parade, the photos from their first homecoming and prom together, the photos from each subsequent homecoming and prom, a photo they took on the Spotlite trip, a photo they took from each of their high school and university graduations, a photo from the day she proposed to him… each of them arranged in chronological order, noted at the bottom with the date they were taken. 

“Evie, this is beautiful,” he says, beaming at her. “When did you make this?”

“I’d been compiling these for a while now, but I officially set this up the night before our wedding…” 

“It’s… I love it.”

Aiden moves up closer to examine the photos at the start of the string– the pool party photo, the parade photo, the homecoming photo, and the prom photo. A gentle silence seems to take over the room as Aiden looks between these photos. 

“Aiden?”

“I… I just can’t believe we have photos together going back as far as our high school days…” he takes a deep breath in. “Not saying that’s a bad thing at all, I just mean…”

Another silence overtakes the room. Then Aiden turns to Evie, meeting her gaze.

“Did you ever think we’d make it this far, Evie?” he asks. “Because… high school relationships aren’t exactly known for being long-lasting. Yet here we are… newly married, with a photo together from the day we met, on your first day at Berry High…”

Evie ponders his question, almost becoming lost in thought. 

“In all honesty? I think I did. To some extent…” she moves closer to him. “I think by the time we confessed our love to each other, I sort of had a gut feeling that we’d last a pretty damn long time. But just like with our love confession… I didn’t want to push us into anything too quickly. I knew of the possibility that we might not last. But obviously what we had at the time was so great, and…”

She pauses, pondering again.

“I guess you could say, whatever our endgame was meant to be didn’t matter all that much to me at the time. I mean, I have always hoped for us to be married one day… but at the time, I was more focused on just keeping up what we had. Because we had a great thing going, and I wanted it to last as long as possible.” 

Aiden’s face turns bright red as he smiles. 

“What about you?”

“Same as you, in a way… it’s weird, cause when we first met, I was the kind of person who couldn’t be bothered to entertain the idea of romance. Eventually, I got over all that, but it was still kind of a mixed bag for me. On one hand, it was hard not to imagine what it’d be like if we ended up having a future together. But on the other hand, I was always afraid something might screw it up for us… like our argument over that basketball game, or when I was about to graduate and go to Terman U…”

He took her hand in his and squeezed it tenderly, his thumb running over her wedding ring.

“But like you, I supposed I was more focused on keeping it going. If it didn’t work, it didn’t work, but so far it was working. A couple of incorrect notes played shouldn’t be allowed to stop an otherwise fantastic recital performance, right?”

“Absolutely.”

He turns back to the photo string, taking one last look at the earlier photos before turning to one of their more recent photos– the photo from Evie’s proposal, three years prior to their wedding. In that photo, the two of them are side-by-side with arms wrapped around each other, Aiden holding out his hand to proudly show off the slender, silver, diamond-encrusted ring that Evie had given him. 

“It’s been nearly eight years since we met, and… here we are.”

“And there are still gonna be more photos for us to add,” Evie says. “Our wedding photos, once they arrive in the mail, of course, and our honeymoon photos… but also many more beyond that. When we first get our own place, if and when we have any kids… and who knows what else?”

“Well, whatever comes next for us… I want it to continue to be amazing.” 

Aiden wraps his arms around her waist and plants a kiss onto her lips. 

“Likewise,” Evie replies. 

Holding him close to her, her hands firmly on his back, she returns the kiss. He kisses her again, and again… and the two become quickly lost into each other for a short moment. 

“I love you, Aiden Zhou.”

“I love you too, Evie Ayana.” 

Evie gives him one last kiss before pulling away and taking his hand. “So… shall we have some McDermont’s, movies, and chill now?”

Aiden squeezes her hand and grins.