The Fall (Camren)

Epilogue

Author's Note: So this is it, the end. 

I have loved writing every word of this story and i hope more than anything you have enjoyed reading it just as much.

Thank you, 

Laura

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'Should we really be painting the walls twenty minutes before our friend's arrive?'

'Sure, why not?' Lauren asked, brushing the light blue paint over the wall.

'It'll smell like paint fumes.' Camila came up beside Lauren, using only one crutch now. Months of rehabilitation following the accident paying off. 'Are paint fumes poisonous?'

'I hope not, I've been breathing this shit in for the last hour.'

'Well don't pass out before it's finished, I don't want everyone seeing our new apartment half done.'

'Your concern is duly noted.' Lauren brushed paint over the last bit of remaining white on the wall and stepped back, slinging her arm across Camila's shoulders. 'So, what'd ya think?'

Camila exaggerated critiquing the wall; she rubbed her chin in an embellished contemplation that Lauren found both highly amusing and equally charming.

'Is that really Duck Egg Blue?' She asked, 'I thought it'd be paler. Maybe we should've gone with Blue Chill.'

Lauren rolled her eyes, 'You only wanted Blue Chill because you liked the name.'

Camila squinted at the wall, 'Well then maybe we should've gone with mahogany like you wanted?'

Lauren could see the unrestrained amusement glistening in Camila's eyes. She knew she was being played but it was worth it to see Camila look this content. She had been looking like this since they left the hospital, since she could walk again, since Lauren asked her so move in together. The look was obvious and palpable, it was happiness.

'I will dip your head in that paint tin, I swear to god.'

Camila laughed, 'I'm just playing with you, and you're just so easy to mess with.'

'Hey! I didn't poke fun at you when you were struggling to even speak properly.'

'That's because traumatic brain injury isn't funny, Lauren.' Camila said, faux sternly.

'It was a little funny, especially when you were butchering the English language.'

Camila mock gasped at her, pressing a hand to her own chest like a flustered southern belle.

'It's a good job that I love you so much or I'd have to beat you with my crutches for that comment.'

'Please, you have the upper body strength of a baby bird.'

Camila giggled and bent down to discard her crutch onto the floor, she leant into Lauren a little to compensate for the lack of support but it was minimal, another sign of the great strides she was taking in recover.

It made Laurens chest swell and expand with something obvious and palpable, happiness.

'A few more PT sessions and I bet I could bench press your scrawny butt.'

Lauren waggled her eyebrows suggestively at her girlfriend, 'Promise?' She smirked, biting her lip.

Camila pinched her side, hard, and Lauren screeched a little, pinching Camila back but not as hard, she was still healing.

'Seriously though, Camz, do you like it?' Lauren nodded to the Duck Egg wall and observed her handiwork but Camila's eyes never strayed from her profile. She felt the intensity of which Camila looked at her, it made her heart race and her cheeks burn.

'It's perfect.' Lauren turned away from the wall to look at the younger girl, she raised a questioning eyebrow. 'I'm almost back to full health, I have an amazing girlfriend and we have a duck egg blue apartment in L.A that may, or may not, be filled with toxic fumes. It's perfect.'

It is perfect, Lauren realised. It was obvious and palpable and it was happiness.

'I love you.' Lauren whispered, she never got tired of telling Camila those three words; she never got tired of seeing Camila's face light up upon hearing them.

Lauren bent down and dipped her paintbrush in the blue paint.

'I thought you'd finished?'

'I missed a spot.' Lauren replied, and then proceeded to swipe her brush down the length of Camila's face, from her forehead to the tip of her nose.

Camila's mouth dropped open in shock and Lauren could not contain her grin.

'Oh my god, are you serious?'

Lauren bit her lip in a failed attempt to conceal how funny she was finding the look of outrage on Camila's face. 'You okay, Camz? You look a little blue?'

Camila shot her a look of utter distaste and Lauren couldn't hold back the laughter – which was cut off after a few seconds by Camila grasping her by the back of the neck and tugging forward into a shuddering kiss.

Lauren enjoyed the lip lock for a whole eight seconds before it occurred to her that Camila was only kissing her to smear duck egg blue all over her face. She jerked back, affronted.

'You're dead, Cabello.' Lauren mock threatened and then pounced on Camila. There ensued some squealing and giggling and a lot of flailing limbs until they both ended up sprawled across the sheet Lauren had spread across their new hardwood flooring to protect it from paint mishaps.

Lauren pressed across the length of her girlfriend, a mischievous grin blossoming.

'Is this your attempt at bench pressing me?' She queried, leaning down to press a kiss behind Camila's ear, delicately. .'Because you're doing it wrong.'

Camila ignored her question in favour of toying with the button on Lauren's daisy dukes. There was a confidence in her movements now that came from experience and Jesus had they had a lot of experience these last few weeks.

'My clothes are going to get covered in paint.' Camila complained, flicking the metal button coquettishly.

Lauren shifted her hips upwards to give Camila better access to the entrance to her shorts. 'Most of what you're wearing right now is mine anyway.'

Camila's response was to forgo the button and instead slip her hand straight under denim and cotton and into slick heat.

'My underwear isn't,' Camila teased against her ear while her hand moved in slow, tantalising strokes, 'because I'm not wearing any.'

Lauren shuddered, gulped and thrust down hard on Camila's hand – just as their apartment buzzer zinged loudly throughout the room.

'Shit.' Lauren groaned, her head flopping against Camila's chest in frustration.

'They're early.' Camila slipped her hand from Lauren's daisy dukes and smiled apologetically.

'The one time in their lives they are actually early for something.' Lauren muttered, lifting herself off Camila and hoisting them both back up.

She watched Camila walk crutchless over to answer the telecom. Before she pressed the button she turned to Lauren, 'To be continued?'

Lauren looked at her girlfriend, paint covered, dishevelled clothes walking unassisted. Her heart thudded, every beat obvious and palpable and in the rhythm of happiness.

'We've got all the time in the world.'