Temptation

Epilogue

-Rye's POV-

"Three and a half hours? Rye, no. You shouldn't have." Andy protested as I told him the story of my journey here, to him, but his voice gave away that he was happy that I had anyways.

"I'd go anywhere, anywhere for you," I hummed against his neck, and he giggled, gently pushing away to look at me once again, as he had been repeatedly since I'd arrived, almost as if he needed the constant reassurance that it was real and not just an illusion.

"I'm so happy you're here," He sighed, wrapping his arms around me and leaning against me. I shivered at how good his touch felt, especially after all this time. "I thought that I'd lost you forever."

"Me too." My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat. "But then I realized that I couldn't bear the thought of losing you, and I couldn't let you go that easily. It hurt too much without you. Andy, you mean everything." I'd always been reluctant to tell people how I felt, and that only intensified when it came to Andy. I was too unsure, too insecure. But now I knew that it couldn't wait, and I had never been so certain of something in my life. I wanted to declare how much I loved Andy to him, to the world, until my lips were numb.

I hadn't expected Andy to be so happy to see me – I'd expected more anger over the unnecessary heartache that I had caused, but all that I'd been greeted with was relief. The way that he held onto me told me that he forgave me – And, hopefully, forgave himself, too. When I'd tried to properly apologize later on, he had shushed me, planting a soft and tender kiss on his lips before saying, "I don't want to hear it. You are human. You are flawed. But so am I. So is everyone. And the only thing that I care about is that you're here with me right now. Now, tell me about your holidays." So I did. And he told me about his, and I finally got to see his present for me – It was a hoodie with a bee on it.

"It's not a lot," He'd started shyly, but I'd cut him off.

"It's perfect. I would've brought my present for you, but we left in a bit of a rush, and I wasn't really thinking about it-"

"It's okay," He kissed me. "Having you here is present enough."

Mikey had walked in then, noting "It looks like things are back to being okay in lover's paradise." We'd broken apart as if we'd been doing something dirty, and Mikey had blushed and scrambled, explaining that it was cold out there, and he didn't know what was happened, and – He'd have babbled on and on if Andy hadn't hugged him, too, thanking him for bringing me here, for being so damn loyal to both of us, even when we didn't deserve it.

He'd woken up his mum then, and I got to properly meet her. We all sat around and chatted until Mikey's stomach stumbled and they volunteered to go out and grab us all some breakfast. She could've just as easily whipped something up here, I knew, but they were likely granting us some alone time, which I was thankful for.

I cuddled into Andy now, listening closely to the beating of his heart against his chest. He moved his hand through my hair, such a small and yet intimate action, and it took my breath away. I twisted to get a better look at him, and the admiration that was pooled on his face and was surely reflected in my own. It hadn't been easy to make it this far, and I had the feeling that it wouldn't get any easier in the future, but Andy, and moments like this, made it worth it. It was worth it just to be so close to him, to feel so whole and at one and at peace with myself, even for this small second in time.

"Yeah?" Andy asked at my questioning gaze, leaning down so our lips met. I wanted to answer, but found that there weren't words for what I was feeling. I didn't know how to tell him that he made me feel something unlike anything else in the world, greater even than just love – I could be wrong, but he felt more like my soulmate, like I'd been wandering around the universe searching for my other half, and had finally found it in him. Even what I shared with Sophie was nothing on this, on him. He had helped me find happiness within myself and the world that I lived in, and I wanted to stay here forever with him, even though I knew that, eventually, the world would move on and we'd be carried away in the chaos of it. It would be alright, though, as long as I had Andy to help me through it. As long as his hand would always be there for me to reach for, to hold and find reassurance in.

"I'm just glad that it's the two of us," I finally spoke, meaning more than just being alone in his home together. I was glad that he was the one that I ended up with, glad that, for now, the future and past didn't matter, because we had the here and now and it was so beautiful that words or pictures or film could never capture it. He had brought color into a world that had previously been in black-and-white, and I was so grateful that it was, indeed, the two of us – And it always would be.

--

And, ladies and gentlemen...This is it. I have a longer note that I'll post later on to fully sum up everything, but I wanted to say thank you again for all of your support on my second story. I am incredibly sad to say goodbye to it, but I truly felt as if this was the one and only true ending for it, and that I can't take it any further from here. It's up to you guys what you want to believe happens to them next (and perhaps that's the beauty of it?) (I almost didn't want to post this, just so that it could 'live on' forever. But, as long as new people read, or reread it, I guess that it will anyways?)(Thank you for making this story so enjoyable to write, and, I suppose, thank you for helping it become so close to my heart, to have something that is so hard to say goodbye to.) All the love, Lily. x