This has been in my head for a while now. Enjoy.

The last thing I remember is darkness. Lots of it. Darkness, and then, unbearable sun. My breathing comes easily, and I raise a hand to my face, trying to see if Phillip is still with me. I want to tell him he's doing an excellent job today.

He's not there.

I strain, and try to think about what came before the darkness, but it makes me dizzy. But I'm used to dizzy.
"Dizzy is my middle name," I say out loud to no-one, as I'm the only one here.
"Huh. I was under the impression that it was Grace."

I freeze.

That voice.

That smile that I can hear, though I cannot see it.

I turn around slowly, not wanting this moment of uncertainty to be tarnished with the reality that he is dead. But then I do turn around.

And I see him.

Augustus Waters.

Leaning against a wall, one leg crossed over the other (yet both seem to be healthy), pipe in mouth.

Pipe.

Huh.

That's new.

And all of a sudden, he's sauntering over to me, with an outstretched hand.

I accept it immediately.

I stand there, looking at his face, our hands woven together, his breath tickling my nose. And all of a sudden, I remember Before Darkness.

I remember the beeping of the machines lessening as my heart grew weaker.

I remember my mother's muffled sobs, my father's breaths almost as shallow as my own. I remember the whispered 'I love you's, the touch of my mother's lips on the back of my hand.

"I'm… Here. With you." He smiles at me, and I feel my heart backflip.
"It appears so," he tells me.
"And you're…"
"And I'm…" he replies.
"This is Something?" I ask.
"With a capital S," he answers.
And suddenly his arms are wrapped around me and tears fall from my eyes. I imitate my mother's sobs and he just lets me cry into his chest. His arms and torso feel muscular against me, like my Augustus, not cancer's. His hands pat me gently, and I'm only slightly comforted by them. After what feels like a long time, I look up at him.
"What's with the pipe, Waters?" I ask with a watery laugh, yet his expression remains stoic.
"Hazel Grace. I am in the Great Beyond. I'm not confined by my human body, and cannot die. Therefore, it would not matter whether I wished my cigarette-forward slash-pipe to be lit or not, because my being dead would make it very hard for smoking to kill me. But that's just it, Hazel. Though it cannot kill me here, I still do not wish to grant this death stick life, for then it would be part of the capital-S Something, too, and we can't have that, can we?" I digest his words carefully, letting his cheery voice wash over me.
"… But why a pipe?" I ask again.
"I'm in the Great Beyond. I need to stay classy." I chuckle lightly, and so does he.

"What does this place look like to you?" I ask after a while.
"I was about to ask you the same question, Dear."
I hesitate before answering- what does it look like?
"It keeps changing. It's my bedroom. And my living room. And your bedroom. And the hotel room, where we… y'know… And it's also Amsterdam. Our restaurant. And Anne Frank's museum."
"So… It's us." I nod in agreement.
"It's us." Augustus gently brushes a strand of hair from my face, and curls it around my ear.
"Oh how I've missed thee, Hazel Grace. How I've longed for your touch. Your scent. How I've waited to do this just once more…" He leans down and attaches his lips to mine. His hands run through my hair and I feel intoxicated by his presence.
"I love you more than life itself," he breathes.
"Rich, coming from the dead guy." He tells me to shut up, and we continue.
"I love you, too, Augustus," I tell him.

We spend quite a deal of time like that, alternating between cuddling and kissing. Sometimes we do both. But mostly I just revel in the fact that I once again have Augustus in my arms, even if that means my parents don't have me.

"Haze?"
"Hmm?"
"You know how you gave me a small forever in our very limited time?"
"How the hell could I forget?"
I feel him hesitate before speaking.
"I-I-"

"Spit it out, Waters."
"I'm just so happy that we get a real infinity here. I mean, it sucks that we're gone, but we have each other. Forever." I kiss him once more.
"Thank you," I say, "thank you for being here, in my forever."

And I mean it more than anything.