I finished the series less than 12 hours ago, and this story had been stewing in my mind since I closed the last book. It's short, it's fluffy, I cried while writing it, and I still have A LOT of feels.
Hope you like it! Reviews are welcome
If I concentrate, I can still smell her. It's been twelve years, but I can still smell her hair, mixed with brown sugar and sweat and wind and something distinctly Tris.
I had attempted other romances; it took me almost seven years, but Christina finally convinced me she would not have wanted me to live out the rest of my life alone. It only took two women for me to realize Tris had irrevocably taken the part of my heart reserved for the absolute and unconditional love for another human being.
Little did I realize life without her would be so short.
The doctors said it was advanced lung cancer, caused by an accidental spill of experimental chemicals we transported out of Chicago over a decade ago. Only a few people were exposed to the contaminates, but I handled the waste long enough for the cells in my body to freak out and form a fatal mass years later.
Telling my mother was the hardest. The years we had spent rebuilding our relationship felt far from done, but now the time we spent together was made bitter by the taste of finality and sentimentality.
She was usually my only visitor during the day. Caleb was assisting in the rebuilding of New York, and Christina was finally able to raise a family, settling in Milwaukee. Zeke and Susan and their two kids would visit whenever they could, but being a government representative took a large chunk of your time.
I would know.
I held office for three years before my diagnosis.
Now, most days, I lie around waiting for the cancer to claim my body. It is too painful to move; to painful to stretch; to painful to concentrate on anything but breathing. In and out. In and out.
But it was absolute euphoria to lose myself in the memory of her. If I let my mind totally dissolve into nothingness, I can still feel her small hands on my back, tracing my old faction tattoos.
It's around 3:17pm when I can feel my body finally giving up. The phrase 'mind over matter' surfaces in my strangely calm thoughts, but I knew my time had come. The doctors gave me five months; that was almost two years ago.
Somewhere in my cognizance of being I register loud beeping, people talking loudly, and my mother standing, shaking, sobbing, in the corner of my small hospital room. However, as the faces around me become blurred and the noise becomes muffled, my eyes rest on a different figure, one who's walking through the throng of doctors and nurses, her eyes never leaving mine.
All at once, the screaming pain in my body disappears, and the sheer experience of seeing her smile brings a warmth to my heart I hadn't felt since the moment Cara told me she was gone.
She walks to the side of my bed, entwining her fingers with mine.
"Long time no see, Tobias, " Tris says, absently stroking the back of my hand with her thumb.
"It's been awhile," I reply, sitting up to be closer to her light.
She sits next to me, placing her other hand on my neck, moving our faces so we're only a whisper apart.
"I've been waiting for you," she says, looking unblinkingly into my eyes. And in some inexplicable way, I know I've been waiting for her, too.
I lean forward to close the small distance, and bring her lips to mine. She sighs into my mouth, and for the first time in twelve years, I can breathe.
She pulls back with a smile filled with bliss and completion.
"Ready to get out of here?" she asks.
"As long as I'm with you."
She smiles at me knowingly before turning her head to lead me away.