You Can Take It Off (When You're Ready) [Twenty One Pilots]

Epilogue

Once again, Lena woke up in the middle of the night. It happened less and less these days, and the ordeal was never filled with anxiety as it used to be. In fact, she felt pretty well, and after glancing at the old digital clock perched on Tyler's nightstand, she stretched her legs with a smile and turned around, only to be faced with an empty spot in the covers where his body should have been. 

She frowned, hoping he was not having a sleepless night yet again, and immediately pulled the sheets away from her body, her feet softly landing on the floorboards. With a yawn, she got up and walked towards and down the staircase.

Tyler wasn't in the kitchen, nor was he in the living room, and she started to panic as her heart banged in her chest. Where was he?

Trying to stay calm and positive, she walked back up the stairs to check the bathroom. She knocked softly, but she knew already that her boyfriend wasn't in there; there was no light shining from under the door. Still, not taking anything for granted, she opened the door and entered, shivering at the coldness of the tiles under her feet. Tyler was still nowhere to be seen. 

She was about to leave the room when, from the corner of her eye, she spotted a figure through the window, a slight movement down in the backyard, and instantly her body relaxed. With a sigh and a slight smile crooking her lips, she hurtled down the staircase once again, ran through the kitchen and slipped outside, not even bothering to put on some slippers. 

In a few steps, she had reached the trampoline and the silhouette of her boyfriend lying there.

"What's up, princess?" he greeted her, oblivious to the fact that she had almost had a heart attack.

"What's up?" she raised her eyebrows at him, climbing into the trampoline to join him, curdling against his chest. "What's up is that you left the house in the middle of the night and I couldn't find you, assh-"

He kissed him then, and she knew it was probably to cover up her swear word, but she fell right into it nonetheless, appreciating the warmth of his lips against hers. She punched him lightly in the stomach and he let out a hearty laugh as she buried her nose against the skin of his neck.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, kissing her hair. 

A comfortable silence fell upon the both of them as they looked at the stars, shining brightly up above. Lena had never felt so great and she could not see anything negative on the horizon. That had never happened to her, not a single time before, and she wondered how she had finally ended up in the right place at the right time. Was her fate all traced already, or had her actions led her to where she was now, in the arms of a man who loved her gently and carefully, surrounded by friends and even family? 

"What are you thinking?" Tyler asked suddenly, and Lena couldn't help but smile. Sometimes she wondered if he was able, somehow, to read her mind. 

"I'm thinking I'm very lucky to be here with you," she just said, enjoying the up-and-down movement of his chest as he breathed slowly. "Also, I'm thinking of our first kiss. I mean, who has their first kiss on a fricking trampoline?"

He laughed, playing with her hair absent-mindedly. "Oh, you mean, after my very first attempt at kissing you in a magical place? That one time when you blatantly rejected my oh-so-romantic self?"

She snorted and rolled her eyes, nudging his sides with tickles. "You're being unfair. I was terrified."

"So was I-" he retorted, but she didn't let him finish.

"And I still am, but for different reasons."

Lena felt her boyfriend tense against her and, as he shifted to lay on his side in order to face her, she lay a cold hand against his warm cheek, feeling his light stubble against the skin of her thumb.