—August 6th, 2025, Late Morning—

Back at Mom's house, we carried the few salvaged boxes down to my room. Mom had already left for her nursing shift at St. Michael's, leaving us alone with our thoughts and possibilities. Neither of us had bothered calling our workplaces—we'd silently agreed that our priority was each other now. Everything else would fall into place around that central truth.

"Should we talk about the practical stuff?" Eli asked as we settled on the floor among the boxes. That perfect smile of hers carried a hint of something new—excitement about building our future together.

"You mean like money?" I started unpacking one of the boxes, carefully setting aside her saved belongings.

"Mm-hmm." She pulled out her wallet—one of the few things that had survived Dylan's rampage. "I have about fifty thousand saved up."

I paused my unpacking, turning to face her fully. "Really? That's amazing. I've got around ten thousand myself." The numbers danced in my head. "So together..."

"Sixty thousand," we said in unison, then shared a laugh at our synchronicity.

"That's more than enough to start over somewhere," she said thoughtfully. "We just need to figure out where."

"And what we want to do," I added, watching her sort through another box. The morning light from the small window caught her hair just right, turning it to spun gold. "We could go anywhere, be anything."

She looked up at me then, those impossible turquoise eyes full of possibilities. "As long as we're together, I don't really care where or what. We'll figure it out."

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I was about to agree when I noticed her staring into one of the boxes, a blush creeping across her cheeks. Curious, I crawled over to peek inside, only to feel my own face heat up at what I saw.

Before I could say anything, Eli had snatched up the box and was heading upstairs with determined strides. I followed, calling after her, but she remained focused on her mission. She marched straight outside to the garbage bins, tossing the box in with a flourish.

She dusted her hands with three quick claps, then placed them on her hips, looking immensely satisfied with herself. When she turned to face me, slightly out of breath from my jog to catch up (how did she move so fast with those tiny legs?), her smile was radiant.

"I won't be needing those anymore," she declared proudly. "I have you now. You're all I need."

The pure love and devotion in her voice made my heart skip several beats. She took my hand, leading me back inside with that ethereal grace that seemed to follow her everywhere. Our shared blush and the knowing looks we exchanged said everything words couldn't.

Back in my room, she pressed me gently onto the bed, her touch full of reverence and certainty. As our clothes found their way to the floor, I marveled at how perfect this was—how right. Our pasts were finally cleared away, leaving only us and the infinite possibilities ahead.

We spent the rest of the morning expressing our love and devotion, safe in the knowledge that we had found something rare and precious. Something worth protecting and nurturing. Something real.

Afterward, we lay tangled in each other's arms, the afternoon sun painting patterns on the wall through the small basement window. Eli's scent mixed with the comfortable atmosphere of the room, creating a perfect moment of peace.

"I love you," she whispered against my chest. "More than anything in any universe."

"I love you too," I replied, running my fingers through her golden hair. "In every timeline, every reality."

We dozed off like that, wrapped in each other and the certainty of our shared future. Whatever came next—wherever we decided to go, whatever we decided to do—we would face it together. Because that's how we were meant to be: two halves of the same soul, finally whole.

The rest of the world could wait. Right now, this was everything we needed.