(p.s you all better be jumping with joy rn. lots of references in this, the girls who get it—get it
TW: so much sappy love?)

third person pov

' you and I drink the poison
from the same vine '

"Whit!" Rose cheered as the boy walked into the dorm, not noticing Lily Davies following. "Do you like my new shoes?" She asked, kicking her mary-janes up in the air from where she sat on her trunk.

Whitman pauses in front of Rose with arms crossing, "You have a million of that same pair."

Rose gasps, "No I don't! You just can't understand fashion!"

"I don't understand fashion?" Whitman arched a brow, "Do you see this glorious outfit?"

"You look like a grandfather." Rose deadpanned at his knitted cardigan and band tee, before switching her eyes over to Lily. Patting the top of the trunk, "Davies, come sit."

Lily glanced over at Whitman as she walked over, taking to spot next to Rose.

"You see how's there's two straps across my foot instead of one?" Rose asked, nudging the girl's shoulder.

Lily nods, "Yeah, you usually wear the one strap" She shoots Rose a polite smile, "It's all in the details, you know?"

"See, Whit!" Rose grinned, pointing her thumb toward Lily. "This girl gets it!"

Whitman huffed out a laugh, "Yeah yeah, whatever."

Rose rolls her eyes, setting both feet on the floor. "Sooo....you two hanging out again? Only a few days left of school now."

"Mind your own buisness," Whitman teased, reaching into the cardigan pocket and pulling out a sealed letter. "I have something for you"

Rose inched closer to Lily with a grimace, "I have letter trauma...I'm not too sure I want that thing." Her eyes move over to the girl in a joking manner, "You'll protect me, yes?"

Lily giggled, "I'll protect you from the evil letter."

"It's from Theo." Whitman interrupted, forcing Rose's throat to close up at once and her head to slowly turn toward him. "You won't listen to Theo when he talks but he knows you'll read so...."

"Where is Theo?" Rose quizzed quietly, mood doing a complete flip.

"He's at the astronomy tower, we went up there to smoke when you went to the owerly to get your shoes." Whitman informed, "He's still up there, just read it and then go talk to him."

Rose frowns, snatching the letter away. "I'll read it but I'm not going to find him like some sappy romance novel."

"Here comes the attitude," Whitman muttered, "Come on, Lily, can't let you read it with her."

The Black presses the letter down into her lap, watching Whitman disappear behind his curtains with Lily. She stared there for a few seconds, doing everything in her power to ignore the thin parchment on her lap that felt as if it weighed a million pounds.

"Okay." Rose muttered to herself, carefully picking up the envelope as she crossed her legs. Trying to take the most time possible, she simply stared at the wax seal on the back.

Eventually, she squeezed her eyes shut, "I can't do this."

Yes you can.

Just read the letter and be done, don't go find him. How bad could it be? That's what Rose told herself.

Now, she took the deepest breath possible and tore the wax seal off. Pulling out the folded up parchment before leaning forward, propping her chin up on the crossed legs in an attempt to be comfortable.

Rose begins to chew the inside of her cheek as she opens up the letter, being met with the page filled full of perfected cursive.

And then, she starts reading.

My dearest Rose,

I know the confusion that must be riddling your face from getting a letter when I'm always near by. I hope you are somewhere alone where you can read this. Somewhere where no one can disturb you.

You have a knack for believing yourself unworthy of love, of true love. I knew if I spoke these words aloud you would put a stop to them, claiming it was impossible.

But you have always been a reader, I've watched you find yourself between the pages of books. So I wondered if reading it in writing would help it sink into your mind.

I've tried to hold this in for as long as I could, it's beginning to eat me alive. You avoid me at every turn, and I cannot hold it in any longer.

It's an odd thing to think about the fact from one year old and forward you have been a constant in my life. That's almost seventeen years of being by each others side. Not one moment of turning our backs on each other, until now.

In no way do I have the right to tell you who you should love, but I do think you should know this. Love is not supposed to be easy, there's trials and tribulations.

But loving someone, that's what's supposed to be easy.

There hasn't been a day where I've found myself struggle to let my heart beat for you. Loving you is easy as the air I breathe, it comes so naturally I don't even have to think twice. Like an instinct I couldn't turn off even if I wanted to and if I did, I would simply perish.

Sometimes I think you know that we were never truly friends. There was always something more, from the longing stares or the clandestine touches. The forest fire that came from them.

I remember when we were kids, and you used to tell me that it was us against the world. That even though we had Draco and Whitman, in the end we would be the ones to never seperate even for a minute. It was always different when it came to you and me.

I believed you then, and I believe you still.

It's a wondrous thing what falling in love with your best friend can do.

Yes Rose, you read that correctly.

I did not chose to love you, my heart never had a say in the matter because it has always been yours. Yours to break, yours to hold, yours to do whatever you wish with.

No Rose, it will not pass.

I cannot pinpoint the day I fell in love with you because every memory in my head has forever been flooded with one never changing truth. I have always been in love with you, love.

My soul has been tangled into your own from the minute you bit my pinky when Walburga put you into that crib with me.

Did that make you laugh? I hope it did, I miss that sound coming from your lips.

Funnily enough, the girl who made me get stitches from meeting her is the girl who healed me in every shape and form from that day forward.

I dream of you often, even when your body is tightly against mine. I dream of us running away, escaping the world and the expectations set for us. I dream of you finally letting the words spill out that my soul yearns for. I see you in a field, your healthy and your smile shines so bright the sun doesn't even dare challenge it. You spin around and you hold your hand out to me, letting me come home to you. For in my dreams, you never go.

When Mattheo came to this school I never imagined you'd be swept away by him.

I planned to tell you this year, once you healed from Walburga. I can remember down to the detail what I was going to say. I knew it was time to speak up before you let another man be your great love story that I had to watch from the sidelines and narrate.

How tragic that time wasn't on our side, it never really has been.

But I saw the way you fell into him, heard the words of you choosing him over me.

I don't believe true love comes from a controlling stand point or possessive. I believe a true love would let you fall in love with someone else a million times over if it's what you wanted and sit silently until they could no longer bare it. I would've done that for you if he had made you happy. I'd watch you slip through my fingers like water because your happiness will always come before my own.

I'd let you rip me open a thousand times over if it meant you could smile even for a second.

It hurt though, watching you love him and give parts of yourself away. It's a sickening thing to love someone and think there could come a day where they never return it.

Unrequited, as the poets say.

The mass amounts of deja vu I experienced was unreal. His hand holding yours. His smile bringing your own upon your face. Him taking you dancing. You slipping your hands over his eyes. Him being the one you ran to wrap your arms tightly around.

But I stood to the side because that's what you deserved. I wanted you to experience anything you had to with him and I wanted you to know you were supported even if I felt like gravity was pushing me further and further into the soil of the earth.

Selfishly, I wished he never came here, that he never met you.

Because then maybe you would have listened to me when I told you I loved you, and realized every time I said it I meant more than a friendly love.

Maybe then he would have never had the chance to hurt you.

I won't bore you or make you feel guilty by telling you the pain it caused me because I only have myself to blame for not telling you sooner. I was just so scared of you not returning my feelings, of me ruining the relationship I had with my best friend.

But I will tell you that you are the most beautiful work of art in this world. No painting and no line out of a book could compare to you.

I like to think I can feel your pain, that maybe whatever is above or below intertwined us to that point. It feels like a stab wound every time I see you look down upon the woman you are, and that's all you've been doing lately.

The things you've been through, they are not fair. And I don't think anyone takes enough note of that. You've held up the world on your shoulders since you were a little kid and I want you to realize you don't have to anymore. I'll help you carry it, like you always helped me.

You've never quite fit in to the boxes everyone wanted to place you in, I remember once my mother compared you to a constellation. I was quick to correct her, even then. You are a supernova. Burning brighter than the rest, incomparable to all. Full of colors that the naked eye cannot see. Light years away, but when you show up, even the sun cannot outshine you.

I watch the way you try, try, try. You try to make everyone happy. You try to give everyone a support system. You try to fake happiness for the sake of others. You try to be the powerful witch elders put the pressure on you to be. You try to be the smartest person in the room. You try to act like you've had no pain of your own. You try to change you body, you try for perfection.

But I want you to know that you've never had to try for me. You could lay your mind, body, and soul down bare without any of those things and I would still see you as if you were the entire universe—because you are.

Your scars, the visible and the invisible, I've seen them all. To me they only make you more beautiful. That's not to say I wouldn't take it all away, let you be healed and protect you from ever knowing the cruelness of this world.

Loving you has taught me things I could not begin to describe.

The most gut wrenching one being how utterly painful it is to love someone turning into a person incapable of loving themselves. You watch them destroy the very thing you cherish most in this world. The worst part is you cannot protect them like you do when it comes to other people harming them, because the only one causing their pain is the person they see when they look in the mirror. And you'd never hurt them.

But that's okay, I love you enough for the both of us.

If only for a day you could look through my eyes, see the way you I hold you above all others. Maybe then you'd understand why my soul will only ever burn for you.

To me you are the reason the sun sets and the moon shines, the reason the stars connect.

I want you to know how brave you are, for loving after love has hurt you so many times over. That even after it all, you stand tall with the kindest heart I know, holding the most pain all at once.

It was wrong of me to keep this from you for so long. I loved you in silence to save myself, for in silence I find no rejection. My fantasy can live on. But it's time. You deserved the truth then and you deserve it now.

Sounds so childish of me, but I cannot help myself from being jealous of every single human who breathes near you—lays their eyes on you.

The truth is not simple but at the same time it is. I have loved you with every waking minute of my life. Not once has my heart felt anything for someone else. Everything about you makes me feel alive. You showed me a secret language you know I could never speak with anyone else. I see galaxies behind your eyes and I get lost in them. I have ever only wanted you as you are, I don't need you to be anything other.

This hurts, love, to have someone in your heart but not in your arms as your own.

I saw the way your happiness had begun to fade with him. Let the world call me cruel for saying what I'm about to but I must. He wanted to own you, control you, have you under his thumb. Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever does tread close to the line of deserving them will not purposefully make you cry. You were not meant for a life like that. You were meant to rule and have your partner treat you as a garden, giving you water to bloom as they stand back and watch you grow. Not intimidated by your beauty, but in awe.

There's times I watch you and you look as if you've left this plane of existence. Where do you go, my love? I want to go with you.

For I cannot make you see the love you deserve, but I'll never stop trying.

I know things have changed, I have for a few years now. My best friend turning into the person I wanted in ways I shouldn't. Maybe I am just a man so hopelessly in love with you that I have deluded myself into believing deep down you have always returned my love. 

I'll forever be okay with not being your first love, because I always knew I'd be your last.

I know you are scared, scared of what our love will cost us. But don't let the greatest thing this world has ever seen slip away because others have hurt you. For you know I'd never harm you and my words hold weight in every way.

Let me be your great love story, let me show you colors you cannot see with anyone else.

If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that it was always supposed to be us.

Even in death, I would crawl my way back to you. No grave could hold my body down when it came to returning to you.

I'd look for you in any crowded room, in any space. You will always blur out the rest of existence.

For you are a lady and I am just a boy in shambles, asking if there's any way you could let me hold your heart the way you do mine.

Don't torture me. Come to me, Rose. Let us be happy in this godforsaken world. 

Or tell me I'm a fool, a fool you could never love. Tell me I've got it all wrong. Tell me to never speak of such things again. Do not pity me, loving you has always been enough and I will continue to do it for the rest of my life with a pained smile if I'm all wrong.

'Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same'

Love, Theo

p.s. Find me. I have so much more to say.

By the time Rose finished reading, all she could do was stare at the letter. In such a state of shock that she didn't realize how badly her hand grasping the letter shook, or the tears falling from her eyes. A whimper escaping her lips brings Rose back to the present, covering her mouth to prevent the sound.

After all these years, all of the waiting. There's no possibility for her to be driven into insanity by still believing in some chance that he did not love her back in the way she desired. It was here, all written out and in the most beautiful—heartbreaking way. Every limb on Rose's body started to buzz as she cried silently behind her hand, chest aching and tightening repeatedly. Happiness Rose had felt in so long shot through her, like an electric shockwave. Years, years upon years of treading fine lines. The guilt at a young age for wanting her best friend more than anything. The pain of yearning from afar and all the forces that separated them. And it seemed like—

Rose gasped.

The letter from his father.

Suddenly all that happiness fades, and a sense of anger fills Rose to the brim. Theo couldn't do this, he cannot claim to be in love with her. It's unfair, cruel to punish Rose with the knowledge after she's been condemned to staying away in order to keep him safe. It's not his fault she is taken over by such blinding rage, if anything Rose is pissed off at the universe. How could the world give her the one thing she wanted more than anything while knowing it wasn't hers to have? 

In the heat of the moment, Rose looses every coherent thought. Clutching onto the letter tightly as she stands, yanking open the trunk. Digging through piles clothes after clothes until reaching the bottom where she had hidden his father's letter.

Rose doesn't care how badly she's crying or how much her gut aches. She yanks the letter out, storming away from the dorm at once. Her body trembled with every step, and the tears kept coming but Rose didn't stop—lips pursed in a mixture of anger and spite for the universe.

Theo had been leaned against the railing in the astronomy tower, wearing a hoodie despite all of the warm air. His eyes trailed over the Aries constellation for the millionth time, the moon seeming to taunt him as well. A slight sense of dread welled up inside of Theo as he wondered if Rose would ever come. She had willingly chose Mattheo over him, after all. Whose to say she ever really loved him to begin with? Maybe Theo was a smart man, turned into a fool hopelessly in love. Wrong after all this time to think Rose ever loved him in that way.

But then he heard the sound of footsteps, angry footsteps. Actually, more than angry. Theo knew that sound all too well, and there was a part him that felt relief Rose had came, but another part that screamed in worry from how mad she was.

Theo closed his eyes, squeezing the railing tightly as possible for relief, before turning around with the footsteps growing louder.

And suddenly the steps die out, there she stood. Tears streaming down her red cheeks, chest rising and falling quickly. Theo's throat closed up as she stared directly at him. He felt frozen, unable to move or even breathe.

Rose stormed over, shoving the letter from Theo's father into his face forcefully. Her voice came out in a broken yell, "This is why I chose Mattheo, why I can't talk to you! Why you are not allowed to love me!"

Theo took the letter away without glancing at it, "Rose—" He began, wanting to calm her down.

"Read the letter!" She yelled furiously. A choked sob coming out as she covered her mouth, and looked away to the night sky.

He tightened his jaw to fight the urge of comforting her, bringing up the letter as he attempted to ignore the sound of her crying that made him experience a different type of a pain. He never wanted to destroy her, quite the opposite.

Theo unfolded the parchment, recognizing the handwritting at once. His head snapped up, "Is this from my father?"

Rose wouldn't look at him, she couldn't do it. "Just read it!" She barely managed to shout.

Complete and utter confusion took Theo over. What could his father ever say to Rose? Before he began reading, Theo made a promise to himself. Read the thing in full no matter what is written, it's what she clearly wanted him to do.

Everything clicked into place as his own anger bubbled up with each word. It's a long, long letter and every part is equally horrifying. Right then is when Theo learns about her infertility, enraged at his father for acting as if that made her any less valuable. The blatant insults about her mental health. His father telling her to be with Mattheo. The threats thrown if Rose dared to be with Theo, or even if they stayed close friends. Theo puts the pieces together almost instantly. Rose never chose Mattheo, she was forced to in order to protect Theo. Rose never chose to push Theo away, once again, she was forced to in order to protect him. By the time he finishes reading, his eyes are glassed over. Whether it be from the anger wrapping his brain, the relief of knowing she never willingly left his side—or just painful turmoil that Rose has had to carry this on her own.

He stares at the letter for a moment, reeling in disbelief because his life has been nothing but a lie for months upon months. Then again, Theo shouldn't be shocked by his father, and he blames himself for not realizing this earlier.

Rose tears the letter from his hands, "See!" She yelled, scoffing as Theo looks to her. "This is why I left! Why you can't love me and I hate you for telling me because I can't do anything about it!"

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Theo snapped angrily. He didn't mean to sound as if she was the reason for his spite but it came out that way.

"And have you flip out on him? Let him abuse you for it?!" She spat back, "I know you love me Theo but he's your father! I'd never ask you to choose between—"

"I would choose you over anything! When are you going to understand that?!" He interrupts hastily, wiping a tear that finally broke loose. "I would've put him six feet underground months ago if I knew he did this to you! The things he said to you, I—" His head shakes, "He's wrong, Rose! Nothing, and I mean nothing, would ever make me love you any less!"

"He's your father! You can't kill him!"

"And you're you!" Theo shouted back in disbelief. He sucks in a rush of air, then steps toward her with watery eyes and slow words, "There is no line—not a single line in existence—that I wouldn't cross for you. None."

Rose sniffled, a lump forming in her throat as she stepped back. Not trusting herself to be close to him, "I got that letter the night we met on the tower." She spoke quietly, "I was in a episode for months, and I wanted to end my fling with Mattheo after finally getting back on my meds. But I woke up to a letter from your father, made you meet me up here..." Rose goes to wipe her soaking wet cheeks, "I—I had to protect you. Even it if killed me, even if it killed us. You are the one person I can't bring myself to see in pain because I feel it, Theo. I feel it in my chest even when you're far away."

Theo lips parted, and he brought a hand up to cover his mouth. Looking away with eyes closing, making Rose feel as if she had just been stabbed in the gut as two thick tears fell from his eyelashes. Watching Theo turn into the pure picture of pain.

"I didn't choose him, and I didn't abandon you willingly." Rose croaks, "Even if it didn't feel like it, you were still the center of my world. Every night, every hour, and every minute you were in my mind."

He takes a deep breath, swiping the hand down his mouth. Theo turned to her, such a broken and pained expression held on his face. It was almost too much for him to handle, the truth.

"Rose," He spoke hoarsely, "Do you—"

"Don't ask me that!" She shouted suddenly to stop him from finishing the sentence. "Did you not read what you father said?! I cannot be what you need!"

Theo recoiled back momentarily. Then all at once, he was snapping. "He shouldn't even be mentioning children to you right now and you can't have one? I don't need that to be happy for the rest of my life with you!" Theo yelled, sending Rose into a tense position. "You end up wanting one in the future? Fine, I'll adopt—"

"Who said I'd ever be with you to begin with?!" Rose snapped back sassily, becoming defensive over the topic. "Much less for that long?!"

Somehow, someway—his gaze darkened under the night sky. "Hear me now, you're going to marry me one day. I'm going to change your last name, and every night I'll be right next to you in bed. I don't care if I'm eighty when you realize I'm the one, I'll be there waiting and you can keep using reasons I shouldn't love you but I'm never going to listen."

She gasped quietly, unable to control another tear from falling. "You—" Rose shook her head, "You can't say that..."

"The world is not limited to the expectations set for us!" Theo yelled desperately, "Don't stand here and act as if you are not aware of that!"

Rose goes silent in her anger and sadness.

"I thought you chose him, someone else, for months!" Theo scoffed out in a mix of million emotions, overwhelmed to the highest extent. Clearly not over the shock of learning so much truth at once.

"You should've known even then I was imagining you were him at every turn!" Rose forced out, "And tell me Theo—how was I supposed to know how you truly felt about me besides my own assumptions?!"

"That goes both ways!" Theo focused on the ending of her words, "I didn't want to lose my best friend, but I know it was foolish! I should've just told you because—" He stops himself.

"Because what?!" Rose shot back.

Theo gathers every piece of courage he holds, preparing to speak more truthfully than ever.

"I was in love with you before I even knew what love was!" His voice shook, pleading with her to listen. "I have been in love with you for so long that I cannot think of a day where I wasn't!"

The words are as calming as an ocean, and unsettling at the same time. It's everything she ever wanted hear, he's everything she ever wanted. But it's terrifying too, knowing she held just as much power over him as he did her. This must've been what history and the Greeks attempted to warn the world about, how scary it is to know a human unwavering could be turned to ash by the one they loved above all.

"Your father," Rose swallowed, screwing her chin upward in futile attempt to not crumble. "What will you do about him—if I do love you?"

"He can die for all I care." Theo's voice shook once more, chest shaking. He doesn't mean for more tears to well up and fall, it's not as if he could ever hold them back though.

"I know you've always believed me to be yours and I'm not saying that isn't okay—"

"No. I don't think that."

"Theo, listen—"

"You don't belong to me or anyone but I do know—I knew when I was a five. I knew when I was ten. I knew when I was sixteen...I know now that I will always belong to you." He spoke unkind but she couldn't miss the strain lacing his voice, "There is not a woman, man, nor god that could change my eyes and heart always searching for your own."

Her mouth opens, ready to say the words and take him back into her arms after far too long of pain.

But Rose doesn't, because reality is storming inside her brain.

"No—, No—, we cannot!" She quickly wiped her eyes. Beginning to move around, "You shouldn't love me, forgive me for keeping this secret! I left you alone!"

"I don't care if I shouldn't, you're the only thing that has ever felt right in this world." Theo answered sternly, and hoarsely. "You don't think I've tried to not love you?" He took a step forward, making Rose recoil away. "It'll always be futile because when I hear the word love, you are the first image in my mind. The stars, sun, moon and every detail of this life connects back to you—is a reflection of you."

Rose pressed two fingers to her trembling lips as she kept her distance. A feeling creeps up from her stomach, rising into her throat and staying there.

He takes another step closer, "You are all I ever wanted, and all I ever will. Let the world condemn me for loving you, condemn me yourself if you must but don't you dare ask me to stand here and lie by saying there's a reality where you don't own me."

"Theo," Rose breathed out, "Stop..."

He doesn't listen.

"Tell me all of that pain meant something."

"Of course it meant something!" She shouted defensively, voice cracking. "I have spent every single day being in love with you and I wouldn't take any of it away to save myself! Not for even a second of relief!" Now Rose was spiraling, losing the ability to control her tongue. Hands moving around frustratedly as the tears kept relentlessly coming. "Are you really so foolish you believe I don't love you? You need to hear it aloud?!"

Rose doesn't give him a second to respond. Pointing at her chest, "I love you! I'm in love with you, you idiot!" She practically screamed, "I'm so in love with you that I walked away from the only sense of heaven I know so that you could be safe and—"

"Rose." Theo interrupted at once. Pausing as a buzzing sound grew inside his ears, "You love me?" He asked breathlessly.

"Yes! But—"

"Shut up." Theo breathed out, closing the distance between them immediately. Scooping her cheeks up in his palms, ignoring her breath hitching as he smashed their lips together.

Rose's eyes grew wide in shock, mind reeling at the fact his lips were on her own—his hands were touching her as if he was holding up the world.

But then a sense of peace, and a burning fire of desire she hasn't felt in months away from him comes—swallowing her entire being whole.

Rose latches onto his arms, kissing him back just as desperate for her only source of water in this world. And Theo melts into her, both too perfectly crafted for one another to not mold together.

His arm comes down to the small of her back, pressing Rose tightly against himself. He kisses her—Theo kisses Rose until her knees buckle and every single sense inside of her body is ignited on overdrive from the sheer power of how it feels to have their mouths pressed together.

Eventually, completely driven mad by relief, she smiles into the kiss and he cannot resist from doing the same as her arms wrap around his neck.

"You love me?" Theo mumbled against Rose's mouth, fisting the back of her shirt and clutching onto her cheek tighter than ever.

"So much." She mumbled in reply.

Theo pulled back slightly despite his desire to kiss her until the world fell to pieces. For the first time in years, Rose sees Theo's face completely taken over by the color red. He tries to stop smiling, licking his lips in failed attempt as the smile instantly resurfaces.

"Come here." Theo spoke in a low, gruff voice. Forcefully yanking Rose close and beginning to press his lips to every square inch of her face.

She fell into a fit of surprised giggles, weaving her fingers through the curls at the nape of his neck for balance. "Theo!"

Theo keeps going until he's sure his lips have touched every part of her face, and by the time he does Rose is flushed pure crimson—her smile so wide it hurts—the sound of her happiness still ringing out.

And his expression suddenly flips to serious, the hand on her back coming up to grab her chin as the sound of giggles slowly die out.

"I love you." Theo stated firm as ever, taking his thumb and tracing her smile because it's so full of pure happiness that his heart skips a beat. "Tell me you love me, again."

She tips her head back with another giggle, teasing him purposefully. "You're so cheesy"

He pulls her face to his own, staring deep into her eyes. "Say it." Theo demanded.

Rose pressed up on the tips of her toes, pulling him in by his neck. Having to bite down on her lip for a moment, trying to contain a smile.

She leans forward, making sure to look him right in the eyes before whispering, "I love you, Theodore Nott. Too much to possibly fathom."

The words knock all of the wind out of Theo, tumbling on top of him like a whirlwind of joy and pure relief. He wants to make her tell him a million times over but cannot manage to retrain himself from smashing his lips against her own again. Settling into the feeling of home, uncaring about the water falling his eyes because now it's representational of how powerful her love is.

There was no more emptiness, just an overwhelming feeling of being full to the brim with happiness, a mixture of their hearts healing. Regardless of how much pain and fighting the last few months have consisted of, it's all worth this very moment. To know they love each other and no matter what happens now—neither would let any forces break them apart.

He tightly wraps Rose up in his arms, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around. Relishing in the soft gasp from her lips as she tightens her arms around his neck. Finding his solace once more.

Love. Love. Love.

You're all I ever wanted.

________________________________

A/N: Theodore Nott, no book bf will ever compare to your love for this woman. KILL ME.

—well, 400k words of slowburn & we finally get the confession everyone wanted....definitely didn't put you all through the ringer or anything....definitely don't plan to put you the ringer ever again (I definitely do)

—i need someone to listen to line without a hook while using deep comprehension and report back to me about how much they agree it's rose and Theo to a T

—IM SO HAPPY FOR OUR BABIES THO SERIOUSLY AND NOW WE GET TO FOCUS ON THE PLOTTTT EKK

—"where do you go, my love? I want to go with you." KILLED MY SOUL

—so for everyone who remembers the Cedric chapter, that's next sadly and it won't be edited much because i don't really have it in me to be able to read it in depth, it's just really unsettling but it's apart of her story so I don't want to cut it

—also i know my writing tense was off the past 2 or three chapters n I apologize lol i cannot explain to you all how sleep deprived I was (insomnia queens rise)  but I'm telling you this because I'm going to go make small changes to them so it'll be like two or three days before another update :) it won't be changes to any dialogue so you don't need to go back and read, just the present tense of the writing <3

xx bri