Days passed since their talk on the hill.

Then days grew to weeks.

Which then grew to months.

The brunette sighed, sipping the warm tea Miranda made him before she left. Today was Christmas Eve, and the teen sent the redhead home to be with her family.

"Okay, but you know where I am if you need me." She said, her maternal instincts kicking in.

"Yes, Mira, I know!" The brunette laughed, hugging the redhead the third time today. "But you should spend the rest of the week with your family, I'll be fine."

Miranda smiled, nodding before leaving the floristry, pure white snow crunching under her boots as she left.

~<•>~

The brunette was tending to the flowers, white tulips to be specific, when he heard the bell ring. He turned around to find Tommy in the doorway, smiling shyly as he held a rather large box in his arm.

"Hey," The blonde greeted, earning a wave and a smile, a genuine one, in response. "Sorry I missed your birthday, Will was being an ass."

The older laughed, walking away from the tulips and to his friend. "He's just nervous, that's all. It's not every day you get to plan a royal wedding."

Tommy shook his head, laughing. "No, especially one where neither of them are actually royal."

The younger teen put the box down on the counter before he turned to the brunette, who was closing the shop.

"What, you locking me in here?" The blonde said jokingly, hoisting himself on the counter.

Tubbo rolled his eyes. "Yes, Tommy, I'm locking you in here until spring." He said, sarcasm clearly evident in his voice. "No, you can leave whenever you want, I just don't want any customers bugging us."

The brunette hoisted himself on the counter, albeit with much struggle due to the fact that he was much shorter than Tommy, and sat right next to his blonde friend.

"So, what's in the box?"

The blonde grabbed the box, and put it in his lap. "Can we talk, first?"

"Um....sure?"

"Nearly a year ago, when I became captain, I said that I'd happily be captain, as long as you were by my side." The blonde started. "Now, I know that's not quite how things turned out, but my point still stands. Every day without you was absolute torture, and I wish I chose to give up the role just so I could stay your friend. But I didn't, because I was a coward, and didn't know what to do. I didn't want to face whatever consequences the king had in store for me." He glanced at the older teen, who had a look of sorrow on his face. "I know I'm being overly sappy, but it's the truth. I hated being captain, so, I decided to pass down the role to someone who's much more capable of it than me."

He put the box in the brunettes lap, who gently opened it. Inside was the Royal Guard Captains hat, with its signature white and gold feather. Tubbo looked at Tommy with absolute disbelief.

"But I'm not in the guard..."

Tommy chuckled. "There's more to being the captain than being in the guard. It's about being loyal, kind, brave, and essentially just everything that you are. Wilbur and I talked about it, and he said he's willing to make you the captain if you agree to it."

Tubbo looked back down at the hat. He smiled softly, gently taking the hat out of its box. He looked back at Tommy, smiling softly.

"Are you sure?"

"Im sure if you are."

The brunette gently put the hat on, looking at his reflection in the glass. He looked back at the blonde, who was smiling fondly.

"Happy seventeenth birthday, Tubbo."

~<•>~

629 words

Can't we be seventeeeeeeeeeennnnnn

Sorry

But a soft chapter before the epilogue, which is gonna have angst, which makes sense considering the song I'm doing.

Honestly, I love this chapter so fucking much, and it has got to be my favorite, mostly because of the subtext of forgiveness without Tubbo ever saying it aloud.