:March 21st, XX48; Saturday.

:EPILOGUE.

:a note from the honorary author- check the next chapter when you're done reading. there's gonna be a little something extra. perhaps.

•~~~~•

It was a full year later, and Joe's senior year was turning out to be a hell of a lot better than his junior one.

Really, it had been a long time since everything went down, but it was in the past, and everything had just about gone back to normal. The only things that happened that didn't used to go down were the visits from Joe's three dead uncles, but those were now welcome by everyone in the family. So it was nice. Joe was getting decent grades, and along the way had made a few more decently-close friends, but all in all his best friend was still Sage and their bond was right back where it used to be.

Well... at least that's what it felt like. But Remy made comments about their homoerotic tension or something around each other constantly, but it didn't matter that much. They were friends.

Yep.

But how things were at the moment were besides the point, that wasn't something Joe was worried about thinking. He was at prom currently- again- talking to some of those previously mentioned friends he had made over the past year, most of them being people he met because Sage was friends with them first. Prom felt a lot more fun because of them, though. Joe actually had people to talk to instead of spending the first while standing around like a loner, like he did the previous year. And that was all thanks to Sage.

...Where even was he? He'd left to go get something to drink a while back but he'd been gone for a bit.

As the conversation seemed to end between Joe and his friends, he excused himself to go over to where the food was kept himself, but found no sign of Sage being there. He decided to check the bathroom next, and that was where he finally found him, leaning against a wall on his phone, calmly. Sage looked up at him.

"Oh, hey, Sage, what are you doing here?" Joe asked as he walked in.

"It got too loud for me out there so I'm just chilling in here. What about you?"

Joe joined him in leaning against the wall. "Uh, wandering, I guess. I was wondering where you were, too."

Sage smirked a bit at him. "Nice."

And then, they couldn't believe it, but the song out in the gym changed to Under Pressure. Again. And that was probably one of the weirdest coincidences in their entire lives.

Joe snickered to himself a bit as they heard the familiar opening. "What the fuck? Hello, I guess it's XX47 again. We danced to this last year in here, right?"

Sage chuckled. "Hell yeah we did. Come on, keep up the tradition."

"Alright, alright."

So, Joe and Sage danced, once again, to their favorite mutual song in the men's bathroom at their high school prom. As they danced, Joe noticed how free he seemed to feel- and how close the two of them really were, compared to the last time they danced, figuratively and literally. It was odd, but it was freeing, and by the end of the song Joe was dipped once more and both came up laughing in each other's arms. As the song outside began to change, a comfortable silence came between the two for a moment.

"...Got anything to forgive me for-?" Joe eventually muttered with a small smirk, deciding he didn't have anything to lose anymore joking about their past. Sage rolled his eyes.

"Dude, I'm not forgiving you for making me stub my toe yesterday."

Joe scoffed. "I- oh, come on, that was your fault!"

"You pulled out the chair!"

Both laughed a tad. "Oh my god- fine, fine. You got anything else to say, then, while we're, uh, pretty much just embracing right now?"

Sage chuckled a bit, and then he looked into Joe's eyes, and his face went a bit neutral. He went quiet, glancing to the floor, and then back up.

"Uh... wait, okay, you're- you're over Oliver, aren't you?"

Joe blinked. He hadn't actually thought about Oliver since... wow, it had been a long time. But that was probably a good thing.

"Huh? Yeah, I am. I mean, it took me a while, but I was pretty much in the clear with everything by last September," he let out a breathy laugh. "Uh... why?"

Sage's heart began to beat noticeably faster, and he bit the insides of his cheeks, looking away for another brief moment. "Why? Oh, uh- okay, here I go- this is probably gonna sound hella weird, but, could I maybe... can I kiss you?"

Joe stopped for a moment. That... no, that had to be a joke, right? Like- honestly, maybe Joe wouldn't even mind it- no, no, it was a joke.

"I- hah, Sage, are you just trying to renew your apparent first kiss from that time you dared me to-"

"N- I'm serious, Joe. Really."

"...Oh."

Joe stared at him. Huh.

Honestly... maybe he really wouldn't mind that. Through his uncle's comments about the weird tension that had been between them, Joe found himself thinking about what it would be like to actually be with Sage a couple of times, but he never considered it an actual crush because he never got a kind of... overwhelming urge to be around Sage at all times and protect him from any harm that might come his way. But maybe that was just what he felt for Oliver- and maybe this was actually a normal crush.

Maybe Joe would really like to kiss him... huh.

Joe opened his mouth to say something, but Sage looked away, forcing an awkward smile.

"Sorry, you really don't have to answer that. Just pretend I didn't say anything. Do you wanna go get something to drink?"

Joe blinked. "Oh- n- no, I didn't mean to stay silent for that long, uh... you can kiss me. That's fine."

Sage blinked in return. "You want me to..?"

Joe's heart was beating decently fast now, too. "Y-Yeah, I do, actually."

"Oh. Yeah, I- great, okay."

Joe let out a breath and then he and Sage chuckled, closing their eyes, and after a moment of nothing from the both of them they began to lean forward, and with their kiss Sage's grip on Joe tightened just the tiniest bit, which made Joe wonder how long he'd wanted this, but that didn't matter much because Sage was kissing him so slowly like he was some sweet, delicate thing, and when both pulled away their faces were flushed red from the bliss of it all.

Sage was the first one to react in any way, and that was with a smile, which made Joe wonder just how he didn't realize he had a crush.

"Can we agree that counts as my first kiss, then?" Sage asked after a moment, and then Joe smiled, too, shaking his head a bit.

"I- no shit, Sage."

"I'm glad we can agree."

"Hah- yeah. So, uh, where do we stand with each other right now, then?"

Sage pursed his lips. "I honestly didn't think I'd get this far, don't know what to tell you."

Joe rolled his eyes, jokingly. "Of course you didn't, smh."

"Did you just verbally say smh-?"

The two laughed a little more, and Joe felt so calm and comfortable. "But, like, seriously... you wanna go on a date or something soon?"

"I mean, yeah, that works."

Joe smiled to himself, looking at the floor for a moment. "Good, good... uh, this makes me really happy, actually, because I just- I didn't even realize I had a crush on you until like, now, and I think it was such a casual thing in my mind I didn't even notice it, but I'm really glad I did because that was- it was nice."

"Yeah... it was, wasn't it?"

Joe nodded along. "Hey, you wanna splash some water in our faces to de-red a bit and then get back out to our friends?"

Sage laughed a bit. "Right, sure."

•~~~~•

About an hour or so later, people were filing out and leaving prom so Joe and Sage decided to head out as well. They ended up being picked up because the two had already had plans to have a sleepover after prom, and both decided they'd still be fine with doing that. They walked out to the front of their school that night and got into Joe's parent's car, where Joe's father was driving and Remy was sitting in the passenger's seat. Joe and Sage sat in the back.

"You two?" Joe asked as he got in, "I never thought I'd see both of you in the same place together willingly, I'm not gonna lie."

"Not willingly, actually. Emile wanted your parents to practice healthy distancing or something," Remy put his feet up on the dashboard as the backseat door closed- Joe's father grumbled a bit at Remy's actions. "And him and your dad thought we could use the bonding time. I don't get it, either."

"Did you two have a good time at prom, then?" Joe's father asked.

"Yeah, it was pretty good," Sage smiled a bit, glancing at Joe. "Uh... yeah. Our friends were there, and stuff. It was nice."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it, then."

Seeing Sage still smiling at him, Joe smiled back. He noticed Remy raise an eyebrow at them through the car mirror, but then he just looked ahead at the road once more.

"Do you not want them to know?" Joe then whispered, leaning a bit closer to Sage. Sage shrugged at him.

"I don't really care. You can tell them if you want, doesn't bother me."

"What are y'all whispering about back there?" Remy asked. "Did you kill someone?"

Joe's father rolled his eyes. Joe let out a breath.

"Uh... no? We- well, actually, we were just probably gonna go on a date next weekend or something. Or whenever. So... yeah."

Remy's jaw dropped, and he looked into the backseat. "Shut up. Oh my god. You're joking."

Sage chuckled. "We're not."

"Shiiiit!"

Remy laughed happily, and Joe's father smiled a bit, glancing at the teenagers through the car mirror. "Congratulations, then."

"Oh, this is fucking fantastic. Hold on, lemme get back there-"

Remy began trying to climb into the backseat of the car, and Joe's father instantly became panicked, staring at him with wide eyes while also trying to look at the road.

"Remy, sit down!"

"Oh, shut up, just gimme a sec-"

"N-No, you should stay up there," Joe nodded.

"I'm transparent, he can see the road just fine!"

"You're distracting me from driving, still, I am going to accidentally crash the car if you don't sit down!"

Remy groaned and let himself back into his seat. "It wouldn't matter if you died because no one loves you anyway."

"...Wow," Sage mumbled.

By then the car was pulling into the driveway of Joe's house anyway, and so Sage and Joe quickly got out of the car before Remy could pull something again. The two walked into the house with the other adults coming in behind them, and they were greeted with the sight of Joe's dad and Emile standing together in the kitchen.

"Hey, you four!" Joe's dad called out to them from the kitchen. "How was everything?"

"Prom was pretty good," Joe smiled at him. "And I'm glad it was. It's our last one, so I'm glad it was at least memora-"

"Joe and Sage are going on a date," Remy suddenly blurted out from behind them, making Joe blink to himself a bit, and Sage sigh next to him.

"Oh, really?" Emile asked, beginning to smile a tad. "I'm glad for you two."

"Remy, that was not your news to share," Joe's father raised an eyebrow at his brother, who rolled his eyes back.

"Sage said in the car he didn't care who found out. So..."

"I- was that when they were whispering? Why were you listening to that?!"

"How the fuck do you not listen to whispering in a quiet car?"

The two began arguing with each other, and Joe looked over at Sage, who sighed.

"Is this how your house is always like?" He asked.

"Yep... yes, it is."

•~~~~•

"Love, could you pass me a paper towel?"

It was a few hours after Joe and Sage had gotten home, and now Logan and Patton were doing the dishes in their kitchen together, Remy and Emile being upstairs with the teenagers. It was decently late at night at that point, but everyone had eaten and hung out downstairs and now someone had to clean up, so of course Logan and Patton decided to be the ones to do that.

"Of course, Lo."

The radio was playing silently in the background as they loaded their dishwasher and dried whatever had been in there before. Logan let his feet tap along to the beat of whatever song was playing around them, and Patton hummed, Logan eventually taking a moment to just stare at him as he swayed back and forth in place. He was smiling ever so slightly, drying his hands with a paper towel, and if Logan had ever said he didn't fall more in love with that man every time he saw him he would've be the biggest liar on the face of the planet.

Logan walked up behind him, putting down the plate he'd been holding and wrapping his arms around Patton's waist. The latter smiled and held his face from behind.

"I love you," Logan whispered into his ear, but Patton didn't hear him, and Logan chuckled to himself, tucking some of his hair behind the ear he'd try to whisper into. Patton had slowly been hearing less and less out of that ear- or, really both of his ears- for a while, but most recently it had dropped significantly enough that his hearing aid no longer worked, since you needed at least a smidge of hearing in an ear for an aid to work. But that was all fine. It didn't matter to them all that much, they could still communicate, and that was all that mattered.

Logan moved his head to Patton's other ear. "I love you," he whispered again. Patton began to smile.

"I love you, too," he said back, putting down what he'd been holding and turning around in his husband's arms. The music continued around them, neither aware of what song it was, but regardless they began to sway back and forth, leaning their foreheads together with a sigh.

It was moments like these that truly made Logan just stop and think and reflect on all that had come before them- how it had lead up to what was now. They really had been through a lot. But god, was he lucky to be where he was in that moment.

Logan let himself lean forward and kiss his husband's lips for just one sweet moment, one small peck, and then Patton leaned his head onto Logan's shoulder, and they continued swaying back and forth.

Logan closed his eyes.

He really did live a good life.

•~~~~•

"It's almost midnight, don't you guys have somewhere to be?"

Remy rolled his eyes at his nibling and his apparent soon-to-be boyfriend. Himself and Emile had been hanging out in Joe's room for a good while then, and perhaps the two did deserve to be left alone but Remy wasn't the type of person to just do that. "We don't, actually. It's a Saturday night, after all."

"It's practically Sunday by now," Joe mumbled.

"Oh, shut up with your technicalities."

"We probably should be going," Emile laughed a bit, grabbing Remy's hand, who sighed and nodded along. The teenagers both said some kind of departing phrase, and then the ghosts made their way out of the room and downstairs. Remy's eyes moved towards the kitchen, where Logan and Patton were embracing and swaying back and forth to some song probably made by Ed Sheeran, which in Remy's opinion was just vile.

"Hey, stop being so fucking sappy!" Remy yelled at them, and both startled, looking towards where the sound came from. Logan sighed.

"Are you two leaving?"

"Yep."

"Alright, goodbye, then."

The two went back to their dishes, Emile waving at Patton one last time before the two left the house. They walked hand in hand, silently down the sidewalk for a good while.

"Y'know what? I'm pretty content with our place in the world now," Remy said. Emile glanced at him.

"Really? Why's that?"

"Well, first of all, don't take that too seriously. It's the epilogue, I gotta say something sentimental. But- really, we're still here, I'm still able to hang out with Joe, and now this is all over, finally."

Emile smiled. "I can tell you're happy. Even though you're trying to act like you're struggling not to be pissed right now."

"Damn. You know me."

"I do."

They squeezed each other's hands, continuing to walk. Emile eventually let go of his husband's hand and instead began to tousle his hair, which confused Remy a bit but he accepted it nonetheless.

"What're you doing, then?"

"I think you're really gorgeous, y'know, honey."

Remy smiled a tad. "That's because I am."

"How about you accept my complement today, for once?" He furrowed his eyebrows, but was still smiling.

"Oh, Emile... how naive."

"What do you mean?"

"No idea." That was true.

Emile stopped walking then, and he grabbed both of Remy's hands, stopping him as well. Remy raised an eyebrow.

"I gotta tell you something," Emile's smile did not falter.

"Ah, great."

"It's not bad. Do you remember those devices we heard about a month or so ago? The ones that imitate heartbeats and pulses on ghosts?"

Remy blinked. "...I'm guessing you bought them?"

Emile only smiled wider. He began to move one of Remy's hands to where his heart would be if he were alive, and Remy knew what to expect, but upon feeling a heartbeat in his dead husband's chest he still couldn't help but gasp.

Something Remy had really always missed was being able to feel Emile's heartbeat- ever since he'd died, really, he just wanted to have that same feeling of being alive from when they were kids. He usually got comfort from just feeling any person he was close to's heartbeat, but had never been able to have that with Emile.

"I... uhm, shit. Are you trying to make my cry?"

"I'm not."

"Well it's- clearly you are, because-"

Remy swallowed whatever it was he was feeling in that moment as Emile hugged him, and he let out a shakey breath, letting his hand still rest upon his heartbeat as he hugged him as well. He moved his sunglasses up to his head and laid his face in Emile's hair, in an effort to stop himself from crying, which was barely working.

"You don't have to stop yourself from crying," Emile then told him.

"Yes I do, we're still in the fucking epilogue," he replied. Emile pulled away with a sigh then, and Remy blinked a few times, shaking the need to cry away. They were both silent for a moment.

"Hey," Emile cupped his husband's face.

"Hey."

"You should kiss me."

"I'll gladly do so."

He did it with a smile.

•~~~~•

"Oh my- damnit."

Joe pouted, but Sage only laughed as Joe once again died in their shared Minecraft world. At that point the two were sitting on Joe's bedroom floor, a few pillows and blankets surrounding them while they sat shoulder-to-shoulder on their phones, leaning against Joe's bed.

"We've had this world for so long, and you're really not getting any better, are you?"

"I'm trying my best!"

"Sure." Sage smirked. Joe stifled a laugh, logging out of the world and turning his phone off.

"So now you're ragequitting?" Sage also turned off his phone.

"I'm not, I'm just bored now."

"Then figure out something else to do."

Joe huffed. He thought for a moment, and then he looked at Sage, poking his cheek.

"Thank you?"

"You're welcome," Joe smiled.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know. How easily flustered do you get?"

"Oh, great, we're doing this."

Joe laughed a tad, poking Sage's cheek once more. Sage grabbed his hand and moved it away from his face.

"Does poking not work?"

"Why would poking me fluster me?"

"I don't know."

Sage sighed. He let go of Joe's hand and instead carded it through Joe's hair. The latter felt his face heat up, and he grumbled, leaning his head on Sage's shoulder and accepting the very comfortable situation.

"It's pretty easy to beat you at your own game, Joseph," Sage then said.

"Oh, shut up," Joe whined. Sage laughed, continuing to play with Joe's hair. With a sigh, Joe found and held Sage's free hand, nuzzling his head further into Sage's shoulder blade. This made Sage stop for a moment, and Joe looked up at him, seeing he was clearly blushing a bit as well.

"Hah. You're blushing."

"You've been blushing."

"Nope, I win."

Both laughed then, and after the moment of silence that followed they connected for a short kiss.

"Should we talk specifics with all this?" Joe asked as they pulled away.

"Maybe later. We should sleep right now."

Joe nodded. "Where should we sleep?"

"I could care less."

"I don't feel like getting up."

"Well, we have pillows and stuff down here, we'll probably be fine."

The two made themselves a makeshift bed with what they had on the floor, and then they laid down, both shuffling towards each other. Sage laid on his side and leaned his head against the side of Joe's, and Joe smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. They both mumbled goodnight to each other, and Sage was out only a few minutes after.

Joe stared at the ceiling, still smiling. He had a lot of responsibilities to worry about lately, like finals coming up and getting his license and getting ready to move into a dorm for college among other things, but in that moment he felt content. Even though he knew his back would hate him in the morning for sleeping on the floor, he felt content. He'd forgotten how much he loved being able to cuddle with others, regardless of whether they might be romantically involved or not.

Of course, cuddling didn't always help to ease concerns. It hadn't always helped him in the past. And he'd been through a lot of stress. But then, he felt alright.

What could he say?

...Highschool is tough.

[a piece of paper somehow falls out of your digital fanfiction right as you go to close the book.]

hey.
it's me. you know, the dead one. the dead one with the trauma. the dead one with the trauma and the sunglasses. remy picani.

after sixty-two long-ass chapters of this shit... it's finally done. for good, practically, i know that much this time. it's a good feeling, to finally be left alone so i can be with my family. emile, joe, joe's boyfriend that he stabbed that one time... and i guess my brother and brother-in-law too. i'll put up with them. regardless, this shit's over, and it's time for me to say goodbye.

to you.

so... goodbye. it's been a good run, i'll be around in the comments from time to time still but other than that you pretty much won't be hearing from me again. all i have to say now is... believe in yourself? cheesy, yeah. this world sucks, but just keep going, because if i of all people can end up in a happy situation, so can you. just... don't die, that shit's traumatic af.

everyone deserves a happy ending. well- maybe not everyone, i probably didn't, but most people do. and you're one of them. someone out there loves you, so don't tell yourself you're alone.
don't make yourself out to be the villain in your own story.

welp. take care. emile and i send our love (ew).
~remy p.

•~~~~•
Okay, but no joke, thank you all SO MUCH for even getting through this entire trilogy.

My writing style has changed a lot over the course of writing these books (can you believe it's been almost a year and a half since the first one was published??) so thank you all so much for just pushing through and (hopefully) enjoying all of it. I put a lot of time and effort into making these, and I loved it all, so I really do hope you did, too.

As said up at the top of this chapter, there might be something else coming, so make sure to check the chapter after this... but other than that, I'm officially bidding you all adieu. I love you guys so much<3

See you later!!❤️
~Klaus