the shire is burning [eddie munson x OC]

chapter fifty five

"I'm in love with you, Willow Jenkins."

She hadn't been aware that she could be this happy. That such simple words would light a fire in her like no other, that feelings like this existed and she would ever be one of the lucky few to experience them. She wanted to be more upset about his joke regarding forgetting her confession from the night before, but she knew that not only did she sort of deserve it, but that she also didn't have it in her to feel anything but pure bliss when he was holding her and kissing her this way. It was as if he was trying to make up for it.

It was as if they were trying to make up for lost time. Time not quite wasted, but used recklessly when they could have been doing this the entire time. They could have been real this entire time.

She couldn't believe that she'd been worried about him showing up, about him forgiving her. She had meant it when she told him that he shouldn't forgive her so easily; if he had told her he needed time, that he had to think about it all, she would have given it without second thoughts. Heaven knows he deserved whatever he asked of her after all she'd put them through.

"Hey," she suddenly pulls back from one of his fervent kisses. They'd taken to laying back on the picnic table side by side, pressed against each other as they'd lazily kissed without any cares in the world, "So, I may or may not have accidentally let Dustin know that our relationship had been fake."

Eddie hums, clearly not fully listening to her as he leans in for another kiss. When her hand reaches out and presses to his chest to stop him, he sighs, rolling his eyes and smiling softly, "Do I even want to know why or how it happened?"

"We were trying to find you," she keeps her voice as gentle as the cool breeze rolling over them, "We were at your trailer and he insisted on tagging along."

"You were at the trailer? Yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

She laughs, rolling so that she's properly tucked into his side, and he immediately guides her head to lay on his chest, "Like I said, we were trying to find you. I was very determined to make things right before I got the call from Jeff and Gareth, and you were... well, drunk."

His fingers play with the ends of her hair, "Are you telling me I could have gotten a confession out of you earlier if I hadn't been an dumb ass yesterday?"

"Only by a few hours, but yes."

"We're idiots," he scoffs, and she feels the vibrations against her cheek as she smiles widely.

"Yeah," she agrees, "We're idiots."

They lay like that for a few moments, letting a comfortable silence blanket them as they simply enjoy each other's presence. Willow knows that eventually, they'll have to leave. They'll have to return to their lives and to all of their friends. She can imagine the conversations that they'll have to have with people like Robin, like Steve, like Dustin .

But then she remembers this is real. Even once they return to reality, they still have each other.

"You know, you never explicitly agreed to being my boyfriend," she thinks out loud, tilting her head back to look at his face. It's smoothed over peacefully, eyes shut and a small smile playing on his lips. She knows if she stays in this position too long, it'll cause a kink in her neck, but she also knows it's worth it to see him this way.

Happy. Relaxed. At peace. All of their pieces have finally fallen into place, and nothing has ever felt so right.

"I thought that was part of the deal," he doesn't open his eyes as he teases her, a hand coming up to squeeze her into his body tighter, "I'm your boyfriend, you're my girlfriend, the sky is blue, so on and so forth."