(i'm worried) it will always be you

Chapter 19 - Epilogue

Wednesday, October 15th, 2025. Wedgefield, Florida. Thirty minutes outside the city of Orlando.

What goes around, comes around. When you give, you receive.

That was Karl's mantra these days, humming the brief phrase to a soft tune. Sapnap believed the saying held some truth- that it was a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. It was like Karma, not just for the bad, but also the good. Everything always comes around one way or another, the good you give will make its way back to you. Sapnap liked hearing the melody, liked how it let him know exactly where Karl was in their big house.

God, it still felt surreal for him to think about sometimes.

This was their house- Karl and Sapnap's. The two people who were about to share their fifth wedding anniversary together, yet still got mistaken as newlyweds any time they went out.

Karl, the #1 New York Times best selling author for not one, but two novels, and Sapnap, the first person at his company to ever be promoted to Senior Software Engineer with only three years of professional experience.

Between Sapnap's steady salary and Karl's intermittent but higher paying work, the first thing they decided to do was save for a house.

Location was something they'd talked about for a while, but ultimately decided they couldn't pass up the opportunity to live within thirty minutes of their best friends. Florida was where Dream and George had moved right after graduation and they had been not-so-subtly sending Karl and Sapnap nearby house listings any chance they got over the last year.

It wasn't a difficult decision to make- probably the best decision, in all honesty. Sapnap had no interest in moving back out to the Midwest, Karl had seen enough of New York to tide him over for a while, and the couple was desperately missing their friends.

The fact the large house was located in an isolated field, surrounded by tall grass, swaying trees, and had a small pond on the outskirts of the property line- all while only being thirty minutes away from a big city- it was the perfect middle ground for them.

What goes around, comes around. When you give, you receive.

Sapnap had put his every last drop of effort into Karl, into the life they shared. He gave and gave and gave- and amazingly enough, he received so much as well. Karl fulfilled him, his career fulfilled him, the exciting plans for everything their future held fulfilled him.

For a while now, life was going good for Sapnap.

Everything was going well, which- of course- meant that it was about time something was a disaster.

—

"I don't want to be a homeowner anymore." Karl muttered, pressing his face further into Sapnap's chest, pecking kisses across the small patch of hair between his pecs, trying to persuade the other into staying in bed.

"You're the one who picked the state with hurricanes." Sapnap mumbled with a yawn. "You also picked out all the outdoor furniture that's gonna fly away if we don't tie it down." He tacked on after his long yawn had passed.

"I miss having landlords who had to take care of all this crap." Karl continued to whine, ignoring both of Sapnap's points.

"Look, you'll take the front yard, I'll take the back, and we'll be hunkered back in bed before the storm even hits." Sapnap reasoned, kissing Karl's forehead and giving him one last squeeze before sitting up in bed.

Karl let out a dramatic groan, sliding off of Sapnap's chest with theatrics.

"I'll make you some tea." Sapnap said with a laugh, shaking off the death grip Karl had on his T-shirt.