Epilogue
999 Words
The garage was quiet, save for the soft hum of the fan and the faint metallic tick of the engine cooling down.
Tori sat cross-legged on the workbench, bare legs swinging slightly, the edge of her sundress brushing her thighs. Her tarot deck was beside her, still in its velvet pouch, gathering dust. She hadn’t drawn a card in days.
She didn’t need to.
She already knew the answer.
Vios straightened from under the hood, wiping his hands on an old rag. Sweat glistened on his collarbone, catching the low light. His shirt clung to him, streaked with grease, and when his gaze landed on her, his mouth curved in that half-smile that had ruined her composure since the day she met him.
“You’re glowing,” he said, stepping closer.
Tori arched a brow, playful. “Must be the moon.” She touched the pendant resting against her chest, the crescent catching the dim light.
Vios reached out, thumb brushing a smudge of grease from her cheek, but his hand didn’t drop. He kept it there, cupping her face like she was something too precious to rush.
“I used to think I needed to fix everything,” he murmured, voice low. “But you taught me some things aren’t broken. They’re just waiting to be seen.”
Her chest tightened, in that way that always meant she was about to cry or do something reckless — like kiss him.
Instead, she laced her fingers through his. “And you taught me that surrender isn’t weakness.” She slid off the workbench slowly, her body brushing against his as her feet hit the ground. “It’s trust.”
For a moment, they just stood there, foreheads nearly touching, the garage heavy with the scent of oil, metal, and something warmer, sharper — the kind of tension that never really left them, even now.
Vios’s hand slid from her cheek down to her neck, then to the curve of her back, pulling her in until there was no space left between them.
“Do you trust me now?” he asked, voice rough.
Tori smiled against his mouth. “Enough to do this.”
She kissed him — slow at first, then deeper when his hand gripped her hip, anchoring her to him. The workbench pressed into the back of her thighs as he lifted her onto it again, stepping between her legs without breaking the kiss.
The fan hummed. The night air pressed in.
When he pulled back, they were both breathing hard, foreheads pressed together.
“You drive me insane,” he muttered, tracing the line of her jaw with his thumb.
“Good,” she whispered, tugging him closer. “I like you this way.”
His laugh was low, almost disbelieving, before his mouth was on hers again — longer this time, slower but hungrier. His other hand slid to the small of her back, and she felt the world tilt, the garage spinning just slightly with how much she wanted him.
---
The Bonus Scene
The night had grown quiet around them, that soft, expectant quiet that only comes right before dawn. Tori stretched out on the car hood, feeling the cool metal against her back, the moonlight spilling over her skin like liquid silver.
Vios propped himself on one elbow beside her, watching her the way he sometimes watched the stars — with quiet awe, like he still couldn’t believe she was real.
“What?” she asked, smiling, even though her pulse kicked at the way his eyes darkened.
“Nothing.” His voice was low, rough. “Just thinking I might never let you leave this garage again.”
She laughed, soft and breathless. “Bold of you to assume I want to leave.”
He leaned in, catching her mouth in a kiss that was nothing like the slow, reverent ones they’d shared earlier. This one was deeper, hungrier — the kind that made her spine arch and her fingers clutch at his shirt.
Her pendant pressed between them, cool against the heat of their skin, as his hand slid to the small of her back, pulling her closer until she felt every inch of him.
“Vios—” she gasped, but he swallowed the rest of her words with another kiss, tilting her head back until her hair spilled across the hood like ink.
The world beyond the garage didn’t matter. Not the retreat, not the city, not the ticking clock of morning creeping in.
There was only this.
The scrape of stubble against her jaw.
The faint taste of salt and metal on his lips.
The way his hands mapped every line of her, like he was memorizing her all over again.
When they finally broke apart, both of them were breathless.
“You always do this to me,” she whispered, forehead pressed to his.
“Good,” he murmured, kissing her one last time, slower this time — as if sealing something neither of them dared put into words.
---
The Morning After
The first light of dawn crept through the open garage door, turning everything soft and gold.
They were sitting side by side on the hood now, legs dangling, their shoulders brushing. Vios had one arm around her waist, his thumb idly tracing circles on her hip as if to remind himself she was really there.
Tori tilted her head, studying him. “So does this mean I get to keep the title of Master now?” she teased, her voice husky from the night they’d just had.
He chuckled, leaning down to kiss her hair. “Only if I get to keep you.”
“Deal,” she said, and for the first time in a long time, there was no hesitation in her voice.
Outside, the moon sank lower, the sun rising to take its place.
And as they stayed there, tangled in the afterglow, the world didn’t fade.
It expanded.
- Writer
