Author's Note: This is a story for those Andi Mack fans, like me, who are not ready to let go of Tyrus yet. It is for the people who want to see the follow through and their relationship. I have a plan to keep Tyrus alive for some more time. This chapter is intended to paint the events of the finale as the beginning of the story rather than the end of one. This story is focused on the relationship between TJ and Cyrus, but does not treat that relationship as if it existed in a vacuum. I will try to upload a new chapter every week, but I have a lot going on this fall, so I can't make any promises.I'm going to aim to have a new chapter out every Monday. At the end of each chapter, I will inform you if I plan to write another. This is intended for Andi Mack fans of ALL ages. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This chapter goes into more detail of the events of the party between Cyrus and TJ. I do not take credit for these events occurring, only my additional commentary on them.I also do not take credit for most of the dialogue in this chapter, which is mainly intended to paint a literary picture of the events in the series finale. For this and future chapters, I do not own anything recognizable. Due credit is given to Disney for everything that is not entirely original.

Chapter 1

Eighth grade had been quite the emotional roller coaster for Cyrus, and after a beautiful dance to celebrate Bex and Bowie's wedding, tonight was no exception. He was incredibly happy for Andi and her parents, but questioned whether he would ever get to have what they had. He had struggled to reconcile what his sexual orientation would mean for his future romantic life.

As he wandered around at the party, he saw Buffy staring over at Marty. Cyrus walked up to Buffy, surprising her as she was so focused on the scene that was happening in front of her. Cyrus looked over in the direction that Buffy was looking, and he gave a bit of a smirk.

"I see," Buffy acknowledged the scene with frustration.

Wanting to help his friend, Cyrus turned to Buffy and started talking. "Things still weird between you two?" he asked.

"I don't know what they are," Buffy answered with a sudden shift in tone from frustrated wit to pure hopeless desire.

"What do you want them to be?" Cyrus responded, the therapist within him coming out.

"I don't know that either." Buffy did know, though. She liked Marty. Plain and simple. She wanted to date him. She knew that for a fact, and so did Cyrus.

"Do you have any information that might be useful for a conversation?" Cyrus asked, trying to push Buffy in the direction she wanted to go.

"He doesn't like me anymore," complained Buffy. "I mean he likes me," she clarifies, "he just doesn't like me."

At this point, Cyrus knew the pain that Buffy was feeling. He wanted her to be okay. He also didn't believe that Buffy was actually right about Marty not liking her. Coming to Buffy's aid, Cyrus dismissed her claim. "I'm sure that's not true," Cyrus said with what seemed an attempting-to-be-reassuring chuckle. "What makes you think that?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"He told me," Buffy replied depressingly smugly.

The two of them once again looked over at Marty having a good time and dancing. Cyrus changed his tone to one of a more upbeat and energetic nature. "I still don't think it's true," he said with a confident smugness, seemingly trying to out-smug Buffy's previous declaration. Buffy smiled at her friend trying to reassure her.

She looked back over and could no longer see Marty. Instead, she saw TJ. She smiled at Cyrus and tapped him to look over.

"I see," said Cyrus, eerily similar to the way Buffy said it earlier. Cyrus had just gotten TJ off his mind by helping Buffy, and there he was again.

Buffy knew that Cyrus had a crush on TJ. The way that he acted towards TJ was similar to the way he acted when he had a crush on Jonah. Cyrus was aware that Buffy knew about his crush, even though he never directly told her about it. He knew that it was pretty obvious to anyone who was paying attention. Besides, Buffy and Cyrus always had a special connection as friends and they could pretty much read each other's minds at this point.

"TJ!" Buffy yelled out to him. That's about the last thing Cyrus wanted her to do. He was so embarrassed. He was even more embarrassed when TJ gave a comically large wave over to them with that big cheesy grin that Cyrus adored so much. Cyrus waved back with an embarrassed smile.

The very next moment, Kira showed up next to TJ. Cyrus's smile disappeared. "Kira," Cyrus muttered under his breath with an uncharacteristically distasteful tone.

Buffy was upset that her friend was hurting. "You know why he's hanging out with her, don't you?" She believed that TJ liked Cyrus. It was obvious to her in a way that she thought it should be obvious to anyone. But she wanted Cyrus to figure that out on his own. She didn't want to force her assumptions onto a situation in which she wasn't directly involved. She believed TJ was hanging out with Kira to make Cyrus jealous. While that wasn't entirely the case, it wasn't super far off base. Cyrus, however, didn't have a clue.

"No, do you?" he asked, puzzled.

"It's not because he likes her," Buffy tried to say reassuringly, with some frustration showing that Cyrus hadn't figured it out. She just wanted him to be happy and not hurting for once.

Cyrus still didn't believe that. "You keep saying that, and yet…" They both looked back over just in time to see TJ putting his arm around Kira.

At this point, Buffy recognized that what Cyrus needed was not a wake-up call, but comfort from a friend. "I'm sorry," she said as she put her arm around Cyrus, trying to make him feel a little better.

Cyrus held back tears. "I was probably deluding myself anyway," he said hopelessly.

Buffy felt so much empathy for Cyrus, and wished that he didn't have to hurt. She gave Cyrus a smile of empathy. They stood there for a minute until Cyrus could get himself together and start having fun again.

"Should we dance?" Buffy asked Cyrus, hoping to relieve a bit of his emotional turmoil.

"Sure," replied Cyrus.

They started dancing, and Cyrus just let everything go and began having fun. TJ wasn't totally off his mind, but at least he could look past it for the moment.

From another point in the room, TJ and Kira watched Cyrus flailing his arms around like a crazy person.

"Why don't you wanna dance?" Kira asked TJ with a big smile on her face.

"I just don't," TJ replied, "But you can go ahead!" He was preoccupied with watching Cyrus.

Kira started laughing out of nowhere. TJ frowned. "What's so funny?"

"Look at Cyrus!" Kira exclaimed, still laughing, as though she thought the answer should be obvious. "That's hilarious!"

TJ couldn't help but to smile when he looked over at Cyrus, but his smile faded when he got frustrated with Kira. "You can't do that," he said.

"I can't do what?" Kira asked innocently.

"Laugh at someone for the way they dance," TJ started to get angry.

"You did it too," Kira pointed out.

"No, I didn't," TJ clarified.

"I saw the way you were smiling," Kira said accusingly. "You thought it was funny."

"I thought it was fun!" TJ was definitely mad at Kira at this point. What he really wanted to say was that he thought it was cute, but he knew that he had to tread carefully when he was dealing with someone like Kira. "You know there's a difference, right?" TJ didn't like this side of himself. Unfortunately, Kira just brought it right back out. He was mad and couldn't believe how mean Kira was being.

"Why don't you admit what this is really about?" Kira said even more accusingly.

"What do you mean?" TJ asked. But he knew what she meant. He knew that she thought he had a crush on Cyrus. And she was right. He just didn't want it getting around. He realized then that he was forced into hanging out with Kira because he didn't know what she would do out of pure jealousy.

"If I made you pick," Kira replied, still being vague. Her vagueness had worked so far in manipulating TJ to be her friend, so she figured she'd take one last shot. "Me or Cyrus?" She looked over at Cyrus. "You'd pick Cyrus," she said disappointedly.

Now TJ was furious. He looked over at Cyrus and then back at Kira with a glare. "Why do you do that?" he asked furiously.

She gave him a blank stare.

"Make me pick?" he clarified.

Kira looked upset at the remark, but TJ didn't care. Instead, he looked over in admiration at Cyrus dancing with Andi.

"Cyrus never made me pick," he said, suddenly becoming mellower.

"I guess that answers my question," said Kira with a look of disappointment. TJ just stared at her wondering what motive she could possibly have for being so manipulative and mean. "I'll see you around." With that, Kira walked away and left the party, leaving TJ alone.

TJ looked over at Cyrus and smiled. His smile faded when he realized the spot he was in. A friend just tried to make him choose between her and another friend, his crush. And TJ was afraid to tell Cyrus about his crush. He didn't know if Cyrus was in that place. His look of admiration towards Cyrus became a look of longing.

A little while later, after their fun spontaneous musical number in the middle of the party, TJ once again felt that longing for Cyrus. They had just sang to each other! He wandered outside hoping to find a spot to sit down and reflect. He talked to a couple of people before he could sit down on the bench in the back and isolate himself.

When he finally sat down, Cyrus appeared right out of nowhere, as he had been looking for TJ to talk to him because they hadn't really gotten to talk much the whole party.

"Can I sit?" Cyrus asked hesitantly.

"Sure," Replied TJ. Cyrus followed and sat down next to TJ.

"What happened to Kira?" asked Cyrus as he had noticed that TJ was suddenly quite a bit more isolated at the party.

"I poured water on her and she melted." TJ didn't mean to be mean at this point; he was just angry. He was, however, proud of that burn.

Cyrus nodded, surprised at TJ's witty remark. "I actually buy that," he said, about to chuckle.

"She is not a nice person," TJ said with a grim laugh.

Cyrus, despite not liking Kira, didn't want to condemn her too much. "You know people used to say that about you?" he said as a reminder to TJ about a past of which he was not very proud.

"Well," TJ said calmly, "sometimes there's a nice person on the inside trying to get out." He was glad that he had made it to the point where the good person in him did come out.

Cyrus nodded. It was clear that both boys were tired and had endured a lot of emotional stress that day. "I know that now," he told TJ reassuringly.

"But," Cyrus said, seeing if he could push a little further, "still a lot of things I don't know."

"Like what?" TJ asked curiously.

"Like that you play piano," Cyrus mentioned, pointing to the earlier-occurring outburst of song.

"My mom's a piano teacher," said TJ.

Cyrus shrugged, "Didn't know that either."

"I'm not mysterious," TJ laughed, "ask me anything."

Cyrus took this opportunity – because he's Cyrus – to think of the perfect question to see if he could push TJ out of his comfort zone a little bit. "Ok," he said with an extremely smug smile once he figured out what he wanted to ask, "What does TJ stand for?" He looked directly at TJ, anticipating the answer.

"Except that!" TJ said with conviction. He thought there was no way he would ever have a chance with Cyrus if Cyrus knew his real name.

Cyrus was quick to the punch and exclaimed with hilarity, "You won't tell me your name?"

TJ shook his head.

"And you think that's not mysterious?" proclaimed Cyrus with an intrigued smile.

"Ok, there's like five people in the world who know it," TJ explained, trying to back himself out of the situation, "and they're all named Kippen."

"You should know, if you don't tell me," Cyrus started with a somewhat reassuring tone, shifting to one of hilarity, "I will be the first person ever to literally die of curiosity!"

"I don't know, I-" TJ sighed. He was afraid, but he knew Cyrus wanted to know. He also knew that he wanted to be open with Cyrus. He wanted to take the risk, so he changed course and looked dead straight into Cyrus's eyes. "If I tell you," he conditioned, "you can never use it." He had to put the emphasis on the word "never" just to make sure it was perfectly clear to Cyrus.

"I won't," promised Cyrus.

"Or tell anyone else," TJ continued.

"I promise," said Cyrus excitedly, just wanting to know why TJ was concealing his name.

"Like, Cyrus, you gotta swear-" TJ needed to make it absolutely clear, but was cut off.

"I do! I do! I swear!" replied Cyrus hastily, wanting to get to the answer. To reassure TJ, he changed his tone to one that was more serious and said, "I swear."

They looked at each other, and TJ was convinced that he could trust Cyrus with the information. TJ shook his head and proceeded.

"Alright," he said with a demeanor that Cyrus read as I can't believe I'm about to do this. "My parents are way into music," he began to explain. "And they named me for their favorite artists."

"That's not so strange," Cyrus shook his head trying to reassure TJ.

"TJ stands for…," he paused as Cyrus waited in anticipation, "…Thelonious Jagger."

Cyrus gave TJ a look that TJ was sure was a look of judgement.

"Thelonious Jagger?" Cyrus repeated. "Are you kidding?" he began to laugh.

TJ shook his head and was sure that Cyrus was ridiculing him.

Suddenly, brightened with a smile, Cyrus said "That is a great name! I love that name."

TJ laughed along with Cyrus. "You do?" he asked, surprised.

"Yes!" Cyrus said with what could only be described as an adoring smiling whisper.

TJ was relieved, so he continued the conversation. "Well, my grandparents didn't. And they were like," he started to mimic his grandparents mocking his name, "'that's a ridiculous name! We're calling him TJ!'" He and Cyrus both laughed. "So I've been TJ since I was three days old."

They smiled at each other. Because of his inability to catch himself in the moment, Cyrus's expression once again changed to one of longing. That was it. He couldn't hide it from TJ this time. TJ noticed the expression and immediately caught on.

TJ thought to himself, 'wait a minute, maybe he does like me.' He pretty much knew at this point, but didn't want to take anything for granted.

TJ's expression also shifted and his demeanor shifted to a calm nervous one. His heart started racing; he knew it was time to make a move. "Is there anything else you want to know?" he asked Cyrus with a lump in his throat.

Cyrus looked down to avoid eye contact. He still thought it was too good to be true. He wanted to ask if TJ was gay and if TJ would ever consider going out with him. Cyrus knew that he couldn't ask that question. If he was wrong, he wouldn't know how to recover from it. But in the moment that Cyrus looked down, he saw something telling. He saw TJ's hand hesitantly inching towards his own. He looked back up to TJ and couldn't hold back a nervous smile. His heart was now racing.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" asked Cyrus, continuing the theme of vagueness in the conversation.

"Yeah," TJ exhaled with a nervous smile, similar to the one that Cyrus had just shown. He kept inching his hand closer to Cyrus's. "Is there anything you want to tell me?" They were so nervous and tense that they could only whisper to each other. Could this be the moment that both of them had been waiting for so long that neither knew the other also wanted?

"Yes," whispered Cyrus with a big cheesy smile. He and TJ, without saying it directly, had just confessed their feelings for each other. Cyrus was holding back tears again, but this time, they were tears of joy.

TJ gave a big smile, a soft laugh, and then delicately grabbed Cyrus's hand, which Cyrus accepted immediately. With their fingers interlocked, they both smiled at each other and sighed with relief. Both of their hearts were racing, and they sat there feeling that feeling with each other in a moment extraordinarily beautiful to both of them.

They sat for a minute to feel that and feel each other's presence until Cyrus broke the silence, still whispering, "I should probably tell you," TJ looked confused, as if Cyrus was about to say something bad. "I'm gay," said Cyrus gently. After TJ took a second to absorb what Cyrus had just said, they both started laughing and he shoved Cyrus playfully.

Once the laughing died down, TJ asked, "Should we make it official?"

Cyrus waited a moment, and then said "Of course," in a delicate whisper not to break the mood.

Cyrus leaned in and put his head on TJ's shoulder, and TJ put his arm around Cyrus. They just sat there for a while, admiring the stars and taking in the moment. After struggling to come to terms with being gay, both of them knew that this right here is what made all of that turmoil so worth it.

Chapter 2 Coming Soon