"Hazel… it's okay, sweetie. It's okay to let go. Just—just remember that we love you, baby. We always will."

I struggle to respond, but my goddamn brain is completely starved of oxygen and it feels like a knife is being driven into my ribs and my breaths have become deep, long rattles and I just can't hold on anymore.

The last thing I remember is darkness.

When my eyes open again, I manage to register three things:

One, I can breathe.

Two, there's no pain.

Three, there's a dark-haired boy in a green polo shirt standing in front of me.

"Augustus?"

The word comes out softer than I meant it to, so that it's barely above a whisper, but the boy turns around in a movement so fast I barely see it.

"I've been waiting, Hazel Grace. Everything here's been absolute bullshit without you around."

I let out a sound somewhere between a choked sob and a laugh, and then I'm running toward him and we're crashing into each other and kissing so hard that I never want to stop, ever. If I even have a heart in this weird afterlife thing—well, whatever I have, it's thumping a million miles a minute.

He pulls back, grins at me. "That felt good. Well, my Hazel Grace, why don't we head off into our Somewhere?"

"With a capital S?" I ask (rhetorically) as I slip my hand into his. "Okay."

"Okay," he agrees, and leads me off into sweet oblivion.

A/N: I feel like this is mediocre at best, but this book gave me super bad feels and I just HAD to write something for it. Excuse my mediocrity. :) This fic is dedicated to wombat-of-awesomeness. Thanks for turning me into an emotional wreck, dearest.

EPC