The Simplicity of Eternity
Epilogue
Three months had passed since that day. The day that Lucas had gotten to meet Sawyer Brooke Scott: his daughter, and that day he had become a father. He had given up smoking cigarettes and marijuana though the latter was easier since Jaime hadn't returned. Jaime hadn't called and deep down Lucas knew he wouldn't, he was hurt by Brooke's dismissal of him. He was probably burying himself in alcohol and women, knowing his best friend.
Mouth too hadn't called, and neither of them had logged onto their Myspace accounts or their FaceBook.
Lucas just preferred to think that they were alive and kicking. Between writing and hanging out with his daughter he was left with a lot of time to think. About what he was doing with his life and he was contempt, but there was one thing missing. There was a noticeable bulge on his pocket and it was the last thing he ne needed to do to feel complete.
He was going to ask Peyton to marry him.
He knew he was rushing things, they had just gotten back together three months ago but inside he felt it was right. It gnawed at him for a while and finally he decided to go through with it, and retrieved his mother's wedding ring, an 18 karat diamond ring that Keith had gotten for her.
He had almost come to a full circle.
This was all that was left.
For two years he toured through Florida and done a lot of things he had regretted, anything to bury the pain of not having Peyton and it wasn't until Jaime forced him to go to Tree Hill that Lucas realized how much he needed her in his life. After finding out he had a daughter, he knew he couldn't leave. It would have been hard for Peyton to chase him out of Tree Hill, but after finding out about Sawyer, Lucas knew he couldn't.
He had bought a beach house from Dan, well technically Jaime bought it and gave it to him. Nathan and Haley had moved out into a cozy house a few blocks away, their romance re-newed and unable to keep their hands off each other. He smiled at that, he knew the two of them deserved happiness and knowing that they had found there way back to each other gave him hope for those who didn't have that. For his friends who still didn't have that love, that too powerful feeling of having just one special in the world that you would go to any extremes for and having them return that feeling.
He especially felt bad for Skillz, he had essentially showed up and ruined any chance that Skillz might have had with Peyton. Skillz had taken care of Peyton and Sawyer in Lucas' unknowing absence, and then after realizing the inevitably of Lucas and Peyton had taken off to Duke, ready to claim the world for his own.
He hadn't seen him since and for that Lucas felt terrible, Skillz was a childhood friend, and closer to him than a lot of people in ways that Nathan or Jaime weren't. He hoped that he could see him and apologize, but then again he was happily in love with Peyton and he couldn't take that back. His love for her was immense, it spanned from one side of the universe to the other.
He loved her and craved her. It was a feeling beyond comprehension.
Beyond comparison.
"Hey babe." A voice whispered into his ears, jolting him out of his reverie. Peyton slid her arms around his neck and kissed his temple softly.
"You got to stop that?" Lucas warned, his blue eyes alit with arousal.
"Why would I do that?" Peyton murmured, sliding one of her hands casually down his torso and slowly slid around his jean clad manhood. "Naley's babysitting Sawyer." She teased.
"Dear God, I love you woman." Lucas replied.
"C'mon, hurry up, momma needs her baby daddy to handle his business." Peyton drawled out and Lucas stood up, looking at her seriously. "Okay the baby daddy part was a bit out of line." She amended seeing his face.
"Peyton I love you." Lucas stated, trying to regain some sense but it was hard as she stood in front of him in a tight, sexy jean skirt that flaunted her ridiculously long legs and a beater for a shirt, aroused nipples poking through.
"I love you too. " she said cautiously, gazing into his eyes to try to gauge what he was about to say.
"Being with you and Sawyer has made me the happiest man alive this last three months and I know it's kind of pre-mature…"
Lucas was interrupted by Peyton's shrill shriek. "Oh my God, you're proposing aren't you?"
"Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer…" Lucas said, getting down to one knee.
"Yes… God yes."
"Will you make me dinner?" Lucas asked, grinning.
"You asshole." She cried out, punching him in the arm.
Lucas pulled out his mother's ring.
"Will you marry me?" Lucas asked, his electric blue eyes twinkling.
"I said yes, you idiot." Peyton replied and Lucas slid the ring on her hand.
The moment was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Oh my God, who is it now?" Peyton asked annoyed, walking to the door.
Opening the door, she was greeted by the sight of tanned skin, spiky black hair and smoky green eyes. A mischievous grin on the man's face left her shocked. It was someone she hadn't seen in a while.
"Jaime!" she shrieked and threw her arms around him in a hug. Seeing someone next to him, she saw a shorter man with darker skin and a bald head. "Skillz!"
"Hey shorty." Skillz greeted, returning the hug.
"Where the hell have you two been?" Lucas demanded, rushing to the door, not knowing whether to hug or punch Jaime.
"Japan, mostly." Jaime answered.
"What the hell were you doing in Japan?" Lucas asked curiously.
"Long story." Skillz replied. "Pretty much, he and Mouth kidnapped me, through me on a plane there and we've been there since. Mouth's still over there actually with this cute little Japanese girl named Mizuki. I love Japan." Skillz proclaimed.
Jaime noticed the ring on Peyton's finger. "It's about time you ugly son' bitch." Jaime called out and Lucas punched him in the stomach softly before hugging him.
"Come in." Peyton said, pulling them in.
"We actually can't stay too long, we're catching another flight actually back to Japan. He-who-shall-remain-high over here wanted to see Brooke, so we stopped by New York and caught a flight over here to say goodbye for a little bit." Skillz said pointedly.
"Are you high right now?" Peyton asked.
Jaime gave a slow nod of his head. "I've never done drugs." He said, his grin widening. "Yes, I have and yes I am." He whispered and Peyton giggled.
"You're an idiot." Peyton said chastising him.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me, here's the LP I owe you. Listen to it and hit me up." Jaime replied.
"That's next to impossible." Lucas said derisively. Jaime let out a defensive scowl. "How'd the talk with Brooke go?" Lucas asked, changing the subject.
"Well I'm higher now than I was then." Jaime offered as a response.
"So not of the goodness?" Peyton asked.
Jaime let out a laugh. "No, but I got the closure I needed. I'm moving on, you know. So, when y'all getting married?" he asked lazily.
"Well I just proposed before y'all knocked." Lucas admitted.
Jaime had the decency to look sheepish. "So y'all was about to have y'all post-proposal fuck? Sorry for cock-blocking!" Jaime replied.
Peyton blushed. "You're too much."
"That's what she said." Jaime responded sarcastically.
"Who Brooke?" Skillz asked.
"Low blow… but yes, at one point those were her words." Jaime bounced back with a grimace.
"We should go get something to eat?" Peyton offered.
"No can do, I'm here to say good-bye and all. Gotta get back to Japan, I lost a race and blew out my motor on the 'Stang." Jaime replied.
"Really?"
"Yeah, they got some crazy shit over there called touge racing where they race down mountains as fast as they can. I beat a few guys but ended up losing to a guy in a Toyota Corolla." Jaime admitted painfully.
"What, you lost to a Corolla?" Lucas asked outraged.
"Shut up. That kid was a monster."
"You suck…"
"Teme…" Jaime growled out in Japanese, unknowingly. "Anyway, I just got a new car waiting for me to hook it up and I'll challenge that idiot soon enough." Jaime replied.
"You still lost to a Corolla." Peyton pointed out.
"A nineteen eighty six Corolla." Skillz felt the need to add.
Jaime hung down his head in shame. "Whatever, anyway here's my number and my Skype screen name. Let me know the dates for the wedding old man." Jaime said, handing him a small piece of paper.
"I'm sorry you and Brooke didn't work out." Peyton called out.
"Me too." Jaime stated.
"By the way Jaime, your dad called while you were away." Lucas said and Jaime's half closed eyes went wide.
There was a pregnant pause. "Fuck him." Throwing the deuces to the blonde couple, he and Skillz began to walk away after one last hug. "Ja Ne! That's Japanese for see you later Leyton." Jaime called out and they headed out of the door.
"Use a rubba." Skillz shouted.
"I can't believe he was here." Peyton said after a moment of silence.
"I can't believe they're friends after that fight." Lucas replied softly.
"So how about that post-proposal fuck?" Peyton whispered huskily in his ear.
Lucas winced and the two of them hurried up to their bedroom.
***II***
Nathan and Haley laid in bed together, their naked bodied giving and feeding each other warmth that they desperately needed. "Do you think we can last?" Haley asked.
Nathan smirked against the side of her neck and sent shivers down her spine. "We're inevitable." Nathan stated, kissing her collarbone. "We gravitate around each other and no matter what we do we just can't help but orbit around each other. We were made to be together." Nathan stated poetically, shifting his leg so she straddled him.
"I love you." Haley stated simply. There was a sparkle to her eyes that he hadn't seen in such a long time. He loved that look.
"I love you Haley James." Nathan replied, and groaned as Haley trailed her breasts down to her his stomach. Her hard nipples grazed across his chiseled stomach, arousing him some more as she took him into her mouth.
Nathan shivered, and bucked underneath the warm sensation of Haley's warmth sliding up and down the length of him.
She continued until there was an immense pressure building up in his groin that couldn't be ignored and he attempted to warn her but all that came out of his lips was a muffled growl as he released. Catching his breath as she slid back up his body, he grabbed her by the waist and flipped her onto her back, before sliding down the length of her body.
Lips hovering over her wet, velvety warmth, he replied, "Your turn."
Haley screamed.
She bucked and thrashed, grinded and writhed as Nathan had his way with her.
"I want this forever."
"So do I Hales. Forever and beyond that."
***III***
Brooke wiped the tears from her eyes.
That bastard.
How dare he just show up here and force her to feel, and then walk away? Internally she knew it was her fault, she had let him that night at TRIC, petulantly so. He had made her feel naked, disrobed her feelings until she was bare to him, tore her defensive walls asunder and got through. That arrogant son of a bitch. That handsome, hot, irresistible, conceited, under-achieving stoner .
She literally wanted to throw the things in her office around in a fit of rage.
He had showed up fresh from Japan, wormed his way into her office. He said things she hadn't wanted to hear, because they were true, painfully so. After having her whole beliefs shattered around her, he had walked away, like she had done to him and promised never to return to her, never to chase her.
"You're still in love with Lucas aren't you?"
"Him leaving hurt you just as much as Peyton. Took me a minute to realize that, you never truly got over Luke. You might hid it from Peyton and him but he has his own little spot on your pedestal, and no matter how many guys you fuck, how many kisses you steal, how many drinks you consume has changed that. In a way, you used me."
"I was everything opposite of Lucas, I was the dark to his light and you craved me for it. Desired that plunge into the dark void that I am, because I wasn't him. You liked me of course, wanted me, but only because of the fact that I represent all the darkness inside of you. You realized it of course that night, that I cared for you, that I was becoming something other than what you craved, something good, something right."
"You ruined that, you have to live with it."
"You ruined what we could have had. You realize it now of course, that blank look in your expression tells me as much, now live with it. It took me forever to understand this, I had to go to Japan, and live on the tight rope between life and death, get uncontrollably high, and fuck enough Japanese girls to get to that point. I wallowed in self-pity like some school boy, do you understand that?"
"You made me feel."
"You gave me hope."
"Good luck in life Brooke, and do yourself a favor: Get over Lucas. He was never going to be yours, him and Peyton, they are truth, a fact, a variable that doesn't make sense but is."
Brooke sobbed uncontrollably with nothing to console her, her lips still damp from his goodbye kiss.
***IV***
6 Months Later
December 25, 2007
Luquillo, PR
Peyton was happier than she could ever remember. She was now Peyton Elizabeth Scott, having married Lucas yesterday in Tree Hill in front of all her friends. She expected the wedding to be awkward, with the collective amount of her friends there and all the drama that had happened but there wasn't. Jaime and Brooke had been civil to each other, she had met Mouth's wife Mizuki McFadden, a slender Japanese girl, with jet black hair and the cutest accent ever.
Skillz had been cordial to Lucas, and it seemed as if their friendship was on the mend after all their differences.
It had been a great day.
It was mildly amusing watching Jaime and Brooke steal glances at each other and dance their way around each other, but Peyton hoped that maybe they could reconcile, the brief relationship they had had been good for both of them.
She could only hope.
But not even her friends' awkwardness around each other put a damper on that day. It was the second happiest day of her life, coming a close second to Sawyer's birth. They had a simple forest wedding and had taken off as soon as possible for the two week honeymoon, and left Sawyer in Jaime's care back at Tree Hill.
He had promised to stay sober for the sake of Lucas and Peyton's post-wedding bonanza as he put it.
Looking at her husband through her emerald eyes, she couldn't help but hunger for him as the two laid out on the beach, the weather a surprising eighty degrees in December as water tickled at their toes. He looked so calm, so happy. His face clean shaven and blonde hair in unruly spikes, he was the epitome of hot to her. She didn't desire another man, she couldn't.
Looking into his sunlit blue eyes she leaned over and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips. He pulled her closer and deepened the kiss, pressing his firm body against her. She loved the feel of his tender leanness, an almost contradictory statement as it was but Lucas himself defied the laws of conventionalism.
"I love you, you know that?" Lucas proclaimed, giving her a tender kiss to the hollow of her throat.
"I hope so, we're married. You're stuck, till death do us part and all." Peyton drawled out.
"Stuck, I like that idea." Lucas said, waggling his eyebrows.
"I love you Lucas Scott, then, now, and forever." Peyton whispered, a small breeze blowing against her face like the gentle caress of a lover.
"I love you Peyton Scott, more than you'll ever allow." Lucas murmured.
"That doesn't make sense." Peyton said calling him out.
"It does."
"Shut up, let's go to our rooms and let the bonanza begin." She exclaimed suddenly.
"It began last night." Lucas complained.
"Those don't count, you could of put up a better performance." Peyton replied.
"Oh really, I guess I'll have to make it up to you." Lucas replied.
"We have all the time in the world." Peyton teased.
"And it still wouldn't be enough."
This was love.
This was forever.
This was simple.
This was eternal.
Fin
AN: Yay, a happy ending for most of the characters here. Obviously it can end with them all happy otherwise no possibility for a sequel. There would be no point. So sorry if it sounds rushed but after the long ass chapters getting here, I wanted something short, sweet, and simple to play off the title. What's next for Leyton? Or Naley? What happened in Japan with Skillz, Jaime, and Mouth. How did Mouth meet Mizuki, or what did Jaime say to Brooke in New York and how did she reply. I purposely only gave you a teaser of that scene to leave it to be interpreted however you chose to. Hopefully soon we'll get the first sequel- Nights on Mount Akina and after that perhaps a Naley driven fic. I don't know what the future holds, but I got a lonnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg time to find out. Thanks for those who stuck with me from beginning to end.