Love Birds | ✓

30. At the Altar

And our journey draws to an end.

When I look back to every single day we've been together since the first time we went out to coffee all those years ago in Paris, it humbles me to see how far we'd come.

From strangers.
To bestfriends.
To lovers.
To partners.
To partner-in-crime.

For life.

We stand today at the altar with our family and friends before us, looking at the blue skies, the calm lake and the chirping birds with serenity.

That's today.

Under the holy skies where we decided to bind ourselves to each other for eternity. An open sky where we're amidst nature, the very nature that created us, the very nature that caressed us.

The minister speaks on, and yet my mind wanders, wanders over to the warmth of your hands. The very same hands whose warmth made me feel at home when I held them for the first time.

I look into your eyes and smile.

They hold the same love that they did the first time you confessed that you love me. The very same love that made me believe in love. Made me believe in taking risks.

Made me believe in taking the plunge.

At some point, your smile grows wider and it snaps me back to reality.

Shit, I missed your vows.

It's my turn now.

Was there anything more left to say?
Were words anymore enough to express everything I felt for you?

But I had to try.

I smile again.

"Zach, I believe that we are all born of stardust, where each particle belongs to another, split into half at birth, only to be reunited eons later against a different time and realm. But it's only the lucky ones who find their half.

When you walked into my life eight years ago, I had no idea that I'd found my half. A half that makes me whole. I was whole even before I met you, Zach, but with you life feels whole. You complement me to make me 200%, not just 100%.

You're the half that was meant to make me thrive upon the highs of life, the half that showed me the stars and gave me paradise. And no matter how much I express I love you would do you injustice. Because you're a lot more than the love of my life.

You're the soul I was intertwined with,
the missing piece of my soul.

And if you let me, I would love to spend the rest of my life making every moment we spend together paradise for you too."

The birds chirped in silence as your smile grew; so did the tears in your eyes. There was an audible sniff from where the guests were seated but everything was drowned out against the happiness radiating from your face.

It was a vow I meant with all my heart. I knew your vows by heart because you re-wrote them right beside me, but mine were a surprise.

Probably because I hadn't prepared any up to this point.

Somewhere between scoops of rings and "I do's" the minister announces us to be man and wife, and it isn't a split second later when your lips are over mine, soft and gentle, loving and warm.

They linger on enough for you to whisper that you love my across my lips, and enough for me to tell you that I love you too.

When we separate, the place has erupted into cheers and the music has already begun for our first dance as husband and wife. And so you lead me right to the center until I'm firmly secured in your embrace and we sway to the rhythm of the song.

This is the end of our journey as partners.

And the beginning of our journey as soulmates.

Soulmates like the love birds flying across the very sunset we were married under, the very sunset where we stepped into a new dawn of our lives.

Not all dreams in life came true.
Not all stories in life have a happily ever after.

But you proved me wrong.

To every time I feared being alone, you stayed. To the end of the line.
To the very last beat of the song.

And so we danced until the music went into the night, life intoxicated by the power of love and where fate had brought us tonight.

Fate, that had tied us since the very day we had coffee for the first time in a bustling lane of Paris.