Love is like music, gentle and tender yet able to touch our hearts so deeply that we can never erase the traces it leaves on our souls.
Hugo had seen many supernatural things, many impossible ones. He had gone through anger, through pain, yet nothing in his life was able to prepare him for what happened to him on that fateful Pride Parade.
He had the chance to experience the deep sadness that the ghost he helped that day carried with him. But also, the rich, quiet joy of meeting someone who could play the melody of love on his heartstrings.
It made him realize that he was the lucky one. He was the one who could overcome the world's prejudices and live the life he always wanted with his precious boyfriend, who was the only simple joy in his life he could never give up.
"Hugo, are you okay?" Xander, the man of his life, asked as he gently wiped away the tears that slid down Hugo's cheeks.
"I am fine," Hugo said, smiling through the tears. "I am just remembering the day I met you and thinking we are lucky to have something like this, to have our hearts beat as one and not hide that feeling from the world around us."
"That was the strangest day of my life... and the happiest," Xander said, smiling brightly. "You saved my life and then just ran off like a lunatic."
Hugo considered things from Xander's perspective and realized how odd it must have seemed to him. Especially since he was a rational guy who never believed in ghosts and the supernatural until that day when he met Hugo.
"And then I saw you kissing that guy and was so disappointed," Xander continued, scrunching his eyebrows. "For some reason, it hurt more than I anticipated. It felt like my song was finished before it even had the chance to start. That was until the guy disappeared in the blink of an eye, and I didn't know what to think."
"He needed to know how it felt to kiss a guy, something he had always wanted and never had the chance to do. In most cases, finishing their unfinished business helps the ghosts to cross over. You saw all that, and yet, you still helped the poor broken me and called me your hero if memory serves me correctly," Hugo said, looking lovingly into his boyfriend's eyes, joy sparkling from his whole face like a sun looking down on its planet, on its reason for existence. "You held me close, and literal sparks started flying around us, making the world so much brighter."
"I've told you thousand times before. Those were confetti and fireworks," Xander said, smiling at his endearingly odd boyfriend. "No real sparks were flying, but I could still feel the connection between us."
As he said that, he took his pouting boyfriend's face into his hands, gently straightening his furrowed brows and pouty mouth.
"Can't you, for once, be a bit more romantic?" Hugo said in the most childish voice ever.
"You are my beautiful exorcist who got rid of all the ghosts of my past with your warmth and care," Xander said, gently stroking Hugo's cheek. "And you are the only person I want to have by my side through thick and thin, through whatever comes in our life now or in the future. Forever."
"On that note," Hugo said, pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket. "I wrote something for you:
You are the only one, the soul that speaks to my own. The joy and sadness, the good and the bad, I am ready to face it all if you are next to me. Your mind, your soul, and your heart, I want to be mine.
We are meant to be with each other, and nothing has ever made me happier. You are my soulmate, my reason for existence. What all roads led me to is your loving embrace.
I promise to always be there for you, to love, protect, and support you for the rest of our lives. It is a vow as well as a promise, one that I never plan to break. Tell me you want the stars from the sky, and I will find a way to get them for you. Tell me you want the oceans, and I will do my best to catch the waves and bring them back to you. Please don't tell me no, because that's the only thing I cannot bear.
Xander Marcus O'Connell, will you do me the honor of marrying me?"
Folding the note, Hugo dropped to one knee and lifted his gaze to look at his handsome boyfriend for the first time after his long speech. Tears cascaded slowly down his cheeks like waterdrops falling from leaves in a gentle melody.
"I am sorry!" Hugo exclaimed, getting to his feet in a panic. "If you are not ready, I can wait...I just... You don't... I want..."
Xander quickly pulled Hugo towards him, silencing him with a deep, passionate kiss that was trying to express the amount of love he had for him and how much he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.
His heart danced in the rhythm of the drums as his hands shook in their own rhythm, following an unknown tune, a melody that was now their own, the song of their lives, the perfect combination of his drums and Hugo's gentler tunes. No matter how different the two were, they fit perfectly together, creating one beautiful composition, their life.
"Stop worrying so much. It's a yes! Of course, it's a yes," Xander exclaimed as soon as his mouth left Hugo's.
"You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I love you more than anything else," Xander said firmly with passion pouring out of his fiery eyes. "You accepted me as I am, even though I have a temper and am not as gentle as most people. You saw the true me and never tried to change me. Even my own family didn't do that. Getting to know you, falling in love, and becoming your boyfriend are my biggest privileges in life. Now, it would be my honor to call you my fiancé and one day soon my husband as well."
"We accepted each other," Hugo said, beaming brightly. "You make me so much better than I have ever been. I've always tried to escape from what I was, to put away my exorcist self. You were the one who taught me to accept it as part of myself, to embrace all of who I was, and that made me so much better as a person and as your soulmate. We've grown so much together, and I hope we continue to do so."
Any words either of them had to add were lost to the passion that overcame them as their bodies continued the process their soul had begun of becoming one.
Write a story inspired by this music.
Setting: It should be set in one of your already existing stories but it should be a standalone story.
This one is set in one of my not so popular short stories Spirited Parade. I always wanted to know what happened next and this is my way of finding out.
Minimum word count: 500