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“I want to marry you in the summer, wolf scout.” I draw closer, our eyes all over each other. “Marry me in the summer then.”
“You know me better than any guy ever has. You’re my person.” His chest collapses in a breath. “You know I feel the same.”
“I can carry your baby for you. I’d love to be your surrogate if you’d want that.”
You should know that I can survive in any universe, but I only want to live in the ones with Farrow Redford Keene.
Thank God, she’s okay. Thank God, she’s happy. Thank God, she found love in him and that he treats her like the most beautiful human on the planet. Janie deserves nothing less.
“If I’m tattooing your name on me, it’s going to be one-hundred percent visible. For the whole world to see.”
Farrow takes a step forward. “I’m going to become the guardian.” Donnelly shakes his head with force. “No, I can’t ask you.” “You don’t have to.” His face cracks, and Farrow steps closer to put his arms around him just as Donnelly breaks down, bringing his own shirt up to cover his face.
“My mom and dad raised me to fight the demons that they weren’t raised to fight. I’m strong because of my parents, and maybe that’s the point. They broke the cycle, and now I’m here to fight for him.”
“You have me beat, wolf scout. Because my father won’t ever love you the way that your family loves me.” His voice almost fractures. “Shit.”
I can’t imagine a universe where we keep this baby a secret.
We made it through alright, and so can he.
I have memories with Luna that supersede a lot. She was my first sibling, and as a kid, I loved taking care of her. Helping her out of the car seat, giving her my blanket when she was cold. I was so damn protective of her. Still am.
My dad adds, “Our parents make us weaker.” Make. Present tense.
“If you need me to scream off every mountain peak and yell until my lungs bleed that I love you, that you’re mine, that everyone can shut the fuck up and let us be—I’d do that.”
He taught me that fatherhood is more than daily chitchats and brief insignificant check-ins. It’s about what he never gave me. Love without reason. And through my actions, my child will know that he’s a top priority to me, for no reason but love.
“You’re my son too,” Lily suddenly professes, tears streaming down her round face. “You know that, right, Farrow? You’re a part of this family forever.”
“I’d really love for you to walk me down the aisle.” Lily nods rapidly. “Yes.” She wipes at her face. “I’d be honored.” I smile through a glassy sheen in my eyes and hug Lily. Quietly, I tell her, “Later tonight, Maximoff is asking Lo to walk him down the aisle.” Lily covers her eyes, overcome. “He’ll love that.”
There are two processions on either side of seated guests. Maximoff and I are both walking. And we’ll meet in the middle.
“You’ll live,” Charlie says. “But we can still throw you a funeral to celebrate the death of your common sense.”
I face my dad. “I need you. Not just right now, not just yesterday—but long after this week, after I’m married. In ten years. Twenty. When you’re an old man, I’m still going to need you.”
“You’re my dad,” I say, choked. “And I don’t want my kids to grow up with you as a memory like I have of my grandfather. I need you here—and I promise that I’ll tell you shit from now on, if you promise you won’t ever see me as someone you can push away. Because I might have other people, but no one in the whole universe—in every fucking universe—could ever replace you from my life.”
There are reasons why Maximoff says his parents are the strongest people he knows. Why he believes in them endlessly and faithfully. Every time they’re kicked down, they crawl to a stance and fight towards courage. And I’m lucky as hell that I can call them my family.
“Moffy.” My dad’s voice pulls me, and he wraps an arm around my shoulder. I hug him tight, and before I can tell him I love him, he whispers, “You’ve made me so goddamn proud to call you my son.”
“You’re the person that my soul has been searching for because my head was too stubborn to do it.”
“Well, I’ve been searching for you my entire life, and if someone told me that we’d been together before, in another time or place, I wouldn’t question them. I’ve longed for you before I even knew you, and now that I’ve found you, there’s not a single day I want to live without
“Your love is the most precious, valuable thing to me on the face of this fucking world, and I’ll love you today, tomorrow, and decades longer. When we’re old men and smiling about yesterdays, I’ll still love you and your pure heart and your good soul.”
And I’d like to think Plato was right. That in the beginning of time, it was Farrow and me, and we were once whole together. Our souls united. But like all humans, we were split down the middle. Separate halves wandering around this universe. We found each other. And finally, together, we became whole again.
If you’re reading this, it means we’re now married, and the sky didn’t fall in. We didn’t die before we could slip rings on each other. No doomsday or curse or hateful entity stopped us or separated us. It means you’re now Farrow Redford Keene Hale, and I can wake up knowing you’re mine forever. Thank you for giving the guy who has the world all the parts that he’s never seen or felt before. I love you. P.S. if this is too damn sappy, trash it. - Maximoff
His smile stretches from cheek-to-cheek, and he holds my face with two hands. Breathing life into my lungs. I clutch the crook of his neck as Farrow whispers into a kiss, “And I’ll always love you, wolf scout.” I’ve never been happier. Never loved stronger or more.
