Sasquatch to the Moon

25: Leo's Vows to Isa

ROCKET

I will be absolutely honest, I spent like an hour researching weddings last night so I know pretty much the right order of things off the top of my head even though I barely speak Swedish. Okay, I can understand like a word here and there and that's it. I can't say anything or write anything down but I know the words for some things. Like pants. And love. And truck.

So from that, I'm able to watch what's going on and pick up a few other words here and there (like wedding which has been pounded into my head with a sledgehammer for the entire time I've been here) Håkon knows what's going on and will occasionally lean over and say something to me.

I think they're doing readings.

Honestly if I were Isa and Leo my legs would get tired of standing for this much time. If I get married I'm gonna need a movement break in here somewhere to quell how unbelievably fidgety I'd get. Håkon would probably be okay to stand up there for that long but I'd need at least something to do with my hands.

They're fucking adorable, though. I mean, the whole thing where Isa wiped the tears off Leo's cheeks? Fuck me with a cheese grater. (don't that would hurt) but c'mon that was so goddamn cute.

Anyway.

So readings, in Swedish, which bares barely any resemblance to Czech but some resemblance to English and occasionally I hear a word like Love or wedding or boat. For some reason one of these little segments had a lot of boat references in it. A lot.

Okay now the dude in the priest shit is talking to Isa and Leo.

I elbow my boyfriend. "Her full name is Isabel?"

He frowns, then: "yeah where the hell did you think we got Isa form."

Isa, pronounced eesa, is definitely not the short form of Isabel. "Isabel shortens to Bella or Belle or Izzy or- oh."

He smiles, squeezing my knee four times. I stare down at his hand, dwarfing the fuck out of my kneecap. His knuckles have little scars over them and they're battered up, rough, calloused, but big and warm and so very soft anyway. I want him to put them on my cheeks and cradle my head like Isa did to Leo. I feel like those hands could definitely palm my skull though.

I fix my attention back to the front in perfect time to see Leo pull two little folded up pieces of paper and handing one to Isa. Oh, vows, okay. I know what those are.

Leo starts, his first two make the group of Swedish-speakers laugh a little bit, Håkon leans over to me and translates softly into my ear.

"Uh," Håkon whispers. "I promise to kill all the spiders that show up in the house, this was more poetic in Swedish I apologize- I promise to fold socks the way you like, even if I think folding over the tops to keep them together works better, I do agree it stretches them out a little." Leo says another few things and Håkon takes a breath. "Socks and spiders aside, you've been with me for going on eleven years, understandably no easy feat. In the middle of all that, you've sat by my side and rubbed my back when I've had the stomach bug, uh- fuck-" Håkon pauses, letting Leo say some more before keeping going. "And you were there for me even when I wanted to quit everything, you made me tea and kissed my head as I studied my way through my PhD, you let me read all six hundred pages of my thesis to you even though you had no idea what I was talking about."

Håkon lets Leo talk for another few seconds then: "and I think I knew I wanted to marry you from our first few dates. You were the sweetest person I'd ever met, you still are and I hope you know you will always be. Maybe it was when you picked up that coin off the ground and handed it to me, I hope you know I still have it, or maybe it was fixing my tie before the first game of mine you watched, maybe it was when you-" Håkon pauses, frowning. "Stole the fries off my plate for the first time before making it a tradition every time you eat with me." He breathes in next to my ear before continuing. "But whatever the moment was, I've known for almost half my life that I want to spend all of it with you." Leo's voice is breaking up there and my eyes are definitely watering. Probably dust.