before and after [karlnap]

before

karl and nick have lived a great life.

for sixty-four years, they have been in love. it never faltered once: their bond and relationship only grew as they got older.

they were the ideal couple; people looked at them and smiled. they would normally see the old couple sitting in a coffee shop at their usual table by the window, just enjoying each other's company.

when they looked, they saw the outgoing karl cheerfully chatting away to his husband sipping his hot chocolate, his regular order since he didn't like coffee. he always talked with his hands, expressing his emotions through them with ease. it was something nick loved about his husband, how fluently he could express his feelings with just his body language. he never ran out of things to talk about either; there was always something new to joyfully converse with his husband over every day over a cup of coffee, well, hot chocolate. his purple and green mask would try to fall off his face from him moving his mouth so much, but he just gently placed it back over the bridge of his nose. every time he did that, his husband would smile.

across the wooden table from the talkative man, people would see his lover, nick. they rarely saw him talk; they only saw him sip his black coffee and listen attentively to whatever his husband's story was that day. he always wore a simple medical mask after being relentlessly teased by karl since he lost masks so frequently. he didn't mind though, he enjoyed his husband's teasing. people wouldn't guess that nick was loud when him and karl were in the privacy of their home, he just allowed karl to tell his stories while out in public. even with the pair's old age, nick found it hard to remain silent. his voice boomed throughout the house when he talked with his lover.

it was hard not to smile when bystanders saw how they looked at each other. the table separating the pair could not separate the deep eye contact they shared. they looked into each other's eyes like they were galaxies, picking out each star and planet.

people dreamed of having what they had: a soulmate they could spend the rest of their lives in bliss.

they dreamed of becoming the old couple who sat at the coffee shop.

-

just like every night, nick walked over to the old record player sitting atop an old wooden stool. it was surrounded by karl's plants, its vines slightly covering the base. the plants were watered daily and basked in the sun from the window. there was old vinyl sitting in a neat stack next to the wooden stool, also slightly covered by karl's greens. there was one certain record that nick was looking for, though.

he picked up the white record sitting on the very top of the stack, as it always is. there wasn't really any use for the other vinyl as this was the only one the old couple really played.

nick looked at the cover for a moment, looking at the man in the middle. on the left was the man playing guitar looking straight at the camera. in the middle was the same man, now in a close-up to his face. he was looking down and to the left, presumably at his guitar that was out of frame. the words displayed at the bottom with nick's favorite colors, red and orange, read: "elvis; can't help falling in love; the hollywood hits". there were music notes in a variety of colors that danced around the whole cover. nick smiled down at the cover he looked at every night at the man he knew all so well, elvis presley. he then turned to his partner.

karl was standing in the middle of their living room, cane in hand. his smile went from ear to ear, as it always did. nick couldn't think of a time where karl wasn't smiling at him. the grey-eyed man gently placed his wooden cane against nick's leather chair and gave his husband a face. he was waiting for him to hurry up with the vinyl.

nick scoffed softly at his lover's face and smiled. he pulled the disc out of its respective sleeve and set the sleeve on the record stack. he gently placed it in the center of the record player, making sure he wasn't scratching it. he pulled the safety lock off and flipped the small lever on the front, making the needle go up. he then pulled the protective case off the needle and set it on top of the now-empty sleeve. nick smiled at karl, placing the needle at the edge of the disc. he walked over to his partner as low static played from the record player.