Exchange Student (DenNor)

Chapter 8 - Honeymoon

    The night air this summer even still holds the warmth of day. It was that perfect time of night, when the sun has just gone down, and the heat of the earth seems to rise. The fading blue sky holds no longer holds dark clouds of worry, only the clear skies of love and perfect happiness.

    Underneath this large mass of space lays two men. Side by side, and hand in hand, they lay close together, ready to stargaze. The lake not far from them slowly hitting against the shore. The shorter man fingers the metal ring on the others hand, and then his own.

    Together lies soul mates, two lovers bonded so closely nothing can break it.. As they say death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while. However, the two under the stars were far from death, as there new lives together we're only beginning.

    Only days earlier, on a tiny Danish island, a wedding was about to take place. On an island called Ærø, in the town of Marstal, at the church Ommel Kirke. It was here the two tied the knot at sunset.

    The day began early for Lukas, waking up for the first time in years alone in a bed. Mathias, his (at the time) soon-to-be husband, having his own room across the hall. On the closet of the room, his tuxedo hung, ironed and ready for action. It's design similar to that Lukas wore to his and Mathias's first date. As he shuffled over too it, still half in sleep, the memories of the night came back to him. The heat of the packed cafeteria, the clinks of tall heels on marble floors, and the warmth and tenderness of the love of his life surrounding him.

    He brakes from this memory when his portion of the groomsmen arrive . His best man knocked. After a moment or so, the door opens, and the group of men practically topple him.

    Eagerly before Lukas stands the grooms men. First is Tino, who proudly wore the ring on his left hand, ecstatically waiting July 17, his planned wedding day in Stockholm. Beside him are Arthur and Vladmir, his best friends he met during the exchange. And finally, the last in the group, and the best man, Emil. Over the years of finishing high school and attending college in Iceland, he had become a young man, still smitten with Leon, the exchange student from Hong Kong.

    Before Lukas stood the best friends he could ever have, and the only ones he ever had. He didn't really have time to socialize between taking care of Emil, working, and doing homework. But that all changed when he got to Denmark. Well, everything did really. His life was flipped-turned upside down, as if he was the fresh prince of Denmark.

    In the room across the hall, the same thing was happening to Mathias, as if all the groomsmen had planned the double attach. In front of him was Berwald, his best man, already dressed in his finest, smiling just a little. Next to him is Alfred and Gilbert, two members of the basketball team he and Lukas had come to be friends with. Mathias was happy to have friends, to stop being so lonely alone in his room while his father babbled on the phone.

    Oh yes, tonight was the night.

    Of the course of the day, a happy frantic posed the bridal party. Each side was rushing to make sure every detail, photo, and ring where in order. All day, the grooms thought about each other, wondering what was happening with them in all the fuss.

    Silence engulfed the room as the priest signaled the guests to rise. The band in the corner began to play softly. Around the corner, with Emil and there mother by his side, came Lukas practically glowing. Orange-yellow light illuminated his body, his step in that steady wedding march.

    Up the isle was his loving fiancé, on the verge of crying tears of pure joy, with a smile bigger  than anyone in the room had ever seen him wear before. Lukas, saw this, and he smiled too. And oh goodness did Mathias love it when he smiled. To him, Lukas was the most beautiful man in the world.