Chapter Text
Even is about ten minutes into chopping vegetables when he hears the door open and his blood runs cold.
“I’m home!” He hears Isak call down the hallway, “Baby? What’s all this?”
Even panics, trying to think of anything to say, and he finally sees Isak walk into the room. It’s then that all his expectations don’t seem too dire anymore. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t dark in here so the candles didn’t give that atmosphere. It didn’t matter that only half of the candles were lit. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t even put anything in the oven yet. It didn’t matter.
“Just, uh, go back to the door and look at each drawing,” he instructs, “I promise, it’s just a surprise.”
His voice wavers slightly, and his mouth is dry, but he sees Isak drop his bag to the sofa and turn back around to the door.
.
Isak starts by the door. He notices a timeline along the wall, a thick black line has been put up, and every few inches there's a drawing connected to it.
The first drawing is marked with AUGUST 2016. Isak is on the phone, surrounded by those jagged angry lines you see in cartoons. Even is in the corner, watching him with a smile on his face.
Isak steps forward.
The next drawing is OCTOBER 2016. Isak is sat with Mahdi, Jonas and Magnus. He watches Even, and Even looks back at him.
Isak follows along to the next drawing. Even stands with Sana, Eva, and Vilde. Isak is sitting alone. Underneath that drawing, there’s another - Isak and Even stand in the bathroom at Nissen, and Even holds tissue in his hands. There’s another drawing where they’re sitting on a bench outside.
Isak continues.
The next drawing is the first in colour. It’s coloured in blue, and Isak and Even kiss in a pool.
He smiles to himself, fondness beginning to seep out of him. He notices a piece of string attached to that drawing, with a piece of folded up paper stuck to it, so he unfolds. Even has drawn a big spiral in a red pen in the centre of it, and along the edges are speech bubbles, and a big rectangle at the bottom.
“Du er mannen i mitt lif”
"How many Isak's and Even's do you think are lying like this right now?"
“Infinite”
The rectangle reads “a while later”
The next drawing is labelled DECEMBER 2016, it’s of them in bed, Even’s hair is flat, and Isak doesn’t have any quilt over him. The speech bubble reads “MINUTT FOR MINUTT”.
“Ev?” Isak calls, tears in his eyes.
“Keep going.”
The next drawing is them laying in bed in their first apartment, labelled with APRIL 2017.
MAY 2017 just has a speech bubble with nothing inside. Isak remembers how hard it was for Even to tell him about his past.
The next is an airplane, leading to Trondheim.
There’s the new apartment, new jobs, new universities.
The Morocco trip.
Until Isak stands in front of a black piece of paper, which he turns over to see a cartoon image of Even drawn in white ink, he’s on one knee, and holding a ring box.
He finally makes it into the main room of their apartment, and Even had managed to light the rest of the candles, he’s stood by the sofa and he’s holding his hand out to Isak to beckon him.
“Come here,” he whispers and he sits Isak down on the sofa, and then kneels down next to him.
“I love you,” Isak smiles.
Even laughs fondly, “Shh, you. Let me do it,” he lets out a breath before trying to remember what he had planned for himself to say, but draws a blank.
He brushes away a tear underneath Isak’s eye that was threatening to escape.
“Okay. Okay, Isak, you- I can do this, I can,” he mutters to himself.
Isak cups his face, and so softly says, “Hi,” and he’s so beautiful. Even looks up at him and he’s reminded that this is Isak. This is his Isak, and he’s waiting for him. The Isak he’s been with for so long. And he says it.
“You wrote in a text to Sana when we were in school that I was the best thing in your life,” Even recalls, “You showed it to me when I couldn’t see that I was good enough for you. And sometimes when I’m stressed, I think about that. You’re absolutely the best thing that I’ve ever, ever had, like, you’re my person, you’re mine, you know? And I get to just see you everyday and wake up with you and hear you yell at Fifa everyday.”
Isak chuckles, and strokes the hairs at the nape of Even’s neck. And it’s enough to ground Even to go on. He wrote an entire speech for this exact moment, and he can’t remember a single word of it. And he doesn’t care. This proposal was meant to be different, sure, but it’s still this. It’s still him sitting there in front of Isak, and asking him to marry him. It doesn’t matter how or when or where, it’s just this moment.
“I am so fucking lucky to get to love you, and you are the easiest person to love. You, right here, in front of me, you are the best person in the entire world. Just exactly this you. You, who sleeps in every single second he can. You, who’s still scared of horror films but watches them just because everyone else loves them. You, who’s the most gentle, soft, beautiful, hot, and just the best boyfriend that anyone could ever have,” Even pauses for a second, and pulls out the ring box, holding it in front of him, “I don’t know what I did to deserve to be loved by you but here we are and I love you. I love you so much I don’t know what to do with it.”
He hears Isak breathing, and smiling, and crying.
He opens the ring box, and he hears a little gasp from Isak, but he carries on, “You have gone through so much and I’ve never had a day that I haven’t been proud of you, and proud to be your boyfriend. I am so lucky to be yours, and I want to always be yours. Isak Valtersen, the absolute love of my life, will you please marry me?”
For a moment, he can’t ever hear anything, but he can see Isak nodding vigorously and he feels Isak lunge at him. That’s when he can hear him too.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes!” He squeals into Even, quickly pulling himself up to kiss him. Anyone would see the kiss and think it’s sloppy and wet and gross, but it’s perfect.
They pull back and Even pulls Isak’s hand over to the ringbox, and gets out the ring, “I hope it fits.”
The ring is a thin rose-gold band with a small circular stone - Isak couldn’t tell what kind of stone it was, but when it caught the light of the candles, it was a green colour, but on first look, it appears silver and bright.
Even slides it onto Isak’s finger, and Isak smiles bigger than he thought he ever had done before, “It’s perfect, it’s so pretty, babe.”
Isak looks back up to him, and cups his cheek, repeated kissing every inch of Even’s face he could reach.
“I love you.”
.
In bed that night, Isak nudged Even just when he was about to sleep, “Baby.”
“Hm?”
“Can I tell you a secret?”
Even’s eyes twinkle with intrigue, “Mm.”
“Wait here,” with that, Isak jumps from the bed and opens the doors of their wardrobe, pulling out a wooden box from it, and gives it to Even. He inspects it, and seems to be lost, as Isak gets out a key from his bedside table and opens it.
Inside it is a small velvet box.
“I bought this when I was about to turn nineteen. You’d just gotten into your last year at university and you had your first day volunteering at that high school job. I saved up for months, and it’s not the best ring in the world but-”
“You’ve hidden a ring in a wooden box without me even knowing about it for over two years?”
Isak nods, “I mean, yeah. I didn’t know when I wanted to propose, but I knew I wanted you to be my husband one day so I saved up. I went ring shopping on my own and I didn’t even ask your parents, I figured once I planned it out, I would, but then we started going to weddings together and you told me not to propose to you.”
“Can I see it?”
Isak slowly opens up the box. It was a strange box for an engagement ring - it was the kind where the ring was placed vertically rather than horizontally. The ring had a silver band, with six tiny stones in a line with space between each of them - each stone had a different colour resembling a rainbow.
“It doesn’t look much like an engagement ring, and we don’t need to use it if you don’t want, I just wanted to show you.”
“It’s perfect, you’re perfect,” Even reassures, kissing his forehead, “Put it on me, then.”
“I had a whole speech, you know?”
Isak smirks as he takes the ring, and slides it over Even’s finger.
“Well you’ll have to tell me one day,” Even says, “While we’re confessing, though, I did buy a matching engagement ring to the one I gave you. I thought it was dumb that only one person got to wear the ring. It’s a little different to yours, but not very different, the band is a bit thicker and the stone is smaller and part of the band. Like the one you gave me but just with one stone.”
“We have three engagement rings?”
Even chuckles, “Looks like it, Is.”
“Well, you’ll have to wear two then.”
4th march 2021
• noora and eva •
“I promise to not make fun of you when you cry at Titanic, even if you’ve seen it a thousand times.”
“I promise to sing to you when you can’t sleep.”
“I promise to cook every once in a while.”
“I promise to never get bored of putting make-up on you in the middle of the night.”
This was the first wedding Even had been to where the couple have chosen to write their own vows, and completely made them up on the spot. Isak told him that morning about it - apparently it was Eva’s idea - where they would start the vows and just say promise after promise instead of the traditional vows that are general.
Isak mentioned that it made sense to him. Vows are meant for the dumb promises (in his own words) that are a given in a committed relationship anyway.
Don’t cheat.
Stay with them.
Look after them.
Love them.
But this way it was personal and unplanned and spontaneous, which did fit Noora and Eva to a tee.
“I promise to let you fall asleep in the car, even when I’ve driven for hours.”
“I promise to never let you forget how loved you are.”
“I promise to call you beautiful and smart and funny, every single day.”
.
They both looked beautiful. Eva had worn a floor-length dress with a train, the colour of it was almost pink but not quite - and the dress had lace sleeves and a sparkled top, while the bottom was layered into floor-length, while Noora wore a fairy-style dress - the whole thing was made from lace and she had flowers sewn into the skirt of it. The whole thing had been intimate - Eskild had officiated it, with all their friends being groomsmen and bridesmaid, while Isak was Eva’s best man.
Even and Isak followed everyone outside and they gripped boxes of confetti, ready to throw it on the newlyweds.
Just before they did, Even gripped Isak’s waist and whispered into his ear, “The next wedding you’ll be at is ours,” he leaves a soft kiss on his cheek.
Isak turns in his arms and smiles, “I can’t wait.”
EVEN BECH NÆSHEIM &
ISAK VALTERSEN
request the pleasure of your company
at their wedding
22丨 MARCH 丨 2021
at twelve o’clock in the afternoon,
Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel
fin.