Chapter Text
(Inspired by this post.)
carry (v): to support or move (someone or something) from one place to another
“It’s a silly tradition,” she protests.
He is undeterred and wraps an arm around the small of her back. “But it’s a tradition nonetheless.”
Exasperated, she wiggles out of his hold - not entirely, never entirely, but enough to effectively keep her feet on the ground. “Honestly, I am perfectly capable of walking by myself, even if this dress is rather voluminous.” She gestures at the full skirt of her wedding gown and smiles in spite of herself. “It’s wildly impractical but… it IS beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.”
Had he been anyone else, she would have rolled her eyes at the obvious line, but he speaks with such sincerity that she can't help the way her heart flutters. She meets his eyes and finds her own filling with tears (happy ones, they’ve all been happy tears today). She marvels at how even now - even after all the timelines and all the distance and all the weird crap that they were not prepared to deal with - even now, the way he looks at her with such complete and unconditional love and such unabashed affection still takes her breath away.
“I love you so much,” he begins, reaching out to hold her hands, his gaze steady and sure. “And I am so privileged to love you, and to be loved by you, and I can’t believe you’re my wife now.” He exhales a small laugh and her smile couldn’t be wider. “Your love has always carried me - up from the bottom of the Atlantic and through an alternate reality and across all of time and space. So please, just... let me carry you across the threshold.”
He’s barely finished the sentence when she surges forward and kisses him, long and deep and infused with several lifetimes worth of love. Because this darling, awkward, brilliant, strong, compassionate man is her husband - finally, her husband - and she would do anything for him.
It takes them a few tries - her feet bump against the door frame and he gets distracted from the task at hand when he peppers her skin with kisses - and on the whole, it’s fairly graceless. But he finally picks her up and she wraps her arms around his neck, and despite her previous protestations she thinks, this is home.
They walk into the room, into this new chapter of their life, the same way they always have - together.