Work Text:
2.41 am, October 1, 1989, new york
Erik had been half paying attention to the glass of whiskey he'd been drinking for the last half hour, and half paying attention to Charles who'd been eagerly talking about jean's apparently brilliant English essay, for the past 10 minutes.
He wasn't particularly paying attention to the news segment that was playing on the small tv screen above the bar, and was about to take a sip of his drink, when he heard the words, "the Danish government has, as of today, officially legalised civil unions for same-sex couples."
Erik stilled, his hand with his drink in it frozen on the way to his lips. He looked to his left, to Charles, who looked over at him with a cheerful but slightly tipsy smile on his face. "Ah, happy news!" Charles said, and then diverted his attention back to the tv screen to watch the rest of the segment.
Erik couldn't pay attention to what the reporter was saying though, his mind already racing a thousand miles an hour with the possibilities that this news had brought.
He excused himself, rather abruptly, Charles looked at him confused, but didn't say anything. Erik went straight for one of the backrooms, and promptly asked one of the bartenders to borrow a telephone. He dialed the number, waited, and hoped it wasn't to late in the night to get an answer.
"Hello?" He heard the thickly accented voice saying. "Azazel!" He exclamed, perhaps a little too loudly. "I need you to take me and Charles to Copenhagen right now".
He then realised that it probably sounded like there was some kind of emergency or threat, so he quickly added "it's nothing bad don't worry, it's just.. we can get married there now" he said, a little embarrassed that he'd most likely woken up Azazel, just to get him to do something that, technicly, could wait until tomorrow. But it couldn't, not to Erik. From the moment he heard that reporter saying those words he'd waited years to hear, he knew what he had to do.
"Ah, I see" Azazel said with a chuckle. Erik waited a second, then added, "So can you? Please?". The line was silent for a couple seconds, and then, Azazel started laughing.
"Oh comrade, of all the things you've made me do over the years, this is by far the most ridiculous.. but yes, I'll do it" he said. Erik breathed a sigh of relief. "Ok so, here's what were gonna do", he said, then started explaining his plan
-
When he came back to the main room of the bar, Charles eyes caught his. His face lit up when he saw Erik. "Hey, darling" he said as Erik approached. Where did you go? Charles projected telepathicly. Erik felt bad lying to him but it was just for a short time, until he could reveal everything to Charles. "Oh, I just remembered that I'd missed a phone call earlier, so i just thought i'd sort it out immediately".
"Oh, ok" Charles said, scrunching his eyebrows a little, in confusion. "What was it about?". Erik waved his hand dismissevly as he tried his best at a poker face. "Don't worry about it, schatz, it's really not important". Erik cringed indwardly. Damn, he was getting really bad at lying to Charles after all these years. "Actually, is it ok if we leave now?" Erik asked. We could go somewhere just the two of us? he projected, and Charles nodded, as he got up.
As soon as they were out of the pub, Erik began guiding them down the dark street, to the spot where Azazel would meet them. As if on cue, the red man appeared with a crossbody bag in hand, with the things Erik had asked him to bring.
"Azazel!" Charles exclamed. "What's wrong?". Erik took a step forward and grabbed the bag from Azazel's hands. "Nothing's wrong Charles", Erik said, as he turned to the other man. "I just thought you and I could take a.. little trip abroad". Charles just looked at him, clearly very confused. "I- Erik, what are you talking about? Where?" He asked. Erik smiled at him like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. "Um? Denmark, of course, where else?" he looked at Charles, and saw the realisation begin to dawn on his face.
"If my calculations are correct it's 8.55 in Denmark right now, so the Copenhagen city hall should open in about" Erik continued as he looked down at his watch, then looked at Charles and grinned. "5 minutes"
Charles looked at him completely dumbfounded, and then, with a teary voice he said "oh, Erik", and a millisecond later, Charles was in his arms. Erik let out a laugh as he held Charles close. He sobered up quickly though, when Charles looked up at him, tears starting to form in his eyes. "Erik, I-" Charles started clearly not knowing what to say. Erik felt a flash of panic.
Shit. Maybe he should have actually asked Charles first, and not just assumed that he would want to get married so suddenly, if at all. He'd just assumed that they would get married if it ever got legalized anywhere. When he'd heard the news, he had gotten so caught up in doing this whole spontaneous elopement thing, that he hadn't even asked Charles if that's what he wanted.
Charles eyes widened, and he jerked back, and quickly went to dry his tear stained cheeks with the back of his hand. "No no no no Erik, please don't think that I-" Charles straightened up, and he took a deep breath as if to collect himself.
"What I was going to say was, Erik, I love you, and these years we've had together have been the best of my life, and I wanna spend the rest of my life with you, so don't you ever doubt that for even a second!" Erik slowly calmed down as the realisation sunk in that he wasn't going to get rejected.
"Erik" Charles continued. "You are the love of my life and it would be my greatest honour to marry you" Charles said smiling. "Or rather engange in a civil union with you, or whatever you want to call it." Erik gave a teary laugh at that.
"The point is" Charles looked at him. "That our life together has given me more happiness and I ever thought was possible. So yes I'll marry you even though" Charles laughed, and raised his fingers in quotation marks "um? Denmark of course, where else? Is the lamest proposal ever".
Erik knew Charles was joking, and still, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty that he'd been so laser focused on them getting married a soon as possible, that he hadn't taken the time to really plan what he would say.
Charles deserved a romantic declaration of love. Erik reached out to touch Charles' hand and with a serious look on his face, he slowly got down on one knee. Charles he projected telepathically. Your love is the greatest gift I've ever received. You have saved my life, in more than one way. You are my serenity, My anchor, I will love you till the day I die. Probably even after that.
Charles looked at him stunned for a second, then his lips turned to a playful smile "Then what are we waiting for?"