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Maxwell curled protectively around his lover, hoping to give him some of the warmth that evaded both of them. They were freezing, laying in the snow because that was all they could do. Their limbs had given out.. Some time ago. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since hypothermia kicked in, but it felt like days, maybe even weeks. If that were true, they’d already be long dead, so how long had they really been here for?
Was Jordan even alive?
He hadn’t felt him move in far too long, but he was pretty sure he could detect the faint flutter of a quiet pulse beneath his lover’s frigid, rubbery skin with numb fingertips. Maxwell almost hoped he was dead, hoped that death had taken him away from this frozen nightmare to an afterlife that would soon claim him too, where they would be allowed warmth and the freedom to love each other. He fought to speak, to move his freezing lips and talk.
Finally, sound left his mouth, slow and shaky, but if his lover’s heart still beat, he’d hear it. “J…Jo-Jordan?..” Maxwell’s teeth chattered together, his body trying its hardest to keep itself from dying out here. After what felt like a lifetime passed in silence, he wasn’t given a verbal response- Just the slightest hint of movement along his side, a cold set of familiar fingertips brushing along his waist, a quiet I’m here, I’m alive that would never be heard.
He didn’t know if he was relieved or not. He wanted this all to end for both of them sooner, but maybe he could get a few last words in for his beloved. So, as he worked to get another sentence past his lips, he reached up with a trembling hand to one of the pine trees that grew within his reach. With all of the strength that he could muster, he tugged a small branch from it, only a few inches long. “Wi… Will y-you mar…Marry me, m-my dar-darling?”
Maxwell watched his lover tilt his head up to look at him, doing something that was about as close to a smile as he could get. He used his final breath to whisper a soft “In every lifetime, I will.” and with that, Jordan’s body released the last bits of remaining warmth as his soul separated from the flesh. He could only bring himself to let out a sigh, knowing he, too, would soon follow.
He carefully twined the pine around his lover’s finger, making a ring that, in another life, would have been the one that sat in his bedside table’s drawer at home.
A ring that would never touch Jordan’s hand.
A promise for a wedding that would never happen.
So, as Maxwell drew his last breath, he called Jordan his husband.
His perfect husband, with his warm eyes, and his warm hands, and his warm soul.
His last breath was a sob that came with tears freezing on his cheeks, made of a deep inhale in his husband’s curls.