forum "Forever Yours, beyond time, space and memories"

Started June 06, 2023 by @Fenrir

tune

“So am I.” Lars agreed, more than happy to spend eternity with the other man. “And I will never leave you either.” he vowed before he was pulled in for another kiss. Which he returned as he always would. Though he chuckled at the insinuation behind Cici’s question. “I’m certainly tempted,” he admitted with his usual smirk as he nuzzled against the touch. “But I know how much you like seeing kids and teaching them. And I know that if I did convince you, I’d never get any of that promised housework done.” he chuckled.

Cicil sighed softly "you're right as always, my love." He iled adoringly before gently moving Lars back onto the bed so he could go change for work. "You should come with me one day. I know the kids would love to see you." He suggested, finding a button down and slacks. He often subbed for the same group of teachers so most of the students were the in his rotation every now and again when he was called in. "Some of the newer students doubt your real despite the wedding ring." He recalled laughing softly before disappearing into the joined bathroom. He came a few minutes later, now in the new clothes and with his hair less tangled than before. He clasped on a few pieces of gold jewlery, including his wedding band he kept on a chain. He paused in front of Lars to drop a goodbye kiss, "I love you forever, stay safe, and don't over work yourself getting the chores done." He said, giving him a pointed look before grabbing a satchel bag from the closet and a few notes he kept on a desk in the corner of the room. "I'll call you when I start heading back." He promised, packing anything else he needed for the class before grabbing his keys and heading out the door.

“Well, as long as it's not during a history class, I just might stop by sometime.” he agreed with a playful groan as he watched his partner get changed. Lars didn't see the point of history because he, and Cicil, had already lived through it and thought the books were ridiculously biased. “I love you too, Cici. Always will.” he replied, chuckling at the look. “You be careful out there.” he grinned as he finally got out of bed and stretched out his slightly stiff limbs. “I look forward to your call.”

While it would make sense for Cicil to teach history, since they've through a good portion of it and it wasn't like immortals wern't completely unknown, he had ultamately decided he'd rather teach something a bit more fun and less repetitive. English. Specifically the art of writing. not the grammar and technical part. He loved reading his student's writing, especially on the assignment's they were allowed to show their creative side. Usually Cicil didn't have the freedom to choose the student's assignments but he tried his best to make the class entertaining, whether altering the assignment slightly for the student's benifit or promising a little treat of their choosing if they worked hard most of the class. Usually they as for a stroy of his past, many of which included Larson. When he wasn't story telling or actually teaching, he was either writing himself or reading, passing time until the end of the class and he would move onto the next class. Today was a bit different though, since he only had one class, he would teach this class and head back home to prepare for the date. Its mostly why had such a happy smile on his face when his students began to enter and greet him. "No way we're doing work today, not if you're going to smile like that the whole time and not tell us whats up." A student said, plopping down in his chair. Firen, a vampire boy that reminded Cicil of his very own husband, not necessarily in looks but in the confident attitude reminicent of when they had first met.
"If you must know, which it seems you all do otherwise work apparently won't get done, I'm going out tonight." he informed, earning him oohs and aahhhand begging to know the details.

Lars put on one of his favorite records, humming along, the soft music flowing through the house as he did what he promised. It was menial in a way but this was their home and it meant so much to both of them that he didn't mind. He would always do anything for Cicil. The man who single-handedly changed his entire life for the better.
It didn't really take long for him to finish the chores, changing the record a couple of times. Honestly, he just preferred the sound of vinyl over modern CDs but he didn't have any problem with digital. He made sure to spend a little extra time in the living room for when they got back from dinner, setting up the candles, and making sure the pillows were soft and comfortable. It may have been a silly thing but he wanted tonight to be perfect.
At one point he pulled out his phone and texted his husband. ”Hey, sweetheart. Just thinking about you and looking forward to our date. ❤️”

They in fact, did not get any work done and for once, Cicil wasn't too worried about it. He knew his kids, he knew they'd make up one day of work ten fold in the next class. They could spare an hour for story telling. Or in this case, conspiracies as to what the date would be. From what Cicil had told them, which wasn't much since he knew very little, some students thought it was a proposal date. "I'm already married to Lars." He reminding, gently jiggling the chain with the wedding band around his neck. To his delight and amusement, more than one student argued that they could get married more than once, then the class all at once asked if they could be invited. Civil laughed and promised, if he were to marry Lars again, he'd invite them all. He fell back into story telling which eventually led to Cicil pulling up the many photos he had on his phone and showing the class over projector screen. Lar's message appeared a few minutes later for all to see, causing the students to giggle before Cicil quickly took away the phone and instructed the student to read or talk amongst themselves quietly as he texted his husband back.
"Hello darling, cant wait. I should be out in a few minutes and heading back home. 💜"

Lars smiled a little as he picked out an outfit and brushed some of his freshly washed hair back. Sure, he and Cicil went out plenty of times together even after being married for as long as they have but it felt like it had been a while since their last one.
His smile grew when he read the text his bonded partner sent back but he didn't reply this time. He still needed to get ready. He had already called the restaurant for reservations as well as placing their orders for food. A bit unorthodox in a way but they had been going there long enough to be on a first-name basis with the owner/manager so it wasn't difficult to set everything up.

Cicil had expected a regular night out. Though it was a severe understatement to say anything he and his husband did was a regular, there was a comfort in their eternal lives in the small things. As he had promised, he texted Larson a quick 'on my way back home, millions of xoxo' before he stepped into his car and started back home. He was excited for the date, to see his husband all dressed up and fancy, to try something new at their favorite restaurant, to spent time with the one he deeply loved without a care in the world, to cozy up in bed and try and stay awake with him for as long as possible just to further extend their waking hours together, even if it was just a peaceful night of reminicing on their past lives and sharing gentle touches and soft sleepy kisses. he bit his lip excitely, eager to get home, to Larson. Even if tonight was going to more sparatic than he was used to, he had some level of expectatin on the how the night would go.

What he didn't expect was the little glimmer of red he saw from the corner of his eye before everything went too fast and too slow, too dizzy for his liking and then blurry. The tinkling of shatteing glass and the whine and cruch of metal filled his ears before it went quiet. Later on, Cicil would remeber the odd detail, thinking that it was beautiful, the way the glass shined in the sunlight before it turned to a blur. But now, all he wanted to do was move, but he found that he couldn't One twitch he could manage and a shooting pain went from his upper shoulder down to his hand on the left. Mos tlikely broken. He felt blood dripping down from his forhead into his eyes, making them sting as he tried to refocus and asses his situation. He was alive, thankfully, mercifully. The only reason he knew was because his heartbeat was in his throat, his breathing was hard and raggaed and his throat felt. Another movement, emrald green and black, somemthing that looked liked clothing on a person, stubbling towards him but all he coul dthink about was Larson. They had a date. He had promised to be back home soon and help out on the date and get ready. The hospital visit would probably postpone that. And to worry Larson like this would break his heart. It did break his heart. Rushed voices sounded closer to him, good. Others would come and help. He tried his best to gesture to his phone with his other hand, also in pain but not as bad as his left. "Lar-son" He tried to tell them. As much as it pained him to worry his husband, he was Cicil's emergency contact, he needed to be the first to know what had happened. "Lar-son." He insisted again, hissing in pain as a caugh racked his body, most likely jostling a few broken ribs. He whined softly but leaned into the hand at his brow, grateful for the person who seemed to be comforting him, even if they were strangers. When the hand didn't move, Cicil's brows creased in confusion. Maybe it was because of the shock from the crash and his delusional state but he could have sworn he felt a slight itch at the back of his mind, like something was being pulled and stretched and thinned. He tried to move away but the pain in his left shoulder prevented that. He strugged against the touch, trying to shy away from the warm bright light that slowly bloomed in his mind. A blank canvas. He tried so hard, he wished Larson could know how hard he had tried to hold onto the memories that slwoly slipped away. Their first dates, their wedding, their honeymoon, their million dates, their countless evening spend in each other's arms, the pattern of sars he had memoirzed, the time first time they bought an apartment, a house, their first car, all of it, gone in the blink of an eye, replaced by…nothing. "Larson," He whispered softly, a foreign name to him now as tears he now only attributed to his accident streamed down his face.
Maybe there was a bit of mercy left in the world, in some god or spirit or other worldly being that favored Cicil. Before all his memories were whiped away, whoever had been taking them away got frantic and ripped his hand away quickly. Leaving splinters of memories with Cicil, emrald green, night black silk, his home country of Barcelona, a ring being slipped on his fingers, constant happiness, then nothing at all. Blissfull black. He knew he had been moved, he felt movement around him but he was contempt to stay in the black peacefulness for as long as possible. It was better than the blank whiteness that was accompanied with confusion.

Lars smiled again when the latest message from Cicil came through and he just replied with a heart. He took a few extra minutes to fix his hair before reopening a game on his phone just to kill time. He trusted his husband to either call or text him if he got caught in traffic or something but he did set an alarm so he wouldn't lose track of too much time.

While the game was nice and distracting, he was surprised that the alarm went off without any contact from Cicil. So, he tried calling him. Normally, he would have tried texting but he wanted to hear his voice but received no answer.

Lars wasn't prone to worry though would admit to considering himself protective, especially of Cicil, but something just felt wrong. He tried not to call when he was sure Cicil was busy unless it was an emergency and it was rare that there wasn't an answer. Or at least a return call as soon as he was able. This… This felt weird.

“Cici, I’ll apologize later and you can call me an idiot the whole time.” he murmured as he turned on a hardly-ever-used app and typed in Cicil’s phone number.

Cicil awoke with a startled gasp, for a moment not understanding where he was or even who he was. The where was easy enough to understand. A hospital room. He had an IV drip in his arm and was in a hospital gown. His left arm was in a cast and he had a few badages over his head. His legs hurt and his back ached but over all he was relatively ok. Save for his mind of course. He took a long few moments to control his emotions, the welling of tears and heavy breathing eventually subsided as he calmed himself down enough to take in his suroundings. He looked around the vacant room, gaze landing on pots and bouquets of flowers with a balloon and a get well card. So he had people that cared about him. That was comforting at least. He found his phone on the little nightstand and eagerly grabbed for it, hoping there was something on it that would help him understand who we really was. Thankfully it had been unlocked by EMTs when they found him at the crash site so Cicil could actually get in it. He scrolled through photos and contact names, trying to find anything that would trigger a memory. He found a lot of photos of himself with another man the same green eyes and night black hair he managed to hold onto in memory, all seemed happily blissful. Perhaps a partner or even his husband. He wanted to cry again, what if this was his husband? Had Cicil really forget all about him so easily? He flicked through countless more photos of vacations, them on the beach or in a city in Europe, of each other and together. Some photos were of what looked like graduated students. So he was married and he was a teacher of some sort. He then moved onto the contacts and scrolled through. He didn't recognize most but knew they were important. He switched to his emergency contacts and only found one. Larson. He bit his lip, hands shaking as he dialsd the number and waited.

After Lars had turned on the tracker app, for lack of a better name, he felt guilty for overreacting at the time… Until he saw the symbol heading for the hospital. At which point, he raced to the building and immediately spoke with a very polite young woman at check-in. It took showing her some of their pictures to convince her to call a doctor. The wait had felt like hours before he finally learned how badly Cicil had been hurt. He had nearly cried the first time he saw his husband in that room.

He had called the school to let them know that Cicil wouldn't be able to teach for a while, but he was very touched by all the flowers his students and the school sent. He even went to the school and thanked the class personally.

He let out another sigh, running his hands through his hair for the nth time in as many days. Dark circles gave his normally bright eyes a haunted look as he thought about Cicil. He was more or less able to go about his day but there was a definite void despite his frequent visits.

When his phone rang suddenly, Lars jumped about a foot in the air and grabbed it. His heart stopping when he saw who was calling. “Cici?” he almost whispered, his voice cracking as so many emotions tried to escape at once.

Cicil paused, considering whether he should hang up or not. Larson already sounded so heartbreakingly relieved. to hear from Cicil, to tell him him he had no recollection of Larson of their marriage or anything before would surely break him more than he already was. But Cicil needed to know what had happened to him. Or at least figure out who he was before everything went so horribly wrong.
"Y-yes," he tilted his head back onto the pillow and took a few deep breaths so as to not cry. At least he wasn't alone. "Larson, darling I need you to come to the hospital please, I-" he choked back a sob, unable to keep his emotions in check any longer. "Something is wrong with me and I'm scared, I don't know what happened but I don't think it's good." he whiped away tears but they just kept coming as the severity of the situation hot him. He had forgotten his life, who he was the people that were important to him, the life he knew he had cherished so much was gone so easily. "please, Lars." He begged softly, hanging up and setting his phone off to the side. He felt hopeless, he barely knew himself now. What good would he be outside the hospital if he knew next to nothing about his own existence, what good would he be as a husband or a teacher?

“I'll be right there.” Lars answered quickly just before the call ended and quickly changed into something a little more appropriate for the public than his sleepwear. Hearing Cicil so scared worried him. Could the doctors have missed something? He didn't know but he would hurry all the same.

It really didn't take him long before he finally arrived at the hospital. He gave a brief wave at the person behind the counter before all but running down the hallway to Cicil’s room. “Mi vida?” he knocked softly at the door before slowly walking in. “What’s wrong?”

Cicil took went back to looking through the photos on his phone, not expecting for their to be hundred. THe farther he went back into the camera roll, the older the photos seemed to get. Some looked to be from the 80s, the 60s, the 20s, some even older. Had either of them been a digital designer? Maybe these were fun filters or photshoped to look vintage. The more Cicil zoomed in and tried to find flaws in the editing, the more he was conviced they were real. But how could that be, it wasn't like he was immortal. Cicil tried not to complicate things more for himself, at least not until LArson came in and could answer questions. From what he could gather from the pictures, Cicil knew he was married to Larson based on the pictures in the camera roll and the ring on the chain around his neck. They couldn't have looked more than in their late twenties but basd on what they had worn in the photos and the wear on the ring, some how Cicil was conviced it was longer than a few years they had been together. Cicil had also gathered that he was covered in tattoos. He could see a few on himself under the cast and peeking out from the hospital gown but the picture revealed nearly most of his body was covered. One in particualr that stood out was the one his neck. Something about how the flowers were positioned seemed to essentuate something, perhaps a scar or injury but it tugged at something particular in his foggy mind that he couldn't quite grasp at.
He was in the middle of zooming in on another tattoo when he heard someone knock and open the door to his room. He watched as Larson, his husband, walk in slowly, allowing for Cicil to take in his appearance. Green eyes, ones he'd been dreaming about in recent nights when everything else was blank and confusing were heavily rimmed with dark circles, his pale skin seemed washed out and overall he looked so tired. He seemd like a ghost compared to the man he had seem in the pictures, so happy and full of vibrant life. All at once, Cicil was hit with sadness again, and he reached him the best he could with his right arm, not far at all considering it was the arm connected to the IV. "I'm so sorry," He rasped, choking sobs wracking his body as he apologised over and over again. Incoherant and splutter mixed iwth the return of his accent mad eit near imposible even for him to say anything coherant. "perdoname please, I tried! I really tried, my amore, I did. I can't-" He whined as if pain, trying his best to reagin some sort of composure, if only to keep the nurse from coming in and sedating him. It was bette than forgetting everything but not while he had a chance to see Larson. He sniffled softly and looked at LArson, commiting the second First time meeting him to memory. "I don't remember anything, my love." He whipsered. "My life, you, myself. I- I can't remember any of it, I'm so sorry."

Lars all but darted towards his side and gently took the offered hand, pressing soft kisses against the skin. “Cálmate, mi amor. Esta bien.” he murmured as Cicil started to panic. Though as he listened to the near rambling, his heart stopped at those three words. It didn't seem possible. How could centuries' worth of memories just vanish? He was no medical expert but he knew that the mind could be fragile. “Nothing? Nothing at all?” he asked just above a whisper. “Let me call the doctor. Maybe they’ll have an explanation.” he suggested, giving his husband’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “What do you remember?”

Cicil really did try to calm himself, taking deep breaths and focusing on Larson but the constant reminder of what he lost was too much. He shook his head "not much, no, I'm sorry." He replied, gently squeezing Larson's hand, wanting to keep that contact with him. He was Cicil's only tie to his life, and without him, he would surely be lost, more so than he was now. He sniffed and nodded, "mostly just feelings. Bits and pieces of wamrth and happiness, sometimes something cold but not unpleasant." He tried to explain, he reached for his phone and showed Larson the photos "I've been going through these but not much is coming back."

Lars didn't leave Cici’s side, just pushing the button to call either a nurse or the doctor, and tried to stay calm as well. “You don't have to apologize, darling. This isn't your fault.” he tried to assure. He truly didn't blame Cicil for this. It couldn't have been his fault.
He sighed with a sad smile as his husband told him the few things he did remember and glanced at the pictures nostalgically. It almost felt like he had been stabbed in the heart just by looking at them and knowing that the man in the picture… was so badly hurt that he couldn't remember them.
“Amore… I’m glad you remember that much.” he admitted, gently reaching up to brush away the tears forming in those familiar green eyes. “I’m sure we can find a way to bring those memories back. We've been through the impossible before.” he added with a watery smile.

(sorry for the wait😅been busy this week but I'm back!)
"Maybe not but it shouldn't have been so easy to lose. They're my memories, something I should have held onto." He argued softly, gently pressing Larson's hand to his cheek and kissing his palm, comforted by the coolness of his skin. "We are really this happy." He smiled softly as he scrolled through each photo. "If I didn't say this before then I'll say it now, I'm glad I married such a wonderful person. It's comforting to know I'm with someone that that loves me and being together." He mused softly as they waited for the doctor. He glance up and gave an optimistic smile. "If we've been through the impossible before then this should be nothing, right?"

(It's ok. I understand having a busy week.)

Lars shook his head slightly. “I'm no expert but even I know how important a mind is. Even if you did fight to keep them, and I believe you did, it may have been a losing battle from the start.” he shrugged, uncertainly. But he smiled when Cicil kissed his hand. “My darling… You have said that before and it means so much to hear you say that now… when you don't remember me.” he murmured as he blinked away tears. “And, yes, we really are that happy.” he chuckled, looking at some of the pictures. “I certainly hope so.”

“I'm sure you have a few questions about me that you want to ask while we wait.” he sighed as he realized an obvious detail that would confuse anyone who didn't know him. “I don't mind if you ask. It's probably better to get them out of the way now rather than later.”

"then you'll forgive me if I repeat that I love you, both as a reassurance and reminder that no matter what, we won't change, even if I forget everything again." He murmured softly, gently brushing away Larson's tears away and leaning over to press a kiss to his brow. He scooted closer to side of the bed to better see the pictures, making sure not to hurt his arm.
He but his lip before nodding slightly. "I do." He replied, flicking through a few photos until he found one that exposed his tattoos again. "I thought maybe it had been a scar or even some artistic liberty but it's not is it?" He asked softly, pressing his lips to Larson's hand again, a small amused smile crossing his features as he looked into his husband's eyes, took in each feature again. He wasn't scared of Larson, somehow he knew Larson wasn't someone who would or had ever caused him harm in any way, despite Cicil's own predictions on what he was. "You're a vampire, right?" He asked softly, as if it was a secret only for them two to know.

Lars had to close his eyes to keep from crying at the familiar words. “You haven’t changed.” he whispered as Cici kissed his forehead. Was their bond that strong after all those years that Cicil still trusted him even though he had no memory?
He couldn't help but smile as his husband worked up the courage and brought up his reasoning for asking the question. “I am.” he nodded, matching the other’s tone. “And you are my bonded partner. We have been together for a long, long time.” he chuckled slightly, letting his fangs show for just a moment.