#➤ 𝚠𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜 ┊ elio & francis ➷ (𝟎𝟎𝟐.)

[flownintothesun]

     𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐆𝐈𝐅𝐓, Francis thinks. But most especially when it leads to love. He treasures that he’s already whittled away a handful of years in sharing his life with Elio — and his heart could nearly burst with joy at the thought of how few grains of sand in the hourglass of forever those handful of years truly are. Time has also taught him to sight-read Elio — and while he might miss the occasional note of his loved one’s symphony — more often than not, they harmonize beautifully. He knows, for example, that his fiance is exceptionally bad at lying, and Francis should have known by the way he’s fidgeting, and gaze trailing off that he’d been hiding something — which does leave the troubling matter of exactly how Elio had managed to keep the ring and proposal a secret from him.

      Francis is all too aware, and has been for the better part of his life that there are many pieces of oneself sacrificed for the supposed ‘greater good’ in the life of a prince. For years he had lived in his father’s shadow — until he had outgrown it and been forced into a choice. He had, of course, chosen love. And perhaps that would seem to be the end of it. This is, after all, the part that says ‘happily ever after’. But Francis fears it’s a bit more complicated than that. Duty still surrounds them — expectation and appearances and charities and knowing their people. Elio’s parents are not like Francis’s father — they don’t expect him to be someone he isn’t. Francis delights in the time he spends with Elio’s parents — it’s warm, and wholesome and each of them have gone above and beyond to make Francis feel welcome. And he truly does. It’s only...

      ...he’d thought he’d stopped overlooking things. Especially the important things. And so, he lingers on it a bit — both overjoyed at the surprise, and concerned that perhaps he’s overlooked a few things — missed cues. And the thing is, when you love someone — you want desperately to make them feel that love. For them to know that they’re seen and heard and not taken for granted. Francis doesn’t want to spend a single day of his life not giving gratitude to the Universe that brought him this dear and precious man — who has thought of precisely everything to make him happy. He wants to know Elio so intimately that he can conjure his likeness in each song that he writes — recall each moment with the same vivid detail he’s memorized his favorite stories.

      “You’ve been busy,” he says, moving their hands a bit so that he can wrap his arms around Elio. Thoughtful. His love is so thoughtful and good. Francis’s heart is filled with joy, and homesickness all at once. It’s been so long since he’s seen his family. His father won’t be present of course — but his mother, and his siblings. “Remind me once the party is over,” and surely it will be a party if his mother is involved. She does so love the things. “To kiss you absolutely senseless and remind you of how much I love you. As a matter of fact,” he says, leaning in. Elio is right of course, they’ll have to go in soon. But one more thing, he thinks, as he presses his lips against those that belong to the love of his life, sharing a long and tender moment — Francis’s hand stroking along Elio’s back in gentle circles. “There, that’s better,” he says with a gentle smile. “But it’s not nearly enough.”

@lovepurposed

"You're biased." Elio teases, "I bet there are some people who would call me a handful or who would not like me if they got to know me." Now if they met Francis that would be something different. He's like a ray of sunshine on a beautiful day, always radiant. Undoubtedly he would get more admirers if people ever found that out. "Not that it even matters because I got you and that's all I'll ever want and need."

"That sounds a lot better." He agrees smiling, while intertwining their fingers. "Together always," Elio repeats while glancing down at their hands, and the ring that is shining in the sunlight on his fiance's finger.

He looks up and feels his cheeks instantly turn red as if caught in the act. Naturally, his other half had noticed he kept glancing at the castle. Keeping two big secrets had been difficult but at least the most important one - his proposal had stayed a surprise. "I… No, I'm not cold at all." He stammers while trying to conjure up a good reason as to why he had been glancing at the palace but his mind remained blank. Guess it was time for some honesty.

"There is a party waiting for you." He finally admits while biting his lip."Some of your family members flew over for your birthday I wanted all of this to be a surprise but …" Trailing off he smiles sheepishly at him, "At least I managed to keep one thing a surprise? And before you ask no they don't know I was going to propose so no one knows besides the two of us so we can keep it to ourselves but I do fear - even if I would love to stay here with you - that someone will come looking for us eventually."