“Oh, sweetheart,” he said as he rubbed their upper arms. “You’re breaking my damn heart.”
“It is my heart that is breaking because I do not want you to go,” they admitted, breath hitching. “Do not leave me, my Bryce.”
He drew them into an embrace, his thick arms surrounding them, and they collapsed into his big, squishy body with a pained sound. “I’m sorry.”
Shaking their head against his shoulder, they said, “No, do not be sorry. You are following your calling to be the best animal healer in Montana, and I am so proud of you. But I will miss you so very much, and it hurts.”
“I know,” Bryce croaked, voice thick with his own sorrow. “I hurt too, but we’re gonna be okay. We’re gonna make it through this.”
“You promise?” they asked as they tightened their arms around him.
“I promise.”
“And you will text and call me often.”
“Every day,” he said.
“And we will video-call while we watch documentaries?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“And you will still love me, even when we are apart for many months?”
Bryce released them, cupping their face in his hands. They were crying now, silent, thick tears carving paths down their cheeks. He swiped them away with his thumbs as his own tears fell.
“I’m gonna love you every day. Even when we’re apart. Even when we miss each other so badly we wonder if it’s worth it. Even when we argue or have nothing to talk about on the phone or when we have too much to talk about that we get annoyed that the other person won’t shut up.”
Zef cracked a smile, and Bryce laughed wetly. “You’re it for me, Zef. You hear me? You’re my person, my partner, and I love you, okay?”
They nodded. “I love you too, my Bryce.”
“Here.” He pulled something out of his pocket, a small, black box, and pressed it into their top hands. “I want you to hold on to these for me.”
Fingers quaking, they opened the box, revealing two shiny pink hoops. Mantodean steel earrings. Partnership earrings.
“Bryce,” they said, voice breaking.
“One day, I’m going to ask you to wear them,” he said, taking their lower hands in his and squeezing. “I ain’t asking now, but one day, I will, and I hope you’ll say yes.”
“Bryce,” they sobbed openly, his name barely intelligible.
“When you have doubts, when the distance feels too big”—he kissed their cheek, speaking against their skin—“I want you to look at these and remember that I love you. That you’re my home now, and I will always come home to you.”
They kissed him, his words too beautiful to bear. And he kissed them back, cradling their face in his big hands. The kiss was salty and wet, and they hated how they ached. But the ache wasn’t only bad. There was goodness in it now, a hopeful throb for a future that was close enough to touch but not grasp just yet.
This would not be forever. This ache was for now, and they were both strong enough to weather it. And one day—hopefully, soon—they would be together again, and they would never have to ache again.
Breaking the kiss, Zef clutched the earrings to their chest with their top hands as their lower hands framed Bryce’s neck. “I will treasure them always, and when the time comes and you ask me to, I will wear them proudly. Because you are my Bryce, and I love you so.”
With a sob of his own, he hauled them into a tight embrace, and they hugged him back fiercely, ignoring the people around them witnessing their intimate exchange of tears and affection.
“This ain’t goodbye,” he said in their ear.
“It is a see-you-later,” they finished like a promise.
“You were right, Jude, I can’t handle this.” Toni sniveled from somewhere behind them, “Bryce, you can’t leave Zef. It’s gonna kill me. Do you want my death on your conscience?”
The interruption helped, and Zef snorted a broken laugh as they pulled back enough to admire the earrings once more. They were not ready for Bryce to pierce their lobes and slide the hoops in, but they would be one day, and it filled them to bursting with joy and hope and love.
