This started off as a narrative, became a rambling, became a narrative ramble, and full circled back into narrative. Enjoy.
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Basically as a kid Zach was always sick. Colds, fevers, strep throat, ear infections, asthma-the whole nine yards. But he wasn't a sick baby, a sick kid. All throughout elementary school he had to be picked up from school and missed days of it. Storie and Mink pulled both him and his older sisters out to homeschool them because it got that bad, but in reality that was probably going to happen sooner or later anyway.
But because of this, they never really went anywhere. Rarely out of the town they lived in, never out of the state, or the country like Storie and Mink always wanted to and while the Twins and Zach never minded, they knew something was up.
He doesn't really start to get any better until about 4 years later when Zach is 8 and Twins are 10. In the four year time period however, Reggie, a foster kid, is adopted by Mink and Storie, and Penelope, born during this time period, is about 2 years old. Zach of course is able to understand things little bit better now, and goes literally nowhere near his sister, despite his complete adoration for her. He's afraid she'll get sick because of him.
Later when Penelope is old enough to go to school, Zach starts getting antsy. He's lived his entire life in their small city and has never been anywhere else. Penelope and Reggie go to public school and go on field trips and to museums and sometimes out of state and all Zach can do is listen to what they tell him when they come back and wonder. Zach, at the age of 11 starts to get wanderlust and it only grows stronger as the years progress. And as his wanderlust grows, so does his irritation; he can't do anything about it.
Fast forward 6 years and Zach is as good as he's ever going to get. His asthma is still terrible, but now he's only bed-ridden occasionally. He's taking Penelope to the mall with some friends and then he meets Lauren.
And Lauren, her parents are Skylar and Vincent, so she may as well be the offspring of wanderer. Only a few months younger than he is, and she's been everywhere her parents have been-they've taken her (almost) everywhere with them. The bustling streets of new york, quiet plains of the savannah, the Netherlands, obscure farms on the hills of New Zealand, towering forests in Brazil. She knows about five languages (her Portuguese is a little rusty, but her mandarin is spot on) and occasionally lapses into them, just out of habit.
She, Skylar and Vincent are back in town to stay, they want her to have some semblance of continuity and they enroll her in the local public school. The same public school Zach convinced his moms to go to at the beginning of the school year.
So, he sees Lauren a lot. And surprise, surprise she's pretty freakin popular. With everybody. She doesn't have any close friends, but everybody knows her and she smiles at anyone who greets her. She's always telling stories from the places she's been and Zach hears everything. overheard from her, from other people, even from some of the teachers.
He's wildly curious about her.
She's everything he ever wanted to be. She been places, seen things, expirened them with her own two hands. Zach has only ever been out of town about 10 times by the time he's 17.
Eventually they get to know each other better when Lauren needs an English tutor and Zach is in the top of his class and figured he needed something to do with his free time.
So they talk. Lauren, in a weird turn of events barely does any talking and just lets Zach go on and on and on about his life and about his family. About his Moms who taught dutch and Thai to each other and how they've been together forever, about his older sisters Stephanie and Amelia who are twins and live with each other, he tells her about how Reggie hates being called Reginald and how he came to live with them when has only 6, and then he goes on talking about Penelope and how their cousin Robin and her are inseparable.
Zach talks about his Uncles who are grossly in love with each other and how his Uncle Marc only has one eye and how his Uncle Radio has the best singing voice ever. Abut how Marc cries so much and Radiation is literally a forced to be reckoned with if you ever get him mad. He tells her how much they gush over their daughter (robin) and It's kinda embarrassing, but noone can really bring themselves to feel embarrassed.
Most of the time they don't even get any work done and most of the time they ditch completely, opting to just go out and explore the fields and even getting lost in the labyrinth of their town because Zach has never done this and Lauren never lived there for more than 2 months.
Those times are the only ones they ever talk, though because Zach likes Lauren, but he doesn't like the attention she brings with her in school. Zach, despite wanting to go to school, does not like people and Lauren understands, so slowly she starts to drift away from her 'friends' and starts to spend more time with Zach.
And Zach doesn't realize it at first, but he appreciates it. Lauren is literally his only friend. Their relationship is him lounging on her and Lauren bear hugging him and teaching him bits and phrases from the languages she knows so he can understand her when she lapses, food fights and spending nights up just talking about random crap and getting coffee in the morning to get them through the day.
And he doesn't realize it until he's coming back to the house near dusk grinning like a dork, drench from falling into a creek and having to borrow one of her shirts that maybe it's not at all as platonic as he thinks.
He doesn't freak out because he never felt anything for her before-he knows he's demiromantic. He freaks out because that's his friend.
One quick whiff of dove shampoo and cheap perfume and he feels like he's screwed.
He doesn't act any different, but Lauren knows something is up anyway and he knows she knows but he doesn't confess, and when they graduate Lauren's back to her circumnavigations and Zach wishes he could go, but he can't. He has to work and he's going to school, and he has to watch over Penelope and Robin and sometimes he gets sick. So, he can't.
And two years later she comes back. She's the same as ever, though her hair got longer and Zach swears that her eyes are purple when he sees her again, but her Portuguese is better and now she knows Afrikaan. Her already bronze skin is even darker and the first thing she does when she sees him is crushes him in a minute long bear hug that leaves him breathless.
And then she kisses him which he's pretty surprised about too.
They work out all the kinks of their relationship, Lauren's just as inexperienced as Zach but they make it work. She later finds out that she's heteromantic and she's okay with it and Zach understands. Their pretty much the same, though Zach isn’t big on PDA and now instead when they have to say goodbye it's accentuated with a kiss.
They realize that they really like each other. Despite both their initial fears of ruining their relationship it works out for them and when Zach finally gets his bachelors they both decide that maybe the world isn't so big.
Zach still yearns to see the world and one day when he mentions this, Lauren looks at him like he's crazy and starts to pack and plan and she tells him there's only one way to curb wanderlust and he smiles because when he's looking at her he swears her eyes are bright violet and time and time again he thinks 'I'm in love' and he wouldn't have it any other way.
They travel. To new places for Zach and old for Lauren. She takes him to the farm in New Zealand and old alley ways of Beijing where she talks with old friends and the freezing parts of Finland and the scorching areas of Argentina. Zach takes to writing down events and places and his thoughts a well as phrases and little things that help him remember how to speak certain languages. Lauren's more inclined to take pictures but usually she just doodles scribbles in Zach's journals.
They travel by bus and train, but most of the time walking and on one occasion by a purchased mule (which they named Prinxe FlutterButter) and sometimes by boat. They sleep where ever some nights. Barns, beds, under the sky, in musty motel rooms, in guest rooms of the generous, and even some nights in hotels.
On their travels though, it's not like they never did anything though. Most of the time Zach checks out sick kids and sometimes adults-free of charge all the time, and Lauren offers to cook and clean in exchange for places to stay and Paints for money, selling portraits and landscapes when she has to.
Two things they always have on them is food and money-in any form. They always have a little extra cash and always have some sort of food and water on them. They never know sometimes when they'll eat next and Zach thinks he should be worried or frightened by that, but he just feels happy. He's never been happier.
Eventually they have to return to the states after what feels like decades, but it's only been about a year or two. Mostly because of Zach's health. He gets the worst asthma attack of his life and then they decide it's best to go back-back to Nebraska and they pack up what little they have and catch the next flight out of Niue to the states.
And Zach with as much predictability as a coin does something he never thought he'd do before.
He asks Lauren to marry him.
She's just about as surprised as him, but she knows he means it. The blush that covers him from his neck to his ear tips are confirmation enough and when she asks for a ring he laughs in relief because she said yes, (
she said yes) and she's joking with him-she hates rings.
They don't know the first things about weddings. Skylar and Vincent are no help, they got married in a court house and ten minutes later were on a flight to Bulgaria, so they mostly take tips from Mark, Radiation, Storie and Mink.
All four of them are ecstatic because Nebraska is a beautiful state and all of them were so sad they couldn't get married in it. Storie and Mink talk about flowers and decorations and the type of clothing everyone will wear and who's being invited (it ends up being their entire extended family, related or not).
Mark and Radio focus more on what Zach and Lauren are going to wear, getting them tailored and looking at bridal gown with Lauren, Skye and Vinc. Mark and Radio get into arguments over what songs their going to play, and it ends with Mark kissing Radiations pouting lips off his face and Zach and Lauren laughing because they really can't believe those two.
They mostly let those four focus on everything else, but Lauren and Zach pick out the food and the cake and decide who come. They eventually decide to invite close family (grandparents, family friends) and their friends from around the world.
Round trip, hotels, the whole nine yards. To them, they're family too.
The wedding itself Is a little messy. It certainly isn't traditional in the least except for a few key details, but they wouldn't have it any other way. Zach starts crying the moment he puts the tuxedo and only stops when their officially married. Their vows are said in perhaps the clumsiest way possible, with Lauren getting nervous and telling them in 4 different languages and Zach is trying to translate, but he gives up halfway through, what she's saying is for him; it doesn't matter if anyone else can understand.
and she knows that when he accidentally starts his in spanish, that she wouldn't to spend her life with anyone else.
Their kiss isn't like any of the other ones they've had before, it's their first kiss as a married couple and with the wind in their hair and wildflowers blooming all around them, they're married. By this time almost everybody's crying and Marc has to be led away because he really can't get it together, and Mink and Storie are crying too, because it worked out so easily for them and the both of them are so happy that it did. When Lauren throws her bouquet-a combination of apple blossoms, asters, Stephanotis and forget-me-nots- Penelope catches it. She laughs for a minute or two before handing it off to Robin who blushes five shades of red and Mark finally stops crying only to laugh and put an arm around his daughter.
There's even more crying at the reception, the cake cutting is probably their favorite favorite part, the marbling is perfect and the strawberries are fresh and they give the first piece to Penelope and Robin.
They hate cake. And they spend the time cutting pieces for each and everyone of the people who attended their wedding.
When it's time for their first dance, both of them turn to bashful blushing messes. Marc and Radio picked the songs, choosing ones zach and lauren both liked and what they thought represented them the best. Lauren and Zach have no protests and when the first song starts up they laugh because if their Hearts were houses they'd definitely be home with each other.
It ends around midnight. Mink still has to open her bookstore at a decent time, Marc, Radiation, and Robin open their cafe early the next morning, and Storie has to do ordering and accounting for her bar. And Zach and Lauren, they have a flight to catch at 9 later that morning.
They may not be going to Bulgaria, or Japan, or Australia, but they do have some where to go.
At 7 they stop by the cafe and say goodbye to Kar-keid-him Colibri trio, grabbing coffee to go before stopping by Zach's moms' house and saying bye to Storie and Mink before they pick up Lauren's parents and begin driving to the airport.
They catch a plane to california and Skylar and Vincent, they catch one to Rio
Zach and Lauren decide that it's a big world out there, like really big, but while they already traveled it. They decide that since they've always been on the go, that maybe it's best if they slow down albeit only a little.
A quiet place is where they decide. One with rolling sand dunes and scrub flowers in vibrant colors. Sea salt regularly settles in their hair and on their lips and they can taste it with each and every kiss. The waves roll off and crash into the shore and the sounds lull them to sleep and together they're happy.
Their place is small by others' standards, but not by their own because after living in the alleyways of Beijing and Thailand and New York on one occasion, big isn't big, it's empty and in that respect, lonesome.
They move around each other as easily as the water that crashes into the land behind them and they like it. The solidarity, the quiet, the way it feels so natural to them.
And sometimes when the sun wakes Zach up before their alarm does, he kisses Lauren and when her eyes open he swears their purple, opposed to their usual deep blue, and he smiles, because he wouldn't want to have his life any other way.
