Holding Hands Won't Be Enough

They couldn’t have told you how long they had been standing there in the cold, in silence save for sobs, just holding each other and very gently rocking to the music. Her parents, her sister, Jyrki and Jussi had all independently gone in search for them - all finding the same thing and deciding to not make their presence known, opting to leave them to it.

“Dude I’ve never heard crying like that from a dude.” Jussi observed, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. “The noise coming from him was guttural, deep…” Jyrki inhaled strongly and nodded.

“It needed to happen.” he noted pensively.

“What are you talking about man?”

“This has levelled their sadness to one another. They are both hearts that ache, neither of them can bare that in the other, that’s why she’s out there holding him. He witnessed her hurt and pain in her leaving, in learning of Oscar… She never witnessed that he hurt too and now she is, she can’t turn her back on it. Love like what they had is never truly lost my friend.”

“I don’t like seeing them like this.”

“None of us do, but we must let love run its course.”

“Why? This is horrible.”

“True love prevails. Always has, always will.”

“I’ll never understand how you believe that shit man, mostly love is just pain and suffering and rarely works out.”

“Never heard of weathering through the storm?”

“Storm yes, shit storms, no… And I smell a shit storm coming.”

————
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“Are you okay?” Millie whispered, her lips moving against his chest, her voice cracking slightly from having been crying. He nuzzled his face closer, if even possible, into her hair.

“No.” he replied, his voice doing much the same as hers did. “Are you?”

“…No.”

“What do we do?” he asked, still whispering, running his hand down her back, holding her closer still.

“I don’t know.” the question was answered for them when they heard heels approaching from behind them; Millie’s back was to it but Ville could see Sonja tentatively approaching.

“Guys, I really, really hate to interrupt…” she began, Millie turned to see her sister holding a sleepy Oscar - no doubt finally tired from his accident earlier - with a sympathetic expression on her face, “I’ve stalled the speeches as long as I could, but the guys are getting a bit drunk so I want to do it whilst they can construct sentences.”

“Oh my god, Son, of course, I’m so sorry…” she gushed, pulling away from Ville and hurrying to take Oscar from the bride. “I’m so sorry.” she reiterated. Sonja shook her head and took her sister by the arms.

“Don’t be sorry,” she said seriously, before looking over Millie’s shoulder to Ville who had turned away to wipe his face with his hands. “Don’t you be sorry at all.”

“I love you, Sonja.”

“I love you too sis.” she smiled, “I’ll give you guys a minute, okay?” Millie nodded. She turned back to Ville who was still composing himself with his back to her; he hadn’t wanted that embrace to end and felt instantly empty again when she moved away. She pushed Oscar’s hair out of his face to look at his bruise again, before decidedly covering it back up with his wayward hair and kissing his head.

“Are you sleepy?” he nodded but smiled, throwing his arms around his mother’s neck, perking up at being reunited with her. She giggled and hugged him back. The sound made Ville’s heart soar; he turned to face them and the smile that spread across his face almost brought him to tears again. “Shall we give Daddy a hug? she asked, moving her gaze to Ville’s eyes.

“Yeah!” he cooed, stretching out his arms. Ville pulled them both into him and bit his lips together to hold back the tears that were now welling in his eyes; Millie could tell by the way his was holding them and breathing that he was crying as he held them tightly, planting a kiss on both of their heads before pulling back to look at them.

"We had better get inside for those speeches, huh?" he said, sniffing back his tears.

“How much do we love Daddy?” she asked, to break the sad tension and draw attention away from the fact that she now too was again on the brink of tears.

“So much!” he giggled.

“How much!” she encouraged, Ville laughed.

“More than the sun and the moon and the stars and the sky and the plants and the seas… and the foxes and french toast and everything in the world!” he recited, as he always did whenever she posed this question to him, even before Ville was in the picture.

“You hear that?” she said to Ville, her tone pulling back from jovial, to deadly serious, “More than foxes, French toast... and everything in the world.”

“How much do we love Mummy!” Oscar squeaked in excitement to his father, not realising the emotional situation his was in the centre of.

“More than foxes, french toast... and everything in the universe.”