Doors open.

MATTHEOS POV- Doors open.

I woke up everyday, and pinched my self, literally.

I never thought I'd see the day I had a happy life.

A wife, let alone Yn.

Two beautiful kids, and one on the way.

Happiness just never appeared to be in my cards.

Yet, that's exactly what I was now.

Happy.

I'm not going to lie and say after the war was perfect.

It was anything but.

With Theo, and Pansy's death, it was rough.

It was more than rough.

Especially for yn.

I watched Theo's death destroy her.

Consume her.

I watched her wither away to nothing.

And when she realized he wasn't coming to put her pieces back together, like he always had before.

I watched her put herself back together. 

Merlin knows she wouldn't let me, and I didn't want too.

It's one of the reasons I loved her so much.

Her strength.

She needed to feel her grief, her loss, just as I did.

I lost my best friend too.

I lost the one person who truly knew what it felt like to be in my shoes, the one person I never thought I'd lose, someone I grew with. 

Someone who's laughter, who's presence could never be replaced. 

I lost him, too. 

But yn... yn was beyond.

Piece by piece, she started to rebuild her life, forging strength from the very shards of pain that had threatened to swallow her whole. 

It was as if I was watching a flower bloom in the harshest of winters...slowly, cautiously, but undeniably beautiful.

It took her over two full years to gather herself again.

She would lock herself in her room for weeks, just... crying.

As if she was waiting for him.

Even when she would finally emerge, she was a shadow.

Every day, I would sit beside her as she healed. 

I listened to her talk about Theo, sharing fond memories that filled the room with both laughter and tears. Memories I never even knew existed.

She needed to grieve, and I knew that for her to flourish again, I had to let her face her emotions head-on. I was her anchor, but it was her own resilience that would lead her to the shore.

I wanted her to be her again, when I proposed, when we got married.

So I waited.

And then when I finally did, seven years ago, it brought everything back up.

Theo not being there, Pansy not being there.

But she pushed through, because she knew he would want her too.

He said it himself.

It was as if the moment I slipped that ring onto her finger, an invisible dam had burst open, flooding our lives with memories both beautiful and heartbreaking.