Until We Are Old Enough to Leave

Azrael Santiago used to think love was made of grand moments.

Confessions.
Promises.
Wedding vows spoken in front of the people they loved.

But marriage taught him something different.

Love was waking up beside the same person for years and still choosing them.

It was shared breakfasts, unfinished conversations, hospital visits, quiet victories, sleepless nights, and ordinary days that somehow became extraordinary because Sylas was there.

This is not the story of how they fell in love.

This is the story of everything that came after.

Of building a home.
Growing older.
Holding on through changing seasons.
And learning that forever is not one moment, but thousands of small ones stitched together.

A story about the life they built, the years they were given, and the promise they kept:

to stay, until they were old enough to leave.