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It’s only natural for a child to be curious.
“What is this?” Melody asks one morning while on Felix’s lap, twisting and pulling the silver band on his finger.
“My wedding ring,” Felix answers as Melody removes the ring. He stretches out his fingers until she puts it back in its rightful place. “Your dad gave it to me.”
She tilts her head back to look up at him. “Why?”
Felix brushes a few loose strands of hair away from her face. “Because we’re married.”
“What does that mean?”
Before Felix can fumble his way through an explanation, Sylvain enters the house through the garage door. “Aw, you two are cute,” he says upon seeing them and turns towards the kitchen, putting a reusable grocery bag on the kitchen island.
“Melody has a question for you,” Felix says, bouncing his leg to coax his daughter, which only makes her giggle. “Ask him what you asked me.”
It takes a few bounces until she does. “What’s merry?”
“Being married.” Felix corrects.
“Being married.”
Sylvain tosses the now empty bag into the pantry. “It means your dad and I love each other, so,” he closes the door and waves a hand. “Decided that we wanted to do everything together for the rest of our lives.”
“That’s what the ring means.” Felix says, putting his left hand out in front of Melody.
She reaches down to twist the piece of jewelry a few times before raising an eyebrow. “How do you get married?”
“A wedding. That’s why it’s called a wedding ring.”
Sylvain crosses over the threshold between the kitchen and living room. “That picture of dad and I there?” He points at the wall behind them. “That’s from our wedding. Here,” he heads out of the room, goes upstairs, and returns with the biggest book Melody has ever seen. He sits next to them and opens to the first page. “It’ll be easier to show you.”
A few pages into the wedding album, Melody completely forgets her original question and now asks about the photos themselves, ranging from who is present in them to what is happening.
“It’s basically a big party celebrating us,” Sylvain says once they enter photos relating to the reception. He points to a picture of Felix feeding him a forkful of cake. “And there’s cake.”
They go through the rest of the album answering any questions Melody has and telling her stories. Upon reaching the end, Sylvain is about to ask Melody if she understands, but instead sees her eyebrows furrowed more from when they began. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
She doesn’t look away from the wedding album. “I wasn’t there?”
“No,” he drags out the word for a few seconds. “You weren’t.”
That’s the incorrect response given how Melody slouches back into Felix and looks up at Sylvain with eyes that resemble a dam threatening to break. “Why?”
Sylvain looks up at Felix, who just stares back, then to Melody again. “Uh,” he shifts in his seat. “You weren’t born yet, so you weren’t there.”
It takes two seconds for Melody to burst into tears.
“Aw, honey, I’m sorry,” Sylvain pushes the album off his lap and pulls Melody into his arms, kissing the side of her head and rubbing her back. He looks over Melody’s shoulder at Felix, who is trying to suppress a smile, and mouths ‘Help me’.
Felix scooches closer and has a hand join Sylvain’s on her back. “There will be other wedding’s to go to.”
Melody lets out a louder cry. “But I want to be at yours!”
Deciding it would be best not to add more fuel to the fire, both Sylvain and Felix stay quiet through the rest of Melody’s cries, opting to comfort her with back rubs instead. Once Melody is only left with the occasional whimper, Sylvain peels her away enough to wipe at the leftover tear trails. “Sorry your dad and I got married before you were born.”
Melody hiccups. “I really wanted to be there.”
“I know.”
“Can I be next time?”
Sylvain knows better than to tell her that a wedding is, for the most part, only done once, so he simply responds with the most obvious answer: “Yes, of course.”
A sparkle of joy returns back to Melody’s eyes. “When?”
“When your dad and I renew our vows, you can be there,” Felix cuts in right as Sylvain opens his mouth. “It’s like another wedding.”
Sylvain’s eyes widen and he snaps his head in the direction of Felix, but regains composure when Felix directs a nod at Melody. “Yeah,” he blinks a few times and smiles at Melody. “That. We can do that.”
“Okay,” Melody says with a final sniffle, wiggling off of Sylvain’s lap and tugs on his arm. “Let’s go.”
“We have to plan it first,” Felix tells her, causing Melody to pause her actions. “It will take a bit.”
“By dinner?”
“No.”
The moment a hint of a pout appears on Melody’s face, Sylvain speaks up. “We want to make it fun, don’t we? Invite people, pick out outfits,” he lets out a gasp. “Cake!”
Melody’s jaw drops. “Cake!”
“So, once that is all done, we can do it, okay?”
“Okay!”
Hours later, when Melody is down for a nap, Sylvain finds Felix laying on the couch, eyes closed. “So,” he pats Felix’s leg, waits for him to bend his knees and sits on the opposite end, an arm draped across the back of the couch. “If we start now, we could probably finish our renewed vows by dinner.”
Felix lets out a breath. “We could,” he stretches his legs back out, crossing his ankles on Sylvain’s lap. “Doesn’t mean it will take place any sooner.”
Sylvain wraps a loose thread on Felix’s sock around his finger. “Do you,” he rips it out. “Actually want to?”
“You do realize I said that so you wouldn’t break our daughter’s heart any further, right?”
“We broke her heart. It takes two to get married and how dare we do it before she came into the picture,” Despite having his eyes closed, Sylvain can tell that Felix rolls them. “In all seriousness, we could. We’ve been married for five years.”
“A milestone doesn’t need to be reached to do it,” Felix says, opening his eyes. “I wouldn’t be opposed.”
Sylvain smiles. “Me either,” he taps his fingers on Felix’s ankle. “However we decide to do it, Melody has to be present. You told her she could.”
“You technically said it first.”
“No, I–” Sylvain pauses for a few moments. “Okay, I did, but you put the stamp of approval.”
“She’ll probably forget all of this happened by tomorrow.”
“True,” Sylvain chuckles and rubs the back of his neck. “We’re really renewing our vows because of our daughter, huh?”
Felix shrugs. “Guess so,” he shifts around a bit. “That’s fine.”
“Yeah,” Sylvain smiles, resting his cheek on his fist. “There’s more I want to add to my vows anyways.”
The corners of Felix’s mouth twitches just as the tips of his ears turn red. “Me too.”