As kids—they practiced getting married one day.

Nero and Virgil meet at five year and six years old on the first day of kindergarten. Nero is small, sorta thin and scrawny looking, as well as shy. The older kids pick him as target on the playground, having his lunchbox pried open on the very first day of school, trying not to cry as the big fourth graders scarf down his meal right in front of him.

Virgil is the complete opposite of the scrawny kid with blue eyes; he's tall for his age, with a fiery spirit and a love for kickball. He doesn't take no for an answer.

And he definitely doesn't appreciate four kids bullying a kid whose three years younger than them.

It isn't to say he's opposed to violence, but the odds just don't seem all that fair. Haven't they heard that saying about picking on somebody their own size?

So Virgil decides to serve a little school-yard justice and kids of all ages crowded around as they watched the six year old give each bully a fat lip and bloody nose. Teachers were called and other fourth graders were rushing in to help their classmates. He took that as his cue to take the kid's hand and push past the crowd, the both of them running across campus as kids cheered.

They hid in a bathroom stall for the rest of the day and were inseparable ever since.
It was third grade when a dumb girl named Kyrie tried to explain to them what kissing was.

"No way," Nero concluded, sticking out his tongue in disgust. The three of them plus Dante were sitting ontop of the jungle gym. And the boys couldn't believe their ears. "That's disgusting! What kind of boy would want to put his lips on….a girl?" They all blanched.

"Plenty," Kyrie insisted. "My sister goes to the big kid school up the road and she said boys and girls kiss all the time. It's like a rule or something. Like you have to kiss somebody or…you'll die or whatever. But it has to be somebody you like or it doesn't work."

The boys glanced at each other in alarm, wondering if she could really be telling the truth. "Like how would we die?"

She shrugged. "You'd blow up." It was stated so matter-of-factly that Virgil almost fell off the jungle gym from sheer shock. Luckily, Nero took a hold of his arm and steadied his almost shaking body, murmuring quiet reassurance.

The bell rang a couple minutes later and they all hurried off to class.

All except Nero and Virgil.

They ran off towards a secret spot they found in first grade, it was an old closed up single person bathroom that was locked and unused. Virgil checked to see if the coast was clear before grabbing an old empty crate that was stacked up around the corner and hoisting Nero up. Nero gently pushed the rectangular window open, sliding in through and carefully landing on the sink. Virgil followed soon after, the two of them looking on edge.

"Am…" The shorter of the two squeaked, looking ready to cry. "Am I going to blow up?"

Virgil should've cursed stupid big mouth Kyrie for planting so much fear in his best friend's mind. "Hey," He patted the boy's arm soothingly. "Hey, no, Nero, we're going to be fine. Calm down, please?"

Instead he sniffled, trying to bite back the sting in his eyes and the sour fear at the pit of his stomach. "I don't think she was lying, Virg. I think we're going to blow up into a million, billion pieces like that guy in the movie that we watched without my mom's permission! We're—we're—"

Virgil jolted suddenly, looking like he had a major epiphany. "But she didn't say who we had to kiss!"

"…Huh?"

"I mean, she didn't say it had to be girls, just that we had to kiss somebody or we'd explode. So," He put his hands on Nero's shoulders. "We'll kiss."

The younger of the two looked a bit at loss for words. He hadn't considered that. Sure, he didn't want to blow up, but he really didn't know much about this whole kissing thing either. "I don't—I don't know…"

"Look, Kyire said you have to scrunch your lips together like a fish and then…just kinda touch mine and all."

"That's all?" His best friend nodded, pushing the light hair out of his blue eyes. "…Alright."

They didn't close their eyes because they didn't know they were supposed to. Instead, they both sort of squinted, surging forward much too fast that their noses bumped awkwardly and their lips hurt from the impact. They stayed still for a second, bodies bent at an odd angle.

Nero pulled away first, eyebrows furrowed with a confused look on his face. "…That's it?"

Virgil looked equally confused. "I think so."

They both scowled.

"Kissing's dumb."

It was the following day that they made sure to inform miss Big Mouth that they were no longer in danger of blowing up.

And she made sure to inform them that they were totally wrong.

"Boys are so stupid! Now you've just made it worse."

They were again sitting on the jungle gym, this time just the three of them chugging chocolate milks. "What are you talking about? We kissed; now we won't blow up like you said!"

"No, no, no. You didn't let me finish what I was sayin' yesterday. You really don't have to worry about blowing up until you get to the big kid's school. But now that you've kissed, you're sure to blow up into a million pieces."

"What?!" Nero exclaimed, starting to shake again. If Kyrie wasn't a girl, Virgil would've punched her in the stomach.

"Yeah. Once you kiss for the first time, you have to keep doing it or you'll blow up like a balloon." Again, Virgil wished he could kick her in the stomach. Or push her off the jungle gym… "Unless…"

"Unless?" Virgil prodded.

"Unless you get married." They both stared. "Married people don't have to worry about that anymore, that's why none of our mommies or daddies have blown up. You gotta have a wedding like the one my aunt Michelle had last year, with flowers and this guy that stands in front of you and makes you swear stuff like you'll never get married again until you die."

Until you die.

That seemed like an awfully long time.

Nero and Virgil looked at each other, searching the other's eyes for reassurance. They figured—if there had to be one person they wanted to be attached to forever, it would be each other.

Kyrie squealed with excitement when they nodded, her pigtails bouncing with her. "We'll have the wedding this Friday on the third grade fieldtrip to Petit Park!"

Oh boy.

What have they gotten themselves into?

When Friday had rolled around, news of their wedding had spread across campus and every third grader packed into the tiny yellow buses were talking about it.

The trip was an end of the school year thing, for the entire third grade class. There would be endless amounts of junk food on the picnic tables as the kids rushed off towards the playground. However, this time around everybody was packed on the basket-ball courts—empty this time of day—waiting for the wedding to start.

Brittany proudly took charge of the entire thing, yelling out orders like she actually knew what she was talking about. "We need a best man and a bride of honor!" Dante had stepped up—though some argued that they should duel with toy swords to see who the 'best man' was, even though Kyrie insisted that's not how it worked—and a girl named Trish volunteered for the maid of honor since Kyrie was going to marry them off. "I also need rings! Somebody go find me some ring! Now!" A group of girls ran off in search of some as the two 'brides to be' paced nervously. Loud-mouth had said they couldn't look at each other until everything was done other wise it'd mess up the entire thing.

So Virgil was on the other side of the public library with Dante and Nero was with Lady. "Do you have your vows memorized?" The relatively quiet girl murmured.

"Vows?"

"Yeah, I've never been to a wedding before but my mom said she had to write vows. I don't know if both of you have to do it, but I think it's like…saying a bunch of nice stuff about the other person."

Nero could do that. There were so many things to chose from with Virgil, he couldn't have asked for a better best friend.

Suddenly, off in the distance, kids were playing their kazoos and Lady turned to him, "Its time."

Nero felt weird with everybody's eyes on him and Virgil. They both walked up to the basket ball court, shuffling from foot to foot in front of all the kids sitting cross legged. Kyrie started saying a bunch of random stuff—they wondered if she really knew as much as she was letting on—telling them they had to stay married even if they got colds or didn't have enough money to pay for lunch.

Near the end, when she was about to ask for the rings, Nero raised his hand and said he had to say something. He looked into Virgil's blue eyes, smiling. "You're cool and tall and you don't care what any kid says. You let me copy your time-tables when I forget to do them. You showed me how to write an upper case L in cursive because I always have trouble with it. You can beat anybody up and you're really tough…" He paused for a moment, trying to sum up everything he wanted to say. "..Thanks for always being there when nobody else was."

His best friend looked proud at that moment, smiling from ear to ear.

Kyrie ripped open a couple ringpops and handed them to the boys. "I now pronounce you husband and wife."

She didn't tell them to kiss but Virgil reached out and laced his fingers with Nero's anyways, giving a slight comforting squeeze.

Virgil and Nero went on to grow up with each other.

At age nine Virgil came to school with a huge bulky camera around his neck that his dad had gotten him for Christmas and he spent hours taking pictures of everything, becoming obsessed with photography.

At age ten, Nero broke his arm falling out of a tree and Virgil carried him all the way to the nurse, not leaving his side for two whole days.

At age eleven they both had their first girlfriends. Nero ended up asking out Lady and Virgil asked out Kyrie. Go figure.

At age thirteen they decided girls were stupid again and so was dating. And heart break. They swore off dating and decided to focus on extracurricular activates. Virgil soon became head of the photography club and Nero got the lead in the school play.

At sixteen they kissed for a second time since they were eight. It was Nero's birthday, under the stars at—ironically enough—Petit Park that Virgil confessed that he was half way in love with him and couldn't stand just being friends anymore.

Nero couldn't agree more.

The years past. They became an official couple, came out to their friends and family (Kyrie was the least surprised) and had sex for the first time.

And then everyday there after.

They were eighteen now, freshmen in college and presently in beautiful California during winter break. They were both holding hands walking along the beach feeling the sand beneath their toes.

They stopped and looked out at the setting sun, admiring the way the colors meshed on the horizon, like an explosion of orange and pink. Virgil leaned over and kissed his boyfriend suddenly, slow and blissfully, biting his lower lip just the tiniest.

"Nero?" He whispered, running his thumb over the other's cheek, feeling the smooth skin.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for always being there for me when nobody else was."

The words were echoed and definitely not forgotten. It felt like déjà vu, almost, like the memory was a whisper in the back of his mind.

Then, Virgil got down on one knee watching his boyfriend's expression turn into awe.

"Will you marry me?"

The ring was diamond, not candy, though he would've settled for a ring-pop at the basketball courts any day—as long as he was with Nero.

He figured the kiddy wedding back in grade school had stuck more than he ever thought it would.

Though, maybe they were always destined to be together forever.

"Yes."