Everything good has to end eventually. Well I mean, this is just the ending of arc 2, and arc 3 is gonna come out bigger and better than this (literally bigger, since it's gonna be 20 chapters as opposed to 15), but this is the close of arc 2. Arc 2 was more personal and domestic, but the drama and the angst will come back (while keeping the personal and domestic shit). I hope all of you are as excited as I am! And I hope you enjoy the Arc 2 finale.

Boyd's arms were wrapped around Louie as they slept but only Boyd was sleeping. Louie had actually had lots of sleepless nights basically since December but worsening when February started. Damn, February was always the worst month. Usually, February was the month where Louie realized that he'd failed his resolutions and then he started doing stuff that was even more evil than normal, he'd lapse back into neutral evil by July and be in a slump until Christmas. And then he would get inspired to be a good person, which would last for the first two weeks of January, and then the cycle would repeat.

But last February something had happened. He'd met someone worth changing for, someone who held him close now as he lay there, trying not to freak out about their future.

One good thing about not sleeping is that he had started noticing Boyd's sleeping patterns. Boyd had stopped answering night calls, preferring to stay still in his boyfriend's arms or hold Louie close in his own.

On the morning of their anniversary, Louie decided to ask him about that.

"Why haven't you been going on night patrol or whatever?"

"Well, I mean, there are other heroes in this city. Four that I can think of off the top of my head and…" Boyd looked down at his cereal. Tonight was gonna be so busy he didn't know why he had to fuss over breakfast this morning. Sometimes a bowl of Lucky Charms was enough.

"And?" Louie prompted as Boyd tipped back his bowl and drank the last of his cereal milk.

"And I want to be close to you. You've been so busy lately, getting ready for tonight. Sometimes I feel like the only time we have alone is when we're in bed together. And even that gets interrupted by Mars half the time."

"Oh yeah," Louie laughed, "We have a cat." As if Mars hadn't developed a fun new habit of trying to sleep on Louie's face. It was the cutest repeated assassination attempt that had ever been lodged against Louie. Though every time that Louie referred to it as an assassination attempt, Boyd was forced to go through a mini-crisis as he recalled that there had been actual assassination attempts on Louie and some of them had happened before Louie had even turned 14. Like yeah, 2020 had been a hard year for everyone but no dickhead teenager deserved to be assassinated.

"But seriously, I'm sorry I've been so busy. Everything changes after tonight. I promise." Louie leaned over and gently wiped the milk mustache off of Boyd's face and Boyd smiled a little.

"I know. I'm excited. After all of this, you deserve another vacation," Boyd said, taking Louie's hand.

"Maybe somewhere we can drive to," Louie suggested, and Boyd laughed.

"A road trip sounds delightful actually. Do you… Do you want to, Lou?"

Louie grinned, imagining a couple of nights away from it all with Boyd as his fiance. Pre-married bliss.

"That sounds incredible. Let's do it. Just you, me, the open road-"

"What about Mars?"

"We could bring him, or we could get someone to house sit. I bet Craig would do it, or Aunt Goldie, or someone."

"We'll get it sorted out later. I need to get to work." Boyd stood, grabbing his coat.

"Have a good day, babe. I'll see you tonight."

"Can't wait," Boyd said with a smile and a goodbye kiss.

"Me neither," Louie agreed.

The next few hours were exhausting and isolating. Maybe Louie shouldn't have been alone with all of his fears and maybe he shouldn't have rescheduled his therapy appointment, but he needed time to focus on himself. He went to get his nails touched up, did one more quick check-in with the pub, and then was left with his thoughts.

"Boyd, one year ago, you came into my life, I can't imagine spending the rest of my life without you. Before I met you there wasn't even a rest of my life, there was just a march of days and I spent my life with one foot in the grave- what are you doing dumbass you can't mention being suicidal in your proposal speech. Start over."

Louie was sitting in his car, practicing the proposal to the toy he'd gotten in the kids' meal he had picked up for lunch. It was a troll, for the Trolls reboot, Trollz. Not to be confused with the 6ix9ine song, TROLLZ.

"Boyd, this past year has been the most fulfilling of my life. I am so happy to wake up next to you every day, I'd like to wake up right next to you forever. I am already the luckiest man in the world. Will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my husband?" That was much better, of course. The little troll figurine didn't say anything but Louie was pretty sure that if it had been his Prince Charming then he would've gotten a resounding yes.

"I can do this. One more take, even simpler." Louie knew himself. In the moment, he wasn't going to remember all the words.

"Boyd, will you marry me?" He had to at least say that part. He imagined peering into Boyd's loving eyes and asking the question that would set their future in motion. He could imagine plans, a fairy tale wedding with all of his family in attendance, starting a family, growing better together. Forever was practically guaranteed, he just had to say five little words.

He was still anxious and pacing when Boyd got home. Every time he passed Mars, who was under the coffee table, their evil son swiped at his feet, but Louie didn't care at this point.

"Ah, babe, you alright?" Boyd asked, immediately coming over and putting his hands on Louie's shoulders to hold him steady.

"I'm really nervous about tonight," Louie admitted, "The opening, and the speech, and everything…"

"You've been working towards this for weeks now," Boyd said, pressing his forehead against Louie's, "You know the words backwards and forwards. You're going to do great. And I'm going to be right there with you."

"Thank you," Louie said, allowing Boyd to hold him close for a few minutes longer and then pulling back, "You need to get dressed. We can leave as soon as you're ready." Louie was already in his suit, he just had to pull his shoes on.

"Oh… Can't I wear what I wore to work?" Boyd asked, looking down at himself. He was wearing a plain, boring white button-up shirt, a brown coat, and a red bow-tie.

"I'd appreciate it if you dressed up a little," Louie said, "Tonight is kind of important."

"I know, but this is about my standard pub apparel."

"Well, tonight isn't a standard pub visit. You should wear your constellation shirt, at least. You always look incredible in that."

Boyd blushed, "Well if you insist…"

Louie searched Boyd's face for some kind of understanding. He knew this was the grand re-opening, that should have been motivation enough to want to dress up. Did he understand the other significance of the evening? Did he remember? Louie felt his stomach tie into knots. No, he couldn't worry about what Boyd remembered or not. Tonight was going to be perfect, not because it went perfect but because they would be together in their corner booth. It wasn't every day that you got engaged.

"Satisfactory?" Boyd asked, doing a little twirl.

"You look very handsome. Just like when we first met." Boyd beamed at that but didn't appear to make the mental connection that that had been a year ago. That had been a year ago, right? Louie hadn't bungled the dates, right? No, he was sure, he still had the newspaper, the one that had printed his picture as Jailbird that Dewey had essentially thrown at him that day. It was dated February 17th. Today was the right day. Why wasn't Boyd acknowledging that?

"Alright, my dear. Let's go open Della's Corner Pub."

"Do you think she would have liked having her name on a building like that?"

"I'm sure she would've," Boyd said, "But my opinion doesn't matter much here. Your uncle thought it was a good idea so you've got to trust his judgment."

"I'm really nervous," Louie said, "but so excited. This is the start of something truly special."

"You and Craig worked really hard on this. You should be proud of yourself."

"You should be proud of yourself, you're dating a good, honest businessman."

"I wonder how I managed to nab someone so cool and classy," Boyd giggled.

"I ask myself the same thing nearly every day." Soon they pulled up near the bar, Louie taking the initiative to let Boyd out of the car this time instead of the other way around.

"Allow me to introduce you to my masterpiece," Louie said, framing the sign with the name change with his hands and then leading Boyd inside.

"Oh, Louie, it looks incredible in here," Boyd gushed, spinning to take in all the decorations and the new expanded floor plan.

"Well, we're awfully proud of it," Louie agreed.

Boyd pressed a fist to his lips, overwhelmed with emotion, "I love the flags behind the bar." A rainbow pride flag and a trans pride flag hung proudly behind the bar.

"That's one of my favorite parts too," Louie agreed, "But I think my favorite thing is the photos we added." He gestured to the wall at the photo of his mom, which had a little inscription plaque detailing her significance. There was also a photo that Louie'd had taken at Thanksgiving that featured pretty much the entire family, a photo of Craig and Brooke and Brooke's daughter Paige, and some family photos that Craig had contributed. They were interspersed between regular pub wall decorations and gave the whole place a much more personal feeling. There were also fresh lilies on every table since that was what was in bloom in February.

"You did amazing, you're amazing," Boyd said, pulling Louie into his arms and kissing him deeply, full of passion and pride. Louie's jitters melted away. Tonight was going to be their brand of perfect. They didn't need anything more than that.

"Alright. Well, people are going to start arriving at any moment."

His siblings had made arrangements for childcare, Webby had rushed a secret mission, Violet and Lena had put some hauntings on hold, the adults in this family could take up the entire original portion of this pub by themselves. Other people, people from the press, people who considered themselves alcohol experts, foodies, influencers, and the like, would filter in as well. The most important thing was that Louie had the people who loved him around as he took this step towards the future.

"You're going to do amazing," Boyd said, taking Louie's hand and squeezing it, "It's going to be perfect."

"It's going to be perfect."

The speech Louie had to give for the press as Della's officially opened for business was, frankly, irrelevant. He had to keep the ball rolling, say a few words, introduce Craig, let Craig take over. But five more important words sat on top of his tongue and he really just wanted to get to it already. So when the pictures and the speeches were over and Louie and Boyd could sit down in their booth Louie felt a huge wave of relief roll over him.

"Your speech was really good," Boyd said.

"You said that every time I practiced on you," Louie laughed.

"And it was always true."

"Well, I'm glad it's over. Because there's something I've been meaning to say to you."

Boyd blinked in surprise, "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Happy Anniversary, Boyd. This is the exact spot we met a year ago."

A smile lit up Boyd's face, "It is! I'm glad my building didn't have power that week... Or else you wouldn't have come to light up my life."

Louie couldn't help snorting, "You're so cheesy. Did you remember it was our anniversary?"

"Well, uh… It kind of isn't? I mean… I thought our anniversary was March 11th, when you asked me if we were dating. So I really wasn't expecting this… I didn't get you anything. I'm sorry, Lou."

Louie was not going to have the calendar argument all over again, not on the day they got engaged.

"That's okay, love. I got you something. Why don't you put the inscription plaque under our photo?" Louie drew out a box from his pocket, he'd written it down, left pocket for plaque, right pocket for ring, right and ring both started with the same letter.

"Okay," Boyd turned his attention to the words on the plaque, barely noticing Louie stand.

"Louie, I think there's a mistake on this, it says this is a picture of you and your husband-" Boyd turned around and saw Louie kneeling, a box open in his hand. Boyd gasped, "Louie?"

Louie knew that there were five words he was supposed to say. But that was too complicated. Blinking happy tears away Louie managed to form two of them- fortunately, the two that made the most sense, "Marry me?"

Boyd had never nodded so fast, "Yes, yes, yes, absolutely!" He was already weeping himself, reaching for Louie and pulling him up and towards him. Louie took the seat in the booth next to Boyd and the whole bar erupted into cheers. Boyd hugged his fiance (His fiance!) close, not thinking, just taking in the feeling of Louie in his arms as he wept beautiful tears.

"I love you," Louie said, fumbling to get the ring out of the box when they pulled away, reaching for the wrong hand at first and then the left one.

"I love you too," Boyd beamed, wiping at his eyes before turning to admire the rose gold ring.

"It's so pretty," Boyd said quietly.

"It suits you then, gorgeous," Louie lightly teased. He was vaguely aware of the rest of the world, the people in his family who had known he was proposing (everyone), the people in his family who hadn't known he was proposing (Huey), the people in the bar who didn't even know who either of them was. But the only thing that really mattered was the two of them.

"We're getting married," Boyd gushed.

"We're going to be husbands," Louie added.

"Husbands. Oh my gosh. We have so much to do-"

"No," Louie said, "not right now. Right now all we have to do is be happy."

"Okay," Boyd wrapped an arm around Louie and held him close, "I can do that."

If you need something to do while I'm re-editing Arc 1 and 2 and writing Arc 3 might I recommend the stories Champagne Problems or Cinder-Louie? Might be a fun way to stay in the Louyd wedding mood. Or go check out AO3 exclusive, Mo Family, Less Problems, a bit of fluff to prepare you for the angst of Arc 3 :D