Hi again everyone! I know it's been a minute since my last update, but I am back with another Ziolet one shot! This little story is about Zach and Violet's second/official wedding proposal.
The date of this event is September 4th, 2014. I wanted to have this piece ready to post by then, but it didn't happen…regardless here it is now, and I hope you all enjoy it! This piece had me bawling while writing it, it was such an emotional write for me, but it truly means so much to me, and I hope you all will see that too!
For this one shot a few warnings apply: ANGST, there is a lot of angst in this one y'all! There are mentions of divorce, stillbirth, loss of child, past character death, and hints of pregnancy that all relate back to angst, so please be prepared to jump aboard the angst train. There are also descriptions of depression, anxiety, and general feelings of hopelessness.
One mild curse word is included. There are references to past alcoholism and mentions of smoking/cigarettes. One kissing scene is described, and the end of the story may be interpreted as suggestive, but there is no explicit or mature sexual references included in this work. Italics are used in a few lines to describe past scenes/memories.
As usual I do not own Wild Kratts or any associated characters! Happy reading!
I sat poking at my dinner in my aunt's semi-oceanfront home, gazing at the waves instead of my food. My mind drifted back in time to nearly three years before, a set of green eyes looked back at me from the same spot I was now staring at, his whiny, yet comforting voice ringing through my mind,"I forgot you lived so close to the ocean…"
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out his voice…trying to block out the memories. My hand involuntarily settled on my stomach, but I quickly retracted it. There was nothing there…there hadn't been anything there for two months: my body had failed me. His voice crept into my head again,"she looks like my mom…can I…can I name her Alexandria? After my mom…it's my mom's middle name…"
I quickly snapped my eyes open to find my family looking at me with various levels of sadness, confusion, and concern. I knew right then that I had to get away, I couldn't stay there with them looking at me with such remorse. I felt my anxiety mounting, and I stood up so quickly I nearly knocked my chair over. Since I was a child my defense mechanism was to run away from my problems, and I'd recently taken it to the extreme.
"Where are you going?" My cousin Paige asked as I hastily stood up from the dinner table, leaving my plate untouched. Paige, her husband Todd, their son Nathaniel, and my aunt Amy all looked at me with the same concerned faces, and I just couldn't take it anymore.
I'd come to the Outer Banks to heal, to try to fix myself for the sake of my impromptu marriage, but my family's pitiful looks were not helping the situation at all. They just left me wanting to get away from them, from my marriage, and from myself even more.
"Out…I think I'll go watch the sunset at Bodie Island Lighthouse," I replied as calmly as possible, so I didn't alert them to my sour disposition. If they realized I was depressed again they wouldn't let me go alone.
"Do you want me to come with you, sweetheart?" Amy asked, touching my arm gently, "we can get you something to eat from my restaurant or another place on the way if you want to eat something else instead, you need to eat…"
I patted her hand, "I'm not hungry right now, I'll eat when I get back, don't worry."
She raised her eyebrows at me in a warning look, but I quickly continued in my attempt to calm her worries, "I appreciate the offer, Amy, but I think I'll be fine. The Zachbots will come with me. They may not be the smartest robots, but they'll make sure I'm safe."
My family begrudgingly accepted my excuse, and I prepared to leave, gathering up my belongings before I ordered the Zachbots to accompany me, "Zachbots, expand."
The two robots obeyed my orders, "come on Hawk and Cro, we're going out."
They beeped in confirmation, and as I exited the house I heard my little cousin Nathaniel, who had been raised as my nephew, reply, "do you think I can ask uncle Zach for a Zachbot? They are so cool!"
His mother, Paige, shuddered, "no, absolutely not. I don't care if Violet had a hand in making them, they still creep me out…"
His father, Todd, chimed in, laughing, "and you know how cousin Koki feels about them, she'd never visit if we had one in the house, she'd be screaming 'Zach attack' the whole time."
The tense moment of my departure was broken by Todd's comment, I couldn't help but smirk as I heard laughter pouring from the home, at least they were happy.
I closed the door behind me and hopped onto Cro, having grown accustomed to riding the Zachbots after so many years of working alongside and being in a relationship with their co-creator and namesake, the one and only Zach Varmitech, "come on you two, let's go to the lighthouse."
VvvvvvVvvvvvV
I sat in my lounge chair on the deck of the yacht smoking a cigarette, a habit I'd sadly gotten back into over the past month. I growled in disgust as I pulled the cigarette from my lips. At least I wasn't drinking excessively again, I thought to myself, that promise had been kept.
I glanced at my phone to check for any new messages and saw the picture of me and Violet from our wedding in April that I'd made my background, "dammit," I muttered under my breath after seeing no new messages from Violet, taking another drag on the cigarette.
She'd tried to leave me a month ago after filing for divorce, but I'd begged her to take some time and reconsider. She'd been lost since our daughter Alexandria's stillbirth back in July, and I couldn't stand the thought of losing Violet and our love on top of losing the child we'd never planned for but could never forget.
I stamped out the cigarette on the nearby ashtray and jumped up from the chair, "it's been over a month!" I shouted, the Zachbots beeping in confirmation.
I continued shouting, angrily pacing the deck of the yacht, "we agreed on a month with no contact, but it's been a month and two days! I've been waiting on this yacht, anchored outside her childhood home, right by where she is, waiting to surprise her and show up the minute she called or texted me, but she hasn't said a word! She lied to me!"
I crossed my arms over my chest and huffed in anger, "well, I'm not waiting any longer! Zachbots! Find her location now!"
A few Zachbots tapped into the frequency of the two Zachbots that were serving as Violet's, for lack of a better term, bodyguards, and they relayed her location.
I rubbed my chin in contemplation, "the lighthouse, huh? Well, lock in the coordinates, we're going to her now!"
I paused, noticing the ashtray, "but first I'm gonna shower, get on some new clothes, and brush my teeth, she'll divorce me for sure if she realizes I'm smoking again!"
VvvvvvVvvvvvV
I sat on a bench shivering due to the crisp breeze that tinged the air. My thin sweater did very little to cut the chill that ran through my body, but I didn't care. After the events of the past couple months, I was numb to many of the normal inconveniences of life. My only focus that September evening was watching the sunset over the Pamlico Sound at the Observation Deck at Bodie Island Lighthouse.
I felt the wind whipping my hair around my face. A few strands caught on my lips and I pulled them behind my ears just in time to hear a familiar voice ask, "why don't you pull your hair back?"
I jumped slightly and turned to see my husband standing a few steps away on the boardwalk, his own black hair which was usually gelled to perfection was being blown around haphazardly by the strong autumn breeze, it looked like he'd just washed it and had forgotten to style it.
I opened my mouth to give a snarky reply, but all that came out was a quiet sob, "what are you doing here?"
"I told you I'd give you a month, it's been over a month…I couldn't wait any longer…I had to come check on you…" Zach replied, taking a few steps toward me to close the distance between us, he stood over me and looked down at me with a concerned expression.
I smirked, and patted the bench, signaling for him to sit with me, "One month and two days without me and you can't cope. Can you Mr. Varmitech?"
Zach's face lit up, and he eagerly took a seat next to me, his bony hip dug into mine, and he extended his arm to wrap it around my shoulders, but quickly pulled it back and ran his hand through his hair, obviously unsure if I was ready for physical contact.
"Uhh, yeah, I'm a wreck without you!" He declared, motioning to himself as if it was obvious.
I snorted and shook my head, redirecting my attention to the sunset, "you have the Zachbots, you're fine…"
I felt the anger radiating off his body and he scooted away from me, I watched him cross his arms, "they are not you….they are dumb, emotionless pieces of junk."
"I'm no better," I mumbled under my breath, but Zach heard me, and he'd had enough. He jumped up and pulled me with him, screaming into my face out of desperation.
"That's it! No more mister nice guy! I love you, I know you're hurting, but I've given you time! I'm not going to let you keep acting like this, I can't watch you hurt anymore! I'll do anything to help you, just tell me! But no matter what WE ARE NOT GETTING A DIVORCE! So, starting tonight we're gonna fix this! I'm not losing you! You promised me we'd fix this if I gave you a month, and it's been a month, so let's figure this out!"
I was silent as he screamed in my face, I did not show an ounce of emotion and I could tell he was crushed. The wind continued to whip around us, and he started sobbing and dropped to his knees. Zach wrapped his arms around me and buried his face into my stomach, crying into the fabric of my dress and sweater.
Zach pulled his left hand up to his face to wipe away some tears, and I saw his wedding ring before he resumed the desperate hug. I realized the ring finger on my own left hand was bare. I'd taken the ring off once I'd come to the Outer Banks a month before. I tried to leave the marriage, leave him, and leave our love out of my own despair, but Zach remained strong and committed through it all.
I hated myself for being so selfish. Zach stood by me, but I hadn't stood by him. He had been hurting too, losing Alexandria had been just as hard on him. I felt warm tears streaking my own face, and I touched his hair, "I would've been 7 months today," I whispered, my voice rising above the wind and his sobs.
He looked up at me with a confused expression, tears still dripping down his face, he sniffed and stood up, "Violet?"
I shivered and captured his face in my hands, enjoying the warmth of his flesh against my skin, "It's been two months since…you know..and I would have been 7 months today, so it's been a really hard day…I was going to call you to come this weekend because I didn't want you to see me like this, I knew I'd be like this again…"
"Violet… if you're hurting I'd rather be here with you…" Zach murmured, leaning into my touch.
"I know, I just feel so awful for acting like this, I wanted to get over it, so we could have…" I pause, shrugging my shoulders, "I don't know, a happy reunion?"
"I'm happy, Violet, as long as I'm with you I'm happy, as long as you're here with me, like here here, like in the moment with me, I'm happy…are you here here?"
Zach's whiny voice had a childish tone to it as he said here here, and I laughed, actually laughed for what felt like the first time in two months, "yes, I'm here here."
I shivered again, and Zach frowned, "you're gonna freeze in that sweater," he took off his trench coat and draped it around my shoulders.
"It's not that cold," I argued, pulling the coat around me, breathing in his scent.
"Okay then," he intoned in a sarcastic voice, rolling his eyes, then he furrowed his brows and started fishing in his pants pocket for something, "I have something else that will warm you up!"
"Zach, really I'm fine, your coat's enou…" I began, then he held up my butterfly necklace, a triumphant smile on his face.
I'd left it with him the previous month, it was the only time I'd taken it off and left it off for longer than when I slept at night since he'd given it to me five years before.
Zach spun his index finger on his free hand, signaling me to turn around. He pulled my hair out of the way, and I captured it in my hand as he hooked the necklace around my neck, "I kept it with me the whole time, to keep you with me," he explained.
He grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face him. I gingerly fingered the necklace, looking down at it with a smile, then I realized yet again my wedding ring was missing from my left hand, guilt washing over me.
"Now you look like my Violet," Zach mused, tilting my chin up to his face, a charming grin spreading across his features.
"Well, not quite," I replied, wiggling my left hand. Once he noticed the ring missing his face fell, he turned from me and shoved his hands in his pockets, focusing his eyes on the sunset in the distance.
After a few seconds Zach's face lit up and he turned back to me, "But maybe…we can take care of that," he whispered.
I watched Zach pull something else out of his pocket, he gripped his hand around it in a fist and gave me a goofy grin, "Violet?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Zach what are you up to now…" I laughed, but the laughter died as soon as I saw him lowering himself on one bent knee to the wooden boards beneath us, "Zach?" I whimpered.
Zach grinned up at me from his bent position. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat, "I-I've never picked the right moments to do this…I just do it without thinking…without planning. I planned to propose to you on your birthday this year…I planned to make it the grandest, most extravagant romantic moment we'd never forget, but we got pregnant, and I ended up proposing to you while you were curled up on the bathroom floor from morning sickness…I'd planned to propose to you again tomorrow…I was going to propose to you at the lighthouse at sunset….where we had our first kiss….but I can't wait until then…"
Zach's eyes were shining up at me through tears as he revealed my wedding ring in the palm of his hand. He took my left hand in his and held it tightly in one hand while holding the ring up to me with the other.
The most desperate and hopeful look crossed his face, "Violet Virginia Varmitech née Tyler will you marry me again? Officially this time, no courthouse wedding…a real wedding with a ceremony and a reception…guests, dancing, decorations, all the flowers you want, all of us dressed up to the nines, food and a cake, and drinking…well not too much drinking because I know you don't like that…but…I want it all, and I want it with you…I want a life with you…"
Zach kissed the knuckles on my hand and rubbed his cheek against my hand, looking up at me with glassy eyes before he continued, "They say you can't get second chances, but we can. Please, marry me again…I can't promise that it'll always be easy…I am the world's greatest evil villain after all, you've even said so yourself!"
Zach gave a dry laugh before he bit his lip and continued, "But… I can promise that I'll always be here for you, and I'll love you until the day I die and even after that…Never, ever, and forever…like it says in that stupid country song you love so much…I'll forever love you. I can't spend my life without you, Vi, please, marry me…"
I was moved to tears by his touching monologue. By the time he finished speaking I was openly sobbing, covering my face with my right hand, peering down at him between my fingers…I started nodding, and I managed to squeak out, "yes," between sobs.
Zach slipped my wedding ring back onto my ring finger and scrambled to his feet, collecting me into his arms in a bone crushing hug. He lifted me up and spun me around, crying and murmuring, "thank you, thank you, thank you," into the crook of my neck over and over again.
Once he put me down, he ran his hands over my hair and back trying to soothe my sobs. I gripped the front of his sweater with both of my fists, burying my face into the soothing and familiar fabric. His presence, his words, and his actions finally brought me the peace that had evaded me for so long.
"I'm at peace…" I whispered aloud. I didn't intend for him to hear it, but he slowly raised his head and looked down at me, tilting my chin up so he could see my face clearly.
"What did you say?" He asked, his face a mixture of awe and confusion.
I moved my mouth hesitantly, trying to form the words before they finally came out, "I, I said…I'm at peace. I'm not angry anymore, I'm not depressed…I'm not blaming you, or myself, or God, or anyone for what happened to Alexandria…I don't know…I guess…I just needed to hear you say all of that to finally accept it…thank you…for everything. You saved our marriage and you saved me…thank you, I'm so sorry for all of this…I love you, I've loved you since the first day I met you…I never want to lose you, I want to marry you. I want to be with you forever, please forgive me…"
I started crying again, I was overcome with all the emotions and thoughts I had tried to hold back for so long. Zach looked down at me with a calm and contented expression. He kissed my forehead in a soothing gesture and gave me a lopsided grin, "I never held any of that against you, and I never will…there's nothing to forgive, you're my world. All I care about is you and me and our happiness, and if you're at peace then I am too."
I nodded, taking a shaky breath, smiling, "I am…I really am…"
Zach gave me one of his signature smirks, "so it's official? We're gonna work on us? We're gonna get married again? We're gonna spend the rest of our lives together?"
"Yes," I agreed, sniffling, the grin spreading wider across my face, "yes, we are."
Zach chuckled, lowering his forehead to mine, locking gazes with me, "you're one in a million, Violet…"
I shook my head laughing, "so are you, Zach…"
Zach tilted his head as if to go in for a kiss but paused, he closed his eyes and sighed before opening them, "I wanna kiss you…"
I chewed on my lip for a moment before responding, "you can…I'm comfortable with that…and maybe…some other things…"
Zach pulled his head back, his face tinged with a blush, "he-he, Violet we don't have to…"
I wrapped my arms around his neck, "I know…it's just…regardless of whatever it is, we'll take it slow…I just…I want you to kiss me and hold me again, I wanna feel close to you again…I'm ready for that now, if you're ready for it."
Zach nodded his head before lowering it back to my face, "I'm ready for whatever you are, whatever you need…I love you, Violet."
"I love you too, Zach," I giggled, and I reached up to kiss the corner of his mouth.
Zach growled and shook his head, "don't tease me like that you minxy little varmint."
Before I could respond, his lips met mine and we shared a few chaste kisses, both of us smiling and giggling through them. He pulled away tentatively, looking for my reaction, raising an eyebrow, "I'm taking your response as a good thing?"
"It's a good thing," I answered, blushing myself, "maybe we can continue this happy celebration and reunion somewhere else…like back at my parents' cottage?"
The warm light from the sunset colored his face perfectly as his eyes widened, and a goofy grin turned his lips upward, "lead the way," he laughed.
Welllll! There it is y'all! Ziolet's official wedding proposal!
You can interpret the ending however you like, it can either be a lead in for a spicy moment between them or a sweet reunion. I've considered writing more/a second part, but the last line just felt right to me, so for now it will remain as is.
If you'd like, please tell me what you think, I adore any feedback! Stay tuned for more Ziolet works, I've got a few ideas for my fics and other one shots in mind! - JIG32
