Not for the first time, Joe closed his eyes to better let the words sink in. Higher highs and lower lows. If there was anything to be said about his many lives, they were never dull. This one more than any of the others. He had been through some pretty fucking bad lows, though, mostly in his last life. Neil had lived through abuse from his father and later tried to take the end of his life into his own hands, the curse averting every attempt. Joe had to live with those memories and they had surfaced during some of his own darkest moments when his thoughts focused on his own mortality. “I can imagine a lot of things.” Neil would be the last of his lives that he would tell Ram about and it wouldn’t be today. “I just don’t want to imagine a life without you in it.”
Somehow, that wasn’t at all where Joe thought Ram’s mind had gone and suddenly his chest felt three sizes too small to contain his heart. “I guess it does.” Their fledgling relationship was on the verge of becoming a trial by fire and they would surely see the best and worst of each other. He held out his left arm in front of himself palm up to show his wrist. “Happily ever after. That’s where I want it so I can see it.” He paused, already having made a decision about this hypothetical tattoo. “In your handwriting.”