When I reached home, I knocked on the door, and Mom answered it. She looked at me.

"What took you so long?" she asked, and then looked at Charles. "Oh, hey Charles."

"Sorry my parents couldn't make it," he said. "They send their congratulations to Mira and her fiancé."

"Thank you," Mom said. "Come on in. Sorry if it's a bit of a mess."

We stepped into the house. I smelled marinated canned pork and canned shrimp dumplings, and my mouth began to water. When I looked at Charles, I could see something dancing in his eyes, the flickering flame of hunger. It was so primeval and so alien at the same time.

"Hey, Mom," I said. "We have to get dressed for the wedding, right?"

"Of course," Mom said. "It's a special occasion."

"Do we still have my extra suit?" I asked. "I don't remember wearing it, but—"

"I think I donated it to your cousin," Mom said. "It was too small anyways. The suit was barely fitting over your shoulders."

"Dad has an extra suit, right?" I asked.

"Maybe," she said. "Go check the closet. It'll probably be there."

We walked down the hallway and into Dad's room. "Everything is pretty wild out there," he said.

"Weddings are pretty wild," I said and looked through the closet. There were piles of formalwear, but none of these were suits. "Especially in my family. I mean one of my Dad's cousins literally brought an elephant—"

"And elephant," he said. "Man, your family really hardcore."

"Well, that's my Dad's side of the family for you," I said and rummaged through the piles of clothes. "Go big or go home."

"Still can't find it?"

"Yeah," I said and scratched the back of my head. "I'll go get my suit for you, and I'll search through one of the drawers because it's probably in there."

I went into my room's closet and grabbed my suit and the pants and button-up shirt that came with it. There was dust coating the top of the suit and I shook it off, watching it flit in the soft afternoon night. I don't know why, but at that moment, it reminded me of a moment in my childhood when I'd stare at the air in front of the windows in the morning, watching the small flecks of dust drift up and down in the golden light.

I went back to Dad's room and gave Charles the suit and pants. "You need a belt?" I asked.

"Probably yeah," he said. "Never liked to wear belts, but I think I'll need one."

I tossed him the belt. "You can dress in the bathroom. I'll keep trying to find my dad's suit."

He nodded and closed the door while I dug deeper into the closet. After a solid five-ish minutes of searching, I found the suit vest, buried behind a mound of old shirts and pants that haven't been touched for a solid year or two, and then, I went back to my room to grab some pants and a dress-shirt

When I entered Dad's room, Charles emerged from the bathroom. The suit hung limply from his body frame and his pants sagged a little, even with the belt wrapped around it tightly.

"I look awful, don't I?" he said.

"You look great," I said. "You probably want a tie, right?"

"You mean a choker," he said and for a second, I could feel a little bit of the old him. "Ties are basically legal stranglers."

"Well you're lucky that my dad agrees with you on this," I replied and looked through the closet. "And also, he's really lazy when it comes to ties, which is why he has clip-on ties."

I pulled his collection of them out. "Pick and choose whatever you want."

"There are a lot of choices here," he replied and stared at the collection of ties.

"And thus, the paradox of choice has been proven again," I said. "I'm going to get dressed now, so take all the time you need to choose."

I went into the bathroom to get dressed. When I took off my t-shirt to put on the dress-shirt, looking in the mirror, probably for the first time in a long time, I realized that even I had lost some weight, much less than Charles, but enough that I'd notice. The small amount of fat that gathered itself in front of my stomach was basically gone, and my skin clung to my body frame. If I'm losing so much weight from a two can diet per day, who knows how long I'm going to even survive when the food runs dry?

Anyway, when I exited the bathroom, Charles was holding up two ties, a red and a deep blue one. "Which one?" he asked.

"Red," I said. "That was a completely random pick by the way. No clue about anything relating to fashion."

He handed me the blue tie, and we both put them on. "How long is the wedding going to last?" he asked.

"You have a curfew or something?"

"No, I was just wondering," he said, and there was an awkward pause. "I've never really been to one. Probably won't ever be in one with the whole world being the way that it is."

"What would you want your wedding to be like?"

"Tropical island," he said. "Beach sand on my toes. The soft waves rumbling in the distance. Palm fronds rustling above me. Warm air and sunlight everywhere. Plenty of food to go around. It would be paradise."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"It would be," I said. "And once the volcanoes stop erupting and the skies clear up and the tides and beaches stabilize, you'll be able to have this."

"If only that could happen," he said and sighed. He looked like an old man at that moment, just tired and worn out with the whole world and everything that is happening. Is this what hunger does to you, sapping away all your energy and lust for life until you're just a shadow of your former self?

At that moment, Mom burst into the room. "Wedding is starting soon. You both look great."

"C'mon," I said. "Probably don't want to miss anything."

We walked down the hallway into the living room. The dining table chairs were arranged in rows. Grandma, Grandpa, and May were already sitting down on one side, and Charles and I sat on the other side. I'm pretty sure there was some special way that we were supposed to sit, but I'm almost certain that that seating arrangement is religious and no one in our family is remotely religious.

Leon was standing on the end of the living room, in front of the wedding banner that May and I made, fidgeting nervously. Dad was probably with Mira, and Mom was standing next to Leon, probably because she was the officiator for the wedding. I could see flurries of ash outside of the window. We were truly going to have a winter wedding in the middle of summer.

Then, I heard footsteps behind me, and I looked back. Mira and Dad were walking up towards Leon and Mom. Mira has a smile plastered onto her face, but you could see her hand trembling and how concentrated she was, not on Leon, but on not tripping on her dress. Dad was beaming through, oddly enough with pride even though a couple of days back he completely opposed the whole marriage. I guess things change quickly in the apocalypse.

When Mira reached Leon and Mom, Dad took a seat, and Mom opened her folded paper filled with notes and began officiating.

"Welcome everyone," she said. "Today we are gathered here to celebrate the marriage between Mira and Leon. We all hope that they will have a happy marriage filled with joy, even if they may spend some of it apart."

"Before Mira and Leon recite their vows, I'd like to talk about what marriage is," Mom said. "For some people, marriage is what happens when two people kiss each other during the ceremony and sign a piece of paper declaring that they're married. But for your father and I, marriage is about more than that."

"For us, marriage is about compromise. Marriage is about empathy. Marriage is about making sacrifices for each other. Marriage is about love. Marriage is about moving across the country, so that your husband can get a better job. Marriage is about changing your job to help take care of your children while your wife is at work. Marriage is about trust and understanding and knowing that everything won't be perfect."

"That's what marriage is," Mom said and looked down at her paper. "Now, Mira and Leon, you may recite your vows."

"Do you want to go first?" Leon said. "Or should I?"

"You can go first," Mira said.

"Okay," Leon said and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.

"We could write down our vows?" Mira asked.

"That's what I thought," Leon said. "Wait, we aren't supposed to?"

"That's what I thought, but—"

"Okay, can you guys just get on with it?" May asked. "No need for pointless arguments."

Leon opened up his crumpled piece of paper and tried to smooth it out. His hands were trembling, and the edges of the paper were fluttering with every tremble. He cleared his throat. "Before I get started on my vows, I'd like to tell the story of how we met—"

"No," Mira said. "God, no."

Leon smiled mischievously, and his hands stopped trembling as much. "It was on a hot summer day, one that was so hot that even our infamously cold beaches were warm. The smell of the ocean was strong, and the breeze was nice that day. It felt like paradise."

"I don't really remember what I was doing on the beach that day. It was some journalism project, probably for some beach cleaning program or something along the lines of that," he continued. "But the thing I remember was you, Mira. You were by the tidepools, standing on one of those rocks covered with red and green algae and staring into one of the pools. I guess I was curious about what you were doing. I had never seen anyone observe the tidepools before, and certainly never seen anyone do it so intensely."

He took a deep breath. "So I went up to ask you about what you were looking at, but I don't think you saw me because when I came up to you and said something, I forgot exactly, you jumped up and fell onto the beach, just as the waves came in and drenched your clothes."

"I thought you'd be crying or something, but instead, you were laughing. Laughing of all things as sand clung to your hair and seawater soaked your pants," he said. "When I helped you up, you said—"

"Cheap move," Mira said. "And then, I pushed you into the ocean, so we'd be even."

"I know it sounds cliche," he said. "And it probably is, but I felt something with you. Not love because that'd come later on, but this something that felt like possibility, like there was something for us in the future. And three years later, look where we are."

"I'll be here for you, always," he said. "Even when we might be a thousand miles apart, I'll be here for you. I'll always support your decisions, even when I may not agree with them sometimes. We might have fights and stupid arguments, but I'll always love you. Always."

There was a pause, and then Mom looked at Mira and nodded.

"I don't think I've ever told you what I was doing at the tidepools, have I?" Mira asked.

"I don't believe so," Leon said. "It's still one of the great mysteries of life."

"Well, then I should get a Nobel prize for telling you this," she said. "I was looking at a crab, scurrying from anemone filled pools to empty rock pools to pools filled with algae and limpets. I don't know why I was fascinated, but it was just entrancing."

"And that's the thing about this is that it's the little things in life that I remember the most," Mira said. "The coffee shop meet-ups, the dinners at the local restaurants, the movies that we watched in the movie theaters. All of those were sweet, and I cherish them deeply."

"But the moment I knew I loved you was a small one," she said. "Two years back on the fourth of July. The night was warm, and the sky was bursting with colors. You were staring at the sky with this mixture of wonder and excitement, and as we were sitting there, somehow, our hands got closer and closer to each other until our fingers were around each other."

"And when you turned your head towards me, I could see your eyes filled with anxiety and hope and possibility and just everything in between," she said. "It was that moment where your hand was holding mine and your eyes were looking into mine that I knew that there was just something deeper between us."

"And every moment after that, you've just deepened that connection. All the birthday parties, staying up late to study, the cheesy jokes and puns that you've shared with me," she said. "All of those just helped build up our love for each other. But that one moment, where everything felt possible. That moment is one that I'll always remember."

"So for my vows," she said. "I'll be there to support you whenever you need me. I'll be here to inspire you to live your life better. And when the world gets better and the sun starts shining, we'll come back together because I'll always love you."

Mom then turned to Leon. "Do you take my daughter, Mira, as your wife?"

"I do," Leon said, the beginnings of tears glistening in his eyes.

Mom then looked at Mira. "Do you take Leon to be your husband?"

Mira took a deep breath, and I could see her push down her anxieties, before beaming. "I do."

"And now," Mom said and looked at her paper. "It's time for the ring exchange."

Leon pulled out a ring from his pocket while Mom handed Mira a ring. Those were Mom and Dad's wedding rings. Leon gave Mom's ring to Mira, sliding it onto her ring finger, and then Mira did the same to Leon. They were both smiling.

"And now," Mom said. "I proclaim you husband and wife. And now, you may kiss."

Mira and Leon leaned in towards each other, and if this were a movie, you could hear the swelling of music, as they kissed each other. When they pulled apart, May shouted from the audience stand, "It's time to eat!"

Leon laughed even though Mira was less than amused at first, but the sound of Leon's laugh teased a smile out of her. Mom brought out the polaroid camera to take pictures of Mira and Leon while the rest of us filed into the dining room to grab food.