Title: A Dream of Perfection
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Carl Hickman/Louis Daniel
Fandom: Crossing Lines
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 482
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Carl Hickman or Louis Daniel, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Their honeymoon was like a dream come true.

Nothing could be better than this. No dream could be as great as reality was.

Carl couldn't keep the smile from his face whenever he looked at his new husband; it didn't seem possible that he was actually married to Louis.

Marrying the man he loved had been a long-cherished dream, one that had stayed in his mind and his heart for years, even after they had gone their separate ways and Louis had married Rebecca. Now, that dream had finally come true for him.

How could it be possible to be so happy? this didn't really seem like his life. It was almost as though it belonged to another person entirely.

But this was his life now. His happiness.

He'd spent so long feeling that he would never be happy that he had simply accepted that as fact, and he almost hadn't reached out for what he wanted.

He had wasted far too much of his life believing that what he wanted with all of his heart and soul could never be. If only he had known sooner that Louis' marriage to Rebecca was failing, then maybe they could have become a couple far sooner than they had.

No, that wouldn't have happened, Carl told himself. Louis had been too focused on trying to make his first, dying marriage work. They couldn't have been together.

Now, though .... now, the past was firmly in the past, where it belonged, and the two of them could take their happiness with no regrets.

Being married to Louis was all that he'd ever wanted from life, ever since the two of them had first met. This was his idea of heaven; it was a dream of perfection, the only thing that he needed to make him happy, just knowing that Louis loved him and was his husband.

How could it be possible that he was actually living his dream? Never in a million years would he have thought that he could possibly be so happy.

And yet, he was. Dreams did indeed come true.

He looked over at his husband across the table of the restaurant they were sitting in, his handsome features limned in candlelight, a smile on his lips.

When Louis gazed into his eyes, Carl was sure that he could feel his heart stop. Just as it had all those years ago the first time Louis had smiled at him when they'd first met, and he had fallen head over heels in love without even realizing that he'd lost his heart.

"I love you," he whispered, reaching across the table to take Louis' hand, his heart swelling when his husband answered with those same words, his accented voice soft and loving.

Life didn't get any more perfect than this.

And Carl knew that the years ahead of them would only keep getting better.

***