I fell in love with you without even realizing I did, one late night last November.

It wasn't quite love at first sight - close, but not quite. I thought you were pretty the moment I saw you and wondered if anything could come of us - but I didn't know just how much I would love you until I started talking to you. You were smart and kind and funny, and you matched every one of my lighthearted jokes with one of your own. I'd never met anyone like you before. I never once had to explain myself to you; you understood me before I even understood myself, and I walked away from that night thinking that you were someone I wanted to keep in my life forever.

I didn't know it then, but that was the moment I fell in love with you - on the night we met, three hours and a short drive's worth of conversation held between us. I have loved you since then, and sometimes it feels like I'll love you forever.

Sometimes, it feels like we were made for each other. Like everything that's ever happened in my life has led me to you. You are everything I never knew I wanted, everything I needed without knowing it. Painting my future in all of your colours feels right.

There are so many things that I want: I want to hold your hand, lace my fingers through yours, kiss the ridged line of your knuckles. I want to be held in your arms and hear your heartbeat echo in the empty spaces of my own. I want to tuck your hair behind your ear, so lightly that you can barely feel it. I want you to be the first person I see when I wake up and the last one I say goodnight to. I want to watch you as you dream, my breath catching in my throat - you will always, always be more beautiful that I can remember you being.

And other things, too - things that are bigger than just you and me and the air that we breathe. I want you to take me to your hometown, show me all the places tucked into your heart, every piece of land that held you as you were growing up. I want to learn - about all the people you've given a piece of yourself to, every scar you have written into your skin, every shard of your heart that you've left behind, broken. I want to go places with you, explore new corners of the world with your hand in mine.

One day, I want to marry you. I want to see our world turn to silken lace and lilac, gold gleaming around our fingers. I want to see you walk down the aisle, see you draped in blushing blossoms and shooting-star white. God, you're so beautiful. I'd read aloud my love to you, to the whole world; a promise made now and forever. I'd kiss you in front of everyone we love, and no one would ever look at us and think that we weren't meant to be together.

E = hv