The beta-blockers came in a small white bottle the following afternoon, brought by a courier who rang twice on the bell before leaving the package on the yellow door-mat. Catherine opened it while Luffy slept on the couch, his first daytime sleep in weeks. Shadow sat on the couch beside him, one paw on Luffy's wrist.
She examined the label twice before opening it.
Metoprolol. 25 mg. One tablet to be taken once daily with food.
She carried it to the kitchen and set it on the counter near the espresso machine, as if it were meant to be there, alongside the cinnamon sticks and the lavender syrup. Then she filled a glass with water and dropped out the first pill, and carried it back to the living room on a saucer, just as Luffy used to carry coffee to her in the mornings.
He woke up when she kneeled beside the couch.
"Wifey?" His voice was husky from sleep.
She smoothed hair from his forehead.
"Time to take your first pill. Doctor's orders."
Luffy sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes. Shadow shifted to accommodate him but stayed near. Catherine offered him the pill and the water.
Luffy stared at it for a long time, as though it were both friend and foe.
And then he went ahead and took it.
Catherine cupped his cheek. "How do you feel?"
"Like I just swallowed a tiny anchor," he said, smiling slightly. "But… lighter, somehow. Knowing we're doing something."
She kissed him lightly on the lips, lightly on the tip of his nose.
"We're doing everything."
The rest of the afternoon was spent in comfortable routine. Luffy did not go to the café; Rohan was to take the evening shift. Catherine cancelled the last of her client calls. They baked simple shortbread cookies because the dough did not require a great deal of work and the kitchen was suddenly warm with butter.
Shadow watched over them from the counter, tail twitching with every measurement of flour. Mochi snuck a crumb off the counter. Matcha batted at the sugar grains falling to the floor.
As the cookies were cooling on the racks, Luffy pulled Catherine against him at the sink, his arms going around her waist from behind.
"Thank you," he breathed into her hair.
"For what?"
"For not running. For staying even when it got medical."
She turned in his arms, her palms going to his chest, directly over the spot of the ache.
"I promised forever," she said, "and forever means the scary parts. Especially the scary parts."
Luffy's forehead came to rest against hers.
"I'm going to fight this, Catherine," he said. "Every stupid heartbeat. Every pill. Every tired day. I'm going to fight so I can keep every promise we made on that living-room rug."
Tears ran down Catherine's cheeks, but she did not bother to wipe them away.
"Then fight dirty," she said, "and use every weapon at your disposal. And fight beside me."
And then he was kissing her, long and deep and full of the taste of shortbread and salt and unshakeable love. And when he lifted his head to breathe, both of them raggedly, he went on to whisper against her lips:
"Deal."
That night, they went to the park again, but this time more slowly, not in any hurry. The snow had all but disappeared, leaving the paths slick and wet. Luffy's gait was measured and careful. Catherine kept up with him in silence, their joined hands nestled in the warmth of Luffy's coat pocket.
They sat on the same stone wall, and the pond was partially thawed, its surface disturbed by tiny waves in the fading light.
Out of his coat pocket, Luffy produced something small, something silver and simple, unadorned but for the tiny engraved initials on either side: L & C.
Catherine's breathing stopped.
"I was going to wait until next month, until our paper ring anniversary," Luffy said softly. "But waiting seems... stupid now. Like we don't have time to wait."
He put the ring on Catherine's hand next to the faded paper ring she still wore every day.
"It's not fancy," Luffy said softly. "It's not anything special. It's just... real. It's us."
She rummaged through her own coat pocket, drew out a similar band, the same width, the same simplicity, the same initials engraved inside.
"I had them made the week after we moved in," she said. "I was going to surprise you on our anniversary too."
Luffy made a soft laughing sound, a sound of surprise, a sound of being a little choked.
"We're ridiculous."
"We're perfect."
Their rings were exchanged in silence, their fingers shaking as they slid them onto one another. Then their foreheads touched, their rings touching as their hands clasped between them.
"In every life," Luffy whispered, repeating the words he'd said at their paper-ring ceremony, "I choose you."
"In every heartbeat," Catherine whispered back, "I choose you back."
Shadow had trailed after them, of course, leashless, but sitting a few feet away on the path, seeming to approve. When at last they stood to leave, he walked between them the whole way home.
Back in the apartment, they lit candles rather than turning on the lights. Ate shortbread in bed. Watched the cats chase the beam of the laser pointer around the walls until everyone was laughing and out of breath.
When the candles were burning low, they snuggled under the quilt, Luffy in the middle, Catherine on his left, Shadow on his right, Mochi and Matcha at their feet.
Catherine touched the new silver ring on his hand with her thumb.
"Does it feel different?"
He kissed the knuckles, right over her matching ring.
"It feels like armor," he said softly. "Like a promise I can touch when the ache gets loud."
She kissed the middle of his chest.
"Then wear it always."
"I will."
They fell asleep to the purring and the steady breathing, four small hearts beating in time with two larger ones.
Outside, the city was sleeping under a thin cover of new frost.
Inside, the medicine bottles lined up on the nightstand like quiet soldiers.
And on their fingers, two silver bands reflected the final dying rays of candlelight small, simple, unbreakable.
A reminder that love does not wait for good health.
It battles through days that are not.
One heartbeat at a time.