Duft just laughed at his husband’s puzzled expression and motioned outside, where the sun had long gone up. "Do you see that there?"

Stinde tilted his head to see where his husband was pointing. It turned out to be a tree that had carefully unfolded a couple of green leaves and was showing some buds hidden in-between. "There’s a green tree?" Or was he missing the obvious?

Duft laughed again and patted his shoulder, carrying the rag outside to the others that had already turned too dusty to continue using them and needed to be washed. "There’s a green tree indeed. And what does that tell you?"

Stinde was at a loss for words, not quite sure what to say. To be honest, this didn’t tell him anything. It was just a tree, wasn’t it? "You are very happy because it’s your favorite tree and you want to celebrate a little?" That was the best guess he could muster. He didn’t feel that it was very likely to be true but he really didn’t have any other clues save for his husband’s good mood.

Duft stopped on his way back into the house and looked at his husband, trying to figure out if he had really forgotten what kind of day today was. He wasn’t sure though. "You really don’t remember what day is today?"

"The day before our anniversary?"

Duft gave him a look that was seven parts annoyed this time. It was one thing to forget that it was the beginning of spring and thus time for Kringt but to be this close and then still get it wrong so thoroughly was kind of exasperating. It was a feat of its own. He shook his head and marched into the bedroom that he hadn’t been able to work in before. He pulled open the window, grabbed the blanket off the bed, and rushed back outside. "Do you still remember how the two of us met?"

A bright smile immediately settled on Stinde’s face. "How could I ever forget that? Just thinking back to you in that hot spring makes me feel like I witnessed a miracle. The way the moonlight glinted on those water droplets was just divine."

Duft realized that he was mostly joking around and his anger reduced by a lot. He stopped next to his husband and at least gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You better think about what type of day that was then."

Stinde raised his brows and continued to follow his husband through the house, trying to remember. Back then, his focus had been on the beauty in front of him and not so much on everything else. But he remembered that it had been late in the day when dusk had already settled in and the moonlight shone on the beautiful scene. If he recalled correctly … the clothes that had been lying at the edge of the hot spring had been quite dusty as if Duft had toiled around all day. Ah, most likely, it had been precisely this day.

Going back to the bedroom, Stinde couldn’t help but try again. "So today is the anniversary of the day that we met. I knew it was something like this." He actually felt quite proud that he had managed to figure it out. Really, could you find a better husband than him?

This time, Duft nodded. "It is also Kringt, the spring cleaning festival. Just in case you still haven’t figured that part out yet."

Stinde shook his head, not embarrassed at all that he didn’t know. "There’s no such thing where I come from. In any case, this kind of cleaning would be done in winter but other than some old people, hardly anyone does it."

Duft shook his head at him, not buying that excuse. How many years had it been since Stinde came here? Their wedding alone had been two years ago, the day when they met five already. And even before that, Stinde had been traveling the world and also spent quite a bit of time in this country. His husband had clearly seen and experienced more than he ever had. To tell him that he still didn’t know that there was such a thing as Kringt, he wouldn’t believe it even in his dreams.

"Well, now that I have told you, you can start and help me."

Stinde immediately folded his hands behind his back, looking on with a smile. "This kind of important tradition, how could I get involved and mess everything up? I wouldn’t dare to make a blunder out of this since it’s so important to you."

Duft who had just picked up the clothes, sent a kick toward his husband, making him stumble out of the door to the bedroom. "If you’re so worried about that, let me give you tasks that you can’t mess up." He followed him out of the bedroom, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him out to where the carpets and the basket with the dirty clothes and fabrics stood.

"Here." He motioned at all of them, his expression unforgiving. "You can start by beating the carpets. Don’t stop before all the dust has come out. The carpet beater is over there." He pointed at the wooden tool next to the clothesline. "When you’ve finished, just bring them inside and put them in the corridor. I’ll come and get them. You don’t need to tell me or come and get me or use any other excuse to just linger around without doing anything. Instead, you can grab this basket here, go down to the river, and wash everything inside. Make sure you don’t let them fall and hang them up without any wrinkles. After that, you can come and tell me so I can give you a new task. Don’t think you’ll get out of this."

Stinde really wanted to complain but seeing his husband’s expression, he finally just nodded. Clearly, his husband wasn’t willing to let him get away. Even though this looked like way too much work for one day, Stinde dutifully picked up the carpets, carried them over to the clothesline, and hung the first one up. Picking up the carpet beater and weighing it in his hand, he started to swing it.

Duft stood by and watched him for a moment until he was sure that his husband wouldn’t cause more trouble than he was rendering help. Only then did he turn around and go back inside to finally take care of the dishes in the kitchen.

On the other hand, Stinde couldn’t help but complain a little by himself. Why was Duft insisting on this kind of tradition? Wouldn’t it be better to do a little each day and spread it out over the whole week at least? Then they wouldn’t have to rush about like this for a whole day. In any case, everything would get dirty again anyway. What was the use in doing this?

Finally, no more dust came out of the first carpet so he took it down and carried it into the corridor. He glanced at the door to the kitchen that Duft hadn’t closed and saw his husband washing the dishes with a smile. He stared at him for a moment and then went back outside, picking up the next carpet and getting to work again without another word.

He didn’t like this. He felt it didn’t make sense and was mostly just a bother. But … this was what his husband wanted. It seemed to mean a lot to him if he had already done it five years ago when they met and even insisted on it now. This clearly wasn’t something he had just casually decided on. And, thinking back to how Duft had looked both when he came out of the bedroom today and then in the kitchen just now, this was also something that made him happy. So, it was still better to do it. In any case, the sooner they started, the sooner they would finish as well.

Ah, come to think of it, after they finished and were dusty from all this work, maybe they could go to that hot spring where they had met back then. Soaking together for a few hours sounded heavenly.

Motivating himself like this, Stinde worked more earnestly, making sure that all of the dust came out of the carpets and not even a speck was left. As soon as he finished with one of them, he carried them back into the house so they wouldn’t get dirty again. After all, the dust from beating the carpets was flying everywhere. It wouldn’t do if it settled on the carpets he had already worked on.

When he had brought in the last carpet, he looked back into the kitchen where Duft was still washing the pots, and then went out again, picking up the basket with the dirty clothes and other fabrics. This time, he even hummed a song while he went down to the river, feeling like this wasn’t too bad.

The river wasn’t far away from their house so he got there in just a few minutes despite carrying the basket. Sitting down at the edge, he carefully took everything out and then started to wash them one by one, making sure that there wasn’t a single speck of dirt left on any of them. By the time half of it was finished, he rubbed his forehead and exhaled deeply. This was much more exhausting than he would have thought. He often washed their clothes but it was really just the bit that had accumulated over the last few weeks and never this much. His back already hurt from crouching here like this.

Stinde took a deep breath and continued. Time flew by while he worked and he couldn’t help but feel that maybe it would have been better to get up earlier so he could have helped Duft more. Clearly, his husband had been up and working for several hours by the time he crawled out of bed. If he was already exhausted from just these two tasks, how would Duft feel? Next year, he definitely had to tell him to wake him up for Kringt so they could do everything together.

When Stinde finally finished washing everything, he made sure to pick the basket up carefully, remembering what Duft had said before. Then, he rushed back to the house and went to hang the freshly-washed textiles up to dry.

Putting down the basket next to it so he could come back later and put everything back into it, he went inside and looked for Duft. His husband … was still in the kitchen. But while the pots and pans that they used for cooking were already dealt with and put back where they came from, he was now washing a vase that had stood in the living room and everything else that needed to be given a good scrub. Clearly, Duft had had his work cut out for him while he was away.

Stinde suddenly felt that he had really had it easy in comparison so he didn’t even manage the smug smile he might have shown him otherwise and just leaned in the doorway, trying to at least show off his good looks to give his husband a second of repose. "I finished!"