Die Hochzeit
Holy fucking shit, the last few days have been crazy. Yesterday, the foster girl had her elementary school graduation at eight-thirty in the morning. Ma and I went to, y'know, make her feel important. It took until ten- ten for it to finish because there were all sorts of stupid awards for chorus and student of the month and the Presidential Achievement Award- which they apparently had to read the whole damn thing because it was President Obama congratulating the students (note: he wasn't president for the first half of the school year). They never read the thing when we got them so I couldn't figure out what the big deal was. Then they had this year's high school valedictorian give a speech. It took so fucking long that the students were almost late for their cruise on the Spirit of Norfolk, which I thankfully didn't have to go on.
Then K and I went out to lunch, then Kurt had to go to his championship baseball game and Bri had to go to her viola playing shit, so I went to K's graduation with only my parents and Ashley (Grandma magically got sick the day before so she didn't have to go to the graduation, after we'd already cleaned the house and Joe had booked them a room at the five star Marriot he works at; the woman's a bitch- she hates Ma, her daughter; she hates me because I'm my mother's daughter; and she hates K because she never accepted K as her actual granddaughter because K was a foster child and then adopted). It was long, boring, and ghetto as hell with parents screaming during the presentation of the colors and through the whole damn thing. The salutatorian this year is my best friend's other best friend and the valedictorian is my neighor. He's going to Yale, which just makes me feel oh so wonderful and accomplished. K got claustrophobic and made herself sick with worry, and almost fainted but she managed to get on stage and I was really proud of her.
We went to see Ma's dress rehearsal at the Opera House and some fucking dickwad of a cop pulled Dad over for speeding and not making a full stop at the stop sign on Shirley. He said we were going 45 which was a complete fucking lie. I hate cops. Honestly, it's a despicable job in my opinion. Who goes, oh I want to spend my life getting people in trouble? Ugh. I once cussed a cop out at work for yelling at me for giving a homeless man change for five dollars. Fucking asshole, he didn't even have jurisdiction over my work, he was a college campus policeman and we weren't on campus. I do like Law and Order: SVU but the others in the series like Criminal Intent, especially, make me twitch.
Sunday, we had the Blessing of the Animals at church. It was pretty awesome. There were so many pets, little Luke even brought his goldfish (though I'm not sure they survived the trip from how badly they were being sloshed around), his brother Christian brought a green parrot. One of our neighbors brought her dachshund, Abby. She's absolutely obsessed with dachshunds, she was wearing dachshund earrings and there was a dachshund puppy, which was the most adorable thing in the world, whose owner, an eight-year-old boy, she took the liberty of teaching the way to properly hold. The owner was not amused. I came away reeking of dog but it was worth it to be able to pet a St. Bernard, two Italian greyhounds, a white Scottie, and the most beautifully conformed golden retriever I've ever seen.
Ma went to the SOVA Summer Games this weekend and it apparently was just drama after drama with naked athletes in the hallways and ice cream bars for breakfast. Miss Teen Virginia gave out the gold medals, Miss Hanover County gave out the silver medals, and some (this is all according to Ma) pudgy, middle-aged woman gave out everything after. Let's just say the third-place athletes were pissed. Some of the parents were demanding sugar free drinks be offered to the athletes along with the water and Gatorade- Ma went no. If they want sugar-free, let them drink some goddamn water. I still wish I could have gone.
Okay, so this is another Schwanger piece, Frank and Linke's wedding. Mikaiyawa helped immensely with the storyline and ideas. I was going crazy trying to write it without going OOC or making it too American and it certainly lost a measure of possibilities because of that, especially ideas that Mikaiyawa gave me, which is really unfortunate.
Timo and Jan had known each other for upwards of thirty years by the time Frank asked Linke to marry him. They met sometime in school back when they were short little preteens with too much interest in blowing things up and too little interest in good grades. Timo is positive Jan was the one who taught him to distill alcohol and he is even more positive that Jan was the one who taught him how to create a bomb that they had planned to use to blow up the school. The plan had failed, mostly because Timo hadn’t known the difference between permanganate and perchlorate, and the bomb had never gotten past the testing phase.
But, if there’s one thing Timo remembers about his second oldest friend, it’s Jan’s irrepressible shyness. Jan had been a wallflower, completely incapable of making friends outside his science and music classes, and Timo had been one of five people he trusted enough to talk to. Timo had always had the feeling that Jan would never find a girlfriend- he later learned there was more truth to that than even he suspected- and would probably remain alone for the rest of his life.
Then Dierk had appeared. He had been the first to shatter Jan’s protective shield, the first to hold Jan’s hand, the first to kiss Jan on the mouth or anywhere else. Timo had truly thought that Jan would become attached to Dierk the way Timo was attached to David.
It had not happened like that. Dierk had turned out to be a cheater, completely unfaithful, and uncaring. He had made Jan withdraw so far into himself that Jan could not stand for people to so much as look at him. Dierk had made Jan believe he was worthless, ugly, and unwanted. And still, Jan had adored him.
Jan had still been in love with Dierk when he and Juri had first met. Timo had noticed immediately the drummer’s interest in the DJ and had been quick to haul Juri aside to tell him that if he laid a finger on Jan without Jan’s consent, the drummer would be out of the band in the company of a hundred meter restraining order with his name on it. Juri had shrugged maddeningly and told Timo that he had no interest in forcing Jan into doing anything he did not want to do. Timo had let Juri go that day, though he’d watched the drummer closely for any signs of pressure or abuse. He’d never found any.
It was sometime between Nevada Tan and Panik that Juri and Jan had officially gotten together, and it was sometime between Nevada Tan and Panik that Timo had relaxed his scrutiny on the pair. There was nothing Juri had ever done to make him worry. Juri and Jan had never fought in the time Timo had known them; there had never even been a hurtful word between the two of them. They had been as perfect together as Jan could ever be and, if there was anything they disliked about each other, Timo never discovered it.
So it was with great amusement and relief that Timo walked into the bakery to find Jan’s chin and nose smeared with aquamarine-colored sugar icing. The short DJ stuck his tongue out at Timo, giggling madly as Juri leaned over, obviously about to lick the icing from his husband’s nose. Emelyn grinned at him from where she stood with a forkful of chocolate cake, her lips stained a greenish-blue from testing so many different types of icing. Timo smiled automatically at the scene before him just as Juri tilted Jan’s chin up and kissed his small nose, sucking the icing away before moving down to capture Jan’s lips in a far more satisfying kiss. Timo found his heart racing and his smile broadening as he watched Juri cradle Jan’s skull, pulling his husband deeper into a fervent embrace.
Jan had finally found happiness.
ØØØ
Timo tried to keep his expression stern but he failed when he said his next words, glancing down at David sprawled across his chest. They were at home, on the long couch together, David trying to plan Frank and Linke’s wedding, Timo trying to keep his husband from doing anything too terribly cliché and tacky. Looking around their living room at some of the more appalling paintings and knick knacks, Timo wondered who had decided his David was an intelligent choice for a wedding planner. A blind person, maybe.
“You don’t give kittens as a wedding present.”
“Why not?” David asked, confusion writ large on his delicate face. Timo did not believe it for one instant as he stared at his far too amused husband. “It’s not like they need plates or silverware. Anything normal we get them’s going to seem stupid and pointless. A kitten is cute, inexpensive, and we can spend the extra money to get them cat food and toys. It’s perfect.”
“What if they don’t want it? I’m pretty sure you can’t return a kitten to the pet store.”
David grinned impishly.
“Then we can keep it.” He bounced off of Timo’s lap and went to grab his car keys. “Come on, we can go pick one out today! Ooh, we should get a colorful one. Maybe a tabby or a Maine coon or a- ”
“Wait, what?!” Timo yelped, jumping off the couch to follow his erstwhile spouse before David left without him. “The wedding’s not for two weeks! What’re we going to do with a cat until then?”
David grinned and ran outside, letting the front door slam in his husband’s face. Timo huffed and followed after him, sliding into the passenger’s seat barely a second before David pulled out of the driveway. Timo fucking hated cats.
ØØØ
Frank fixed his tie for the fifth time in as many minutes, his nerves running away with his heart and leaving him a nearly quaking mess. His former bandmates (Panik having dissolved over a decade before) were gathered in a circular sprawl around him in the center of the Rathaus, excluding Linke and Jan who were waiting in some room somewhere, Frank not actually knowing quite where they were in the mass of closed doors and long hallways that made up the building.
Juri grinned lazily from where he was relaxing in an armchair, his fingers steepled against his stomach. Frank winced a smile and went back to checking himself in the mirror. Timo was pacing up and down the hallway and every so often David would grab his arm to check his suit or fix his collar. The clock struck ten past noon, the time they had their appointment with the city officials to confirm their marriage. Frank gulped as he looked at himself one last time in the mirror. Juri snorted and pulled himself out of his chair to give Frank a reassuring bear hug.
“It’s going to be fine,” Juri murmured in Frank’s ear. “Everything’s going to be just fine.”
Frank looked up at his friend with knitted brows and nodded.
“I’m good, Juri.”
Juri chuckled.
“You’re not but that’s okay,” he said as they began walking down to the office for the ceremony. “Linke’s already said yes, this is just the formal bit. You’re going to walk in there and say your vows, and then you’re going to do the paperwork. That’s it. There’s not a damn thing that can go wrong.”
They stopped before the darkly polished wooden doors. Juri gave Frank one last hug, Timo and David hugging the nervous singer as well. Frank took a deep breath and walked inside.
ØØØ
The wedding was a quick affair. There was hardly a ceremony, just a gathering at the Standesamt before the reception at a downtown hotel. Linke and Frank took their first dance as a married couple before almost two hundred guests. There was alcohol and good food to be had, good music (though not from a live band, Jan had taken the time to create a mix for the reception- some of the songs were less than appropriate in the private opinions of some of the more estranged guests; Jan couldn’t be bothered to give a damn) and tasteful decorations. The wedding presents were piled on the same table as the cake, a four-tiered concoction that David and Emelyn had picked out after banning Frank from helping with any form of cooking or baking, stressing that the singer was not to be responsible for any part of his reception. Linke was not the only one privately scared by this prospect.
David and Timo’s gift would be brought over later, a pretty little calico with two white socks on her front paws and a spot on her lip. David had christened her Lilo and was completely heartbroken at the prospect of giving her up. Emelyn had been in stitches when David had begged his husband to let them buy a new kitten to give Frank and Linke. Timo had rolled his eyes and said he’d think about it, which meant no because David had forgotten to get up to feed Lilo at least once a week since they had bought her, forcing Timo, never a morning person, to drag himself out of bed to open a can of cat food for the pathetically mewling creature.
So there would be no kitten in the Sonnenschein household in the near future.
After the first dance, Frank found himself whisked away from his new husband’s arms into Juri’s much more heavily muscled ones. Frank enjoyed the dance at first but every few seconds the steps of the dance would give him a glance at Linke, who was not best pleased to find Juri so close to his Frank.
“Juri…” Frank warned, glancing over his shoulder to where Linke stood openly glaring at the two of them. “You might want to back off before Chris starts to get mad…”
Juri grinned ferally and pulled Frank closer, turning the smaller singer so that Frank couldn’t see his newly married husband.
“Let him. It’s about time he got jealous of the attention everyone gives you. You’re hardly ordinary, Frank.”
Frank’s cheeks pinked and he bit his lip worriedly.
“What about Jan?” he whispered as Juri leaned him back a little too low for simply friends. Juri chuckled.
“I am dancing with a man at his wedding reception while my husband looks on. This wasn’t exactly spur of the moment, darling.”
“Ah.”
“Ah?” Juri teased. “If Linke doesn’t fuck you into the mattress tonight, you call me and Jan up and we’ll think of something, hmm?”
Frank gasped and swatted at Juri’s grinning face. He was completely flustered when Juri left him in Linke’s arms, his new husband seething at Juri as he walked over to Jan and tugged the tiny DJ into his lap for a fond kiss. Frank saw the simple kiss turn passionate and more than a bit possessive just as Linke whirled him away back to the middle of the dance floor.
Linke was not quite the dancer Juri was but the soft nuzzling against Frank’s throat had him laughing and hugging him close, not able to resist mentioning how good of a dancer Juri was and how nice it was to dance, really dance for once. Linke reacted the way Juri had expected and tightened his grasp on Frank, muttering several rather dirty things that he would do to Frank the minute he got him out of the formal suit he was currently wrapped up in.
ØØØ
Wolf scowled when he noticed several of the caterers unquestionably staring at his fathers dance. He sidled over to them as if to peruse through the finger foods and snagged a cup of punch. He grimaced as the over sweetened liquid burned down his throat, using the unpleasant taste to mask his intense eavesdropping.
Snippets of words met his ears, not enough for Wolf to get upset but certainly enough to put him into an irritated mood. He was happy for papa and the bastard (the term, which had only ever existed in his head, had become ironically affectionate within the last two and a half years), he really was but the stuffy air of the reception was killing him. Emelyn was too busy socializing to keep him company and seeing Uncle Jan sucking face with Uncle Juri- the only dance partner Wolf was willing to take because God forbid he end up with either of the Sonnenscheins, Timo would murder him if Wolf dared to touch David, who was out of the running anyway considering how giddy a few sips of champagne had made him (Wolf remembered Emelyn mentioning that her father didn’t drink often and for good reason; he was a complete lightweight) and Timo, besides disliking Wolf as a person, was a horrible dancer himself- had made Wolf realize that he was on his own for conversation.
So he was here, listening in on a bunch of caterers gossiping about the wedding and the grooms, and all manner of things Wolf normally could not be bothered to be interested in. Unfortunately, he was the ringbearer of that damn wedding and had had to give a congratulatory speech and, most unfortunate of all, those grooms were his parents. Hell but he wished he could hear what they were saying.
“Such a pity that I can’t ask you to dance,” a low voice murmured behind his right ear.
Wolf jumped, startled by the unexpected noise. He heard a soft titter and turned to find a tall brunette woman with warm brown eyes laughing into her wineglass. Her white uniform gave her away immediately as a caterer. Wolf eyed her, noting the way her uniform hugged her curvy form nicely.
“And why not?” he challenged, his voice tighter than he honestly meant it to be. She smiled and tapped her long-nailed finger against the glass, seeming not to mind his brusque attitude.
“’A’ because I’m working and ‘B’ because you’re a guest at this wedding who’s probably not interested in dancing with me in my wonderfully sexy uniform. And ‘C’ because I’m hardly your type,” she said smoothly. Wolf smirked at her tone.
“How would you know what my type is?”
She pursed her lips.
“Gay wedding. At the moment, there’re two blondes swapping spit in plain sight and you’re not even close to freaking out.”
“They’re my uncles.”
“I see,” she said, lifting her glass to him. Wolf frowned, thinking that the woman was definitely an odd one. “Hold on, your uncles? That’s even more reason to freak out. Your uncles took you to their friends’ wedding and now they’re making out?” Her eyes widened for a second before they slid back down. She shrugged. “Hey, whatever goes in your family.”
Wolf studied her, intrigued by the woman’s rather blunt way of talking. She looked back at him blankly and took a sip from her glass.
“Are you allowed to drink on the job?” he asked when she didn’t say anything more. He really wanted to hear her talk again.
She laughed.
“It’s mineral water, it just looks fancier if I drink it out of this. Question is, why aren’t you drinking? It’s a wedding, everyone’s happy, your uncles are mouth fucking, you should be having fun.” She paused. “But you’re not. Got a problem with one of the guests?”
“No.”
“The best man?”
“That would be my uncle.”
“Oh. Hey, cool. Which one?”
“The short one.”
“The one that’s all up in the other’s lap?”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck. That sucks.”
“Yeah.”
She snorted into her glass, spraying liquid onto her uniform. “Fuck,” she groaned, setting the wineglass down on a nearby table and grabbing an unused napkin to clean herself up. Wolf grabbed another and started wiping. He froze when he realized he was mopping up over her confined breasts. Wolf flushed red and pulled his hand away. She rolled her eyes and snatched the cloth from him and smacked the last of the water away roughly. Wolf stared at her, utterly amazed and confused, and honestly starting to wonder if she was mildly insane.
“You related to the grooms, too? You could be the black-haired one’s twin, you guys look so much alike.” she asked brightly, tossing the napkin back onto the table and grabbing what was left of her water. Wolf grinned crookedly.
“They’re my dads,” he said. Her eyebrows arched comically.
“Lovebaby much?” she laughed, slapping her hip. “Wooh, they don’t look that old.”
Wolf’s eyes narrowed to slate gray slits.
“I wasn’t exactly planned, no,” Wolf said coldly. “They stayed together to raise me and they chose to get married now instead of before. There’s nothing wrong with waiting to get married. They love each other a whole hell of a lot and I don’t expect someone like you to understand true love, especially between two men.”
She took a step back, her hands up in defeat though she still clutched her wineglass. Wolf wondered whether there was really just water in there. This amount of bluntness normally came with a bit of alcohol. Funny that she didn’t seem in the least inebriated otherwise. She certainly didn’t smell like she’d been drinking (Wolf realized then that he really, really liked her perfume, some sort of citrusy scent).
“Sheesh, I didn’t mean it like that. They just look really young. You’re what? Twenty?”
“I’m eighteen. Almost nineteen.”
“They really love each other, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“You really think it’s true love? Like in storybooks?”
“That or fate.”
ØØØ
“You got a place to stay tonight?” the brunette, whose name, Ina, Wolf had learned somewhere along the way, asked once the reception seemed to be winding down. Most of the guests had left, though Wolf could see Uncle Juri and Uncle Jan on the dance floor and Emelyn’s parents engaged in a heated discussion with several people Wolf barely recognized. Emelyn was in one corner talking to two of the caterers, a man and a very pretty woman. Wolf frowned.
“Yeah, home. Why?”
“Seriously, man? Wedding night. Your parents. You really want to be around when things get interesting?” Ina laughed at the way Wolf’s eyes bugged out. “Didn’t think about that, did you? Hey, why don’t you come to my place? We can talk, maybe get some dinner. Or we can just grab some wedding cake and bring it along.”
“You like Greek food?” Wolf asked. Ina grinned.
“Only if you let me pay.”
ØØØ
Linke smiled, shutting the bedroom door behind them. His fingers were tangled with his new husband’s. Frank stopped just inside the door. Linke turned back, a hint of worry etched into his aging features.
“Something wrong?” he asked softly, adding a reassuring smile.
Frank smiled back at him shakily, running his free hand through his dark brown hair.
“Just nerves,” he muttered, glancing down past his shoulder. Linke grinned and took Frank’s chin in his hand, tilting the singer’s head up to look at him. It always amazed him that a man who had once sung before thousands of fans on a weekly basis could become so incredibly anxious when they were alone. Many years ago, it had been an alarming habit; now, it was endearing.
“There’s nothing to be nervous about,” Linke said, kissing Frank on the lips. He untangled their joined hands and grabbed Frank’s right hand with his right hand, raising them up to show Frank their two rings clenched together. “You’re finally mine.”
Frank stared at him, his lips open the slightest bit in astonished amazement.
“Mine?” he rasped, his mouth suddenly, adorably dry. Linke snickered and wrapped his arms around Frank’s neck, pulling them together so that their foreheads touched. He kissed Frank and felt his husband hesitantly kiss back, the slightest hint of stubble scratching Linke’s cheek.
“Mine, for forever and always,” Linke whispered, lowering his eyes and brushing his nose against Frank’s tenderly. “Just like it always should have been. I love you, Frank.”
Frank smiled his familiar almost too broad smile and ducked his head.
“I love you, too, Chris,” he whispered in return. Their eyes met and the two men stared at each other, the way they had for so many years after too many fights, the way they had after too many wrong turns and too many bad decisions, and it seemed, that this time, their love for each other would burn their past away, taking with it the pain and worry of the many years they had spent together. In that one moment, their lives were finally, unmistakably, right.
AN: Germans do not have separate wedding and engagement rings. The engagement ring is worn on the left hand and is then switched to the right hand when the couple marries. All couples are required to have a civil ceremony at the Standesamt, the registrar's office (typically located in the Rathaus, City Hall) the day of their wedding. Religious officials do not normally have the right to legally marry a couple. Other traditions, including the Polterabend and the second wedding dance, were omitted due to their heavy reliance on a heterosexual couple.
Then K and I went out to lunch, then Kurt had to go to his championship baseball game and Bri had to go to her viola playing shit, so I went to K's graduation with only my parents and Ashley (Grandma magically got sick the day before so she didn't have to go to the graduation, after we'd already cleaned the house and Joe had booked them a room at the five star Marriot he works at; the woman's a bitch- she hates Ma, her daughter; she hates me because I'm my mother's daughter; and she hates K because she never accepted K as her actual granddaughter because K was a foster child and then adopted). It was long, boring, and ghetto as hell with parents screaming during the presentation of the colors and through the whole damn thing. The salutatorian this year is my best friend's other best friend and the valedictorian is my neighor. He's going to Yale, which just makes me feel oh so wonderful and accomplished. K got claustrophobic and made herself sick with worry, and almost fainted but she managed to get on stage and I was really proud of her.
We went to see Ma's dress rehearsal at the Opera House and some fucking dickwad of a cop pulled Dad over for speeding and not making a full stop at the stop sign on Shirley. He said we were going 45 which was a complete fucking lie. I hate cops. Honestly, it's a despicable job in my opinion. Who goes, oh I want to spend my life getting people in trouble? Ugh. I once cussed a cop out at work for yelling at me for giving a homeless man change for five dollars. Fucking asshole, he didn't even have jurisdiction over my work, he was a college campus policeman and we weren't on campus. I do like Law and Order: SVU but the others in the series like Criminal Intent, especially, make me twitch.
Sunday, we had the Blessing of the Animals at church. It was pretty awesome. There were so many pets, little Luke even brought his goldfish (though I'm not sure they survived the trip from how badly they were being sloshed around), his brother Christian brought a green parrot. One of our neighbors brought her dachshund, Abby. She's absolutely obsessed with dachshunds, she was wearing dachshund earrings and there was a dachshund puppy, which was the most adorable thing in the world, whose owner, an eight-year-old boy, she took the liberty of teaching the way to properly hold. The owner was not amused. I came away reeking of dog but it was worth it to be able to pet a St. Bernard, two Italian greyhounds, a white Scottie, and the most beautifully conformed golden retriever I've ever seen.
Ma went to the SOVA Summer Games this weekend and it apparently was just drama after drama with naked athletes in the hallways and ice cream bars for breakfast. Miss Teen Virginia gave out the gold medals, Miss Hanover County gave out the silver medals, and some (this is all according to Ma) pudgy, middle-aged woman gave out everything after. Let's just say the third-place athletes were pissed. Some of the parents were demanding sugar free drinks be offered to the athletes along with the water and Gatorade- Ma went no. If they want sugar-free, let them drink some goddamn water. I still wish I could have gone.
Okay, so this is another Schwanger piece, Frank and Linke's wedding. Mikaiyawa helped immensely with the storyline and ideas. I was going crazy trying to write it without going OOC or making it too American and it certainly lost a measure of possibilities because of that, especially ideas that Mikaiyawa gave me, which is really unfortunate.
Timo and Jan had known each other for upwards of thirty years by the time Frank asked Linke to marry him. They met sometime in school back when they were short little preteens with too much interest in blowing things up and too little interest in good grades. Timo is positive Jan was the one who taught him to distill alcohol and he is even more positive that Jan was the one who taught him how to create a bomb that they had planned to use to blow up the school. The plan had failed, mostly because Timo hadn’t known the difference between permanganate and perchlorate, and the bomb had never gotten past the testing phase.
But, if there’s one thing Timo remembers about his second oldest friend, it’s Jan’s irrepressible shyness. Jan had been a wallflower, completely incapable of making friends outside his science and music classes, and Timo had been one of five people he trusted enough to talk to. Timo had always had the feeling that Jan would never find a girlfriend- he later learned there was more truth to that than even he suspected- and would probably remain alone for the rest of his life.
Then Dierk had appeared. He had been the first to shatter Jan’s protective shield, the first to hold Jan’s hand, the first to kiss Jan on the mouth or anywhere else. Timo had truly thought that Jan would become attached to Dierk the way Timo was attached to David.
It had not happened like that. Dierk had turned out to be a cheater, completely unfaithful, and uncaring. He had made Jan withdraw so far into himself that Jan could not stand for people to so much as look at him. Dierk had made Jan believe he was worthless, ugly, and unwanted. And still, Jan had adored him.
Jan had still been in love with Dierk when he and Juri had first met. Timo had noticed immediately the drummer’s interest in the DJ and had been quick to haul Juri aside to tell him that if he laid a finger on Jan without Jan’s consent, the drummer would be out of the band in the company of a hundred meter restraining order with his name on it. Juri had shrugged maddeningly and told Timo that he had no interest in forcing Jan into doing anything he did not want to do. Timo had let Juri go that day, though he’d watched the drummer closely for any signs of pressure or abuse. He’d never found any.
It was sometime between Nevada Tan and Panik that Juri and Jan had officially gotten together, and it was sometime between Nevada Tan and Panik that Timo had relaxed his scrutiny on the pair. There was nothing Juri had ever done to make him worry. Juri and Jan had never fought in the time Timo had known them; there had never even been a hurtful word between the two of them. They had been as perfect together as Jan could ever be and, if there was anything they disliked about each other, Timo never discovered it.
So it was with great amusement and relief that Timo walked into the bakery to find Jan’s chin and nose smeared with aquamarine-colored sugar icing. The short DJ stuck his tongue out at Timo, giggling madly as Juri leaned over, obviously about to lick the icing from his husband’s nose. Emelyn grinned at him from where she stood with a forkful of chocolate cake, her lips stained a greenish-blue from testing so many different types of icing. Timo smiled automatically at the scene before him just as Juri tilted Jan’s chin up and kissed his small nose, sucking the icing away before moving down to capture Jan’s lips in a far more satisfying kiss. Timo found his heart racing and his smile broadening as he watched Juri cradle Jan’s skull, pulling his husband deeper into a fervent embrace.
Jan had finally found happiness.
ØØØ
Timo tried to keep his expression stern but he failed when he said his next words, glancing down at David sprawled across his chest. They were at home, on the long couch together, David trying to plan Frank and Linke’s wedding, Timo trying to keep his husband from doing anything too terribly cliché and tacky. Looking around their living room at some of the more appalling paintings and knick knacks, Timo wondered who had decided his David was an intelligent choice for a wedding planner. A blind person, maybe.
“You don’t give kittens as a wedding present.”
“Why not?” David asked, confusion writ large on his delicate face. Timo did not believe it for one instant as he stared at his far too amused husband. “It’s not like they need plates or silverware. Anything normal we get them’s going to seem stupid and pointless. A kitten is cute, inexpensive, and we can spend the extra money to get them cat food and toys. It’s perfect.”
“What if they don’t want it? I’m pretty sure you can’t return a kitten to the pet store.”
David grinned impishly.
“Then we can keep it.” He bounced off of Timo’s lap and went to grab his car keys. “Come on, we can go pick one out today! Ooh, we should get a colorful one. Maybe a tabby or a Maine coon or a- ”
“Wait, what?!” Timo yelped, jumping off the couch to follow his erstwhile spouse before David left without him. “The wedding’s not for two weeks! What’re we going to do with a cat until then?”
David grinned and ran outside, letting the front door slam in his husband’s face. Timo huffed and followed after him, sliding into the passenger’s seat barely a second before David pulled out of the driveway. Timo fucking hated cats.
ØØØ
Frank fixed his tie for the fifth time in as many minutes, his nerves running away with his heart and leaving him a nearly quaking mess. His former bandmates (Panik having dissolved over a decade before) were gathered in a circular sprawl around him in the center of the Rathaus, excluding Linke and Jan who were waiting in some room somewhere, Frank not actually knowing quite where they were in the mass of closed doors and long hallways that made up the building.
Juri grinned lazily from where he was relaxing in an armchair, his fingers steepled against his stomach. Frank winced a smile and went back to checking himself in the mirror. Timo was pacing up and down the hallway and every so often David would grab his arm to check his suit or fix his collar. The clock struck ten past noon, the time they had their appointment with the city officials to confirm their marriage. Frank gulped as he looked at himself one last time in the mirror. Juri snorted and pulled himself out of his chair to give Frank a reassuring bear hug.
“It’s going to be fine,” Juri murmured in Frank’s ear. “Everything’s going to be just fine.”
Frank looked up at his friend with knitted brows and nodded.
“I’m good, Juri.”
Juri chuckled.
“You’re not but that’s okay,” he said as they began walking down to the office for the ceremony. “Linke’s already said yes, this is just the formal bit. You’re going to walk in there and say your vows, and then you’re going to do the paperwork. That’s it. There’s not a damn thing that can go wrong.”
They stopped before the darkly polished wooden doors. Juri gave Frank one last hug, Timo and David hugging the nervous singer as well. Frank took a deep breath and walked inside.
ØØØ
The wedding was a quick affair. There was hardly a ceremony, just a gathering at the Standesamt before the reception at a downtown hotel. Linke and Frank took their first dance as a married couple before almost two hundred guests. There was alcohol and good food to be had, good music (though not from a live band, Jan had taken the time to create a mix for the reception- some of the songs were less than appropriate in the private opinions of some of the more estranged guests; Jan couldn’t be bothered to give a damn) and tasteful decorations. The wedding presents were piled on the same table as the cake, a four-tiered concoction that David and Emelyn had picked out after banning Frank from helping with any form of cooking or baking, stressing that the singer was not to be responsible for any part of his reception. Linke was not the only one privately scared by this prospect.
David and Timo’s gift would be brought over later, a pretty little calico with two white socks on her front paws and a spot on her lip. David had christened her Lilo and was completely heartbroken at the prospect of giving her up. Emelyn had been in stitches when David had begged his husband to let them buy a new kitten to give Frank and Linke. Timo had rolled his eyes and said he’d think about it, which meant no because David had forgotten to get up to feed Lilo at least once a week since they had bought her, forcing Timo, never a morning person, to drag himself out of bed to open a can of cat food for the pathetically mewling creature.
So there would be no kitten in the Sonnenschein household in the near future.
After the first dance, Frank found himself whisked away from his new husband’s arms into Juri’s much more heavily muscled ones. Frank enjoyed the dance at first but every few seconds the steps of the dance would give him a glance at Linke, who was not best pleased to find Juri so close to his Frank.
“Juri…” Frank warned, glancing over his shoulder to where Linke stood openly glaring at the two of them. “You might want to back off before Chris starts to get mad…”
Juri grinned ferally and pulled Frank closer, turning the smaller singer so that Frank couldn’t see his newly married husband.
“Let him. It’s about time he got jealous of the attention everyone gives you. You’re hardly ordinary, Frank.”
Frank’s cheeks pinked and he bit his lip worriedly.
“What about Jan?” he whispered as Juri leaned him back a little too low for simply friends. Juri chuckled.
“I am dancing with a man at his wedding reception while my husband looks on. This wasn’t exactly spur of the moment, darling.”
“Ah.”
“Ah?” Juri teased. “If Linke doesn’t fuck you into the mattress tonight, you call me and Jan up and we’ll think of something, hmm?”
Frank gasped and swatted at Juri’s grinning face. He was completely flustered when Juri left him in Linke’s arms, his new husband seething at Juri as he walked over to Jan and tugged the tiny DJ into his lap for a fond kiss. Frank saw the simple kiss turn passionate and more than a bit possessive just as Linke whirled him away back to the middle of the dance floor.
Linke was not quite the dancer Juri was but the soft nuzzling against Frank’s throat had him laughing and hugging him close, not able to resist mentioning how good of a dancer Juri was and how nice it was to dance, really dance for once. Linke reacted the way Juri had expected and tightened his grasp on Frank, muttering several rather dirty things that he would do to Frank the minute he got him out of the formal suit he was currently wrapped up in.
ØØØ
Wolf scowled when he noticed several of the caterers unquestionably staring at his fathers dance. He sidled over to them as if to peruse through the finger foods and snagged a cup of punch. He grimaced as the over sweetened liquid burned down his throat, using the unpleasant taste to mask his intense eavesdropping.
Snippets of words met his ears, not enough for Wolf to get upset but certainly enough to put him into an irritated mood. He was happy for papa and the bastard (the term, which had only ever existed in his head, had become ironically affectionate within the last two and a half years), he really was but the stuffy air of the reception was killing him. Emelyn was too busy socializing to keep him company and seeing Uncle Jan sucking face with Uncle Juri- the only dance partner Wolf was willing to take because God forbid he end up with either of the Sonnenscheins, Timo would murder him if Wolf dared to touch David, who was out of the running anyway considering how giddy a few sips of champagne had made him (Wolf remembered Emelyn mentioning that her father didn’t drink often and for good reason; he was a complete lightweight) and Timo, besides disliking Wolf as a person, was a horrible dancer himself- had made Wolf realize that he was on his own for conversation.
So he was here, listening in on a bunch of caterers gossiping about the wedding and the grooms, and all manner of things Wolf normally could not be bothered to be interested in. Unfortunately, he was the ringbearer of that damn wedding and had had to give a congratulatory speech and, most unfortunate of all, those grooms were his parents. Hell but he wished he could hear what they were saying.
“Such a pity that I can’t ask you to dance,” a low voice murmured behind his right ear.
Wolf jumped, startled by the unexpected noise. He heard a soft titter and turned to find a tall brunette woman with warm brown eyes laughing into her wineglass. Her white uniform gave her away immediately as a caterer. Wolf eyed her, noting the way her uniform hugged her curvy form nicely.
“And why not?” he challenged, his voice tighter than he honestly meant it to be. She smiled and tapped her long-nailed finger against the glass, seeming not to mind his brusque attitude.
“’A’ because I’m working and ‘B’ because you’re a guest at this wedding who’s probably not interested in dancing with me in my wonderfully sexy uniform. And ‘C’ because I’m hardly your type,” she said smoothly. Wolf smirked at her tone.
“How would you know what my type is?”
She pursed her lips.
“Gay wedding. At the moment, there’re two blondes swapping spit in plain sight and you’re not even close to freaking out.”
“They’re my uncles.”
“I see,” she said, lifting her glass to him. Wolf frowned, thinking that the woman was definitely an odd one. “Hold on, your uncles? That’s even more reason to freak out. Your uncles took you to their friends’ wedding and now they’re making out?” Her eyes widened for a second before they slid back down. She shrugged. “Hey, whatever goes in your family.”
Wolf studied her, intrigued by the woman’s rather blunt way of talking. She looked back at him blankly and took a sip from her glass.
“Are you allowed to drink on the job?” he asked when she didn’t say anything more. He really wanted to hear her talk again.
She laughed.
“It’s mineral water, it just looks fancier if I drink it out of this. Question is, why aren’t you drinking? It’s a wedding, everyone’s happy, your uncles are mouth fucking, you should be having fun.” She paused. “But you’re not. Got a problem with one of the guests?”
“No.”
“The best man?”
“That would be my uncle.”
“Oh. Hey, cool. Which one?”
“The short one.”
“The one that’s all up in the other’s lap?”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck. That sucks.”
“Yeah.”
She snorted into her glass, spraying liquid onto her uniform. “Fuck,” she groaned, setting the wineglass down on a nearby table and grabbing an unused napkin to clean herself up. Wolf grabbed another and started wiping. He froze when he realized he was mopping up over her confined breasts. Wolf flushed red and pulled his hand away. She rolled her eyes and snatched the cloth from him and smacked the last of the water away roughly. Wolf stared at her, utterly amazed and confused, and honestly starting to wonder if she was mildly insane.
“You related to the grooms, too? You could be the black-haired one’s twin, you guys look so much alike.” she asked brightly, tossing the napkin back onto the table and grabbing what was left of her water. Wolf grinned crookedly.
“They’re my dads,” he said. Her eyebrows arched comically.
“Lovebaby much?” she laughed, slapping her hip. “Wooh, they don’t look that old.”
Wolf’s eyes narrowed to slate gray slits.
“I wasn’t exactly planned, no,” Wolf said coldly. “They stayed together to raise me and they chose to get married now instead of before. There’s nothing wrong with waiting to get married. They love each other a whole hell of a lot and I don’t expect someone like you to understand true love, especially between two men.”
She took a step back, her hands up in defeat though she still clutched her wineglass. Wolf wondered whether there was really just water in there. This amount of bluntness normally came with a bit of alcohol. Funny that she didn’t seem in the least inebriated otherwise. She certainly didn’t smell like she’d been drinking (Wolf realized then that he really, really liked her perfume, some sort of citrusy scent).
“Sheesh, I didn’t mean it like that. They just look really young. You’re what? Twenty?”
“I’m eighteen. Almost nineteen.”
“They really love each other, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“You really think it’s true love? Like in storybooks?”
“That or fate.”
ØØØ
“You got a place to stay tonight?” the brunette, whose name, Ina, Wolf had learned somewhere along the way, asked once the reception seemed to be winding down. Most of the guests had left, though Wolf could see Uncle Juri and Uncle Jan on the dance floor and Emelyn’s parents engaged in a heated discussion with several people Wolf barely recognized. Emelyn was in one corner talking to two of the caterers, a man and a very pretty woman. Wolf frowned.
“Yeah, home. Why?”
“Seriously, man? Wedding night. Your parents. You really want to be around when things get interesting?” Ina laughed at the way Wolf’s eyes bugged out. “Didn’t think about that, did you? Hey, why don’t you come to my place? We can talk, maybe get some dinner. Or we can just grab some wedding cake and bring it along.”
“You like Greek food?” Wolf asked. Ina grinned.
“Only if you let me pay.”
ØØØ
Linke smiled, shutting the bedroom door behind them. His fingers were tangled with his new husband’s. Frank stopped just inside the door. Linke turned back, a hint of worry etched into his aging features.
“Something wrong?” he asked softly, adding a reassuring smile.
Frank smiled back at him shakily, running his free hand through his dark brown hair.
“Just nerves,” he muttered, glancing down past his shoulder. Linke grinned and took Frank’s chin in his hand, tilting the singer’s head up to look at him. It always amazed him that a man who had once sung before thousands of fans on a weekly basis could become so incredibly anxious when they were alone. Many years ago, it had been an alarming habit; now, it was endearing.
“There’s nothing to be nervous about,” Linke said, kissing Frank on the lips. He untangled their joined hands and grabbed Frank’s right hand with his right hand, raising them up to show Frank their two rings clenched together. “You’re finally mine.”
Frank stared at him, his lips open the slightest bit in astonished amazement.
“Mine?” he rasped, his mouth suddenly, adorably dry. Linke snickered and wrapped his arms around Frank’s neck, pulling them together so that their foreheads touched. He kissed Frank and felt his husband hesitantly kiss back, the slightest hint of stubble scratching Linke’s cheek.
“Mine, for forever and always,” Linke whispered, lowering his eyes and brushing his nose against Frank’s tenderly. “Just like it always should have been. I love you, Frank.”
Frank smiled his familiar almost too broad smile and ducked his head.
“I love you, too, Chris,” he whispered in return. Their eyes met and the two men stared at each other, the way they had for so many years after too many fights, the way they had after too many wrong turns and too many bad decisions, and it seemed, that this time, their love for each other would burn their past away, taking with it the pain and worry of the many years they had spent together. In that one moment, their lives were finally, unmistakably, right.
AN: Germans do not have separate wedding and engagement rings. The engagement ring is worn on the left hand and is then switched to the right hand when the couple marries. All couples are required to have a civil ceremony at the Standesamt, the registrar's office (typically located in the Rathaus, City Hall) the day of their wedding. Religious officials do not normally have the right to legally marry a couple. Other traditions, including the Polterabend and the second wedding dance, were omitted due to their heavy reliance on a heterosexual couple.