Now It's Official

[inner_human]

Date: Wednesday, May 9, 2001
Time: Afternoonish
Location: The Derrick/Parkinson Residence, Ambrose Terrace, York
Characters Involved: Pansy Parkinson, Peregrin Derrick, invitation only
Rating: PG

Comments

[freakedwithjet]

Pansy looked up as Perry took her hand, and the ring with her right. An eyebrow titled. "Careful, you're getting dangerously close to living up to my expectations now."

Strange, how this didn't feel like the end of the road. Surely putting on an engagement ring, sat on the couch you shared, in the house you shared - surely that should feel like momentous. It did and it didn't. It was a big deal, of course (after rowing with Perry about it in the middle of his proposal Pansy wasn't likely to forget that!) but also, it just felt right. Of course they were going to get married. Of course they were going to live together for the rest of their lives, and throw jokes and insults and china at each other, and everything else that went along with fourth-finger diamonds and wedding vows.

It didn't feel like the end of something though. Pansy had always imagined this would be the end of every immature inclination - she'd have to be a grown-up, if she was a married woman.

...Maybe it would be boring.

Pansy didn't feel bored, she felt ecstatically, insanely, unstably happy and when the ring was on, she lifted her left hand to look at it as it sparkled there, and to hell with the metal not looking quite right, it fit, it worked! She looked at it for a few seconds and then turned an enormous smile into Perry, fullbeam.

[inner_human]

He paused, smirking at Pansy's quip. "Don't worry. Give it time, and I'll sabotage myself soon enough."

Perry was still feeling rather lightheaded. Now, with Pansy's hand in his, awaiting the adornment of one little diamond ring, this was feeling much more real. With this one piece of jewelry it was no longer just talk, and despite Pansy's joking that it was nothing set in stone, in Perry's mind it might as well have been. The ring was forever (which suddenly felt like a very long time), it was his declaration of love and devotion, and now everyone who saw it would know.

It felt unreal, almost forbidden, as if he had no right to be making declarations of always and forever to anyone. This was the sort of thing for which you were supposed to seek permissions and blessings. He'd not even bothered to consult her parents (not that he would even if he had a second chance at the proposal).

But it wasn't about them, he reminded himself. Worrying about others was what usually complicated their relationship. They annoyed each other sometimes, they fought constantly, but there was really no one else he could be bothered to torment and be tormented by. In a strange, dysfunctional way, they made sense. And even worse, he suspected he made more sense with her than without. It was the only indication he had that they were doing the right thing.

That, and Pansy's smile as she lifted her hand. Perry might have suspected that she was just beaming to spare his feelings if she hadn't looked-and felt-so... well, genuine. Indeed the ring was small, but it didn't look so puny and grotesque on her finger. Suddenly he could breathe again (he hadn't noticed he'd stopped while he slipped on the ring), and a silly quirk formed at the corner of his mouth that he couldn't pull down. He lifted a hand to Pansy's cheek and pulled her closer, and kissed her once, then again. Touching her brought a strange sense of comfort. This didn't feel wrong at all. Right now he didn't even feel like a werewolf, because werewolves didn't fall in love or get married. He just felt like Perry... and right now, Perry was doing pretty well.