We're Leaving For Paris (Kevron)
Author: glass_gem
Betas: ginevracullen & asasiasa
Pairing: Kevin Jonas and Zac Efron
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2666
Disclaimer: This didn’t happen, and I don't own any of the people or places.
Summary: “It was kind of tragic and cliché, figuring out you’re in love with your best friend days before you’re going to be married to someone else.”
Author's Note: Merci beaucoup to my two betas who helped me in great ways, I appreciate you both soo much. The quote used for the cut is one of Zac's lines in Me and Orson Welles and the idea for the title came by way of a song by Rufus Wainwright called 'I'm leaving for Paris.'
*~*~*~*~*
Kevin had only laughed when Zac told him that they were going to disappear for a week before the wedding, because honestly, Zac couldn’t have been serious-there were still flowers to arrange, suits to tailor and rehearsals to run. But Zac didn’t laugh with him, and the Saturday before Kevin was supposed to walk down the aisle, Zac grabbed their bags, put them in his truck and made sure that Kevin was all buckled up in the passenger’s seat before driving off.
“Where are we going? Zac, I really can’t just disappear before the wedding. What if someone needs me?”
“Kevin, just chill. A week away won’t stop anything, especially when everything’s been worked out for months. It’ll be fine”
“But what about Danielle?”
“She’ll be alright, and she has bridesmaids and maids of honor to help her out. You probably wouldn’t have even gotten to see her this week anyways, what with the hairdresser’s appointments and manicures and pedicures.”
“I still don’t like this idea, Zac.”
“Oh, just stop pouting and live a little. Everything will be fine, honestly.”
“No.” Kevin said shaking his head and turning in his seat to look at Zac. “I want to turn around. You’re holding me against my will, Zac, and I refuse to stay here. I’ll call the police!”
“And tell them what?” Zac asked, turning in his seat slightly to stare at Kevin with amusement. “That you’re Kevin Jonas and you just got kidnapped by Zac Efron? I would love to see the press get a hold of that one.”
Realizing that this was a lost cause, Kevin turned back around in his seat, still pouting as he turned on the radio. He didn’t like leaving everything behind, but he trusted Zac, certain that he would never do anything to hurt him.
*~*~*~*~*
Turning off the engine, Zac greeted the employee waiting for them in the private airport parking lot and handed over his and Kevin’s bags. Making sure that Kevin was following him, Zac headed off into the building to check in, go through airport security and find their plane.
Thirty minutes later found Kevin sitting next to Zac, staring at him incredulously. “We’re going to Paris?! You’re honestly taking me to Paris, Zac? How absurd is that?!”
Zac just smiled at Kevin and closed his eyes. “Just sit back and relax, Kevin. We’re going to be on this plane for a while.”
Grumbling under his breath, Kevin followed Zac’s lead and turned on his iPod. If Zac was going to be a pain, then he wasn’t going to try and talk to him for the full however-many-hours they were going to be on this flight together.
Three hours later, however, Kevin was bored and Zac was busy watching the in-flight movie. “Zac!” Kevin whispered, poking Zac to make him look at him. “I’m bored.”
Taking off his headphones, Zac looked at Kevin. “Then watch a movie,” he whispered back.
“But I don’t wanna,” Kevin said, making a face.
Realizing that he wouldn’t get to finish watching the movie now, Zac turned to Kevin fully, “then what do you want to do?”
Kevin shrugged. “I don’t know,” he replied sheepishly. Then after a few seconds, “Zac, why are we really doing this?”
Zac stared at Kevin for a moment before answering back, still in quiet tones, “you needed to get away. You’ve been all wedding-wedding-wedding tour-tour-tour for months now and I just figured you needed a break. Especially since once Saturday hits everything is going to change, I just wanted some quality time with my best friend before his life completely takes off without me.”
Kevin didn’t know what to say for a few long moments, so he just sat there and processed Zac’s words, letting the truth hit him. “Everything’s not going to change,” he finally said. “I mean, we’re still going to be best friends and I’m still a member of the Jonas Brothers.”
Zac just smiled at him, before turning back around and putting his headphones on. Nonetheless Kevin couldn’t shake the thought that Zac’s smile seemed more sad than happy this time around.
*~*~*~*~*
Six hours later both boys departed their flight and found a taxi to take them to their hotel. After checking in, Zac lounged around on his bed while Kevin went about unpacking his belongings.
“So, what do you want to do today?” Zac questioned, sitting up. “I was thinking we could go to a local café for lunch, walk around a little bit and then hit up this little French restaurant that serves the best food before coming back here for the night.”
Kevin looked up and smiled. “Sure, let me finish unpacking and we can leave.”
The next couple of days were filled with shopping, (“Oh, Zac, but we just have to visit Les Champs Elysees!”) and sightseeing, (“Did you know that this museum used to be a train station? Now it’s called the Musee D’Orsay.”) And through it all, Zac couldn’t help but be delighted in how much calmer Kevin seemed to be.
On Wednesday, they visited the Opera House, and Kevin was able to watch Zac’s eyes light up as he walked through the various places mentioned in The Phantom of the Opera. Zac also looked much calmer, calmer and happier then Kevin had seen him in the last few weeks that they had been able to spend together-or accurately, in the last few weeks they had been able to spend in the same room surrounded by Joe and Nick while Kevin and Danielle were busy consulting the various people who were working on their wedding. Kevin had been so busy lately making sure that everything was perfect for Saturday that he had lost sight of how it felt to be around Zac. No paparazzi, no plans to go over, just Kevin and Zac, like how it was back in ’06 when Zac was beginning to deal with High School Musical fame and the Jonas Brothers were starting to take off.
Everything had changed since then though, and a part of Kevin knew that after the wedding, after it all became official, everything would change again. But he refused to lose his friendship with Zac because of this, and he refused to change so much that his best friend didn’t know who he was anymore.
“A penny for your thoughts?” Zac asked, smoothly sliding into place next to Kevin and holding out a shiny French penny.
“Huh, uh...nothing,” Kevin replied distractedly. “I’m hungry, let’s go grab something to eat and explore some more.” Taking Zac’s arm, Kevin dragged him away from the Opera House. “I can’t wait to see the Eiffel Tower tonight; it’s so pretty when it’s all lit up.”
*~*~*~*~*
After dinner, they arrived at the park before the Eiffel Tower lighting and adopted a leisurely stroll as they made their way to the main event. The romantic element of the night wasn’t lost on the two boys, but neither was inclined to bring any attention to it.
“So are you nervous or just mostly excited about Saturday?” Zac asked, glancing over at Kevin carefully.
“More excited really,” Kevin adjusted his jacket, pulling it closer to his body. “But I also can’t wait for all of this to be over, and to just be married, you know? To not have to deal with caterers and event planners will be nice.”
“Well, if you had actually let Nick and Joe take care of most of those things like they should have, you wouldn’t have been so stressed out.”
“I probably would have been stressed out anyways,” Kevin shrugged, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “You know how I am. Everything has to be perfect, or as close to perfect as it can be, and planning a wedding while embarking on a World Tour is probably something that no sane person would decide to do.”
Zac smiled, looking over at Kevin again. “Well you’re right about that one. I’m still not sure why you didn’t wait and have the wedding next spring. It would’ve definitely saved you the stress.”
“We’ve been over this, Zac,” Kevin sighed, with a tone that revealed just how many times he had to say that before. “Dani wanted a winter wedding, and planning on doing this now gives Nick time to work with his new band, and Joe time to actually read and commit to some scripts before we go ahead and do another World Tour in the summer.”
“You didn’t mention yourself in that sentence.” Zac pointed out, stopping for a few minutes and turning towards Kevin completely.
“I want to get married, so anything that Dani wants, I want too. I am the one who proposed in the first place, you know,” Kevin turned, facing Zac full on.
Locking eyes with Kevin, Zac remained quiet before resuming his walk to the Eiffel Tower, forcing Kevin to take larger strides to catch up.
He had this conversation with Kevin multiple times since Kevin became dead-set on a winter '09 wedding, and no matter how hard he tried, Zac didn’t know what more he could say to try to get Kevin to see reason. In all honesty, most of Zac’s complaints were based on the fact that he just didn’t want Kevin married at all, especially so soon.
Zac would never forget the night that Kevin came to him and told him he was thinking about proposing. He was so happy, but also scared shitless, and Zac didn’t see enough cause to tell Kevin that he was breaking his heart into a million pieces that night.
Kevin had gone to Zac first because he knew that Zac would tell him the truth, because he knew that Zac’s approval-especially one not biased by brotherly acquaintances or parental friendships to Danielle and her family-was the most important thing to him at that moment. Zac knew how much his opinion meant to Kevin, but he also knew how much more Danielle meant. And no matter how much his heart had plummeted, he couldn’t stop Kevin from marrying his dream girl because of his own selfish desires.
The shock of the marriage proposal still felt like an open wound at times, but it was the actual wedding date that left Zac sleepless some nights. The pain was slowly becoming too much to handle, and this trip was just as much for his sake as it was for Kevin’s. He needed to spend some time with Kevin alone, just the two of them, before his best friend officially belonged to someone else.
“Zac look!!” Kevin said, yanking him from his thoughts and grabbing his arm. “It’s started, the light show started!” Zac looked over at Kevin, watching his face light up from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower, and the pure joy on his face, and swallowed his pain once again. Kevin might be walking down the aisle in a few days, but this moment was something special between the two of them.
*~*~*~*~*
Thursday afternoon both boys were back in their hotel packing. Reality was calling and their escape had finally drawn to a close. Zac had booked an evening flight back to New York, and they wouldn’t be arriving back on U.S. soil until Friday, where they would be busy all over again attending the wedding rehearsal scheduled for that evening, and getting ready for the big day the day after that.
Walking around the blocks near the hotel and taking some last minute pictures before stopping at a nearby café-the very same café they stopped into when they first arrived-the two boarded the plane and got ready for takeoff.
Kevin, having the opportunity of sitting in the window seat again, took full advantage of it this time and stared out the window as the plane ascended from Paris and into the sky. He couldn’t quite put a name on what he was feeling, but as the lights of Paris slowly started to fade into sky and clouds, Kevin couldn’t help but feel his heart tighten painfully. These past few days were wonderful, and sharing them with Zac was something that he wouldn’t forget for the rest of his life.
Here he was sitting in an airplane next to the boy who meant so much to him, and his heart was urging him to try and get the captain to turn the plane around so he could stay in Paris with Zac forever. Kevin truly did love Danielle, but sneaking a glance at Zac-who was currently listening to his iPod and nodding off to sleep-Kevin was hit with the realization that he had fallen in love with Zac first. Zac with his ocean blue eyes and gorgeous smile, it was Zac who captured his heart all those years ago. It had always been Zac, and it probably always would be.
It was kind of tragic and cliché, figuring out you’re in love with your best friend days before you’re going to be married to someone else. But there was no going back now, and Kevin knew that under different circumstances, that if he had figured this out a few months earlier, nothing probably would have changed. He loved Zac, but Zac was meant to be in his life as his best friend and he was going to cherish this gift of perfect friendship most of all.
Kevin stole another glance at Zac, watching him snore lightly, before he too turned on his iPod and entered the world of dreams.
*~*~*~*~*
Friday afternoon Kevin and Zac were back in Zac’s car on the way to Kevin’s place.
“Did you have fun this week?” Zac asked, looking at Kevin in the passenger’s seat.
“Do you really need to ask?” Kevin smiled, his eyes sparkling as he looked over at Zac. “Of course I had a good time-exactly what I needed to help me deal with tonight and tomorrow.”
“I’m glad.” Silence filled the car again and before Zac moved to turn on the radio, Kevin spoke up.
“You know, I was thinking about what you said to me on the way to Paris earlier this week, on the plane,” Kevin started nervously. Zac glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, but didn’t say anything, so Kevin continued. “My life isn’t going to take off without you. You’ll always be my best friend, and no matter what happens. Nothing and no one can replace you. I expect you there with me every step of the way on this new path I’m about to take and you should expect the same thing in reverse from me. You’re stuck with me, Zachary David Alexander Efron, so you better get used to it.”
Zac had to focus particularly hard on the road and the flow of traffic for a few minutes after Kevin’s speech, knowing that if he did any of the things he really wanted to in that moment, they surely would be hurtling into oncoming traffic. Beaming over at Kevin for a few seconds, Zac couldn’t stop a light teasing tone from entering his voice, “using full names are we Paul Kevin Jonas II?”
Kevin just smiled back before turning on the radio.
*~*~*~*~*
“Here’s your stop, Jonas,” Zac said, parking the car in front of Kevin’s house.
Kevin got out and opened the trunk to gather his bag before walking around to Zac’s turned down window and leaning slightly on the car. Before Kevin could get a word in though, Zac pulled something out of his pocket and dropped it into Kevin’s palm. “I’ll see you later, okay?” Not waiting for a reply, Zac drove off, leaving Kevin to stare at the dirt kicked up from his tires before looking down at his hand.
In Kevin’s palm was a miniature keychain version of the Eiffel Tower. Smiling to himself, Kevin attached the new charm to his keys and walked to his front door.
*~La Fin~*