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monaboyd Apr. 16th, 2010 02:52 pm)
sema427.livejournal.com posting in monaboyd Apr. 16th, 2010 02:52 pm)Author: Sema
Pairing: Billy/Dom
Rating: R, overall for violence, language and sexual situations, teetering into a mild Nc-17 for this part.
Summary: The world of Lotrips mingles with Stephen King's The Stand (and The DarkTower). In this chapter, the family celebrates its first wedding.
Feedback: is much loved and appreciated.
Disclaimers: This is entirely fictional. No disrespect to anyone, real or fictional, is intended. The Stand was written by Stephen King. The title comes from T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men. "Here Comes the Sun" is by The Beatles.
Previous chapters: Chaps. 1 through 45; Chap. 46; Chap. 47; Chap. 48; Chap. 49; Chap. 50; Chap. 51; Chap. 52; Chap. 53; Chap. 54
This Is the Way the World Ends, Chapter 55
"The funny thing is, Bills," Dom says, "When you're not trying to be quiet, I can't hear you at all. When you do try you turn into a bull in a china shop."
"I was trying not to wake you," Billy answers. He perches on the side of the bed, still clad only in the towel from his shower. With the fire burning, it's actually warmer than he likes it in their bedroom, but Dom's bundled up to his chin in the heavy down duvet. "You needn't be awake for hours, you know."
"I'm nervous." Dom grins. "You know me and pre-wedding jitters."
"I thought that was only our wedding." Billy stretches out on the bed beside him, catching hold of Dom's hand as it comes snaking out from under the covers. He kisses the palm as Dom's fingers scritch a bit against his stubble.
"You haven't shaved yet."
"I'll shave later, after we've finished at the church." He leans forward to kiss Dom's forehead then, because he can't resist, kisses him softly on the mouth. Almost to his surprise, Dom responds to the kiss, giving back as good as he gets, his hand stoking gently up and down the inside of Billy's thigh. Dom always has known how to touch him exactly as he likes, and when the hand moves to his cock, Billy can't suppress a little moan of surprise and pleasure.
"Can't have you doing everything for yourself," Dom laughs, and kisses Billy harder. When Billy pulls away a little, needing to see Dom's face, to make certain everything's all right, he see's Dom's eyes sparkling, his expression bright and mischievious.
That's my Dom, he thinks, as Dom's teeth tug on his ear.
"I'd so like to go down on you, Bills," he whispers, his long fingers curling round Billy's shaft, setting up a motion that's both excruciatingly slow and excruciatingly pleasurable. "Actually, I'd like you to fuck me so hard I screamed like Orlando."
They both indulge in a quiet laugh: their room shares a wall with Elijah and Orli's, and the sounds of shagging from the other side have been astonishingly noisy at times.
Dom speeds up his strokes, holding him a bit tighter, his leg slipping in between Billy's legs, the friction on his cock almost rough now, because he knows that's the way Billy likes it--almost hard enough to hurt, but not quite. Dom's always been able to strike the perfect balance and he hasn't lost his skill. Before he knows it, Billy can't keep still, his hip's pushing against Dom's hip, and he's thrusting into Dom's hand, coming fast and hard and almost unexpectedly, because it's been so bloody long.
"Oh, céili. Oh, céili," he moans, burying his face in Dom's shoulder, draping his arm with infinite care across Dom's waist--even though Dom takes and moves it an instant later. Dom's hand lingers between his legs, cupping him.
"It's brilliant, just touching you," Dom murmurs in his ear, his voice low and soft and full of velvet. Even before Billy knew how he felt about blokes--or, at least, a bloke--he'd thought Dom had the sexiest voice he'd ever heard, and his opinions on that subject haven't changed over the years.
"I'd like to return the favour, you know," Billy says, kissing Dom's shoulder--but they both know that's impossible, just now. Instead he gives them both a sketchy clean-up with the damp towel, then casts it overboard onto the floor, wriggling in under the duvet so that they can lie belly to belly, Dom's worn flannel pyjamas soft against his skin, though the bandages beneath are stiff and a bit awkward, crackling when he touches them.
"Not too close," Dom says mildly, after a moment, but he doesn't sound in pain, so Billy doesn't worry.
"You're not terribly warm today," Billy tells him, watching Dom's beloved off-kilter smile flash across his face, lighting his eyes, the way Dom's true smiles always do.
"It's a good day, Bills," he answers. "I can feel it."
"I believe I feel it too," Billy says, shutting his eyes as Dom shuts his eyes, the two of them forehead to forehead in the warm bed, their legs tangled together. He knows he should rise, get dressed, that there are only minutes remaining before the others will want to be leaving, but it's so sweet to be lying with Dom, when Dom is having a good day and truly wants him there, instead of pretending not to be uncomfortable in order to spare Billy's feelings.
"You'll be late," Dom tells him at last, when they're both nearly asleep. "Go! I love you."
"Love you, too." He gives Dom a final kiss, on the temple, which is practically the only thing, barring some wildly disordered hair, that shows above the edge of the covers.
He's able to scramble into his clothes and be out the door just as Sean, the groom, comes knocking.
"Oh! Billy! Great!" Sean lowers his raised fist. "You're ready?"
"Ready and willing." Billy grins at him. Sean looks pale, more than a bit nervous--one would think he'd never done this before. "I'll drive, by the way. I don't think you're fit."
"Me? Oh, I'm fine. Fine."
"Fine, fine, fine." Elijah joins them at the bottom of the stairs. "By the way, that's approximately the nine hundredth time I've heard Sean use that word today. Billy, I think our boy's nervous. Mind you, if I was marrying Sonja I'd be nervous too."
"I heard that!" Sonja calls from the kitchen, then pokes her head round the door. Her straight dark hair appears to be in the process of having something complicated--and possibly painful--done to it, and there's a pink towel draped round her shoulders.
"I only meant if I was marrying someone who handles a gun as well as you do." Elijah grins cheekily, and Sonja gives his shoulder a playful thump.
"Billy, look out for them, okay?" Sonja's smiling, but she means the words seriously.
"And you lock up tight," Sean tells her. It remains unspoken between them all: Be careful Be careful, whatever you do.
Sonja touches lightly the Luger holstered on her hip. "Go with God," she says, and means it, because she's the believer among them.
It's the reason for the church, because Sean had planned for them to be married here at the house, and thought nothing of it, but Dom (of all people) had tried his best to explain. They couldn't give Sonja a priest, or confession, or communion, or any of the other sacraments, but at least they could give her the four walls, and light the Presence light, and let her kneel at the altar with the man she loves.
"It matters," Dom had said. "I can't explain exactly why it does, but it does."
"Says the boy who originally wanted his saint's name to be 'Han,'" Billy teased him.
"I'm serious," Dom answered, and for once he was, though he'd added, "And 'Luke' is a perfectly acceptable saint's name. Even my mum couldn't object to someone who'd written a gospel."
"And harnessed the power of the Force," Elijah giggled, but the point was taken. Sonja would have her church.
In Billy's opinion, St. George's is an ugly church, as churches go, a rectangular box with a peaked roof, so modern it's nearly as plain as a Scottish Kirk. There is some oddly lovely stained glass in the windows, though, and the morning light shining through it spills jewels of coloured light across the dark red carpeting.
"What in hell's a presence light?" Elijah asks, squinting up at the crucifix, which is modern too, and fairly abstract, for which Billy's thankful. "Oops, swore in church."
"Don't," Viggo says mildly. "This is for Sonja, and even though these ways are not our ways, we should respect them for her sake."
Elijah blinks at him for a moment, then nods. "Yeah, you're right, Vig. You are. And that, folks--" He gestures-"Is why he's our king."
Viggo gives one of his soft, dry laughs. "I'm not your king, Elijah."
"Our leader, then," Billy tells him. "You know you are, Viggo."
"Duly elected," Sean says, "By us."
"Hear, hear!" Orli chimes in. "You're the one who looks out for all of us, Vig."
For a moment, Viggo looks as close to flustered as Billy's ever seen him, but then he nods, and smiles his wolfish smile, and says, "Well, someone has to."
Four hours later Billy's walking Dom through the front door, down the long aisle. Dom's breathing hard, perhaps not as well as he'd been that morning despite his long rest--though Billy suspects that may be because he's asked Toni to cut back on his pain meds for the day. When they stop at the end of the pew he gives an odd little jerk, almost as if he's going to fall, that causes Billy a moment's worry--until Dom grins. "Sorry. Caught myself in mid-genuflection."
"You'd have done it if you were with your mum." Billy knows that whenever Dom's in Manchester at Christmas, he'll attend midnight mass with Aureen, and behave himself quite nicely.
Dom smiles again. "You'd best believe it. Today, however, I'll merely be present, and hope for lightning not to strike me."
They slide into pew beside Orlando, who greets them with a grin. "Sean's in some back room having hysterics, and Lijah's trying to calm him. I decided to let discretion be the better part of valour and make my escape."
"Wise man," Dom comments. "Where are Sonja and Toni?"
"In a different back room doing woman things and not being seen by the groom. Hopefully preventing Maxie from getting into the cake. He hasn't lost the rings yet, by the way--but the day's young."
"Tell me what it looks like," Dom says softly. "There's a good smell in here, but it's too late for flowers, isn't it? It's November, right?"
"The third," Billy reminds him, giving Dom's hand a little squeeze to let him know it's all right that he's forgotten. "It is late for flowers, but there were hydrangeas, still, big ones and little ones. We've used those, and ivy, and ferns. The stained glass in the windows spreads colours all over the carpeting, That's lovely."
"Sonja's dress is the same colour as the flowers," says Orli, who would notice.
"My gran grew hydrangeas," Dom says. "The English one, that is. Not the Irish one." He sounds a bit dreamy, and Billy hopes he'll be able to hold up though the ceremony. "I'm fine," he adds, as if reading Billy's thoughts. He's shivering a little, though not too badly (on their first trip out they'd managed to hook up a generator to run the church's furnace, and by now the sanctuary's almost warm) most likely because Billy insisted he wear a warm jumper instead of a suit.
"There's candlelight," Billy says. "Those tall, white candles. The shadows are interesting…"
He's about to say more when Viggo appears from a small side door, leading Sean and Elijah. Sean truly looks almost petrified; one would think he'd never done this before. Max, Billy realizes is hiding behind Elijah's legs, clinging to his trousers with one hand whilst the other one clutches a small, white pillow.
"And there's my cue," Billy says, slipping past Orli to the far end of the pew. His guitar's waiting for him up at the front and he slips the strap over his shoulder, playing a brief arpeggio to check the tuning--it's held admirably. Smiling, he begins to play the song Sonja requested: not the wedding march, or anything traditional, but "Here Comes the Sun," the happy notes ringing out into the nearly empty church, echoing off the high white walls.
The smiles returning to the faces… Billy thinks--and it's true. It's as if with Viggo's birthday two weeks before (and the raucous party to celebrate it), there has been a kind of turning point for them all. Before, in the aftermath of the wolf attack, they were tense, looking for monsters or disaster around every corner--and Billy thinks he may have been guiltiest of all when it came to that, though perhaps his worry might be excused. After, it's as if they've fallen into a philosophy of acceptance: their lives are what they are, and they intend to catch hold of them and not let loose again. They may arm themselves with semi-automatic weapons, they may shut their steel shutters at night, but they refuse to huddle in their house, afraid to step foot outside for fear of things that go bump in the night.
The song's concluded, and Sonja's standing before them with Toni by her side, radiant in a blue silk dress that brings out the colour of her eyes. Sean reaches out to her, taking her hands in his, shining with pride. His tuxedo may not fit him perfectly, but he looks handsome nonetheless.
"I'm not a priest, a reverend, or a duly appointed official," Viggo begins, "But you've done me the honour of naming me as your leader, and it's in that capacity that I am celebrating the marriage of our beloved friends, Sean Patrick and Sonja Mercedes. Once we had many families, now we are one family. Once Sean was the husband of Christine, and Sonja was the wife of Douglas, but that time is lost to us now. We mourn Christine and Douglas, and we will always remember them, but we will not mourn the future, we will embrace it, and part of that embrace is that we form new bonds.
Billy scarcely pays attention to Sean's vows to Sonja, or Sonja's to Sean, or to the more familiar parts of the ceremony: the love, honour and cherish, the taking of this man and this woman. He's watching Dom, his own Dom, even if just now he looks frail in his thick grey jumper, Orlando holding onto him a bit too tightly, because Orli's crying openly, and he always wants someone to hold on to when he's crying. Dom's smiling, comforting him, patting Orli's hand.
He remembers what Dom said to him at their own wedding: "I don't ask you to complete me, because if I can't complete myself I'm not worth having, but I'll ask you to stay with me and love me, even when I'm unlovable, and care for me even when I don't deserve it, and I'll do the same for you, céili, although you're always lovable and I haven't known a day in your life when you didn't deserve to be cared for. You're the point at which all my selfishness drops away from me, Billy. I would die for you and not even question why, and I will love you with my whole heart for as long as I live, and beyond that, if there's anything after.
Billy can't remember, exactly, what he said in return--it was witty, he recalls, but he also knows it paled in comparison to Dom's declaration, and that he'd felt a bit ashamed as he spoke the words, partly because, for the longest time, he'd not particularly wanted to marry, and had only given in, finally, because Dom desired it so very badly, partly because he knew he didn't have it in him to speak his heart before everyone, as Dom did so openly.
He'd confessed as much to Dom, after, and Dom had only kissed him, and held him close, murmuring in his ear, "I know in my heart what you meant to say, Bills."
Billy snaps out of his reverie in time to see Sean and Sonja exchange rings, then kisses, and for Viggo to send them out into the world with the words, "Let's be happy for Sean and Sonja, and for all of our family!"
Belatedly, Billy remembers that he's meant to be playing, and jangles his strings before he manages to start in properly.
Out in the first pew, Dom, with his cheekiest look, is laughing at him.
Later, after the cake but before the champagne, Dom whispers in his ear, "I wish we'd had Vig perform our wedding."
Billy just holds him tight, wondering if the right words will ever come to him, thankful beyond belief for whatever has allowed Dom to be there with him, for them to be there together.
Pairing: Billy/Dom
Rating: R, overall for violence, language and sexual situations, teetering into a mild Nc-17 for this part.
Summary: The world of Lotrips mingles with Stephen King's The Stand (and The DarkTower). In this chapter, the family celebrates its first wedding.
Feedback: is much loved and appreciated.
Disclaimers: This is entirely fictional. No disrespect to anyone, real or fictional, is intended. The Stand was written by Stephen King. The title comes from T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men. "Here Comes the Sun" is by The Beatles.
Previous chapters: Chaps. 1 through 45; Chap. 46; Chap. 47; Chap. 48; Chap. 49; Chap. 50; Chap. 51; Chap. 52; Chap. 53; Chap. 54
This Is the Way the World Ends, Chapter 55
"The funny thing is, Bills," Dom says, "When you're not trying to be quiet, I can't hear you at all. When you do try you turn into a bull in a china shop."
"I was trying not to wake you," Billy answers. He perches on the side of the bed, still clad only in the towel from his shower. With the fire burning, it's actually warmer than he likes it in their bedroom, but Dom's bundled up to his chin in the heavy down duvet. "You needn't be awake for hours, you know."
"I'm nervous." Dom grins. "You know me and pre-wedding jitters."
"I thought that was only our wedding." Billy stretches out on the bed beside him, catching hold of Dom's hand as it comes snaking out from under the covers. He kisses the palm as Dom's fingers scritch a bit against his stubble.
"You haven't shaved yet."
"I'll shave later, after we've finished at the church." He leans forward to kiss Dom's forehead then, because he can't resist, kisses him softly on the mouth. Almost to his surprise, Dom responds to the kiss, giving back as good as he gets, his hand stoking gently up and down the inside of Billy's thigh. Dom always has known how to touch him exactly as he likes, and when the hand moves to his cock, Billy can't suppress a little moan of surprise and pleasure.
"Can't have you doing everything for yourself," Dom laughs, and kisses Billy harder. When Billy pulls away a little, needing to see Dom's face, to make certain everything's all right, he see's Dom's eyes sparkling, his expression bright and mischievious.
That's my Dom, he thinks, as Dom's teeth tug on his ear.
"I'd so like to go down on you, Bills," he whispers, his long fingers curling round Billy's shaft, setting up a motion that's both excruciatingly slow and excruciatingly pleasurable. "Actually, I'd like you to fuck me so hard I screamed like Orlando."
They both indulge in a quiet laugh: their room shares a wall with Elijah and Orli's, and the sounds of shagging from the other side have been astonishingly noisy at times.
Dom speeds up his strokes, holding him a bit tighter, his leg slipping in between Billy's legs, the friction on his cock almost rough now, because he knows that's the way Billy likes it--almost hard enough to hurt, but not quite. Dom's always been able to strike the perfect balance and he hasn't lost his skill. Before he knows it, Billy can't keep still, his hip's pushing against Dom's hip, and he's thrusting into Dom's hand, coming fast and hard and almost unexpectedly, because it's been so bloody long.
"Oh, céili. Oh, céili," he moans, burying his face in Dom's shoulder, draping his arm with infinite care across Dom's waist--even though Dom takes and moves it an instant later. Dom's hand lingers between his legs, cupping him.
"It's brilliant, just touching you," Dom murmurs in his ear, his voice low and soft and full of velvet. Even before Billy knew how he felt about blokes--or, at least, a bloke--he'd thought Dom had the sexiest voice he'd ever heard, and his opinions on that subject haven't changed over the years.
"I'd like to return the favour, you know," Billy says, kissing Dom's shoulder--but they both know that's impossible, just now. Instead he gives them both a sketchy clean-up with the damp towel, then casts it overboard onto the floor, wriggling in under the duvet so that they can lie belly to belly, Dom's worn flannel pyjamas soft against his skin, though the bandages beneath are stiff and a bit awkward, crackling when he touches them.
"Not too close," Dom says mildly, after a moment, but he doesn't sound in pain, so Billy doesn't worry.
"You're not terribly warm today," Billy tells him, watching Dom's beloved off-kilter smile flash across his face, lighting his eyes, the way Dom's true smiles always do.
"It's a good day, Bills," he answers. "I can feel it."
"I believe I feel it too," Billy says, shutting his eyes as Dom shuts his eyes, the two of them forehead to forehead in the warm bed, their legs tangled together. He knows he should rise, get dressed, that there are only minutes remaining before the others will want to be leaving, but it's so sweet to be lying with Dom, when Dom is having a good day and truly wants him there, instead of pretending not to be uncomfortable in order to spare Billy's feelings.
"You'll be late," Dom tells him at last, when they're both nearly asleep. "Go! I love you."
"Love you, too." He gives Dom a final kiss, on the temple, which is practically the only thing, barring some wildly disordered hair, that shows above the edge of the covers.
He's able to scramble into his clothes and be out the door just as Sean, the groom, comes knocking.
"Oh! Billy! Great!" Sean lowers his raised fist. "You're ready?"
"Ready and willing." Billy grins at him. Sean looks pale, more than a bit nervous--one would think he'd never done this before. "I'll drive, by the way. I don't think you're fit."
"Me? Oh, I'm fine. Fine."
"Fine, fine, fine." Elijah joins them at the bottom of the stairs. "By the way, that's approximately the nine hundredth time I've heard Sean use that word today. Billy, I think our boy's nervous. Mind you, if I was marrying Sonja I'd be nervous too."
"I heard that!" Sonja calls from the kitchen, then pokes her head round the door. Her straight dark hair appears to be in the process of having something complicated--and possibly painful--done to it, and there's a pink towel draped round her shoulders.
"I only meant if I was marrying someone who handles a gun as well as you do." Elijah grins cheekily, and Sonja gives his shoulder a playful thump.
"Billy, look out for them, okay?" Sonja's smiling, but she means the words seriously.
"And you lock up tight," Sean tells her. It remains unspoken between them all: Be careful Be careful, whatever you do.
Sonja touches lightly the Luger holstered on her hip. "Go with God," she says, and means it, because she's the believer among them.
It's the reason for the church, because Sean had planned for them to be married here at the house, and thought nothing of it, but Dom (of all people) had tried his best to explain. They couldn't give Sonja a priest, or confession, or communion, or any of the other sacraments, but at least they could give her the four walls, and light the Presence light, and let her kneel at the altar with the man she loves.
"It matters," Dom had said. "I can't explain exactly why it does, but it does."
"Says the boy who originally wanted his saint's name to be 'Han,'" Billy teased him.
"I'm serious," Dom answered, and for once he was, though he'd added, "And 'Luke' is a perfectly acceptable saint's name. Even my mum couldn't object to someone who'd written a gospel."
"And harnessed the power of the Force," Elijah giggled, but the point was taken. Sonja would have her church.
In Billy's opinion, St. George's is an ugly church, as churches go, a rectangular box with a peaked roof, so modern it's nearly as plain as a Scottish Kirk. There is some oddly lovely stained glass in the windows, though, and the morning light shining through it spills jewels of coloured light across the dark red carpeting.
"What in hell's a presence light?" Elijah asks, squinting up at the crucifix, which is modern too, and fairly abstract, for which Billy's thankful. "Oops, swore in church."
"Don't," Viggo says mildly. "This is for Sonja, and even though these ways are not our ways, we should respect them for her sake."
Elijah blinks at him for a moment, then nods. "Yeah, you're right, Vig. You are. And that, folks--" He gestures-"Is why he's our king."
Viggo gives one of his soft, dry laughs. "I'm not your king, Elijah."
"Our leader, then," Billy tells him. "You know you are, Viggo."
"Duly elected," Sean says, "By us."
"Hear, hear!" Orli chimes in. "You're the one who looks out for all of us, Vig."
For a moment, Viggo looks as close to flustered as Billy's ever seen him, but then he nods, and smiles his wolfish smile, and says, "Well, someone has to."
Four hours later Billy's walking Dom through the front door, down the long aisle. Dom's breathing hard, perhaps not as well as he'd been that morning despite his long rest--though Billy suspects that may be because he's asked Toni to cut back on his pain meds for the day. When they stop at the end of the pew he gives an odd little jerk, almost as if he's going to fall, that causes Billy a moment's worry--until Dom grins. "Sorry. Caught myself in mid-genuflection."
"You'd have done it if you were with your mum." Billy knows that whenever Dom's in Manchester at Christmas, he'll attend midnight mass with Aureen, and behave himself quite nicely.
Dom smiles again. "You'd best believe it. Today, however, I'll merely be present, and hope for lightning not to strike me."
They slide into pew beside Orlando, who greets them with a grin. "Sean's in some back room having hysterics, and Lijah's trying to calm him. I decided to let discretion be the better part of valour and make my escape."
"Wise man," Dom comments. "Where are Sonja and Toni?"
"In a different back room doing woman things and not being seen by the groom. Hopefully preventing Maxie from getting into the cake. He hasn't lost the rings yet, by the way--but the day's young."
"Tell me what it looks like," Dom says softly. "There's a good smell in here, but it's too late for flowers, isn't it? It's November, right?"
"The third," Billy reminds him, giving Dom's hand a little squeeze to let him know it's all right that he's forgotten. "It is late for flowers, but there were hydrangeas, still, big ones and little ones. We've used those, and ivy, and ferns. The stained glass in the windows spreads colours all over the carpeting, That's lovely."
"Sonja's dress is the same colour as the flowers," says Orli, who would notice.
"My gran grew hydrangeas," Dom says. "The English one, that is. Not the Irish one." He sounds a bit dreamy, and Billy hopes he'll be able to hold up though the ceremony. "I'm fine," he adds, as if reading Billy's thoughts. He's shivering a little, though not too badly (on their first trip out they'd managed to hook up a generator to run the church's furnace, and by now the sanctuary's almost warm) most likely because Billy insisted he wear a warm jumper instead of a suit.
"There's candlelight," Billy says. "Those tall, white candles. The shadows are interesting…"
He's about to say more when Viggo appears from a small side door, leading Sean and Elijah. Sean truly looks almost petrified; one would think he'd never done this before. Max, Billy realizes is hiding behind Elijah's legs, clinging to his trousers with one hand whilst the other one clutches a small, white pillow.
"And there's my cue," Billy says, slipping past Orli to the far end of the pew. His guitar's waiting for him up at the front and he slips the strap over his shoulder, playing a brief arpeggio to check the tuning--it's held admirably. Smiling, he begins to play the song Sonja requested: not the wedding march, or anything traditional, but "Here Comes the Sun," the happy notes ringing out into the nearly empty church, echoing off the high white walls.
The smiles returning to the faces… Billy thinks--and it's true. It's as if with Viggo's birthday two weeks before (and the raucous party to celebrate it), there has been a kind of turning point for them all. Before, in the aftermath of the wolf attack, they were tense, looking for monsters or disaster around every corner--and Billy thinks he may have been guiltiest of all when it came to that, though perhaps his worry might be excused. After, it's as if they've fallen into a philosophy of acceptance: their lives are what they are, and they intend to catch hold of them and not let loose again. They may arm themselves with semi-automatic weapons, they may shut their steel shutters at night, but they refuse to huddle in their house, afraid to step foot outside for fear of things that go bump in the night.
The song's concluded, and Sonja's standing before them with Toni by her side, radiant in a blue silk dress that brings out the colour of her eyes. Sean reaches out to her, taking her hands in his, shining with pride. His tuxedo may not fit him perfectly, but he looks handsome nonetheless.
"I'm not a priest, a reverend, or a duly appointed official," Viggo begins, "But you've done me the honour of naming me as your leader, and it's in that capacity that I am celebrating the marriage of our beloved friends, Sean Patrick and Sonja Mercedes. Once we had many families, now we are one family. Once Sean was the husband of Christine, and Sonja was the wife of Douglas, but that time is lost to us now. We mourn Christine and Douglas, and we will always remember them, but we will not mourn the future, we will embrace it, and part of that embrace is that we form new bonds.
Billy scarcely pays attention to Sean's vows to Sonja, or Sonja's to Sean, or to the more familiar parts of the ceremony: the love, honour and cherish, the taking of this man and this woman. He's watching Dom, his own Dom, even if just now he looks frail in his thick grey jumper, Orlando holding onto him a bit too tightly, because Orli's crying openly, and he always wants someone to hold on to when he's crying. Dom's smiling, comforting him, patting Orli's hand.
He remembers what Dom said to him at their own wedding: "I don't ask you to complete me, because if I can't complete myself I'm not worth having, but I'll ask you to stay with me and love me, even when I'm unlovable, and care for me even when I don't deserve it, and I'll do the same for you, céili, although you're always lovable and I haven't known a day in your life when you didn't deserve to be cared for. You're the point at which all my selfishness drops away from me, Billy. I would die for you and not even question why, and I will love you with my whole heart for as long as I live, and beyond that, if there's anything after.
Billy can't remember, exactly, what he said in return--it was witty, he recalls, but he also knows it paled in comparison to Dom's declaration, and that he'd felt a bit ashamed as he spoke the words, partly because, for the longest time, he'd not particularly wanted to marry, and had only given in, finally, because Dom desired it so very badly, partly because he knew he didn't have it in him to speak his heart before everyone, as Dom did so openly.
He'd confessed as much to Dom, after, and Dom had only kissed him, and held him close, murmuring in his ear, "I know in my heart what you meant to say, Bills."
Billy snaps out of his reverie in time to see Sean and Sonja exchange rings, then kisses, and for Viggo to send them out into the world with the words, "Let's be happy for Sean and Sonja, and for all of our family!"
Belatedly, Billy remembers that he's meant to be playing, and jangles his strings before he manages to start in properly.
Out in the first pew, Dom, with his cheekiest look, is laughing at him.
Later, after the cake but before the champagne, Dom whispers in his ear, "I wish we'd had Vig perform our wedding."
Billy just holds him tight, wondering if the right words will ever come to him, thankful beyond belief for whatever has allowed Dom to be there with him, for them to be there together.
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From:
Chapter 56
From:
Chapter 56