A/N: Ah, weddings. I went to one myself this summer (and I caught the bouquet), so I'm very excited to be sending my favorite Fire Emblem couple on their very own post-war wedding circuit. Maybe they'll learn a thing or two about themselves as they watch some of their friends tying the knot and committing... we'll just have to wait and see.
Just a preliminary heads up: I'm planning on writing five chapters to this little story. I am a college student and I do have a lot of homework, but I have just enough free time to get all of this out in a reasonable amount of time. Bear with me, please!
0o0o0o0o
WEDDING #1: Boyd & Mist
Thank the Goddess there was wine! Ike had technically been in charge of arranging what food and beverages would be available for the reception, but Soren hadn't been able to keep himself from making some slight changes once he saw that Ike's idea of sufficient party fare consisted solely of beer and meat. Sure, that would work for the majority of Mist and Boyd's guests- especially those that happened to be laguz and Ike- but Soren just wasn't going make it through the night if there wasn't any wine. He wasn't a heavy drinker by any stretch of the imagination, but the fact that he was at a wedding against his will made him want to drink even Shinon under the table. He hated weddings. The sappiness, the orchestral music, the cringe worthy speeches, the sloppy kissing, the Goddess awful bumping and grinding that passed for dancing these days... all of this he utterly and completely loathed. But Ike had once again played his ace card and turned his pleading blue eyes to Soren and so very sweetly begged him to go and support his little sister and her new husband, so what was he to do? He had sat obligingly in the cathedral as Ike walked sweet little Mist down the aisle and handed her over to that great idiot Boyd; he had forced himself not to gag as the happy couple exchanged their vows, those idiotic, goofy grins on both of their faces; and he had even refrained from making any smart comments when Mist cried as she and her green-haired-baboon of a husband said 'I do' before the sight of the Goddess. He had struggled through all of this good-naturedly for Ike's sake, but the only way he would even begin to make it through the reception was with the help of the red wine he had tricked Ike it to purchasing. And now that the speeches were set to begin any minute now, his descent into oblivion was not going to be delayed for another moment...
"Bar's closed," Ranulf chirped from behind the counter, a blatantly smug look on his face. "Sorry, Soren."
Soren sighed in exasperation, his lips curling into a scowl of disgust. "The bar can't be closed. It's an open bar. Emphasis on open."
"I'm not allowed to distribute alcohol until after the speeches are made," the cat laguz retorted, still smirking. "Commander's orders. Though I would think he would want people to be drunk during his speech, given his total lack of eloquence..."
Soren blinked in surprise. "Ike's giving a speech? I thought Jill was taking care of that since she's the maid of honor."
"Nah. Ike actually wanted to do it because he knew that Greil would have given her one if he had been here. A pretty thoughtful gesture considering how tactless the commander usually is."
"Ike isn't tactless," Soren snapped automatically.
"Speak for yourself. You've never had to suffer him ignoring you while you're trying to explain the number of awesome Gallian secrets you're not allowed to share with him. The nerve of that man!" Ranulf's tail twitched in agitation. "Well, you'd better go back to your table and listen to what the guy has to say. I know how you feel about wedding speeches, but at least with Ike it shouldn't be too sappy. Besides, I don't your best friend will feel very confident if you of all people need to be drunk in order to listen to him talk."
"Nn," Soren muttered, but he obligingly retreated from the closed open bar when he heard Ike clinking his spoon against his champagne glass, the signal that it was time to torture the wedding guests with inside jokes and embarrassing stories for a few minutes before they could even think about eating anything.
Ike rose to his feet and cleared his throat. "Ahem," he said gruffly, awkwardly drawing his fingers through his shock of blue hair. "First of all, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Mist and my new brother-in-law, Boyd. I know for certain that they will be happy together, and I wish them all the best."
"Hear, hear!" Shinon yelled from the back of the room. "Now gimme some beer!"
"Just a second," Ike said sternly, rolling his eyes. "Now, I don't know that much about love and marriage-"
"You're telling me," Aimee shrieked.
"-but I know from watching you two together that you complete each other. You make each other better than you would ever be on your own. You... with the way and love and care for each other, you being together just makes sense."
Ike paused, but this time no one called out. Soren held his breath.
"As I've said though, I'm no expert on love. I don't know exactly what you're feeling, so I can't explain it to everyone here. But I can say with complete faith and confidence to every single person in this room that I know is Mother and Father would be so proud and happy for you both, and that they are looking down on us all at this moment and they... they understand what a miracle it is for something of such beauty to come from a conflict that nearly shattered us all." He cleared his throat again, his eyes drifting over to the table where the rest of his fellow soldiers were sitting. "So here's to Mist and Boyd... for making the beauty last."
"To Mist! To Boyd!" Everyone joined in, raising their glasses to the couple. There were tears, enthusiastic claps, and laughter, and Mist and Boyd shared a rather passionate kiss as the company toasted them. But for once, Soren didn't feel like puking at the sight and sound of these romantic trivialities. Ike's words were ringing in his head, and he almost felt for a moment that weddings really weren't so bad, not if one thought of them the right way.
But then he glanced over at the heart shaped cake Mist had insisted upon and once again felt like consuming every single drop of wine under the roof. Such utter and disgusting cheesiness, Goddess bless, what could possibly posses someone to think that monstrosity of a dessert is actually romantic?
After the toast, open bar was in full swing. Unfortunately for Soren, this meant that Gatrie, Shinon, and Skrimir were already in line and placing long and complex orders that would take Ranulf a fair amount of time to complete. He groaned inwardly and downed the remains of his toasting champagne, hoping that it might possibly be enough to get his lightweight body buzzed. Dancing would be beginning shortly, and he had no desire to soberly watch certain people attempting to show off their moves. In fact, Tormod and Kieran's mere presence on the dance floor had a high risk of bringing about an apocalypse or mass murder at the very least, and that was without even beginning to mention all the damage a drunken Skrimir could do.
Soren wandered off to the buffet line and retrieved himself a small bowl of salad to nibble on as he waited. The wedding party, with the exception of Ike, had already cleared off their plates and were conferring with the DJs- Bastian and Volke: an incredibly odd selection on either Mist or Boyd's part- about the first dance of night. The premiere dance of the newly wed couple- the cheesiest moment of the night, in Soren's opinion. Mist had probably chosen some cliché piece from the crooner era, and she and Boyd would sway haphazardly to it for a few minutes while the laguz catcalled and the beorc (Gatrie, namely) screamed "Just make out with her already!" How could anyone find that romantic and entertaining? Nothing was quaint about idiotic affection on display, surrounded no less by drunken fools hell bent on bawdiness and making asses of themselves. If only he hadn't come to this stupid wedding...
Just as the first notes of "The Way You Look Tonight" spilled from the myriad of speakers Bastian and Volke had set up around the room, Ike plopped down in the chair next to Soren, his mouth still full of meat and gravy. "Hey, Swoen," he said, pieces of food showing as he talked. "Enwoying 'rwelf?"
"Um, Ike? Common Tongue, please?"
Ike swallowed and gulped down his food, somehow as charming as ever. "Enjoying yourself?"
"Hardly."
"C'mon. Just look at them!" Ike turned and cast a benevolent smile upon his radiant sister and her husband as they swirled around the dance floor. "She's so happy."
Soren grunted. "So, you're okay with the thought of giving your sister away to a loud-mouthed idiot?"
"Soren, you think everyone is a loud-mouthed idiot. If I waited for her to find someone you approved of, she'd be a spinster in her eighties!"
"Which still sounds preferable to being the wife of Boyd."
Ike rolled his eyes. "Well, like it or not, Mist happens to love him. I'm sure she has her reasons, and we don't necessarily have to understand them. It's just nice to see her so happy. A few years ago, I would have never expected something so good to happen. Hell, I didn't even think we'd be alive to see this."
"Small blessings, I guess," Soren sighed. "I'll try to be less of wet blanket. It would help if Ranulf cleared the boozers away from the bar so the rest of us could have a turn."
"Soren, it's pretty sad that you need to be drunk to survive a wedding. They're really not that bad. I'm pretty sure we suffered worse at the hands of the Crimean nobles during the post-war celebrations."
"I don't remember. Gatrie spiked the drinks."
"Ah, yes. Well, please don't drink too much. I need someone sane to talk to tonight, and I was really counting on you."
Soren flushed and held back a pleased smile. Suddenly he felt his craving for wine dissipate completely and his heart race increase pleasantly underneath the stifling layers of his suit jacket and dress shirt. "As you wish, Ike."
0o0o0o
After his own dance with the bride, Ike quickly returned to Soren's side armed with a handful of drumsticks and spicy wings.
"I paid for all this food, and I'm getting my fair share," he explained as he almost lustily bit into the tender meat. "Plus, I can't dance with Aimee while I'm busy eating, right?"
Soren shrugged. "When she wants something, she's pretty hard to stop."
"Eh. Everyone knows I don't dance. Mist is an exception because she's my sister, and I'm kind of the stand in for the father-of-the-bride, but I'm really not interested in going up there again."
"I'm not planning on going up at all."
"Then we'll stick together." The two watched as Kieran did the robot across the floor, slamming his chopping hands into everyone near him. "Just sitting here observing is entertaining enough for me."
"I'm almost tempted to start taking bets on who will destroy this place first. I'm leaning towards Skrimir."
"I'd place my money on Ranulf. As soon as he's relieved of bar duty, half the room is going to pounce on him. If the collective weight of all the people in love with him isn't enough to break a hole through the floor, than nothing is."
Soren grimaced at the thought. "This wedding is costing us enough as it is. If these idiots get it into their heads to damage the reception hall, I'm cutting their food rations and selling their weapons online."
"I'll warn Ranulf to watch his back."
They both fell into silence for a moment. "So," Ike murmured at length. "You don't like any of this, huh?"
"By this, you mean the whole wedding nonsense?"
"Yeah."
"Not a big fan. The food's nice, and your speech... it wasn't bad."
"That's gracious of you."
Soren sighed, toying absently with his bangs. "I don't know. I just don't think that when you love someone, you actually need all this. Love is private, and this whole ceremony and reception thing just thrusts it out in the open where it doesn't need to be. It even cheapens it, to some extent."
"Huh. I think of it more in the sense that Boyd and Mist are feeling this incredible love and happiness, and this is there way of sharing their emotions with us. We celebrated the end of the war, a war in which so many people died, so why shouldn't we celebrate this?"
"I don't like having happiness shoved down my throat."
"I see," Ike laughed. "Well, if I ever have a wedding, I'm still making you come."
Soren glared at his friend, his face paling somewhat. "Planning something?" he asked, his voice dark and moody.
"Who, me? Nah. I'm just fine on my own." He cleared his throat. "But sometimes I think it wouldn't really be so bad. When I look at how Mist and Boyd are... it's hard not to envy them."
"Don't let Aimee hear you saying that."
"Aimee?" Ike scoffed. "Not interested."
Soren smiled faintly and bit his lip. "I don't think you should get married at all, Ike," he whispered under his breath, hoping the music would drown him out.
No such luck. "Why not?" the other man asked, tilting his head.
He thought for a minute, trying to frame an answer that wasn't selfish or revealing. "It would change everything." Soren said at last. "Everything good we have now... it just wouldn't be the same."
Ike considered this. Soren was right, of course. He liked things just the way they were already, and throwing a wife and a family into his life would upset everything he liked best about his life. He wouldn't be able to take on the more dangerous missions, and he would be expressly forbidden from spending all his free time with Soren as he liked to do. Gone would be the sporadic road trips to Gallia and the nights spent talking about everything from philosophy to the many joys of a prime cut of rib. It would be to someone else's wishes he bent, someone else's voice he fell asleep to each night. And that just wouldn't be right. He liked things as they were, and there was no reason in all the world he should even try to change them.
Ike took Soren's hand for a brief moment and squeezed it. "It's okay, then," he murmured to both to himself and his friend. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
0o0o0o0o
"Hit it, Volke!" Mist squealed, throwing her arms up in the air and swinging a handful of gardenias around her head. "Bouquet time!"
Soren groaned to himself as Volke blasted a song about liking things and putting rings on them, and his groans only increased as every single woman in the room flocked on the dance floor giggling and shrieking amongst themselves.
"I'm catching it! I'm catching it," Aimee hollered to anyone who would listen. "Then Ike will have to marry me and live with me forever."
"No, I'm catching it," Mia insisted. "I'm the best jumper here."
"Excuse me, but Sothe and I are engaged, so it would only make sense for me to catch it," snapped a very tipsy Micaiah.
"Shut up, ladies," yelled Mist. "I know exactly who's getting it." She didn't even bother turning around before she perfectly pitched the bouquet straight to a very surprised and embarrassed Jill. Jill flushed prettily, glancing under her eyelashes at Haar as the other girls either congratulated or glared at her.
"Looks like we'll be going to another wedding soon," Ike informed Soren, a smirk playing on his lips. "Your dream come true, huh?"
"I won't be going," Soren said flatly.
"Really? I'd have to go, of course, and the rest of the company probably wouldn't mind coming with me. You'd be left all alone in Crimea while the rest of us were in Daein for the night, or maybe even multiple nights if we decided to visit our other friends in that area..."
"I'll cross that bridge when we get there," Soren sighed, his voice sour. He already knew he'd be penciling in another wedding against his will, thanks to Ike. He didn't want to be left alone without the better half of his heart for any length of time, and attending yet another pointless wedding was perhaps not quite as daunting as experiencing that loss.
"The garter toss is starting," Ike mentioned offhandedly. "Want to go up there for laughs?"
Soren shook his head. "No. Boyd will probably just throw it at Haar." Which was of course exactly what happened.
"Hmm. Funny how the war brought so many of us together," Ike mused as Jill and Haar shared a very emphatic kiss on the dance floor. "Perhaps we'll be going to weddings every other week for a while."
"For the love of the Goddess, please don't say that," Soren muttered.
"C'mon. You've been smiling more tonight than you have in ages. You must like this at least a little."
"Nothing that has made me smile tonight is in any way associated with the wedding," Soren objected lightly. "Now drop it, will you?"
0o0o0o0o
Silence at last. Somehow he had managed to convince Ike to drive home the moment after Boyd and Mist's limo pulled away for their week long Gallian honeymoon even though everyone else was going to take the party into the wee hours of the morning. The two of them were now comfortably settled into Ike's pick up truck, their ties undone, shoes off, and dress shirts partially unbuttoned. The few miles of the highway they would have to cross to reach headquarters stretched in front of them empty, hushed, and waiting. Soren, tired as he was, almost wished they had hours of driving ahead of them so that he could just sit there in Ike's presence, wallowing in the closeness, the comfort, the silence.
"That was nice," Ike yawned, tugging at the loosened collar of his shirt. "Loud and a bit long, but nice."
"Hmm. I hope Shinon doesn't die of alcohol poisoning... well, maybe not..."
"I hope Ranulf didn't break an arm during Lyre and Kyza's little tiff over which one of them he'd be swing dancing with," Ike shot back.
"I certainly hope Kieran will be able to find his pants in the morning."
"And I'm a little bit concerned over the fate of Elincia's hair after Tormod accidentally set it on fire."
They both laughed at the memories, but they did so softly, as if they were worried of disrupting the air of stillness and peace around them. There was a fragile line between a truly special moment and a normal, mundane exchange, and neither of them even wanted to breathe the wrong way lest all the good feelings in their hearts dispel and never return to touch them again. Something between them was shifting, and they could both feel it as they drove into the night together, their minds both reflecting on the words Ike had spoken earlier that night.
You... with the way and love and care for each other, you being together just makes sense...
0o0o0o0o
A/N: Looks like Jill and Haar are up next. Will Soren ever learn to enjoy weddings? Will Ike ever figure out who it is he loves? Will Ranulf/Skrimir/Tormod ever succeed in destroying a reception hall? Find out in Chapter 2!