Trope bingo: Forced to marry

Rated as M due to polyamory, moderately strong language, and sexual content including mild D/S play. (Not explicit or PWP.)

Stories like this are why I decided to play Trope Bingo - I wouldn't have ever written something like this without a push. I'm mostly pleased with how it turned out.

Note: my understanding of US immigration law is iffy at best, given that I've never had to deal with it. Most of what's here should be reasonable according to my Internet research, but...yeah, Internet research.

Title is from the Genesis song "Behind the Lines," off the album Duke. (Although I tend to think of the version from Three Sides Live.)

Timeline: late summer between freshman and sophomore years of college. All parties involved are nineteen years old.

Baljeet slumped into Buford's bedroom wordlessly and clutched himself to his boyfriend. Buford just held the Indian young man for a moment, confused. They'd been involved with each other for two years, ever since their senior year of high school, and exclusive for almost a year; Baljeet's trips to the gym with Buford had turned the soft boy he had been into a wiry and lean young man, and Buford appreciated the effect on him.

"Baljeet, what's wrong?" Buford asked.

"My father just got the word. The visa renewal he was expecting was denied and he has to leave the country within three weeks. And I need to go with him, because I cannot get a student visa for college quickly enough," Baljeet said, pulling his head back enough to look at Buford through tear-filled eyes.

Buford reached up to brush the tears from Baljeet's eyes. "How long are you gonna have to be gone? 'Cause I'm gonna miss my nerd."

"I do not know. I may not ever be able to come back."

"...ever? Why not?"

"There is no guarantee that they will issue me a student visa at all. Even if they do allow me back, it will take at least six months to process everything." Baljeet buried his head in Buford's shoulder again; Buford wrapped his strong arms around him and just held him.

I'm not the brains of this operation, Buford thought. All I can do is try to keep him sane while he figures it out.

"Is there anything we can do to keep you here?"

"If I were to marry a US citizen, then I could stay indefinitely," Baljeet said, then lifted his head and looked at Buford.

"I...Baljeet, we're just nineteen. It's a rush, it's only been legal in Danville for a coupla months. But..."

Baljeet shook his head. "Immigration doesn't accept same-sex marriages yet, Buford. I would need to marry a woman."

Buford suddenly understood where Baljeet was going with that train of thought. He put a meaty finger under Baljeet's chin. "Don't you even think about it, nerd. She hurt you bad enough last time."

"Only because she did not want to share. Maybe she's changed her mind."

Ginger was curled up on the couch in her sparsely-furnished apartment near the University of Danville campus, reading a book. Her roommate had moved out at the end of the spring semester, and she hadn't gotten around to finding a new one for the fall term yet, so she had the apartment all to herself.

Someone knocked on the door. Looking through the peephole, she saw that it was Baljeet. He looked a bit more muscular than she remembered, like he'd been working out - go figure, given the company he'd been keeping recently.

She almost walked away and left him there, but there was always hope he'd changed his mind. Even so, she couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice as she opened the door and asked, "What do you want?"

"...never mind, this was a bad idea," he said, turning around and starting to walk away.

Ginger took a deep breath, let it out, and said, "Wait. I'm sorry. I should at least hear you out first. What's up?"

Baljeet turned and said, "I felt that I should let you know. I am going to be leaving. My father's visa is expiring, and it will take me months at least to get a new student visa, if I can get one at all."

"I'm sorry. That really sucks. Is there any way you can get them to let you stay while the visa gets processed?"

"The main one would be to marry a US citizen, which would obviate the visa, but..."

"What, Buford said no?" she said cattily.

"He would not count. Immigration only accepts heterosexual marriages for green card purposes."

Ginger's eyes narrowed. "Oh. Is that why you really came here, then?"

Baljeet hung his head. "Yes. But...it was a mistake, I can see that. I will say goodbye, and leave you with the knowledge that, by letting you go, I clearly made the wrong choice."

Ginger snorted. "Hah. That you did. Why don't you come inside, we'll talk about it."

"So what's Buford got to say about all this?" Ginger asked from her seat on the couch.

Baljeet, sitting across from her in the living room's sole armchair, said, "He told me not to come. Everybody got hurt too badly last time, and he did not want a repeat of that." Baljeet had wanted the Japanese girl from afar for many years, and in their junior year of high school, had found out the feeling was mutual; they'd started dating, which had been fine until Buford's unexpected confession six months later had caused Baljeet to suddenly have to balance two significant others. Late the previous summer, the balance had come crashing down.

She'd cut her black hair short since the break-up, but the rest of her was still the young woman he remembered - gorgeous teardrop-shaped face, slim build with just enough curve to make his eyes pop, brown eyes he felt he could drown in.

"Why did you choose him, and not me?" she asked.

"I did not. I could not choose, but you took that as choosing him. I loved you both, Ginger." He paused and looked her in the eye. "I still do."

Ginger closed her eyes and winced. "I know. I still love you too. Would I get all of you?"

Baljeet shook his head. "I can not offer that."

Ginger's head snapped up. "Why the hell not? Do you want to stay here or not?"

Baljeet stared at her. "I do want to stay here. All my friends are here. The people that I love are here. Both of you. I could say that I will leave Buford alone, but why should you believe me? I would not believe me. We both know that I have no willpower when it comes to him."

"I would believe you because I know you don't lie."

"You are correct, I do not. Part of that is not making promises I can not keep."

Ginger sighed. "So it all comes down to me again. Am I willing to take half of you, to keep all of you from getting shipped back to a home you hardly know?"

"That is, indeed, the crux of the problem."

She stared at the floor for a moment. "Damn you, Baljeet. How can you ask me this?"

He smiled thinly. "Desperation. Hope."

"How long do you have?"

"Three weeks."

Ginger shook her head. "I'm sorry. I can't."

Baljeet nodded and stood up. "Thank you for thinking about it. It was nice to see you again."

Ginger stared at her book, unable to focus on it.

She thought about the time she'd had with Baljeet - years of infatuation, even when her friends had wondered what she saw in the boy. The huge list she'd made of things she loved about him. The glorious six months together when she'd had him all to herself. Buford's confession of his own love for the Indian boy he'd tormented for years. Baljeet's decision that he would date both of them; he'd categorically refused to lie to her about it or hide it from anyone. A year of awkwardness, sharing her boyfriend with the former bully while the whispers of the whole high school followed them. And, finally, as they got ready for college, the decision that she couldn't take it anymore and needed to force the situation with an ultimatum: either Baljeet decided between them, or she was done.

He'd refused to choose, and she'd walked away from him.

She closed the book. She'd come close to running back to him several times over the past year. She'd frequently hoped he'd realize she was right and come groveling back to her. Instead, she got an offer: back the way it was, except with a marriage certificate. Did he mean that as a commitment, or just as a means of staying here with Buford?

If she said yes, she got to spend half her nights with Baljeet. She remembered the feeling of being with him; they'd been each other's first, shortly after he'd started seeing Buford, and he'd been an incredible lover. Not that she had anything to compare him against; after two first dates that had gone nowhere, she'd given up dating for the moment. But the sensations he'd drawn out of her body had been utterly fantastic.

The flip side was that she got to spend the other half of her nights listening to the man she loved, and the man he loved, being together. She might need earplugs.

Damn you, Baljeet. How can I tell you no? But how can I tell you yes?

She briefly wondered if she could use the leverage of the marriage and Baljeet's green card to force Buford out, but decided against it - Baljeet might go along with it, under duress, but he'd never forgive her for it. And, really, she'd never forgive herself for hurting him like that again.

If I'm going to do this, I need to go into it knowing that I'm stuck with Buford, possibly forever.

So help me, Baljeet's worth it. Even half of Baljeet is worth it.

She grabbed her phone and sent him a quick message.

I've been thinking. Bring Buford over, we'll talk. I might be willing to give it a shot.

Baljeet was back in the same chair as before, but Buford was sitting on the floor in front of him, leaning on the Indian man's legs protectively. She looked at the large man - what had been baby fat was now hard muscle, honed by exercise and his time on the hockey teams of Danville High and then Tri-State University. She could almost see what Baljeet saw in him, at least physically.

"I want him to stay," Buford said quietly in his raspy voice. Looking up at his boyfriend, he said, "I love my nerd. If letting him stay means I have to share him...I'm okay with that. I always have been."

Ginger closed her eyes. "I know. I'm the selfish bitch who wants him all to herself."

"I didn't say that," Buford responded defensively.

"Nobody has said that," Baljeet added. "I am flattered that you care about me that much. There is a part of me that truly wishes I could give you what you want. But I care too much about both of you to want to cast either of you aside."

Ginger nodded her head. "I know." She sighed. "I really do know. What I don't know, and need to, is this: what would this marriage be to you? Is this you really committing to me, to have and to hold, til death do us part? Or is this just a way to get a green card?"

"It is a real commitment, albeit not an exclusive one. I had always envisioned us getting to this point; we are just getting there sooner than I had anticipated," Baljeet said. "I suppose I should ask this explicitly, though." He stood; Buford leaned forward to let him past. He knelt in front of Ginger, took her hands in his own, and asked, "Ginger...will you marry me? Not just for immigration, but because I really, truly want to spend my life with you?"

Ginger felt her eyes starting to water. "Yes. Yes, I will, Baljeet." She pulled the young man up and kissed him. "With conditions."

Baljeet sat next to her on the couch. "What conditions?"

"I am not going to become Ginger Tjinder. That just sounds ridiculous. I'll go by Ginger Hirano-Tjinder; you don't have to take the hyphenated last name if you don't want to."

"I do not think I will, then, unless I can find a way to add in van Stomm, and that just gets awkward."

Ginger smiled in agreement. "That's fine. Living arrangements: I don't have another roommate lined up for next year, so you two can move in here. Buford takes the second bedroom. Baljeet gets to alternate between us, or we can work out another schedule as needed. Alternating probably works best, at least at first. We'll see how everyone's schedule works out once school starts again."

Baljeet and Buford both nodded agreement.

"Baljeet and I get a one-week honeymoon after the wedding. You've had him to yourself for almost a year, Buford; I'm just asking for a week. You can move in after the week is up, and that gives us two weeks before classes start."

Buford said, "I'm okay with that."

Baljeet said, "As am I. Anything else?"

Ginger said, "Yes. I need to call my parents and let them know we need to set up a wedding fast."