A/N-sequel to people see you differently behind a mask
Twenty-two years ago, when she was 13, Buffy Driscoll-Compsen would have never thought that she would end up here. Watching her 5 children playing with her husband, her best friend, her worst enemy. Martin Compsen.
Buffy twisted one of her long, dark curls around her finger. Her hair hung down her back, a sheer white veil connecting with a string of false white flowers to the back of her hair. She wore highlighting makeup, had white rose studs in her ears , and a choker of pearls around her neck. Her heels were a pretty white, with lace on the toe and the heel. And her dress! Over the silky fabric was a layer of flowered lace on the torso and the thick shoulder straps. The flowered lace pattern spilled out cautiously onto the sheer-and-opaque layered silk skirt. Bex had helped her with the makeup, and Andi with the outfit. Both had outdone themselves.
The music began as 24-year old Buffy Driscoll stepped out into the aisle, arm-in-arm with her father, a multicolored bouquet of roses in her arm. Her soon-to-be-husband, Marty seemed to have suddenly forgotten how to breath. Buffy smirked at him, and he smirked back. She reached the end of the aisle, and took her fiance's hands. The music stopped and the pastor began a sermon that Buffy tuned out completely, focused only on him.
"Now, it is my understanding that the couple has written their own vows?"
Marty nodded, pulling a piece of paper from his jacket pocket. "Buffy Leigh Driscoll," he began, "the moment I met you, at our first conversation, all I could think about was how alike we were. And every conversation after that only reinforced that. Buffy, many times you have asked me when I realized I loved you. And the honest answer is-I have no idea. But I know, standing here now, that I love you, more than life itself, and all I want in the world is to spend the rest of my life with you, whether we are poor or rich, sick or healthy, depressed or content, or even thousands of miles away, I will never stop loving you."
Buffy smiled, and he smirked back, as though challenging her to do better. "Marty Compsen, you are amazing. You were the first person to ever really understand me, to ever really get why I was so competitive, why I was the way I was, and didn't try to change it. But at the same time, you did. You made me a better person. And once I realized that, I realized something else: I can't live without you. You are my sun, and my moon, and my stars. You are my food, my drink, my shelter. Mr. Party," he smiled at those words, showing his dimples, "you are my soulmate. You are mea perfectus est, or mon parfait, or mi perfecta. Any language, any tone, it means the same thing. You, Martin Compsen, are my perfect one. And I swear to love you forever."
The rings were exchanged. "You may now kiss the bride!" The pastor called. And he did. Gently, sweetly, our lips met, even though it was cliche, there was no other way to describe the feeling he stirred in my chest: like fireworks were going off.
Molly and Macey, the 10 year old twins laughed as they jumped for their favorite doll, which Marty held in the air, a teasing smirk on his face. 6 year old Arianna shrieked as she chased her 5 year old brother Lukas around the living room, and 6 month old Jaden, Buffy's youngest daughter, clapped from the floor.
Buffy placed her hand on her stomach, and smiled thinking of the boy, named Hunter, who would be joining them in a couple of months.
Her eyes met her husbands' across the room, and they both smiled. Instantly, all was right in the world.
