Chapter 2

"David?"

"Yes, mother?"

"They're ready for you."

"Yes, mother. Give me two minutes."

"Okay, hurry up."

Mrs. Karofsky turned away from the bathroom door and David heaved a deep sigh. He splashed water over his face and patted it dry, straightened his bow-tie, adjusted his pocket-square, fiddled with the flower on his lapel... Finally, when he could put it off no more, he looked himself over one last time and stepped away from the sink. He took a deep breath and twisted the doorknob.

He felt like a damned man walking towards the gallows.


To say that Dave Karofsky was nervous would be a massive understatement.

It had been almost a month since his engagement, and the subsequent weeks had done nothing to invalidate his misgivings. It wasn't that he had a problem with the bride-groom. In fact, if anything good had come of this shindig, it was that he was engaged to someone who was way out of his league. That is, Dave was not an insecure person, but he was realistic, and he knew that without familial interference he would never have scored someone as gorgeous as Blaine.

Well.

That.

Technically, Dave knew he was not supposed to see his fiancé until the actual wedding, but patience had never been one of Dave's virtues. And while he had complete and utter faith in his mother's choice, he also did not want to be blindsided on his wedding day.

So, like a super-smooth super genius that he was, he had invited Cooper out for drinks and swiped his phone when the idiot went to the washroom, and...

And.

Blaine... was beautiful. No, he was simply GORGEOUS! Dave had got an inkling of it during their meetings, but thanks to that ridiculous veil, he hadn't realized just how BEAUTIFUL his future husband actually was. He was actually glad that he hadn't waited till his wedding to see him, because one look at that face without any warning and Dave would've swooned like a maudlin damsel.

No. The problem was not the groom, the problem was everything else.

This whole circus that was supposed to be his wedding day had gotten out of hand and, to Dave, it had started feeling like this whole thing was around him, instead of about him. Between his mother and Mrs. Anderson (who incidentally was called Pam – Pam Anderson; no relation to the fellow plastic Vegan, Pamela Anderson), Dave had started feeling like nothing but a glorified prop. The only opinion he had been called to give was on the cake and, even then, they had gone with some coconut-pineapple-orange thing rather than the simple chocolate-vanilla he had loved.

He had been forced to live in a hotel for a week while they renovated his house. His bed, wardrobe, sofa had all been thrown away to make space for the bigger, costlier versions suitable for a married couple. His furniture - hand-picked carefully in flea-markets and bargain sales, which with its own set of memories – had been replaced by the sleek modern variety; his walls were stripped of their loving pictures and posters to make room for the pretentious "Modern Art" that came highly recommended by the latest "Decorator of the Year". For some reason, there was now a big-ass Rainbow flag over his fireplace, because that was perfectly normal and not at all cringeworthy. They had even replaced his fucking toilet, for Christ's sake. It was so new and so white that Dave had actually thought twice before using it.

And that was the problem, wasn't it? Blaine came from this world; this modern, ultra-chic, pretentious world. Dave didn't pretend that his family had been loving and warm, but neither had it been this sterile. All he knew about his fiancé was that he was good-looking, a good-cook and "any man would be lucky to have him as his husband". He had no idea what Blaine's favorite color was, neither his favorite movie…

Hell, he didn't even know if Blaine wanted to be married to him in the first place. His parents had liked Dave because he was well-settled man with a decent job and his own house, but he had no idea if Blaine even wanted any of it. Had he really liked Dave, or was he just too polite to go against his parents? Would Dave be happy being married to someone who didn't want to be married to him? Sure, they could always divorce, but one of the major drawbacks of arranged-marriages was that you couldn't end it without disappointing, well, almost everyone in your life.

And that. That terrified him. That he would be stuck in a loveless marriage with an equally reluctant person, because their parents had made a mistake. Maybe it would have been better if he had put his foot down, like he had planned to.

Of course, like with everything else in his life, Dave arrived at this conclusion a bit too late. Cancelling the wedding now would only mean that everyone would fault Blaine – Dave was the "man", he was relatively safe – and Dave was not that selfish.

Maybe, he finally decided, he would give this marriage a try, if not for his own sake, then Blaine's.


A/N: Okay, so this chapter was supposed to be longer, complete with the wedding ceremony. But I'm running in circles, writing myself in corners, about it. But since this story is about what happens after the wedding, I've decided to post this as it is instead of letting it fester and give up on the entire thing (which is really my problem, if you're familiar with all my abandoned WIPs)... I might come back and write the ceremony if I get down to it. Until, then...

Next Chapter, THE WEDDING NIGHT.

P.S. Please leave reviews... I would really love to hear from/ commiserate with the fellow Bearcubbers/Blainofsky shippers.