A/N: Just a short little story to celebrate the one year anniversary of Bly, based off a piece I had commissioned by rafidesousa, who you can find under than name on tumblr and instagram.
It is not a lavish affair.
There is serenity in simplicity and they were fortunate in that they both walked the less extravagant path in life. Had there been exceptions over the years? Of course. There had been an entire apartment filled with flowers one year - a bedroom decorated with ones that only bloomed at night - and an elaborately set up 'treasure hunt' that had ended with smooth skin and lace being uncovered instead of gold coins and jewels.
But those larger expenditures of work and wealth had, happily, been in the minority. They preferred the quieter side of celebrations. Small gatherings, if any at all, regardless of whether or not it was a birthday, holiday, anniversary.
And now, a wedding.
(Though, technically, it's both a wedding and an anniversary - their thirteenth, to be exact - thanks to fortuitously aligning days on the calendar.)
The venue is sprawling, green acres for miles and copses of ancient trees that might seem frightening if they weren't so whimsical. There's a large, ranch-style home on the property, lit up brightly against the encroaching shadows of night. From a distance it looks warm and inviting, but the house isn't for them.
The corner of the land they've rented is vacant with the exception of a few trees. The ground is flat and void of any rocks or roots that might cause someone to stumble. Perfect for setting up an arched arbour and fold-out chair, as well as the small canopy tent and a couple of tables that would house the food and drink. Both of which were, lovingly and at his own insistence, provided to them by Owen.
They have their own lights, webbed across two tall, white trellises placed on either side of the arbour, as well as around the canopy and an infinite length of extension cord runs all the way across the fields and into an outlet on the exterior of the house, affording them power. Music plays softly from the stereo system they'd brought from home.
A framed photograph of Hannah sits on a small, round table beside the arbour, her presence as real and solid as anything else.
The ceremony itself had been short, an exchange of words from the heart that had been spoken before, in one manner or another, but felt that much more somehow. The depth of them deepened, their meaning expanded.
Jamie had stood, more sure in that moment than in any that had come before it, dressed in dark blue and crisp white, and capped with suspenders and the flourish of a bowtie that had made the woman across from her laugh wetly, then reach forward to straighten it.
Jamie had stood, eyes bright with indescribable happiness and shimmering with tears that had gone unshed until she had started speaking.
Dani, brave and beautiful, clad in an iridescent pink dress that had been deemed 'hippy chic' during the short-lived search for a suitable outfit, the long sleeves and delicate frills making her look as though she should be twirling dreamily in the middle of a meadow.
Dani, who had cupped Jamie's face in her palms and wiped tears from her gardener's cheeks with the pads of her thumbs before kissing her.
Dani, who had kissed her first that night in the greenhouse all those years ago.
Who had kissed her first in front of the moonflowers.
Had first taken her hand in spite of being terrified.
They've loved each other for a decade and more - longer, in another life, another time - a once incomprehensible span of hours and months, now, doesn't seem like enough. Might never be, no matter if it's another ten or twenty years, or if those years stretch on into forever.
Because love, for all its complexities, is simple too, at the end of the day.
Simply is.
And so, hand in hand again, they'd step into their future together as they've done so many times before. Applause had been handed out, cheers and high-pitched, two-finger whistles ringing high over the din courtesy of Owen and three of their more boisterous friends. Seeds were scattered in lieu of rice or confetti, drinks dispersed along with heartfelt well-wishes, and though this changed nothing except on paper, it was quite something to celebrate this way with loved ones.
Evening bled into night, drinks imbibed and food eaten. Food that was praised enough, Jamie felt she ought to intervene.
"Oi! He's not gonna be able to get his head out this tent if you keep swelling it!"
Owen, cheeks rosy from his wine and smiling like nothing could crack his joyful mood, had gestured with good-natured rudeness and gone back to accepting compliments.
All if it has brought them here to this moment.
Jamie leans back against the drinks table and observes, the sleeves of her now lightly creased shirt rolled up past her elbows and an undone bow tie hanging loosely around her neck. She leans back, eyes catching Dani and holding fast, watching as she floats effortlessly between guests. Holding easy conversation with every person she encounters as she wanders with a kind of pleasant aimlessness, looking for Jamie in an entirely unhurried manner. Because she knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that she'll find her.
Every time.
One of their customer-turned-friends catches Dani by the elbow as she passes, halting her pursuit and saying something that immediately pulls a laugh from her. It's that sound more than anything, the undeniable gravitational pull of it, that has Jamie pushing off of the table and leaving the confines of the tent.
The closer she gets, the clearer Dani's voice becomes. She'd know the cadence of it anywhere and the aching familiarity brings a smile to her face.
Approaching from behind, Jamie waits until there's a pause in the conversation before derailing it entirely. She reaches an arm over Dani's shoulder and wraps it around her upper body, then slides her other arm around her waist to pull her close. Dani's hands curl around her forearms and she's beaming when she glances back at Jamie over her shoulder.
"Hey, I was looking for you," Dani says, her voice breathless in a way that has nothing to do with lacking air.
Jamie smiles, sly as ever, "I know."
"Watching me?" Dani tsks playfully and turns in Jamie's embrace, looping her arms around the brunette's middle.
Jamie hums, "Usually."
The way Dani looks at Jamie - has always looked at Jamie - is unlike anything Jamie has ever experienced. Women have looked at her with curiosity, disdain, and affection. She's had women leer at her, tear her clothes off with naught but a once-over, but no one has ever looked at her the way Dani does.
Like she hung the sodding moon and all the stars in the sky.
And she doesn't know what she did to deserve being looked at that way by someone like Dani Clayton, but she stopped questioning it a long time ago.
Their hands slide and drift into place and then they're slowly moving to the music without registering that they've moved at all.
"Need something?" Jamie asks, nuzzling her nose into soft blonde tresses that are just barely streaked with grey; the polar opposite of her own hair, which seems to sprout new silver patches with each passing day.
"No," Dani lets out a happy little sigh, presses her hands flat against Jamie's back and tucks her thumbs under her suspenders. "Just missed you."
"Only gone ten minutes," Jamie chuckles, drops a smiling kiss against Dani's temple. "If you're one of them clingy lasses, I don't think this is going to work out."
Dani dips her head, pressing her face into Jamie's neck for a moment to smother her laugh.
"Right. I'm the clingy one."
"Oi, cheeky."
When Dani lifts her head again, there's a moment. One that bends time, holds its hands still so that everything stops, and all at once things become too loud and then suddenly there's silence. As though the rest of the world gave one last mighty yell before flickering out of existence. Leaving them alone.
Dani's looking at her in that way again, the way that quietens Jamie's soul. Her eyes, the left a matching blue to the right once more, say a thousand different things in a second and then she's leaning in to kiss Jamie.
The twinkling night sky and the beginnings of a small forest stand as their backdrop. Friends - family, really - play as the accents and finishing touches to the scene the two of them have set, swaying together alone on the evening of their wedding.
And just off-stage, a bright and shining future stretches out before them.