"We're getting married today."

"Today."

Michael looked at his husband-to-be, smiling so hard his face hurt. "We're getting married. Right now."

Mary interjected by pulling on his arm. "Not right now. Soon. You need to change first."

"Change. Right. I'll see you soon?" If he smiled any harder, something was going to fall off or something.

Suzanne took Carlito back, promising that he would see his geges in just a few minutes. Michael let his mom guide him to a suite where Wèi WúXiàn's wedding robes were hanging. Once he was alone with the men, he ran a finger along a sleeve. "Sheng Lin," he choked. "How… I mean… how?"

Sheng Lin did a little shuffle thing with his feet. "When your mothers got serious about planning the wedding, I asked someone back in China to get them and have them cleaned and repaired if necessary." He gave a quick glance around the room at the people who might not know about the reincarnation. "We have a tuxedo for you somewhere in here, if you'd rather."

"No." Michael's tone was very firm and determined. "I love these. I… thank you. They're perfect."

Sheng Lin looked slightly apologetic. "I hope you don't mind that we raided your apartment a few days ago to find your other set of wedding rings."

Matthew laughed. "Did you find anything interesting? Spill!"

Michael stuck his tongue out at his twin. "There's nothing interesting to find."

Matthew leaned in to whisper, "Do you mean that if I search your room I won't find any other rings there? Perhaps for a more… prominent appendage?" At Michael's glare, Matthew leaned away again and shrugged. "Not my fault if yours isn't so prominent…. I suppose it's because you haven't had a bachelor's party. So no one's got you sexy gifts yet….. Don't worry. If you need fancy lingerie, I know a place online that sells it for men."

Michael smiled sweetly and raised a single finger at his younger brother at that comment. "I'll leave you to your male lingerie."

"Enough!" Charles ordered. "Thank goodness the child isn't here. He's too young to hear about lacy male underwear and appendages. And so am I!" Matthew looked like he really wanted to say something about that. But, wisely, simply closed his mouth.

Michael stood still and allowed Sheng Lin to dress him. A light silk shirt against his skin. A diaphanous robe went on top of that to whisper against his trousers. Then a sturdier layer of silk with minimal embroidery around the hems. Then two more layers, each with increasing amounts of embroidery. And a final layer, much stiffer than the rest, made out of a heavier silk and real gold thread. A sash wrapped around his waist and a tassel attached. The tassel was different from the one Wèi WúXiàn had worn at his wedding. This one contained the token to get through the wards at Sanctuary. And finally, a headband in black embossed with the Yiling mountains.

The soul inside him, the piece that was Wèi WúXiàn, felt… somehow complete. Like Dr Michael Gabriel Wu was simply another name. Wèi Yīng. Yílíng Lǎozǔ. Michael Wu. Wèi WúXiàn. The same man regardless of body, regardless of what he was called. And he was about to marry the love of every one of his lifetimes, his soulmate.

It was good.

Matthew nudged Sheng Lin. "You've got some serious contacts back in China, huh? I've never seen wedding robes like these. Not even in pictures of royals."

"Not royals,' Sheng Lin shook his head. "One of the original founders of the QiShanWen Sect, Lán Sīzhuī, was originally a Wen who was orphaned at a very young age. He was then cared for by one man, Wèi WúXiàn, who was killed shortly after. Then he was adopted by a second man, Lán Wàngjī. In those days, parents would take in foster children similar to what is done here with Carlito. In those days, to adopt a child, to change his surname, to actually include him on the family rolls, was not usual. Years later Wèi WúXiàn was brought back to life and eventually he and Lán Wàngjī married. These are Wèi WúXiàn's wedding robes. Ming Lim has been offered the use of the Lán wedding robes. Although the robes Lán Wàngjī wore were destroyed in a fire. So he's been offered the robes Lán Wàngjī's nephews wore to their weddings."

Matthew snorted. "I'll believe your Sect kept the robes for all these years. But dead people returning to life?" he snorted again. "Tell me another one."

Sheng Lin remained serene in the face of such disbelief. "Two years ago you knew magic was fake." He waved his hand and a ball of blue light appeared to hover over his palm. "Today, you've seen that magic is real, that fae creatures are real, that the dead can walk. And yet you still think dead means dead? Resurrection was not limited to that Jesus of Nazareth person, you know. All major ancient cultures knew of the dead rising and returning to life."

"Wait a sec. Wait, hold on a freaking moment." Matthew's hands clenched and his face twisted as he tried to process what he'd just been told. "Wèi WúXiàn? Lán Wàngjī? Jié watches some TV show with those dudes' names…."

"Yes," Michael interjected. "There's a book and a couple of shows about those dudes' lives. Can we have this conversation later? Like next year later? I've kinda got somewhere to be…."

Michael's knees felt quite weak watching Ming Lim enter the ballroom. "God, you're gorgeous," he whispered. As much as he felt reunited with Wèi WúXiàn, it appeared that Ming Lim was also connected to Lán Wàngjī; two sets of minds, two souls, one deep and everlasting love.

"Bow to the heavens and the earth!" the officiant cried out. Together Michael and Ming Lim knelt and prostrated, minds empty of everything but the simple and overflowing joy of being joined.

"Rise!" The officiant waited until the two were standing again. "Bow to the ancestors!" Together Michael and Ming Lim knelt and prostrated towards a table full of pictures. Grandparents, great-grandparents and aunts, uncles, cousins, who had passed before them. They had done this in a previous life, too, bowed towards funeral plaques with their parents' names engraved, the varnish still sticky on Wèi Chángzé's and Cángsè Sànrén's.

"Rise!" There was magic in the ceremony even if the officiant was a mundane. Michael could feel the connection between his Core and Ming Lim's growing stronger, studier, fully binding them to each other. "Bow to each other!" The boys turned and prostrated once more, feeling the weight of marriage as something spiritual and physical as well as emotional and legal. The Christian churches almost had it right when their preachers called it the 'holy state of matrimony'. Not holy as in god-given, though. Holy as in spiritually divine.

"Rise!" Their bond was full to bursting. Michael finally glimpsed what it meant when the books said it was possible to cultivate to immortality. Had Wèi WúXiàn not given his Core to Jiāng Chéng, it was quite possible he and Lán Wàngjī would have achieved that. He glimpsed what was possible. If they wanted it.

Forever could really mean forever. No more death. No more rebirth.

The officiant was smiling, "In the Chinese tradition, this is it. For the state of New Hampshire, there needs to be a bit more. Do you have rings to exchange?"

"Yes," Michael smiled. "Carlito?"

The toddler clutched the pillow to his chest. "Zanne said I get to be the ring bearer."

"Yes, sweetie," she smiled apologetically. "Now it's time to give the rings to your geges so they can wear them."

"You said they were mine to carry! So I get to carry them!"

"It's all right," Ming Lim laughed. "We can do the rings later." He smiled into his husband's eyes. "We have the rest of our lives to wear them. I can wait."

"OK, then!" The officiant boomed. "Do you have vows you'd like to say to each other?"

Ming Lim took Michael's hands in his. Without planning, in Chinese they both said, "For the rest of all of our lives and for the eternity to follow. A thousand lifetimes with you will not be long enough."

"Then by the power invested in me by the state of New Hampshire, I now pronounce you husbands. You may kiss your groom." They kept it socially polite, no tongues, no pressing their bodies together as they both wished. There would be time for that later.

To continue with the Chinese portion of the ceremony, both boys knelt before their parents and poured tea. They made the appropriate social niceties. Eleanor gave them a pair of scissors and an embroidered pouch; each boy cut a lock of hair and placed them inside.

They were whisked away for a few formal photos and then reentered the ballroom to find an overabundance of food and drink.

There was a table set for presents or red envelopes; the absolute best present came from Carlito's case worker. "You're approved for supervised visitations," Timothy offered. "After a few weeks, we'll revisit to determine whether unsupervised visits are acceptable. Show me you have a home prepared for the three of you, and we'll most likely approve you as foster parents. The rest of your background check came back clean. There were a few… interesting… occurrences on yours, Dr. Wu. Between you, me and the wall? I heartily approve of how you handled those… occurrences. As Carlito's case worker, I must state that I hope they are never repeated."

Michael shrugged playfully. "It's not like I asked for someone to try to beat me up or anything." Then he sobered. "We're going to get custody, then?"

"Show me you have a home suitable for a toddler. Then we can talk about custody. The burden for foster parents or adoptive parents is much larger than the burden for people who just have children the old fashioned way. You have to demonstrate that you're capable of caring for this child before we'll let you have him."

The Chairman invited himself into the conversation. "They have a house. Or, they will next month." To Ming Lim he added, "Your mother and I bought you a home in… some town outside of Boston. New Town? Something like that. It's your wedding present. The paperwork is back in our hotel room. Three bedrooms, a small yard."

"You bought us a house?"

"If you don't like it, you can sell it later and buy something more to your taste. We wanted to make sure you had a home for my grandchild."

Ming Lim was torn. "He's not biologically mine, you know that, right?"

The Chairman straightened to his full height. "I asked you for a grandchild. I'd prefer one of my blood. Maybe you'll get around to hiring a surrogate once things have calmed down a bit." Then he caught sight of Carlito, hyped on too much sugar, trying to do cartwheels with his tuxedo shirt completely untucked. The cloth fell into his face as he started to go upside down and he'd fall to the floor to brush it away. Suzanne was obviously exasperated; the Chairman's huge smile said he found the child's antics amusing rather than disrespectful. "I think this one is good, though." He turned a stern face to his son. "Bring him to China next summer. I have rivals who will be most envious to see that I already have a son who is married and a father."

Michael blinked at his husband, repressing the urge to say something that would most definitely be rude. Carlito was a child, not a thing to be shown off. However, his father-in-law accepting that Carlito was going to be his grandchild was huge.

His father-in-law accepting his son was married to a man was huge.

He'd have to simply mark this as a win and leave the headache of taking a toddler, who might not even be legally his at that point, halfway around the world for another day.

Spying the ring pillow discarded and forgotten, Michael swooped over to pull the rings off of it. Smiling like an idiot, he slid a ring onto Ming Lim's bare ring finger. "With this ring, I thee wed."

Ming Lim shoved the matching ring onto Michael's finger and pulled him close. "Mine." This kiss was not polite. It was tongue and teeth and pulling on clothing trying to get even one millimeter closer to the other person. It was dirty and graphic and both boys had to wipe their chins of saliva when it was over. "I want you."

Michael cuddled Ming Lim close, trying to ignore the catcalls and wolf whistles calling for more. "Soon. I want you to fuck my brains out. And then we can rest for a bit, and I'll fuck your brains out. I want you to shove yourself so deep in me, I'll be able to taste your cum."

Ming Lin chuckled at that. "I can just fuck your mouth, then. We can sixty-nine each other, and I can use spiritual energy to fuck your ass. How big do you want it? Longer than me? Fatter than me? Skinny so I can just tease you with it until you're ready to scream? Just fuck you for hours but barely touch your prostate?"

Michael whimpered. "Don't tease me here. I'm going to cum in my trousers."

Ming Lim pulled his husband even closer. "Two years ago today might have been the worst day of my life. Last year tonight, I thought was the absolute best day of my life. Turns out, today is the absolute best day. Nothing will ever top the day you became mine. I love you so much, Doctor Michael Gabriel Wu-Ming."

Michael wiggled back from the embrace. "We are not combining last names like that. Doctor Without A Name. Doctor Nameless? Sounds like a Bond villain. WuMing. You might as well call me The Doctor."

Ming Lim smiled cheekily. "Ming Xiānshēng demands Wu Bóshì give him a kiss to tide him over until he can get Dr. Wu naked."

"Wu Bóshì agrees to Ming Xiānshēng's most reasonable demand." This kiss was far less pornographic, although just as needy.

Waiting for the 'get naked' part of being married seemed to take forever. The ballroom was reserved until three, and the parents simply moved the important people from there to one of the suites. Mary insisted on holding Christmas Eve traditions in the hotel; she'd baked cookies the day before. Cookies for dinner, books for a present, and a classic Christmas movie.

After the movie was over, Michael excused himself and his husband, promising to see everyone in the morning. Amid catcalls for kisses and cheeky reminders to be nice to the guests trying to sleep in the surrounding rooms, they left.

Getting naked took far less time than it did to get dressed. "Do you remember the first time we did this? Our very first time?"

Michael smiled. "I remember a few of our first times. I was so nervous and scared, and I wanted to please you so much."

"I only remember two."

Michael nodded. "The others are fuzzy. Barely real memories. One thing I know about each and every time? You loved me so much. Like I loved you. Like I still love you. Being together just… made our love for each other so much stronger. In every memory, I wanted to feel you moving in me. Loving me."

Ming Lim lay down on the bed. "Come here, Husband. Let me love you." Michael joined him, pressing small kisses to any patch of bare skin he could reach. "I wanted you, too. So much. For so long. I loved you for so long in agonizing silence."

"No need for silence anymore. I'm here. I'm yours. Love me." Michael allowed Ming Lim to move him around to gain access to every part of his body. Fever ignited in his blood with the first press of a finger opening him up. "Fuck me," he begged. "Don't be gentle. I need you. Now, please."

Ming Lim bit a pectoral muscle in response and slid a second finger next to the first. "I'm going to take my sweet time, lover. I'm going to take you apart all night long." He curled his fingers up to press against the prostate gland. "I want you to cum just from my fingers. Can you do that for me?"

Michael shook his head. "No. I want your cock. Need you. Need you inside me. I'll cum all over your big cock. Just fuck me already."

"No," was not the answer Michael wanted to hear.

He flipped them, sliding in between his husband's legs and grabbing the lube. "Then I'll fuck you first." He slid his finger slowly into Ming Lim's hole. "Open for me."

Ming Lim groaned at the sensations. He was used to this now, the feeling of being penetrated. He reached out to pull Michael's head down for a searching kiss as a second finger scissored his ass open. "Fuck me," he whispered. "I want you in me."

Michael lowered his head to nip at the vulnerable adam's apple. "You're not ready yet."

"I'm ready. I want you. I want to feel the burn as you come in me." The dick head pushing its way into his not fully stretched ass did burn. It was just shy of painful, though. He spread his thighs wider, raised his hips, encouraging Michael to sink in deeper. He suddenly realized he was praying out loud, "Fuck, yes. Fuck, yes."

Michael, as deep as he could get in this position, groaned his satisfaction. "You feel so good around me." He shifted a bit so he could hold onto Ming Lim's hands on either side of the older boy's head. "Mine."

"Mine," Ming Lim agreed. "Yours." Michael started moving, eyes closed as he reached for ecstasy. Ming Lim let go, let his body accept the object battering away at his insides, sliding against his pleasure gland, leading him higher and higher until he could hardly breathe, till nothing mattered but reaching for his orgasm, feeling his muscles spasming over and over, the hot fluid splashing onto his belly. Feeling his husband's body jerking on top of him, inside of him, feeling cum filling him up.

This was perfection. Hazy from pleasure, feeling their bond pulsing with the beating of their hearts. "Wǒ ài nǐ."