Seven Keys
Chandler and Monica look at their wedding photos some years on – pointless fluff, really, but you know you all love it deep down. I'm sorry for the lack of updates on my other stories – you can blame my muse.
I have a particularly unhelpful muse – it keeps appearing to me in the middle of the night, which is all very well and good, but means that when I write down my ideas, I can't see the page for all the darkness and stuff. So, in the morning, I awake to a scribbled mess of illegible notes which aren't any good to anyone. Gah. But, anyway. Story!
Best accompanied by Aqualung's '7 Keys'.
Disclaimer: Alas, not mine. Pity.
It wasn't open;
but somehow you let yourself in.
Closed off and broken,
I never wanted to go there again.
"Happy Anniversary, Bing."
"Right back at you, Geller," he replies, draping an arm around her chest. "Hey – you feel like... celebrating?"
"Sure!" She leaps to her feet. "We can get out the wedding photos!"
"Not what I had in mind..." he mutters, dropping to his knees on the floor. "But, hey. Photos. Photos are..." he pauses, and continues through gritted teeth, "...fun."
Chandler stood at the altar, trying desperately to fill his mind with some sort of comforting joke which might, somehow, help to distract him from what he was feeling at that moment. Which was fear. Intense, terrifying, desperate fear (and not the good kind). Forcing a smile at the wedding congregation (why were they all looking at him anyway?), he realised with a jolt that, if he tried to move even a centimetre, he would fall flat on his face. What a dignified start to married life that would be.
He adjusted his tie self-consciously, suddenly painfully aware of his heartbeat and wishing that something would happen – something, anything – any sort of distraction.
And then she was there – she was there, at the end of the aisle, and all the clichés in the world suddenly made sense to him, and nothing else mattered. Nothing else mattered but her eyes and her smile and her. Her. This was it.
I wasn't waiting,
but you came at just the right time.
Weary and wasted,
I never knew I could feel so alive.
"You were scared," she teases, leaning on his shoulder and letting the photo fall lightly to the floor (an achievement for Chandler – it had taken years of training for him to be able to encourage such blatant untidiness in her).
"Of course I was!" he laughs, lightly brushing a hair from her cheek. "I was marrying the most beautiful woman in the world!" He pulls a face. "Anyway, you can talk..."
"Chandler, honey," she says slowly, flashing him a grin. "I was way too worried about what might go wrong at the actual wedding to even consider that I was marrying the most beautiful woman –" (he flinches) "-man..."
He winces slightly, before shrugging. "It's okay – let's just say you're not the first to make that mistake..."
"Chandler?"
"Yep?"
"Change the subject before I file for divorce."
"What I meant was whether you were scared of marrying the sexiest guy in the Universe," he asks, grinning lopsidedly. "As you know."
She frowns slightly. "Y'know, I think I'd remember marrying Brad Pitt... how come no one's ever mentioned this to me before?"
Chandler smirks. "I drugged him, locked him in the basement, and took his place at the altar. Your parents weren't too impressed – they were expecting attractive grandchildren – but, hey! Did you really expect a guy like me to get a girl like you by conventional methods?"
She frowns slightly.
"What?"
"Nothing... I just never knew that you had a basement..."
He flicks her half-heartedly with his thumb and forefinger. "That was the moment when you were meant to tell me how gorgeous I am, by the way," he mutters, mock-solemn.
She wraps her arms around his neck. "I love you..."
"Yeah..." he shrugs, "I guess that could work too."
"Seriously."
"I know – you made that pretty damn clear on our wedding night... if you know what I mean."
"Oh, I know - trust me, I always, always know. I only wish I'd known on that night that your performance then was as good as it was going to get – we could have got our marriage annulled there and then and saved years of disappointment."
"Hey!" he cries, wounded. "I have my moments! But I'm getting older, Mon – you can't expect me to be active and... y'know... awake... all the time!"
She sniffs. "Once a month isn't really that much to ask for, Chandler."
"Well, excuse me for needing my beauty sleep!" He sniffs indignantly. "Anyway, we got sidetracked."
"Yeah – you're right."
"I get to be right tonight?" he asks incredulously, and hurriedly changes the subject as she glares at him. "Uh – so – anyway... you were telling me how hot I am."
"Shut up and look at the wedding photos!" she barks.
"Yes, ma'am!"
Darling, believe;
You're closer than anyone has even been.
Oh baby, don't leave me alone;
I'm yours for eternity.
You hold the seven keys to my soul.
They turned to each other, their gazes entwined.
"I love you," he murmured into her ear, almost inaudibly – scared that she could sense his fear – that she might realise that he was nothing special, and turn and run. Of all the uncertainty in his life, this was the one thing that he was assured about – this was right; this worked.
"You still want to marry me, then?" she whispered in reply.
"Sure I do. Who wouldn't want to marry someone this beautiful?"
"You wait 'til I'm old and ugly and..." (she shuddered slightly) "...fat."
He laughed – a nervous cackle, which caused the first row of the congregation to stare at him in distaste. "We'll reconsider our options when we get to that point."
"And now?"
"Now? Now, I want you to shut up and marry me already."
Feel so connected;
like I've know you all along.
I never expected
to fall into loving so deep;
so deep and so strong.
"Y'think it's time to reconsider our options?" he asks her, grinning. She glares at him, and pulls away slightly, and so he stumbles on. "I – I didn't mean that you were... fat... or ugly, or anything. I was just... y'know..."
"Stop talking. Don't ruin the moment." She pauses, and, after a moment, murmurs into his neck, "It was a great day."
"It still is."
Written for the Fanfiction contest at Merge!