Dance at my wedding

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Note: I watched "Touch move" last Saturday and had to write this. For you this means two things. 1. I live in a country where "Touch move" aired last Saturday. This is not a country where English is being spoken, so it's not my first language and you'll have to excuse the mistakes. 2. I haven't watched anything after "Touch move". I'm spoiled (thanks to the WWW) but I haven't watched anything. This might cause some inaccuracies. Sorry. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Preparations

When Kevin Girardi woke up in the morning, he knew that this day was a special one, that something out of the ordinary was going to happen today. Only a second later all memories came rushing back and he remembered what caused the butterflies in his stomach. He was going to get married today.

His fiancée Siv had decided to spend the night at her parents' house so he wouldn't get to see here before the ceremony. Yawning and stretching he decided that it was time to get up and get dressed. About half an hour later he left the bathroom, only clad in a white t-shirt and boxer briefs.

"Morning!" he heard from the kitchen. "You want breakfast?"

The voice belonged to Joan and he knew that she had come so he wouldn't have to face the rest of the morning alone. He smiled, knowing that she must have been almost as excited as he himself, 'cause otherwise she wouldn't have been here by now.

"Sure," he said, entering the kitchen and smiling at how his sister looked. Her hair was already styled elegantly and she'd already applied a subtle make-up, but she was still wearing blue-jeans and a gray hooded sweater which gave her a weird over-all look.

She came to hug him before she returned to the stove. "Pancakes okay?" she asked.

"Look, Joan…" he began, but she interrupted him.

"I know. I don't have to do this, you could ask Luke, blah blah blah. Will you stop talking about this? I feel honored you asked me to be your best man, even though I'm not going to be so much a man that I'll attend your wedding in pants." She grinned, thinking about the many jokes they'd made about her being Kevin's best-man. Someone had started with it and they hadn't stopped calling her "best-man". Joan continued, "I consider it my sisterly and best-man's duty to make sure you eat something for breakfast and that you'll appear on time and fully clothed at church. Is that understood?" She looked down at her brother who uncomfortably shifted in his chair.

"Yes Ma'am," he replied teasingly. "Any more duties before breakfast is served?"

Joan smiled. "No. I'll even allow you to have breakfast in your underwear if you promise you'll put on some other briefs for you wedding."

Kevin looked down and tried to figure out what was wrong with the shorts he was wearing.

"Gee, Kev, don't you think Siv has some hopes and dreams about her wedding night and that maybe these dreams don't include her groom wearing Donald Duck pants? And don't try to tell me that they're sooo comfy, because I know that you don't feel the difference anyway."

Kevin wordlessly swiveled his chair around and disappeared through the kitchen door.

For a moment Joan asked herself if it had been a good idea to tease him like this, that maybe his self-confidence had been shattered again like it had been so many times in the past, but considering that as many times as he'd been beaten down she'd seen him stand up again, she shrugged it off. Well, not literally stand up, of course, but he was like those dolls that come back up every time you push them down. So she shrugged again, thinking that he'd survive it and continued making breakfast.

A minute later Kevin reappeared in the door frame, his lap full of boxer briefs and his face grinning widely.

"Have a pick," he told her. "That's all I can offer."

Joan laughed, seeing him behind the pile of shorts. She put the pancakes on a plate and the plate on the table before checking the assortment he'd brought. Unerringly she picked a silken pair of pants in a dark shade of blue. "Wear these!" she told him. "But now let's eat."

He grinned, knowing that Joan was right. Even though he'd been living with Siv for the last two years and even though the magic of their first night together had been lost about three years ago, he knew that Siv had the same dreams about her wedding every girl seemed to have. She wanted it to be special, wanted to surprise him with the dress and wanted the wedding night to be unforgettable.

Siv… They had got to known each other at work. More or less. Kevin had interviewed her for a series he was writing about young and talented authors and since her debut feature had been extremely successful, she'd been his first choice. She turned out not only to be successful, but also incredibly clever and beautiful. So beautiful that he'd been too shy to ask her out.

Things had become a lot easier for him by then, he'd started to flirt and go out again, but not with high-class girls like Siv. He'd never gone out with a girl like her. Lucky him she had given him a signed copy of her book that didn't only held her signature, but also her telephone number and two more words. "Call me!"

He'd thought about it for two days, picking up the phone and starting to pinch in the numbers, but then hanging up again until he was finally brave enough to wait until the line was answered. Things evolved from there. They went out, had dinner together, went to the movies or the theater, all the regular stuff.

At first he'd thought that she was doing it out of pity or other weird reasons, but time passed and she was still there, not out of pity or weirdness, but because she really liked him. It took him some time to accept that, but when they had been for a walk after a romantic dinner in a cozy restaurant and ended up making out at the riverfront, she became what he'd wanted her to be when first meeting her for that interview. His girlfriend. Their first night together was just the next step to take and the memory of it plastered a stupid grin on his face.

Joan of course saw it and had to comment on in. "I guess I don't want to know what you're thinking about, right?"

Kevin shrugged. "Maybe. Are there any more changes to my clothing right now?"

"Get that stuff back in the closet and start having breakfast. I really don't want you to be late."

He did what she told him and they chatted about today's agenda over breakfast.

After that Joan put the dishes into the dishwasher and followed Kevin into the bedroom. "You got all your stuff?" she asked.

"Yeah," he nodded and pointed towards the closet where his suit, shirt and tie were neatly hung out.

"You cleaned your shoes?" Joan continued asking.

Kevin sighed. "No, I didn't. But it's not as if I'd been walking on them a lot lately."

"That doesn't make a difference," Joan stated. "I'll get your shoes cleaned and then I'll get dressed in the bathroom."

"Okay," Kevin nodded. "I'll get dressed too."

After a quick look at Kevin's shoes Joan realized that he was right. The shoes had never been walked on and they looked brand-new even though she knew they weren't. She shrugged, but put shoe polish on them and polished them until they shined. Then she grabbed the bag with her clothes and disappeared in the bathroom.

While pulling off the sweater and the jeans, her eyes traveled over the stuff in the bathroom. A lot of it was Siv's, crèmes, make-up and perfume, nothing out of the ordinary. Kevin had proven to be a loyal customer, Joan realized when she saw that all the things he used were exactly the same brands he'd used when they'd both still lived with their parents and shared a bathroom. Today it seemed like a lifetime ago that they'd moved to Arcadia, because so much had changed since then, but it had only been about eight years since their move and only about six since Kevin had gotten himself an apartment of his own. At first she'd missed him terribly but when he'd given her a key to his flat, she'd started to appreciate the freedom it provided. Escaping home to hide out at Kevin's became a frequent activity of hers and for some strange reason everybody seemed to be fine with it. She loved to be away from home, her parents knew she was safe with her brother and Kevin enjoyed her company. Well, he did until he met Siv. But then she'd already graduated from High school, enrolled in College and moved to a small room on campus.

She'd finished putting on the dress she was going to wear to her brother's wedding and smiled at the appearance in the mirror. The dress was a dark shade of red and complimented her slim figure. Together with the hairdo it looked really sophisticated and Joan loved it. She'd just applied new lipstick when Kevin knocked at the door.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure," she shouted.

He opened the door and they looked at each other admiringly.

"You know," she said, looking at him in his dark suit that fit him so well, "If you weren't my brother I would think about blowing up this wedding. You look great."

He smiled. "Thanks. But you don't look too bad yourself. I really hope that Siv's dress is gorgeous. Isn't there some kind of rule that the bride's supposed to be the prettiest girl on the party?"

"She will be, don't worry. I've seen her dress and you will love it. … I'm almost done here, so if whatever you need isn't really urgent…"

"It isn't. Just need some styling gel but I guess that can wait another minute."

Styling gel. Joan smiled while he turned to leave. Getting his hair cut was one of the first changes caused by Siv. Before he wouldn't even have known what styling gel was.

Kevin in the hall stopped and looked back at her. "I have a question though…" he said grinningly. "Where are you going to put the rings?"

Joan grabbed a towel and threw it in his direction. "Ever heard of handbags, dumbass?"

Her brother dodged and the towel flew onto the floor. He shook his head laughingly and reached down to pick it up.

TBC