I've Been Asked To Say A Few Words
Acepilot

AN - Plot bunny, plain and simple. The Road series is starting up again, and the PK line is back and strong. I haven't abandoned the CA stories, don't worry. The blonde and the redhead will be back. But I'm getting back to basics - and loving it. Feedback would be, as ever, marvelous.

Disclaimer - The characters are all the property of KlaskyCsupo.

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So. Having dinner at an all-you-can-eat buffet in a city five hours away from home was not what I had planned for the day when I woke up. Attending a wedding was also not on the to-do list, and I wasn't expecting to see my brother for a couple of months yet. Not until Thanksgiving or so.

And, considering that I didn't have a boyfriend this morning, being engaged wasn't something I'd counted on either.

I've missed the times when the five of us would get together and have fun. Go out on the town. Go to the arcade, even hit a nightclub once or twice. Those years are long gone, but I can enjoy them again tonight. It may be almost one in the morning and we're only just now having dinner, and I might just have attended the most impromptu but possibly most romantic wedding ceremony that ever occurred, but it seems, in some ways, just like old times. Tommy and Lil may as well be sitting on the same chair. Chuckie is at ease - or as at-ease as he ever gets. In fact, he seems oddly more happy than I've ever seen him in my life.

The fact that he was just the best-man at his best friend's wedding might have something to do with that.

And Phil...

Phil is sitting opposite me. Phil has a glass of champagne in his hand and a broad smile on his face. Phil is in some kind of bizarre euphoria.

And I know why.

Phil keeps turning away from everyone else and looking at me with that impossibly-sweet grin of his. The one that's just for me.

I haven't seen that smile in months, and I've missed it.

Breaking up with him was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Our relationship was never conventional, it must be said. We never dated, not really. It was an exceptionally comfortable friendship. And one night, we were out with the gang. Tommy and Lil were lost in each other, Dil and Chuckie were talking about something. I dragged him out onto the dance floor, and we danced. And he kissed me. It wasn't even preceded by some kind of stammered confession. He just kissed me, and I kissed him back. It was as if everything had built up to that moment, and we both knew it had been coming. There was no need for words.

Due to that fairly unconventional beginning, our relationship was a bit messed up as well. Which resulted in it, inevitably, coming to an end. We never went out on dates, we never had romantic candlelit dinners. We never did anything couply, except for making out and...well, getting intimate.

He took me for granted. In all honesty, I took him a bit for granted as well. But it never seemed to bother him. It bothered me.
So, one day, I simply broke it off, storming out of his apartment. I left him lying on his couch, dazed and confused. And when he tried to work it out with me, I didn't answer his calls. My parents slammed the door in his face more than once.

Maybe I was a bit biased when I told them about how horribly he'd been treating me.

He's promised that he won't mistreat me again. He proposed to me. And I've got no idea whether he'll hurt me again, or if he means it. Or if he's just lonely.

But I'm willing to take his word for it.

I'm smiling at him as well.

He shakes his head at me, that incredible grin on his face, then he stands up, and taps on his glass with a fork.

God almighty. He's going to talk.

"It's at this point of the evening," he begins, and I know this is going to be worth the price of admission, "that the best man and the maid of honor make their speeches." He looks down, and bites his lip, almost sorrowfully.

What the hell is he up to?

"I didn't expect to be asked to be best man, I must admit, so I'm not disappointed. Chuckie and Tommy have been inseparable for almost two decades. And I know how much it meant to Chuckie to be the one to stand by Tommy when he finally made an honest woman out of Lil." He gave a small round of applause, which the rest of us immediately joined in on. My brother blushed the colour of his hair.

He's an old softy, is Chuck.

"However," Phil continued, in a loud and slightly hurt tone of voice, "I was a bit shattered that I didn't get any consideration from my sister to be Maid of Honour!"

That earned chuckles from the next table. It earned gales of laughter from everyone at ours.

"But -" he clicked his tongue and shook his head, his air of disappointment still fully in effect, "despite not being given any role in the wedding party, I have been asked to make this speech, on account of the fact that Chuckie still can't speak in front of big crowds."

He made a sweeping motion that encompassed our table.

Chuckie glared at him, but he was smirking at the same time, thus the effect was somewhat dulled.

"So." He begins walking around the table, wine glass in hand. He takes a small sip, and reaffirms, "So." He's now standing between me and Chuckie, facing Lil and Tommy in the opposite corner of the table. "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. About love, and about relationships." He starts pacing again. "You see, I used to think that love was something that came easily to people. That was just always there. But I don't think that anymore."

Though he's talking to everyone at the table, his eyes flitting everywhere, I know he's speaking to me and me alone.

"Now I know that love is something that has to be worked at, that love is something that you have to fight for. A god knows none of us has had an easy path on that front. Chuckie still calls us all monthly with his latest woeful relationship -" he pats Chuckie on the back as he passes him - "and you two, my friends -" he tipped his glass toward the recently married couple, "have had to fight tooth and nail to forge this relationship. So yeah, we've all known how much love can hurt, and how easily it can get messed around." He sighs, and looks contemplative for a second. "But you two have fought through all the hardships, all the pain. All the bad times, and the good. And you're a shining example of how we can fight on ourselves. Whenever we're having a tough time in love, we can all think of you guys, and how hard you worked at this. It doesn't come easily to anyone. You have to fight for it."

He lets his eyes scan the table, and I feel them come to rest directly on me. I meet his gaze and see nothing there but love and devotion.

"But the fight makes it all that much more beautiful."

I think I've stopped breathing.

"To Tommy and Lil - who taught us three miserable buggers how to love."

I raise my glass and tap it to Chuckies, and feel Tommy's hit mine, but my entire world is blurry.

Suddenly, I've got no doubts. No longer do I need his word for it. Whatever it was he didn't get before, he sure as hell gets it now.

I look at him once more, and it's as if I'm seeing him again for the first time.

He's never looked so handsome, and I've never wanted to hold him, or kiss him, or make love to him the way I do now.

I love him. It wasn't easy. We've had our hardships. We've had our pain.

But it's all made it that bit more beautiful.

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