Little snippets of Bash and Kenna's respective last days before they're married with sibling teasing and sisterhood strengthening.
Mary giggles with her friends as they retouch their makeup, spray each other with perfume and fix their hairs in the restroom of the club they're in. It's an exclusive club, one of the country's best clubs and Kenna got them into the VIP area easily.
It's the one place nobody recognises them surprisingly and Mary can let her hair down and let loose. She's not particularly uptight or anything but she's not one to indulge in alcohol and parties and as her friends are either famous or socialites, she's got to humour them a few times.
"Have you and Bash put any rules in place?" Greer asks.
Kenna frowns a little. "Like what?"
"One last free one-night stand, flirting, kissing, whatever and then you're committed to each other," Greer states.
Lola gasps. "Greer!"
Kenna blushes, shrugging lightly. "Well, Bash and I used to be in an open relationship. I'm not bothered, Lola."
"Wait, what?" Mary asks, turning to her and pausing in her lipgloss retouch.
Kenna smirks. "Yeah. When we first got together, we saw other people. We only became exclusive when we told each other that we loved each other..."
"Awh, that's so sweet!" Lola coos. "But still disturbed by the fact that you guys had an open relationship."
Kenna waves it off dismissively. "We've done more than that anyway," she says cryptically.
"Wait, what?" Mary repeats and Kenna smirks, tapping her nose.
"A girl's got to keep her secrets," Kenna tells them as they groan.
"Can we guess at least?" Greer asks, fixing her top.
Kenna snorts. "If I tell you, would you all leave me alone about it forever?"
They nod and Kenna whispers it into their ears which makes all of them gasp and stare at her in disbelief. Mary's mortified, Lola's surprised and Greer's curious.
"So, how does that work?" Mary asks, blushing a deep red. "Like, which one...? Huh?"
Kenna lets out a breathy chuckle. "God, you're so innocent Mary. You have a lot to learn but, hey, you and Francis might be stable enough to never go for that."
"I'm not surprised at all," Lola eventually says. "I'm glad we didn't know Bash back then otherwise I couldn't look at him knowing what you've told me."
Kenna cackles. She looks in the mirror and blows a kiss to herself. Mary can only wish to have that much confidence and she laughs at her friend's antics, pulling all of their hands back out the restroom into the loud space.
...
"More."
"More?!" Francis cries out, looking at his brother in disbelief before retrieving his wallet. "Alright, who's with him?"
Leith and Julien raise their hands as Remy gags, covering his mouth. It makes Bash chuckle as he mutters, "lightweight," under his breath which receives a rude gesture in return.
As Francis gets up, he weaves through the crowd and reaches the bar, ordering four pints, a glass of water and eight shots. He looks around the full club and winces slightly when the music booms in his ears loudly, sending vibrations in his body with every move.
He's not one for clubs and nor is Mary and they both try and avoid loud parties as they are content with warm nights in with tea or ice cream or whatever. As long as they are home, in their pyjamas with Aspen and Netflix.
They must be the most boring young couple in the world because they already seem like an old married couple.
They've even got the bickering down whenever Francis falls asleep during a series and Mary complains when he starts asking questions after. To be honest, he just wants to hear her beautiful voice even if it's threatening to murder him for asking questions again and again.
Getting the drinks, Francis carefully returns to their booth and hands everyone their respective beverages. Remy gratefully downs half his water as Bash downs both his shots and gulps down half of his pint.
"Slow down!" Julien says with a grin. "Aren't you on pain meds?"
Bash shakes his head. "I deliberately didn't take them so we could go straight at it. If the girls are abroad partying it up, we can still have fun here. As long as we catch our flight to France on time."
"You mean the family jet?" Leith tells him knowingly.
"Jet, flight, they're all the same thing," Bash says indifferently, handing Francis his card. "I'm feeling nice. Just this once, everyone in the building's drinks is on me."
Francis scoffs. "Oh, you're so kind," he says, patting Bash's shoulder before returning back to the bar and explaining to the manager there of his brother's plans.
He returns to everyone cheering their way and Bash salutes before turning back to the others.
"Let's play a game," he says, his sea-green eyes playing mischief.
"Uh oh," Remy says.
...
"Oh, go Lola!" Kenna says, whooping when she sees Lola go for her dare and make out with a random guy at the bar.
Mary blushes, covering her eyes. "She's really going at it!"
"Never knew she had it in her!" Greer says, them nodding.
Lola soon returns, stumbling into her seat windily. "Wow."
"How was it?" Kenna asks.
Lola takes a sip from her cocktail before replying, "Horrible. I bet Remy or Julien is a better kisser..."
Kenna and Greer cackle as Mary sympathetically rubs Lola's shoulder. Mary then decides to choose truth and not dare when it's her turn because she wouldn't cope hooking up with someone other than Francis. It's fine for Greer and Lola, they're single but Kenna's looking like she could steal a free kiss before the weekend's over.
"Do you think cheating's right?" Mary finds herself asking. She's never had great boyfriends until Francis came along and she hopes they'd never hurt each other with cheating or whatever. She doesn't think she'd be able to forgive herself if she cheated on him or forgive him if he cheated on her.
Kenna narrows her eyes slightly. "No. But if you both set terms in your relationship, like say an open relationship, then it's fine. It depends on your relationship." She sees Mary's worried eyes look around all the guys dancing. "Don't worry, we won't be cruel enough to force you to do that to Francis. We love you and we love him and we love you even more together."
Mary giggles, downing her cocktail. "More drinks?"
"Go on then!" Greer says, hugging Lola tightly. "Get her something strong."
Mary does as told, watching as the bartender mixes the drinks. A few guys attempt to chat her up but she pretends not to understand English and they leave her alone, making her chuckle evilly to herself.
"Hey, gorgeous-"
"Je ne parle pas anglais."
The guy raises his brow with a smile. "Francaise?"
Mary stills, eyes wide. "Non. Non parlo fluentemente francese o inglese." Thank you, Francis and Catherine!
The man grins even more and Mary mentally curses. "Italiana?"
"Ich-"
"Before you speak German and try and throw me off again," the guy starts, he orders for three drinks. "I'm Tomas. Tomas das Pires."
Mary tuts and sighs. "Hi."
"I know who you are," Tomas tells her, sliding a gin and tonic her way as her bartender leaves the tray of drinks for her party in front of her. "I guessed which one was yours and made sure you had enough to enjoy the night."
Mary blushes. "Thank you but it's not needed," she says, sliding the drink back but he slides it back to her. She ends up dumping the price of the drink on his napkin and takes her tray, leaving.
"Who's the stalker?" Kenna asks, warily watching Tomas with narrowed eyes.
Mary sighs. "Don't know. Says he knows me. I thought nobody knew us here, Kenna!"
"I can't count for the rare occurrence, sweetie," Kenna replies, taking her drink and slurping it up. "He's actually quite easy on the eye."
"That's the alcohol talking," Lola says, sipping her rum.
Mary almost sputters her drink out when Tomas winks at her and then smirks at Kenna's way approvingly. Kenna scoffs, turns away and laughs. "I tried to get rid of him by speaking in different languages but the guy knew them all and said I shouldn't bother with German."
Greer raises her brows. "Oh, he's interesting then," she says, looking over at Tomas before her eyes widen. "No way!"
"What?"
"Mary, are you seriously saying you don't know Tomas das Pires?!"
Mary shares a confused glance with the other girls. "W-Who's he?"
Greer rolls her eyes. "He's only royalty! Portuguese royalty at that!" She cries out, quickly eyeing the man and looking back to the girls. "He's related to the last ever King of Portugal through the king's sister, Maria Ana. Tomas is a model though and I know a few girls who have had the pleasure of covering a front page with him. Now, he's trying his hand in acting."
Kenna stands. "I'll see if he would like to attend a wedding at short notice. Do you know how much our popularity could go up if we're seen socialising with him?" She asks and the girls know that their Kenna is back if she's fretting over publicity. "God, he even thinks Mary's beautiful if he spoke to her. Sweetie, you know Portuguese a little, you could get a role in a movie speaking the language!"
Mary laughs, waving Kenna off. "I like English dubs, thank you. Might stretch for French but that's pushing it!"
"Either way, I'm inviting him," Kenna says, heading to Tomas who takes to her brightly. They speak, laugh and Kenna points over to their table before he points over to his where a man is waiting on his phone. Soon, Kenna's hugging him briefly and he kisses the back of her hand, seemingly promising her something as he bows and lets her go.
"What a charmer," Lola mutters.
"So, he's coming to the wedding," Kenna announces, taking her seat once again. "He knows some high-in-demand directors who wish to bring a few visions onto the big screen. Mary, you and I could go bigger than what we're doing right now."
Mary takes Kenna's drink. "That's enough for you. Let's not think about work but actually enjoy this?"
Greer smirks as a few firemen head their way. "Oh, Mary, be careful with what you wish for!" And she squeals as the firemen line up in front of them and rip their shirts off for a startled Kenna, intrigued Lola and a mortified Mary.
...
"Y-You know what would look good on you?" Francis asks, cupping his brother's cheeks as they stumble into the night London streets. He stops, grabs a traffic cone and covers his brother's head with it. "That. God, that looks amazing. I should be a fashion stylist!"
Remy throws up as Julien starts cracking up, sinking to the ground in giggles. Even Leith can't contain his laughter as he sees Bash pull the cone off his head and return it with a glare at Francis's way.
"Where to next, lads?" Leith asks, slinging his arms over the brothers' shoulders.
"I'm pretty hungry, actually," Remy says, finally feeling well enough to join them with Julien supporting him.
"Yeah, because you've vomited everything you've eaten this past couple of days," Bash mutters as they spot an open kebab store. "It's probably got questionable meat but why does that look so appealing right now?"
"Should we risk food poisoning?" Francis says, a bit of lucidness coming through. "It's our funeral..."
"I want sex in a hot air balloon," Bash replies, making the men hum. "I don't think so."
Leith tuts, bringing his phone out and the screen's brightness is too bright in his eyes in the darkness. "Shit," he curses but troops on, searching for somewhere to eat that is safe. "Think..." He taps his head. "Chinese! Oh, God. Yes, I remember this really good place we used to go to whenever we stopped by. Trafalgar Square, here we come."
"First," Julien says, stopping them. "We need more drinks!" He points over to the off-license. "Which one of us is most sober?"
No one's hands go up.
...
"So I hate cake and alcohol now," Mary says as they wake up the next morning, all snuggled up in the large bed of Kenna's hotel room.
Lola gags and hurries out the bed, hurling into the toilet as the others wince and close their eyes, covering their eyes from the bright lights slipping through the curtains.
"Fuck me," Kenna mutters.
"Bash would," Greer retorts making Mary cackle.
Mary gets out of the bed, letting Greer snuggle into Kenna's back as she heads into the bathroom and tends to Lola. When Lola's fine, she kicks her out and uses the toilet in relief, emptying her full bladder for the first time since last night.
She decides to have a shower, wrapping the towel around her frame when she's done to let Lola get a chance to shower too.
"We do have our own hotel rooms," Kenna states, still entwined with Greer in the bed.
"It's fun," Mary sings, digging around her purse for her keycard. "I'll go get ready in my room. Just leave my clothes here, I'll burn them later because we smell of Lord knows what went on in the club."
"Hookups in the middle of the dancefloor, smoking, drugs, a lot of alcohol to name a few," Greer says, receiving a snort from Kenna.
Mary laughs herself, grabs her keycard and looks through the peephole to see if anyone's around before darting it to her door with only a towel, wet hair and her courts on her feet since she didn't want to step on the cold floor.
"Mary?"
She jumps, turning to see a bemused Tomas standing there, arms crossed. "Oh, hi!"
"So, now, she speaks English," he says teasingly. "What are you doing?"
Mary blushes, blindly slotting her keycard into the reader and hearing it beep approvingly. "Looking for something but I found it. 'Kay, thanks, bye!"
She hurries into her room and closes the door behind her, embarrassed that someone other than her family member, close friend or fiancé saw her practically naked. She sighs, trying not to think about it as she heads to her suitcase and gets underwear and an outfit for the day.
They'll leave this evening and get to France at eleven at night before the wedding is tomorrow.
Mary's quite excited, her and Kenna having planned their weddings since they were little girls and now, Kenna's is a reality. Hers will be soon and she couldn't have asked for better princes to their childhood princess selves.
After a nap, the girls head down for lunch after skipping breakfast and Kenna lifts out a jewellery bag, presenting the girls with it.
"Gifts for my ladies," she says, retrieving three velvet boxes. She hands each woman one and they open it up, swooning. "Charm bracelets. I've been wearing mine since this morning."
"Kenna, it's stunning!" Mary breathes out tearfully. "Thank you."
Kenna beams. "Thank you," she says. "Right, the rose is for Mary, the arrow is for Lola, the butterfly is for Greer and the heart is for Aylee." Her voice cracks as they hold her hands or shoulder. "And finally, the best for last." They giggle. "The star for me. Because Bash always does say there are stars in my eyes and I'm the biggest star in his life."
"That's so sweet!" Lola cries out. "Thank you so much."
"Yes, Kenna," Greer starts happily. "Thank you, we don't deserve you."
Kenna scoffs, rolling her eyes. "Of course, you do!" She tells them. "Right, time to eat, otherwise we'll be dying by the time we get to France."