The Duke universe lives!
Content warnings: ?
"Rose! Wait!"
His voice echoed around the church and Rose felt herself stop breathing, even before she turned around. His voice was familiar, even if she couldn't place it. Before looking anywhere else, Rose looked at Duke, her fiancé, the man she was currently standing at the altar to marry. He wasn't looking at her; he was looking back down the aisle, to the man who had shouted her name.
Rose turned slowly, her long gown not allowing for quick movements. Down the aisle, surrounded by her friends and family and Duke's friends and family, was the boy who had become a man. The boy from her nightmares. The dream boy who she woke up crying for, every time she had to let him go. He didn't look nervous or even unsure as he strode forward, looking out of place in his jeans and dyed hair amongst all the formality.
"I don't know if you remember me," he said, his voice loud and confident, "but I couldn't let you get married without telling you that I'm still in love with you."
The boy. The dream boy was a real man. What did that mean? Rose's head swam.
"Rose," Duke demanded, "do you know who this is?"
Yes. No. Literally, her dreams come true.
"He's from my past," Rose said slowly, because she knew that it had to be true. She didn't know how. She didn't know from what part of her past. "Someone I forgot about."
Someone that she knew she wouldn't be capable of forgetting about ever again. Jake Long. How far they had come, how much older they were, since the last time that she'd seen his face? And he still loved her. He had to know that she wouldn't have, couldn't have, thought about him in ten years.
"What are you doing here?" Rose asked.
It was, after all, her wedding day.
"I needed you to know, before you got married. In case, there was a chance, that you would choose me back," Jake declared boldly.
Rose stood, looking beyond him to all of her friends and family, and then to all of Duke's friends and family. She looked at her fiance, the man who was only a few words from becoming her husband.
"Rose?" Duke said. Not hurt, not suspicious, just confused.
Duke loved her. Jake loved her.
Rose's head swam.
"If you say Duke, I'll walk out of your life forever," Jake promised. "I just need to hear you say it."
The words came out of Rose's mouth, because she didn't have to think about it at all.
"I choose -"
