driftfleet | ( open ) you are cordially invited...

Entry tags:

( open ) you are cordially invited...

Who: EVERYONE!
Broadcast: Nope
Action: Jim Kirk and Victor Frankenstein's wedding, and everyone is invited!
When: March 30th

The Bachelor Party (( CLOSED to invited CR ))

The evening before the wedding, Jim and Victor gather up their closest friends, admittedly not many when they haven't been on the Fleet for that long. Bachelor parties would usually happen in separate, but that's difficult to do when they share so many friends, and so they decide to throw the party together.

The setting is simple but cozy; they've picked out a small pub in town, and reserved a rustic little room in the basement. There's a large table with a few games, most notably a chessboard, and a sitting area with couches and chairs gathered around a coffee table, in front of a lit up fireplace. On a small bar by the corner there are a few drinks on offer, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, and on a table next to it there is a selection of snacks and various kinds of finger foods to make for a light but hopefully filling dinner.

Courtesy of Kirk 1.0, there's also a music system and a microphone set up next to the sitting area, and you know what that means... karaoke! It's guaranteed to be more fun the drunker you get. Speaking of drunker, someone will definitely be tossing around the idea for strip chess, so hopefully you won't get too embarrassed if people start losing pieces of clothing. But hey, at least everyone's a winner.

The party will go well into the night, and Jim and Victor likely won't leave until everyone else does. So feel free to stick around, play games, sing songs and get drunk... if you get really drunk, you can always make yourself comfortable on one of the couches and fall asleep there. (The patrons can just kick you out eventually, it's okay.)

You Are Cordially Invited... (( OPEN to everyone! ))

The preparations were rushed and the invitations sent out in a bit of a hurry, but it's not like there's ever a lot of time to prepare for a wedding, when one doesn't want to do it aboard one of the ships. But everything seems to be well put together, and there's a very rustic and homely feel from the moment you arrive.

The ceremony proper happens at the lodge, a spot that has been set up with a few seats and a set of stairs leading up to a small canopy, all of it decorated with white fabric and an abundance of flowers. It's short and sweet, and after vows are exchanged and a few words from the one performing the ceremony (hopefully no one will find it too weird that it's the other Jim), they slip on their rings and share a kiss, delighted to let the celebrations continue onto the reception.

With Jim and Victor taking the lead, the guests are walked across a bridge, lit with candle lanterns, strings of white flowers embellishing the wooden frame. The good portion of the reception is outside, and everything is decorated with lanterns, string lights hanging everywhere and resembling stars more and more as the sun starts to set, and (yes, you guessed it) more flowers.

As a matter of fact, there are flowers a little all over the place. In jars hanging from trees, tied to the backs of chairs, bundled up in crates that are spread out all over the area. The food is set up on large tables, divided by starters, main dishes and desserts, the wedding cake having its own smaller but more prominent stand near the dessert table. There are no assigned seats, however. After all, everyone was invited and it's not like there are that many people on the Fleet, so just grab a plate, help yourself, and take a seat wherever! You might even find a few of the locals joining in on the party a little later, but both grooms seem more than happy to welcome them too.

The party goes on a little into the night. Everyone is free to hang around for as long as they want, or leave early if you're scared of the dark...

but don't worry, there are lights all over the place! There are also plenty of cozy little nooks and corners where guests can make themselves comfortable, and if you start to get a little chilly, feel free to borrow one of the many blankets on offer, or simply head into the indoors portion of the reception. It's small but there are a few seats and even a fireplace to keep the place warm.

If you like sitting by a fire but would much rather stay outside, a small campfire will be lit up just before the sun starts to set, and a small table with plates of something that looks close to marshmallows, chocolate and biscuits set up nearby. Have a seat around the fire and build your own s'more, and toss in a campfire song or two if you're feeling inspired.

And of course, can't have a wedding without a dance floor! Or two, as it so happens: one indoors, and another one outside, the latter far more enchanting, with endless string lights hanging high above a flat wooden platform.

There's a fairly modern music system so you might recognize a lot of late 20th and early 21st music playing, but for those more musically inclined there are also plenty of local instruments you can pick up and try your luck at playing a song, or even sing.

The party is very loose and carefree. Do what you want, come and go as you please, steal either of the grooms away for a dance, or find a pair among the other guests... whatever you want to do, and however long you want to stay, feel free to do as you please!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hey!

[Steve allows himself to be tugged, frowning the whole time at his friend.]

You're that desperate for a dance? No girls caught your eye?

I'm that desperate for you to learn how to dance before you turn a hundred.

[It's a shitty excuse, but he doesn't have a good one. That he can cop to.]

I'm already a hundred and I was doing alright with Loki teaching me.

[Still, he's allowing himself to be led, eyes focused on his friend.]

[Bucky frowns - for at least two separate reasons.] You are not, I'm not.

[It's hard to get over that weird timeline shit on top of the different universes, okay.]

And I can teach you better, anyway.

[Steve rolls his eyes but goes along with it. Clearly Bucky is in a mood that doesn't need to be made worse.]

I dunno. He's a prince, remember? Ballroom dancing is part of the gig. Not to mention he always preferred dancing with guys so he's a little more used to it than you.

He's a lot of other things, too, [Bucky murmurs, continuing to tug at Steve until he deems they're far enough away from Loki.] Or did he not try to take over the entire world, in your universe?

[He's just not going to say anything about the rest of what Steve says. Yet. Maybe ever, despite the way it's making his skin crawl and his gut twist even worse.]

Yes. Yes, he did. But that wasn't him. Not really.

[Steve grabs Bucky's arm and scowls.]

Look. He's a friend. A really, really close friend. I know it might be confusing but shouldn't it mean something that I trust him?

It means your heart is still too big for your stupid chest, [Bucky says, but if he's mad at anyone, it's still Loki, for making him fight with Steve over this.]

I'm pretty sure it was him. Unless - what. HYDRA made him do it, too?

[Bucky does not sound like he thinks this is the case.]

Bucky!

[Steve pulls away, plainly angry at this point. His arms cross over his chest, chin tilted up.]

He was under an influence, yeah. But even so that man over there died to save Thor. He's a good man. You can give him a chance.

I can, but I don't have to, [Bucky says quietly, staring down Steve because it's not like they've never had a difference of opinion before.

He doesn't want to make a scene at someone else's wedding, for God's sake, but he's not going to give in just because of what Steve says, either.]

[Wrong answer.]

No. No, you don't have to. You can be a jerk if you're so dead set on it.

It's not gonna stop me from spending time with him, hope you realize.

Then I'm a jerk. But whatever he did to get you to trust him so much... he hasn't done it for me.

[Bucky snorts, softly.] I'm not your keeper.

[Never mind that he just physically dragged Steve away. Now he spreads his hands.] If you'd rather spend time with him, go ahead.

He saw my life. I saw his. There's more to him than you know. You should trust me, Buck.

[But seeing Bucky so upset about this makes Steve roll his eyes. But he doesn't move away.

Instead Steve grabs Bucky's hands.]

You're being stupid but I'm calling your bluff. Let's dance.

[Ugh, those damn Calibrations. Bucky can believe Steve, but he still has no clue what he could have possibly seen that would change his mind about Loki, and he's not really feeling so into wanting the whole story right now, at the moment.

He's... also not actually expecting Steve to take him up on dancing, but look - you don't say things around Steve Rogers without the potential that he will absolutely take you at face value. So when Steve does grab his hands, Bucky snorts.] Are you gonna step on my toes, instead?

[But he's not pulling away. He said he was cutting in. If this is what it takes, he'll do it. He'd rather Steve danced with him than Loki, any day.]

You'd deserve it, jerk.

[Steve had gotten into the role of following with Loki so he slips his hand around Bucky's shoulder and holds his hand with the other. He's still scowling and still looks like he's itching for a fight, so the whole thing looks sort of silly. But whatever. He's not backing down.]

Look. Buck. He's a friend. If you weren't here, he and Nat would be the people I trust more than anyone else in the world. I want you two to get along.

He's not replacing you, if that's what you're so bothered about.

[And Bucky, who is used to leading, doesn't really hesitate in taking up the right stance for it, especially when Steve slips into the right posture to follow.

Besides, having a conversation with Steve while his best friend looks ready to bite somebody's nose off is pretty much par for the course. Even if Bucky can't hide the way he stiffens when Steve goes on, because -] I'm not worried about him replacing me, I -

[Fuck. He's already an impostor, right? He's not the right Bucky for this Steve. Somehow, even the right Bucky's insistence that he doesn't care if they're friends doesn't make him feel a whole lot better, at this moment, so he covers it up by getting them moving in time with the music.]

I just don't trust him. It's great that you do, but I don't, [he says quietly. Natasha, he knows. He's worked with her long enough, and fought on the same side with her. Loki is a complete unknown, except for, you know, the attempt at world domination less than two weeks after they dug Bucky out of the ice. If more has happened... he just doesn't care to wrap his head around it right now. He's got enough to worry about, trying to keep two Steves straight in his head.]

Then trust that I can take care of myself. I could at ninety pounds and choking on my own lungs, I can now.

[Moving with Bucky is different than with Loki. With the other man, it was easier to forget the fact that he was dancing with a fella. Loki was a prince and had danced with plenty of men. It was almost a cultural difference more than anything else, there. But here? Bucky and he grew up in the same place. They knew guys would get bashed in for doing what they were now.

They both knew what it meant. For other people, sure. But still.]

What are you worried about, here? He'll steal my virtue? He'll hypnotize me?

[His hand grips Bucky's shoulder more firmly, eyes narrowed as though daring him to agree.]

What is the worst that can happen?

[Bucky snorts a little, but it's almost good natured, for a moment.] No you couldn't, Stevie.

[He says it fondly, even as he thinks about all the times he'd stepped in for Steve - and maybe a lot of those, Steve probably hadn't known about. But suddenly that feels like a blow that's too low, and he glances away a second later. He doesn't say sorry, but he kind of wishes he could. For a lot of things.

And Bucky knows how this might look to somebody else. They're at the wedding of two fellas, and while that's still a strange, new, foreign concept, he's done his best to roll with the punches since he woke up. It's not a thing that gets people arrested anymore, even if it's not necessarily a thing for him.

But right now, it's worth it, because at least Steve is here with him - and that little thought definitely makes him feel guilty and horrible, because it's a nasty little one that he probably shouldn't be having.]

I don't know, [he shoots back. He knows he's being unreasonable and he almost just shoves Steve back and steps aside, but doesn't.] I told you I'm not your keeper. But I'm your - I'm trying to be your friend. Even if I'm not him.

[The other Bucky, he means, though maybe that doesn't come out so clear.]

[It's clear. Steve's blood boils and he stops in the middle of the dance floor to glare daggers at his best friend. How can he still think this? How can he have talked to Steve's Bucky and thought that they had a single thing in common? That there was some sort of place that he couldn't fill?

Steve doesn't let go of Bucky. His grip tightens in his fury.]

You better hope that's not true because, yeah. You're not him. You're not him because you're Bucky. My Bucky. The one that, when I get ripped out of this place, I'll never have ever again. Don't you get that? [More and more Steve has been accepting it. That his Bucky is gone and that he'll need to relearn who his friend became. There was no rewinds. Nowhere but here.]

Loki gets it. He gets that this is all we have. When we go back, he dies. Bucky dies. I...lose you. Again and again. And I won't even remember I had you.

[Just like Peggy. Just like so many others who have come and gone. Disappearing like ash.]

Don't...don't make it seem like you're less. You're not less. And you piss me off but...Christ, Buck. I have you back, right now. I have you back.

And you better hope I'm a good judge of character because in the future, I only got myself to rely on.

[Stopping is just fine - yeah, it makes the fact that they're arguing more obvious, but it's probably what Bucky would have done, if Steve hadn't already.

And yeah. He knows. He knows he doesn't have anything in common with Steve's Bucky, and he can't ever forget it.

But - fuck. There's a whole lot he's suddenly realizing he didn't know, because - ] What do you mean, [he demands, quietly.] What do you mean, Bucky dies - Steve -

[Okay, screw trying to pretend to dance. He does pull away - but only with the arm around Steve's waist. The hand holding his tightens, and he veritably pulls Steve off the dance floor, looking for some quiet corner where they can really talk without people staring at them.] What else don't I know, Steve?

[It's not that the rest of what Steve said has gone unheeded. Bucky heard - oh hell yes, he heard - but he's got to focus on one thing at a time, or he'll never make headway. He sure feels like he's trying to swim upstream against the current.]

[Steve shakes his head as they move off the dance floor and into a quiet corner. If Bucky didn't have the serum he'd probably have a broken hand, now. He doesn't want to talk about this. But at the same time...yeah. he does.]

There's a...man. Thanos. Alien who is bent on culling half the universe to fix overcrowding. We fought him and...we lost.

Bucky was part of the half that disappeared. Right in front of me, just like...

[Like last time.]

I haven't seen it yet. I was told. I know it's coming. And I know I'll find a way to fix it. But...

[His shoulders sag.]

I don't get why it's my lot in life to keep losing you. Even here. Even here I can't...help but keep in my head that it'll come to an end. And I won't ever get you back. Not like how you are, now. How you were.

[Bucky just feels like his stomach is dropping out from underneath him, like he's falling too far too fast, the more Steve talks. The more he explains. The more he bares.]

Oh - Steve -

Shit. Steve - It's not - I already said I wasn't going anywhere, [And he knows he'd said that, but he also knows what he'd just said, about not being the right Bucky. And he knows, on top of that, how many people Steve has lost. How many people, it seems, he's going to just keep losing.

He reaches out with his free hand to tug Steve back in to a one-armed hug. It feels like the only thing he can do, seeing Steve just deflate like that. Honestly, Bucky's anger has pretty much run out of him, at the sight.] You know, it's probably not healthy, or some shit. To want things to be the way they were.

[But the thing is,] I want it, too, pal.

[He will do anything in his power to bring his own Steve back from what happened to him. But he knows that, just like the other Bucky, Steve will never be the same. He'll never be this man again, the same way the other Bucky will never be him again. And it feels selfish and awful, but at the same time, he can't not say it's what he wants, too.]

[Steve let's go of Bucky's hand to hold onto him tighter. Both arms wrap around his middle and for a second he just presses his face into Bucky's shoulder. Something he hadn't done since he was five, before he learned that he couldn't allow himself to be so weak.

He had a good run while it lasted.

When he pulls back, his forehead doesn't quite clear Bucky's. He just presses them together, feeling his friend close and real. Alive. Here. Wanting the same things he did. Wishing for the impossible, just like him.]

When you died... There was so much I never got to say. Fuck, I thought I'd choke on it all. I wanted to. I wanted it just...to be over.

Part of me was glad when the plane had to go down.

[His head tilts, blue finding blue.]

You're...not replacing anyone. And no one can replace you, Buck. You're not a substitute. Please. Tell me you understand. Tell me you know.

That you knew then what you mean to me...

[Bucky doesn't say a thing for a minute - just lets Steve lean against him because he knows - he knows - how hard it is for Steve to do that. How he never likes showing weakness to anyone, and how Bucky's long been the only person he might even potentially crack in front of. Far be it from him to discourage it, even if he absolutely wishes there were no need for it. But Steve's life has never been easy - neither of their lives have been - and he gets it. He really, truly gets it, and Steve's maybe not the only person who gets something out of the touch, the same way Bucky's not pulling back for the world, even when Steve leans his forehead against his and is almost too close to look at without going cross-eyed. He'll manage.

He'll manage, because,] I know, [he says, softly, because - he does. He knows what it felt like, to watch his best friend go over the side of a mountain, and to just... be done. Be done thinking about the end of the war, about going home afterward, to have all of that swept out of the train with the man who meant the world to him. Bucky knows what it was like, to not really try all that hard to land the plane intact. He knows the relief of pushing the yoke forward, even as he knows the terror of dying, cold and alone. It's nothing he would ever have wished on Steve, but at the same time, it means something - everything - to know it's not just him that knows what it's like.]

I mean - you're sure as hell Steve, [he says, by way of answering, almost laughing a little because it's true. This is Steve, and he's not a substitute or a replacement. He's just Steve, the same as the other is. It doesn't come down to right or wrong, his or someone else's. It's just Steve.]

Pal, you fuckin' went what - a couple dozen miles behind enemy lines - because you thought I might be there? [Bucky knows - he knows that Steve did that for him. He knows what the papers all said, about liberating hundreds of men. But he knows, deep down, that Steve did all that for one person, because that's just fucking Steve. And it's as overwhelming now to think about as it ever was then, the same as he knows that he killed all those Nazis, and didn't feel an ounce of regret, because they would've killed his best friend if Bucky hadn't put a bullet through their brain. He shouldn't have felt so good, so justified, in taking lives, but when it came down to anyone else or Steve...

But the thing is... that's not a thing you just do. It's something else. It's - big. Really big. Everything about Steve feels too big, all of a sudden - too big and too real and,] I feel like we ain't exactly normal. I mean -

I'm not sure we ever were.

[Not normal. It's a way to say it. Steve turns the two words over in his head, wondering if he really did agree with that. Because, yeah. Yeah he'd gone behind enemy lines for the captured soldiers and rescued them, but he was there for Bucky. He would never have gone if James Buchanan Barnes hadn't been on that damned list and the bottom of his stomach fell to the floor.

He can't remember another time when his vision tunneled in like that that hadn't had something to do with Bucky. He pushed and he fought and he did the reckless things he needed to for a mission. But when Bucky came up? When his face was looking at him on a bridge. When Steve dropped his shield and faced death. When Rumlow aimed for his most glaring weakness and all else flew out the window. It was all for Bucky.

And yeah. Maybe that wasn't normal.

Steve's face moves back, serious as his eyes trace every line of Bucky's face like he was about to start painting. Like he didn't know it from heart. His hand came up and pressed against Bucky's cheek, thumb brushing the skin.

He remembers Shannon, then. Remembers how she'd looked at him and how he'd wanted something more. To not be so alone. To have a connection to Peggy and something good before everything went to shit. Steve doesn't feel that way now. He doesn't want something. All he feels is the pull he's had his entire life towards his best friend.

And maybe that wasn't normal either.]

Buck...

[There's too much to say, suddenly, and not enough air to say it with. He ducks in, wanting to see just what it feels like. If this would feel wrong or right or.... something else. It's a draw. A pull and it feels like a culmination. Like this is what should happen next. What he wants to have happen while he still has the chance to have it. Something just for him.

And so Steve kisses him.

It's soft and chaste, over almost as soon as it starts. Steve's whole body vibrates with it. Yearns to go in for more. But his mind is catching up with his impulsiveness and it's reminding him just how queer Bucky isn't. How shit like this people got punched for.

How saying something wasn't normal has many explainations and this was...maybe a leap. A really, really bad leap.

Steve pulls back and looks at Bucky's clavicle to avoid his eyes.]

I... Sorry. Weddings, you know... [He clears his throat] I guess it underlines one of us being a little extra not-normal, huh? [He'd meant that as a joke. That he was being silly and stupid as always. But after it's out he realizes it could also sound like he was coming out as queer.

But he doesn't take it back.]

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