Bells Will Ring, Sun Will Shine

[Electra]

Early spring was a good season for the rare auto restoration and preservation business, with all the aficianados and diletantes opening their garages and sheds after a long winter's hibernation. Soon there'd be car shows and leisurely Sunday drives in the nice weather, but for now Trevor was up well past his elbows in tune-ups and body work. Even with Riley Smith-Quinn from Claremont helping out, there was more work than could be done during normal working hours. By the time Trevor came in from work on the first Friday in March, Erin was long since home from work, camped out in the living room with half-a-dozen binders spread around her. 

 

"Hey," she greeted him with a quick smile. "Grab a shower and get in here, I've ordered Chinese. We gotta get some of these wedding plans knocked out before Alex takes matters into her own hands." 

[Gizmo]

Looking more ready to collapse into bed for an hour or two than make important decisions, Trevor gave his fiancé a faintly wounded look before working a knot out of his shoulder with a forceful roll and nodding resolutely. "Four minutes," he promised, allotting an extra minute over how long he could normally shower and change when in a rush; it had been a long day, after all. Pausing in the doorframe between the foyer and the living room and letting the duffel bag he was carrying drop to the wooden floor the dark haired engineer quirked an eyebrow almost imperceptibly over his sunglasses. "Unless you wanted to join me first." It probably would have been more flattering if Erin didn't know him well enough to suspect further postponing the wedding planning had factored into the genesis of that idea.

[Electra]

Erin smirked and waved him off. "Take ten, I'm feeling very generous tonight. But I'm serious about this Alex thing; if we're not careful we'll end up with a state wedding or something on the far side of the moon just to teach me a lesson. She takes her work very seriously. But hey, if we can get some of this stuff wrapped up tonight, at least enough that I can give her an action plan, we can knock off early and reward ourselves." Setting her papers aside, she unfolded herself from her crosslegged position on the floor. "I'll get the coffee machine started." She gave him a leisurely kiss as she passed on her way to the kitchen. "Mm, you smell like motor oil." 

[Gizmo]

Between the kiss, promise of coffee and the way motor oil wasn't phrased as a complaint Trevor has given ample reminder of exactly why all of the wedding planning was ultimately more than worth it. "Mh. Need to ensure proper atmosphere," he agreed with a flat deadpan that broke into a small smile as he watched Erin walk away.

 

After what would have been impressively close to exactly ten minutes had anyone been bothering to time it he came back down the main staircase with towel-dried hair and buttoning up a fresh, pale blue dress shirt. Finding Erin again he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder, obviously glad to be home. "What do we have so far?" They'd already spent a fair amount of time with the binders of material Alex had provided but usually managed to either find sometime more pressing to deal with or else resolved to mull over the options and decide another day. 

[Electra]

"So far we've got palace chicken, kung pao four delight, egg rolls, fried rice, and a five-hundred name guest list, of which about twenty-five are my people," Erin reported. She offered him a piece of her chicken from her chopsticks. "We probably need to whittle that down some. You had the talk with Stesha Madison about flowers, and Alex has a huge list of vendors we can start talking to as soon as we figure out how many people are actually coming to this thing, and how cape-friendly we want to make it. I talked with Steve about helping to line up some event security, maybe hire on some people who don't really care about being at the wedding to make sure nothing ridiculous happens." She consulted her list again. "And we gotta finalize the wedding party." 

[Gizmo]

Trevor accepted the breaded chicken with a thoughtful sound from the back of his throat, managing against the odds to avoid getting any sweet and sour sauce on his clean shirt. "Hnh. Was thinking reception for social obligations, smaller service for people we actually like?" He'd been weighing the possibilities since the florist had suggested it and he was increasingly confident that they could pull it off. His public persona had enough smattering of recluse to it to make it an easy explanation and after putting in a requisite appearance they'd be able to abscond. "Have bridesmaids picked out?" He wasn't sure how large a wedding party they'd been planning and with some chagrin he realized that he might have to start digging deep into his short list of close associates to come up with more than three or four groomsmen.

[Electra]

"I could live with that, so long as we also have a reception for the people we like," Erin conceded. "I don't know why anybody endures a wedding ceremony as a guest except for the party afterwards. If we cut it down like that, I think we're at less than a hundred guests, and most of them are superheroes, or superhero-affiliated. That makes things easier." 

 

Erin flipped to a new page in her notebook and passed him a carton of food and some chopsticks. "I've got Alex, obviously, she's maid of honor. And then Eve, and if you've got Mark I better have Nina so she doesn't feel bad. I thought about Steve, but I don't think he'd fill out the dress exactly like Frank might hope." She grinned, but it immediately faded. "I thought about Megan, but it doesn't seem right," she admitted. "My sister should be in my wedding, but she can't, and I can't just use a substitute." She leaned into him, even as she closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead with her fingertips. "And I thought about Jessie, but I don't know if I should. I don't want to hurt her with this, and I don't know which way is going to hurt more." She sighed. "What have you got on your side?" 

[Gizmo]

"No reason Murdock couldn't wear a suit, stand with you," Trevor pointed out, reluctantly stepping away and getting a seat of his own as he took the takeout carton. "Corsage the same colour as bridesmaid dresses?" The big, somber cyborg was someone Erin trusted implicitly and that was a very short list indeed, short enough to easily outweigh any concerns over tradition if it came down to it. "Was planning to ask Redbird to be a groomsman anyway." It was pretty close to the machine intelligence's job description, after all, albeit with hopefully less violence. "Don't think Jessie would enjoy standing in front of people," he frowned, warming a bit to the planning now that he'd begun to frame it less as a social event and more of a troop deployment. "Could... ask how she feels?" That seemed unlikely to happen but he felt the need to at least make the suggestion.

 

Swallowing a mouthful of fried rice, he gave Erin a sidelong glance and coughed quietly. "Ah, Mark had a... thought. About the ceremony." There was a brief pause before he quickly clarified, "Didn't say yes."

[Electra]

Erin drew herself up again as Trevor stepped away, dropping onto the couch amongst the scattered binders. "I don't think she knows how she feels half the time. I might try and sound her out about it without coming out and asking. I think she'll at least want to come to the wedding, especially since Aquaria will be working it and they've got that weird codependency thing going on." She laid her head against the back of the sofa. "And Steve will probably be happy doing whatever, but I've got the tiny bridesmaid brigade going right now, and I don't know that it wouldn't look a little weird. I guess it doesn't really matter." Slanting her gaze in his direction, she folded her arms and braced herself. "What's Mark's idea about the wedding?" 

[Gizmo]

A well timed mouthful of rice bought Trevor a moment of time before answering that question. He considered briefly postponing by defending Jessie and Aquaria's relationship before deciding that it probably wasn't the optimal time for that conversation. Considering the overall situations of the pair of Project Freedom alumni he generally considered their codependency to be surprisingly functional more than anything but he wasn't an expert on the relative 'weirdness' of interpersonal relationships to begin with. Swallowing, he resigned himself. "Mark... found out he could certify online to officiate weddings." Further clarification as to the inherent issue seemed unnecessary.

[Electra]

Erin choked on a bite of egg roll, but managed to recover before Trevor felt called to intervene. "No," she gasped, even before she finished catching her breath. "There is no possible way in the entire multitude of worlds that Mark is going to officate at our wedding. There is no way that Mark should be allowed to officiate at anyone's wedding, ever." Her eyes were perhaps a little wider and wilder than was strictly necessary. Erin liked to think of herself as a fairly easygoing bride. Hadn't she just smiled and nodded her way to fifteen binders full of wedding material, most of which was entirely incomprehensible? Hadn't she just agreed on the fly to an entire second wedding reception for four hundred fifty people she didn't even know? But this wasn't a matter of personal preference, she reasoned. This was public safety. "You have to tell him no." 

[Gizmo]

"Technically, given infinite-- Hn." Trevor thought better of discussing multiversal theory any further after taking in Erin's expression. "I know," he hastened to clarify, holding up his chopsticks defensively. "Terrible idea. Obviously. Only..." Glumly, he poked at the contents of his carton before looking up and giving his fiancé a vaguely sheepish look. "Was very excited. Even for Mark." He'd seen his friend soldier through trauma that would break a lesser man utterly but quashing one of his less manageable fancies still always felt a bit like kicking a puppy. In this case it was a little more complicated than just saying no. "Was going to ask him to be best man, seems like it would be disappointment now."

[Electra]

"Of course he's not going to be disappointed," Erin assured him. "You're his best guy friend, he's absolutely going to want to be the one standing up with you and toasting you. Plus, the best man throws the bachelor party, which should be a lot more actual fun..." Erin trailed off for a minute, then turned to Trevor, putting a hand on his arm. "We have to get someone else to plan the bachelor party," she insisted, her eyes wide again. "You can't be waking up hungover on Mars the morning of our wedding. How do we do that and still make it seem like everything was his idea? I'll ask Alex," she decided, picking up her phone to send a quick text. "She was phenomenal at doing that back in the Young Freedom days." 

[Gizmo]

"Can handle it," Trevor assured her, making a small gesture with his free hand while loosening some of his rice from the edges of the carton. "Just need to set clear parameters. Limit... shenanigans to Earth." He paused for a moment, brow furrowing slightly before he added, "This Earth. I'll ask Joe to 'help' plan, maybe. Worst case scenario, bring you back a Mars rock." He suspected that any situation inebriated reality warping got them into it could also solve since there was no way Mark would let anything get in the way of the wedding happening but their collective stress levels probably wouldn't benefit from giving him too much free reign to begin with. "Assume Alex has had your party planned since roughly ten minutes after meeting you?"

[Electra]

"That is entirely incorrect," Erin informed him, tongue in cheek. "When Alex met me, I was an emotional basketcase and she couldn't even say the word "boyfriend" without blushing. There was no planning of any sort." She let that stand for a few seconds, then admitted, "I think she had everything planned out about ten minutes after I met you. I'm thinking it's going to be incredibly low-key, like, board games and mimosas and party games she found on Pinterest, but it'll be nice. And I think Steve and the other folks on my team at work are going to take me out sometime that week, that should be fun. I'm gonna try and get him to do karaoke." 

 

She closed the top on her box of chicken and turned her attention to a packet of fried wontons. "We probably want to nail down details about the honeymoon too, people are going to ask." 

[Gizmo]

"Hnh." Trevor recalled the conversation where Alex had told him in no uncertain terms that she didn't think Erin was emotionally ready for a romantic relationship, might well never be and that it would likely be best if he didn't plan for that to change. That was also a conversation that had ended with him teleporting to another city to kick a mugger in the sternum, though, so it was probably fair to say that everyone involved had come a ways since. "About ten, sure."

 

Rising from his chair he moved to sit with Erin on the sofa, bringing his carton of fried rise with him and tucking in beside her. "Anywhere you want," he said seriously, waiting until the wontons had been dealt with to meet her eyes. "Anywhere."

[Electra]

"Anywhere?" Erin drew her legs up onto the sofa and leaned comfortably against Trevor's shoulder as she passed him a wonton. "That's a lot of possibilities." She hemmed and hawed for a moment, then tilted her head to look up at him. "Okay, maybe there's one place, but you have to promise not to laugh," she insisted with a warning glare. "So when I was little, like maybe seven or eight, my folks got on an educational TV kick, and they would pretty much only let me watch shows on Discovery Channel or Animal Planet or History Channel, right? And so I got really into watching The Crocodile Hunter, because it was on like five times a day and my mom was dealing with the baby and just let me. And I wanted so bad to go to Australia and see Australia Zoo and go on an outback safari. I grew out of it, but Megan and I would still watch the shows. Then, um, later... I remember feeling sad when I realized that I would never get to go there because even if there were still people there, there was never going to be another airplane or boat that went from America to Australia."

 

She shrugged, a movement he could feel in his own shoulder. "And when I got here, we've just never happened to get out that way, I guess. I didn't even really think about it anymore, except that I was disappointed that Steve Irwin wasn't alive here either. But I still think it would be fun. A real getaway, about as far away as you can get and still be on Earth." Lifting her head, she grinned at him. "We could wear weird hats and pick up accents and everything." 

[Gizmo]

Trevor raised a hand in sombre promise when Erin warned him not to laugh and listened with silent focus as she explained her suggestion. He tried to imagine, not for the first time, what she must have been like before he'd met her, before everything she'd endured. He wondered if their six or seven year old selves would have even gotten along. "Sounds like a plan," he said aloud, taking advantage of the position of Erin's head as she turned to look at him to lean down and kiss her. Even with the whole of their lives together ahead of them it always felt like the quiet moments might be snatched away at any second if they didn't make a point of savouring them. "Australia it is." 

[Electra]

"Really?" Erin's grin was bright and just a little incredulous at his quick agreement. "Wow, awesome. We're gonna honeymoon with the kangaroos!" She returned his kiss, with interest, then scrambled up to grab a notepad and start jotting things down, energized or nervy or a little of both after her admission. "We're gonna need a travel agent or something, I don't know how to organize a trip like that, but at least we won't need to buy plane tickets..."

 

She nibbled on the end of her pencil and contemplated the paper. "Okay, good, we're through most of Alex's notes, I think, and then we can be done for the day. There's still cake, and reception food. I'm thinking something chocolate with like white fondant and four tiers and flowers on it, so it's all wedding cake shaped, you know? And Alex has that caterer who did the New Year's Eve party, with the crab puffs and that dip? We could get her, and ask for just a bunch of that and stuff like that, and like fruit trays." She waved a hand. "It's food. People will eat it. And then an open bar for drinks and a coffee bar with a barista right there all evening. You'll want to vet the barista and the coffee and all that, but it'd be like a cool personal thing because it's your wedding. If you want?" 

[Gizmo]

Trevor let out a short laugh, soft enough to be more of an amused exhalation. "Excellent idea." He honestly hadn't given any real thought to the food involved, which wasn't unusual for him, really. The thought of having a properly done coffee bar for their friends and family, though, sparked actual enthusiasm. He immediately brought to mind a short list of beans that hadn't been practical to import in smaller amounts... Had Erin not said something the opportunity would have passed him by. "Really going to make this happen," he observed thoughtfully as their plans began to solidify.