Title: Flowers Author: Vega Pairings: Ryan/Colin Ratings/Warnings: G Summary: One cold night in Vancouver…Answer to a Leathargee challenge. SHEER UNAPOLOGETIC FLUFF ~ Flowers. Red, pink, white, yellow. Smatterings of green where the stems meet the bloom. A twinge of brown on the occasional dead blossom. Little diamonds of dew clinging to the petals. Crinkly, noisy cellophane wrapped around the stems in pink and blue and yellow. They’re not fake flowers, as he expected in such a small church. Bigger churches have fake flowers. He bends down a little to smell them, for no particular reason. Typical flower smell. Nothing particularly interesting or exciting. Colin knows he’ll remember them anyways, years later. He fumbles with the item in his hand. He’s so nervous, even more so than his first wedding. He didn’t think that was possible. Apparently it is. This isn’t really a wedding, really. It’s a marriage, to be certain. But weddings are fancy and have months of planning put into them. They also tend to have more people. There are three other people in the Vancouver church, only three. There’s the elderly man who must be the priest, and an old woman who must be his wife. And then of course, there’s Ryan, who is talking to the priest, laughing a bit. He has a very nice laugh, Colin notices. Ryan jokes that someone has to wear the veil, and the priest would be glad to provide one. Colin shoves him playfully, and tells him that he could very well call the whole thing off now, and they could go back to the car. And then out of nowhere, he kisses him. It vaguely reminds him of when they kissed during that game of Narrate, when they first fell in love. It could have gone on forever, but it doesn’t. Ryan breaks it off rather quickly, and then holds him. “If you stopped it now, I’d have to kill you,” he says. “I wouldn’t. You know I love you.” Colin responds, burying his face in his shoulder. He then realizes that they’re in full view of the older couple, but they haven’t said anything. He figures they’re used to couples coming down here in the dead of night and doing this, straight or no. “D’you want to tell him we’re ready, or will I?” Ryan asks. “You can go,” he responds, his voice muffled by Ryan’s shirt. “I won’t be able to go if you don’t let go of me,” he teases. Ryan laughs his nice, rumbly laugh again. He would probably give his life to hear him laugh. “Good point.” Despite this exchange, he does not let go. They stand there for what was probably several minutes, but felt like hours. Neither moved at all, except for the slow movements of their chests rising. “The others will be surprised when they’ve found out we’ve eloped.” Ryan says. “The others will be surprised to learn you got divorced.” Colin points out wryly. Ryan laughs again. “True.” There is another silence. “We don’t have any rings. I completely forgot about them,” he adds. “Actually…” Colin says. Ryan pulls away and looks at him with confusion. “What?” Colin opens his hand, and shows him what he had been hiding. Two silver Celtic rings, both with a jade stone set in the center. Thick strands of silver interweave the stones in a criss-cross pattern. “Are they okay?” he asks, worried. “They’re not the greatest, but I thought you might like them…” “They’re absolutely perfect.” Ryan says fiercely. Colin looks up and sees that tears are welling in his eyes. “I love you, I love you so much.” And then they’re kissing again. He wonders why they stopped in the first place. There’s no point, because they’ll only start again. They break apart again. He has a fleeting sense of déjà vu. “I don’t deserve you.” Ryan murmurs. “That’s right, you don’t. But I’m keeping you anyways.” Colin jokes. Ryan laughs again. To him, it’s the greatest sound in the world. END 10/02/05