Red, White, & Royal Pain

12.1

Spilling out of a Jazz club, the gentle melody of "Ophelia" by The Lumineers is being played on the piano. It can be heard from the place on the cobblestone street where Alex is looking down, his eyelashes wet. Henry is gazing up into Alex's eyes, and underneath the blue-gray moonlight, Alex thinks that Henry's must be the most vibrant thing in sight. Nothing compared to his nearly black ones.

Alex can't process what's happening right now.

Henry is on one knee.

Just a moment ago he was standing up.

He didn't fall...

They had been taking a walk through the streets of Brooklyn and Alex was making some joke about how "a bisexual Mexican and a gay prince walk into a bar..." , and henry's eyes were crinkled at the edges in laughter. Alex let out a laugh of his own before even finishing the joke, but he physically wasn't able to continue after Henry turned towards him and kneeled.

"Henry, did you fall again? I told you I may have to get you one of those remote chairs for the staircase if you kept being such a clumsy dumbass," Alex teased.

Henry let out another sound that was so beautiful that it could make the angels above weep. He didn't answer the question, but instead responded with, "Mon amore, my love, you have saved me in more ways than I ever knew I needed. Each time when I thought I was drowning, you never let me fully go under. You always found a way to pull me out of the riptide."

"Hen what-"

"Alex, please do let me do the talking for once," Henry chuckled before continuing.

Alex did shut up. Not because Henry said to, but because he genuinely was speechless.

"...what I'm trying - and sort of failing - to say is that you, Alex Claremont-Diaz, are my solace. Even before you allowed yourself to acknowledge me," this earned a half-hearted snort from Alex, still wildly bewildered, "you were the thing that gave me hope. Knowing that you were going through life doing whatever you pleased and not caring how others saw you, allowed me to hope that one day I would have that same courage. And because of you, love, I do. I'm done trying to be anyone besides who I am, and what I am. Alex, what I am is terribly and treacherously in love with you. And I would be the happiest man alive if you would marry me."

That's when Henry pulled out a small navy blue box that was coated in a suede like material, and opened it up. Inside was revealed to be a shining gold band.

That's also when Alex's knees gave out.

Henry stood, still grasping the box, and steadied Alex. He placed the ring in Alex's hands and held his own hands around the shaky ones in front of him.

"What d'you say, love? Will you be my husband?"

Alex just about squealed.

"Yes! Yes! Oh my fucking god, yes," and he grabbed Henry's face between his hands and kissed him. He kissed him and it felt like the world could go up in flames, and it wouldn't even matter. The perfect fairy tale kiss, for Alex's perfect Prince Charming.

Henry reached down to pick up the blue box which had cluttered to the ground in their moment of bliss and plucked out the ring. He stared into Alex's eyes once more and slid the ring onto his finger.

"You, me, and history, baby. You're my forever," Alex rasped as a persistent tear was finally let loose.

And Henry melted, just as he always did when Alex called him that. Hearing it never got old.

*** Eight months later...

"Henry. Henry, Henry, Henry, Henry," Alex said between the tiny kisses he was planting all over Henry's body. "Sweetheart, you simply must wake up because I'm afraid that if you get any more beauty sleep you'll take all of the attention away from me...and that just won't do," he tsked with a tug at the sheets. Henry responded with a sleepy groan and a tug of the covers over his head."You truly are a different creature in the morning. Beautiful as hell, yes. But very cranky."

Henry finally gave further recognition of the circumstances as he rolled over to face Alex, his eyes only half open.

"Happy wedding day, baby," Alex said as he kissed him on the nose. All it took was one glance at Alex's shit eating grin, and Henry's mouth mimicked the sentiment.

Married. They were getting married today.

"How on God's good earth could I be so selfish as to hope for sleep? And on the day of our wedding of all days! Only an obtuse fucking arsehole would need his rest for the day that he signs away his soul to a gorgeous devil with hair that is absolutely atrocious in the morning," Henry smirks with all of the sarcasm in the world present in his words.

I stupid love this motherfucker is the only phrase running through Alex's mind. Maybe not the only action though... but that would just have to wait until the after party.

Alex playfully punches Henry's arm, but now it's Henry's turn to take charge. Wide awake and pumped with adrenaline, Henry rolls himself so that he is hovering over Alex.

"I can not even begin to tell you just how much I am looking forward to being yours - completely, and incandescently yours," Henry whispered, pressing a kiss into the crook of Alex's neck. Only Henry would quote Jane Austen this early in the morning. Only his Henry would do such a sappy thing. If Alex wasn't already sitting, he would have swooned to the floor.

But it was still in fact their wedding day, and Alex was still...well. Alex was still very much Alex. He was enjoying the moment so much that he thought he would dissolve, but he rolled Henry underneath him, so that he was looking directly down into the bright blue sky that was his fiancee's eyes.

"I can be yours," kiss "after," kiss "the ceremony." kiss, "And you'll be mine. We'll be one in the same if you will. But for now we're in a bit of a time crunch seeing as we have eight hours and 36 minutes time until we have to arrive at the altar. So chop chop, Your Highness!" Alex clapped as he pushed off of Henry and stood up to get dressed. On his way out of the bedroom he yelled over his shoulder, "I've got lists to make and powerful royals to piss off!"

And with that he closed the door as Henry flopped back down into a pile of blankets, making a noise somewhere between a chuckle and a huff.