very_uninterested | (no subject)

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Being engaged feels weird.

Well, no, it doesn't feel weird, but it does make David feel as if he's finally skipped ahead to the part of his life that's meant to make sense. Which is the weird part, since he's living in a magic city and is friends with people from movies, like the actual fictional characters, and his store is on a ley line, and his sister and best friend aren't here, so none of it truly makes sense.

But he has the store. And he has Patrick. And he actually has friends. Now those friends need to be told that they're about to be dragged into the most amazing wedding planning this city has ever seen. Not to mention the most amazing wedding. They're going to be involved, they have to be involved. They really have no choice in the matter.

He's in a good mood -- obviously he's in a good mood, he's engaged and he's had engaged person sex recently -- and so he's wearing a pleased, thin-lipped smile when the door of the store opens, a musical little bell tinkling overhead.

"Hi," he says, that smile growing wider. As wide as his smiles ever really get. Maybe he purposely flashes his left hand with the gold rings having taken place of the silver. Maybe he wants someone else to be the first to start the conversation.

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"Okay, that's really fucking disturbing," Celeste said, coming to an abrupt stop just inside the shop. He smiled, and he smiled, wider than she'd ever seen, and she frowned right back.

Spooky. She suppressed a shudder.

"Shut up," David answers, but her comments don't keep him from smiling. Or as close to smiling as he knows how to get. It's a rare thing for him to feel this purely happy or for him to want to share it with anyone.

He flashes his hand again, just in case she hasn't noticed. She probably hasn't. He tries once more, all but waving his hand through the air.

"Do you notice anything different?" he asks.

Arching a brow, she said, "What, is gold in this season?"

She wasn't that dense, but it was just too damn funny to screw around with him. They were a gift from Patrick, probably, and most likely an engagement, judging by the way he was beaming at her, but she wasn't going to jump around and coo over it like some kind of simpering idiot.

"Um, don't be a dick," he says. "Say congratulations and then ask me who you're wearing."

Not that Darrow really has a who when it comes to fashion, but David knows he's going to make sure everyone and anyone involved in his wedding party looks absolutely perfect. And if Celeste thinks she's not going to be in his wedding party, she has another thing coming.

She doesn't get a choice.

"Who am I wearing? Isn't that a question for the bride?"

She folded her arms across the top of the counter, leaning her weight against it as she flashed him a grin.

"Subtle choice. Very tasteful," she said, reaching for his hand and yanking it towards her for a closer look. "They look just like your old ones."

"They're fourteen carat gold," David says, as if to express how very not the same they are as Celeste investigates them. "And who everyone in the wedding party is wearing is basically as important as who I am wearing."

Not that the wedding party will be all that big, at this point he's fairly certain it's only going to be Celeste on his side. He just expects her to look good for the wedding, like she always does.

"Wedding party?" She said, arching a skeptical brow. "How big is this wedding party, and please tell me you're not forcing us into matching dresses. I don't care how good you are at what you do, it's never a good look."

While it didn't show, at all, she wasn't completely unaffected by having him include her in her wedding. Because she knew it wasn't a PR stunt, and it wasn't because he thought she could get him anything. Somehow, despite everything, they really were friends.

"You," he says. "I don't know, maybe Derek."

Or maybe Patrick will want Derek on his side. It's not as if they have a lot of family here, which David actively chooses not to think about most of the time. Getting married without Alexis yapping in his ear or Stevie rolling her eyes about his choices sounds pretty terrible and so he tries to pretend that part isn't happening.

"And please, you'll be wearing a suit," he continues, then steps back, really looking at Celeste. "God, yes. A perfectly tailored suit on your frame with your whole look? Amazing."

"So, who's breaking it to Derek that he's wearing a bridesmaid's dress?" She asked, arching a perfectly manicured brow.

"The pictures, though. Can you imagine? I mean, screw you and Patrick, just put the two of us front and center."

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very_uninterested - 2020-09-29 19:50 (UTC) - Expand

"Ugh, you're more smug than usual," Derek says as the door swings shut. He's wearing a pair of sunglasses and has a paper cup in each had, and he has to set one down on the counter to lift them up onto his head.

While doing so, he catches David waving his hand in Derek's face and quirks a brow as he looks him over. He's practically squirming with energy and barely concealed glee, and Derek placidly takes a sip of his coffee.

"I assume you have news."

"Why else would I call you here?" he asks, as if he's not exactly the sort of person to call Derek here just because he's bored and wants someone to entertain him. That he's probably done that at least twice in the past week is something he chooses to ignore.

He leans his elbow on the counter and rests his chin on his hand. His left hand. The hand wearing the gold bands Patrick had given him.

"I do have news," he agrees, waiting to see if Derek notices.

"Friendship," Derek says flatly, taking another sip from his drink as he watches David reposition himself a few times. "Why are you so fidgety?"

He keeps moving his hand, and Derek finally looks at the gold rings on his finger. It takes a moment for him to register them as unfamiliar, and it's only because he isn't sure that he's ever seen David wear gold before.

"Yes, David. I am looking at your hand," he eventually says, because he's sure that David is only a few seconds away from waving it in his face. Eventually it all clicks, and Derek's brows lift in surprise. "New rings, huh?"

"New rings," he confirms. "But more importantly, new engagement rings."

This isn't going quite how he wanted it to. Derek is one of his closest friends here by far, but the sort of lack of reaction makes him miss Alexis, who would have noticed the rings instantly and probably screamed loud enough to burst both his eardrums. He knows he can't expect the same reaction from Derek, it would be pretty insanely weird if that was what he did. He just... misses his sister.

Derek can tell that David is a little disappointed with Derek's reaction, but Derek has never been prone to outbursts of excitement. No emotional outbursts at all, aside from anger.

But he is thrilled for David, even if the news does cause a brief pang of sadness in his chest. He remembers how it felt to be engaged. He won't let that put a damper on his genuine happiness for David, so he grins sincerely at him.

"That's great, man." He comes around the counter and gives David a hug, even though neither of them are really huggers. This situation seems to call for it, and Derek claps him on the back a few times before letting go. "Seriously, congratulations."

The hug is only a little bit awkward and David pats Derek's back, but he feels good, even when he sort of sucks at being physically affectionate. Even if he's not jumping around like Alexis might have -- or even Stevie -- it still feels good to see that Derek is genuinely happy for him. For them.

"Thank you," he says, pleased with himself. With Patrick. With everything.

"There's a lot of planning to do," he continues. "Flowers, venue, we haven't even picked a date yet. I'm not sure if I want winter or summer."

They pull back from the hug and Derek resists the urge to press his face to David's neck and inhale, because he smells so happy. David has taken the fact that werewolves are real and that he's friends with one in stride, but he tries to keep the wolfish tendencies to a minimum.

"I don't know a damn thing about wedding planning," he says as he goes back around the counter to retrieve his coffee, "but if you need manual labor, you know where to find me."

"I was sort of just waiting for you to offer," David admits. "So I didn't seem like too much of a demanding friend."

He is very much a demanding friend. He's well aware of it, having been made aware of it for a very long time by people who didn't actually care about him one way or the other. It's only since Stevie he's begun to realize that, demanding or not, there are people out there who will like him anyway.

"I'm thinking a spring wedding," he says. "And I was hoping you might build us one of those... trellis things. So I can drape hanging spring plants all over it."

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"Hi," Therese replies, the word questioning and drawn out, her own instinctive smile already growing a little confused. She's here often enough and has spent enough time around David to know that an expression like that isn't one he wears often; in fact, she doesn't think she's ever seen him smile that way before. It's obviously not a bad thing, but it does make her curious, her brow furrowing a little as she watches him.

She's not just going to stand in the doorway, though. Making her way over towards him, she says, "You seem very cheerful today."

"Hi," he says again and he wonders if he should be offended that no one thinks he's ever in a good mood. After contemplating it just for a second, he decides it's actually a very fair assumption.

"I'm in a good mood," he tells Therese as he leans casually on his left hand, positioning his fingers so the rings can be seen. Four gold bands, two on his ring finger today and two on his middle finger. They're perfect and he loves them. "I have reason to be in a very good mood."

He wiggles his fingers a little, as if to make his point.

Therese doesn't get it, at first. Part of it is that she's distracted by David's expression; part of it is that, in all the time she's known him, he's always been wearing jewelry, so the rings aren't, at first, particularly eye-catching. The light hits the gold bands, though, and what he's said starts to sink in, and then she thinks the pieces fall into place. When she'd first met Patrick, he was darting out of the bank, surprised by the sudden arrival of what he told her were David's engagement rings. If he has a reason to be in a very good mood and at least seems to be trying to draw attention to the rings he's wearing, then she does have a guess as to what that reason might be.

"Are those what I think they are?" she asks, her brow raising and the corners of her mouth lifting a little. She doesn't want to jump to conclusions and risk being wrong, but it's an exciting prospect.

Finally someone who gets it without having to have the rings literally shoved into her eyes. David heaves a sigh of relief and beams -- well, as close David has ever gotten to beaming, really -- at Therese.

"These are what you think they are," he confirms. Being happy about something like this is an entirely new experience for him, but he finds he actually kind of likes it. He's going to make a fantastic engaged person, he thinks, especially if everyone fawns over him.

Even having guessed it, getting confirmation is a totally different story. Her smile breaks open across her face, earnestly bright in a way that it rarely is, and Therese glances at the rings again for just a moment before looking back up at David. "Oh, my god," she blurts out, a little awkward in her enthusiasm, but not particularly minding that for the moment. "Congratulations."

She heads further into the store, in the direction of the counter where David is. "That's amazing."

"Thank you," he says in a breathless sort of rush, still looking terribly pleased. Having someone excited for him makes him feel like he's gotten engaged all over again and he wonders now if he should have made some sort of official announcement. Maybe an ad of some sort. Although there really isn't any publication in Darrow renowned enough that David would want their names in it.

"I proposed to him," he admits. That he'd done so is something he's very excited to share with people. No one would expect it of him, he thinks. No one would expect him to be that brave and David can't fault them. Most of the time he really isn't that brave at all.

"You did?" Therese only brightens at that. It's unexpected, and though it would have been wonderful news regardless, she's that much happier for knowing that he took that step himself. Part of that is probably knowing that she would never have been able to put herself out there like that, but for all that David may be far more openly and unapologetically himself than she'll ever be, she thinks he's a little like her in that regard when it comes to the big, emotional things. It's hard to go out on that limb and risk getting hurt.

Considering that he looks happier than she's ever seen him, though, it seems like it must have been worth it.

"I'm so happy for you. Both of you."

"I mean, it helped that I had all these memories from home," he says, gesturing up at his head. "So I remembered Patrick asking me and all the really sweet things he said and it made it a lot easier, knowing he wasn't going to say no."

Or being at least eighty-four percent sure he wasn't going to say no.

"I don't know if I would have been able to without those memories," he admits. "It was still pretty much the most terrifying thing I've ever done and that includes telling Tyra Banks her skirt was tucked into her pantyhose."