WHO: Benjamin and Tristan WHERE: Ceridwen’s Grove WHEN: 23rd March, Gwen and Terence’s wedding
It was a strange sort of date. For a start, it was platonic, even though he didn’t want it to be. Then also their surroundings - a beautiful clearing in the woods - were kind of surreal, especially with so many people there. In addition, it was a wedding, which was bound to make a bloke feel pressured somehow. Furthermore, Tristan was a bridesmaid, and he was not. She had a job to do, whereas his consisted mainly in hanging around in his dress robes and occasionally handing out handkerchiefs to crying women. He presumed they were crying at how beautiful the ceremony was rather than because Terence was now off the market, but it was never a sentiment he could understand, all the same.
Benjamin had been sneaking looks at Tristan all through the ceremony. Yes, he did want to be there to witness Gwen getting married, but his eyes were drawn to Tristan. She looked so pretty in her bridesmaid dress. At one point his mind wandered and he found himself imagining what she would look like in the wedding dress, but even he knew that was kind of premature at this point. You should at least be dating somebody before you thought about that - proper dating, not platonic protecting her from being badgered to take someone. Once the ceremony was finished, and he judged that she had done the initial sister-hugging, he went straight over. He would have liked to have been able to buy her flowers to hint at the date-like nature of the date, but bringing extra flowers to a wedding was definitely a no-no, so he arrived virtually empty-handed.
"Handkerchief?" he offered. Not quite empty handed. "I brought a stash."