¡Tink! (tinkhatespink) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-10-14 11:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, neal cassidy (baelfire), tinkerbell |
Who: Tinkerbell and Neal Cassidy
When: Saturday, Oct 11
Where: Tink’s brother’s wedding reception
What: Neal’s on heavy painkillers, Tink’s in a frilly dress
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
The wedding ceremony was blissfully short. Tink walked in with one of her brother’s geeky friends, all looking awkward in their tuxedos and frilly dresses, and walked out at the end of the ceremony, giving Neal a little wave as she passed his row. She didn’t have much time to introduce him to everyone before the ceremony, and had to go to the rehearsal and dinner by herself. But he’d made it to the wedding, and her whole family was thrilled to meet him. Tink had warned them to leave him alone--he was still recovering. And the wedding was keeping everyone busy.
The reception started after the photographs were taken. The bride, groom, and the wedding party all came in at the announcement of the DJ. It was a wonderful venue. The tables were set with finery and decorated with flowers. Neal’s place was next to Tink’s, and as soon as she was able, she came straight to his side.
“You doing okay?” She asked, slipping into the seat beside his. “My brother’s leaving you alone, right?” Her other brother, the best man, (the one with the ridiculous glasses) was probably the most interested in talking Neal’s ear off.
This was probably not the best idea Neal ever had. The look he’d gotten from the doctor about being released after three days was not exactly favorable, but hey, it was a hospital and there was always a shortage of beds - he wasn’t going to die (right?) and he’d be fine recovering from surgery in the comfort of his own home. Or out at a wedding, or back to work on Monday. Yes, he’d already planned to go back to work as soon as fucking possible but would be doing desk-related things as opposed to out and about getting dirty and horseback riding with the youth, or taking care of the animals. In short, it would be a lot different than what he was used to, but time was money (he didn’t have a ton of sick leave) and he also hated sitting around doing nothing.
He’d been sorry he couldn’t make it to the rehearsal dinner with Tink, but blamed the OC’s crappy timing there. The wedding was a blur, and the painkillers made him look at everything like how someone tripping on acid might. It was just so....nothing. Reality was and was not, nothing mattered, and he imagined that getting addicted to this shit not only meant you forgot your pain but also that you had an address, a car, and things to do.
“Heeeey,” he drawled, when Tink sat beside him. “I’m good.” Neal hoped that sounded convincing, as he rested his arm over the back of her chair. “I still look okay, right?” No bloodstains on the suit, things were going swimmingly. “This is really nice. Your family is great.” Big and boisterous, and everything his hadn’t been. He liked them though. Hopefully they felt the same.
Tink lifted a hand to trail her fingertips along the side of his face. She gave him a warm smile, pleased more than she could say that he was there with her. Even though she was still worried about him--she probably always would be, that was a side-effect of being in love with someone, wasn't it?--she was so happy he was here today. To see her family, to keep her company. They didn't have to drink and dance all night long. The party probably wouldn't last for too long--the Bride and Groom were off on their honeymoon, and the Best Man had a Dungeons and Dragons campaign to lead with several members of the Bridal Party.
"No bloodstains." Tink said, as if she'd been reading his mind. She lowered her hand from his neck to the tie on his suit. Damn. He looked amazing. Neal cleaned up nice. "We're getting away easy. There's a game after the reception hall closes at my mom and dad's place. My brother ordered a case of Mountain Dew." She gave him a smile. "I think gunshot injury is an appropriate excuse to miss it, though. They'll take a raincheck."
Besides the glassy eyes, void of their usual good-natured warmth (he’d just blame that on the drugs), Neal definitely thought he looked okay too. Tink looked great, and he’d already told her so a few times. He knew she hated wearing dresses but they complimented her nicely. “Your brother’s a dork,” he chuckled, because Mountain Dew was definitely hardcore, but pretty much all of Tink’s family were adorable nerds. It was perfect.
His hand drifted down, fingers curling around hers. “I actually think sleeping like a log sounds like a good afterparty to me. But I could probably handle a dance or two now, if you wanted?”
"My whole family are dorks." Tink chuckled. At least, her two older brothers and she were. Was? The three of them were. Their mother and father were actually quite serious, studious, a lot less excitable about silly things like the kids were. TInk would have been there all night playing her Elf Thief (cliche, much?) into the wee hours of the morning if she didn't have a gunshot victim boyfriend to take care of.
Her fingers laced with his and she gave him a smile. "You can lean on me." It wasn't as if Tink was much of a dancer. But she would love to cuddle up against him and sway slowly to romantic music.
“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed, though Neal would also do his best to not slump over on poor Tink, half-asleep, because he was a bit bigger than his tiny fairy. Speaking of. “Hey, did they say anything about the, uh...the wings?” Because the dress was kind of skimpy in the back. Possibly her family noticed the shimmer of something new? Neal personally had gotten so used to them, they didn’t stick out to him, but her family hadn’t seen them before.
The chair scraped against the ground as he pushed it back to stand, and he offered his hand. “Let’s tear up the dance floor, shall we?” Or sway like zombies at a middle school dance. That was pretty much going to be the extent of it.
“So, my Sister-in-Law hates them,” Tink said as they climbed from their chairs to head to the dance floor. The happy couple had had their first dance a few minutes ago, and there was a large group of people hanging around. The music wasn’t too loud, which was nice. Tink’s family friends’ kids were really going crazy on the dance floor, which made everyone else laugh and dance with a little less inhibitions.
“But there was nothing I could do… they’re sort of attached? I think she thinks they’re some kind of bizarre surgical… tattoo… thing. Like, something I did to myself?” Tink shrugged as she started to sort of bop to the music. “The rest of my family doesn’t care.”
Neal snorted a laugh at that. There was going to be no bopping on his end, so he just grabbed Tink ‘round the waist and drew her close to slow dance even if it was Pitbull or whatever the fuck the DJ was cranking out. They were moving, that was the important thing. “She thinks your wings are a tattoo?”
Wow. Okay, then. He supposed he could see that. There was a whole group of people out there, Otherkin, something like that - well, they were special. Believed they were fairies or elves or who knew what else. Maybe that was what Tink’s sister-in-law thought she fell into, and got the surgical enhancements to show for it. If only she knew. “For the record, I still love them,” he grinned at his fairy.
Tink shrugged her shoulders. “She asked me why I would do such a thing to myself, so. I think she assumes they’re like, a surgical implantation or something.” Tink shrugged, lifting her arms to wrap up and around his shoulders. They could slow dance to anything. No one was gonna stop them. Tink’s family all knew better. Besides, they were busy. Guests and stuff.
“Good.” Tink returned the grin. “...because they’re not going anywhere.” They were there, behind her, fluttering every once in a while. She was nearly out of pixie dust, though, so at least she wasn’t leaving a little, gold trail. She’d washed in preparation for the wedding, not wanting to outshine the bride. “Speaking of things from the Dreams… how are you feeling?”
“A little better,” he admitted, and it was progress. Definitely better than he’d been feeling three days ago, when he’d just come out of surgery? “Pretty soon I’ll have a sexy scar and won’t have to deal with changing the bandages. And at least I’m going back to work.”
Attempting a spin (or Tink would be, actually), Neal twirled his lovely date under his arm. “I’ll be at a desk. No physical stuff for awhile.” Which he’d miss - he was definitely more hands on, keep moving, feel the burn in the muscles, rather than sitting for too long. But hey, what could you do. It wouldn’t be forever. “I also haven’t dreamed since the one where I fell through the portal but...we’ll see.” If that was where it ended, well, so be it. Neal didn’t think so though, since Tink already dreamed of seeing him in Neverland again. Unless it was his ghost.
“Gotta admit, I’m excited about the scar.” Tink teased, then lifted her arm with his so she could spin under. When she came back, she kept hold of his hand and draped the other up and along his shoulder. More like a waltz posture than two kids dancing(?) at a middle school dance. “I guess that’s a good thing? I mean… Dreaming the recovery from the gunshot wound… wherever that portal led? Probably not that pleasant.” ...though it was probably coming, wasn’t it?
Quasi-waltz was good for Neal. At least now he sort of looked like he knew what he was doing, and wasn’t resembling something stiff and cardboard on the dance floor. Not with everyone else gyrating around him. “I don’t know where it leads to,” he admitted, easing back into another swing and sway. “But I was pretty convinced that I wouldn’t be getting medical attention and would just...die. Wherever I landed. Hopefully that’s not the case.”
That was what had saved his life here. Modern doctors and hospitals. Wherever he ended up, he’d have to rely on medieval shit and probably magic to take a bullet out. Or who knew what else. It wasn’t going to pretty. They didn’t even have guns back then.
“We’ll see though. You dream anything new lately?”
No one else knew what they were doing, so at least Neal and Tink fit in with the crowd. “Hopefully. You still haven’t seen me as an adult in Neverland?” She asked, her wings giving a hopeful flutter. “Maybe you live through it. How else would I have seen you there? Unless my dreams are crazy.
“No. Nothing new. I feel like I’m due, though.” She shrugged, then leaned her head forward to rest against his shoulder.
“Your dreams are crazy,” Neal chuckled, because shit, she had like three different stories she was seeing. And not one of them made sense in context with the others - they were all separate, and that was weird. For him, it was like he was simply seeing his life unfold. Played back for him so strongly the images really did tinge at him the way memories did.
He gave Tink a kiss on the top of her head, swaying with her there when she leaned against him. “But I’ll live through it. Like I always do.” It took more than a stupid gunshot to kill him, come on, he’d already survived hundreds of years, technically. “And I’ll see you soon.”
“They really are.” Tink said. “I like having a sister. In the Dreams. That’s fun. And I like my friends. Silvermist, Fawn, Rosetta, Terence..” she may have blushed a little a she thought about Terence. He was, after all, kind of her boyfriend? Maybe? Okay, not really. Since when did fairies have boyfriends and girlfriends? Okay, so Lord Milori and Queen Clarion didn’t count. Nor did Rosetta and Sled.
“You’d better.” Tink said, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. “Because I’m not about to let you go anytime soon. You know how many traffic violations I made the other day driving you to the ER? Enough to have my license revoked for sure.”
Neal huffed a laugh. “Sneezy, Sleepy, Happy, Doc,” he added, sort of a joke about Tink rattling off the names of her fairy friends. “And don’t worry about the traffic violations. People have done worse and got off with nary a tick on their driving record.” Kind of weird, actually, but he wasn’t concerned. Besides, it was an emergency. Perfect excuse for driving like a maniac; likely she’d have just gotten off with a warning. It’d have been awkward to write a ticket with someone dying in the front seat.
It was also funny to see. Now that he was still alive and headed toward ‘well,’ he could look back and have a chuckle about it.
“Okay, how about a break?” he asked Tink, squeezing her hand in return. “Drinks?” The chairs, mostly, were what he needed. Probably not alcohol either, shouldn’t mix that with the drugs he was on. It’d be soda for him. “Or if there’s a good time to escape...” Before the talk of Dungeons and Dragons started.
Tink gave a gentle “psssh.” when he started naming dwarfs. That was really more his thing, wasn’t it? Or would be? Tink didn’t know them. Yet, anyway. “You’re right. Though, I wouldn’t have stopped. Even with the flashing lights and sirens. I wouldn’t have stopped until we reached the ER. They could cart me off to prison if they wanted, but I wouldn’t stop until you reached the hospital.” She was determined. This was her determined face. (Even though it’d already happened, she wanted him to know how serious she was.)
“A break sounds good.” Tink said. The dance floor was starting to get full. People were brushing against Tink’s wings, and she didn’t like it. “I should probably take you home. They cut the cake, and danced, and everything, so… you need your rest.” He was starting to look tired. Green around the gills, maybe. “I’ll just say goodbye to my brother.”
Neal probably was looking a bit rough, but he’d had a long day. Just getting out of the hospital and going straight into a suit and tie for a wedding kind of took a lot out of him, but he was glad he’d come for Tink’s sake - besides, he’d wanted to meet her family anyway. He wished he wasn’t in the midst of a painful recovery from surgery, but life just happened that way sometimes - nothing he could do about it besides roll with the punches.
“Sounds good, tell him we’ll see him soon?” he asked, giving his dolled up fairy a kiss on the corner of her mouth before he let go of her hand. “I’d be all for hanging out when I’m back to one-hundred and ten percent.”
“I will.” She replied. “Don’t worry about it too much. We’ll all have dinner together when you’re more recovered,” Tink said, grinning at the kiss. She may have sparkled, even without a dose of pixie dust. Neal brought it out in her. “You start making your way to the car. I’ll catch up.” Her wings folded down as she turned to head across the dance floor toward the bride and groom.
After all, she had a boyfriend to nurse back to health. They could dance (and D&D) the night away without her.