song: married - emily kinney
au!: “we’re friends with benefits and we’re on the side of a little too drunk to be responsible and you’re about to fall asleep on my chest at a party and i’m a little a lot in love with you and i can’t stop myself from smiling and asking you to marry me like i have every other time you’ve fallen asleep beside me only this time you’re still awake and you look at me in surprise before saying yes and holy shit now we’re doing this and i hope you aren’t going to regret this in the morning” au
read below the cut or on AO3
nobody likes us at this party…nobody likes us on this couch…we can’t stop eating the candy…we can stop making out
the girl in the corner knows the story about the first night we met..she keeps asking “why aren’t you together yet?”
after his fifteenth swedish fish, joe started to feel a little sugar high. that accompanied with the sweet wine and web’s kisses on his neck, and joe was feeling more than a little buzzed.
they’d been here for a couple hours, drinking a lot of wine and mostly ignoring all of the people that kept making comments and cursing at them.
they didn’t care, shrugging because this wasn’t their place and they only knew a couple people here, friends of friends. but they had nothing better to do tonight and rather than pay for drinks at the bar, they figured they could drink for free at this party.
and it was working out well, they commandeered a bottle of wine each and the bowl of candy on the end table beside web and had spent the past two hours lazily drinking, eating, and making out.
it was the best friends with benefit situation that joe had ever been a part of and fuck if web’s lips on his neck got him going in a way that nothing else did.
when web had first suggested it, joe laughed in his face, until web had kissed him and then it was over. joe made it clear that it was a strict no strings, no feeling, just sex situation and web had quietly agreed.
now, six months later, joe wishes he’d never said that because between the sex and making out, they talked about anything and everything before their lips found one another again and for joe, that meant a lot. he saw david, and fuck if that’s what he calls him in his head now, for more than what he was. beneath the quiet, but pompous layer was a brilliant man with a kind heart and sensitive nature. joe, in all his years o being his friend never got to experience that side of him and he was lucky that he was the only one who did.
and that was another shocker to joe too. neither of them had slept with anyone else since this started and he figured that, even with how often they were together it would’ve been impossible for web to see other people, they had a silent agreement on exclusivity for the time being.
and they continued still, with no end in sight and joe was happy enough. web never brought up ending the arrangement and joe never brought up changing it. their friends all thought it was going to end horribly, but joe just hope it never came to that point. he never wanted it to end.
which is why he’s surprised when vera, usually shy and quiet vera, leckie’s (who was web’s coworker) best friend and one of the only people they knew here, moves from the corner to ask them why they aren’t together yet.
and with web’s lips on his neck, joe laughs and says that they already are.
she rolls her eyes and groans before leaving them to it.
and joe wishes that it hadn’t been a joke. that they were together in every sense of the word. but for now, he focuses on the warm mouth working bruises into his skin.
and i’ve got my hands in your heart, you’ve got your hands in my hair…i don’t know these people, let them stare
web has a horrible habit of losing himself in joe. whenever they are together, no matter where they are, joe becomes his single focus. and it’s horribly cliché for him that he realize he’s in love with joe when it’s far too late in the game.
when he first suggested the friends with benefits situation it was mostly to get rid of the sexual tension between them so they could actually hang out with their friends without fighting. and then, before he knew it, web was in too deep and joe had become his world. when they weren’t together they were texting and when they were together they were either wrapped up in one another or talking about everything. and about three months into it all, web had started a little tradition because he knew one day this would end. one day joe would be too bored or would have found someone else. so web let his imagination run wild after a particularly tender night with joe. and as joe slept on his chest, web would say, “we should get married tonight.” and he imagined joe saying yes and them getting dressed and finding a chapel or something. and each time web fell asleep with a smile on his face which would be wiped off the moment he woke up and knew it wasn’t real.
but it was enough. it was enough for web to have this. to be able to kiss joe and talk to him and hold him and love him, even if the other didn’t know and didn’t feel the same way. he’d made it clear that first night and web respected his desires.
but now, as his nibbles on joe’s neck in the middle of a crowded party, joe’s hands in his hair and breath panting in his ear, web thinks that maybe it’s not enough anymore.
but then joe scratch his scalp in the perfect way and web know he couldn’t give this up if he tried. he’d rather die than lose joe. and then vera asks why they aren’t together yet and joe replies that they are.
web would’ve stopped and asked if joe was serious, but then joe laughed and web continued his ministrations, albeit a little less enthusiastically.
and i’ve got you wrapped around my finger, you’ve got me wrapped up in your chest…we keep whispering “why aren’t we together yet?”
the party was winding down and joe and web were feeling the wine they’d been nursing.
lazy and languid as they lay together on the couch. web had his arms wrapped around joe and joe’s head was against web’s shoulder, eye’s closed as he was relaxing.
“if i asked you to carry me home, would you do it?” joe mumbled against his shoulder.
and web willed his heart to stop pounding at joe considering “home” being web’s apartment where they spent most of their time together.
“only if you said please,” web replied as his hand found itself in joe’s hair without his permission.
“please.”
“okay.”
and joe smiled slowly, knowing he had web wrapped around his finger.
while the last of the people cleared out, leckie and vera among them, waving goodbye to web with sad smiles on their faces, web contemplated asking joe for more.
he’d told vera and leckie the moment he knew he was in love with joe. and vera has been trying to get him to move forward since, hence her interruption earlier in the night.
but web knew he couldn’t. it was selfish and would come back to bite him in the ass in the end, but having anything with joe was so much better than everything with someone else.
so web resigned himself to his fantasies and relished in giving joe as much of his love as he could, without ever saying the words.
he looks to joe, asleep in his arms, and smiles.
“we should get married tonight.”
his smile falls the moment joe’s eyes open wide and stare at web.
they’re still a little drunk, but web knows he’s sober enough to realize the severity of the situation.
seventeen different scenarios are running through his head as how to play this and no of them include joe saying, “yes.”
web stares and stares and stares until he finally shouts, “what?!”
joe just laughs and grabs web’s hand, “let’s do it.”
should we get married tonight, once we’ve drank all the wine…would you marry me and always be mine?
it’s such a nice night in brooklyn, and we shouldn’t be alone…let’s get married, baby, married and go home
joe has been waiting for this moment for three months. two days after he knew he wanted web in every way possible, after he knew he was in love with his best friend, he heard web say, “we should get married tonight.” it was a small whisper and web had fallen asleep right after he said it so joe chalked it up to sleep.
but then it happened again…and again…and again. every night, web said it as though he expected a real answer. and so many nights joe wanted to say yes. but he stopped himself because he was scared. scared that web didn’t mean it. scared that web would leave him. scared that web wouldn’t love him. so he said nothing.
but something about tonight, the languid kisses and warm comfort from the wine and web’s mouth made joe feels safe and loved and adored. and the fact that web didn’t this without a care for who was around them made it so much more. because web was often reserved in showing anything of “them” in public because he was always worried about how joe would react. but there must’ve been something in the air tonight or maybe it was because joe was wearing web’s shirt or maybe it was just the right timing, but web just hadn’t give a fuck. even when people started making comments about them, he just focused his attention more on claiming joe and marking him and joe had never felt more loved and wanted and if web could make joe feel like this for one night, who was joe to deny him the rest of his life?
he’s pulling web behind him while the other man catches up to the fact that they’re actually doing this.
it take him until they’re halfway through the city for web to say something.
joe was content to enjoying the nice night, walking hand in hand with his boyf…fianc…web.
leaving it to web to spoil it.
“are you fucking serious?”
joe stopped walking and sighed, “yeah i am.”
web stepped into joe’s space quickly and grabbed his face gently.
“how drunk are you?”
“drunk enough to know this is a crazy idea, but sober enough to know what i’m doing,” he wanted to add that he was sober enough to know it’s what he wanted but web silence him with a strong and heated kiss against his lips.
and joe knew this was the right thing to do.
web pulled away and laughed, warm and sated, “let’s get married, joe. married and go home.”
“i’ve never agreed with you more, web.”
and the moon could be our witness…and north fifth street the aisle…and when we kiss the stars will cheer and cry and smile
all our friends will feel left out…and our parents had no warning…but we’ll call them with the good news, in the morning
when web imagined his wedding day, he never thought it would be at one in the morning in a hospital, with a nurse and a custodian as the witnesses and plastic rings to exchange. but as he looks into joe’s eye, wrinkled a little from the wide smile that’s been on his face since north fifth, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
the tired priest smiles at their nervous energy and says, “if the couple would like to exchange their own vows, they may do so now.”
and they look at each other in shock, but web just starts speaking from his heart and lets everything his hold back come out.
“joe i…i can’t believe this is the first time i’m telling you, but i love you. so fucking much. these past couple years, especially the last six months have been everything to me. every since that bar fight that first night we met, i’ve been hooked. you are so patient and generous. you’re fiercely loyal and make me feel like i’m the only person in the room…in the world whenever you look at me. i never expected this…expected you, but now i can’t imagine my life without you. i want you for as long as you’ll have me. i love you, joseph.”
at the sound of his full name, joe let the tears break from his eyes.
“fuck, web. how the hell am i supposed to top that?” the room laughs and tears fall from web’s own eyes and from the nurse’s who had the forethought to record them.
“i love you too. i’ve loved you for a while and i just never recognized it because it’s never felt like this. i was stupid to limit us, but i guess we broke the limit anyway. david, you’ve surprised me since i first met you and you continue to surprise me everyday. you’re thoughtful and so fucking giving that it makes me feel like i don’t deserve you. whenever you come home and just touch my shoulder or hug me, i feel so complete that it’s hard to breathe. you make me complete in a way i’ve never felt before and never will again, not without you. i want you always. in every way you’re willing to give, i want you. i love you.”
joe’s hands were shaking so web grabbed them and kissed them softly. they smiled and the priest continued.
they exchanged rings slowly, plastic feeling like so much more than it was, and the priest spoke a final time.
“by the power vested in me, by the great state of new york, i now pronounce you husband and husband. you may kiss each other if you so choose.”
their first kiss as husbands was horribly executed due to the fact that neither man could stop smiling long enough for a real kiss to occur.
“i love you, joe.”
“i love you too web. let’s go home.”
on the way back they bought cake from the corner store along with a cheap bottle of champagne.
joe sent the video to their friends and families and then shut off his phone and web’s, they were on their honeymoon after all.
sweaty and sleepy and tangled up together, like they had been so many night before this fateful one, joe watched as the plastic shined in the moonlight.
“my ma is gonna kill me.”
“yeah, she’ll probably kill me too.”
they laughed softly at the absurdity of the night and web pulled joe closer to him.
“david?”
web smiled at the way his name sounded coming from his husband.
“yeah joe?”
“will you say it one more time?”
“say wha-oh!”
he pulled joe’s face to his and kissed him softly.
“we should get married tonight.”
joe kissed him softly and poured all of his love into the way he kissed his husband.
he pulled back slowly and whispered, “yes.”
