ragtag army leader

The sound of a car pulling up and a door slamming registered in her brain, but it didn’t draw much reaction from her, considering all the other noises around her. When someone among those stepping around her stopped to cough, she figured it would be Finn, until she heard the man speak. Stilling the hums coming from her mouth, she opened her eyes to see who had spoken to her. “Oh, uh…I’m waiting on my buddy, Finn.” She studied him, trying to place if she’d seen him around before. “Do you know him?”

     When she said she was waiting for Finn, it took a lot of Daniel to not laugh and wonder out loud who this was. mostly because he thought he already knew all of Finn’s friends. “Yeah, I’m his fiance,” he said with a sweet smile, offering her a hand to help her stand up. “I’m Daniel Bates, I live upstairs with him. You can come up now, if you’d like of course. Or you can continue to wait out here for him.”

“Not debatable, I’m right,” Finn hummed into the kiss with a grin. “I won’t be happy if we spend all your money, because then we’d be broke ass hoes, and quite frankly, I don’t have the required education level or skillset for a normal job. Although, I bet I could make a lot of money being a hitman, but….we’re getting off topic. People would kill us if we eloped after we made such a big deal about this.” He laughed softly. “I’m kidding about the theme, Danny, I’m not that gay. Ooh, I like those ideas for colors. Definitely satin. I love satin. And I like the muted but shiny kind of red too.”

     “I don’t think I know the definition of broke,” Daniel said with a laugh. Though he was serious, he wasn’t shady or anything but there was money all over the place. There’d always be money. “Please don’t be a professional hitman? I mean-- you can, I’m not going to stop you, but like-- don’t become so good you need a bodyguard, like that late 2010′s movie The Hitman’s Bodyguard.” He laughed and downed the rest of his wine before pouring himself more. All the while, he was making ure to take notes of everything the both of them were saying for when Dee and him spoke. “Alright cool, I like that a lot too. Now uh-- wedding parties... We need at least two people for us. And someone to officiate the ceremony, since y’know-- Catholic and Muslim...”

It was a good day for a walk. Well, most days in Pansaw were, but today seemed especially nice. Cass felt for the first time in weeks a little more like her old self. She was actually humming as she walked through West Stone, heading to Finn’s apartment. She actually paused mid stride to marvel at her own mood. Huh. Better not dwell too long, still dark things she had to get through. Focusing on her humming again, she walked up to Finn’s building before pressing the buzzer. When she got no answer, she realized she’d obviously beaten him home and decided to just wait. She seated herself on the sidewalk and leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes, singing softly to herself.

@dcfective

     After a long day of work, Daniel was ready to sink into his couch and watch The Bachelorette with Finn. It had become a really bad, but really fun past time of theirs. He had taken an Uber home, it was the quickest way to get tehre without Finn and he knew that he was still out being a hero for the day. When he arrived at the apartment building, he climbed out of the car with ease, noticing an odd sight in front of the nice building. It was kind of odd considering he had never seen anyone sit on the sidewalk in front of the building. He walked over and coughed a bit awkwardly, “uh-- you waiting for someone?”

“Hey, hey, you also deserve the best too,” Finn replied, giving Daniel an amused look. “I know money is no issue, but don’t spend a fortune to just make me happy. Honestly, you know I’d be perfectly happy running off to Vegas with you and eloping at some casino where we get drunk off our asses, and flower crowns are involved, and it’s recorded on the internet forever with an extra fee of, like, twenty bucks or something for that.” He smiled, sliding over to his fiancé and pecking him on the cheek once, pausing to think for a second before adding just one more quick kiss there. “I’ll love pretty much whatever we do just as long as I get to make you officially mine at the end of the day.” 

The blond leaned in to give Daniel just one more kiss on the cheek for now. “Now enough about me. What would you like for our wedding in terms of venue, colors, all that stuff? Should we have a theme? Like love under the stars, under the sea?” 

     “Debatable,” Daniel chuckled softly, pushing his hand through Finn’s hair before leaning over to kiss him. “Babe, it’s whatever, you know that. We could spend all my money and I’d be happy as long as you’re happy.” He laughed at Finn’s suggestion though, finding it amusing that he thought like that. “I love that idea honestly, it sounds like the best option but there would be... A lot of people who would kill us if we did that and you know it.” He shook his head at the suggestion of themes though, “no theme, we’re not hipsters, Finn. But I like the venue you chose, I like the idea of people being able to wander between outside and inside, having everything confined to one space would be a little claustrophobic in my opinion. And colors should be... Muted but shiny? So like, a deep and kind of dull red tie but with satin so it still shines. Stuff like that.”

“Dearest?” Finn laughed, glancing back at his husband with an amused yet fond look. “Don’t tell me we’ve become that kind of gross domestic couple now, otherwise I’ll have to cancel our babies.” He was teasing, obviously. He lifted the empty pot now and set it on the counter to hold the strainer full of pasta. He moved to the fridge, grabbing some Ricotta cheese and tomato sauce for their pasta. “Well, I bought some brownies, if that counts,” he said, bringing the bottle of wine and two glasses over to the table. “I was too lazy to bake anything while cooking.” 

     “It’s got too much of a 50′s vibe to it, doesn’t it?” He couldn’t help how loud he laughed. “I just wanted to try something a little new but I think that failed just miserably. It’s fine though, I can just go back to calling you ‘baby’. It fits you better anyway.” Daniel nudged Finn with his arm before he finished setting the table. Once Finn was by the table, Daniel pulled his husband close by the waist and leaned in. “I was thinking for dessert we could just grab the whipped cream from the fridge and figure somethin’ out in the bedroom...” He whispered softly before kissing him with more passion than before.

Finn smiled at the kiss to his cheek, shifting his hips a bit as he leaned forward against the counter, bouncing the heel of his right foot gently against the floor. “Gotta love Dee,” he snorted, smirking crookedly. He was actually really grateful to have some outside help in this wedding planning thing because he had no idea what he was doing. “I actually did some googling on venues and stuff, but what about the Pansaw Plaza as an option?” he suggested. “It’s this big and beautiful and extravagant piece of property that looks like it came right out of a fairytale. It has areas for the wedding ceremony––both inside and outside––and the reception if we wanna save money and not pay for two locations. They have a good menu we can choose from, and I saw tons of great reviews. If not that, what about something like that, or the Athena? Although I’m sure the Athena will be expensive as all fuck…” The blond paused, lifting his glass to his lips and tipping his head back as he swallowed down the rest of his wine in one big gulp. He held out the empty glass towards Daniel, asking silently for a refill. “Really, I’m good with any indoor venue as long as it looks elegant and classy, the reception has good food, and it’s not going to throw us into debt.” 

     There was something about actually planning his wedding that Daniel just loved. Weddings weren’t that important but the fact that him and Finn were about to start their lives together? That was amazing. It was still months away but anytime the topic came up, Daniel found his heart beating out of his chest, in the best way possible though. “That sounds absolutely perfect,” he said with a sweet smile, “though you know that money is absolutely no problem, babe. I want you to love the wedding, it’s a really cool thing that we’re doing so you deserve to have the best. I can put the Athena down as an option and then Dee and I can see if it’s even possible, how about that? Seriously, like... Money is not a problem throughout this.”