My Hopes Are So High For West Side Story.

I came as soon as I heard.

Everything Forever

Laurie x (March) Reader Words: 2042 Request:

I’d like to formally request a fic that’s wedding day/night with Laurie with the reader as a March sister (if possible could you make her age be in between Beth and Jo) thank you so much!

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    You sat alone in your childhood bedroom, the one shared between you and your sisters for so many years. It was cramped but homely, less like sardines or pearl onions, packed into their pickling jars, and more like a basket of kittens, all piled together to maintain warmth and closeness. 

     It was an incredibly grown-up thing, getting married, but you yourself didn’t feel grown-up. You still felt small in comparison to the world and there was an innate desire tugging at your mind to crawl back into your little box, your little home. Your entire family was bustling about downstairs to get everything ready on time: Marmee, your sisters, your father, Hannah, Mr. Laurence, Brooke, and Demi and Daisy (ring bearer and flower girl respectively, of course). Aunt March, too, was there, but you could more easily see her perched on a couch, judging the minutest of details with a trained and scrupulous eye, than deigning to get involved in the mess. You could hear them, faintly, but up here the air was silent. Memories lingered around you like the smell of sweetness, of a cake baking, heartwarming and delicious but undeniably out of reach. There’s a certain lucidity to remembrance that just isn’t possible in the present moment. It allows you to savor what would otherwise be neglected details while also knowing that the time to truly appreciate them has come and gone. And so we sit from afar and long for times past, miss the present, and resent the future for eternally failing to match our expectations. As you emerged out of childhood and into teenhood and then very quickly into adulthood, the future had begun to scare you. While it had previously been always more of the same, it now morphed into something unpredictable. It was, truly, the forever unknown. It took you a while to notice, but being with Laurie melted all that away. Anxious thoughts of future responsibilities dissolved into thin air. Like steam from a boiling pot, they came from a place of torrid churning, but the rising vapor just seemed to disappear after a few seconds. It wasn’t that he returned you to that safe and carefree home. It’s that he was that home for you. You had spent so long worrying about marriage and making mistakes. While Jo rejected the idea and Meg yearned for it, you dreaded not the act itself, but choosing poorly. You feared being falsely swept off your feet and lured into an unhappy marriage just as much as passing by acceptable options for too long and being forced into a lonely life. It wasn’t that the future seemed clear with Laurie, it’s just that it made more sense. The future could go do whatever it wanted because you were enjoying the now. The image of his face and his grin filled your head and you found yourself smiling. Laurie…       There was a sound at the door and Jo peeked her head in. “Ah!” She smiled. “I’ve found you.” You suspected she might try to speak with you privately, so her arrival was no surprise.  “Are you going to try and talk me out of this? Meg warned me.” Your voice was quieter than you expected, its soft tone humming through the golden-hued room.  “No, no, I…” She fumbled with her fingertips nervously. “I’m happy for you.”  “Oh, Jo!” You held out your hand for her and she crossed the room in a heartbeat to sit beside you, wrapping her arms around your shoulders. You loved her, your caring and brave-hearted big sister. “I know you were excited at first, but I was worried that if you really thought about it, you wouldn’t be…”  She spoke to you softly, “Meg may be content with her stale bore of a husband, but you’ve somehow managed to make Laurie my brother, and for that, I will be forever grateful.” You grinned and your laugh was breathy and weepy. Jo just held you, but you could tell tears were brimming in the corners of her eyes, too.

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    You were sitting quietly at the dining room table eating a late-morning breakfast with a book propped open before you, quietly accompanied by Beth. Then a stampede of footfalls thundered down the stairs and Jo burst into the room, almost running into the table in her haste. “(y/n), Laurie has a surprise for you!!!” Laurie ran in after her and clamped a hand over her mouth, “I’m never telling you anything ever again.” You were understandably confused. Glancing between them and Beth for some explanation, you noticed a glow of realization dawn on her face. She beamed and turned to Jo. “I think I know what it is…” Jo nodded vigorously and Beth squealed. Betrayal… “Does everyone know except me?” Beth was still grinning “That’s what makes it a surprise.” “Well not Meg,” Jo pointed out. “Actually…” Laurie looked down bashfully. “I went over yesterday to see Daisy and Demi and told her.” You glared at him and he expertly avoided your gaze. “But not Amy, she still doesn’t know.” Jo rolled her eyes, “Well of course not, she can’t keep a secret to save her life.” “Neither can you!” Laurie looked petulant. “You do realize you have to tell me now, right?” Laurie was giving you an odd look, one of tender anticipation but also of unbridled love. “Not yet, but you will, and it’ll be splendid!” Jo gushed. “Wha-” You tried to get some sort of explanation, but she flew back up the stairs from whence she came. Laurie walked over to you and placed a sweet kiss on your lips. The way he looked at you now was so precious, so special. You felt so lucky to be in love with such a beautiful and kind young man. “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you, too.” He kissed you one more time before leaving. Smirking as he went, you could see his usual air of mischief brimming behind his eyes. “What was that?” you questioned, but Beth simply smiled.

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    As you stood across from Laurie now, you could barely remember the past few hours. Putting on your dress, doing your hair, it was all a complete daze. But honestly, right now, at the altar, they didn’t matter one bit, one tiny, measly, insignificant iota. The only thing in your mind was Laurie. The way he looked at you like you were the most important thing in the world, the way he ran his thumb over the backs of your hands as he held them. Your heart was beating erratically and you could tell his was, too. Every fiber of your being felt jittery and electric, and you wondered, for a moment, if this was the exact physical feeling of love. You were so focused on Laurie that you could barely hear your father as he spoke about how love can brew quietly for a long time, and how that love is always the softest and the easiest kind of love. It dawned on you, then, how perfectly lucky you were that you would get to spend the rest of your life in such splendid and wonderful bliss with Laurie. Your Laurie… “I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.” In the blink of an eye, Laurie was kissing you, with a hand held tenderly on your cheek. There was so much passion and emotion in that kiss, it was as if he had been waiting the entire day for that exact moment. To be fair, so were you, and so was everyone else. It was a wedding, after all.

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    After breakfast, you joined Jo and Laurie upstairs in the attic to listen to her read aloud from a book she had just finished. Beth followed soon after, curling up next to Jo like a sleeping cat. You and Laurie sat entwined, half sitting and half laying down. Then Jo switched to the book Aunt March was having her read, for comparison, and she put on the most dry, drawling tone that somehow had you laughing in spite of it.     Jo and Beth left eventually, but you and Laurie stayed. You couldn’t pass up an opportunity to lay in each other’s arms in the playful warmth of the attic. You’d think an attic to be dark, but not this one. The windows were positioned perfectly, in such a way that light shone in and filled the room with a golden glow. You played with Laurie’s hair idly, petting the dark curls and twirling them in your fingers. It was the easiest thing in the world to love him. He mumbled something that you couldn’t quite hear. “Hm?” you asked lazily, “Did you say something?” He gazed at you with mossy eyes, and you noticed in that moment how odd and pretty it was that they were simultaneously green and blue. You were lost, and scarcely caught his whispered response. “I want to marry you.” It took a few moments before you realized what he said. “Laurie…” you sat up, almost frozen in shock. “(y/n),” he reached down and held one of your hands in both of his. “I can’t imagine a world, a life without you in it. I can’t love anyone else, it’s only you.” He started to look worried as you just sat there, mind curiously blank. You loved him, you loved him so much. This was a dream you didn’t realize you had. You’d been so focused on being with him and loving him now that you hadn’t found the time to imagine it lasting forever. All of a sudden the realization hit you that this was everything you could ever want and then immediately after it was yours. It was one moment, one instant containing an entire tidal wave of emotion, of yearning and dreaming and loving and requiting that astounded you, dumbfounded you, and left you utterly speechless. Laurie waited, as patiently as he could, but something in him was falling apart. “You want to marry me?” He nodded anxiously. “Of course, Laurie.” He let out a breath of relief and rushed to kiss you. It was wonderful, passionate, and half-desperate and you kissed back like your life depended on it. “Was that the surprise?” you whispered a moment later. “Yes,” he laughed, “and the ring, too.” Your brain kinda broke again for a moment there, but it was alright. Everything was alright, more than alright. Everything was perfect.     Later, as you came downstairs with a smile on your face and a ring on your finger, Beth, who was sitting at the piano, began to play Here Comes the Bride. You blushed, “Beth, stop that!” Without a moment’s hesitation, she began to play Pachabel’s Canon. You decided to ignore her and sat down on the couch, Laurie beside you. “Is Amy back yet?” you asked. She had left early to spend part of the day with some posh friends that were having a garden brunch. “The carriage arrived a few moments ago, Jo went to greet her.” “Oh no…” you realized what that meant as the front door burst open and Amy ran into the room, a flutter of pale blue fabric and ribbons. “YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED?!” Now Amy had changed a lot in the past few years, shedding her childhood boisterousness and replacing it with the serene calm of a sophisticated society lady. But this, of course, was Amy as you had always known her. “Yes?” you managed before she noticed Laurie sitting next to you. “And you! How could you??” Laurie was obviously confused “What?” “Did you not think to tell me?? Did you think I wouldn’t want to be here?” “Oh, you’re excited,” you realized. It wasn’t always obvious with her. “Of course I’m excited!”  

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    The sky darkened and filled with stars as the long and joyous day began to die down. Music was still playing, but with tired feet and tired minds, there was now less dancing and more quiet celebrations in talking and enjoying each other’s company. You stood in front of Laurie, with your head resting on his chest and his arms wrapped around you, watching your friends and family all together. You couldn’t imagine being happier.

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