Ronan refuses to speak in front of the people gathered at the Gansey’s —admittedly huge— backyard. He hated half of the people on principle, the other half was on thin ice. But it was one of the Ganseys ground rules: if Richard Gansey III was to be wed, even if it was a symbolic union, the wedding would be an Event.
Later, he would say it was the spicy canapes, but the truth was if he spoke about Adam and Gansey, it would be embarrassingly obvious that he was choked up with the most unbridled, unfiltered joy.
“Do you need a tissue?” Blue stage-whispers at him from her seat on the other side of the grooms.
“Shut up, Maggot.”
“Oh my god, you do!”
“Don’t be an asshole,” he shot back.
Noah, for his part, took his pocket handkerchief and slid it surreptitiously to him. Ronan pushed it back in his direction.
On the makeshift stage, Persephone said something about connection and how soulmates are made not found, and it became almost impossible to hold the tears back. Noah slid the handkerchief towards him once more; Ronan took it, balling it up, his short nails digging into his hand. He would not cry.
“Are you gonna give your speech?” Henry asked from Blue’s side.
“I ain’t saying shit,” he said, hiding his hands under the tablecloth.
Out of everyone’s view, Adam took his hand under the table, prying his fingers open. “You don’t have to do it,” he added.
“You gave a speech at mine and Gansey’s wedding.”
“I wanted to do it. You are about to have a panic attack,” he replied with a smile.
People around him broke the silence with polite clapping and Persephone gave them her mildly unsettling smile as she went down the stage.
Ronan waited until people started doing something else, then stood up and walked directly to the stage. He was not even halfway through when he noticed Gansey dabbing the corner of his eyes with a handkerchief. And if his voice wavered when he said how much he’ll love seeing them grow old together, then no one mentioned it.
Well, no one except Blue, who milked it for weeks on end.
Blue and Noah got married a few months later in Blue's backyard. It was a decidedly small affair, pretty much the same as any wedding where Gansey wasn’t getting married. This time, Persephone officiated and when she pronounced them spiritually, soulfully and lovingly committed to one another, Blue laughed, a watery, joyful thing that made Noah laugh too. It was followed by almost a solid minute of short pecks on the lips intersped with their laughter.
She tried desperately to avoid Ronan, but he could scent it like a shark driven by its bloodlust.
“Isn’t this supposed to be the happiest day in your life?” he said while she was in between greetings from former classmates and distant cousins. “Why are you crying?”
“I am not.”
“But you did, over there,” he pointed to the makeshift altar.
Slightly offended, she said, “well at least I cried at my own wedding, Lynch.”
Later, at the reception, when Gansey gave yet another of his deeply sincere speeches, Blue used Henry’s handkerchief to dab at the tears in the corner of her eyes. Ronan teased her about it until the reception was over, but Blue is sure she saw him tearing up at Gansey’s speech as well.
It was a little after midnight and the guests were starting to leave, leaving only their closest circle around. Henry and Blue were slowly dancing to the music in the background, swaying from side to side like a willow tree in late autumn. Noah had had more than a fair share of champagne and he found himself leaning against Ronan’s side, his head on his shoulder, while watching Blue and Henry dance.
On the other side of the table, Gansey had Adam’s hands in his, warming them up and Noah felt like his heart couldn’t be more full of love than it was right then, surrounded by the people he loved and who loved him back.
The familiar prickle of tears behind his eyes threatened to spill when Gansey took one of Adam’s hands and brought it to his lips, kissing his knuckles. What finally did it was the blush that crept up Adam’s face and the soft smile he had when he turned his head away from Gansey to look at Henry and Blue.
He was sniffing when Ronan asked, “are you okay?”
“I’m just so happy for Blue and Henry”—he sniffed again, louder this time, then he used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe the snot off his face—“I’m so happy for everyone.”
One of Ronan’s arms slid behind his back and Noah snuggled closer. He asked, “why don’t you go dance with them then?”
“Come dance with me,” Noah asked, in a voice that sounded more like a demand than a request.
Ronan sighed but he stood up, offering his hand to Noah. Noah’s heart filled with even more love. Someday, hopefully soon, it’d be their wedding dance and Noah was glad to know that Ronan would brave the crowd to dance with him.
Henry didn’t have a history of crying in front of people, but when Gansey said his vows with such an earnest joy, every single one of his words tinted with the kind of unconditional love only Gansey was capable of putting into everything he did, he had to swallow twice before it was his turn to speak.
He shouldn’t have agreed to say his vows after Gansey, there was no way he’d be able to express all he felt for him in a way that mattered. In the end, he scraped his rehearsed vows and only said, “oh, you know it already. Will saying it in front of everyone change anything?”
Gansey smiled, the kind of private smile people outside of their little world weren’t privy to. Before he could say anything else, Gansey grabbed his hands, pulling him a little closer.
The moment they were pronounced married, just as Gansey went in for the kiss, Henry touched his forehead to Gansey’s and whispered for his ears only, “I’m afraid I’m hopelessly in love with you.”
“So am I,” he replied, then kissed him softly as if they were alone back in Monmouth instead of in front of a bunch of people at the Gansey’s DC home.
By the time Ronan and Adam got married, Ronan had decided that it was physically impossible for Adam to cry at weddings. It was fine for Adam, it meant that Blue and Ronan’s little competition didn’t involve him.
It wasn’t that he didn’t feel moved to tears when he married Blue or Gansey, it was just that he’d spent so long hiding the depth of his feelings in public that it was easy to hide behind the mask he put on at the Gansey family functions, even when his happiness threatened to make him burst at the seams.
There was one thing he didn’t account for before though: Gansey’s uncanny ability to give the most wholehearted, honest, loving speeches in the world. Later, if someone other than his partners asked him to recount what Gansey said, he’d say it was all a blur when really, Adam remembered every single word.
When Gansey raised his glass in a toast, Adam did the same, blinking away the tears brought on by Gansey’s words, painfully aware of Ronan and Blue elbowing each other next to him.
Noah, who was on his fourth —maybe fifth— glass of sparkling wine, reached to softly wipe the side of his face, then fake-whispered next to him, “it’s okay, Adam, I won’t tell anyone.”
Adam smiled at him, uncontainable joy warming his insides. If someone had told him ten years ago this would be his life, he would’ve thought they were crazy, but as Ronan took his hand under the table and Noah rested his forehead on his shoulder, he knew there was nowhere else he’d rather be.