Bridgeport

It was officially the best day of Cuckoo’s entire life. No matter what had happened in the past, no matter what might happen in the future, she knew that this day was perfect, and it would always be there in her memory, perfect.

There was all it represented, of course: she had a family now, parents who loved each other fiercely and deeply and forever. They’d made long-awaited promises, and she’d felt their shared love blaze so strongly when they did that even the people watching who weren’t telepathic had to feel it.

On a much more basic level, though, it had all the elements of perfection. She had worn her prettiest princess dress, flowers in her hair, flowers in her hands. She’d got to ride in a big black shiny car, like a film star. Now she’d arrived at Linette’s place, one hand held by Rikky, the other supposedly held by Bob, to find the place was full of friends chatting and dancing. There were some who Rikky hadn't seen for years, old friends from his time on the road. She shrieked to see the balloons, the streamers, the heaving buffet table full of tasty things to nibble. Then she saw it: the cake: half as big as her and covered in edible glitter. Glitter, that was edible.

She started to sob, crumpling into Rikky and burying her head in the fabric of his immaculately tailored suit. He exchanged a worried glance with Bob before wrapping his arms tightly around her and bobbing down to her level.

"Cuckoo, what's the matter?"

"I... I don't know..." she said through hiccups, "I think... I think... I'm just so happy it hurts. You can EAT the GLITTER!"

"Why don't you two go and cut it, see if it's as exciting on the inside," Bob said with a chuckle.

Fang turned and grinned as the happy couple and their daughter entered the bar. He was looking rather dashing in what he considered a 'suit,' an outfit which involved a leather jacket, his one White Shirt and far too much aftershave and hair gel. He was in his element.

He'd been playing some nice, soothing instrumentals to pass the time until they arrived, but now it was time for the fun to begin. He had his instructions and he was looking forward to the moment everyone realised why the song had been picked.

The music stopped and he stood, keeping his announcement short and sweet. "For Rikky and Bob!"

The keys danced under his fingers as they spelled out the short intro to...

"Maybe I didn't treat you
Quite as good as I should have..."

Ana smiled and gave a polite wave to Cuckoo. The kid looked good alright. But she did have a good teacher.

Andrei was fiddling uncomfortably with his tie. He hated his tie. Not even all the alcohol that accompanied a wedding could temper it.

Ana sensed this and stood up, grabbing her husband's hand as the band picked up. "Oh, I love this song. Should we dance?"

Andrei sighed and set down his wine, and stood up to meet her with a smile.

"Why not? Someone ought to have fun at a wedding."

"That's our cue,"Rikky grinned as Fang announced their big number.

"Oh. Right."

Bob paled slightly, giving Rikky's hand a tight squeeze as they walked across the dance floor and took each other in their arms, just as they'd practiced. Rikky beamed a reassuring smile and a few moments later they were skimming across the dance floor in a way that made it look easy.

"I told you it wouldn't be so bad," Rikky whispered after a minute or so, leaning in close. "Once you get into the moment, everything else fades away. It's just me and you and our love and stuff."

"That is very beautiful," Bob said, flushing, "But unfortunately I'm currently having to make a whole room of people see us dancing flawlessly, while also making sure I feel tangible to you, while also having this conversation, and I've been having to do similar tricks all day. Most newlyweds just have to worry about treading on their partner's shoes. I'm exhausted, Rikky."

"Oh man. I'm sorry, I didn't... man. I'm gonna have to get better at remembering how hard things are for you. You need to stop? I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"I'll be fine for a while" Bob said quickly, "just a little while longer."

The next songs were Fang's own choice, but he'd picked them with care. A strangely melancholy rendition of Strawberry Fields Forever was next. He remembered the last time he'd played it, right there on request by Cuckoo. He had to admit how heartwarming it was to see the kid so happy. It was days like this he could let himself really believe that people were pretty great, actually.

A laptop sat on the small table next to the piano for later, hooked up to speakers. It displayed a playlist anyone could add to, though it wasn't a complete free for all; Fang had a feeling Linette was keeping an eye on things from afar. Sure enough, when a grinning, scruffy guy added 23 repeats of Spooky Scary Skeletons, the next time he glanced over it had been reduced to one.

The final song was a bit of a wildcard, but one he hoped'd go down well. It reminded him of Rikky and Bob in some ways, and it was a bit of a change of pace from the previous two. Not fast or energetic no, but heartfelt and a decent bridge to whatever chaos was yet to play from the speakers. He'd personally made sure a few 'wedding classics' were on there.

As the final chord echoed away into nothingness, he made an overtheatrical bow, hit play, and headed off to the bar, grinning.

Out of all the guests currently crammed into Linette's bar, there was one that Bob didn't have to make an effort to project out to. One who, in fact, didn't want to be there at all, but the combined efforts of a childish, hand-written invite and pressure from her roommate had been too much for her to hold up against, in the end. Sometimes, Anna had reasoned with a sigh, compromises were necessary.

So she'd come. She'd reluctantly bought some slightly nicer clothing, pulled her hair into a severe bun, and built up her mental shields as tightly as she could before allowing Steve to drag her out of the cabin and down into town for the wedding and reception. Cake, apparently, was going to be present. Having never attended a wedding before, Anna simply took Steve's word for it.

She supposed the actual ceremony was nice enough. Her complete inability to see one of the grooms hampered things, and the onesided kiss Rikky gave to apparent thin air brought one of her eyebrows high on her forehead at the odd sight, but it was nice enough regardless. Emotions pressed against her shields - happy ones, thankfully, and muted, but it was still something of a relief to step away from the ceremony and take a few minutes to breathe while Steve left her to her own devices as things moved to the bar for the reception.

Her few minutes of breathing time stretched into several, until finally, her quiet reverie was interrupted by a set of footsteps. "Nice day, isn't it?" Lazlow asked, entirely too light and breezy to be an actual question, and shoved his hands into his pockets with a smile.

Anna rolled her eyes. "If Steve sent you to fetch me, he's wasting your time. I'm nearly done here."

"Steve? Nah." The wizard grinned at her, his dark blue suit twinkling at the pockets with stardust. "Just wanted some fresh air, that's all."

"Hm."

"You missed the first dance," Lazlow went on blithely, "and the cutting of the cake. Cuckoo's looking for you, by the way. You know you're supposed to RSVP to an invitation, right?"

She shot him a look. In response, he pulled his hands from his pockets, raising them with open palms in a 'don't shoot me' position, face the very picture of innocence. "Cake's good," he said after a full moment where Anna didn't try to eviscerate him, verbally or physically. His hands dipped back down and he hooked his thumbs into his pockets casually, offering one elbow to her. "Come on, Cuckoo's already cried over the edible glitter. How can you say no to that?"

Anna shook her head and, ignoring his elbow, began to walk to the bar. Huffing a chuckle, Lazlow let his elbow fall back to his side and fell easily in step with her, a handful of inches denoting the space between them.

He held open the door for her, presumably on autopilot. Anna refrained from rolling her eyes, bolstered her shields, and stepped into the reception.

"MY DUDES." Steve came running when he saw them, and only a previous conversation with Anna about 'personal space' saw him refrain from flinging his arms around both their shoulders. It was a good thing too, as he was holding a plate piled high with food that didn't usually belong in the same buffet, let alone plate.

"This is awesome. It's been like, forever since I've been to a party like this."

It had not. It'd been a year or two at most, though it had to be said that party hadn't been entirely voluntary. "There's food and everything. You guys want drinks? I can go get us all some drinks."

---
Fang and Terrence had passed many evenings in Linette's bar talking the night away before, and the only difference this time it seemed, was that they were either slightly or extremely better dressed than usual (respectively,) and there were rather more people around. It'd been a while, and Fang found himself talking less and less as he let himself enjoy the sound of his friend's voice, and the brown, slightly noxious smelling drink in front of him.

Terrence's body language suddenly shifted a little, before he changed the tide of the conversation with a single sentence.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You mean another one?" Fang grinned as Terrence turned red.

"Well. Yes." The dog took a breath and looked away, as if second guessing what he was about to say. "You've been distant lately, ever since the casino. Is something wrong?"

The look on his face and tone of his voice suggested he really meant 'did I do something wrong? are we still friends?' But he didn't want to sound childish.

"Maybe something's wrong, but it's fine. You don't need to worry about it."

It was true, Fang had been trying to keep a greater distance than usual. This was their first real conversation since that day and even though he still wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond, he had to admit he'd expected a conversation like this eventually. He could only hope he sounded sincere when he replied.

"Listen, Linette wants me to stop dragging you into my shit, until I've got a bunch of my other shit sorted. It's nothing you've done, bud. I'd hang out with you if I could."

Terrence's head tilted to the side in the way it did when he was thinking about something very deeply.

"We could still hang out without involving the... Shit." He ventured, cautiously. "I think we'd both just need to be a bit more careful, and I can try to be more astute! And in the future, if you want to talk about anything..." He made some sort of vague, flappy hand gesture that didn't mean 'I'll be happy to listen' at all, but Fang still somehow interpreted correctly. Astute. It seemed Terrence was already doing a pretty decent job of that. Naive he may be, but he wasn't stupid.

"Terrence."

The dog shrank back a little and his shoulders raised at the ominous sound of his name.

"Why the fuck are we trying to talk over this blaring music when we could be dancing?"

Terrence's posture relaxed, and he smiled widely as the two of them stumbled to their feet.