Raf/Grace, Bryce/Jared, various; solemn occasion (pt 1)
For the prompt: A collision of worlds at Raf and Grace's wedding: Bryce and Jared, David and Jake, maybe throw in Robbie and Georgie too…
Pre-wedding for now. We all know this thing is going to end up being 15,000 parts long.
On the drive home after Chaz and Ash ask them to be in the wedding party, Bryce says, offhand, “You know Raf’s asking next.”
“Yeah,” Jared says through a yawn. It's still early, so he thinks Chaz and Ashley’s perpetual exhaustion might be contagious.
“No, I mean, he’s going to ask you to be his best man,” Bryce says.
Jared snorts and shuts his eyes.
“I mean it,” Bryce says.
“I’d be a terrible best man,” Jared says. “Raf’s too smart to do that.”
*
Jared clearly overestimated Raf’s intelligence.
“Um,” Jared says. "Wait, really?"
Raf blinks back at him.
“Bryce said you were going to ask me that,” Jared says.
“And you said ‘good because I’m definitely going to say yes’,” Raf says. “Right?”
“Is that what you want me to say?” Jared says.
Raf shrugs.
“Are there like, responsibilities involved?” Jared asks. “Or is this a symbolic thing?”
“A few,” Raf says. “The bachelor party, I think, though obviously it’s not going to be, you know. Traditional.”
“No strip club?” Jared asks.
Raf vehemently shakes his head, and Jared relaxes.
“There are a couple other events,” Raf says. “Rehearsal dinner and the like. I think most of the logistics typically end up being handled on the bride's side, but Grace and I want to make this equitable.”
“Of course,” Jared says. “Naturally.”
Raf narrows his eyes. “You tried to make me write your vows.”
“You’re never going to stop bringing that up, are you?” Jared says.
“Your vows,” Raf says. “The words you use to express your love for and devotion your husband. You asked me to write them for you. And then you asked Chaz.”
“Okay, but I wrote my own in the end,” Jared says. Well, made a bullet pointed list, and then ignored all of it to embarrass himself in front of everyone he loved, but semantics.
“Because Chaz and I said no,” Raf says.
“Which was bullshit,” Jared says, and Raf smirks.
“You really don’t need to do much,” Raf says. “I’d rather handle everything myself, frankly.”
“You’d end up taking over even if I tried to do it, wouldn’t you?” Jared says.
“Probably,” Raf admits.
“And you don’t want me to write your vows,” Jared checks. Vows are not his forte even when they're his own.
“I actually want Grace to marry me,” Raf says, and laughs when Jared kicks him under the table.
“When’s the wedding?” Jared asks.
“Next summer,” Raf says.
“Uh,” Jared says.
“Don’t worry,” Raf says. “We’re coordinating with Chaz and Ashley so nothing overlaps. And I already gave Arvan a heads up.”
He gives Jared a look then, like ‘remember the time you forgot to tell Arvan you needed time off to get married?’. One of the drawbacks of knowing him so well is that Jared knows his looks mean, and a good number of them are withering.
*
Jared didn’t know being a best man would involve so many logistics. Like, sure, he asked what was involved, and Raf said he’d handle most of it, and Jared’s pretty sure he is handling most of it, but there are so many moving parts it makes Jared a little dizzy. And this is only two months in. Jared dreads the remaining ten if this is any indication of what’s coming.
In the movies it’s mostly funny speeches and bachelor’s parties, and he was already dreading that enough — Jared is not good at speeches or events, and he continues to be grateful Raf has absolutely zero interest in going to a strip club because Jared is way too gay to deal with that particular form of locker room talk. But they’re basically planning an event for over a hundred people, and even from the sidelines Jared can tell it’s a lot more complicated than ‘book a nice vacation house, get expensive catering, don’t forget a cake’ like his own wedding was.
There’s the venue, which they had to book a whole year in advance. The catering, but on a whole other scale. The wedding party’s been picked, and they’ve all got to match for some reason. Flowers are a thing. A big thing, apparently. Thankfully Jared doesn’t have to hear that much about them firsthand, but he knows from calls, texts, and in person venting — many of them — that they are stressing Raf out. Even at the spitefullest peak of Jared’s wedding planning he didn’t give a shit about flowers.
And all that’s not even getting into the invitees, which is what Raf called to bitch about. Jared didn’t think Raf had this many friends. Like, Jared pegged them as having a pretty similar philosophy on friendship — quality over quantity all the way — and there were like, a dozen people at Jared’s wedding.
And to be fair, there would have been more if it wasn’t for the whole ‘secret relationship both of their teams wanted to keep hidden’ thing. His mom’s side of the family hasn’t stopped giving him shit about not knowing who Jared’s husband was before it was trending on twitter. At first he thinks they were genuinely upset, but now it’s become the new running joke, like Erin getting shit about her hair constantly changing colour, and his dad getting shit about being the lesser Don in the family, and his mom gets shit about absolutely everything.
The problem, apparently, is that Raf and Grace booked a venue for two hundred people, and that’s somehow not enough.
“You seriously know hundreds of people?” Jared asks. That sounds like a nightmare. "How?"
“I mean,” Raf says. “My family. Her family. The Caps, Grace’s university friends, some former Hurricanes—“
“You still keep in touch with your teammates from the Dub?” Jared asks. “Seriously? Why?”
“You’re currently babysitting for your old captain,” Raf says.
Jared looks over to where Maia’s sitting in Bryce’s lap, both riveted by whatever show Chaz told Bryce to put on if she got cranky. Apparently blue dogs are timeless entertainment.
“That’s different,” Jared says.
“Okay,” Raf says.
“You’re friends with him too,” Jared says.
“I am,” Raf says.
“We’re babysitting specifically because your fiancée and his fiancée are currently shopping for wedding shit together,” Jared says. Well, they said ‘brainstorming’, but considering they’re brainstorming at a mall, Jared stands by describing it as shopping.
Raf was supposed to be having a day to himself, which doesn’t seem to be going well, judging by the fact he’s talking to him right now. Jared has no idea what Chaz is doing, because all he did was mumble something about ‘freedom’ and ‘go crazy’ when he dropped Maia off, and Jared felt it might be best to just leave the man alone, especially after he practically hissed after Bryce offered him a drink.
“This is only supporting my point, you know that, right?” Raf says.
Jared is unfortunately aware of that.
“Do you think it’d offend people if I kept the hockey players separate from everyone else?” Raf asks. “I know it’s not time for the seating plan yet, but —“
“I think it’d offend people if you didn’t,” Jared says. “Because hockey players are obnoxious.”
“Hey,” Raf says, then, “Good point.”
“Put them all in the corner,” Jared says.
He swears he can hear Raf taking notes.
Bryce raises his eyebrows, and Jared raises them back, then has to bite down a laugh when Bryce raises one of Maia’s pudgy little hands in a wave.
“Okay,” Raf says. “Next on the docket.”
“Is there a docket?” Jared asks. "Do you have a list in front of you? There better not be a list.”
It’s impressive that silence can sound so guilty.
Jared groans and wanders over to the couch, letting Bryce tuck him under one arm. “Okay,” he says. “For the record, I’m babysitting now, so you’re just going to hear ‘yeah’ and ‘uh huh’ to everything you say.”
There’s another silence, this time considering.
“Okay,” Raf says, and Jared ‘uh huh’s through far too much detail about ideal seating arrangements until Ash and Grace arrive to rescue them.
