“Cyrus, you need to calm the hell down,” Buffy said. “I can’t be chasing you around to try and get this tie straight.”
“If there’s going to be only one thing about you that’s was going to be straight, it’s going to be this tie,” she said. “Sit the fuck down.”
“Am I not allowed to be nervous today?” He said sitting down.
“Nope,” Andi said. “Especially when I’m fixing this manufacturing flaw on your jacket pocket.”
“What do you mean I’m not allowed to be nervous today?! This is exactly the kind of day I should be nervous for!”
“You shouldn’t” Buffy said, fixing his tie and the clip. “Because Andi and I have gone over this ten thousand times with a fine toothed combed...the kind of comb you use on lice, even. You’re not allowed to be nervous.”
“Well how do you guys expect me to calm down without going into a panic attack first?” He said wringing his hands. “I was so busy with my second semester finals I barely paid attention to planning all this.”
“Which is why Buffy and I took over some of the aspects we specialize in,” Andi said, fixing the hole. “If you want to calm down,” she said. “Why not remember what exactly got us all here?” She inspected the jacket and had Cyrus’s stand to put the jacket on him and inspect it for any other flaws, and started fixing him up before working on the flowers that would be his boutonnières of sorts.
“Yes, the day from about a year ago?” Buffy said. “Our graduation trip.”
“Oh...that day,” Cyrus couldn’t help but smile like an idiot.
“Come on guys! We’re here at Disney World!” Cyrus was jumping up and down and T.J. was holding his hand. “How are you guys so tired?”
“You’re the only one who hasn’t driven yet on this road trip,” Buffy said, yawning slightly and getting off the monorail and to the gates of Magic Kingdom. “And I thought we should have done Epcot first.”
“We’re here for ten days!” Cyrus said. “Because T.J.’s cousin works here and got us ridiculously good discounts! And we’re even staying in pretty sweet rooms.”
“Rooms one could even say are...docious magocious?” T.J. said with a shit eating grin, and Jonah groaned.
“I haven’t said that since seventh grade!” He said. “But yeah, they’re pretty cool rooms. Though it’s weird being all alone.”
“Did you really want to be in a room with a couple?” Andi asked him.
“Nope, especially since one of those couples is both of my ex-girlfriends,” he said.
They flashed him a grin and Amber kissed Andi’s cheek.
“Awww, cute,” Marty said, yawning as they passed through the gate. “But I think before anything, we stop by the Starbucks? It’s called Main Street Bakery on the map.”
“How about Cyrus and I wait in line for the Mickey and Minnie meet and greet while you guys grab coffee for us all?” T.J. suggested. “That way we get a big wait time out of the way and we get that picture done first before we get all hot and sweaty from the Florida sun?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jonah said and they split up, T.J. and Cyrus heading to The Main Street Theater for the meet and greet and the rest going to The Bakery. Once they were in line, T.J. pulled out his phone and started texting.
“Wow, really? You’re addicted,” Cyrus teased.
“I’m telling the others our drink order,” He said. “Iced grande skim milk light ice white mocha with two pumps of vanilla and a cheese danish for you, right?” T.J. was texting the group the drink orders, that was true, but what Cyrus didn’t know at the time was that he was also texting them some very specific instructions.
“You know me too well Thel,” he said smiling. “And you’re getting the venti salted cream cold foam cold brew,” he said. “With a ham and cheese croissant.”
“You forgot to add the vanilla,” he teased.
“Oh no, the horrors,” Cyrus rolled his eyes. “I’m no longer a worthy boyfriend I should just go, leave, never see you again…”
“And stop being so melodramatic?” T.J. said putting his phone away and taking his hand.
“You like my drama. You said it makes life fun...even when you couldn’t be more stressed out, like you were during your “trial” in middle school?”
“I didn’t know the maximum punishment was lunch detention!”
“Yeah...good thing I served it with you.”
“When you discovered for the first time I could play piano?”
“Piano that you later taught me…”
“Attempted to teach you. You still misuse the hell out of the una corda pedal.”
“It’s the pedal that makes it sound pretty! I love that pedal.”
“You love a lot of things,” T.J. teased pulling Cyrus closer.
“You’re one of those things. Are you sure you’re going to complain?”
“Not in the slightest,” T.J. said, pulling him in and kissing him right when the rest of the group cleared their throats.
“Your drinks your royal dorkusess?” Buffy handed Cyrus the cold brew and T.J. the white mocha, which they took and immediately swapped.
“If you mess up the next thing to give up, I’ll know you’re not really my friend,” Cyrus said.
“Don’t worry, I know you keep kosher style,” she said, handing Cyrus the cheese danish.
“Good,” he said taking a bite. “At least you’re somewhat my friend.”
“God I wish you loved me as much as you love him,” Marty teased her.
“Maybe one day.”I officially stopped carrying him around though. That’s T.J.’s job now.” There was a twinkle in her eye as she said that. Nobody noticed Amber separating from the group and going to the Cast Member at the door and whispering something in her ear before she went back to the group. The Cast Member took out her radio and called over her coordiator.
Seconds later, a man in a blue shirt and a name tag that said Tom from Kissimmee, FL came up to them. “Hey guys, Mickey and Minnie noticed you guys in the crowd and wanted to give you a special tour of their theater.”
“Whoa…really?”Cyrus said, looking around excited.
“Yeah...sometimes Mickey and his representative Cast Members like to make a bit of a magical moment for our guests,” he said. He gestured to the girl at the door.
“You guys were really cute in line,” she justified.
“Come with me please.” Tom led the group through a different door and they went through a different little area before he opened the door to an empty room with Mickey and Minnie looking over and waving at them. Cyrus immediately went up to hug them and T.J. handed his phone to the cast member at next to the photographer. Both men at the front of the room were snapping pictures while T.J. and Cyrus hugged the mice. Mickey went to gesture for the rest of the group to join them when they held out a single finger, saying ‘wait a minute.’
“Guys!” Cyrus started but T.J. took his hand. “Hey, I just wanted to say...Mickey, Minnie, you two seem to make each other’s lives quite magical, right?” Both mice did giggling gestures and hugged each other. Cyrus looked around with wide eyes and looked at his friends who did their best to look surprised. Only half of them were convincing.
“Well, this man right here is Cyrus Goodman,” he said introducing him to Mickey and Minnie. “I think he’s made my life ridiculously magical. I used to be...well...not a good person. This guy helped me change...find acceptance within myself...stop being afraid...overall just made me a better person.”
“Teej….?” Cyrus’s voice rose several octaves.
“Which is why I want to keep improving with him forever.” He pulled out the box from his pocket and got down on one knee. The idiot group of friends started squealing with excitement and even the cast members were getting in on the happy squeals. Cyrus was blushing, half laughing and half crying, covering his face and looking away. Mickey and Minnie were jumping and stomping excitedly. “Cyrus...will you be my happily ever after?”
“You…” Cyrus was laughing and crying. “You’re such a jerk! You stole my moment!” Now everyone looked confused and Cyrus pulled out a box from his pocket. “I was going to do it in front of the Cinderella castle! And ask you if you’d make my dreams come true!”
Everyone lost their minds then as T.J. started laughing and crying as well and pulled Cyrus down for a kiss, both of them clumsily exchanging the rings. A cast member came back with two purple buttons and seeing the scene, took out a sharpie and wrote on one, “I said yes!” and on the other, “I also said yes!”
“We’re still getting the Cinderella castle pictures,” Cyrus said as everyone joined in for hugs and congratulations.
“You’re getting all the pictures you want,” the photographer said. “Your vacation pictures are on me.” The two mice raised their hands. “And on Mickey and Minnie.”
The two men put on their buttons and kissed each other again.
“You guys had the perfect engagement,” Andi sighed dreamily. “I wonder if mine is going to look like that.”
“Well, all you have to do is read each other’s minds without realizing it,” he said, looking down at his light green tie. He chose the colors to match T.J.’s eyes, even coordinating the bridesmaids dresses to match him. “And then have me and Buffy as your “Best People” like I have you two.”
“Speaking of being best people,” Buffy said. “Your flowers are done, your jacket is done, and guess what?”
“You look perfect,” she said smiling and kissed the top of his head in a big sister sort of way.
Cyrus was smiling wide and he could barely control his breathing. “How much longer?”
“Five minutes,” Andi said. “Your mom and stepmom are just outside the door, waiting for you.”
“Then…here we are…” he said and he hugged his best friends. “I love both of you.”
“We love you too,” Buffy said, hugging him back with Andi, resting their heads on his shoulder. “T.J. is going to love his first look.”
“I think I am too,” he said. “You two are supposed to go before me anyways.
T.J. had gone down first with his mother, Bowie and Jonah playing them down the aisle. Then Andi and Amber walked down together, followed by Buffy and Marty. Amber and Marty separated and went to T.J.’s side while Amber and Buffy took their place on the other side, smiling as they were all under the chuppah, or more accurately T.J. was under the chuppah with the officiant who specialized in doing Jewish and Catholic mixed ceremonies and the others stood slightly to the side.
Jonah and Bowie changed the music when Cyrus started coming down, and T.J. smiled wider than he even thought possible, even wider than when Cyrus had pulled out his own ring in front of Mickey and Minnie. And if Cyrus’s cheeks were already hurting before the ceremony, they were going to rip apart out of the sheer glee of seeing the man he loved standing in front of him, in a black tux with a green tie and boutonnières, looking at him like there was nothing in the world other than the two of them.
At the front, Cyrus hugged his stepmother and then his mother before going to the front, taking T.J.’s hands and hoping that his yarmulke wasn’t crooked. T.J.’s certainly didn’t look crooked from where he was standing, but T.J. could be wearing his on his nose and Cyrus would still think it looked perfect.
T.J. looked at their hands and had to stop and remind himself that there were procedures he had to go through before he could take Cyrus and run away with him, no matter how tempted he was at that moment.
He barely paid attention to the Bible verses his family read out and the blessings Cyrus’s ridiculously huge family paid them, the entire time just staring at Cyrus’s eyes waiting for his moment.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the officiant said. “And now it’s time to exchange vows. T.J.?”
He nodded and looked over at the officiant for a second before looking back at his fiancé. He loved that word for the past year, but he was about to upgrade. “Cyrus Goodman…” he took a breath and laughed nervously. “What can I say? It started with a chocolate chocolate chip muffin...and Buffy refusing to help me unless I helped you,” he chuckled and Buffy nodded approvingly. “I was...no mincing words, I was a total jerk back then. A bad person...you’re the first person who saw the good in me trying to come out, and you helped me by talking me through a learning disability, helping me work out my feelings on a swing, letting me teach you how to do a somersault...and you influenced me to do the right thing when I encountered horrible situations, like Reed and the gun back in middle school. You helped me come out not only to everyone here, but to myself, by just being yourself. My biggest fear since I met you was losing you. You were one of the best things in my life...and I can’t wait until this is over and you can officially be the best thing I can brag about to everyone I meet, because I really am ridiculously excited to show off my husband.”
Everyone clapped politely and Cyrus had to wipe away tears. “How am I gonna top that?” He said with a little laugh. “Can I say it?” T.J. looked around thankful they had a small ceremony and that he was mostly over his insecurities and nodded. “Thelonious Jagger Kippen...god I love that name…” Andi and Buffy quickly looked at each other with wide eyes. THAT’S WHAT IT STOOD FOR?!!! “Thelonious...You say I helped you be a good person, but you helped me become a braver version of myself. You helped me tackle each one of my silly little fears, like swinging higher, doing a somersault...dirt biking?! Whoever thought I would get on one of those things?!” He laughed a little. “And I can’t wait to see what else lies in store for us...how else you’ll make me braver as we keep going. I loved presenting you as my boyfriend, I was overjoyed this past year when I introduced you as my fiancé...and now that I can brag about my husband...you’re never gonna hear me shut up again.”
“And I hope I never do,” he said gently.
“Cyrus Goodman, do you take this man to love and to hold, to honor and cherish, in sickness and health, til death do you part?”
“Thelonious Jagger Kippen, do you take this man to love and to hold, to honor and cherish, in sickness and health, til death do you part?”
“I do.” He said. “I’d be dumb not to…”
“Then by the power vested in me by the government of the United States, I now pronounce you two married. You may now kiss the groom.” They rushed over and kissed while everyone cheered. A covered glass was placed at the ground and Cyrus stepped on it hard, shattering it while everyone cheered and congratulated them.
“Time to enjoy the reception, Mr. Goodman-Kippen,” Cyrus said.
“Time to enjoy the rest of our lives, Mr. Goodman-Kippen.” T.J. said smiling.
Of course, they weren’t the only ones smiling like idiots, and they gave Marty their blessing to steal the scene after their first dance to get down on one knee himself. They shared an anniversary after all, what’s one more thing?
And just in Disney tradition, they lived happily ever after…
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