Summary: Fast-forwarding through the events of PM2 and TRR3, the gang has all moved on and manages to find some closure. Borrows dialogue from TRR3 chapter 22 and PM2 chapter 15.
Riley woke up slowly to late-morning sun already streaming through the window of the unfamiliar hotel room. Her body ached, cuts and bruises from the fighting the day before now even more painful than they had been when she went to sleep.
But Liam’s arms were around her, his warm chest pressed against her bare back. She sighed, pressing herself firmly against him, reminding herself that it was over. It was all over.
“Good morning…” he purred drowsily, “…my queen.”
She turned to face him, finding herself inches from his handsome face, even sexier before he’d had a chance to shave and smooth back his hair. “Liam…isn’t this a nice sight.”
He was glowing with happiness, and for the hundredth time she could hardly believe her luck to be loved by somebody like him. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
She ran a gentle hand over his hair and down his stubbled cheek. “Now that we’re married, it’s always going to be like this, isn’t it?” She tucked her head against his chest with a sigh. “Last night was so freaking hot.”
He chuckled, and she felt it vibrate through his chest. “I know it seems impossible, but every time that we’re together is better than the last, my queen.” Liam drummed his fingers thoughtfully against her back. “Having you last night and knowing that finally, you were my wife…it was more than I’d dreamed.”
Liam pulled her close and kissed her as she closed her eyes and forgot the world around her. “I want a lifetime of nights like that with you,” she murmured against his lips.
“Then the queen shall have it. You have all of me now. Now and forever, my love.”
Riley couldn’t stop smiling, feeling giddy from his sappy doting. Her first day married to Liam…her first day as queen. “So what are the royal plans for the day? Planting trees? Kissing babies?”
“I’m not ready to share you with the kingdom yet. I want you to myself this morning.” He pulled her into another kiss, deeper, but unhurried. When he finally pulled away, she was breathless.
“Liam…”
“Riley.” He brushed her hair away from her face. “I hate to bring this up, but I wanted to ask you something.”
“Oh?”
“Your friend travelled here for the wedding. Daniel.”
“Oh, yes! My old coworker from New York.”
“Right.” He drummed his fingers against her back again, and she realized he was nervous.
“Liam? What is it?”
“Is he…trustworthy?”
She laughed. “Of course. Daniel and I go way back. He’s harmless.”
Liam nodded slowly. “Do you think…could I entrust him with some sensitive correspondence? Something I wouldn’t want to send through the mail.”
Riley studied his face, surprised by the vulnerability there. Her heart broke a little for him as she realized what he was asking. “You need to send a letter to New York.”
He nodded again. “I am fine with leaving him in the past. You know that you are everything to me now. But I owe it to him to say something, if I can, without endangering him by reaching out to him directly.”
She squeezed him tight, snuggling into his chest once again. “I trust you. Always. Say what you need to say, and I’ll ask Daniel to drop it in the mail only once he’s back home.”
He kissed the top of her head, relaxing into her. “Thank you.”
“Say it again, Kai. Please.”
Kai laughed, wiping at the tears forming in his eyes. “I love you, Damien.”
Damien threw his arms around him, kissing his temples, his nose, his cheeks, over and over until they were both laughing.
“Kiss me for real!”
Damien obliged, his lips warm and soft as he kissed Kai tenderly, pouring years of unspoken feeling into the moment. “Sometimes it just hits me all at once… that after everything we’ve been through, everything you’ve helped me to overcome… you still want me.”
Kai rolled his eyes. “Of course I still want you…I love you.”
Damien grinned, breathless, like he could hardly believe it. “You love me.”
“And only you, Damien. You’re the love of my life.”
He shuddered slightly, his smile positively glowing. “I’ve loved you every single day since the moment I met you, Kai Park. And I never intend to stop.”
Kai punched him in the arm. “You’re such a sap.”
Damien laughed him off and stretched, popping his shoulders with a groan.
“So now that my phone service has inexplicably cut off,” he glanced at the phone cord, lying unplugged on the ground, “work is done for the day…and you’re here…maybe we could spend the evening together?”
“Of course.” He tried to play it cool, but he was barely able to contain his enthusiasm. “I’m all yours.”
“So…is there anything you wanna do? We could go somewhere…”
He looked around the familiar office, smiling. “I don’t know… There’s plenty of things to do here.”
“Like what?”
“I’d love to do some serious snooping through all your old cases.” He gestured at the files littering Damien’s desk. “Maybe we can even get this place tidied up.”
Damien shook his head, chuckling. “Tidy up if you want, but I’m not paying you.”
“You can pay me in sexual favors, if you want.”
“Mmm…” he pressed up against his back, hands on his hips, nuzzling into his neck. “OK, that I can do.”
Kai started shuffling through the mostly-unlabelled file folders with a sigh. “I don’t know why you bother with actual paper records of everything, anyway.”
Damien let him go, picking up some folders himself to sort through. “You can’t accidentally control-alt-delete a sheet of paper away.”
“That statement causes me physical pain…” he tossed some loose napkins from deep within the heap of papers into a garbage can. “Also, you could just as easily spill coffee all over a paper file, ruining it forever.”
“You can’t spill coffee on an entire filing cabinet,” Damien grumbled. “But drop one burrito on your keyboard, and suddenly all your files have been wiped from existence.”
“That’s an awfully specific example…” Kai picked up a folder and glanced inside, recognizing the case immediately. “Oh! What’s this? We worked this one together!”
Damien reached to snatch the folder away from him, but Kai easily held it out of his reach. A handwritten letter floated out of the folder and landed on the desk, as Damien watched nervously, holding his breath.
“What’s this…” Kai picked it up, tracing his finger over the elegant script as he read it to himself.
Dear D,
I hope this letter finds you well. I’ve entrusted it with a friend of my wife’s in effort to contact you covertly. Thank you for respecting this need for discretion and not trying to contact me over the past months. Your loyalty in doing so did not go unnoticed.
I feel I owe you both an explanation and an apology. No doubt you’ve put together several of the pieces on your own, as is the nature of your profession. But perhaps I can give a clearer picture and hopefully put your mind at ease over this matter.
The morning after we last spoke, I woke to an upsetting phone call presenting evidence of our relationship that I’m told you were privy to as well. I was rather strongly advised to break off all communication at once in order to prevent any further evidence from being collected and to increase deniability. As cruel as I felt in doing so, I believed it to be the safest course of action for both of us.
The blackmailer’s motives remained a mystery until we found enough evidence corroborating your theory about DK’s guilt to make an arrest. Immediately, he attempted to use the recording to bargain his way out of prosecution. I made the hard decision to give in to his demands in order to protect both of us. In the end I stripped him of his title and banished him, but he continues to live his life as a free man. For that I am sorry.
The way things ended between us weighs on me often. You know that I’ve led a sheltered life with little room for passion or risk. In the months that I spent determining who I would spend my life with, I was surprised by emotions that stirred in me. I had always thought the prospect of marriage to be political and transactional. When I found myself capable of real love and desire, perhaps I became reckless.
I should not have been reckless with you. However, I cannot find it in myself to wholly regret it. I hope you know that I have nothing but respect and fondness for you. Maybe when enough time has passed that I no longer fear a scandal, we can meet again.
One more thing: a message from my wife. She hopes that you will tell your dear friend how you feel about him. I have no specific comment on the matter, but I will say that taking a chance on love has been the smartest thing I have ever done. I wish you the best wherever your heart may take you.
Yours,
L.
Kai looked up from the letter to see Damien staring at him, biting his lip. He laughed to break the tension. “This guy is so cheesy, Damien.”
Damien chuckled, taking the letter and folder from him and tucking them both into the filing cabinet. “He’s a king. He doesn’t know how to flirt like a normal person.”
“Was that flirting? It reads like Greek tragedy.”
Damien leaned against the edge of his desk, grabbing Kai’s hands to pull him close. “Can’t fault his advice, anyway.”
“Mmm…” Kai kissed him softly, releasing his hands to run them through his hair. “Is that why you finally made a move? Your king commanded you to?”
“He’s not my…ugh. No. This was waiting for me when we got back from the whole Eros debacle. I had already told you how I felt by then.”
“Whatever. I’m never going to stop teasing you for seducing a king just because he reminded you of me.”
“Kai…you literally hooked up with my robot clone.”
Kai backed away defensively. “That is not the same! I thought he was you!”
“Right. Because at no point, while a man half your size…”
“You’re at least 85% of my size…”
“…While he’s picking you up and holding you effortlessly in the freezing cold while he fucks you up against a wall…”
“…I told Hayden all of this in confidence, by the way…”
“…It never once occurred to you…huh, something seems a little different about Damien today. Almost like he’s a super strong robot instead of a human being.”
Kai crossed his arms over his chest. “I am not having this discussion again.”
“Just admit it: You have a robot fetish.”
“I have a ‘people who look and act exactly like Damien Nazario’ fetish.”
“Sounds filthy.”
He bit his lip teasingly, grabbing Damien by the belt and pulling him back against himself. “It is.”
“Damien! Oh my god!”
Damien sat at his desk in his new home office, patiently waiting for Kai to come running in to tell him whatever news had him so excited. Sure enough, he appeared in the doorway a moment later.
“They’re coming!”
“Great. Who?”
“The king and queen! They RSVPed!”
“More information please.”
Kai was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement, but managed to contain himself to the chair across Damien’s desk. “Right. I sent an invitation to King Liam and Queen Riley. I also sent one to the Queen of England and to President Thompson, you know, just to get the standard form letter congratulations for our scrapbook.”
“Right, of course you did.”
“Anyway, Liam and Riley actually said they’re coming!”
Damien pushed his reading glasses up on top of his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “They called you?”
“No…they filled out the form on the website like everyone else.”
“Oh. Well then.” Damien turned back to his work, unimpressed. “It was just a mistake, then. Or a prank.”
“You are such a drag, D. Why can’t you believe that your old friends would want to come to the wedding?”
“Oh, I don’t know…they’re royalty, they live overseas, they left on bad terms with me, they’re afraid to even contact me for fear of a scandal…should I go on?”
“You’ll see. They’re coming.” He stood back up and flounced out the door, calling back as he walked down the hallway, “I’m putting them on the list!”
Damien peeked out from the cabin, careful not to let the guests outside notice him. Folding chairs were set out in two tidy sections with a wide aisle down the middle. Leaves were falling gently off of the red and golden trees, swaying in the wind. He had been nervous about planning for an outdoor wedding in the fall when the weather could be so unpredictable, but the gamble had paid off beautifully. He closed the door again before he was spotted.
“Alright Dames, time for a final wardrobe check.” Hope cornered him with a lint roller, running it over every square inch of fabric on his body before fussing with the boutonniere on his lapel.
“Hope…I’m sure I look fine.”
“Yeah, well…” she smoothed his hair down with her hands, tucking it behind his ears. “You didn’t pay $4000 for a photographer to look ‘fine’ in pictures.”
His eyes went wide. “Hold up…we paid HOW much for a photographer?”
“Shhh. Don’t worry about it. Don’t tell Kai I said anything.”
Right on cue, Kai came barreling up the stairs from the basement. “Ok, that’s it! I can’t take it anymore, I want to see my… oh.” He stopped short when his eyes landed on Damien, dressed in his best plum suit, the one he’d worn to the gala way back when they worked together to save the president. Kai on the other hand was all black everything, from his shirt to his tie to his jacket to his shoes.
“You look amazing.”
“You do.”
Kai ran at him, almost knocking him over with the force of his hug. Damien wrapped his arms around Kai in return, holding his close, not wanting the simple, quiet moment to end. “I love you so much,” he murmured, his lips against Kai’s throat. “I love you so much it makes me crazy.”
Kai let out a happy sigh, kissing Damien’s forehead. “…Hard same.”
He pulled away laughing, shoving Kai gently back. “Moment ruined. Get out of here.”
“No! It’s time. We’re supposed to walk out there together.”
“We are? That doesn’t seem traditional.”
Kai smirked, linking their arms together. “When have I ever been traditional?”
Riley snuggled into Liam’s side, feeling more relaxed than she had in months. She felt a little silly that they were the only ones wearing sunglasses on a cloudy day – did they do anything to obscure their identities, anyway? – but Bastien and Mara had insisted they follow their security instructions to the letter, and that including goofy sunglasses. Oh well. Being anonymous felt good, anyway.
As they waited she snuck a granola bar out of her clutch and quickly scarfed it down, hoping not to attract any hungry birds. Liam chuckled warmly next to her. “Baby needs a snack?”
“Constantly,” she answered, tapping her open palm on her bump lightly. She surveyed the other guests as they all started to take their seats. “I don’t know anybody. Is it weird that we came?”
Liam shook his head confidently. “They invited us, right? I’m sure we’re not the only people here who don’t know the other guests.”
“I don’t know…” She looked around at the other guests all speaking to each other animatedly in rapid spanish, embracing and clumping together in large groups. “It seems like everyone here is related to Damien.”
“Hmm…” Liam scanned the crowd himself, looking for exceptions. “There. They look every bit as lost as we do.” He gestured subtly towards a couple in the back row, a beautiful but nervous woman in an elegant dress and thick glasses with a shorter man looking surprisingly dapper in a salmon pink suit and a man-bun. As they watched, a young boy came sprinting up to them, crashing into the man’s arms and squeezing him tight. All three of their faces lit up with unbridled joy, the woman’s obvious discomfort melting away as she reached out to ruffle the boy’s hair.
Liam’s grip on Riley’s hand tightened, and she looked up to see his warm smile still gazing at the little family. “Soon, love,” she whispered.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a family like this?” He gestured at the smiling, laughing group that had formed all around them, children and adults alike. “Just to be surrounded by love all the time.” A little girl in front of them shoved a boy to the ground over a struggle for a toy dump truck. The boy stood up and hit her in the face with the truck. A young woman, clearly not the mother, maybe just a teenaged cousin, got between them, shouting at them both until an older woman came and ushered them all off to the side, scolding them quietly.
“Wonderful, you say?” Riley smirked up at Liam, who still looked blissful.
“Wonderful,” he repeated, letting out a small sigh. “The memories of being tortured, teased, and tormented by my brother…they’re all warm and fuzzy now. The highlights of my childhood. The memories that hurt are the ones of absence. My mother’s death. My father being too busy governing to even eat meals with us or be there to say goodnight at the end of the day, much less play with us.”
“Will it be like that for you?”
He shook his head. “Never. My father feared the loss of power. I embrace it. The more people can share the responsibility of rule, the better. I know that we’ll need nannies and we don’t be with our children every hour of the day, but we will be the ones that raise them. You and I.”
She leaned in to kiss him, but something else caught her eye just as the music started to change. “Here they come,” she whispered.
The ceremony passed in a blur. Damien was nervous, shaking and shy. Kai was also nervous, talking too fast and too loud and laughing at everything, no matter how mundane. The little old lady who officiated just beamed at them, certainly having seen her share of awkward and slightly terrified couples in her day.
At the end they kissed and they thought it would be weird in front of their families and friends, but instead the world melted away and the whole thing immediately felt right.
It was in the receiving line after the ceremony that Damien first noticed them. He saw them coming, losing his focus on the beloved great-aunt in front of him as he started to mentally scramble for what to say.
In all Kai’s rushed etiquette lessons, staying up late every night reading him silly and dated advice for how to behave at one’s own wedding, there was nothing about how to face your two royal exes.
Thankfully, Liam had spent his whole life learning how to handle himself gracefully in social situations. “Damien.” His whole face lit up when he saw him, wrapping him in his arms before he could even register what was happening. “That was beautiful. I’m so happy for the two of you.”
Riley stepped in and did the same before Damien had even managed to speak. She stood on her toes to press a firm kiss to his cheek while she squeezed him enthusiastically. “I knew you two would figure it out someday. You’re perfect together.”
Damien finally snapped out of his surprised daze, taking in the warm and surprisingly friendly couple in front of him. “I can’t believe you came!”
Kai’s arm was around him suddenly, squeezing him into his side. “I told him you were coming! He had no faith in the online RSVP system. I’m Kai, by the way.” He shook Liam’s hand enthusiastically before turning to Riley for a quick hug.
“Yes, I remember you, Kai. You’re the guy my ex-boyfriend was transparently in love with the whole time we dated.” Riley punched him playfully in the arm, smirking.
“My apologies for being so distractingly hot. You seem to have done OK for yourself though.”
“Thank you for noticing!” Riley answered, squeezing Liam’s arm. “And I loved your online RSVP system. We had to travel the countryside and personally corner every potential guest and demand to know if they’d be coming, but nobody wants to hear that story.”
Liam nodded. “Yes, that was not one of our more interesting adventures.”
Damien’s great aunt was apparently a fan of Nadia’s art, and was holding up the line gushing over her. He looked back to Liam and Riley, glad to have an extra moment with them. “Wow. It’s been so long, and you two…you look so happy.”
It was true. Now past the stage of pregnancy where her face was blotched and purple from bursting blood vessels with the force of her vomiting, Riley was settling into a lovely glow. Liam was a little softer around the edges, a little grayer at the temples, but somehow only got more handsome with age. ‘Distinguished’ might be the word, but Liam had always been that, anyway. They were dressed down for the wedding, blending in as well as two extremely attractive people could, but still fashionable and put-together. For a moment, Damien wondered how he had ever really believed these two were his peers.
And then Riley belched, a foul-smelling, terrible thing, and both their eyes went wide with terror before they dissolved into laughter, Riley letting out a string of smaller burps as she struggled to pull herself together. “Oooh my god,” she croaked finally, “The acid reflux is killing me, guys.”
Liam rubbed her back lightly, still chuckling. “I suppose that’s as good a send-off as any. We unfortunately need to take off before the reception.”
Kai frowned, patting down his pockets. “Then you won’t be in any of our photos! One second…” He tapped Nadia on the shoulder, whispering frantically to her until she produced Kai’s phone from her clutch. “Here we go. Selfie?”
“Of course,” Liam answered, smoothly stepping behind them while Riley crouched slightly in front. He snapped several photos, giddy with excitement.
“Thank you so much!”
“Thank you for inviting us,” Riley responded, hugging both of them together. “And congratulations. It was beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Damien said again, a blush rising in his cheeks as he was crushed into a group hug. “If you can…I’d love it if you kept in touch.”
“Of course, D,” Riley assured him. “We’ll talk later, OK? I promise.”
“I’d like that.”
And with that they moved down the line, Sloane and Khaan following close behind and whispering dozens of questions about what they just witnessed, Hamza nearly falling asleep on his father’s shoulders from boredom as Nadia squealed and shrieked, realizing who Liam and Riley were. Damien tried his best not to look after them, but he kept stealing glances, tracking their progress down the line until he looked up one last time to find that they were gone.