Summary: Damien Nazario is having the worst day of his life, because today is Allen’s wedding and he is his Best Man.
Disclaimer: (most) characters belong to Pixelberry Studios. M!MC Allen Park.
Pairing: Damien x OC (Ellie)
Damien Nazario walked out of the restroom a few minutes later, his bow tie undone.
“Uh, I might need some help with this.” – he said. Allen chuckled and stepped closer, tying his bow tie skillfully.
Damien felt his cheeks getting hotter with the sudden approximation. Fuck. Allen was looking fantastic on his own tuxedo.
And he couldn’t help but remember the sensation of his lips against his. He would never forget it.
But it would never happen again. Because Allen was marrying somebody else.
“Done.” – Allen said, tapping his shoulder affectionately. – “If I hadn’t see you before, I’d never think that you walked here looking like a drunkard.”
“Shut up.” – Damien said again, making Allen giggle. – “Where’s Steve?”
“He’s in another room. Hayden too.” – Allen’s smile widened and Damien felt his heart cracking a little. – “As Nadia. But I bet she’ll come here soon…”
Suddenly, the door from the adjoining room flied open and a small figure in white walked in.
“D! You freshened up good!” – Nadia exclaimed, holding a plate full of chocolates. Yeah, she was stressing eating.
“Famous last words.” – Allen chuckled.
“Oh my God…” – Damien muttered, his eyes watering. – “I usually don’t cry in weddings… But because of you I might. You look splendid, Nadia.” – and he hugged her.
“No! Get off me! I swear, if you cry on my dress, I’ll kill you!” – she punched him in the arm.
“Have I already told you how cute you look when you’re angry?”
“Oh my God, you didn’t just do this.” – Allen said.
“I’m not cute!” – Nadia protested, making both men laugh.
The double wedding happened that evening at the same time in the Terrace Room, a breathtaking view from New York on the back. It was a sunny and beautiful day of June.
Steve cried when Nadia appeared and Allen shedded a tear too when he saw Hayden. He smiled the whole time.
They had already eaten the formal four-course dinner and were mingling now. There wasn’t much for Damien to do. He had already greeted some guests before the weddings – mostly Parks, since neither Hayden and Steve had a family, and artists friends of Nadia and some college friends of both cousins. People that he didn’t know or had met just a couple of times before that evening – and that was it. Sloane came all the way from Washington D.C. (she was working at Nasa now) just to be their maid of honor. They exchanged a few words and he easily concluded that Sloane was still the same. Feeling a little out of place with that event – he didn’t blame her, he was feeling the same way –, but super excited and happy for all of her friends.
After a super boring chit chat with one of Nadia’s eccentric friends, Damien went to the restroom to freshen up. He might have drunk a few too many champagne flutes already.
When he walked outdoors, he found Nadia and Allen talking to a woman in a red dress, her back turned to him. He casually leaned against a wall, eavesdropping the conversation.
Bad habits die hard and he was a detective, after all.
“We thought you couldn’t make it!” – Nadia shouted, a little altered because of the alcohol.
“Almost! My train delayed. But I got here just a few minutes before the ceremony, so I had to sit on the back. I’m sorry I didn’t come to talk to you both earlier. Grandma already scolded me for being almost late.”
“That’s okay, what matters is that you’re here. And where’s your father?” – Allen answered her.
“He didn’t come. I guess the trip all the way here would exhaust him. He always says he’s too old to do anything now. Oh, but he sent you gifts!” – they all shared a laugh. Damien suspected that she was their cousin. They might have said that they had another one…
“So you came alone?!” – Nadia shouted again, her jaw dropping.
“Well, yeah.”
“Didn’t you bring… a partner?”
“Girl, after all that shit my last girlfriend put me through… I’ve quit dating for a while.”
“Oh yeah, I remember when you told us about her! But you’ve been single since then?! It’s been like decades ago!”
“It’s been just two years, Nadia. Besides, if I weren’t single, you wouldn’t be looking at the new Art Editor of the Mortif Magazine!”
“Ooooh!” – the cousins beamed together, clapping to the strange woman, who bowed to them.
“Oh, and let me say this: a double wedding?! Be honest with me, you both did this just to make us spend twice with the gifts, didn’t you?” – the three of them shared a laugh when Nadia spotted Damien.
“D, come here!” – she gestured at him to come closer. He grabbed himself another drink from a passing waiter and approached the trio. Allen welcomed him with a warm smile. That smile that always made him feel happy and special. – “I guess you’ve never met another cousin of ours! Damien, this is Ellie. Ellie, this is our great friend and Best Man, Damien Nazario!”
And then, the woman turned to him and he finally saw her face.
Fuck.
The woman looked at him, a sympathetic smile on her face. She extended her hand.
“Nice to meet you, Damien. I’m Eleanor, but you can call me Ellie.” – he greeted her, still feeling a little numb.
Fuck. She was gorgeous.
“The ‘third Park’, as we like to say.” – Allen chuckled.
“Although I’m not a Park technically. My surname is Zhou.”
Eleanor Zhou.
“Details. You still have Park blood running in your veins!!” – Nadia said. – “Ellie, D is that friend of ours that we told you about! Do you remember him?”
Her brown eyes were back to his, looking at and through him with new interest, head to toes. He felt himself getting hotter.
“Oh my God. You’re the one.”
Damien cleared his throat, trying to act more normal. As if he wasn’t desperately attracted to the woman right in front of him.
“I hope this is a good thing.” – he said, that charming smile he always used to get information from some suspects back on his lips.
He saw a side smile tugging on the corner of her lips, red like the dress she was wearing, when Nadia said:
“You know us, D! We always say good things about you! Unless when we don’t say it.” – his friend definitely was too drunk, by the way she giggled with her own joke.
“Alright, Nadia, I guess you should stop drinking for today!” – Allen said, taking the glass from his cousin’s hand. Nadia tried to grumble something unintelligible as Steve and Hayden approached the group.
Eleanor greeted her cousins’ partners. Damien felt like someone punched him in the stomach when he saw Allen’s face lighting up by just seeing Hayden, who leaned and kissed him on the cheek. He drank all his champagne in one go.
“Uh, I’ll get myself another drink.” – he quickly excused himself before walking away, desperate to be free of those “love’s in the air” vibes.
He stopped by the restaurant bar, asking for an Old Fashioned. There were a few people indoors, mostly still on their tables, chatting. He drank it while looking through the East River. That was a great view of Lower Manhattan at night.
He heard a few light steps approaching and a voice he knew asking for a red wine. When Damien turned to the person standing next to him, her dark brown eyes were already on him, staring back, catching him by surprise. He even stopped breathing, his eyes locked on hers.
“Damien Nazario, right?”
“Yep. Eleanor Zhou?” – he saw a smile tugging in the corner of her red lips. She nodded. – “Uh… I thought you were talking to the happy couples?”
“Yes, but they have newlyweds duties, such as talking to all their guests and not spend the whole time with their cousin who they can text every day. So here I am.” – she shrugged. He nodded, not knowing what to say and drank the rest of his drink.
He rarely acted like this, especially around someone he would find attractive. But there was something inside his head telling himself to keep his distance from Eleanor.
Well, it probably was because she was a Park. Well, sort of.
“So…” – she kept saying softly. – “You’re the hot detective friend who helped Nadia with that creepy stalker dude. The one who helped Allen and Nadia bring that evil Corporation down, and saved their…” – the woman hesitated for a second. – “…partners.”
…And the one who Allen left for a robot.
Damien cursed himself mentally. He had promised himself that he would stop thinking about that. That he would stop feeling sorry and pity for himself. He was a grown man, dammit.
He was the one who told Allen, two years before, that he would understand if things wouldn’t work between them, when Allen told him he was on an open relationship with Hayden after they found out their true nature. And it didn’t.
But, yes, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed and broken hearted when Allen chose to be with Hayden. Damien kind of knew that it would have happened anyway. Allen (and Nadia) brought Eros down because of their “Perfect Matches”. Of course he was going to choose them.
And, even though Damien was very aware about it, it hurted like hell, anyway.
“…Yep, that’s me.” – he answered and asked for another drink to the barman.
Yep, he knew he was abusing on the alcohol again and that he had promised Nadia that he would behave, but that was not being his favorite day. The person he had been in love for six years had just married. And he was his Best Man.
He deserved that drink. And all the drinks.
“Hey… hey, are you okay?” – Eleanor asked the man beside her. Damien turned down his second drink and she’s been there for, like, just five minutes.
“I’ve never been better.” – he answered, putting the glass down on the counter a little too hard.
Oh God. She had promised herself that she would stop taking care of stupid drunkards who weren’t able to know their alcohol limitations. She always ended up listening to unwanted confessions and her clothes smelling like vomit.
But hey. She had eyes. And that was a very attractive man. Her cousins didn’t lie when they told her he was handsome and hot (although Eleanor always felt a little suspicious about Nadia’s taste in men)…
But Damien Nazario was hot. There was no doubt about it.
…And he looked like someone who wanted to drown himself on whiskey.
The man was going to ask for another drink, when Ellie suddenly grabbed him by his elbow and pulled him away from the bar. She threw a fifty to the surprised bartender, not caring how much it cost for their drinks, and dragged the drunk man to the restroom. She shoved him inside, and ordered him to wash his face. Damien thought that she was stronger than she looked. Was it a Park trait? Be stronger than they look?
He could have refused following her bossy ways. But that was a kind of turn on. He liked when they were more dominant.
He ended up doing what she instructed him, with Eleanor watching him from outside the toilet, that was too small for both of them, like a hawk.
“Feeling better?” – she asked as she watched him drying his face with a towel.
“I guess so.” – the woman rolled her eyes to his answer. – “Uh, thanks…?”
“You’re welcome.” – she said as he walked out of the restroom, untying his bow-tie. – “So. You look like a reasonable guy, when you’re not trying to get drunk.”
“Thank you.” – he answered sarcastically, but she just ignored him and took a small step towards him, her face just inches from his, and kept talking:
“….So maybe you can tell me. What the fuck is going on here?”