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On their way through the dark streets of Detroit Frank was so lost in thought that he almost lost his balance when Adam suddenly nudged him with his elbow.
“What?”
“Do you hear that?” Adam asked him.
“Hear what?”
“Church bells.” Adam took one of Frank’s hand. “It’s midnight.”
“So?” Frank tilted his head, and knew full well that something was about to go down, because that was the shit-eating grin Adam only used when he was about to razz him.
“Happy Christmas, Frank!”
And then Adam, that godforsaken asshole, slung his arms around Frank’s hips and lifted him clean off the ground, to spin him around like the idiotic dumbass that he was, as if Frank was a little girl in spring.
“Jensen! Put me down, you moron!” Frank wriggled in his grip, to no avail.
“Only if you kiss me first.”
“I hate you,” Frank said, and rested his hands on Adam’s shoulder with a world-weary sigh.
“No, you don’t,” Adam muttered, looking irritatingly smug.
“No, I don’t,” Frank sighed and shook his head. “Though sometimes I wish you were still a broody asshole, because this is humiliating.”
“Not to me.”
“So you really won’t let me down until I kiss you.”
He looked at Adam’s face again. Adam was staring back with an unmoving face, and his shades were up.
“What?”
“Broody asshole,” Adam replied, with a flat, husky voice. “Like that better?”
“Jensen, I am going to make a coin purse out of your nutsack if you don’t cut this out!”
The shades slid back, and Adam lifted one eyebrow. The smirk gave him away, though.
“I guess I really have to kiss you before you let me down, huh?” Frank crossed his hands behind Adam’s neck.
“You know I never make empty threats, Pritchard.”
“Fine,” Frank gave back with the most bitch-ass dramatic sigh he could muster.
It had started to snow a little again, and soft little specks of white were dancing around their faces as they kissed.
“This is sickeningly romantic,” Frank remarked as they parted.
“What is?”
“This.” Frank shrugged. “You. Me. Kissing. Christmas night at midnight, with church bells and snowflakes.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Adam pulled Frank a little closer. “Can’t possibly get any more romantic.”
Frank looked at Adam’s lips for a moment before he met his eyes. “Jensen, if you even think about proposing I am going to kick you.”
Adam snorted and dropped his forehead against Frank’s with a chuckle. “Oh Frank,” he muttered. “I love you.”
Frank’s whole body tingled and his heart was racing and his throat went dry and his breathing hitched, all within the same second.
Words were so difficult sometimes. And it amazed Frank again and again how Adam could listen to his cynicism and sarcasm and still hear the affection that Frank was rarely able to put into words.
It was ridiculously easy this time.
“I love you too, Adam Jensen.” His words a soft puff of cloudy white that mingled with Adam’s breath. “And I don’t know what you did to me, but… I don’t want you to stop doing it.”
Adam still hadn’t put him down, still unwavering, with the strength and stamina of his artificial limbs that only he possessed. Frank stopped caring about it as they kissed. No one was here to see it anyway.
Eventually Adam did put him down though, and Frank took a small step back, shaking his head with what he was sure was a lovesick smile.
Then he narrowed his eyes because Adam was always perfectly in control of his limbs and his moves and his whole body; he never moved accidentally and that move just now did not look natural at all.
“Adam?”
“What?” Adam pulled his hand out of his pocket again.
“You just…” Frank felt his heart race again, for different reasons, and harder than before. “You just slipped something into your pocket.” He pointed accusingly at the pocket of Adam’s coat.
Adam cleared his throat and shook his head. “It’s… nothing.”
“Adam.” Frank took a step forward, his hands shaking. “You… you were about to do this, weren’t you?”
“I… Frank… come on, forget it.”
“Forget…” Frank crossed his arms. “You were going to do this… You were actually about to propose? You-”
“Please don’t call me a moron for being in love with you, Frank,” Adam said and took a deep breath. “Just… forget it. You clearly don’t want this, so it’s better we pretend this never happened.”
“Adam,” Frank said with a sigh, still trying to calm his breathing and his heartbeat; this was ridiculous, he shouldn’t be feeling that way. “It’s… appreciated. The notion. But I do not need… anything official.”
“Neither do I,” Adam replied with a wistful smile and rested his hands on Frank’s hips. “I don’t need a piece of paper or a public declaration that you’re mine, and that I’m yours, and that I’m in this for the long run.” He leaned forward and kissed the tip of Frank’s nose. “But I wanted to.”
“You…” Frank ignored the ridiculous gesture and stared at Adam with a strange, constricting feeling in his throat and chest. “You…”
“Want to spend the rest of my life with you, if that’s possible?” Adam smiled, a soft, tender thing that Frank hadn’t seen before. “Why do you think I bought that ring?”
“You what?” Frank’s throat was dry and he could only shake his head. “You… what?”
But Adam just smiled and shrugged, and Frank just felt a strange, blank fog in his head. That someone, especially a man like Adam Jensen, was in love with him was hard to grasp as it was. That this man loved him was even more difficult to handle. But that anyone, anyone at all, would ever make the decision of spending not only a time but the whole of their life with Frank Pritchard at his side was… impossible to process.
He hadn’t seen Adam move, but he suddenly found his face cradled by Adam’s black, cool fingers, and Frank realised his cheeks were wet but not because of melting snowflakes. Adam’s thumbs brushed the droplets away, and then he leaned forward to place a tender kiss onto Frank’s lips.
“Hey,” Adam whispered, so softly it was hardly audible. Then he closed his arms around Frank and pulled him close, and into a tight, firm embrace. “Hey,” he whispered again, and nuzzled Frank’s hair. “It’s okay.”
“It really isn’t,” Frank muttered into Adam’s shoulder because he suddenly felt like the world’s worst person. “You really were… and then I ruined it.”
“You ruined nothing,” Adam replied, voice soft.
“I did.” There really was someone, this wonderful, gorgeous man, who had been about to declare his intention of making Frank his forever, his happily ever after. And Frank, in his inability to accept that good things could happen to him, had ruined the moment. He had hurt the man he loved, and now everything would be shattered again.
“Frank.” The word was a little louder, but no less gentle for it.
Frank kept his face still hidden in Adam’s shoulder because that was the safest space. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to look Adam in the eyes right now. Or ever again.
“Frank, please, can you look at me?”
“No.”
“Oh, come on.” There was a smile in Adam’s voice. “I’m not going to dump you because of this.” He took Frank by the shoulders and gently pushed him away. “I should’ve known better than to do this,” he said. I know-”
“What an unromantic prick I am?” Frank couldn’t help himself.
Adam shook his head, and now it was his turn to wipe his cheek. “I just… I love you, Frank, warts, bristles and all.”
“I don’t have warts,” Frank replied, voice shaking, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say. “But enough bristles to make you cry.”
“Frank, don’t be ridiculous.” Adam shook his head. “It’s not only me turning you into a bucket full of emotional sap, it also works the other way round.”
“Yeah, and now we’re both crying and you didn’t even get to pop the question,” Frank said and dragged both hands down his face.
“I still could,” Adam replied, a lopsided little smile on his face, but his eyes were soft.
Frank dropped his hands and stared at him. “How could you still want to, after the mess I just made?”
Adam shrugged. Then he reached into his pocket.
Then he went down onto one knee.
“Frank, I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He opened his hand, revealing the silver gleam of a ring. “Will you marry me?”
Frank kept staring at him, and could only shake his head. “You really… you’re really serious,” he said in a suffocated whisper. “How can you be serious… I mean… me? Of all people in this world… me?”
“Who else?” Adam said simply, still on his knee, still holding out his ring.
Frank lost his shit harder than ever before. There was really only one thing to do, but his left hand was shaking so bad when he held it out to Adam that Adam had to take his wrist to steady it before he could slip the ring on.
It was a beautiful thing, a delicate, silver snake winding around Frank’s ring finger.
Adam gently kissed the back of Frank’s hand and quickly got up, to pull Frank into another tight embrace.
“Why are you doing this to me,” Frank almost sobbed into his shoulder. “God, I’m such a moron, I can’t handle all those feelings you’re throwing my way all the time, Jensen!”
“It’s because you love me, Pritchard,” Adam said, sounding incredibly smug.
“Yes, you jerk, I do,” Frank snapped and leaned back. “I do love you, so are you going to kiss me to make me shut up or do I need to keep on bawling into your coat?”
“Oh Frank, “Adam replied with a shake of his head and the softest smile Frank had ever seen.
And then he pulled Frank into another kiss, his arms closing tightly around Frank’s back and shoulders. Frank returned the embrace, holding on to Adam as hard as he could, and he let himself got lost in the kiss until he was freezing so much they had to end it and head home.
Adam found several very effective ways to warm Frank up again, but despite his tiredness Frank lay awake for a long time after Adam had fallen asleep. He was on his back, his left arm outstretched above him. The snake around his finger reflected the dull light coming through the blinds in specks of sliver as he turned his hand left and right.
“You moron,” he whispered, but he didn’t know if he was addressing Adam or himself.
Then he lowered his arm and turned onto his side, and let his eyes drift shut listening to Adam’s deep and even breathing.
“This is a mistake. This…” Frank took a deep breath. “This is a mistake.”
“Nonsense.”
“I look ridiculous!” Frank had no desire nor the ability to hide the streak of panic in his voice.
“You look absolutely stunning. Finger weg.” Christina swatted his hand away that was about to tug at his tie, for the hundredth time during the last ten minutes.
“I am…” Frank stared at himself in the floor length mirror of the hotel room.
“Stunning,” Christina said again.
Frank begged to differ, but there was no point in complaining. He had never expected to find himself in this situation, never in his wildest dreams or nightmares, so was it any surprise that the sight of himself in a dark blue tuxedo was freaking him out?
A tuxedo, and a fucking tie. Dark, purple silk, unobtrusive and yet elegant. So definitely not Frank that he wanted to throw up though Christina would probably have knocked that out of him too. After all it had been her and Malik who had sorted out the wardrobe issues, with neither of the grooms getting a say in it.
Frank resisted the urge to tear the fucking tie off. “But why purple?”
“It suits you,” Christina replied and tugged at the lapels of his jacket.
Frank watched himself shake his head. Christina smiled at his mirror image, such a bright, sunny smile, that he felt his lips twitch.
“Not having any second thoughts now, are you?” she asked.
“Not… really.” Frank looked closer at his face. He seemed a little pale around the nose. “Just…”
“Nervous. I get it.” Christina patted his shoulder. “I was nervous too. But trust me. As soon as you see him, everything else is absolutely insignificant.”
“If you say so.”
“I’m married. I know what I’m talking about.”
A knock on the door, and Sarif stuck his head in. “Are you good to go, Frank? The officiant is ready and everything and everyone is waiting for the grooms.”
“As ready as I can be,” Frank replied, fully aware of how shaky his voice was.
“Good!” Sarif smiled warmly and nodded. “I’ll set everything in motion.”
Frank took a deep breath, and then Christina hooked her arm through his.
“You’ll be fine. It will be perfect.” She patted his shoulder.
“I guess.”
Sarif had been so touched when Adam had mentioned the proposal that he wanted to throw them the wedding to end all weddings. It had taken both of them digging in their heels, and Malik as a back-up, to get him to tone it down. So now they had booked a nice hotel for the reception, but nothing luxurious, nothing with a thousand dollars worth of floral decoration, no twelve different wines, no champagne fountain, and no caviar on blinis.
There was a buffet on one side of the lobby and a manned bar at the other, and at the wall opposite the entrance door stood the officiant. Just as Frank entered the lobby from the corridor to the right side, Adam and Malik emerged from the other end.
Frank was so stunned he forgot how his legs worked.
Adam was wearing the same blue tuxedo, but his tie was a dark, silky gold. He looked absolutely stunning, it was the only word, and Frank’s throat was suddenly so dry he could hardly swallow.
This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be real; this man could not possibly be here to tie the knot with Frank fucking Pritchard. But now Adam saw him and his eyes widened, and he swallowed so hard Frank could see his Adam’s apple bob behind the collar of the shirt and the knot of the tie.
Christina tugged at his arm and Frank followed her, not knowing how he remembered how to breathe.
They came to halt a few steps apart, the officiant between them, and Christina stepped behind Frank, while Malik, equally stunning in a dark blue dress, stepped behind Adam.
Unable to tears his eyes off the man in front of him, unable to think of anything else, the speech of the officiant hardly made sense, and he only heard it as if from far away.
Until…
“Do you, Adam Jensen, take Frank Pritchard as your husband, to have and to hold, in good times and in bad, until death will part you?”
Adam swallowed and took a deep breath. “I do.”
“And do you, Frank Pritchard, take Adam Jensen as your husband, to have and to hold, in good times and in bad, until death will part you?”
And now Frank felt and heard himself say two words that he never, ever, have thought he’d ever say, and surprisingly it wasn’t even a hoarse, shaky stutter.
“I do.”
Adam’s eyes were on his, and Frank was aware of nothing else but those eyes.
“The rings, please.”
Malik stepped to Adam’s side now and handed him a small piece of black silk. Adam took it and unwrapped the simple gold band. Frank held out his right hand, and Adam slipped the ring onto his finger.
It still felt so utterly surreal, but then Frank looked up, and saw a smile on Adam’s face he had never seen there before. He needed a few seconds to process that before a nudge from Christina’s elbow brought him back to the matter at hand.
The ring she gave him was a simple gold band too, and while the ring was as round as a ring should be, the profile of the ring was rectangular. It had to be uncomfortable to wear a ring with edges like that, even for Adam’s synthetic fingers, and Frank frowned a little as he picked it up. Adam’s fingers might be synthetic, but this seemed more than impractical. They had discussed the matter of rings, and if Adam should have a ring at all, with his hands and his lines of work.
The ring was also surprisingly heavy, but Adam held out his hand, and Frank rolled his shoulders.
The moment he slipped the ring over Adam’s finger, a faint whirring sound made him almost jump. The lowest joint of the ring finger extended and clicked, and a groove appeared at the base of the finger. The ring slid into that groove with another click, and with another whirring sound the finger contracted again. Now the ring sat not only snugly around Adam’s finger but was but embedded into it, the surface smooth and even, the gold a stark contrast to the black polymer of the finger.
That ring could never be damaged or get lost.
Frank looked up again, and at Adam’s incredibly smug and at the same time happy face. And then the bastard actually winked, making Frank’s stomach do a somersault.
“You may now…”
Adam reached for Frank’s shoulders and pulled him close, and into a kiss that made Frank’s knees go weak. A kiss that he never wanted to end.
“...kiss the groom,” the officiant said, the smile audible in her voice.
Only then did Frank remember that they weren’t alone.
They broke the kiss but didn’t let go of each other. Frank felt a smile on his face that felt new and unfamiliar, but no less good for it. He saw a similar unfamiliar smile on Adam’s face.
The applause startled them both out of the bubble they had been in since the exchange of the rings, and without stepping away from each other they turned around to face the crowd.
Although crowd was putting it a bit strong, seeing as neither of the two had wanted a huge celebration. Sarif and Athene and a few staff members of Sarif Industries, Adam’s parents and two maternal aunts, Malik’s girlfriend, Christina’s family, and yes, at the back, even Frank’s parents. He had invited them more because he felt he had to, not because he wanted to, but now they were here, and they were both smiling. His mother dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.
The applause died off again and now Sarif stepped forward to be the first to shake their hands and congratulate them.
Sarif was also the one to get up after everyone had settled down with food and drinks, knocking a spoon against his glass, to hold the reception speech. There had been no talking him out of that.
“I have to admit, two years ago I wouldn’t have been able to imagine I’d ever see this day. I certainly would never have expected to find myself in this happy situation.” Sarif said, his voice warm and his smile fond. “I do remember that the first words Frank said to Adam...”
“Please don’t,” Frank whispered desperately and buried his face in his hands.
Sarif cleared his throat with a smile that made it obvious how much he was enjoying himself right now.
“The first words he said to Adam after I introduced them to each other were: ‘Are you kidding me? A bloody ex-cop?’ to which Adam replied: ‘Ex-swat, but I doubt someone who eats code for breakfast understands the difference’ and you can imagine that it didn't get better from there.”
Amidst the general good-natured chuckles, Frank wanted to sink out of his chair to hide under the table, but Adam took his hand and entwined their fingers. Frank looked up with a fatalistic sigh and a shrug, and Adam shook his head with an equally embarrassed smile.
“You have come a long way, you two, and I can only say I’m happy that way has led us here, to this day, to celebrate both of you. You’ve already been through a lot together, and I know that whatever fate decides to throw your way now, you can weather that together too.” He lifted his glass. “To the grooms!”
Everyone now raised their glasses as well to toast the grooms, and Sarif sat down again.
“You just had to embarrass us both, didn’t you?” Frank muttered.
“It’s traditional, Frank.” He held out his glass. “Congratulations.”
Frank huffed out a chuckle and brought up his own glass to clink them together, while under the table Adam’s fingers closed even tighter around Frank’s own.
They tried to make a break for it at the earliest possible opportunity, leaving friends and family to celebrate their union without them, because right now Frank wanted only two things: to get out of this damn suit, and to get Adam out of his suit.
It was so late it was almost early again when they finally were too spent to move anymore, and as they snuggled up together – Frank was a pro at cuddling now after all this time – Frank reached over and took Adam’s right hand in his own. He lifted their arms, their right hands entwined, with both their rings shining in dull gold.
“An augmented wedding ring?” Frank asked then with a crooked smile.
“Seemed like a good idea.” Adam turned his head to smile at him. “I think it suits me.”
“It does.” Frank returned that smile. “It’s perfect.”
They exchanged a few warm, tender kisses, both of them too beat to do anything else. They fell asleep holding on to each other.
After two weeks of honeymoon on Jamaica – Sarif seemed to have a strong opinion about proper wedding gifts – Frank and Adam returned to work the same day, side by side, hand in hand.
“Having a deja-vu?” Adam asked with a wink.
“Yes and no,” Frank said and smiled at him. “No one is giving us funny looks this time.”
They crossed the lobby and Adam reluctantly let go of Frank’s hand to head for the stairs and his own office. Frank watched him go with a sigh before he turned around, and paused for a moment as he looked at the locked door of his office. And at the name next to it, fresh, brand new letters.
Tech Lab
Frank Jensen-Pritchard.
Frank rolled his shoulders with a smile that got comfortable on his face, and unlocked the door to his office.