Chapter Text
*Troye's pov*
I stand in front of the mirror nervously adjusting and re-adjusting my tie, the collar of my jacket, my hair, any slight detail that might be even slightly out of place. Even though I know that I'm not making the slightest difference. Everything had to be perfect.
We'd settled on a simple, black suit and a fitted, white shirt, but even so it had taken hours of searching the shops for Mom to deem one worthy of the occasion. They had all been the wrong shade, the wrong style or just didn't fit properly. But eventually, after trying on countless garments, I had put this one on and she had looked on the verge of tears. "You look so handsome and grown up." She'd said softly, which had caused me to blush in embarrassment. Then in a small attempt to make the outfit slightly unique we were looking at the brighter, more colourful ties to pair it with. My eyes had skimmed across the varieties and options until they'd settled on a slim turquoise one. My fingers skimmed across the smooth, silk material. "Matches your eyes." Mom had said when she'd noticed my attention on it. Which had solidified my choice, so I pulled it off the rack, then hesitated and pulled out my phone.
Troye:~ Hey, how do you feel about matching ties? Xxx
Connor:~ Do you mean in general or us? Xxx
Troye:~ Us. I just found one I like and thought I should ask? Xxx
Connor:~ Sure why not, saves me the trouble of finding one xxx
Troye:~ Wow such enthusiasm Con xxx
Connor:~ Ooh sorry, I meant: I would love to have matching ties with you!! Xxx
Troye:~ That was just unnecessary xxx
Connor:~ No it wasn't xxx
Troye:~ sigh xxx
Connor:~ Don't you roll your eyes at me xxx
Troye:~ How do you know I am?! Xxx
Connor:~ I know you xxx
Connor:~ So quit it and go and buy the ties xxx
"Troye! They're here." Mom calls loudly from downstairs snapping me out of my memories. After one last nervous glance in the mirror, I check I have everything I need. Phone, wallet, keys. Check.
My breath catches when I reach the landing and see Con standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking heart stoppingly handsome in his suit. My eyes rake over his body and I can feel the heat of his gaze as he returns my stare. I hurry down the stairs, doing my best not to stumble but I've never been very good at graceful, especially where he's concerned. When I reach him I pull him into a kiss, consciously stopping myself from threading my fingers into his hair and messing it all up. We're interrupted by a bright flash and part to see my Mom standing there grinning with a camera pointing at us.
"Mom!..." I whine, "Ssh you'll thank me one day," she teases and goes off to chat to Connor's parents in the kitchen. "Hey." Con says softly, "Hi." I reply. "I've got something for you," Con says rummaging around in his pockets and pulling out a small blue box. "What's that?" I ask raising an eyebrow in question, but he just rolls his eyes and ignores my question. Settling instead for opening the box, revealing a white rose boutonniere nestled in the blue silk lining.
*Connor's pov*
I hear Troye's sharp intake of breath, but my eyes don't leave his as I pull the flower out and pin it to the lapel of his jacket. "It's beautiful." He breathes out, fingers gently tracing the edges of the soft, white petals. "Suits you." I tell him and he blushes adorably.
"Come on boys! Picture time!" Mom calls and starts to herd us out into the back garden. We end up awkwardly stood next to each other while his mom snapped pictures of us. "Relax. She asked us to smile not grimace." I whisper in his ear, as he's looking kind of uncomfortable and tense. "Eugh. I can't, she's embarrassing." He whispers back and I grin. "Nah she's just enthusiastic," I say and he snorts, "Well that's the understatement of the year." But even so I feel him lean into me more and loosen up slightly.
We end up with some nice pictures in the end, if his mom's grinning face is anything to go by, but we're both more than grateful to be saved by the doorbell, signalling the others arrival. We get outside and see them all gathered by the limo, all looking stunning. I feel my mouth fall open into a wide, gaping grin and I glance at Troye to see his face mirroring my expression. We take in the happy, grinning faces of our friends, all looking incredible in their suits and Zoe in her stunning floaty dress, not to mention the stretched limo stood behind them.
"Hey guys!" They all call excitedly, "Hey! You all look incredible!" Troye replies. "Cheers mate. You don't look so bad yourselves." Joe says jokingly, causing Caspar to snort in amusement and pull him closer to him. "Thanks." I say rolling my eyes at Joe. "I love your dress Zo." Troye tells her and she grins "Thanks." She says while picking her skirt up slightly and twirling around. Once she's finished spinning she collapses against Alfie's chest, who wraps his arms around her to support her and stop her falling flat on her face.
We end up lining up along the limo for photos, all grinning happily and pressed up against each other to get us all in the frame. I can't help but feel so grateful that I met these people and get to be truly me around them, no matter how weird and unconventional that may be. Once all the pictures have been taken of us in a multitude of different poses, we all clamber into the limo and marvel at the swanky interior. The seats are all leather and there's a thin strip of LEDs along the edge of the roof. There's some generic pop music playing in the background and I can feel Troye's leg twitching in excitement beside me. I can see everyone's excited as we're all a bit jumpy from the anticipation and excess energy in the car, so none of us can sit still for long.
The journey passes in a blink of an eye and before I know it, we're climbing out of the limo at the venue. "Aah!" I hear from behind me and swivel round to see Zoe half in, half out of the limo, arms clutched around Alfie to keep from falling completely out. He steadies her and once she's out, she grins at us sheepishly. "You sure haven't been drinking Zo?" Troye teases, "No! I'm just excited! Plus these heels are ambitiously high for me." She says. "Sure Zo, we all believe you." Joe teases sarcastically, which just causes her to whack him. By the time we're all safely out of the limo and gathered out of the way of the incoming vehicles were all a giggling mess.
We stand there watching people arrive, sharing hello's and small talk with the ones we know, but mostly just commenting on the arrivals to each other. We see couples arrive in classical cars, large groups of friends pouring out of stretched limos like our own and a few people arriving without any fuss in their usual cars. It's also entertaining seeing who's arriving with who as the last month or so's gossip and rumours has culminated in tonight.
Once the majority of the people have arrived, we decide to head further into the venue. Finding ourselves a couple of benches and some drinks, which are clearly meant to look like fancy cocktails even though they're probably only fruit juice with bits of fruit in in fancy glasses. We survey the outside area, seeing the professional photographer positioned in front of the large pond with flowers and bushes surrounding it, ready to take the individual and group photos. It really is a beautiful set up and I can feel the itch to document it, to attempt to capture it's beauty in a photo. I can visualise the the angle and lighting it would need to be perfect when Troye grabs my hand to pull me up. "You coming?" He asks, twinkle of amusement sparkling in his eyes, "Huh?" I ask, "We're going to look around inside, which you would know if you were listening." He teases. "Sorry, got lost in the view." I say sheepishly, "More interesting than us clearly." He jokes, "Nah I could stare at you much longer." I say. "Gross." Joe jokes, "Yea you two really are sickeningly sweet." Tyler adds and I flush having forgotten the others were there as well. "Aww. Leave them alone, they're in love!" Zoe says, "Believe me, we know." Joe says dryly. "Ok well moving on from us, I thought we were going inside?" I say, "Well it's your own fault, you can't say things like that and not expect us to comment on it." Alfie says but luckily we start moving inside anyway.
Once inside we claim a large circular table. The centerpiece is 3 chunky, pillar candles, with silver and blue stars a sprinkled artistically around them. Strings of fairy lights are strung along the outside of the room and there's a projector running on one of the walls. I watch as it flicks through pictures ranging from when we first arrived here to now. "Aww look at you!" Troye says pointing to a particularly young picture of me and Tyler that had just appeared. "Oh god, I've been trying to forget that hairstyle." I say, relieved when the picture flicks back off screen. "That was you two wasn't it?" Tyler demands looking at Joe and Caspar who are smirking evilly back at him. "Don't worry Ty you'll get your chance to laugh at them." Zoe tells him, "How? I can't submit any now!" He whines, but a glance at Zoe's face displays the mischief glinting in her eyes. "What have you done Zo?" Joe asks worriedly, "Have to wait and see won't you." She says innocently.
The pictures start to turn into the groups of people we don't know so well so our attention drifts away from the projector. That is until Tyler's face lights up, “Zoe you are incredible!” he says and we all look up a picture of a younger Joe and Caspar wearing long, platinum blond wigs and matching luminous pink tutus. “Where?... Why?” Troye asks between laughs as he's the only one who wasn't there at the time. “I can't believe you'd bring this back Zo.” Joe moans putting his head in his hands. “Why?” Caspar asks sounding betrayed, “I saw the look on your faces when they announced the photo submission.” she says smugly. “So when was this?” Troye asks, “Drama lesson not long after we moved here.” Joe mutters from under his hands and Troye bursts out laughing.
After a couple of short speeches from teachers and tutors of which none of us pay much attention to, they announce the buffet is open so we make our way over to grab ourselves a plate. Turns out it's a pretty terrible selection, mostly featuring varying unknown sandwiches and sausage rolls, so I'm glad that I ate before hand otherwise we'd have to be stopping at a Mcdonalds or something on the way back which would be interesting in our suits.
As the evening starts to get later the music gets turned up louder and the lights on the dancefloor get turned on. Causing some people to start to migrate to the dance floor and begin the awkward task of getting people up and out of their seats. The first few are always the bravest and are generally either confident dancers or just don't give a shit what anyone thinks, so they're always fun to watch. "So do you dance?" I ask Troye, who raises his eyebrow before saying "I do, but rarely without alcohol." Causing me to laugh, "I'm sure we could find some." I tease, "Con!" He gasps shocked. "It's true when I was in the bathroom I saw a girl with a hip flask of vodka hidden in her dress." Zoe comments, "Zoe! You're not meant to encourage him!" Troye says. "What? If that's what it takes to make you dance I will do it." She teases, "You wouldn't dare." Troye says, "Try me." She replies leading to a very intense staring match between the two of them. "OK ok fine. I'll dance..." Troye concedes, "Yay!" Zoe interrupts, "later." He adds causing a mock frown on Zoe's face.
Some time later, when the dance floor is started to get more crowded and looks a bit less sad, I lean closer to Troye and quietly say: "I bet that you look good on the dance floor." Causing him look at me and see the slight daring look on my face. I can almost see the cogs going round in his head as he thinks. "Only when your standing next to me." He replies and it takes me a second to figure it out but when I do, I grin. "Get your dancing shoes on then." I tell him continuing the theme. "I don't like you anymore." Troye says not to be outdone.
"But we can dance the hellcat spangled shalalala."
"Do I wanna know?"
"It's only the No.1 party anthem."
"That's where you're wrong."
"I don't know why I'd still take you home."
"Suck it and see." Troye says leaning closer, so I can practically feel his breath on my cheek. I know he noticed me swallow when I see him smirk at me, but I manage to regain my composure enough to reply "Sounds like the dream synopsis." I say but his grin just gets wider "Sweet dreams you have." He says winking at me. "They are with the mad sounds you make in them." I smirk at him and I see the surprise flit across his face for a moment, before his expression turns positively sinful. "Just you wait till we're in my room." He breaths in my ear and I feel a shiver go down my back.
I breathe in and out slowly for a minute to calm my racing heart. "Do me a favour? Dance with me now." I say softly, "Fine, but it'll be everything you've come to expect from me." He says grinning.
"Dance little liar."
"It's only the truth."
"Well the time has come again to test you."
Will you guys snap out of it and just go and dance!" Tyler says causing us both to jump. Then, when my brain actually processes what it is he said, I share a look with Troye and we both collapse in laughter. I end up laughing so hard I have to clutch my stomach as my sides feel like they're going to split. Every time I get even slightly close to regaining control, I see Tyler's unimpressed and confused face or hearing Troye's giggling sets me off again. "What was that all about?" Tyler asks once we've calmed down a bit. "We were talking in song titles and then you accidentally joined in." Troye manages to say in between laboured breaths. "Nerds." He says, trying to sound unimpressed but I can see the grin he's trying to hold back, which is unsurprising as Tyler has always failed at keeping a straight face.
I stand up and tuck my chair under the table, "Care to dance?" I ask holding out my hand to him. He rolls his eyes but I can see the soft smile creeping onto his face so I just ignore it. He finally gives in with an exaggerated sigh and grabs my hand, intertwining our fingers as we make our way over.
We hover uncertainly at the edge of the dancers but then the song fades into the next one and I can't help but laugh. "I think the universe is trying to tell us something." I say just rolls his eyes. I said you're holding back / She said shut up and dance with me. While that is ridiculous it does help de-stress us both and we attempt to keep to stay in time. We probably look ridiculous with our arms flailing all over the place but it's also the most fun I've had all evening.
After a few songs I see the others heading over towards us and we end up forming a loose circle. All attempting to mimic each other's silly, over the top moves. So of course they only get more and more ridiculous, until some of the classics that everyone knows the dances to came on. The macarena comes on and while everyone knows it we still all spend the entire song sneaking glances at each other to make sure we're still in time and doing the right moves in the right order.
As we adjust to yet another song, I can't keep my eyes off Troye. He looks so in tune to the music, even if his movements are random and a risk to anyone around him, it's still beautiful to watch. Hips swaying to the music, arms in the air, jumping in time to the beat. Let's make the most of the night / like we're gonna die young. When the song finishes I can feel the blood pumping through my veins and my heart racing in my chest. Just dance / it'll be ok. I can feel myself being drawn closer and closer to him, like he's the centre of my orbit, until we're practically pressed against each other. She hit the floor / Next thing you know / Shawty got low low low low.
Slowly as the evening draws later, the wild, party anthems start to slow and the coupes drift together. Me and Troye included. I'm not sure it quite counts as dancing though, it's more standing there wrapped in each other's arms and swaying gently.
"Do you wanna go outside for a minute?" Troye asks, gesturing at the door as the music certainly limits conversations and I nod. We sit on one the benches just outside the doors. We can still the music drifting out but it's a lot more muffled so we can hear ourselves think and can actually talk without shouting in each others ears. I look up at the dark sky and can just see the hints of stars starting to blink into view.
"Beautiful isn't it?" I say softly, "Yea it is." He says and I glance down to see him staring softly at me. "I love you." I tell him and a second later we collide, a tangle of lips, teeth and fingers, trying to get ever closer. "I love you too." He breathes against my lips. He leans his forehead against my own and I see a strange expression pass over his face. "What is it?" I ask gently and he bites his lip. "Do you ever wonder if *we* would be a thing if these soulmate marks didn't exist?" Troye asks gesturing between the two of us. "No." I say certainly. "But how can you be sure?" He asks, "The marks may have given us a helping hand, but even without them, we would have ended up together." I tell him. "Really?" Troye says smile spreading on his face, "Yep. You know why?" I ask, "Why?" He replies. "Because you're irresistible to me." I say and pull him towards me into a soft kiss.