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Gideon was getting married .
Gideon was getting fucking married.
Gideon was getting fucking married again .
Gideon was getting fucking married again, with three pixies .
Gideon was getting fucking married again, with three pixies, because of him .
Saying he was feeling guilty was an overstatement, Kremy had surely made Gideon do much worse (such as asking him to kill people or taking a hold of his mind for a few seconds), but usually those things were discussed prior and consensual between them both.
He just had never expected the pixies to sign the contract without making any amends!
(Part of him was even a bit offended that his own pixie… what was her name again? Whatever, that his own pixie didn’t care if she was marrying him or Gideon.)
So, he wasn’t feeling exactly guilty , per say, but he wasn’t feeling good either, like he usually did when he pulled something like this off. If it was with Gricko, or Frost, he would probably be having a laugh right now… so why did he feel so… gross ?
Like he had done something really, really bad?
Kremy sighed, fixing his flower and top hat as he looked down the aisle, seeing Gideon talking to that old man of a centaur, who could barely hold the book in his hands. Gideon seemed to be having a blast but also seemed fairly concerned about the man. That was so Gideon. He had that exterior of a buff guy that really didn’ give a fuck… but inside he was a damned soft little boy who cared too much about anyone around him. Kremy had tried to toughen him up… partially succeeded… but taking that innocence away from the large man completely felt… wrong.
Like how this wedding felt wrong.
A lot of things had felt wrong ever since they entered this damned carnival.
“Kremy?” he heard Gricko call, and he turned to look at the goblin. “You alright man? You seem tense!”
“Of course I’m tense, it’s my best guy’s wedding” Kremy said, shaking his head with a huff. “And a three way wedding too…”
“I’m surprised Gideon still wanted you as his best man after you lied to him and tied him to not one but three pixies by a contract” Frost said, his calm and steady voice making Kremy’s blood freeze. “I mean I would be personally furious.”
“So would I! Luckily that isn’t me” Gricko chuckled, and Kremy looked back at Gideon, how he was chatting with the centaur, even laughing about something, carefree and careless like this was just another thursday.
He turned towards Kremy, smile warming slightly more, and Kremy felt legitimate guilt in his chest this time. Guilt… shame… and something else he couldn’t quite name.
But it brought a burning to the back of his eyes just the same.
By all the gods in the universe and beyond… he didn’t fucking deserve Gideon Coal in his life.
Suddenly, everyone stood, and the song started to play. He tensed up, fixing his suit, pushing those thoughts away and waiting five seconds before beginning to walk. All eyes were on him, and as he looked forward at Gideon, he felt breathless. The world stopped. Before he could think, he felt that Fae magic taking over him, the same one that had made him do… insane things all throughout the festival. The same one that didn’t allow him to lie.
His and Gideon’s eyes met, the world stopped, the music quieted, everything was in slow motion.
That feeling, buried inside his chest, deep within, hurting, consuming, gnawing at his insides… it was… love…
He was in love with Gideon Coal…
His heart skipped several beats, his cheeks burnt despite his cold blood, his hands squeezed his suit nervously, he almost lost his balance. Gideon’s eyes, wide and bright and fiery staring back at him, his mustache and hair and beard perfectly groomed, the beautiful white to yellow to orange to red suit that fit him so well, showed off his muscles while hiding them away… and his smile…
His damned fucking smile…
The world came back to him like a shot of an eldrich blast as he stepped on the altar and stood to Gideon’s side, not to his front, where the brides would be. It was like his stomach sunk to the floor. He stared at that empty space, wishing to just step there, say fuck it to whatever deal they made and marry Gideon. By the Baron what was wrong with him?! Gideon was his best friend! His only friend! His bodyguard, his partner in crime, his family!
His… family?
Kremy closed his eyes, there was a ringing in his ears he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to. He knew the wedding was still happening, Gricko was coming down the aisle, then Frost, then the brides, but he couldn’t see it, he couldn’t look. Gideon’s warmth irradiated from his arm, and Kremy felt like he was burning inside out. Everything about this was wrong, it should have been him! It should have been him !
He felt a hand touching his leg and his eyes snapped open. He looked down, seeing Gricko fuming towards a guy in the crowd, and grunted quietly out of his own frustration before looking up again. Frost was arriving by then, and looking down to the entrance, he could see the pixies making a line. This was torture. The worst kind of torture.
The wedding went on with each bride coming up to the altar one at a time, screaming and squealing about how much they loooooved Gideon, while Kremy felt more and more and more frustrated by the second. The wedding started, the old centaur beginning the ceremony proper, and Gricko and Frost couldn’t shut the fuck up , making it even more impossible to bare.
“If anyone says any other word they will get married! Shut up!” the centaur cried out in his old man’s voice after a long time of Gricko being, well, Gricko, and silence fell over the room.
If anyone else said… another word?
Kremy looked towards Gideon with a side glance. Gideon seemed distracted by the pixies and everything else going on. He seemed to be enjoying himself overall, despite not really wanting to get married. Maybe if… maybe if he didn’t mind marrying the pixies…
No. Kremy closed his eyes. No. He couldn’t do this. Gideon was his best friend, he didn’t want this, he would never agree to something like this…
But… what if it was accidental?
“ Gid, say sike right now ” he found himself muttering, and Gideon turned to him, his eyes confused.
“Sike? Why would I say that?”
“ Just say it, say sike, say it’s ironic… ”
“Wha-what is ironic? Kremy you’re not making any sense.”
“Man just… just say it, just say it’s ironic!”
“O-okay man it’s ironic-”
The centaur raised his eyes from the book, looking absolutely pissed as he had been reading the rest of the ceremony passages, before he turned a few pages back and cleaned his throat.
“And Kremy Lecroux” he said, and returned to his reading.
Gideon looked absolutely lost, but hope flared in Kremy’s chest as he heard his name being spoken. Had it… had it worked? Was he part of this, was he… was he getting married to Gideon?!
Confirmation came a few moments later, when the centaur announced the married party: Gideon Coal, the three pixies (damned if he cared about their names) and Kremy Lecroux.
He was… officially… legally… married to Gideon.
Of course Gideon didn’t understand, he kissed the pixies and didn’t kiss him, but… but that didn’t matter. The fire of jealousy in his tummy couldn’t compare with the happiness in his heart. He felt overjoyed, he felt complete, he felt the happiest he had ever been!
He felt fucking miserable.
He had tears streaming down his face as the bullywug he had last killed sang inside his mind, the saddest songs Kremy could think of, while he sat down by a corner of the reception party and sobbed.
He didn’t know what he was expecting, honestly. He got married to Gideon by a technicality, and of course Gideon being Gideon didn’t even realize it until Kremy himself explained it to him. And when he did explain, Gideon seemed both… confused and disgusted by the idea. When he offered to exchange cake pieces, Gideon immediately refused. All he wanted was to dance and have a blast with his wives… and Kremy could drink poison and die for all Gideon fucking cared.
He had never been so heartbroken in his entire life.
Until, of course, a pixie approached him with a glass of rum and the most annoyed expression possible.
“Whatado, this drink is from the groom to you, Kremy Lecroux” the pixie said in a monotone before making a small flourish with their hand. Kremy looked over, wiping his eyes and sniffling quietly.
“Did he… did he really send this?” he asked, and the pixie nodded. “Did he tell you to do this?”
“Yes. He eve told me to do the hand thing” the pixie responded, just as bored as before. Kremy couldn’t help but chuckle.
“He knows I would like that…”
“He is waiting for you on the dancefloor” the pixie added before they left, and Kremy looked at the glass of rum before taking it in a switch gulp and sighing. He wiped his eyes, frowning at the leftover mascara that was now a mess on his hands and face, and he cleaned himself up, reapplying his mustache and breathing in.
Okay. Gideon had called for him, he wouldn’t let him down.
He approached the dancefloor, seeing Gideon there waiting for him, and he felt his cheeks warming up again as his heart skipped. He was shy as he approached, not really feeling like himself this close to the genasi, and cleared his throat.
“So… you called for me?” he asked, and Gideon looked at him with a nod.
“Well yeah I did. You were looking depressing over there in the corner crying” he said, and Kremy looked down ashamed and embarrassed
“Ah yeah… sorry about that, it’s nothing really.”
“So…” Gideon continued, kinda ignoring his apologies, and Kremy was thankful for it. “Since it is our wedding… even though it’s ironic…”
“Totally ironic” he immediately agreed even though that kinda broke his heart again.
“Yeah… Kremy…” they looked eyes, Gideon’s sparkling with that fiery determination, taking the breath out of Kremy’s lungs. “Lets dance.”
Kremy felt his whole body bursting with a new flame, eyes widening as Gideon held his hand and pulled him into the dance floor. The song was horrible (the fae magic had done something to Frost again, as expected), the rhythm was shit, and the bullywug ghost was still singing in his head, but as Gideon wrapped his arm around his waist and grinned as he took the lead, Kremy’s world disappeared.
It was just him and Gideon.
There was no music, no wedding, no crowd, no nothing.
Just this warm, kind, sweet, strong and stupid fire genasi who he had known for years and years and years, had seen grow from a thin scrawny boy into a strong man, who had been with him through thick and thin… and nothing else mattered anymore, not the carnival, not the pact, not the debt, not the mission, nothing. Nothing else mattered.
Gideon was everything. Everything he wanted. Everything he needed.
The dance ended with chaos as yet another clown died by Gideon’s stupid decisions, and soon after the wedding party was over and they were announced the witchlight monarchs. Kremy was in the clouds after that dance, nothing really mattered anymore as he was married to Gideon and he had had the best dance ever with him.
Until they stepped over the carpet leading to the carriage that would take them back to the big top.
Gricko stopped acting like a stupid monarch, going back to his usual self; Frost stopped singing and turned back into a tabaxi, his spring elf body gone; Gideon stopped coughing and burping and yawning. Their fae curses dissipated from them.
And Kremy had a crippling realization that he still felt… euphoric.
He tried to step out of the carpet and back in again… and nothing changed. The excitement had dulled, for sure, and it wasn’t as bright as a thousand suns… but… it was there.
And when he looked at Gideon, although his heart didn’t try to leap out of his chest… it still skipped a beat.
The sensation was weaker, but it was still there.
And that… that was very very bad.
They got inside the carriage and started to discuss their plans on how to get Mister Light’s pocket watch away from him, and although he could think clearer and nothing was just about Gideon anymore… the warmth coming from him as their knees and thighs brushed together on the carriage was still incredibly vivid in his mind. Like… it was just there. Every time their bodies brushed together, he felt a spark. A small one, but a spark just the same.
Whatever that Fae magic had done to him, it either had long lasting effects… or it had opened a door he would have a very hard time closing again. He seriously hoped it was the former.
And when they stopped talking and Gideon put his arms behind the seat, unintentionally wrapping it around Kremy’s shoulders, Kremy swore the world stopped for a moment again before going back to normal.
He sighed, looking out of the window at the beautiful Carnival. Whatever happened in the Fae Wilds… this… would be a big problem.