Chapter Text
It takes Parker forty-one minutes to arrive at the courthouse.
There's still about ten minutes before the last-minute, same-day appointment slot that Jude managed to convince the tired administrative assistant to give him, but Sharp is starting to get tired of waiting in the hallway outside the courtroom and Jude is more than a little terrified that he's going to decide he's bored and demand to go home before they can get married.
"Oh, Parker?" Sharp says, sitting up from where he's been slumped in boredom on the plain wooden bench outside the courtroom. "What are you doing here?"
Parker drops onto the other side of the bench, breathing heavily like he ran here. "I'm.. You need a witness, right?" he gasps.
"Wait, do we?" Sharp says, glancing back at Jude. "I thought the judge just says 'you're married' and we're done."
Jude shrugs, as if he wasn't the one who called Parker to come here so they don't have to ask some random people in the courthouse to be their official witnesses instead. The other couples getting their marriage licenses before Jude and Sharp are already looking at Sharp more than Jude would like, but he doesn't have much of a say in that. At least the ones who've struck up a conversation with them while waiting their turn have been more interested in their own marriages than prying into Jude's business.
"What is the witness supposed to do?" Sharp says. "You're not gonna try and object to it, are you?"
"Nope!" Parker says quickly. "No way, no. I'm happy for you, dude. Both of you. Yeah."
"Good. Oh, you wanna see the ring Jude got me?" Sharp says excitedly, sliding closer to Parker so he can show off the stack of three golden bands on his finger.
"Oh my god," Parker says. "Sharp…"
Sharp beams and pushes his hand closer to Parker so he can see the glittering red emeralds and white diamonds decorating the center band. Jude runs his fingers around the edges of the folder on his lap, trying not to tap his feet too impatiently.
At least the arrival of Parker is going to provide Sharp some additional distraction from the remaining time they have to wait. So far, Jude has kept his soon-to-be-wife occupied by picking out a honeymoon location, which has admittedly also been fun for himself as well. Almost makes him forget that he's literally about to get married.
Almost, but not quite. He's got jitters in his stomach and he keeps having to tell himself that he doesn't need to run home to change into a different outfit to look good enough for this. No, no, he's like three hours off a half day at work and he still looks fine.
Also, he absolutely can't leave now. If he changes his mind about this impromptu courthouse wedding, then Sharp is going to realize that they could be having a big expensive ceremony with, like, five hundred guests instead and Jude can't have that. It's already maddening enough that there are thousands of Sharp fanboys (and fangirls) from back when he was competing. The last thing he needs is to be putting out photos of Sharp in a pretty wedding dress for some gooner to find.
Jude nearly jumps in his seat when the door opens and the last couple to walk in exits. The young couple is giggly, clinging to each other and nearly bumping into the frame of the door as they trade soft kisses with one another.
"Oh, are we next?" Sharp says, sitting up straighter.
"You're next?" Parker says, his voice sounding strained. He keeps looking at Jude with an expression like he wants to say something to him, but Jude does not have time for whatever it might be.
It's finally their time, holy shit. Jude's hands are shaking as he gathers the folder with all the documents and forms he'd filled out before calling Parker earlier. He stands up and takes Sharp's hand and follows the assistant into the courtroom.
"Jude," Parker whispers somewhat discreetly, half a step behind them. "Jude!"
Jude ignores him. His heart is beating so heavily in his chest. Holy shit, he's about to get married.
Sharp arrives in front of the judge first. He smiles beautifully and waves at her, his new wedding band glinting in the warm light of the courtroom. Jude takes his place right across from Sharpness and the breath catches in his chest again when he looks at him.
Holy shit.
All in all, the actual legal ceremony isn't very long or complicated at all. The judge reads from her legal script, Jude and Sharp and Parker sign some more forms, and after a few minutes, they're handed a fancy certificate which Jude will be protecting in five layers of fireproof materials as soon as they're home. The paper it's printed on is thick, but it's still such a flimsy and easy-to-lose piece of paper and it means everything to Jude right now.
Shit. Holy shit. He's married. Sharp is his now.
"Congratulations," the judge tells them. The courtroom staff aren't shooing them out right away, which makes sense, Jude realizes, since the two of them did sort of squeeze in at the end of the day. He should send, like, a thank-you card or something once he's over the shock that this actually worked.
Sharp, meanwhile, laughs and does a little twirl, making his skirt flare out. "Parker, I'm married! Now I get all of Jude's money, since he promised me. And he's taking us to Italy after this."
"Oh boy," the judge says with a small laugh.
"Just you and me," Jude says before Sharp gives Parker the wrong idea. "It's gonna be our honeymoon. Just gotta book it first." And also let his company know that he's gonna be out of the country for at least two weeks. Maybe three. Fuck, he's gotta deal with updating HR on this too. Well, it is part of the benefits of getting married, but good fucking god. Maybe he can convince Parker to deal with all the other legal stuff while he's spoiling Sharp up and down the Italian coast.
Parker gives Jude another look and Jude quickly turns away to gather Sharp into his arms. He should… he should do something, right? Kiss him, or something. That's what couples do, right?
Before he has a chance to really deliberate on it, Sharp grabs both his and Parker's hands and starts leading them out of the courtroom.
"Bye!" he says to the staff as he passes back through the door. "Thank you!"
"Jude," Parker says as the door shuts behind them. "Can you explain this to me, finally?"
Sharp has thankfully let go of their hands to walk a little ways ahead of them, retrieving his phone from his purse and stopping in the middle of the hallway to take a selfie with his wedding ring next to his face. He's laughing. Fuck, he's so goddamn beautiful. This was such a good idea. Jude will happily spend thousands of dollars on him, anytime he wants.
"Jude!"
"What?" Jude says, looking back at Parker.
Parker waves his arms around, at Sharp and at the door of the courthouse they'd just left. "When did you decide on this?" he hisses. "You couldn't have given me a little more warning? I was eating dinner, dude!"
Jude finally takes a moment to actually look at Parker. He's wearing sweatpants and a shirt that doesn't match. Huh. Well, at least they're not getting professional photos done or anything.
"Who else was I supposed to call," Jude says.
"That's—" Parker presses a palm against his forehead. "Since when were the two of you this serious? Did I miss the engagement?"
Well, no. An engagement didn't occur to Jude until Parker mentioned it just now. He was just out with Sharp and he had the sudden realization that he didn't want anyone else to have him. And Sharp had only asked for a few things in return for getting married.
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A wedding ring, easy. Expensive, but the stack of three rings that Sharp picked out looks really good on him. And it's a very visible reminder that Sharp is now taken.
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To keep living at Jude's house. That's a given, obviously.
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A honeymoon, which is all but finalized now. Jude just needs to actually make some calls to make it happen.
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Jude's money. Well, he's already been spending it with their previous arrangement of… housemates with benefits (except it's Jude's house and Sharp doesn't pay rent or anything). If anything, it'll be easier getting Sharp his own credit cards, because it'll mean he won't be calling Jude every other day asking him to buy things for him.
Not like Sharp doesn't have his own money. The guy was the best Olympic fencer in the world for like five years until he technically retired. Jude knows that Sharp still gets messages from the team asking him to compete again, and there's half a dozen sponsors who would throw insane amounts of money at him in a heartbeat once he announced he was going back.
"Uh," Jude says. "It was a quick engagement."
"Like what, two hours?" Parker says.
Something like that. Jude had called the courthouse in a panic while Sharp was waiting to get the ring sized, and this was the soonest he could get.
"Does it even matter?" he says. "It's fine. All I have to do now is, like, update the legal stuff. Can you help me out with that, by the way? And maybe get us on the next vacation package to Italy?"
Parker groans. "Yeah. Fine. I've got you."
"You're the best," Jude says, throwing his arm around Parker's shoulder and giving him a quick hug.
"Hey!" Sharp says, marching back towards them and grabbing Jude. "Parker, you're not about to steal my husband now, are you?"
Jude lets Sharp pull him around, swooning a little bit at how fucking strong Sharp is— it's okay, the only people here are Parker and Sharp, and both of them have an idea about how much Jude likes Sharp. God, he's so ready for the honeymoon.
"I would never," Parker says. "Just… just happy for you."
Sharp laughs, squeezing Jude tight against him. "Me too. Jude, take us out for dinner somewhere. You haven't had dinner yet, Parker?"
"Nah, I could go for some dinner," Parker says. "Jude, before you drop all that stuff, can I see it? Just wanna see what you all signed on so I can figure some stuff out."
Jude gladly hands over the file to Parker. It's a little unnerving handing over the marriage certificate along with the rest of the documents, but he knows he can trust Parker. With that out of the way, he lets Sharp drag him out of the courthouse, his infectious good mood catching with Jude as they head to the parking lot just across the street.
The sun is setting as they walk down the steps of the courthouse, and Sharp pauses once more to take a photo of the two of them with reds and golds and purples bleeding across the sky. Jude feels happier than he's ever been as Sharp's arms hold him tightly in place.