Chapter Text
Castletown was peaceful.
After so many days, weeks, months, and years of drifting through endless darkness without any sense of time, it still felt strangely comforting to glance at the calendar hanging on their kitchen wall.
There had been a period of his life where days barely existed at all. Back then, whenever he managed to claw his way into lucidity, one of the first things he would do was desperately try to figure out what day it was. How long had passed. How much time he’d lost again.
Now there was always an answer waiting for him.
Routine.
Consistency.
A future.
It was still something he was getting used to.
But every morning after breakfast, without fail, he found himself checking the calendar anyway.
It had been hung a little too high for him to comfortably reach, so Tenna had placed a stepping stool beneath it almost immediately after noticing Spamton trying to climb the counter to see properly. The memory still made heat rise to his face if he thought about it too long.
So now he adjusted his glasses, stepped onto the stool, and looked over the month spread out before him.
The calendar itself was chaotic.
Notes and reminders crowded nearly every square. Tenna’s fancy but slightly messy cursive looped dramatically around filming dates and production meetings in bright red ink, while Spamton’s own spaced-out shaky print marked lunch plans with Rose, grocery reminders, and his weekly workout routine in dark blue.
Certain dates had little stars doodled beside them.
Others had hearts.
One box had a crude drawing of what was probably meant to be Battat getting hit with a clipboard.
But there was one date that stood out from everything else.
Circled in both red and blue.
Tenna had even gone the extra mile and drawn tiny hearts around it afterward.
Their anniversary.
They’d had one once before all of this. Back when they were young and stupid and convinced they would celebrate the same anniversary together forever.
Then life happened.
Or maybe catastrophe was a more accurate word.
Years spent apart had poisoned the old date beyond repair. It no longer represented joy so much as everything they’d lost.
So when they slowly, quietly settled back into each other’s lives again and the topic of celebrating eventually came up, they’d made the decision together to choose something new.
A fresh start.
The difficult part had been deciding which beginning mattered most.
Because what exactly counted as the beginning for two Darkners who had found each other over and over again across entirely different lives?
Was it the very first meeting when he was still just Snow?
That first awkward date at the Funfair where both of them had tried entirely too hard to seem normal?
TV World’s dying day, where they’d seen each other at their absolute worst and still reached out anyway?
The night Spamton quietly started sleeping over full time instead of pretending he was just staying late again?
Eventually, after days of discussion and several increasingly dramatic arguments courtesy of Tenna, they’d settled on something simpler.
The day Tenna arrived in Castletown.
The start of their new beginning.
Spamton still remembered the whirlwind of emotions twisting inside him back then. The fear. The uncertainty. The horrible certainty that Tenna would see what he’d become and realize he wasn’t worth loving anymore.
But Tenna had proven those fears wrong over and over and over again.
He’d given Spamton space when he needed it.
Time when he asked for it.
Patience when he couldn’t speak.
And when Spamton had finally decided it was safe to close the distance between them again, Tenna had welcomed him back with open arms like there had never been a question of whether he belonged there.
Falling in love all over again had been exhilarating.
Falling in love again with the same person felt different though.
It felt like rediscovering a dance the two of them had once known by heart.
He still remembered the steps. Knew instinctively when Tenna would spin, when he would dip him dramatically for no reason other than loving theatrics, when laughter would inevitably interrupt everything.
But time had changed both of them.
The rhythm wasn’t quite the same anymore.
There were new movements now. Softer ones. Careful pauses where there hadn’t been before. Small surprises hidden between familiar steps.
And yet beneath all of it, the beating melody remained unchanged.
Two souls still reaching for each other.
Spamton let out a quiet raspy chuckle at the thought, the sound bit-crushed around the edges.
Since when had he become such a sap?
Still-
There had been a reason he checked the calendar so carefully this morning.
Their anniversary was approaching much faster than he’d realized.
And he still didn’t have a gift.
That was the problem with loving someone like Tenna.
What exactly were you supposed to get for the Lord of Screens? The TV Star who already seemed to have everything he’d ever wanted?
He had a partner who loved him.
Children who adored him.
Friends who stayed beside him even during his worst moments.
Spamton had asked Rose. Asked Kris. Asked Susie. Hell, he’d even asked Angel.
None of them had been particularly helpful.
What gift was supposed to represent falling in love all over again?
Then, last night while lying awake beside Tenna’s sleeping form, the answer had finally come to him.
Tenna loved spectacle.
Performance.
Celebration.
The bigger and more dramatic, the better.
Spamton’s grin widened slowly.
A party.
Not just any party either.
The biggest celebration Castletown had ever seen.
Because Spamton G. Spamton had never done anything halfway in his entire life.
Unfortunately, he’d only had this revelation yesterday, which meant he now had less than a week to somehow organize what would probably become the social event of the century.
He stared down at the calendar again.
Then inhaled deeply and squared his shoulders.
This was fine.
Probably.
He’d survived worse odds than this and still come out on top.
Besides-
As he glanced toward the hallway and heard the faint sound of Tenna singing softly to their daughter in the other room, Spamton felt warmth bloom quietly through his chest.
This wasn’t about survival anymore.
It was about celebration.
And for Tenna?
For them?
Spamton was going to make this anniversary unforgettable.