pirate wedding
In the weeks that followed, Lady Lily received some much needed love and attention after the storm, especially in preparation for her first wedding.
Evan, for all his initial protest, settled in quite easily indeed. One could find him marching around deck, picking up this and that, adjusting ropes and hauling barrels. He, in all his aestheticism and yearning for the divine, enjoyed keeping deck best of all of them. In anticipation of the wedding, he wandered around for days, keeping tabs on stock with Mary and chain smoking with Marlene whenever he got the chance. James, like an old mother, shadowed Evan to his utter annoyance, popping in with suggestions.
On the day of, Lily fussed endlessly with Remus’s hair.
“It won’t stick down,” she complained, working more water into his hair with a comb. Remus patiently let her struggle.
“It’s untamable,” he said helplessly.
“It’s too tall .”
“It’s fine, Lily sweets.”
“It’s your wedding day, Remus,” Lily argued, “You don’t want to look just fine on your wedding day, you want to look smashing .”
“Sirius already thinks I look smashing.”
“Just shut your mouth. I’m close to a breakthrough.”
She was not, in fact, close to a breakthrough. Remus’s hair would not be defeated. While Lily tugged with her comb, Mary started buttoning up Remus’s shirt, the two of them fighting laughter.
“This shirt is alarmingly clean,” Remus noted to Mary, “Where on Earth did you dig this up?”
“Saved it,” Mary said, finishing the last button, “For special occasions.”
On the day of, Regulus pierced Sirius’s ears a second time, as a wedding present.
“Don’t scream,” he said assertively, catching a good angle on Sirius’s ear with his needle, “If you scream, I’ll fuck it up and you’ll bleed.”
“This is my nice shirt,” Sirius warned, “Don’t make me bleed.”
“Then don’t…fuss….”
Regulus, with zero hesitation, jammed the needle through this brother’s ear. Sirius did not scream, as Marlene smacked a hand over his mouth before he could. Sirius licked her palm and then she screamed.
“You just licked my hand!” she wailed, jumping back.
“Tasted sweaty too.”
“You’re disgusting. I can’t believe Remus is marrying you. Gross.”
“Ah, but that’s where you miss it. Remus actually likes my tongue.”
“Ew.” Regulus deadpanned, looping a metal hoop through the fresh piercing.
“Save it for after the ceremony.” Marlene agreed, lighting a cigarette with revulsion.
“Loves it, actually.” Sirius continued.
“Shut up.”
“Can’t get enough of it.”
“I’m not kidding, knock it off.”
“You should hear him moan when I-”
“I smell smoke!” Lily’s voice cut through the chatter. Marlene groaned.
“How can she possibly smell it in here? Every goddamn time…I literally just lit it…”
Marlene went to stub out the cigarette, but Regulus reached over and plucked it from her hand before she got the chance. He took a pull before depositing it into an empty glass on the side table. His new room was a mess of Sirius’s discarded clothing options, sprinkled with half-smoked cigarettes and Lily’s borrowed books. His teal coat hung on the edge of the cot. His cot. In his room.
Sirius went to touch his new piercing, but Regulus slapped his hand away.
“It’ll get infected,” Regulus said simply and started to put away the piercing supplies, which was really just one of Lily’s medical needles and a few of Pandora’s burnt matches he had used to sterilize it.
Regulus rubbed the back of his neck, where the head of his snake tattoo was still healing. Marlene’s needle had hurt all the way down his spine, but he hadn’t twitched once, and the whole piece was her magnum opus of tattoos. It looked great. Better yet, it felt great.
Regulus suddenly recalled the way James’s kiss had felt as he traced it down the lines of the snake the day he got the tattoo, and the very memory of his mouth sliding down each vertebrae with utter care made Regulus shiver. Sirius noticed, his eyes growing wide.
“Do you feel them coming back?” Sirius said suddenly, “Your seizures?”
“No,” Regulus said honestly, “It’s not that.”
“You would tell me if it was?”
“Of course.”
“Reggie, you can tell me if they’ve come back.”
“They haven’t,” Regulus said, exasperated, “I’m fine. Stop fussing.”
“I’m your brother. It’s my job to fuss.”
“No, it’s your job to go get married.”
“Is it time?” Sirius bolted over to the small window, straining to see the sky.
At Remus’s request, the ceremony would be a sunset. He never missed one.
The ceremony began right on time, but that was about all that went perfectly right. The wind blew Remus’s hair out of order, James made way too many diversions from the usual program to launch out into embarrassing stories about Remus and Sirius’s early days on Lady Lily . The sun was bright and hot over the ocean, wilting the few flowers that Pandora managed to keep alive for the celebration. Marlene showed up fantastically late, euphorically oblivious to Dorcas’s lipstick smudged down her neck. Evan nearly blacked out from the late heat, not yet accustomed to the sea weather.
But the sky was cloudless and the grooms were in love and everyone buzzed with such joy that it didn’t really matter in the end. They had made it and they were married. Sirius blinked away tears and Remus couldn’t stop blushing and James cried more than anyone. Regulus unofficially walked Sirius down the makeshift aisle of colorful scarves they had looted from trader ship a week prior and handed his brother off to the love of his life. Lily was Remus’s unofficial best woman and handed him off to the love of his life.
And instead of the usual ‘I do’s’ and such, Remus and Sirius made a very different, yet much more profound, promise.
“Through sun or storm,” James prompted.
“With every beat of my heart,” continued Sirius.
“And with every breath I have,” Remus finished.
It was chaotic and terrible by the standards of a traditional wedding.
It was an unbelievable success by the standards of a pirate wedding.
At the after party, James, drunk and happy, pulled Regulus to the side.
“One day, that’s going to be us,” James promised, referring to Remus and Sirius, who were laughing against each other on the love seat like a pair of hyenas at a story Marlene was telling. James pressed a blissful kiss to the curve of Regulus’s shoulder. His tattoo smarted, but he leaned into the pain and into James.
“Who’s going to officiate if you’re the one getting married?”
“Moony of course. He’s first mate.”
“Sirius is first mate,” Regulus corrected.
“Is that right? Damn. I wish they could both be first mate.”
“You could technically make that happen. As captain.”
“Do you think that’ll be us?” James said again.
Regulus just kissed him in return, hoping it would be enough for James to drop the subject. If he thought too much about the future, he tended to get sad. And today was one of the happiest he had had in a long time. He wouldn’t spoil this.
His trick worked. They clicked together like magnets. James reached a hand into Regulus’s hair, sliding down until his palm rested over Regulus’s heart.
The handprint of Pandora’s blood wouldn’t be scrubbed away, despite Regulus’s efforts. It had simply bled black into his skin, like any other tattoo. James’s thumb worked over the spot on Regulus’s chest.
“Do you believe me yet?”
“Believe what?”
“That I love you.”
Regulus shook his head and smiled.
“Tell me again,” he said, “Tell me tomorrow and every day after that.”
According to local news, Lady Lily dropped anchor in Dorset only once more in all her years of sailing after the last Black brother disappeared. From its dock emerged a pair, a boy and a girl, who sprinted to the post office, giggling like schoolchildren, to drop off two letters, before they scampered back to the docks and departed. The girl had an impressive rope of nearly white hair and a rosy face that broke with a smile when the boy spoke, a boy with a snake tattoo that could be seen through the top of his teal coat and the starkest grey eyes anyone had ever seen.
The letters were as follows…
The first, addressed to a Miss Bellatrix Black-
Trixie-
You needn’t worry about me any longer. It’s best everyone believe that I have finally joined Sirius in death.
You should also tell Cissy that her husband won’t be coming home either.
Thank you for standing up for me. I’m getting better at doing that for myself.
R.A.B
The second letter was slightly longer, written in a broad cursive that was addressed to a Mr. Aaron Lovelace-
Dearest Aaron-
I thought you should know that I’ve gone on holiday indefinitely. I think I will travel to all the places Persy would have liked; I will think of you fondly when I reach them. Know that I miss you every day.
I’m with Reggie. We are doing alright.
He found someone to slow dance under the stars with. He’s become a fine pirate and I’m happier than I’ve ever been.
Please forward all future Christmas presents and birthday monies to that little preschool by the old country house. I should like to foster a new generation of dreamers.
-All my love, Pandora
And even long after Lady Lily swept out to sea, some say they could still hear the ghosts of their laughter and the metallic click of the short swords in their scabbards.