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“Remind me again why we’re going to this thing?” Juno asked, tugging uncomfortably at the lapels of his suit jacket. He knew it fit perfectly (it was, after all, literally made for him) but he would swear up and down that it would never be as comfortable as his trench coat. Then again, part of the comfort of the coat was probably the fact that he could strap a half dozen blasters under it and no one would ever be the wiser. This suit was cut so close to his body he was afraid someone was going to brush against him the wrong way and cause a very uncomfortable evening for him.
That someone came up behind him, wrapping his arms around Juno to smooth his lapels flat again. Peter looked over his shoulder into the mirror and gave Juno his patented single-raised-eyebrow “Juno Steel, you uncultured swine” look. Juno suspected he practiced that look in the mirror- no one should be able to communicate that much simultaneous amusement and frustration with a single look as effortlessly as Peter did. “Because you have a grand total of five friends on this planet, and one of them was kind enough to invite you to her wedding?” Peter said.
“Does it count as kind if she wrote ‘Juno, try not to look like a bum for once’ on the invitation?” Juno grumbled. Not everyone could look as naturally handsome as Peter Nureyev, after all, but it wasn’t like Alessandra was the snappiest dresser in the world. Sure, maybe she showered every day and bought clothes that cost more than five creds, but did that really make her better than him?
Probably, if he was being honest.
“I think that says more about you, darling, than Miss Strong,” Peter said, startling Juno out of his internal monologue. “But if you can promise me that you wouldn’t be out of that suit and back into your grungy coat in a heartbeat if you could, I’ll take it all back and defend you to the ends of the galaxy.”
Juno glared at him in the mirror, drawing a chuckle from Peter. His thief leaned forward and stole a quick kiss, then walked away, calling over his shoulder, “Stop trying to wrinkle your suit and put on your shoes, Juno, or I’ll tell you how much the suit cost. It’s Orcusian spider silk and I’m willing to bet it costs more than everything in your apartment put together.”
Juno frowned at his reflection in the mirror again, then sighed and turned to do as Peter said. “You know I’m not that kind of lady, right?” he said stiffly as he put on his shoes. “I don’t need fancy suits or anything else like that from you.”
Peter fixed his eyeliner in the mirror and turned to look at Juno, his eyes soft despite the dramatic look of his makeup. “I know, darling,” he said. “After all, you still won’t let me get you a cybernetic eye, despite the fact that I could...”
Juno shrugged uncomfortably. “You don’t owe me anything, Nureyev.”
“It’s not about owing, Juno,” Peter said, coming over to him. He tipped Juno’s chin up and leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. “It’s about wanting to take care of you. After all, it’s not like you’re going to do it for yourself.”
Juno opened his mouth to protest despite knowing any sort of protest would be feeble at best, but Peter cut him off before he could attempt a defense. “Come on, we’re going to be late, and I’d rather not make Alessandra irritated with us. Or Miss Lee- from everything I’ve heard, she’s nearly as much of a spitfire as her fiancée.”
Juno groaned as he stood and followed Peter out the apartment door. “Tell me you didn’t use your underworld contacts to research Alessandra’s fiancee,” he said as they headed down the stairs, already knowing the answer to his question.
Peter just chuckled patronizingly in response. “Very well then, Juno, I won’t tell you.”
Despite Peter’s concerns, they made it to the wedding hall in time, taking their seats just before the ceremony started. Alessandra and Daisy both looked good, Alessandra cleaning up nicer than Juno probably would have guessed. She was wearing a traditional Martian red suit, the lines cut sharp to emphasize her broad shoulders and muscled frame, a pale blue shirt underneath. Daisy was an ethereal contrast in her Terran blue dress, all frothy chiffon with with red flowers trailing up her dress and into her hair, all delicate and beautiful. She hardly looked like she’d break your nose given half the chance, which was what she’d done to him the first time Juno showed up with a bloodied Alessandra by his side after a case gone wrong- but then again, Peter was beautiful too, and Juno had never met anyone more dangerous than him.
Juno watched as the two women faced each other, feeling the weight of his ghosts heavy on his shoulders. There were only a couple dozen guests besides Juno and Peter- mostly old war buddies, as far as Juno could tell, and a couple people he recognized from his short-lived stint as part of the Martian PI Society. Daisy’s family was Terran, so they’d streamed the wedding instead of being there, and Alessandra didn’t seem to have any family (she’d never mentioned any and Juno had never asked- he knew better than anyone that when it came to family, some things were better left alone). Nothing like what his would have been- Diamond had more family than the sewers had rabbits, and she’d wanted to invite them all, along with all their friends from the force- back when Juno still had friends on the force. He hadn’t been able to say no, though, to anything she asked- well, until he did.
Watching them stand together and say the old vows, Juno could still see the echoes of a life long lost, still there after almost a decade. It was the words, more than anything, that felt like a punch to the gut- he remembered lying in bed with Diamond a couple weeks before the wedding, whispering the words to each other under the cover of darkness. She’d called it practice, teasing that she wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t get stage fright on the big day, but he hadn’t minded. He liked hearing her say the words and saying them back, and in that moment he’d even believed that all the things they promised each other would come true, like they were a magic spell that would keep them safe, keep them loving each other forever. He didn’t believe that anymore. Or maybe they were magic, when they were said for real, but they’d never had the chance to try and see. By the time their wedding day had come, she’d been nothing but ashes, and Juno hadn’t been much more.
Listening to Alessandra and Daisy make their promises to each other, he felt that loss again, sharp as it had ever been. His self-loathing rose around him like a heavy fog and he couldn’t stop himself from wondering if he’d kept his mouth shut she would have lived- if Diamond would have looked as beautiful as Daisy, resplendent in Venusian gold, Martian red edging her wedding dress the way her gold edged his- and Juno wished for a flask, for the burn of whisky to cloud his thoughts so they couldn’t swallow him whole-
And then Peter’s hand wrapped around his, his grip firm around Juno’s trembling fingers. He looked up to find Peter staring at him instead of the couple, no pity in his face but warmth and understanding in his eyes. Not daring to look away, Juno took a shaky breath, then another, feeling the darkness retreat, at least for now. Diamond wasn’t here, but he was, and today wasn’t about his tragedy. Today, for once, was about happiness against all odds- both that of Alessandra and Daisy, reunited despite each thinking the other was dead, and his and Peter’s, alive and together despite the universe’s (and his own) best efforts. Not wanting to speak, he leaned forward a little, tapping his forehead against Peter’s as applause rose around them.
He’d hesitated in that doorway for a long time, that first real night he and Peter had spent together. Long enough for Peter to wake up, see him standing there, not strong enough to leave. Juno still wondered if he did the right thing that night, letting Peter pull him back into bed to talk instead of doing the unselfish thing and making it a clean break for both of them. After all, the last year and a half hadn’t been easy. After Juno had come clean and told Peter the truth- that he didn’t want to leave Mars, that even though it was nothing but a pit of vipers it was still his pit of vipers, and he was damned if he was going to leave it to destroy itself- Peter had gone quiet for a little while before sighing and muttering something along the lines of “Well, I knew what I was getting myself into here.”
“I’m not gonna trap you here, Peter,” Juno has said, his voice gruff to hide his sadness. “I’m not gonna ask you to stay. I might be stuck on this planet, but you don’t deserve that.”
Peter cupped Juno’s cheek in his hand, gentle but firm fingers forcing him to look up. “Juno, darling, what makes you think you’d need to ask?” he said, his voice soft. “I chose you, Juno, over and over again. And as long as you don’t ask me to be something I’m not, I’m not going to make you be something you’re not.”
“But you can’t-” Juno started, but Peter cut off his protests with a kiss before he could fully voice them.
“We can work out the details in the morning, Juno. You’re right, I won’t be able to stay on Mars with you all the time- but I’m not willing to give you up that easily. Just promise me you’ll stay until we have a chance to really talk about this, alright?” Peter asked when he pulled away, his dark eyes intent on Juno’s single good eye.
Reluctantly, Juno had nodded, unable to deny the man he loved. He’d suspected Peter would change his mind, that he’d be too caught up in whatever his next grand adventure would be to spare a thought for a dusty old detective on a dusty old planet, but Peter had proved him wrong, as he’d done so many times before. It had never been easy- Juno still had a stack of baggage higher than Olympus Mons, and Peter was no lightweight himself- but somehow, they’d made it work, compromising and stealing away days and weeks at a time between Peter’s jobs and Juno’s cases. They were happy, for the most part, though Juno couldn’t deny that he ached every time Peter left, that there was still that vicious voice in the back of his head that sounded a lot like Sarah Steel and whispered that this time Peter wouldn’t come back, that there were plenty of other men scattered throughout the galaxy who could offer him so much more than Juno, men who weren’t monsters or alcoholics or washed up ex-police detectives.
But Peter always came back, sometimes with new scars or healing bruises but always with bright eyes and a sharp grin and what he called a “little trinket” for Juno (who had only asked Rita to check on the cost of one of those gifts once and immediately sworn to never do so again) and it got easier to ignore that voice. And even if things did end, Juno couldn’t deny that he would have regretted losing all these little moments with Peter, learning about how his lips were usually a little chapped from too much space travel and how his feet always got cold so he owned a dozen pairs of socks so thick they were more like slippers and the hundred other things that seperated Peter Nureyev from Rex Glass or Duke Rose or any of the other parts he played that weren’t quite him. And on days when the weight of his sins hung heavy on his shoulders, he liked being able to look at the little stack of romance novels Peter had started collecting in his apartment and remember that there was one thing that he, despite his best efforts, hadn’t managed to ruin yet.
Juno slid into the empty seat next to Alessandra and gave her his best shit-eating grin, guaranteed to make whoever it was aimed at want to punch him. It might be her wedding day, but he had a reputation to maintain, and he still owed he one for the note on his invitation.
“So, are we going to start calling you Cockroach Lee?” he asked, earning himself a sharp prod from one of Peter’s bony elbows as he sat down next Juno.
“Don’t make me regret inviting you to my wedding, Steel,” Alessandra said, giving him a look that said that she knew exactly what he was doing- which she probably did. She’d seen him antagonize lots of people he shouldn’t have when they’d worked cases together.
“That’s hardly an answer, Strong,” Juno said, ignoring the warning.
“That’s Strong- Lee to you, Juno Steel,” Daisy said, arriving at the table with two glasses. She passed one to Alessandra, giving Juno a fierce little smile. “We decided to hyphenate.”
Juno opened his mouth to respond, unable to resist the opening she’d given him, before the breath was driven from his lungs by a much harder elbow solidly in his esophagus.
“Please ignore Juno, I’m still working on training him to interact with other human beings,” Peter said, effortlessly shifting Alessandra’s attention away from Juno as he wheezed. “It’s lovely to meet you two at last. I’m Jupiter Smoke.”
“Smoke, huh?” Alessandra said, raising her eyebrows. “Your name suits you. I was starting to think Juno was making you up so Rita would stop trying to force him into making friends,”
Juno was still wheezing too much to do more than glare at her (Peter’s elbows were very pointy) but Peter just laughed, not taking the bait. “Yes, unfortunately my work takes me away from Mars more than I’d like,” he said airily, then sobered slightly. “I do want to thank you, both of you, for helping to keep Juno alive in my absence,” he said. “I know that it’s a bit of a full time job.”
“Can’t take much credit for that. I’ve already broken his nose once and it’s come close more than once since then,” Daisy said, a little too cheerful for Juno’s taste at the thought.
“Well then, I hope you’ll take my thanks for resisting the urge to break more than his nose,” Peter said, his irresistible grin returning in full force. I hope you’ll consider the wedding gifts an acceptable down payment.”
“Oh yeah, they were perfect!” Daisy said, brightening even more than she had at the mention of punching Juno. “I loved-” her comms rang, cutting her off mid-sentence. “Oh, sorry, it’s my younger brother calling from Earth. Give us a second- Alessandra?”
Juno leaned over to Peter while the couple was distracted, finally having recovered the ability to speak and breath normally. “We got them wedding presents?” he murmured in Peter’s ear, close enough that all he could smell was Peter’s spicy cologne.
Peter turned to look at him, raising a single eyebrow in amusement. “Of course we did, Juno. I would never presume to be so rude as to show up at a wedding without a gift for the brides. That would be incredibly rude for someone to forget.”
Juno shot him a glare that was half-hearted at best. The idea of getting Alessandra and Daisy a gift had totally slipped his mind, after all, so he couldn’t really argue with Peter’s teasing. “Do I want to know what you got them?” he asked, choosing to be the bigger person and ignore Peter’s comments, mostly because he didn’t have a good response.
“Bulbs from a rare strain of blue dahlias imported from Earth,” Peter said, amusement and a hint of something softer sparking in his eyes as he met Juno’s eye.
“Dahlias?” Juno asked, his tone sharp, drawing a hint of teeth from his partner.
“Of course, Juno. They’re a cousin to daisies, after all, and symbolic of commitment and love.”
Juno felt himself flush at Peter’s words. “Symbolic of love and commitment, huh?” he asked, his voice cracking a little bit, despite himself. “Seems like heavy symbolism for, say, a fake name for a detective you’d only met once before.”
“I suppose to choose a name like that, you’d have to have very good intuition,” Peter said, his eyes soft. He leaned forward and pressed a lingering kiss to Juno’s temple before pulling back to meet his eye again. “Which I’d say I do. After all, it hasn’t failed me yet.”
Juno felt his cheeks flame again at Peter’s words. His thief really was a romantic at heart- like the note he’d left Juno after their first meeting hadn’t been enough proof of that- but it still caught Juno off guard. Most days he felt like every bit of romance he’d managed to hold onto after Oldtown had died with Diamond, but Peter never seemed to mind that Juno was nothing like the characters in the romance novels he loved so much. Not that Juno had any idea what those characters were like, of course. He’d never read any of them, especially not when he started missing Peter too much on his longer trips. Maybe he’d cracked one or two, flipped through them, but just so he could smell the lingering hints of cologne that seemed to cling to everything Peter touched. Definitely not because he was curious about what happened when Captain Marian and her crew of lunar pirates came across the fiery Lady Robin.
Definitely not.
Fighting back his blush and feeling grateful that Peter couldn’t actually read his mind, Juno steered their conversation back on topic. “So dahlias for Daisy- what else?”
“Don’t be silly, Juno,” Peter said, well used to Juno reacting this way to any conversation that came too close to heartfelt. “The dahlias were for Alessandra. I got Daisy a new set of throwing knives.”
“I thought the idea was to thank them for not killing me, Nur- Smoke!” Juno said, irritated. “Why the hell do you think giving her more ways to kill me is a good idea?”
“Probably because he hopes I’ll be too busy learning how to play with them properly to punch you,” Daisy said, shutting off her comms.
“If I ask you to dance, I’m hoping that will have the same effect,” Peter said smoothly, standing and offering her a hand.
“If you’re really from Brahma and can do a proper Brahmese waltz, it might be enough to settle you into her good graces forever,” Alessandra said, a hint of suspicion in her voice.
“I believe I can accommodate that request, though it’s been several years,” Peter said, ignoring Alessandra’s implicit accusation. “Mrs. Strong-Lee?”
Juno watched as the pair headed out onto the dance floor. They were both graceful, gliding around the two other couples half-heartedly swaying along to the music. Daisy was shorter than Peter, probably because she wasn’t wearing six inch heels like he was, but otherwise they looked like a matched set, beautiful and graceful and something just a little bit dangerous about them. Watching them, Juno couldn’t help but think they looked like characters out of an old Terran fairytale, like the stories one of Mom’s coworkers had told him and Benten when they would hang out at her office as kids, before everything got bad.
Then a glass broke and Juno jumped, unable to shake the feeling that some sort of spell had been broken. He looked over at Alessandra, expecting her to make some kind of joke about the dumb expression he’d undoubtedly had on his face, but instead he found her looking almost as sheepish as he did. She caught his eye and gave him a half-hearted little shrug. “They look good together, huh?” she said.
“Yeah,” Juno said, looking back over at them as Peter laughed at something Daisy said (his steps unfaltering as ever. “They look good together.”
Side by side, they sat together and watched their partners dance, each of them thinking they were the luckiest lady in the galaxy.
“Well,” Peter said, gracefully and dramatically falling onto the bed, “I think that was a very nice night. A bit of a novelty- I don’t remember the last time I went to a wedding I was actually invited to- but a nice novelty, all the same.”
Juno paused in the middle of unbuttoning his shirt, looking over at Peter in askance. “Should I even ask what you were doing at weddings you weren’t invited to?” he asked sarcastically, but without any real edge. He was tired but happy, and seeing Peter so happy and carefree made him feel warm inside, like he’d drunk a whole bottle of whiskey instead of two glasses over the course of the night.
“Probably not, unless you feel like dragging me down to the police station in the middle of the night,” Peter said, sitting up to pull off his heels. “Then again, it is always a good time when you pull out the handcuffs.”
Juno snorted, finishing unbuttoning his shirt and stripping off his pants. “You took my last pair with you when you went on that trip to Saturn, and you never gave them back,” he said, dumping the suit on the chair in the corner of his bedroom and sitting on the edge of the bed. “Stand up so I can unzip you.”
Willingly, Peter stood up so Juno could help him out of his jumpsuit. “Trying to get me naked, Detective Steel?” he teased, his voice low and inviting.
“If you want to sleep in this, be my guest,” Juno said, finishing and shifting back on the bed. “Either way, I’m getting in bed. Don’t forget to turn off the light.”
He’d only been under the covers for a minute before the light turned off and Peter slid in next to him. Juno pulled him against his chest, too happy to have Peter in bed with him to complain about Peter’s freezing toes pressing against him. The pair cuddled in silence for a minute before Juno’s mind wandered, prompting him to speak. “Peter?”
“Hmmm?” Peter responded, his voice blurred with sleep.
“Did you like the wedding?”
Peter rolled over at that, looking towards Juno’s face, unable to see anything in the dark. “Yes, Juno, I thought it was lovely,” he said, his voice soft but encouraging.
Juno was quiet for a long moment before responding, hesitantly. “I’d like to do that with you. Someday. If you want.”
A drowsy smile tugged at Peter’s mouth in the darkness. “I’d like that too, Juno. Someday. If you want.”
