Chapter Text

Epilogue — I Knew I Loved You (Before I Met You)

Sunday, APRIL 6, 2014

Dan and Arin are babysitting Violet for Barry and Suzy while they have their monthly date night. Arin is out getting stuff for dinner while Dan lays on his back on the sofa with a three year old curled up on his chest and two cats at his feet.

“Uncle Danny?” Violet asks.

“What is it, sweetpea?” Dan turns down the volume on the tv so that he can hear her. She's gotten very good with words over the past six months but she still speaks quietly.

“Why don't you and Arry have a baby?” Dan's eyes widen. “Aren't married people supposted to have babies?” What the hell does he say to a kid that's almost four?

“Because Arin and I are both daddies. You need to have a mommy and a daddy to make a baby.” Is he doing this right? He doesn't want to tell her anything Suzy or Barry doesn't want her to know. His mom was always very straightforward about sex, so he's never had an era in life where he thought babies came from the stork or a cabbage patch.

“Oh,” she says simply. “Okay.” For once, Violet accepts the answer she's given and doesn't go on a ‘why’ tangent.

Now that he's thinking about it, however… he wonders how Arin feels about adoption.

Saturday, SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

Dan knows better than to get in between his sister and whatever she's planning, and he lets her take the reigns of their commitment ceremony. He and Arin have finally found time to visit New Jersey, and true to Deb’s word, they're having a small ceremony and reception for friends and family in Dana's back yard. The leaves are starting to turn orange and it's absolutely beautiful, a sprawling field of green and red and amber.

Arin looks so beautiful that Dan could cry, wearing a suit sans the jacket, dashing in his light pink dress shirt. His hair is pulled back into a bun, and the flyaways are pinned back with bobby pins that sparkle in the sunlight. Dan has his hair pulled back in a messy, low ponytail, flyaway curls unrestrained and left to flutter in the breeze. Dan’s dress shirt is sky blue, and the top four buttons are undone. His necklace shines brightly.

Together, they stand in front of the small group of people, facing each other with their hands clasped. They don't have an officiator because they're already married, but they want to exchange vows. Dan still doesn't remember what he said on their actual wedding day.

“Leigh,” Arin begins, a beautiful smile on his face, “from the moment I saw you, I knew that you were going to be important to me. Whether I actually got to ever meet you or not, I just knew that you would be in my life in some way, whether it was through me being a fan of your music or being your friend.

“Until the day you married me, the moment you replied to my message was my happiest memory, because that was the moment that brought you into my life.”

Dan wipes his eyes. He's thankfully a silent crier, but he has tears running down his cheeks at a steady pace.

“I love you with every part of my being, and I thank you for being the love of my life, my soulmate, and my best friend all at the same time.”

Arin just barely makes it through all of that before he starts crying, too, and with a watery chuckle he wipes his eyes and sniffles. “Dammit. Almost made it.” Everyone chuckles, and someone quietly blows their nose.

“Arin, all that you are is all that I'll ever need. You're the brightness in the dark and the oxygen to my flame.” His voice is already wavering. “It's always been hard for me to make a commitment, having been burned too many times in the past, but with you, it was never a question of whether or not I should commit to you.” Dan squeezes Arin's hands. “It was a question of how soon I could because I knew without a damn doubt that you love me and make me happy, happier than any one person has a right to be.

“I'm not saying that it'll always be easy, because everyone has ups and downs and disagreements, but I look forward to us growing and changing together as people. I love you, and I'm happy as all hell to spend the rest of my life with you.” By the end, Dan is speaking through a barely-held-back wave of tears, and they finally begin to fall when Arin cradles his jaw, gently stroking the skin with his thumb, and kisses him.

It's like being on top of the world.

Wednesday, JULY 8, 2015

Dan brushes the blonde streak in Arin's hair back behind his ear. The younger man is laying on his stomach, looking down at the wordsearch they've been doing together. They've been laying in bed for most of the day, taking one of their scheduled days off. After the Starbomb burnout, they'd decided that they needed to have these scheduled times to just relax and decompress.

Arin, with his pen between his teeth and his hair in two messy pigtail buns, looks over at his husband once he realizes he's being stared at. Dan has a sappy smile on his face.

“Wha’?” Arin asks, voice muffled by the pen between his teeth. He quirks one eyebrow in question.

“Answering that email is the best thing I've ever done in life.” Arin's cheeks flush rosy pink, and he looks away, embarrassed. They've been married for almost three years and Dan saying shmoopy things like that still makes him blush.

Arin tugs the pen from between his teeth and slides it into one of his hair buns. He's still blushing when he leans in and kisses Dan sweetly. Arin is the best thing to ever happen to him, and he's thankful to whatever greater power there is that he and Arin met.

Things aren't always easy—he still has days where he's trapped in his head, where Arin has to hold him and reassure him that everything is okay while he cries his heart out, and there are days where they snipe at each other and lose patience during disagreements, but they always make up and talk through it afterwards. Some days he's still triggered by television shows and loud yelling, and Arin is always there to assure him he's safe. Every up and down is made easier by the fact that they have each other.

That's something that will never change, no matter what happens.