Chapter 112: Good Times

Ceth massages Floyd after a game.

Life's going pretty well for them.

Skinny dipping...

...bar hopping...

[The narrator gets bored and checks her watch.]

Ah! Here we are. The proposal. Finally.

Ceth seriously considers rejecting it, seeing as it's a legal arrangement she has no use of and in the end isn't marriage either about parents or money?... and their parents are long gone?...

She accepts to avoid crushing Floyd, though.

Floyd would have preferred a private wedding, but in typical diva fashion, Ceth demands a large party.

As the guests trickle in, Ceth steps into the nursery—a part of the house she thought would be deserted—to express some doubt to her cousin and bandmate, Coriander. 

Unfortunately, Eggbert and Johnnie follow them.

"You've never been able to commit to being anything except maybe a mommy," Coriander says with some disdain. "You wouldn't have even stuck with your career, if you could have ever decided what you'd rather have been doing."

He's listened to so much of her crap over the years. She wanted to quit and go do this, she wanted to quit and go do that. Except not really. She could never commit to any of those things, but there had to be something out there, right? Something else she was supposed to be doing?

"Can we get this show on the road?" Pepper interrupts cheerfully. "Don't wanna keep the groom waiting forever!"

Johnnie cheers incoherently. Like his mother, Jade, Johnnie's father Jackson passed away even before Chervil did. Johnnie is alone in the big house passed down generation through generation, since Nick and River Quill-Archer owned it. And Johnnie is completely insane.

But no one ever seems to worry about this.

Everyone gathers in the back yard to witness the exchange of rings.

"You made me wait a long time for this," Floyd says, as he slips the ring onto Ceth's finger.

He finally got the girl.

Ceth gives Floyd his ring, and clasps his hands within her own.

"I don't regret making you wait," she purrs. "But I promise I'll make sure it was worth it."

Amy can see this couple is in love, and wishes Floyd's relationship with her mother had been like this.

"This is so beautiful!" Shannon sobs.

 The marriage is sealed with a passionate kiss.

Johnnie's eyes tear up. "This reminds me of Thomas the Tank Engine."

Acheron watches from a safe distance.

Time to cut the cake.

Acheron skips the cake and goes for the vegetables and tofu.

Pepper can be so embarrassing.

Candace doesn't know why she ever wanted to be just like her.

The bride and groom and their children manage to all sit at the same table together without fighting.

Amy talks about the formation of her band.

Amy has heard Acheron play and would really love to have him in her band, but he declines. He has a full time job at the theater.

"I'm sorry about your grandfather," she says.

Chervil's exceptionally long life was the subject of a newspaper article.

"I'm sorry about yours too," Acheron lies."But I hope you won't be following in his footsteps."

Amy raises an eyebrow. "Don't believe everything you hear from my father."

Acheron tilts his head, watching her face, silent. Amy feels like he can see straight through her.

"Soo... umm, I'll tell you what my father told me. He said you're my brother. You know, I kind of see it..."

Hooray. Siblings.

By this time, Ceth and Floyd have settled into bed and are preparing to strip out of their formals.

"You should leave your hair down more often," Floyd says, running his fingers through Ceth's hair appreciatively.

For Acheron, the following morning begins with cereal and cartoons on the living room couch.

He regrets his decision to not take the bowl upstairs when Floyd plops down next to him.

"What are you watching?"

"Television," Acheron mumbles.

"What?"

"Television!"

"Alright! No need to yell." Moments pass. Floyd watches the hero and villain duke it out. "So, you like this kind of stuff? Into fighting games maybe?" His son answers with silence. "You know, me and your grandfather used to hit the training dummies out there on the back balcony every morning. Good times."

Acheron shoots Floyd an irritated look. "You want to have a spar, old man?"

Neither man bothers to remove his footwear.

So Floyd nearly takes a puppy slipper to the face.

Floyd has never seen much expression on Acheron's face. 

Floyd interprets it, perhaps correctly, as his son exhibiting some territorial behavior. 

Floyd had expected an easy victory out of someone going so fiercely on the offense, but Acheron surprises him with practiced agility, evading each strike with annoying grace and poise.

Once Acheron gets two hits in, it's over. He bows politely and leaves the room.

"Anytime you want a sparring partner, then..." Floyd calls after him, but Acheron has disappeared before the last half of Floyd's sentence is out.

Ceth finds an unlikely pair to play pool with: Candace and Clara. As in Floyd's sister, Clara.

"We missed you at the wedding," Ceth tells her new sister-in-law.

"Weddings are just a gift scam," Clara says dispassionately. "Polite people hold theirs in private instead of making a big fuss."

Ceth raises an eyebrow. "Girl, you have some f***ed up worldviews."

Clara watches Candace sink a ball, not even bothering to look at the rock star when she speaks to her. "Most marriages end badly anyway. Floyd's last one did."







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Etc.: Acheron's generation has taken over, so no more parties are required, and I almost didn't have a wedding party. But then I figured it would be pretty out of character if Ceth didn't demand one.