MML Secret Santa Entry: Winter Wonderland
For @cartoonygirl, who asked for Dakavendish fluff! And thank God, because I seriously need to write a somewhat non-angsty fic with these two! I promise this one isn’t going to run you over with a steel battleship!
Cavendish wasn’t sure when this dinner had become a complete disaster. It started off perfectly normal. Dakota shoveled food into his mouth, they talked about random things, and the shrimp platter was excellent. By all accounts, it should’ve been a normal meal.
Then a horde of cats rushed in, knocking over waiters and spilling food everywhere. They climbed on any surface they could. One cat fished in the lobster tank, until she overbalanced and fell in. As she scrabbled to get out, she leaned against the glass until the entire tank tipped over.
People rushed out of the restaurant, taking care to avoid the lobsters.
They were far enough from the entrance that the lobsters weren’t an issue, but two cats were now chewing the shrimp tails he’d set aside.
“They’re pretty adorable,” Dakota said, petting the calico under her chin. After several minutes, the cats grew bored and wandered elsewhere, no doubt looking for leftover food that had been abandoned on the tables.
“They’d be more adorable if they weren’t freeloading on something we paid for,” Cavendish grumbled. He signaled a waiter for the check.
“Since when do cats pay for things with money?” Dakota asked. “They’d probably have an entire currency based on petting or dead birds. But paper and coins, nah.”
And there was that strange train of thought Dakota always jumped on. It was both distracting and charming. How could talking about cat currencies and breakfast burritos be so distracting and charming at the same time?
When they received the check, Cavendish quickly grabbed it to distract himself from these strange, new thoughts of Dakota. Glance over the prices to make sure they were correct, calculate the tip, stick card in sleeve, it was completely logical. It made sense.
Unlike a certain someone.
He turned it over to the waiter. Wait a few minutes so they could run the card, thank the staff for the service, leave. There was a method to dining out.
But he had yet to figure out the Dakota method. It was a jumbled mess, everything was loud and funky and bright. Logic didn’t apply at all.
“Apart from the cats and the lobsters, this location’s nice,” Cavendish mused. “We should come back.”
Dakota looked up, his shoulders suddenly tensing.
“Something wrong?” Cavendish asked.
Dakota responded by lunging across the table, and before Cavendish could scold him for his horrible manners, Dakota slammed into him. The chair tipped over, sending them skidding across the floor.
It was a miracle he wasn’t nursing a concussion after that.
Cavendish tried standing up, but a pressure on his abdomen prevented him from moving. Then he realized.
Dakota was above him.
Dakota’s knee was on his abdomen.
Feeling his cheeks heat up from the close proximity, Cavendish really hoped Dakota was looking at anywhere but his face. “Your knee,” he managed after his brain started working again.
“Oh,” Dakota said. The lack of a joke was concerning, to say the least. He scrambled off, glancing at the ceiling beam that had fallen across the table where they’d been sitting. “Hey, so I’m just gonna head back to the apartment now.” He was avoiding eye contact for some reason.
Dakota helped Cavendish up, but quickly exited the restaurant without another word.
He probably said something he shouldn’t have. Why would Dakota take offense at cats though? It made no sense. Cavendish recovered enough to take his card and receipt from the dumbfounded waiter, who groaned at the thought of having to clean up this mess.
When he walked out of the restaurant, he was surprised to find Milo kneeling on the snow-covered sidewalk, scolding Diogee gently. “-and tomorrow, I’m taking you back to the retirement home so you can give everyone there a proper apology for scaring all their cats away.”
Well, that explained the cats.
Diogee barked at his arrival, and Milo turned around. “Hey, Cavendish!” he exclaimed. “You just missed Dakota. He went that way! If you hurry, you can probably catch him.” Milo pointed to the apartment complex across the street.
“I know where he went,” Cavendish replied. “We were dining together when that horde of cats came in.”
“Sorry for interrupting your date,” Milo said, grinning sheepishly.
“It was a surprise, but we were finishing up when the cats rushed through. There was no harm-”
Then he realized what Milo said.
“P-pardon me?” Cavendish stammered, just to be sure he wasn’t mishearing things. Maybe he needed to get his ears checked.
“I said, sorry for interrupting your date?” Milo glanced at Diogee. “Did I say something weird?”
Diogee barked, which could’ve meant anything from ‘this is boring, can I chase a squirrel’ to ‘seriously, what in the name of all that is good and pure wrong with you’.
“It wasn’t a date!” Cavendish protested, his voice an embarrassing octave higher than normal. “It was an apology dinner!”
Diogee instantly made a face, his tongue sticking out.
He was being sassed by a dog. How wonderful.
Milo waved his finger like he was chiding a toddler. “Diogee! That’s rude! Be nice or we’re going home.” Diogee barked in response, flopping belly-first into the snow and rolling around. “That’s odd. He only makes that face around Sara when she denies reading shipping fanfiction. He’s a silly pup. If you don’t mind me asking, what were you trying to apologize for?”
“Er, it’s complicated,” Cavendish rubbed the back of his head. Sometimes he wasn’t even sure what happened that day. “If I tried to explain, we’d be here for the next century.”
Oh, I was angry that Dakota took the last egg roll and we nearly broke our partnership after saying the dumbest things. Then our future selves broke regulations to stop us from breaking up and Dakota looks good in a Santa suit.
It sounded even more ridiculous when he put it all together.
“Well, I might not know what happened, but Dakota’s a cool guy,” Milo said. “I’m sure he’s pretty forgiving. Anyway, I need to get going. We’re having a picnic in the park on Saturday at noon. It’s just Melissa, Zack, Sara, and me but we also want you and Dakota there too! There’s this nice secluded spot we like to use over there. Bye!”
He ran off, Diogee trailing behind him.
“It’s the dead of winter,” Cavendish muttered, wondering why anyone would choose to have a picnic in the snow.
But he didn’t have any objections either. And the day Dakota turned down free food would be the day Mr. Block sang opera.
“Maybe he meant a different park,” Cavendish said after they’d walked past the playground for the seventh time.
“This is the largest park in town,” Dakota replied. “Pretty sure Milo would’ve specified if he meant elsewhere.” He leaned against a stop sign. “They won’t hold it against us if we’re fashionably late. Hey, do you think the tongue on a metal pole thing is true?”
Cavendish pulled him away from the stop sign before he had the bright idea of licking it. “I imagine it would be hard to eat if you showed up with a stop sign on your tongue,” he said sternly.
Dakota shrugged. “Not like I was actually gonna-um, you know your hand’s still, kinda on me....”
He quickly removed his hand from Dakota’s shoulder.
They had been making more accidental physical contact lately. It wasn’t bad, just...strange.
But not unwelcome either.
“Um, about the dinner a few days ago,” Cavendish said awkwardly so Dakota wouldn’t linger on the hand-on-shoulder thing for long. “If you want space, I’ll understand. We...I said some things I shouldn’t have. Just trying to make it up to you.”
Dakota shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’m not mad about it anymore. Promise. Besides, the egg rolls at that Chinese place tasted much better anyway.”
“Yeah, they did,” Cavendish admitted.
So if Dakota was fine, why was he still acting weird? Cavendish figured it was best if he didn’t comment on it.
Before he could dwell on it for long, they heard a shout from a nearby grove of trees. “Dakota! Cavendish!” Milo shouted. “We’ve been waiting forever!”
Zack followed behind him, panting heavily. “It was more like four minutes.”
“Great to see you, kid,” Dakota high-fived Milo with a smile. “I bet you can’t wait for summer. That’s supposed to be picnic season.”
Milo shrugged. “Well, it’s not only-”
Zack cut him off. “Yeah, we enjoy picnics in snow! Sara has an everythingproof-tarp we spread out! Besides, we can avoid those pesky ants this way.”
“Anyway, come on!” Milo exclaimed. As soon as he set one foot in the grove, a snowdrift fell on him, knocking him on his back.
Zack tried hauling him to his feet, only to trip and fall facefirst into the snow. He sat up, coughing and rubbing the snow out of his eyes.
“At least there was a lack of icicles this time,” Milo said, standing up and brushing the snow off his jacket.
“Milo, do you have a spare earpiece?” Zack asked, taking a small device out of his ear. “Mine broke when I fell.”
“Hold on a sec. Sara’s trying to get through,” Milo held out his arm. “Is everything ready? Okay, we’ll be there in a few! Cavendish and Dakota are with us.”
Cavendish wondered why he was using an earpiece rather than a cell phone. Milo just wasn’t the secretive type.
“The preparations are complete,” Milo explained to Zack. “Now all we have is the we-umph!”
Zack covered Milo’s mouth. “Wheat bread! That’s all the bread we have! Cause the store ran out of, uh, sourdough!”
Dakota sneezed into his elbow, but Cavendish could tell he was trying not to laugh.
And Cavendish wasn’t buying their story.
Milo and Zack gave their best ‘please believe us’ grins, only it would have been more convincing if their smiles weren’t taking up half of their faces.
“Well, we shouldn’t keep your sister waiting,” Cavendish said.
Milo had been right about the secluded part. It seemed as though people didn’t come this way too often. They reached a clearing, the tallest snowman Cavendish had ever seen sitting in the middle. Sara and Melissa cheered upon their arrival.
“Great! They’re here!” Sara exclaimed. “Let’s get this wedding started!”
What wedding? There weren’t chairs, an officiator, and flowers. Or any people besides them for that matter.
“A little bare for a wedding, don’t you think?” Cavendish asked.
Melissa stared at him. “Wow. I was so sure Milo almost dropped the bomb on what we were planning.”
“He almost did. Twice,” Zack replied. “I had to intervene. Did you guys believe us at all?”
Believe their sorry excuse for a lie? Not for a second. Why did they think it was acceptable to lie to them in the first place though?
Dakota sized up the snowman, then grabbed Cavendish’s hat and tossed it on top. Cavendish glared at him. “What?” Dakota protested. “It was missing something!”
Milo laughed. “We were singing Christmas karaoke when Sara said something about recreating the lyrics from Winter Wonderland. It snowballed from there, I guess. No pun intended.”
“Will the lucky grooms please stand in front of Parson Brown?” Sara announced. “That’s what we named the snowman, by the way.”
Dakota did as she instructed, Milo standing a small distance away. They smiled, sharing a fist-bump. Then Dakota turned to beam at Cavendish, as if waiting expectantly for him to do something.
Everyone was watching him.
And all the pieces were fitting in place.
“Wait!” Cavendish protested. “I-I can’t marry him! He’s my partner!”
Sara fell over, laughing uncontrollably.
“Dude, you just admitted it,” Zack smirked. Milo was snickering too hard to contribute.
Admitting what exactly? Melissa pulled him into position, next to Dakota. She frowned, then pointed to their hands. Dakota took Cavendish’s hands in his own. An odd tingling sensation flowed through Cavendish’s body.
Zack stood by him. He waved to Milo, who returned the gesture.
“So,” Cavendish whispered awkwardly while Sara searched for the right page in a tiny book. “I guess we’re skipping the proposal and engagement period, huh?”
“I’m fine with that. Preparing is the most boring part,” Dakota said with a grin.
“I got it!” Sara exclaimed. “Okay, we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Cavendish and Dakota. Yeah, no one here is objecting. We don’t need that part.”
She obviously wasn’t qualified to legally marry someone, but since when did time travelers abide by traditions anyway?
“Yeah, hope you don’t mind me skipping over the sappy stuff. We know you love each other,” Sara said. “Ugh, the print’s so small. Where’s the stuff for the ‘I do’?”
“By the way, who had the rings?” Zack asked.
“I thought you were handling them!” Melissa frowned.
“We never put a position of ringbearer in,” Milo explained. “I thought we were forgetting something important.”
“Milo, I know you and your friends were probably planning this for a while, but how in the world were you able to afford wedding rings?” Cavendish asked.
“We’re but poor peasant students who can hardly afford a snack in the school vending machines,” Melissa replied. “So we have mood rings instead. At least, we would’ve had mood rings if a certain someone hadn’t lost them.”
Zack folded his arms. “You once left a note that said ‘take home math book’ in the math book you left in the classroom. I’m not the forgetful one here.”
“After Cavendish and I are done, you two should come up here and get married too,” Dakota suggested.
Melissa and Zack’s eyes widened in horror at the mere thought, their argument quickly forgotten.
“Good one,” Cavendish said quietly, so that only Dakota could hear him.
Then he noticed a tunnel forming through the snow, and Diogee popped out, two mood rings hanging from a string in his mouth.
“Good boy, Diogee!” Milo exclaimed. He took the mood rings and passed them to Cavendish and Dakota.
“Great, cause I finally found it!” Sara exclaimed. “Will you, Dakota, take Cavendish for your wedded husband, for better or worse, for rich or poor, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish-” Milo squealed, momentarily interrupting her. “-til death do you part?”
There was something in Dakota’s eyes that was unreadable, almost like a hidden sorrow buried there. “I do,” he said firmly. He gently slid the mood ring onto Cavendish’s finger. The black faded away, revealing a bright red swirl. It was bulky and made of inexpensive material, sure.
And it was perfect.
It was his turn now. Cavendish inhaled deeply as Sara repeated the passage for him. “Will you, Cavendish, take Dakota for your wedded husband, for better or worse, for rich or poor, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish, til death do you part?”
“I do,” Cavendish replied without hesitation. He placed the other mood ring on Dakota’s finger.
Dakota looked down at their clasped hands. “You know it’s called a ring finger for a reason?”
“Er, I knew that,” Cavendish said quickly, correcting his error. His first act as a husband was putting the ring on the wrong finger. He was sure Dakota would never let him live it down.
“Then by the powers invested in me-even though I am not qualified at all to do this, but who cares-I now pronounce you husbands! You may kiss!” Sara exclaimed.
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” the kids chanted.
“So, were you going to initiate?” Cavendish asked.
Dakota’s hands twitched, as if he wanted to find some food in his pockets to calm his nerves. “You want me to?”
“Well, yes I want you-oh, you meant the kiss,” Cavendish wondered if he should just smash their lips together now and get it over with.
Something rammed into the back of his legs, and he pitched forward. Before he knew it, Dakota caught him, and their lips-
Dear heaven, their lips were touching.
Cavendish applied a little more pressure, and Dakota reciprocated. The kids’ chants died away, and the sound of an accordion filled the air. The rhythm was soft and melodical, the perfect song for a winter wedding.
Unable to support their combined weight, Dakota’s legs buckled, and they fell into the snow. But the kiss only deepened from there, Dakota’s hands massaging his neck gently.
Cavendish held onto the back of Dakota’s head, his fingers stroking his soft, curly hair.
“Do you think we should stop them?”
“Hush! It’s romantic!”
He never wanted it to end, but Cavendish found himself sorely lacking air, and he broke the kiss. He clung to Dakota, breathing heavily. Dakota’s face matched the red on his jacket, his hand clutching his heart as if he couldn’t believe what happened.
The accordion melody came to an end. “Congratulations!” Milo called. “And sorry about Diogee!”
Sara shook her head. “They really needed that push. Good boy, Diogee.”
Diogee ate a treat from the palm of her hand.
Cavendish stood up with some difficulty, taking his hat back from Parson Brown.
“And now for the picnic!” Milo exclaimed. Sara unfolded a tarp and began spreading it out. “I just didn’t mention the wedding part. We got plenty of food!”
Dakota grinned. “Great, cause I’m famished.”
“You ate before we left the apartment,” Cavendish reminded him.
“Exactly! Which was what, a while ago?” Dakota said.
Cavendish had been right to think something had changed. But not all change was bad. After all, he never would’ve met Dakota without it. They would have times where they would goof around and accomplish nothing. They would have their bad days, where nothing went right and left them stewing in frustration. There would be moments where his deepest insecurities came to light and left his a complete mess.
And no matter what, Dakota would always be there. The most loyal person Cavendish had ever known.
It truly was a winter wonderland.
47 notes
·
View notes