Author's Notes: Well. Here it is. The third in the trilogy. (Please don't let there be more sequels, heh.) Sequel to Live Through and Somewhere I Have Never Been. Don't attempt to read this without having read them, or you'll be one bewildered puppy.

Warnings: Yaoi, Tsuzuki/Hisoka. Violence, OCs, and of course all the angst of the first two. Also, cliffhangers and long waits between chapters. This is not my top priority right now (should I be saying that?) so it may take a while for each new chapter.

Additional Warning: Based off the anime, not the manga. See previous warnings for the other two stories.

Disclaimer: If Hisoka and Tsuzuki were really mine, I'd be way too busy to write fanfiction of any kind. Lyrics and title are stolen from Ani Difranco. Wedding vows are stolen from The DeathGate Cycles, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

Falling Is Like This

"I'm sorry I can't help you
I cannot keep you safe
I'm sorry I can't help myself
So don't look at me that way
You can't fight gravity on a planet that insists
that love is like falling and falling is like this."

Prologue

Okay. Someone explain to me exactly how I got talked into this. So Tsuzuki and I are blood-bound. Why the hell do we need to go through this stupid tradition of a wedding? It's just an excuse for everyone to sit around and drink champagne and wear stupid looking clothes.

Hm, Tsuzuki's wearing a tuxedo . . . pardon me while I go off into a corner and drool in private.

Right, so, anyway. Tsuzuki and I are getting married, and it's really a pointless ceremony since we're bound together by blood, but let's not go into that. The whole messy story can basically be summed up to the fact that Muraki is an asshole and I really need to find a way to kill him at the next available opportunity.

Tsuzuki is in a tuxedo, and much to my chagrin, so am I. I tried to talk my way out of that, but Akimiya (who somehow, totally beyond my understanding, ended up coordinating the whole thing, saying that he was the only one who knew anything about weddings, which I suppose is true) insisted. And man, he really went for everything. There's even cake. There's two cakes. Tsuzuki and I get one of our own, mostly because we all know that Tsuzuki can eat more cake than everyone else here put together.

I have no idea what's supposed to happen at traditional Japanese weddings, apart from the general cliches. I've never seen one. So Akimiya says we'll go with a western style wedding, and tried to be the best man, but Tsuzuki insisted that be Tatsumi. I offered to let Akimiya by the maid of honor, but he didn't seem very thrilled by that suggestion. Somehow Wakaba ended up snagging that position, which amuses me terribly because I don't see why we need a maid of honor. But then we go back to the fact that I don't see why we need a wedding at all.

And Tsuzuki just has to play it up, of course. At least he's agreed to be the 'bride', so to speak, but mostly because people kept asking if I was, and my face was turning a rather bright shade of red that clashed with my eyes. So he's the bride. And would probably be wearing a white dress if it weren't for the fact that I'd kill him, wedding or no.

The Earl offered to preside over the marriage, but that made Tsuzuki singularly nervous, so we respectfully declined. There aren't any priests here, but Konoe-kachou offered to do it, and that's about as close to an authority figure as we could get.

We debated for a long time on the vows, since we didn't want to use normal ones, nor did we want to repeat the blood bind. So we stand up there in our expensive tuxes. Tsuzuki just wants to get to the cake. I just want to get back into a sweatshirt and jeans. And Konoe is dragging this out, probably solely to amuse himself. I mean, how often does he get the chance?

So, Tatsumi is the best man and Wakaba is the maid of honor. Who's the ringbearer? 003, of course. Don't ask me how that happened. I think I slept through it.

He carries the rings right up and drops them into Tatsumi's outstretched palm. Okay, I just started giggling, and now Akimiya is giving me a wounded look. He takes this whole wedding thing far too seriously.

Tatsumi clears his throat and jabs me in the ribs with his elbow, recalling my attention to the proceedings. Right, vows. Tsuzuki puts the ring on my finger, and I do the same for him. They're simple white gold with a leaf pattern engraved on them. The vows we came up with are simple, but forceful, and perhaps mean just as much as the blood bind. We say them softly, in unison. Everyone can hear; the words echo in the silence.

"My life for your life." I will spent the rest of my life with you. "My death for your death." I will not go on without you. "My death for your life." I would die to save your life. "My life for your death." If I cannot save you, I will give my life to bring you vengeance.

There's a brief moment of silence, and I can see from the look on Akimiya's face that he's thinking something along the lines of 'well, that was cheerful.'

"This I swear," Tsuzuki says softly, and kisses my forehead.

"This I swear," I echo, and return the gesture.

There's another moment of silence, this one longer, hanging in the air. I know I shouldn't feel different, because it's just a formality, but I do. And I feel my eyes brimming with tears that for once I'm not ashamed of. I'm not ashamed of anything anymore.

Konoe clears his throat, breaking the moment, which is okay. "By the power invested in me," (by Akimiya, really), "I now pronounce you married." That was a kicker. I mean, you can't say "man and wife", can you? "You may kiss the . . . uh . . . you may kiss each other."

I start to giggle, but Tsuzuki kisses me, and all thoughts of giggling are banished. Then he smiles, pulls away, and says, "Let's have some cake!!"

Right. My husband, ladies and gentlemen.

He goes puppy and bounds off towards the refreshments. Akimiya stops and shakes my hand. "Congratulations," he says with a smile. "Just think, for the rest of my afterlife I can tease you about how it never would have happened without me."

I roll my eyes. "We would've gotten it together eventually. I just would have taken a whole lot longer."

"So you say," he says, and puts an arm around Rika's waist. "Be happy, Hisoka. Really."

"I will be," I say, then amend that. "I am."

"Good for you." He wanders off in the direction of the champange, and I watch him go. Akimiya is happy with Rika, but it's a bittersweet sort of happiness. She'll age, of course, and he won't. They'll never grow old together. And eventually she'll die, and they'll be separated until he chooses to give up his position as a Shinigami. I have a feeling it won't be long afterwards. But who can really blame him?

They had traditional vows, of course. "With this ring, I thee wed . . ." et cetera.

Tsuzuki and I get the first dance, which is okay even though I hate dancing and, in my personal opinion, am not very good at it. But somehow dancing with Tsuzuki is different. I just sort of melt into his deep purple eyes and never really have any idea of how much time has passed.

But we only dance for a little while before the cake is cut and the champagne is opened and we begin a regular old-fashioned gorging session.

It seems funny to be married. I mean, for reasons aside from the fact that I'm only sixteen physically and around nineteen in terms of actual years existed. And that Tsuzuki is twenty-six (or somewhere around there) and one hundred respectively. It just feels strange because there's so much left that I don't know about him.

But I suppose if I want to be introspective, there's a great deal I don't know about myself, either.

That's all right, though. I mean, we have eternity to learn everything. To find everything. Though I suppose it's possible it may end someday, I certainly have no intention of letting that be any time soon.

So we dance, long past the time when everyone else has grown bored with it, because it just feels right to be standing there in the protective circle of our embrace. Being close to each other. Being one.

It's brief, when it happens -- a moment of dizziness. I'm forced to lean against him, shaking my head slightly.

"You okay?" he asks, and it's gone.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I reply. "Bit too much champagne, I think. Besides, I'm tired. It's been a long day."

He nods, and accepts it.

But I wonder.

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