Percy sat
his mug of green beer down on the table and looked up at the surrounding pub.
It was packed tonight, though Percy thought that might have just as much to do
with the pouring rain outside as it did with the holiday. To one side there was
a group of people participating in some sort of drinking game using quarters
and green shots of alcohol. In one corner there was a stage several feet off
the ground and enclosed by a wooden banister. On the stage there were step
dancers as well as a small folk band consisting of a fiddle, a tin whistle, and
a bohdrán. People in another corner were making
toasts over pints of Guinness.
Percy began
to chuckle.
Over the
noise generated by the pub's patrons and the traditional Irish drinking songs
the band was playing between traditional reels and jigs, Oliver spoke up. "What's
so funny, Perce?"
Percy
gestured at their present company. "All of this. Here we are--"
Shaking his
head Oliver pointed to his ear. "Canna hear!" he yelled.
Percy made
to start again, but the band ended a hornpipe then broke into a version of Finnigan's Wake that made everyone burst into wild
cheers and applause. Even when Percy shouted to Oliver, he couldn't be heard
over the entire pub singing along. So Percy tugged on Oliver's sleeve and
tilted his head towards the door.
Oliver got
the message and gulped down the rest of his beer. Then he let Percy drag him
out of the pub just as the second chorus started and everyone clapped in time
to the fast paced song.
Outside the
rain made things difficult to hear, as well, but at least they could hear one
another as they stood out in the chilly March air, under the overhang over the
pub's doorway.
"I was
saying," Percy shouted. "That here we are, an Englishman and a Scot celebrating
on an Irish holiday. I thought that funny!"
"It is!"
Oliver agreed, laughing with him. "But we have a more personal reason to
celebrate."
Percy
nodded. "So do we count from the beginning, minus that one year or from our
second start?"
Oliver
shrugged. "I don't know." He shivered. "Maybe we shouldn't be counting at all."
Percy looked at him as though he'd suddenly sprouted a third eye, and Oliver
laughed again.
Percy
clapped a hand to his heart. "A keeper suggesting we not keep score? Have flubberworms suddenly learned to fly?"
"All I'm
saying," Oliver finished, "Is that we're together again... on our anniversary...
and that's enough for me."
Percy
nodded in agreement. "Together on our anniversary. Yours and mine. On St. Patty's Day."
He leaned in for a kiss but jumped "Ow!" as Oliver
pinched his arm instead.
"That's what you get for not wearing green!
How in the world could you have forgotten?"
"Didn't
forget," Percy protested. It wasn't like Percy to forget important details,
after all. "I'm just wearing green in a spot that's not so easy to... spot."
"Oh aye? And where's that?" Then, before Percy could reply,
Oliver attacked him with the intention of administering more pinches. Percy
jumped back, into the rain, but didn't care. He squirmed and squealed with
laughter as pinches came at him faster than he could block them. His only
defense was an offense, and as he had to be at least at arms length to get
pinched, that was the perfect distance at which to tickle Oliver.
Both
laughed madly as the rain poured down on them and they danced about in it,
trying to avoid the other while still getting to the other. Percy's glasses
were spotted with rain and made it difficult to see. But even if they had been
clear, he probably still would not have seen the puddle due to how dark the
night was. He stepped into it, and it surprised him so much that he lost his
footing completely and fell backwards. Even though he was squirming as well,
Oliver reacted with lightning quick reflexes and grabbed Percy to try to keep
him from hitting the ground. He only succeeded in spinning with the man in the
puddle and falling to the ground with him.
The puddle helped
cushion their sideways fall onto the cobblestone street, and they lay there
laughing and holding each other tightly. Then Oliver's face suddenly screwed up
and he buried it in Percy's damp shoulder. "ihhh-CHIIIISH!"
Percy
clucked disapprovingly and, though his arm felt a little sore, he helped Oliver
to his feet. "Let's get home before we both come down with something," he
suggested.
Shivering
slightly, Oliver nodded. But first he wrapped his arms around Percy in a tight
hug with an accompanying strong kiss. "Aye," he said, pulling away but taking
Percy's hand so they could apparate back to their flat together.
"Besides,"
Percy said as they snuck into a dark alley so they wouldn't be seen by any
muggles. "That way I can show you where it is I'm wearing green." Oliver's eyes
lit up in excitement; he was an excellent guesser. Though if you'd asked him
five years ago where he'd be on this night, this would surely have been the
last thing he'd have guessed. But, strange and funny as it was, there was
nowhere he'd have rather been, nothing he'd have rather been doing, and nobody
he'd have rather been doing it with.