I know I know!  Finally!  I'm sorry but life was hectic and I really couldn't bring myself to write and when I did it was kind of crap.  This may be crap too but it was a little ball of fluff that I hope gets the writing juices going again!

Again – I am writing from the perspective of an American and American-style weddings.

There is usually a wedding ceremony, which you all have already seen, where the couple speaks their vows to each other and exchange rings.

Then a couple of hours later usually, everyone meets back up for the reception.  Usually the couple and the bridal party are taking pictures and signing the marriage license during this time. 

Then at the reception, they eat, cut the cake and generally just have a party celebrating the joining of that couple together.

As for the song used in this one-shot – this is an amazing song.  I really want to use it at my own wedding, actually as the first dance between myself and my husband.  It truly means a great deal to me and I wanted it to include it as a part of their special day as well.  It’s called “Everything Else Disappears” and you can here it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc3Aj0eZq3w.  I really recommend listening to it while you read because it sets the mood for this piece. 

#43 – Last Dance

It had finally happened.  After all the years of struggling and fighting against outdated beliefs, Kibum and Taemin had joined each other in marriage.

The reception was a blast – and the real point of weddings really when you think about it.  People don’t remember the service; they remember the antics that would befall the couple at the reception.

The night was full of the sound of clicking glasses, imploring the couple to show off another quick smooch.  The sounds of laughter and pleasant chatter filled the hall filled with their friends throughout the dinner and joyous shouts as the couple took the floor for their first dance as a couple. 

SHINee even serenaded the pair, joined by several other former idols who had attended the wedding as friends.  Wishing them the best of luck and being grateful that their friends didn’t have to fight against their own government anymore. 

But the evening was winding down.  Families with children were long gone, Taemin and Kibum’s own Jinae having been taking by Minho’s family for the night to allow the couple the chance to celebrate to the full extent tonight. 

As the numbers of guests dwindled down, the DJ finally called for the last dance of the night, a slow English song requested by Taemin himself.

As the first few notes were picked out on a lone guitar, Kibum smiled, knowing instantly which song it was that Taemin had picked to call an end to their amazing, incredible, surprising night. 

A song that had linked the couple together through all of their years apart, while Taemin studied in America and Kibum found his foundation in the fashion world of Korea. 

Kibum used to think he had a grasp on English, and compared to most Korean people he was truly superb, but Taemin ended up taking him to task.  And when his roommate introduced Taemin to an older American group called Sister Hazel, Taemin had become enraptured by the sound and message behind the words and had spent hours over the course of several Skype conversations explaining both the literal meaning to the words, but also the emotional resonance that he had felt the first time he heard it and each successive listening experience had ingrained within him. 

“Remember to breathe
Remember to hold your head high
Remember to smile some
And just listen a while”

Kibum wrapped his arms around Taemin’s waist, tugging that man closer and smiling, clasping his hands behind his husband’s back.  He smiled as Taemin’s hands landed on his own hips and they began to sway about the floor amongst their remaining guests.

“You've practiced enough yeah
That's what I told myself
So I nervously asked you your name
And that's when the world seemed to stop”

Kibum laid his head down on Taemin’s shoulder, tilting his face in towards Taemin’s neck, actually burying his nose into the bend where the neck met the shoulder. 

“And I died when you looked up like that
Took my breath away
Knocked me flat on my back
I knew right then and there
In that first second stare
It would be a while”

The couple swayed gently to the song that had helped carry them through the months and years apart from each other.  Taemin gently ran his thumbs across Kibum’s hips as they continued their languid circle, causing Kibum to laugh dryly at the slight tickling sensation and Taemin to smirk in idly victory. 

“We talked for hours
About the sun and moon
How it chases her round and round
It's just trying to light up her face”

Kibum’s mind began to wander as he closed his eyes and let their gentle movements sooth away any doubt that he had ever retained about the reality of their situation.  It was real.  It was true.  There was nothing else anyone could say or do.  What they had wished for, for years was now actual undeniable fact and in that instant none of the past mattered. 

The sheer joy of that moment with his husband was enough to silence every demon that had wanted to creep into the recesses of his mind over the years. 

“And we sat on your car
While the light from the stars
Poked holes in the sky
And you told me the tales of your heart
And how it'd been broken”

It was like every moment of their lives together had decided to stampede through his mind and he was holding on to the one constant and sense of stability in all of that: his Taemin.

Taemin was his rock, keeping him steady through it all. 

Everything from meeting a fragile and scared fourteen year old all those years ago who seemed so far beyond his years when the beat took him, but reverted so quickly back to the shy little boy when the song ended, to the realization that he wanted something more than friendship and brotherly affection, to the time in the hospital when all he had wanted was for Taemin to be alright. 

From every heartbreaking moment to every rush of sheer joy.  It was all there, waiting to be recalled at a moments notice and building on everything before it to create this incredibly full and wonderful life.

“And I cried when you talked about that
Yeah what I would've given to take it all back for you
Right then and there
In that first second stare
I knew we would be a while”

Taemin was going through a similar mind flush.  Every thought and emotion of the past seventeen years slammed through him, bringing tears to the corners of his eyes.

He remembered Kibum’s look the first time that Taemin had woken up in the hospital.  The look in his eyes that was so full of emotion he didn’t know that one person could contain all at the same time.  Eyes that spoke of both hope and fear, resilience and regret, love and depression.  A look that was so completely Kibum that it would remain with Taemin through to his dying days, because more than that it was their love.  That lone look, spoke everything that would ever need to be said.  And it lurked in the shadows of Kibum’s eyes, and through every gaze of longing and questioning and amusement, it was there, showing the depth of care that Kibum reserved for Taemin alone.

As the chorus finally began, Taemin lowered his lips to Kibum’s ear and began to sing lowly,

“Everything falls out of focus
You walk through the door
And one thing that's clear to me
Helplessly hopeless
I'm all right with that
In a room full of people
Everything else disappears”

And it was true.  There were still at least thirty people who had not already left in their exhaustion, several couples twirled around the floor along with them, but for all intents and purposes, they were alone.  For Taemin could see no one else, hear no one else, sense no one else but the man he currently held in his arms, and was in turn held by. 

Taemin felt as Kibum’s lips quirked up into a giddy smile and as the older man nuzzled his face a little deeper into his neck and let loose a light sigh of contentment.

“I thought that I'd known you forever
I felt like I'd finally come home
After all of these lifetimes
You still take my breath away”

Taemin had continued singing the song of his choice.  Thinking that this truly was his home.  Not their apartment, no matter how much he loved it, but here, in Kibum’s arms, he would always find that sense of belonging and rightness that came with just being in the man’s presence.  Kibum was his home, just as Taemin was Kibum’s home. 

They have been together for half of their lives already, and would be together forever more, but throughout it all, they would always feel that rush and joy that came along with their first realizations, admitted only to themselves, that they felt something more for their bandmate all those years ago.

Kibum lifted his head, and locked his gaze on Taemin’s.  He leaned his forehead against his lover, once again grateful that their heights were relatively similar and smiled once more, as they each breathed in the air of the other. 

Softly, still swaying in their little circle, completely oblivious to the rest of the people around them, the couple sang the last refrain together,

“Everything falls out of focus
You walk through the door
And one thing that's clear to me
Helplessly hopeless
I'm all right with that
In a room full of people
Everything else disappears.”

Kibum laid a soft kiss to Taemin’s smiling lips, finally coming back to the realization that other’s were still there and were giving them a light smattering of applause.

“I love you,” He whispered against those lips he knew so well.

“I love you too Kibum,”  Taemin smiled and pulled the man somehow even closer for a hug, crumpling their already wrinkled shirts and ties even more but not caring in the least.

And there it was – the last dance and the beginning of a new chapter in their story.

It was up to them to make it something worthwhile. 

I feel the need now to address something that was sent to me in a private message.  One of the readers from here doesn’t particularly seem to like the fact that I do song-fic chapters and one-shots.  And in my experience, if one person is thinking it, usually others are as well.  Well, first off, my fanfiction roots are writing songfics over on ff.net so it is something that I am very comfortable with writing.  But for this couple in particular, with music at the core of their relationship, being the only reason that they ever met in the first place, I think that music shall continue to play a massive role in their lives together and doing songfics is a way to pay homage to that importance and relevance in their relationship. 

As always - please comment and let me know what you think!