#LoveWins

[friendsfordinner]

Who: Cornelius Hickey & OPEN
What: hey. hey guess who's married. guess. take a guess. bet you can't guess, OKAY it's Hickey
When: early October, post Forest Talker attack
Where: Milton

Content Warnings: as always, the possibility of canon-typical Terror warnings (mentions of gore, cannibalism, period-typical homophobia, murder, all of Hickey's crimes. etc.). Will mention in the thread if they occur.

---

Hickey's basically married now!

Yeah, sure he's considered himself basically married ever since Billy arrived here. They're living together, after all, and as long as Hickey's got Billy, he hasn't really felt any lust or desires towards any other people (except Crozier) (that's different). And he does love Billy. At least, he's pretty sure he does. Love's a weird feeling and it's something that Hickey has never really been able to put a name to or identify in himself, so yeah, it might as well be love! And Billy's been wearing the ring that Hickey gave him. And they've both been upfront about it with each other, to the point where Billy said that he and Hickey were together during that awful town meeting.

So yeah, they've been basically married already. But Billy gave him a ring (looted off some corpse, not entirely romantic but something the ever-practical Hickey approves of), so now they're officially married! What do you mean most marriages involve a priest or signing a contract in front of the law, they don't have either of those here! This is as official as it's going to get!

So naturally, Hickey's going to gloat.

He goes about his day to day life in Milton. He'll check out the notice board, he'll rummage through what abandoned buildings he hasn't yet rummaged through, he'll go on a little walk. But every time he spots someone, he adjusts his hair, brushing it behind his ear. And then brushing it behind his ear again. And then he'll lightly scratch his neck. Or he'll wave them over. And hey, just ignore the fact that all of Hickey's obvious stupid little tells are with his left hand and just ignore the fact that all of his obvious stupid little tells are blatantly him just showing off that ring finger. With a ring on it.

Hey did he mention he's married???

Comments

[desperate_times_right]

“I bet!” That had never worked exactly that way for Chloe - she's had two different near-death-related breakup experiences - but she does get the concept. “Guess that means you two got out mostly unscathed?”

[friendsfordinner]

"As unscathed as you can get. We fought back, yeah, but Billy and I gave better than we got."

Billy set a few people on fire. It was awesome.

[desperate_times_right]

“Good to hear. You're a born survivor, but I worry about Billy out there.” He’s so tall, he makes a great target.

[friendsfordinner]

He's so tall and he's so nervous. Billy approaches every situation with hesitation written large on his face. Hickey wonders if he knows just how much of a tell it really is.

"Billy's gotten better since we've been here," he explains, with a little nod. "Less...skittish, I guess."

[desperate_times_right]

“Yeah.” It's true, Billy is way more open with Chloe now than he had been when they'd first arrived. “Guess not being afraid of being found out all the time is good for you.”

[friendsfordinner]

"It's certainly eased any strain I might have," Hickey laughs, stretching as if he's a cat in the sun as he points this out. "One less thing to worry about, y'know?"

[desperate_times_right]

“Some people here still worry about it.” Poor Louis is giving himself an ulcer for no reason. “But I think it's just a few outliers who are weird about it. Even your own guys seem to have backed off.”

[friendsfordinner]

"And thank Christ for that," Hickey grumbles, with a sigh and a roll of his eyes. "We've got bigger problems to deal with than rehashing nonsense from home."

Granted, part of that nonsense is 'Hickey killed John Irving, who's now alive and well in Milton,' but Hickey's keeping that to himself!

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe raises an eyebrow. “Do we?”

Seems like these guys in particular have tended to make their past dramas everyone's problem.

“Well, regardless. I'm happy for both of you. I'm throwing a harvest party in a couple of weeks if you want to add a little wedding shower on there.”

[friendsfordinner]

Hickey raises an eyebrow in response before lightly sassing, "The record shows that I was never the aggrieved party. Jopson punched me. Crozier slandered me. I've been well-behaved here—or at least, as well-behaved as one can be when the Darkwalker reaches into your mind and twists it up."

Cornelius Hickey has done nothing wrong ever and will die on this hill. Though there's one thing about Chloe's next statement that interests him.

"Y'know, I've never been to a wedding shower? Dunno what they're like."

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe shrugs. “Hey, I know this. But I think bear baiting is a bit of a hobby for you, too.”

It's way rarer to see someone punching Billy.

“Oh, it's fun.” She's only ever been to one herself. Take her word on this. “It's like a celebration of your engagement. Food and gifts and stuff.”

[friendsfordinner]

Food sounds good. People giving him gifts also sounds good. There's a moment before Hickey casually continues, like this is a totally normal conversation and not him blatantly hinting that he wants food and gifts.

"Well, if you're offering to host, it'd be rude if I declined, yeah?"

[desperate_times_right]

Hey, there's a reason she sold it to him that way. Chloe grins.

“Figured you'd see things my way. It's not just Methuselah who can hold feasts around here.”

[friendsfordinner]

"You should invite everybody you know," says the man perfectly fine to cause shit and cause trouble. "You know, for the benefit of the community."

[desperate_times_right]

“Already on it,” Chloe agrees. “I invited you, didn't I?”

Hopefully with the like 300 party topics everyone will be able to remain chill.

[friendsfordinner]

"I'm the first person you should be inviting!" Hickey points out, with a wide grin. "Unless it's Billy, of course. But it's our wedding reception, yeah?"

[desperate_times_right]

“Uh-huh, and my harvest party, and Halloween, and Ruby’s birthday.” Don’t get a big head, mister! (too late)

[friendsfordinner]

Absolutely too late.

But hey, now that this is on his mind,

"What do people from your time do for Halloween anyway? It's not a big holiday when I'm from."