What Happens in Vegas

Thousands of jumbled thoughts fight through the haze of Brendon's mind as he tries to fully wake himself up. His head is pounding from the numerous amounts of drinks he consumed the night before, along with his band members --Spencer, Dillon and Ian-- and the one person he can honestly call his best friend, Danielle. With his eyes still pressed tightly shut, Brendon rubs at his slightly aching forehead and tries to remember what exactly happened after they left the after party for the No Doubt concert in their hometown of Las Vegas.

Though, all he can seem to remember is stumbling out of the club with an arm wrapped around Danielle's waist to balance himself and she entertained the two of them by blurting out one-liners and childhood inside jokes. Another thing that seems to come into a clear view is the cab they managed to flag down in the busy city as they giggled at each other like they had not a care in the world.

But, it seems, everything after that is huge blur that creates an even bigger headache when Brendon tries to break through the thick wall of his memories of the previous night.

Finally, cracking one eye open, he finds himself lying in a hotel suite with a thick, red velvet comforter kicked to the bottom of his bed. He blinks slowly and allows both of his eyes to open, taking in more of his surroundings. Groaning at the bright glare of the sun, Brendon adverts his eyes to the body lying beside him. But before he can freak out, he recognizes Danielle's beach-waved blonde hair sticking out from under the sheet she's currently passed out under.

Brendon rolls his eyes.

It wasn't completely weird or unusual for him to find himself sleeping in the same bed as her. They practically shared beds since they came out of each of their wombs. Jokingly, people would say that they were 'bump buddies' due to the fact that their mothers were best friends ever since high school and magically conceived Brendon and Danielle around the same time.

Brendon being only four days older then the blonde.

Getting up, he grimaced at the feeling of the material of yesterday's clothing sticking to his seemly always slick skin. As quickly as he could he stretches, letting his stiff joints crack into comfort and trudges over to a tiny table with scattered rose pedals circling an empty bottle of champagne and a tiny hotel card that has Congratulations! written nearly in script.

Thinking nothing of it, Brendon notices his iPhone sitting on top of the entertainment cabinet. He flicks the screen on and his eyes nearly bulge out his skull at the list of missed calls and voicemails from Spencer.

Brendon hesitantly presses play and slowly lifts the phone to his ear.

"Brendon, it's Spence. It's about one in the morning and I haven't heard from either you or Dani. Call me back as soon as you get this. I can only hold off Zach for so long. Again, call me as soon as you get this."

Shrugging his shoulders, he deletes it and continues on.

"You need to learn how to pick up your phone, fuck-twat. It's now two-thirty and you guys aren't in the club and no one remembers you guys leaving. You better not be fucking dead."

He frowns and deletes it.

"Don't make me call your mother."

Raising an eyebrow, Brendon looks at the phone in confusion and shakes his head; listening to the last and final message.

"You're probably not dead, but most likely completely hung over at some hotel or something with Dani. Alright... uh. Just so you know were staying at the Holiday Inn that was by the club we were at last night. Bus call is at noon, but I'm sure you'll be up by then. Just text me or something. Christ, Brendon, I really hope you didn't kill yourself, or worse-- yourself and Dani."

Brendon huffs a sigh and lowers the phone down with an attempt to narrow his eyes at the device. "Way to keep the faith, Spencer Smith."

Regardless, he types out --with much difficulty since his eyes are still sleep blurred-- a text message to Spencer. I'm totally fine. And so is Dani. Apparently got us a suite last night? IDEK dude. But I'm gonna get cleaned up and wake her up. We'll be at bus call.

He doesn't wait for a reply, but instead sets the phone on the top of the television cabinet and walks into the adjoining bathroom to splash cold water on his face in attempt to wake himself up. Resting his weight on his palms as he leans over the sink, Brendon lets the chilled water run down from his temples to his chin, giving him a jolt of energy.

After shaking his head and letting the stray water drops fly from his face, Brendon rubs his calloused hands down his face and looks at himself in the mirror.

Suddenly, his eyes catch the faint glint of light that bounces off a gold band that is fit snuggly around his left ring finger.

Brendon's eyes widen and he flips his hands over, staring down in bewilderment at the ring that wasn't there last night as he moved that hand and fingers down the fret board of his Fender guitar. Immediately, he rips the band off his finger to looks at it more closely-- to a point where he sees a tiny scripture carved into the gold.

Bren N Dani 4eva, the cursive letters read and Brendon let's out a loud yelp and throws the ring in the air in frightened surprise. He breathes out rapid, quick breaths and watches the ring bounce along the expensive floor tile.

"What the fuck?" he screeches to himself. "What the actual fuck?"

Getting on his knees, he crawls over to the spinning ring and picks it up with his shaky fingers. He continues for a few long moments, which seemed like hours, to stare down at the small object as if it was going to magically grow fangs and eat him alive in the bathroom.

No, no, no, he thinks to himself and squeezes his eyes shut. That's not a wedding ring. Of course its not. It's a friendship band. Brendon nods to himself and slips it back on hesitantly. Yeah. A friendship band. Just two best friends expressing their love of being friends.

Satisfied with his own conclusion, he walks calmly out of the bathroom and into the bedroom part of the suite. Brendon's eyes zero in on the pack of cigarettes that were laying beside Danielle's sweatshirt that she must have stripped off before both of them passed out in their alcohol-induced bliss.

And even though he quit well over two months ago; reason being he didn't want to mess his voice up even more with all the smoking, Brendon can't seem to stop himself when he bends down and places one between thick lips. He pats down his pockets looking for the neon green lighter he always carried --mostly because according to him is was too awesome to not carry around-- and grunts in distaste when he can't find it. Struggling a bit with the skin tight jeans, Brendon sticks his hand down his back pocket and to his surprise, he finds his finger tips bunching up a piece of folded paper.

His eyebrows furrow and he unfold the paper clearly--

And the cigarette that was tightly sealed between his lips drops to the floor as Brendon's mouth flew open when he read over the bolded print that clearly spelled out Marriage Certificate of Brendon Boyd Urie and Danielle Marie Cruise.

"Shit," he wheezes out and tosses the paper behind him, clearly not caring at the moment to what would happen to it. Scrambling over to Danielle's sleeping form, Brendon, as gently as he could at this point, shakes her awake. "Dani, wake up. Something's going on and I'm so confused."

Not even moving or blinking her eyes open, Danielle swings a hand out and smacks him in the stomach. "How many times do we have to go through this? The big hand on a clock means minutes and the little hand means--"

"No! Shut up for a minute. You need to get up!"

"Sleeping is one's way to feel complete. Please come back at another hour."

Grumbling, Brendon grabs a lone pillow and swings it, letting it collide with the side of her head. Danielle awakes with a jolt and knocks her forehead against Brendon's. Both of them grunt in pain and clutch their heads.

Danielle glares at the man and brings her hand down, her eyes also widening at the sight of a diamond ring. "Well, that's pretty. Where'd I get this?"

"I have one, too-- well it’s not diamond," Brendon says slowly and raises his own hand up. "Dani, do you remember anything from last night? Preferably, after we got into the cab?"

She looks like she's in a deep thought for a moment, and then throws her arms up in defeat. "Not a damn clue-- wait. We got a cab?" Danielle stops and looks around the hotel suit. "Whoa, sweet room. Who paid for this?"

"I'm guessing me, considering the fact that you have no job."

Danielle narrows her eyes at Brendon as he slowly sits down beside her.

"And," he continues and purses his lips as they both look around the rose-pedal infested room. "Apparently, the hotel might have given us this room because we're-- um."

"Because you're famous and I'm the best friend?"

"Well, no."

"You're confusing me, now. And that's very hard to do."

Brendon drums a beat out on his thighs and he bites his lip. "There's no easy way to say this, so I guess I should stop beating around the bush--" he pauses and takes a deep breath. "Danielle, we're married."

Her response was not the one he was expecting to get.

Danielle laughs so hard that she wheezes as she tries to suck in enough air. Brendon stares at her in disbelief and watches as her eyes get glassy with tears from the hilarity that she finds in the situation. Her laughter slowly turns to a small giggle, but then she takes one look at expression on Brendon’s face and starts up again.

“Why are you laughing?” he all but yells and points to the paper lying on the floor a few feet away. “That’s our marriage certificate and it looks legit. Plus we have rings on both of our ring fingers.”

Every emotion slides off Danielle’s face and her eyes widen. “Wh-What?” She gets up in one quick motion and falls to her knees as she picks up the thick, white paper. Quickly reading over the words of how the ceremony was preformed last night at the Little White Chapel on the strip, Danielle collapses onto her bottom and drops it. “I guess we are and yet, we have no memory of doing so.”

Brendon gets up and joins her on the floor. He squeezes her knee and sighs. “Who would have thought, huh?”

Danielle just nods and stays quiet, looking out the floor-to-ceiling window that shows the view of Las Vegas. She calmly breathes and bites her lip as she thinks.

“Well,” she says and laughs. “Should I call you Shnookums or Honey-Bun. I’m personally leaning towards Shnookums.”

Brendon laughs.

It’s then that he realizes that this might not be so bad.

---x---

They don’t tell anybody about what happened. It’s harder keeping it a secret since Brendon’s band is currently on tour with Blink 182 and his long time friends-- Fall Out Boy, who’s bass player just happens to be his boss and just might kill him if he ever finds out.
The wedding rings are still on their fingers, neither of them feel like taking them off, just telling anyone that asks that they were drunk and bought each other ‘friendship rings’ because it seemed like a good idea with the large amount of alcohol they had running through their systems.

But one night while being on stage as he talks to the crowd with a bottle of water in one hand and his guitar gripped in the other, Brendon looks off to the side of the stage and spots Danielle grinning at him.

And he can’t stop the thought that’s my wife that runs clearly through his mind.

The rest of the show, he can’t stop looking over at Danielle and it scares him.

Only a little.

---x---

They're on the highway to the next venue in the middle of the night. The star-lit sky is in perfect view from the bus' window next to the couch, where Brendon is currently seated upon with his Aladdin comforter wrapped around his slim shoulders. He continues to sit in silence as the sight of the open road calms him down from his post-show adrenaline rush that he gets after playing a good show.

The only sound that he hears is the small snores from the direction of Spencer's bunk and the tires rumbling along the road beneath him-- and it soothes him into a daze as he rests his forehead against the glass of the cool window.

"Hey."

Brendon startles and looks over at the sound of the whisper, only to find Danielle standing in her too baggy sweatpants and her hands messing with the bottom of her tank top. "Hey, yourself."

She smiles slightly and shuffles her feet. "So... what are you doing up?'

"Can't sleep. You?"

"Bad dream."

Nodding, Brendon spreads his arms and let's the thick comforter open along with it. All his life, he's known that every once in a while, Danielle would get these dreams that will scare her to a point where she can't fall back asleep-- making her stay awake with the images burning behind her eyelids.

"Come here," he whispers and motions her to get under the blanket with him as he lies down along the couch. "Lay with me for a little until you feel better."
Danielle let's out a relieved sigh and trudges over to him. Slowly, she lowers herself down-- half on top of him and half in between his body and the back of the couch. She rests her head on his chest and breathes in deeply.

Grabbing her hand, Brendon squeezes it softly and mumbles into her hair, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. No, this is good."

Brendon nods slightly and looks up at the dull ceiling of the tour bus, not realizing that he's counting each breath that Danielle takes until he feels her breathing slow down when she fell back asleep-- sooner then it usually takes when situations like this happen. He props his head up on his arm and let's his eyes readjust in the dark to focus on Danielle's sleep-slack face.

Before he detangles his hand in hers, Brendon's eyes catch the glint of the diamond ring. He stares down at it and can't help but to feel a weird twinge that creates in his chest. Brendon swallows heavily and let's his hand slip from Danielle's. Slowly, he carefully lets his fingertips run down the smooth strip of her cheek, stopping abruptly when she sighs in her sleep and nuzzles into his palm.

Brendon looks down with widen eyes and stops breathing, thinking she’s going to wake up and question him on what he was doing. But, thankfully for him, Danielle doesn’t wake, but instead tangle her fingers in the worn material of his sleep shirt.

The weird twinge he felt in his heart just minutes before, escalades into a helpless flutter that makes his breathing pick up and his palms sweaty.

Something he hasn’t felt for her since he was a teenager.

But back then, Brendon only thought it was teenage hormones that were messing with his head.

So, this is what it takes, Brendon thinks and rests his head upon Danielle’s, shutting his eyes. It takes a drunken marriage to her to figure out that I’m ineradicable in love.

He figures before he falls asleep that he’s blind beyond words.

---x---

Brendon awakes the next morning alone on the couch. He looks around sleepily to find that he’s by himself on the bus-- his band-mates and Danielle off somewhere since the bus was parked in the venues parking lot. Yawning, he gets up and heads to the bunks to grab his wardrobe for today.

Just as he pulls on a sweatshirt, he notices his phone flashes dimly in the dark corner of his bunk.

Raising an eyebrow, Brendon crawls into his bunk and finds Pete’s name popped up on the screen, along with 1 New Message blinking slowly. He sighs and opens up the text message, eyes neatly bulging out of his skull at the words.

someone twittered me this article this morning. explain this to me. NOW.

Brendon swallows and quickly boots up his laptop that sits next to him. He types in the link and squeezes his eyes shut at title of the long article on some Panic! fan site.

Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco Married?!

He scrolls down and bites his lip at a picture of Danielle and him leaving the Little White Chapel with Danielle wearing a tacky, white wedding veil tiara on her head.

Brendon reads on.

It seems that the energetic lead singer of the popular pop band Panic! at the Disco has exchanged vows with long time friend (girlfriend?) Danielle Cruise last night at a quick-stop wedding chapel on the Las Vegas Strip. Urie and Cruise, clearly under the influence of alcohol, left the chapel with their hands intertwined as they jumped into a cab.

To get a head start on their honey moon?

A source who happened to be there that night said that Urie and Cruise could not keep their hands off each other long enough to exchange vows. But, it seems they did because they were legally wedded with none of their family or Urie’s band-mates were present during the two minute ceremony

Was it just a drunken escapade like another famous celebrity, Brittney Spears, was apart of years ago?

Let’s just say, the preteen fan girls are all hoping so.

Brendon feels his gut clench and starts to feel nauseous as he closes the screen on his laptop. He head starts pounding. His eyes start blurring. And all he can think about is what’s going to happen and what he --or Pete-- are going to have to do for damage control.

Finally, getting enough courage to get out of the bus, Brendon calmly walks into the dressing room of the venue to only be greeted with a cold, hard glare from Pete.

“What did you do, Brendon?”

Eyes flicking from Pete’s face to his other band-mates, a concerned Zack, and Danielle who curling in on herself as she looks down at her knees in a guilty manner.

“I-- We--” Brendon stops and pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing. “Danielle and I got married a couple weeks ago. Uh-- We didn’t tell anyone because we didn’t want it to blow up like it did. We were drunk--”

He pauses and swallows thickly, looking over at Spencer who just entered the room.

“-- It was a mistake.”

Brendon winces as soon as the words leave his mouth and glances over at Danielle, who is staring at him with hurt-filled eyes-- that Brendon’s thinks he notices them water up slightly.
She gets up and tries to walk out of the room in a haste, pushing Zack out of her way as he goes to stop her, who’s trying to stop her.

“Let go of me,” she mutters and elbows past him. “I’m just going outside for some fresh air. This is giving me a headache.”

Collapsing on the couch, Brendon puts his head in his hands and groans-- fisting his hands in his air and pulling hard. He shakes his head and just finds that with one sentence, he just fucked up a lifetime worth a friendship with someone he just recently figured out that he is so in love with.

Spencer sighs and slowly sits down next to him. “You two can’t get anything past me,” he murmurs and pats Brendon on the back. “I’ve known both of you for years now, and the first time I met you two at band practice, I knew that you had more love for each other then just friendship. Brendon, you hurt her. Fix this before you loose her.”

Nodding, Brendon ventures out of the room and into the parking lot.

But, when he searches all of outside, he can’t find a trace of Danielle.

His heart drops.

---x---

A week passes and Danielle hasn’t spoken one word to him about the incident in the dressing room. Every time he goes into a room that she’s in, Danielle quickly leaves and doesn’t look at him.

And it hurts.

Day and night, Brendon keeps to himself and tries to figure out some way to fix this. To make everything better since he messed it all up.

Then an idea pops into his head and he starts creating a way to make it happen.

---x---

Another week passes and Brendon stands with his hands behind his back, in the darkness of the stage-- with just one light shining on him. In one hand, he’s holding a tornless rose and the other he’s holding a remote for the stereo that he managed to borrow from the venue.

“Spencer?”

His breath catches at the sound of her confused voice.

“Where are you? And why is dark in here? I got your text. What do you want to talk--”

Brendon bites his lip when Danielle stops talking abruptly and she stares at him with raised eyebrows. He clears his throat and hold out the white rose in a peace offering.

“What are you doing?” she asks and steps forward.

He takes a shaky breath in and hands her the rose, which she takes cautiously. “When I first realized that I was in love with you,” Brendon whispers with his nerves eating up his insides. “I was just a teenage boy who thought that it was just his hormones that were messing with his feelings for you. All these feelings started coming back throughout the years, and like a stupid teenager and boy, I ignored them-- thinking nothing of it.”

Danielle bites her lip and looks up at him.

“But, then when I was lying with you-- taking care of you after you had another bad dream, all those feelings came rushing back. Now, being older and thinking about all the other times I thought I was in love with these other girls, I figured out I was wrong. That I was completely in love with you.”

“Brendon…”

“I didn’t mean what I said two weeks ago. I was trying to please Pete and tell him it was a mistake, that it was just some stupid drunken event that I didn’t know was bad at the time. And to show you that I love you and I regret hurting you… I wanted to share our first dance together, since we didn’t get to after we got married.”

Brendon’s other hand comes out from behind his back and he flips on the stereo, letting the sounds of a piano float through the arena. He composed it a couple days ago, inspired by Danielle herself.

“What do you say?”

He drops the remote and hold out both his hand, breathing out a sigh of relief when Danielle cups it with her own and softly places her hand on his shoulder. Brendon smiles and wraps his arm around her waist, letting them slowly rock along with the flow of the piano.

“When we get back home,” he murmurs and rests he head against hers. “I want to plan this out. I want to get married to you again. But, this time to do it right. With our family and friends to witness it.”

Danielle doesn’t answer him, but presses her lips to his in a chaste kiss. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

The two of them --best friends since birth and now lovers-- slowly move around the stage just staring into each other eyes.