On This Special Day

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical nor do I make any profit off of this piece of my imagination.

Author’s Note: This is a kind of sequel to “This Christmastide” and as such includes SLASH. If you don’t like it, please just don’t read it. As always, if you have a moment, please leave a review and if you feel the need to flame please be civil. Thanks so much!

“Chad, I really don’t think I can do this,” Ryan moaned miserably, setting his forehead to the cool glass of the window and gazing out at the beautiful, snow-covered landscape. It was perfect out there, untouched. No one had dared to walk across the snow and mar the beauty. Normally an observation like that would have made Ryan smile, but at the moment it was only making him more miserable. The day was perfect. He pushed away from the window and leaned against the strong chest when the man he loved moved behind him and set strong hands to his hips. He allowed Chad to wrap him up in his arms and almost smiled when Chad set his chin to Ryan’s shoulder before placing a gentle kiss to his neck.

“Babe, we’ve known this day was coming for a long time.”

“I know,” Ryan said quietly, feeling the tears spring into his eyes, “But, now that it’s here it just feels like it’s too soon. Where did the years go, Chad? When did we get so old?”

“Old?” Ryan was left a little breathless as the man he had been with for nearly thirty years spun him around to look him in the eye. Ryan couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face briefly as he looked at Chad.

How could he have said Chad was old? The beautiful brown eyes hadn’t changed over the years. They still held all of the life and sweet mischief that Ryan could remember from the first time they had met. If they were hidden most of the time behind the glasses that Chad had to wear to see it only pleased Ryan that no one else could fall in love with the sweetness they held. If the strong face was lined now to Ryan it only meant that they had led a good life full of enough fun times that the crow’s feet and laugh lines had deepened. If there was gray at the temples and peppering the neatly trimmed facial hair it was only because they had spent twenty five years raising the two most wonderful little hellions that had ever been born to the world. How could he have even mentioned old? At fifty-five Chad was still as beautiful and full of life as he’d been at seventeen. To Ryan it seemed he was even more so.

“How can you call yourself old?” Chad asked gently, cupping Ryan’s face in a strong, large hand, “You’re as handsome as you were the day you walked into my meeting for Haven coaches. Do you remember that day?”

“How could I forget?” Ryan whispered, leaning in to lay his head against Chad’s chest, “It was the day I fell in love with you.” He smiled when Chad chuckled and he could feel it against his cheek.

“Exactly,” Chad said quietly, “And you’re just as incredible now as you were then.”

Ryan smiled and closed his eyes. Sometimes he wished he could see himself through Chad’s eyes. He knew he was still fit, especially for his age. He could still keep up with his younger co-stars on the stage. But, when he looked in the mirror all he seemed to see were the lines on his face, the gray in his hair. It was as if the very same things that pleased him so much when he saw them in Chad made him just feel old when he saw them in himself. He sighed heavily.

“Don’t believe me?” Chad asked, seeming to read his mind, “Well, you’re a dummy, then. You’re still incredible, Ry. You’ve just gotten better with age. You still turn me on like no one else ever could.”

Ryan groaned throatily when Chad tilted his chin up with a finger and fit their mouths together in a heated kiss, his free hand slipping down Ryan’s back to cup his rear and push their hips together. Ryan smirked inwardly. He knew, from relentless work-outs that his ass still looked as good now as it ever had and Chad just couldn’t get enough of him. Whoever said that sex fizzled out after forty when you’ve been with the same partner for half your life obviously hadn’t been with the right partner. It might have taken them a little longer to get going these days, but their bedroom activities were just as often and passionate as they had been when they were young.

“Daddy? Papa?” The sweet, nervous voice pulled Ryan out of his passion haze and he pulled away from Chad reluctantly before turning around to face the direction the voice had come from. The tears jumped into his eyes anew to see their oldest daughter standing in the doorway, fingering her necklace nervously with one hand and running the other down the beautiful white satin gown over and over. For a moment he was drawn back in time nearly twenty years when Tien stood before them in a beautiful little white dress and ribbons in her inky black hair.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to take you, sweetheart?”

“No, Daddy. I want to ride the bus. I’m a big girl.”

“I know, sweetheart.”

He had cried like a baby when she had stepped on the bus, turned around to wave at them with a big smile on her face, and then gone in completely. Chad had held him that day much as he was holding him now, arms around his shoulders and chin set to the top of his head. He had felt a little ridiculous crying until he had shifted, and seen the tears in Chad’s eyes as well.

But, this wasn’t the first day of school anymore. This was Tien standing in front of them in a beautiful white wedding gown, all grown up, looking like she wanted to cry. Ryan took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the little girl they had raised before moving out of Chad’s arms and approaching her to take her in his own. Tien threw herself into the embrace desperately and clung to him, trembling.

“Sweetheart,” he murmured gently, “What is it? Why are you shaking?” He ran his hand down her chin length hair gently and let it rest on the nape of her neck as Chad came to his side and wrapped his arms around both of them.

“I can’t do this, Daddy!” She cried out. A part of Ryan almost jumped with joy, the part that wished she was still a little girl. A larger part chuckled indulgently along with Chad and stroked her hair again.

“Why not, baby?” Chad asked.

“Papa!” Tien turned a little to bury her face in Chad’s chest, “I just… I… What if he wakes up tomorrow and asks himself what the hell he just did?”

“What if you do?” Ryan asked quietly, interrupting what he was sure would have been a wonderfully angst filled speech. She was his daughter after all.

“What? Daddy, I could never! I love Tristan with all my heart!”

“Do you think he would have asked you to marry him if he didn’t feel the exact same way?”

“Well, I…” Tien blushed a little, “I guess not.”

“Exactly.” Ryan took her chin gently in his hand and turned her face to him so that he could place a kiss to her forehead, “You’re so beautiful, sweetheart.”

“I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too, sweetheart.”

“Hey, what about me? What am I? Chopped liver?” Chad was smiling even as he said it and laughed along with Ryan and their daughter as she turned to smile at him.

“I love you, too, Papa.”

“I know. I love you, Tien Elisha.”

“All this loving is going to make her cry,” A low, smooth voice called from the doorway to the bride room, “And then, I’d have to fix her make-up… again. That’s something I’d rather not do. So, can we please get over that?”

They turned to see their younger daughter standing in the doorway, hands on her hips and a smile on her face. Aziza was almost three years younger than Tien and, in Ryan and Chad’s expert opinions, there had never been two more beautiful women. Where Tien was petite, Aziza was almost as tall as Chad. Tien’s dark almond shaped eyes displayed all of the emotions she felt without fail while Aziza’s held mystery and the promise of excitement. While their skin was so different, Tien’s a smooth pale and Aziza’s dark as midnight, it was obvious to anyone who cared to look that the two were sisters. Ryan couldn’t look at them as Tien walked back to Aziza. Their girls were just so beautiful, both of them. He could feel the tears coming into his eyes again. How had they grown so fast?

“Daddy, don’t cry,” Aziza said quietly. Both of the girls held out their hands to the men who had raised them. Chad pushed Ryan forward a little way to them and then took his own place in the circle. The four of them wrapped their arms around each other’s waists and set their foreheads together, something they’d started years ago. Ryan smiled even through his tears as they began to breathe together in rhythm. Yes, this was right. This was what his life had been for. The two women he had raised and the man beside him who had done so with him. They had done their job giving their girls everything they needed to live their own lives. Now it was time to let them do so.

“Hey, Tien,” A groomsman stuck his head in the door, “It’s time.”

“Okay,” Tien took one last bolstering breath and they pulled apart from each other, “Let’s do this thing.”

Ryan couldn’t remember much of the ceremony. It was all a blur of walking Tien down the aisle, holding her hand so tightly, kissing her. When the officiate asked who had come to give her away he was sure that he and Chad had given the right answer, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what that answer had been. He knew Chad held his hand the entire time, felt the tears rolling down his face as their little girl promised to love and honor the man across from her.

Tristan was a good man. They had liked him from the moment Tien had brought him home to meet them. They hadn’t told Tien, but they had known from that first night that he was different, that he was the one that Tien would spend the rest of her life with. There was just something about the way they spoke to each other, the way they looked at each other. They would challenge each other every day, but they would love each other every step of the way.

He came back to himself when Chad squeezed his hand as Tien and Tristan walked back down the aisle, man and wife. He turned to the man he had spent his life with and was surprised to see him crying. Chad had only ever cried a few other times in Ryan’s memory. He had cried when they had met their girls for the first time and both times they had brought them home to meet their families, but Ryan couldn’t remember another time he had seen tears in his love’s eyes. He reached up and wiped them away, letting his hand trial down Chad’s face and neck until he had set it against Chad’s chest. Chad covered the hand against his chest with his own and, with his free hand, wiped the tears away from Ryan’s face. Ryan couldn’t help it and pressed their lips together in a smooth, chaste kiss.

“I love you,” he whispered as they held each other.

“I love you,” Chad whispered back, squeezing Ryan’s rear discreetly, “Sneak away with me for an hour or two and I’ll show you just how much.”

“I know that look!” Sharpay screeched from behind them, “Kenyen, Michael, pull your uncles apart before they disappear from your cousin’s wedding.”

Ryan turned a glare on his sister, then set it on his very grown nephews when they actually reached out. They both pulled back at the look.

“Uh, no thanks, Mom,” Kenyen laughed, “I think it might be safer to leave them be.”

“How did we ever raise such a coward?” Sharpay asked teasingly as she reached around Zeke and ruffled her son’s hair.

“It’s a mystery,” Zeke laughed, wrapping his arm around Sharpay’s shoulder and kissing her hair.

“Come on,” Chad said after a moment, jerking his head toward the large wooden doors of the church, “Let’s go party.”

Half an hour later found them both sitting at a table, Ryan gripping Chad’s hand hard enough to cut off circulation yet again, as they watched Tien and Tristan dance their first dance as man and wife. They whirled around gracefully in the waltz they had asked Ryan to teach them and executed each move, from the very simple steps to the slightly harder poses, perfectly. Ryan was so proud of them. They looked so wonderful, so in love, as the moves came second to staring into each other’s eyes. When the song ended Tien turned to the table and held out her hand for him.

“Sweetheart, you are so beautiful,” he whispered as they whirled around the dance floor themselves.

“I love you so much, Daddy,” Tien put her head against his chest, “Thank you.”

“For what, sweetheart?”

“For choosing me.”

“Oh, Tien, your papa and I didn’t choose you. We all chose each other. Did I ever tell you that the first time we came to see you, you held out your arms for me?”

“Only a million times, Daddy. But, you know I love hearing it.”

“You were there in the crib, crying your poor little eyes out. You had a little bit of a cold. The first moment I saw you I knew it. You were ours. You would always be ours. You were meant to be ours from the moment you were born. And you spotted us. Papa stopped, he was so afraid that you weren’t real. But, I couldn’t help it. I was being pulled to you. And you held out your arms, sniffling, so sad. The moment I picked you up you laid your head on my shoulder and I whispered t you, ‘Beautiful girl. I’m your Daddy.’ Papa sat down. His knees were shaking too hard and he was crying, so I carried you to him and there we were, the three of us, sitting on the floor like lunatics, Papa and I crying like idiots and you, your head on my shoulder and one hand wrapped around some of Papa’s hair. We couldn’t believe that we had finally found you. And now we’ve given you away. Oh, Tien, I’m so proud of you, sweetheart. I love you so much. I always have and I always will. Remember that.”

“I will, Daddy.”

“My turn now,” Chad tapped his shoulder, “Move over.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Ryan murmured, but stepped aside with a smile so that Chad could take Tien in his arms.

Ryan moved back to the table where Sharpay sat and allowed his sister to wrap her arms around him as he watched the man he loved and their daughter dancing. The dance was less than professional. In fact, Chad barely moved, simply swaying in place as Tien rested her head against his chest, her eyes closed. It was so simple and yet Ryan found himself more moved than he had been at any professional performance he had ever seen. He wondered just how much a person could cry from happiness as the tears filled his eyes again.

“You going to fall apart again?” Sharpay asked gently.

“All night,” he answered.

“Yeah. I’m sure I’ll be just as bad when one of the boys gets married. Look at your youngest. She won’t be far behind.”

Ryan looked over at Aziza, who sat at the head table with her boyfriend of nearly two years. She was seated on his lap as they quietly watched Tien dancing with Chad. Even as Ryan watched, Elan placed a kiss to Aziza’s neck that made her smile and nuzzle against him. Ryan fought the urge to go separate them, overwhelmed all of a sudden. Sharpay was right. Soon his baby girl would marry as well. Then what would he do?

“You and Chad are good fathers, Ryan,” Sharpay whispered, “Your girls knew love when they saw it and reached out for it. You’ve given them everything. Let them go now.”

“Yeah,” Ryan smiled and patted her hand, “You’re right. You’re a good mother, too, Sharpay.”

“Thanks. Now… go get Chad. Father and daughter dances are done. They won’t cut the cake for a while. Sneak away, have a good long cry together. I’ll cover for you.”

“Thanks, Sis.”

Sharpay watched as Ryan did as she said, grabbed Chad’s hand, and began to lead him from the room. She moaned as Chad’s hand cupped Ryan’s rear again and squeezed. She had intended that they take quiet time together to process the day, but obviously they had other plans.

“Have fun, guys,” she whispered, then turned to take Zeke’s hand and drag him out on the dance floor, “Come on, Husband. How long has it been since we danced?”

“Too long, Wife,” Zeke smiled wickedly, “Let’s see if you still got it.”

“Baby,” Sharpay laughed, “You’re on.”