#like it was my groom and left me the bride at the altar on our wedding da

[angrykittybarbarian]

Things that bother me about Dragon Age: The Veilguard part 3 (final thoughts)

I have finally finished the playthrough. I endured because I wanted to give this game a fair chance. I wanted to see it from start to finish in the hopes it would deliver something, anything capable of redeeming it. But it just didn't. Or more precisely, not in a way sufficient to make its flaws easy to overlook. These are my closing impressions on the game. I have already done two posts about this in which I documented my observations and comments as I progressed. I will link the posts here: Part 1, Part 2.

Let's finish this ride for now.

!Spoilers below the cut!

The music

I don't know what the direction of the music was meant to take. When it was announced Hans Zimmer would compose the OST I had high hopes. Hans Zimmer is a houshold name in Hollywood and skilled at what he does. I listened to a number of movie OSTs of his making and they were all excellent. So what happened here?

The music sounds generic most of the time without a clear theme or a unique piece that got me searching for it on youtube.

The main theme has sort of a recognizable composition but isn't anything outstanding. Emmrich's theme sounds like a halloween piece written for Wednesdsy Adams and the rest of the OST seems to mimic Trevor Morris' work for DA:I, namely the Lost Temple and In Hushed Whispers themes, but without the emotional impact the original pieces created.

It's as someone has already pointed out and I agree: Bioware has bought the name Hans Zimmer but not his quality. It sounds like he didn't even seriously create something but half heartedly whipped something out of his sleeve and called it a day.

The facial animations

The main problem with these is they often don't fit the emotions the VAs are communicating.

The VAs actually did a fantastic job. The scene that touched me the most was the one Rook confronts Solas in after they escape the regret prison in the fade. That was the first time Rook felt involved, raw and real.

But what broke the atmosphere in an otherwise flawless scene was how unmoving their facial expression was. There was the VA shouting their lung out and the animation couldn't even give half a fuck about it.

I don't even see an excuse for this lack of facial animation. It was possible to do since DA:O, hell, even since the first Mass Effect back in '07. Why is it not possible in the year of our Lord 2024, when technology is presumably better?

The handholding of the player

The plot is tightly paced. This is not necessarily a bad thing as I didn't really like the Open World approach of DA:I since it stretched the main plot too thinly and the maps created weren't filled with interesting side content but boring and pointless fetch quests.

But Veilguard went into the opposide extreme as it leaves only little room for the player when and how to do things. The quests are activated and must be completed in a specific order. They have also only one outcome without room to make different decisions.

Rook can never be truly ruthless. They can never disagree and butt heads with their companions.

And I hate how on the side of the screen the game exactly tells you what you have done and how it affects your companions' behaviour. It doesn't bake it into the interaction organically. Instead it has yet again, explained to me what I did and why it has this very specific effect without any of the characters discussing it. But the beauty of consequential decisions lies in the very unpredictability of its outcome. That's what creates the emotional impact. It doesn't work if I am being warned and explained to like a small child.

It's this lack of trust the game puts into the intelligence of its players that is so experience breaking, insulting even. It doesn't trust its players to figure stuff out themselves. It assumes we are too stupid to get any of the things it tries to tell us.

The ting is though, dear Bioware writers, if you think you have to overexplain your story because you think your audience won't get it then that's a telltale sign of the story being actually badly written.

Another area where this becomes appearant are the "puzzles". I used the quotation marks because there isn't really anything to solve. The solutions are obvious and at times your companions go out of their way to tell you.

The romances

Romances have always been a nice bonus on top of the otherweise amazing game content. They added some enjoyable extra fluff purely for enjoyment and some cases even deepened the main storyline.

In Veilguard they don't do that. In almost all of them the flirting is so meaningless that your cutscene with them just proceeds as if nothing happened.

There is no shift or change to their tone towards Rook. You don't build up the relationship with them. There is no last goodbye kiss before the last mission or passionate affirmations of love and trust. It just leaves you cold.

The only romance that seems to have that old depth is Emmrich's. The rest however, they don't add anything significant. There virtually is no difference to the game without the romances.

Companion relationships

Let's begin here with the simple fact that all deeper interactions Rook has with the companions are strictly scripted which ties back into the handholding part of this criticism. Rook cannot initiate a conversation and ask them some general questions about their histories and opinions on certain matters.

Rook only gets to interact with them when they happen to want something from them. Otherwise they cannot be bothered to acknowledge Rook with more than a one sided oneliner.

And then there are the relationships between the companions themselves. They either get along swimmingly or the game feels the need to stage some immature conflict between them without any deeper purpose.

Like Harding not understanding why Emmrich brings so many books on the road despite it literally not being any of her damn business bevause it doesn't personally affect her in any way.

Or Taash not understanding his profession as a Mournwatcher as they call him names so Rook has to point out Taash in turn likes dragons which is an interest he doesn't share only to culminate the discussion with a "We need to respect our differences" sort of statement.

These are not conflicts, these are squabbles of children and like children Roik talks to them which is brought ad absurdum with Emmrich because he is literally old enough to be Rook's father.

Why bother at all with writing conflict if it is only to be something as inconsequential as this?

Varric's death

This one is a .... choice.

I won't go into why the decision to let him die or not is good or bad because I feel like this is highly subjective.

However the impact of the reveal of this fact is only partly executed well.

Why?

Because it only hits hard when the player has known and cared about Varric at least since DA:I if not DA 2. The execution of this plotpoint thus relies too heavily on nostalgia instead of building the tension up within its own setting.

When thinking about Bioware also wanting to be newcomer friendly with this game I am left to wonder then why they didn't introduce Varric properly and didn't give the players time to build up the relationship? Why would a new player care about Varric? They don't know him.

Bioware cannot in good conscience claim they designed the game to be new player friendly while simultaniously heavily relying on knowledge from previous games, dlcs, comics, novels and other spin-off media. They cannot claim this and have anything but DATV do the heavy lifting when it comes to executing their plot.

The final mission

For my final point I also want to lose some positive feedback about this game.

The ending was actually well written.

In relation to Solas it comes full circle. You can actually feel what's at stake and the decisions Rook makes actually matter.

The final questline roughly follows a Mass Effect 2 approach where it is classified as nothing short of a suicide mission.

Companion quests essentially function as loyalty missions and Rook gets to assign various posts in battle. Just like in Mass Effect 2 assigning a companion a post completely outside of their expertise may get them killed.

The dialogue is actually written well at this point in the game. There isn't really much to complain about.

But even this part is not entirely without faults.

For one I don't like the non negotiable sacrifice that has either to be made by Harding or Davrin. Rook doesn't even get a chance to save any of them. But again these non negotiable companion deaths where you only make the choice who's it's going to be isn't anything new (i.e. Hawke and whatever Warden you happen to get, Kaidan/Ashley in ME 1). So maybe a bit if a bummer but nothing experience breaking.

A stronger point however is that Rook will always keep the Veil intact in the end.

I suppose this outcome already is part of the game title itself but was it necessary to take it so literally?

With everything the elves have lost and the discrimination they faced it should absolutely have been an option to agree with Solas and tear the Veil down.

But since we don't talk about racism and slavery I guess Rook doesn't reflect on these points either. So I guess keeping the Veil intact is in line with the game's general sanitization of the world.

So in conclusion?

The game is far from great, not gonna lie. It feels like the devs actually wanted a new IP but were too afraid of the risks that come with such an endeavor and thought gutting an existing franchise that already did the heavy lifting of building a fanbase and using it as a package would save their ideas from flopping. Surely no one will notice it is actually something else if we market it as Dragon Age, right?

But we are not that stupid. This behaviour is insulting to put it plain and simple and I am heartbroken, angry and said that this was done to Dragon Age. I wanted to love this game. I was optimistic before the release. Everything looked fine, nothing in particular to worry about.

But I cannot continue to defend this without breaking my basic brain function.

The most frustrating part is that with the ending the devs showed they can write a story and meaningful dialogues. It left me wondering why it couldn't be done like this for the rest of the game and living with the reality that I will never get what this game could have been.

All in all this is not a good Dragon Age game. It is a massive disappointment and does not live up to the promises made by the devs.

I am sorry for everyone who preordered.

I am sorry for everyone who paid the full release price.

Nominating it for Game of the Year is not justified no mattee how you look at it.

If you are genuinely enjoying the game, I hope you continue to do so and all power to you.

For the rest: let's stop excusing Bioware's disrespect towards the fans and enabling them by paying them too much money for it.

Don't buy at release. Don't buy spin off media. Wait for sales. These people only understand the problem when you give them a good run for their money.

[jjungkookislife]

La Boda

pairing: bts x f. reader

genre: exes to lovers, some angst, fluff 18+

summary: Your seven exes attend your wedding ceremony and don't plan to leave without you.

wc: 1.1k

warnings: mention of fainting, mentions of cheating, mention of fighting

a/n: title credit and inspiration from la boda by Aventura

date: April 20, 2024

“If there’s anyone who objects to this matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.” The officiant says looking around the room to make sure nobody is raising their hands or rising from their seat.

As he’s about to move on after no objections, the doors burst open. The groom is surprised, as are the wedding guests, but the bride is wide-eyed as she clutches her bouquet to her chest. Her eyes water as she sees not one, but multiple of her exes, seven to be exact.

The groom looks at the bride in confusion as the first ex walks down the aisle. He’s wearing a tuxedo and looks smashing. He’s easily the tallest out of the bunch as they all file in, one behind the other. 

Time slows down, everything fades to the background as the bride follows their movements. Namjoon is leading the pack of her exes and her heart flutters against her will. Tears roll down her cheeks as she sees Jin, Yoongi, Hoseok, Jimin, Taehyung, and Jungkook following him.

The bride’s mother faints as she recognizes them, her husband catching her in his arms. The maid of honor looks at the bride and then the exes before stepping aside, and giving the bride a thumbs up.

“I-We know this isn’t the best time to do this, my love,” Namjoon starts as he reaches the altar, stepping to the left when Seokjin steps up.

“But we couldn’t let you go through with this.”

Yoongi nods, his deep gaze penetrating the bride’s body, the bouquet falling to her side. “We love you. We’ve always loved you.”

Hoseok steps up when Yoongi moves to the left. The bride’s eyes are tearing up, sniffles are heard through the building as everyone holds their breath while the groom is fuming. He turns to his groomsmen, who shrug, unsure of what to do. The last thing anyone was expecting was for the bride’s exes to show up. Honestly, the wedding party was too into the drama to intercept.

“Please, give us another chance. We won’t let you go this time,” Hoseok pleads, stepping forward to take the bride’s hands in his. The bride swallows thickly, nearly sobbing when Hoseok steps aside and Jimin steps up.

She doesn’t think she’s ever seen him this distraught. “He can’t love you like we do. If you marry him, you’ll be taking our hearts with you.”

Taehyung can’t wait his turn. Stepping up beside Jimin, taking his hand in his and yours in his other hand. “Please, tell me this is a nightmare. You can’t marry him, he’s not us.”

The groom scoffs. Jimin has to hold Taehyung back from lunging at him. 

It’s chaos.

Complete chaos.

“He’s not the man you think he is, love. Do you know he was the one who planted everything to make it look like we were cheating on you? As if we have eyes for anyone else,” Taehyung grits his teeth.

The bride turns to her groom. “Is that true?”

“Are you going to listen to them? This is insanity!” The groom shouts, turning to demand the ceremony continue.

Jimin and Taehyung get pulled away and the youngest ex-boyfriend steps up. Tears well up in his eyes as his dark, fluffy hair falls over his eyes. The bride’s breath catches in her throat as she takes him in. He’s wearing a tuxedo like the others but his waist is the most prominent and he smiles softly when he catches her gaze. 

Jungkook clears his throat, his hand reaching for the bride’s. She gives her hand to him easily, a triumphant smile appearing on his lips as he raises a brow to the groom. She’s theirs, always has been, and always will be.

“She’s never been yours, this is just a nightmare,” Jungkook says, directed at the groom. “We’re here to fight for her. We’re not leaving this place without her.”

Jungkook turns back to the bride. “You remember how in love we were. Swore we’d always be together, love each other, not even death could do us part.”

“Remember all those nights we’d climb up to your balcony, to hold you on nights you couldn’t sleep?” Namjoon asks as he steps forward once again.

“Or those love letters we used to write when we couldn’t stop thinking about each other?” Seokjin asks, biting his bottom lip.

“All those nights we made love under the stars, promising forever with every kiss?” Yoongi asks, no longer able to contain his emotions as tears flow freely from his eyes.

The bride nods, sniffling as she squeezes Jungkook’s hand.

“You can’t marry him! We all want what’s best for you, and he’s not it,” Jimin glares at the groom, who’s long since stopped paying attention. He’s trying to see which of his groomsmen will help him fight the seven men.

“Please, baby. We belong together. You know it, and we know it,” Taehyung states and Jungkook nods. His hand cups the bride’s face, gently wiping away her tears with his thumb. She looks up at him with tear-filled eyes, memories of their relationship hitting her hard.

“Don’t marry him, please,” Jungkook begs softly. 

The bride finally drops the bouquet on the ground, and the guests do a collective gasp. The wedding’s over.

The bride lunges forward, her arms wrapping around Jungkook to kiss him. He welcomes her gladly in his embrace, kissing her through his tears. A laugh bubbles in his chest, giggling against her lips when she pulls away to kiss Taehyung, Jimin, Hoseok, Yoongi, Seokjin, and Namjoon.

Taking Namjoon’s hand, the bride smiles. “Uh, wedding over?” 

The maid of honor laughs, cheering the bride on before the bride’s family cheers her on, never too fond of the groom.

“Let’s go!” Yoongi exclaims.

“We’ve got a car waiting,” Hoseok informs the bride as all the exes hold hands, running out of the building with the bride.

The bride giggles, her heart soaring as she gets into the getaway car with all the loves of her life. She was about to make the worst mistake of her life, thinking she was in love with the groom when in reality he had been nothing but a placeholder, a replacement for her seven exes.

Her love for them never vanished, never dimmed. As she sits in the middle of all of them, her heart flutters in her chest. She never has to leave them again, they’re all hers and she’s all theirs.

“To the bride!” Jimin cheers once everyone has a flute of champagne in their hands. His six boyfriends hold their glasses up as the bride flushes with heat, a shy smile on her lips.

“To the bride!”

© jjungkookislife - I do not allow reposts or translations of my work on any platforms, this includes Youtube.

[senditcolton]

I Get to Love You

Thigh squeezes. Reaching over and resting your hand on their outer thigh, perhaps giving a gentle squeeze. Feeling their eyes on you as they try to decipher your motives. Whether the touch is teasing, loving, reassuring, or just for fun.

part of my Valentine's Day prompts requested by @pyotrkochetkov | word count: 0.6k | warnings: none!

The breeze blowing in from the ocean was a pleasant sensation against your skin. You sit in your designated white wooden folding chair on the large patio, the scent of flowers filling your nostrils. The gentle music floats above you as you watch the adorable parade of kids making their way to the altar. You shoot a quick glance back at Kevin, rocking on his heels, his eyes trained at the end of the aisle.

“Kev looks like he’s about to cry already,” you whisper to Brady, sitting next to you.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Brady questions, his eyes turning to look towards his friend.

“Of course it is,” you lightly giggle. “Which reminds me; if you don’t shed a single tear during our wedding, I might have to call the whole thing off.”

The teasing in your voice is evident, that mischievous smirk on your face as you look back at your fiancé. Brady shares your grin, leaning in to place a quick kiss on your lips.

“If that’s the case, then I promise I will be a sobbing wreck. And if I’m not, you can subtly kick me in the shins until I start crying.”

Another gentle laugh escapes you and you press a kiss onto his lips. The music swells and you see the officiant lift their hands – an indication for you to stand. You do, angling your body towards the entrance of the aisle. Brady’s hands come to rest on your hips, his need for physical touch making you smile.

You watch as Katya makes her way down the aisle, holding the elegant bouquet of white florals, the material of her dress dancing in the breeze. You sneak another glance towards Kevin and you look just in time to see him wipe a tear away. Katya makes it to the altar, kissing her father on the cheek and handing off the bouquet to her maid of the honor before taking Kevin’s hands in hers. Once everyone has settled back down into their seats, you listen intently to the exchanging of vows, the smile never leaving your face.

There was something magical about weddings – an entire day devoted to celebrating love. They were one of your favorite events to attend and you loved every second of them: the ceremony, the first dance, the reception. But your favorite part was the vows. Listening to two people profess their love for each other in front of friends and family was beautiful, especially when it always looked like the couple was in their own world. Just the two of them – no one else around.

You smile as you see Kevin and Katya seemingly caught up in their own perfect bubble.

A hand landing on the top of your thigh pulls your attention away from the bride and groom and towards your soon-to-be-husband. Brady looks at you with a soft smile on his face, his strong grip gently squeezing the flesh of your upper thigh, his thumb running over the silken fabric resting there.

You understood the action – one that could have many different intentions driving it – was one of excitement and love. You grin back at him, your head coming to rest naturally against his shoulder. Brady presses a kiss into the crown of your head and you hear his gentle voice whispering into your hair.

“Only three more months. Then that’s going to be us up there.”

Your smile grows, your left hand coming up to rest on top of his. Your engagement ring catches the sunlight, sparkling like an exclamation to the end of Brady’s statement. You lift your head, resting your chin onto his shoulder, watching as Brady turns to stare into your eyes.

“Three months can’t come fast enough,” you whisper. Brady smiles, leaning in and pressing a quick kiss to your lips before you both turn your attention back to Kevin and Katya.

Weddings were magical. And you knew in your heart that yours and Brady’s wedding would be the most enchanting of them all. You couldn’t wait for that day.

[the12thnightproject]

Chapter Three: Dearly Beloved - 'Okatsu' meets Kitty, Mitsunari meets Okatsu, Hideyoshi meets the end of his patience, and someone's face meets a plate of stewed eel.

Mitsunari x OC; Nobunaga x Mai

Previous Chapter

Logline - In order to protect a political alliance, Katusko and Mitsunari must pretend an engagement. But this “all business” arrangement is threatened by a coup against Nobunaga… and by feelings.

From the Military Notes of Ishida Mitsunari…

Diversion: The act of drawing the attention and forces of an enemy from the point of the principal operation; an attack, alarm, or feint that directs attention elsewhere. Two: a change made in a prescribed route for operational or tactical reasons. A diversion order will not constitute a change of destination. Three: a rerouting of cargo or passengers to a new point or destination or on a different mode of transportation prior to arrival at ultimate destination.

Personal comments: I have the worrisome notion that there is something important I have forgotten. Also, it seems I have misplaced my cat. Am more concerned about the latter, as if it is the former, someone will inevitably remind me.

If I were writing up a society puff piece for a newspaper about my “engagement” party, I would likely write that the food, prepared by Date Masamune, was excellent. The article would note that the entertainment, in the form of Hideyoshi and Mitsuhide’s bickering was… a choice. The bride-to-be wore a pale lavender kimono embroidered with sakura blossoms, with matching sakura blossoms pinned to her hair. And the groom-to-be was… a no show.

I’d been left at the altar by my fake fiancé.

While Hideyoshi and Mitsuhide went out in search of him, Masamune stayed behind to encourage me to eat my feelings. “Here, what do you think of this?” He poked a chopstick full of steamed eel toward my mouth.

Though I had been a vegetarian before landing in this era, I had since learned – out of both necessity and politeness - to eat what was set in front of me. In this case, it was no hardship – the one-eyed man I (as Katsu) had once gotten into a horse race with was an excellent chef. “Delicious.” Since he looked like he was going to try and hand feed me my entire dinner, I asked, “Are you flirting with me at my own fake engagement party?”

“Were I fake engaged to you, lass, I would personally make sure you had a wonderful time at our party.” He leaned a little closer than mere politeness should allow and gave me a you-gotta-love-me grin. “You would never need to fake anything – anything- with me.”

No. Probably not. Masamune was hot, charming, and charismatic. But as fun as I imagined a ‘fake’ relationship with him would be, it was a relief that he wasn’t my ‘fiance.’ A little of that flirting went a long way.

There was a disgusted snort from the other man at our small table. Eeyore – no, Ieyasu, must remember that – had refused to join the searchers, choosing to stay behind and eat in peace (his words). “Masamune, go flirt with the hired help elsewhere. You’re giving me indigestion.” He turned those gorgeous green eyes on me, then he frowned.

Correction. Frowned more.

“Have we met?”

Masamune looked up from where he was spooning more stew into my dish. “Now who’s flirting?”

More staring. More frowning. “No, truly, she looks familiar.”

“Ieyasu, you’re doing it wrong.” Masamune shook his head in mock dismay, before giving me another one of those grins. “If we had met before, I definitely would remember it.”

“Actually, Lord Ieyasu is correct, we’ve met before. And you too, Lord Masamune. I was dressed as a boy on both occasions.” It was better that Ieyasu remember the time he helped me care for my horse, than to make the connection between myself and the old man in the booksellers. Nobunaga already knew about the boy, but I didn’t want him to learn about the couple weeks I had spent in Azuchi earlier this summer… observing.

While the two of them quieted, both, looking at me as if they were trying to picture what I looked like as a boy, something caught my attention – a tiny grey moving blob, darting in and around people. Awww. It was a cat! I set my hand on the floor and snapped my fingers, trying to get its attention, but it didn’t notice me.

The poor thing was going to get kicked or stepped on though. I excused myself from my dining companions and hurried to perform a feline extraction.

However, the cat seemed perfectly (purrfectly?) capable of performing its own extraction, and I ended up following it into the corridor, where it meowed at me, then gave me one of those disdainful looks that said, ‘now that I have your attention, I don’t want it anymore,’ and padded into the gardens.

Feeling the need for some pet therapy after being dissed by my yet unknown fake fiancé, I followed the cat. She was sitting near the shrubbery, legs splayed, grooming herself. I stopped in front of her and held my hand out. “Hi sweetie. What’s your name?” Of course, the cat wasn’t going to answer… but it seemed the right thing to do.

The cat ignored me, her head tilted at something on the far side of the gardens. I heard it too… soft footsteps, that preceded the reappearance of that absentminded bookworm. Unsurprisingly Mitsunaru was reading and walking at the same time.

He stubbed his foot on a rock, and stumbled several steps, finally managing to halt his forward motion in time to prevent a fall.

Ok. He was reading and trying to walk at the same time.

Unalarmed by his near face-plant, Mitsunari tucked the book under his arm, then finally noticed me and the cat.

“That’s Kitty,” he said as if we had been in the middle of a conversation. He crouched down, put his arms out, and the cat – who may or may not have been named Kitty – jumped into them. “Kitty, did I lock you out again?”

“Hello Ki-.” No, there was no way I would be able to utter the phrase, ‘hello kitty,’ with a straight face. It would get filed away with ‘yes, master,’ which Aki had reluctantly deleted from our conversations after my third uncontrollable giggle fit.

I extended my hand to Kitty who sniffed it and decided I was acceptable enough. She bumped her head into my palm, demanding a good scritch. The was something so comforting in a tiny animal willing to accept attention… and I still missed my old ginger tomcat Tony Stark. He’d died a couple years before I ended up in this era, but the best cats all leave permanent pawprint tattoos. Hm, could I talk Aki (or, more accurately Fume) into getting a cat?

With his own head slightly tilted, Mitsunari looked at me, apparently searching his memory bank, then officially introduced himself to me and bowed.

After bowing in return, I said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Overly formal, but it was time to try out the Princess manners on this semi-stranger. “I’m Okatsu.” Huh, Mitsuhide hadn’t given me a surname. Should I use Akihira’s, or wait for future instructions? Not that it seemed to matter in this case, as Mitsunari didn’t comment on the omission.

“Are you paying a visit to Lord Nobunaga and Lady Mai?” He looked around the garden, which was empty of other people.

“In a sense.” I stalled and covered that by dangling my obi tie in front of Kitty. Who here, aside from Nobunaga’s inner circle, knew about this scheme? It seemed safer to presume ignorance until further notice. “Actually, I’ve just escaped my engagement dinner.”

“Dinner! I wondered why I felt hungry.” He unconsciously rubbed his belly, disturbing the folds of his wrinkled kimono and revealing a surprising amount of muscle definition.

Recalling my attempts to feed him earlier this summer, I asked, “Did you lose track of time while you were reading?”

“Yes! I take it you do that as well?” Mitsunari beamed so happily that I was nearly scorched by the rays. One of the sakura blossoms in my hair was so overcome that it fainted and drooped over my eye. Huh. He ought to come with a warning. Caution: smile is deadly.

“I’ve been known to get absorbed in something to an extent that I lose track of time.” Generally, that would be riding and archery, not reading, but those were not exactly the most princess-like hobbies. I sent him an attempt at a mysterious-princess semi-smile, jammed the wayward blossom back in place, then turned my attention to the footsteps – two sets – rushing through the garden. I was pretty sure they belonged to… yep – Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi.

“There you are!” Hideyoshi said in a strained tone that I suspected would become his default mode when dealing with me.

“I’m sorry. I saw the cat, and-” Oh. He wasn’t talking to me. His attention was fully on Mitsunari, as he viewed the younger man with a mixture of impatience and affection.

“I see you’ve already met.” Mitsuhide looked from me to Mitsunari, who was cheerfully accepting Hideyoshi’s mild scolding about being late for dinner. “And here everyone at the party was waiting for you both.”

Already?

Both?

Is… ?

Since Mitsunari’s attention was taken up by Hideyoshi, I inconspicuously tilted my head in his direction and mouthed, ‘him?’

Mitsuhide smirked and nodded.

Him?

I’d expected my ‘fiance’ to be an unapologetic flirt, wild and free, like Masamune. Not… a human ASMR video.

That sakura blossom fainted again, this time falling out of my hair completely, hitting me on the nose. I sneezed violently, and the petals scattered everywhere. Several of them lodged in Mitsunari’s hair, where I imagined they’d be very happy to stay.

“Why were they waiting on me?” Mitsunari looked from Mitsuhide to Hideyoshi and back. I hadn’t thought he’d heard Mitsuhide’s comment, but maybe he’d been paying more attention than he appeared. “Lady Okatsu said it was her engagement dinner.”

Hideyoshi closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, then opened them again.

“We’re still here,” Mitsuhide said.

Yeah, that had been a close your eyes and wish for someone to beam the rest of us out of here. Too bad transporter technology hasn’t been invented yet. Maybe it never would be.

Ignoring Mitsuhide, Hideyoshi turned to Mitsunari. “We discussed this last night.” His tone was patient. His posture was defcon level three.

“Last night?” That was said with so much confusion that I again recalculated how much attention he paid to the world around him.

“You’re supposed to remove all reading material from the vicinity when you’ve got something important to tell him.” Obviously Mitsuhide liked poking the Hideyoshi.

“I did.” This was said between gritted teeth. Defcon two now.

It would be tempting to sit back and just watch the two of them snipe at each other, although such entertainment would likely be improved with popcorn. Which had been invented, but not in this part of the world.

Meanwhile Mitsunari looked like he had remembered… something. “Oh, you did take my book away last night. But I was at an interesting point in it, so I went back a few chapters in my head and re-read them until you left.”

He has an eidetic memory? Well, that explained a lot. He had read almost all the books on military strategy in Aki’s booksellers in only a couple weeks. But it seemed more likely now that he’d just been scanning them into his hard drive for later.

“Were you aware that he could do that?” Mitsuhide murmured to Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi shook his head.

“What was it you wanted to tell me?” Mitsunari belatedly appeared to realize that he’d missed something important. “I am sorry that I did not listen last night.”

“Tonight’s party is for Lady Okatsu and you,” Mitsuhide began, only to be interrupted by Hideyoshi.

“Mitsuhide had a plan to bring in someone to pretend to be your fiancée.” To gain attention, Hideyoshi stepped in front of Mitsuhide, partially blocking him from us. “Initially, I agreed, but only if-”

Mitsuhide didn’t move, but his interruption was as successful as Hideyoshi’s physical block. “In order to ensure that Shohime-”

“-if you are willing to take part in this farce-”

“Tactic. It is a tactic that will, in essence, allow you to-”

“-but rest assured if you’re not willing-”

They interrupted each other so fast that it was unlikely anyone would be able to understand. Mitsunari looked from one to the other, his face looking increasingly worried. Kitty, wisely, jumped out of Mitsunari’s arms and got the hell out of there.

“-Okatsu is highly trained and will do all the work, you’ll only be required to-”

Lie back and think of England?

“-and the more I think about it, the more I believe it’s an ill-advised idea-”

“-it will work perfectly well -”

I stuck my fingers in my mouth and whistled. Everyone finally shut up. Military strategy. That was Mitsunari’s programming language. “Mitsunari. They want to use me as a diversion so that you will be able to study at Genba Castle in peace.”

“Oh, that is an excellent strategy. I would appreciate having uninterrupted time to study unbothered.” He said that completely innocently, but I wondered if underneath that was the hope that ‘no one’ would include McCoy and Spock over there. “Thank you, Lady Okatsu.”

“But when we are in Kanamori territory, you and I will need to pretend we’re engaged.” Hm, better clarify. “Getting married.”

“You will not be required to actually marry this… girl.” Hm… what had Hideyoshi been about to call me? He steered Mitsunari out of the garden. “I will go over the details while I help you pick out something more appropriate for the celebration.”

With a glare at Mitsuhide and clearly fake smile in my direction, Hideyoshi escorted Mitsunari away.

As they exited, Mitsunari looked over his shoulder at Mitsuhide and I. His prior confusion seemed to have been replaced with annoyance at being treated like a toddler who couldn’t dress himself. For that matter, I was rather annoyed on his behalf.

Once they were out of earshot, Mitsuhide calmly brushed sakura petals off his shoulders. “Did you… whistle at me, brat?”

I waved that away. “It got everyone to shut up, didn’t it?”

“I’m not questioning the result, only the method used to achieve it.” He rubbed his chin. Interesting. He and Aki have the same tell. I wonder if they taught that at Spymaster University. And really… he was going to lecture me about method versus results? “We’ll have to give you remedial instruction on manners and behavior before we leave for Genba.”

Translation, he was going to make me pay for that whistle. Truthfully, I felt a bit ashamed of that too. Aki had always encouraged me to speak my mind and stand up for myself, but I shouldn’t have acted that way in front of men who were virtual strangers. “I do know how to behave in public, and how to follow orders. I promise you won’t have to worry about any further insubordination.” I gave him a meek, eye-lowered bow.

“Don’t overplay it.” Mitsuhide laughed. He steered me back toward the banquet. “You wouldn’t be working for Yamaoka if you couldn’t follow orders.” I relaxed slightly, until he added, “you’ll still need to report to Hideyoshi for instructions on behavior. This is for his peace of mind.”

“Of course.” Mitsuhide didn’t care at all for Hideyoshi’s peace of mind. He was sending me to Hideyoshi so that we could annoy each other.

As we approached the main hall, the sounds of merriment and celebration had increased – well, they didn’t really need a bride and groom to party hard. When Mitsuhide slid open the door, a dual blast of heat and noise slammed into the corridor. “I’ll leave you here. I have every confidence in your ability to carry this off, and meanwhile I have made it my personal mission to get Masamune drunk at least once a week.”

Once Hideyoshi returned with Mitsunari, who had been spiffed up in a clean, wrinkle-free kimono, and his hair combed (mostly) and de-blossomed, the fake engagement resumed with 100! Percent! More! #Awkward!

“Lady Okatsu. Do you like… blue?” Mitsunari’s ears turned red, and he ducked his eyes to his plate. Apparently, Hideyoshi had impressed upon Mitsunari the importance of acting the doting fiancé in public but neglected to give him any suggestions on how a doting fiancé behaved. This led to Mitsunari attempting various conversational overtures, but not feeling confident enough to finish a sentence, so he was constantly rebooting and starting over. Each time that happened, he would look a little more flustered and flushed. The only good news was that our table with Ieyasu and Masamune was separated from the rest of the others enough so that from a distance, he looked like a proper blushing bridegroom.

The whole situation was motifying at best – before this fiancée scheme had been dumped on him, Mitsunari hadn’t had any problems talking to any version of me – whether I had been the old man, Katsu, or Lady Okatsu. “Yes. It reminds me of lakes and the sky… and…and...”

Oh hell, it’s contagious.

“My eye is blue.” Masamune winked at me for emphasis.

Ignoring the “help” from the peanut gallery, I asked Mitsunari. “Do you also like blue?”

“Yes. It is very… blue.” Blush.

Loading… loading…

Until Mitsunari finally ran default.weather.smalltalk.exe and asked me about the weather where I was from.

Ieyasu threw down his hand towel. “This inanity is putting me off my dinner. Can’t you talk about anything else?”

Mitsunari turned to him. “I’m sorry you are not feeling well, Ieyasu. I could make you some tea?” He looked prepared to sprint across the castle in search of tea.

Ieyasu’s big green eyes got bigger and greener. “Don’t you dare.”

Masamune leaned in too close to me and said in my ear, “Mitsunari makes terrible tea. Don’t ever drink it.”

Good to know, Mr-no-conception-of-personal-space. I scooted slightly away from him and turned back to Mitsunari. “My home is inTogakushi mountain range, and it’s nice in the summer and cold and snowy in the winter.”

This was acknowledged with a nod, then followed by BSOD.

Ieyasu snorted.

Right. Military tactics had worked before. At least it was a topic I knew Mitsunari felt comfortable discussing. “Where I live is rather isolated, up a narrow mountain path. If you were leading an attack force, how would you go about it?”

“It would be unadvisable to travel in strict formation. Rather the most effective tactic would be to conceal smaller units under the cover of darkness and for a surprise attack.” Mitsunari smiled and proceeded to play toy soldiers with his dinner, as he explained the schematics. Once he got into the topic, he came alive, with broad and mobile hand gestures that likely would have sent a dish of food into someone’s lap, if I hadn’t kept moving cups and bowls out of the way.

It was kind of like playing ‘whack-a-mole’ in an arcade, and I was enjoying testing my hand/eye coordination, when Mitsuhide swooped in for a fly-by teasing. “You all look like you are having fun.” He leaned over Masamune’s shoulder. “How is the happy couple? Are you enjoying getting to know each other?”

“Lady Okatsu is interested in battle strategies.” Mitsunari once again gestured widely. I tracked the path of his hand and moved my bowl out of range.

“Yes.” I directed my response to Mitsuhide. “So lovely to get to know Mitsunari-” I paused to move my teacup away from his elbow, “in front of so many people. Most people are forced to have to do this in private.”

I was not allowed to get away with the sarcasm. “Yes, it’s fortunate for you that we needed to get the word out so quickly,” Mitsuhide said mildly as he – wait… did he just pour something in Masamune’s tea? “So that Kanamori Mozumi will have word of your existence before you appear with Mitsunari on his doorstep.” With that, he thumped Masamune’s shoulder again, and moved on.

I should warn Masamune about-

“He’s correct.” Mitsunari had flipped the switch and self-promoted from space cadet to general. “If the purpose of this ruse is to get unimpeded access to the Genba archives, then the sooner our engagement is accepted as common knowledge, the better.” Whoa. Ok. He could indeed focus on something besides books when the mood took him. Mitsunari then reached for his bowl – which wasn’t where he had left it, and the sleeve of his kimono knocked his chopsticks to the floor. He leaned over to grab them and bumped the table. A bottle of sake teetered toward Ieyasu.

“I knew it was too good to be true,” Ieyasu grumped, right before I caught the bottle.

Close call.

Ieyasu let out a long sigh.

Which was when Masamune’s eye fluttered shut and he pitched forward onto the table, his head landing in Mitsunari’s bowl, sending a shower of food everywhere.

Well, it’s not really a party until someone faceplants into a dish of stewed eel.

Dear Aki. Please come rescue me. These people are insane…

I stared down at the blank sheet of paper. I absolutely could not write the words that had formed in my head. He was counting on me to both behave professionally around the Oda, as well as look into the politics in Hida. The denizens of Azuchi weren’t actually insane – I was simply just not used to them yet, that was all. And if I was feeling slightly lonely, without anyone to really talk to (Mai was lovely, of course, but she and Nobunaga were obviously in that stage of a relationship where they formed an entity unto themselves), well… I would be just as lonely back on the Mountain, with only Fume for companionship.

Yawning, I gave up on the letter, plopped myself onto the futon, shuttered the lantern, and did my best to try to sleep. I’m not a great sleeper in the best of times, and definitely not while in an unfamiliar place, so I was still tossing and turning when something squeaked in the ceiling above me.

Rats?

Squirrels?

Or worse?

Maybe it was my imagina-

Swish! Squeak!

Too heavy to be a squirrel.

I rolled out of bed and grabbed my dagger.

It was too dark to see much more than the shapes of the furniture. Plastering myself against the wall, I tracked the path of the noise. Then a ceiling panel moved, and a human shape dangled above the room.

The human shape said, “Tok.”

That was a weird battle cry, but she who waits to be attacked loses the element of surprise. I made the first move and yanked the person down. He (or she) landed on their feet, so whoever it was had been ninja trained.

That… would fall into the category of “or worse.”

@bestbryn @katriniac @briars7 @lyds323 @lorei-writes

[delilahdoesthings]

iThink I Wanna Marry You

Read full fic here

Carly had never been so nervous in her entire life. She smiled at her reflection. Today was going to be the best day of her life. Because today, Carly was going to marry the love of her life, Freddie Benson. 

Carly was wearing a strapless lace dress with a satin belt around her waist. Her hair was half up, half down and her veil reached the floor. In other words, Carly looked hot. But would Freddie think so? A sudden spike of doubt ran through her mind. 

“Damn, Carly.” Harper walked in. “You look hot.” 

“You really think so?” Carly asked anxiously. Harper gave her a look and from across the room, Millicent rolled her eyes. 

“You know you look good so don’t even start with that.” Harper said. “Freddie is going to LOSE it when he sees you in that dress.

“You’re right.” Carly sighed. “I’m just so nervous. What if he changes his mind?” 

“Are we talking about the same Freddie?” Harper asked incredulously.

“My dad is kind of obsessed with you.” Millicent added. “It’s kind of pathetic honestly.” 

“You’re spiraling, Carly.” Harper said. 

“I am not.” 

Harper and Millicent both stared. 

“Okay, maybe a little.”

“Look, Carly.” Harper began. “Freddie loves you. I know you’re nervous but I promise you, the only thing that’s going to happen today is you marching down that aisle and getting married to the love of your life.” 

“You’re right.” Carly hyped herself up. “Nothing bad is going to happen today. Just a beautiful wedding to the person I love most in the world. I can do this.” 

Carly’s father poked his head in. “Carly, it’s time.” 

Carly took a deep breath in. She could do this. She grabbed her bouquet as Harper and Millicent left the room. 

“Ready?” Colonel Shay offered his arm. 

“As I’ll ever be.” Carly replied. 

Carly made her way down the aisle, never once taking her eyes off of Freddie. His eyes were sparkling, his smile brighter than the sun. Suddenly all of her fears melted away. With Freddie standing there, looking at her like that, what was there to be afraid of?

She beamed at Freddie as she approached the altar. She handed her bouquet off to Harper and turned to face Freddie. He took her hands gently and Carly’s heart skipped a beat. 

“Dearly beloved,” The officiant began. “Today we are gathered to celebrate the union between Carly Shay and Freddie Benson.” Carly inhaled sharply. Oh god, she thought, this was really happening. 

“Love is built on many things. Honesty, respect, compassion, empathy. The most important, however, is friendship. Over the last thirteen years, many of you have borne witness to the evolution of Carly and Freddie’s romance from childhood friendship into a deep and everlasting love.” Carly’s eyes filled with tears and Freddie gently squeezed her hands. 

“It is my understanding that the bride and groom have elected to write their own vows.” 

Freddie inhaled, looking more nervous than Carly had ever seen him. “Carly.” He began. “There are no words to describe how I feel about you, but I’m going to try anyway. The first time we met, I knew I wanted to be with you, as you were well aware. You did not feel the same way.” The audience chuckled. “That’s okay, because I wouldn’t trade our journey for the world. Carly, I promise that I will always be by your side, your rock, your biggest fan. Now and always.” 

Carly blinked back tears. “Freddie.” She said, her voice breaking. “I told you when we first got together that you were still my hero, and that’s true. But you are so much more than that. You’re my very best friend. And I promise to always put our friendship above all else.” Freddie wiped the tears from his face. 

They exchanged rings, hands shaking but smiles wide. Finally, it was time for the big moment. 

“By the power vested in me by the state of Washington, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.” 

Freddie kissed her just then, soft and gentle. They turned to face their family and friends. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present to you for the very first time as a married couple, Carly Shay and Freddie Benson!”

They made their way back up the aisle, hands linked. This was it. They were finally married. 

“Looks like you’re stuck with me forever.” Freddie said. “I refuse to get another divorce.” 

“That’s fine by me, husband.” Carly said flirtatiously. Freddie bumped her shoulder in response. 

They’d come a long way over the last thirteen years, but, as Freddie said, Carly wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. He was everything she didn’t know she wanted until it was almost too late. She was so lucky to be able to call Freddie her husband. 

Things were exactly how they were meant to be.

[part-timewonders]

Darklina Week 2023 - Day 7: Rom-Coms

This idea's been stewing in my head for a while, and I finally figured out how to make it work! And at last, we have made it to my last fic for @darklina-week. It's been fun!

Tags: Modern AU, meet-cute, getting left at the altar

You can also find this fic on Twitter and AO3.

Two hours into what was supposed to be his wedding reception, Aleksander is not there.

Instead, he sullenly accepts his old-fashioned from the bartender, alone. He wants to down the whole thing in one go, but the bartender seems to be keeping an eye on him now that he’s had a few more drinks than the average patron, and he doesn’t want to be kicked out of here so early.

He just feels like if he explained why he was here, he’d garner some sympathy from someone. Love stories and romantic movies were all well and good, but no one ever thinks of the person left behind, he thinks bitterly. Luda leaving him at the altar made for a great story for her, but now he’s got to pick up the pieces.

He doesn’t say a word about his drink being watered down, too busy ignoring all the texts and calls coming in from friends and family and sinking deeper into the mire of self-pity, when there’s a bit of a scene at the entrance. He looks over curiously, as do half the patrons in the bar.

“I don’t want to listen to him explain,” a young woman yells at her friend before she strides inside and flounces onto an unoccupied seat near him, while the friend retreats to a booth nearby. Now that Aleksander can see her more clearly, he realizes she’s wearing a beaded white gown and her makeup is smudged around her eyes with clear signs of being hastily wiped away.

What are the chances?

“Don’t say a word,” she snaps at him before he can even open his mouth. “Either buy me a drink or shut up.”

Aleksander waves the bartender over, even as the jilted bride’s friend watches him suspiciously from over her phone. He doesn’t mind; he’d also be suspicious if he were her. “Was he cheating, or did he leave you at the altar?” he can’t help but ask, even if he feels like he might be taking his life into his hands by doing so.

“Both,” she says after she’s ordered and Aleksander gestures for the bartender to put it on his tab. Hell, all of the poor woman’s drinks should be comped tonight. “I caught him, he was fucking one of the wedding photographers. And then he had the gall to say he didn’t want to get married, he just felt pressured into it! Wanted to call the whole thing off when we were less than an hour from the ceremony!”

Aleksander winces. Part of him wants to find this dickhead groom of hers and take out his own frustration on him. A few punches would relieve the tension in his shoulders. “My fianceé just wrote me a letter. Left it at the venue for me to find this morning when we got there. That seems kinder in comparison, now that I’m thinking about it… at least I didn’t have to see her running away with her ex-boyfriend.”

The woman looks over at him now, her expression more sympathetic now that it had been five minutes ago. She’s not quite smiling yet, but Aleksander can see the soft twinkle of one in her eyes. “What are the chances that two people who had to call off their weddings on the same night would wind up at the same bar?”

“If this were a movie, we’d be the main characters. Or are we the side characters that got tossed aside for true love or whatever?” The bartender brings his companion’s drink and she holds it out, so Aleksander scoots over one seat and clinks his glass against hers. “To our former flames never finding happiness again. I’m Aleksander.”

“Saints, I hope not. I’m Alina,” the woman says. She smiles tentatively at him, and Aleksander feels a small flutter in his chest. How nice to feel something other than crushing disappointment for the first time tonight. “If we’re the side characters, at least we found each other for now. They don’t usually tell stories about the suckers who get left behind.”

That’s true enough, Aleksander agrees. But give them some time—he’s pretty sure he and Alina could make a great story by themselves.

[kanisema-blog]

Obsidian Bride

The full moon shone brightly in the cloudless sky, casting a silver glow over the old cemetery. I shivered as I walked through the gate, trying to ignore the feeling of unease that crept up my spine. I had always been drawn to the eerie and macabre, but tonight, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched.

I had come to this cemetery, known as the Darkwood Cemetery, for a very specific reason. My best friend, Chat, had dared me to spend the night there. Being the adventurous and slightly reckless person that I was, I accepted the challenge without a second thought. But now, as I made my way through the damp grass and crumbling tombstones, I couldn't help but regret my decision.

My flashlight flickered as I neared the old Oak tree that stood at the center of the cemetery. Chat had told me that there was a legend about this tree, that it was cursed by an obsidian bride. According to the legend, she was a woman who had been jilted at the altar and had thrown herself under the Oak tree in despair. Her spirit was said to haunt the cemetery, waiting for her groom to return to her.

As I reached the tree, I saw that Chat was already there, sitting on a tombstone and grinning mischievously. "You made it," he said, only half-jokingly. "I wasn't sure if you'd chicken out or not."

I glared at him but couldn't help but laugh. Chat and I had been best friends since childhood and we had always loved pulling pranks on each other. But this time, it seemed like he was the one playing a prank on me. "Come on," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "Let's get this over with so I can prove you wrong."

We settled down under the Oak tree, Chat with his back to the tombstone and me facing him. We chatted for a while, trying to keep the mood light, but as the night wore on, the cemetery seemed to grow quieter and more unnerving. It was almost as if the whole place was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.

As the clock struck midnight, I heard a faint whispering coming from behind me. I turned around, shining my flashlight in the direction of the sound, but there was no one there. I could see that Chat had heard it too, as his face had paled and his hands were shaking slightly.

Suddenly, there was a loud, guttural growl that seemed to come from all around us. Chat and I both jumped to our feet, the fear evident in our eyes. Before we could even react, we saw something that chilled us to the bone, a figure dressed in black, with long dark hair and an obsidian veil covering her face, was standing in front of us.

We froze, not sure if we were seeing some sort of projection or if this was real. But then the figure spoke, her voice deep and unearthly. "Why have you come to my cemetery?" she asked, her black eyes seeming to bore into our souls.

I couldn't move or speak, and neither could Chat. The obsidian bride seemed to be waiting for an answer, but before we could say anything, she let out a blood-curdling scream and disappeared into the darkness.

Chat and I ran out of the cemetery as fast as we could, our hearts pounding with fear and adrenaline. We didn't stop until we were safely inside my house, the door firmly locked behind us.

As we caught our breath, Chat looked at me and said, "That was the scariest thing I've ever experienced."

I nodded, still trying to process what had just happened. As I lay in bed that night, I couldn't help but think about the obsidian bride and her curse. And I made a silent promise to never go back to the Darkwood Cemetery again. Some legends are better left untested.

[agentpeggycarterrogers]

“Of course, I wish all of our families could be alive, and all our friends could be there to see us get married. But you are the most important person in my life, darling. You’re my whole heart and my family now. I don’t have any regrets about what brought us here and what brought us together.” Peggy blushed. “Oh you can’t, can you?” she laughed. “Nor can I take my eyes off my goal. I have the handsomest fiance who’ll be waiting for me at the altar, who’ll be my husband.” 

Peggy nodded. “You too, sweetheart,” she said.

She watched him as he walked away to the menswear store, and then smiled to herself as she entered the bridal shop. The sales ladies flocked to her and she explained she was looking for a wedding gown, and began to point out the styles she liked in stock. The associates presented her with a dozen options, with various trimmings, sleeve lengths, skirt lengths, trains in various fabrics - lace, satin, taffeta. 

They asked her about her fiance and Peggy blushed, finally able to talk about her sweet Steve without having to hold back about how much she loved him and couldn’t wait to marry him. The ladies all sighed with her over her adoration for him, and promised to help her find the perfect dress. She didn’t go into detail but she did say she thought she lost him during the war and he’d only now come home to her, and the women attending to her all agreed that their story was achingly romantic, and continued to button her up and tie her into various gowns. They all told her she was so beautiful and that she was going to knock her groom’s socks off, and Peggy blushed, unused to this kind of attention. 

She glanced up at her reflection in the mirror and gasped at herself. She’d found the one. The one that made her feel butterflies in her core. She looked like a bride. She glanced at the associates and they all agreed, their eyes wide. Peggy’s eyes welled up with tears and nodded. 

She paid for the gown and they agreed to store it until closer to the date while they made the final alterations. 

Then she left the shop with a smile on her lips as she went to find Steve at the diner. She knew she couldn’t show him the dress or tell him anything about it, and she rather enjoyed having a secret surprise for him for their special day - and she couldn’t contain her joy at finding the perfect dress. She slipped into the seat across from him and smiled at him.

He nodded and stopped to kiss her. "You're right. You and me. That's the most important part. I do wish things could be different. I wish our friends could be there. I wish my ma could be there. But I came this far for this. The other things are disappointing and feeling disappointed about it is fine. We just can't lose sight of the most important part. And I know, I can't take my eyes off that goal."

He leaned in, resting his forehead against hers. "You're my happily ever after and you're the start of my new story."

He pulled back and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Take as long as you need, my love. I'll be fine. I'll grab a news paper and read it over some coffee if I need to wait. I want you to feel like you've got the perfect dress, not feel like you're being rushed on my account." He kissed her cheek. "Good luck."

Steve went to the menswear store and took his time, selecting the clothes he wanted to wear. The sales assistant was very helpful and helped him match the colors and styles, so that Steve eventually had a suit that Steve felt looked timeless. He took Steve's measurements and Steve put down a deposit and went to the diner to wait for Peggy.

[dragonfly92]

OLD FAMILY FRIENDS CHAPTER NINE

It was now the day of Melissa and Lonny's wedding day of course all the girls stayed with Mel at the hotel which wasn't that far from the venue, the guys was in the same hotel but on the other side so that neither of the bride or groom could see each other as it was traditional for the bride and groom not to see each other on the day of their wedding, Sarah was the one in charge of doing her sister's make up which she did perfectly surprisingly Mel wasn't a bridezilla she was pretty chilled out which was so much better for everyone mostly the girls though Mel had decided to go for different bridesmaid dresses and also Sarah's dress was different but all the focus would remain on the bride and groom as it was their special day.

Whilst the rest of the girls was getting ready Sarah was now doing Mel's hair which again she did an amazing job, once she was done Mel speaks up saying, "Thank you sis you've been a big help I honestly wouldn't know what to do without you here now I think it's time for you to go and get into your dress the wedding starts in 2 hours, plus got to get me in my dress afterwards also just so you know I love you so much never forget that." Sarah smiles trying her hardest not to cry and speaks up saying, "Well I am just happy that you're happy and I'm sure Jacob and Nick will feel the exact same way so will Dad and yeah I probably should you know I take forever to get ready and I love you too always will."

So whilst Sarah went and got herself ready their mom had joined Mel at her side trying her hardest not to get emotional as well she speaks up saying, "Oh sweetheart you look beautiful Sarah did an amazing Job once Lonny sees you he's gonna not hold it together me and your dad are both so proud of you right now we just can't wait for you two to get married and for him to be our son in law, because he treats you like a Queen and that is how a woman should be treated." Mel smiles saying, "Thank you mom yeah she did, I love it and I hope he doesn't I'm just relieved that you actually love him not gonna lie was a little worried when he first met you guys and he does treat Sarah like a baby sister as well which means so much to me."

Half an hour later all the girls was now in their dresses which of course included the bride there was a knock at the door Sarah was the one closer to the door so she went to answer not fully just encase it was Lonny but luckily enough it was just her dad so she fully opened the door and he walks in with a grin on his face, Sarah closes the door behind her and turns around their father speaks up saying, "Wow don't my girls look beautiful and all grown up, seems like yesterday you was both walking around wearing your mother's shoes obviously both young so neither of your feet could fit."

MELISSA'S WEDDING DRESS 

SARAH'S MAID OF HONOUR DRESS, SHOES AND HAIRSTYLE

HARPER'S BRIDESMAID DRESS AND HAIRSTYLE

ROSE'S BRIDESMAID DRESS AND HAIRSTYLE

HANNAH'S BRIDESMAID DRESS AND HAIRSTYLE

JESSICA'S BRIDESMAID DRESS AND HAIRSTYLE - CLUTCH NOT INCLUDED 

LONNY'S GROOM'S OUTFIT

GROOMSMENS - CC, JINXX, JAKE, NICK AND JACOB - BESTMAN ANDY SUIT

MAISIE'S FLOWER GIRL OUTFIT - AMY AND NICK'S DAUGHTER

They talked for a little while longer then it was finally time for Mel and Lonny to get married there was no more knocks on the door, Mel looked beautiful in her wedding dress her dad opens the door of course the girls left first followed by Mel and Sarah's Mom Janet then it was Mel herself followed closely by Mel and Sarah's father Neil, he closes the door behind him and they all head downstairs to the venue where all the guests was waiting in their seats Lonny had already gone ahead and was waiting for his soon to be wife at the altar, the rest of the guys was waiting patiently for the girls who was now downstairs when each of the guys saw the girls they of course compliment them.

When Andy sees Sarah he has a smile on his face saying to her, "Wow you look beautiful." She smiles at him saying, "Thanks and you look handsome hows Lonny doing?" Andy speaks up saying, "Well thank you and he's a mixture of excited and nervous at the same time so ready to go seeing as we're first to walk down the aisle?" Sarah speaks up saying, "Yeah I am also I have a feeling that Lonny's gonna be emotional once he sees Mel." He laughs a little saying, "Yeah I have the same feeling." She links arms with Andy the doors open, music starts playing and they start walking down the aisle of course everyone was watching all probably thinking that they would make a cute couple.

Then it was followed by Joe and Harper, then it was Rose and Jinxx, then it was Hannah and CC, followed by Jessica and Jake last but not least was Jacob with Janet but he honestly didn't mind he loves their mom to pieces then once each couple had gotten to the front separated girls onto the left whilst the guys onto the right when it came to Jacob and his mom he helped sit her down and then he joined the guys, finally everyone stood up as Melissa and her father started walking down the Aisle and as soon as Lonny sees his soon to be wife he can't hide his emotions and starts getting emotional of course Andy was next to him giving him a tissue which he accepts and thanks him for it.

Once Mel was at the altar Neil gives her to Lonny after the priest asks, "Who gives this woman to this man?" Afterwards he joined his wife sitting down who was already emotional of course it was happy tears, then it started whilst it was going Sarah was holding Lonny's ring whilst Andy was holding Melissa wedding ring they couldn't stop looking at each other smiling but then would turn their attention back to the wedding, the photographer of course was recording the whole thing even when they both looked at each other Sarah's mom notices smiling thinking and hoping that they would eventually get together it's clear that their love each other.

It was now time for the exchanging of rings so Melissa turns to Sarah who hands her his wedding band and Lonny does the same, then they turn their attention back to each other and starts saying their vows which they had both written their own and then their exchanged rings, the priest speaks up saying, "Now I pronounce you husband and wife you may now kiss your bride." He does and everyone starts cheering and clapping the kiss only last a few seconds and then they both turn to their families and friends starting to walk down the aisle everyone had now stood up, continued clapping and cheering then it was the maid of honour and Bestman, followed by each of the bridesmaid and groomsmen everyone started headed to the reception, where the fun could beginning. 

[mymainwastoocluttered]

Homewrecker, husband-stealer villainess!

Idia is not going anywhere, you hear me?! You might be happy being the other woman, but I'm not happy with the pair of horns!

NOTE: I only write for female Reader, but everyone is welcome to read!

Inspired by @adrianasunderworld in this funny as hell post.

THIS HAS A SEQUEL! What if we fake married for real? (⁠ʃ⁠ƪ⁠＾⁠3⁠＾) ~★

"To give someone a pair of horns" is to cheat on them. Also, Rook gets involved because he'd absolutely adore to be part of the drama.

— (⁠╬⁠☉⁠д⁠⊙⁠)⁠⊰⁠⊹ฺ

Idia knows he's not frozen like the others, but honestly, he feels like it. He feels like even his lungs, even his heart has stopped. All because of this cute-faced npc who forced her way into a romance route with him. If he could think about it, he'd think about that horror game with the same story, but right now his mind is blank.

He has reached the point of no return. Actually dying would just reinforce his fate.

Or, at least, is what he thought. Almost as if answering to his thoughts, there's a loud noise coming from the other side of the doors, followed by footsteps.

Then the doors are thrown open by none other than (Y/N), the Ramshackle Housewarden that the school affectionately tends to call "Prefect".

She's dressed to the nines in a breathtaking wedding gown, the skirt pooling around her like God-Tier CGI, the blue accents contrasting beautifully with the pearly white of the dress, the blue roses decorating her head in a crown making her look like Persephone herself. She'd look perfect, if it weren't for the tear streaks her make-up left behind.

Wait. Tear streaks?

The silence breaks with the Prefects loud, shrill screech, a sound no one has ever thought she, the usually soft spoken and gentle Prefect, would be capable of.

"HOMEWRECKER!"

Without stopping to breath, she walks forwards, looking angrier and angrier each step taken.

"How dare you, you conniving bitch?! How dare you steal my groom! ON OUR WEDDING DAY?!" she screams at Eliza, stopping in the middle of the way to point at... at Idia himself?! "And you! You good-for-nothing two-timer! How dare you leave me waiting at the altar?!"

"Young man, I am terribly disappointed!" Professor Crewel chides from behind her, and Idia finally notices the group that actually came in with her. "I did not give you permission to marry my daughter, my first and only daughter, for you to break her heart on her happiest day!"

"Big brother! How could you! Think of your child!" Ortho chimes in, and if Idia hadn't built tear tracks on the boy himself, he would believe firmly in his tears. "Little Meg would be so sad if her daddy just left for another woman!"

"Idia, what is the meaning of this?!" it's Eliza's turn to screech, turning to him with fury in her eyes. Idia stutters a few random letters, trying to form words, just as confused as she is.

Until it clicks.

Right. Fake relationship. How could he forget one of the most cliche tropes in romance's history?

"I... I... t-this isn't what it looks like!" he finally manages to say, trying to look as desperate as he can, which is not hard considering what his fate is in case this plan fails. "I can explain!"

"Is it because of my past with Rook?! "

"Young man, you're still hung up on that, despite being the only man I've ever approved for my daughter?"

"What?!" someone yells in the crowd, but the man in question promptly enters the play as if he was born for this moment alone.

"Monsieur, I have told you this already, but I shall say it again! My dear dove's happiness is the most important to me! If she has chosen you, then my heart shall settle!" What the fuck, why is Rook so good at improv?

"I-I know!" calm down, Idia, think of this as a rhythm game and keep the beat going! "I don't... I don't want this, but this villainess wouldn't listen!"

"Wait, so this woman is telling the truth?!"

"This woman?! THIS WOMAN?! You mean his true bride?!" (Y/N) steps closer, fat crocodile tears rolling down her cheeks, smudging her make-up even more. "You- you- you husband-stealer! Know your place! You come into my house, you steal my groom and the father of my daughter-"

"I see no child-"

"Do you think I'd bring my child to see my husband's mistress?!"

"Big sister, calm down, think of the baby! Your stress levels are dangerously high!"

"WHAT BABY?!"

"Monsieur Shroud, if you do not fix this situation, I shall be taking my belle back! Do not worry, the children will not grow without a father!"

[loki--fics]

Hey !!! I love your writing !!! Could I possibly request a super fluffy like wedding day where both you and Loki are nervous but it all goes away when you see each other and a wee lil bit of smut at the end? Totally cool if not !!! ✨💜

sorry this took so long, this was by far my longest oneshot! i wanted to fit in as much detail as possible, though i was tempted to turn this into a series as well haha. thank you for the request though, and feel free to ask for more :)) i hope you enjoy!

~

Loki's Bride

Pairing: Loki x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 4,668

Content Warnings: fluff, lots of smut at the end

~

It was late afternoon, the warm sun guarding against the chill of the autumn breeze. You sat in front of the window, your eyes closed as a handmaiden worked on your makeup, another one standing behind you working on your hair. They had been doing this for what felt like ages, but you didn't mind; it took your mind off of how nervous you were. But then, you had reason to be nervous - today was your wedding day.

The crisp breeze wafted in from the open window, caressing your skin like a whisper, but you could barely feel it over the cold pricks of anxiety. You and Frigga had been planning this day for months now, and throughout the months you had been excited, but now that the day was here, you were nervous.

"It is time for the dress, Lady Y/N," Said the handmaiden who did your hair. You recalled her stating that her name was Ingrid, and the other maiden was named Eira.

Nodding, you stood and walked with Ingrid to the wardrobe, from which she grabbed a large garment bag.

"Her Majesty had this dress made for you," Eira said happily as Ingrid unzipped the bag. You were met by the most beautiful dress you had ever seen, a creamy off-white number with off the shoulder sleeves and intricate gold lacing, the skirt wide and puffy with a short train. Its beauty was almost unreal.

"It's gorgeous," You said, your fingers brushing the fabric.

Eira slipped your robe off of your shoulders, placing it on the bed as Ingrid helped you carefully step into the dress. As she zipped up the back, it hugged your waist and bosom snugly, but not uncomfortably tight. It was a perfect fit, as were the shoes and the waist belt for the dagger ceremony.

"This is amazing," You breathed, smoothing out the dress. It felt as though you had been transported into a faerie tale, with the dress, the handmaidens, the stunning view you had from your window, and the fact that you were marrying a prince.. You were afraid it was too good to be true.

A knock sounded at the door, and Eria walked over to answer it. "Your Majesty!" She said, bowing. "I was wondering when you would arrive, we've just finished getting Y/N into her dress."

Your eyes met Frigga's as she walked into the room, ever the epitome of grace. "Dearest Y/N, you look beautiful!" She said happily, her eyes trailing over you.

"Thank you," You replied, bowing slightly. "The dress.. I'm not sure how I could ever thank you for it, it's perfect."

Frigga waved you off. "I assure you no thanks are needed." It was then that you noticed the square, velvet box in her hands, and she followed your eyes downward. "Oh, yes. This is for you as well, dear." She opened it, and resting inside was a beautiful gold circlet with emeralds and diamonds inlaid, delicately woven to resemble leaves.

"Oh, Frigga, you shouldn't have," You said, feeling tears well up in your eyes. "I couldn't possibly accept this!"

"You can, and you will," She said gently, removing the circlet from the box. Gently clasping it at the back of your head, she turned you toward the mirror. "Go look."

Your eyes widened in shock as you looked at yourself in the mirror. Never in your life had you looked so beautiful, you were sure of it; your skin had a dewey glow, your hair was left down and curled simply, with intricate braids on either side of your head connecting in the back, the circlet pulling the whole look together. You truly looked like royalty.

The thought still nagged, however, that this was all too good to be true. Turning away from the mirror with a sigh, you took a seat in front of the window once more.

"Is there something troubling you?" Frigga asked, shooing the handmaidens out of the room and taking a seat on the wooden bench next to you, her eyes alight with worry.

"This seems too good to be true," You admitted. "What if Loki realises that he's making a mistake, or he realises he doesn't love me anymore? I'm only a mortal, and he's going to live on far longer after I've gone from this world."

Placing her hand over yours, she spoke. "I know my son, Y/N, and I can see from the way he looks at you how deeply he loves you. Please trust that all will be well."

"He's going to have to watch me grow old and sick and die, while he stays perfect," You voiced. You had realised this quite some time ago, but hadn't let yourself truly come to terms with it until now, and you felt yourself begin to panic. "I'm going to die centuries before him, and then he'll remarry, and-"

"Y/N!" Frigga said, snapping you out of your ramblings. "Do not think of such things. Focus your mind on the love you hold for him, and the love he holds for you; a love as true and pure as yours does not happen often, believe that Loki will not allow anything to happen to you."

"Your Majesty," Ingrid spoke from the doorway. "It's time."

As the two of you stood, Frigga wrapped her arms around you in a warm embrace. "Focus on your love for him," She repeated in your ear. "All will be well, I promise."

~time skip~

All too soon, you stood facing the doors that led out into the garden, where the wedding was taking place. Thor was at your side, your arm looped through his as the two of you waited for the music to start, your cue to walk down the aisle.

"What if I forget my vows?" You asked frantically. "What am I supposed to do then?"

Thor chuckled, patting your hand. "Lady Y/N, you have been studying your vows for weeks, I have good faith that you will not forget them. However, if you do, simply speak from your heart."

You heard the low sound of the music begin, and that meant there was only a moment before the doors would open and you would face the people of Asgard and the Allfather, and you felt your heart race. "Please don't let me fall," You whispered.

"Never," Thor whispered back, squeezing your hand. Taking a deep breath, you squared your shoulders as the doors opened.

It took only a moment for your eyes to adjust to the light, and almost immediately you spotted Loki. As you and Thor began walking slowly, you watched Loki's eyes widen as he looked at you, his lips parting slightly as a blush rose to his cheeks. You saw nothing but love in his eyes, and you smiled as your own eyes took him in, looking handsome as ever in the Asgardian leather suit he so prided himself on.

Looking down, you saw that the white carpet that stretched from the doors to the altar was sprinkled with beautiful red bougainvillea flowers, which you'd requested as soon as you'd discovered that they were Loki's favourite. He noticed this as well, looking down at the flowers and giving you a small smile.

There were hundreds of people in attendance, most of them being residents of Asgard, many of whom you had yet to meet, all standing with their eyes on you. You saw many happy smiles, but also caught a few jealous stares from some of the women, and flushed. Continuing your slow steps, you focused your gaze back on the handsome groom waiting for you.

As you neared the altar, you spotted your team - your family, standing in the front rows greeting you with wide smiles. When you had first told them about your relationship with Loki, a year and a half after he'd returned to New York to gain pardon from the people of Earth, and six months after your relationship had begun, they were understandably shocked. But through your time spent with him, he had shown you a softer, gentler side to him, one that they had not yet seen. An even bigger shock came when Loki had proposed to you in front of everyone at the New Year's Eve party that Tony had thrown, but now, they expressed nothing but happiness for the two of you.

You felt your heart swell as you looked at them, even more so as you looked back at Loki, and it took everything in you not to pick up your dress, run to your groom, and throw yourself into his arms. This was everything you had dreamt of and more since he proposed to you eight months ago, and you wanted to laugh at yourself for being so nervous. How could you have thought, even for a second, that he would just stop loving you?

Thor pulled his arm out of yours, placing his hand on your shoulder and smiling as he took his place with the rest of the team in the front row. You picked up your dress and walked up the steps of the beautiful stone gazebo, decorated with bright, beautiful flowers and leaves, taking your place across from him.

"You are stunning, my love," Loki said quietly, his blue eyes gazing into your e/c ones as he took your hands.

"As are you," You replied, squeezing his hands. "I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Nor can I."

The music quieted as Odin stepped in front of the two of you and raised his hands, cueing everyone to take their seats.

"Good evening, people of Asgard and guests." Lowering his hands, he continued. "Today, we have taken ourselves out of our usual routines of daily living to witness the union between Loki of Asgard, and Y/N of Midguard." He gestured to each of you respectively. "As Loki and Y/N prepared for the ceremony, they took time to reflect upon what it is they love in the other, and they will now state these vows, starting with the groom."

Loki smiled at you lovingly. "I, Loki of Asgard, by the life and seidr that flows through my blood and the love that resides for you within my heart, take you by my hand, my heart, and my spirit, to be my chosen one. There is not a moment where you do not take my breath away, and I will never seek to change you in any way. I will trust and respect you as your own person and realise that your needs are no more important than my own.

"I hereby promise to love you wholly and completely, without restraint, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in poverty, in this life and beyond, where we shall meet, remember, and love again. I will grow along with you and I am willing to face change with you. I will always respect you, your beliefs, your people and your ways as I respect myself, as I am your partner and we shall be equal in all things.

"I cannot begin to describe how happy I am to have won the joy of such a consort, and I will forever delight in the love of you. I will cherish each tear to fall from your eyes, both in sadness and in joy, and I will do my best to ensure you are safe and secure, and to honour the love you have for me. To find someone as special as you, out of all in the Nine Realms, is something I never imagined possible. Today, Y/N, I give myself to you and vow to love you eternally."

You couldn't stop the tears that welled up in your eyes as he finished, looking at you with such love and adoration you had to restrain yourself from kissing him then.

"And now, the bride will state her vows," Odin said.

Taking a deep breath, you squeezed Loki's hands. "I, Y/N of Midguard, by the life that flows through my blood and the love that resides for you in my heart, take you by my hand, my heart, and my spirit, to be my chosen one. I promise to love you when you are confident in yourself, as well as when you cannot bear your own reflection. I will love you when all is perfect, and when it seems all is falling apart. I promise to never judge you, nor your feelings, and to listen to you always, even when it's hard.

"From the moment our paths crossed you have surprised me, distracted me, captivated me, and challenged me in a way that no one ever has. I have fallen in love with you countless times, again and again, without reservation, and I still cannot believe that I am allowed the honour of being your bride.

"Whilst I cannot promise that dark clouds will never hover over our lives, or that the future will bring us many rainbows, I can promise that regardless of what lies ahead I will be by your side through all of it. You have my everlasting devotion, my loyalty, my respect, and my unconditional love.

"You are what makes my life a joy to live, and I vow to cherish every moment that I get to spend in your company. I would, on no uncertain terms, do anything for you. I will always choose you, in this life and every one beyond, in any world, and in any version of reality, I will find and choose you. Today, Loki, I give myself to you and vow to love you eternally."

"Now," The Allfather said after a beat of silence, "The couple will now exchange their handmade daggers."

The two of you released each other's hands, and you turned behind you to receive the dagger that you had made for Loki from Frigga. At the same time, Loki had turned to Odin for the dagger he made for you. Turning back to each other, you each held up your daggers, then Loki leaned toward you and placed the dagger into your waist belt, and once he was finished you repeated his actions, placing your dagger into his waist belt.

"Present your rings," Odin said, and both of you complied.

"I give you this ring as a symbol of my love everlasting," Loki said as he slid the ring onto your finger.

"I give you this ring as a symbol of my love everlasting," You repeated, sliding the ring onto his finger.

Odin spoke once more. "Loki of Asgard, and Y/N of Midguard, today you celebrate one of life's greatest moments and give recognition to the worth and beauty of love. As you have stated your vows with your lips, so you shall seal them with your lips."

Throwing your arms around your now husband, you pressed your lips to his with such force it was as though you had been starved of his kiss for years. The thundering applause and shrill cheers seemed to fade away as you kissed Loki, your fingers tangling in his jet black hair as his hands wrapped around your waist and lifted you, spinning you in a circle.

Setting you back down, Loki broke the kiss, leaning his head against yours and looking at you longingly. "I love you so very much, Y/N," He whispered with a smile.

"I love you, too, Loki," You whispered back, feeling happier than you had ever thought possible.

~time skip~

After you had changed out of your wedding dress into your reception dress, you and Loki enjoyed the festivities and feast for a while, dancing in merriment with everyone until Loki had pulled you aside.

"I need to speak with you," He said lowly, leading you over to the balcony. The two of you stepped out into the crisp night air, and Loki shut the doors, presenting you with a black box.

"What is this?" You asked, confused.

"I have one last proposal to make," He said, getting down on one knee. "If you truly wish to spend forever with me," Opening the box, a single apple that appeared to be made of gold rested inside, "All you need do is eat this apple."

Your throat felt tight as you looked at the apple. "Loki…"

"This is an Apple of Idun, it is what originally granted the Gods and Goddesses immortality, and if you wish, it will grant it for you as well," He explained.

Your eyes welled up with tears as you touched the apple. It was cool, and felt like a normal apple. Frigga's words from earlier when you voiced your fear of dying before Loki poured into your mind and you gasped. "Frigga-?"

"It was her idea," He admitted. "She convinced Idun to spare an apple in the name of love. Do you accept?"

You sank to your knees, putting yourself at the same level as Loki. "Forever?" You asked, searching his eyes.

"Forever," Loki replied sincerely.

Slowly grasping the apple, you considered the weight of what you were about to do. Were you truly ready to give up mortal life, to live for thousands of years like the people of Asgard?

Looking into Loki's blue eyes, full of love and hope, you knew the only answer was yes. For him, you would do anything.

Bringing the apple to your lips, you sunk your teeth into the soft flesh, biting a chunk out and chewing it slowly. It was sweeter than any apple you'd ever eaten on Earth, perfectly ripe with juices trickling down your chin. Taking another bite, you almost moaned at how delicious it was, reveling in the taste. It seemed the apple had no core, no seeds, so it was unable to be replanted, and you were able to eat the entire thing.

You felt something akin to the feeling of your limbs falling asleep, the tingling sensation spreading over the whole of your body. Your vision blurred, and you would have fallen back if Loki had not caught you and laid you in his lap. A strange, out of body feeling overtook you, as though you were hovering over the two of you, the body laying in Loki's lap no longer yours. It was as if the universe had poured a bit of its everlasting essence into your veins, feeling like the purest magic had filled your body. Then, as soon as it started, it was over.

Vision cleared, you looked up at your husband, seeing him much more clearly than you had before. Every strand of hair caught your attention, every wrinkle in his suit, every line in his hands.

"You are breathtaking," You gasped, your eyes wide in awe. "What just happened?"

Loki smiled softly. "You became immortal."

Sitting up, you threw your arms around Loki, and he grunted, your new strength taking him by surprise. "I cannot wait to spend forever with you," You whispered. "I love you so much."

"Nor can I, my love," He whispered back.

~ time skip ~

The two of you had rejoined the festivities, dancing and grazing on the plethora of food, conversing with the people of Asgard and your team, but now it was time for your honeymoon to officially begin.

Grasping your hand, Loki put his lips to your ear. "I do believe it is time we consummate our marriage, my love," He said lowly.

You felt heat blossom in your core, and blushed. Bidding goodnight to your team, you followed Loki out of the room, followed by a chorus of cheers and wolf-whistles. Tonight was the first night you were to be intimate with Loki in such a manner - he had been being watched by Heimdall and the Allfather most of the time the two of you had been dating, so you had only been able to steal kisses here and there. Not the most romantic, but it was better than nothing.

Now, however, as Loki pulled you to his chambers, you felt almost as nervous, if not more so, than you had before the ceremony. No one was watching you now, the two of you were utterly alone.

Loki stopped outside the door to his chambers, turning to you. For a moment you were confused, but then he scooped you up, bridal style, and carried you over the threshold. The door closed with a solid thud behind you as he walked you to his bed, setting you down gently. After the ceremony you had changed into a shorter dress, the hem reaching your mid-thigh, with a white skirt and lace top that wrapped around your neck. Now, Loki eyed it hungrily, wanting it off.

Gently holding the back of your head in his hand, Loki kissed you, laying you down slowly as he hovered above you. His lips claimed yours completely, his tongue swiping along your lower lip. You gasped lightly, and he took the opportunity to slide his tongue into your mouth. Feeling a familiar tingling sensation, you realised Loki had used his magic to remove the clothing from both of you, leaving you in undergarments, and you blushed, instinctively moving your arms to cover yourself.

Pulling back, Loki met your eyes. "Hear this now. You need never cover yourself in front of me. You are a treasure to behold, my love, and in my eyes, you are nothing short of perfection." His hands gently pried yours away from your body, his eyes relishing the sight. "There is not a single soul in the Nine Realms that I would rather be with right now, and not a single thing in the Nine Realms that could take me away from you. I love you, not only for your body but for your soul, your mind, your heart and your spirit."

He said every word with such sincerity, his eyes showing nothing but love for you, that you could think of only one thing to say.

"Kiss me."

He did, with an intensity that rivaled every other kiss he'd ever given you, including your wedding kiss. It was so filled with passion that you were certain no being in the Nine Realms and beyond had shared such a kiss before, it felt as though the universe itself was bowing from the vehemence of the kiss.

Every inch of your skin that Loki caressed seemed to be set alight, and you were certain that, had you not been holding him, you would have floated away to Valhalla. You felt his hardened member brush the thin lace veil that covered your core, and were unable to quiet the moan that fell from your lips as your hips bucked, desperate for more.

Loki's lips left yours, venturing down your jaw, your neck, your collar, kissing every inch of exposed skin. You were hot and cold all at once, your body nearly vibrating from the force of your arousal as his lips travelled lower, between your breasts, down your stomach, to your thighs. He peppered delicate kisses along the inside of your thighs, looking up at you as his fingers hooked in the waistband of your panties.

"Is this okay?" He asked, pausing.

"Oh Gods yes, Loki," You breathed, your chest heaving with the force of your breaths as you met his eyes.

Slowly, deliberately, he pulled the thin lace fabric down your hips, tossing them to the side as he took in the sight of your glistening core before him. He pressed two long, dexterous digits against your opening, sliding them inside of you and pumping at an agonisingly slow pace. His head dipped down, lips just barely brushing your sensitive nub, inhaling your sweet, musky odour before pressing a kiss to your core.

"Please, Loki, stop teasing me," You whined, gripping the sheets.

He smirked. "As you wish." With force, he launched an assault with his lips, his tongue expertly swirling around your nub whilst his fingers curled perfectly against your g-spot. Your eyes rolled back in your head as you moaned loudly, fingers tangling in his soft raven locks.

Loki's free hand gripped your thigh so tightly as he devoured you, you were sure it would bruise. He moaned, sending delicious vibrations through your core and your orgasm ripping through you with a force you had never before felt, your body set aflame as his name fell repeatedly like a prayer from your lips.

Pulling his head back, your husband looked at you with dark, lust filled eyes as he brought his fingers, covered with your arousal, to his lips. Slowly, he put them in his mouth, sucking off every bit of your juices before pulling them out and climbing on top of you, pressing a kiss to your lips and allowing you to taste yourself.

"You are sweeter than the finest søt vin," Loki said lowly.

Butterflies were no match for the hurricane that erupted in your stomach. "I want you," You begged softly. "All of you. I'm yours."

With a flick of his wrist, the rest of the clothing was removed from both of you. Your eyes moved down, almost of their own accord, taking in the size of his member. You were no virgin, and you were sure Loki wasn't, either but you had never been with someone of such size and girth, and it would be dishonest to say you weren't intimidated.

"I'll be gentle, love," He said softly, his hand caressing your cheek.

"I trust you," You replied, leaning into his touch.

Kissing you softly, you felt the God position his manhood at your entrance, sinking himself into you slowly. He groaned at your tightness, his head falling into the crook of your neck as he waited for your hole to adjust to his large size. The sensation of being so wholly filled by him was a bit painful, your walls stretching to their limit as they tried to accommodate him, and after a moment you bucked your hips.

Pumping into you slowly, the pain morphed into pleasure as your legs wrapped around his waist, allowing him to sink deeper into you. He quickened the motions of his hips, the head of his manhood perfectly hitting your g-spot as he thrust into you. Both of you were moaning, your lips roaming each other, hands groping anywhere they could reach as Loki plunged into your opening again and again.

"Please, harder," You moaned, gripping his shoulders.

All too happy to oblige your request, Loki brought his hips to meet yours with such force that you saw stars. Moaning loudly, your nails dug into his skin as he thrust into you harder, his movements growing faster as you both neared your climax.

Wrapping his arms around you, Loki pulled you upright so that you were sitting on his lap, continuing to pound into you as he brought your nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue around it before nibbling lightly. Delirious with pleasure, you gripped his hair and pulled, earning a loud moan as his nails raked down your back. He smashed his lips to yours, and you bit his lip so hard it drew blood as your orgasm hit you with even more force than the first, your primal screams of pleasure filling the room as he buried himself to the hilt inside of you, releasing his seed as he shouted obscenities.

After a final few pumps, he pulled out of you, the two of you falling back onto the mattress, limbs entangled and your head on his chest.

"I will never grow tired of that," You giggled, fingers drawing lazy swirls on his pale skin. "This has been the best day of my life."

Loki smiled. "It was mine as well." The two of you were covered in a sheen of sweat, and with a lazy wave of his hand, the window opened and a cool breeze wafted over the two of you.

"I love you," You said sleepily.

"I love you," He replied.

"Forever?"

"Forever."

[laurasstufff1]

Wedding ft. Daniel Ricciardo

They always thought weddings were fun. And they were, indeed. But on their wedding, there were as many tears as laughs.

Daniel cried the first time he saw his parents that day, when he realized that everything was finally happening.

-Hey Dan- his dad approached him in the hotel room. The hug was tighter and longer than usually, but today it was totally justified.

-Are you nervous?- Her mom asked him while hugging him too.

-Not now. Maybe in a couple of minutes I will- he said with his usual smile. -I’m just happy, happier as ever-

-I can’t believe you’re getting married-

-Don’t start mom, I’ll cry if you go that way-

-As long as it’s happy tears, it’s fine- Joe joked.

-Okay then- dan said with some tears rolling down her cheeks already, making his parents laugh. It’s like he’s been holding them during the whole morning and now he was finally letting them go with the comfort of his parents.

…

YN cried just at the thought of marrying him, being his wife at the end of the day. It didn’t take her as long as Daniel. Waking up, she was alone in the room, she asked to be alone. His parents came during the evening as well as Emma, her best friend and maid of honor along with Michelle. Just thinking of him waiting for her standing on the asile was enough to bring tears into her eyes. She wasn’t feeling nervous, she was sure of the step she was taking. Tears showed her that she was more than ready and looking forward to be her wife.

-Can I come in?-

-You’re already in, mom- she laughed as she approached her daughter after lunch. -Where’s dad?-

-he went to see Daniel.

-What?? Why??-

-he just wanted to see him YN, relax- her mom said placing her comforting hand over her shoulders.

-I’m relaxed, but I don’t get why he gets to see him and I don’t-.

-Because YOU’RE the bride. You’ll see him at the church in- she stopped a moment to look at her phone and check the time -four hours.

-I feel like I’m going to cry when I see him- YN started talking again looking at her mom -I already cried just at the thought of becoming his wife mom, his WIFE- she shouted making her mom laugh.

-But that’s totally fine- her mom ensured her,- Just make sure to express your emotions throughout the day or you will explode at night, and we all know what Daniel and you would love to do tonight, right?-

-MOM!!-

-Oh come on, your father and I were the same, we could barely wait-

-okay, enough, I’m going to take a shower now- she said as she walked away laughing about her mom’s comments.

…

-Come in!- Daniel shouted from the inside of his room, where he just finished eating lunch with Michael and Blake after his parents left to get ready.

-Hi Daniel -

-Oh hi- he said rapidly getting up from the table, followed by Michael and Blake,

-no no, don't worry guys- he laughed, -can’t the dad of the bride come to see the groom before the wedding??-

-You’re totally welcome as long as you haven’t change your mind about the marriage- Blake said making them all laugh.

-Well I haven’t, so…- he said sitting on a chair next to them, who laughed at his action. -how are you?-

-I’m good- Daniel said.

-He’s freaking out- Michael rapidly said after his friend talked as Daniel watched him with a killing look.

-Well, that’s alright- YN’s dad said laughing. -I haven’t talked with her yet, but I assure you she feels the same. She’s even nervous when she sees you after a long time, so just imagine now- he laughed.

-I just really want to see her. I’ll be calmer- Dan said.

-But you can’t- Blake said.

-Yeah, it’s bad luck, mate- Michael added.

-You’ll see her in the altar in less than two hours. I should probably leave now guys, see you there- the old man talked

….

-I think I’ll paint my lips red for the party- YN talked while her best friend and maid of honor, Emma, was doing her makeup.

-That would be really nice, it looks good on you. BUT Daniel would get his lips red too- she added laughing.

-Ugh that’s true- she said annoyed. -I can’t tell him not to kiss me the day of our wedding, can I?-

-You can, but he won’t listen-

-Yep, you’re right- she laughed along with her best friend.

-So, nude?- Emma asked as YN nodded, keeping the lipstick in her handbag.

-We're done?- YN asked when she saw her best friend walk away.

-We are. Now get dress in that dress, we need to leave in thirty minutes!!- she shouted from the bathroom.

-Gosh- YN mumbled under her breath. It was real, she was going to get marry tonight.

….

-Dad!!!- Daniel shouted, even thought he was right next to him. -Please help me with the tie-

-But don’t shout- Joe said laughing. -I get you’re nervous, but don’t get aggressive-.

-I’m not aggressive-

-Yes you are- Michael added.

-Oh shut up. Your just as nervous as me because your seeing Emma tonight-.

-Emma?? YN’s best friend???- Joe asked enjoying the gossip.

-The one and only- Blake said patting Michael’s back.

-Stop it guys, we need to leave now- Michael said with redden cheeks.

-Don’t worry Michael, Emma won’t be there until YN arrives, she’s the maid of honor along with Michelle- Joe informed him.

-Yeah, he already knew- Daniel laughed watching his friend’s burning cheeks.

……..

-Michelle just texted me, she’s coming already, she was kinda busy with the children- Emma said to YN.

-It’s alright, we have plenty of time yet. Can you help me with the dress, mum?-

-Sure- she said leaving the living of the hotel room where her dad and Emma were to he'd to her room.

-Oh God, you look stunning honey- her dad said watching her walk out of the room, already with some tears in his eyes.

-Dad stop looking at me like that, I’m going to cry- YN laughed, but feeling some tears too.

-Don’t worry about it, all the make up is water proof- Emma said making them all laugh and somehow starting crying.

………

-Why is everyone looking at me??- Daniel asked in a whisper to his best mans, who laughed loudly at his stupid question.

-Because your the groom- Blake said.

-And you’re standing in the altar- Michael added.

-Well that’s what I’m supposed to do, I’m waiting for YN to come-

-Shut up already, the music is starting-

-Oh god-

-No way back now-

-I don’t wanna go back- Were the last words Daniel pronounced before the front doors opened.

Emma and Michelle came in first, with a small bouquet of colorful flowers, the same one as YN’s, wearing stunning red tulle dresses. Michael noticed Blake’s and even Joe’s smiles on him, who was obviously staring too much at Emma, watching her walk down the aisle and whispering a nervous ‘hi’.

Then it was YN’s turn. For one second Daniel thought it was taking too much time for her to come in and he started to think the worst thing. But all the doubts despaired when she walked in wearing the brightest smile, as white as her dress, walking down the aisle with his father. YN tried her best to walk slowly, just like everyone told her she should do, but it was hard to not rush and jump in his arms, just like they always did each time they saw each other. It was also really hard to fight her tears back, but she didn’t care anymore when she saw Daniel was crying too, YN only hoped his tears were from happiness, just as hers. At some point YN laughed too, when the Daniel's sobs echoed in the big church, making all of the guests giggled as Michael placed a hand over his friend’s shoulder, trying his best to calm him down. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she stood next to him, not without hugging his dad first and thanking him.

-Hi- YN mumbled to his future husband while she wiped the tears from his face.

-Hey- he said smiling leaning to what seemed to be kiss her. Thank God she moved her head faster and hug him instead.

-Not yet, Daniel- she whispered in his ear laughing and hugging him tight, having to stand in her tiptoes even thought she was wearing heels. All the guests laughed again realizing what he almost did.

-I was only going to hug her- he said loudly to the guests, who laughed harder at his comment.

-You were clearly going to kiss her already, mate- Blake whispered enough for you to hear.

-You look beautiful- Daniel said ignoring Blake’s words, making the joyful bride blush.

At that moment, the priest cleared his throat, making you both turn around to look at him and to finally start the ceremony.

-Sorry- both of them mumbled at the same time, as Daniel held YN’s hand and the ceremony started.

——

It was a fast but sweet ceremony. Some more laughs were heard and some tears spilled, but happiness flooded the place. The vows were short but full of emotion, she couldn’t stop squeezing Daniel’s hand while she read them out loud and he tried to kiss her lips again when he finished reading his. At some point, the little children ran away form their parents and started playing with the long tail of her dress. It was a fun moment, specially because Emma and Michael had to take care of that, making Daniel and YN share knowing looks.

-I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride, now it’s the right time, Daniel- the priest chuckled making everyone laugh again. Daniel didn’t hesitate in taking a step closer to her, placing one of his hands in her cheeks and the other in her waist to pull her even closer. YN didn’t even have time to react and she just placed her arms around his neck, holding tight into it as he finally crushed his lips into hers in a slow kiss, full of love and adoration.

Everyone starting clapping happily, whistling and shouting a bit when they saw Daniel wasn’t pulling away after a while, making both of them smile into the kiss.

-Daniel- she barely pronounced, his lips still pressed into hers.

-Sorry love- he said finally pulling out. -I love you so much- he softly said making her smile grow wider.

-I love you too Daniel. Now it’s time to celebrate- she giggle hugging him not before wiping away some of hers and Daniel’s tears.

——

The wedding venue took place in a winery outside the city. As it was already dark outside, the outdoor space was illuminated by little lights such as candles and fairy lights.

Food was extremely good, and too much wine was served, mainly in the table where the best mans and maids of honor along with some other friends were sitting. According to Daniel, everything was part of the plan to get Emma and Michael together.

-Look at them-. He said to her bride while they walked around the tables holding hands and greeting everyone.

-They are drunk, Daniel- she laughed.

-Well, that’s the plan. It worked with us, didn’t it?- it was true thought. Both of them know each other since more than 7 years ago and they instantly fell in love. Too bad they were both cowards and they needed almost a years and a couple of drinks to finally admit their feelings.

-It did- she nodded. -look at us now, I would kill to see Emma like this a couple of years later.- she said watching them laugh together before leaning to whisper something in his ear -I think I’ll give her my bouquet, so you better let know Michael it is clearly an insinuation-. She said making him laugh before pecking his lips one more time and go to talk with some family of her.

The wedding was just going perfect until Max got the mic after the dinner. He was kinda drunk, but thank God he could still do a proper thinking and pronunciation.

-Hi!! I’m Max, one of Daniel’s friends. He didn’t ask me to be his best man but he did ask me to do a speech, so here I am, making a fool of myself- he said making the guest giggle.

-You asked him to do a speech?- YN asked to his now husband, who was sitting next to her holding her hand, just like he was doing throughout the whole night.

-I did. It could be fun- he said giggling and tuning his attention to his friend again.

-It surely will- she mumbled already smiling at what was coming.

-First of all- Max continued -congratulations to the new couple, we all love you and wish you all the happiness of the Word- he said as everyone clapped and shouted 'kiss, kiss' again -Come on, kiss her mate- Max said. Daniel didn’t need to hear twice and he leaned to kiss his bride passionately, pulling her closer to his body while everyone whistle. -ENOUGH DANIEL!! Let her breath!!- Max shouted making the couple laugh and finally pulling away -So, with that being said AND done- he said pointing at the couple, referring to the kiss they just shared -I just thought it was a good idea to recap on their love story, right? I feel like it’s the right place and time. I remembered he didn’t want to tell us at first. Maybe he was scared we would steal her from him, we’re clearly more handsome that him- he said making the crowd laugh -but there was definitely something going on. Soon I realized, they were literarily making out in his car-

-We weren’t making out in my car!- Daniel shouting laughing at the memory.

-Well, this is my version, you can tell yours late, so shut up- he shouted back to Daniel laughing. -As I was saying, I was just hiking and I saw Daniel’s car was parked in the lookout. So I went there. And I saw them MAKING OUT in the freaking car- he said gesticulating a lot with his hands. -And of course I interrupted them, because I am his friend and that’s what I’m supposed to do, right?- He asked looking to Daniel, who just nodded laughing remembering all the time not only Max but also Blake and Michael and other friends of his interrupted his moments with YN to tease him about it later. -And them I realized it was obviously YN. It really felt like a plot twist to me- he talked now in a serious tone. -They couldn’t stand each other when Daniel was in Red Bull, not even look into their eyes. Daniel always talked shit behind YN’s back to be honest-

-Hey!!- YN said interrupting his speech to look at Daniel.

-Oh come on YN- Max talked -you talked shit about him-

-Yeah I did. And you agreed with everything I said, Max!- YN added laughing.

-Really?!?- Daniel asked in disbelief.

-Yes, that’s true- Max giggled before continuing with his story. “Anyways, I saw them, they saw me, there was no way back now. So I asked waiting for the obvious answer and they of course confessed they were dating since TWO MONTHS AGO!! How the hell did they managed to hide it??? Guess we’ll never know- he said shrugging his shoulders while the guests laughed. -After that they made it public to the word posting a beautiful picture that I TOOK and never got credit for it. And then everything was funnier having YN around- he said making all the guests pronounced a soft ‘ooooh’ at the sweetness of his words. Some more tears left YN’s eyes as Daniel squeezed her hand even tighter. -It’s the truth- Max continued -She’s such a funny girl, all the time. My face hurt at the end of race weekends because of the laughs we share, really, sometimes it’s too much and I just have to leave because I couldn't stand anymore the soreness in my face- he laughed. -I remember Daniel always asked me to go to my Monaco’s apartment with YN when I wasn’t there. He always said it was just because Michael and Blake were at his place and he wanted to make a proper dinner for YN, basically carbs and fasts, right?- he asked looking at the couple -I think it was more because he wanted to spend a good night with her, but whatever, I let him the key anyways…- he laughed along with the guests and suddenly stopped reflecting on the words he just said for a minute before continuing -this is the time when YN says she never came to my apartment. You’ve been there, right? It was you and not some other random girl?- He asked her as all the guests threw their head back laughing, Daniel included. YN laughed along and nodded with her head. -Good, I thought I screwed it up for minute- he said now relived and laughing too. -And ohhh god!! When he finally decided to propose… don’t get me wrong, I was really exited, but he was just so annoying until he finally decided to pop the question. Of course, he made me go with him to bought the ring, but he kept it for like what?? Five months at least???- He said looking at Daniel, who was nodding with his head and playing with that same ring he bought, now placed in YN’s finger -And then during a race weekend he was like ‘okay, I’m ready, I’ll ask her today’ BUT, surprise, he forgot the damn ring!!!- Max shouted frustrated making everyone laugh -then it was Michael and Blake the ones who took care of everything related to the engagement thank god, I couldn’t bare with him anymore. But hey, it was all worth it, now we have an open bar for the whole night, right?- He said finishing his speech and walking towards the table where Daniel and YN were sitting to hug them and congratulate them again.

——

The celebration continued with more laughs and happy tears. As YN said to Daniel before, she gave her bridal bouquet to Emma, who was coincidentally talking to Michael. -It’s clearly a signal!- Daniel shouted hitting Michel’s arm, who just laughed blushing while YN hugged her long-time friend, crying some happy tears too.

It wasn’t a surprise when they gave little gifts to all the guests: little helmets just like Daniel’s for men and a flower just like the ones in YN’s bouquet for women. It wasn’t a surprise neither the song they choose for their first dance. Being as goofy and funny as they were, they couldn’t choose a better song to dance, although it wasn’t by far the typical slow romantic song, that they chose to dance in a more private time of the night. In front of family and friends, ‘You’re the one the one that I want’, from the movie Grease, was just the perfect song to dance together and playing the fool and sharing some good laughs along with their loved ones. What was really a surprise was when at 6am in the morning, when the party still continued, some guys showed up in the venue with hundreds of McDonal’s burgers and fries. Not the typical breakfast, but definitely well-deserved after dancing the night away surrounded by the few friends and family members that managed to be up to their level of parties.

[mercurygray]

"A touch when you are afraid", for Nix and 2 Girl Gang members of your choosing? 😊

This was not the day for hide and seek.

Joan peered around the vestry, wondering where the hell she was going to start looking if she didn't find who she was looking for here.

"Lewis Nixon, where are - oh." Here he was, morning coat and pinstriped pants, and a small spray of flowers in his buttonhole, slipping something from flask. "That had better not be whiskey, Lewis, I'm not having you at the altar for a third time smelling like a still. Eileen deserves better."

"Eileen does deserve better," Lewis said, sniffling a little. "And no, it's not whiskey. I told her I would stop and I have." He offered the flask and she smelled it before tasting the rim. Just as he'd said, it was only water. "Felt comforting to have in my pocket," he offered. "Doesn't mean I don't want some now."

"What's wrong?"

"Well, it's…it's really the third time, isn't it? After I've fucked up my first two marriages I'm really…back for more. What if I fuck this up too?" He took a deep breath, despondant. "We're doing all right, as…whatever we are. Why should we…put a ring on it and call it something else? What if it's bad luck? What if I'm bad luck?"

Joan took a deep breath and looked down at her gloves and the corsage on her own coat, featuring an orchid that was sure to photograph splendidly. "Lew, I know you. I've known you now for a very long time. Generally speaking you don't care about fucking things up - so to hear you say that means I don't think you will."

Lew, rather surprisingly, said nothing for a moment - though he did swallow heavily, overcome by some emotion he couldn't name. Joan laid her hand on top of his and let him have his moment. When he recovered, it was to make a joke. "Did I just hear Joan Winters swear?"

Same old Lewis. God forbid we have feelings. "And you'll fucking hear me again, if you make this wedding even later than it already is, Mr. Nixon," Joan said, just as cheerily. There was his smile again - there was hope for him yet. "Now, come on, the entire Hollywood press corps is out there and the flowers are wilting and if we don't make an appearance there'll be headlines tomorrow saying that Joan Warren stole Eileen Hammond's fiancé. And I don't need to answer that much hatemail."

"Thanks. Glad to know you've got priorities beyond my happiness and making decisions that will affect the entire rest of my life."

Joan grinned. "Someone has to stand up with you. It might as well be me. After all, our marriage wasn't a flop."

"I did lose you to that Winters fellow, though."

"And I'm losing you to one of the best women in the world. Now, come on. Let's fix that boutinere and get you out to the head of the aisle." She let him stand up and spent a moment brushing off his coat, standing back a moment to survey the general effect. "You look very handsome," she said, and meant it.

"I'll probably cry, you know."

Another actual emotion - how rare. "Dick has an extra handkerchief, just in case."

The church was, indeed, filled with people, and more than one flashbulb went off when the two of them emerged from the side-aisle, Dick rising from where she'd left him in the front pew. "Everything's fine," Lew said, before his friend could say a word, and took his place at the front of the church without another word, his freind standing up behind him and brushing his jacket once more. Here we are - the groom's family, if we can call it that - two of his best friends and not much else. Everyone else here is a business associate, or an onlooker - but that's all right. The people who matter are still here. Joan took a deep breath and settled into her seat, rising when the organ played the familiar notes and the church, as one, got to their feet, flashbulbs popping again.

Eileen looked radiant as a bride - a white dress, of course, though she had said during her fittings she knew she wasn't fooling anyone at this point. And Joan had to smile, from up in the front row, as Eileen took Lewis's hand and would not let it go as the minister began, "Dearly beloved…"

[holylulusworld]

Two Barbarians (3)

Title: Two Barbarians (3)

Square Filled for @spnabobingo​​​​​ (Round 6): Overprotective alpha

Ship: Alpha(Prince)!Dean Winchester x Omega(Princess)!Reader

Characters: Sam Winchester, John Winchester, Grandmother Millie

Rating: Mature

Summary: Dean is determined to make you see you’re his omega.

Warnings: angst, a/b/o, a/b/o dynamics, scenting, true mates, comforting, fluff, overprotective alpha, light oral (fem rec), mentions of oral (male rec), implied smut, mentions of knotting, implied claiming, cuddling & snuggling, possessive alpha, coming in pants (untouched)

Word Count: 2,2k

Divider by @firefly-graphics​​​​​​

<< Part 2

One week before the wedding, …

“Dean, it feels odd,” you whimper, feeling his tongue lap at your exposed sex. He moans against you, smirking when your hands snap toward his head to tug at his hair. “My Prince, are you sure we are allowed to do this before our wedding night?”

“My love, you are so sweet down there,” he purrs. “You taste like heaven, sweetheart. Now let me touch you again. I want to make you feel so good. Don’t you like it?”

“I like it a lot,” you bite your lower lip. “It feels so good when you touch my petals,” heat creeps into your cheeks when Dean’s tongue flick your sensitive nub. “But I don’t want anyone else to touch me like that.”

“No one will dare to touch my omega,” Dean’s head snaps upward and you can see possessiveness in his emerald orbs. “Only I can touch you down there or anywhere, my little skunk.”

“Please, don’t stop,” whining you look down your body. “Dean, can I touch you too tonight? I want to touch your manhood, please.”

“Sweetheart,” he purrs, slowly crawling up your body. You can feel his arousal press against your slicked sex, and you know, he wants you as much as you yearn to give yourself to him. “Only one week left. You can touch me as much as you want to in not a week.”

“One of the ladies said I should take your knot in my mouth,” you blur out. “Do you want me to?” innocently glancing at Dean you move your hand to his swelling length. “This feels so hard, my prince. I could help you and use my tongue and lips.”

“My love,” a throaty purr leaves your lips when Dean burrows his face in your neck to inhale your scent. “Please don’t make me weak. If you don’t stop, I claim and knot you tonight and no one is going to stop me.”

“Why didn’t you claim me during my heat?” you whisper. “Why giving me herbs to suppress it? I wanted you to make me yours.”

“Rowena offered her help, and I took the chance to get to know you better before I knot, claim and make love to you,” Dean nuzzles your cheek, moaning when you grasp for him, roughly pressing the alpha to your heated body, hips rocking against Dean’s crotch.

“My prince, uh—your pants are wet,” you giggle. “Is this normal, Dean? I mean, are you hurt or sick?”

“I just came in my pants,” he sighs deeply. His cheeks shades of pink he looks down at you. “I couldn’t stop my manhood from wanting you.”

“OH! Did you knot your pants?” he laughs, shaking his head at your question. “What? Don’t you knot an omega all the time?”

“Most of the time we only use our manhood, my little skunk,” Dean pecks your lips, nibbling at your lower lip. “Alphas knot their omega during heats, our ruts, or when we mate for the first time.”

“Not for fun?”

“Naughty little skunk,” pressing his lips to your mating gland he moans. “You taste so good, Y/N. One more week and I’ll show you my knot.”

“Is it big? Lady Lisa said an alpha must have a big knot to satisfy his omega,” you shyly glance at Dean, chewing on your lower lip.

“I got the biggest knot you’ll ever see,” nodding you smile up at your alpha. “I’m gonna fill you with my pups and show everyone I stole my arch-nemesis daughter’s heart.”

“Slow, sweetheart,” Dean holds your hand, carefully helps you move down the stairs. “We don’t want you to stumble and fall again. My little skunk is a clumsy omega.”

“I’m not clumsy,” you protest. “I was in a hurry, scared and heartbroken.” You sniffle, looking around the throne room. “Is she really gone? I don’t want to see her again.”

“No one is going to hurt you,” he whispers in your ear. “Everyone knows you are my chosen omega. You believe me, right.”

“You didn’t threaten to put me in the dungeon lately,” Dean smirks when you squeeze his hand a little tighter. “And you didn’t yell at me.”

“I tried to tame my temper for you, sweetheart. I can’t promise to always be patient, but I’ll try my best. Promised.”

“Will you,” leaning closer to Dean to whisper the words you press his hand to your heart, “do this thing with your tongue again too? I like it a lot, my prince.”

“Son, we need to talk about a few things before the wedding,” John whispers, jabbing his thumb over his left shoulder. “Your grandmother is about to change everything again. Please, help your king out.”

“I can’t leave my omega all alone,” Dean wraps his arm tightly around your shoulders. “She could get hurt again! I need to stay by her side all the time.”

“Dean, you didn’t leave your bride’s side for over a month. She can barely breathe without you worrying,” laughing at your pained expression John looks you all over. “She looks healthy and happy. Let your grandmother tell her about the new musicians and food. We can talk about the hunt to honor your wedding.”

“I can’t—” Dean snarls at his father, immediately shoving you behind his back. “No one is getting close to my omega. Stay away from Y/N.”

“Something wrong?” Sam cocks his head to glance at you behind his brother’s back. “Why are you hiding Y/N behind your back? Is she sick or scared?”

“Hands off my omega, Sammy,” Dean threatens, finger poking his brother’s chest. “You looked at her too often for my liking. She’s my omega, my chosen bride.”

“Dean, I was just worried about her. Did you forget you threatened to put her in the dungeon?” furrowing his brows Sam looks at his brother. “What? Got nothing to say?”

“Back then she was just the enemy’s daughter,” Dean growls when Sam dares to get closer to you. “Now she’s my bride and omega. Don’t get any closer.”

“Sam,” John holds his youngest son back. “Dean’s scent just got stronger. I think he’s close to his rut and it’s not a good idea to get too close to his omega right now. Give him a bit of time.”

“She’s mine,” before you can protest Dean scoops you into his arms to run away with you. “I dare you to even look at her!”

Three days before the wedding,…

“Son, this is not—” watching Dean cover your body with his larger frame John sighs deeply. Your alpha placed almost all of his clothes on the bed, wrapped you into a warm blanket before he caged you with his body. “Don’t suffocate your omega.”

“I need to keep her save,” Dean grumbles. He looks you all over again, checks every part of you before he lies on the bed, waiting for you to curl in his side. “I don’t want you to get closer. This is my omega and our nest.”

“He’s so protective,” you purr, nuzzling your alpha’s neck, rubbing his scent onto your skin. “My king, you should leave us alone. I’ll try to calm him down, but I’m afraid it’s no use.”

“I got a sword and a dagger,” threatening his father Dean whips his head toward John. “She’s mine and I must keep close to me.”

“Dean, you got it bad for her,” laughing John slowly steps backward. “I just wanted to tell you everything is prepared for your wedding. You only need to attend the wedding.”

“We will,” one strong arm slings around your waistline and you squeak when Dean burrows his face in your neck to positively lick your mating gland.

“Dean, my prince,” you push against how shoulder feeling his erection press against your thigh. “ALPHA!”

“Soon you are mine,” he hums to himself, licking your untouched mating gland. “I won’t let anyone get close to you ever again. My omega, my princess.”

“Maybe I should hide in the dungeon for the time being,” sighing deeply you rest your head against Dean’s shoulder. “I will sleep now, alpha. I promise to not run away.”

“If you hide in the dungeon, I’ll follow you,” Dean states, kissing your neck. “Sleep, I’ll watch over you and make sure no one touches what’s mine.”

“Goodnight, Dean,” pressing your lips to his chin you smile. “I feel safe with you, alpha. But you need sleep to my prince. Promise to sleep a bit.”

“Promised,” Dean lies but you are too tired to argue tonight. “Maybe in the morning after you woke.”

Wedding Day, ...

Dean circles his father and brother like prey snarls now and then before he starts to pace around the altar. “What if anything happens to her while I’m not with her? I will kill anyone touching her!”

“Son, that is enough!” John’s voice echoes through the church. “Your chosen bride is safe with the maids. Three knights guard the room and will accompany her to the church. Nothing is going to happen to her.”

“Brother, look—” Dean stops in his tracks when the doors to the church opens and everyone gets up from their seats to watch you walk down the aisle.

Grandmother Millie, John’s mother, leads you down the aisle, smiling wildly when Dean purrs low in his throat the moment you take his offered hand.

“You look beautiful, my little skunk,” you giggle when Dean whispers the words in your ear before he pecks your cheek.

“It’s your grandmother’s dress,” smiling at your groom you let him hold your hand tightly. Dean breaks all rules. He doesn’t follow the protocol for a royal wedding. He simply holds your hand, not wanting to let go of you.

“Only your beauty makes it look like a dream,” Dean roams your body with his eyes, smiling at you. You are wearing Millie’s wedding gown. It’s a ruby, long, form-fitting gown with a wide neckline, long sleeves, and gold embroidery.

You wish you could listen to the priest’s words, but all you can do is to look into Dean’s eyes. There is adoration and love in those mysterious orbs, and you wonder if he looked a girl like that before.

While your heart beats faster the longer you look at Dean, you forget about the wedding and that people are watching you and the prince.

“My prince, you must take your vows now,” the priest tuts, and Grandmother Millie chuckles. “We are all waiting for you.”

Listening to Dean’s vows you whimper silently. Instead of facing the priest, he looks at you all the time.

“—for better or worse, in sickness and in health, to death us depart,” he ends, looking at you, expectantly. “Your turn,” Dean whispers and you try to remember the words. “I’m here with you my love.”

Dean couldn’t leave the feast fast enough. He almost ran toward the chamber the maids prepared for your wedding night.

“Dean, slow down!”

“I finally got permission to touch you,” he purrs, smirking when you start to squirm in his hold. “Lemme bring you to our chamber and make you my omega. That’s all I want, my little skunk.”

“No more dungeon?”

“No more dungeon, sweetheart. Only our chamber and later, a warm and safe nest,” he kisses you softly, moaning when you wrap your arms around his neck. “I love you, Y/N.”

“I love you too, my barbarian. Now make me yours...”

“How does it feel?” Dean licks over the mark he left on your neck. “Does it hurt? Do you need anything?”

“It feels odd,” you feel the heat creep into your cheeks again when Dean shifts his hips and his knot twitches deep inside of you. “I read the books but didn’t think it will stay inside almost all night.”

“Did I hurt you? You felt pleasure…right?” worriedly kissing your hair Dean sighs when you do not answer his questions.

“Twice—” whispering the words you look over your shoulder to face your alpha. “At least I think it was twice. It could’ve been more.”

“That’s good,” puffing his chest Dean gives you a dirty grin. “My knot will fade soon, and we can sleep a bit. I don’t want you to be tired in the morning.”

“I liked it, my prince. Can we do this more often?” a deep growl leaves Dean’s throat and you squeak when he buries his face in your neck to bite you playfully. “Your knot, it’s big.”

“We will do it every night if you want us to,” he smirks when you squirm in his hold. “Or more often.”

“Every night,” Dean wraps his arms tightly around your body to keep you warm.

The winter is close and he feels it in his bones, it will be a dark and cold time. But with you by his side, he’ll never be cold again.

“Everyone waits for us to confirm we are expecting my heir, Y/N. I must knot and make love to you every night.”

“You are a liar,” you tut. “I know you only want to lie with me again. I see the hunger in your eyes, alpha.”

“Well, my love,” he nips at your neck, “I’m a barbarian after all. And now that you are in my arms and wear my mark. You are a barbarian too…”

“I love being yours, Dean. I love you, my barbarian…”

“I love you too, my little skunk.”

THE END...

Tags in reblog.

[limjaeseven]

My Brother's Groom

Pairing: Hyungwon x Changkyun ft Kihyun x Minhyuk

Genre: Angst, Fluff

Rating: Everyone

Word Count: 7,485

Summary: Minhyuk breaks up with his boyfriend of five years and is not ready to be alone. So he enlists his brother's help to find him a groom so that he can get married and settle down. Turns out his to-be-husband and brother have some history, how does that play out for the four men involved?

Warning(s): Mentioned alcohol consumption

[a/n]: My first attempt at writing Hyungkyun! Also this is not beta read so my apologies for any errors.

Written as part of @kvanity-main's Valentine's Day project 'Love Galore'

Movie: Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (My Brother's Bride)

“We’ve been dating for five years, how difficult is it to be on time for a date?” Kihyun screamed at his boyfriend. “I was waiting in the cold for an hour!”

“Why’re you getting so worked up about it? All of us have our faults, mine being not so great with time. I can’t understand why you’re so mad about this.” Minhyuk watched as the man stormed around his apartment, hands in his hair.

“Why am I so mad about this? Do you even care about this relationship, Lee Minhyuk? You can’t be punctual to dates, you can’t remember our anniversary or my birthday. I feel like I’m the only one who puts in any effort anymore,” Kihyun voiced, his tone wavering.

“Oh so now you’re Mother Teresa, doing humanitarian work to keep this relationship alive, aren’t you? Do I have to prove my love for you now? Kneel at an altar and profess my undying reverence?”

“Of course not! You just have to treat me like your fucking boyfriend instead of your maid. I clean up after you because you can barely look after yourself, do you offer to help me out? When I cook for us after a long day of work do you ever think ‘maybe I could lend him a hand, he’s probably tired’?”

“I have enough things to worry about in my own life! And it’s not like I can’t live without you, I’ve managed just fine for the twenty four years of my life that you weren’t around.”

“Managed just fine, meaning landing up in the hospital from not eating enough? Or was it getting the cops called to check on you because you pretended to drop off the face of the earth without letting anyone know?”

“Can you literally go for five minutes without nagging? We aren’t even married and I feel like I’m being lectured by my wife for forgetting to put my shoes on the rack.”

“My care for you is just nagging, isn’t it? When Jooheon told me you were a lost cause all those years ago, I should have listened to him and left.”

“Then why don’t you leave and go to your Joohoney?”

“What are you implying, Minhyuk?”

“What I’m implying is that I’m breaking up with you, Yoo Kihyun. I’m done with your nagging and I’m done with this relationship.”

“Fine, I’m done with you too!” Kihyun said before turning around and storming out of Minhyuk's apartment, slamming the door shut behind him. The blond man stood frozen in the middle of his living room for a few moments as he processed what had happened.

Once he came back to his senses, he sat down on the couch and picked his phone up, scrolling through the contact list. His finger hovered Kihyun’s number for a moment, heart beating faster at the string of hearts on either side of the name. He could easily call the man up and apologise, make up and continue like nothing happened.

Something in him stopped him from doing so, though. Taking a deep breath, he instead continued scrolling till he found his brother’s contact, considering for a moment before giving him a call. It only rang for a few seconds before being picked up.

“Hello?”

“Changkyun-ah? Are you free to talk for a bit?”

“Always, hyung. What’s up?”

“I broke up with Kihyun, Kyun.”

“Again?” Changkyun knew that the thing between his brother and boyfriend had always been a hot and cold romance, with constant fights and breakups but in the end the two men were head over heels for each other.

“This time it’s for real. He’s genuinely mad at me, I don’t think there’s any reconciling this relationship anymore.”

“I’m sorry that happened, hyung. Why don’t you take a few days off work? Get used to the single life for a bit?”

“I didn’t call you to vent about my break up, Kyun.”

“Then?”

“I’m done with this dating thing, I think it’s time to get married.”

“Married? Hyung you do know what you’re deciding to do, don't you?”

“I’m not a child, Kyun, I know what I’m talking about. I’d already planned to marry Kihyun next year, but since that’s not happening anymore, I want to find someone else to settle down with.”

“But where will you find this someone?”

“Why do you think I called you?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I want you to find me a guy, Changkyun. I know if I asked Mom and Dad they’d find me some boring guy who wouldn’t have any personality outside of being my husband.” He explained. “We’ve always had similar taste, so I know I’ll like whoever you pick. I want to be a married man this Christmas.”

“That’s like six months from now. How am I supposed to find someone that fast?”

“Please Kyunnie? For your hyung?”

“Fine, I’ll see what I can do.”

“I love you, Lee Changkyun!”

“Love you too, hyung,” The younger mumbled before cutting the call. Of all the things he was expecting his brother to ask him of, this was probably not even on his list. Changkyun loved his brother but he had to admit that he was a bit of a menace sometime. He wondered how his father would respond to the news, especially with how sure Minhyuk was about getting married to Kihyun.

When he went home to his parents that weekend, they were not happy to say the least, but fortunately his mother knew a few men who could be prospective grooms for his brother through her friends. Changkyun hoped he could find a good guy through her, because if that didn’t work, he had no idea what else to do.

His hopes did not last long though, because with every family they visited, the guys seemed to get worse. Minhyuk had been right about his parents’ picks, all the men being not very interesting, desperate to get married to a man to base their entire life around.

“God, what on earth am I supposed to do to find one decent guy for my brother,” Changkyun lamented over the phone to Hoseok, his co-worker and close friend.

“You know, I have a friend who’s been looking to settle down for a while. He’s well educated, works in a big hedge firm, comes from a decent family. He grew up in America so I doubt he’d mind moving for your brother. I’ll give you his number.”

“You’re literally the best, hyung. I’ll take you out for dinner once I’m back, I promise.” Hoseok merely laughed in response, wishing him luck.

Changkyun called the man as soon as Hoseok sent him the contact. “Hello, am I speaking to Chae Hyungwon?” He asked.

“Yes, who is this?” Changkyun was surprised to hear a really familiar voice on the other end, but couldn’t place it for the life of him.

“I’m Lee Changkyun, Hoseok hyung gave me your number.”

“Oh so you’re the Changkyun hyung keeps talking about. How can I help you, Changkyun-ssi?”

“Hyung told me you’re looking to get married? My older brother is looking for a groom and I wanted to ask if you’d be interested. Can we meet sometime and talk it out?”

“Sure, why not? Is Saturday fine with you?”

“Anytime that works for you is good.”

“I’ll text you the address, see you, Changkyun-ssi.”

“See you too,” Changkyun wished before cutting the call. Hyungwon seemed to be a pretty no nonsense guy from the way he spoke, which already sounded much better to him than the other men he’d met.

Saturday rolled around faster than Changkyun had expected, and before he knew it, he was waiting at a rather posh looking café for Hyungwon. “Lee Changkyun?” A familiar voice called.

Looking up from his phone, Changkyun saw a dashing, tall and familiar looking man in front of him. “You?” He exclaimed as he finally realised how he knew the voice.

“Wait, you're Hoseok’s friend?” The man asked, equally surprised.

Changkyun couldn’t believe his eyes as he watched Hyungwon sit down across from him. He’d not expected to meet him again in his life, but fate had decided to send them crashing towards one another a second time.

He would never forget the night they’d met. Jooheon had attended Changkyun’s graduation and dragged him to his favourite club after to celebrate. It was very different from Changkyun’s style, too loud and crowded for his taste, but the music was good and the drinks cheap so he played along. Jooheon had taken a few shots with him before dragging him to the dance floor, despite his numerous complaints.

“They have their special DJ playing today, you’re going to love him,” Jooheon shouted to be heard over the music. “He’s real eye candy, too.”

Just as Jooheon finished, the music stopped. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome DJ H.One.” The entire club erupted in a loud roar as a handsome guy with long, strawberry blonde hair stepped behind the mixing table. He sent a charming smile to the crowd before beginning his set.

Changkyun had to admit that Jooheon was right on both counts. H.One was an excellent DJ while also being incredibly good looking. He couldn’t help but let his eyes wander to the man over and over again as he danced. Halfway through, Jooheon abandoned him to drink some more, leaving Changkyun alone to ogle the man to his heart’s content. A few times he felt like he was being stared at back, but it was impossible to tell.

Before he knew it, H.One’s set had ended and the man was stepping off the stage. The stopping of the music brought Changkyun back to his senses, making him realise that Jooheon had never returned. In hopes to find his best friend, Changkyun headed for the bar, but to no avail. The alcohol he had already had was beginning to wear off so he decided to grab another drink before continuing his search.

Sitting himself down on one of the bar stools, he relayed his order to the bartender. Pulling his phone out, he shot Jooheon a text, letting him know he was at the bar in hopes that he would find his own way back to him instead of having to search through such a large crowd.

“Whiskey on the rocks, please,” A husky voice asked next to him, making Changkyun look up. None other than the DJ he’d stared down all evening was seated next to him. The man noticed Changkyun’s eyes on him and shot him a smirk. “You dance really well.”

Changkyun barely processed the compliment, realising instead that his suspicions were right, the man was, in fact, watching him. “Th-thank you,” He stuttered, still a bit stunned. “Your set was really good.”

“Thanks, I try my best,” The man said before extending his hand. “H.One.”

“CK.” Changkyun reciprocated the handshake firmly, a smile sneaking up on his face. They fell into a comfortable conversation, sharing mostly small talk.

“So, do you have any plans for tonight?” H.One asked, the implication clear in his question. Changkyun wanted to throw his inhibition to the wind and go wherever his companion for the night would take him, but a familiar message tone pulled him out of his thoughts. He looked over his shoulder once before turning back to H.One.

“As much as I would love to say no, in about thirty seconds my best friend is about to stumble here, absolutely plastered, proclaiming how much he loves me before I drag him home.” He could already hear Jooheon’s loud voice getting closer and closer to them. “Maybe next time, if we see each other again?”

Just as H.One was about to respond, Jooheon showed up behind them, throwing his hands around Changkyun’s neck. “I love you so much, Kyunnie, you know that, right?”

“I do, you sappy idiot. It’s time to go home.” He spoke as he got off the seat to hold his friend up better. He looked at H.One with apologetic eyes as Jooheon swayed, mumbling something about loving Changkyun.

“Next time.” The man promised, waving him off as they left.

And in that moment, nearly five years later, as he’s looking for a groom for his brother, Changkyun found out that H.One’s real name was Chae Hyungwon and he was friends with his best friend.

“This is one hell of a way to meet again,” Changkyun muttered.

“I would have to agree. So, you said your brother is looking for a groom?” Hyungwon asked.

“Oh yeah, his name is Minhyuk, he works for a telecommunications company in New York, earns well. He’s hoping you’d move to America with him, but he’s open to negotiate. He’ll only be back in the country once we have everything confirmed cause it’s hard for him to get time off. You can talk to him via text or video call though, I can give you his number,” Changkyun explained, handing his phone to Hyungwon to show him a few photos of his brother. “If you’re cool with it, I’d like to invite you and your family to our place so that our parents can talk it out too.”

“He’s really good looking,” Hyungwon commented and Changkyun couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous of his brother.

“Minhyuk hyung got all the good looks out of the two of us.”

“Hey don’t sell yourself short, you’re cute.” Changkyun couldn’t help but blush at the compliment, wishing they were meeting under different conditions. “I think my parents would like him, so it works for me. You can text me his number as well as your address, we’ll drop by to meet your parents.”

“Perfect,” Changkyun said, standing up and extending a hand. “See you soon, Hyungwon-ssi.”

“See you.”

***

Changkyun’s parents absolutely loved Hyungwon and his family, getting along with them really quickly. They got Minhyuk on video call to speak to them, and it went well, Hyungwon’s parents taking a liking for the man.

“So what do you say, Minhyuk-ah?” Changkyun’s father asked.

“I like him, Dad. It’s a yes from me.”

All eyes turned to Hyungwon, waiting for his answer. “It’s a yes from me, too.” The whole room erupted in cheers as their parents embraced, promising to start wedding preparation immediately. Changkyun waited for them to leave the room and head to the garden for tea before turning to his brother who was still waiting on call.

“Hyung, do you really like him?” Changkyun asked.

“He’s perfect, Kyunnie, really pretty too. You found the perfect man for me.” They spoke for a bit before Changkyun cut the call and headed out.

“Oh Changkyun-ah, we wanted to say thank you,” Hyungwon’s father said when he spotted him, pulling him by the hand to sit next to him. “We were really fed up with the constant proposals, none of them fitting our tastes.”

“It was my pleasure, Uncle,” Changkyun muttered, his eyes falling on Hyungwon sitting across from him, looking beautiful in the sunlight. He looked just as pretty as he did five years prior, and Changkyun felt the strong urge to kiss him, the same one he’d felt that night.

“You team up with Hyungwon and a wedding planner to start getting everything in order, you know what Minhyuk likes. We’re planning to set the date in October,” Changkyun’s mother said. “I’ll give you the number of the person who helped plan Jaebeom and Jinyoung’s wedding, he’s supposed to be very good.”

***

The next few months were spent making endless phone calls and visiting store after store looking for an infinite number of things. Hyunwoo, the wedding planner, was, in fact, very good, being able to understand what Hyungwon and Changkyun were looking for easily.

Minhyuk managed to get ten days off for the wedding, and promised to get his suit with him so that they didn’t have to bother at the last minute. That still left Hyungwon getting his own suit, and he asked Changkyun to accompany him for the trial.

The whole experience was nothing short of torture for him, as he watched Hyungwon change from one suit to another, his long black hair and pale skin glowing constantly. Changkyun could swear that he’d never seen a man prettier in his life. He envied Minhyuk endlessly, only to feel guilty for feeling like that towards his own brother. Changkyun was falling for Hyungwon, and he hated every moment of it.

“None of these look right,” Hyungwon lamented a few days later, when they were going through the wedding card samples Hyunwoo had gotten for them, sitting in Changkyun’s parents’ house's lawn. Changkyun had to agree, the cards were pretty, but definitely not what they were going for.

“I’ll call Hyunwoo and let him know. Maybe we could try sketching a version each just for him to get an idea of what exactly we’re looking for?” Changkyun said, finding two pens and some paper and handing them to Hyungwon.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Changkyun tried to think of what he’d want the card to look like before he started drawing it. In the middle of it, he wrote ‘Hyungwon weds Changkyun’ before realising his mistake and crossing his name off to replace it with his brothers. Hyungwon saw the younger’s panic and just laughed it off, returning to focus on his own drawing.

Changkyun could feel his whole world crashing around him as he heard Hyungwon’s melodious laughter, realising he was falling harder than he’d originally expected. The time he’d spent with Hyungwon over the past few months, the nights where they spoke on the phone for hours, starting at wedding planning and eventually getting bored and moving to more random things, had made him weak for the man sitting next to him.

“I’m done,” Hyungwon said, pulling Changkyun out of his head. He took the drawing from the elder, clicking a photo of it and his own design before sending it to Hyunwoo. He handed the drawings back to Hyungwon, turning a blind eye to the man tucking his drawing into his pocket, before getting up, the urge to vent his emotions clawing at him.

“I need to make a phone call, I’ll see you around?” He didn’t even bother waiting for a response before storming off. He found himself on the roof of the house, Jooheon’s contact under his thumb. Pressing his phone to his ear, he hoped desperately that his best friend would pick up.

“Hello?” Changkyun let out a loud sigh when he heard Jooheon’s voice.

“Hyung, I know this is a big favour to ask, but would you be able to take a few weeks off work to help out here? It’s getting really stressful and having you around would be a blessing.”

“I should be able to manage two weeks off, will that work?” It was only mid-September, with the wedding scheduled in late October, meaning it would take a while for Jooheon to come but he really needed the moral support, especially that close to the actual wedding day.

“I would really appreciate it, hyung,” He said. They spoke for a bit before Changkyun was called downstairs by his mother. The rest of the day and subsequent weeks went by finalising the details, Hyunwoo practically living in the Lee mansion for the duration.

Before he knew it, Jooheon had joined him, helping him run errands and keep himself sane. The elder could clearly tell something was up with Changkyun but chose not to comment on it, knowing the man was too preoccupied.

The day of Minhyuk’s arrival was tense, the months of work becoming real with the arrival of the groom. Changkyun drove down to the airport to pick his brother up, greeting him with a big smile and warm hug.

“These are the last few days I’m going to see you as a single man, better get a good look so that I can make fun of you for becoming soft after getting married,” Changkyun joked, making his brother smile.

“You should start looking for someone to settle down with too, don’t want to spend your retirement alone, I promise you.” If only Minhyuk knew Changkyun had fallen for his to-be husband.

At home, everyone greeted Minhyuk with bright smiles and loud cheers, asking endless questions about how he was doing and how the flight had been. Hyungwon stood quietly, a soft smile on his face, his hands folded in front of him, waiting for his parents to stop hounding his groom.

Minhyuk shot Changkyun a quick look, talking to him silently. “Shouldn’t we let these two get familiar with each other and keep the question for another time?” He said quickly, pointing at Minhyuk and Hyungwon. Their parents quickly agreed, saying they were willing to wait till lunch to continue their conversations.

“Hyungwon-ssi?” Minhyuk asked, extending his hand, which Hyungwon took with a small chuckle. Heading for the gardens, they left behind a conflicted looking Changkyun who wanted to pull all his hair out watching the two together but couldn’t.

“Changkyun-ah? The caterers need attending to,” Jooheon called, making Changkyun finally take his eyes off the couple. Busying himself with work, he tried his best not to think about how his brother would make a far better match for Hyungwon than he could ever be.

Lunchtime found the two families gathered around a long table in the patio. “If it’s okay with both of you, can we hold the tomorrow itself?” Hyungwon’s mother asked and was met with an enthusiastic nod from Minhyuk.

That evening, Changkyun sat on the roof of the mansion with Jooheon, sharing warm beer, when Hyungwon barged in. “Can I talk to Changkyun for a moment?” He asked, and Jooheon nodded, shooting his friend a glance before leaving the two alone.

“Is everything alright, hyung?” Hyungwon looked positively panicked, unlike Changkyun had ever seen him before.

“I don’t know, I just feel like something is wrong. Do you?” Changkyun wished he could grab Hyungwon’s face in his hands and tell him that he knew things were wrong because he was the one in love with him, before kissing him senseless.

“Everything’s alright, hyung. It’s probably just the nerves of getting engaged tomorrow,” He tried to assure the man, unsure of how convincing he sounded. Hyungwon still looked conflicted, as if trying to find the emotions that hid below Changkyun’s poker face but resigned when he found nothing, sighing before leaving.

The engagement was held in the ballroom of the Lees’ mansion, attended only by close friends, a formality before the wedding. Changkyun stood next to his brother as he watched him exchange rings with the man he’d fallen in love with, his stomach twisting. The moment the applause rang through the room he found the nearest exit and ran outside, looking at the big sign that was put up in front of the house saying ‘Hyungwon weds Minhyuk’ on the verge of tears.

“You love him, don’t you?” Changkyun flinched, not having noticed Jooheon follow him out.

“What are you talking about, hyung?” Jooheon looked clearly unimpressed with the younger.

“I’ve known you all your life, and I know when you’re in love. This time isn’t like the others, you love him more than you’ve loved your previous partners. You know you can’t lie to me, right?” Changkyun couldn’t do much other than pulling his best friend into a tight hug, letting the tears flow.

They were only pulled out of the moment when someone cleared their throat behind them. “You two done with your bromancing or do I need to wait before I can talk to Changkyun?” Jooheon smiled, jokingly leaving a big kiss on Changkyun’s cheek before heading back to the house.

The two men stood next to each other for a few moments, silence somehow both awkward and comfortable at the same time. “I have something to tell you, hyung,” Changyun mustered up finally, realising it’s too late to turn back. “I like you, a lot. Like a lot, a lot. I may be in love with you?”

The silence and incredulous expression he was greeted with made Changkyun’s stomach sink. “You idiot, when I asked you if something was wrong, yesterday why didn’t you tell me. What are we supposed to do now?”

“What do you mean?” The younger asked, confused.

“I love you too, even though you’re incredibly dumb, Lee Changkyun,” Hyungwon said, slapping Changkyun’s chest in frustration.

“Wait really?”

“Yes really, what do we do now, though?”

“I don’t know, hyung. I just know that I love you.”

“But what about this?” He said, pointing to the engagement ring on his hand. “We have to run away.”

“Are you mad, hyung? We can’t just do that!”

“Do you have another solution? If not, I’m going to get married to your brother in a week and I don’t clearly don’t want to do that.”

“I don’t know hyung, but we’ll come up with something.” He reached out, holding Hyungwon’s cheek in his palm. “I promise we’ll fix things.”

***

“Do you actually think this will work?” Hyungwon asked, incredibly sceptical of the plan Changkyun had just laid out for them. “I still think running away is smarter.”

“I told you, hyung. We can’t just run away, you know that as well as I do.” Taking Hyungwon’s hands in his own, he caressed his knuckles with his thumbs, trying to soothe the man. “This is our only shot.”

The first stage of the plan involved getting Minhyuk drunk, which was easier than expected. Jooheon and Changkyun had easily convinced the man to spend one of his last remaining days as a single man having fun and it ended up in them sitting on the balcony, numerous bottles of alcohol littered around them.

Shooting a look at Jooheon, Changkyun made sure the man had his phone ready and recording before he turned to his brother. “So, what do you really think of Hyungwon-ssi, hyung?”

“He’s perfect, Kyunnie. Smart, funny and I must add, incredibly good looking. You found the right man for me, brother,” Minhyuk slurred.

“But don’t you ever think of Kihyun? You two dated for five years, he must cross your mind at least once in a while.”

“Oh Kihyun, Kihyun, Kihyun. What do I tell you about Kihyun? He was my whole world. I had already selected the ring I would use to propose to him. We had our entire future laid out in front of us, to the point where we’d registered our future kids’ names in a kindergarten in New York.” Minhyuk took a big swig from the bottle in his hands before cradling it against his chest. “He still texts me, waxing poetic about how much he loves me. A part of me wants to respond but I remember that we broke up, and that I’ve moved on from him.”

It wasn’t long after that when Minhyuk passed out with all the alcohol and exhaustion. Jooheon sent Changkyun a wink before helping the man lift his brother and drag him to his room. Once he was on the bed, they fished out his phone from his pocket.

“God what would this man put as his phone password?” Changkyun muttered.

“He seems like a romantic, do you know their anniversary by any chance?”

“Can’t be Kihyun’s birthday or their anniversary, him forgetting those dates was one of the reasons why they broke up.”

“Your brother said he wanted to get married by Christmas, right? Maybe he set it as Christmas this year? It’s clear that he loved his ex, he could have been too busy looking forward instead of in the moment?” That made sense to Changkyun, so he held his breath before typing in the numbers.

Jooheon had to slap a hand against his mouth to not scream when a familiar click sounded, and the phone unlocked. “Lee Jooheon, you’re a genius!” Changkyun whisper-yelled. Quickly finding Kihyun’s contact, he copied it to his phone.

Editing the video Jooheon had taken to look like Minhyuk was still madly in love with Kihyun was easy, convincing the man to fly all the way down to Korea was another ball game. Changkyun gave his phone to Hyungwon, who took a deep breath before dialling the number.

“Hello?” A voice came through the speaker of the phone. Hyungwon could feel his hands shake as soon as he heard the sound, but Changkyun reassured with a soft smile that helped calm his nerves.

“Am I speaking to Yoo Kihyun?”

“Yes, and you are?”

“Chae Hyungwon, your ex-boyfriend Lee Minhyuk’s fiancé.”

“Is this some sort of joke?” Kihyun asked, surprised.

“I promise you, Kihyun-ssi, I would not be getting in touch with you if the situation wasn’t dire. I’m supposed to get married to your ex in just over a week’s time, only to find out that he’s still in love with you.” Changkyun held his breath as he heard Kihyun stutter at the revelation.

“Excuse me? He’s still in love with me? Then why isn’t he answering my texts? And why is he engaged to you?”

“I’ll send you a video that was taken last night by Minhyuk’s brother, you’ll understand what’s going on.” Jooheon picked the phone up quickly to send the clip to Kihyun’s number. There was silence on the other end of the line for a few moments as the man watched it.

“He still loves me?” Kihyun asked, his voice watery.

“He does, Kihyun-ssi, and I recommend you come here as soon as you can if you want the love of your life back.”

“I’ll book the earliest flight I can get. Thank you for doing this, Hyungwon-ssi,” Kihyun said before the line went dead. Jooheon was cheering loudly as Changkyun pulled Hyungwon into a hug. If Minhyuk loved Kihyun as much as he’d mentioned, this might just work out for them, Changkyun thought.

Fortunately Kihyun was able to reach just in time for the youngsters’ night they were throwing for the grooms. Changkyun, Hyungwon and Jooheon visited Kihyun’s hotel room early that morning with an outfit in hand.

“You’re my childhood friend from New York who’s come to visit me for my wedding. Just Kih, not Kihyun,” Hyungwon instructed, handing the man the box of clothes. “Go get your man before it’s too late.”

***

That evening, Changkyun made sure to keep himself occupied so that he wouldn’t stress out too much. The party was being held in a club in the city, attended by their friends. Shooting a look at Hyungwon, he looked at the door, knowing Kihyun was supposed to arrive soon.

Just as he was about to turn away, the man stepped inside, dressed in a pair of tight leather pants and a blazer with no shirt underneath. Minhyuk had his back turned to him so he didn’t notice him, giving Changkyun the perfect opportunity to intercept him with a drink.

“Have this, you’re going to need it,” He offered, and much to his surprise, Kihyun downed it in one go, taking a few deep breaths after to prepare himself.

“Are you sure this will work?”

“This is our only shot, let’s hope for the best.” Reaching his hand out, he asked, “Dance with me?” Kihyun nodded with a smile, going along with the man to the floor. Jooheon had agreed to DJ for the night so the moment he saw the two, he switched the music to something more sensual.

Taking the lead, Kihyun started with his arms around Changkyun’s shoulders before turning around and pressing his back against the younger’s chest as they danced. It took a few moments for Minhyuk to notice them, only for him to spit his drink out. Changkyun could see Hyungwon holding back his laughter as he helped the man clean the liquor off his suit.

“Once this song ends, we’re going to Minhyuk, okay?” He warned Kihyun, who nodded. When it was time, he let Kihyun loop his arm with his own as they made their way to the couple.

“Wonnie, how’re you doing?” Kihyun exclaimed, hugging Hyungwon close. Minhyuk stared quietly with a perplexed expression on his face as the two men interacted.

“Kih, so nice of you to come all the way here for my wedding,” Hyungwon said before turning to his fiancé. “Minhyuk, this is Kih, my childhood best friend from New York, Kih this is Minhyuk, my fiancé.”

“Nice to meet you, Minhyuk,” Kihyun said, a smirk laced in his voice as he extended his hand to the man, as if they had never met before. Minhyuk still didn’t say anything, instead just nodding as he shook the man’s hand. “Kyunnie, I’ll go get us something to drink, we'll dance more after that.”

“They look cute together, don’t they?” Hyungwon said, and Changkyun did his best to look shy. Minhyuk didn’t say anything, eyes locked on Kihyun as he leaned over the bar, ordering drinks. The man joined them back shortly after, offering Changkyun a glass before dragging him away.

The two men danced for a bit more, making sure Minhyuk was watching them, after which Kihyun retired to sitting by the corner of the bar, glass nursed in his hand while Changkyun rejoined Minhyuk and Hyungwon. “I’m just going to head to the bathroom,” Minhyuk muttered at last, leaving the two men behind.

Giving a look at the bartender, they sneaked under the counter from the other end of the bar, crawling till they were right under Kihyun and Minhyuk’s seat. “Kihyun, what are you doing here? And what in the world are you wearing?”Changkyun had fortunately remembered Minhyuk mentioning Kihyun was one to dress conservatively, knowing his choice of clothes would pull a reaction from the man.

“I’m attending my best friend’s wedding, Minhyuk,” Kihyun muttered, tone disinterested. “And who are you to ask about what I’m wearing? We broke up, didn’t we?”

“Broke up? Weren’t you the one sending me sappy texts till two days ago?” Minhyuk asked incredulously.

“Did you reply to them? You didn’t, so I got over you.”

“Got over me? In two days?”

“Yes Minhyuk, my world doesn’t revolve around you.” Minhyuk lingered around for a few moments, trying to come up with something to say but found himself speechless and instead just stormed off. “He’s gone.”

Changkyun and Hyungwon let out a collective sigh before rising from behind the bar. “You did a great job, hyung,” The youngest said, wrapping Kihyun in a comforting hug.

***

The next morning saw Changkyun and Kihyun up early, playing croquet in the lawns, not far from Minhyuk’s ground floor room’s window. The man had a habit of opening his window when he woke up, and the moment Changkyun noticed him doing so, he ran to Kihyun’s side, wrapping his hands around the man, pretending to teach him how to hold the mallet correctly.

“Changkyun-ah, can you come here for a moment,” Minhyuk called out much faster than either had expected, but Kihyun sent the man a quick wink before waving him off.

“Yes hyung, how can I help you?” Changkyun asked as he entered Minhyuk’s room and sat down on his bed, facing the window where Kihyun could be seen trying to hold the mallet the way he was taught.

“What were you just doing?”

“Teaching Kih hyung to play croquet, of course.”

“And what do you think of him?” Minhyuk found himself asking before he could stop himself.

“He’s amazing, hyung. Everything I’ve ever wanted in a man. He makes me want to finally settle down too, despite the fact that we only met last night.”

“You can’t-” Minhyuk said before stopping abruptly.

“Why can’t we, hyung?” Changkyun probed.

“Give me a moment,” The man said before getting up to shut the window. “That Kih, Hyunwon’s best friend is-” He stopped once more, almost as if he was afraid of the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

“Who is he, hyung?”

“No one, just someone I knew from New York. Nothing to worry about.” The man got off the bed, throwing the window open once more, as if nothing had happened.

“Are you sure?” Changkyun asked, shouting at his brother internally to man up and admit he still loved Kihyun.

“Yes, you can go back, sorry for disturbing you.”

***

That evening, Minhyuk sent Kihyun a text, asking him to meet at a nearby restaurant for dinner. He was surprised when the man actually agreed, expecting him to turn the request down. Thumbing through the clothes in his cupboard, Minhyuk stressed over what to wear, doing his hair thrice to get it just right. It felt like he was going on a first date, not going to meet the man he spent five years of his life with.

He was first to arrive, tapping his foot endlessly as he waited for Kihyun. The man was just in time, dressed down but still with more skin showing than Minhyuk was used to. He could feel himself fall in love once again, as much as he wanted to deny it.

“Hey,” Minhyuk greeted as the man sat down.

“You really have changed, Minhyuk,” Kihyun commented, his tone teasing.

“How so?”

“You’re actually on time for a date.”

“This is not the time to joke around, Kihyun. And why is your chest out, can’t you button your shirt up a bit more?” Minhyuk fussed.

“Stop trying to dictate what I can and can’t do, Minhyuk.”

“Stop flirting with my brother.” Minhyuk countered. “He’s young and he’s starting to like you. Don’t play with him.”

“Who said I was playing with him? He’s an adult, and we like each other, what’s wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong with that? My mom is considering asking you to marry him!”

“Really? That sounds amazing? Kyunnie’s a sweet boy, and he reminds me of you a lot. We’d look nice together,” Kihyun said, his voice dreamy.

“Stop it, Kihyun!” Minhyuk growled, slamming his fist against the table.

“You stop, Minhyuk. You’re the one who broke up with me. If you still care about me, have the guts to break your wedding with Minhyuk and marry me,” Kihyun declared. “Do you have it in you to do it?” Minhyuk couldn’t reply, making Kihyun sigh in defeat. They quietly finished their meal before driving back to the Lees’ mansion.

***

“Why aren’t they back yet?” Hyungwon asked, looking at the clock. Jooheon and he had joined Changkyun in his room to calm their nerves while they waited for any updates. Just as Changkyun was about to reply, there was a loud knock on the door.

“Who is it?” He called out, while Hyungwon and Jooheon scrambled to hide.

“It’s me, Kyun-ah,” Minhyuk answered. Just as the two men managed to get into the bathroom and lock the door, Changkyun opened the door for his brother. “There’s something I need to tell you, Changkyun, but I have no idea how to!” The man said, exasperated.

“What’s going on, hyung?”

“You know when I asked you to find a groom for me, I was a bit confused about getting married, worried that I was taking an impulse decision, but then I met Hyungwon and everything seemed to fall in place,” Minhyuk explained, “For once I knew what I wanted, but now that’s all gone for a toss!”

“What do you mean? Is everything alright?”

“I can’t get married to Hyungwon, Kyun,” The man lamented.

“You’re not making a lot of sense right now, hyung.”

“That Kih? The one you were playing croquet with? That’s Yoo Kihyun, my ex-boyfriend.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“I tried to, but couldn’t muster up the courage. Since I saw him last night, I’ve spent my time going back and forth between the two of them. Hyungwon would make a great husband, I’m sure, but he’s not the man I fell in love with, he’s not the man I spent five years of my life with, not the man I planned to get married to.” Sitting down on the bed, Minhyuk placed his head in his hands, sighing loudly. “I want to spend the rest of my life with Kihyun, Changkyun. Every time I think of him I think of the names we’d registered in the kindergarten in New York.”

“So you’re going to break this wedding to marry Kihyun?” Changkyun asked, trying his hardest to hide his excitement.

“I want to, but I can’t just tell mom and dad that, they will kill me. I need you to help me out of this mess. You’ve always been pretty resourceful, figure something out for your brother, won’t you?” Minhyuk pleaded.

“I’ll come up with something, you go to your room and get some rest for now.” Changkyun wrapped his brother in a reassuring hug before sending him off. The moment the door clicked shut, Hyungwon and Jooheon came tumbling out of the bathroom, shouting in excitement.

“I can’t believe your dumb idea actually worked,” Jooheon commented, only to be met with a playful hit from Changkyun.

***

The next night, after the whole mansion was asleep, Changkyun and Hyungwon helped the couple pack their stuff.

“You two will be fine, I’ve called a taxi. It’ll take you to a nearby hotel. First thing in the morning you go to the courthouse and register your wedding, click a couple of photos of it and send it to me. The rest we’ll handle here.” Changkyun explained as he helped the men carry their luggage.

“Best of luck,” Hyungwon wished, hugging Kihyun. They waited till the two men got into the car and left, waving them off.

***

The next morning, Changkyun printed the photos he’d received from Minhyuk, the two men dressed in suits, showing off their rings. Tucking them into two envelopes with the letters he’d made his brother write the night before, he placed them on the coffee tray for his and Hyungwon’s fathers.

The two men looked confused when the butler delivered their coffee as they sat together in the lawns, ripping open the envelopes.

Dear dad/uncle

I regret having to write to you in the first place but find that there is no other way to tell you this. I can’t marry Hyungwon because I’m in love with Kih. I know it might come as a shock to both of you, and I’m really sorry that I made you go through all of this before dropping this on you. I want to spend the rest of my life with Kih, so much so that we’ve run away so that we could get married, you’ll find the photos with this letter. I hope that you’re able to forgive us and give us your blessings.

Lots of love,

Minhyuk

“What in the world is this?” Hyungwon’s father exclaimed.

“What happened, dad?” Changkyun asked as he joined the rest of the family for breakfast.

“Minhyuk ran away with Hyungwon’s friend and they got married.” His father gritted.

“What? But it’s too late to call the wedding off now, the guests are already here!”

“It will tarnish our reputation if we were to send them back at this point.” Changkyun’s father agreed.

“Well where am I supposed to find another Minhyuk from?” Hyungwon’s father asked.

“How about Changkyun? If he’s alright with marrying Hyungwon, things would work out,” Hyungwon’s mother said.

“If the boys are okay with it that sounds like a good idea. Tell me, Changkyun, will you marry our son?”

“Would you mind if I spoke to Hyungwon privately for a bit before giving you an answer, uncle?”

“Of course, you two take your time.” Changkyun and Hyungwon got up from the table, making their way to Changkyun’s bedroom and shutting the door firmly behind them. Before the younger had turned around properly, Hyungwon was enveloping him in a tight hug.

“We did it, Kyunnie!” He cheered, jumping up and down in excitement.

“We’re getting married, hyung.”

“Well not with this attitude,” Hyungwon sassed.

“What do you mean?” Asked Changkyun, confused.

“Get on your knees and propose properly. I’m not letting you marry me that easily.” Changkyun just laughed as he turned to his dresser, hunting through the drawers for one of his rings.

Getting on one knee in front of his lover, Changkyun said, “Chae Hyungwon, love of my life, light of my soul. Will you do me the honour of making me the happiest man alive by marrying me?”

“Better get me a proper ring when you get the time,” Hyungwon teased. “Of course I would.” The two men hugged once more, pulling away just to gaze at the bright smiles that decorated their faces.

“I did the proposing, you start the kissing,” Changkyun retorted, to which Hyungwon laughed before bending down to capture the man’s lips in his own, smile never leaving his face.

[kristaline2dmensimp]

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐨 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

ᴀʀʀᴀɴɢᴇ ᴍᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ: ᴘᴀʀᴛ 1 ᴘᴀʀᴛ 2

*****

3rd person's POV

The whole crew stood at the deck of Moby Dick as they stared at an elder woman of the foreign land they're currently at having a conversation with their pops, as she had something whitebeard wanted.

"I have faced countless betrayal from people wanting to obtain the same thing you wanted. So don't blame me for being precautious." The elder woman stated, there's no doubt that she is strong, cause not even an ounce of fear is presented on her features even facing one of the four yonko.

In order to avoid unnecessary fight, they both agreed to negotiate without having any casualties. "Newgate if you want what I have, what can you offer to me." She asked.

"What exactly do you want?" Whitebeard inquires, cocking his brow, causing the elderly lady to laugh softly. "In exchange for a promise that I would not face any more betrayal and that we would be allies, I want one of your sons." Whitebeard frowns at her claim, not liking where the conversation is going. Noticing this, the elder woman held out her palm. "Relax, Newgate; I wasn't done yet." She hummed, her eyes skimming over the crew, scanning each commander before facing back to Whitebeard.

"I'd like one of your sons to marry one of my daughters." Whitebeard's frown remained as he glance at his boys, who appeared to be willing to go through this. If only he wasn't in dire need of it, he wouldn't go through such lengths as to marry off one of his sons but this arrangement appears to benefit them more than her. Looking back to the elderly lady in front of him who stretch out her hand waiting for him to take and seal the deal. Whitebeard's grew slight suspicious but sighed nonetheless when he didn't hear any of his sons objecting before shaking her hand. Smiling the woman snapped her finger.

The whole crew watch as strong gust of wind came pass by forming into you appearing beside your mother pushing your hair back from covering your face. *Ya know the thing female racer did after taking off a helmet? Know what I mean?*

"I want your first division commander Marco the Phoenix to wed my eldest daughter (____), she ate the kaze-kaze no mi also she's the top warrior of our land and she knows a lot about medicine, rest assured you can rely on her." Unfazed by the sudden events you await for their answers.

Marco blink in surprise hearing your mother's statement of choosing him to be your husband out of everyone. Chuckling to himself he jumped down from their ship before approaching you, ignoring the teasing remark his brothers threw at him and their soon to be sister-in-law.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, first commander." You greeted with a smile which he returned with flirtatious one. "Pleasure to meet you too yoi."

"The wedding will take place here tomorrow at dawn and after the wedding you'll have what you wanted, shirohige." Ending the conversation between them, you were then pulled away to your fortress where you will be prep for the wedding, not after both of you sharing eye contact longer than expected.

Whitebeard sigh sitting back at his collosal chair watching Marco getting teased by his brothers. Soon after a party started. Dusk have fallen and its rare to see everyone is trying to sober up while the others were passed out on the deck.

On the other hand, Marco was leaning on the railings smoking a cigarette watching the sea deep in thought, he would be married in a few hours. Well he wasn't getting any younger either he wouldn't mind the change of pace.

"Don't worry about it." He turned to Thatch walking up to him followed by Ace with drink in their hand.

"I ain't worrying yoi. Just Hasn't felt this nervous before." he replied.

"Yeah that happens." Ace shrugged his shoulder taking a sip from his mug of sake. "I mean i can always take your place, she's a real beauty heh i wouldn't mind." Thatch replied grinning causing Marco to roll his eyes as they they all chuckled. He perked up when he felt the breeze of the wind seems different from the ones they usually felt knowing you ate the wind wind fruit, the three of them look towards the island fortress where you were located.

"Seems you're not the only one who's nervous." Ace hummed while Marco smiled softly.

......

You sat inside your room, knees bouncing from nervousness while staring at your perfectly made traditional wedding dress by your land designed for the husband's to take off easily ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

Knowing the reason why your mother had chose you to this arrangement was due to your adventurous personality, and this is the opportunity for you to roam the sea alongside your husband.

Soon after your mother and sisters came flooding your room. "Now dear, its time to groom you." Your sisters helped you wear the dress as you let your mother do your hair, nothing too fancy but the traditional custom of your land.

"we will be missing you my dear, I hope you know." Your mother sighed stroking your silky hair and your sister hugging you savoring the last moment you will be with them. "Don't worry I wouldn't forget you all, I already prolonged not accepting any proposal. I think its time for me to be married, I ain't getting younger." You replied with a smile.

Sighing once more, your mother kissed your forehead before placing your veil. "We will be arranging the place now." Nodding, your mother and sisters left the room to calm yourself not knowing whether you're feeling nervous or excited anymore.

Hearing a flickering noise, you turned towards the window seeing blue violet flowers sitting on your window ceil. Blinking in surprise, you stood up approaching the said flowers caressing it in your hand not being able to contain your smile from spreading on your face knowing the meaning of the blue violet. Unbeknownst to you, Marco who's flying from the distance saw all of it, smirking when he saw you caress the flower he left on your window with a small grin.

......

Everyone had gathered at whitebeard's ship all prepared and only left is you to appear on the makeshift altar where Marco is waiting in anticipation. The sun had rise at the same time you appeared with the wind accompanying you.

Everyone was in awe as you stood proudly in your wedding dress walking up to the man you will be married to as he flashed you smile which only widened hearing his brothers wolf whistling and cat calls in the background. You looked away feeling shy all of the sudden when Marco took a hold of your hand.

You two shared vows and exchange rings without breaking eye contact. "You may now kiss the bride." Your mother announced. Catching your now husband off guard you flashed him a sinister smile being the one to pull him into the kiss which resulted a lot of 'ooohs' from his teasing brothers and a loud cheers in the crowd.

Pulling away, Marco held you close by your waist having the flirtatious smirk back on his face. "Welcome to the Whitebeard pirates, my darling wife."

******

In case you didn't know, The Blue Violet flower symbolises faith, affection, intuition and love. If you're looking for romantic flowers, blue violets make a wonderful gift.