Chapter Text
“Admit it, I look ridiculous.”
“Fine, you look ridiculous. Can you stop fussing with your kimono now?”
Arashi groaned and let her head fall against the mirror, eyes closed, fists clenched, feeling every bit as foolish as her sister likely already knew she was. She knew, deep down, that she did not look ridiculous, that the snow-white kimono in all its countless ilms of silk fit her perfectly, had been put on perfectly, accentuated her every feature perfectly. She knew that her make-up was perfect, that her hair was perfect, that everything was perfect.
But she felt like the queen of all impostors, somehow. Is this how all people feel on their wedding day, or am I just a unique brand of idiot?
A huff of irritation was the only warning Arashi had before a strong pair of hands clamped around her shoulders, yanking her around with a yelp until she was face to face with the deeply annoyed face of one Alisaie Leveilleur. “Arashi, for the last time, you look amazing. There is not a hair out of place and not a stitch loose. You will take everyone’s breath away from the moment you step through those doors. Now can you please stop giving Sanda free ammunition and let us walk you down the aisle?”
“Sis.” Arashi turned to look at Sanda. Two years apart had changed her sister in ways Arashi was still coming to terms with. The Turali sun had drenched her skin, giving her normally pale skin a deep tan and making her pale scales and horns all the more striking by contrast. Her previously lengthy hair had been cut into a short bob, ending just above her neck in an efficiently chopped cut. But it was her eyes that had changed the most, having lost just a little of their childish joy in favour of a more world-weary gaze. The sisters hadn’t had a chance to fully catch up thanks to the flurry of wedding planning, but Sanda’s eyes promised a story worth hearing.
“She’s right. You look incredible. Don’t let your jitters get the better of you. Go out there, wow everyone, try not to lose yourself in her eyes as you tie the knot. It’ll be over before you know it.” Sanda’s smile contained not an ounce of cheek, for once. It didn’t last. “Besides, how am I supposed to tease you for your terrible taste in women for the rest of your life if you don’t actually get married to her, huh?”
The flat stare Arashi shot her sister did nothing to wipe away her smirk. “May I remind you, dear sister, that you also fell for that woman only for her to break your heart?”
That was enough to sour Sanda’s expression. “And you’re the one who crawled right back into her arms the moment they were free.” She stuck her tongue out for added emphasis, but it was hardly necessary. Arashi strode towards her sister with murder in her eyes, but a sudden vice around her arm yanked her back.
“ Ladies, ” Alisaie hissed as her other arm clamped around Arashi’s waist, “How about we save the sisterly violence until after the ceremony, hmm? I’d rather not have to put yet more make-up on to cover up a fresh black eye on our blushing bride.”
“If my sister is willing to apologise for insulting my fiance, I’ll consider it,” Arashi replied primly, eyes narrowed in the direction of the decidedly unapologetic Sanda.
“Hey, I only insulted one of them!” Sanda shot back. “And I stand by my comment. You, dear sister, have terrible taste in women.”
This only provoked further declarations of violence, of course, with Arashi doing her level best to escape her maid of honour’s shockingly strong grip. Of course, if Arashi had been using her true strength she’d have broken free in an instant, but she had no desire to call upon the might of her old life. She’d turned her back on it two years prior, when she used it to bring an end to the monster that had once been her mother. She would not use it again.
Besides, I don’t want to reduce my sister to paste, just knock a little sense into her. Teach her to badmouth my wife-to-be on my bloody wedding day. Make sure she-
The door creaked open amidst the sisters’ arguing as a silver-haired elezen peered through the door. His hopeful face fell as he took in the scene of impending violence in front of him. “Really, Arashi, you’ll ruin your kimono if you keep this up!”
Arashi shot her best man a dirty look. “Haurchefant, kindly take my sister back to her seat before I throttle her.” She tried to keep her tone level, sweet, even, but the venom crept in anyway. Deep down Arashi knew it wasn’t her sister’s fault that she was so easily worked up, but she was all too easy to make into a scapegoat. It was easier by far than admitting the actual truth.
Arashi was terrified.
---
“Oh, stop fussing with your braid. You’ll tug it out if you keep that up, and I’ll have to do a botch job fixing it for you.” Kasumi’s eyes narrowed as she strode towards the fussing bride, ready to pull the poor braid free from worrying fingers by force if necessary.
Yotsuyu allowed herself to release the braid and let it fall back against her shoulder, meeting Kasumi’s glare with one of her own. “I thought I’d brought you here to be moral support, not to play nursemaid like I’m some unruly child.”
“Then stop acting like one.” Kasumi held her scowl for a moment longer before her face softened into a gentle smile. “You’ve nothing to fear, you know that. Your tormentors aren’t going to rise from the grave simply to bring down your wedding day.” Her hand was soft and warm against Yotsuyu’s cheek, radiating reassurance in a way only an old warrior could.
“I’m fully aware of that,” Yotsuyu snapped, but she leaned into Kasumi’s touch all the same. “But try telling it to my heart. Besides, it doesn’t help that I’m garbed for a funeral rather than a wedding.” Black had seemed like such a good idea at the time, such a bold idea, and Yotsuyu had wanted nothing more than to break from tradition when she’d decided the jet and crimson dress would be hers. But now, looking at herself in front of the mirror, seeing it draped on her form, it felt…
It felt like an omen. A harbinger of things to come.
Then let it be one for those who would wish me harm instead. Let it be a warning that I will brook no intrusion on my happiness. Resolve hardened in her chest, chasing away the fear.
“That’s the spirit,” Kasumi said with a grin. “Though, try not to look like you’re going to war when you walk down the aisle. Might scare your poor wife to death before you even tie the knot.”
“If she is unprepared for war, then that’s her problem. Besides, she’s made of sterner stuff than that.”
Kasumi scoffed. “One of them is, at least. The other will crumble before you with barely a look.” She gave Yotsuyu a wry smile, her eyes glinting yellow for just a moment before returning to their usual green-blue mixture. Yotsuyu swore her companion did such things to remind her lover that she hadn’t always been a (mostly) regular au ra woman. Behind those eyes lay three thousand years of grief and longing, wounds which were still struggling to fully heal. But they also betrayed a more recent hurt, one which Kasumi had been trying and failing not to show of late.
“Speak. The kami know I have not the patience for silence today.” Nor did she have the patience to mince words, but Kasumi knew that full-well by this point. They had shared a bed often enough for her to learn, to say nothing of the year or so Kasumi had spent whispering in Yotsuyu’s head.
“We’ve been over it before. I’ve made my peace with it, and I’m happy for the three of you.”
“But you wish you were in a dress of your own?”
Kasumi looked away, her expression unchanged but her posture flinching just slightly. “The day will come. I know that. And I will take the slow road if it means I reach that day at all. But still…” Kasumi shook her head with a scowl. “As I said, I’ve made my peace. It will take time still before Arashi is ready. Longer still for Lyse, I suspect. And I’ve never quite known how to read you.”
It was blissfully simple to pull Kasumi by the collar against her body, to plant her lips against the au ra’s, to hear her gasp of surprise and watch her eyes widen. Yotsuyu gave her just enough time to lean into the sudden affection before gently pulling away. Wouldn’t do to get distracted now of all times. “Were it up to me,” Yotsuyu purred, “You would be feeling every last butterfly that has infested my stomach in a dressing room all to yourself.”
Kasumi shot Yotsuyu a withering glare. “You have got to stop doing that,” she muttered, but she couldn’t quite hide her smile.
A gentle knock at the door stole away Yotsuyu’s answer before it could pass her lips. “Ma’am?” Yugiri’s quiet but insistent tone rang through the heavy wood. “It’s almost time. Are you ready?”
Absolutely not. “I am.” Yotsuyu exchanged a final glance with Kasumi, then made for the door.
---
“Nearly done. Just a few more dabs under your eyes and… there we go!” Curtis stepped back, framing his youngest daughter’s face with his hands and nodding in approval. Lyse fought back a smile and tried to look as imperious as possible. She channelled a little of Yotsuyu’s icy dignity, but try as she might she just couldn’t stop her giddy joy from creeping in. It didn’t help that her father was grinning at her without a hint of restraint, pride and love radiating from his face in an irresistible tide.
“Look at you, my girl. Arashi and Yotsuyu won’t know what hit ‘em.” Lyse blushed, turning away from her father to face the mirror in front of her. For a moment she didn’t recognise the woman in front of her, dressed in such bold crimson, sleeves lined with griffin feathers, golden chains dangling across her hips, face painted more like a warrior queen than a bride to be. Even knowing how she would look when it all came together, the result was still overwhelming to behold.
As soon as Lyse had made her and her partners’ intentions clear to her family, the Hexts had put their collective heads together to ensure Lyse would shine brightest of all. Yda had set aside her improvements to the Aether Conversion Engine for the time being and instead delved into ancient Ala Mhigan wedding traditions. Rena had dug deep into the Hext family coffers to procure the finest fabrics for her wedding dress, and the most talented tailors to put it together. As for Curtis, he had enlisted the help of an old friend or two to obtain the griffin feathers that adorned her dress, and had revealed his hidden face-painting talents besides. Even Fordola had pitched in, though mostly to keep the rest of Lyse’s family from going too far overboard with it all.
When Lyse had (understandably, she thought) protested at such extravagance, she had been politely hushed by her family.
“It’s what any big sister would do,” Yda had said without even looking up from aetherically treated tomes.
“A hero of your stature deserves nothing less!” Her mother had huffed before returning to giving Redolent Rose an earful.
“You want to get one over on Yotsuyu, don’t you?” Her father had retorted with a knowing grin.
“Just take what you’re given,” Fordola had muttered, her expression bitter.
So Lyse, knowing when she was beaten, had allowed her family to go all out on her special day. And now she stood, staring at their efforts given form, feeling not a little ridiculous but unable to stop smiling all the same. A bit of a step up from our last wedding, eh, Arashi?
“Thank you,” Lyse breathed as she turned to face her father again.
“Careful, girl! No tears now, you’ll ruin the paint!” Curtis’s eyes filled with the concern only someone about to see an hour of hard work wasted could summon. Lyse laughed, the sight of her father in such a sudden panic chasing away the tears in an instant. It didn’t take long for Curtis to laugh as well, father and daughter caught up in their own hilarity.
“Right, I’d say you’re just about ready to dazzle the world,” Curtis declared, only for his eyes to widen as he slapped his palm against his thigh. “Wait, you’re missing something still! Something very important. You wait right there, I need to go collect it!” Curtis didn’t wait for a reply before vanishing out of the dressing room, leaving Lyse to wonder just what was so important that it needed such urgent retrieval.
With a dramatic sigh she slumped onto the stool, trying not to stare at herself in the mirror. And failing miserably. Gods, they really did go all out, didn’t they? Even her hair, normally pulled into an easy pony-tail, had been allowed to flow freely and embellished with wild flowers. She looked… She didn’t even know how to describe how she looked. Like a different person entirely. Another me from another life. A warrior queen, wild and fierce and unstoppable.
It was in the midst of these thoughts that Curtis returned, the creaking of the door the only warning Lyse received before her father sprung a pair of gifts upon her. “First one’s from your maid of honour,” Curtis explained, handing the wide, flat box to Lyse with a shaky smile. “Promised her I’d give this to you before the ceremony. Thank Rhalgr I remembered, eh?”
Lyse had already opened the box by the time her father finished, gasping in wonder at what lay inside. A rose-gold circlet, beautifully engraved with roses and feathers and ending in a swooping wing towards the back. She shouldn’t have been surprised that it fit perfectly atop her head, but she couldn’t help the feeling of amazement at how right it felt against her crown, how perfectly it sat amongst her golden locks. Alisaie, you shouldn’t have…
“The second one’s from your mother and I,” Curtis continued, wrenching Lyse’s attention away from the circlet and towards the second, smaller box clutched in her father’s hands. Lyse moved to open it, but Curtis caught her hands before they could reach it. “If you’ll allow me,” he said, his voice quivering slightly. With a slight tremble in his hands he prised open the lid, revealing a mostly-transparent length of silk dyed pure white. Curtis pulled it out of its container with reverent hands, allowing the folded fabric to unfurl into a veil.
“Your mother wore this on the day we married.” Lyse’s stare moved from the veil to her father’s face, seeing the memory light up his face brighter than any sun’s rays could. “I told her there and then that she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Course, then she called me an idiot because how could I tell she hadn’t done something terrible to herself with the veil covering most of her face. But I knew. Just like your loves will know when they see you stride down that aisle.”
“Dad…” Lyse took the veil from her father’s hands, her own grip trembling now. “Are you sure?”
“Of course,” Curtis said with a smile. “Now, let’s get it attached to your circlet nice and quick. Almost time, you know.”
Lyse’s heart skipped a good few beats. “Already?”
“Aye, love. Already. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Anyone tries to ruin my daughter’s special day, they’ll have me to answer to!”
---
Arashi was first to enter the great chamber and take her hesitant steps down the aisle. For someone so used to the spotlight in both her life as Warrior of Light and her career as a professional racer, she always managed to surprise people when she mentioned her stage fright. Now that nervous energy was all that kept her from bolting down the hall and out of the great cathedral that she, her lovers, and most everyone she considered a friend resided in. She wanted to run. She wanted to run far, far away, to snatch up Lyse, Yotsuyu, and Kasumi, to burrow herself and her loves in a deep, dark hole and never look back.
But Yotsuyu would kill her if she did, and Lyse would carry the disappointment with her for the rest of her life. And Arashi wasn’t about to let them down. So with a hammering heart and the harrowing knowledge that all eyes were on her, she pressed forward.
Alisaie caught her eye and gave her an encouraging smile. Haurchefant had a steady hand on her forearm, keeping her focused. Sanda gave her a thumbs-up from the front row. Arashi took their lending of strength gratefully, managing not to trip over her kimono on the way to her place before the altar. The elderly moogle (at least, Arashi assumed they were elderly judging by their great beard) gave her a sage nod before motioning for the next of the brides to enter.
Yotsuyu flowed through the opened doors like liquid moonlight, her deep black dress drinking in the gazes of all whose gaze found it and held those gazes tight. Yotsuyu’s eyes, however, were fixed on the altar ahead, and on the woman she’d gone through such strife and grief with. The woman she adored, who looked at her with such naked amazement it was a wonder she hadn’t rushed down the aisle to breathlessly sing her praises. Still, she didn’t miss Sanda’s rolling eyes as the two briefly made eye-contact, nor her long-suffering smile. Tural has agreed with you, it seems.
Yugiri and Kasumi stood to each side of her, Kasumi in her freshly adjusted suit, deep blue in shade and doing a wonderful job of accentuating her lithe body beneath; Yugiri in a rather less tailored suit, doing a better job of hiding her powerful biceps and triceps, her well-muscled legs, her near-permanent tension and readiness to spring into action at any moment.
Despite Yotsuyu’s insistence, Yugiri had refused to relinquish her position as Yotsuyu’s bodyguard as well as her personal assistant, and took both side of her employment deadly seriously. Thankfully, she also took her temporary role as ring-and-key-bearer just as seriously.
Arashi was still staring at her as she ascended to face her. Yotsuyu allowed herself a small smirk, more than happy to take the little victory presented to her. Not that it was easy to tear her eyes away from the woman who would be her wife, of course. The pearl-white kimono shone beautifully in the light, giving Arashi a grace and elegance that she rarely allowed herself to show. Her makeup had been applied to accentuate that pristine beauty as well, drawing attention to her bountiful blue eyes, to her rosy cheeks, to her shining white scales and horns. Her hair had been pulled into an elaborate braid and ponytail; apparently an old Ala Mhigan style that Arashi had once favoured in days long past. Her smile was small and shy, but it radiated love that was all too easy to return. Yotsuyu opened her mouth to say something, to express her delight, to gently rib Arashi, to break the quiet.
Then the doors opened again, and the final bride stepped through them.
Lyse walked with a confidence she didn’t feel, supported every step of the way by her father. She had felt a little awkward about being the only one present with a father to walk with her down the aisle, but Arashi had (gently, but firmly) told her to stop being a fool and embrace that she had a family to lean on. Lyse was glad of her insistence now, trying not to wilt with the eyes of the crowd on her, to say nothing of Arashi and Yotsuyu staring at her in open-mouthed wonder. As if they didn’t look more beautiful than Lyse could put into words.
Yda and her mother were waiting for her at the front row, grinning from ear to ear and giving her the biggest thumbs-up that they could manage. As Curtis peeled away from Lyse’s side to join them, Lyse could hear him having a hushed conversation with his wife, confirming the delivery of the gifts and the proper application of the face paint. Lyse didn’t stop to listen further, taking the last few steps up to the altar, standing between Arashi and Yotsuyu and facing the elderly moogle. Thankfully the veil hid her furiously blushing face for the time being. Oh gods, here we go!
The majority of the ceremony was a blur, the very many rehearsals they had all endured ensuring that nothing went drastically wrong, even as they tripped over their lines or lost themselves in the excitement of it all. But finally the time came to tie the knot. Literally, in their case.
The moogle brought forth a long length of red silk, cut in such a way that it ended in a trio of ribbons. Following their cues, each woman took one of the ends in their hands and put their spare hand forward into the shared space between them. Yotsuyu’s hand was covered by Arashi’s, which was then covered by Lyse’s. Yotsuyu took her length of ribbon and draped it on top of the hands, her eyes focused on the moogle as they began to speak again.
“With this end tied do you swear to guard one another through good tidings and ill, and to share in life’s joys and pains as one, kupo.”
Arashi’s ribbon followed, looping under the first ribbon as she and Yotsuyu worked together to tie the two ends together.
“With this end do you promise to strive to be one another’s laughter and love, to do no harm that cannot be repaired, to burn no bridges that cannot be rebuilt.”
Lyse’s ribbon was last, snaking into the tiny gap left between Arashi’s and Yotsuyu’s ribbons and firmly securing their hands together.
“With this end do you announce to the world your intentions to be eternally bonded, to allow no force of intent to sever it, to work towards your future as one. Do the three of you swear to these oaths, kupo?”
“I do.” Three voices spoke as one.
The officiating moogle nodded sagely. “Then I now pronounce you eternally bonded. May the weave of your tapestry be beautiful forever more. And it goes without saying, kupo, but you may now-”
Yotsuyu didn’t wait for the moogle to finish, using their bound hands to yank Arashi in and kiss her. Arashi had learned to expect that kind of impatience by this point, but between almost tripping over her kimono and barely avoiding knocking Lyse over as well, she was entirely unprepared all the same. She didn’t know how long she was held in the grip of Yotsuyu’s lips for, but she was entirely breathless (and embarrassingly aware of the cheering crowd) by the time she was finally released.
She didn’t get much of a chance to recover, however, for Lyse was already tugging away and into her waiting arms. “My turn,” Lyse growled, apparently having forgotten the veil between them in her haste. Arashi just about had time to pull it up enough to meet Lyse’s lips, but then she was quite hopelessly lost in the ensuing kiss to get much further. It was only when Lyse pulled reluctantly away that Arashi managed to pull back the veil properly, revealing the fierce face paint beneath. “Wow,” Arashi breathed as she took it in, but she didn’t have time to stare. Lyse was already rounding on Yotsuyu, catching her just as unawares as she was yanked against Lyse and kissed with equal ferocity.
“That’s better,” Lyse murmured as she allowed Yotsuyu to stumble away, the Doman woman’s normally unbreachable armour quite thoroughly pierced. Her still bound hand raised into the air, pulling Arashi’s and Yotsuyu’s with it, raising their bond high into the air for the cheering crowd to see.
“Finally,” Yotsuyu murmured, her smile unguarded and joyous. Lyse was grinning without reservation. And Arashi, looking out across the sea of cheering faces, could only laugh in abject relief.
It’s done. We made it.