[AU] Put a Ring On It

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe's vision took a moment to clear, but that didn't stop her ears from hearing the words announced in a sonorous tone: "I do." The poet blinked several times, her browns flickering as she fought to clear her vision. I do? I do what? Wait, why was she dressed in a flowing wedding gown. It flattered her slim body, sure, long train, very demure, with gloves that stretched most of the way up her arms. She felt, well, pretty, prettier than she had in a while. But... last she checked, she couldn't even get married, at least, not in Montana. They didn't really acknowledge her relationships, at least not legally.

Which actually begged a very important question: who was she marrying? Zoe's eyes widened as she realized that, along with realizing what came next:

"You may now kiss the... brides."

Brides? Well, at least some of the terror had diminished. Zoe still turned to face... someone she'd never met before. And she could feel all the eyes of the pleasant little church turning to face them. She froze, terror making her completely still as she looked into the face of an admittedly pretty girl. So many eyes, the church, the... was the other girl wearing a wedding dress too? Well, of course she would: they were both girls after all. Oh God, what was happening? What was this madness?

[Serena Rivers]

Serena felt waves of happiness washing over her like a gentle breeze. That is, until the blurriness in her vision cleared and confusion set in as after hearing a female say something she felt an "I do" escape from her lips. She quickly blinked away the rest of the grogginess and looked down at her body instinctively, only to blink and stretch her fingers a little as if to make sure this was her body. 

It took her a second or two to notice she was in an Eggshell dress, a very very pretty one with a few small flowers embroided into it. It was a lovely, beautiful dress that Serena would have died to wear at her....... wedding..... She looked closer at one of her hands to see a ring. Oh god. Was this the future? Was it a... guy? 

She instantly looked up as the word 'Brides' was thrown in by the person, she felt a wave of relief wash over her. She couldn't even explain why, here she was, being woken up in a wedding dress after apparently agreeing to marry somebody. And her first concern was their sex? Serena's mind certainly worked in some strange ways. 

She looked up at the other girl bewildered, she was fairly attractive, but Serena had absolutely no idea what was going on... She looked into the other girl's eyes, her own blue eyes glittering with somewhere between confusion and relief. "Ummmm......"

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Confusion and awkwardness hung for several seconds while the two admittedly very pretty brides stared at one another. The entire church hung in silence; Zoe could practically hear them all scooting forward, the whole "kiss the brides thing still hanging." Zoe swallowed, meeting the confused blue eyes with a pair of equally bewildered browns.

"I think they expect us to kiss," she whispered, her voice practically a squeak and layered thickly with her accent. Her eyes darted at the gathered crowd for a moment, seeing eyes on her. Wait... was that her family there in the front row? What were they even... okay, this was just weird. Zoe took another deep breath, at least reaching to take the other girl's hands. They were in this together.

She shifted nervously, hearing her dress rustle. "Um... did you---are you okay if we just---they're all staring," this last came out in a nearly choked whisper, Zoe's eyes flicking toward the audience, the pressure obviously getting to her even more. She licked her own lips before realizing. "It'll be quick! I promise! My power, um, ah, I'm a mutant, and uh, I sort of paralyze people who I touch and that includes kissing and--oh,' she shifted again, once more wishing that she could turn invisible.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena didn't know what to react, she was looking into the other girl's eyes seeing a reflection of the puzzled look and mindset which was currently plaguing Serena, she could hear that everyone was trying to be silent while they stared at each other. 

She heard the faint rustling movement of people leaning forward, not allowing herself to blink. They were waiting for them to kiss. Serena wasn't sure if this was the future, come crazy prank, a dream or what. But all she knew now was that the two of them had to get out of there, which meant that they would have to find a way to escape the room.

As a familiar accent exclaimed that the two of them were expected to kiss Serena knew that she was right. They would need to kiss just to get this part of the ceremony over with, and then Serena could make an excuse about one of them not feeling well and find a room and sort this mess out. 

She gulped. But first. Yeah. Kissing. She gave a nervous giggle and a smile. "Well, since we're sharing as long as you don't cut me you will be fine...." She felt her fingers tighten around the other girls. "Better make this look real.... Ahhh screw it." 

It was at that point Serena did something incredibly out of character. She did something bold. She knew that the other girl felt awkward enough as it was, so she raised her left hand to the other girl's waist and leaned in, pressing her lips to the other girls. It was a real kiss on her behalf. She managed to make it ever so slightly less awkward by imagining a certain blonde was the person standing in front of her. 

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Cut? So the other girl was a mutant at least. That brought some relief to Zoe: that was one awkward conversation they weren't going to have to stumble their way through. She started to nod, accepting that, and working to accept the other part, the bit about making it real. Her eyes went wide at the last though, and she seriously wondered what the girl could mean...

...and then she fond herself really kissing the girl. Zoe held awkwardly still and stiff for a few seconds, more being kissed than actually doing any real kissing. She felt a hand go to her waist, felt her body drawn a little closer. Then she remembered what her new "wife" had said: make it real. So Zoe did, she opened her mouth just a little, worked her lips more, glad that she'd at least had a girlfriend before now and knew what to do. Girlfriend... well, Zoe guessed that didn't matter, considering how things had gone. She just kissed her new "wife" and figured that they'd figure something out.

The applause sounded and Zoe took that as a sign to stop. She mouthed an "I'm sorry" to the other girl, giving her hand a squeeze. The poor girl's lips had to be tingling, at the very least, if not outright numb after that. Then Zoe turned, seeing the person overseeing the wedding nod. Right, out the church. Zoe nodded, turned to give her "wife"'s hand another squeeze, then turned, walking toward the aisle.

"I'm, um, Zoe, by the way," she whispered as they walked. She plastered a nervous smile on her face and waved to the crowd. oh, why couldn't they have teleportation or something just plain useful.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena pressed into the other girl. It was odd. She didn't really do the whole girlfriend thing. That wasn't to say she had never kissed anyone before, she had just never gotten close enough... Except maybe with Jo. But as soon as she had pressed her lips to the other girl she found herself getting into it, somewhat passionately. 

It seemed to work. The crowd gave applause. Almost immediately after her lips went a little numb. Her tongue thankfully, seemed to be alright. She nodded gently and smiled. They began walking down the isle. She was holding the other girl's hand and as the other girl spoke she felt a large blush colour her cheeks and a silly grin.

She gave off a giggle. It was a little bit funny. "I'm Serena, pleasure to uh... I usually don't kiss people before I meet them.... or marry them....." She walked down the Isle with the other girl, spotting her grandmother out of the corner of her eye and deciding it was time to leave. She tapped one of the clerk's shoulders to get his attention. 

"Hi... Um... So, the brides aren't feeling all that well so we were going to go and lie down for a little in our room, the others can get the party started and we'll be along but this week has gone so fast for me, could you point me to our room?" She was surpised she managed the full sentence and blinked a few times. 

He nodded, told them he would tell the others and pointed them in the direction of Their Room. She really had no idea how she had managed that full sentence, everything felt spinny. 

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The giggle caught Zoe slightly by surprise, though it did relax her slightly. There was a level of absurdity to everything that was happening. Sort of waking up and being married and all. She couldn't even rightly recall what had happened before she'd found herself at the altar. She couldn't think of that now, not when the other girl started talking and working her way through the introduction, doing a much better job than Zoe.

Just when Zoe seriously thought about just making a break for it and hoping there was a car or something, her "wife" (and she was beginning to wonder if she should be using the internal quotation marks; she had a ring on her finger and she was pretty sure everything that just happened was perfectly legal) stepped up and came up with an excuse on the fly. It took all Zoe had not to openly gape at the other girl, and she was certainly slow on catching on and agreeing. Her head bobbed soon enough though, wanting to show that yes, yes that was most definitely, 100% true.

A point, and Zoe nearly sighed as she walked along. "Thank you for that: I was afraid that we'd have to try and make it to a car or something," Zoe said, her voice warbly. She took another deep breath, waving her hands. "Do you have any idea what's happening? It's just all so---I don't know," she nearly whined, but forced herself to take several deep breaths. It could always be worse. Much worse. "I don't remember anything prior to their saying 'I now pronounce you...'" Zoe continued, her voice going slightly softer as panic started seizing her throat. They were getting closer to "their room,' and yes, Zoe realized the potential in that statement herself.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena smiled as they walked away, walking down the hall still holding the other girl's hand. She didn't want to get caught with her 'wife' not looking like they were a couple... Or just, married. She nodded as they turned a corner. "Well we needed to come up with something, and nobody would be walking in on.... our room." The our sounded so unnatural. 

As the other girl spoke Serena shook her head, taking slow steadying breaths. "Look. Lets just take deep breaths and keep calm until we are sure we are out of earshot." She felt like she was holding her breath until the moment that they reached the room, she quickly slid in and closed the door behind Zoe. 

She immediately slumped down on the spot after releasing the other girl's hand taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself. "It's okay. We just need to work out what happened." She took a slow calming breath and gulped. She looked up a the other girl from her hands again. 

The other girl was really pretty and any other time Serena was in a room with her she would probably be really excited to be with such a pretty English girl, but this  wasn't any time. "I wonder who proposed..." she whispered randomly, looking at the ring on her finger. 

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"You've a point," agreed Zoe, still breathy, swallowing hard. "It did work, so there's that," she smiled nervously, taking a few more breaths. Suddenly a thought came to her, even as her wife was starting to explain. She didn't recall getting changed, not into the bridal gown, not into anything. Zoe lifted a hand, found that her hair hadn't really changed length. She dared peer down her bodice for a moment... and saw that she wore what appeared to be bridal lingerie underneath.

Deep breaths. "You probably did," Zoe finally said, still unearthly pale. "I'm not---well, uh, I---" Zoe swallowed again, shuffling her feet, "I'm not---oh my," she looked around, taking another breath. Zoe flushed again, then fanned herself a bit, walking till she found somewhere to sit, then plopping down.

"I think someone actually dressed us or something," Zoe looked down, "and they got my size right..." she flushed again, pulling her head up and very purposefully looking anywhere that was not at her wife or herself.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena shook her head in confusion. She couldn't remember anything that had happened recently, but her hair seemed to be the same length, she was the same slim weight and her skin was still the same pale tone that it had always been, it didn't seem that a huge amount of time had passed. 

She glanced across to the room and looked at the woman staring back at her in the mirror. Somebody dressed in such an absolutely beautiful dress should feel far more confident and giddy on their wedding day, this was just.... Confusing and stressful. She took a deep breath and then let out a sigh. "I don't know if somebody dressed us, but this is my size too. It's also the exact kind of dress I would love to wear to my wedding one day." her voice dropped down to nearly a whisper. 

It suddenly clicked, they were checking if time had passed, but they hadn't actually stopped to check the date. She stood quickly, a little too quickly and her head spun a little. She took a moment to steady herself and then dug in her handbag on the table by the.... king sized.... bed.... She shook it off again. And pulled her phone out looking for the date.

It... looked right. She didn't know what the exact date was, but it seemed about right. It was hazy. "It looks like about the right date, but I don't know when the last thing I remember was, or when the haziness starts." She began to take slightly more rapid deep breaths. 

Serena was woefully aware that if her emotions got out of control her stupid blood transformation could activate, she covered her head in her hands on the bed and tried to take steadying breaths and fight off her own emotions. It was dumb, but she had to try and stay calm. 

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

So someone had dresses Serena too... or at least, they'd gotten her size right. "It's a really pretty dress," offered Zoe, flushing a little. The other girl didn't seem to be freaking out about the fact that she'd technically just married, well, another girl, so at least they didn't have to stumble their way through that awkward conversation. Definitely a good thing, considering how very, very odd this all felt already. The last thing they needed was for one of them to be straight on top of it all.

Something seemed to click for Serena, and Zoe waited patiently while her wife dug through things, eventually finding her phone. That made Zoe remember her own, though she didn't see any bags or---wait, she seemed to have a bag of stuff. She moved over to it, sorting through to find, well, like she'd apparently packed for her honeymoon or something in it. At least it had her essentials: camera, phone, and all. She would be one to have a camera bag ready at her own wedding. Zoe pulled it out, glad to see the digital camera her parents had sent her after the SPECTRE attack: it gave her a little more sense of temporality.

"These are our things too," said Zoe, tapping it. "is this... some kind of dream or something, maybe? A shared dream? There are, um, probably people that could do that, maybe? I don't know," she bit her lip and looked down, trying to figure out what this all could be. She felt normal though. She raised a gloved hand, pinching her arm and wincing as pain shot through it. Well, if it was a dream, it was a very real one.

[Serena Rivers]

Serena gave a nervous smile to herself, even though her eyes were covered her mouth was visible. She took a deep steadying breath and nodded. "I guess someone could have put us into some kind of weird shared dream, or made us lose recent memories, or mind controlled us or something. I don't know, anything could be plausible at this point."  

Serena stopped to consider for a moment that if recent memories had been wiped or something, there was a small chance that the two of them had actually been legitimately engaged. And that people out there were going to tell embarassing stories about the two of them or something, but it was all just a huge number of possibilities and confusion, she didn't know what to think anymore. 

She counted to ten quietly and then stood up. She sat on the edge of the bed gently. "I have no idea what this is, when or why it happened..." She paused for a second. "But, we are in this together, either way this goes.... And I can think of worse people to wake up married to I guess...." It sounded so weird to her. It was so weird, but at the end of the day it was what it was. 

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"I just pinched myself, and nothing happened," said Zoe, raising up her arm as if to show Serena the pinch. She lowered it, rubbing at it. There were several possibilities there, most of them likely involving mutants of some kind. Zoe looked down, seeing the ring on the outside of her glove again. It certainly felt real.

Serena's moving caught Zoe's attention. She raised her head, turning to look at the other girl as she moved to the bed. Zoe smiled with relief at the comment, nodding. "Yes, it could have gone much worse. I'm---" she bit her lip, shifting, "well, I, um, wouldn't have, wanted to, um, end up with a, well, I'm---you're very pretty," there, she'd said that. Zoe then turned as red as a beet and looked away. Though it did feel strange, seeing as they were technically married. Zoe should be complimenting her wife on her appearance and all. Well, they should also be doing other married things...

which made Zoe look at the bed for a moment and then pop up, feeling like the temperature in the room had just risen a few degrees.

[Serena Rivers]

Again, if it had been any other situation, Serena would have found the other English girl to be rather adorable. But the fact was that the situation they were in was almost anything but funny. She was so awkward and adorable, and Serena supposed that if there was an explanation involving missing memories it was entirely possible they may have had some form of a relationship.

She felt her face flush in red. She didn't receive compliments like that all that often. The closest thing she had gotten to it was Josephine, which was.... something. 

She shook her head slowly. "W-Well. Thank you." She smiled gently, Serena proceeded to slump back on the bed, leaning her head back against the pillows. "Ughhhh, we'll never work this out." She moaned. 

Serena flipped over and buried her head in the pillow. It smelled of her perfume. She recognised it instantly, further cementing the fact that this was indeed, her and her bride's room. 

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"You're welcome," replied Zoe, her own voice small. Serena didn't sound as if she got compliments very often, which surprised Zoe. The other girl certainly looked pretty, at least to Zoe's eyes, and she'd been kind in all the sparse moments that Zoe had known her. Then again, for all Zoe knew, maybe Serena's situation was similar to hers. Maybe she just couldn't believe it. Maybe she lived too much in her head to notice what the people around her were seeing.

Just as Zoe thought about verbalizing some of those thoughts, her wife let out a groan and flopping back. The words caused the bottom of Zoe's stomach to fall out. She paled, turning to look at the girl. "Wh-wh-why?" she managed. She scooted over a little further, suddenly hoping that the other girl was alright. "You're not, um, dying or something, are you?"

Zoe had heard rumors that there were mutations that could do that to someone. that some of the mutations were even worse than hers, that they came with shortened lifelines. "I mean, we don't, um, have to, uh, do anything, I guess. Well, we're going to have to get through tonight..." Zoe bit her lip, turning to look at the door. She didn't want to face all those people, all those eyes, everyone looking to her, expecting something of her.

How did they get into this mess?