houseofcards_rp | [OTA] We Are Gathered Here

A few things had gone wrong, honestly. There had been some confusion in the morning when they’d arrived to decorate the church - a few bouquets on the altar, some green and blue ribbons twined around a few of the posts - and it’d been locked. She’d managed to leave Spade Castle with her dress, veil, the coin from his mother strung on a thin leather thong, the emerald silk sash and Victor’s ring - but of all things, she’d managed to leave her shoes in their box in the closet, and Chives had had to go back for that. Hadyn looked a little green from his adventure shanghaiing Victor with Ben and Elisha, her cousin Sara had in usual Sara fashion managed to break the heel on her left shoe. Nerves finally hit as Chives was braiding her hair, and by the time the veil was settled over the smooth curls, her nails had left indents in her palms.

In the end, though, it was pretty much perfect. Two of her closest friends preceded her down the aisle in soft blue dresses with forget-me-nots in their braided hair and small posies in their hands. She’d walked towards her fiance on her brother’s arm with her hands full of spring flowers, and after the words were said and Victor lifted the veil, they were married. It only felt a little different than before, Zoe thought as their brief kiss ended. But it was different; she was Zoe Fox.

Zoe Fox knew, of course, that Victor Fox would have preferred them to just slip back to their apartment - no big party, no flowing wine and hors d'oeuvres - but she’d wanted something. And he’d given her carte blanche in the end, really; she’d chosen the small reception room that opened out into the Castle gardens, she’d picked the combination of hyacinths, hydragea, and lily of the valley for the table arrangements, the Greek-flavored menu of spanakopita, wild green and strawberry salad, linguine primavera and herb-encrusted lamb. She’d pored over cake designs until she finally picked a vanilla bean cake with strawberry puree filling, decorated in vanilla buttercream. She’d pruned the list of friends, family and acquaintances who might be expected to be invited to the wedding reception until they numbered barely fifty.

Under the strict supervision of Chives, of course the reception looked perfect, she thought as they arrived, and she smiled as she slipped her hand into Victor’s arm and the full skirt of her dress swirled against both of their legs. Perfect, though perfect didn’t matter quite so much to her right now.

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"Engaged for six months or thereabouts, when I was around your fiance's age," he tells her. That had also been when he'd met today's groom, but no need to share that little tidbit. "The wedding plan got fairly far along. Colors picked, dress ordered, decisions made between roses and lilies."

He shrugs a bit. "Then we decided we wouldn't suit after all, and that was that." He smiles, though; it was a long time ago, and Kirstin Fraser had, like as not, married a steadier sort than Ben Mackinnon by now. "It's a lot. But you're friends with Zoe, aren't you? She can probably help. And Mr. Chives as well, more than the average groom."

"Better to have called it off than decided to divorce down the line, huh," she says thoughtfully. She supposes it would hurt, but given what she remembered about her parents' life together, it wouldn't hurt as much. Something to chew on for later. "But yeah, I've got tons of help. Like, Zoe's given me pretty much everything. I've got magazines stacked practically to the ceiling."

She shrugs a little. "You'd expect Declán to wanna plan as much as this for his own wedding, but... nope, not at all."

"Yeah, it was best, in the end." His eyes twinkled a bit. "I think she might've realized she wanted to wear the pink tulle ballgown more'n she actually wanted to become Mrs. Mackinnon." Which wasn't strictly true. But probably partially true.

"Odd," he remarks about her fiance. "But then, I s'pose they call it the bride's day for a reason. Victor had little to no interest in planning this one, I know."

"Yeah, but he doesn't go in for big parties at all, does he? You never see him at, like, balls and those. Might've dragged his feet if it wasn't his wedding today. Declán loves planning, but... he's always in the shadows. Y'know, buttling." She shrugs a little. "But he can't butle at his own wedding."

"He was at the Halloween masquerade a year and change ago," Ben says, before his eyes twinkle a bit. "Of course, we spent a fair bit of it holding up walls or out in the gardens, so I daresay it doesna much count."

He nods after a moment. "Aye, it's different when it's your own. I imagine he'd do anything you asked, though. He might just need direction."

She only cracks up a little so as not to disrupt their dancing. "As long as there's at least one witness? It counts."

At his suggestion, she cocks her head. As much as they ~~love~~Verb each other, she doubts Declán would go that far for her. "You think? Makes him sound like, I dunno, a gun or something."

"Well, not quite like a gun. And I really only mean when it comes to the wedding. It's - in my experience - more for the bride than the groom. I know for a fact that Zoe gave Victor his marching orders for this one." And really, while Victor was inclined to spoil his new wife, she hardly had him wrapped around her little finger.

"Maybe he thinks you know exactly what you want for it, yeah?"

Hesitating verbally means hesitating mentally means a slight stutter in her feet. "That's- do you think that's really what he- he thinks? 'Cause I- I wasn't ever one of those girls who fantasised about it."

"Might well be," Ben says with a quicksilver grin. "Most ladies get all hung up in the details, you know, just how it needs to be, even if they never enacted it throughout childhood. Might be he's used to that."

"...s'pose. But he had, like, this notebook of details before Zoe even got engaged- it just seems weird he'd put so much thought into hers and not our own."

"...Really? Before they were engaged?" Though he supposed one could say that Victor and Zoe had just formalized a marriage that had been in place since last winter. Even so. "It's odd. But could just be the way he thinks of things; organizing a Ten's wedding is part of his job, and all that. His own wedding...isn't part of the job, and he strikes me as a duty-first type." And duty last, and duty always, though for Annie's sake, Ben did hope he was wrong.

She laughs at that, shaking her head. Maybe in some ways he was duty-first. In their relationship, though, definitely not. "Not all the time. I don't even think he did it as part of his job, just as... collating and planning a daydream? That got more and more real until he could finally use it. Maybe he'd have fainted if they broke up without ever popping the question. Burned it, possibly."

"Fortunate he didn't have to, then," Ben said with a faint smile as the song finally came to a close. "I'm certain you'll figure out something that will work nicely for the both of you. It tends to work out in the end." Or...not. But it was a nice day, no need to bring cynicism into it.

[OTA] We Are Gathered Here | The Fox-Kattalakis Wedding

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