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The temple looks gorgeous. Bright pink covers the walls, paired with a muted grey that looks more silver and reflective than anything else, adding illusions of depth to the walls. Zolf is standing at the back of the aisle, greeting people as they walk in, before handing them off to Ed so that his smiling face can usher them along.
Hamid is on the other side of the temple, helping lead others to their seats. He catches Zolf’s eye from across the room and smiles, bright and open, and gives him a little wave. Zolf smiles back. Hamid looks incredible, wearing an expensive black suit with silver trim and detailing across the side that almost looks like a slowly unwinding dragon.
He’s beautiful. Zolf’s so lucky .
“ Zolf !” He hears a hissed whisper come from behind him and turns around, spotting Sasha motioning frantically at him as she peeks around the edge of a nearby door, and gives an apologetic smile to the couple standing in front of him. He recognizes them for being a couple that regularly frequents Mayor Gussett’s place, but doesn’t know their names beyond that, so he doesn’t really care when they give him a haughty look as he hands them off to Ed, humming something under his breath before he greets them.
He rests a hand on Ed’s shoulder and tilts his head back toward the door. Ed glances over and nods, giving Zolf the biggest conspiratorial wink, Zolf just blinks, but shakes it off and heads over in that direction.
“Sasha, you alright?” Zolf says, slipping into the room and shutting the door behind him. “Wow. You look amazing.”
She does; she’s in a modest dark grey suit, and her hair looks fluffier and more brushed out than it ever has.
“Cheers, mate,” Sasha says, but there’s a tense undercurrent in her voice that stops Zolf short. “And yeah, sure, I’m fine, it’s just-“ she huffs out a short breath, before turning on her heel and starting to pace back across the room. “I don’t know. Worried something’s going to go wrong. Something feels off.”
“We’ve got everything handled,” Zolf reassures, ticking them off on his fingers. “Reception hall is ready, all the guests are being seated. Ed memorized the list of unmentionables and knows what to do if one of them shows up. I threatened the DJ with drowning if he messes up -“
Sasha snickers, and Zolf gives her a (mostly exaggerated) hurt look. “It’s a completely legitimate intimidation tactic, honestly, you and Hamid don’t appreciate me enough.”
“I’m sure Hamid appreciates you enough,” Sasha says dismissively. “And if I didn’t, would I have made you my best man?”
“Brock’s still mad at me,” Zolf says, chuckling, but Sasha doesn’t join in. “Well, he’s really not, you know, just messing with me. Good kid. He’s just happy to be walking you down the aisle.”
Sasha smiles back, but there’s still something missing, and Zolf bites at the inside of his lip. “Sasha, it’ll be fine,” Zolf says. “I promise. Nothing will go wrong.”
Sasha turns to look at him with a conflicted look on her face.
“How do you know?” she asks, and Zolf shrugs for lack of a better response.
“We’ve double and triple checked your and Azu’s lists. I have spare vows for both of you, as does Hamid, just in case, and you’ve both got an entire church-full of people ready to help at the slightest trigger. It’ll be fine.”
Sasha doesn’t look convinced, still.
“Does the caterer -“
“Full list of food allergies and dietary restrictions. They’re a specialized halal catering company, so everything will be alright.”
“What about the weather -“
“Indoor wedding, so. Don’t need to worry about that.”
“Did you tell the cameraman -“
“No pictures of you crying, yeah, he knows. Wouldn’t want anything to ruin that tough image of yours,” Zolf says with a wink, and Sasha swats him in the arm.
“No, tell him to get pictures of Azu from the left so her broken tooth doesn’t show. She wouldn’t say anything, but I know she doesn’t like it.”
Zolf nods. “I’ll text Hamid now, make sure it gets to him.”
Sasha bites at the inside of her lip, and Zolf pulls out his phone, sending off a quick text to Hamid, getting a thumbs-up in response, and slipping it back into his pocket.
“He’s on it.”
Sasha doesn’t look all that relieved, still glancing around the room like she’s looking for an escape, head darting around, skittish. He’s known Sasha for long enough that she’s basically a sister to him, and he knows her tells. Knows when she’s on the precipice, when she’s just about to teeter over the edge. And then, almost like she’s possessed, she nearly stumbles (Sasha doesn’t stumble) over to the nearby couch and collapses into it, hands shaking where they rest on her lap.
“Sasha,” he says quietly, sitting down next to her and resting his hand on her shoulder. “What’s really wrong?”
She shrugs his hand off. Zolf lets it fall.
“I don’t know,” she says, and it’s nothing louder than a whisper, but Zolf’s walked her through (and been walked through) enough panic attacks that he can pick up on her words even when she’s barely saying them. “I just thought - this is supposed to be the happiest day of my life, and I am happy, really, I am, but my hands keep shaking? And my heart feels like it’s going to pound through my chest, and I don’t - don’t know why.”
“Cold feet?”
“Never,” Sasha says, and there’s a steel in her words, a conviction that Zolf rarely hears from her. “No, I could never, I just - I think I’m scared, Zolf. Not - not of marrying Azu, or anything, just. Dunno, mate.”
“Sasha,” Zolf says, quiet in the stillness of the room. “You can talk to me.”
“What if I mess up?” It comes out in a rush, Sasha speaking fast and awkward, and then she’s up off the couch again, pacing, hands fluttering about her hair for a moment before she shoves them deep into her pockets. “What if I do something dumb, and she stops caring about me, and then I have to be alone again?”
There’s a beat of silence, where Sasha’s shoulders tense again, and Zolf stands, standing behind her, but not too close. Not close enough to touch, but hopefully close enough to be a soothing presence. Something she knows she can lean on.
“Sasha, I just want you to listen to me, alright? Can you?” Zolf asks, and Sasha gives a curt nod. “Good. Now. First off, you won’t be alone - and yes, I know what you meant, but we’ll all be here for you. Me, Hamid, Grizzop, Brock, your dad… we’ll all still be here. I promise.”
Sasha turns and opens her mouth, but Zolf holds up a hand and she closes it, looking mulish.
“And second, that isn’t going to happen. Gods’ sakes, Sasha, Azu looks at you like you hung the moon in the sky. You might fight, you might get angry, but it won’t be the end of the world. It won’t be, not for you two.”
“But how do you know,” Sasha says, wrapping her arms around her chest as she sits down on the couch, not making eye contact with Zolf as she stares at the wall opposite. “God, I just - I really like her, Zolf, like really -“
“Oh, you do?” Zolf says, glancing at Sasha’s dark suit, at the silver ring glinting on her finger. “Never would have guessed.” He catches the bouquet of flowers that Sasha chucks at him.
“I’m being serious,” she mutters, crossing her arms.
“So’m I. Look,” he says, sitting down on the couch. “I’m not going to promise it’ll be perfect forever, but you’ve got to have some faith here.”
“I don’t want to fuck this up, mate,” Sasha says.
“Sasha, you - you won’t. You’ll mess up, maybe, and you two might argue, but nothing could make you two stop being in love.”
Sasha finally looks at him, at that, and her eyes are red-rimmed and she’s biting her lip. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I’ve seen how she looks at you - reckon it’ll take more than some arguments to get her to stop that . And, Sasha… you deserve this, yeah? You deserve to be happy too.”
She sniffs, and pulls her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. Zolf moves slowly, stretching his arm around, and, when Sasha doesn’t react beyond a slight nod of her head, lays it along the back of her shoulders and lets Sasha lean into him.
They sit there in silence for a moment, Zolf absentmindedly rubbing his thumb along Sasha’s shoulder as she sits there, almost supernaturally still.
There’s a knock on the door, and Zolf cranes his head back to see Hamid poking his head through, brow pulling together in concern but thankfully correctly reading Zolf’s ‘ don’t say anything don’t mention it’ look.
“We’ll be getting on with it soon,” he says instead, but there’s a look in his eyes that says Zolf will be explaining what’s going on to him later.
“Be right out,” is all Zolf says back, and the door slips shut with a quiet click. Sasha shifts next to him on the couch, and he lets her sit up, pulling his arm back.
“All good?” Zolf asks, and Sasha coughs slightly, raising her hand to wipe it across her nose before halting, staring at the expensive fabric, and dropping her hand to her lap. Zolf pulls out a handkerchief from his pocket and hands it over, and she takes it gratefully, dabbing at her eyes and then blowing her noise. She tosses it in the trash, which - yeah, that’s alright, Zolf doesn’t need it, anyway. He’ll expain to Hamid later.
“Think I got your suit a little messy,” she says quietly, sitting up.
Zolf glances down, and it’s a little damp, but nothing time won’t dry. “Not even a little,” he says instead.
“Thanks, boss,” Sasha says, giving him a small smile. Zolf chuckles.
“Sasha, you helped me out on the farm for two summers, you don’t have to call me boss anymore. I didn’t even want you to do it then.”
“Sorry, boss. No can do. My wedding day, after all.” Sasha stands up and brushes the creases out of her suit with her fingers, shoulders rising and falling as she takes a deep breath, staring at the door.
“Listen, all you gotta do is tell me you want to run, and we’re out of there. Feryn usually keeps one or two smoke bombs on himself, for special occasions.”
Sasha laughs at that, finally, but it’s still quiet. “Yeah, cheers, Zolf, I’ll keep that in mind.” She squares her shoulders and nods, and when she turns back to look at him, there’s none of the fear left on her face. “I don’t think I’ll need it though. Maybe if me and Azu need a quick getaway, though.”
“You got it,” Zolf says, standing. “You ready to go?” he adds, and extends his elbow to Sasha. The music starts playing, a soft dirge, echoing in the hallway outside and filtering in through the crack in the door. “Your dad and Brock are waiting.”
Sasha nods and then, bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet, reaches out to pull Zolf into a tight hug. Zolf hugs her back, and even though it’s short, he can’t help the smile that pulls at his lips when Sasha pulls away. She wipes surreptitiously at her eyes and Zolf, wisely, doesn’t say anything.
“Thanks, Zolf,” she says, and Zolf pats her on the shoulder. “For - yeah.”
“Anytime.”
She takes his elbow, after that, and Zolf lets himself be escorted out of the room, and Sasha hands him over to Hamid before heading over to Mayor Gussett and Brock. Hamid leans up to press a kiss to Zolf’s cheek, and takes his hand in his own.
“Everything alright?” he murmurs into Zolf’s ear, too quiet for anyone other than Zolf to hear.
Zolf looks over at Sasha, who’s looking ahead with a corner of her mouth turned up, and smiles. “Yeah, Hamid,” he says, and squeezes Hamid’s hand a bit tighter. “Everything’s perfect.”