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Robin let out a long breath as she checked over her reflection one last time. Traditionally speaking, an outfit like this, when worn at a royal wedding, included mail, maybe even some scale. But Robin wasn't that kind of royal. Nancy was the fighter. So instead her outfit, a deep blue that bordered on black depending on the lighting, was patched with red feathers in strategic stripes, her nails painted a similar deep red.
A silk tunic and breeches, even one spotted with gold pins and buttons on top of everything else, was fairly easy to put on at least. Robin didn't envy Nancy, who had a whole ass dress and makeup to wear today. And who'd probably had to get up even earlier, considering that Nancy would be waiting for her at the altar.
It had taken some debate, but eventually the agreement was that Robin would be fitted into the 'bride' role, due to both Nancy's status as a knight and Robin's status as the foreign Princess. This had then led to an argument about clothing, but Nancy had not only refused to not wear a dress, but backed up Robin when Robin refused to wear one. There'd been some stubbornness from the royal tailors, but that stubbornness had evaporated when Nancy started wearing gloves around them (Robin was startled to realize that Nancy had actually drawn the right conclusions from her reluctance to talk about her childhood and had worn gloves to the disastrous dinner with her parents precisely in case Queen Beatrix did what she wound up doing).
Eventually Robin realized she wasn't adjusting; she was fidgeting and forced herself to sit down. But then there was a knock on the door and she had to get back up, which wasn't fair. She let out a deep sigh of exasperation and stomped over to the door, opening to find…a stranger, clad in a silly red tunic, blue breeches, with the silliest flowing hair she'd ever seen. Hair the same color as Steve's scales actually…
"Well? What do you think?" The young man asked, and Robin's eyes widened and she grabbed him by the shoulder, dragging him into her room. The wonderful, horrible thing about this castle is that gossip adjusts fast, and it'd actually be more scandalous for Robin to bring another woman into her rooms than a man.
" Steve? " She hissed incredulously, cause she spent literal years where that voice was the only other voice she heard with any regularity, she knows that voice like she knows her own hand. Steve, human Steve, grinned at her.
"Surprise! So, like, a month ago some balding guy shows up, throws a letter at me, tells me to put together an avatar because I'm coming to your wedding! And here I am! What do you think?" He spun around once.
"I think it's really good." Robin agreed. Human eyes, human teeth, no scales or claws or tail. Very good, very precise…hmm. "How'd you do it?" Steve shifted a little, shrugging and trying to project calm and confidence.
"Well, like I told you, dragons have a lot of magic, and when you're as strong as I am you learn certain tricks that…"
"Munson transformed you." Robin finished, raising an eyebrow. Steve sighed, slumping a little.
"Yeah, Eddie cast some spells on me." He confirmed reluctantly.
"And made you handsome!" Robin cackled, clapping. "Did he put the body through a test run first?" Steve blushed and Robin's eyes widened before she fell back into her chair, cackling even harder. "Oh my god, you two totally banged! Finally!"
"Oh my gods, would you shut up? " Steve hissed, and the embarrassed panic in the voice of the great Midwest Dragon just made Robin laugh harder. "We're here to talk about your marriage, not my love life." Robin let out a gasp and slowly nodded.
"Right, right. So you're a guest?" Steve waved a hand in a so-so gesture.
"Uhm…apparently Indiana has a wedding tradition of an escort for the bride, which is you here. Like, someone to lead you down the aisle. Normally it's a male relative but…" Robin winced and nodded then blinked.
"Wait, did Nancy…?" Steve nods.
"Yeah, she wrote the letter. Said you didn't need an escort but that you might want one, might be lonely since Buck Ley is a country of 'fucking assholes'. Her words, not mine." Robin blinks. She's…never really had anyone do that for her. To be proactive in seeking out ways to keep her comfortable. Admittedly, Steve hadn't exactly had a lot of opportunities to do so, plus he was a dragon with a different idea of what was comfortable than a human. But still. It was nice, and more surprising than it probably should have been, to realize that Nancy had gone out of her way to ensure that Steve would not only be at their wedding, but that he'd have a role in it.
"That was nice of her."
"Yeah, glad I tried to scare her off rather than just attacking." Steve said.
"Nancy would have slayed your golden ass." Robin snorted. Steve reared back, hand on his heart.
"Damn Robin, two months and you've already turned on me, huh?" He teased. "This Nancy must be special." Robin knew she had a dopey smile on her face, but she couldn't bring herself to care.
"Yeah…yeah, she really is."
OoOoO
Nancy was pacing around the chapel, glaring at the tall candelabras. "These should be moved further away from the main walkways." She huffed. Empress Karen sighed and came up behind her, putting her hands on Nancy's shoulders and leading her away.
"Nancy, people need to be able to see your wedding." The older woman said soothingly, waving away the servants who'd tentatively come to do as Nancy had bidden. "We've moved them as far out of the way as is feasible, just for safety's sake."
"But Robin's so clumsy!" Nancy protested! "And it's adorable but she can't make her way through the library without knocking at least one book off the shelves! You're accounting for regular people's safety measures, not Robin! " Karen chuckled.
"It'll be fine dear. Robin just has to walk down a straight line on a smooth floor up to the altar, guided the whole way by what looked like a very strapping young man," Nancy groaned and rolled her eyes at that, earning a chuckle from her mother "and then she'll spend the rest of the ceremony standing in front of you, at which point you will escort her out of the chapel and to the feast. She won't be allowed to trip and you know it." Nancy took a couple of deep, steadying breaths.
"Y…yeah. Yeah, you're right. I know." She said slowly. "I just…I want everything to go well. And Robin would have been happy with a quiet ceremony under a godstree. I can't let her get hurt for something she's just doing for me."
"If you think Robin wants anything other than for this to be exactly what you want, you and I have been dealing with very different young women, daughter mine." Karen said, amused. Nancy blushed and bit her lip as she ducked her head. "Robin is yours Nancy. And yes, that means you'll have to be careful going forward, because she will probably do most anything you ask of her. She doesn't have it in her to love by halves, which is a blessing and a curse. You'll just need to be her common sense."
Lord Murray, who was passing by with some parchment to transcribe the ceremony on, snorted at that. "Right, common sense from the girl who rode out to fight the Midwest Dragon with a rapier , then invited the damn thing to her wedding." Nancy glared at him, but it rolled right off of the older man and he continued on his way. Empress Karen chuckled again.
"He has a slight point. But, enough worries and heavy thoughts. It's your wedding. Go back to the room and wait, the guests will be here soon and it's unseemly for the…'groom' to be pacing and worrying about candles." Nancy gave her mother an unamused look, but nodded, gathered her skirts, and strode off.
OoOoO
There's music playing, slow and beautiful harps, when Robin and Steve stand in front of the doors to the chapel. Robin licks her lips nervously. "What if I trip and knock a candelabra over and set myself on fire?" She asks anxiously. "Or what if I set someone else on fire? Nobody from Buck Ley is here Steve, it's all Nancy's family and friends and the nobility of Indiana. I could cause a massacre that kills a bunch of good people or that causes the collapse of the Indiana Empire or both ! Oh this is not good, this is so not good…" Steve put a hand on her shoulder.
"Robin. Breathe." He said firmly, though not unkindly. Robin did so. "Do you love Nancy?"
"Of course! I love her so much, Steve, I do."
"Then focus on that, and not what might go wrong. I'll be right here, and Eddie is in there too. He can put out any fire you could start, but you're not going to start any fires because I'm right here to help you. You're going to get through this wedding in one piece, and then you'll get through the feast in one piece. I'm not vouching for your wedding night though." He muttered this last uncomfortably, and Robin laughed and offered her arm.
"Y'know what? You're right. I got this." She said brightly as Steve took her arm and the doors swung open. Robin made it halfway down the aisle before she registered Nancy. And as she did, as her breath left her and her heart stopped, Robin realized that no, she did not have this.
Nancy was breathtaking and luminous, clad in a white gown that seemed to sparkle and ripple like fire at the bottom, her hair big and curled in a way that framed her delicate face and sharp jaw brilliantly, smoky makeup making those big blue gray eyes stand out even more than they usually did. Robin swallowed, and she couldn't have stopped walking even if she wanted to. This was the Princess Knight triumphant, the heir to the most powerful empire around, and Robin was as drawn to her as an apple falling from a tree was to the ground.
And more than that, she saw the love in Nancy's face, the way her soon to be wife's eyes widened and her face went red. She realized, incredulously, that everything she was feeling about Nancy was what Nancy was feeling about her . There was that look on Nancy's face again, the one she would never understand, a mix of incredulity and fear and joy and excitement. Nancy loved her. Loved her so much that the other girl, normally so good at controlling her own expressions, couldn't hide it.
"You look incredible." Nancy murmured, sounding almost dazed as Robin left Steve's arm to stand in front of her. Robin let out a strangled laugh.
" You look like a goddess, so I don't know what you're talking about." She murmured back, and Nancy let out a little laugh that got Robin smiling.
"Your majesties." Head Priest Owens murmured behind them. "It's a good thing for a wedding to begin with laughter and declarations of love. But I do need to read the rites." Both Princesses flushed.
"Yes, of course. My apologies, Head Priest." Nancy murmured. The man just chuckled and opened the holy book.
"Never apologize for loving your spouse, it's a privilege few royals get." He counseled before beginning to read.
OoOoO
The wedding went without a hitch, though Robin was going to have to read the transcript of it later because she genuinely did not hear a word, too caught up in memorizing how Nancy looked in this moment. Her new wife ( wife! Officially! ) was breathtaking to a degree that probably should have been concerning but Robin couldn't bring herself to care about that. And the stars in Nancy's eyes made her think, hope, that it was mutual. That somehow, some way, she'd found a woman who was enamored with her, who actually did love her.
Somehow, miracle of miracles, she managed to catch her cue and say "I do." at the right moment. How that happened she wasn't sure, maybe a goddess took pity on her, but she managed it. The kiss that sealed her and Nancy as wives was the sweetest thing she could imagine, and only the thought of the night ahead kept her from wanting to freeze time and live in that kiss forever.
The feast itself as about as much of a blur as the wedding had been. Robin knew that she enjoyed the food, enjoyed some banter with Michael, and got to accept a lot of congratulations that mostly seemed sincere. But it was all just…noise. A good noise, to be sure, but while she loved Steve and Jane and liked Eddie and Michael there was only one person in the castle, no the world that Robin cared about right now.
But there were traditions and propriety to consider, and so Robin plastered a smile on whenever some random Indiana noble showed up to wish the new couple well and endured as best as she could. She thought she did well, but the occasions where Nancy shook with stifled laughter suggested otherwise.
Regardless, soon they were released, to many cheers and jeers. Traditionally one of them would carry the other, but the height difference made Nancy carrying Robin impractical and while Robin was positive she could carry Nancy she didn't want to risk going up a spiral staircase with her. So they ran instead, up the tower and into their new chambers. Their chambers. And they locked the heavy wooden door behind them for good measure.
Robin stared at the door, debating if it would be worth it to drag a chair in front of it as well, then shook her head and turned to look at Nancy. Nancy, who was smiling at her softly and looking at her like she was her world. "We're married now." Nancy murmured, tone awed and quiet.
"Ye…yeah." Robin agreed, just as awestruck and delighted. “I…I love you so much.” She said slowly, walking closer to Nancy and taking one of Nancy’s hands in her own. “I…I hope that’s been clear.” Nancy blinked, and Robin kept going, trying to explain. “I…I just know that sometimes the emotions I present aren’t the ones I feel the most. Things just come out, and they’re not always what I want you to see. And…I know that I’ve been very…uhm…with regards to tonight, I…I’ve been very…”
“Horny?” Nancy suggested wryly, though she still seemed confused. Robin gave a light laugh.
“Yeah. That. And I don’t want you to think that I’m only interested in you for your looks. I know we didn’t exactly have a normal courtship, and we met knowing we were going to get married…” Robin stammered. “I just…I love you. You’re kind and a genius and so brave and strong and thoughtful and clever and…I think you’re amazing. And I don’t want you thinking that this has all been, like, a long con to get you in bed or something…that I only care about bedding you.”
Nancy laughed and gripped Robin’s hands, tugging her deeper into the sitting room. Dimly Robin realized that she was being positioned in front of a couch, but she was too focused on Nancy’s laugh and the feeling of being led and guided by the shorter girl to actually think about that. “Robin, you don’t need to apologize for finding your wife attractive.” Nancy said soothingly. “You have been incredibly, remarkably clear in how much you care for me. So much so that it’s humbling. I…I didn’t think I’d ever get someone like you. Even when I became a knight, and it became my responsibility to find myself a spouse, I never thought…you’re amazing Robin. I know you don’t always think so, but you are . You’re so smart , and funny, and kind, and creative and unique in all the best ways. I don’t know which god I won the favor of, but I can never thank them enough for leading me to you.” Then Nancy smirked.
The shorter girl moved, and Robin let out a startled squeak as she fell back and landed on the couch on her back, Nancy on top of her, legs wrapped tightly around her despite the large skirts of her dress. Robin squeaked again and Nancy kissed her hungrily, tongue slipping into Robin’s mouth triumphantly. Robin blinked, then moaned, one hand slipping around Nancy’s back to stroke it while the other slipped into her curls. Robin wasn’t sure how long they kissed, but when Nancy finally pulled back both of them were breathless, and Robin was positive the dark, hazy look in Nancy’s eyes was reflected in her own. “And don’t ever think that you’re the only one who's been dreaming about tonight.” Nancy purred before getting off of Robin. “Bedchambers, now.”
“Yes ma’am.” Robin said quickly, saluting and stumbling to her feet before pausing. “I…have never been here before. Where are our bedchambers?” Nancy let out a clear, delighted laugh, taking Robin by the hand and dragging her to the room in question.
Gods Robin had a wonderful life.