it's a love story (baby just say yes)

You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story, baby, just say yes

- Taylor Swift, "Love Story"

"Stop kicking me," Nina hisses through the polite and regal smile she's holding for the artist, half twisted in her chair for their individual portraits. Like old-school headshots, she'd joked this morning.

Matthias is in a similar position on his own chair, head tilted towards the artist capturing him in turn, but seated close enough for his feet to touch hers. It's only their upper bodies that are needed, since the chair won't be visible in the final product.

They're doing the faces now, a critical part of every process, and though they've already sat for numerous sketches he thinks they will never be finished – and after this, they'll still need to do the official wedding portrait. That'll be after the wedding though, half modeled on their wedding pictures, but they'll still need to be available for posing and sketches then, too.

Well, at least I'll see Nina in the wedding dress multiple times, Matthias muses. That might be worth all this. Of course, the dress is a well-kept secret, but knowing his bride, it's stunning.

Nina manages to send him an impressive glare for a smiling woman, and he withdraws his foot quickly.

"Touchy, touchy," he teases and returns his face to neutral quickly. The atmosphere is in fact quite relaxed – the artists focusing on their projects, discussing in technical terms he doesn't understand, and generally ignoring Matthias' and Nina's banter.

"I'll show you touchy," Nina promises viciously out of the corner of her mouth.

Matthias feels this is a good time to shut up.

"I'm so bored," Nina declares in a dramatic tone a few hours later. They've had breaks of course, but even Matthias is feeling this in his back. The position he's holding is unnaturally stiff.

"Shall we play twenty questions again?" He asks, and the dismissive scoff he receives from her is a clear answer. "Never have I ever?"

"You'll just win that," Nina sulks. It's true - she's done a lot more fun and crazy stuff than he has, and she'd been down to zero fingers before he reached seven.

"You can always try to say boring stuff I've done and you haven't."

"Ugh."

"Two truths and a lie?"

"Sure," Nina sighs. How she is keeping up that big smile through it all he'll never know. Aren't her facial muscles aching?

"Okay, I'll go first," he offers, and tries to think of something she'd find funny.

"I once named my horse Willie, I used to play with mother's dresses, and I've broken my arm several times."

"Willie?" Nina sputters. "Okay, the arm-breaking is a lie. I can totally see you playing dress-up."

"Actually, Willie doesn't exist," Matthias smiles. "But yes, my sister did convince me to try many things. And I've had an active childhood."

"Fine," Nina concedes, fingers tapping out a rhythm. "I've thrown a glass of champagne in someone's face, as a child I used to hide for hours from my bodyguards and I've colored my hair purple."

Matthias is sure any photos of her with purple hair don't exist, and those do tend to leak, so he chooses that one.

"I did, in fact! Mother ordered me to the hairdresser the very next day and colored it back to my normal shade."

"What was the lie?" Matthias asks idly, busy imagining this fierce woman with purple hair.

"The hiding," Nina says. "I loved my bodyguards, they could never get rid of me."

"So you've thrown champagne on someone?" Now he is intrigued.

"Bastard deserved it," Nina mutters, working hard to keep up the smile for the artists. "He groped me while we were dancing, so a bit later I oh-so-accidentally stumbled and lost control of my flute."

"That sounds very reasonable," Matthias tells her seriously, and starts thinking of more truths and lies. Thankfully, the artists dismiss them, and Matthias stretches as he rises from the chair.

"My legs are asleep," Nina complains, scrunching up her face. "And I will not be smiling anymore tonight."

"Good thing mine aren't," Matthias quips and sweeps Nina off her feet before she can protest. He starts carrying her out of the room and down the corridor, bridal style, a few of their bemused attendants following.

"Put me down, you oaf!"

Nina wriggles and tries to playfully beat her hand against his chest, but Matthias doesn't budge. She's a curvy woman, but he's not one for skipping his workouts. Besides, he's very much secretly enjoying pressing her curves against his.

He carries her all the way to dinner.

Nina Zenik looks stunning in a wedding gown.

Matthias' brain informs him she'd probably look stunning in a potato sack, but he's too busy ogling her and trying not to fall over to care. He barely notices the photographers or the camera team rushing to make sure the production gets the best angle. He's not aware of his family and Nina's in the front pews. He only wants to kiss Nina, preferably right now.

(Later, while looking at the pictures from the ceremony, he'll see a picture of his face at this exact moment. It's graced by an adoring smile, and he'll think: Helvar, you are completely whipped.)

The bridal march is agonizingly slow, but feeling the weight of her hand in his settles the butterflies that are butchering his stomach. The ceremony is long-winded, and Matthias tries to listen to the priest. He does believe in Djel, after all. But the woman beside him is so captivating, and she keeps glancing at him too.

They have a secret: Nina kissed him yesterday. It was a short stolen moment, and Matthias can't be more thankful to Nina's attendant for excusing herself for five minutes. It was enough for Nina to whisper, this is for us, and kiss him like her life depended on it. Then she'd excused herself quickly, leaving Matthias standing with a hand over his mouth, feeling like someone had just bludgeoned him over the head. In a good way, if that's possible.

He's itching to do it again. And again.

Nina's diadem is sparkling, the light fracturing and pulling his gaze. Her dress is magnificent, an eye-catching creation someone has probably spent hundreds of hours on. It is very her, bold but accenting her feminine features, pearls and delicate swirls of lace softening the regal image.

Finally, the priest speaks the magical words, and Matthias turns to Nina. They've been coached on this, too: slow moments for the cameras, smile, keep it child-friendly, and under no circumstances will there be tongue involved.

It's a very different kiss. Matthias gets to initiate this one, and they savor it. Soft, and slow, and gentle, but no less moving. No less enticing. He never wants to stop, but someone in the audience shuffles and he remembers where he is.

He turns Nina towards the cheering crowd and proudly presents her as his wife. In that moment, he feels very lucky. They could have been totally incompatible but they aren't.

The dinner is long and boring, speeches are made (some more touching and familiar than others) and Nina makes it bearable. She is all joy and laughter and sparkle, feeding verbal sunshine down Matthias' throat until he can't do anything but join her in her excitement. She's happy to see her family and other siblings and gets overwhelmingly chipper when she see's the wedding cake. For a moment, he suspects she might have plans of smashing some in his face - a tradition royals avoid - but she's only looking forward to consuming her weight in cake. She's been in charge of the food, and for once they eat hearty portions, still dressed up as fancy delicacies, of course.

"You should have seen the menu the poor cooks had planned," she tells him halfway through. "The poor lambs were shaking, thinking it wasn't fancy enough, and I thought they would faint when I asked them to tone it down more!"

"And how did they react?" He can't really imagine Nina terrorizing the chefs, she's too nice.

"I told them I wanted comfort food in fancy food disguise, and they were falling over themselves shoving me recipes they usually make at home when they want fancy-looking but good food." Nina sighs happily and Matthias serves her more wine. "I had such a fabulous afternoon trying all that food!"

He chuckled warmly. With Nina, the surefire way to her heart is through her stomach, and the chefs probably endeared themselves for life. He wouldn't be surprised if they're in for a raise.

"Your efforts paid off," Matthias compliments, and gestures to the dining room. There is a warm atmosphere for such a formal event, silverware clattering occasionally against plates. "No-one looks hungry."

"Or hangry," Nina quips with a smile.

The cake is indeed spectacular, as is the Royal Ballroom decked in subtle wedding decor, floors polished to a shine.

Their first dance is a traditional waltz with complicated choreography. The dances that follow melt into a haze, the only clear pinpricks the moments when he's spinning Nina around or drawing her close. He remembers her laughter, tinkling like bells.

Royals leave their wedding feasts discreetly to retire for the night.

Their wedding night is fun.

They kiss a little, admittedly. But mostly it feels like the best sleepover with this intriguing woman he's started to call his friend. Someday soon, she'll be his lover, not just his wife on paper, but until that day Matthias is very happy to keep up the charade. Sleeping in the same bed with Nina consists of her telling funny stories, them feeding each other heart-shaped chocolate, her daring him to sip champagne while hanging upside down from the bed and then dissolving into a tipsy giggling pile when the bubbles get to his nose and he sneezes champagne everywhere.

After that, they calm down a bit and he rubs her feet - those wedding shoes have left angry red marks - while they trade quiet conversation. Nina likes to cuddle, so they cuddle, and Matthias who has no experience with cuddling decides he probably likes it as well.

At least with Nina.

It takes a while for all the wedding photos to be edited and ready. It takes even longer for Nina and the publicity team and the artists to choose the ones that will be painted for the Royal Gallery.

Matthias doesn't mind. He loves absentmindedly looking through them, remembering the day fondly, while Nina sorts through them with purpose and passion, ordering copies for her scrapbooks.

Together, they pick out a few to be printed and hung in their new home that they're moving into soon.

A few of the official paintings are predictable, stiff wedding portraits. Nina has also chosen to include a more intimate one, where they're standing in each other's embrace in front of the gazebo, roses in the garden in full bloom. Matthias looks down on Nina with a soft but intense look on his face, and she's smiling, happy and carefree.

Recreating that is a lot of fun. He gets to spend hours with his arms around Nina, her beautiful wedding gown a stark contrast to his crisp suit, her laughter ringing in his ears. It's easy to recreate that fond look for the artist.

Of course Nina gets bored after a while (his new wife is not one for being still), and demands he entertain her. If he's whispering compliments and dreams and perhaps some of his less child-friendly fantasies in Nina's ear, then no-one else in the room is the wiser.

The blush looks fabulous on her, and he hopes the artist will capture it on canvas.