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Neither really brings it up directly, but both Angela and Shawn know that the first time marriage ever came up between them was at Cory and Topanga's wedding. 

They'd already outran the cops when Rachel, more than slightly drunk, announced that they should get pizza and dragged them to a pizzeria near their apartment.

Even with Rachel there, Angela still felt it was a little surreal that she and Shawn were going to live together, this time dating.

It was big step and Rachel made sure to mention it over the pizza they were getting.

"Wow", she said, holding up a juice box as if giving a toast. "Big couple milestones today! Two of my friends got married, the other four are moving in together. Big day!"

"Relax, Rach, you're with us. It's not like we're living alone", Angela said, scrunching her nose. 

"True. You'll make sure you'll keep it down then", Rachel replied, with an exaggerated wink.

After they left the pizzeria, they started walking around aimlessly, still dressed in their wedding clothes.

 "Do you think Jack will be able to get them out of jail?", Rachel asked after a while, a slight slur in her voice. 

Angela shrugged a little. "He said he's going to get one of his step-dad's lawyers on it, so probably", a giggle escaped her. "How do you think Topanga and Cory are handling being detained?" 

 Rachel snorted and Shawn laughed. "They're probably freaking out", he said. "Usually, I'm the one in there. It will make a nice story though." 

 "That was one memorable wedding", Rachel agreed. "A fight, nice vows, nice speeches, cops, fraud, jail--you guys ever think we'll have weddings that memorable?"

 They both shrugged and Rachel added. "My wedding's probably going to be simple. Standard type, you know?", she said, tilting her head. "Kind of like Mr. Feeny and Dean Bolander's, but Texan."

 "Texan?"

 "Yeah, Shawn, my mother's probably going to be brokenhearted if I didn't have a Texan wedding."

Angela shrugged. "I don't think about having a wedding that much. When I do all I see is me and that person I love and an altar. Nothing like Harold and Moira's."

 Rachel laughed a little, but Shawn added, casually. "Don't worry, babe, our wedding won't be as nice as Harold and Moira's but it's going to be a hell of an event."

 Angela felt sucker-punched and was positively certain she looked like it too because a minute had not yet passed before Rachel cleared up her throat, mentioned something about 'checking the Beetle's glove box', and left promptly, even though they all knew she didn't drive her car today.

 Shawn, on the other hand, didn't look shocked. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights. His hands twitched as he looked around him, nervously. 

"I shouldn't have said that, right? It slipped out  I swear", he paused and put a hand on his face. "Not one fucking day passes before I run my mouth off."

"I'm not...", Angela began, not really sure of how to finish her sentence. Pissed? Scared? Neither of those words seemed to fit. "It's cool." 

Shawn seemed nervous. "Really? You're not freaked out? I just semi-proposed."

"Our best friends just got married; you're high off wedding vibes. It happens."

It wasn't really the answer he was looking for, Angela knew, but this conversation didn't seem like one they should be having in a suit and bright red dress with a couple of pizza boxes between them. 

He'd dimmed a little after that answer and marriage didn't really come up again until a few months later. 

 "Do you want to get married?", she'd said. 

 He'd seemed a bit incredulous. "Are you proposing?"

 They'd both look at each other then and remember vaguely stale pizza, strobe lights that chased them for miles, and a red dress that had a broken zipper the next day. 

Continuing (and ending) the conversation from that night, they'd both shake their heads. 

 "Not yet."

"Not yet."

Angela's almost certain Shawn had kissed her more that first week she came back from Italy than he ever had since she'd known him. 

He'd kiss her in the morning, when they'd wake up. Just after she brushed her teeth. When both of them left for college. On Cory and Topanga's couch, much to the former's chagrin. Whenever she laughed or he smiled or whenever they heard good news--the last good news they had heard was Topanga's pregnancy and Angela was fairly sure both their lips chapped that day.

It always felt exhilarating and sort of sad; she could taste the disbelief on his lips and some days, it felt so sad she never stopped cracking jokes because she needed to hear him laugh.

One night in bed, he confirmed it. 

"Feels like I'm dreaming", he said. "Sometimes I couldn't believe you'd come back to me."

"You need to have more faith", she said, extending her hand and pushing his hair back. "I did."

He scoffed. "I wish it was that easy. Last time I had faith in someone, he left."

"You weren't the only one left behind, you know that?", Angela said then, voice sharp. "I was abandoned too, once by my mom and more than enough by my dad."

She expected him to answer back just as sharp, but instead, Shawn just laughed. "We both really need therapy."

The next morning, she woke up and found him next to her, reading. 

He seemed peaceful and content and she didn't fail to notice his hand brushing over hers. 

Angela loved those moments, when it felt like everything could go on for an eternity and them holding hands never felt foreign. On the contrary, it felt natural enough that either one of them could turn around and grab the other's hand and feel a warmth that always felt like it belonged. 

Drifting in and out of sleep, she only managed to sputter out one sentence before falling back asleep.  

"Marry me?"

She didn't catch his expression before drifting back out, but when she woke up a few hours later, Shawn would look at her every few minutes as if still processing huge news. 

"Did you say something earlier? Before you went to sleep?", he said finally. 

Angela put on a poker-face and lied the best she could,  "No, I don't remember saying anything? Why?"

"Oh, it's nothing", he said too quickly. "It's just that you say really weird things in your sleep."

"Would you like us to take you home?", Angela asks Jamila Avery at the orphanage months after their first visit. 

Jamila, for her part, was struck silent by the question. "You want to adopt me?" 

Shawn's knees were bouncing next to Angela's. "If you'll have us. We already painted the room, just in case', he said, eagerly. "Pastel pink."

At the mention of her own room painted in her favorite color, Jamila smiled and her face lit up. She bounced in her seat, Afro bouncing too 

"Does this mean you're married now?", she asked, voice full of hope. "Ms. Yang says that when two people want to adopt a kid, they're married!"

Angela adjusted herself in her seat and shared a look with her boyfriend. "Well, Ms. Yang is not entirely right. Sometimes people who want to adopt and raise a child together aren't married."

Jamila's smile fell a little and her face scrunched up in confusion. "Oh. You're not married?"

"No", Angela said, raising her head. 

"But we will be soon", Shawn added, cheerfully. 

 Angela and Jamila both turned to Shawn, one confused and one beaming. The former gave him a look, but he just nodded her way.

 'I got this', his face said. 

After they left the orphanage with the adoption forms, a certain tension formed between them. 

"'We will be soon'?", she asked him when they got home.  

Shawn hung his jacket and went to the kitchen. "What? It made her happy."

Angela crossed her arms. "You lied to our future daughter."

"You're making too big a deal out of this", he said. "Apple?"

Angela nodded. "Yeah. And no, it is a big deal, Shawn", she said. "She'll think we're liars."

"We're not. You and I are practically married."

 "Well, let's make it official", she said, sarcastically.

He gave her a challenging look. "Let's do that then", he said. "We know it will put Cory at ease."

He threw her an apple and took a bite of his, adding, "And your father too."

Angela rolled her eyes, smiling. "You're forgetting John I-want-to-walk-you-down-the-aisle Turner."

It was no secret, really, that everyone they knew--save for Topanga, who'd started saying recently that marriage is just an over-glorified dating agreement, but didn't mind the idea of her being the Maid of Honor-- semi-pushed for them to get married. 

Sergeant Moore had, for instance, mentioned it casually the last time he visited.

"I'm just saying", he said, defensively raising a hand. "If things had gone a little differently six years ago, we'd be celebrating your fifth or sixth anniversary."

He paused and stared directly at Shawn, undertones suggesting a shared secret. "Sixth anniversary is iron, son."

 Her father's approach, no matter how on-the-nose it was, was a lot subtler than Cory's, though. 

Cory's idea of subtlety ranged between 'look, Shawn, a wedding catalog' and 'Angela, I got us The Wedding Planner on DVD' with a particular stressing sound on the word 'wedding'. 

 One day, he actually said it out loud instead of using painfully obvious references. 

 "I have had it with you too", he'd said, shortly after they'd seen Jack and Eric's honeymoon photos. "When are you getting married? I'm not resting until I see rings on those fingers!"

 Topanga, Angela, and Shawn had all burst out in laughter.

 "Why are you so hell-bent on seeing everyone around you married?", Topanga asked.

 "Yeah", Angela said, nodding. "T's right. You know, you're the reason Eric's proposal blew--you rushed him so much, he got nervous." 

 Cory groaned and made some overly dramatic gestures. "Are we seriously going to make this about me right now?"

"Yeah", Shawn said, as if it was unbelievably obvious. "You tend to make most things about you. Besides, we actually need to talk about this."

He paused. "Cory, you get off on commitment and marriage."

Cory's insistence had only gotten worse when they'd announced they were going to adopt Jamila. 

"So, you're getting married?", he'd said, triumphantly. 

When they told him that no, they weren't going to get married, he nearly had a heart attack and started ranting.

"Okay, it goes 'first comes love, then comes marriage, then whoever with a baby carriage '. You can't screw up the order, guys!"

Topanga took her eyes off the paper she was typing and turned to him, sighing, exasperatedly. "You're basing your argument off a playground chant? I cannot wait till my friends at Law School hear about this."

Feeling utterly helpless, Cory walked to the phone. Shawn, who was playing with Riley, looked up from his goddaughter, amused.

"Cor, what are you doing?"

"I'm calling your father."

"That must be one hell of a phone plan if you can call heaven...or hell", Shawn said, nonchalantly, to the mild shock of everyone in the room. "What? The man can be anywhere!"

Topanga snorted, muttering, "Probably hell."

"I heard that, you know", he said, throwing the excited Riley a little bouncing ball. "Probably true, though."

Cory held his hand up in a 'shut up' gesture. "Shush, Turner picked up."

"Ha!", Angela said, sarcastically. "You called the one fucking eternal bachelor we know for marriage advice?"

Cory stuck his tongue out at her and started talking. "Hey, Mr. Turner, he began, cheerfully. "We need to talk about your technical son and his technical wife. He's driving me up the wall, sir!"

To his credit, Turner hadn't made much of a deal about it. 

"I'm not married. Eli's not married. None of our other friends are married", he'd said over the phone after hearing Cory's predicament. "I'm not a hypocrite, Matthews."

Angela, though, thought differently: Cory was sort of right and Johnathan Turner was sort of a hypocrite. 

He'd make lots of jokes about marriage and how it's unconventional, anyway, in his typical Turner-fashion only to turn to Shawn and Angela and mention that 'the tax benefits are rad, though'.

He'd have the time of his life refuting Cory's marriage theories, but then he'd say things like, 'don't be shy, Angie, you're like a daughter-in-law to me'.

Shawn thought that was the biggest hint John gave about wanting to see them married, but in Angela's opinion, the clearest hint was when Turner gave Shawn his old Harley. 

"I'm getting a new one", he had said, casually. "Consider it a housewarming gift."

Angela, who was looking at Shawn caressing the leather seat of the Harley in disbelief, furrowed her eyebrows. "John, we've been living together for a while now."

Turner looked at her and winked. "Then maybe an early wedding gift."

Before Angela could say 'we're not planning anything, seriously  ', Turner turned around and left.

"Your dad and I should have some sort of in-law dinner, Angie", he said as he left, waving goodbye.

When they do get married a few months after they finalize Jamila's adoption, neither Angela nor Shawn is sure of how to explain it. 

Usually they shrugged and said they eloped, with a finality that didn't leave an opening for questions.

They'd never give a longer version than that, but if they had to, they'd say it felt like it was bound to happen anytime soon.

"So they've been engaged for, like, seven years. Big deal.", Cory said over the very casual wedding dinner he threw two months later, visibly relieved. 

Unintentionally, Cory had managed to sum up both Angela and Shawn's feelings about the elopement in that one sentence, but Angela would never give him the satisfaction by telling him that. 

They'd been driving back to New York from Philadelphia after a very brief, very tense visit to Shawn's Uncle Mike when it happens.

"I'm still not sure if your uncle likes me", Angela said, eyes going back and forth between her boyfriend and the road.

Shawn nodded. "He doesn't say much, but he likes you, don't worry", he said. "I can tell." 

"If you say so", Angela said, running a hand through her braids. "He makes me nervous by the way."

"Typical Uncle Mike", Shawn said, shrugging. "He does that to everyone."

He stared at her for the next few minutes, pondering something before finally talking.

"I still don't see why we couldn't take the bike to Philly", he said, sighing. "It's an hour long trip."

Angela rolled her eyes at him. "We flipped for it five times, Shawn. Don't be a sore loser."

"I'm not a sore loser."

"You bring it up every other mile!"

"Because my bike's cool and I like driving it", he said, incredulously.

"My car is cool and I like driving it and I'm never this much of a whiner when I don't win."

"Okay", he said, tilting his head slightly. 'Point taken. You have to admit the bike is fun, though."

"It is", she agreed, nodding. "But I still like my car more."

They stopped at convenience store near a chapel a couple of miles later. 

 "I'm going to the bathroom", Shawn said, while Angela headed to the store.

She started grabbing a couple of snacks; some chips, a couple of sodas, two Ring Pops, and four boxes of Sno-Caps, and moved closer to check out the bumper stickers in the store.

There were a lot of the happy-go-lucky bumper stickers, with the occasional rude one, Angela saw, but mostly they were all marriage bumper stickers, probably to go with the maybe-legal-maybe-not marriage certificates from the chapel next door.

She read 'Just Hitched' and 'Happily Married' and 'Groom-groom', which she happily bought two of for Eric and Jack. 

Shawn came in just as she was finished paying. 

"Hey", he said, as Angela got the receipt. "I think this is the chapel Topanga and Cory almost got married in."

Angela grabbed the bags. "When they ran off after graduation?"

"Yeah, the name is very similar."

"That's weird", Angela said. "We should check it out."

They took a closer look at the chapel after they got out of the store. 

The chapel didn't seem like much from the inside, with its simple decoration and crying elderly woman. All it had was an altar and a priest and that was about it. 

"What?", Angela asked, turning to look at her boyfriend. "Shawn, I can feel you staring at me."

He could barely contain his smile. "It's nothing. I just remembered something."

Angela scanned the hall, fixing her eyes on the altar. She leaned into Shawn and took a chance, asking, "Topanga and Cory's wedding?"

She felt him shifting a little behind her. "Yeah", he said. "Remember what you said? You, the person you love, and an altar."

Angela smiled at the memory. She often forgot about the night, partly because of Rachel's hangover the next day, partly because she had two papers due the next day.

It was that weird, awkward little conversation that sometimes made Angela think about her own wedding.

Sometimes, she was in a lacy white dress and no veil; sometimes, she was in jeans and a tank top, just like now. Sometimes Topanga was there holding a bouquet, whispering quiet little cheers behind her, but sometimes it was a hall with nobody there but Angela, the priest, and the person standing directly in front of her at the altar. Most of the time, that person was Shawn, and most of the time, Angela was sure it was going to be him. 

Suddenly, Angela noticed that the priest at the altar had some resemblance of the priest she saw in her imagination.

Realizing that there was no one there but her, Shawn, the priest, and the crying elderly woman, Angela could feel that something was supposed to happen here, right then. She took a look at her clothes; jeans and a tank top.

Eyes wide with the epiphany she just had, Angela turned to Shawn. "Let's do it."

"What?"

"We're already here; let's do it."

Shawn looked like he was in disbelief. "Are you sure? Is this even legal?"

Angela rolled her eyes at the last question. "Of course I'm sure."

For a minute, all he could do was look at her, still partly speechless. 

"Do you want to marry me or not?", she asked, again, playfully. 

He smiled at her and held her hand, nodding. "Well, we have no rings", he said, rummaging in the bags from the store. "But we've got this."

He pulled out the two Ring Pops, slide one up her ring finger, and one up his own. "Close enough", he said, smiling.

"Close enough", she agreed, kissing him. "Where do we pay for marriages around here?"