sirenspull_logs | Oh, can't you see that you were born to stand by my side

Who: Diego Armando, Mia Fey and guests.
When: Saturday March 2nd
Where: Siren's Port District Courthouse, then onto the S.S. Kahve.
Summary: Going to the ~~chapel~~ court house and they're gonna get married.
Warnings: Gratuitous amounts of love and waff.

Some might say that two lawyers choosing to marry in a court house was perhaps a little uninspired, but there was a certain appropriateness to it that bordered on amusing. For a couple who had experienced more than a fair few dramatic moments in their relationship inside the walls of a courthouse, it seemed only fitting that they buck their trend of bad luck and make it a venue for something positive.

At three fifteen, the doors to the courtroom reserved for the Armando-Fey wedding are opened, guests are invited to take their seats, the bride is waiting in an ante room checking and double checking that everything is perfect and she's not forgotten anything while the groom is taking furtive sips from a coffee flask in the main room, eager to get the show on the road.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's not a very long walk, not on the scale of things, but it seems like it's taking her a life time to get to the bench. She looks up at Diego, smiling at her in a way that makes her feel giddy, and after lowering her eyes for a moment she looks back up and returns a smile of her own at him. He looks wonderful, and even though it's only been a day since she last saw him it feels so different now that she's walking towards him today to become his wife.

It's taken years of heartbreak and waiting and finally, finally, there is nothing standing between them and their happy ending.

If it's possible, her smile gets even bigger.

Before she knows it, she's approaching the bench as she's done so many times before, but this time it's as a bride not a lawyer. She hands her bouquet to the waiting hands of Ahiru for safe keeping, and then she only has eyes for Diego.

He takes her hands and squeezes them tight in both of his. His visor gives him a fairly wide arc of vision, but he's focusing on nothing but her.

Not for the first time, he wishes there was a way he could have gone without the visor for one day. It would have been nice to look her in the eyes at this moment, and to have pictures of him where his face isn't concealed. But that would mean being unable to see her, and the image of her in her dress with that smile on her face is going to stick with him the rest of his life, no matter whether he can see or not.

Hi, he mouths to her. It seems like a silly thing to say, but strangely appropriate, too.

Hey, she mouths back, rubbing her thumbs over his fingers where she can and while she can't see his eyes beneath the visor, she imagines that they're crinkled up at the corners the way that they always do when he smiles, regardless of whether or not the screen of glass and metal is over his eyes. He looks so happy, how can that not make her smile back at him with every ounce of joy that she feels threatening to bubble out from her?

She could probably stand there forever, looking at him and committing every detail of how he looks right now to memory, but the judge begins to speak and welcomes everyone today on this special day, and she realises that there'll be time to look at him later. This is their special day, and by the time she goes back through that door later today, they'll be married.

She's right, of course. Mia knows well enough what it looks like when he smiles, and he's well aware of the fact. If his wish for an unblocked face can't come true, he only had to be grateful that he's able to stand here at all, and that she's able to stand with him.

He can barely hear the judge starting to talk. He must have sat through a few dozen civil ceremonies while working at the courthouse in his younger days, and he remembers feeling a little shudder of dread at the very idea that he'd ever be the one binding himself to someone else this way. Of course, that was long before he met Mia, the only woman ever able to tame the wild beast he'd been in his youth.

She should be paying attention to the words, but honestly she's only listening with half an ear. For all that she knows she should be paying attention, she keeps peeping back at her fiance and not even bothering to fight the smile on her face.

It's still hard to believe that they're actually here, side by side in a courtroom again. No Dahlia Hawthorne, no one on trial, neither of them ill in hospital or dead and buried. Mia had dim memories of dying, hazy due to blood loss and her consciousness slipping from her; it was true what they had said about one's life flashing before one's eyes. As she fought to stay awake a little longer, she'd sworn she wasn't done yet, hadn't made it to all those milestones she'd set herself at sixteen when she'd decided to set herself upon the path of becoming a lawyer, or those goals she'd reached for when she'd passed the bar.

It was unfair to die at 27 when there was so much more that needed to be done.

So at 28 (in theory), it's still pretty amazing to her to be alive and well and in love, standing beside the man she had never in her wildest dreams imagined would ever get married, let alone to her. She had sworn point blank, the day that she had met him in the office, that she was not about to do something as embarrassingly unprofessional as getting misty eyed over her charismatic superior or fall for any of his charming lines, and in the end she hadn't. She'd fallen for so much more than that.

Oh rats, she'd stopped paying attention to the judge again, hadn't she?

Mia tries to work out how much she's missed, and realises that it's a good thing she'd remembered herself when she had, because the judge is asking for those assembled with any lawful reason as to why they should not be married to speak now or forever hold their peace.

They better not, she mouths at Diego.

He shook his head, a smile on his face. Nobody was going to protest, or else they were going to be in a massive amount of pain. (Diego was ill, but he had a hell of a right hook nonetheless.)

Squeezing her hands, he rolled his thumbs over her knuckles and closed his eyes beneath the visor. He could still see her perfectly. It may have been the first time he was happy about that quirk of his vision. He could try to fight off the tears in his eyes and still never look away from her.

Finally they're at the vows. The judge recites them from a book, as they'll both have their share of speeches at the reception. Diego has never bothered to listen to every word before.

To have and to hold... Yes.

For richer, for poorer... Absolutely.

In sickness and in health... His chest heaves a little at that, a withheld little emotion escaping before he can hold it back.

As long as you both shall live?

And longer, he mouths. "I do."

That addition of Diego's makes her fight back a laugh, but she nods and keeps her composure. She squeezes his hands back as best she can.

There's no place for thinking about death here today. They've had their share of that.

It's her turn to recite the vows and she does, impressed at how she can keep her voice steady when she feels like she's either going to burst out laughing or cry in a moment. She can tell that Diego's struggling, even behind the visor. Eight years ago she would never have believed him capable of getting choked up at something like this, but then again she wouldn't have thought that she herself would be battling with such euphoria.

"I do," she swears when it's her turn, and she means it, including Diego's addendum about longer.

Death do we part seems redundant, all things considered.

Oh, can't you see that you were born to stand by my side

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