Lana Skye never considered getting married before.

She always thought her face was too plain, that her nose was too large and her hair hangs too thinly to ever be done up properly. Her body is too stocky, not enough curves in the right places. A body only fit for a prosecutor's drab garments of suits and the occasional pencil skirt and itchy pantyhose.

Mia wears the same garb, but she walks in six inch heels that click when she walks and her hair is equally thin, but part of her bangs fall across her eyes and Lana notices that whenever she pushes it away from her eyes, she smiles to herself as though holding in a giggle.

Lana doesn't think she's jealously watching Mia from afar, no, it's quite different, she's admiring how much happier the other woman is.

When Mia meets Ema, she doesn't pat her on the head and dismiss her rambling about the theory of relativity as a child's babbling. Mia leans down, looking the scrawy nine year old in thick glasses and a lab coat straight in the eyes, and asks her what kind of scientist she is. Ema's eyes glint and her smile could have lit up the entire room.

Mia has a sister, too, that Lana's only seen in photographs. She's a bit older than Ema and in all the photographs of her her hair is messy and her traditional shrine maiden wear is tied wrong, but she's smiling in every one.

"Do you want to get married, Mia?" She asks one day over coffee. Mia takes hers black, it's surprising how much bitter beverages the dainty-looking woman can stomach. It embarrasses Lana at first, because she always gets the sweet, milk-filled kind.

"Oh, of course. What date did you have in mind and when are the invitations going out?"

Lana turns red, although with her pallid skintone it's always been difficult to see. "I meant in the future, you imbecile."

Mia laughs, then chews her lip contemplatively. "Maybe. I wouldn't be so quick to write it off, but on the other hand, maybe I'd have a better career as a soloist."

"See, you've got a good reason, I'd simply be better off alone."

"No, don't say that, Lana, of course you wouldn't."

That night Lana dreams about a wedding where she walks up the aisle to Mia in a white dress that makes her feel like an ugly duckling turned into a swan. Mia's wearing a suit not unlike the ones she wears at school, and Ema walks behind her throwing red flowers at her feet. Lana wakes up with her heart beating in her ears and digs her nails into her palms until they bleed.

"Lana, how would you like to attend a party tonight?"

"I wouldn't be opposed to it. What sort of party? I've...never…" Lana ends the sentence there, again flushed red with embarrassment.

"You've never been to a party? Well, just my luck, neither have I! We can shop for dresses together. It's just at a friend's house, there'll probably just be dumb frat-boys. Normal party things. Not that I'd know."

They shop for dresses at a store with a red awning adorned with swirling cursive letters. When they enter the store, the first aisle they walk through is the wedding attire aisle, and Lana furtively eyes the silken white gowns. "Can we look here?"

Mia raises her eyebrows. "A wedding dress? Sure, I suppose."

Lana runs her fingers across the lace and silk and satin, trying to disguise her wide eyes. "Hey, do you want to try one on? We don't have to just shop for party dresses; we can just muck around a bit too."

"You've never been one for mucking around," Lana says, although the awe in her tone is most likely obvious.

"I can make an exception." Mia grabs a dress and a veil off the rack. "Let's try it!"

Mia doesn't look when Lana slips off her dark grey almost military clothing, but she almost wishes that she had because Mia already has seen so many of the parts she wishes no one could see that her laying eyes on her heavy skin tone underwire bra wouldn't be that much different.

Mia's hands on her back are cold when she zips it up in the back and her fingers linger on her hair when she adorns her with the veil. "You make a beautiful bride, Lana Skye."

"You're equally so, and you don't need a wedding dress." The fabric is cool and she twirls around a few times. Mia laughs and they walk up the dressing room hallway together, hand in hand, practicing Lana's bride walk.

When they reach the stall they were at to begin with, Mia looks her in the eye. "Do you want to buy it? I'll pay for it."

"I don't need…"

"You love it, Lana. I'll pay."

Lana buys a black velvet dress for the party, but the wedding gown and veil hangs up in her closet and even though the fresh, clean store smell is gone the dress smells like Mia's hands now.

The party isn't anything special, as Mia described, drunk men everywhere and red paper cups full of low-quality alcohol. Lana drinks more than she'd like to admit and soon the world is hazy and she's holding onto Mia's shoulder to keep from stumbling. "Both of us are drunk off our asses, how are we gonna drive home?" Mia is giggling when she says it; and Lana notices her habit of swearing when she's drunk that she'd been trying to get rid of is back.

"We'll just hafta wait it out," Lana slurs, and she finds she's laughing too. "We're law students, we oughta be a lot more tactful about thissorta stuff." So she and Mia sit down on the couch and talk about their families and their lives and stare up at the cracks in Mia's friends apartment ceiling.

It starts to get late, but neither of them have anywhere to be and Mia's head is lolling onto Lana's shoulder and she's snoring a little. Her body is warm and soft and she's smiling while she dozes. Whatever shitty radio station is playing slows down and the DJ tells the listeners about how Valentine's Day is coming up soon and you should buy the ones you love chocolate hearts and write them cards.

Lana falls asleep too, soon enough, and at about one in the morning wake up with horrid headaches. Mia drives on the way home, and on the sidewalk next to Lana's apartment building with the sunrise turning the concrete pale pink is when Lana Skye decides she'd like to marry Mia Fey.

Mia leans over and kisses her, and it smells like alcohol and tastes vaguely like salsa but it's better than any fairytale ending she could have wanted.

Mia stays over at her apartment for a day. "Just until my hangover's gone," she proclaims, but she doesn't leave the next night or the next or the next and soon there's a pile of Mia's things in Lana's room. Soon it turns into a box, and soon enough Mia's entire suitcase sits on Lana's floor while Mia sits on thhe bed with Lana and asks her if she can move in.

Lana says yes. A few years later, Lana says yes again, with tears streaming down her face and red flowers in her hands in the dress that used to hang in her closet like the metaphorical skeletons she'd shut away for so long.

Mia's right. Lana Skye does make a beautiful bride.

im crying i just wish this could have happened in canon