Disclaimer: Saban owns PR.
Spoilers for Episode 6: "There Go The Brides", takes place throughout the episode.
Gathered in what has unofficially become known as the strategizing room, Emily glances around at her teammates. "So, basically, we need to stage a fake wedding?"
"Yeah," Jayden nods, his blue eyes darting over to her before looking away. "Basically. Two of us are going to have to play bride and groom in order for the moogers to think we're getting married, so they'll try to kidnap the bride. Which one of you two wants to do it?"
"I'll do it," Mia offers immediately, sending Emily a smile. "I've always loved plaing bride when I was little."
"Yeah, and she's older, so it won't look as odd," adds Emily. "I mean, I think even the moogers would suspect something if the bride was seventeen years old."
Jayden flashes her a half-grin, so quickly she almost doesn't notice, but it sends butterflies aflutter in her stomach, anyway. "That's true. So, who wants to play the groom?"
"Not me," Mike says instantly. "I mean, no offense, Mia, but I'm not much for weddings."
Mia laughs. "That's all right. Kevin or Jayden, then?"
Her eyes linger on Jayden, and Emily tries as hard as she can to ignore the butterflies turning to stone inside her. Mike looks amused; Kevin half-annoyed, half-incredulous. But she focuses on Jayden, who seems to be looking anywhere except at her as he clears his throat.
"I'll do it," he suggests, eyes fixed on the table. "If you don't want to, Kevin."
Mia beams, and Kevin shrugs. "Nah, it's cool," he says, but Emily can catch the undertone of steel in his voice. "I don't mind."
"Then we're set," says Mike cheerfully, clapping his hands. "Let's get planning."
"Yeah, c'mon, Em, we need to go buy dresses," Mia says in delight. "Let's go!"
Emily stands up, smiling at her friend (Jayden's bride – not that she cares), and tries not to look at Jayden. It's not like he's looking at her, anyway; his blue gaze is still studying the oh-so-interesting table, safely away from her and the rest of the team.
"I think congratulations are in order," she murmurs as she walks by him, half to Mia, half to Jayden.
Jayden doesn't reply; Mia laughs and says, "This is going to be so much fun!"
It's hard to deny that Mia looks drop-dead gorgeous in her wedding gown. With her long dark hair tied in a side-ponytail and her white silk dress flowing all the way down to the floor, she's a vision of bridal beauty, picture perfect for a wedding day.
And, Emily reflects, it's even harder to deny that Jayden looks handsome in his tux – and that they make an extremely good-looking couple. Not that that's the reason her stomach feels like lead at the moment, of course. That's simply a fact.
"Mia looks so beautiful," she gushes to Mike, who makes a face. "Do you think our fake wedding will work?" she asks in a lower voice as the minister begins speaking again.
Mike snorts. "Not a chance. There are only seven people here, and the bride and groom don't look particularly in love, now, do they?"
Emily furrows her brow. "They don't? Mia looks really happy to be there."
"That's just Mia, though," Kevin pipes up from behind them. "She loves weddings. Jayden, on the other hand, looks like he's going to be sick."
"Actually, he's got that part down," Mike remarks, half-admiringly, half-jokingly. "He's about to sign away his freedom – "
"Stop that," Emily hushes him. "Weddings are beautiful."
"Oh, yeah?" Mike grins at her. "You didn't look quite so happy when we decided to have Jayden and Mia play happy couple."
Emily opens her mouth to respond – with what, she's not quite sure yet – but across the aisle, Mentor motions for them to quiet down. Kevin settles back without an argument, but Mike rolls his eyes and flashes her another teasing grin. Emily bites her lip and turns back to the faux wedding taking place, trying not to notice the looks Mia keeps sending Jayden.
"Jayden?" Emily levels a look at the unresponding door that leads to his bedroom before turning the knob. "Are you there – oh, I'm sorry!" she gasps, quickly realizing that he's in the middle of changing and wearing only jeans – and his toned chest is something she really can't look at without wanting to drool over it.
"It's all right," says Jayden, half-laughing. "No, seriously, Emily, there's no reason to close your eyes. Not like it's anything you haven't seen before, is it?"
"Well," she hedges, a blush bright on her cheeks, "it's been a while since we went swimming, if that's what you mean."
"You can open your eyes," he tells her, sounding amused, instead of replying. "Come in. What were you going to say?"
Emily hesitates, hazel eyes lingering on his muscles even as he pulls his red t-shirt on. "Um, well, Mentor is calling us for an emergency strategizing session, and he sent me to tell you. We're meeting in the main room in five minutes."
"Got it," Jayden nods, grabbing his grey button-down shirt and smiling warmly at her. "Hey, what are you embarrassed about? You've seen Mike and Kevin shirtless plenty of times before."
"That was different," she protests, trying to recall what Mike or Kevin look like shirtless and failing miserably in the face of her rather more recent memories of Jayden sans shirt.
"Yeah," he agrees, raising an eyebrow as he slides on his sleeves. "You seemed to enjoy looking at Mike more, at any rate."
Her blush returns quickly. "That's not true," Emily insists. "I don't – I don't have a preference, Jayden. It's not like one of you is more attractive than the others."
"Uh-huh," Jayden laughs, starting to button up his shirt. "Last time we went swimming, you spent all your time with Mike."
"He was teaching me the butterfly stroke," she reminds him, when a thought strikes her. "Wait, you're not jealous, are you?"
Jayden fumbles with one of his buttons. "No. No, don't be silly. Of course I'm not."
Emily tilts her head and decides to let it go. "You need any help with that?" she asks instead, gesturing to his half-open shirt.
"Hm?" Jayden blinks at her. "Um, sure. If you can get the buttons to do what you want them to do."
She giggles and steps forward, carefully taking his shirt and starting to button it up. It's easier than he likely thought it would be, and he raises an eyebrow down at her when she finishes buttoning it in record time, her hand still brushing his chest through his red and grey shirts.
"Thanks," he murmurs. "I – I'm not entirely sure how you managed that, but thanks."
Emily glances up and flashes him a smile. "You're welcome. We, uh, we should probably get to that emergency meeting, huh?"
Jayden clears his throat. "Yeah. That would be smart."
The second wedding is perhaps even more beautiful than the first, but for this one, she doesn't have to sit front and center and watch Mia play blushing bride to Jayden's groom. This time, she gets to play blushing bride of her own, and she has to admit, it feels good to look in the mirror and see a beautiful bride looking back at you.
"You look great," Kevin assures her as she flips her veil down to hide her face. "Just like the bride. The moogers will definitely be fooled."
"Not like it's that hard to do," Mike points out, lounging on the bed and playing PSP. "Say, when's the wedding starting, anyway? I want to fight some moogers."
"Weddings take a while to get started," Emily informs him, sighing as she pulls her veil back again to fix a pesky loose curl. "Plus, Jayden and Mia have to make the rounds and inform everybody about our plan so nobody's surprised when they come out and don't look anything like the actual bride and groom."
"Somebody say groom?" interrupts a familiar voice, causing all three of them to look over at the door where Jayden's standing, a grin on his face. "Are we all set in here?"
"Yeah," Mike nods, gesturing to Emily on the other side of the room. "Decoy bride plan is all ready to go."
"Great. Emily, are you – " Jayden's sentence fades when he gets a good look at her. "Wow."
Emily turns away from her attempt to clip her curl back to smile at him, feeling those butterflies speed up again at the look on his face. "Um, hi."
A heartbeat of silence passes before Jayden closes his mouth and looks away, his cheeks turning unmistakably red. "Hi. So, uh, you're ready, right? You know the plan?"
"Of course I do," she giggles. "The only thing we've been doing in here is rehearsing. Did you know these two make really good moogers?"
Mike and Kevin both grin, and Jayden laughs. "I can imagine," he says, raising an eyebrow at the two of them. "Well, in that case, Mia should be done telling the minister what to do, so we'll be starting in just a few minutes. Everybody knows what they're doing?"
"Yup," Mike says, and Kevin nods. "We're all set to fight, fearless leader."
Jayden favors them with a smile before stepping closer to Emily. "You sure you're ready for this? You're going to have to battle down all your instincts and not fight when the moogers kidnap you."
"I'm sure," she tells him confidently. "This might actually be fun, pulling one over the nighlocks' heads."
He grins. "Yeah, it will. You, um, you look beautiful, by the way."
Emily smiles, her heartbeat tripling. "Thank you."
"Anytime," he murmurs, a blush still evident on his cheeks. "So, uh, I better go. Have to walk down the aisle and all."
"Right," she nods, trying to squash the stab of jealousy she feels. "Have fun."
Jayden chuckles. "I'll try."
He runs out, leaving her with Mike and Kevin and wondering why she wishes it was her he was walking down the aisle with instead of Mia.
"To a plan well executed," says Mia brightly in the bakery once they've all claimed a table, lifting her strawberry cupcake in a toast, "so that all those brides can have their special day after all."
"We totally kicked butt today," Mike adds, grinning as he licks a dollop of frosting off his finger. "Those nighlocks never knew what hit them when we revealed our plan."
"When Jayden revealed his plan, you mean," Kevin snorts, taking a sip of his blueberry juice.
Jayden half-grins. "I didn't come up with it on my own. You all helped me, and we all deserve credit for taking Dayu down a peg or two, all right?"
"To us, then," Emily interrupts, raising her lemon-frosted cupcake and touching it to Mia's strawberry one with a smile. "For saving the world."
Mike grins in agreement and begins devouring his slice of cake, and the others dig in to their snacks as well. By her side, Jayden swallows a gulp of his strawberry juice and sends her a grin when he catches her looking over at him.
"Did you have fun today?" he asks her, lowering his voice so the conversation would remain masked by Mike's cracking jokes and Mia and Kevin's laughter. "Playing a bride must have been interesting, huh?"
"Well, yeah," Emily admits, smiling at the memories and swirling her straw around in her lemonade. "I've never really dressed up before, but this was a lot of fun."
"I can imagine," Jayden grins. "How did you like being the bride for once?"
"It was amazing," she tells him, her smile brightening. "And how was it playing the groom?"
Jayden raises an eyebrow. "It was – it was fine. Fun, I guess, until the moogers attacked."
"You didn't look all that happy to be getting married," she points out, remember what Mike had said and hiding a smile in her glass of ice-cold lemonade. "Mike thinks that was just you acting the part of somebody who secretly doesn't want to get married."
"Maybe," he laughs. "Why? Jealous?"
Emily blushes. "No," she denies immediately. "Just, um, curious, is all."
Jayden glances over at Mia, then shoots her a smile, his voice low and husky when he responds. "It's not that I wasn't happy when pretending to marry her, Em. It's just that I would have rather pretended to marry you."
Luckily, the other three aren't paying attention to them, because she knows Mike would never let her live down the bright blush she's definitely sporting at the moment as she watches Jayden stand up and wander away to order a refill of his strawberry juice. Absently, trying not to focus on the way his nonchalant remark had made butterflies swirl around in her stomach, she reaches over and spears a forkful of strawberry cake from his plate before popping it in her mouth.
Jayden glances over while waiting for his refill, his blue eyes meeting her hazel ones, and he flashes her a grin that has her heartbeat tripling. The idea that he would rather pretend to marry her, sweet, naïve little her, over beautiful, sophisticated Mia kinda makes her want to melt.
He looks away again, and Emily decides that the next time they need to fake a wedding, she's definitely volunteering to play the bride.
A/N: All right, I really couldn't resist writing this – any of this, from shirtless!Jayden to them both being jealous to him being awestruck over Emily in her wedding dress :D You have to admit, they're adorable!
Don't favorite without reviewing, and please leave me a review more substantial than "so cute" and/or "loved it" or anything along those lines. I'd really like to hear what you guys think about this! Thank you!