And here is the final chapter at long last.

Review replies:

Guest: There are always Mean Girl references because Mean Girls does with everything. Also, really glad you're enjoying it. C:

Also, for those who were wondering, the songs Black sang in his Disney mash-up were: 'I See the Light' from Tangled, 'I Won't Say I'm In Love' from Hercules, 'Something There' from Beauty and the Beast, 'Forget About Love' from Aladdin 2, 'Love Will Find A Way' from Lion King 2, 'Ma Belle Evangeline' from The Princess and the Frog, 'True Love's Kiss' from Enchanted, 'A Whole New World' from Aladdin, 'Hellfire' from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 'Upendi' from Lion King 2, 'I 2 I' from A Goofy Movie, 'Dig A Little Deeper' from The Princess and the Frog, 'Bare Necessities' from The Jungle Book AND FINALLY 'Nobody Else But You' from A Goofy Movie.

Yep, I'm one of THOSE Disney fans who laughs at sequels whilst secretly kind of loving them maybe a tiny bit.

Ever After

White checked her makeup in her compact. It was appropriately light, but there enough to avoid any light reflecting off her skin once the cameras started rolling. "Okay, I think we're good." She snapped it closed and turned to her cameraman. "Ready Ty?"

Ty adjusted the lens. "Yep, got a clear shot."

"Then let's start, in three, two, one…"

The camera whirred to life. White smiled brightly, holding her microphone professionally and standing straight.

"Good morning, dear viewers. Today is of course, a very big day for Unova, and one we've been eagerly counting down! Our dear Heroes of Truth and Ideals are finally getting married."

White paused, grinning brightly regardless of her feelings. The network would add in a cheer-track before her story aired.

"Of course, we all vaguely remember three years ago when their dramatic battle atop the Pokémon League uncovered the sinister inner workings of Pokémon Activist Group and World Domination Planners, Team Plasma, and saved Champion Alder from certain death. What we all definitely remember is Black, the Hero of Truth, singing a medley of children's songs about love in order to woo N, the Hero of Ideals."

Ty giggled silently.

"The resulting clip on YouTube is at approximately three hundred and forty million. This is only a small example of the popularity Black and N's story has enjoyed: Elite Four member Shauntal's novelisation won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was adapted into a movie, which grossed two billion world-wide last year and reportedly inspired N to do some reverse-wooing and ask Black to marry him!"

More like N had whined at Black until Black asked if N even knew what marriage was, N admitted that he didn't, they fought over that for about a week, then suddenly stopped and just decided it would be good to get married after all. White and Cheren had pretty much organised the whole thing, because otherwise, it probably would have ended up some bizarre combination of all Black's nerding, N's hard-on for nature and the ceremony would undoubtedly have been performed half in Klingon, half in the language of zorua.

"Being the sister of a groom," White allowed herself a moment to almost smirk, "I've been given permission to interview them both before the wedding."

Or more like she'd whined at them until they caved and let her. It wasn't like they were supposed to have groom's maids or anything, that just sounded sleazy. Bianca thought it sounded cute, pointed out that both Black and N only had one male friend and that was Cheren, Cheren and N denied being friends, and Black said he honestly didn't think they needed aid walking down an aisle now that N's hair wasn't seventy feet long.

"So! Let's go in and check it out, shall we?"

"Cut," Ty said. "Another cool one, prez."

White tossed her hair back. "We'd better check that the love-birds are okay before going in."

"Why wouldn't they be okay?"

"Oh, Black's pretty prone to freaking out," White explained. "Always has been. Kind of why he ran away to be a thief for years, apparently."

"So you think he'll get cold feet?"

White nodded.

"…can I film it?"

White considered it, then decided to be a good sibling and replied, "Over my dead body."

"You're a tough bitch, prez."

Shrugging, White turned and walked into the church. It was the largest in Unova, extremely extravagant, and all lined up for the perfect in idealised fairytale weddings. If everything went according to plan, which it had to, because otherwise White would scream. She thought about talking to N first, but decided it would be better to get the difficult one out of the way first. Black was definitely going to be completely freaking out.

"Wait here, okay?" she told Ty.

"Aww, c'mon."

"No. You're waiting here."

Ty sighed in irritation and leant against the wall, mumbling irritably.

White knocked on the door. It was immediately flung open and she was pulled inside. Black slammed the door behind her, leaning against it wide-eyed and hyperventilating. He was only half in his tux, the slob.

"Oh my god White, what am I doing?!" Black cried.

"Getting ready to get married," White replied. "You can't wear a t-shirt to get married. It's incredibly rude."

Ignoring White's voice of reason, Black continued to whine, "I was a thief and he was a king!"

"Actually, since you were both being so childish about the whole thing, I'd say a pirate and a princess."

"I'm not sure that N even knows what marriage is, even if I've explained it about a million times, he just sees all the successful couples on TV being married and that's why he asked me, but we're only twenty-one, I don't wanna screw this up, but I screw everything up and seriously does he have any idea what marriage actually is?!"

White shrugged. "Honestly, I think he just wanted an excuse to buy a pretty new dress."

"See!" Black cried. "I'm gonna ruin him!"

"Yeah, of course, because it's possible to ruin him more than his father did."

"Shut up!" Black shouted. "He didn't choose that!"

"But he chose you," White firmly replied. "He chose you, so you're invited to ruin him. As you have been for the past three years. And you haven't managed to yet, so I think you're probably doing something right."

Black was silent as his insecurities tried to poke holes in that argument. When he didn't find one, he grumbled, "Okay, that's true and all, but he's still only marrying me as an excuse to get a pretty new dress."

"And because he knows it's a great show of love," White groaned. "The dress is a bonus. Trust me, I bought it with him. He wouldn't shut up about the equation of a perfect relationship and how the answer is basically you."

"Was he being sarcastic?" Black asked, dazed. "He's ranted at me about that. I thought he was being sarcastic."

"Pretty sure he doesn't know what sarcasm is."

"…okay, he doesn't, but this can't be happening!" Black cried. "It's too… too…"

"Perfect?"

"YES!" Black shrilly shrieked. "I don't deserve it. Not perfect."

"I planned it that way," White replied. "You know, for the ratings. It's gotta look really fairytale, so if you could get over your survivor's guilt for a few hours in order to further my career and make both yourself and N insanely happy, please, go right ahead."

Black leant against the door, drawing in a deep, shuddering breath, before nodding. He pulled the door open. "'M going to see N."

"Bad luck!" White reminded him, because she honestly wanted to speak to N first.

Black shrugged, muttered a greeting to Ty (who was pretending not to have been eavesdropping) before walking down the hall. He knocked on N's door, which immediately flew open with a cry of, "Black!" N, also half dressed (but N's half-dressed involved a petticoat and a corset), threw his arms tightly around Black and buried his face in Black's hair. Being N, he remained oblivious to the doors around them opening and people peering questioning at the supposed-to-be-happy couple. Cheren raised his eyebrows questioningly at White, who shrugged.

"Uh… you okay?" Black asked.

"No," N gasped. "Black, there's a book in there, and… and it says I'll spend eternity in a lake of fire because we had sex before getting married!"

White snickered as Black's face was consumed by blushing.

"N, that's, that's just a matter of opinion," Black replied. "Uh, some people believe that but…"

"But I didn't even know that was an option!"

"If you're that worried, we can do a confession or… whatever it is?" Black frowned. "I don't think God is likely to care, anyway. If there is one."

"Arceus," N insisted.

"Not the same thing."

"If there is a god who would do that, I don't really want to risk aggravating them!"

"Pascal's Wager is not a valid form of logic."

"Of course it is, Pascal was a mathematician!"

"It's based on scaring people into believing things."

"I still don't get what's wrong with that."

"Everything, N."

"What are they talking about?" Ty whispered.

"I don't know, but you'd better be filming it," White whispered back.

"Of course," Ty replied as N shouted a stream of numbers.

"You're just saying numbers!" Black cried. "You're not actually proving anything, you're just shouting numbers and hoping I won't say anything to avoid looking stupid."

"You do look stupid, I was talking about Pascal's triangle! Because mathematicians are always right!"

"Okay, fine, but even if it does happen and we do go to Hell — yes, that's what the lake of fire is called, and no, it's not necessarily a lake of fire from what I've heard, I dunno, you'll have to ask someone who cares — at least we'll be there together."

"Oh." N's arms tightened around Black. "Yes, that's true."

"So it's a dumb thing to fight about," Black said. He kissed N's throat. "Still wanna get married?"

"Yes, I think so," N replied.

"It's not like it's a societal must-do."

"I know."

Black continued, "And I know you don't like crowds, or parties, so if you don't want to do this…"

"I do," N insisted. "Thanks to that video of you singing me that song, the whole world knows that you love me. Now the whole world will know how much I love you."

"I don't care if they know or not. I know. That's enough."

No way. They couldn't just call off the wedding last minute. Not after White had gotten all excited about the ratings she'd gain.

"Oh." N looked over at White. She mouthed words to him, and he thankfully repeated them as though they were his own. "Well, it's paid for, so we might as well."

Black smiled and kissed N.

The gathered crowd cooed in romantic awe, Cheren included, and it was like the wedding had already happened.

In a way, it had. Black and N were both so vocal that they more or less recited unscripted vows back and forth every day.

"Okay," White said, stepping forward and pulling Black away. N whined in protest, reaching for Black like a child who lost his favourite toy. The freak. "You've both gotta get ready. Then after the ceremony and reception you can run off and touch each other to your heart's contents."

Black and N exchanged looks. Suspicious, White handed Black over to Cheren, before leading N back into his room, closing the door behind them.

"It's improper to watch another's spouse get dressed," N matter-of-factly said. "Especially as I am sort of a king. Even if you are almost family."

"You're already mostly dressed, it doesn't count," White replied. She pulled the gown, strapless, ivory and screaming 'PRECIOUS PRINCESS' with every thread, from N's wardrobe and handed it to him. "Go on, put it on, don't make the dent in my bank account a waste."

Actually, it wasn't technically White's bank account. It was the studio's.

"You said that this wedding would enable me an opportunity to craft my public image into whatever I want it to be and thus put my celebrity to use," N said, voice slightly muffled as he pulled the dress on way too carelessly for the eighty thousand pyen price tag. "But I still don't quite understand how. I read that celebrity is like the black hole of media."

"Which means it's what the entire business revolves around, remember?" White replied, helping N not to destroy the dress. "You told me that black holes are at the centre of the galaxy and that's what everything is orbiting. So the news will be orbiting around you for a bit."

"But that was before I realised that the common misconception about black holes is that they are like vacuum cleaners," N replied. "So don't they mean that celebrity news is what consumes all over news?"

"…who cares?" White asked. "You wanna marry Black, so you're marrying him, and we're just happening to use that to maybe gain some ratings and make me a bit more of a celebrity due to your celebrity, nobody's getting hurt, and maybe this'll go viral too, like Black's love song, remember?"

She could tell that N was on the verge of deciding to run away and marry Black in the woods with a deerling as the minister. The part of her that was Black's sister and N's friend thought go for it, just put the dress on first so you're pretty and it's dramatic as fuck. The part of her that was a journalist thought don't you dare ruin my planning you hippy bitch, I even tortured some interns by making them put goddamn ribbons on your stupid dragons.

At least if he did run off, she had some gold on Ty's camera. It just wouldn't be so easy to explain away the failure to deliver on the studio's money's worth.

White handed N a tiara. "A crown for a king."

N put it atop his head. His hair had grown quite a lot since Black had cut it; White hadn't realised how much until now, seeing it brushed for a change and hanging down N's back.

"If you wanna go, go," White suddenly found herself saying. "It's like Black said, you don't need to put on a big show for the world."

"I don't mind," N replied. "I'm curious to experience this, and see what changes. If anything."

"It probably won't," White admitted.

N shrugged.

"At least you look pretty," White said with a smile. She patted N on the head, a little patronisingly, but mostly affectionately, before leaving the room.

She leant against the door and listened with a smile as N pried the window open and climbed out.

"What's going on, prez?" Ty asked.

"Go wait outside," White said. "Take your camera."

"Um, okay…?"

White walked over to Black's door and loudly cried, "N, where're you going?!"

"…excuse me," Black muttered to Cheren before he too pried his window open.

"Seriously?" Cheren sighed. "You're doing this again?"

"Shut up, don't judge me, you're being a dick again, I'll see you later."

"How much later this time?"

"I dunno, a week?"

"I'll come looking after a week then. If you're not back."

"Okay, sure."

Cheren still had issues with being second best in Black's life. It was kind of cute, even if it was a bit too obsessive for a platonic relationship.

White threw the door open and overdramatically cried, "Black, N's running away!" just in time to see Black jump down from the window. She ran over and watched as Black ran up to N, who was waiting on Zekrom (who was fixing its white ribbon so it was a pretty bow).

"Black!" she called after him.

Black waved before climbing up. They took to the sky, and there, standing in the church doorway was Ty, filming the whole spectacular scene.

"Did you plan this?" Cheren suspiciously asked.

"Of course not," White replied. "It's just a wedding out in the woods with a deerling as the minister is way more their style anyway. They're complete freaks."

"I suppose," Cheren grumbled.

White elbowed him. "Hey, why don't you and Bianca take this wedding instead?"

Cheren turned pink, straightened his tie nervously and muttered, "Idiot."

White looked down at Ty, who gave her the thumbs up sign. She returned it. Even if it wasn't what the studio paid for, it'd be dramatic, it'd be more newsworthy, and best of all, Shauntal could write another book based off it to cash in on.

It was probably also good that Black and N were happy.

Thank you all so much for your patience and support with this story! I can't believe it took me so long to write, and I'm honestly more than a little ashamed of that, but it was a fun story to write and it seems like people enjoyed it, so, no regrets really.

And if you're reading this, I LOVE YOU.